Elsewhere Today 457
Aljazeera:
Turkey prepares for raids into Iraq
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2007
16:48 MECCA TIME, 13:48 GMT
Turkey is preparing for a possible incursion into northern Iraq as the government says it is willing to take all necessary measures against Kurdish separatists it suspects of hiding there.
The decision by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, follows a series of deadly attacks by the rebel PKK group on Turkish security forces.
"To put an end to the terrorist organisation operating in the neighbouring country [Iraq], the order has been given to take every kind of measure, legal, economic, political, including also a cross-border operation if necessary," Erdogan's office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Kurdish rebels have killed 15 soldiers in separate attacks in the past two days.
There is increasing anger in the country over the rebels' ability to find refuge in neighbouring Iraq.
Shelling claims
The military said on Sunday it had shelled an area near Iraq to try to stop PKK members from escaping across the border after an attack in the southeast province of Sirnak that killed 13 soldiers.
However, residents in northern Iraq claim the Turkish shelling is landing well within their territory.
Kurdish farmers displayed craters on Tuesday they said were left by artillery shells that hit close to the border.
Ankara has not confirmed any shelling of Iraqi territory.
Local officials in the Iraqi Kurdish-run northern region, feared the shelling was a sign of more to come.
In the city of Arbil, 350km north of Baghdad, the Kurdish governor warned Turkey on Tuesday that its troops would sustain heavy losses if they began operations in the region.
Nozad Hadi, the region's governor, said: "If the Turkish troops decided to enter into the Iraq's Kurdistan territories, their decision would be wrong and they would sustain heavy casualties and material losses."
Turkey's parliament would have to authorise any large-scale military operation into Iraq, but troops could pursue rebels over the border in smaller, so-called "hot pursuit" operations without such authorisation.
Ankara has long claimed the right to stage such limited operations under international law as legitimate self-defence and claims about 3,000 PKK fighters are currently in northern Iraq.
Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group began its armed campaign for a homeland in the southeast of the country in 1984.
Public pressure
The US said it supported Turkey and Iraq in their efforts to combat the PKK but warned against military incursions from Ankara.
"If they have a problem, they need to work together to resolve it and I am not sure that unilateral incursions are the way to go, the way to resolve the issue," Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the state department, said on Tuesday.
Asked whether Washington had urged restraint on both sides, McCormack said sovereign states had to make their own decisions about how best to defend themselves.
"We have counselled both in public and private for many, many months the idea that it is important to work cooperatively to resolve this issue," he said.
Al Jazeera's Yusuf Sharif in Ankara says Turkey is unlikely to send troops into its neighbour in the near future given that it is due to host a regional conference next month with Iraqi representatives among the attendees.
Sharif also said that the government in Baghdad wants time for a recent security agreement signed with Turkey to take effect.
Yusuf Kanli from the Turkish Daily News said while there was public pressure on the Erdogan government to show it was able to deal effectively with PKK rebels it needed to differentiate between the group and the wider Kurdish issue.
"You can not end this kind of terrorism through military action, there are other factors to consider such as political, and social elements that intermingle," he told Al jazeera.
"But Turkey can not in any way ignore the need to provide security for its country. They have to differentiate between PKK and the Kurdish problem."
Source: Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/12B13419-2F9C-4E2E-A124-E6D6635FCCEC.htm
AllAfrica:
Violence, Corruption Institutionalised - HRW Report
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS
9 October 2007
Dakar
Nigerian leaders are so violent and corrupt that their conduct "more resembles criminal activity than democratic governance", according to a scathing report issued by Human Rights Watch on 9 October.
"Violence, corruption and impunity are not just problems that government has failed to tackle; they are systemic abuses that flow from the heart of the very same government institutions that should be working to combat them," the report, titled Criminal Politics: Violence, "Godfathers" and Corruption in Nigeria, said.
In some Nigerian states, powerful political "godfathers" control politicians, the report said. "In return, the 'godfathers' have captured government institutions to serve their own interests."
In Oyo State, one of several examples cited in the report, the ruling "People's Democratic Party (PDP) godfather Lamidi Adedibu recruited gangs that sowed terror on the streets of the state capital Ibadan and other cities".
Besides surveying what it calls "systemic violence openly fomented by politicians and other political elites", the report shows "corruption that both fuels and rewards Nigeria's violent brand of politics at the expense of the general populace". The report also seeks to show "the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for these abuses".
Nigeria consistently scores amongst the world's most corrupt nations in the annual Corruption Perception Index of the organisation Transparency International.
According to author Chinua Achebe, winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize, "Corruption in Nigeria has passed the alarming and entered the fatal stage; and Nigeria will die if we continue to pretend that she is only slightly indisposed."
Sham elections
The HRW report is highly critical of the country's election process, and in particular the most recent polls which brought the new president Umaru Yar'Adua to power.
Many observers, including those representing the US and European Union, said the elections were among the worst they had ever witnessed anywhere in the world and they questioned the legitimacy of the results.
HRW said the election "proved to be another violent farce". The report said: "In violent and brazenly rigged polls, government officials have denied millions of Nigerians any real voice in selecting their political leaders."
"Federal institutions, including the Nigerian police, have themselves been at the heart of many of Nigeria's worst abuses."
Numerous examples are cited in the report of political figures openly recruiting and arming criminal gangs. In Gombe State politicians recruited violent cult gangs "who unleashed a wave of violence on local communities that included murder, rape, arson and other crimes".
"In Rivers State, criminal gangs hired to rig Nigeria's 2003 elections have since become a law unto themselves, spreading violence and insecurity throughout the restive Niger Delta." Scores of civilians have been killed or injured during clashes since the 2007 elections.
Oil revenue wasted
At the same time, the report said corruption and mismanagement had led to the waste of record oil revenues that could have been used to tackle poverty and improve access to basic health and education services.
HRW said efforts to investigate and prosecute corrupt politicians "focused on enemies of the [former President Olusegun] Obasanjo administration, [thus] undermining if not destroying the credibility of those efforts altogether."
Written by senior researcher in the Africa Division of HRW Chris Albin-Lackey and consultant Ben Rawlence, the report is based largely on missions they conducted to Anambra, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Katsina, Lagos, Oyo and Rivers states and the capital Abuja before, during and after the April 2007 elections.
The report called for an end to impunity. "One obvious and important place to start would be for the federal government to enact and aggressively implement the long delayed Freedom of Information Bill, which would make it possible for Nigerians to peel back the veils of secrecy that allow many government officials to conceal the evidence of their misdeeds by denying access to even the most basic government-held information."
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Copyright © 2007 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200710090673.html
AlterNet:
Slavery Is Alive and Well in the U.S.
By Suzi Steffen, AlterNet
Posted on October 8, 2007
What do you call it when those who cross the Mexican-U.S. border get charged thousands of dollars for a ride to a job where their employer makes them pay rent for unspeakably bad living conditions and board for the food they can only buy at the company store and where that employer patrols with dogs, trucks and thugs so the workers can't leave?
John Bowe calls it slavery. And it's happening in the United States right now, he says. Bowe's newest book, Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the Global Economy, makes the case using three specific cases and geographical areas to show just how much workers in the U.S. get undermined and hurt by these practices.
He's written about work before; he co-edited the book Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs. Besides co-writing the screenplay for the movie Basquiat, Bowe has won many journalism awards. But from a tip he got while writing Gig, he began to pursue this topic, and he's been working on it for over six years now.
"We never see what we do to other people," he says. In Nobodies, he pulls back that veil of secrecy and shows us just what we do in our quest for lower-priced goods. In the process, he and the book have gotten a flurry of interviews, reviews and even a moment with Jon Stewart. We interviewed him over the phone and email in a break on his book tour.
Suzi Steffen: Your book is getting a lot of attention. What was it like being on the Daily Show?
John Bowe: It's weird doing these things - weird, powerful, exciting, frustrating. You don't say half the things you wanted to say. I felt like, "Oh damn it, I forgot to offer any solutions," I forgot to talk about why nonslavery people should care about this, for example.
But all anybody else cares about is your shirt and if you smiled. It says a lot about our political climate that it takes a comedian to address the issue of labor slavery. It was hard to have a serious discussion and talk, say, about the roots and implications of the problem, much less more solution-oriented stuff. But at the same time, I have enormous admiration for Jon Stewart for having me on the show. Slavery's not usually a great source of humor.
SS: You did have a nice shirt on. In the first part of the book, about the agricultural workers in Florida, you talk about the collision of your journalist New Yorker's irony with the earnest belief and idealism of activists. Did you change over the course of writing the book? Do you find yourself less ironic now?
JB: There really is a fundamental choice; you can't both believe and be ironic. It did make me get more earnest. Even if you don't care about politics, politics certainly cares about you. If you don't take part of your time to address the socioeconomic/political realities unfolding around you, it will come, and it will screw you over. There's no free pass. I have no patience for anybody who's whining about [politics] and not doing something about it. The more you read about history, the more you realize that's a luxury most people haven't been able to afford.
I've become much more clued in to the way irony is used by politically inclined people to salve their frustrations about political realities. Although I love humor like The Daily Show and The Onion, it's kind of sad that these have become the main conduits for so many people's political awareness. Unfortunately, sitting there, laughing (alone, by the millions) at people or things you know are bullshit or wrong isn't a replacement for voting, protesting, raising awareness, throwing rocks, defacing property or doing whatever real-life actions you find effective in achieving actual change in this world.
SS: What should average people do to find out more about the conditions under which their food was grown and to change those conditions?
JB: Read my book. (laughs) The Coalition of Immokalee Workers' website is certainly one place to go. And there's a tremendous book called The Fatal Harvest Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture, by Andrew Kimbrell.
But also, ask questions. Always. All of this stuff I'm talking about sounds so serious and intractable, and it's easy to say, "Aggh, corporations rule the world and everything sucks. I might as well go home and do some bong hits." But it begins with you asking questions: Where did this apple come from? Who picked it? Where's the field? Do you mind if I go drive by the field some day?
SS: Many groups have tried to raise national awareness of worker or immigrant struggles, but the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has definitely succeeded. How do you think they did that?
JB: One, they work nights and weekends. Two, they're not afraid to be unironic. Although they are capable of being very funny, they're also not afraid to stand up for what they believe in, to insist upon being heard, to be unliked and unwanted, to get into people's faces. It's a special ability to be an activist; you are not in business to be liked. You're in business to bug people until it's easier to change than to resist. I think they're heroes. They changed my idea of democracy. I realized through them, through watching them work, that democracy is an incredibly tedious, frustrating job sometimes, and it's tedious and frustrating in a very specific way: It involves listening to people whose concerns you don't understand or share. It's often boring, and it's maddening.
And what I learned over time by watching them and also thinking about globalization is that if you're not bored and made mad sometimes by people you don't understand, you're probably not dealing with enough people who are different from you; you're probably just living in a bubble, hearing your own view of the world reinforced again and again. To bring it on home to the point of my book, if you're watching some guy on TV talking about globalization and how great it is for the world and for the millions of Chinese who now make our stuff, you should ask yourself why we never see these people on TV, telling us in their own words what their world looks like. It's probably less cozy than Thomas Friedman's view of things. We used to buy stuff from relatively free Americans. They could vote, speak up, organize, etc. Now we buy everything from Chinese who who can't vote freely, listen to/read a free media or speak up in public. And we're calling it "free" trade. How do you feel about that?
SS: When I talked about the relationship of companies like Tropicana to the slavery of workers in Florida, one woman in my office immediately said, "Well, I'll never eat an orange again." That doesn't seem like quite the right approach. Everyone needs food and clothing. What are your thoughts on this conundrum?
JB: Well, there are different strategies, and you need to employ or deploy as many as you can. I've been getting my clothes through thrift stores for 25 years. It's nice to say shop at organic and family-owned enterprises, but that's very elitist because only a few people can afford to do that. It's one option, of course. And it's sort of hard to imagine taking on the entire economy at once. The Coalition of Immokalee Worker's Campaign for Fair Food, which they have mounted with a lot of student and church groups, is huge. They've gotten Taco Bell and McDonald's to agree to pass on an extra penny per pound for the tomato pickers in south Florida. It doesn't sound like much, but it nearly doubles the workers' wages, and it basically doesn't cost the company or the consumer anything, nothing noticeable anyway. The next target is Burger King.
And every email, every body at the protest, every bit of news coverage is hugely powerful: Corporations who have spent bazillions of dollars on branding don't want to be associated with slavery. Although we love to imagine they're all-powerful, they're actually very vulnerable on this front. So join the campaign, and if you happen to feel superuppity some day and have the time, call a company that makes some food you like, and ask, "Hey, can you guarantee me that there's no slavery involved in getting this thing into my mouth?" If the answer's not yes - uh-oh!
