Elsewhere today (371)
Aljazeera:
Rome talks upset Arabs, please Israel
Thursday 27 July 2006, 12:15 Makka Time, 9:15 GMT
Arab countries have expressed disappointment at the Rome talks' failure to demand a ceasefire in the Middle East, while Israel says the talks gave it "authorisation" to press its offensive in Lebanon.
Ahmed Abul Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, said the international conference in Rome "failed to meet Arab demands", the official Middle East News Agency reported on Thursday as Israel continued its attacks.
Air attacks
Israeli warplanes carried out raids on suspected Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut on Thursday.
One policeman and two civilians died in the Bekaa, police said.
Warplanes also hit a Lebanese army base and a radio relay station, fired more than 400 missiles overnight at Khiam in the south, and destroyed several roads.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, had called for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" at the Rome talks, but Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, argued that Hezbollah needed to be disarmed first.
Abul Gheit acknowledged that despite the setback, the conference had been "a step forward in the direction of a ceasefire".
Israel, however, saw it differently.
Haim Ramon, the Israeli justice minister, told army radio on Thursday: "We received yesterday in the Rome conference permission, in effect, from the world - part of it gritting its teeth and part of it granting its blessing - to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah's presence is erased in Lebanon and it is disarmed."
Ramon also said that "everyone who is still in south Lebanon is linked to Hezbollah, we have called on all who are there to leave. Bint Jbeil is not a civilian location, we have to treat it like a military zone".
The minister was speaking before a security cabinet meeting on Thursday that was to decide whether to expand the offensive, now in its 16th day.
Israeli media said the cabinet wants "to step up air strikes and limit ground operations".
Israelis growing weary
But any decision to expand the campaign might give fuel to an increasing number of Israelis criticising their government.
Nine Israeli soldiers were killed and 22 wounded in bloody battles in the south Lebanon stronghold of Bint Jbeil on Wednesday alone, and the army has been unable to stop the rocket barrages on northern Israel that have killed 18 civilians in 15 days.
After Hezbollah fighters crossed the border on July 12, killing three soldiers and capturing two others, there was strong support for the government's decision to launch a large-scale offensive to crush the resistance group.
But that consensus is beginning to crack, and critics are starting to say the government launched the offensive hastily, with no exit strategy, and many fear the country is again entering a quagmire across its northern border.
"The war is leading us by the nose to sink deeper in the Lebanese mud. The Hezbollah wants to drag us into its territory. The moment the army will be in Lebanon for an extended period, it will be hell for us in there," said Ran Cohen, a dovish lawmaker and a colonel in the Israeli army reserves.
Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, tried to quell the criticism on Wednesday, warning of tougher times ahead and asking lawmakers to hold their tongues until the fighting ended.
But Danny Yatom, a retired general and Labour Party legislator, said the initial goals of the Israeli operation were too grandiose, and the government now realised that wiping out Hezbollah was no longer realistic.
A poll conducted before the announcement of the nine deaths on Wednesday showed that public support for pressing the offensive had begun to slip slightly, with 82% n favour, compared to 90% the previous week.
Fifty-one Israelis have been killed since July 12, including 33 soldiers and 18 civilians.
More than 405 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in Lebanon.
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D7B2C3B2-AACB-4C0C-9DEC-3AAE9A97F48E.htm
allAfrica: Polls Provide Impetus
for Regional Peace And Security
By Patson Phiri
Southern African News Features (Harare) NEWS
July 26, 2006
The search for lasting peace and security is being given top priority in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presidential and parliamentary elections set for Sunday, 30 July.
The people of the DRC will be using the elections, the first democratic polls to be held in the country in more than 45 years, to find a lasting solution to internal conflicts that have often drawn in neighbouring countries.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC), to which the DRC belongs, will be hoping for sustainable peace in one of Africa's untapped economic giants.
The conduct of peaceful elections will be a major advance for the 14-member regional grouping due to the seriousness it has attached to the DRC electoral process and the need to secure peace and security before, during and after the elections.
The SADC Election Observer Mission (SEOM) office in the DRC was launched on 26 June following a meeting of the Inter-State Politics and Diplomacy Committee held in Namibia in June. More than 100 SADC observers were deployed to the DRC constituencies by 20 July.
The SADC team is headed by John Pandeni, Namibia's Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development.
Pandeni noted that the invitation to foreign observers by the DRC government was "indeed proof of commitment of the people of the DRC to sustainable democracy, political tolerance and unity of purpose."
South Africa has deployed a team of 118 election observers in the DRC.
Other observer teams are from the African Union, Angola, Botswana, the Economic Community of Central African States, the European Union (EU) and the Carter Centre, an organisation founded by former United States president, Jimmy Carter, to advance the ideals of peace worldwide.
The DRC Constitution provides for a re-run in the event that there is no outright winner in the presidential election. The winner must garner at least 50 percent of the votes cast.
The re-run, if it is necessary, has been set for 15 October with final results to be announced by the end of November.
The DRC will aim to meet the election standards and guidelines approved by SADC Heads of State and Government at their 2003 Summit in Mauritius, that aim to promote transparent elections.
The guidelines are non-binding but provide that a country preparing for elections should invite a SADC observer mission in line with the provisions of the Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
The guidelines call for the full participation of citizens in the political process, freedom of association, political tolerance and the conduct of democratic elections at regular intervals, as provided by the respective national constitutions.
There is also a provision for all political parties to access the state media, the right to vote and to be voted for, guaranteed independence of the judiciary, and impartiality of the electoral institutions.
Political parties contesting the elections are urged to accept and respect the election results if they are declared free and fair by the competent national electoral authorities in accordance with the law of the land.
DRC will also face the challenge of ensuring that there are constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of the citizens and a conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections.
Calling for non-discrimination in the voters' registration, the guidelines provide for the existence of updated and accessible voters rolls, timely announcement of the election date and the counting of the votes at polling stations.
Peace is being given top priority by the regional grouping. At the 4th meeting of ISPDC in Windhoek, it was decided that SADC Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs should pay a visit to the DRC.
The visit was organised to encourage all political forces and stakeholders in DRC to help to consolidate the achievements attained so far.
The ISPDC meeting felt that the international community and individual countries, especially those countries that are neighbouring the DRC, should ensure full support and cooperation in the peace process in that country.
More than 200 political parties are contesting the elections in this vast, mineral-rich central African country.
At least 9,700 parliamentary candidates are contesting the 500 parliamentary seats while 33 others are contesting the presidential elections. Five of the presidential candidates are women.
Copyright © 2006 Southern African News Features. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200607260263.html
allAfrica: Fire At Presidential Palace
Detracts From Day of Celebrations
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS
July 26, 2006
Monrovia
Flames engulfed part of the Liberian presidential palace on Wednesday afternoon, overshadowing events to celebrate the country's 159th Independence Day.
Hundreds of onlookers who gathered to watch the flames and smoke rising from the palace were kept away by Ghanaian peacekeepers, part of a 15,000-strong UN force stationed in the country since the civil war ended in 2003.
The flames appeared to be coming from the section of the building where President Ellen Johnson-Sireaf has her offices. It was not immediately clear how the fire started. There were no reported casualties or injuries.
Earlier in the day, Sirleaf had marked the country's Independence Day by flipping the switch on the first working streetlights Liberians have seen for a decade and a half. Liberia is Africa's oldest republic, founded by freed American slaves.
And on Tuesday night, Africa's first female president ceremonially turned on the taps to the capital's first running water since infrastructure fell into disrepair and was destroyed during the 14 years of fighting.
Despite these advances, the country does not have a functional fire-fighting force.
Water carrying trucks from a petroleum company and the UN peacekeeping force were at the seen working to extinguish the fire. By late afternoon, police told IRIN that the situation was under control.
In the 1970s Liberia was an African success story with one of the most robust and developed economies on the continent. But corruption and ethnic tension helped trigger the civil war that claimed more than a hundred thousand lives and left the country and its seafront capital Monrovia in tatters.
President John Kufuor of Ghana, a country subsumed by coups and counter coups in Liberia's heyday, but now a role model for democracy in the region, attended the morning's Independence Day celebrations.
Ghana's Volta River Authority installed a gift of 1,200 electrical poles and loaned generators, which will provide power to five-dozen streetlights, as well as hospitals and public buildings in Monrovia. Funding came mostly from the EU and US.
"Small lights today, big lights tomorrow," said Sirleaf at the ceremony. "This is just the beginning of our plans to light up the city and beyond."
Power authorities estimate that US $200 million would be required to renovate the hydro-electric dam on the Saint Paul River which once supplied Monrovia and much of the rest of Liberia with electricity. It was damaged and looted for scrap in the early days of the civil war. Repairing the dam is likely to take three or four years depending on the availability of funds.
Most Liberians cannot wait for public power to be fully restored and instead use generators if they can afford them. Petrol-driven mini-generators - costing US $100 to $150 and known as 'Tigers' - are the most popular and just powerful enough to run a refrigerator or television set and a handful of light bulbs.
But the majority of Monrovia's poor and unemployed have to make do with paraffin lamps and candles.
The war has left most Liberians without access to clean drinking water, too. The majority of Liberia's one million residents buy purified water by the jerry can or bucket, sold from handcarts in the street.
But since Tuesday, much of the city centre and its eastern outskirts have running water as part of a multi-million dollar internationally funded programme to rebuild the country.
By the end of the civil war only 200,000 people in the port suburb of Bushrod Island in the western part of Monrovia receive piped water in their homes. The main pipelines from the water treatment plant north of the city that supplied the rest of the capital were damaged during the war.
"Now, we are supplying water to 30 percent of Monrovia's residents," said Hun-Bu Tulay, managing director of the government-owned water corporation.
"This is just the first phase," he added, "and we will continue this project until all residents have access to safe drinking pipe water which has met World Health Organisation standards."
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Copyright © 2006 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200607260969.html
allAfrica:
Remittances From Diaspora Hit $4 Billion
By Funmi Peter-Omale, Abuja
This Day (Lagos) NEWS
July 26, 2006
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday said remittances to Nigeria from the Diaspora have hit over $4 billion.
She spoke at a gala night organised in honour of Nigerians in the Diaspora on Monday evening at Transcorp-Hilton Hotel, where a large applause from the crowd signified an appreciation of the assistance funds from abroad.
She said: "Remittances today are becoming an important source of income for many countries, and sometimes surpassing exports as the source of foreign exchange. The World Bank estimates that about $167 billion in remittances was sent to developing countries in 20o4.
"It is estimated that sub-Saharan Africa receives about $7.7 billion in inward remittances, with Nigeria accounting for nearly $3 billion. These are all, however, conservative estimates and economists agree that the actual values may be up to 50 percent higher. So in the case of Nigeria, we are looking at a total value of remittances of over $4 Billion! This is a valuable source of income for the country, and it is some thing we want to encourage."
According to her, in today's world with rapid globalization and international migration, the Diaspora communities have become increasingly important for their parent countries.
The minister listed countries that had benefited from the Diaspora to include Mexico, India, Morocco, Israel and Jamaica. "The potential benefits of the Diaspora could accrue via remittances they send back home, serving as a channel for trade and investments, and also providing technology and skills transfer upon their return to their countries of origin."
Okonjo-Iweala said government was developing a data base of Nigerian experts abroad in order to better access the pool of expertise abroad. "This will be useful in two ways- first to enable government obtain access to Nigerian professionals abroad for their skills and expertise; and second, to encourage interaction among Nigerian professionals who may share common interests."
