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Napoleon Bonaparte Taken To Court, Times of India ~ Dec. 29
Peru Creates Web Site in Hunt for Former Spy Chief, Reuters ~ Dec. 27
More Than Half of Russians Want New Empire - Poll, Interfax ~ Dec. 26
Talking Past the Torture, William Branigin ~ Dec. 26
Confronting the Hard Realities of North America's Ongoing Indian War, by Anthony J. Hall ~ Dec. 21
Kashmir Ceasefire Extended by a Month, Economic Times ~ Dec. 21
Afghan Refugees Stranded, By Vladimir Davlatov ~ Dec. 21
Astana IMU Fears, By Iskander Amanjolov ~ Dec. 21
Osh Hepatitis Crisis, By Alla Pyatibratova ~ Dec. 21
UN Says Liberia is Weapons Conduit, By Evelyn Leopold ~ Dec. 20
Letter of Protest and Complaint of the IRU and the RNC on the Holocaust US Court Decision, RomNews Network ~ Dec. 19
Afghanistan Land Mine, By S. Frederick Starr ~ December 19
Letter to President Vladimir Putin, WPFC ~ December 19
The Dilemma of Intervention Criteria, By Yasushi Akashi ~ December 18
Russia Plans New Security Alliance to Counter NATO, World Tribune ~ December 18
Putin's Law, By Leopold Unger ~ Dec. 17
Letter President Putin About Journalist Oleg Luriye, IPI ~ Dec. 17
Ethiopian Woman Must Be Saved From the Death Sentence, Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association ~ December 12
Burmese Sales to the Pentagon Spark Criticism, By Steven Greenhouse ~ Dec. 19
Who Killed Newswatch Founding Editor-in-chief Dele Giwa? Tobs Agbaegbu ~ Dec. 18
The Powell Doctrine: Do What We Say - And Do Not Expect Help. A Do-Nothing Isolationist at State, The Guardian ~ Dec. 18
Supremacist Matt Hale wants Montana Practice, by Ron Selden, Today Correspondent
Taliban Bashing by Another Name, Shameem Akhtar, Dawn ~ Dec. 18
Week of Action to Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons, Tara Thornton ~ Dec. 18
South Armagh Farmers & Residents Organise Peaceful Mobilisation Against British Military Presence, South Armagh Farmers & Residents Committee ~ Dec. 17
No Human Rights Progress in Niger Delta, Protesters in Oil Regions of Nigeria Subject to Lethal Force, Human Rights Watch ~ December 14
Briefing Paper: Update on Human Rights Violations in the Niger Delta, Human Rights Watch ~ Dec. 14
Croatian Prime Minister Affirms Support For War Crimes Court, Snjezana Vukic ~ Dec. 14
Bombings of Civilian Targets in Sudan have Doubled, US Committee for Refugees ~ Dec. 13
Falun Gong Member Dies After Beating, BBC ~ Dec. 13
Extradition Based On False Evidence, Peltier Inquiry Says, By Kirk Makin ~ Dec. 11
China Sells Organs of Slain Convicts, By Ian Williams ~ Dec. 10
Few War Crimes in Kosova Will Ever be Prosecuted, Police Say, KosovaLive ~ Dec. 9
Russian President Urges U.N. to Intensify Anti-Terrorist Efforts, Russian Information Center ~ Dec. 10
Georgia's Lawmakers Call for Leaving CIS, Moscow Echo ~ Dec. 10
Close the School of Assassins!, "International Day of Action" January 17th, SOA Watch ~ Dec. 9
New Mass Grave Discovered in Bosnia, The Guardian ~ Dec. 8
Clinton Grants Stay of Execution to Study Race Gap, Reuters ~ Dec. 8
Russia Needs Reformed Secret Services, RBC ~ Dec. 7
Korea, US Show Wide Gap in Assessment of Nogun-ri Case, By Son Key-young ~ Dec. 6
Violence Against Jews Called on Rise, By Charles A. Radin ~ Dec. 6
How Helms is Sparking a Real Crisis, By James Carroll ~ Dec. 5
Criminal Tribunals for Sierra Leone, Sierra Bar Association ~ Dec. 10
Taleban Own Up To IMU, By Galima Bukharbaeva ~ Dec. 7
Kazak Opposition Intimidated, By Rozlana Taukina ~ Dec. 7
Alarm Over Kyrgyzk Death Sentences, By Yrysbek Omurzakov ~ Dec. 7
