Elsewhere Today (407)
Aljazeera:
Iraqi minister escapes deadly blasts
Wednesday 04 October 2006, 19:14 Makka Time, 16:14 GMT
At least 12 people have been killed in a series of bomb blasts in central Baghdad which interior ministry sources said targeted the Iraqi industry minister's convoy.
Police sources said three of the industry minister's bodyguards were killed in the blasts, but Fawzi al-Hariri was not with the convoy at the time.
"The minister is at the ministry and perfectly safe," a spokesman for al-Hariri said.
Drivers and bodyguards for one of al-Hariri's deputies had been taking the cars for fuel when the attack happened.
A bomb detonated in the Karrada district of the mainly Christian Camp Sara neighbourhood as the convoy passed, police said. Subsequent explosions outside a nearby market also caused casualties.
Dozens injured
At least 75 people have been injured, police said.
Corpses were seen lying in the streets as people ferried the wounded to hospital in private cars before ambulances arrived.
Two buildings were severely damaged and dozens of shops destroyed.
Another car bomb in the capital's Dura district also killed one person on Wednesday.
In Ramadi, a suspected truck bomb exploded outside the Iraqi army headquarters but caused no casualties, police said. Guards opened fire on the vehicle as it drove towards a checkpoint and it crashed into concrete blocks and exploded.
Police 'complicity'
Iraqi authorities have taken a police brigade out of service and returned them to training because of "complicity" with death squads in Baghdad, a US military spokesman said.
The police officers have been told to stand down after armed men stormed into a frozen meats factory in the Amil district and snatched 24 workers on Sunday. The bodies of seven of the workers were found later but the fate of the others remains unknown.
Sunni leaders blamed Shia militias and suggested security forces had turned a blind eye to the attack.
Major-General William Caldwell, US military spokesman in Iraq, said: "There was some possible complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely when they should have been impeding them.
"The forces in the unit have not put their full allegiance to the government of Iraq and gave their allegiance to others," he said.
Commander investigated
The Iraqi interior ministry said on Tuesday that the commander of the unit, a lieutenant colonel, had been detained and was being investigated. The major general who commands the battalion that includes the suspended brigade has been suspended temporarily and his transfer ordered.
In the Diyala province, more than 250 people have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to armed groups and militias, an Iraqi army source said.
Large amounts of weapons and ammunition have been found during the raids, the source said.
The US military also announced that two soldiers had died on Tuesday. One was killed near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk and the other in eastern Baghdad.
Aljazeera + Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ACBB56EC-9C62-4D0B-8CB5-7B24725F1E23.htm
Aljazeera:
Abducted oil workers freed in Nigeria
Wednesday 04 October 2006, 15:58 Makka Time, 12:58 GMT
Twenty-five workers of a Royal Dutch Shell contractor kidnapped in Nigeria this week have been freed, a company spokeswoman says.
Militants on Monday abducted about 25 Nigerian staff working for a contractor and killed at least 10 soldiers in a raid on a convoy of boats supplying oilfields in the Niger Delta.
No production was affected, the company said.
On Wednesday, the Shell spokeswoman said: "All the contractors have been released."
Attacks and pipeline leaks have cut roughly a quarter of production for Africa's biggest oil producer.
More kidnappings
In a separate attack on Tuesday, Nigerians suspected of campaigning for a greater share in the country's oil wealth, invaded a residential compound for foreign oil workers, killing two guards and kidnapping at least five expatriates.
The workers were taken from the compound in Eket, close to the operational base of Exxon Mobil, which exports about 800,000 barrels a day from Africa's top oil producer.
The series of attacks ended a period of relative quiet in the Niger Delta, which accounts for all oil output from the world's eighth biggest exporter.
Violence in the delta is a result of widespread poverty, corruption and lawlessness.
Most inhabitants of the wetlands region have seen few benefits from five decades of oil extraction that has damaged their environment.
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/78196813-3DB6-473E-832A-ABDF734538D0.htm
allAfrica:
N-Delta Militant Groups, Govt Meet to End Hostage-Taking
By Emma Amaize, Warri
Vanguard (Lagos) NEWS
October 4, 2006
NO fewer than 40 representatives of the various militant groups in the Niger Delta drawn from Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states coverged on Songhai, Amukpe-Sapele in Delta State on Monday for a three-day brainstorming session with top government officials and peace groups on how to end hostage taking in the embattled region.
Besides the Meinbutu and other militant groups working for Tom Ateke, detained Asari-Dokubo, Dagogo and others, leaders of some influential youth bodies in the region, including Chief Bello Oboko of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) and Mr. George Timinimi were invited for the Niger Delta youths summit.
Chief Oboko confirmed to Vanguard when contacted, yesterday, that he was on his way to the meeting while an Ijaw opinion leader from Okerenkoko, Prince Clement Bebenimibo is among those expected to deliver talks at the workshop.
A source told Vanguard that the summit, specially designed to find a way forward on the Niger Delta crisis was put together by the State Security Service (SSS) and sponsored by the Delta State government but efforts, yesterday, to reach the Delta State Director of the SSS, Mr. Adebayo Babalola on phone to ascertain the role of his organisation in the meeting were not successful.
The SSS in Delta State not long ago, cracked at least two profit-making kidnap syndicates in the region and arrested no fewer than seven members.That audacious in-road by the SSS brought an air of relief to the region for over a month until Monday's onslaught in Rivers State during which about five soldiers were killed.
Vanguard learnt, however, that a group known as the Academic Associates Peace Works (AAPW) is coordinating the activities at the Sapele summit with around- the -clock security for the participants.
It was gathered that delegates arrived Sapele for the jaw-jaw on Monday evening and that yesterday's session were mainly presentations by invited speakers and participants on how to resolve the Niger-Delta crisis.
Copyright © 2006 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200610040298.html
Asia Times:
North Korea calls the shots
By Donald Kirk
Oct 5, 2006
SEOUL - The North Korean "plan" for a nuclear test has thrown the United States and Asian friends and allies into disarray, just when intense, close cooperation may be the only antidote to a regional crisis of unpredictable consequences.
All sides, from Washington to Tokyo to Seoul and Beijing, are condemning the threat made by North Korea on Tuesday that it planned to test a nuclear weapon. Admittedly they have protested with varying degrees of intensity, but the fact is they are as far as ever from agreeing on what to do about it.
The imminent elevation of South Korea's genteel, amiable and compromising foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, to the post of secretary general of the United Nations only adds to the confusion.
Ban may sternly denounce the notion of testing a nuclear weapon, but he, as much as South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, is sure to oppose any semblance of the strong measures advocated by Washington's controversial ambassador to the UN, John Bolton.
While South Korean officials content themselves with vague warnings of consequences and talk of a "strategic contingency plan", they want nothing to do with Bolton's plea for going beyond words and adopting sanctions designed to cripple North Korea.
The view in Seoul is that the US has already invited a strong North Korean reaction by what's seen as a "tough" line, including the US Treasury Department's crackdown on banks and financial firms seen as serving as conduits for US$100 "supernotes" counterfeited in North Korea, as well as laundering money from the sale of narcotics and arms.
South Korean officials keep hoping Washington will somehow say Macau's Banco Delta Asia, the first target of the US ban on dealings with US banks or firms, has cleaned up its act and the ban is off. North Korea has repeatedly called for lifting of "sanctions", while the US wants only to intensify them, and Pyongyang has made them the rationale for refusing to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear program, which have been in limbo for months.
Ban himself has been a major player in blockading a US campaign to put real teeth into the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council after North Korea test-fired seven missiles in July, enjoining all members against dealings with Pyongyang that might aid its missile program.
South Korea and China both opposed US pleas to turn the resolution into the basis for sanctions that would further damage North Korea's economy, in terrible shape long before the restrictions on Banco Delta Asia and other firms added to the distress.
The US dream, as espoused by Bolton in the UN, is for the Security Council to come up with another resolution, one that would make the threat of a nuclear test the justification for severe sanctions designed to bring the government of Kim Jong-il to its knees and force him to come begging to the six-party talks also involving China, Japan, Russia, the US and South Korea.
That dream is not about to come true. For one thing, China and Russia oppose any such resolution, as they always have, and France and Britain are none too keen about it either. For another, as far as the South Koreans are concerned, the net result of such punishment would be to guarantee that North Korea tested a nuke or two - and conducted more tests on the missiles that might carry them to targets.
South Korean officials would still far prefer the US to go along with calls for direct talks with Pyongyang on a range of issues, including sanctions as well as nukes. The US refusal to negotiate with North Korea, other than in the context of six-party talks in Beijing, is seen in Seoul as a major obstacle to rapprochement. South Korea's differences with the US, however, may not go nearly as deep as its problems with Japan, whose new premier, Shinzo Abe, goes to Seoul on Monday to meet with Roh.
Abe, long at the forefront of the rising Japanese right wing, if anything wants to get even tougher than the US on North Korea. The threat of North Korean nuclear weapons may be all that's needed finally to get Japan to do away with Article 9 of its post-World War II "peace constitution" and authorize sending forces overseas in defense of the country.
In any case, Abe could press the case for sanctions so severe as just about to wipe out all trade and financial dealings with North Korea. Roh would surely not want to go along with such a macho display - and could change the topic with a rant against Japan's claims on the rocky islets known as Dokdo to Koreans, Takeshima to the Japanese.
Roh is also sure to advise Abe of the adverse consequences of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine memorializing Japan's war dead, including war criminals. He may even press Abe for a pledge not to visit the shrine, reminding him of the outbursts in South Korea and in Beijing every time Roh's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, insisted on going there.
Amid such distractions, Roh may also convey the view, as he has done previously from time to time, that actually a North Korean nuclear test would not be all that dangerous. It's well known that North Korea has at least six and possibly a dozen or so nuclear warheads, so what difference does it make if they go ahead and test one?
Abe will have already gotten an earful on the evils of going to Yasukuni, and possibly on the offense of Japanese textbooks glossing over Japan's role in World War II, from Chinese President Hu Jintao, whom he sees on Sunday, the day before traveling to Seoul.
It's inconceivable that Hu would support Abe's hard line toward North Korea - a policy that China sees as reminiscent of the early days of Japanese imperialism in Asia more than a century ago. Already a nuclear power, Hu is sure to empathize with Roh's desire for caution and restraint when Roh goes there on next week, four days after his summit with Abe.
South Korea, like the US, looks to China to dissuade North Korea from its nuclear ambitions. Just what China is doing, or can do, though, is far from clear. China's influence in Pyongyang, as seen from its inability to talk North Korea out of test-firing missiles, is highly limited.
China, South Korea, Japan and the US are likely to remain as uncertain of their response if North Korea should actually test a nuclear weapon.