She stressed that the Nigerian National Volunteer Service (NNVS)( was established as a concrete initial step, saying the service was aimed at providing opportunities for the Diasporas retirees to work in meaningful projects back home.
The Minister of Foreign affairs lamented that Nigeria's performance in the global economy remained poor in the last few decades.
"Our share of global trade has been very low. For example: in 2004, total exports from sub-Saharan Africa amounted to $142 billion (or only 1.6 percent of world merchandise exports). Nigeria, with all our oil and gas, exported about $37 billion (or only 0.42 percent of World exports.) This is very low when we compare ourselves to countries such as Brazil (at $96 billion), Malaysia (at $126 billion), or even Korea (at $254 billion)."
She said government was doing its best to improve investment climate, ensure macroeconomic stability, to develop appropriate institutions to support various initiatives by the private sector.
"We have put in place prudent fiscal policies, improved our public expenditure management and maintained disciplined monetary policy. The improved macroeconomic environment has provided the platform for sustained growth in the real sectors", she maintained.
She urged Nigerians in Diaspora to transfer their skills and technologies back home send their remittances and channel trade and investments back home.
Copyright © 2006 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200607260054.html
AlterNet:
'Free Market' Ideology Has Killed Thousands in Iraq
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on July 27, 2006
Iraqis have been brutalized not only by bombs and bullets; they've also been the victims of economic violence in the form of the free market "shock therapy" cooked up by a firm in Virginia on a $250 million no-bid contract before the U.S. invasion. Tranforming Iraq's economy overnight was a matter of ideology trumping commonsense, and it's killed thousands of innocent Iraqis and shattered a way of life for hundreds of thousands more.
That the radical restructuring of Iraq's political economy has received so little critical attention - even as Iraq's nascent government threatens to crash and burn - is a testament to how deeply indoctrinated we are -especially our media - in the narrative of what "American-style" capitalism is. It was taken as a given that after knocking off Saddam, we'd rapidly privatize huge swaths of Iraq's national companies, get rid of hundreds of thousands of civil servants, completely restructure the country's tax and finance laws and throw Iraq's economy wide open for foreign multinationals. File it under bringing "democracy and capitalism" to the poor, backward Arabs.
The reality is that the economic policies we imposed on Iraq were not some generic form of "capitalism"; they included the most radical business-state rules imaginable - policies that developing countries have vehemently resisted for over a decade. What's more, imposing them at the point of a gun appears to have violated both international and U.S. laws. There's nothing "normal" about it.
And while "democratization" and "free markets" supposedly go hand-in-hand, the truth is that Iraq's economic transformation was mutually exclusive with the goal of forming a legitimate government, and the Bush administration knew it well in advance of the occupation.
That's because it's universally accepted - even among the most vocal proponents of the very model of corporate globalization that inspired Iraq's new economy - that in the short-term those policies create economic pain, displacement, anger and civil unrest, as well as a lack of faith in government. That's no way to win hearts and minds.
Even the man who implemented the shock therapy, coalition boss L. Paul Bremer, understood this quite well. Before his installation as "the dictator of Iraq" - in the words of one UN envoy - Bremer was a risk management consultant. In 2002, he wrote in a report to his corporate clients:[NO LINK] "The painful consequences of globalization are felt long before its benefits are clear… Restructuring inefficient state enterprises requires laying off workers. And opening markets to foreign trade puts enormous pressure on traditional retailers and trade monopolies." Bremer noted that corporate globalization is "good for the economy and society in the long run, [but has] immediate negative consequences for many people," and concluded that those consequences cause "political and social tensions."
Pushing those policies in a country like Iraq was a matter of ideological preference and greed, not necessity. A good example is Iraq's new flat-tax, established by Order #37 (now Law #37). As the Washington Post reported : "It took L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Baghdad, no more than a stroke of the pen … to accomplish what eluded [Republicans] over the course of a decade and two presidential campaigns."
Former Reagan and Bush 41 official Bruce Bartlett said with no small amount of envy that an occupation government doesn't have to "worry about all the political and transition problems that have made adoption of fundamental tax reform here so difficult," and Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, called the move "extremely good news." Meanwhile, one Middle East expert briefed on the plan told the Post "A piece of social engineering is being done on Iraq, but it has almost no support from other members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council."
Putting "free-markets" before what are recognized as "best practices" in post-conflict reconstruction had an immediate relationship with Iraq's insurgency. Consider the impact of two of Bremer's 100 Orders. Order #1 was the "De-Ba`athification of Iraqi Society." It laid off 120,000 senior civil servants (and a half million Iraqi soldiers and officers), ostensibly to clean out the government of holdovers from Saddam's Ba'ath party. But you had to be a Ba'athist to get those civil service jobs in the first place. Antonia Juhasz, author of The Bush Agenda, told me in a recent interview that "it wasn't an indication that they were a party to Saddam Hussein's crimes ... they were fired because they could have stood in the way of the economic transformation."
When I say "civil servants," don't think about the pasty men and women down at the Social Security office. Think about mostly Sunni civil servants - men accustomed to influence - fresh out of a job, with few prospects and facing a new order of Shi'ite rule, and remember that they all had compulsory military training and a collection of automatic weapons.
Now look at Order #1 in relation to Order #39, which made it a violation of Iraqi law fo the government to favor local Iraqi businesses or Iraqi workers for reconstruction work, meaning that all those pissed off, heavily-armed and newly unemployed men could not be put to work rebuilding their country.
That killed the State Department's own exhaustively prepared plans for post-war Iraq - plans that the administration had announced they'd follow prior to the invasion. According to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies:
The Administration … announced plans to employ the bulk of Iraq's regular army to rebuild Iraq's critical infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, after a conflict. The United States would pay the salaries of Iraqi soldiers to perform this work, thereby ensuring - at least in the immediate term - against their return to civilian life without any gainful employment.
We'll never know how differently things might have turned out if the administration had listened to its own experts instead of the Chamber of Commerce's lobbyists.
That's not to say these policies caused the insurgency - it's not that direct - but they created circumstances in which it could flourish and guaranteed it would have some popular support. This was, after all, an economic order that had led people living in much better circumstances in places like Seattle, Geneva and Montreal to riot. It was predictable that, on the heels of an invasion, they'd be greeted with violent resistance. Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution was right when he called post-conflict Iraq "a debacle that was foreseeable and indeed foreseen by most experts in the field."
Much of this policy mix also violated international and U.S. law. It's no small irony given that one of the reasons given for the invasion was to confront a "rogue" regime that scoffed at international law.
Article 43 of the Hague Convention says that an occupying power must "take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country." The only law that the American forces left standing was Saddam Hussein's ban on public-sector unions.
Article 55 says an occupying force can only serve as the "administrator" of "public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates." As the Guardian pointed out, those rules also "apply to structural changes to a public resource or service." Naomi Klein asked: "what could more substantially alter 'the substance' of a public asset than to turn it into a private one?"
The questionable legality of the policy was also well understood. Just a week after the bombs started falling on Baghdad, Britain's Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith sent a memo to Tony Blair (PDF) warning that "the imposition of major structural economic reforms would not be authorized by international law." He added: "the longer the occupation of Iraq continues, and the more the tasks undertaken by an interim administration depart from the main objective, the more difficult it will be to justify the lawfulness of the occupation."
The Bush administration - dominated by Big Business ideologues - went ahead with the plan nonetheless, and the consequences have been wholly predictable. After all, we've seen them before, in the former Soviet states after the USSR's collapse.
The adminsitration actually cited Russia's economic transition as a model for Iraq. But the University of North Carolina's Jonathan Weiler, an expert on Russia and author of Human Rights in Russia: A Darker Side of Reform told me that while "the ideology of democracy promotion says that democratic political institutions and free market reforms are two sides of a coin in terms of liberal freedoms. In fact, Russian reformers were always more interested in an economic transformation that would enrich their allies." Russia's transition to a market-based economy was anything but smooth, and Weiler says "it's certainly not a model that's compatible with trying to create a broadly legitimate government in a country that's been torn up by war and years of dictatorship. Essentially, implementing Russia's economic 'reforms' required institutions resolute enough to carry them out despite widespread opposition, and that undermined genuine political accountability. So when you look at Russian human rights since 1991, you see that the victims have changed-to the socially disadvantaged rather than the politically suspect-but the realities of life for many vulnerable Russians have in fact become worse."
None of this is to suggest that Iraq's economy didn't have serious inefficiencies or wasn't in need of deep structural reform. But what economists call "inefficiencies" are most commonly someone's job, or a farmer's subsidy - people's livelihoods. The reforms could have been phased in over a long period, or, better yet, started after an Iraqi government was established.
Common sense should have dictated that, after the destruction of its infrastructure and the dismantling of its (brutal but stable) government, Iraq didn't need to become a laboratory for neoliberal economics. It needed jobs and basics like electricity, water and sewage systems, and it needed them quickly.
That meant local firms, local workers and small, local projects - which make less juicy targets for saboteurs - to rebuild the country's public infrastructure. Development experts call that "local ownership," and consider it crucially important for good outcomes.
But commonsense has always been in short supply in the Bush administration, and they chose to make the country into a trough full of slop for the big multinationals. Make no mistake about it, Iraq's economic transformation is an example of war profiteering by other means, and the disastrous results are plain to see.
Joshua Holland is an AlterNet staff writer.
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/39466/
Arab News:
Yes, We Are Witnessing War Crimes in Lebanon
Abeer Mishkhas, abeermishkhas@arabnews.com
Thursday, 27, July, 2006 (02, Rajab, 1427)
A recent picture on the front page of The Independent was worth the proverbial thousand words. Actually, it was more powerful than all the words in the world. It was a picture of a mother and her son, both drenched in blood, the mother lying on the floor, obviously dying, with her eyes turned to her son.
The look in her eyes was of someone who knows the worst is yet to come and that her son, who looked about 10 or 12 years old, would have to face a cruel life without her. The son, holding her hand, was obviously facing his own moment of shock and agony; his tears were flowing and fear was written all over his face. The picture haunted everyone who saw the paper on that sad morning. The headline under the picture was “War Crimes?” and I have to say if that was not a war crime, then there is no hope for justice in this world.
The world’s maddening and incomprehensible silence toward what is happening in Lebanon is both frightening and revolting. Why is so much killing going on without a single word of condemnation from the “civilized” world? Don’t the leaders of the “free world” see the images of destruction coming from the once beautiful country that was Lebanon? Don’t they see the pictures we all see every day, not only from the Arabic media but also — fortunately for them and their ability to believe — pictures printed and circulated in their own countries by their own media?
I am being emotional and personal in this situation because that is how it feels to all people who have a heart and can see with eyes that have not been shut by hate and prejudice. The plain facts themselves in Lebanon are, however, bad enough whether the eyes wish to see or not.
The UN report by Jan Egeland stated that one third of the Lebanese civilians killed by Israel’s attacks have been children. Why were these children killed? Were they Hezbollah fighters? When the Israeli Army told people in the village of Marwaheen to evacuate their homes, the villagers did exactly that. Yet while their convoy was leaving, it was hit by an Israeli F-16 fighter-bomber and 20 of them — civilians all — were killed. Why?
In his article entitled “The Most Dangerous Alliance in the World” Norman Solomon says the war is “government criminality. High-Tech Terror. Mass Murder from the sky.” He quoted a Reuters journalist in Lebanon who said, “As an American, I am embarrassed and ashamed.” He is not the only one to be ashamed; we should all be ashamed for living in such horrible times.
