Elsewhere Today (416)
Aljazeera:
US veto of Gaza resolution criticised
Sunday 12 November 2006, 14:32 Makka Time, 11:32 GMT
The Arab League has criticised the United States for blocking a UN Security Council resolution that sought to condemn Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip.
The US used its veto to halt the draft resolution, sponsored by the Gulf state of Qatar, that criticised the Israeli tank shelling of a home in Beit Hanoun on Wednesday in which seven children and four women were killed as they slept.
Amr Musa, the Arab League secretary general, said he was "surprised and disappointed" by the US move and said: "This veto will only increase anger.
"It is inexplicable that a veto can be used to protect Israeli actions against civilians."
He said the Arab world would not accept peace with Israel unless it was "just and balanced".
Negotiations
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, earlier described the text of the resolution as "unbalanced" and "biased against Israel and politically motivated".
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, said America's action would "only lead to impose the situation that Israel wants, and increase the frustration of Palestinian people".
A statement issued by Aboul Gheit's office said: "It is necessary for the Security Council to bear its responsibilities and stop turning a blind eye to Israeli acts in Gaza."
Egypt and other Arab powers fear that the latest bloodshed in Gaza could imperil an imminent deal for Hamas to reconcile with the more moderate Fatah movement and form a Palestinian unity government.
'Massacres'
Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said the US veto showed America's foreign policy bias in the Middle East.
He told Al Jazeera: "Such a decision was expected, because the US have already given the green light for Israel to carry on these massacres."
Arab foreign ministers are holding an emergency meeting on Sunday in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, to discuss plans to "confront on-going Israeli violence" against the Palestinian people", Arab League officials said.
The Arab League will also urge the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to form an international observation force to protect Palestinians, they said.
Israel has expressed regret for the loss of life in Beit Hanoun, but has said it will continue its military operations in Gaza.
It said an investigation indicated that the casualties in Beit Hanoun were caused by a "technical failure" in the fire control system of an artillery battery.
Aljazeera + Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1A32EA5C-7462-4EA0-B642-9363F23A9E79.htm
allAfrica:
Only Conflict-Free Diamonds, Please
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS
November 10, 2006
Johannesburg
Ghana, implicated in trafficking conflict diamonds, has been given a three-month reprieve by a global watchdog set up to eliminate the trade in so-called blood diamonds.
Ahead of the four-day closed-door session of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) plenary in Botswana's capital, Gaborone, which ended on Thursday, delegates came under pressure to act against Ghana, which was identified as a conduit for Cote d'Ivoire diamonds by the United Nations Panel of Experts.
About 300 delegates, representing the diamond industry, producer countries and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) from 70-odd countries, gathered for the annual review of the trade, worth about US$37.6 billion a year.
The KPCS was created four years ago to regulate the trade in diamonds and ensure that conflict diamonds, defined by the United Nations as those which "originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognised governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council", were removed from international trade.
Since the advent of the process, any rough diamonds transported across international borders are required to be sent in tamper-proof containers with unique serial numbers, which has led to 99.8 percent of diamonds traded being certified as sourced from conflict-free areas.
An open letter from concerned NGOs to the KPCS chairperson, Kago Mashashane, cited the panel of experts' concern that diamond dealers in Belgium and Israel were trading in "a significant volume of conflict diamonds ... entering the legitimate trade and being certified as conflict-free".
At a press conference Mashashane said the industry's controlling body, the World Diamond Council, had offered to provide Ghana with technical expertise to identify diamonds that did not meet the requirements of the international certification process and to strengthen mechanisms to prevent the flow of diamonds mined from the conflict zones in Cote d'Ivoire. Ghana faced losing its membership to the body, an eventuality that would effectively prohibit the country from trading any of its annual production of about one million carats.
Mashashane told IRIN that there was a need for member states to comply with the certification requirements. "The world diamond trade is almost clean now, with 98.8 percent of it certified as conflict-free. But we still need to sanitise the remaining 0.2 percent, which is sourced from conflict zones and other illegal enterprises. Continued trade in tainted diamonds can destabilise and taint the whole industry."
Ghanaian delegate Yakubu Roberts told IRIN that his country was complying with the requirements of KPCS and would accept all the assistance offered, and would present the KPCS with detailed plans of how it intended to clean up its diamond trade. "It is important that we are not seen by our partners to be doing anything that is wayward. We will do all to plug all the diamond trade loopholes where we find them."
In a report presented at the beginning of the conference, Ghana disputed UN reports that its diamond export figures continued to rise between 2000 and 2005, despite obsolete mining techniques and capital problems at Ghana Consolidated Diamonds, the country's only mechanised diamond producer.
"Our export figures fell in 2003 and remained fairly constant in 2004, and only increased by a slight 10.14 percent in 2005," the report said.
Corinna Gilfillan, a campaigner for advocacy group Global Witness, which seeks to ensure that resources are not used to fuel conflicts, commented that the "problems in Ghana reflect a broader problem of weak government controls".
"The Kimberley Process needs to have effective controls across the diamond pipeline [from producing countries to the end-user countries that cut and polish the gemstones]," she said.
Botswana's mineral and energy minister, Charles Tibone, told IRIN that countries should scrutinise companies and individuals willing to do business, in an effort to screen out those with suspicious backgrounds and possible links to conflict diamonds.
"Internal controls need to be tightened, including the regular collection of production data from the mining sites. Credible geological diamond data estimates must be collected and maintained," Tibone suggested.
Botswana produces diamonds worth $3.2 billion annually, accounting for 76 percent of export revenue, 45 percent of government revenue and 33 percent of gross domestic product.
Next month's release of the Hollywood film 'Blood Diamond', starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a South African mercenary pursuing a rare pink diamond through Sierra Leone's diamond-fuelled civil war, although not specifically addressed, was nevertheless "a driving force" behind the meeting, according to Gilfillan. About 75,000 people were killed in the West African conflict, which ended in 2002.
The diamond industry, acutely aware of the negative impact that the film might have on diamond sales, has already begun an awareness campaign citing the benefits to developing countries of legally traded diamonds, which contribute about $8.4 billion to African economies annually.
Gilfillan said she saw the film "as educating consumers about the issues, particularly the US [audience]".
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Copyright © 2006 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611100515.html
allAfrica: President Obasanjo's Aide
Accused of Money Laundering
By Dan Onwukwe and Thomas Imonikhe
Daily Champion (Lagos) NEWS
November 10, 2006
FRESH facts have emerged on the alleged money laundering against Dr Andy Uba, President Olusegun Obasanjo's aide on Special Duties and Domestic Matters, as the principal personage in the matter, Ms Loretta Mabinton has opened up, debunking the allegations.
She said the allegations against her and the former presidential aide contained outright lies primarily targeted to achieve political ends.
In her first public statement since the matter broke, Ms Mabinton told selected journalists in Abuja Wednesday night that it has become necessary for her to break her silence on the matter to state the facts as they are and stop the "distorted" issues emanating from a section of the media.
Daily Champion found that Ms Mabinton is a law graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University before she left for the United States of America (USA) to further her studies, and is currently practising Law there.
She hails from Bayelsa State and is a niece to the late Dr Ukpabi Asika, former administrator of the defunct East Central State.
Speaking on the alleged money laundering against her and Dr Uba, with supporting documents, Ms Mabinton said, "press reports mentioning my name have distorted and sensationalised the facts for purely political reason(s). Money laundering is a serious criminal offence in the United States and persons convicted of money laundering go to jail."
She flatly denied there was any money laundering case against her or Dr Uba. Her words: "There was not, and has never been any allegation of money laundering filed against me, or to the best of my knowledge against Andy Uba."
She however admitted that she was involved in a civil matter with the government of the United States District Court in Oregon and reached a mutually satisfactory settlement with the government.
Documents obtained by Daily Champion showed that, indeed, she and Dr Uba reached a nine point settlement dated August 31, 2006.
In the settlement signed by Mr Douglas Stringer, counsel to Dr Uba and Loretta Mabinton and Leslie J. Westaphal, an assistant attorney for the United States District Court of Oregon, the statement states that Dr Uba "specifically denied any involvement or participation in a conspiracy to engage in bulk currency smuggling or any advanced fee fraud scheme."
Also, according to the settlement, "all parties agree and stipulate that by entering into this agreement, no party admits any civil or criminal liability of any kind.
"In addition, as contained in the settlement, both Dr Uba and Loretta Mabinton agreed to pay $26,000 (US currency) by a "Cashier check made to the United States Department of Treasury." Cashier check is a bankdraft.
Ms Mabinton who described Dr Uba as a mere "family friend," regretted that the present media reports had caused great anguish. She added that she sees the reports against her and the former presidential aide as politically motivated, and that she might be compelled to commence law suits against some newspapers in Nigeria.
It will be recalled that Dr Uba had only recently indicated his intention to contest for the governorship seat of Anambra State next year on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Documents obtained from Ms Mabinton by Daily Champion which she admitted showed that indeed, Dr Uba gave her $91,000 (US dollars) in three installments to help him buy a Mercedez SL 500 Convertible in the state of Oregon.
The car, Daily Champion learnt was to be shipped into Nigeria via California Ports before it was confiscated by the Customs Border Patrol officials demanding that under California Laws, duties must be paid on such exotic car. No taxes or duties, it was gathered was required for such goods in Oregon according to its own laws.
It was also found, according to Ms Mabinton evidence that part of the money being referred by some Nigeria media as money laundering was proceed from the sale of her property in Los Angeles which she paid into her bank account.
However, after proper investigation by the Califonia agent, the money totalling $131,666.44 was later refunded to Ms Mabinton through her attorney Mr Megan Fishel. The letter refunding the money was written and signed by Mr Samuel C. Kauffman of 121 SW Morrison Street, Portland, Oregun. It was signed on January 31, 2005.
Asked to comment on the connection between the alleged laundered money and farm equipment reportedly meant for Obasanjo farms in Ogun State owned by President Obasanjo, she said there was no connection whatever, saying at "no time did Ota Farm come into the picture."
Meanwhile, a Lagos-based human rights activist, Mr Bamidele Aturu yesterday called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately investigate money laundering allegation levelled against presidential aide, Dr uba in line with on-going war on graft.
Uba he said should also be prosecuted in the law court if found culpable, adding that this would send right signals to Nigerians that campaign against corruption is not selective.
Reacting however a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Ethical Values Restoration Initiative (EVRIS) described the allegation as "malicious' and designed to stain Dr Uba's rising political profile.
Daily Champion recalls that Dr Uba had allegedly smuggled about $170,000 in a presidential plane into New York United States (U.S.).
Uba also reportedly known as Emmanuel Nnamdi and his accomplice, Loretta Mabinton allegedly agreed to forteit $26,000 to the US government in an out of court settlement with U.S Federal District Court in Portland, Oregon.
Speaking with Daily Champion on the allegation however, Mr Aturu, a lawyer said the EFCC must conduct full probe, stressing that the issue should not be swept under the carpet.
"If this happens, it shows that the war on corruption is selective and meant to punish some people who are not in the good books of Mr President" he stated.
According to him, Dr Uba could still be prosecuted for offence allegedly committed in 2003 "as there is no statute of limitation in criminal offence"
Meanwhile, spokesperson of Ethical Values Restoration Initiative (EVRI), Mr Ikechukwu Onyeanisi, has said, "although we are not holding brief for Dr. Uba, we, nevertheless, wish to inform the general public, that he is a law abiding citizen and will neither associate his good name with crime nor indulge in scams or infringements of any laws whatsoever.
"He is a professional of repute, a philanthropist, and has constantly stood and fought for justice. He has over the years laboured for the well-being and support of the less-privileged members of our society. He spent the greater part of his adult life overseas, and at all times maintained an enviable attachment to his roots through numerous welfare schemes," he added.
According to him, the allegation of money laundering was meant to tarnish the rising political profile of Dr. Uba especially now that he has picked gubernatorial form of the PDP for the next election.
He said the publications "represents the handiwork of frustrated politicians who are overwhelmed and intimidated by Dr. Uba's growing political clout, his acceptability by the people of Anambra State, his loyalty to the President Obasanjo and the virile and vibrant support he has given his party."
"These malicious and callous references to his person as encapsulated in the said stories are designed to tarnish his image, ridicule his stature and mutilate his accomplishments. It is a coincidence that puts a blemish on our morals that all manner of vicious and press-related attacks are thrown at him, days after he picked the PDP gubernatorial elections forms for Anambra State .