Ethnic Russian Migration, By Slujan Ismailova ~ Dec. 7
Kyrgyk Economic Woes, By Bektash Shamshiev ~ Dec. 7
Hundreds of Thousands March in Solidarity With Indigenous Australians, By Chris Sitka ~ Dec. 6
Commune Elections More Important Than Flawed KR Trial, By Ron Abney ~ Dec. 4
Meles Zenawi's Regime Intensifies Human Rights Abuse in Ethiopia, By Gashu Habte ~ Dec. 3
Biological Weapons in the Drug War: A Review of Opposition in South America, The Sunshine Project ~ Dec. 1
Eight Killed in Irian Jaya Protest, By Geoff Spencer ~ Dec. 2
Rebels With a New Cause; NATO, Yugoslavia Join to Rein In Deadly Successor To KLA Militia, By Peter Finn ~ December 2
Russians Seize Maskhadov's "Right-Hand Man", Dmitri Nepomnyaschy ~ Dec. 1
Visa Threat Spurs Georgia Into Action, Mikhail Ivanov ~ Dec. 1
Sukhumi's Monkeys Are Tough Nuts To Crack, Erik Batuev ~ Dec. 1
U.N. Adds Judges To Rwanda, Yugoslav Tribunals, Reuters ~ Dec. 1
Chile Places Pinochet Under House Arrest, Clifford Krauss, New York Times ~ Dec. 2
Spain Lawyers Praise Action, Reuters ~ Dec. 1
Chile Judge Indicts Former Dictator Pinochet for Kidnapping, Fox News ~ Dec. 1
Gulf War Uranium Warning Failed To Reach Troops, Nicholas Watt, Guardian of London ~ Dec. 1
Republicans Against Global War Crimes Tribunal, Times of India ~ Dec. 1
The Massacre Starts Tomorrow And Britain Will Share The Blame For What's About To Happen In West Papua, George Monbiot ~ Nov. 30
Tensions Mount as Independence Anniversary Approaches for Indonesian Province of Irian Jaya, Stratfor, Inc. ~ Dec. 1
Campaign Launched Against UN Court, Edith M. Lederer ~ Nov. 30
Horrors Behind Rebel Lines in Sierra Leone, By Noritmitsy Onishi ~ Nov. 30
Kazakstan Builds Bridges With Taleban, Adil Kojikhov & Tolgonai Umbetalieva ~ Nov. 27
Kyrgyz Opposition Upheaval, By Igor Grebenshikov ~ Nov. 27
"Peaceful" Uzbek Muslims Jailed, By Galima Bukharbaeva ~ Nov. 27
Astana Set To Curb Russian Broadcasts, By Slujan Ismailova ~ Nov. 27
Trouble At The Bazaar, By Yrysbek Omurzakov ~ Nov. 27
Mystery and Myth of Montesinos, Sebastian Rotella ~ Nov. 26
Slobodan Milosevic Denounced Yugoslavia's New Government as 'Western Traitors and Occupiers', Alex Todorovic in Belgrade ~ Nov. 26
Exposive Documents on India's Netaji to be Handed to Commission, Sunando Sarkar ~ Nov. 25
Algerian Press Wants French Action Over Wartime Torture, Agence France-Presse ~ Nov. 25
Getting Away With Murder, Isabel Hilton ~ Nov. 21
Tensions Grow In Stepanakert, Anatoly Kuprianov ~ Nov. 24
South Ossetia Faces Isolation, Valeri Dzutsev, IWPR ~ November 24
Black Sea Exotica, Askerbi Minasharov ~ November 24
1,700 Arrested at School of the Americas Protest, Elliott Minor ~ Nov. 23
Outspoken Mozambican Editor Assassinated, Charles Mangwiro & Justin Arenstein ~ November 22
Ex-GIs: U.S. Troops in Korea War Had Orders to Shoot Civilians, Richard Pyle ~ November 22
Call President Clinton Asking for Clemency for Leonard Peltier, LPDC ~ Nov. 22
Apartheid Alive and Well in the New South Africa, Fred Bridgland ~ Nov. 19
"My Unit Conspired in the Murder of Civilians in Ireland", Neil Mackay ~ Nov. 19
The Scot Behind Ulster's Dirty War, The Sunday Herald ~ Nov. 19
Rumours of Fujimori Seeking Asylum Abound, Times of India ~ Nov. 17
Clinton Not To Apologise To Vietnam, The Times of India ~ Nov. 17
Panama Authorities Arrest Would-Be Castro Assassin, Isabel Garcia-Zarza ~ Nov. 17
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Peace Without Justice, Amnesty International ~ Nov. 17
Haitian Court Sentences 30 Officers, Marie-Andre Auguste ~ Nov.
Haiti Jury Convicts 16 Ex-Army Members In Coup Massacre, The Haiti Support Group ~ Nov.