SS: The same woman told me that some people simply like farmwork because they like being outside and working outside.
JB: She should talk to the people I talk to. In Florida, it's a hothouse. It's not farms; it's a factory, and the leaves are full of chemicals, the soil is a chemical swamp, the fruit is full of chemicals. There's so little that has anything to do with nature. It's hotter than hell. Does she know the average farmworker in the U.S. dies at 47 years old, quite often from pesticide poisoning, and earns about $7,500 a year?
SS: You said in an interview on TreeHugger.com, "I don't think it's right to blame corporations. I do think that it's right to commit absolute war on them ... to reign them in." Can you elaborate on how that should be done?
JB: Public awareness, raising public awareness of their worst business practices, harrassment of management, certainly technological warfare. Do everything possible to disrupt their business. And violence and the threat of violence. Obviously, the art is in wielding the threat of violence. I mean, I'm sorry to put it so crudely, but does your dog listen to impassioned, complicated explanations about why it should or shouldn't poop here or there?
No. and a corporation is at heart less intelligent than a decent black lab. It's a machine that exists to make money. It has people in it, and the people might be smart, but the core mission is not smart: It's just steady. And the only thing it responds to is the threat of being unsuccessful. So that could mean loss of sales ... or some other kind of loss.
It's very complicated, and for now, my weapon is my laptop, so don't get me wrong; changing campaign finance law so that corporations can't overpower citizens' say in government is critical and would help a lot to change our world. But I don't know if it's possible to stuff that genie back into the bottle.
SS: Let's talk about Wal-Mart's place in this world of economic exploitation and slavery.
JB: If we - as citizens and as consumers - were all as obsessed with living wages and decent treatment of workers worldwide as we are with low prices, it'd be a different world. Wal-Mart is just reflecting our desires and lack of imagination. I said in an interview the other day: "If you think you're getting something for nothing, you probably are." What I meant to say was, "If you think you're getting something for nothing, you probably are exploiting some worker in some foreign country. And in doing so, you're setting a new low standard of labor. And now your kids are gonna be competing with those workers. So congrats!" Anyway, again, I'm not big on blaming corporations. You have to take your fight to them, not wait for them to become "good people."
SS: Do you see American unions helping in this fight for ending slavery? What could they do, and why should they do it?
JB: Well, the unions have caught up and gotten much smarter in the last 10 years. At first they'd be thinking anti-immigrant, and now, it's better for them to focus on, "If you're in this country, and you're working, this is how much you're supposed to be paid," and enforce the labor laws.
But unions have gotten a bad name, and money and corporations have done a lot to give them a bad name. Perhaps it will be tough going for unions until the economic inequality in the U.S. and around the globe gets worse, but eventually it will get bad enough so unions will look like a good idea again. The reason I wrote my book was to help people choose between the imperfections and current uncoolness of unions - and the endpoint of the current trend towards inequality. Would you rather be in a union? Or would you rather be unpaid entirely and treated far worse?
SS: The middle section of your book concerns the bizarre abuse of "training" programs, in this case for a group of welders from India. What other abuses have you heard about of this program, and how can the government or ordinary citizens help stop this abuse?
JB: Guest worker problems are bad, period. Go all the way back to the colonies and indentured servants from Germany, in which there was tons of abuse, up to the Bracero Program and the people brought to cut sugar cane. There's just always abuse. Guest worker programs don't work. I'm much more liberal than many people on the issue of admitting foreigners to become legal citizens of the U.S., but I'm probably much more conservative than most people I know about illegal immigration. Enforcement against employers who hire illegal citizens should be funded to the fullest possible levels. You can't have a fair or democratic society without the rule of law, and in my opinion, laws formed around the idea that we're all equal are wonderful. Don't have these halfway citizens. Having people around who have half rights leads to abuse.
SS: You mention that people have a hard time calling coerced work "slavery." Why is that?
JB: Because it hasn't happened to them. I had a hard time at first, I just didn't get what was the essence of slavery. It is a very complicated subject; thousands of people are earning their living writing about it. But really, it's as creative as any form of art. There are so many different tortures, punishments, rules; so many ways of convincing the slave this is the correct order of things. Someone else has control over you.
Some people said to me, "We're all slaves to consumer ideology," but you can't go throwing terms around. "Slavery" doesn't mean "suffering," or working at a job that's a bummer, or depressing or whatever. It means someone is hurting you or threatening to hurt you or your family, and they are forcing you to work, and you can't leave.
SS: What do you think about the role of religious people in helping end slavery and corporate abuse, as in the middle portion of your book?
JB: I think religion gets reported on very badly in this country, because most people who tend to be reporters tend to be part of urban elites and tend to be "liberals" who don't report on religion because religious people seem to be uncool or "other."
Also, it is a mistake to think of them as only being conservative. If some leaders among them stood up and said, "There's a lot more in the Bible about helping poor people than about bashing gay people," they would be a huge resource. I think there are a lot of religious people out there looking for leadership on this issue, very energetic people with a lot of enthusiasm. Ditto with environmental issues. I think that no American, no modern person anywhere, wants to return to a world with slavery. Religion is a good guide to help people realize they have the strength to fight against the trend, the societal pressure and ideology in the U.S. right now that work and achievement and material success are the primary purposes of life.
SS: Talk about the wounds this kind of perpetuation of slavery inflicts on our ideals of freedom and, potentially, our real freedom, not to mention our national psyche.
Well, I think it's just that no one can ever compete. It's as radical as anything gets. You could say it's a few hundred or a few thousand cases in a country of 300 million. It doesn't matter; you're still toast, just like it doesn't matter if you have only a few HIV-infected cells out of the millions in your body. There shouldn't be any confusion about it: Slavery is an element that once you introduce into a polity, it's instantaneously infectious.
If we keep allowing the trends that are creating a Hispanic underclass in the U.S., or a highly ossified rich vs. poor divide, we're going to have to look at a lot of people suffering for our freedom. And I don't know what we do about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and all that marvelous rhetoric about "freedom." Do we rewrite it? I think the average person would be happier if the average person were treated more fairly.
SS: In your conclusion, you write that the first legal approach to make the world a fairer place "would be the establishment of global labor and environmental standards." How do you see this coming about?
JB: Can I be blunt? Probably through a lot of very boring discussions and some bloodshed.
Everybody acts like [establishing standards] is so difficult and so impossible. But I don't see another way. Everybody talks about the race to the bottom. What I found in my book is that the bottom is slavery, and most people don't want to live in a world of slavery. So if those assumptions are true, I don't see another solution than to create the standards. Peg the standards to the standard of living in each country. If people cared enough, it would be doable.
SS: How should media folks be responding to your work and to the conditions of inequality we see all around us?
JB: There's a fable where the king hired people to go out and circulate among the people and find out what was going on - that's how journalism in a free country should work. But instead we're blinded by Britney getting fat, and we don't hear anything about regular life - and no one really cares about it. Journalism about the poor is always done in this boo-hoo way. You have to go out and write about poor people, yes, but you have to be really good at it to make people find it interesting. No one wants to be sorry for people.
So get off your ass and get off your desk and get out there. Forget about the internet. Forget about other media. Go out into the real world. Go to places you don't know, talk to people you don't understand, whom you fear. Ask them what the world looks like through their eyes. Start from there. Surprise yourself.
SS: Do you have any hope that Democrats can help put an end to some of the labor violations and outright slavery? Or do you think the change will come from the workers?
JB: If there's anything I want to stress, it's why people should fear this for themselves other than just "I feel sorry for the little people." Unfortunately, that doesn't really seem to motivate people. The good news is it doesn't take such a material or financial change, but it does take changing people's attitudes. For garment production, it would cost 6 percent more at the cash register for people to have garments made by people getting a living wage.
And the change will come from whoever feels like helping. Ultimately, slavery is very, very bad for business. People who aren't paid can't buy stuff. If the global total of wages being paid out each week shrinks and shrinks, then so does people's ability to consume stuff that makes the whole world economy tick. Businesspeople are just as likely as corporate-fueled Democrats, I would think, to make change. And hyperorganized religious people on the right could be just as effective as handwringing Democrats who can't even end a war most Americans oppose.
SS: I realize that this subject matter can get rather depressing, and that people reading this interview (or your book) might start to feel overwhelmed. What suggestions do you have for action on the part of those who can, and want to, read this interview?
JB: Take a deep breath and celebrate the fact that (a) the world hasn't ended, (b) you are alive, (c) the world might be dead one day, (d) you will be dead one day. You have nothing but possibility. And everything is just fine. So shut the fuck up and get busy. There is no reason to be alive except to do what you want. Sitting around feeling bad is a waste of time. There is a real thrill and a real power for standing up for what you believe in. Be cool. Be fashionable. Be ahead of the pack. Get busy. Globalization has already happened. Now it just needs to be made fair. If you're alive right now and you care about any of this stuff, then great: This is your job!
Suzi Steffen is a freelance writer in Eugene, Ore., and an arts editor at the Eugene Weekly.
© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/64570/
AlterNet:
The Government Sanctioned Bombing of Appalachia
By Antrim Caskey, AlterNet
Posted on October 9, 2007
On a calm, clear morning in the forested mountains of southern West Virginia, 12-year-old Chrystal Gunnoe played outdoors in the green mountain valley where her family has lived for hundreds of years. It was Veteran's Day and a school holiday. Chrystal's mother, Maria Gunnoe, 38, was inside when she heard her daughter yell for help.
Gunnoe rushed outside to find Chrystal coming towards her. Chrystal was coughing and struggling to breath, running from a strange-looking cloud that was moving down the valley and headed towards their house. Gunnoe would later learn the strange cloud came from something known as a "slow burning blast" - an explosion set at the coal mine above her home that failed to ignite and instead burned slowly, releasing a wet toxic cloud of nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide.
Gunnoe lives in Bob White, W.Va., where coal companies have become increasingly unfriendly neighbors. Her home is surrounded by thousands of acres where a radically destructive type of coal mining is practiced - mountaintop removal/valley fill (MTR) coal mining - and it's turning Maria Gunnoe's life upside down.
In the weeks following, Chrystal suffered from a bronchial infection, a consistent cough, nose bleeds and bouts of painful breathing. Her mother, who was also exposed, "had sores on the inside of [her] nose," she said. "First they take our land, then the water, now the air," fumed Gunnoe who lives in Boone County, W.Va.'s top coal-yielding county, and the epicenter of Appalachian coal extraction, where the dirty business of mining, processing and hauling coal is the main meal-ticket in town.
Coal mining dominates the lives of the people in the remote, coal-rich mountain communities of West Virginia, where coal operators like Massey Energy are waging a remorseless campaign to extract all the coal they can, as fast as they can, before coal is legislated into the past and President Bush is out of office.
Out-of-state coal operators reap billions in profits every year, while residents of southern West Virginia remain among the poorest in the nation. In the coal fields, the imbalance is amplified: while Boone county produces the most coal in the state, 20 percent of its residents languish below the poverty line without sufficient income to achieve an adequate standard of living.
Massey Energy Co., the largest coal producer in Appalachia, grossed $1.78 billion in revenue on coal sales of 42.3 million tons in 2005, while residents have toy drives for the kids around the holidays and often rely on free medical care administered by a global traveling clinic unit that comes around once a year.
West Virginia has always been a coal state, and the coal industry has had unfettered access to the state's low-sulfur coal since mining began in earnest in the late 19th century. In the early days, underground coal miners used pick axes to dig out coal and put it in wooden buggies drawn by mules. Today, coal mining is highly mechanized, using a few men and enormous machines the size of skyscrapers to take the tops off mountains in order to get the increasingly harder-to-reach coal.
Pure greed drives the coal operators to rape and pillage Appalachia for profit. But mountain communities are standing up against King Coal - lawsuits, citizen protests and national lobbying efforts are bringing the voices of the oppressed Appalachians to the nation.
Working within the system, citizen activist groups have garnered widespread support for the restoration of legislation that was written to protect our waterways - legislation that the Bush administration has proactively maligned since he came into office.
When King Coal hits home
The Gunnoe home-place sits on about 24 acres in a beautiful mountain hollow, surrounded by deciduous forest. Their family-built home sits on a manicured lawn, nestled along the valley slope. But their home and health are in serious peril. Since 2001, seven floods have taken almost five acres of Gunnoe's family farm; two vehicular access bridges have been washed away forcing the family to cross a rickety bridge, then active railroad tracks to get into their house; and their well water has been so contaminated that Gunnoe now must spend $250 per month on bottled water.