The honorable gentleman might be ashamed but his government is unfortunately not. Just listen to how casually Bush talked about the war during the microphone gaffe at the G-8; he was talking about the war in the same voice he used when thanking Blair for a sweater! He simply told the Israelis to avoid civilian targets!
But it is the civilians who are being hit and displaced; it is the civilians whose country is being destroyed. If Israel wanted to attack Hezbollah, they should have gone after it and its members but they did not. They opted instead to destroy roads, houses and mosques; they opted to kill mothers and children. Mothers and children are easier targets. It is far easier and safer to kill them than armed soldiers and fighters.
Worse still, nobody in the American government will allow even a word of support for the Lebanese people. When Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki denounced Israel’s “criminal” raids on Lebanon and Gaza and warned that violence could escalate across the Middle East, a group of US Congressmen demanded he apologize for his remarks. They threatened to cancel his scheduled address to Congress and said in a widely-circulated letter that his “failure to condemn Hezbollah’s aggression and recognize Israel’s right to defend itself raises serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East.”!!
Raises serious questions? What question is more serious than the one, which seeks to learn why normal people with no responsibility for the conflict they are trapped in have no right to live in peace or even to live at all?
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=85899&d=27&m=7&y=2006
Clarín: Israel sostiene que la Cumbre de Roma
lo autorizó a seguir con sus operaciones en el Líbano
Para el ministro de Justicia, Haim Ramon, la conferencia internacional dio una autorización "de facto" para continuarlas hasta que se erradique a Hezbollah. Hoy la aviación israelí volvió a bombardear el sur del Líbano. La guerrilla proiraní lanzó nuevos cohetes hacia Israel. Un alto mando de Hezbollah advirtió que lucharán "hasta la última gota de sangre".
Clarín.com, 27.07.2006
El Gobierno de Israel sostuvo hoy que la conferencia internacional celebrada ayer en Roma, que no pudo consensuar una fórmula para avanzar en un cese del fuego, lo autorizó a seguir adelante con sus operaciones contra la guerrilla de Hezbollah en el Líbano. Mientras, hoy volvieron a registrarse combates en el sur libanés y misiles de Hezbollah impactaron cerca de la ciudad de Safed.
En declaraciones a la radio del Ejército de Israel, el ministro israelí de Justicia, Haim Ramon, sostuvo que "en la conferencia de Roma" su Gobierno recibió "la autorización de facto del mundo para continuar la operación, es decir esta guerra, hasta erradicar la presencia de Hezbollah del Líbano y (lograr) su desarme".
Poco después de que el ministro diera a conocer su interpretación de la cumbre de Roma –anoche también fracasaron los intentos por lograr una posición consensuada en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, incluso en cuanto a la muerte de cuatro observadores por el impacto de una bomba israelí-, los ministros de Israel se reunían para analizar un eventual refuerzo de las operaciones.
En el decimosexto día desde que Israel lanzó sus ataques contra Hezbollah en el Líbano –después de un ataque de la guerrilla shiíta contra una patrulla israelí que dejó muertos y rehenes-, se registraron nuevos bombardeos en el sur del Líbano y en los alrededores de Sabed y continuaban los enfrentamientos por el control de Bint Jbeil, el principal bastión del grupo proiraní en el sur libanés.
Según la policía libanesa, los aviones israelíes dispararon más de 400 misiles contra distintos lugares del sur del Líbano. Los mandos de las tropas israelíes volvieron a instar, por radio y a través de panfletos, a los habitantes de la región a que abandonen las aldeas ante la inminencia de nuevos ataques.
Por su parte, la milicia de Hezbollah reanudó su ofensiva contra el norte de Israel, disparando al menos diez misiles que cayeron en los alrededores de Safed sin causar ví¬ctimas aunque originando un incendio de grandes proporciones. Según fuentes israelíes, los fuegos desatados por las explosiones ya acabaron con más de 700 hectáreas de bosques.
En declaraciones a un diario argelino, el secretario general adjunto de Hezbollah, Naim Kasem, advirtió que la guerrilla combatirá "hasta la última gota" de su sangre y dijo que la única condición que el grupo acepta y reclama para un cese del fuego es que Israel ponga fin a su intervención militar.
Copyright 1996-2006 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/07/27/um/m-01241319.htm
Clarín:
Dura amenaza de Al Qaeda a Israel
El número dos de la red terrorista, el egipcio Ayman al-Zawahiri, comparó en un video difundido por la cadena árabe Al Jazeera el conflicto con Hezbollah y en Gaza con las guerras en Irak y Afganistán. Y advirtió: "No podemos mirar esos cohetes llover sobre nuestros hermanos y permanecer inactivos y sumisos".
Clarín.com, 27.07.2006
El número dos de la red terrorista Al Qaeda, el médico egipcio Ayman al-Zawahiri, amenazó a Israel por su ofensiva en el sur del Líbano y en Gaza y prometió llevar el conflicto a cualquier parte. "No podemos mirar esos cohetes llover sobre nuestros hermanos de Gaza y en Líbano y permanecer inactivos y sumisos", desafió al-Zawahiri en un video difundido por la cadena árabe Al Jazeera.
En la grabación, el número dos de la organización asegura que los acontecimientos en Medio Oriente constituyen "una guerra de la cruzada sionista" contra el mundo musulmán.
"Lo que está ocurriendo en Palestina y Líbano es lo mismo que lo que está ocurriendo en Afganistán e Irak", añadió.
Las imágenes muestran a al-Zawahiri adelante de una pared con posters que muestran a militantes del Islam muertos en ataques suicidas.
Esta es la primera reacción de Al Qaeda a las contraofensivas que Israel lanzó en la franja de Gaza el 25 de junio y en Líbano el 12 de julio, a raíz de la captura de soldados israelíes.
"Los cohetes y los misiles que desgarran los cuerpos de los musulmanes en Gaza y en Líbano no son únicamente israelíes. Vienen y son financiados por todos los países de la alianza de los cruzados", dijo en referencia a Estados Unidos y a sus aliados occidentales.
Copyright 1996-2006 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/07/27/um/m-01241332.htm
Harper's Magazine:
A Cartoon
Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006. By Mr. Fish.
This is A Cartoon, a cartoon by Mr. Fish, published Wednesday, July 26, 2006. It is part of The Cartoons of Mr. Fish: a Selection, which is part of Features, which is part of Harpers.org.
Written By
Fish, Mr.
Permanent URL
http://harpers.org/CondiBeirut-20060721.html
il manifesto:
Fino a quando?
Eduardo Galeano
Un paese ne bombarda due. L'impunità potrebbe meravigliare se non fosse costume normale. Qualche timida protesta in cui si dice di errori. Fino a quando gli orrori continueranno a chiamarsi errori? Questo macello di civili si è scatenato a partire dal sequestro di un soldato. Fino a quando il sequestro di un soldato israeliano potrà giustificare il sequestro della sovranità palestinese? Fino a quando il sequestro di due soldati israeliani potrà giustificare il sequestro del Libano intero? La caccia all'ebreo è stata, per secoli, lo sport preferito degli europei. Sboccò ad Auschwitz un vecchio fiume di terrori, che aveva attraversato tutta Europa. Fino a quando i palestinesi e altri arabi continueranno a pagare per delitti che non hanno commesso? Quando Israele spianò il Libano nelle sue precedenti invasioni, Hezbollah non esisteva. Fino a quando continueremo a credere alla favola dell'aggressore aggredito, che pratica il terrorismo perché ha diritto a difendersi dal terrorismo? Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestina, Libano... Fino a quando si potrà continuare a sterminare paesi impunemente? Le torture di Abu Ghraib, che hanno sollevato un qual certo malessere universale, non sono niente di nuovo per noi latinoamericani. I nostri militari hanno appreso quelle tecniche di interrogatorio nella School of Americas, che oggi ha perso il nome ma non il vizio. Fino a quando continueremo ad accettare che la tortura continui a legittimarsi, come ha fatto la corte suprema di Israele, in nome della legittima difesa della patria? Israele ha ignorato quarantasei raccomandazioni dell'Assemblea generale e di altri organismi delle Nazioni unite. Fino a quando il governo israeliano continuerà a esercitare il privilegio d'essere sordo? Le Nazioni unite raccomandano, però non decidono. Quando decidono, la Casa Bianca impedisce che decidano, perché ha diritto di veto. La Casa Bianca ha posto il veto, nel consiglio di sicurezza, a quaranta risoluzioni che condannavano Israele. Fino a quando le Nazioni unite continueranno a comportarsi come se fossero uno pseudonimo degli Stati uniti? Da quando i palestinesi sono stati cacciati dalle loro case e spogliati della loro terra, è corso molto sangue. Fino a quando continuerà a correre il sangue perché la forza giustifichi ciò che il diritto nega? La storia si ripete, giorno dopo giorno, anno dopo anno, e muore un israeliano ogni dieci arabi morti. Fino a quando la vita di ogni israeliano continuerà a valere dieci volte di più? In proporzione alla popolazione, i cinquantamila civili, in maggioranza donne e bambini, morti in Iraq equivalgono a ottocentomila statunitensi. Fino a quando accetteremo, come se fosse normale, la mattanza degli iracheni in una guerra cieca che ha ormai dimenticato i suoi pretesti? Fino a quando continuerà ad essere normale che i vivi e i morti siano di prima, seconda, terza o quarta categoria? L'Iran sta sviluppando l'energia nucleare. Fino a quando continueremo a credere che ciò basta a provare che un paese è un pericolo per l'umanità? La cosiddetta comunità internazionale non è per nulla angustiata dal fatto che Israele possieda 250 bombe atomiche, nonostante sia un paese che vive sull'orlo di una crisi di nervi. Chi maneggia il pericolosimetro universale? Sarà stato l'Iran il paese che buttò le bombe atomiche su Hiroshima e Nagasaki? Nell'era della globalizzazione, il diritto di pressione è più forte di quello di espressione. Per giustificare l'occupazione illegale di terre palestinesi, la guerra viene chiamata pace. Gli israeliani sono patrioti e i palestinesi terroristi, e i terroristi seminano allarme universale. Fino a quando i mezzi di comunicazione continueranno a seminare paura? Questa mattanza, che non è la prima e temo non sarà l'ultima, accade in silenzio. Il mondo è diventato muto? Fino a quando le voci dell'indignazione continueranno a suonare come campane di legno? Questi bombardamenti uccidono bambini: più di un terzo delle vittime, non meno della metà. Chi si azzarda a denunciarlo è accusato di antisemitismo. Fino a quando continueremo ad essere antisemiti, noi che critichiamo il terrorismo di stato? Fino a quando accetteremo questa estorsione? Sono antisemiti gli ebrei che inorridiscono per quanto viene fatto in loro nome? Sono antisemiti gli arabi, tanto semiti quanto gli ebrei? Per caso non ci sono voci arabe che difendono la patria palestinese e ripudiano il manicomio fondamentalista? I terroristi si somigliano tra loro: i terroristi di stato, rispettabili uomini di governo, e i terroristi privati, che sono matti singoli e matti organizzati dai tempi della guerra fredda al totalitarismo comunista. E tutti agiscono in nome di dio, si chiami Dio, Allah o Jahvé. Fino a quando continueremo a ignorare che tutti i terrorismi disprezzano la vita umana e che tutti si alimentano tra loro? Non è evidente che in questa guerra tra Israele e Hezbollah sono i civili - libanesi, palestinesi, israeliani - quelli che ci mettono i morti? Non è evidente che le guerre di Afghanistan e Iraq e le invasioni di Gaza e del Libano sono incubatrici di odio, fabbriche di fanatici in serie? Siamo l'unica specie animale specializzata nello sterminio reciproco. Destiniamo duemila e cinquecento milioni di dollari, ogni giorno, alle spese militari. La miseria e la guerra sono figlie dello stesso padre: come qualche dio crudele, mangia i vivi e anche i morti. Fino a quando continueremo ad accettare che questo mondo innamorato della morte è il nostro unico mondo possibile?