Palace Justifies Monitoring Of Anti-Estrada Demonstrations, Marichu Villanueva ~ Nov. 17
With Fujimori Away, Opposition Seizes Control Of Peru's Congress, Monte Hayes ~ Nov. 17
Malaysian Premier Denies Peru President Fujimori Seeks Asylum, IRNA ~ Nov. 17
Osce Slams Azerbaijani Elections, Shahin Rzaev ~ Nov. 17
Comment: Hijak Drama Descends Into Tragicomedy, Mikhail Ivanov ~ Nov. 17
Abkhazia: God's Country, Askerbi Minasharov ~ Nov. 17
Nalchik Authorities Launch Wahhabi Witch-Hunt, Musa Alibekov ~ Nov. 17
Central Asian Pawn, Igor Grebenshchikov ~ Nov. 17
Kazak Premier Under Threat, Dosym Satpaev ~ Nov. 17
Kyrgyz Security Agency Faces Curbs, Zhypara Abdrakhmanova ~ Nov. 17
Nazarbaev Granted New Military Powers, Andrei Chebotarev ~ Nov. 17
Bukharans Shun Radical Islam, Jennifer Balfour ~ Nov. 17
Kosovar Keeps Up Pressure For Prisoners' Release ~ Nov. 16
Clinton to Try to Juggle Past Horrors and Future Hopes on Vietnam Visit, By Seth Mydans ~ Nov. 15
Warcrimes Court Wants Croatian Spies' Testimonies ~ Nov. 15
Croatia Slams Serbian Minister's Unannounced Visit ~ Nov. 12
President Looking at Leonard Peltier Case, Call The White House ~ November 15
Keep the Torch Alive for Thousands of Political Prisoners in Ethiopia, Ethiopian Democratic Action League ~ Nov. 12
Germans Sue U.S. Over Death Penalty in World Court, By Jerome Socolovsky ~ Nov. 13
Belize's Rainforests Saved by Historic Agreement on Maya Land Rights ~ November 11
Four Roma Liquidated in the Kosovo by Head-Shot, By Jud Nirenberg ~ Nov. 10
Murdered Prisoners Web Site, Linda Tant Miller ~ November 11
Adygea Hits Back, Zarina Kanukova ~ November 10
Russian Defector May Prove A Disappointment, Mikhail Ivanov ~ November 10
Dagestan's Ethnic Experiment, Yuri Akbashev ~ November 10
Brothers In Arms, Erik Batuev ~ November 10
Central Asia Conflict Fears, Anthony Borden ~ November 10
Almaty Fears Uighur Militants, Aidar Kaliev ~ November 10
Comment: Uzber Brain Drain, By Shavkat Alimov ~ November 10
Dry Lands In Crisis - The Heart Of Asia's Development Challenge, United Nations Environment Programme ~ November 10
Fujimori Hunts For Spy Chief With Radar, Alistair Scrutton ~ November 10
The Lives of Our Children - and All of Us - Depend On It, By Eric M. LeCompte ~ Nov. 8
Getting Serious About White Deviance: An Open Letter to the Pioneer Fund, By Tim Wise ~ Nov. 8
Cole Incident: Serious Test to Yemeni-US Relations, Yemen Times ~ Nov. 6
Yemen Bans US Helicopters from its Airspace, Yemen Observer ~ Nov. 6
Lawsuit Would Seek Damages for Slavery in U.S., By Paul Shepar ~ Nov. 5
Everglades Restoration Bill Heads for President's Signature, By Cat Lazaroff ~ Nov. 3
Massive Police Repression In Malaysia, SUARAM ~ Nov. 5
Peru's Ex-spy Chief's Arrest Ordered, Miami Herald ~ November 4
Tudjman Junior Eyes Presidency, By Dragutin Hedl in Osijek ~ November 3
El Salvadoran Generals Not Liable for Churchwomen's Deaths ~ Nov. 3
Austrian Pol Haider's Career Takes A Turn for the Worse, Robert H. Reid ~ November 2
Indian Lawsuits on School Abuse May Bankrupt Canada Churches, James Brooke ~ November 2
Taiwan: A New President Faces a Complex Challenge, Stratfor, Inc. ~ November 2
Akaev Scores Stunning Victory, Sultan Jumagulove ~ November 3
Tashkent Tries Islamists, Galima Bukharbaeva ~ November 3
Uzbek Mini-Skirt War, Solekh Yakhyaev ~ November 3
Kazakstan Courts Moscow, Andrei Chebotarev ~ November 3
Armenian Political Upstart Arrested, Mark Grigorian ~ November 3
Heads Roll In Georgia's Justice Ministry, Irakly Kharabadze ~ November 3
Kabardino-Balkaria Faces A Bleak Winter, Cherkes Bek ~ November 3
Ossetians Revive Pagan Rituals, Valery Dzutsev ~ November 3
Largest Protest Against the ‘School of Assassins' on November 17-19, SOA Watch ~ November 3
Switzerland Asks Peru to Probe Ex-spy Chief's £32m Accounts, Anonova ~ November 3
Apocalypse Now, Kim Sengupta ~ November 3
Wetlands Protections Could Hinge On Supreme Court Decision, Brian Hansen ~ November 2
Jury Considers Wrongful Death Claims Against Former Generals, Karin Meadows ~ November 2
Serbia Has Lost Kosovo, Albanian Leader Tells Belgrade, By Richard Boudreaux ~ November 1
Napoleon Bonaparte Taken To Court
Times of India ~ Dec. 29
THE HAGUE, Netherlands: "Are you Napoleon Bonaparte, born August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica?"