The "isolation" of North Korea that most experts predict would probably not last beyond the first round of shrill denunciations and recriminations, after which China and South Korea would resume business as usual, while Japan and the US would follow through on threats to tighten their own sanctions. Militarily, nothing much would happen beyond "states of emergency".
In terms of the actual security of the region, however, a test could put surrounding nations on a terrifying trajectory of a nuclear arms race. Japan, besides giving up all pretense of a "peace constitution", could rev up as a military superpower facing not just North Korea but China. North Korea, moreover, could increase exports of nuclear technology and components to Iran and other likely markets.
In this dangerous milieu, Ban has the chance to get the United Nations to play a serious role. A penchant for smiling compromise and reconciliation, though, has been the hallmark of a career that includes a previous tour as ambassador to the UN and right-hand man to another Korean, Han Seung-soo, when Han was president of the UN General Assembly in 2001.
"He's fair to all," said Moon Jung-in, professor of international relations at Yonsei University. "He doesn't have charismatic leadership. He has consensual leadership." If that quality is what's needed to lead the UN, it's still far from clear if consensus will be achievable when it comes to stymieing North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Journalist Donald Kirk has been covering Korea - and the confrontation of forces in Northeast Asia - for more than 30 years.
Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ05Dg02.html
Asia Times:
Pyongyang's bluster - and bluff
By Ralph A Cossa
North Korea announced on Tuesday that it "will, in the future, conduct a nuclear weapons test", promising that it will be done under conditions where "safety is firmly guaranteed". While Pyongyang did not say when this test would occur, it made it clear that it felt compelled to take such action because of "the US extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure".
Should we take this threat seriously? North Korea has threatened such action before, although only in private. A public threat such as this is difficult to ignore (although many will try to do just that). Some will speculate that this is merely another attention-getting device (Iran-envy?), and this may be at least partially true. It may also be aimed at drawing attention from an imminent South Korean success story - the anticipated selection of South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon to be Kofi Annan's successor as UN secretary general. Examples of previous attempts by North Korea to get attention and/or to upstage the South are too numerous to recount.
Pyongyang may be bluffing, hoping that this will force Washington to lift its financial restrictions against North Korea's counterfeiting and money laundering operations or at least accept bilateral negotiations on the nuclear issue - to date, Washington has said it would only meet the North bilaterally within the context of the broader six-party talks (also involving South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia).
Pyongyang may see this as a "win-win" gambit: either Washington gives in to its demands for direct negotiations (which is unlikely) or renewed disputes about Washington's "inflexibility" will drive deeper wedges between Washington and its negotiating partners, especially in Seoul and Beijing, while also playing into domestic US election year politics. North Korea's next step may be to do nothing at all, other than to sit back and watch the rest of the world argue about what to do next.
It is also possible that Pyongyang really means what it says, and that it will soon conduct a nuclear weapons test, hoping that unlike its July missile tests - which resulted in a rare instance of international condemnation (including a surprisingly tough UN Security Council resolution) - this time the international community will fail to speak with one voice and institute even harsher measures. If we choose to wait and it turns out that Pyongyang is not bluffing, we will be faced with nothing but bad choices.
The best way to deter Pyongyang from taking this next step would be to send clear signals in advance that there will be severe consequences if such actions are taken. While Washington seems prepared to lead this charge, unfortunately it has the least leverage over the North (unless it plans to capitulate to Pyongyang's demands). There is little that Washington (or Tokyo) can do, politically or financially, that it has not already done and military actions are simply not an option. If North Korea's nuclear test is to be preempted, it must be done politically, not militarily.
The real leverage rests with Seoul and Beijing; no threatened consequences are credible if not fully backed by these two nations and, preferably, by Moscow as well. Seoul should announce that a nuclear test will result in a halt in all political and economic exchanges between North and South (other than humanitarian assistance, which would be funneled exclusively through the UN).
After all, Seoul has long stated that it "will not tolerate" a nuclear North Korea. While it has chosen to dismiss the North's earlier claims to already be a nuclear weapons state, the Roh Moo-hyun administration's international credibility (and perhaps even the fabric of the US-South Korea alliance) will be severely tested if it fails to respond to an actual nuclear test.
China and Russia should issue similar statements, plainly stating that the North Korean regime's threatening tactics must change. Beijing should also set a date certain for the next round of six-party talks to discuss the crisis, while making it clear that a "six-minus-one" session will occur if the North refuses to come.
Washington should encourage Seoul and Beijing to take the lead on this issue and look for other sympathetic Security Council members (the French come immediately to mind) to help take the lead in building an international consensus aimed at sending Pyongyang a strong message, in advance of a nuclear test, as to just how severe the consequences of such an action would be.
There is another option. Beijing, Seoul and the never-ending (and growing) legions of Bush administration critics can continue their internecine arguments and finger-pointing and hope that Pyongyang is really bluffing.
Of course, if they guess wrong, we will then be faced with the near-impossible task of trying to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle. At that point, the only options will be to accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state or take the much more difficult (and potentially dangerous) political, economic and limited military actions (short of an all-out war) required to bring about regime change in North Korea.
Ralph A Cossa (pacforum@hawaii.rr.com) is president of the Pacific Forum CSIS.
(Used by permission of Pacific Forum CSIS )
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ05Dg01.html
Asia Times:
Rice hopes to exploit the Arab-Iran divide
By Ehsan Ahrari
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East again to shore up Arab support against Iran. If she succeeds in achieving that objective - and that is a big if - there is likely to be a major realignment of forces in that area. This is her first trip to the region since the ceasefire of August 14 ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia that controls much of southern Lebanon.
She may be appealing to the legendary Arab-Iranian rivalry to sell the US agenda of shoring up the Arab opposition to Iran's alleged aspirations to develop nuclear weapons. The United States has tried to play that card before. The newest wrinkle in this ongoing strategic power game is that Israel is reportedly also reaching out to "moderate" Arab states of the Persian Gulf region by focusing on Iran-phobia.
The administration of President George W Bush is under pressure to create the semblance of "doing something" in the Middle East. That decision seems to have been reached in the wake of the recent controversies stemming from the leak of the National Intelligence Estimate about the Iraq war and in response to journalist Bob Woodward's claim in his latest book, State of Denial, of disarray among the major US national-security officials.
In the Middle East, Iraq is subsiding into a sinkhole of violence and mayhem; Iran has emerged as a major supporter of Hezbollah in the Lebanese and Iraqi conflicts, and Hezbollah's prestige is at an all-time high stemming from its performance in its war with the Jewish state. To top it all off, the US-Iran nuclear conflict does not seem to be heading toward resolution any time soon.
These developments are nightmarish from Bush's ever-growing need to leave behind some sort of legacy related to the world of Islam, two of whose governments - Afghanistan and Iraq - he dismantled in the name of fighting a "global war on terror". However, both places are emerging as major theaters of conflict between Western and Islamist forces.
Arab politics, probably more than the politics of any other parts of the globe, operate on a quid pro quo basis. So if the US wants to get something from the Arab states, it has to offer something they desire. For that reason, Secretary of State Rice is creating the impression that the Bush administration is getting ready to restart the peace process in Palestine.
However, nothing has changed in the occupied territories. Hamas is still trying to run the Palestinian government under a severe shortage of capital and, at the same time, fight a two-front war: with Israel and with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas still refuses to renounce violence and recognize Israel, two preconditions insisted upon by both the US and the Jewish state. In the meantime, economic and political sufferings of the Palestinians persist.
Arab states know these facts. But they are also cognizant of the reality that Bush is desperately looking for some breakthrough in the Middle East. That breakthrough is certainly not coming from Iraq, where the threat of civil war remains high, as spirals of sectarian violence continue to ascend.
The breakthrough also is not coming from Lebanon, where despite the United States' best hopes for, and active support of, a decisive victory for Israel in its 34-day war with Hezbollah, such did not materialize. On the contrary, Hezbollah has emerged "victorious". Both the US and Israel have relearned the bitter lesson that in a conflict or "war" between two parties where one possesses too much military power and the other is weak, all that the weak side must do is survive. The inability of the strong side to eradicate the weak side is widely depicted as a "defeat."
The Bush administration finds itself in a strategic cul-de-sac from where it has to make a volte-face to avoid major erosion in its strategic interests in the Middle East. Consequently, the United States is ready to plead with the moderate Arab states - most notably Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but also with other Gulf emirates - that it was on their side all along.
Rice will not flinch at reminding the Arab side that Iran is a greater "threat" to their security than Israel, that the Bush administration is willing to revive the long-moribund Palestine-Israel peace process and that they must focus on siding with Washington about containing Iran's rising influence, which it would use to create political momentum leading toward the eventual development of nuclear weapons.
As much as the Arab states do not trust what the Bush administration says about the peace process, they also know that they have no other option than to rely on the promises of an intensely pro-Israeli US administration that it will create momentum for the renewal of a dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Besides, Arabs have their own major gripe, if not apprehension, about Iran. The Islamic Republic has emerged as a truly major actor in the post-Saddam Hussein Middle East. It has immeasurably enhanced its strategic influence in Iraq, where it could even be regarded without much exaggeration as a kingmaker.
Iran's support for Hezbollah in the 34-day war with Israel also has tremendously boosted its prestige in the Middle East, where all other Arab leaders are viewed by the masses as too diffident - indeed, subservient - to the arrogant demands of the Bush administration to introduce Western secular democracy to the abandonment of their Islamic heritage. According to one source, three of the most popular personalities in the Arab world are Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad of Iran, and Osama bin Laden.
What bothered Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan most was that the United States publicly expressed its willingness to conduct a dialogue aimed at stabilizing Iraq, an Arab state, with Persian Iran. No other Arab state was invited even to observe such an event. It is not relevant that such a dialogue between the US and Iran has yet to take place.
The Arab perspective is that since September 11, 2001, the Bush administration has done little to dismantle the growing perception in the Arab world that the Sunni Arab states are being treated as vassals of the United States, a role that Iran is loath to play.
The Hezbollah-Israel war emerged as a blessing from the Arab perspective. It punctured Israel's aura of invincibility, as Hezbollah's rag-tag fighters performed impressively in that war. Now, the leaders of the Jewish state are truly shaken about Iran's growing capabilities of making the best of its military weakness, vis-a-vis Israel, in a future conflict.
After all, it was Iran's training of Hezbollah and provisions of its military wherewithal that enabled that entity to stand up to the mightiest armed forces in the Middle East. As much as the Israeli military is equipped with cutting-edge US-supplied technology, there is a growing fear within the Israeli ruling circles that in a conventional war with Iran, Tehran's yet-to-be-known asymmetric capabilities might inflict another defeat on Israel.