Copyright Ips/il manifesto
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/26-Luglio-2006/art2.html
il manifesto:
Armi proibite, come a Falluja
Fosforo bianco Munizioni termobariche sulle città libanesi. Decine di civili carbonizzati, tanti i bambini.
Denuncia di un medico in un incontro-stampa organizzato dal vescovo di Tripoli. Istruzioni scritte della censura militare ai media sul campo: non rivelate nulla sulle «munizioni uniche»
Manlio Dinucci
Sembra una piccola mummia egizia. Non risale però a migliaia di anni fa, ma a pochi giorni fa. E' una bambina libanese: il corpo intatto, ma interamente nero, come mummificato. E' una delle foto che documentano che le forze israeliane stanno usando in Libano bombe al fosforo bianco e probabilmente altre armi chimiche anche di nuovo tipo. Immagini che ricordano quelle di Falluja, quelle della «strage nascosta» documentata da RaiNews24 nel novembre 2005. Siamo di fronte a un'altra strage nascosta, questa volta in Libano.
Lo testimonia il prof. Bachir Cham, un medico di origine libanese che dirige un ospedale in Libano affiancato da altri medici belgi. In una conferenza stampa organizzata a Bruxelles dalla segreteria dell'arcivescovo di Tripoli Mons. Jean Abboud, il prof. Cham ha dichiarato (via telefono mobile) che sono stati portati al suo ospedale e fotografati otto corpi «dall'aspetto di mummie», tra cui quelli di due bambini. Sui corpi «non vi sono segni di ferite provocate da esplosione: ho l'impressione che un prodotto tossico sia penetrato nei corpi attraverso la pelle, provocando la morte».
Che le forze israeliane abbiano proiettili di artiglieria al fosforo bianco lo ha documentato il giornale israeliano Haaretz il 10 novembre 2005 (subito dopo il documentario di RaiNews24 su Falluja), in un articolo intitolato «Le forze di difesa israeliane usano proiettili al fosforo nelle esercitazioni, contro la legge internazionale». Il fatto è venuto alla luce perché, il 17 agosto 2005, un giovane beduino era stato ucciso e altri tre gravemente feriti dalla detonazione di un proiettile al fosforo inesploso, trovato sulle colline di Hebron. Non potendo negare l'episodio, il portavoce delle forze armate israeliane lo definì «uno sfortunato incidente», aggiungendo che «i proiettili al fosforo vengono usati unicamente nelle esercitazioni per illuminare gli obiettivi».
La stessa spiegazione che proprio in quei giorni forniva il Pentagono, assicurando che «a Falluja le forze Usa hanno impiegato proiettili al fosforo solo a scopi di illuminazione». Subito dopo, però, l'Usinfo (il programma governativo di informazione internazionale) doveva prendere atto del rapporto pubblicato dalla rivista dell'esercito Usa Field Artillery (riportato dal manifesto il 12-11-2005) e ammettere, smentendosi, che le forze Usa avevano impiegato proiettili al fosforo in operazioni «scuoti e cuoci» condotte contro gli insorti di Falluja. Il fosforo bianco è un'arma proibita dal Protocollo sulle armi incendiarie (1980): esso vieta l'uso di tali armi contro obiettivi militari situati in zone in cui sono concentrati civili. Solo che Israele, come gli Stati uniti, non lo hanno sottoscritto negandone la validità.
Vi sono ormai le prove, anche fotografiche, che le forze israeliane usano proiettili al fosforo in Libano e a Gaza. Vi sono inoltre seri indizi sull'uso di altre armi chimiche, anche di nuovo tipo. Lo confermano le istruzioni inviate il 23 luglio agli organi di stampa dal colonnello Sima Vaknin-Gil, capo censore militare israeliano. Nel documento (di cui abbiamo avuto indirettamente copia) si proibisce ai giornalisti che seguono le operazioni terrestri in Libano di fornire informazioni sull'«uso di tipi unici di munizioni e armamenti».
Nonostante la proibizione, è stata diffusa la foto di uno speciale proiettile usato in Libano. Secondo gli esperti, può contenere o fosforo bianco o altre sostanze chimiche usate per le munizioni termobariche: esplodendo all'interno di edifici e rifugi, esse creano il «vuoto», ossia risucchiano l'aria dall'ambiente e dai polmoni di chi si trova al loro interno. Altri tipi di proiettili aria-combustibile, giunti in prossimità del suolo, spargono una nube di aerosol chimico che, fatta detonare da una spoletta, crea un'onda d'urto e una tempesta di fuoco tali da uccidere chiunque nel raggio di centinaia di metri. E, poiché il capo censore militare proibisce di dare informazioni sui «tipi unici di munizioni e armamenti», è praticamente certo che in Libano vengono usate anche armi segrete di nuovo tipo. Vengono così testate nelle condizioni reali di una guerra per essere perfezionate.
L'Italia non è estranea a tutto questo. La maggior parte di queste armi è fornita a Israele dagli Stati uniti e molte passano da Camp Darby e altre basi Usa nel nostro paese. Per di più la Legge 17 maggio 2005 n. 94, che istituzionalizza la cooperazione tra i ministeri della difesa e le forze armate di Italia e Israele, prevede la «cooperazione nella ricerca, nello sviluppo e nella produzione» di tecnologie militari tramite «lo scambio di dati tecnici, informazioni e hardware» e incoraggia «le rispettive industrie nella ricerca di progetti e materiali» di interesse comune. Tutto sotto la cappa del segreto militare. Non è quindi escluso che qualche arma di «tipo unico», sperimentata dalle forze israeliane nel «poligono» libanese, incorpori già tecnologia italiana.
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/26-Luglio-2006/art16.html
il manifesto:
Il Congo alle urne, la cabala di Kabila
Il gigante africano al voto Prime elezioni democratiche dopo quaranta anni.
Domenica i cittadini dell'ex Zaire andranno a votare dopo 32 anni di dittatura e due guerre che hanno provocato 4 milioni di morti. Favorito l'attuale presidente di transizione, «pupillo» della comunità internazionale
Stefano Liberti
Trentatré candidati alla massima carica dello stato, 9.707 pretendenti ai 500 seggi della futura Assemblea nazionale. Le elezioni presidenziali e legislative previste per domenica prossima nella Repubblica Democratica del Congo (Rdc) si annunciano come un evento storico: il primo voto libero e democratico in 40 anni per questo gigantesco paese, pari per dimensioni all'Europa occidentale. Un voto non privo di ombre, ma che si pone l'ambizioso obiettivo di chiudere quella faticosa transizione avviata dagli accordi di pace di Sun City (Sudafrica), che nel 2003 hanno posto fine - almeno sulla carta - alla cosiddetta «prima guerra mondiale africana».
La comunità internazionale, in primis l'Unione europea, appare impegnata in prima fila nell'organizzazione di questa consultazione: finanziamenti dell'ordine di milioni di dollari; dispiegamento di una missione militare ad hoc a guida tedesca, che deve affiancare la Monuc - la più cospicua e costosa missione Onu del pianeta - per garantire la sicurezza; squadre di osservatori incaricati di vigilare sul corretto svolgimento dello scrutinio. Ma i dubbi permangono: le elezioni del 30 luglio, e l'eventuale ballottaggio in data da definirsi, riusciranno a porre rimedio a tutti i mali del Congo? Le accuse di irregolarità della Conferenza episcopale, assai influente nell'ex Zaire, che ha minacciato di non riconoscere il risultato del voto; l'appello al boicottaggio di Etienne Tshisekedi, oppositore storico dell'ex dittatore Mobutu Sese Seko, che ha definito le elezioni «una farsa» e chiesto ai suoi sostenitori di non partecipare; la corruzione endemica che attraversa le istituzioni; i focolai di turbolenza ancora persistenti nell'est del paese; l'appoggio appena velato che la comunità internazionale dà al presidente di transizione uscente Joseph Kabila; l'esacerbarsi di discorsi xenofobi che già tanti danni hanno fatto nella regione dei Grandi Laghi; la scarsa preparazione di una classe politica formata in parte da ex signori della guerra, in parte da ex notabili dell'entourage mobutista, sono altrettante incognite che pesano come macigni sulle consultazioni di domenica prossima.
Un sottosuolo che fa gola
Eppure, la popolazione congolese - dopo una dittatura durata 32 anni seguita da due guerre che hanno causato 4 milioni di morti e almeno 2 milioni di sfollati - aspetta. La partecipazione di massa al referendum del dicembre scorso, che ha approvato la nuova costituzione e spianato la strada alle elezioni generali, è un segno che i figli dell'ex Zaire vogliono dire la loro; desiderano scegliersi la propria classe dirigente; anelano a una forma di normalità che non può che passare per le urne. Il modello transitorio scelto a Sun City, la cosiddetta formula 1+4 (un presidente e quattro vice-presidenti chiamati a gestire il paese) non ha riscosso grande entusiasmo, tanto da essere stata ribattezzata 1+4=0. I veti incrociati tra il presidente Kabila e i suoi quattro vice (i due ex leader di fazioni armate Jean-Pierre Bemba e Azarias Ruberwa; il rappresentante della società civile Arthur Z'Ahidi Ngoma, tutti e tre oggi candidati alla presidenza; e il «kabilista» Yerodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi) hanno reso difficile ogni decisione e permesso principalmente, attraverso una precisa divisione dei guadagni, la spoliazione del paese a beneficio degli stati vicini e delle grandi multinazionali straniere.
Perché - e questo è il grande paradosso - la Repubblica Democratica del Congo è potenzialmente uno dei paesi più ricchi del mondo. Il suo sottosuolo rigurgita di minerali ambitissimi (oro, cobalto, rame, coltan, zinco, cassiterite, uranio, diamanti), tanto da essersi meritato il soprannome di «scandalo geologico»; le sue immense foreste sono un serbatoio inestimabile di legname; i suoi laghi nascondono giacimenti di gas e di petrolio. Un patrimonio che, fin dall'epoca della colonizzazione belga, ha suscitato grandi bramosie e alimentato una sistematica spoliazione prima da parte del re del Belgio Leopoldo II, che aveva fatto del Congo un suo possedimento personale; poi dal maresciallo Mobutu, che accumulava con nonchalance ricchezze spropositate in discreti conti svizzeri; infine, dopo la caduta del dinosauro, dagli stati vicini, soprattutto Ruanda e Uganda, e dalle grande compagnie internazionali, che hanno ottenuto negli ultimi anni contratti vantaggiosissimi al limite del saccheggio. Multinazionali belghe, francesi, svizzere, canadesi, americane, australiane, cinesi si sono accaparrate - in joint ventures con operatori locali e con il beneplacito del potere di transizione - l'oro dell'Ituri, il coltan del Kivu, il rame e il cobalto del Katanga, i diamanti del Kasai, il petrolio del Basso-Congo. La spoliazione è stata sistematica, i contratti leonini, al di fuori di ogni quadro legale. Ma l'argomento resta tabù: il rapporto di una commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta guidata dal deputato Cristophe Lutundula è rimasto per sette mesi nel cassetto e, una volta reso pubblico, non è mai stato discusso dall'Assemblea nazionale. Le denunce contenute nel testo, in primis la mancanza di trasparenza nella gestione delle risorse, si sono arenate in un muro di silenzio.