"Oui!" the defendant affirmed.
"How do you plead?"
"Non culpable!" he responded curtly. "Not guilty!"
The charges were war crimes and crimes against humanity. The venue was a mock courtroom at the Hague Academy of International Law earlier this year. The real French despot was never held accountable for his soldiers' rampages across Europe and Russia which left millions dead.
But when the actor wearing a cocked hat and gold-studded coat was presented with the charges, it offered a flavour of what may be in store for tomorrow's leaders - and not only megalomaniac dictators with a taste for bloody battle.
An International Criminal Court, supported by more than 120 countries, is expected to be established within two to three years in The Hague.
When that happens, victims of atrocities anywhere will be able to press charges against military and political leaders of foreign countries - including kings and presidents.
The criminal court statute, drawn up in a 1998 treaty in Rome, has been ratified by 25 of the 60 countries needed to make it a reality.
The statute gives the court global jurisdiction over anyone suspected of the most serious offenses under international law -genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Earlier this month, judges, jurists and politicians from around the world came to a Hague Academy conference on the implications of the court.
The refusal by the United States to sign the treaty took center stage.
"This court is a gift of hope for coming generations," Hans Corell, the U.N. undersecretary for legal affairs, said. "It is important that all states sign."
President Bill Clinton is being urged to sign the Rome treaty by December 31. Beginning next year, countries will have to ratify the statute in order to sign the treaty, a much more involved process requiring domestic legislative approval.
Advocates want Clinton to show his support for the world criminal court despite fears the court will be inundated with suits by enemies of the United States.
Fierce opposition to U.S. participation has been voiced by the Pentagon and prominent figures including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and ex-CIA Director R. James Woolsey.
"The (International Criminal Court) is the League of Nations of international justice," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms wrote in Israel's Haaretz newspaper, referring to the U.N. precursor which fell apart.
Because of its stance, delegates grouped the United States with pariah states such as Libya, Iraq and China, which also won't sign.
U.S. objections were not allayed by a statute clause which makes the international criminal court a court of last resort, stepping in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves.
"We must face the fact that adversaries will seek to exploit the dramatic setting of a criminal courtroom to oppose military actions that represent good faith applications of humanitarian law," Yale law professor Ruth Wedgwood said in a discussion paper at the conference.
Despite Helm's warnings that the court would be hijacked by Arab states against Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Barak's aides have indicated he might sign by the year-end deadline.
Canadian member of parliament Irwin Cotler conceded that not all nations subscribing to the court have "noble intentions," but he warned that countries boycotting the court will be disadvantaged because they won't be able to influence the cases brought against them.
"Like Woody Allen said: 90 percent of the game is showing up," he told the AP.
But what would happen if Napoleon were alive today and could be brought to trial?
The moot court ruled there was not enough evidence to support allegations that French troops wantonly set a fire that decimated four-fifths of Moscow on September 16, 1812.
However, it did agree that Napoleon "planned, instigated, ordered, or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution" of the systematic deportation of Moscow's residents.
Nevertheless, the judges could not make up their minds on how to sentence the emperor - 179 years after his death. (AP)
END
Peru Creates Web Site in Hunt for Former Spy Chief
(Reuters) ~ Dec. 27
The manhunt for Peru's former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, which has spanned Latin America and intrigued Peruvians with its James Bond-style tale of a fugitive on the run, has spread to the Internet.Want to know what the former spy chief may look like with a false beard? Need a psychological profile of the man with a taste for diamond-encrusted watches and who placed an escape tunnel underneath his bathtub at home? Turn to Peru's Interior Ministry, which on Wednesday launched a Web site -- with "Wanted" plastered in red across its home page -- offering information on Montesinos, who is facing charges ranging from money laundering to running death squads.
Corruption allegations against Montesinos culminated in the ouster last month of Alberto Fujimori, Peru's president for 10 years. He fled to Japan as the crisis escalated and was fired in absentia when Congress declared him "unfit to rule." The Web site also features hotline telephone numbers for anyone who has information that may lead to his capture. Information ranges from the mundane -- he speaks English and has black hair -- to the personal -- he wants to get rich at any cost and does not believe in the existence of friends, according to a psychological profile. The Web site reflects the national obsession about Fujimori's right-hand man, a 55-year-old lawyer known as "Rasputin" for being the power behind the throne.
Newspaper La Republica, which has long crusaded against Fujimori and Montesinos, set up an e-mail address for prospective whistle-blowers to send information on alleged accomplices of the spy chief, whose power extended across courts and media. Even though Montesinos' hooded eyes stare out from hundreds of newspaper photographs every day, authorities already have circulated posters with the former spy chief's face under the word "Wanted" to police stations across the country.
WANTED: Vladimiro Lenin Montesinos Torres Anyone with information on his whereabouts can send an e-mail to authorities at captura@mininter.gob.pe
END
More Than Half of Russians Want New Empire - Poll
Interfax ~ Dec. 26
More than half of Russians consider Russia a great power and believe it is the country's historic mission to bring peoples together in a new empire, pollsters announced on Tuesday.