Through total re-orientation, we must collectively discourage this retrogressive attitude to politicking and stop these political jobbers, desperate foes and men of questionable political cleavages, who believe that every successful Igboman must be pulled down," Onyeanisi added.
He maintained that "Dr. Uba is the candidate to beat at the next elections for the seat of governor of Anambra state. So, we ought to support rather than pull him down."
Copyright © 2006 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611100361.html
Asia Times:
The US's new Democratic way
By Ian Williams
Nov 11, 2006
NEW YORK - Despite the results of this week's election, US President George W Bush, and of course Vice President Dick Cheney, will still largely have their own way, albeit with some frustrations. Between them Bush and Cheney have raised executive power, already fearsome, to impressive heights, aided by a Congress that has failed to oversee the White House - and media that have largely failed to oversee Congress.
Chastened by the results in which both the House of Representatives and the Senate went to the Democrats, the president may, for a short time at least, try to work in a consensual way with the changed Congress, whose composition is clearly a reflection of the popular verdict on his administration. One suspects that he will only be kidding, however. The real aim will be to split centrist Democrats from their colleagues as Bush seeks to divide and rule.
Previously, that would have been easier, but by a demographic accident, the Democrats with the seniority to move into the crucial committee chairs are mostly old-school liberals, rather than some of the new input who fought their elections by being more conservative than their Republican opponents.
Many of the Democratic incumbents excluded and marginalized by the rampant Republicans over the past decade may not be very merciful in return. At national and at state level, where they also won some significant victories, such as the Massachusetts and New York governors' races, there will be pressure to reverse Republican measures designed to gerrymander seats and suppress votes.
In the Senate, the Democrats, with their paper-thin majority of one, will face problems, as a party generally needs a 10-seat majority for effective control, and US senators are notoriously independent. Just as sufficient Republicans defied their party to prevent the confirmation of John Bolton as United Nations ambassador (Bolton was appointed ambassador in August 2005 during a congressional recess), it only takes the defection of a few quasi-Democrats such as Joseph Lieberman to break the party's strength on key security issues.
On the other hand, Lieberman's centrism is countered by the remarkable but little remarked-on election to the Senate of a self-confessed socialist, Bernie Sanders from Vermont, who will certainly caucus with the Democrats, but could counter any tantrums from Lieberman with his own threat to break ranks.
Even so, among the things that are certainly not going to happen immediately despite the dreams of the fervent grassroots Democrats are an immediate impeachment of Bush and a hasty withdrawal from Iraq. After all, most of these legislators voted for the invasion, and in their often-temporizing way complain about the conduct of the war rather than the invasion itself. Many of the Democratic leadership are considering presidential bids next year and so will impale themselves on their own statesmanship to avoid offending key voting blocs.
For example, John Conyers, who will probably chair the House Judiciary Committee, wants Congress to censure Bush and Cheney for misleading members over the decision to go to war in Iraq, and he has mentioned impeachment. But a newly centered Nancy Pelosi (incoming House Speaker), backed by centrist Democratic leadership types such as Rahm Emanuel, have already pulled him back.
In foreign affairs, on many issues the differences will be in tone rather than substance. Both sides of Congress are fundamentally America-firsters, but the Democrats see sweet-talking and stroking as more effective means of achieving those ends.
In general, the incoming Democrats will be pro-Israel like those they succeed, but probably much more pragmatic about it. While Republicans tended to march to the massed bands of evangelical Christians and Likudniks, the Democrats have customarily had closer ties to the Labor wing of Israeli politics, which is, arguably, marginally more inclined to a genuine peace settlement.
But they will be better informed than their predecessors. For example, New York Congressman Garry Ackerman, tipped to chair the Middle East and Asia Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee, speaks Korean, and shows an educated interest in Asian affairs.
In that sense, the rest of the world can certainly welcome the new Congress, the majority of whose members actually know that other countries exist and have their own ideas about how to do things.
On other issues, the major Democratic figures want a run-down, rather than an immediate withdrawal, of the US presence in Iraq. They support direct talks with North Korea and Iran, and also support India as a counterbalance to China. They are likely to be tougher, to the point of xenophobia, than the Republicans on investment and trade issues.
This they demonstrated over a Dubai firm's failed bid to to run some US ports and the abortive bid by China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) for control of Unocal, the California-based oil-and-gas group. Democrats are deeply concerned about the trade deficit with China, both as a strategic threat to the US and as a source of unemployment for their constituents.
Now that the Democrats have assumed control of the Senate, the most likely chair of the Foreign Relations Committee is Senator Joe Biden, who is on record advocating direct talks with both North Korea and Iran. Like many of his wing of the Democratic Party with close union ties, he is unlikely to nod through free-trade agreements that risk US jobs, so there may well be some bumps in China-US ties as a result.
Biden is also in favor of giving India a pass for its nuclear program, as indeed is his counterpart Tom Lantos, almost certain to become the chair of the House International Relations Committee. A Holocaust survivor, Lantos is, of course, pro-Israel, but not to the point of taking lobby dictation. After initially supporting the war in Iraq, Lantos has called for an exit strategy and is highly critical of the Bush administration's conduct of the war. Lantos has demurred at Japanese hedging on war guilt, which may lead to problems with the new administration in Tokyo, albeit tempered by impatience with China's amassing dollars.
In the House, with a clear Democratic majority, a whole slew of committees will stand in the way of much of the Bush agenda, and their chairs have pledged themselves to roll back many of the steps of the past few years, notably those that have reduced taxes on the affluent. They will push for an increased minimum wage, more access to health care, and curbs on powerful pharmaceutical companies.
Charles Rangel, the New York veteran, will inherit the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which will bring the power of the purse to reverse the years of Republican domination of the government's social and economic agenda. However, no one is envisaging a Democratic attempt to cut funding for the Iraq war, which would be the most direct way of overcoming presidential authority.
Instead, the buzzword from the centrist Democrats has been "oversight" and the use of the congressional subpoena power to uncover how the Bush administration has mismanaged the war, and to whose benefit. In that context, even while in a minority, Henry Waxman of California has turned the spotlight on the murkier corners of the administration's operations in an admirably dogged way. Recently, he forced disclosure of details of the looting of the Development Fund for Iraq with no-bid contracts by such companies as Halliburton.
Sadly, more often than not, the media were not there when he did it, but as incoming chair of the House Government Reform Committee he can use the bully pulpit to ensure significant attention.
A small cloud on the horizon is the reaction of the financial markets. Rationally, they should be glad that the days of Republican fiscal profligacy are dated. But just as the markets went up on "irrational exuberance", in former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's memorable phrase, they can be equally irrational in their despondence.
With a falling housing market, a rising deficit and a soft dollar, it may not take that much of a catalyst to have them waving their sell orders. A nose-to-nose with China would do it. Of course it would be in no one's interest. But neither was World War I. An unstable situation, like the present US economy, does not have the resilience to take much of a push.
Ian Williams is author of Deserter: Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans and His Past, Nation Books, New York.
Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HK11Aa03.html
Asia Times:
Regime-change blowback
By Henry C K Liu
The US mid-term elections of 2006 were a classic example of political "blowback", a term the Central Intelligence Agency invented for internal analysis. It refers to the unintended consequences of covert operations. The public is generally unaware that the headlines of violence by terrorist groups or drug lords or rogue states are blowbacks from previous US policies.
"Blowback" first appeared in a March 1954 report, since declassified, relating to the 1953 covert operation to subject the nationalist government of democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran to regime change. By installing Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as shah to replace Mossadegh, the US condemned the Iranian people to a quarter-century of tyranny and repression that eventually strengthened extremist Islamic fundamentalism and gave birth to theocratic revolution led by ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979.
The misguided US policy elicited a tidal wave of anti-US sentiments across the Islamic world that set the stage for the Iranian student occupation of the US Embassy. The crisis destroyed president Jimmy Carter's chance for a second term and turned US domestic politics sharply to the extreme right, along a belligerent path that eventually led to a blowback in the form of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In reaction, the US adopted a foreign policy of "regime change", with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as opening salvos in President George W Bush's "war on terrorism".
The disastrous war to force a regime change in Iraq in turn produced a regime change in Washington on the second Tuesday of November in 2006.
On April 5, 2003, at the start of the Iraq war, I wrote in The war that may end the age of superpower in Asia Times Online:
This war highlights once again that military power is but a tool for achieving political objectives. The pretense of this war was to disarm Iraq of weapons of massive destruction (WMD), although recent emphasis has shifted to "liberating" the Iraqi people from an alleged oppressive regime. At the end of the war, the US still needs to produce indisputable evidence of Iraqi WMD to justify a war that was not sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council. Overwhelming force is counterproductive when applied against popular resistance because it inevitably increases the very resolve of popular resistance it aims to awe into submission.
Only when a nation is already occupied by a foreign power can the theme of liberation by another foreign power be regarded with credibility. A foreign power liberating a nation from its nationalist government is a very hard sell. The US manipulates its reason for invading Iraq like a magician pulling colored scarves out of a breast pocket. First it was self-defense against terrorism, then it was to disarm Iraq of WMD, now it invades to liberate the Iraqi people form their demonic leader. Soon it will be to bring prosperity to the Iraqi people by taking control of their oil, or to save them from their tragic fate of belonging to a malignant civilization.
There is no point in winning the war to lose the peace. Military power cannot be used without political constraint, which limits its indiscriminate application. The objective of war is not merely to kill, but to impose political control by force. Therein lies the weakest part of the US war plan to date. The plan lacks a focus of what political control it aims to establish. The US has not informed the world of its end game regarding Iraq, beyond the removal of Saddam Hussein. The idea of a US occupational governor was and is a laughable non-starter.
Guerrilla resistance will not end even after the Iraqi government is toppled and its army destroyed. Drawing upon British experiences in Malaysia and Rhodesia, the force ratio of army forces to guerrilla forces needed for merely containing guerrilla resistance, let alone defeating a guerrilla force, is about 20:1. US estimates of the size of Iraq's guerrilla force stand at 100,000 for the time being. This means the US would need a force of 2 million to contain the situation even if it already controls the country.
In my article in ATol on October 23, 2003, The war that could destroy both armies, I wrote:
A reader wrote on April 7: "If you want Asia Times Online to be taken seriously, you might want to consider not using any more items from Henry C K Liu ... Suggestion: Reread his article six months from now as a test of his ability to prognosticate."
Six months have passed and I repeat: This war may end the age of superpower.
On April 20, 2004, I wrote in the article Occupation highlights superpower limits:
With the fall of Saddam and the marginalization of the Ba'ath Party in Iraqi politics, the balance of power in the Persian Gulf region and indeed the whole Middle East is fundamentally altered. A rise of Iraq's Shi'ites will be felt by the entire Middle East - particularly states with their own sizable Shi'ite populations - and Iraq's immediate neighbors, which include Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey. Iranian theocratic influence is now dominant in the Iraqi political milieu through the venue of democracy.
In the long perspective that governs national diplomatic priorities, the role of the US in the region remains transient, while the rise of Iranian theo-politics is a very serious long-term development for many countries in the region and the world, particularly the Sunni countries.
Iran's 1979 theocratic revolution was not only a shock to the West, but to the entire Middle East and the Islamic nations of Asia. The US will go to any lengths to prevent the Iranian theocratic model from sweeping the region. The Ba'ath Party of Iraq, the history of which predates Saddam's rise to power, until its ill-advised marginalization by the US invasion authorities, had been the main bulwark against the Iranian model of Shi'ism in Iraq.
By the regime change carried out with the invasion of Iraq, the US has demolished that bulwark for no discernible geopolitical purpose. Sunnis in the region are now torn between their fear of a rise of the Shi'ites in Iraq and their commitment to Arab nationalism stimulated by foreign occupation. Neither option has any room for US superpower dominance. The abuse of superpower, and indeed the foolish squandering of superpower resources, appears to have rendered the world's sole superpower powerless to shape a new world order of peace, harmony and justice, diluting the sole justification for superpower existence.
This is a strategic problem that cannot be corrected by the mere change of one cabinet member, or even the change of partisan control of one branch of government. There is a moral crisis in the US polity. What is needed is a complete re-examination of US foreign policy to revive a bipartisanship that recognizes the simple truth that terrorism cannot be fought with state terror.
The US has the capacity to be a world leader of peace, but to fulfill that noble mission it must adopt a foreign policy of tolerance, respect and fairness toward other nations. Win the love of the world with justice and the inferno of terrorism will be extinguished.