Big Branch Creek, the headwater stream that flows from the mountains through her property, is now termed a "National Pollution Discharge Elimination System" stream by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP). "There is no enforcement in Big Branch hollow," said Gunnoe.
All this damage and heartache has been the result of mountaintop removal/valley fill (MTR) coal mining, a highly mechanized process of a coal extraction that has gained favor with Appalachian coal operators over the last two and a half decades. With this method, massive machines are able to harvest coal in remote mountain ridge regions traditionally considered inaccessible to coal mining operations.
The first step in MTR coal mining is to clear-cut the forested peaks of valuable hardwood trees. The trees are bulldozed into the valleys below and/or burned. Next, machines push tons of earth - the blasted mountaintops or "overburden" in mining parlance - into the valleys below to form valley fills. These decapitated mountain peaks are being used to build more than 4,000 valley fills in the state of West Virginia.
Once the first layer of rock is exposed, massive blasting stages are drilled and filled with explosives. Three million pounds of explosives are used every day in West Virginia alone. Layer by layer, mountains are blasted away, revealing seams of rich, low-sulfur coal, found in horizontal layers like the icing between cake layers. The coal is removed by giant earth moving machines called draglines, which replace the labor of hundreds of men and cost between $50 million and $100 million each.
MTR is big business requiring copious amounts of capital and very few coal miners. Since the onset and legislative streamlining of MTR permitting, the traditional underground coal miner work force in West Virginia has plummeted. The number of men mining coal underground currently hovers around 12,000 employees, and in July 2007, sank to a mere 5,475 underground coal miners. according to the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.
MTR coal mining is eliminating jobs and killing Appalachia: taking down the mountains, burying streams, dirtying the air and devastating every living thing in its path. Entire communities, still vividly alive in the memories of the local people, have been obliterated, because they stood on top of vast coal reserves.
Systematic attacks on such communities have leveled mountain hamlets like Twilight, Cazy, Laurel, Blair and hundreds of others. Towns, communities and family cemeteries have been burned, bulldozed and buried because they stood in the path of King Coal.
MTR coal extraction not only annihilates some of the most biologically diverse temperate hardwood forest habitat in the world, but it also destroys and displaces entire human communities, destroying the unique mountain culture of West Virginia. Many Appalachian families have continued to live on the same land since the late 1700s.
Residents want to retain their home-places, their heritage. Mountain communities have an extraordinary relationship with the land and all that it provides - visually, physically and spiritually. Many have fought to the last moment before they are forced from their homes by blasting, flooding and/or illness. Often, by the time the coal mining becomes a threat to a community, families find it impossible to move: Their homes and land have been rendered worthless, and they simply cannot afford to leave.
Mary Miller of Sylvester, W.Va., a retired postmaster, has seen her fine two-story brick home depreciate in value to a mere fraction of its original worth because of a coal dust-spewing Massey Energy-owned coal processing plant that moved into the once idyllic town of Sylvester in the early '80s. No one wants to leave. Those who remain face life-threatening problems, including contamination of drinking water, damage to homes from blasting, severe flooding, the threat of coal sludge impoundment failures, and breathing problems related to blasting. Many people simply have no choice - they are forced to take a stand.
Domination of the coal fields by the coal industry is plainly visible while driving through Appalachia. From southwestern West Virginia's Raleigh, Boone and Mingo counties to southeastern Ohio, one can recognize an informal "Coal Industrial Zone" consisting of coal extraction operations in West Virginia and the power plants they feed just over the Ohio River in Meigs County, Ohio. And then there's the destruction that is difficult to see.
In an effort to get rid of billions of gallons of toxic coal slurry, which is the waste by-product that comes from chemical cleaning of coal, this sludge (not sewage) is pumped underground into abandoned mine works, contaminating the drinking water of the vulnerable communities in between.
"They've destroyed our lives - our health, our past, definitely any chance of a future," explains Gunnoe.
A dirty business
Coal has always provided employment in West Virginia, but compared to the corporate profits exiting Appalachia, miners' salaries serve more as an enabler to a dangerous, sick, indebted future than a promising career. Union mines are virtually extinct in West Virginia, and dependable medical coverage and pension funds are precarious at best.
In fact, the much touted jobs in today's coal mining industry are at best temporary - one year, maybe two. Coal miners are forced to work in unsafe conditions and abrupt layoffs are the norm.
But coal has maintained its hold and flourished in the region because of politics. The coal industry and politicians have always had a close business relationship. According to a 2006 midterm election report on CNN, the efforts of Massey's CEO - in the end, unsuccessful - to win the state legislature for Republicans was describe as this: "Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship has spent more than $1.8 million to promote 41 GOP candidates through contributions and his personal political action committee, And for the Sake of the Kids."
Blankenship is infamous for his greed and callous attitude towards people, but also for his efforts to stack the deck politically in his favor, using strategic donations. In return for such acts of party-line economic kindness, Bush has aided and abetted the coal barons in their selfish plan with a complete disregard to its effects on the environment and impact on global climate change.
While the world determines how to take action against the dangers of global warming, Bush is blithely backing coal, completely indifferent to the threat of CO2 emissions - the leading global warming gas - to the earth's atmosphere. He has used the Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining to streamline the permitting process for the most radical and destructive form of coal mining, mountaintop removal/valley fill coal mining, to serve the needs of the coal industry.
West Virginia helped Bush into office by voting Republican for the first time in decades in 2000. In total, nine of the 13 Appalachian states voted for Bush in 2000. In 2002, Bush's first payback to the coal industry was a small but devastating "executive rule change" to the Clean Water Act that reclassified mining "waste" as "fill" so that the mountaintops of Appalachia could be dumped into waterways, burying thousands of miles of vital headwater streams. That legislation is helping to flatten the coal-rich Appalachian mountains.
On Friday, Aug. 24, 2007, the Bush administration insulted the American people again by handing his coal cronies more spoils. The Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining has proposed another rule change that will further declaw the Clean Water Act by institutionalizing valley fills. The proposed rule change nullifies the "100 foot stream buffer zone" rule that prohibits mining within 100 feet of a stream. In the past, the buffer zone has been easily bypassed with a simple waiver request by coal operators. This proposed change will eliminate all barriers to burying Appalachian streams.
If the buffer zone rule is eliminated, coal operators can more freely dump crumbled mountaintops into valleys, burying thousands of miles of headwater streams. Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment in Lewisburg, W.Va., called Bush's latest environmental assault a "parting gift from this administration to the coal industry."
Since the late 1990s, and especially after the 2002 rule change to the Clean Water Act by Bush legalizing the burying of streams with valley fills composed of former mountaintops, MTR coal mining has become an enormous and immediate threat to the region. The most biologically diverse temperate forest in the world, whose capacity at natural carbon sequestration cannot be underestimated, is being rapidly destroyed.
More than 4,000 valley fills in West Virginia alone have buried or severely impacted over 2,000 miles of vital headwater streams - the source of the southeastern United States' drinking water. Wrapping coal in the flag and the war-time mantra of becoming "energy-independent" is confusing the realities about coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
Americans use coal for more than 50 percent of their electricity needs. Coal-fired power plants produce 40 percent of U.S. annual CO2 emissions, the primary global warming gas. With plans for 129 new coal-fired power plants on the drawing board, the coal industry, in collusion with the federal government and a wide array of industry partners, is ushering in a new tax payer-subsidized era for coal, making unwitting American tax payers the co-authors of this destruction. American tax payers are bottom-lining the construction of new cross-country transmission lines, funding billion-dollar coal tech projects - the citizens are paying to develop and construct new plants and the means to transport the product so that the consumer can have the luxury of buying the energy.
A people-powered solution
Only the American people can help stop MTR coal mining. Because politicians are beholden to coal companies and industry partners through political contributions, only a grassroots movement can alter the energy agenda. To restore the Clean Water Act to its original intentions, the Clean Water Protection Act (CWPA) was introduced to Congress on May 8, 2002, by Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act so as "to clarify that fill material cannot be comprised of waste."
The CWPA was then referred to the committee of jurisdiction - the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee will be the first to deal with this legislation. Year by year, the bill gained more co-sponsors. Currently, the Clean Water Protection Act (HR2169), has 99 co-sponsors. If passed, valley fills and thus, MTR, would be made illegal by preventing the disposal of mining waste into headwater streams - the protection that the Bush administration stripped from the Clean Water Act in 2002.
The CWPA is an easy bill to sign on to: Lawmakers are committing to keeping waste out of our waterways. That it has taken years in the House to garner 99 co-sponsors is a testament to the power of the coal industry. But the tide seems to be changing against coal and towards clean, sustainable energy. The number of proposed coal-fired power plants for the United States recently dropped from 150 to 129 - due in large part to public outcry and threat of lawsuits because people are more aware of the hazards of coal.
Appalachian mountain communities have been radicalized by the headlong path the coal industry is wreaking in their backyards, propelling many people on to local and national advocacy campaigns to save the land and people of Appalachia from a profit-driven rape.
Maria Gunnoe, who is a trained medical assistant and used to work as a waitress to support her family, is now a full-time mountain community organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OHVEC) and there are others in her community who've taken up this work full time.
"People here are now unable to deny the impact of mountaintop removal/valley fill coal mining. They are learning about it through personal experience and personal impact - even the strip miners will tell you that there's going to be a big washout next time the rains come," explained Gunnoe. "They've robbed my children of their childhood. They robbed me of my motherhood. That's all I ever wanted, to be a mother and wife. I just wanted to lie in my little hollow and be left alone. I wanted to teach them what my parents taught me. They've taken that away."
Community members like Gunnoe who speak out against MTR risk losing friendships and jobs, peace of mind, family pets or even their life. Many people are too frightened to talk about how coal mining has adversely affected their lives - this kind of talk can easily cost a relative his job with one of the offending coal companies.
The coal companies turn communities against each other by telling their employees that the environmentalists want to take away their jobs. In the way they always have, "the mine bosses sit with the younger miners and put something in their ear - something to get worked up about," explains Ed Wiley, of Rock Creek, W.Va. Unfortunately, as community resistance builds and lawsuits alleging gross injustice finally come to trial, the stage is set for a clash. Whereas the effects of underground mining in the past were far less drastic and coal extraction operations were underground and out of sight, MTR coal mining is a ferocious, in-your-face type of mining that affects every part of your life, if you live nearby.
The chronic relationship between coal operators and politicians in Appalachia, America's most underdeveloped region, continues to this day. Coal serves only a few while condemning local residents to unhealthy lives and uninhabitable homes and the rest of us to dirty energy and a warming planet. Now is the time to stand up and demand clean, renewable energy.
Antrim Caskey has been reporting on the human and environmental costs of mountaintop removal/valley fill coal mining since May 2005. Caskey is a Brooklyn-based independent photojournalist whose work focuses on community and social justice issues.
© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/64547/
Asia Times:
At last, some good news from Iraq
By Sami Moubayed
Oct 10, 2007
Good news came from Iraq this weekend - the best news for the US, probably, since Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the prince of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was killed by a US air strike in June 2006.
The two rival clerics, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and Muqtada al-Sadr, who control the Iraqi Shi'ite community, have decided to lay down their arms and unite their efforts to bring stability and security to Iraq.
Hakim leads the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), which controls the Badr Brigade. Sadr leads the Mahdi Army, a massive militia that controls the slums and poorer districts of Baghdad. Hakim is popular among the educated Shi'ite elite, the middle-class, and affluent business community. He is backed by both Iran and the United States. Sadr reigns among the young and the poor and is backed by grassroot Iraqis.
The two men, who control two very powerful militias, have been sniping at each other since the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. This single reconciliation development - if carried out as planned - can truly help end the violence, more so than all the conferences, debates, and proposals laid out since 2003. If united, the two militias can help eradicate al-Qaeda in Iraq. All they have been doing for the past 4 years, however, is fight one another for control of the Shi'ite street.
The news came as a surprise, especially as a war of words and bullets had escalated between the two camps over the past 10 days. The Sadrists accused Badr of target assassinations in southern Iraq. Ahmad Masoudi, a Sadrist parliamentarian, said that hit squads loyal to Hakim were operating against the Mahdi Army. He said that senior members of SIIC, like Vice President Adel Abdul-Mehdi and Interior Minister Jawad al-Boulani, intervened with government authorities in Babil to release Badr militiamen who had carried out attacks against the Mahdi Army, killing four Sadrists. Last week, two Sadrist clerics were assassinated in Basra - a crime that Sadr blamed on Hakim.