Fifty-five percent believe it is Russia's historical mission to incorporate various peoples into one state that would be a successor to the pre-1917 Russian empire and the Soviet Union, the National Institute of Social Psychology Studies reported, citing the results of a poll taken earlier this month. Only 26% do not share this view, according to the report.
The institute also said 64% regard Russia as a great power and 39% hold the opposite view. While 20% said they see Russia as a European country and 13% as Asian, 51% thought of it as nation European to the same extent as it is Asian, the report said.
The poll, in which 1,600 people were surveyed, spanned more than 100 cities and towns in 47 of Russia's 89 regions, the report Interfax obtained said.
END
By William Branigin, Washington Post ~ December 26, 2000
As Osman Mohamed sat down for his weekly therapy session in a third-floor office in Falls Church, the sound of a jackhammer outside stopped him cold. To his therapist, it was merely background noise on busy Route 7, but to Mohamed, a Somali refugee, it brought back memories of an attack on his home by gunmen who beat and terrorized him. For Mohammad Ali, who was tortured in an Afghan prison, the sound of footsteps outside his apartment or a knock at the door can trigger a panic attack. For Khassan Baiev, a doctor from Chechnya, the whirring of a helicopter conjures up terrifying flashbacks of the air raids that ravaged his town and leveled his hospital. The three men are among thousands of torture and trauma survivors who have flooded the Washington region in recent years. Doctors have diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder in all three, and they are part of a growing clientele at the nonprofit Center for Multicultural Human Services, a private mental health facility in Falls Church.
There, a project called the Program for Survivors of Torture and Severe Trauma, funded by U.N. and federal grants, offers therapy and other services to refugees and asylum-seekers, some of whom have endured treatment so horrific they can barely speak of it. "The Washington area is teeming with people who have suffered from torture or severe war trauma," said Judy Okawa, the clinical psychologist who heads the program. "It's downright frightening how many there are that need our services."
At least half a million torture survivors now reside in the United States, the Minneapolis-based Center for Victims of Torture estimates. The Washington area has one of the biggest concentrations -- 10,000 to 40,000, according to the Falls Church center. Since the late 1970s, they have arrived in waves from around the world: first Southeast Asia, then Central America and the Balkans, now mostly from Africa. As they create new lives in a new land, most torture victims suffer in silence.
Thousands of other refugees may struggle and prosper here, but torture survivors often remain prisoners of their wounded psyches. The Falls Church program, launched two years ago with a $30,000 annual contribution from the United Nations, has served about 200 such refugees from 35 countries. Just since Oct. 1, the center has received 44 referrals; it now has a waiting list. This fall, the program was awarded an annual grant of $500,000 from the State Department, part of $7.2 million in federal funding for 16 torture treatment centers nationwide. But the money cannot be spent on administration, so the Falls Church center needs to raise about $50,000 each year to support the grant. It also needs more trained mental health workers, Okawa said, plus volunteers to help clients with transportation and language barriers.
Rising Tide of Torture
The rising caseload reflects what human rights advocates say is a dramatic increase in torture worldwide. Amnesty International reported in June that the number of countries using torture increased 23 percent from 1989 to 1999. A subsequent report said torture occurs in more than 150 countries and is "widespread" in nearly half.
Many victims are women and -- increasingly -- children. According to Amnesty, beatings -- with fists, sticks, gun butts, whips, iron pipes and bats -- constitute the most common torture method. Others are rape, electric shocks, suspension of the body, suffocation and mock execution. Victims have been submerged in water, burned with cigarettes, dragged behind cars and deprived of sleep.
"The stories are so gruesome. We always think we've heard the worst story, then something even worse comes along," Okawa said. "Part of what makes torture still exist in the world is that people don't want to hear about it," said Ronda A. Bresnick, program coordinator at the center. The result is what therapists call "a conspiracy of silence." Several clients from Sudan, Okawa said, have described secret torture centers known as "houses of ghosts" because many who enter do not come out alive. In them, dissidents have been beaten while suspended from ceiling fans, she said, or forced to lie on searing tin roofs and stare into the sun.
Common household tools such as pliers are used to inflict excruciating pain, she said. Some of the worst accounts involve children: The center now has four child clients from Africa, one of whom was raped before she was a year old, Okawa said. Nearly 80 percent of the women in therapy and half the men have been raped or sexually tortured, she said.
Severe depression is a common reaction; about eight in 10 people seen at the center are suicidal, Okawa said.
Therapy and Its Toll
Besides listening to clients and talking to them about their fears, the therapists employ techniques such as art therapy and sand trays to draw out their feelings. The sand trays are used as settings for small figurines -- of people, animals, buildings and other objects -- that clients select and arrange as they wish. The therapists then encourage the trauma victims to explain their creations. Art and sand tray therapy are considered especially effective in treating children but also can help adults express thoughts and emotions they've repressed.