Un governo dominato da warlords
Già, perché l'obiettivo principale degli accordi di Sun City non era tanto quello di mettere ordine nella gestione delle ricchezze minerarie, quanto quello di far tacere le armi. E, per far questo, non c'era altra alternativa che tener conto degli equilibri sul terreno. È così che, con grande scandalo della società civile, il vice-presidente Ruberwa, ex leader dell'Rcd-Goma, fazione armata appoggiata dal Ruanda responsabile di massacri nell'est del paese, si è visto affidare il settore della difesa e della sicurezza, mentre il suo omologo Jean-Pierre Bemba, accusato a più riprese dagli esperti Onu di aver partecipato in prima persona al saccheggio, è diventato presidente della "commissione economia e finanze".
Legittimati dalla guerra - e dai business ad essa legata - questi leader politici oggi sono candidati alla magistratura suprema. Ma difficilmente andranno lontano: Bemba, che ha una base nel nord, nella regione dell'Equatore, non è molto amato nel resto del paese; Ruberwa, membro della comunità tutsi banyamulenge del Kivu, è percepito come uno straniero. Se i due, e in particolare Bemba, non hanno lesinato mezzi per una campagna in grande stile, sembra improbabile che riescano a insediare il «pupillo» della comunità internazionale e stragrande favorito del voto di domenica, quel taciturno Joseph Kabila che, a 35 anni, è il capo di stato più giovane del mondo.
Il figlio di suo padre
Perché sarà lui, con ogni probabilità, a succedere a se stesso. Ma in un quadro istituzionale diverso: seppellito l'"1+4", la nuova costituzione prevede un regime semi-presidenziale alla francese, con nomina di un primo ministro da parte del capo di stato eletto. Consegnata al passato la transizione, sono molte le sfide che, se sarà effettivamente eletto, attendono il «figlio d'arte» (Joseph è assurto frettolosamente ai vertici del potere dopo l'uccisione del padre, quel Laurent Désire Kabila che aveva rovesciato Mobutu). Il nuovo potere riuscirà ad affrancarsi dagli elementi più ambigui del suo entourage e a ignorare i consigli interessati di alcuni membri della comunità internazionale? Riuscirà a rilanciare un'economia in ginocchio e a dotare il paese di infrastrutture? Soprattutto, avrà il coraggio di rimettere mano alle concessioni minerarie?
Il voto di domenica sarà necessariamente seguito da un periodo di vuoto politico: almeno un mese, fino alla proclamazione dei risultati; fino a quattro mesi, se si dovesse andare al ballottaggio. Un periodo pericoloso, che aiuterà tuttavia a mostrare se il Congo è pronto a un nuovo inizio. E se quanti oggi affermano di voler ridare una speranza al paese sono dei veri statisti o dei semplici apprendisti stregoni.
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/26-Luglio-2006/art11.html
il manifesto:
«Un paese saccheggiato»
Diomi Ndongala Ex ministro delle miniere, candidato alla presidenza, denuncia oggi la svendita delle ricchezze minerarie
Stefano Liberti
«Questo paese è stato spogliato dalle sue ricchezze a più riprese e continua a esserlo». Ex ministro delle miniere nel governo di transizione, ministro dell'economia e delle finanze all'epoca di Mobutu, Eugène Diomi Ndongala ha una conoscenza approfondita di quello che è il dossier più scottante della Repubblica Democratica del Congo (Rdc): il suo sottosuolo denso di ricchezze e preda degli appetiti voraci tanto dei paesi vicini - in primis Ruanda e Uganda - quanto delle potenze europee. Licenziato dal presidente Joseph Kabila con l'accusa di corruzione («in realtà a causa della mia scarsa propensione a svendere i beni del popolo congolese", dice lui), Diomi è candidato per la Democrazia cristiana alle elezioni presidenziali di domenica prossima. Lo incontriamo a Roma, nel corso di una rapida visita privata. Con lui discutiamo della spoliazione delle ricchezze minerarie che ha subito il suo paese.
Lei sostiene che l'attuale governo di transizione ha regalato le ricchezze del Congo ad interessi e società stranieri. Può essere più preciso?
C'è stata negli anni della transizione un'estrema negligenza nella gestione delle risorse minerarie e un'assoluta mancanza di trasparenza. Le élites al potere hanno regalato le concessioni per lo sfruttamento dei giacimenti a gruppi stranieri, in cambio di ricche mazzette. Quando io sono diventato ministro delle miniere, ho introdotto un meccanismo di gestione più trasparente, in cui le cifre delle esportazioni erano pubblicate quotidianamente su un sito internet. Basti pensare che questo ha fatto aumentare gli introiti delle esportazioni solo di diamanti da 280 milioni a 800 milioni di dollari. Il tutto a vantaggio della popolazione congolese. Ma la cosa non è riuscita gradita a qualcuno e sono stato messo da parte.
Il rapporto della commissione parlamentare sulle concessioni minerarie guidata dal deputato Cristophe Lutundula è rimasto insabbiato per diversi mesi e non è stato discusso dal parlamento. A cosa è dovuta questa reticenza?
L'insabbiamento del rapporto Lutundula non fa altro che confermare quello che ho appena detto. L'intreccio di rapporti tra le élites attualmente al potere, gruppi e singoli personaggi stranieri costituisce una vera e propria cupola, che cura soltanto i propri interessi. Il rapporto denunciava l'iniquità dei contratti firmati durante la guerra. Un aspetto sottolineato anche dal gruppo di esperti Onu: in cinque anni sono stati sottratti al popolo congolese cinque milioni di dollari. Ma l'argomento è ancora tabù in questo paese.
Se dovesse diventare presidente, denuncerebbe i contratti firmati durante la transizione?
Credo che sia necessario correggere gli errori fatti, senza tuttavia fare forzature eccessive. Con la globalizzazione nessuno può pensare di andare avanti per la propria strada come se fosse un vaso chiuso. Penso quindi che sia necessario ridiscutere i contratti in modo pacato con le controparti, trovando un accordo valido e giusto per tutti. Il mio obiettivo principale è la lotta alla corruzione, alla frode e al malgoverno. Solo così il Congo avrà una reale sovranità e non una sovranità sotto tutela legata a interessi stranieri.
Quali sono i principali punti del suo programma?
Io propongo un New Deal per il Congo, un nuovo patto sociale per ricostruire questo paese devastato da troppi anni di guerra. Bisogna pensare che l'attuale classe di potere è uscita dalla guerra; è con le armi che è arrivata ai vertici dello stato. È ora di ridare la parola alla politica.
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/26-Luglio-2006/art10.html
Jeune Afrique: La tension reste vive
autour du processus d'identification
CÔTE D'IVOIRE - 26 juillet 2006 – AFP
La tension demeure vive en Côte d'Ivoire malgré une réunion mercredi entre partisans et détracteurs du processus d'identification dont les affrontements ont déjà fait au moins trois morts.
A Abidjan une réunion a regroupé pendant près de deux heures les chefs des "jeunes patriotes", farouches partisans du président Laurent Gbagbo qui cherchent à interrompre le processus d'identification, et les chefs des jeunes de l'opposition favorables à cette opération, baptisée "audiences foraines" et destinée à identifier les populations et à réviser les listes électorales.
Dans une déclaration commune, ils ont demandé à tous les "jeunes de quelque bord que ce soit, l'arrêt immédiat des violences et des affrontements, pour éviter à notre pays un Rwanda bis".
Ils ont aussi pris "le ferme engagement d'exclure toute forme de violence en s'inscrivant désormais dans le cadre purement démocratique et légal pour toute forme de lutte".
Les "jeunes patriotes" et les militants de l'opposition, qui vont mettre en place "une structure de dialogue permanent", ont souhaité une "rencontre concertée" avec (le Premier ministre) M. Banny afin de "discuter de la situation socio-politique autour des audiences foraines" dont la transparence doit être "une exigence pour tous".
Cet appel n'a pas encore été entendu: les "audiences foraines" ont encore été interrompues par des militants du Front populaire ivoirien (FPI, parti présidentiel) mercredi à Agnibilékrou, à 280 km au nord-est d'Abidjan, selon le préfet du département, Léopold Ano.
"Des jeunes étaient arrivés d'Abidjan mardi soir (...). Ce matin ils sont venus, très menaçants, là où se tenaient les audiences foraines pour demander qu'on les arrête", a-t-il déclaré à l'AFP expliquant que devant la tension le juge avait "estimé préférable de suspendre la séance".
Le préfet a espéré pouvoir ramener les jeunes à la raison pour éviter des affrontements et que les audiences puissent reprendre rapidement.
Des affrontements entre "jeunes patriotes" et militants de l'opposition avaient fait mardi au moins un mort et six blessés dont deux par balle à Bassam, située à une trentaine de km à l'est d'Abidjan. Le week-end dernier à Divo (centre), des affrontements similaires avaient fait au moins deux morts et 38 blessés.
Ces dernières violences sont intervenues après un discours à la Nation du Premier ministre de transition, Charles Konan Banny, qui a décidé de maintenir cette première phase du processus de paix.
Le secrétaire général de l'Onu, Kofi Annan a fermement condamné mardi soir ces violences politiques et accusé le parti du président Laurent Gbagbo de "violer les accords de paix".
Dans un communiqué, mardi soir, il s'est dit "profondément préoccupé par les récentes déclarations incendiaires faites par les dirigeants du FPI incitant les +jeunes patriotes+ à commettre des actes de violence en vue de perturber le déroulement des opérations d'identification".
"Le secrétaire général condamne avec la plus grande fermeté de tels actes, qui constituent une violation des accords conclus entre les parties ivoiriennes, y compris lors de la réunion de haut niveau qu'il a organisée à Yamoussoukro le 5 juillet", souligne le communiqué.
Cette condamnation n'a pas fait reculer le FPI et son président, l'ancien Premier ministre Pascal Affi N'Guessan qui a "décidé de maintenir son appel au boycott des +audiences foraines+ parce que le Premier ministre brade en masse la nationalité ivoirienne en la distribuant à tout venant", selon un communiqué.
Les partis de l'opposition ont également demandé à leurs militants de "défendre par tous les moyens leur droit à l'identification" et ont démontré notamment à Bassam qu'ils ne laissaient plus aux seuls "patriotes" le contrôle de la rue.
© Jeuneafrique.com 2006
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_depeche.asp?
art_cle=AFP91516latennoitac0
L’Unità:
Il summit non ferma la guerra
Israele: da Roma ok all'offensiva
Bombe sull'Onu, no Usa alla condanna
Per Israele la conferenza di Roma equivale ad un via libera. O meglio all´«autorizzazione a continuare» le sue operazioni militari in Libano. È quanto ha dichiarato il ministro della Giustizia Haim Ramon. «A Roma abbiamo ottenuto l'autorizzazione a continuare le nostre operazioni fino a quando gli Hezbollah non saranno più presenti nel sud del Libano e non saranno disarmati- ha sottolineato il ministro alla radio militare - Tutti sanno che una vittoria di Hezbollah costituirebbe una vittoria del terrorismo mondiale. Sarebbe una catastrofe per il mondo e per Israele». «Dovrà essere usata la massima potenza di fuoco - ha continuato Ramon - obbiamo sfruttare il vantaggio che abbiamo su Hezbolla con la forza aerea e l'artiglieria e stare attenti quando impieghiamo le truppe di terra». E per finire ha sottolineato: «Chiunque è rimasto nel Libano meridionale è legato a Hezbollah».