Henry C K Liu is chairman of a New York-based private investment group. His website is at www.henryckliu.com
Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK11Ak02.html
Clarín: Sangriento atentando en Bagdad contra un centro
de entrenamiento de la Policía: al menos 35 muertos
Dos suicidas se inmolaron en la puerta del lugar, ubicado en la zona oeste de la capital iraquí. La mayoría de las víctimas son reclutas. Y hay más de 60 heridos.
Clarín.com, 12.11.2006
Al menos 35 personas – todos reclutas de la policía iraquí- murieron hoy y otros 60 resultaron heridos en un atentado suicida que tuvo como blanco un centro de entrenamiento, ubicado en el oeste de Bagdad, según informaron fuentes policiales.
"Dos kamikazes hicieron explotar su carga cuando los reclutas estaban reunidos en un centro de alistamiento de la policía nacional", en el ubicado Qadissya, agregó una fuente de seguridad. La mayoría de las víctimas estaban formando una fila en la puerta del lugar cuando se produjo la explosión.
Los centros de reclutamiento, los miembros de la Policía y del Ejército son blanco frecuente de los ataques de los rebeldes. De hecho, según el portavoz del ministerio iraquí del Interior, entre el 2 y el 8 de noviembre, un total de 39 policías fallecieron y 170 resultaron heridos en varios atentados.
Copyright 1996-2006 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/11/12/um/m-01308166.htm
Harper’s Magazine:
A Cartoon
Posted on Friday, November 10, 2006. By Mr. Fish
This is A Cartoon, a cartoon by Mr. Fish, published Friday, November 10, 2006. It is part of The Cartoons of Mr. Fish: a Selection, which is part of Features, which is part of Harpers.org.
Written By
Fish, Mr
Permanent URL
http://harpers.org/CartoonsRumsfeld-200611-10.html
Jeune Afrique:
L'Afrique première victime du réchauffement de la Terre
9 novembre 2006 – AFP
Sécheresses récurrentes, diminution du rendement des cultures céréalières, Lagos qui pourrait être partiellement engloutie par les eaux: l'Afrique, continent le plus pauvre, est aussi le plus vulnérable au réchauffement de la Terre, causé en partie par les pays industriels.
"La pauvreté et le changement de climat sont inextricablement liés. Ce sont les pauvres du monde qui souffrent déjà de façon disproportionnée des effets du réchauffement climatique", fait valoir l'organisation Christian Aid dans un rapport publié en mai 2006.
"L'Afrique est probablement le continent le plus vulnérable à tous les effets négatifs du changement climatique et celui qui est confronté aux plus grands défis d'adaptation", complète Oxfam dans un document paru en octobre 2006.
Cette vulnérabilité extrême s'explique par le fait que 70% de la population africaine vit de l'agriculture, dont les rendements dépendent à plus de 95% des eaux de pluies, selon les Nations unies.
Le réchauffement de la Terre a déjà de multiples conséquences sur le continent noir. Comme dans le centre du Kenya, à Mtitoandei: cette région fertile s'est largement asséchée en dix ans en raison de la raréfaction des pluies. Le nombre d'agriculteurs y est passé de 300 à 2 en une décennie, selon Oxfam.
"Le réchauffement va au-delà des variations attendues par les processus naturels, ce qui renforce l'idée que les gaz à effet de serre (essentiellement liés à la combustion des énergies fossiles, comme le gaz, le pétrole et le charbon) sont impliqués", explique l'organisation humanitaire britannique.
Et les conséquences du changement climatique pourraient être bien plus catastrophiques à l'avenir pour l'Afrique.
"Le rendement des cultures céréalières baissera de 5% (...) d'ici aux années 2080", estime un rapport des Nations unies.
"Le nombre de personnes menacées par des inondations côtières passera de 1 million en 1990 à 70 millions en 2080", ajoute ce document publié à l'occasion de la 12e conférence internationale sur le climat qui se tient à Nairobi du 6 au 17 novembre.
"Quelque 185 millions de personnes en Afrique sud-saharienne seulement pourraient mourir de maladies directement attribuables au changement de climat d'ici la fin du siècle", comme le paludisme ou la malnutrition, selon Christian Aid.
Le changement climatique, qui "limite le développement en Afrique", a le "potentiel" encore bien pire de "saper" les quelques améliorations enregistrées dans certains pays du continent, met en garde le Fonds mondial pour la nature (WWF).
Le paradoxe est que l'Afrique est touchée de plein fouet par le réchauffement alors qu'elle est le continent habité qui produit le moins de gaz à effet de serre (GES).
Devant ce tableau alarmant, des voix se sont élevées cette semaine à la conférence de Nairobi pour réclamer des mesures en faveur des pays en développement.
L'Afrique manque notamment cruellement de stations météorologiques pour élaborer des scénarios climatiques et des stratégies d'adaptation, souligne l'ONU.
De son côté, l'Union européenne (UE) attend de la conférence des initiatives "pour encourager une distribution plus équitable des projets destinés à réduire les émissions" de GES en vertu du Mécanisme de développement propre (MDP).
Le MDP, prévu dans le protocole de Kyoto, permet aux gros pollueurs de financer des projets de développement propre - comme l'utilisation de l'énergie éolienne - dans les pays du Sud pour compenser leurs émissions de GES, et permet ainsi d'injecter de l'argent dans l'économie locale.
Aujourd'hui, "seuls 9 des quelque 400 projets MDP enregistrés jusqu'à présent se trouvent en Afrique", regrette l'UE.
© Jeuneafrique.com 2006
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_depeche.asp?
art_cle=AFP95036lafrierreta0
Jeune Afrique: Les neiges du Kilimandjaro
ne seront plus éternelles, à qui la faute ?
TANZANIE - 10 novembre 2006 – AFP
Réchauffement climatique, déforestation, précipitations trop faibles: les scientifiques s'interrogent sur les raisons de la disparition progressive des neiges éternelles du Kilimandjaro, le plus haut sommet d'Afrique qui culmine à 5.895 mètres.
Il y a deux ans, un Tanzanien, Faustin Meela, qui habite le village de Marangu au pied de la majestueuse montagne, n'en a pas cru ses yeux. Le glacier du Gredner sur le "Kili", qu'il avait escaladé six ans auparavant, avait disparu.
Et le pire est peut-être à venir. Le peu de glace et de neige qui restent au sommet du Kilimandjaro, mais aussi sur le Mont Kenya et les montagnes Ruwenzori (entre la RDCongo et l'Ouganda), pourraient disparaître d'ici à 20 ou 50 ans, selon les scientifiques.
La perte de ces trésors naturels peut être en grande partie attribuée à l'homme, estiment-ils. Et plus précisément aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre, qui sont liées à la combustion des énergies fossiles (gaz, pétrole, charbon) et piègent la chaleur du soleil dans l'atmosphère, provoquant un réchauffement de la Terre.
Mais les scientifiques reconnaissent aussi manquer cruellement d'informations, en raison notamment du peu de données météorologiques locales, pour expliquer totalement la fonte des neiges sur les sommets africains.
"Beaucoup de personnes disent +Oh, ce doit être le réchauffement de la planète+", explique à l'AFP Ellen Mosley-Thompson, glaciologue à l'université américaine de l'Ohio: "mais il est irresponsable de pointer du doigt une seule cause."
Pour Stefan Hastenrath, professeur en études atmosphériques à l'université du Wisconsin (Etats-Unis) et expert en glaciers africains, les neiges africaines ont commencé à fondre vers les années 1880, soit au début de la Révolution industrielle.
Depuis plus d'un siècle, l'Afrique de l'Est connaît une forte diminution du niveau des lacs et une augmentation des vents d'ouest, signe d'un climat de plus en plus sec, note M. Hastenrath. "Ce n'est pas vraiment de notre faute", en déduit-il.
Selon d'autres théories, la disparition progressive des neiges éternelles en Afrique peut être attribuée à la déforestation ou à des perturbations récurrentes dans les précipitations.
Couper des arbres réduit l'humidité dans l'atmosphère, ce qui diminue la couverture offerte par les nuages et la brume. En conséquence, les glaciers sont à la merci de vents secs et du soleil, explique un porte-parole du Mouvement de la ceinture verte, Fredrick Njau.
Ce mouvement, qui a été fondé par le prix Nobel de la paix 2004, la Kényane Wangari Maathai, lutte contre la déforestation. Il a lancé le mois dernier un projet de deux millions de dollars (1,56 million d'euros) pour replanter des arbres sur les pentes du Mont Kenya (5.199 mètres), deuxième plus haut sommet d'Afrique, en partie pour stopper la fonte des neiges.
Les glaciers ne sont pas seulement splendides, ils sont aussi vitaux pour l'approvisionnement en eau.
"D'ici à 2025, environ 480 millions de personnes en Afrique habiteront des régions où l'eau manquera ou sera sévèrement limitée", selon un rapport de l'ONU publié à l'occasion de la 12e conférence internationale sur le climat qui se tient à Nairobi jusqu'au 17 novembre.
Alors que le temps presse, un professeur en géologie à l'Université de Londres, Evan Nisbet, a proposé de recouvrir le sommet du "Kili" d'un immense drap pour le protéger du dégel. Une idée qui, pour beaucoup, ne tient pas la route.
"Le plus triste, c'est que bientôt, la seule glace qui restera du Kilimandjaro sera dans des frigidaires à l'université de l'Ohio", prédit Mme Mosley-Thompson.
© Jeuneafrique.com 2006
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_depeche.asp?
art_cle=AFP60706lesneetuafa0
Mail & Guardian:
Every drop counts
Nicole Johnston
10 November 2006
It is predicted that by the end of the century, a barrel of water will cost more than a barrel of oil. In cities such as Dar es Salaam and Delhi, the taps often run dry and women spend hours every day looking for water to buy from tankers and vendors. In the rural areas this is often not an option, and available water must be harvested from rainfall or rivers without wasting a precious drop.
“In Africa, 90% of food is produced by farmers who rely solely on rainfall for their crops,” explains Dr Hubert Savenije, professor of hydrology at the Delft University of Technology. “We need to work with cheap, new technologies that allow them to do more with the same amount of rainfall.” He says there are relatively simple things that can be done to make the lives of poor people better, such as using a “ripper” plough, which allows rainfall to penetrate more deeply into the soil.
Small irrigation technologies such as treadle pumps and drip irrigation are also taking over from large-scale government and donor-driven irrigation projects that tend to benefit commercial farmers and rely on expensive pumps and imported spare parts from the West. “Africa is littered with failed irrigation projects,” says Dr Douglas Merrey of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network. “There have been very few cases in African agriculture where women have benefited from conventional irrigation projects,” he adds, explaining that projects are inevitably captured by men, who own the land rights and therefore the water rights. “While women are often represented on water committees, as a prerequisite for donor funding, once the donor goes, men take back control.”
Micro-technologies can be used by individual women, freeing them from reliance on others. But small technologies don’t always benefit women, says Simone Noemdoe of the University of the Western Cape’s integrated water resources management programme. Women need to take time off from their usual duties to learn to use and maintain these systems, but are often unable to find replacement labour to feed babies, clean their houses, cook food and chop firewood as well as take care of family members who are ill with Aids.
“Men just assume that someone else will do it,” says Noemdoe. That someone else is most often a girl child, who is forced to miss out on her education, and is then stuck in that cycle. “In the long run these technologies will ease the burdens of women, but will fail if there is not support at the outset.”
In South Africa women and girls still do most of the lugging of water in buckets and drums. “In Limpopo there is a project where women have started using treadle pumps to draw water from the river to water their food gardens, cutting the amount of time they spend carrying water from six hours a day to one hour,” says Merrey. But the cost of such pumps is very high in this region, up to five times more expensive than in India.
Drip irrigation targets the roots of plants and can save up to 80% of water by preventing evaporation. But, says Merrey, “it needs to be part of a long-term integrated development project, and not just dump-and-run as practised by some NGOs in this region”.
Users require proper training, and support on how to solve problems and make repairs. “A recent study found that of the drip kits distributed by NGOs as part of emergency relief in Zimbabwe, less than half were still being used by the second year and by the third year this figure had dropped to 10%,” says Merrey.
“I think a lot of NGOs, both local and international, have a vested interest in the relief business. They don’t seem to have the capacity to help people improve pro°©ductivity on a continual basis: after treadle pumps, they should move to low-cost diesel pumps, and then get micro°©finance to buy a small mill for grinding maize, and to buy fertilisers and so make some progress.”