Some survivors' accounts are so disturbing that the therapists suffer "secondary traumatization" themselves, Okawa said. "We have nightmares. We may have intrusive memories. . . . We may feel the same sense of isolation that the survivor does, because no one else really understands."
Waking up one Saturday morning, Okawa recalled, she was shocked to see in the shadows on her ceiling the image of a man strung up by his wrists. "I considered that a warning sign," she said. Therapists also have reported that they cry more easily and are more affected by violence on television. They are encouraged to take time off, but the growing caseload makes that hard to do, Okawa said.
The ultimate aim of the therapy is to help clients process the experiences that traumatized them so they can "move on with their lives," Bresnick said.
No Escaping Trouble
Besides their psychic wounds, some refugees are afflicted by the anxiety of living in legal limbo. One of them is Mohamed, 35, who belonged to a minority clan in Somalia. In 1991, his home was invaded by gunmen who accused the clan of treason. They tied Mohamed up with an electrical cord, he said, beat and tortured him with bayonets, and terrorized his wife and children.
"I felt helpless. They told me, 'If we ever see you here again, you will die.' " He fled the Somali capital with his family, but his parents, an older brother and his brother's three children were killed. After eight years in Kenya -- first in a refugee camp and then in Nairobi -- he paid a smuggler to get him to the United States. He sneaked across the border from Mexico in 1999 and applied for asylum.
But his case has dragged on, and he worries about his wife and children, still illegal immigrants in Kenya. "They're in hiding, and I'm starving here," said Mohamed, who lives in Gaithersburg with a Somali family that lets him stay in their basement for now. "I'm supposed to be a good father and help them, but I can't."
Although he has a university education and speaks four languages, Mohamed lacks a work permit and fears that getting a job without one would jeopardize his asylum case, said his therapist, Afshin Nili, who began seeing him in July. He takes medication for depression but regularly experiences flashbacks, Nili said. He also frets that he is wearing out his welcome with the Somali family, headed by a friend of his dead brother. He eats sparingly and sometimes stays at a nearby mosque. "He's constantly in a state of anxiety about what happened to him, about his immigration status, his family and what they are going through right now," Nili said.
Another of the center's clients, Ali, still breaks down when speaking of his 1986 arrest and torture by Afghan secret police. He was caught working on behalf of Islamic rebels in Kabul and thrown into a dank cell, where, he said, he was tortured for 40 days. After two years in jail, he escaped to Pakistan, and he came to the United States in 1990, settling in Alexandria. His wife and two daughters joined him later, but it was not a happy reunion. Ali had learned that his wife inadvertently was responsible for his arrest in Kabul, and they soon divorced.
Angry, embittered and traumatized, Ali could no longer hold a job. Twice, he attempted suicide, he said. Two years ago, a friend got him into therapy. "I don't like people right now," he said in a recent interview. "I get nervous very fast, and I cannot control myself." Quick to anger, he has been fired from a number of jobs for arguing with customers, he said. Even hearing people curse can trigger memories of his torturers, he said, so he keeps to himself in the Alexandria apartment he shares with two other Afghans.
His Iranian-born therapist, Rouyan V. Jones, said Ali suffers from depression, panic attacks, obsessive thoughts and hallucinations. Yet, in their discussions, conducted in Farsi, "his conversation is filled with beautiful symbolic poems," she said. Now 53, Ali studies Persian poetry and does artwork as part of his therapy.
Witness to Slaughter
Unlike most of those in treatment at the Falls Church site, Baiev, the doctor from Chechnya, has gained wide renown. The 37-year-old performed heroically during fighting between Russian troops and Chechen rebels, treating civilians and combatants from both sides and earning accolades from human rights groups. The former judo champion was nearly executed three times, once after being held in a pit for a week in a Chechen mountain stronghold and more recently by Russian mercenaries who used him as a human shield while on patrol.
But his worst memories stem from January, when more than 300 people were blown up in a minefield while fleeing the siege of Grozny. Baiev, the only doctor left in his hospital, spent two days without sleep doing amputations and other surgery. Standing amid pools of blood and piles of body parts, he said he operated until he collapsed, then would be taken outside to have snow rubbed on his face to revive him. "It was like a nightmare," he said. "While I was operating on one, I dreaded to think how many other people would die."
Russian forces branded Baiev a "bandit doctor" for saving the life of a Chechen rebel leader, and his hospital was destroyed. A U.S. human rights group helped him escape, but his wife and five children were left behind. Now living with friends in suburban Maryland, he fears for his family's safety. Last month, his nephew was killed by gunmen in Chechnya.
Baiev confronts his grief and stress in his weekly therapy. Seated at a small table during a recent session, he gingerly placed figures in a sand tray. At one end he put a house; nearby, a mother and some children, two birds and a dolphin. The dolphin "strikes me as a very kind animal," he said. The birds to him were doves of peace.