On the other hand, media outlets under Hakim's control have been accusing Sadr of instigating inter-Shi'ite violence, blaming Sadr himself for the latest hostilities in Karbala. It seemed like tension was snowballing between both parties and would lead to a Shi'ite civil war - a war that Sadr would lose due to Hakim's alliance with the Iraqi government, the United States, and Iran.
That is probably why Sadr decided to step out of the battle with maximum face-saving in front of his supporters. Rather than engage in war with Hakim - and lose - he now boasts of having taken a "wise decision" to prevent the shedding of Shi'ite blood. Instead of playing the victim, Sadr actually is now playing the victor. He claimed that his decision to reconcile with Hakim was done with one purpose: "Strengthening the nation".
But there are other objectives behind the four-and-a-half hour meeting between the two rival groups that are worth observing.
1) Traditionally, Sadr and Hakim have agreed on nothing. Sadr was, despite his religious overtones, a strong Arab nationalist who believed in the traditional rhetoric of a unified Arab nation, dedicated to the eradication of the state of Israel. Arab nationalism, he believed, comes before Iraqi nationalism. And in turn, Iraqi nationalism comes before Shi'ite nationalism. Hakim believes the opposite. His ranking is Shi'ite, Iraqi, Arab.
Hakim wants autonomy for the Shi'ites in southern Iraq, similar to that obtained by the Kurds. Sadr wants to keep Iraq united. Hakim wants a paramount role for Iran in Iraqi politics. Sadr wants Iran to keep a distance - although he aims at creating an Iran-like theocracy in Baghdad. Sadr remained in Iraq during the difficult years of Saddam Hussein, refusing to be protected by the Iranians. Hakim fled to Tehran, where along with his brother. Mohammad Baqir, he founded SIIC (then known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, SCIRI) and Badr Brigade. They were funded by Tehran while Sadr's Mahdi Army operated through local donations and fund-raising projects. Sadr boasted that he was 100% Iraqi while Hakim was a creation of Tehran.
Sadr wants the Americans to immediately leave Iraq. Hakim wants them to stay, warning that their immediate evacuation would plunge the country into more chaos. The only thing they seemed to agree on was hatred for al-Qaeda. Given all the other differences, this single unifying factor always took a backseat in the relationship. Today, fear of al-Qaeda is increasing. So is fear of Sunni groups being armed by the US to eradicate al-Qaeda. First, this threatens the stature of both men. If the Sunni militias succeed, the Shi'ites will get no credit for wiping out a traditional and dangerous enemy. Second, the very fact that Sunnis are being armed is alarming and unifying for the Shi'ites. They don't trust armed militiamen from the Sunni community,fearing that once they get rid of al-Qaeda (or fail in their campaign to destroy it) the Sunnis would unleash their arms against the Shi'ites.
Ammar Hakim, the son of Abdul-Aziz, commented: "Seeking help from people in some areas to bring peace is a right principle. But random arming and giving authority to groups outside the security forces is another [matter]."
Shortly after the arming process began, sectarian violence re-started. Abdul-Sattar Risheh, a Sunni tribal chief working with the Americans against al-Qaeda, was gunned down after meeting President George W Bush. Mouawiyya Jbara, the head of the Saladin Awakening Council, was also assassinated. Sunni chiefs cried foul play, accusing either al-Qaeda, or radical Shi'ites. Earlier last week, on October 4, a roadside bomb killed the mayor of Iskandariya (40km south of Baghdad), Abbas al-Khafaji, who is a powerful member of SIIC. The Shi'ites cried foul play and accused al-Qaeda and Sunni tribes - who were being aimlessly armed by the Americans - for his assassination.
As tension rises between both parties, Sunni statements are spreading more worry in the Shi'ite community. The Amman-based Harith al-Dari, who is one of the most influential Sunni chiefs in Iraq and on the "wanted" list of the Maliki government, appeared on al-Jazeera and came one step short of supporting al-Qaeda. "We reject the actions of al-Qaeda," he said, "but they are still part of us. Ninety percent of al-Qaeda are Iraqi. It may be possible to hold a dialogue with them and God may help them return to reason."
He went on, "from a national, Islamic, and rational point of view, it is not allowed to fight alongside occupation forces [in reference to the Sunnis being armed by the United States to combat al-Qaeda]." Self-defense against al-Qaeda attacks, he noted, was justified. The remarks, coming from the head of the Muslim Scholars Association, raised eyebrows in Shi'ite Iraq - all the more reason for Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim to cooperate.
2) If the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) that is headed by Hakim, collapses, then this spells trouble for the Shi'ites at large. Although Sadr has suspended his membership in the all-Shi'ite parliamentary group, withdrawing his 30 deputies, they remain a natural ally for him in a standoff with the Sunnis. The UIA has already suffered from walk-out of the Fadila Party. It ejected from power, they cannot guarantee a thundering victory, as was the case in 2005. If the UIA is out, then both Hakim and Sadr lose as their successors would be either independent, secular, Sunni, or a combination of all three, and would deny the religiously driven Shi'ites the chance to control government as they have done since 2005. The traditional Arab saying stands: "My brother and I
stand against my cousin, while my cousin and I stand against the stranger." In this case, clearly, the Sunnis are strangers to both Hakim and Sadr.
3) SIIC and Badr have been embarrassed by the Biden-Gelb Plan (approved by the US Senate) for partitioning Iraq. It sounds identical to what they have been calling for since 2004; an autonomous 8-province district for the Shi'ites in southern Iraq. The Iraqi Parliament rejected outright the non-binding resolution on October 3. The UIA, headed by Hakim, immediately seconded the rebuttal. This was not enough, however, for Hakim's opponents (especially among Sunnis) to come out against him, drawing connections between SIIC's program and that of the Biden-Gelb Plan.
Ammar Hakim came out in defense of SIIC's federalism project, speaking to Radio Sawa and saying his father envisioned federalism based on geography, rather than on ethnic and sectarian grounds. This federalism, he added, would be determined by the people in a referendum, based on constitutional methods, and not imposed on them by the United States. SIIC officials complained that some were "exploiting" the Biden-Gelb Plan to draw parallels with the Hakim initiative, and SIIC newspapers said that it "gave ammunition" to those wanting to undermine the Shi'ites of Iraq.
Salih al-Mutlaq, a leading Sunni politician who is strongly opposed to Hakim's federalism, said that the leader of SIIC and the US Senate had "coordinated" their federalism project for Iraq. Izzat Shahbandar, a secular Shi'ite loyal to former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, added that there were "several similar facts" between both proposals. The Americans call it "partitioning" while Hakim stresses "federalism", and Salih al-Ukayli, a Shi'ite parliamentarian, noted, "federalism and partitioning are two sides of the same coin so long as occupation of beloved Iraq continues".
By allying himself to Sadr - a man famed for his opposition to federalism - Hakim shakes off the nasty image given to him by the Biden-Gelb Plan - that of being a puppet for the United States. While many question Hakim's relationship with Washington, Sadr is above suspicion in the eyes of ordinary Iraqis. An alliance with Sadr at this stage helps polish Hakim's image, especially on the issue of federalism.
4) Sadr is looking for a back channel to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The two men started out as friends in 2006. Maliki protected Sadr from US harassment and gave him a political platform in the Iraqi government through several important portfolios like commerce, health, and education. In exchange, Sadr gave Maliki legitimacy in the Iraqi Street and political weight within the Iraqi parliament with his 30 deputies. It was a marriage of convenience. The two men parted over Maliki's relationship with the US and his refusal to call for a timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Maliki, glad to get rid of Sadr, who had become a political embarrassment (although he remained a military asset) started cracking down on Sadr or letting other militias - like Badr - do the dirty work on his behalf.
Sadr never imagined that US support for Nuri al-Maliki would be this strong and that despite all the security problems Iraq was facing, the White House was refusing to let him go - fearing what alternative would replace him. Sadr expected Maliki to fall within weeks of the Sadrist walk-out. Maliki has survived. Without a government umbrella, Sadr cannot hold on for long. Funds are becoming increasingly difficult to raise. All the government institutions he once controlled are no longer within his authority. He cornered himself into a tight spot and has found it difficult to make a u-turn. Pride simply got in the way. Now that it is clear that Maliki is there to stay - at least for the foreseeable future - Sadr is looking for a way back to the prime minister. Hakim has Maliki's ear. If Hakim convinces him to change course vis-a-vis Sadr, then the Mahdi Army might survive and regain its earlier power apparatus.
The Mahdi Army has already sent a positive signal to the prime minister by declaring a 6-month truce under which it will refrain from fighting both other militias, Iraqi police, and US troops. Sadr has also personally cracked down on all armed men performing violence in his name. To date, Maliki's comments on the Sadr-Hakim alliance have been positive and encouraging to the Mahdi Army. He has said that the reconciliation "came at the right time" and showed "a high sense of religious and national responsibility". He did not single out Hakim to shower with praise, but rather, commended both Shi'ite leaders simultaneously.
If this continues, however, Maliki will have a difficult time convincing the Americans to stop persecuting the Mahdi Army. He has already stuck his neck out for the cleric-turned-rebel-turned-politician in the past, and received a lot of bad publicity in Washington. The US would have to start accepting Sadr as a partner in Iraq - fighting a common enemy like al-Qaeda. This won't be easy, given Sadr's history of anti-Americanism and the fact that he carried arms against the Americans in 2004.
Things are going well in Maliki's direction. In addition to the reconciliation project, a top Sunni cleric, Abdul-Aziz Bin Abdullah al-Sheikh (the Mufti of Saudi Arabia), has came out prohibiting young Saudi radicals (who comprise the bulk of al-Qaeda) from engaging in jihad abroad (in reference to Iraq). Maliki praised this initiative, saying that it was wise, and he sent a positive signal to the Sunnis by delaying (though it is unclear if it is going to be called off completely) the execution of Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hasan al-Majid (Chemical Ali). The prime minister desperately needs a "success story" in "Maliki's Iraq" to sell to the Americans and the international community. The Hakim-Sadr rapprochement could be his life-saver.
Maliki now has to wait and bet on Hakim's wisdom and ability to embrace and accommodate the radical and ambitious Muqtada al-Sadr. Some of Hakim's entourage will find that difficult, given that many believe Sadr was responsible for the August 2003 assassination of Hakim's brother, boss, and founder of SIIC, Mohammad Baqir. They claimed that Sadr wanted to eliminate a Shi'ite heavyweight who, although opposed to the US invasion, was nevertheless willing and able to work with it for the sake of Iraq. The Sadrists snapped back, claiming that Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim fabricated the accusation to strike at a traditional enemy and gain legitimacy within Shi'ite circles.
That story has perhaps now become history to most observers of Iraq. But in tribal politics, revenge is never forgotten. To move on, both Sadr and Hakim have to forget, as both have an equal amount of blood on their hands from many years of conflict over supremacy among Iraqi Shi'ites.
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst. He is the author of Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 (Cune Press 2005).
Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ10Ak01.html
Clarín: Intimidades, poesías y cartas
inéditas, en las memorias de la viuda del Che
Fueron publicadas por Aleida March, la segunda esposa de Guevara, con quien tuvo cuatro hijos.
Por: Clarín.com
09.10.2007
"El Che volvía tarde a casa, a las tres o cuatro de la madrugada, a veces a las seis. Dormía sólo cinco o seis horas diarias", recordó Aleida March (Manicaragua, 1936), antes de presentar su libro Evocación, la mia vita a fianco del Che ("Evocación, mi vida junto al Che") en Milán. Con esta obra de memorias íntimas, la viuda del "guerrillero heroico" sacrifica su riguroso segundo plano de la albacea, sostenido durante 40 años. Segunda esposa del Che y con quien tuvo cuatro hijos, Aleida March eligió una estrategia indirecta: lanzar el libro primero en edición italiana en la casa Bompiani. De hecho, para la traducción al castellano se deberá esperar a abril, cuando será editada por Espasa. No se trata de un libro político, sino de la mirada melancólica de la compañera de ocho años de vida, a quien el Che eligió en los días eufóricos de la toma de Santa Clara, en 1958. Sin embargo, precisa tramos de su vida como sus visitas clandestinas al Che en Praga y Tanzania. Asimismo, desmiente las reiteradas alusiones de algunos biógrafos (sugeridas por Paco Ignacio Taibo II, taxativas en el mexicano Jorge Castañeda) acerca de que la salida de Cuba primero rumbo al Congo y luego hacia la inmolación en Bolivia haya obedecido a discrepancias con Fidel Castro sobre la creciente dependencia cubana de la URSS.