The Kasungu district is three hours’ drive north of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, and has been hardest hit by drought and the recent food crisis. Small boys on the roadside sell roasted rats (complete with teeth and tails) and birds on a stick: 100 kwacha for 10.
After several successive years of bad harvests, people simply don’t have any excess food to store for the lean months. World Food Programme distribution centres provide families with basic take-home rations of maize, pulses and cooking oil, which makes up an astonishing 80% of their food intake.
The road to the distribution point is thronged with people heading home on bicycles laden with bags of food, or carrying cans of oil on their heads. But in Mzumara village, on the banks of the Dwangwa river, the villagers produce their own food rations, thanks to an innovative irrigation project developed with the World Food Programme. It uses treadle pumps to bring water up from the river, and drip-irrigation pipes to direct the water exactly where it is needed.
Villagers have also dug a series of wells for drinking water and embarked on a winter cultivation programme, growing maize, pumpkins, beans and greens called denje.
“We had a big problem with hunger in this area,” says villager Christina Nkoma. “Ladies are hit first, because we are concerned about our children. Now we grow maize all year round.” They don’t produce enough of a surplus to sell, but no longer have to hire their labour out to neighbouring farms to get food. “We work in a family group and the men’s behaviour has changed - they are so busy now that they don’t go drinking outside, and the family is together.”
Nicole Johnston visited Malawi as a guest of the SADC Water Sector Programme
Climate change and water in Africa
Farmers in rural Swaziland may not have heard of the Stern report on climate change, but they already live the reality of the scenarios painted in its pages. Many have been forced to abandon farming as drought chokes the Lowveld region, says Dr Jonathan Matondo, professor of hydrology and water resources at the University of Swaziland.
“If crops fail for two years in a row because there is no rain, the farmers have no resources to plant again the next year. Their investment of labour, seed and fertilisers has been wasted, so crop production ceases.”
The implications for all of us, both urban and rural, are grave: “Families give up on farming and the young people move to town to look for jobs. Increased pressure is placed on sanitation, housing and healthcare in the cities and can lead to an increase in crime. This means African governments have less available assets, and become increasingly indebted to rich countries.”
Matondo’s research predicts that by 2075, Swaziland will be facing such a severe water crisis that even drinking water will be a scarce commodity in the winter months. “Make no mistake - this is the biggest disaster of the modern age and threatens the very existence of the human race.”
Climate change may see us battling not just the elements but also our neighbours. By 2025, the population of Southern Africa will be 320-million and as populations increase, available water will diminish. The potential for international conflicts to erupt over water resources is not far-fetched, given that Southern Africa has 15 trans-boundary river basins, and 70% of water resources in the region are shared by two or more countries.
While climate change is caused primarily by developed countries, Africa will suffer most, as we don’t have the resources or flexibility to adapt that rich countries do.
“Yes, the sea levels will rise and Holland will build dykes, but Dar es Salaam will be under water!” Matondo says. “African coastal cities will be abandoned and people will move inland, and all the infrastructure and investments we have so slowly built up will be destroyed. And of course, Cape Town’s airport runway will be submerged.”
Even if we stop polluting today, the effects of climate change will continue to be felt for the next 100 years. Already our droughts last longer, and floods and cyclones are more frequent and intense. We will need to adapt and use the water we have more efficiently. Matondo says it is vital to plan now to meet these challenges in future.
“We have to plan now to develop water-storage facilities like reservoirs to harvest the rainfall and save it to get us through the dry months. We also need to think about roof water harvesting. As cities become more built up and concreted over, there is increased run-off from developments like townhouse and shopping centres. We need to capture this before it gets into the polluted storm water drains and rivers.”
All material copyright Mail&Guardian.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?
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Página/12:
Cómo será la ESMA
EL CONTENIDO DEL FUTURO ESPACIO PARA LA MEMORIA
Habrá una muestra fotográfica sobre la actividad represiva del Estado en el siglo XX, un mapa con los centros clandestinos de detención y un espacio audiovisual. El Casino de Oficiales no será modificado. Planean abrirlo en octubre del año próximo.
Por Victoria Ginzberg
Domingo, 12 de Noviembre de 2006
El Espacio para la Memoria que funcionará en la ex ESMA (Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada) ya tiene forma. El Casino de Oficiales, donde estuvieron cautivas las personas secuestradas, no será modificado. Sólo se añadirán carteles con una explicación de lo que pasó allí. El edificio central se destinará a mostrar el contexto político, económico y social del terrorismo de Estado y a contar sus antecedentes históricos: se instalará una muestra de fotografía, un espacio audiovisual y un mapa con todos los centros clandestinos que funcionaron en el país. También habrá un lugar para la resistencia: es decir, la labor de las organizaciones de derechos humanos y las denuncias de los sobrevivientes. En otra edificación se narrará lo que ocurrió específicamente en la ESMA y las historias de las víctimas. Los represores estarán en un sitio aparte. Los gobiernos de la Nación y de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires esperan abrir el lugar al público el 1° de octubre del año próximo.
Estos aspectos centrales de lo que será el futuro Espacio para la Memoria fueron consensuados en la Comisión Bipartita que integran las áreas de derechos humanos de Nación y Ciudad de Buenos Aires en base a reuniones con representantes de organizaciones de derechos humanos y las opiniones de especialistas y ciudadanos que acercaron sus propuestas a partir de una convocatoria pública.
“Fue una discusión interesante porque nunca estuvo en disputa el objetivo central que propuso el Gobierno, esto es, la reparación de lo que ocurrió durante el terrorismo de Estado a través de la Memoria, y de transitar la Verdad y la Justicia”, aseguró a Página/12 Judith Said, coordinadora general del Archivo Nacional de la Memoria. “Hubo un proceso en el que participaron muchos actores, estatales y no estatales, y se llegó a una serie de acuerdos: no transmitir a partir del golpe bajo o el horror sino mostrar la vida, pero a la vez que eso no implique no contar lo que pasó”, agregó María José Guembe, subsecretaria de Derechos Humanos porteña.
A partir de ese delicado equilibro se comenzó a definir el contenido del futuro Espacio para la Memoria.
- El Casino de Oficiales, donde funcionó el centro clandestino de detención propiamente dicho, ya está señalizado. “Este edificio de tres pisos, sótano y altillo fue el lugar destinado a la concentración y tortura de los detenidos desaparecidos”, dice el cartel que está en la entrada. El sitio ya fue recorrido por varias visitas internacionales: entre otros, el juez español Baltasar Garzón, la ex primera dama francesa Danielle Mitterrand y el sociólogo Alain Touraine, además de todo el cuerpo diplomático acreditado en la Argentina, que estuvo allí el 24 de marzo de este año por invitación del canciller Jorge Taiana.
Luego de que la Armada lo desocupara, no se hicieron modificaciones en el Casino, pero sí se habían hecho durante la dictadura: los marinos las realizaron para enmascarar el centro clandestino ante la visita en 1979 de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH).
Los carteles explican qué ocurrió en cada una de las habitaciones: capuchita (el altillo), el sótano, los dormitorios de los oficiales, la habitación para las embarazadas. El relato se completa con testimonios de los sobrevivientes. Es probable que el texto de las señalizaciones también se pueda escuchar a través de auriculares.
- El edificio de las cuatro columnas, el escudo y la inscripción Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada.
En el hall central habrá una muestra fotográfica sobre “la actividad represiva del Estado ante los movimientos sociales emergentes durante el siglo XX”. Una asamblea obrera durante la huelga de estibadores en 1904, el desalojo de un conventillo durante la huelga de inquilinos de 1907, un obrero que lleva un cajón a la morgue luego de la represión policial del 1° de mayo de 1909, las “votaciones” de la “década infame”, la foto policial del anarquista Severino de Giovanni, las “patas en la fuente” del 17 de octubre de 1945, el Cordobazo y el Vivorazo y el patrullero del enfrentamiento en el que en 1971 murieron Fernando Abal Medina y Gustavo Ramus, integrantes del grupo inicial de Montoneros, son algunas de las imágenes. “La idea es que esté toda la historia del país porque la última dictadura tiene que ver con toda esa historia”, señaló Said.
En ese mismo edificio habrá un espacio audiovisual en el que se proyectarán testimonios de sobrevivientes, juicios y todo tipo de material relacionado con la dictadura. Funcionará también un punto de consulta (para acceder a información sobre los centros clandestinos, historias de las víctimas, datos cuantitativos sobre la represión, etc.) y se exhibirá un mapa en el que se señalizarán los más de 500 centros relevados hasta el momento. Se mostrará además la división del país en zonas y áreas y un organigrama con los responsables de cada una de ellas. Finalmente, se destinará un área para contar qué pasaba en la sociedad mientras en la ESMA y muchos otros campos se torturaba y otra para narrar la resistencia al terrorismo de Estado, es decir, la historia del movimiento de derechos humanos y las denuncias de los sobrevivientes aun en plena dictadura.
Además, se exhibirán tres maquetas elaboradas por un grupo voluntario de la UBA: en una se verá todo el predio de la ESMA, que permitirá una visión de conjunto del funcionamiento del centro y en las otras se consignarán las modificaciones edilicias del Casino de Oficiales.
- En la Escuela de Guerra Naval funcionará el Archivo Nacional por la Memoria.
- Aún resta definir qué edificio se destinará para contar la historia de la ESMA y de sus víctimas, entre ellas las mujeres embarazadas y los niños que nacieron allí. Pero está claro que será uno diferente del que contendrá las caras y antecedentes de los represores, así como el especial entramado del grupo de tareas de la ESMA y los planes políticos del dictador Emilio Eduardo Massera. Esto último podría montarse en el quincho, lugar en el que los marinos se reunían y festejaban mientras a pocos metros, ellos o sus compañeros torturaban.
En la difícil tarea de contar los secuestros, tormentos y asesinatos que se llevaron a cabo en la ESMA y en el resto del país sin caer en el sensacionalismo, Said explica que el objetivo es “no banalizar los hechos”. “No queremos paralizar con el terror –dice– sino hacer un trabajo didáctico para explicar por qué no es bueno que haya dictaduras y que se viole un estado de derecho, aunque parezca una verdad de perogrullo”. Si los plazos previstos no se dilatan, el sitio estará listo el 1° de octubre de 2007, un día después de que los marinos terminen de desalojar el predio. “Trabajamos apurados porque tenemos interés en que se haga rápido –señala Guembe–, pero estamos tranquilos porque esto ya no depende de un gobierno, es una política de Estado.”
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
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Página/12:
La carrera presidencial tiene cara de mujer
TRAS LA VICTORIA EN LAS LEGISLATIVAS, LOS DEMOCRATAS TIENEN LA MEJOR CHANCE PARA EL 2008
La competencia por la Casa Blanca comenzó al minuto siguiente de conocerse que los demócratas pasaban a controlar el Congreso. Hillary Clinton se perfila como la candidata de la oposición. McCain podría ser el principal aspirante de los republicanos. Pero reviste un problema: quiere mandar más tropas a Irak.
Por Rupert Cornwell*
Domingo, 12 de Noviembre de 2006
Mientras los demócratas celebran que retomaron el control de la Cámara de Representantes y del Senado en las elecciones de mitad de término de la semana pasada, los pronósticos lucen bien para la ex primera dama. Pero la competencia presidencial de 2008 está lejos de haberse cerrado: parece ser la más abierta de las que se recuerda. Podrán no creerlo, dada la furia de especulaciones, pero hasta el día de hoy, sólo dos personas han declarado de hecho sus intenciones de candidatearse para la presidencia de Estados Unidos. Y no se sientan insultados por el hecho de que, probablemente, no hayan escuchado nombrar a ninguno de ellos. Uno es Duncan Hunter, presidente saliente del Comité de Servicios Armados de la Cámara baja, y el otro Tom Vilsack, el gobernador demócrata de Iowa.
Pero no estarán solos por mucho tiempo. La carrera presidencial de 2008 es probablemente la más abierta que se recuerde. No sólo no hay alguien que busque la reelección. Por primera vez desde 1952, cuando Dwight Eisenhower derrotó a Adlai Stevenson, un vicepresidente no intentará reemplazar a su jefe –lo que parece bien, dada la tremenda impopularidad de Dick Cheney–-. El país está de un humor volátil y contrariado. La crisis en Irak, la confrontación con Irán o un nuevo ataque terrorista podrían transformar el panorama político de un golpe.