Consequently, the Bush administration and Israel are waging a two-front diplomatic offensive with moderate Arabs to create a united front against Iran. While Rice is making a high-profile visit to the region, Israel's diplomats are approaching the Arab sheikhdoms for a rapprochement through secret channels. Last week, there were unconfirmed reports of a meeting between Saudi and Israeli officials. The fact that both sides were so coy about it only intensified speculation about such a contact.
No one knows for sure, but the understanding is that Israelis are enticing the Gulf sheikhs with a probable concession on the Palestinian issue. That would only nullify the intense sense of shame and inadequacy within the Arab ruling circles that Iran is outshining them in Lebanon and in support of the Palestinian cause. In return for such a concession on the Palestinian issue, Israelis are reportedly asking the Arab states to create a united front against the "mounting Iranian threat".
If Israel indeed is seeking a rapprochement with the Arabs by playing on their apprehensions regarding Iran, it shows how seriously the Israelis envisage the Islamic Republic's escalating clout in the Middle East. The question remains, however, whether the Arab states will fall for the Israeli maneuver and try to gang up on Iran, or whether they will really drive a hard bargain and gain concessions on the Palestinian issue without really creating an anti-Iran front.
If Arabs know one very harsh reality about the US and Israel, they know that neither of these actors will offer any concessions to the Arab side unless they are really convinced that their bargaining position has eroded perceptibly. If that indeed is the case, then the Arabs will have to think long and hard whether they really want to fall for US-Israeli promises of breakthroughs and concessions and revive the Arab-Persian animosity, an option that might not be in their collective best interests.
Ehsan Ahrari is the CEO of Strategic Paradigms, an Alexandria, Virginia-based defense consultancy. He can be reached at eahrari@cox.net or stratparadigms@yahoo.com. His columns appear regularly in Asia Times Online. His website: www.ehsanahrari.com
Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ05Ak01.html
Guardian:
Blair: Northern Ireland final settlement within reach
Matt Weaver and agencies
Wednesday October 4, 2006
A "final settlement" to the political stalemate in Northern Ireland is within reach, Tony Blair declared today after an independent commission concluded that the IRA was no longer a terrorist threat.
"The IRA has done what we asked of it," the prime minister said this afternoon. His comments come after the Independent Monitoring Commissioning (IMC) said earlier that the IRA had abandoned terrorism irreversibly.
The conclusion of the commission meant there was now was a "unique opportunity" to reach agreement on power sharing in the province, he said. "The door is now open to a final settlement."
Mr Blair said he understood why unionists were sceptical of the commission's assessment that the IRA was committed to democratic politics. But he added: "It is a statement based on the IMC objective assessment."
Earlier, in a clear message to unionists, the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, said: "It is a fantastic opportunity, which politicians ought to take. If they cannot bring themselves to do it, then they themselves will close the door on devolution."
But he added: "This report leaves no party the excuse to dodge its responsibilities.
"No party should dodge its responsibility - that includes Sinn Fein on policing; that includes all the parties. They should all work together to make it possible for each other to do the deal."
The findings will be the focus of a Northern Ireland summit in Scotland next week, ahead of the deadline for restoring power sharing on November 24.
The prime minister, Tony Blair, and the Irish taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, hope the report will build unionist confidence in Sinn Fein's credentials as a future partner in a devolved government.
The report found that the IRA had stopped targeting members of the security forces, procuring weapons, recruiting and training, and had wound down its department for developing bombs.
It also revealed that people who had tried to join the IRA were directed instead to Sinn Fein as the republican movement shifted towards being a purely political path.
However, the report also acknowledged that individuals within the organisation were still involved in criminality, lining their pockets through their involvement in money laundering and robberies.
The Democratic Unionist party was to seek urgent talks with the IMC to assess whether the progress made by the IRA on paramilitarism and criminality was irreversible, its leader, Ian Paisley, said today.
He said the assessment that the provisional IRA was progressively abandoning its terrorist structures showed the pressure brought to bear on republicans by his party was working.
However, he expressed concern at the continuing involvement of IRA members in criminality, and at the commission's failure to state whether the organisation in April murdered the former Sinn Fein official turned British spy Denis Donaldson.
"Real and serious doubts remain about the murder of Denis Donaldson, and this report has not ruled out the possibility that the provisional IRA were behind this killing," the North Antrim MP said.
"We will be meeting with the IMC at the earliest opportunity to discuss issues surrounding IRA criminality and whether the progress that has been made is permanent and irreversible."
He added: "It is for republicans to demonstrate in a practical and convincing way that their days of criminality and terror are gone for good.
"Democrats have nothing to prove, and if Sinn Fein wish to be treated on the same basis as everyone else, then it is for them to now support the police, the courts and the rule of law. There can, and will, be no toleration for those who are half in and half out of the democratic club."
Policing is seen as one of the critical issues that will need to be resolved at next week's talks.
While three of the four parties that could form a power-sharing government at Stormont support and encourage their community to cooperate with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Sinn Fein has so far refused to recognise the body as the legitimate force of law and order.
Sinn Fein's leader, Gerry Adams, has signalled his party's willingness to have a special conference to debate any change to its policing policy.
However, while his party insists there must be a devolved government before Sinn Fein can move on policing, the DUP wants republicans to commit themselves first to publicly endorsing the PSNI before a devolved government can be formed.
Commenting on today's report Mr Adams said: "It's very, very clear that the republicans have kept to all their commitments. A deal could be done tonight."
Mr Ahern welcomed the IMC's conclusions. He said: "These positive and clear-cut findings are of the utmost importance and significance. They are evidence that the security landscape in Northern Ireland has been radically altered. It is now clearly apparent that the IRA has neither the intent nor the interest in restarting its paramilitary campaign."
Mr Ahern said he and Mr Blair believed, ahead of next week's talks, that sustainable partnership government was achievable in Northern Ireland and that the province could now move forward with confidence that the past had been left behind.
"The governments will play their part, but we expect the parties to shoulder their responsibilities and to come to Scotland ready to address the final obstacles and open to agreement. The context for political engagement has never been better."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,1887436,00.html
Guardian:
The mindset of war remains
Today's report on the IRA told us nothing we didn't already know. Now, the DUP is the only obstacle to progress in Northern Ireland.
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir
October 4, 2006
The Independent Monitoring Commission is independent in much the same way as Orkney - which is how it can perform the amazing feat of scoring a perfect 12: its last 12 reports have echoed, to the letter, British and Irish government policy. Today's report, therefore, confirming the IRA has gone out of the war business, is totally irrelevant since the two governments and all the parties, including the DUP, already know that.
The IMC was set up to create another hurdle for republicans to negotiate before they could exercise their mandate as the biggest nationalist party in the occupied area by taking their places in a reformed executive at Stormont.
That hurdle, which wasn't erected for loyalist gun-gangs run by special branch or for the British spooks who murdered human rights lawyer Pat Finucane, was cleared over a year ago when the IRA destroyed all its weapons and instructed its members to engage in wholly peaceful and democratic activities. The only obstacle to progress now is the DUP which, led by a pastor who believes the world was created 6,000 years ago and that line dancing is immoral, refuses to share power with their nationalist neighbours.
The DUP pretends that the IRA has to pass even more tests before the bona fides of Sinn Féin can be accepted - and this from a party which in 1986 helped found the paramilitary Ulster Resistance whose weapons have never been decommissioned.
In fact, that contention is no more than a ruse being trotted out to claim even more concessions from a British government which has shown itself only too willing to pander to the most extreme DUP demand. The DUP fears power-sharing and the Good Friday agreement - in fact one of its senior members announced last week it would use the upcoming talks in Scotland to demand fundamental changes to the structure of the peace deal - because it can't handle the truth that the days of unionist one-party rule are finished.
It can't handle sitting down in government with Sinn Féin leaders who, it says, took the war to Britain over the last 30 years. Such an arrangement falls somewhat short of their claim that they would smash Sinn Féin. It can't handle having to tackle the loyalist drug-dealing paramilitaries which, by its own admission are the greatest threat to the unionist community.
There's a long way to go before the mindsets of war are decommissioned but progress is being made. If, by 24 November, the DUP is still saying "no" to peace, the two governments should move on to an effective state of joint authority where nationalists can push on to a united Ireland, leaving unionists to circle the wagons ever-tighter until they get leaders willing to take risks for peace.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mairtin_o_muilleoir/2006/10/mairtin_o_muilleoir.html
Guardian: African nation builds £1.4m marble mausoleum
for colonial master
Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
Wednesday October 4, 2006
The remains of one of the few white colonists still held in regard in Africa were reinterred yesterday in a glass and marble mausoleum in the city named after him, Brazzaville.
The body of the Franco-Italian explorer Pierre de Brazza was exhumed in Algeria last week and flown to the capital of Congo-Brazzaville for yesterday's ceremony attended by three African presidents and the French foreign minister.
De Brazza's coffin, draped in the French flag, and those of his wife and four children were laid to rest at the site on the Congo river where he established the colony and served as its governor in the late 19th century.
Many African cities were quickly stripped of the names of colonisers after independence. But Brazzaville was an exception and the Congo-Brazzaville government said it wanted to honour De Brazza for his work against slavery and his criticism of the abuse of African workers by Europeans.
"What interests us here is the humanitarian dimension of De Brazza, his fight against slavery and the abuses and excesses of export companies during the colonial period," said the presidency minister, Charles Bowao.
But opposition leaders and human rights groups said it was a mistake to construct a £1.4m monument to one of the country's colonisers. "We cannot believe that a country which is saying that it is poor has spent so much money to build a memorial, a costly memorial for a former colonialist," said Eugene Sama, leader of the opposition Rally for Democracy and Development.
De Brazza, born in Italy and named Pietro but naturalised as French, beat Henry Morton Stanley, King Leopold of Belgium's envoy, in the race to capture the mineral-rich lands of what became the French Congo.
In 1880, De Brazza persuaded King Makoko of the Batekes to place his lands along the Congo river under French protection. Descendants of both families were present yesterday. De Brazza served as governor of the French Congo for 12 years. His relatively benevolent administration stood in stark contrast to Belgian rule on the other side of the Congo river where Africans were hunted, killed and mutilated.
De Brazza left French Congo in 1898 but in 1905, on a final visit shortly before his death, he wrote a report detailing forced labour and brutal punishment of Africans by European companies. His report was buried by the government in Paris.