La materia de esta Evocación son reflexiones, poemas y parte de la correspondencia privada inéditos hasta hoy. El retrato edifica con honestidad al "hombre de mármol" y nos entrega a un Che que ni siquiera admite los privilegios ínfimos consentidos por Fidel Castro. Como cuando debió salir de viaje oficial a pocos días de casarse, en junio de 1959. Por tratarse de un viaje de tres meses, la flamante novia le rogó que la llevara; ella oficiaría de secretaria. Pero el Che se negó "porque eso se vería como un privilegio, dado que el resto (de la comitiva) no podía hacerse acompañar por las compañeras". March agrega que antes de la partida, ambos visitaron a Fidel en su casa y "éste también trató de convencerlo de que me llevara, pero él no aceptó".
El nacimiento de Aleidita Guevara March, primera hija de la pareja, en noviembre de 1960, también encontró al Che en una misión por el campo socialista. El soñaba con un varón y había acordado que llevaría el nombre de Camilo. "En tono jocoso y con su ironía habitual, me envió un telegrama en el que decía que si era niña la tirara por el balcón". Y luego le envió una postal: "Tú siempre empeñada en hacerme quedar mal. Bueno, de todas maneras un beso a cada una y recuerda: a lo hecho pecho".
Se suceden anécdotas del Che como funcionario cubano, lo que a menudo lo obligaba a atender visitantes internacionales. "Así, llegaron a oídos del Che rumores de mi habitual vestimenta (...) Esa vez el Che llegó a casa y me preguntó si era cierto que había llevado el mismo vestido siete veces seguidas. Lo rectifiqué; habían sido ocho. Inútil explicarle que se trataba del único vestido de embarazada más o menos apto para ocasiones oficiales y que no desentonaba con el estilo del Che, siempre de fajina".
Si resulta difícil imaginar a un Che doméstico con los hábitos de cualquier mortal, March restituye escenas de complicidad matrimonial: "Compartíamos los libros que él me pasaba luego de haberlos leído, con aquella voracidad que lo caracterizó toda su vida. Prácticamente leía un libro por día, aprovechaba cada momento libre. Entre sus preferidos, el Quijote, que había leído al menos seis veces, y El Capital, considerado por él una cumbre insuperable del genio".
Durante uno de sus últimos viajes antes de partir al Congo, promete que en la primera escala posible le comprará un regalo. Su carta entabla la despedida: "Esta podría ser la última carta que te escribo en mucho tiempo (...) En las noches tropicales retomo mi viejo y mal practicado oficio de poeta (no de versos sino de pensamientos), y tú serás la protagonista indiscutida. Estudia, estudia mucho. Trabaja sin cesar y recuérdame de vez en cuando. Un último y apasionado beso sin retórica de tu Ramón". El regalo nunca llega, "promesas de marinero", suspira Aleida.
Después, estando ya en Africa, el Che es informado de la muerte de su madre, Celia de la Serna. En su recuerdo, él escribirá uno de sus relatos más conmovedores, La piedra.
En octubre de 1966, tendrán el último encuentro desgarrador en una casa de seguridad en La Habana antes de partir hacia Bolivia. El guerrillero llega "transformado ya en el viejo Ramón". Pelado y con lentes aparenta unos 60 años: "Cuando llegaron los niños -escribe Aleida-, les presenté a un uruguayo muy amigo de su papá que quería conocerlos (...) Fue un momento muy difícil, en particular para él en extremo doloroso; estar tan cerca de ellos y no poder decirlo, ni tratarlos como deseaba, lo ponía ante una de las pruebas más duras".
De allí el falso viejo partió al aeropuerto y a su estrella.
Copyright 1996-2007 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2007/10/09/elmundo/i-02416.htm
Clarín: Alberto Granado, íntimo de Guevara:
"El Che hoy sería amigo de Chávez, Evo y Correa"
El bioquímico, que en su juventud lo acompañó en la primera aventura por Sudamérica, recordó al revolucionario a 40 años de su muerte. La dedicatoria que el Che le escribió antes de abandonar Cuba. El día que supo de su fin. "Ernesto fue, es, y seguirá siendo un ejemplo a seguir", dice a Clarín.com desde La Habana.
Por: Mariano Zucchi. De la Redacción de Clarín.com
09.10.2007
Gitano sedentario, aventurero andante, hombre de la Revolución cubana. Amigo íntimo de Ernesto Guevara. A los 85 años habla con un entusiasmo que contagia y enciende. Picardía argentina, matrícula cordobesa, cubano por adopción, Alberto Granado dice del otro lado de la línea telefónica que está bien de salud, que se siente joven, un pibe. Que el médico le recomendó evitar cada tanto el ron. ("Pero no le hago mucho caso", suelta entre risas). Que Cuba está hermosa. Dice también que está "recién recién" llegado de Italia, donde brindó una serie de conferencias sobre el Che "para mantener viva su memoria". Alberto, "el petiso", como le decía Ernesto. Compañeros entrañables, viajaron juntos por Sudamérica en 1951, aventura inmortalizada en la película Diarios de Motocicleta.
Arriba de la "La Poderosa" ampliaron horizontes, recorrieron la belleza de Latinoamérica y también conocieron la situación social en que vivían los pueblos olvidados. Dos años después, el 7 de julio de 1953, Ernesto Guevara emprendió su segundo recorrido, esta vez con su otro amigo, Carlos "Calica" Ferrer. Para entonces, Granado estaba instalado en Venezuela y había conocido a su amor. Tuvo dos de sus tres hijos, trabajaba como bioquímico y ayudaba en el leprosario de Cabo Blanco. Pero al triunfar la revolución cubana, se mudó a la isla para seguir a su íntimo amigo. "El ya era conocido en el mundo entero como el Che Guevara, y yo....yo seguía siendo "el petiso Granado", cuenta con humor la transformación de Ernesto en el guerrillero que todos conocen.
"Ernesto fue, es, y seguirá siendo un ejemplo a seguir", dice Granado cuando se le pregunta por el 40º aniversario de la muerte del Che Guevara. Recuerda en voz alta aventuras que juntos vivieron. Momentos que fueron construyendo una cariñosa amistad a prueba de fronteras y calendarios. "¿Sabes que ya conté todas las anécdotas? Algunas más que otras, claro...", comenta al pasar. Hace un silencio, una pausa, y retoma con la idea. "Siempre me ha conmovido su inteligencia y su sensibilidad, esas dos cosas hacen que seamos amigos por siempre". Lo dice con la voz firme pero quebrada a la vez. Entonces la charla toma otro matiz. ¿Dónde estaría ahora el Che? ¿Qué estaría haciendo? ¿Qué pensaría de la situación política actual?
- Este aniversario de su muerte lo recibo con la tristeza de no tenerlo al lado, y con la alegría de que está cada día más vivo en la memoria colectiva. Es difícil hacer una proyección fuera del momento histórico de cada uno, pero es indudable que su ejemplo es cada día más importante. Ernesto estaría luchando contra el imperialismo, a donde quiera que estuviera.
El juego de suposiciones continúa. Granado se presta, pero hay que agudizar el sentido del oído porque una "lluvia" en la comunicación atenta con dar por finalizado el diálogo. Se le nombra varios presidentes latinoamericanos. ¿Con qué ojos cree que el Che observaría el mapa político en América del Sur?
- Yo creo que se cae de la mata, como dicen los cubanos. No es la misma América Latina de antes, cuando estaba gobernaba por los militares puestos por la CIA. Hoy el Che sería seguro amigo de Chávez, de Evo y de Correa. Y de aquel otro que esté trabajando contra el imperialismo. Ya estaría en Bolivia, ayudando con los médicos cubanos a mejorar la salud del pueblo.
La historia dice que el 9 de octubre de 1967, en una escuela del poblado boliviano de La Higuera, el sargento boliviano Mario Terán descargaba su fusil sobre Ernesto Guevara. Fueron tres disparos: en el brazo, en el hombro y en el corazón. Nacía un mito, pero para Granados, era simplemente la muerte de su amigo de toda la vida. "En octubre de 1964 fue la ultima vez que hablé con Ernesto. Al partir de Cuba, me dejó el libro de un economista cubano que se llama El Ingenio, donde me decía que me esperaba en una Bolivia liberada. La dedicatoria decía: "Te espero gitano sedentario, cuando el olor a pólvora amaine".
-¿Cómo supo de su muerte?
-Estaba en Santiago de Cuba dando clases de bioquímica en la escuela de medicina. Cuando lo asesinaron me mandaron a llamar urgente desde La Habana para identificar las fotografías de su cuerpo. Un grupo de periodistas cubanos no creía que se trataba del Che por los bracitos, que eran muy flacos. Desgraciadamente era cierto. Sabía que era Ernesto porque tenía unos brazos delgados. Era el cadáver de mi amigo.
- ¿Recuerda cómo reaccionó en ese instante?
- Me fui para mi casa, dije que quería estar solo. Y quería estar solo. Pedí que me consiguieran un pasaje para volver a Santiago. Eso fue lo que sentí. Después me di cuenta que tenía que seguir adelante y trabajar para que las ideas del Che se mantuvieran, como ha pasado hasta ahora.
La semana pasada el diario Granma dio a conocer que Terán, el sargento que asesinó a Guevara, fue operado gratis de cataratas por médicos cubanos en un hospital que donó el gobierno de Cuba a Bolivia e inauguró el presidente Evo Morales en la ciudad de Santa Cruz de la Sierra. "Ese es el gran triunfo del Che", lanza Granados.
- Si tuviese la oportunidad, ¿Aceptaría hablar con Terán?
- No...no me interesa. Es un asesino.
Copyright 1996-2007 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2007/10/09/um/m-01515776.htm
Guardian: 250 killed as
Pakistani troops battle border militants
Peter Walker and agencies
Tuesday October 9, 2007
Tens of thousands of Pakistani civilians are fleeing a town on the border with Afghanistan following three days of fighting which has killed up to 250 people, locals and military officials said today.
About 90% of the population of Mir Ali, a town of 50,000 people in the lawless north Waziristan region, has fled the fighting using cars and tractors or on foot, a local man told the Reuters news agency.
"Just one or two people are staying behind in each house to guard their belongings," Sher Khan said.
About 50 suspected al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants were killed in a new wave of air strikes today close to Mir Ali, an army spokesman said.
However, local resident Noor Hassan said the attack had struck the bazaar in a village just outside the town, with a number of civilians killed.
"The bombing destroyed many shops and homes," said Mr Hassan. "We are leaving."
Previously, the military said the battles - the fiercest in the region since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 - had left 150 militants and 45 soldiers dead, with up to 15 troops listed as missing.
Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, who secured a new five-year term in office in a controversial vote at the weekend, faces intense US pressure to crack down on militant activity.
Washington fears North Waziristan has become a safe haven for al-Qaida forces, which are using it as a launching pad to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani army operation has proved unexpectedly bloody, with soldiers struggling to impose any authority in the remote, mountainous area.
The army, which has used helicopters and jets to strafe militant positions, said it had re-established contact with 35 soldiers reported missing in an ambush yesterday. Fifteen more soldiers remain unaccounted for.
The pro-Taliban rebels are well trained and equipped, and are using the "latest weaponry and lots of money" brought across the border, a Pakistani official told the AFP news agency.
Fighting has centred on Mir Ali, the second-largest town in the region. One official said up to a dozen civilians were killed yesterday after a shell hit a home. Many locals have since fled the town.
"Our homes have been severely damaged. Most families have moved to relatives' homes in neighbouring towns," resident Faridullah Khan told the agency.
Other people were using loudspeakers at the mosques to beg the military not to fire at their homes, a local resident said.
The fighting follows the collapse of several peace deals in which tribal elders were meant to curb local militancy in return for a withdrawal of security forces.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2186842,00.html
Jeune Afrique: Le général déchu Laurent Nkunda
lance une "offensive active" au Nord-Kivu
RD CONGO - 8 octobre 2007 - par AFP
L'ex-général Laurent Nkunda a annoncé lundi le lancement d'une "offensive active" contre les Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC) au Nord-Kivu (est), où des combats à l'arme lourde ont repris dans la matinée après une brève accalmie.
"Nous refusons aujourd'hui le cessez-le-feu", instauré le 6 septembre sous forte pression de l'ONU et violé à plusieurs reprises dans la province, a déclaré le général déchu tutsi congolais, joint dans un de ses fiefs des montagnes du Masisi (Nord-Kivu).
"Au moment où je vous parle, les FARDC sont en train de brûler (pilonner) les villages de Muremure, Kiluku, Bwirunde, Mushaki et Karuba", localités du Masisi situées à entre 30 et 40 km à l'ouest de la capitale provinciale Goma, a-t-il affirmé.