En realidad la carrera presidencial comenzó en el segundo en que cerraron los últimos centros de votación de Hawaii el martes por la noche. En estas semanas, quizás días, otros harán sus anuncios. En este momento, el 2008 está magníficamente servido para los demócratas. Para ese entonces los norteamericanos habrán soportado ocho años de una presidencia cada vez más desastrosa, que arrastró a su país a una guerra innecesaria y detestable. Al menos temporariamente, la ideología conservadora que ha conducido el Partido Republicano está agotada. Tal como mostraron las elecciones de mitad de término, Estados Unidos quiere un cambio. Los demócratas no ganaron la batalla por el Congreso; los republicanos la perdieron. Como dueños del Senado y la Cámara de Representantes por primera vez en 12 años, los primeros tienen su mejor chance para publicitar sus ideas desde que Bill Clinton dejó la presidencia, en enero de 2001.
Si bien es cierto que aún no declaró su intención de candidatearse, Hillary Clinton domina el potencial campo demócrata. Según un sondeo de la CNN de la semana pasada, fue elegida por el 28 por ciento de los partidarios demócratas –un número que incluso podría haber sido mayor a no ser por la repentina emergencia de un tal Barack Obama como potencial candidato–. Obama se vio favorecido por el 17 por ciento, seguido de Al Gore y John Edwards con 13 por ciento cada uno, y John Kerry, perdedor en 2004, con 12 por ciento. El valiente Sr Vilsack sólo obtiene un 1 por ciento.
Pero cada uno de ellos tiene desventajas. La señora Clinton se beneficia de su gran reconocimiento personal y de una organización de primera clase. Descripta desde hace tiempo como la Madame Mao de la política estadounidense, ha pasado sus seis primeros años de mandato creando una imagen de centrista. Ha hecho amistad con políticos del otro bando, incluso algunos que lideraron el intento de someter a su esposo a un juicio político. Y, por supuesto, está casada con el político con más talento natural que ha producido Estados Unidos en medio siglo. ¿Garantiza esto una restitución Clinton? De ninguna manera. Su prolongado apoyo a la guerra ha lastimado a Hillary y podría perder parte de su electorado liberal. Además, pese a todos sus esfuerzos, se mantiene como una figura profundamente polarizante. El rol de Bill en una presidencia de Hillary no es claro. Muchos temen que puede ganar las primarias, pero no las elecciones generales contra un republicano con una fuerte convocatoria a los independientes, como John McCain. Unos pocos creen que incluso podría no candidatearse.
El ex vicepresidente Al Gore, perdedor en 2000, tiene un reconocimiento similar, y su larga oposición a la guerra de Irak y la defensa de la ecología han potenciado su popularidad, sobre todo en la izquierda. El problema es que ha desechado virtualmente candidatearse para el 2008. Y si entrara en la carrera, el 2000 probó que Gore es desastroso a la hora de hacer campaña. Kerry quiere competir desesperadamente de nuevo. El problema es, sin embargo, que tuvo su oportunidad hace dos años, y la arruinó.
El comodín, por supuesto, es Obama. Sí, con apenas 45 años y dos años de servicio en el Senado, y sus políticas que difícilmente se extienden más allá de los lugares comunes. Sin embargo la reciente y exitosa presentación nacional de su libro, titulado La audacia de la esperanza (Audacity of Hope), ha sido un claro presagio de una posible candidatura a la Casa Blanca, similar a la incursión de Colin Powell al promover su autobiografía en 1995. “Espere a tener más experiencia”, le dicen. Pero la regla número uno para los aspirantes presidenciales es “si aparece la oportunidad, tómala”.
El descontento obviamente milita contra cualquiera contendiente republicano, como lo hace cualquier cambiante enfoque ideológico estadounidense. El país puede ser todavía moderadamente conservador, pero la marea se está alejando del conservadurismo duro personificado por esta administración. Pero el voto para presidente es el voto más personal que emite un estadounidense. Después de todo, es la cara del individuo que estará en la TV de su living room en tiempos de crisis, anunciando el triunfo o el desastre, la guerra o la paz. De ahí, la regla número dos para los aspirantes a presidente: debe ser agradable. Reagan era más afable que Carter, George Bush padre dio la impresión de ser más divertido que el tenso Michael Dukakis, y ¿quién podría ser más encantador que Bill Clinton? En cuanto a George W. Bush, piensen de él lo que deseen: en 2000, le ganó la competencia de “quisiera tomar una cerveza con él” a Gore.
Esta es una de las razones por las cuales se presume que McCain podría ser el principal candidato de los republicanos. Ha cortejado a los conservadores cristianos que le negaron la nominación en el 2000. Es un recaudador de fondos increíblemente efectivo y tiene conformado un gran equipo, incluyendo importantes estrategas de las campañas de Bush de 2000 y 2004. Las dudas, sin embargo, son dobles. ¿Se entusiasmará Estados Unidos con un candidato que quiere mandar más tropas a Irak? ¿Y tiene la suficiente salud? Si es elegido, McCain, a los 72 años, sería el hombre de más edad que haya ganado la Casa Blanca. También tiene antecedentes clínicos de melanoma. Por esa razón, algunos miran hacia otros lados. En 2008, cualquier cosa es posible.
* De The Independent de Gran Bretaña. Especial para Página/12.
Traducción: Virginia Scardamaglia.
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Plan B
Por Santiago O’Donnell
Domingo, 12 de Noviembre de 2006
Antes de las elecciones, Bush tenía un plan para la guerra de Irak y los demócratas ninguno. Después de las elecciones, Bush sacó a relucir su Plan B, y los demócratas siguen sin plan. Sólo piden “cambios” y “resultados” en Irak. Pero no van más allá.
¿Cuál es el nuevo plan de Bush? El nombramiento de Robert Gates como nuevo secretario de Defensa en reemplazo de Donald Rumsfeld marca el retorno a la Casa Blanca de los halcones “pragmáticos”, más identificados con Bush padre. También marca un retroceso para los halcones “ideológicos”, más cerca de Ronald Reagan. En términos prácticos el cambio de nombres significa abandonar la idea de “exportar democracia” a Medio Oriente para priorizar la “estabilización de Irak”. Más programas de entrenamiento, menos operaciones militares. Más asesores, menos combatientes. Presionar al gobierno chiíta para que comparta regalías petroleras con la minoría sunnita. Hacer crecer al ejército iraquí para cubrir un repliegue gradual y silencioso.
Es la línea que viene marcando la comisión asesora para la guerra de Irak formada por el Congreso, y que Bush aceptó a regañadientes cuando las cosas se le complicaron demasiado. La comisión está presidida por el “pragmático” Howard Baker III, el ex secretario de Estado de Bush padre. Baker y el otro líder de los “pragmáticos”, el ex asesor de Seguridad Nacional de Bush padre, Brent Scowcroft, son los padrinos políticos de Gates. El flamante secretario formó parte de la comisión parlamentaria y en esa condición viajó a Irak. Quienes lo conocen aseguran que volvió bastante perturbado.
Y eso que Gates no es ningún nene de pecho. El Los Angeles Times lo describe esta semana como un duro de los tiempos de la Guerra Fría, que quedó como un moderado cuando el eje ideológico se corrió a la derecha después del 11-9. ¿Qué significa eso? Veamos. En 1994, Gates escribió un artículo recomendando bombardear la planta nuclear norcoreana. Pero a las pocas semanas abogó por una resolución pacífica del conflicto nuclear con Irán. Apoyó la primera invasión de Irak, pero también la decisión de retirarse antes de capturar a Saddam Hussein. Seis años después recomendó “una intensa campaña misilística” para desarmar a las tropas de elite del dictador iraquí.
A diferencia de su antecesor, no desdeña las opiniones de los jefes militares, aunque alguna vez escribió que “en Washington las palomas más grandes llevan uniforme”. Rumsfeld estaba convencido de que las guerras las ganaban las fuerzas especiales. Concentraba el manejo de la Inteligencia en la Casa Blanca. Y despreciaba a la CIA. ¿Por qué? Porque la CIA depende del Departamento de Estado, que se encarga de la diplomacia y no el de Defensa, que se encarga de la guerra. Además, la CIA, bien o mal, está sujeta a algunos, mínimos, controles legislativos, judiciales y burocráticos. Todo eso hacía más difícil la tortura, las cárceles secretas, las escuchas extrajudiciales y los ataques “preventivos” tan necesarios a la hora de “exportar democracia”, para decirlo con el léxico de Bush.
Gates tiene otra opinión. Viene a reivindicar a los buenos muchachos de la CIA, que al menos hacían las cosas de manera más prolija. “No pocos veteranos de la CIA, y me incluyo en ese grupo, están disconformes con el dominio del Departamento de Defensa en materia de Inteligencia, y el declive del rol central de la CIA”, escribió Gates este año en un artículo de opinión.
Habrá que ver qué piensa Bush. Bob Woodward le preguntó una vez si solía recurrir a su padre (el “pragmático”) para pedirle consejo. Recibió una respuesta “ideológica”: “Yo le pido consejo al Padre que está más arriba”. ¿Y los demócratas? A mediados de los ’70 el ahogo financiero del Congreso opositor a las fuerzas armadas obligó al presidente republicano Gerald Ford a terminar la guerra de Vietnam. Pero los tiempos cambian y estos demócratas no son los de antes.
Todavía no se habían acallado los festejos del martes cuando Nancy Pelosi le facturó a Bush su derrota electoral con un ultimátum: el presidente, dijo, deberá al menos acusar recibo de un plan ingeniosamente titulado “6 para 06”, que la líder de los demócratas había presentado en plena campaña. Se trata de una agenda con seis temas que los demócratas quieren que Bush destrabe antes del cambio del Congreso en enero. Incluye un aumento del salario mínimo de siete con veinticinco a nueve dólares la hora; financiamiento para investigar células madre; ablandar el muro con una ley que permita legalizar gradualmente a los inmigrantes ilegales; abolir la rebaja de impuestos para los ricos que había otorgado Bush e implementar las recomendaciones de la comisión que investigó el atentado a las Torres Gemelas.
Son temas interesantes, casi todos de tinte progresista. Pero aunque parezca increíble, el documento no menciona la palabra “Irak”. En ningún lado.
Rápido de reflejos, al día siguiente de las elecciones Bush invitó a Pelosi a almorzar pasta salad a la Casa Blanca. Durante el almuerzo le dijo OK, avancemos con la reforma migratoria y el salario mínimo y veamos el resto después. Pelosi no lo podía creer. En los seis años anteriores ni siquiera le contestaba el teléfono. Para que no queden dudas de lo que Bush pensaba de ella, durante la campaña, en varios avisos de televisión, los asesores del presidente pintaron a Pelosi como una radical izquierdista de San Francisco, piantavotos para más datos.
Pero el jueves lucía una sonrisa de oreja a oreja mientras posaba con Bush y su vice Dick Cheney para los fotógrafos de la Casa Blanca. Bush aprovechó el almuerzo para anunciarle a Pelosi su propia agenda legislativa de acá a fin de año: tratado de intercambio tecnológico con la India, tratado de libre comercio con Vietnam y dos medidas para reforzar su “guerra contra el terrorismo”: la confirmación del halcón unilateralista John Bolton como embajador ante la ONU y una ley que permite escuchas extrajudiciales a los sospechosos de terrorismo.
Al salir del almuerzo le preguntaron a Pelosi si podía trabajar con el presidente, a quien había tratado de incompetente y de ignorante durante la campaña. “Por cierto”, contestó. “Los dos somos norteamericanos y queremos a nuestro país”, coincidió Bush. El enemigo, entonces, está en el extranjero.
Queda claro que ni los demócratas ni los republicanos quieren llegar a las presidenciales del 2008 con 140.000 soldados en Irak. Bush quiere ganar. Los demócratas, retirarse. Por conveniencia o necesidad, Bush ya sacó a relucir su Plan B. Los demócratas recibieron un mandato el martes pero siguen pedaleando en el aire.
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Bush vetó una condena a Israel
FRENO LA ADOPCION DE UN TEXTO QUE RECHAZA EL ATAQUE A GAZA
El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU votó –10 de los 15 miembros– una resolución que condenaba en particular la matanza de Beit Hanún, en la que murieron 19 palestinos. Quedó sin efecto.