De Brazza died suddenly in September 1905 in Dakar, in present-day Senegal. He was 53. The epitaph on his grave in Algeria read: "A memory untainted by human blood."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/congo/story/0,,1886784,00.html
Harper's Magazine:
Weekly Review
Posted on Tuesday, October 3, 2006. By Miriam Markowitz
The United States Army extended combat tours for 4,000 soldiers in Iraq,[AP via Yahoo! News] and the Bush Administration declassified an intelligence report that called the war a “cause celebre” for Muslim extremists.[AP via Yahoo! News] The new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed that 4,000 foreign insurgents have died since the 2003 invasion.[AP via Yahoo! News] Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi told reporters that it's hard for Americans to understand “what's wrong” with Iraqis. “Why do they hate the Israelis and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference?” [CNN] An expert claimed that elements of Iran's atomic strategy appear to have been borrowed from Israel.[Reuters via Yahoo! News] Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon, where, according to the UN, up to a million cluster “bomblets” remain unexploded.[New York Times] President George W. Bush served Presidents Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan sea bass with stuffed tomatoes, fondue, and a pomegranate-dressed endive salad at a White House dinner.[BBC News][The Australian] The pope met with Muslim diplomats at his summer palace near Rome.[AP via Yahoo! News] Hamas and Fatah planned to resume negotiations for a unity government,[Haaretz] and a Mitsubishi dealership in Columbus, Ohio, withdrew a radio ad proclaiming “jihad” on the U.S. auto market.[Reuters via Yahoo! News]
Congress was about to go into recess; bills passed in the final days included a provision to allocate $70 billion to the Pentagon for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a clause that will allow the president to define enemy combatants at his discretion; the bill also legalized torture and suspended the writ of habeas corpus.[New York Times] Security forces recaptured a Guatemalan jail that had been under prisoner control for more than a decade,[New York Times][New York Times][Reuters] and the Saints beat the Falcons in the opening night game at the Superdome in New Orleans. The win, said a fan, was “a victory against Hurricane Katrina.”[Voice of America] Senator George Allen of Virginia denied allegations that he had once stuffed a deer's head into a mailbox belonging to an African-American family.[Salon] It was reported that Marine Le Pen, the daughter of far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen (who calls herself the “Slavic beauty,” but whose supporters have dubbed her “Joan of Arc”) was steering her father's campaign from the extreme right wing to the “patriotic center.” [Spiegel Online International] A Russian tabloid praised President Vladimir Putin for sprucing up his wardrobe,[Baltimore Sun via Seattle Times] and aides to Prince Charles denied that he only eats one of the seven eggs that are boiled for his breakfast each morning.[Reuters via Yahoo! News]
It was reported that this year's increase in health insurance premiums, the smallest since 1999, was double the rate of inflation,[AP via Yahoo! News] home prices dropped for the first time in eleven years,[New York Times] and China announced plans to ship thornless red roses to markets worldwide.[New York Times] Amnesty International alleged that Pakistani authorities have been selling terrorism suspects to the U.S. for $5,000 or less, [CBC News] and the Chinese organ market remained robust due to a spike in executions. Many prisoners, said an official, had volunteered to give up their organs as a “present to society.”[BBC News] U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt reduced the jail sentence of former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow from ten years to six, citing the prolonged suffering of the Fastow family in his decision. “Prosecution is necessary, but persecution was not,” said the judge. “These factors call for mercy.” [AP via Yahoo! News] Guantánamo Bay prison staff announced plans to quadruple the number of volumes in the prison lending library within the next five years; one of the more popular self-help books, said librarians, is called Don't Be Sad.[AP via International Herald Tribune] An appeals court ruled that a Montana mother who gave bong hits to her baby daughter should not have to spend five years in jail;[Reuters via Yahoo! News] a dinosaur species was cleared of cannibalism;[New York Times] and a drain-clogging teddy bear was implicated in the deaths of 2,500 trout at a hatchery in New Hampshire.[AP via Yahoo! News] Milagros, a Peruvian “mermaid” girl whose fused legs were separated by surgeons, took her first steps.[AP via SBS] Men boxed kangaroos in Shanghai's fourth annual Animal Olympics,[Daily Mail] homeless soccer players converged in Cape Town for their World Cup,[BBC News] and a contender for the world chess championship refused to play in a finals match after being accused of taking a suspicious number of bathroom breaks.[Moscow Times] Vigilante airline passengers searched the luggage of a university professor they believed to be a terrorist during a layover in Mallorca.[AP via Seattle Times] Muslim scientists were called to jihad,[AP via Yahoo! News] teens were hunting geeks on the streets of Tokyo,[Mainichi Daily News] and brain images showed that hysteria is real.[New York Times] A cloud of locusts descended on Cancun.[Reuters via Yahoo! News]
This is Weekly Review by Miriam Markowitz, published Tuesday, October 3, 2006. It is part of Weekly Review for 2006, which is part of Weekly Review, which is part of Harpers.org.
Written By
Markowitz, Miriam
Permanent URL
http://harpers.org/WeeklyReview2006-10-03.html
il manifesto:
La «middle class» ignota al fisco
«Quella presentata dal governo non è una manovra contro il ceto medio, ma una legge che per la prima volta si pone il problema della redistribuzione del reddito».
Intervista al sociologo Luciano Gallino
Galapagos
«Definire storicamente cosa sia il ceto medio non è difficile; decisamente più complicato è intrecciare questa definizione con i redditi che vengono denunciati al fisco italiano: le denunce dei redditi presentate dai contribuenti sono una caricatura del paese reale. Quello che è certo è che questa finanziaria non è fatta contro il ceto medio e trovo ridicolo chi fa affermazioni di questo contenuto. Mentre trovo positivo che per la prima volta un governo affermi apertamente che la finanziaria è stata concepita per operare una redistribuzione del reddito a favore delle classi che in questi anni sono state fortemente penalizzate». Luciano Gallino dà giudizi netti sulla manovra economica del governo anche se i 217 articoli della legge e le oltre 250 pagine di testo non sono una lettura agevole. «Piena com'è - sostiene - anche di molti aspetti tecnici».
Professore, l'opposizione di destra attacca il governo Prodi sostenendo che la finanziaria è un duro colpo ai ceti medi. Possiamo provare a definire che cos'è il ceto medio?
Il ceto medio è una definizione che nasce un paio di secoli fa. Oggi come allora con questo termine definiamo coloro che dispongono di mezzi e anche competenze per poter lavorare e guadagnare. Semplificando: imprenditori, commercianti, professionisti, avvocati. Questo è un po' il nucleo classico del ceto medio. Al quale dobbiamo aggiungere i dirigenti, i tecnici, i funzionari della Pubblica amministrazione, i professori universitari.
Ma esiste ancora un ceto medio? Non ritiene che la tendenza sia quella di una proletarizzazione, anche in forme diverse dal passato? O meglio ancora: secondo studi recenti quella cui stiamo assistendo appare come una polarizzazione verso le classi estreme.
Non sono d'accordo con l'affermazione che il ceto medio stia scomparendo e che ci sia un forte aumento della proletarizzazione. Mi sembra eccessivo dirlo. Sono invece d'accordo con chi parla di una polarizzazione: la piramide sociale sembra avere un vertice più ristretto e i passaggi tra le varie classi sono meno frequenti. Polarizzazione è un concetto più aderente alla realtà.
Banalizzando, mi sembra che lei affermi che chi è già ricco tende a essere ancora più ricco, mentre per tutti gli altri è difficile fare passi avanti, risalire la piramide.
La distanza tra il 10-20 per cento della popolazione più ricca e il 10-20 di quella più povera è aumentata. E non solo in Italia.
Da un punto di vista delle statistiche del reddito e del patrimonio è possibile fissare chi oggi in Italia è «ceto medio»?
Se parliamo dell'Italia ci scontriamo con una straordinaria povertà delle statistiche. Negli Stati uniti è sufficiente collegarsi con il sito del Congresso o con quello del Census bureau, tanto per citarne solo un paio, per sapere tutto o quasi della distribuzione dei redditi e della ricchezza. Certo, anche negli Usa c'è evasione fiscale e come sempre una reticenza dei più ricchi a far sapere quanto sono effettivamente ricchi. Però i dati complessivamente sono significativi ed è sicuro che tra i poveri non si nascondono i falsi poveri, cioè gli evasori fiscali. In Italia, purtroppo, le statistiche non sono altrettanto soddisfacenti: le indagini campionarie dell'Istat e della Banca d'Italia forniscono sono una parziale approssimazione. I dati dei bilanci delle famiglie, quelli sui consumi e sulla distribuzione della ricchezza sono molto approssimati. Prima di tutto perché le indagine sono campionarie e un campione anche se ben fatto è sempre una rappresentazione approssimata dell'universo. E poi perché l'approssimazione cresce al crescere dei redditi. Queste indagini, anche se recentemente hanno rilevato la dicotomia nella crescita dei vari redditi, non possono essere la base per cercare di definire la soglia reddituale del ceto medio.
Insomma c'è una sorta di omertà, anche se l'indagine è anonima e non vale a fini fiscali.
Decisamente. Ma va anche peggio se utilizziamo i dati sulle denunce fiscali per cercare di capire quale sia la vera distribuzione dei redditi in Italia: dalla configurazione della piramide dei redditi quella che emerge è una caricatura del paese reale.
Fare stime dell'evasione fiscale non è facile: i dati sul reddito nazionale stimano però un prodotto interno lordo di un 25-30 per cento superiore a quello che emerge dai dati fiscali.
Non c'è solo l'evasione, ma anche l'elusione e l'erosione. Si stima che il lavoro nero equivalga all'occupazione di almeno altri 5 milioni di persone. In parte anche lavoro dipendente, di chi svolge un doppio lavoro. In realtà l'area dell'evasione si nasconde soprattutto nel lavoro autonomo, nelle imprese. Fa cascare le braccia apprendere che in base ai dati delle denunce dei redditi al fisco solo l'1,59% dei contribuenti denuncia più di 70mila euro l'anno.
I dati sul patrimonio mobiliare (712mila persone con oltre 500mila euro, un miliardo di lire) dei quali più volte recentemente abbiamo scritto sul manifesto mi sembrano confermare che gli italiani non sono molto sinceri con il fisco. Ma torniamo al problema politico: questa finanziaria può essere etichettata - come fa la destra - come «contro il ceto medio»?
E' una forzatura politica: se le dichiarazioni dei redditi fossero corrispondenti o vagamente vicine alla realtà ci potrebbe essere qualche appiglio, anche se questa finanziaria a quanto mi sembra tende a far pagare qualche centinaia di euro in più solo agli alti redditi. Ovvero i contribuenti che denunciano più di 75mila euro l'anno. Tutti gli altri, almeno fino alla soglia dei 40mila euro, che sulla base delle dichiarazioni sembrano costituire il ceto medio, avranno invece dei benefici fiscali che crescono al diminuire dei reddito. E questo mi spinge a pensare che la finanziaria operi un passo, magari piccolo, verso una politica di redistribuzione del reddito. La prima finanziaria se non sbaglio, è del 1978 e questa è la prima volta che sento parlare un governo di redistribuzione del reddito. Non è poco.