"That was how it was in our country. We used to have big, happy families," he said. Okawa, sitting opposite, asked if those times might come again. "I'm afraid not," Baiev responded. When the first round of fighting in Chechnya ended four years ago, people rebuilt their houses and talked about raising families, he said. But now, after the second war, "I don't believe people have these hopes. There's not a single house that didn't lose somebody in the family. . . . There's no hope for them . . . no support for them."
But the scene in the sand tray before him was a hopeful one, Okawa pointed out. "As long as you can create this, you still have those feelings," she told him. The realization seemed to touch something deep inside the doctor. He took off his glasses, covered his face with his hands and wept silently for several minutes. "This came out of you naturally," Okawa said softly. Later, she reflected on Baiev's trauma: "He saved hundreds and hundreds of lives -- but he remembers the lives he couldn't save."
END
Confronting the Hard Realities of North America's Ongoing Indian War
by Anthony J. Hall, Dept. of Native American Studies University of Lethbridge ~ Dec. 21
Just days after the US Supreme Court exposed its thorough going politicization in the case of Bush versus Gore, the federal government's top law enforcers followed the judges by leaping into the political fray. For the first time in the 92-year history of the FBI, hundreds of federal agents gathered to protest at the White House in Washington DC. Their declared aim was to pre-empt the possibility that outgoing President Bill Clinton would pardon Leornard Peltier.
Peltier is the jailed activist of the American Indian Movement (AIM) believed by many, including Nelson Mandela, Robert Redford and Amnesty International, to have been wrongfully framed for the murder of two FBI agents. The killing of FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, took place during the virtual civil war on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. In many bloody exchanges about 100 AIM activists were also murdered by the federally-supported, para-military forces led by the Pine Ridge Reservation's infamous Tribal Chairman, Richard Wilson.
The Peltier case lies at the centre of a number of long-festering controversies that combine to form an amazing saga of official wrongdoing with sweeping international implications. As elaborately chronicled in a growing array of books, articles and films, including Peter Matthiessen's monumental " In The Spirit of Crazy Horse", there is a huge and growing mass of evidence to demonstrate that government agencies have systematically violated many of their own laws in what amounts to an ongoing Indian war of hemispheric dimensions. This covert campaign has been directed at incapacitating the most militant wing of the First Nations sovereignty movement.
The co-ordinated, international character of the war on the American Indian Movement and its many branches, including the Mohawk Warriors and the Ts'peten Defenders in Canada, has come to light through many venue including revelations about the dubious proceeedings leading to the extradition of Leonard Peltier from British Columbia in 1976. The tainted character of the evidence used to remove Peltier from Canada was highlighted recently during hearings in Toronto. At these quasi-judicial proceedings, Myrtle Poor Bear, whose affidavit was crucial in securing Peltier's extradition in 1976, testified how FBI agents had threatened to take away her child if she did not agree to lie in order to incriminate Peltier. Ms. Poor Bear went further, explaining how the FBI taunted her with pictures of the mutilated corpse of AIM activist, Anna Mae Aquash, threatening her with a similar fate if she did not co-operate with those FBI's Inquisitors charged to exorcise AIM's perceived heresies.
The USA's careless treatment of its Canadian ally in the Peltier case has long been an irritant in foreign relations between the two countries. In his long campaign for some reckoning with the legacy of the falsified evidence used in gaining Peltier's extradition, Warren Allmand, a former Solicitor General of Canada, has gradually won over a number of influential allies. They include about 60 parliamentarians, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and, most recently, Peter Hogg, Dean of Toronto's prestigious Osgoode Law School. Said Hogg recently, "Mr. Peltier has served 25 years in prison, which is a terrible burden for someone who is probably innocent."
The international campaign to free Leonard Peltier, who many see as the USA's most obvious political prisoner, received a surprising boost in late November when a judge in Portland Oregon overruled the US State Department in a case that replayed in reverse some of the central features of the Peltier extradition case. In her ruling in the case of United States of America versus James Pitawanakwat, Judge Janice Stewart found that a Native veteran of the Battle of Gustafsen Lake, which took place in British Columbia in 1995, could not be extradited back to Canada because he qualified for the same kind of political asylum sought unsuccessfully by Leonard Peltier in 1976.
The extradition hearing in Portland last October matched lawyers for the State Department against Pitawanakwat's defence team in the Federal Public Defender's Office. The latter successfully argued that Canada's criminalization of Pitawanakwat fulfilled the "political offenses exception" in the Extradition Treaty between Canada and the USA. That provision is designed to afford protection to genuine freedom fighters whose criminalized actions arise in the context of legitimate liberation struggles waged against unjust, oppressive regimes.
In her ruling Judge Stewart drew attention to the tainted testimony used in Peltier's extradition hearings, even as she implicitly criticized Canadian officials for failing to extend the political offenses exception to their ward in 1976. In a passage that has provided President Clinton with American judicial backing to help edify the overwhelmingly compelling case for a grant of executive clemency to Peltier, Judge Stewart decided, "The Canadian tribunal ruled that Peltier should be extradited back to the United States, to a large extent on the basis of what subsequently turned out to be false affidavits....[Peltier] sought review by the Canadian Minister of Justice on the basis that he was being extradited for a political offense, but the Minister refused relief. Unfortunately, this court has been unable to determine why Canada deemed the political offense exception inapplicable."