Domingo, 12 de Noviembre de 2006
El veto de Estados Unidos impidió ayer la adopción de una resolución en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU para condenar a Israel por sus acciones militares en Gaza. La resolución había sido presentada por Qatar, el único país árabe representado en este órgano ejecutivo de la ONU. El documento condenaba en particular la matanza de la localidad de Beit Hanún del miércoles, en la que murieron 19 civiles, en su mayoría mujeres y niños. Tanto israelíes como palestinos reaccionaron a los resultados de la votación. “El veto estadounidense es muy satisfactorio. El proyecto de resolución no estipulaba que lo que sucedió en Beit Hanún fue un trágico error”, dijo el portavoz israelí Avi Pazner. “Nosotros condenamos ese veto”, dijo por su parte Nabil Abu Rudeina, vocero del presidente palestino, Mahmud Abbas.
Diez de los quince miembros que integran el Consejo votaron a favor de la resolución, mientras que el Reino Unido, Dinamarca, Japón y Eslovaquia se abstuvieron. Sin embargo, el documento no se adoptó por el voto en contra emitido por Estados Unidos, principal aliado de Israel, y que como miembro permanente del Consejo tiene poder de veto. Esta no es la primera vez que Estados Unidos veta una resolución relacionada con el conflicto árabe-israelí, ya que lo ha hecho en otras treinta ocasiones.
El embajador de Estados Unidos ante la ONU, John Bolton, dijo que la decisión de su país de votar en contra de la resolución se debió a que la consideró “parcial” y “motivada políticamente”, además de no reflejar lo que está ocurriendo. “Esta resolución no aporta nada a la causa de la paz, además de ser desequilibrada”, indicó el diplomático. Bolton lamentó que no se mencionara al terrorismo ni al gobierno palestino de Hamas, que rechaza reconocer al Estado de Israel y renunciar a la violencia.
Además, Estados Unidos expresó su desacuerdo por el hecho de que se pidiera una investigación independiente de la matanza de Beit Hanún, en el norte de Gaza. Bolton consideró que la solicitud era “innecesaria”, al igual que otro apartado del documento que pedía el establecimiento de un mecanismo internacional de protección de la población civil. La resolución, que fue suavizada para obtener el mayor número de apoyos posible, también pedía el fin de la violencia y la retirada de las tropas israelíes a las posiciones que tenía antes del 28 de julio, cuando el ejército se adentró en Gaza.
El embajador de Qatar, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, pidió al mundo “juzgar por sí mismo” sobre el fracaso en la adopción de la resolución y lamentó que el Consejo de Seguridad esté perdiendo su credibilidad por su incapacidad de asumir una de sus máximas responsabilidades, que es la protección de la población civil. “Las imágenes de los civiles en Beit Hanún permanecerán durante mucho tiempo en nuestra memoria (...). Es necesario poner fin a las violaciones del derecho humanitario”, indicó.
El diplomático expresó su convencimiento de que el rechazo del Consejo a adoptar la medida provocará que Israel siga con sus agresiones militares y que aumente aún más la violencia. Por su parte, el representante palestino ante la ONU, Ryiad Mansour, afirmó estar “decepcionado una vez más”, y dijo que la inacción del Consejo “envía un mensaje erróneo tanto a palestinos como a israelíes”.
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Tensión en el gobierno libanés
DIMITEN CINCO MINISTROS DE HEZBOLA Y AMAL
Domingo, 12 de Noviembre de 2006
Se agudiza la tensión entre la mayoría libanesa antisiria y la oposición, que exige más protagonismo. Los cinco ministros chiítas de Hezbolá y Amal en el gobierno libanés presentaron ayer su dimisión, que fue rechazada por el primer ministro Fuad Siniora.
“Hemos dimitido porque la mayoría insiste en ejercer el poder en solitario”, declaró el jefe del bloque parlamentario de Hezbolá, Mohammad Raad. “Se trata de una advertencia para la mayoría antisiria”, señaló, después del fracaso de las conversaciones entre los dirigentes libaneses para formar un gobierno de unidad nacional. Los movimientos prosirios Amal y Hezbolá anunciaron en un comunicado conjunto la dimisión de sus ministros.
El primer ministro libanés, Fuad Siniora, rechazó su dimisión en un comunicado en el que “insiste en que participen en el gobierno”. Siniora afirma no haber sido informado oficialmente de la decisión que, según él, conoce “por los medios de comunicación”. Estas renuncias, que no implican una caída del gobierno, exacerban aún más la crisis política en la que está sumido el país, sobre todo, tras la guerra de Israel contra la guerrilla libanesa.
El poderoso Hezbolá chiíta, apoyado por Siria e Irán y que tiene dos ministros de los 24 que componen el gabinete, dominado por las fuerzas antisirias, exige junto a prosirios y cristianos la formación de un gobierno de unión nacional, en el que la oposición tendría una minoría de bloqueo. El movimiento Amal, al que pertenece el presidente del Parlamento, Nabih Berri, también aporta dos ministros al gobierno, mientras que el quinto ministro que presentó la dimisión es un chiíta próximo a los partidos de esa comunidad.
La mayoría parlamentaria antisiria, dirigida por Saad Hariri, hijo del ex primer ministro asesinado Rafic Hariri, se niega a conceder a la oposición la minoría de bloqueo que pide, porque considera que se trata de una argucia con la que Siria trataría de regresar al primer plano de la escena política libanesa.
Hezbolá y sus aliados se han propuesto, por su parte, reforzar su influencia en el gobierno, nacido de las elecciones celebradas después de la retirada de las tropas sirias del Líbano. Pero las negociaciones se saldaron de nuevo con un fracaso ayer, debido principalmente a las divergencias sobre la creación de un tribunal internacional para juzgar a los sospechosos del asesinato de Hariri en 2005. Si la oposición contase con una minoría de bloqueo, podría impedir la creación de este tribunal, que necesita la aprobación del gobierno.
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Fidel podría ir a un homenaje cultural
Por Miguel Bonasso*
Domingo, 12 de Noviembre de 2006
Un comunicado de la Fundación Guayasamín emitido esta semana en La Habana confirma que un comité de honor, conformado por 45 personalidades mundiales, realizará un homenaje a Fidel Castro por su 80 cumpleaños. El mensaje sugiere que el líder cubano podría reaparecer en público –entre el 28 de noviembre y el 1º de diciembre–, en el marco de los postergados festejos por sus 80. Aunque advierte: “En el momento oportuno, en medio del disciplinado proceso de recuperación en que se encuentra Fidel, él decidirá la circunstancia en que le sea posible acompañar a quienes estaremos aquí, en La Habana, participando en este homenaje por su 80 cumpleaños”.
El autor de esta nota tuvo el privilegio de entrevistar al Comandante en dos ocasiones, a mediados de septiembre, durante la Cumbre de los No Alineados, y pudo constatar que se estaba recuperando y gozaba de muy buen humor, por lo que resultaría altamente probable que en alguno de los actos programados en su honor hiciera su primera reaparición pública. Las noticias que llegan de La Habana indican que la mejoría que advertimos hace dos meses ha seguido en ascenso. Si los médicos lo autorizan, Fidel podría realizar esa esperada reaparición pública, al menos en alguno de los eventos programados. Hasta ahora sólo concedió un puñado de entrevistas individuales, a Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales y al secretario general de la ONU, Kofi Annan.
Por otra parte, este homenaje internacional a Fidel se producirá en una coyuntura hemisférica que La Habana considera altamente positiva: George W. Bush ha sido derrotado en toda la línea por los demócratas y el sandinista Daniel Ortega se impuso en los comicios de Nicaragua. La reunión, además, se producirá en vísperas de las elecciones presidenciales de Venezuela, donde el principal aliado de Cuba, Hugo Chávez, se apresta a obtener el triunfo por un amplio margen.
La Fundación Guayasamín (creada por el gran pintor ecuatoriano Oswaldo Guayasamín) había programado enviar una delegación de grandes personalidades mundiales para celebrar los 80 años de Fidel el pasado 13 de agosto, pero la crisis de salud del presidente cubano lo impidió. El propio Fidel, en el comunicado donde dio a conocer la noticia de la intervención quirúrgica a que fue sometido, decía textualmente: “El 80 aniversario de mi cumpleaños que tan generosamente miles de personalidades acordaron celebrar el próximo 13 de agosto, les ruego a todos posponerlo para el 2 de diciembre del presente año, aniversario del desembarco del ‘Granma’”.
Más allá de las consabidas especulaciones de los medios internacionales sobre la posibilidad de que el Comandante reaparezca en público, el encuentro reunirá –según la fundación– “a algunos de los representantes de lo más elevado del pensamiento y la cultura contemporánea”, para “repasar juntos la obra y el pensamiento de Fidel como conductor de grandes ideas para enfrentar los poderosos intereses del neoliberalismo en el mundo y sobre tantos ejemplos concretos de solidaridad que nos ha dado”, proyectos tan extraordinarios, tan cargados de humanismo como el “Yo sí puedo” (de alfabetización) o la “Operación Milagro” (un programa para operar gratis a seis millones de latinoamericanos enfermos de cataratas y pterigium). El programa incluye –como hitos principales– la exposición Un abrazo de Guayasamín para Fidel, que evoca el vínculo con el famoso pintor ecuatoriano, que pintó el primer retrato del líder cubano en 1961. También el concierto Todas las voces, todas y el coloquio “Memoria y Futuro: Cuba y Fidel”, “que reunirá a grandes pensadores del mundo para reflexionar sobre la obra de este rebelde indomable”.
Estas reflexiones serán publicadas en un libro colectivo, que se sumará a la abundante literatura política sobre Fidel Castro y la Revolución Cubana, entre las que sobresale la extensa entrevista de Ignacio Ramonet “100 horas con Fidel”, que será también presentada en el encuentro.
Si se cumplen las expectativas de los organizadores, América latina asistirá a un hecho político cultural de trascendencia. Allí estará el autor de esta columna para informar a los lectores de Página/12 y repetir –si es posible– la experiencia intransferible que vivió a medidos de septiembre.
* Diputado por el PRD
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Sophie Scholl
Por José Pablo Feinmann
Domingo, 12 de Noviembre de 2006
Sophie Scholl hizo algo que la casi totalidad del pueblo alemán no hizo. Enfrentó al régimen de Hitler. Había miles –o más que miles– de razones para no hacerlo, ella lo hizo. Esto desciende sobre todos como una sombra, como una niebla que cubre las conciencias y señala dolorosamente. ¿Por qué no hice yo lo que Sophie Scholl hizo? Aunque serán muy pocos los que se pregunten algo así. La mayoría tiene su respuesta a la mano: era imposible. Era morir. Era demencial. Yo tenía hijos, una mujer. Pocos se atreverán a más: tenía miedo. O a más: fui un cobarde. O mentirán: no sabía nada. O dirán la verdad: estaba de acuerdo con lo que pasaba. Hitler nos había sacado de la humillación del Tratado de Versalles, frenaría a los soviéticos listos a arrojarse sobre Alemania y castigaría a los judíos de las finanzas, que se devoraban a la patria y hambreaban a nuestro pueblo. Pero Sophie sigue ahí, incómoda: ella pudo; los otros alemanes, no. Incluso la secretaria de Hitler ofrece una confesión sincera. Traudl Junge, que tiene aproximadamente la edad de Sophie cuando entra a servir a Hitler, se exculpa a causa de su juventud. De pronto, dice: “Pero Sophie Scholl tenía mi misma edad y se atrevió a enfrentar a Hitler”.