Non c'è il rischio che la redistribuzione del reddito privilegi chi è un evasore fiscale?
Nel ceto medio non c'è solo chi denuncia più di 40mila euro l'anno, ma anche i gioiellieri che, se non ricordo male, denunciano circa 20mila euro di ricavi al fisco. Il problema quindi è la spaccatura tra l'appartenenza al ceto medio e il reddito che viene denunciato. E' evidente che il vero problema è la lotta all'evasione fiscale, che consente di determinare il vero livello di reddito.
Fra chi più si lamenta di questa finanziaria sembra esserci la reale classe media, secondo la definizione che ne ha dato, che è anche quella che denuncia al fisco quanto realmente guadagna. Insomma, i lavoratori dipendenti, i manager, i professori universitari che saranno costretti a pagare più tasse solo perché denunciano più di 70mila euro lordi l'anno.
E' vero. In Italia esistono molte persone che non possono sfuggire al fisco. Non so quante siano esattamente. Tra loro per esempio vi sono i professori universitari i quali - parlo per esperienza personale - ai 70mila euro non arrivano. E credo che non sia piacevole per loro vedersi continuamente inseriti in una classe di privilegiati, mentre i veri privilegiati sono quelli che hanno redditi reali simili ai loro che però sfuggono a qualsiasi tipo di tassazione.
L'unica vera «persecuzione» al ceto medio sarebbe fare un lotta seria all'evasione fiscale.
Non c'è dubbio, visto che per molti appartenenti al ceto medio siamo a livello di dichiarazione dei redditi al disotto della decenza fiscale.
Che giudizio dà complessivamente di questa finanziaria?
Salvo le piccole distorsioni alle quali accennavo, cioè alcune migliaia di contribuenti che si sentono presi in giro, direi che è un notevole passo in avanti, per quanto sostenevo prima: ovvero la redistribuzione del reddito. E' un fatto politico di rilievo.
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/03-Ottobre-2006/art12.html
il manifesto:
Orissa, con archi e frecce contro la raffineria
Marina Forti
Erano migliaia di persone, riferisce l'agenzia Reuter: abitanti colline che circondano Larjigarh, zona remota dell'India centro-orientale, stato di Orissa, circa 600 chilometri sud-ovest della capitale Bhubaneswar. Erano per lo più indigeni, «tribali» come si usa definirli in India (o adivasi, letteralmente «abitanti originari»): ieri hanno marciato fino al sito dove è in costruzione una raffineria di allumina, appunto a Larjigarh; con loro c'erano gli attivisti di alcuni gruppi ambientali. Protestano contro quella raffineria e soprattutto contro il progetto di aprire una miniera di bauxite nelle vicinanze. Raffineria e miniera sono progetti di Vedanta Resources, compagnia mineraria britannica (è una delle «top 100» quotate alla Borsa di Londra) che sta investendo molto in India; solo in quella raffineria ha messo 874 milioni di dollari (vedi terraterra, 3 agosto).
I manifestanti, vestiti con i loro abiti tradizionali e «armati» di archi e frecce, portavano cartelli con scritte come «Vedanta go back», e le effigi di alcuni ministri dello stato dell'Orissa (che poi hanno bruciato). Hanno bloccato brevemente la strada nazionale che traversa la zona. «Moriremo piuttosto che abbandonare le nostre case», ha detto (alla Reuter) Kumuti Majhi, portavoce della comunità tribale. «Le colline sono divine per noi, ci forniscono cibo e acqua», ha detto un altro manifestante, Suna Majhi.
Non è la prima protesta su quelle colline tanto remote quanto ricche di minerali. La Vedanta ha firmato il primo accordo con lo stato dell'Orissa nel 2004 per espandere una raffineria di alumina a Larjigarh (ne progetta poi un'altra, un investimento da 2,1 miliardi di dollari). Ha anche chiesto di estrarre bauxite (la materia prima) dalle vicine colline di Niyamgiri, e il governo dell'Orissa ha dato parere favorevole. Ma quelle colline, che il governo considera un territorio pieno di risorse da «sviluppare», sono anche «piene» di una popolazione locale - i Dongaria Kondh, una delle popolazioni native tra le meno integrate (tra le più «primitive», dicono le cronache locali), e nei progetti non c'è molto per loro. Negli ultimi due anni questa popolazione locale si è mobilitata in frequenti proteste (che hanno spesso fermato i lavori di costruzione della raffineria). Gruppi ambientalisti hanno sottolineato gli effetti negativi di una miniera, sia sul piano ecologico sia sociale, e hanno avviato azioni legali: le attività minerarie su quelle colline, dicono, costringerebbero migliaia di abitanti ad andarsene e distruggerebbe l'ecosistema della regione. Due mesi fa alcuni attivisti sociali di quella zona erano anche andati a Londra, per intervenire all'assemblea degli azionisti di Vedanta: i progetti della compagnia in Orissa, dicevano, «provocano numerosi problemi ambientali e di diritti umani, e la compagnia finora non li ha affrontati» (ne aveva riferito il quotidiano britannico The Guardian). In effetti la Vedanta afferma di aver offerto alloggi, scuole e posti di lavoro alle comunità sfollare per fare spazio agli impianti della raffineria, ma gli attivisti sociali scesi in campo per difendere la causa della popolazione locale, ribattono che i pochi risarcimenti offerti hanno lasciato aperti numerosi problemi. Anche perché quando una popolazione perde le fonti di sussistenza e il sistema di relazioni sociali di cui vive, non basta proporre qualche alloggio ai margini di stabilimenti e aree urbane per «risarcire» la perdita. Così le proteste continuano - soprattutto per impedire che dopo la raffineria arrivi la miniera.
Cosa ribatte l'azienda mineraria? Ieri un portavoce, signor Sanjay Pattnaik, ha detto alla Reuter che Vedanta conta di aprire la raffineria entro dicembre; proteste e cause legali hanno rallentato i lavori ma ora sono al 90% completati. Quanto alla miniera, «l'autorizzazione per la miniera non ci impedirà di andare avanti», ha aggiunto: se non potranno estrarre in loco la bauxite, andranno a prenderla in altre zone. Ma certo, costruire una raffineria in una zona remota come Larjigarh aveva senso, dal punto di vista aziendale, perché la fonte della materia prima era proprio là: così c'è da attendersi che la compagnia mineraria tornerà a premere per aprire quella miniera.
I funzionari governativi locali si dicono convinti che poco a poco le proteste smetteranno, quando la popolazione locale sarà risistemata altrove e si renderà conto dei vantaggi dello sviluppo industriale. Ma è proprio quello il punto: la raffineria si è tradotta per ora solo in case e terre requisite in cambio di quasi nulla - i «vantaggi dello sviluppo industriale» hanno escluso proprio la popolazione locale.
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/03-Ottobre-2006/art70.html
Jeune Afrique: Savorgnan de Brazza
rejoint sa dernière demeure au Congo qu'il colonisa
CONGO (BRAZZA) - 3 octobre 2006 – AFP
La dépouille de l'explorateur français d'origine italienne Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza a été solennellement réinhumée mardi à Brazzaville, la capitale du Congo qu'il fonda en 1880, malgré les critiques sur son passé de colonisateur.
Au coeur de la ville qui porte son nom, un imposant mémorial en marbre et verre a été érigé à l'occasion du transfert de ses restes mortels, qui reposaient jusque-là à Alger
Enveloppé dans un drapeau français, le cercueil de cet aristocrate d'origine italienne (1852-1905) a été transporté par des marins congolais dans un caveau du sous-sol du mausolée. Il y a rejoint ceux de son épouse et de leurs quatre enfants, également arrivés lundi d'Alger, où Savorgnan de Brazza s'était retiré après avoir quitté l'administration coloniale.
Les présidents congolais Denis Sassou Nguesso et gabonais Omar Bongo Ondimba ont inauguré le monument, et dévoilé une stèle en pierre blanche à l'effigie de celui qui jeta les fondations de l'Afrique équatoriale française (AEF).
Devant plusieurs centaines de personnes, le chef de l'Etat centrafricain François Bozizé et le ministre français des Affaires étrangères Philippe Douste-Blazy ont également assisté à la cérémonie, pendant laquelle les intervenants ont fait un éloge unanime de l'aventurier.
"Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza avait une conception humaniste des Africains qui était en porte-à-faux avec les ambitions des aventuriers coloniaux", a déclaré le représentant de sa famille, Corrado Pirzio-Biroli. "C'était un colonisateur qui préférait l'exploration à la conquête".
"Il est le fils adoptif du Congo, l'ami exceptionnel de l'Afrique", lui a fait écho Bélinda Ayessa, la porte-parole de la Fondation Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, qui, avec ses descendants, est à l'origine de ce transfert.
Les autorités congolaises, par la voix du maire de Brazzaville Hugues Ngouélondélé, ont salué l'"esprit éclairé qui méritait d'être au panthéon des humanistes", tandis que M. Douste-Blazy a évoqué sa "volonté de comprendre l'inconnu" et son "respect de l'autre".
Le chef de la diplomatie française a également remis la croix de chevalier de la Légion d'honneur à la ville de Brazzaville pour avoir été "un des hauts lieux de la France libre" pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
Après avoir fondé Franceville, dans le sud-est du Gabon, où son cercueil a fait une halte dimanche, cet explorateur "va-nu-pieds" avait conclu, le 3 octobre 1880, un traité avec le roi des Téké Ilo Ier, qui établissait un protectorat et cédait à la France son territoire, où vit le jour Brazzaville.
Comme l'exigeaient les descendants de Savorgnan de Brazza, le royaume des Téké, première ethnie du Congo, était représenté à la cérémonie par le roi Nguempio, que les autorités congolaises se refusaient jusqu'ici à reconnaître.
La "fâcherie" autour de la légitimité du roi téké a été à l'origine de deux reports du transfert de la dépouille, initialement prévu il y a un an pour le centenaire de sa mort.
"De Brazza n'était pas venu au Congo pour la guerre ou la colonisation, mais pour la paix et l'humanisme", a assuré le premier vassal de la cour téké, Ngailino, en remerciant le président Sassou "pour avoir facilité le transfert".
Cette colonisation consentie et son combat contre l'esclavage ont façonné l'image d'un de Brazza explorateur pacifiste, que plusieurs historiens africains ont toutefois nuancée ces derniers jours, rappelant qu'il avait été un "agent de l'impérialisme colonial".