Ancora raid nel sud del Libano
E infatti l'offensiva israeliana sul sud del Libano va avanti. I raid si sono susseguiti per tutta la notte a anche dopo l'alba sulle località a est di Saida, capoluogo del Libano del sud. Gli aerei israeliani hanno inoltre lanciato oltre 400 fra bombe e razzi sulla località di Khiam, alla frontiera fra Libano e Israele, non lontano da dove martedì è stata colpita la postazione dell'Unifil in cui sono morti quattro osservatori.
I combatimenti più violenti sono per la conquista della roccaforte Hezbollah di Bin Jbeil (Libano meridionale, alcuni chilometri a nord del confine). Dopo l'ammissione di Israle di aver perso in battaglia 8 soldati (ma altre fotni parlano di 13 vittime) ariva adesso un bollettino di guerra secondo cui i soldati israeliani hanno ucciso almeno 170 miliziani. Ma non solo. I soldati israeliani sarebbero costretti a proteggersi con maschere perchè il tanfo dei cadaveri degli Hezbollah uccisi è insopportabile. È quanto scrive il quotidiano Maarivz che cita alcuni ufficiali dislocati sul posto.
«Intensificare l'offensiva»
Il bilancio delle vittime continua a salire. La guerra ha ucciso finora 418 persone in Libano e 42 israeliani. I bombardamenti israeliani hanno costretto almeno 750mila persone a fuggire dalle loro abitazioni. Molti sono ancora intrappolati in zone di guerra. Ma appaiono ancora incerti gli obiettivi finali dell´offensiva contro il sud del Libano. Il primo ministro israeliano Ehud Olmert davanti alla commissione parlamentare Esteri e Difesa ha affermato che Israele, ritiratosi nel 2000 dopo 18 anni di occupazione, non intende rioccupare la zona. Ma per la prima volta, mercoledì. ha chiarito la dimensione della zona di sicurezza che Israele vuole creare al confine con il Libano: «Vogliamo un'area di due chilometri dalla frontiera». Adesso il suo governo deve decidere modi e tempi dell'offensiva militare contro i guerriglieri Hezbollah del Libano. E i vertici militari israeliani avrebbero chiesto al governo di dare il suo assenso a un'offensiva di più largo raggio. L'esecutivo deciderà giovedì.
Pubblicato il 27.07.06
© l'Unità.
http://www.unita.it/view.asp?IDcontent=58436
Mail & Guardian:
Oil riches trickle down
Tumi Makgetla
26 July 2006
Chad has signed a precedent-setting agreement with the World Bank that guarantees 70% of its oil revenues will be spent on poverty alleviation projects. Civil society hopes this will allow Chad to escape from the “paradox of plenty”, common in oil-producing nations, in which the majority of the impoverished population does not benefit from oil wealth.
But cynics question whether the government will keep its promises, after a similar agreement fell through last year. Last year, the government of Idris Deby diverted money earmarked for development projects to buy helicopters and tanks. The World Bank responded in January this year by suspending further loans to Chad.
Civil society members say Chad’s development prospects were undermined, not just by the government’s decision to increase military spending, but also the World Bank’s failure to heed the warning signs. “We agree[d] with the World Bank’s decision to suspend funding for Chad because new money would mainly be used for military purposes and increasing repression of the Chadian people,” said Delphine Djiraibe, a lawyer at the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, last year. “But we regret that the bank did not listen to the warnings of civil society organisations earlier because now we face greater poverty and severe environmental problems as a result of this mega-project.”
In 1998, the World Bank lent Chad $4-billion to help the oil-rich nation use its black gold to roll out government services and improve living standards. The loan paid for a pipeline that made it profitable for multinational oil companies to extract Chad’s landlocked oil reserves, and the government agreed to use oil profits in socially beneficial ways.
The bank put oil royalties, taxes and dividends into a bank account in London and set aside 10% in a “future generations fund” while the remainder was divided between servicing the loan, spending on priority sectors, such as health and education, and direct revenue for the government.
The agreement established an oversight committee to watch over a government that Transparency International ranked the most corrupt country in the world along with Bangladesh last year. The committee comprised government officials and civil society representatives who were responsible for approving government spending of oil royalties and dividends. By 2005, the bank account held $306-million, two-thirds of which was to be used on building schools, hospitals and roads as part of the priority spending budget.
In December 2005, however, the Chad Parliament passed a law to scrap the “future generations” fund, increasing the amount of revenue that could be spent without approval of the oversight committee from 15% to 30%, and redefining priority sectors to include security and the military.
Robert Bates of Harvard University said that Chad’s decision to renege on its agreement was “exactly what would have been expected”. He said it is hard for people to negotiate positions unless there is a “commitment technology” that will ensure that pledges are fulfilled.
“The interesting thing here is that the World Bank behaved as if it could believe the Chadian promises,” he said.
While the World Bank suspended its loans to Chad in January this year it continued to negotiate, culminating in this month’s agreement. The new deal commits Chad to spending 70% of its 2007 budget on poverty reduction and 5% of oil revenues of citizens of the oil- producing region, as well as creating a stabilisation fund for the benefit of future generations. The government has pledged to support the oversight committee and the World Bank promises to ensure that the committee has sufficient resources to fulfil its mandate. While the oil revenues bank account held $400-million in 2005, this figure was expected to climb to $1,5-billion in 2007.
The government has also committed to working with the Bank, donors and civil society to prepare a poverty reduction strategy, which will be enacted as legislation and enforceable by law.
“The agreement gives Deby breathing space and is a face-saving device for the World Bank,” said Richard Cornwell of the Institute for Security Studies, who believes the World Bank wants to prevent Chad becoming a failed state and possible terrorist haven.
Rising oil prices may have encouraged Deby to renegotiate a deal with the bank, said Timothy Othieno of the Institute for Global Dialogue.
“The agreement is a major step forward it if is actually realised,” he said.
He explained that more money would go to development projects under the new deal because the government is committed to spending 70% of its total budget and not just oil royalties on poverty alleviation as was the case with the previous agreement. The new agreement also seeks to strengthen the role of civil society: “The World Bank has empowered the churches, trade unions and non-governmental organisations to have a role in the accountability and transparency of how Chad uses its oil.”
Oil and turmoil
Chad:
* Population size: 9 944 201
* GDP per capita: $1 500
* Percentage of the population below the poverty line: 80%
* Infant mortality rate: 91,45 deaths/1 000 live births
* Life expectancy: 48 years
* Literacy rate: 47,5%
* Proved oil reserves: 1-billion barrels
Nigeria:
* Population size: 131 859 731
* GDP per capita: $1 400
* Percentage of the population below the poverty line: 60%
* Infant mortality rate: 97,14 deaths/1 000 live births
* Life expectancy: 47,08 years
* Literacy rate: 68%
* Proved oil reserves: 36-billion barrels
* In the past 25 years, Nigeria has made more than $300-billion in oil revenues, but over 70% of its people have an income of less than $1 a day.
Angola:
* Population size: 12 127 071
* GDP per capita: $3 200
* Percentage of the population below the poverty line: 70%
* Infant mortality rate: 185,36 deaths/1 000 live births
* Life expectancy: 38,62 years
* Literacy rate: 66,8%
* Proved oil reserves: 25-billion barrels
* In 2004, 32% of Angola’s budget was allocated to defence and security, and social expenditure rose from 9% in 1999 to 22% in 2002.
Sudan:
* Population size: 41 236 378
* GDP per capita: $2 100
* Percentage of the population below the poverty line: 40%
* Infant mortality rate: 61,05 deaths/1 000 live births
* Life expectancy: 58,92 years
* Literacy rate: 61,1%
* Proved oil reserves: 1,6-billion barrels.
* Oil made up 8% of the government’s total revenue in 1999, but increased to 45% in 2002.
-- Katie Wilter
All material copyright Mail&Guardian.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=278558&area=/insight/monitor/#
New Statesman:
Empire: war and propaganda
John Pilger
Monday 31st July 2006
The US role in supporting Israel’s military assault on Lebanon falls into a pattern of imperial tyranny, where history is rewritten to suit America’s needs while Europe stands cravenly by. John Pilger provides a personal assessment from Washington
The National Museum of American History is part of the celebrated Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Surrounded by mock Graeco-Roman edifices with their soaring Corinthian columns, rampant eagles and chiselled profundities, it is at the centre of Empire, though the word itself is engraved nowhere. This is understandable, as the likes of Hitler and Mussolini were proud imperialists, too: on a "great mission to rid the world of evil", as President Bush has also said.
One of the museum's exhibitions is called "The Price of Freedom: Americans at war". In the spirit of Santa's Magic Grotto, this travesty of revisionism helps us understand how silence and omission are so successfully deployed in free, media-saturated societies. The shuffling lines of ordinary people, many of them children, are dispensed the vainglorious message that America has always "built freedom and democracy" - notably at Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the atomic bombing saved "a million lives", and in Vietnam where America's crusaders were "determined to stop communist expansion", and in Iraq where the same true hearts "employed air strikes of unprecedented precision".
The words "invasion" and "controversial" make only fleeting appearances; there is no hint that the "great mission" has overseen, since 1945, the attempted overthrow of 50 governments, many of them democracies, along with the crushing of popular movements struggling against tyranny and the bombing of 30 countries, causing the loss of countless lives. In central America, in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan's arming and training of gangster-armies saw off 300,000 people; in Guatemala, this was described by the UN as genocide. No word of this is uttered in the Grotto. Indeed, thanks to such displays, Americans can venerate war, comforted by the crimes of others and knowing nothing about their own.
In Santa's Grotto, there is no place for Howard Zinn's honest People's History of the United States, or I F Stone's revelation of the truth of what the museum calls "the forgotten war" in Korea, or Mark Twain's definition of patriotism as the need to keep "multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries". Moreover, at the Price of Freedom Shop, you can buy US Army Monopoly, and a "grateful nation blanket" for just $200. The exhibition's corporate sponsors include Sears, Roebuck, the mammoth retailer. The point is taken.
To understand the power of indoctrination in free societies is also to understand the subversive power of the truth it suppresses. During the Blair era in Britain, precocious revisionists of Empire have been embraced by the pro-war media. Inspired by America's Messianic claims of "victory" in the cold war, their pseudo-histories have sought not only to hose down the blood slick of slavery, plunder, famine and genocide that was British imperialism ("the Empire was an exemplary force for good": Andrew Roberts) but also to rehabilitate Gladstonian convictions of superiority and promote "the imposition of western values", as Niall Ferguson puts it.