Estos apuntes tienen el disparador de una película alemana estrenada entre nosotros durante los días que corren. Los alemanes empiezan –desde el cine, ahora: lo han hecho desde otros ámbitos– a revisar la historia más trágica de su país. Parte de esa revisión es este film sobre Sophie Scholl. Está bien hecho, y tiene dos intérpretes poderosos: el interrogador de la Gestapo (Alexander Held, actor que utiliza un minimalismo admirable) y la muy premiada (y merecidamente) Julia Jentsch. Qué hermosa se va viendo Sophie a medida que transcurre el film. Recoge su pelo hacia la izquierda y lo sujeta con una hebilla de modo que su frente y sobre todo sus ojos quedan expuestos y exhiben su determinación, su inteligencia y su fe. Sophie tiene algo poderoso de su lado: cree, aun en sus momentos más terminales, en el Dios de su fe. Le reza y hasta llega a decirle que Su voz no llega a ella, pero sabe que él habrá de tomarla en sus brazos si pasa lo peor, es decir, lo que pasa. Tal vez ese Dios le da la serenidad que muestra en el interrogatorio. Este film se basa en una obra de teatro que –inteligentemente– imagina el interrogatorio a que Sophie Scholl es sometida por un oficial de la Gestapo, de sombrero, sobretodo oscuro y mirada torva, áspera, que habrá de ir tomando distintos, casi imperceptibles matices durante el interrogatorio, dado que ese hombre tiene un hijo de la edad de Sophie al que logró sofocar sus rebeldías, al que logró mandar al frente del Este, en Stalingrado, y al que seguramente no volverá a ver. La porfiada Sophie, cuya porfía se basa en convicciones irreductibles, niega punto por punto lo que Robert Mohr, el sagaz, a veces descontrolado pero nunca violento, interrogador nazi, le pregunta. Sophie fue descubierta, junto a su hermano, arrojando esa mañana panfletos contra la guerra y contra el régimen de Hitler en la Universidad. “No –dice Sophie–. Los panfletos estaban en el borde del pasillo alto, el que da al patio, yo sólo los empujé para hacer una travesura”. Esta “travesura” es la que Mohr tiene que desarmar y transformar en alta traición. Sophie sigue negando. Todas las pruebas la condenan. Mohr trae la valija vacía en que habían llevado los panfletos. La coloca sobre el escritorio. Coloca encima los panfletos. Encajan perfectamente: es ahí donde tienen que haber estado, donde Sophie tiene que haberlos tenido antes de arrojarlos al aire para sacudir las conciencias de los otros estudiantes. “Una casualidad”, dice Sophie. Sus facciones no se alteran. Miente con una serenidad admirable. ¿Miente? Se establece aquí un juego paradójico. Mentirle a un régimen de terror es decir la verdad. Sophie miente para salvar su vida. Si no miente, la matan. Como la verdad es la vida, ella, aunque mienta, dice la verdadera verdad. No la que busca Mohr. En esa tensión que crece a medida que el tiempo pasa, Mohr, que sabe que Sophie es culpable y que sólo llevará algún tiempo más quebrarla, empieza a admirar, íntimamente, a su interrogada. ¿Qué pasa con esa chica, por qué no se entrega, por qué no dice la verdad que él, Mohr, necesita? En ningún momento aparece la posibilidad de la tortura. (Otra suerte que le habría tocado a Sophie en la ESMA: la habrían torturado antes de preguntarle algo. Era así como trabajaban: con más crueldad que los nazis.) Mohr sabe ir acumulando sus pruebas. Las pruebas, además, son demasiadas. Tantas, que al fin Sophie las reconoce. “Fui yo –dice–, y estoy orgullosa de haberlo hecho.”
El costo es altísimo, pero son muy pocos los que atraviesan un régimen de terror y pueden todavía sostener su orgullo. Sophie permanece entonces como un agujero en nuestras conciencias.
Hay que acumular cemento para taparlo. Todo, es cierto, ayuda. Las sociedades no pueden vivir en estado de culpa. Alemania se levantó sepultando el horror. O atribuyéndoselo a la “camarilla de Hitler”. Al “Partido Nacionalsocialista”. Y, con mayor frecuencia, sólo a Hitler: un único demonizado, millones de cadáveres y una nación inocente. No ha sido otro el verdadero “milagro alemán”. Sería indispensable que puntualizáramos esto: hubo un “milagro alemán” en el plano económico por el otro “milagro alemán”, el que fundamentó al primero: el milagro del olvido, de la pronta elaboración de la culpa, de la integración de los jerarcas nazis a las grandes empresas, de la ausencia de juicios alemanes a sus propios verdugos. El “milagro alemán” fue el milagro de poder olvidar, de sepultar el horror, de silenciar las conciencias. Si hasta el más grande filósofo de la nación, Heidegger, militante del partido, no se dignó a decir una palabra. Silencio sobre el pasado y desarrollo económico: he aquí el “milagro alemán”.
Karl Jaspers nunca tuvo, ni por asomo, la estatura filosófica de su amigo Heidegger, y hasta aceptó (puede leerse en la Correspondencia Heidegger-Jaspers, que va de 1920 a 1963) el Discurso del rectorado del primero, una pieza de exquisito nacionalsocialismo, pero, luego de la guerra (amparado en algo cierto: no colaboró en nada), escribió El problema de la culpa. Distinguió entre: 1) Una culpa criminal: “Los crímenes consisten en acciones demostrables objetivamente que infringen leyes inequívocas”; 2) Una culpa política: “Se debe a las acciones de los estadistas y de la ciudadanía de un Estado”; 3) Una culpa moral: “Siempre que realizo acciones como individuo tengo, sin embargo, responsabilidad moral (...) Nunca vale, sin más, el principio de ‘obediencia debida’. Ya que, antes bien, los crímenes son crímenes aunque hayan sido ordenados”; 4) Una culpa metafísica: “Hay una solidaridad entre hombres como tales que hace a cada uno responsable de todo el agravio y de toda la injusticia del mundo, especialmente de los crímenes que suceden en su presencia o con su conocimiento” (Karl Jaspers, El problema de la culpa, Paidós, Barcelona, 1998). Sophie Scholl no tuvo ninguna de estas culpas. Se dirá que los muertos no tienen culpas. Pero Sophie dejó de ser culpable y cómplice o lo que sea que se pueda ser bajo el terror no bien dijo “no”. Ahí se convierte, por su decisión, en inocente de todos los crímenes del nazismo. No por sumarse a las víctimas, sino por haber decidido luchar por ellas.
Hay algo más: Dios, nada menos. Primo Levi habrá de decir: “Existió Auschwitz, no existe Dios”. Marx, célebremente, había dicho eso del opio de los pueblos. Les proponía a los hombres, siguiendo a Feuerbach, que olvidaran el Cielo para luchar contra los sufrimiento de este mundo. Sophie no conoció Auschwitz, aunque sabía de los campos, de los lager. Su Dios no le impidió luchar contra la vejación de los hombres. Su fe cristiana no la apartó de este mundo: le dio fuerzas para comprometerse contra el Mal. Las religiones saben más consolar que abrir espacios para la rebelión terrenal. No ocurrió eso con Sophie: la fe le dio coraje para el riesgo, para la idea del dolor, y hasta de la muerte. Sophie tampoco dudó de su Dios. Fue sensible a su silencio, dado que en una de sus plegarias le confiesa que no le llega Su voz, pero ella no necesitaba una voz externa que le llegara de alguna lejanía celestial. Sophie Scholl llevaba lo sagrado en su conciencia.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/contratapa/13-76032-2006-11-12.html
The Independent: Neo-Nazis rampage
at Kristallnacht memorial
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 11 November 2006
German politicians reacted with shock and outrage yesterday after right-wing extremists chanting "Sieg Heil" desecrated a memorial to the thousands of Jews whose synagogues were sacked and plundered during the Nazi's infamous anti-Semitic Kristallnacht pogrom in the 1930s.
Police in Frankfurt an der Oder, on Germany's border with Poland, said a gang of 16 neo-Nazis aged between 16 and 24 went on the rampage at a stone monument marking the spot where the town's synagogue was burnt down in 1938, after a memorial service.
"The gang invaded the memorial site soon after the ceremony was over. They hurled wreaths into the air and trampled on candles and flowers that had been put down only minutes earlier ," a witness said.
Police said the gang's members chanted the Nazi party slogan, "Sieg Heil", as they intervened to arrest them. Yesterday the 16 youths remained in police custody. A police spokesman said that the culprits were "known members" of eastern Germany's burgeoning neo-Nazi movement.
The attack, which was believed to be the first time that neo-Nazis had desecrated a Kristallnacht memorial on the anniversary of the pogrom, provoked an angry reaction from politicians yesterday.
Matthias Platzeck, the Social Democrat Prime Minister of Brandenburg, said the monument's desecration was an unpardonable act which showed that outrages perpetrated by neo-Nazis had plunged to new depths.
"People who attack bunches of flowers and candles laid as tributes to the millions who perished in the Holocaust have learned nothing from the greatest catastrophe in German history," he said
Martin Patzelt, Frankfurt an der Oder's mayor, described the incident as "deeply shocking" and called on townsfolk to attend a silent vigil at the memorial yesterday to demonstrate their feelings of outrage.
The attack on the memorial occurred only hours after a new synagogue, considered Europe's largest Jewish centre, was opened in the heart of the Bavarian capital, Munich, on Thursday at a ceremony marking the 68th anniversary of the Kristallnacht.
The huge square building was hailed by Charlotte Knobloch, the head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, as a sign that Jews were "again part of German society". She added: "There is a vitality in the Jewish community. It is coming back to Germany and becoming visible again."
But Horst Koehler, the German President, admitted during his speech at the opening: "Our dreams of normal Jewish life in Germany run up against a reality in which there is open and latent anti-Semitism and where right-wing violence is growing."
Government crime figures show a 20 per cent increase in far-right attacks in the first six months of this year. Germany's neo-Nazi National Democratic Party, which has already entered parliament in the eastern state of Saxony, won further seats in Chancellor Angela Merkel's home state in the north-east last September.
A survey conducted by Germany's Freidrich Ebert Foundation earlier this month showed that 39 per cent of Germans felt that their country was suffering a dangerous invasion of foreigners, that 18 per cent thought that Jews had too great an influence and that 15 per cent wanted the return of a "strong leader".
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1963238.ece
The Independent:
News analysis: Climate Change
In the future we may each have our own personal emissions allowance. When that happens, we will truly have entered the carbon age. Until then, this is how a world of national CO2 targets looks
Report by Geoffrey Lean
Published: 12 November 2006
We are now standing on the threshold of the carbon age. Throughout the rest of our lifetimes, and far into the future as global warming takes hold, we will progressively measure our actions in the stuff.
Already the rules for the new age are beginning to emerge. We are beginning to learn that we should reduce our "carbon footprint" - the amount of greenhouse gases we each produce - to tread more lightly on the Earth. Companies are taking up "carbon trading". Ministers are even starting to consider carbon rationing (except that they dare not use the words), where each of us will be entitled to cause only a limited, and diminishing, amount of pollution. It has all come a long way since the element was known mainly as the "lead" in a pencil.
Carbon - which combines so readily with other elements that it is known to form nearly 10 million different compounds - is the most important building block of life. We exhale it with every breath, eat it in every meal. And, since the Industrial Revolution, we have used it, laid down over eons in underground "fossil fuels" - coal, oil and gas - to power our ever more prosperous and mobile lives.
Yet it is our very use of these fuels and the felling of forests that are causing our carbon crisis. Each emits carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. Thanks to us, concentrations of the gas are higher than they have been at any time in the past 650,000 years, and they are rising. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps some of the energy that reaches Earth from the sun, preventing it from escaping back into space; thus, like an invisible blanket, it warms the planet. We know this happens because natural levels of the gas keep in enough heat to make the world habitable - without it, ours would be a freezing planet. It is little more than common sense that adding more carbon dioxide will make the blanket thicker, heating the world up more.
The warming effect of the gas was first pointed out in 1827 by the French scientist Jean-Baptiste Fourier. And on Christmas Eve 1896w Svante Arrhenius, a depressed 35-year-old Swedish chemist trying to take his mind off the collapse of his marriage to his beautiful research assistant, sat down and started a year-long mathematical calculation. This concluded that doubling the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would raise global temperatures by some 5C to 6C.
And ever since, the basic physics has never been seriously challenged. So why the much-touted scientific debate over global warming? The truth is that there really isn't one. A recent survey of 928 scientific papers found not one that disputed the reality of climate change. Last year, the scientific academies of the G8 countries, plus India, China and Brazil, issued a joint statement confirming it.
Yet a handful of much-publicised contrarians create the illusion of a debate. Few are climatologists. Even fewer publish any research. Some openly admit to being funded by the oil industry.
They flourish because of the media's love of controversy and newspaper columnists' understandable desire to be provocative. This "debate" provides politicians with excuses for inaction, but the public seems to have made up its mind - 85 per cent of Britons now recognise that climate change is already taking place.
Since the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen by more than a third, from around 280 parts per million to above 380, and the rise is accelerating. Emissions from transport are growing particularly fast.
Other greenhouse gases add to the warming: methane, released by fuels and paddy fields; nitrous oxides, mainly from fertilisers; and a few manufactured chemicals. Now at last, the world is beginning to try to restrain them, before climate change runs out of control.
Some Western European countries, including Britain, have reduced emissions by policy changes. Eastern Europe and Third World nations have seen them fall through economic decline.