Dénoncée comme une "apologie du colonialisme" par ces intellectuels africains, la cérémonie a également alimenté la polémique en raison du coût du monument construit pour accueillir l'explorateur: près de 10 milliards de francs CFA (plus de 15 millions d'euros) payés par l'Etat congolais.
© Jeuneafrique.com 2006
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_depeche.asp?
art_cle=AFP01916savorasinol0
Mail & Guardian:
Security fears raised in Nigeria
Estelle Shirbon | Abuja, Nigeria
04 October 2006
Militants freed about 25 kidnapped Nigerian oil workers on Wednesday but seven abducted expatriates were still missing in another part of the Niger Delta after an unprecedented attack on a residential compound.
Heightening security concerns, the United States consulate in Nigeria warned that militants may target Bonny Island, a major oil and gas export hub in Africa's top oil producer.
"This continuation of violence reinforces the need for American citizens to avoid travel to the region whenever possible and maintain a heightened security presence at all times," the consulate said in a circular.
"There is no indication of when this threat will subside."
On Tuesday, suspected militants invaded a residential compound for ExxonMobil contractors in Eket, in Akwa Ibom state in the eastern Delta, killing two Nigerian security guards and abducting seven foreign workers.
"About 18 armed youths stormed the Eseakpan compound. They kidnapped seven expatriates who were drinking in a bar inside the compound," a police spokesperson in Akwa Ibom said.
The abducted men were four Britons, one Romanian, one Malaysian and one Indonesian, the spokesperson said, adding that no contact had yet been established with the kidnappers.
Security experts working for oil companies in the Delta said it was the first time kidnappers had taken expatriates from within a residential compound. Such compounds are usually under tight security due to a history of abductions in the delta.
The experts also said it was worrying this kind of trouble had spread to Akwa Ibom, which had been relatively quiet all year while militants staged a wave of attacks and kidnappings in three oil producing states further west.
Shock
The Eket raid came two days after about 70 gunmen attacked a convoy of boats supplying oilfields operated by Royal Dutch Shell in neighbouring Rivers state. They killed at least three soldiers and abducted 25 Shell contractors who were all free by Wednesday.
The incidents came as a shock after a relatively quiet September in the delta, which accounts for all crude output from the world's eighth-biggest exporter.
Bonny Island, in Rivers in the eastern Delta, is home to one of the world's largest natural-gas export plants and also ships about 400 000 barrels of oil daily.
A sixth of Nigeria's production capacity is already shut in following a wave of militant attacks in February.
ExxonMobil has a residential compound of its own in Eket and operates the Qua Iboe Terminal, a major export facility, on the coast of Akwa Ibom. The US major exports about 800 000 barrels per day from Nigeria.
In August, 18 oil workers were kidnapped in eight separate incidents in the Delta. All have been freed except for one Nigerian who was killed in a botched attempt to release him.
Supply disruptions from Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries member Nigeria have contributed to several hikes in world oil prices this year. The latest incidents did not affect output.
Violence in the Delta is rooted in poverty, corruption and lawlessness. Most inhabitants of the wetlands region almost the size of England have seen few benefits from five decades of oil extraction that has damaged their environment.
Resentment towards the oil industry breeds militancy, but the struggle for control of a lucrative oil-smuggling business and the lure of ransoms have also contributed to the violence.
Reuters
All material copyright Mail&Guardian.
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articleid=285828&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/#
Página/12:
La estrella de Lula brilla más en Río
LOS DOS CANDIDATOS CORTEJAN CAUDILLOS REGIONALES DE CARA AL BALLOTTAGE
Después de San Pablo, Río de Janeiro es el otro referente electoral de Brasil y ambos estados compiten hasta en tradiciones políticas. Mientras los paulistas le dieron la espalda al presidente, los cariocas adoptaron como un hijo propio al ex metalúrgico.
Por Darío Pignotti
Desde San Pablo, Miércoles, 04 de Octubre de 2006
Un país llamado Río de Janeiro. Está probado que fue el estado de San Pablo el obstáculo que impidió al presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ser reelecto el domingo pasado, cuando no alcanzó el 50 por ciento más uno de los votos necesarios para ganar en primera vuelta. Casi 12 millones de paulistas votaron por su rival, el socialdemócrata Geraldo Alckmin, que le sacó cuatro millones de ventaja. Junto a San Pablo, el primer colegio electoral con 28 millones de empadronados, Río de Janeiro, con 10 millones de electores, es el otro distrito de referencia nacional. Ayer los principales caudillos fluminenses, el ex gobernador Anthony Garotinho y su esposa, Rosinha Matheus, actual gobernadora de ese estado, viajaron hasta San Pablo para anunciar su apoyo a Alckmin. Otra buena noticia para el representante del Partido de la Socialdemocracia Brasileña (PSDB), a quien pocos apostaban dos semanas atrás.
A pesar de su victoria moral contra el presidente, que parecía imbatible en primera vuelta y ahora debe ir a ballottage el 29 de octubre, Alckmin está obligado a descontar los casi siete millones que lo separan de Lula en el conteo nacional, 46,6 millones contra 39, 9 millones. Y el primer paso en ese sentido es Río de Janeiro, que rivaliza con San Pablo hasta en tradiciones políticas: allí Lula siempre recibió un sólido respaldo. En las presidenciales de 2002 obtuvo en torno del 70 por ciento y ahora el 49 por ciento, veinte puntos arriba de su adversario.
Garotinho, que ya transitó por el Partido de los Trabajadores, el Partido Democrático Trabalhista (PDT), el Partido Socialista (PS), de momento pertenece al Partido Movimiento Democrático Brasileño (PMDB). La falta de pudor con que el también pastor evangélico Garotinho muda de filiación partidaria es un trazo de la política carioca. Su correligionario del PMDB, Sergio Cabral, que disputará la gobernación de Río en el segundo turno, ayer se pronunció a favor de Lula.
Las negociaciones emprendidas por Lula y Alckmin para conquistar a los referentes de Río parecen no poner reparos de índole ideológica o programática. Alckmin dejó para mejor ocasión sus diatribas contra el “populismo” al momento de recibir a Garotinho. Lula tampoco entró en consideraciones éticas al negociar el apoyo del evangélico Marcelo Crivela, salpicado por escándalos nada cristianos.
Claro que ese pragmatismo no se limita a Río de Janeiro. Los dos candidatos se reparten, casi en mitades, el apoyo de varios dinosaurios del nordeste. Con Alckmin está el cacique bahiano, Antonio Carlos Magalhaes, que es todo menos un ejemplo de la ética que ha sido el lema de campaña del postulante socialdemócrata. Con Lula nada menos que su otrora enemigo Fernando Collor de Mello, electo senador luego de 14 años de ostracismo por un escándalo de corrupción que lo obligó a renunciar a la presidencia de la nación.
Desde el domingo, los asesores de Lula y Alckmin revisan el mapa electoral hasta exprimirlo: buscan explicaciones sobre las conductas tan dispares de los brasileños en las urnas. En la nordestina Bahía, el petista fue respaldado por el 66,65 por ciento de los votos contra el 26,03 por ciento de su rival, que ganó holgadamente en Río Grande do Sul. En esa provincia, la más austral del país, Alckmin se impuso 55,76 por ciento contra 33,07.
Por esos contrastes extremos hay un país políticamente partido, que tiende a polarizarse conforme avance la segunda parte de la campaña. Lula y Alckmin que, según se confirmó ayer, protagonizarán el primer debate televisivo este domingo (ver recuadro), expresan esa tensión.
A partir de San Pablo se configura el Brasil del más acendrado antilulismo, al que ayer se refirió el socialista Ciro Gomes, como el “udenismo”. La UDN fue una agrupación que en los años 1950 y 1960 hizo oposición golpista a Getulio Vargas, Juscelino Kubitschek y Joao Goulart. El otro país comienza de Río hacia el norte, con algunas ramificaciones hacia el oeste, en Mina Gerais, la segunda provincia en población. Es un país más pobre, donde ha primado el voto lulista, fruto de las políticas sociales activas pero a la vez expresión del rechazo al poder y la arrogancia de San Pablo, un recelo que contamina la imagen de Geraldo Alckmin, por dos veces gobernador paulista. Son, en cierta medida, dos brasiles: Copacabana versus Avenida Paulista, Flamengo versus Corinthians.
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Lo que está en juego
Por Emir Sader*
Miércoles, 04 de Octubre de 2006
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si Petrobras va a ser privatizada –como afirmó el asesor de Alckmin, Mendoça de Barros a la revista Exame– y, si con ella, también el Banco de Brasil, la Caja Económica Federal y Electrobras.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas que los movimientos sociales vuelvan a ser criminalizados y reprimidos por el gobierno federal.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si Brasil seguirá privilegiando su política exterior basada en alianzas con Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Uruguay y Cuba, así como con otros países del sur en el mundo, en vez de una política de subordinación a Estados Unidos.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si se volverá a la política de privatización de la educación.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si la política cultural se centrará en el financiamiento privado.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si tendremos más o menos empleos precarios, o más o menos empleos en blanco.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si habrá más o menos inversiones públicas en áreas como energía, comunicaciones, rutas, saneamiento básico, educación, salud y cultura.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si seguiremos disminuyendo las desigualdades en Brasil mediante políticas sociales redistributivas –micro-crédito, aumento del poder adquisitivo real del salario mínimo, disminución del precio de los productos de la canasta básica, la bolsa-familia y electrificación rural, entre otros–. O si volveremos a las políticas tucano-pefelistas del gobierno de Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta es todo esto, lo que, por sí sólo, es muy importante y marca una gran diferencia entre los dos candidatos. Lo que está sobre todo en juego en la segunda vuelta es la inserción internacional de Brasil, con las consecuencias directas que esto tendrá sobre el destino del país.
Con Lula se mantendrá la política que privilegia la integración regional y las alianzas sur-sur, que se oponen al ALCA en favor del Mercosur. Con Alckmin, se privilegiarán las políticas de libre comercio: el ALCA, la firma de un Tratado de Libre Comercio con Estados Unidos, el aislamiento del ALBA y el debilitamiento del Mercosur, de la Comunidad Sudamericana, de las alianzas con Africa del Sur e India, y con el Grupo de los 20.
Lo que está juego en la segunda vuelta es la definición sobre si Brasil va a subordinar su futuro con políticas de libre comercio o si apostará a procesos de integración regional. Esto marca una diferencia fundamental para el futuro de Brasil y de América latina. Adoptar el libre comercio y abrir definitivamente la economía del país a los grandes monopolios internacionales –estadounidenses, en particular– y renunciar a cualquier forma de regulación interna –de medio ambiente, moneda, políticas de cuotas, etcétera–. Y condenar a Brasil definitivamente a la predominancia de las políticas de mercado, lo que significaría perpetuar las desigualdades que hacen de nuestro país el más injusto del mundo.
Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta, entonces, es si tendremos un país injusto o más injusto, si tendremos un país más soberano o más subordinado, si tendremos un país más democrático o menos democrático, si tendremos un país o si nos convertiremos definitivamente en un mercado especulativo y nos consolidaremos como un país conservador dirigido por las elites oligárquicas (como una mezcla de Daslu y Opus Dei). Si seremos un país, una sociedad, una nación –democrática y soberana– o si seremos reducidos a una bolsa de valores, a un shopping rodeado de miseria por todos los costados.
Todo esto está en juego en la segunda vuelta. Ante esta situación nadie puede ser neutro, nadie puede ser equidistante, nadie puede ser indiferente.
* De Carta Maior de Brasil. Especial para Página/12.
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Página/12:
Corea probará una bomba atómica
LAS GRANDES POTENCIAS CONDENARON EL DESAFIO DE PYONGYANG
En sintonía con Irán, que rompió sus negociaciones con Occidente para frenar su plan nuclear, Corea del Norte subió la apuesta y anunció su primera prueba. Los expertos creen que en un año podría terminar su bomba.
Por Anne Penketh*
Miércoles, 04 de Octubre de 2006
El conflicto de Occidente con Irán y Corea del Norte sobre su capacidad nuclear tomó un giro peligroso después del fracaso de las conversaciones sobre el programa iraní y la promesa de Pyongyang de llevar adelante su primera prueba nuclear. El estado comunista provocó una fuerte respuesta de Estados Unidos, Japón y Europa ayer, cuando emitió una declaración anunciando que debido a la “amenaza de sanciones y guerra nuclear” de Estados Unidos, llevaría a cabo una prueba nuclear. La declaración del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Corea del Norte decía que la prueba se llevaría a cabo “en el futuro” y “bajo la condición de que la seguridad esté firmemente garantizada”. Aunque Corea del Norte dice haber producido armas nucleares, nunca realizó una prueba nuclear.
Ayer, las esperanzas de que Irán pudiera ser inducido a frenar su programa nuclear desaparecieron después de que el funcionario europeo que había mantenido conversaciones discretas con el jefe negociador iraní les informó a los ministros europeos y a Estados Unidos que habían fracasado. Como resultado, los cinco miembros permanentes del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU –Gran Bretaña, Estados Unidos, Francia, Rusia y China– acordaron discutir las sanciones económicas contra Teherán “en la próxima semana” en las Naciones Unidas, dijo un importante funcionario británico.
Rusia, que se ha resistido a las posibles sanciones dirigidas a obligar al liderazgo iraní a aceptar una suspensión de su programa de enriquecimiento de uranio antes de negociar un paquete de incentivos, siguió insistiendo ayer que el tema debía resolverse a través de negociaciones. El funcionario británico reconoció que “hay diferencias en los detalles”, pero que las grandes potencias de la ONU acordaron adoptar medidas gradualmente más coercitivas. Como primer paso, se espera que éstas apunten a las exportaciones a Irán que podrían usarse para sus programas nuclear y balístico.
Condoleezza Rice, la secretaria de Estado de Estados Unidos, que está actualmente en una gira por Medio Oriente, puede discutir el tema Irán en Londres con otros socios europeos más adelante. Hablando en El Cairo dijo que “la única elección para la comunidad internacional es cumplir con los términos” de la resolución de la ONU que le ordenó a Irán congelar su programa nuclear o enfrentarse a las consecuencias. “Y eso es imponer sanciones”, dijo. Los expertos occidentales creen que aunque Irán y Corea del Norte no están coordinando su estrategia, están observando mutuamente cómo resultan sus acciones.
La guerra del Líbano, en la que la milicia pro-iraní sobrevivió a un largo mes de vapuleo por parte del ejército israelí, se considera como un factor en la resolución del liderazgo iraní de rechazar las demandas de la ONU de detener su programa, que no está tan adelantado como el de Corea del Norte. Los ataques militares contra Irán son vistos ahora por Teherán como improbables a raíz de la proclamada “victoria” de Hezbolá en el Líbano. Irán dice que su programa nuclear es con fines pacíficos, pero Estados Unidos y Europa creen que su programa civil podría ser una cobertura para construir un arma.
La larga disputa con ambos países está entrando ahora en una fase impredecible. Nadie sabe cómo puede reaccionar Irán ante las posibles sanciones de la ONU. Teherán podría cumplir con su amenaza de usar petróleo com arma, o retirarse del tratado de no proliferación nuclear, como lo hizo Corea del Norte en 2002. Tampoco se sabe cuán efectivas puedan ser las sanciones, sobre todo si las potencias del consejo de Seguridad son cuidadosos de no tomar medidas que puedan afectar a la población general en Irán.
Pero aunque la Casa Blanca y el Departamento de Estado advirtieron que una prueba “provocadora” e “imprudente” sólo podría conducir a un mayor aislamiento para Pyongyang, Washington señaló su preferencia por resolver la disputa a través de canales diplomáticos. El embajador de Estados Unidos ante la ONU, John Bolton, instó a los miembros del Consejo de Seguridad a discutir los próximos pasos.
En una temprana señal de la línea dura tomada por el nuevo gobierno de Japón, encabezado por Shinzo Abe, el canciller, Taro Aso, dijo que los planes de pruebas nucleares de Corea del Norte eran “totalmente imperdonables” y que Tokio reaccionaría “severamente” si ese país realizaba la prueba. Corea del Norte fue conminada a volver a las conversaciones con las seis partes –incluyendo ambas Coreas, Estados Unidos, China, Rusia y Japón– que ha boicoteado durante todo el año pasado. De acuerdo con los funcionarios británicos, a Irán le falta un año para manejar la tecnología de enriquecimiento que podría conducir a la producción de una bomba.
* 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
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Página/12:
El hombre común
Por Eduardo Pavlovsky*
Miércoles, 04 de Octubre de 2006
W. Reich en las postrimerías de su vida escribió un artículo que denominó “Discurso al hombre común”. Lo escribió en 1946, sin intención de que se publicara jamás. Pero se publicó. Algo de ese artículo –de la música de ese artículo– me involucró para intentar pensar ciertas cosas de nuestra realidad actual. Me refiero al poco conocimiento que tenemos del pensamiento del “hombre común” de nuestro país. Conocemos poco de la subjetividad del ciudadano común. El que no se “mete” en política. Sólo vota. Que tiene su merecida y respetuosa “vidita”. Los “millones” que configuraron la complicidad civil. Los tucumanos que votaron a Bussi represor es un buen ejemplo. Fue atacada y diezmada solamente la militancia activa, que comprendía desde la lucha armada y los militantes pertinentes a las numerosas organizaciones que trabajaban en las villas, organizaciones de derechos humanos y todo tipo de organizaciones sociales. Es decir, el hombre comprometido con el destino de una vida más justa socialmente para su país y donde la desigualdad no fuera obvia y natural. Recursos humanos para todos. Ese sector fue brutalmente aniquilado por la dictadura y perseguido hasta sus últimos escondites. Sindicalistas, delegados de fábricas y gremialistas comprometidos. El 40 por ciento de los desaparecidos eran obreros. Tortura, robo de bebés, arrojo de prisioneros desde aviones al Río de la Plata, robo de propiedades, allanamientos diarios, vejaciones y tormentos de todo tipo. Un Terrorismo de Estado organizado y entrenado por los militares franceses que combatieron en la guerra de Argelia. Hubo hasta un alto grado de sofisticación en la represión cultural. Dentro de ese sector 30.000 desaparecidos. Detenidos, exilios y exilios interiores que vivieron con terror esos años de plomo. Pero fuera de ese sector esquilmado, muerto y perseguido existía una franja enorme de millones de personas que permanecieron indiferentes o no afectadas directamente en su vida diaria o desconociendo las desapariciones y asesinatos.
Ultimamente nos sorprendió la manifestación de Blumberg que convocó a decenas de miles de personas en reclamo por una nueva doctrina de seguridad nacional. Siempre nos sorprendemos del fascismo agazapado y latente. ¿Cuántos millones apoyaban esa marcha por TV? Hoy comienzan a aparecer. A tomar cuerpo. A hacerse visibles. En todas sus formas. Desde la desaparición de López hasta las cartas amenazantes. Y pareciera que ya están organizados para alguna marcha reivindicatoria de la Otra justicia. Sin lugar a dudas la profundización de los juicios los va a envalentonar. La señora Pando no es la señora Siro, “estábamos mejor con los militares, mis hijos podían salir a bailar, había seguridad en las calles, estábamos bien económicamente” (por Radio 10). Hace pocos días la manifestación de las organizaciones de derechos humanos molestó a un hombre que gritaba: “prefiero la dictadura al caos de esta democracia” (subjetividad del hombre común de W. Reich).
El apoyo del Presidente a todas las organizaciones de derechos humanos no deja de ser un fenómeno minoritario dentro de este punto de vista. La increíble epopeya de las Madres y Abuelas desde 1976 conmovía sólo a un sector del país. Sólo a un sector minoritario (no más de un millón). No nos engañemos, la mayoría silenciosa, la masa gris astizforme, eran millones. Desde el Gobierno se realizaron importantes manifestaciones culturales y políticas.
La película de Renán La fiesta de todos –sobre el glorioso triunfo en el campeonato del ’78 y la felicidad del pueblo argentino– y el cierre de Félix Luna explicando por qué fue eso, una fiesta de todos. Tampoco nos olvidemos de la salida de Galtieri al balcón en Plaza de Mayo durante la invasión a Malvinas. Hay que ver ese noticiario y ver los brazos en alto de la multitud cuando apareció el dictador de turno. En el ’76-’77 jamás escuché hablar en las tribunas de las canchas de fútbol del gobierno y de los desaparecidos. Y no era por miedo. Era un problema de otros. Perón decía que un sector de los militares, muy minoritario, era inteligente y culto; otro sector era en cambio bruto, cerrado e inculto y, en el medio, había un gran sector volátil que no pensaba pero estaba siempre atento a moverse hacia los sectores del poder. Olían el poder. Eran los peores. Queremos a veces pensar que el pueblo sufrió la dictadura en su conjunto. Y es un tremendo error. Solo el sector más radicalizado y pensante la sufrió. La mayoría vivía indiferente. Esa gran complicidad civil es la que sostuvo el Terrorismo de Estado. El famoso 2x1 de las compras de la clase media.