"Nous allons ouvrir un front partout où ils nous attaqueront", a-t-il prévenu.
Un officier des FARDC joint à Karuba a confirmé la reprise des combats dans cette région du Masisi, tandis que, selon l'ONU, la situation était "calme" dans le territoire voisin de Rutshuru après de violents accrochages pendant le week-end.
"Nous sommes au front (à Karuba). Les villages de Bwirunde, Muremure et Kiluku viennent de tomber sous notre contrôle", a déclaré le major des FARDC Cristin Paluku, alors que le correspondant de l'AFP entendait distinctement des tirs d'arme lourde et légères au téléphone.
Laurent Nkunda a accusé l'armée régulière d'avoir lancé depuis septembre plusieurs attaques avec l'aide de rebelles hutus rwandais. Basés depuis 13 ans dans l'est congolais, certains de ces rebelles sont accusés d'avoir activement participé au génocide rwandais de 1994, essentiellement dirigé contre la minorité tutsie.
Dimanche, "les FARDC nous ont attaqués à Mweso et Kashuga (à une dizaine de km du fief de Nkunda de Kitchanga, dans les montagnes de Masisi). Ils étaient avec les Interahamwe (extrémistes hutus)" dont certains ont été "capturés", a affirmé l'officier. Ces combats n'ont été confirmés ni par les FARDC ni par l'ONU.
"Ceci me pousse à lancer l'offensive active pour protéger la population", a expliqué Laurent Nkunda, qui se pose depuis des années en défenseur de la minorité tutsie congolaise.
Officier de l'ex-rébellion du Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (soutenue par le Rwanda pendant la dernière guerre en RDC, 1998-2003), Laurent Nkunda a refusé d'intégrer l'armée régulière après la guerre.
Il a été déchu de son grade de général en septembre 2005 et est visé par un mandat d'arrêt pour des crimes de guerre commis par ses hommes en juin 2004 lors de la brève prise de la ville de Bukavu (Sud-Kivu), où il avait affirmé intervenir pour sauver ses "frères" Tutsis qu'il disait menacés par Kinshasa.
"Nous avons attendu pendant 30 jours (l'ouverture d'un dialogue) mais le gouvernement nous combat toujours. Nous avons perdu nos positions de Bihambwe, Humule et Rubaya (localités du Masisi au nord de l'actuelle ligne de front) au profit du cessez-le-feu", a affirmé Nkunda.
Les affrontements entre FARDC et insurgés ont débuté fin août, peu après que les troupes de Nkunda au sein de brigades "mixées" (composées à part égale de loyalistes et de pro-Nkunda) eurent déserté leurs positions au Nord-Kivu, protestant contre la décision de l'armée de confier la traque des rebelles rwandais à d'autres brigades.
Kinshasa a appelé insurgés et miliciens de groupes armés locaux à rejoindre le processus national de réforme de l'armée, se refusant à toute négociation avec Nkunda.
Depuis la fin août, les violences ont jeté sur les routes du Nord-Kivu plus de 90.000 civils qui s'entassent dans des conditions de plus en plus difficiles dans des camps de déplacés , selon les agences de l'ONU.
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_
depeche.asp?art_cle=AFP24737legnruvikdr0
Jeune Afrique: Fadela Amara
s'en prend à la politique d'immigration
FRANCE - 9 octobre 2007 - par AFP
La secrétaire d'Etat française à la politique de la Ville, Fadela Amara, issue de la gauche, a jugé mardi "dégueulasse" qu'on "instrumentalise l'immigration" et dénoncé un amendement au projet de loi sur l'immigration autorisant des tests ADN.
"L'ADN je ne suis pas d'accord parce que je pense qu'on touche à quelque chose qui n'est pas bon pour notre pays", a déclaré sur la radio France Inter Mme Amara, de parents algériens.
Conseillère municipale socialiste avant son entrée dans le gouvernement de droite formé après l'élection de Nicolas Sarkozy, Mme Amara est l'un des symboles de la politique d'ouverture du président français Sarkozy à la gauche et à la "diversité".
"Je le dis aussi en tant que fille d'immigrés: y en a marre qu'on instrumentalise à chaque fois l'immigration, pour des raisons très précises. Je trouve ça dégueulasse!", a ajouté l'ex-présidente de l'assocation Ni Putes ni soumises, qui défend les jeunes filles face aux comportements machistes dans les quartiers difficiles.
"Je suis une femme libre, ne l'oubliez jamais", a fait valoir Mme Amara. "J'ai la possibilité de dire ce que j'ai à dire et, très franchement, le jour vraiment où ce sera trop insupportable, le jour où ce sera trop dur, eh bien je partirai" du gouvernement, a-t-elle dit.
La nouvelle loi sur l'immigration actuellement en discussion au Parlement a soulevé un tollé à cause notamment d'une disposition prévoyant des tests ADN pour les candidats au regroupement familial et d'une autre qui pourrait exclure les immigrés sans-papiers des hébergements d'urgence.
Dénoncée par la gauche et les associations, la loi a soulevé des remous au sein même de la majorité. M. Sarkozy a fait de la lutte contre l'immigration clandestine une des priorités de son mandat.
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_
depeche.asp?art_cle=AFP64007fadelnoitar0
Mail & Guardian:
The curious cridders of Bush country
Binyavanga Wainaina: CONTINENTAL DRIFT
08 October 2007
I am spending the next couple of months in a small town near the Mexican border called Marfa, Texas. Population: 2 000. The foundation that is hosting me has provided a small house, a car (which I can’t drive) and a bicycle.
Marfa is dry and full of cacti and other succulents, and alpine plants. The weather this time of year is neither hot nor cold. And the light is exquisite, soft and clear; things seem to have a resonance and gentleness.
In 1972 a brash artist by the name of Donald Judd started buying up land and old buildings here. He was gripped by the idea that art was in the idea. In his paintings he tried to remove imagery and composition. He focused on presenting colour and depth. In his sculptures he sought to remove all direct references to the human body. For him, how objects occupied space and how they were perceived within that space, was more important than the object itself. Some objects were placed at eye level, others ran up a wall. His work is powerful - you start to feel your own presence in space quite strongly. Silence has its own textures and order is as much about the emptiness around an object as it is about the object itself.
in the past week or so I have encountered what people here fondly call “cridders”. And it has quickly become clear to me why cowboy boots are long and thick.
Day 1: In the kitchen, a long brown thing that looks like a cross between a giant centipede and a scorpion. I stomp on it with some hysteria, then lift the mushy remains and throw them into that disposal mechanism in the sink of every American household, called an InSinkerator. The machine whirrs and grinds and, for a moment, I spare a thought for Iraq - the whole Blackwater horror - and pray that I never provoke the American desire to InSinkarate the IslamoFascists.
Day 2. Evening: I am cycling around and meet an old man near the town cemetery. He waves me down and points to the ground. A furry fist on eight legs is moving. The man looks very happy. It is a tarantula. A male, he thinks. Later, as my bike turns into the driveway, I see another one. Somebody mentions that they are migrating.
Day 2. Night: I am sitting outside smoking and a small herd of hairy blue pigs walk by, not 3m away from me. I am later told they go by the name javelinas, which annoys me. In our guidebook we were warned to watch out for javelinas at night. I thought they were poisonous plants or violent butterflies. Not feral pigs.
Day 3. Morning: Over frappuccinnos, I sit watching a man riding a bicycle past me. The handlebars have been replaced by polished bullhorns. I am sitting outside, listening to people laugh at the latest revelations about Dubya. Apparently former Mexican president Vicente Fox says in his biography that George W Bush is afraid of horses, so much so that there are none on his ranch. Then, a few minutes later, somebody is chatting to somebody about the rattlesnake found on somebody’s front porch.
There are other kinds of cridders here, with blue hair, wild eyes, paint streaks and the like. For this is a town of art and artists and exiles - people who are looking to live uncomplicated lives where they can measure themselves with integrity.
The house I am living in is decorated in a minimalist style and this idea derives partly from the things Judd was working on in the Seventies and Eighties. Without the clutter, cloth and colour I usually have around me, the sound and feel of space outside is quite strong. So strong that I, a man never seen exercising - I’ve not ridden a bicycle since I was 10 - have found myself cruising the streets and evading the cridders of Marfa on this bicycle.
It is all a bit unnerving to discover that I have been moving from capsule to capsule and have lost the sense of being part of a texture of life and space.
Last night I woke up and could hear javelinas breathing and snorting outside my window. It felt sort of good.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?
articleid=321345&area=/insight/insight__columnists/
Página/12:
Un recuerdo iluminado del Che en La Higuera
VIGILIA EN EL PUEBLITO BOLIVIANO DONDE ASESINARON A GUEVARA HACE CUARENTA AÑOS
La Higuera todavía hoy, cuarenta años después del día en que los rangers acribillaron a Ernesto Guevara, sigue sin luz eléctrica. La oscuridad mitigada por los flashes y fogatas fue el marco para que todos recordaran los últimos pasos del Che.
Por Martín Piqué
desde La Higuera
Martes, 09 de Octubre de 2007
Las linternas se distinguen desde lejos, los focos se menean como bichitos de luz que se consumen en el aire. La noche está llena de estrellas pero no hay luna, las sierras agregan otras sombras de una altura intimidante. El poblado que recibió al Che vivo el 8 de octubre de 1967 y lo devolvió muerto un día después está en completa oscuridad. La Higuera no tiene energía eléctrica. Los visitantes que van llegando se guían por el ruido que hacen las piedras al caminar. La única iluminación proviene de las pocas linternas que se trajeron desde Vallegrande; más adelante se escuchará el ronroneo de un grupo electrógeno que alimenta los tres faroles del escenario. En medio de la negrura más espesa, los recién llegados se la rebuscan para llegar hasta la famosa escuelita en la que mataron a Ernesto Guevara. No se ve demasiado, es casi imposible distinguir los detalles de la construcción. Los flashes de los fotógrafos, la luz de algunas cámaras de video y cuatro velas encendidas alumbran de manera muy tenue. Sólo así se alcanza a distinguir lo que una mano anónima escribió en el marco de la puerta: “Por aquí salió un hombre camino a la eternidad”.
Para llegar al acto en La Higuera hubo que superar 62 kilómetros de camino de cornisa, de noche y atravesando varias capas de neblina. La bruma se iba diluyendo a medida que los vehículos subían los cerros, hasta llegar a la altura del Abra del Picocho, 2280 metros, el pico más alto de las sierras que se extienden desde Vallegrande. En ese lugar el Che participó de una fiesta patronal doce días antes de ser cercado. Después de tres horas y media de viaje, el poblado aparece tras la última curva esquinada. Cuando alguna linterna lo permite, o una vela prendida a través de una ventana, se llega a distinguir las primeras formas. Son unas pocas casas blancas, de tejas de estilo colonial, dispersas a ambos costados de la ruta. Algunas parecen ser de adobe, todas muestran el efecto del paso del tiempo.
Como si un guión que busca generar suspenso hubiera estado escrito en algún lado, la escuelita está al final del pueblo, detrás de un espacio abierto que los organizadores destinaron al palco. En ese lugar también colocaron un montón de leña que será prendido fuego entrada la madrugada, cuando terminen los discursos y comience la vigilia. La Higuera está llena de imágenes del Che; detrás del escenario se ve una gran bandera con su rostro. El acto comienza con música y durante las próximas horas las melodías se sucederán entre los discursos. Por el micrófono pasa el embajador de Cuba, Rafael Dausá Céspedes; el ex compañero del Che en la guerrilla boliviana Leonardo Tamayo, conocido como Urbano; delegados de los alfabetizadores y médicos de la isla. El frío de la noche a dos mil metros hace que muchos prefieran moverse que permanecer quietos. Se despliegan frazadas, bolsas de dormir; otros optan por las bebidas fuertes.
La madrugada va haciendo caer a los más cansados. El locutor anuncia que prenderán fuego a la montaña de ramas; los despiertos y los somnolientos se acercan para calentarse y ver todo de cerca. Los cubanos prenden la fogata y el embajador recuerda lo que dice la inscripción de la puerta de la escuelita: “Por aquí salió un hombre camino a la eternidad”. El diplomático dice que éste no debe ser un día triste y que el Che sigue vivo en las luchas de los pueblos latinoamericanos. Suena el grito de “hasta la victoria, siempre”, le sigue el infaltable de “Patria o Muerte, venceremos”. Muchos jóvenes toman muy en serio lo de evitar la tristeza: un baile frenético se desata cerca del fuego. Otros se van encorvando por el cansancio y terminan acostados en el piso, sobre bolsas de dormir, envueltos en todo lo que haya a mano. Algunos visitantes tienen suerte. Alguien les presta un lugar para dormir algunas horas, para despertarse antes del amanecer. El cronista y el fotógrafo de Página/12 reciben una inesperada oferta para tirarse un rato en “la casa del telegrafista”, una posada que ahora es propiedad de un francés. Dos hamacas paraguayas terminan ocupadas por los enviados de este diario.