Ferguson relishes "values", an unctuous concept that covers both the barbarism of the imperial past and today's ruthless, rigged "free" market. The new code for race and class is "culture". Thus, the enduring, piratical campaign by the rich and powerful against the poor and weak, especially those with natural resources, has become a "clash of civilisations". Since Francis Fukuyama wrote his drivel about "the end of history" (since recanted), the task of the revisionists and mainstream journalism has been to popularise the "new" imperialism, as in Ferguson's War of the World series for Channel 4 and his frequent soundbites on the BBC. In this way, the public is "softened up" for the rapacious invasion of countries on false pretences, including a not unlikely nuclear attack on Iran, and the ascent in Washington of an executive dictatorship, as called for by Vice-President Cheney. So imminent is the latter that a supine Congress will almost certainly reverse the Supreme Court's recent decision to outlaw the Guantanamo kangaroo courts. The judge who wrote the majority opinion - in a high court Bush himself stacked - sounded his alarm through this seminal quotation of James Madison: "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether her editary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
The catastrophe in the Middle East is a product of such an imperial tyranny. It is clearly a US-ordained operation, with the long-planned assault on Gaza and the destruction of Leba non pretexts for a wider campaign with the goal of installing American puppets in Lebanon, Syria and eventually Iran. "The pay-off time has come," wrote the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe; "now the proxy should salvage the entangled Empire."
The attendant propaganda - the abuse of language and eternal hypocrisy - has reached its nadir in recent weeks. An Israeli soldier belonging to an invasion force was captured and held, legitimately, as a prisoner of war. Reported as a "kidnapping", this set off yet more slaughter of Palestinian civilians. The seizure of two Palestinian civilians two days before the capture of the soldier was of no interest. Neither was the incarceration of thousands of Palestinian hostages in Israeli prisons, and the torture of many of them, as documented by Amnesty. The kidnapped soldier story cancelled any serious inquiry into Israel's plans to reinvade Gaza, from which it had staged a phoney withdrawal. The fact and meaning of Hamas's self-imposed 16-month ceasefire were lost in inanities about "recognising Israel", along with Israel's state of terror in Gaza - the dropping of a 500lb bomb on a residential block, the firing of as many as 9,000 heavy artillery shells into one of the most densely populated places on earth and the nightly terrorising with sonic booms.
"I want nobody to sleep at night in Gaza," declared the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, as children went out of their minds. In their defence, the Palestinians fired a cluster of Qassam missiles and killed eight Israelis: enough to ensure Israel's victimhood on the BBC; even Jeremy Bowen struck a shameful "balance", referring to "two narratives". The historical equivalent is not far from that of the Nazi bombardment and starvation of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto. Try to imagine that described as "two narratives".
Watching this unfold in Washington - I am staying in a hotel taken over by evangelical "Christians for Israel" apparently seeking rapture - I have heard only the crudest colonial refrain and no truth. Hezbollah, drone America's journalistic caricatures, is "armed and funded by Syria and Iran", and so they beckon an attack on those countries, while remaining silent about America's $3bn-a-day gift of planes and small arms and bombs to a state whose international lawlessness is a registered world record. There is never mention that, just as the rise of Hamas was a response to the atrocities and humiliations the Palestinians have suffered for half a century, so Hezbollah was formed only as a defence against Ariel Sharon's murderous invasion of Lebanon in 1982 which left 22,000 people dead. There is never mention that Israel intervenes at will, illegally and brutally, in the remaining 22 per cent of historic Palestine, having demolished 11,000 homes and walled off people from their farmlands, and families, and hospitals, and schools. There is never mention that the threat to Israel's existence is a canard, and the true enemy of its people is not the Arabs, but Zionism and an imperial America that guarantees the Jewish state as the antithesis of humane Judaism.
Government silence
The epic injustice done to the Palestinians is the heart of the matter. While European governments (with the honourable exception of the Swiss) have remained craven, it is only Hezbollah that has come to the Palestinians' aid. How truly shaming. There is no media "narrative" of the Palestinians' heroic stand during two uprisings, and with slingshots and stones most of the time. Israel's murders of Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall have left them utterly alone. Neither is the silence of governments all that is shocking. On a major BBC programme, Maureen Lipman, a Jew and promoter of selective good causes, is allowed to say, without serious challenge, that "human life is not cheap to the Israelis, and human life on the other side is quite cheap actually . . ."
Let Lipman see the children of Gaza laid out after an Israeli bombing run, their parents petrified with grief. Let her watch as a young Palestinian woman - and there have been many of them - screams in pain as she gives birth in the back seat of a car at night at an Israeli roadblock, having been wilfully refused right of passage to a hospital. Then let Lipman watch the child's father carry his newborn across freezing fields until it turns blue and dies.
I think Orwell got it right in this passage from Nineteen Eighty-Four, a tale of the ultimate empire:
"And in the general hardening of outlook that set in . . . practices which had been long abandoned - imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions . . . and the deportation of whole populations - not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive."
John Pilger's new book, "Freedom Next Time", is published by Bantam Press (£17.99)
This article first appeared in the New Statesman.
http://www.newstatesman.com/200607310018
Página/12:
Una emboscada mortal en Bint Jbeil
EN SU PEOR DIA, EL EJERCITO ISRAELI SUFRIO 14 MUERTES EN EL BASTION DE HEZBOLA
El intento de copamiento del principal nido de resistencia de la guerrilla chiíta en la frontera libanesa terminó con un tendal de soldados muertos y con tanques y blindados incendiados. El ataque al puesto de la ONU no parece casual. Siguen los bombardeos.
Por Robert Fisk*
Desde Qlaya, sur del Líbano, Jueves, 27 de Julio de 2006
¿Es posible –es concebible– que Israel esté perdiendo su guerra en el Líbano? Desde este pueblo en el sur del país, veo las nubes marrones y negras de humo del último ataque en la ciudad de Bint Jbeil: hasta 14 soldados israelíes muertos y otros rodeados, después de una devastadora emboscada de la guerrilla de Hezbolá en lo que se suponía que era un exitoso avance israelí contra un “centro terrorista”.
El humo se ve también a mi izquierda, sobre la ciudad de Khiam, donde un puesto de observación aplastado queda como el único recordatorio de los cuatro soldados de la ONU –la mayoría de ellos decapitados el martes por un misil fabricado en Estados Unidos– muertos por la fuerza aérea israelí. Soldados indios del ejército de la ONU en el sur del Líbano, visiblemente conmovidos por el horror de traer a sus camaradas canadienses, fijianos, chinos y austríacos de vuelta en por lo menos 20 pedazos, desde el puesto de la ONU, al lado de la prisión de Khian, dejaron sus restos en el hospital de Marjayoun ayer a la mañana.
En años anteriores pasé horas con sus camaradas en este puesto de la ONU que está claramente marcado con pintura blanca y azul, con la bandera celeste de la ONU frente a la frontera israelí. Su deber era reportar todo lo que vieran: el cruel fuego de misiles de Hezbolá desde Khian y la brutal respuesta israelí contra los civiles del Líbano. ¿Era por esto que debían morir, después de haber sido blanco de los israelíes durante ocho horas, mientras sus oficiales le rogaban a la Fuerza de Defensa israelí que cesara el fuego? Un helicóptero israelí hecho en Estados Unidos se ocupó de eso.
Mientras tanto, en Bint Jbeil, otro baño de sangre tenía lugar. Declarando que “controlaban” esta ciudad libanesa del sur, los israelíes eligieron meterse en una trampa de Hezbolá. Cuando llegaron al mercado desierto, fueron emboscados por tres lados, y sus soldados cayeron al suelo bajo el fuego sostenido. El resto de las tropas israelíes –rodeadas por los “terroristas” a los que supuestamente debían liquidar– pidieron ayuda desesperadamente, pero cuando un tanque israelí Merkava y otros vehículos se acercaron para ayudarlos, también fueron atacados e incendiados.
Diecisiete soldados israelíes murieron hasta ahora en esta operación desastrosa. Durante su ocupación del Líbano en 1983 más de 50 soldados israelíes murieron en un solo ataque suicida. A esta altura de la guerra, aniquilar a Hezbolá parece una meta ya olvidada. Los soldados israelíes intentan matar a Hasán Nasralá, líder de Hezbolá. Sin acabar con su vida, difícilmente podrán cantar victoria. En Kiryat Shmona y en Metula, en el extremo norte del Estado hebreo, a pocos kilómetros del campo de batalla, la artillería se empleaba a fondo. Dispararon cientos de proyectiles sobre el sur de Líbano, prácticamente desierto de civiles. Y la aviación también atacó la sede central en Beirut de Amal, el partido chiíta cuyo líder, Nabih Berri, a su vez presidente del Parlamento libanés, se entrevistó con la secretaria de Estado norteamericana, Condoleeza Rice, el lunes. Todo apunta, a tenor del fracaso de los diplomáticos, a que la situación va a empantanarse. Así lo afirmó un general israelí: “La ofensiva durará varias semanas”.
Pero Israel es el que se está quedando sin tiempo en el sur del Líbano. Por quinta vez en treinta años sus ataques lo han colocado en el banquillo de los acusados por crímenes de guerra en el Líbano. El número de muertes civiles ya llegó a 400. Y todavía Estados Unidos no quiere intervenir para evitar la masacre, ni aun para pedir un cese de fuego de 24 horas para permitir que los 3000 civiles todavía atrapados entre Qlaya y Bint Jbeil, que incluyen a un número de habitantes con doble nacionalidad (dos canadienses entre ellos) puedan huir.
* De The Independent de Gran Bretaña. Especial para Página/12.
Traducción: Celita Doyhambéhère.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elmundo/4-70538-2006-07-27.html
Página/12:
En Roma acordaron hacer algo, pero no saben qué
La supuesta conferencia de paz de Medio Oriente terminó en nada: EE.UU, con el apoyo de Gran Bretaña, Canadá y Alemania, frenó el pedido de un alto el fuego inmediato impulsado por el resto del mundo.
Por Peru Egurbide*
Desde Roma, Jueves, 27 de Julio de 2006
Condoleezza Rice volvió a ser inflexible. Llamamientos firmes como los del secretario general de la ONU, Kofi Annan, del ministro francés de Exteriores, Philippe Douste-Blazy, o del español, Miguel Angel Moratinos, para que la Conferencia de Roma forzara ayer un cese inmediato de las hostilidades en el Líbano se estrellaron contra la posición de la secretaria de Estado de Estados Unidos: no debe haber alto el fuego si no es duradero. “Queríamos un alto el fuego inmediato. Hemos dado algunos pasos, pero queda mucho por hacer. Cuanto más tarde en llegar el alto el fuego, habrá más muertos y más destrucción”, dijo el primer ministro libanés, Fuad Siniora, mostrando su decepción.
Kofi Annan, que como los otros dirigentes citados reclamó una tregua inmediata temporaria por motivos humanitarios, ofreció una salida para que la reunión superase la división sobre este asunto prioritario. “Pido, por tanto, a esta conferencia que solicite al Consejo de Seguridad que pida un cese inmediato de las hostilidades”, dijo Annan. “Exhorto a Hezbolá a que ponga fin a sus ataques deliberados contra centros civiles israelitas. Y exhorto a Israel a que cese los bombardeos, los bloqueos y las operaciones por tierra”, había clamado antes el secretario de la ONU.
Pero ni siquiera la propuesta de traspaso de la responsabilidad al órgano ejecutivo de Naciones Unidas logró abrirse camino hasta el lacónico comunicado que dio cuenta de los resultados de la cumbre. En su lugar, el texto recoge que “los participantes en la Conferencia de Roma expresaron su determinación de trabajar inmediatamente para alcanzar con la máxima urgencia un alto el fuego que ponga fin a la violencia actual y a las hostilidades. El alto el fuego debe ser duradero, permanente y sostenible”. Canadá, Reino Unido y Alemania mantuvieron su alineación previa con Washington en este asunto, aunque presionaron a favor de la fórmula de consenso. El resto de los países participantes, europeos y árabes, que con la incorporación de Grecia y Chipre fueron 15, se decantó por el alto el fuego inmediato.