Se puede creer que el fenómeno de la desaparición de López involucra a la población. Es una herida institucional tremenda que afectará a futuros testigos. Pero al hombre común –tomando a W. Reich– no le afecta el problema, aun cuando esté bombardeado por los medios. La subjetividad del ciudadano común –aquel que no se mete en política– es la que desconocemos. Además es volátil (usando los términos de Perón). De la misma manera que hoy apoya masivamente al Presidente, podría dejar de hacerlo mañana. Sabemos poco. Aun sabiendo que las circunstancias hoy son diferentes no nos olvidemos de que el pueblo votó tres veces a Menem como presidente. Hoy ya lo olvidó. Se corrió de lugar. Ya Menem no gana ni en La Rioja. El hombre común lo olvidó. No existe.
Realizamos un mal diagnóstico de situaciones porque desconocemos la subjetividad del hombre común. Esto es peligroso, porque esa mayoría hoy no tan silenciosa tiene la fuerza de la sorpresa, de su organización. Son millones de “indiferentes”. Cuando Videla inauguró el mundial en River, hubo tímidos silbidos y aplausos concertados. Videla les había regalado la fiesta y no fue repudiado. Yo estuve en 1956 viendo desde la tribuna cómo Argentina le ganaba a Italia 2 a 0. Cuando entró Aramburu, 50.000 personas silbaron simultáneamente. Fue la música más ensordecedora que he escuchado en mi vida. Era silbido de odio. No de indiferencia. Había policías dentro de la tribuna. Me consta. Pero qué se podía hacer: ¿prohibir silbar a 50.000 almas?
Los piqueteros y sus marchas y las “molestias del ciudadano común”. Los piqueteros eran el retorno de lo reprimido. El otro país. Los cuerpos desperdiciados. El ciudadano común es indiferente a los 10.000.000 de argentinos que viven con el subdesarrollo de los recursos humanos. Pero, en cambio, puede acompañar a Blumberg en sus marchas porque tiene miedo. Siempre tuvo miedo. Es su característica singular. El miedo a perder algo. Por eso lucha por una nueva doctrina de seguridad nacional. Con penas mayores para los menores. Ni siquiera relacionan la pobreza con la inseguridad. Con una buena doctrina de seguridad se termina todo. Piensa además, como dice Bauman, “culpar a la biografía del sujeto a conseguir empleo, y el sujeto juvenil se siente culpable de no poder estudiar o trabajar”. Todo se transforma en un problema individual. Un ciudadano común me dijo en Alemania que “si uno no era judío y no criticaba a Hitler se pasaba bien” (subjetividad del hombre común de W. Reich). Bergoglio dijo en Luján que tenemos que terminar la discordia entre hermanos argentinos. Y de esta manera se agrava la polémica entre la Iglesia y el Gobierno.
Yo hubiera preferido que se refiriera a la desaparición del hambre y la indigencia. Esa es su misión pastoral. La de Jesús, a la que pertenece.
Me cabe una reflexión, ya que los juicios a los militares recién empiezan. Yo no dudo de que se deben realizar. Pero el Gobierno debe prevenirse con diagnósticos políticos y sociales de lo que puede avecinarse. Un buen diagnóstico situacional de lo que puede ocurrir. En ese sentido López podría ser la punta del iceberg.
* Autor, director y actor teatral.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
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The Independent:
Mau Mau veterans to sue over British 'atrocities'
By Anthony Mitchell in Meru, Kenya
Published: 26 September 2006
Ten Kenyans detained during the Mau Mau independence uprising 50 years ago are seeking compensation in British courts for alleged atrocities.
One of the men, Mucheke Kioru, says he was tortured, starved and beaten while in a British-run detention camp, where he was held for smuggling food and weapons for rebels.
British officials said the Government would contest the case vigorously. Lawyers say that if the claim is successful it will open the floodgates to thousands who claim they also suffered.
"My life was ruined," Mr Kioru said, recalling the day, as a 23-year-old labourer, when he was rounded up and detained for four years without charge during Operation Anvil in 1954, a brutal military offensive launched by Britain to crush the Mau Mau uprising. He said he was forced to stand neck high in water for days at a time; had raw sewage pumped into his body - contracting typhoid as a result - and was severely beaten. He was left in constant pain and suffering frequent nightmares. The British also confiscated his family's farm, he said.
Kenya's Human Rights Commission believes 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the crackdown and 160,000 were detained in appalling conditions.
"This was a dark period in British history," said Martyn Day, a British human rights lawyer hired by the Kenyan Human Rights Commission to represent the Mau Mau veterans.
He believes the case could also have implications for the US over its role in Iraq, Afghanistan and the treatment of prisoners at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Mr Day will lodge the case at the High Court in London on 20 October - a Kenyan public holiday marking the beginning of the uprising when 180 independence leaders were seized. Legal papers will also be served on the British Government claiming the UK was responsible for atrocities during its rule. Judges are expected to fix a date for a legal hearing.
It is not clear that Britain can be sued so long after the alleged abuses. Charley Williams, a spokeswoman for the British embassy in Kenya, said all claims of government responsibility were passed to the Kenyan government at independence. "We would defend the case in this matter vigorously although we would wait to see the details before deciding on what approach we would take."
If the case does go to trial, among those who will give evidence is the American academic Caroline Elkins, author of the 2006 novel Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. She said: "The British tried to cover up systematic abuse and have to take responsibility for what happened." But she warnedthat it was a "political hot potato" that could raise tensions in both countries.
Mucheke Kioru, 75, lives in a one-room wooden hovel and works as a watchman guarding a small farm for a wage of £7 a month.
"I fought for freedom only to be shackled by poverty, nightmares and to die a lonely old man, unable to have a wife or children," he said. "That is my legacy of independence."
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article1757278.ece
The Independent:
The century of drought
One third of the planet will be desert by the year 2100, say climate experts in the most dire warning yet of the effects of global warming
By Michael McCarthy, Environmental Editor
Published: 04 October 2006
Drought threatening the lives of millions will spread across half the land surface of the Earth in the coming century because of global warming, according to new predictions from Britain's leading climate scientists.
Extreme drought, in which agriculture is in effect impossible, will affect about a third of the planet, according to the study from the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research.
It is one of the most dire forecasts so far of the potential effects of rising temperatures around the world - yet it may be an underestimation, the scientists involved said yesterday.
The findings, released at the Climate Clinic at the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth, drew astonished and dismayed reactions from aid agencies and development specialists, who fear that the poor of developing countries will be worst hit.
"This is genuinely terrifying," said Andrew Pendleton of Christian Aid. "It is a death sentence for many millions of people. It will mean migration off the land at levels we have not seen before, and at levels poor countries cannot cope with."
One of Britain's leading experts on the effects of climate change on the developing countries, Andrew Simms from the New Economics Foundation, said: "There's almost no aspect of life in the developing countries that these predictions don't undermine - the ability to grow food, the ability to have a safe sanitation system, the availability of water. For hundreds of millions of people for whom getting through the day is already a struggle, this is going to push them over the precipice."
The findings represent the first time that the threat of increased drought from climate change has been quantified with a supercomputer climate model such as the one operated by the Hadley Centre.
Their impact is likely to even greater because the findings may be an underestimate. The study did not include potential effects on drought from global-warming-induced changes to the Earth's carbon cycle.
In one unpublished Met Office study, when the carbon cycle effects are included, future drought is even worse.
The results are regarded as most valid at the global level, but the clear implication is that the parts of the world already stricken by drought, such as Africa, will be the places where the projected increase will have the most severe effects.
The study, by Eleanor Burke and two Hadley Centre colleagues, models how a measure of drought known as the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) is likely to increase globally during the coming century with predicted changes in rainfall and heat around the world because of climate change. It shows the PDSI figure for moderate drought, currently at 25 per cent of the Earth's surface, rising to 50 per cent by 2100, the figure for severe drought, currently at about 8 per cent, rising to 40 cent, and the figure for extreme drought, currently 3 per cent, rising to 30 per cent.
Senior Met Office scientists are sensitive about the study, funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, stressing it contains uncertainties: there is only one climate model involved, one future scenario for emissions of greenhouse gases (a moderate-to-high one) and one drought index. Nevertheless, the result is "significant", according to Vicky Pope, the head of the Hadley Centre's climate programme. Further work would now be taking place to try to assess the potential risk of different levels of drought in different places, she said.
The full study - Modelling the Recent Evolution of Global Drought and Projections for the 21st Century with the Hadley Centre Climate Model - will be published later this month in The Journal of Hydrometeorology .
It will be widely publicised by the British Government at the negotiations in Nairobi in November on a successor to the Kyoto climate treaty. But a preview of it was given by Dr Burke in a presentation to the Climate Clinic, which was formed by environmental groups, with The Independent as media partner, to press politicians for tougher action on climate change. The Climate Clinic has been in operation at all the party conferences.
While the study will be seen as a cause for great concern, it is the figure for the increase in extreme drought that some observers find most frightening.
"We're talking about 30 per cent of the world's land surface becoming essentially uninhabitable in terms of agricultural production in the space of a few decades," Mark Lynas, the author of High Tide, the first major account of the visible effects of global warming around the world, said. "These are parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people will no longer be able to feed themselves."
Mr Pendleton said: "This means you're talking about any form of development going straight out of the window. The vast majority of poor people in the developing world are small-scale farmers who... rely on rain."
A glimpse of what lies ahead
The sun beats down across northern Kenya's Rift Valley, turning brown what was once green. Farmers and nomadic herders are waiting with bated breath for the arrival of the "short" rains - a few weeks of intense rainfall that will ensure their crops grow and their cattle can eat.
The short rains are due in the next month. Last year they never came; large swaths of the Horn of Africa stayed brown. From Ethiopia and Eritrea, through Somalia and down into Tanzania, 11 million people were at risk of hunger.
This devastating image of a drought-ravaged region offers a glimpse of what lies ahead for large parts of the planet as global warming takes hold.
In Kenya, the animals died first. The nomadic herders' one source of sustenance and income - their cattle - perished with nothing to eat and nothing to drink. Bleached skeletons of cows and goats littered the barren landscape.
The number of food emergencies in Africa each year has almost tripled since the 1980s. Across sub-Saharan Africa, one in three people is under-nourished. Poor governance has played a part.
Pastoralist communities suffer most, rather than farmers and urban dwellers. Nomadic herders will walk for weeks to find a water hole or riverbed. As resources dwindle, fighting between tribes over scarce resources becomes common.
One of the most critical issues is under-investment in pastoralist areas. Here, roads are rare, schools and hospitals almost non-existent.
Nomadic herders in Turkana, northern Kenya, who saw their cattle die last year, are making adjustments to their way of life. When charities offerednew cattle, they said no. Instead, they asked for donkeys and camels - animals more likely to survive hard times.
Pastoralists have little other than their animals to rely on. But projects which provide them with money to buy food elsewhere have proved effective, in the short term at least.
Steve Bloomfield
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1786829.ece
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