A las cinco y media de la mañana el frío atroz y el cantar de los gallos –Vallegrande es conocida por su producción de pollos– obligan a ponerse de pie. Desde el patio de “la casa del telegrafista” se ven por primera vez las sierras con toda su magnitud. El verde del monte todavía tiene tonos azulados. Los periodistas de este diario aún no lo saben, pero en ese preciso lugar se vivió uno de los últimos episodios del Che libre en La Higuera. El 26 de septiembre de 1967, tras entrar al poblado y notar que no se veían varones, Guevara mandó a uno de sus hombres a la oficina del telegrafista para controlar los últimos despachos a Vallegrande. El encargo lo recibió Coco Peredo. Volvió con un telegrama que advertía “presencia guerrillera en la zona”. Coco Peredo murió ese mismo día, producto de una emboscada que dejó otras dos bajas.
Cada rincón tiene su historia, sus anécdotas. Los pobladores de La Higuera se han convertido en especialistas de la evocación del pasado de cada parte de la villa. Por todos lados hay escenarios naturales de la caída o el paso de algún miembro de la guerrilla del Che. Sin embargo, muchos visitantes no se mueven con la solemnidad casi religiosa que suele surgir espontáneamente ante los lugares asociados a hechos trágicos. Sentados frente a la escuelita hay jóvenes acostados, sacándose fotos, charlando en voz muy alta. Es una forma distinta de apropiación del espacio. El movimiento delante de la escuela cambia a partir de las siete de la mañana, cuando un vecino con sombrero de cowboy típico del oriente boliviano abre la puerta para que puedan entrar los forasteros.
Con aval de la subprefectura de Vallegrande, el boliviano del sombrero cobra cinco bolivianos la entrada. Es el precio que hay que pagar para ver el lugar en el que los rangers mataron al Che. Lo primero que impresiona son los dos mínimos pupitres de madera: vuelven más grande una salita que en rigor es muy pequeña. En el techo hay un mural hecho por dos artistas argentinos, Mono Saavedra y Mariela Aguirrezábal, sobre las paredes dedicatorias al Che de Japón, Francia, en todos los idiomas. Entre las palabras de respeto y amor se ve un folleto turístico en inglés que publicita cabalgatas en la localidad de Samaipata (Horse Riding propone un gringo de nombre Michael Blendinger).
De todo lo que se ve en la escuelita es difícil no fijar la vista en los dos carteles que comparan la “relación de bajas de la guerrilla” con la “relación de bajas del Ejército”. El primero contiene 38 muertos, el segundo declara unos 51. Las dos listas de nombres están una al lado de otra, como si se buscara dar una versión equilibrada de la historia. Que ése fue el objetivo de la Prefectura de Vallegrande al organizar el museo queda claro al revisar las demás paredes. Allí se intercalan fragmentos del diario del Che en Bolivia con relatos de Gary Prado, el militar boliviano que dirigió las operaciones contra la guerrilla y recibió la orden de matar al Che.
© 2000-2007 www.pagina12.com.ar|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elmundo/4-92708-2007-10-09.html
Página/12: “Somos guevaristas, socialistas
y somos revolucionarios, no lo oculto”
El presidente de Bolivia, Evo Morales, llegó a Vallegrande, el lugar donde estuvo oculto el cadáver del Che hasta que fue descubierto y trasladado a Cuba. Reivindicó la figura del guerrillero a pesar, dijo, “de que habrá muchos repudios por mi presencia aquí”.
Por Martín Piqué
desde La Higuera
Martes, 09 de Octubre de 2007
El escenario y la tarima de madera estaban en medio de un inmenso espacio abierto enclavado entre sierras verdes. Era el aeropuerto de la ciudad. Nadie habría imaginado que ése era el lugar ideal para el cierre del encuentro mundial Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Estaba lejos del centro, la mayoría de los participantes debían caminar muchas cuadras y no había suficientes autos ni micros que pudieran transportarlos. Era un escenario a trasmano, no se explicaba mucho su elección. Salvo que a pocos metros se encontrara el Mausoleo del Che, un caserón construido sobre lo que fue su tumba –en realidad otra fosa común de las tantas con las que se construyó la historia latinoamericana– hasta que sus restos fueron trasladaron a Cuba hace ya diez años. Hasta ese sitio tan alegórico llegó Evo Morales en un helicóptero del Ejército. El presidente boliviano recibió regalos, escuchó discursos y siguió con atención las letras de varias canciones en homenaje al Che. Si alguien esperaba que pusiera distancia con la figura del guerrillero ahora que es jefe de Estado, Evo volvió a sorprender.
“Estoy segurísimo de que habrá muchos repudios a mi presencia aquí. Pero no tengo que ocultarlo. Somos guevaristas, somos socialistas, somos revolucionarios”, declaró. Siguió una estridente ola de vítores y aplausos, pareció un reconocimiento por haber tomado cierto riesgo. Evo llegó con su ya conocida chomba –un saco negro de cuello Mao y motivos incaicos– y una camisa a cuadritos. Lo acompañaban sus ministros Luis Echazú (Minería), Alfredo Rada (Gobierno) y el vocero Alex Contreras. Sobre el palco lo recibieron el titular de la Fundación Che Guevara, Osvaldo “Chato” Peredo, y el embajador de Cuba en La Paz, Rafael Dausá Céspedes. Sobre el pasto lo vivaban sus simpatizantes, los militantes del MAS que portaban la multicolor bandera wiphala, y una nutrida delegación de extranjeros, sobre todo latinoamericanos.
“Se siente/ se siente/ Evo presidente”, cantaban los partidarios del MAS. Algunos habían venido de La Paz, donde el partido de Evo tiene una hegemonía indiscutida. El panorama es muy distinto en la zona del Oriente, donde está Vallegrande. Aquí es fuerte el opositor Podemos, como también la cruzada por la autonomía para Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Como trasfondo del reclamo, está la pelea por el manejo de los recursos naturales –gas, petróleo– que abundan en esta región. Evo quiere garantizar su control por el Estado para impulsar con ellos la distribución de la riqueza. La oposición quiere lo contrario.
“De nada serviría un presidente indígena si no recuperáramos los recursos naturales –dijo ayer Evo desde el palco–. En el año 2005 Bolivia apenas recibía trescientos millones anuales como regalías. Hoy, gracias a la modificación de la ley de hidrocarburos que ha costado sangre, disponemos de dos mil millones. ¡Es el cambio!”, argumentó. Luego hizo un balance similar con las reservas internacionales de Bolivia. “Antes de asumir teníamos 1700 millones de dólares. Este año vamos a tener 5000 millones. ¿A dónde iba el resto de la plata? Se la quedaban unas pocas familias y los organismos internacionales”, denunció.
Antes de que hablara Evo fueron desfilando invitados de toda América latina. Pasaron el Movimiento Sin Tierra de Brasil; el abogado paraguayo Martín Almada –que descubrió los archivos del Plan Cóndor de su país y ayer criticó muy duro al gobierno argentino por los seis campesinos paraguayos que permanecen detenidos en Marcos Paz a la espera de su extradición–; los militares cubanos y ex compañeros de Guevara, Rogelio Acevedo y Leonardo Tamayo (Urbano); los cantautores Daniel Viglietti y Santiago Feliú. En algo bastante infrecuente en estos actos, el presentador se animó a hacer algunas bromas y lo hizo con una buena lectura de la oportunidad. “Urbano sigue sabiendo cómo escapar de las emboscadas”, comentó luego de que el cubano fuera obligado a hablar en público cuando no lo tenía previsto. Evo festejó la ocurrencia con una leve sonrisa.
Entre los invitados con derecho a hablar también figuraba Luis D’Elía, pero al dirigente de la FTV se le demoró el viaje (se trasladó desde Buenos Aires con una camioneta de su organización) y se tuvo que conformar con sentarse en el estrado. Por el césped se veían banderas del PCR, FJC, Madres de Plaza de Mayo: eran parte de la delegación argentina, que no fue precisamente de las más numerosas. Además de las ovaciones a Evo, desde la multitud surgieron muchos aplausos al uruguayo Viglietti y al cubano Feliú. El primero hizo delirar (lo cual no es muy fácil) a los campesinos del Altiplano con su clásico “Dale la mano al indio”. Eléctrico como siempre, Feliú obligó a que le pidieran un bis y cantó “Mi mujer está muy sensible”: “Soy yo que no me canso de quererte más”, entonó para emoción de muchos presentes.
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“La hora del Che y de Camilo”
HOMENAJE OFICIAL EN CUBA A ERNESTO GUEVARA
Martes, 09 de Octubre de 2007
El presidente interino de Cuba, Raúl Castro, presidió ayer el acto en homenaje al 40º aniversario de la muerte de Ernesto “Che” Guevara. La plaza que lleva su nombre, donde se desarrolló el acto, es un complejo escultórico situado en Santa Clara, la ciudad que fue testigo de la batalla contra la dictadura de Fulgencio Batista dirigida por los patriotas que la derrocaron y donde desde hace diez años reposan los restos del Che.
Junto a Raúl Castro –de quien el Che fue amigo íntimo– también estuvieron los comandantes de la revolución Ramiro Valdés y Guillermo García Frías, el vicepresidente actual Ramón Machado Ventura y Aleida March –su viuda– y tres de los cuatro hijos que tuvo con Ernesto Guevara, Celia, Aleida y Ernesto, quien llegó a Santa Clara en moto, en un homenaje al viaje que hiciera su padre de joven por América latina. El acto comenzó con el “toque de queda” de corneta y tres salvas, seguidas por el himno nacional, durante el cual Raúl Castro, Valdés y García Frías hicieron el saludo militar en honor a su compañero de armas durante la Revolución Cubana. Luego se escuchó la grabación de la carta del Che de despedida y renuncia a todos su cargos y a la ciudadanía cubana, que le dirigiera a Fidel Castro en 1965 antes de partir para Bolivia y que Castro leyó públicamente al conocerse su muerte el 9 de octubre de 1967.
Valdés reivindicó la vigencia del pensamiento de Guevara frente a un “imperialismo hostil” de Washington que, a pesar del tiempo, no ha cejado”. “Estamos en la hora del combate, en la hora del Che y de Camilo (Cienfuegos, el otro comandante revolucionario ya fallecido)”, sostuvo Valdés, quien fustigó al presidente de Estados Unidos, George W. Bush, y su “camarilla fascista”, que “no renuncia a su política obstinada de aplastar la revolución”. “Nuestra agenda es hacer cuanto resulte sensato y posible, eliminar lo que sea absurdo, conciliar cada logro y asegurar cada día más la plena soberanía del país, el socialismo como fundamento de la independencia y el desarrollo material”, agregó. También llamó a los cubanos a no bajar la guardia y a recordar las palabras del Che: “Al imperialismo, ni tantico así”.
También la hija del Che, Aleida Guevara, lanzó un mensaje para los cubanos: “Recordar el compromiso que todos tenemos para una nueva sociedad más fuerte, hoy que América latina comienza a despertar y se hacen realidad los sueños de todos ellos juntos”. Tenemos que estar presentes y más unidos que nunca, ése es el mejor homenaje a nuestros padres y a nuestros héroes queridos”, afirmó ante periodistas en Santa Clara, al final de un acto en el que volvió a recordar al mundo que, para los cubanos, el Che está “más vivo que nunca”.
Ernesto Guevara (Rosario, 1928- La Higuera, 1967) conoció a Fidel Castro en México en 1955 y se unió a la expedición armada que se alzó en las montañas de la Sierra Maestra para derrocar al dictador Fulgencio Batista. Tras el triunfo de la revolución, el Che, que recibió la nacionalidad cubana por los servicios prestados al país, ocupó la presidencia del Banco Nacional y la cartera de Industria. Pero su idea de impulsar la revolución continental lo llevó a Bolivia en 1966, donde fue capturado por el ejército el 8 de octubre de 1967 en la quebrada del Yuro y asesinado después en la aldea de La Higuera.