Sobre el segundo gran tema de la agenda, el despliegue de una fuerza internacional que ayude al ejército del Líbano a “garantizar un marco seguro”, la cumbre se limitó a afirmar que dicha fuerza “debería ser autorizada urgentemente bajo un mandato de la ONU”. El ministro francés había coincidido dentro de la sala con la posición estadounidense de que no proceda ningún despliegue provisional, como el que Annan defendió expresamente. Para Douste-Blazy, la fuerza no debe ser constituida mientras no se cierre el acuerdo político que encauce su funcionamiento. En cuanto al calendario previsible del desarrollo de la fuerza y el alto el fuego, nadie fue capaz de dar previsiones. Annan habló vagamente de “días o semanas”.
La declaración de la cumbre pide la “máxima contención” a Israel y no menciona a Hezbolá, ni siquiera para condenar sus acciones. También se refiere a la soberanía y seguridad del Líbano, según la garantizan diversas resoluciones internacionales, y a que el arreglo duradero tiene que ser global, para toda la región, con una alusión velada a otros actores.
Condoleezza Rice se refirió dos veces a que Irán y sobre todo Siria deben “asumir sus responsabilidades”, como mentores o protectores de Hezbolá, lo que no implica que admita a los sirios como interlocutores. “No se trata de hablar con ellos, sino de si están dispuestos a hacer lo que deben”, dijo. La cumbre se comprometió, finalmente, a apoyar la reconstrucción del Líbano y a convocar pronto una conferencia de donantes.
* De El País de Madrid. Especial para Página/12.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elmundo/4-70520-2006-07-27.html
Página/12:
Piedra blanca sobre una tierra negra
Por Juan Sasturain
Jueves, 27 de Julio de 2006
La meteorología y sus temas conexos tienen la virtud nunca del todo suficientemente reconocida de suministrar –desde épocas inmemoriales– tema y motivo de conversación universal. Hablar “del tiempo” es anterior e incluso contradictorio al hecho de estudiar/saber del clima. Nadie puede hacer referencia a un “área anticiclónica” o a un “frente cálido” en el ascensor sin ser mirado de reojo, pero bien puede uno afirmar “qué tiempo loco” sin riesgo de ser castigado por la rubia de paso al quinto con una puñalada ocular.
A mitad de camino entre las arideces de la disciplina académica y el comentario obvio para salir del paso o del taxi, que describen o comentan lo que es, está la palabra autorizada de los augures, ese lugar común de la comunicación universal que se aventura en el terreno celeste de lo que será: el pronóstico de la radio o la tele, rutinaria forma de comunicar opiniones más o menos fundamentadas para la tranquilidad o el desasosiego de expectantes consumidores del universal weather report.
La gente que está, con necesidad o sin ella, pendiente del pronóstico suele ser la que lee regularmente el horóscopo –casi con el mismo grado de expectativa de cumplimiento– y acostumbra jugar o al menos mirar los números de la lotería: necesita (o cree que necesita) que alguien le diga qué va a pasar, una mínima fantasía de control. También que el pronosticador, como todo augur que se precie, se convierta en habitual responsable indirecto de la desgracia es por lo menos sintomático: el personaje Fúlmine, de Divito, famoso mufoso, iba vestido de negro y llevaba un paraguas...
La meteorología no es una ciencia exacta –ninguna lo es–, pero sí una disciplina mezclada, que gusta entreverar, matizar sus juicios altamente ideologizados con apreciaciones que combinan lo ético y lo estético sin pudores ni reparos. Afirmar, por ejemplo, que para el fin de semana se espera tiempo bueno o que ayer fue un día feo (y que todos entendamos a qué se refieren tales dichos y pronósticos) supone no sólo un correlato groseramente griego de identidad entre lo bueno y lo bello sino, y sobre todo, la tácita afirmación de lo soleado/templado como ideal climático, lo que es, en principio, arbitrario: sólo ciertas regiones del globo disponen de esa opción entre sus posibilidades diarias o estacionales. En otros contextos, de Groenlandia a Etiopía, de Rangoon a La Paz, la idea de buen tiempo o de día feo asimilado con estándares de humedad, temperatura y presión determinados carecería de sentido. Es que todo juicio ético y estético está necesariamente atravesado por la circunstancia, la historia y la cultura en general.
Sólo el humano de la sociedad moderna y desarrollada, cuyo centro de actividad está en las ciudades –bajo techo, en ambiente no natural– y que en general sólo concibe la intemperie como lugar de tránsito o esparcimiento podría haber cristalizado estos conceptos de lo bueno y lo bello referidos a lo templado/soleado. Así, “buen tiempo” y “día lindo” es, en principio, que no llueva. Que se pueda estar afuera. Claro que no sólo lluvia cae del cielo ni todo lo que no es sol y viene de las nubes es objeto del mismo tipo de juicios.
Es sabido que la lluvia y la nieve tienen, por lo menos como espectáculo, su prestigio poético. Debe ser porque suelen ser motivo de ocasional incomunicación, de espera, puntualizan el paso del tiempo. No todos están tan sacados para disfrutar del agua como Gene Kelly en Singing in the rain, pero Tuñón lo explicó en un inolvidable poema de amor –“entonces comprendimos que la lluvia era hermosa”– y el rastrero Manzanero le pegó la obvia melancolía con alguna rima imperdonable “llover”/“correr” en un bolero con versos de telegrama. Y en cuanto a la nieve, es claro que para disfrutarla hay que tener guita o al menos cabaña y fueguito cerca: no es lo mismo vivir en una escuela rural en la cordillera que ir a esquiar a Las Leñas. O es mucho lo que va de la Navidad blanca de una película de Frank Capra a la feroz intemperie de un relato de Jack London. En fin, que de lo que viene del cielo encapotado se puede opinar según experiencia y circunstancia. Lo que sí es cierto es que no todo viene siempre cuando se quiere. Y eso lo saben los emplumados brujos zapateadores y los rezadores rurales de vista fija en el Cielo (esta vez con mayúscula).
Claro que queda algo sin clasificar, algo que nadie pide antes ni disfruta durante o después, que “no sirve” en apariencia para nada: el aparatoso granizo, ese cascotazo celestial. Sin la brutalidad apocalíptica de un tsunami –supremo, soberbio gesto–, el granizo tiene algo de bíblico. Porque si hay Quien allá arriba administra humedades, alguien dijo que la lluvia se le cae y que a la nieve la suelta... Pero no cabe duda de que al granizo lo tira.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/contratapa/13-70535-2006-07-27.html
The New Yorker: BEIRUT POSTCARD
CHANGE OF PLANS
by Jon Lee Anderson
Issue of 2006-07-31
In “The Chronicles of Narnia,” the four Pevensie children are evacuated from London during the Blitz and sent to stay with an elderly professor in a house in the countryside. Last Wednesday evening, in an old Ottoman villa in West Beirut, Skandar Keynes, the fourteen-year-old actor who played Edmund Pevensie in last year’s film of “Narnia,” his mother, Zelfa, and his grandfather, Cecil Hourani, were packing their things and getting ready to evacuate. Two days before the Israeli attacks on Hezbollah began, on July 12th, they had arrived from Britain for their annual summer holiday in Lebanon, and had found themselves stranded there along with thousands of other foreign tourists. They had, in fact, been about to leave Beirut for the Hourani ancestral home in the ancient town of Marjeyoun, near the frontier with Israel. Marjeyoun is very close to the current fighting, and before being taken over by Hezbollah it had been the longtime headquarters of the Christian militia. Except for 2004, when Skandar was filming “Narnia” and the family decamped with him to the set in New Zealand, he has spent every summer of his life there.
Outside the walls of the villa, closely packed modern tower blocks rose all around. It is a noisome neighborhood of narrow streets jammed with people, scooters, and men pushing carts. Quite a few women wear head scarves. On a building in the next block a large banner in support of Sheikh Nasrallah could be seen. A half an hour before they were due to leave Beirut, Zelfa packed the car with their belongings, and Cecil waited by the front door, clearly edgy about the night journey ahead. Skandar chatted in the living room, a place of high timbered ceilings and flaking plaster, adorned with bronze pots and Chinese painted-silk panels of peacocks.
Skandar, a slim, handsome boy with tousled dark hair, was wearing a “Scarface” T-shirt over baggy shorts and blue canvas Vans. He said he had been looking forward to Marjeyoun, where he planned to spend his days swimming and reading. He had brought along his guitar, and hoped to catch up on some movies. “I don’t turn fifteen until September, and back in England I can only go to under-fifteens, which is frustrating,” he said. “Here in Lebanon they don’t care about age limits, and I can see any movies I like.” The day after Beirut’s airport was bombed, he’d gone to the cinema in Beirut where the new “Pirates of the Caribbean” was supposed to première; the theatre owners had turned him away, explaining that they hadn’t been able to fly in the reel. He added that he was a big fan of Johnny Depp. “He’s the man,” he said.
Skandar’s grandfather, Cecil, is a well-known writer on the Middle East; Cecil’s late brother, Albert Hourani, was the noted Oxford scholar and author of “A History of the Arab Peoples.” (Both brothers were born in Britain to émigré parents, but never relinquished their links with their homeland.) Although he was educated in England, Cecil still regards himself as Lebanese: “Being born in England didn’t make you English, at least not in my generation,” he said. With a glance at his grandson, he added, “Perhaps that has changed now, I don’t know.” Zelfa, Cecil’s daughter, is married to the British writer Randal Keynes, a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin and a great-nephew of John Maynard Keynes. Skandar, who attends the City of London School for Boys, is one of their two children.
“I’m very proud of being Lebanese, and its history and everything,” Skandar said. “And I love coming here every summer.” He doesn’t speak Arabic all that well, he confessed, despite attending weekend Arabic classes for several years.
When Skandar was out of earshot, Zelfa said that she wasn’t particularly frightened, although her face betrayed her nervousness; for several days, the noise from huge blasts had ricocheted through the city, rocking the walls of the villa; their neighborhood had been spared, but much of the city had been shut down. Speaking of Skandar, she said, “He’s just a boy, after all; there’s only so long we can stay here like this, with nothing for him to do.”
Neither Zelfa nor her father was eager to join the mass evacuation of Beirut’s foreigners by ship, which had begun a couple of days earlier. They were also worried about travelling overland, as some people were doing, to Syria and Jordan, because they had heard that the roads were being bombed, and there were said to be long queues at the Syrian border. But on Wednesday some friends had found a driver who could take them out by night. They had been told they could get to Amman in six or seven hours.
Skandar had not thought much about the parallels between the role he played in “Narnia” and his own situation in Beirut. “Maybe it’s because one was acting and this is real,” he said. When the bombing had begun, he had been scared, like everyone, but his grandfather had done a good job of reassuring him. “Now I can say I have been in a real war zone,” he said, and gave a mock swagger.
Skandar’s grandfather came over and said in a low, tight voice that some men, possibly Hezbollah followers, had just come to the door to ask who his visitors were and, incidentally, who he was. Until now, he said, the family had mostly avoided attention in the neighborhood. It was time to go.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060731ta_talk_anderson
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