In other developing countries they are rising rapidly, often from a low base. A small increase in the US, which emits a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide, is much more damaging than a big one in Bangladesh.
This month, the massive Stern report concluded that emissions will have to be cut by 25 per cent by 2050, to give the world a chance. As natural justice and political reality dictate that poor countries must be allowed to burn more fuel to grow, rich ones will have to cut their emissions by 60 per cent.
This week, ministers from around the world will fly to Nairobi to join the latest negotiations on how to achieve this. One of the favoured means is by "carbon trading", whereby nations and companies are given pollution allowances; those that wish to exceed them have to buy spare permits from those producing less.
The most sophisticated such system, "contraction and convergence", was dreamed up by a former London busker, Aubrey Meyer, who runs the Global Commons Institute. Under it everyone on Earth would be entitled to the same carbon footprint. National emissions would have to "converge" until each country emitted the same amount of pollution per person. Rich ones would cut back while poor ones increased, within a "contracting" and ever-reducing world total.
Politically difficult though it may be, it is attracting growing support. David Miliband, the Secretary of State for the Environment, has recently endorsed an even more controversial proposal - that each person should be given a steadily reducing carbon allowance. Those who want to exceed this permitted footprint, such as by driving more or flying frequently, would have to buy permits from those who live more modestly.
Experts think it would be the best way to bring down emissions fast and it should mean that the poor get wealthier by selling part of their allowances to the rich. Then we will be in the carbon age indeed.
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1963434.ece
The Nation:
It's Over for Bush
[from the November 27, 2006 issue]
The year 2006 will long be remembered as the Great Retribution-or perhaps the Deliverance Election. George W. Bush's presidency is toast. Bush's potential to further harm the Republic has been greatly reduced. Most Americans stopped believing anything he said a good while back. This was their opportunity to tell him to his face. And they did, with such force and breadth that maybe even he and his cronies heard them.
Much credit goes to the voters and the Democratic Party. Not many off-year elections move history in a fundamental way, but this one did. Americans have elected an opposition that can now check the Administration's destructive policies and investigate its actions at home and abroad, while at the same time putting forth policies that begin to reverse the damage of the past six years. African-American and Latino voters were crucial to the Democratic victory, with a significantly higher percentage of Latinos than in the last midterms voting against the Bush agenda.
The losers, starting with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, who resigned immediately, deserve no sympathy. They have "ruled"-not governed-with cold arrogance and a frightening willingness to ignore the law, including the Constitution. Their Republican legions marched along in lock step, collecting boodle for themselves as they went.
By expressing their disgust, voters have made three great gains. It's true these gains are not yet fully secure. Bush still holds power. The Senate results are not yet settled. But power relationships in Washington have been utterly altered.
The first is the repudiation of Bush and his corrupt presidency, in which everything was for sale, and scandals-corporate and personal-became commonplace. Bush is now naked in his weakness. In some ways this could make him more dangerous in the two years ahead, but Democrats have the power to stop his outrages and excesses. There will be talk of "bipartisanship," as there is after every election. But this fight is not over, and there is no room for compromise with boneheaded intransigence.
The second is the antiwar victory. Candidates of all types ran against the war and won everywhere, demolishing blue state- red state stereotypes on this great issue. Americans want out of this disastrous war-now, as soon as possible. Bush will no doubt hold out for a fig leaf to cover his decisions. But Democrats must not forget the voters' message. If they collaborate in allowing continued bloodletting in Iraq, they will pay the price themselves in future elections.
The third is the collapse of the conservative order-the right-wing economic agenda that has reigned for a generation and produced so many great injuries to society and the general well-being. Republicans will argue among themselves about how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but the "market ideology" cannot be repaired. This year, unlike in previous elections, many Democrats ran on the economic issues vital to ordinary people-trade, declining wages, the destruction of the middle class, corporate greed. Led by Senator-elect Sherrod Brown of Ohio, these Democrats will be a new force in Washington-committed to pushing real solutions instead of stale palliatives.
Elections do not resolve large issues, but they can open doors to new politics. That's what happened this year. This election created a new landscape in which long-suppressed ideas and neglected public concerns are once again in play. Despite conventional wisdom, this election is also a victory for progressive voices. And we are celebrating-not triumphant, but eager to press for genuine change and to hold Democrats accountable if they fail. No time to rest. This struggle is going to be spirited.
Copyright © 2006 The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061127/editors
The Observer: African nomads to be
first people wiped out by climate change
Kenya's herdsmen are facing extinction as global warming destroys their lands
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday November 12, 2006
They are dubbed the 'climate canaries' - the people destined to become the first victims of world climate change. And as government ministers sit down in Nairobi at this weekend's UN Climate Conference, the people most likely to be wiped out by devastating global warming will be only a few hundred miles away from their deliberations.
Those people, according to research commissioned by the charity Christian Aid, will be the three million pastoralists of northern Kenya, whose way of life has sustained them for thousands of years but who now face eradication. Hundreds of thousands of these seasonal herders have already been forced to forsake their traditional culture and settle in Kenya's north eastern province following consecutive droughts that have decimated their livestock in recent years.
Earlier this year the charity commissioned livestock specialist Dr David Kimenye to examine how the herders are coping with the recent drought, uncovering a disastrous story. Over two months, Dr Kimenye talked to pastoralists in five areas across the Mandera district, home to 1.5 million people.
The study discovered that:
· Incidence of drought has increased fourfold in the Mandera region in the past 25 years.
· One-third of herders living there - around half a million people - have already been forced to abandon their pastoral way of life because of adverse climatic conditions.
· During the last drought, so many cattle, camels and goats were lost that 60 per cent of the families who remain as herders need outside assistance to recover. Their surviving herds are too small to support them.
The new findings follow recent warnings from the UK Met Office that if current trends continue one-third of the planet will be desert by the end of 2100. The scientists modelled how drought is likely to increase globally during the coming century because of predicted changes in rainfall and temperature around the world.
At present, according to their calculations, 25 per cent of the Earth's surface is susceptible to moderate drought, rising to 50 per cent by 2100. In addition, the areas susceptible to severe drought - 8 per cent - are expected to rise to 40 per cent. And the figure for extreme drought, currently 3 per cent, will rise to 30 per cent.
And what is doubly worrying about Kimenye's research is that it has revealed that a system of nomadic pastoralism that has, over the centuries, been able to cope with unpredictable weather patterns and regular drought has been brought by climate change to the point of utter extinction.
It is a fact not lost on those who have been forced out of their historic lifestyle to settle at the Quimbiso settlement. Nearby is a stinking pit where the bones of the last of once thriving herds were dumped and burned - victims of the worst drought in living memory.
The families who until a few months ago herded these animals across northern Kenya and beyond now huddle in this riverside settlement, their children prone to malaria and other illnesses, but at least close to a reliable source of water. Now they are completely dependent on aid handouts for most of their food.
'Our whole life has been spent moving, but we are desperate people. People who have lost our livelihood,' says Mukhtar Aden, one of the elders at the Quimbiso settlement. 'We didn't settle here by choice, it was forced upon us.'
Everywhere are tales of huge livestock losses. In one roadside settlement, which now depends on selling milk from its few remaining animals to passing trucks, a man produces a book recording the dark days of the drought. One entry, for 15 February, shows that the community lost more than 500 sheep and goats and 250 cattle in a single day.
And while rain did came to the region for the first time in more than a year last month, it was too late for the makeshift roadside communities who no longer have animals to put out to pasture.
Wargadud is another sizeable community running along either side of the region's main road. The chairman of Wargadud's water users' association is Abdullahi Abdi Hussein, who describes how the periods of rain have got shorter and the dry spells longer - changing the pattern of four seasons on which the pastoral communities depended.
And while there were always droughts, he says: 'Decade after decade it has been getting more severe. It has only been getting harder and harder and more and more serious.'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1945770,00.html
The Observer:
The screen star with menace in his smile
Philip French on Jack Palance, whose distinctive appearance made him the perfect movie bad guy
Sunday November 12, 2006
Jack Palance, who died on Friday in California at the age of 87, was one of the most striking screen presences for half of the cinema's history.
He was 6ft 4in and had a magnificent physique that derived from his years as a coalminer in Pennsylvania - he'd followed his Ukrainian-American father down the pit - and as a professional boxer. His greatest performance is reckoned to be as the washed-up prizefighter in the 1956 TV film Requiem for a Heavyweight. Palance's gaunt appearance, with the strong jaw, wide forehead, high cheekbones, deeply sunken eyes, concave nose and taut skin was partly natural, and partly due to plastic surgery after he was severely burnt while training as a bomber pilot in the Second World War.
After gaining stage experience he went to Hollywood in 1950 and immediately established himself in genre movies of the action variety, usually playing heavies. His deep, even voice conveyed deadly threat and his cold smile carried more menace than other actors' scowls.
His first movie, Elia Kazan's noir classic Panic in the Streets (1950), in which he played a plague-carrying killer in New Orleans, was followed by Lewis Milestone's war film Halls of Montezuma, starring as a boxer in the marines, George Stevens's western Shane, where he was the hired killer dressed all in black, and Douglas Sirk's widescreen epic Sign of the Pagan, in which he played the first of his sinister historical heavies, in this case Attila the Hun. A three-film collaboration with the tough, anarchic Robert Aldrich gave him the chance to play decent men at the end of their tether in Attack! (a Second World War officer at odds with his corrupt seniors), The Big Knife (a liberal movie star confronting brutal studio boss Rod Steiger), and Ten Seconds to Hell (an idealistic architect working in bomb disposal in post-war Berlin).
There were unforgettable scenes in his pictures - most famously, perhaps, the gunning down of the cocky Southerner, played by perennial fall-guy Elisha Cook Jr, outside the saloon in Shane, and as the wild Hollywood producer bullying Fritz Lang in Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mepris (1963). From the late 1960s, after co-starring with Lee Marvin in the elegiac western Monte Walsh, he worked steadily, often on the continent. The films were mostly undistinguished until the comeback in Tim Burton's Batman and the Ron Underwood comedy City Slickers (1991). In the latter he justly won an Oscar as the ageing trail boss Curly, a role to which he brought dignity and ironic humour as well as 40 years of performing on both sides of the law in westerns. At the Oscar ceremony he towered over Billy Crystal, his co-star in City Slickers, who was master of ceremonies, and demonstrated his fitness at the age of 73 by doing one-handed press ups while holding his Oscar in the other hand.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1945782,00.html
Voanews:
Executed Nigerian Writer Remembered on Anniversary
By Gilbert da Costa
Abuja, 10 November 2006
Cities around the world are commemorating the 11th anniversary of the execution of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists.
Analysts say the growing armed resistance in oil-rich Niger Delta mirrors the struggle of popular writer Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Saro-Wiwa led a robust, non-violent protest against environmental damage to his native Ogoni and the Niger Delta. His campaign focused on government policies in the region which he claimed had been polluted by Shell, Chevron and other western oil companies.
In 1994, Saro-Wiwa was arrested and was charged with "incitement to murder. He and eight associates were executed 18 months later following a trial that did not meet standards established by international law
Since then, agitation in the Niger Delta has become more violent with kidnappings and attacks on the oil industry.
Ledum Mitee, a Nigerian lawyer and activist who was charged along with the others but later acquitted, says the execution of Saro-Wiwa marked a more deadly phase of the Niger Delta struggle.
"If you listen to most of the militants, if you accost them. When I go and challenge them to say, why do you take up arms, they say Ken tried it, non-violently and he was killed in such a manner," he noted. "And so what happened to Ken has become an excuse for the violence. The challenge is to show that the non-violent method can attract sufficient attention and positive reaction from the government than the violent option. Unfortunately, what we see today is a reinforcement of that perception; that it is when you carry guns, when you take people hostage, when you sabotage facilities; that is when government will try to do something."
Saro-Wiwa's relentless campaign against oil companies in Nigeria drew global attention.
In the Niger Delta, Mitee says Saro-Wiwa remains an icon for social justice and would be remembered on this anniversary with special events.
"Here in Port Harcourt we are doing some rallies," he added. "We are also doing something in Bori, in Ogoni, rallies in Ogoni villages, doing night vigil. In other parts, there is also some event in London and other parts of the world. In Washington, DC, Ogonis and their friends are also planning to do a walkout."
A recent report by a panel of independent experts say about 1.5 million tons of oil has been spilled in the Niger Delta in the past 50 years.
The report characterized the region as one of five most polluted spots on the planet.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-10-voa22.cfm
posted by attilav at 22:59
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