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Sembrador de conciencias
Por Fidel Castro *
Martes, 09 de Octubre de 2007
Hago un alto en el combate diario para inclinar mi frente, con respeto y gratitud, ante el combatiente excepcional que cayó un 8 de octubre hace 40 años. Por el ejemplo que nos legó con su Columna Invasora, que atravesó los terrenos pantanosos al sur de las antiguas provincias de Oriente y Camagüey perseguido por fuerzas enemigas, libertador de la ciudad de Santa Clara, creador del trabajo voluntario, cumplidor de honrosas misiones políticas en el exterior, mensajero del internacionalismo militante en el este del Congo y en Bolivia, sembrador de conciencias en nuestra América y en el mundo.
Le doy las gracias por lo que trató de hacer y no pudo en su país de nacimiento, porque fue como una flor arrancada prematuramente de su tallo.
Nos dejó su estilo inconfundible de escribir, con elegancia, brevedad y veracidad, cada detalle de lo que pasaba por su mente. Era un predestinado, pero él no lo sabía. Combate con nosotros y por nosotros.
Ayer se cumplió el 31º aniversario de la matanza de los pasajeros y tripulantes del avión cubano hecho estallar en pleno vuelo, y nos adentramos en el décimo aniversario del cruel e injusto encarcelamiento de los cinco héroes antiterroristas cubanos. Ante todos ellos inclinamos igualmente nuestras frentes.
Con mucha emoción vi y escuché por la televisión el acto conmemorativo.
* Reflexiones del presidente de Cuba, publicadas en el diario Granma.
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Que simplemente sea así
Por Nicolás Casullo *
Martes, 09 de Octubre de 2007
Extraña permanencia la del Che, en una época que sin duda el guerrillero y cuadro político no imaginó ni hubiese creído posible: la época actual. América latina no fue los muchos Vietnam vaticinados por sus escritos. Su lucha en el Congo en 1965 no tiene hoy ningún código político y cultural que la ampare y le reotorgue sentido. El socialismo de los pueblos no se extiende rotundo en el mundo, como tampoco el propio Vietnam tiene, para los jóvenes del presente, ni un resto del significado que tuvo hace treinta años en aquella juventud de alma guevarista. Y sin embargo su rostro, su perfil, esa cara joven de boina verdeoliva acompaña como icono a muchachos y muchachas de la secundaria, a las movilizaciones piqueteras y ornamenta a las barras bravas detrás de los arcos en las canchas desde la Primera A hasta la Primera D. Sus libros y biografías permanecen en las mesas centrales y de ofertas en las librerías.
¿Qué quiere decir esto? Pregunta que uno no debiera hacerse. Porque sería interesante un mundo sin teorizaciones y explicaciones de cada cosa, y menos con la pretensión de responder por cada objeto de información o estudio. Sobre el Che hay dos explicaciones inmediatas y rutinarias. Una que plantea que el Che se ha transformado en una industria cultural vendible como representación de una vasta idea de rebeldía fetiche: una mercancía a bajo precio para jóvenes, a la manera de una marca de cerveza. La otra interpretación que busca explicar la vigencia de sus ideas, conducta, valores, utopías, generosidad de vida e ideales comunitarios, en un mundo que al parecer mermó brutalmente en ideas, conductas, valores, utopías, generosidad de vida e ideales comunitarios. Quizá las dos tengan razón y el periodismo o la academia sean realmente dos caminos pedagógicos loables, bien intencionados y explicativos. No obstante siempre permanece un plus de incógnita, un más allá de lo criterioso, un indecible en casos como el del Che. Lo que importa entonces es la pregunta: la que nos hacemos con respecto a él. La que indicaría que ninguna respuesta conforma, cierra. Como en el mito, lo que nos daría cuenta de la cuestión se hunde en lo inmemorial del propio nombre.
Lo que no quiere decir nada al respecto. Y eso está bueno: dejar que las cosas sean, sin tirarles el lazo.
* Sociólogo.
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The Independent: 'We could have saved
Che' from execution, says ex-CIA operative
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 09 October 2007
A former CIA operative has spoken out about the last hours of the Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara before his execution in the jungles of Bolivia 40 years ago, recalling how he looked like a "beggar" and was shot against the wishes of the US government.
Felix Rodriguez, a prominent Cuban exile in Miami with a long career working for the Central Intelligence Agency that spanned the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Vietnam War, said Che was in "rags" when he was first brought to him after his capture by Bolivian soldiers near the town of La Higuera on 8 October 1967. The former brother-in-arms of Fidel Castro was in Bolivia trying to foment socialist revolution.
"I remembered him from the time that he used to visit Moscow and he used to visit Mao Tse-tung in China, that arrogant man in uniform, and now you see this man here who looks like a beggar," he told the BBC. "His uniform was basically in rags. He didn't have a pair of boots, it was just a pair of ... leather, covering his shoes. And, you know, I just felt sorry for the man as an individual, as a human being."
It was also the job of Rodriguez at the time to ensure that Che was kept alive and transported to Panama, where he would face interrogation by his American colleagues. In the interview, he explains how he was overruled during a phone call to the jungle encampment from Bolivia's military high command.
"When I answered the phone they gave me the codeword 'five hundred six hundred'," he recalled. "We had agreed a simple code; 'five hundred' was Che Guevara, 'six hundred' was dead, 'seven hundred' was alive. I asked him to repeat because the line had a lot of noise. And they confirmed, it was 'five hundred six hundred'."
Rodriguez, who earned the nickname Lazarus after surviving the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, was handpicked by the CIA to head up the team to track down Che, an experience he described in a book. Other historians have documented his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair and his acquaintance with the then vice-president George Bush Snr, who knew him while he was the CIA director.
Rodriguez said this week that he argued with his Bolivian counterpart in the jungle, whom he identified as a Colonel Senteno. "Felix, we are grateful for what you have done," the Colonel replied. "But this is an order from my president, from my commander-in-chief. I want your word of honour that at two o'clock in the afternoon, you will bring me back the dead body of Che. You can do anything you want because we know the harm he has done to your country."
Rodriguez said that upon his initial capture, Che was almost good-humoured, even agreeing to be photographed with him as he was led out of his hideaway. He also remembers the moment when he told the Argentine-born revolutionary that he would not be spared.
"I went into the room, I stood in front of him and said 'Commander Guevara, I'm sorry, I tried my best. But this is an order from the Bolivian high command'. He perfectly understood what I was saying; he turned white like a piece of paper, I've never seen anybody look depressed like he did. But he said, 'It's better this way, I should have never been captured alive.' It was one o'clock in the afternoon, Bolivian time, when we left that area. And between 1.10 and 1.20, I heard the burst."
The vivid memories of Rodriguez are not coloured with a great deal of regret over the way Guevara's life was ended, however. Nor does he believe that the killing of the revolutionary made him a martyr and resulted in his being mythologised in the decades since.
"That was done by the Cuban government," he said. "Most people don't know the real Che Guevara – the Che Guevara who wrote that he was thirsty for blood, the Che who assassinated thousands of people without any regard for any real legal process."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3041070.ece
ZNet | India:
US/Indo Nuclear Agreement: Derailing A Deal
by Noam Chomsky
The Khaleej Times ; October 09, 2007
08 August, 2007 - Nuclear-armed states are criminal states. They have a legal obligation, confirmed by the World Court, to live up to Article 6 of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which calls on them to carry out good-faith negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons entirely. None of the nuclear states has lived up to it. The United States is a leading violator, especially the Bush administration, which even has stated that it isn’t subject to Article 6.
On July 27, Washington entered into an agreement with India that guts the central part of the NPT, though there remains substantial opposition in both countries. India, like Israel and Pakistan (but unlike Iran), is not an NPT signatory, and has developed nuclear weapons outside the treaty. With this new agreement, the Bush administration effectively endorses and facilitates this outlaw behaviour. The agreement violates US law, and bypasses the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the 45 nations that have established strict rules to lessen the danger of proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, observes that the agreement doesn’t bar further Indian nuclear testing and, “incredibly, … commits Washington to help New Delhi secure fuel supplies from other countries even if India resumes testing.” It also permits India to “free up its limited domestic supplies for bomb production.” All these steps are in direct violation of international nonproliferation agreements.
The Indo-US agreement is likely to prompt others to break the rules as well. Pakistan is reported to be building a plutonium production reactor for nuclear weapons, apparently beginning a more advanced phase of weapons design. Israel, the regional nuclear superpower, has been lobbying Congress for privileges similar to India’s, and has approached the Nuclear Suppliers Group with requests for exemption from its rules. Now France, Russia and Australia have moved to pursue nuclear deals with India, as China has with Pakistan - hardly a surprise, once the global superpower has opened the door.
The Indo-US deal mixes military and commercial motives. Nuclear weapons specialist Gary Milhollin noted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s testimony to Congress that the agreement was “crafted with the private sector firmly in mind,” particularly aircraft and reactors and, Milhollin stresses, military aircraft. By undermining the barriers against nuclear war, he adds, the agreement not only increases regional tensions but also “may hasten the day when a nuclear explosion destroys an American city.” Washington’s message is that “export controls are less important to the United States than money” - that is, profits for US corporations - whatever the potential threat. Kimball points out that the United States is granting India “terms of nuclear trade more favourable than those for states that have assumed all the obligations and responsibilities” of the NPT. In most of the world, few can fail to see the cynicism. Washington rewards allies and clients that ignore the NPT rules entirely, while threatening war against Iran, which is not known to have violated the NPT, despite extreme provocation: The United States has occupied two of Iran’s neighbours and openly sought to overthrow the Iranian regime since it broke free of US control in 1979.
Over the past few years, India and Pakistan have made strides towards easing the tensions between the two countries. People-to-people contacts have increased and the governments are in discussion over the many outstanding issues that divide the two states. Those promising developments may well be reversed by the Indo-US nuclear deal. One of the means to build confidence throughout the region was the creation of a natural gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan into India. The “peace pipeline” would have tied the region together and opened the possibilities for further peaceful integration.
The pipeline, and the hope it offers, might become a casualty of the Indo-US agreement, which Washington sees as a measure to isolate its Iranian enemy by offering India nuclear power in exchange for Iranian gas - though in fact India would gain only a fraction of what Iran could provide.
The Indo-US deal continues the pattern of Washington’s taking every measure to isolate Iran. In 2006, the US Congress passed the Hyde Act, which specifically demanded that the US government “secure India’s full and active participation in United States efforts to dissuade, isolate, and if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”
It is noteworthy that the great majority of Americans - and Iranians - favour converting the entire region to a nuclear-weapons free zone, including Iran and Israel. One may also recall that UN Security Council Resolution 687 of April 3, 1991, to which Washington regularly appealed when seeking justification for its invasion of Iraq, calls for “establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery.”
Clearly, ways to mitigate current crises aren’t lacking.
This Indo-US agreement richly deserves to be derailed. The threat of nuclear war is extremely serious, and growing, and part of the reason is that the nuclear states - led by the United States - simply refuse to live up to their obligations or are significantly violating them, this latest effort being another step toward disaster.
The US Congress gets a chance to weigh in on this deal after the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group vet it. Perhaps Congress, reflecting a citizenry fed up with nuclear gamesmanship, can reject the agreement. A better way to go forward is to pursue the need for global nuclear disarmament, recognising that the very survival of the species is at stake.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=66&ItemID=13988
ZNet | Cuba:
Che
by Fidel Castro; October 09, 2007
I make a halt in my daily struggle to bow my head in respect and gratitude to the exceptional combatant who fell in combat on October 8th, forty years ago; for the example he passed on to us as leader of his Rebel Army Column, crossing the swampy grounds of the former provinces of Oriente and Camagüey, while being chased by enemy troops. He was the liberator of the city of Santa Clara and the mastermind of voluntary work; he accomplished honorable political missions abroad and served as messenger of militant internationalism in East Congo and Bolivia. He built a new awareness in our America and the world.
I thank him for what he tried and failed to do in his home country, because he was like a flower prematurely severed from its stem.
He left to us his unmistakable literary style. He was elegant, swift and true to every detail of whatever happened to cross his mind. He was a predestinate, but he didn’t know it. He still fights with us and for us.
Yesterday, we commemorated the 31st anniversary of the killing of all passengers and the crew of a Cubana airliner blown in mid-air, and we are on the threshold of the tenth anniversary of the cruel and unjust imprisonment of the five Cuban anti-terrorist heroes. We likewise bow our heads in respect to them all.
It was with great emotion that I watched and heard the commemoration ceremony on TV.
Fidel Castro Ruz
October 7, 2007
3:17 pm
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=60&ItemID=13987
posted by attilav at 19:48
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