In deciding the case Judge Stewart detailed a saga of Canadian government lawlessness reminiscent of the same kind of campaign waged by the US government to invalidate the political legitimacy of the American Indian Movement in the mid-1970s. Where AIM attracted enormous attention based largely on its armed stand in 1973 at Wounded Knee, the site of an infamous slaughter of Native people by the American military almost a century earlier, Mr. Pitawankwat was involved in a similar armed confrontation near Gustafsen Lake BC in 1995. That confrontation pitted members of the AIM-related Ts'peten Defenders against the largest mobilization of police and military in Western Canada since the stand of Louis Riel and the Canadian Metis was crushed by the regime of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald in 1885. In her ruling Judge Stewart placed high geopolitical significance on the involvement of the Canadian military in the operation at Gustafsen Lake.
The Canadian army's role marked "the seriousness of the challenge to Canadian jurisdiction over unceded tribal lands." She pointed to evidence of the confrontation's severity, noting that the trees on the site were "riddled with 77,000 rounds of bullet holes fired by the RCMP toward the camp." She also referred to the existence of Camp Zulu, the military headquarters for Canada's undeclared Indian war. This installation, she explained in her ruling, was "replete with armored personnel carriers, a field hospital, a communications centre, a landing field, military assault weapons, and a heavily armed militarized police force of 400 officers in camouflage gear." Moreover, Mr. Pitawanakwat was personally exposed to "10,000 to 20,000 government rounds" on September 11th after he fled from a red truck that ran over a government-detonated land mine.
One of the most disturbing features of Judge Stewart's historic ruling is her reference to "uncontradicted evidence that the Canadian government engaged in a smear and disinformation campaign to prevent the media from learning and publicizing the true extent of the political nature of the events." What is to be said of the apparent ease with which the security police in both Canada and the United States have been able to manipulate the mainstream media into knowing or inadvertent complicity in officialdom's persistent deployment of systematic lies to steer public attention away from those most serious constitutional arguments consistently raised by the most militant wing of the First Nations sovereignty movement? How sadly easy it so often was for offending governments to gain media co-operation in wrongfully characterizing what was at issue at Wounded Knee in 1973, at Oka in 1990 or at Gustafsen Lake and Ipperwash in 1995. As Judge Stewart's ruling attests, all these episodes tended to be misreported as episodes of mere Native criminality rather than as confrontations which highlighted consistent failures on the part of governments to live up even to their own commitments to recognize and affirm what is known in the Canadian constitution as "existing Aboriginal and treaty rights."
In her own judicial characterization of what was really at issue in the episodes leading up to Canada's request to extradite Mr. Pitawankwat from the USA, Judge Stewart ruled that "the Gustafsen incident involved an organized group rising up in their homeland against the occupation by the government of Canada of their sacred and unceded tribal land." In her statement of "facts" surrounding the case, she referred to "various acts in the 1800s" whereby the governments of Canada and British Columbia "illegally usurped jurisdiction over unsurrendered hunting grounds." In detailing the nature of this illegal usurpation, Judge Stewart drew attention to the arguments of the now-disbarred lawyer for the Ts'peten Defenders, Dr. Bruce Clark. Before Dr. Clark was criminalized for aggressively questioning the jurisdictional capacity of the British Columbian courts to hear the case of the Ts'peten Defenders, this controversial legal scholar advanced British imperial law as the true foundation of Canada's constitutional affirmation of Aboriginal rights and title.
The US judge rounded out her decision by indicating how the language of land claims or land disputes served "to trivialize" the true nature of the conflict over lands and resources in British Columbia. As in large parts of the USA and Canada, Indian title remains uncompromised through treaty negotiations with First Nations. "Control over land," concluded Judge Stewart, "is one of the primary reasons for the existence of a government and is often the cause of wars between nations." She added, "Given its substantial economic consequences, the Aboriginal land title question in Canada clearly is a highly charged issue for Native and non-Native people." As I see it, the unprecedented, White-House protest of FBI agents is an indication of the extent of both the desperation and determination on the part of the security police, who have been assigned the dirtiest jobs entailed in the continuation of the continent's undeclared Indian war.
The basic task assigned the federal agents has been to keep one of this continent's oldest and most profound human rights issues from spilling beyond the arena of the domestic courts into venues of international law. The aim has been to smear, discredit, criminalize, destabilize and dehabilitate those parts of the First Nations sovereignty movement who have refused to accept as legitimate that branch of Indian leadership whose funding and legislative authority comes primarily from federal as opposed to First Nations sources. Where the murderous regime of Pine Ridge Tribal Chairman, Dick Wilson, once embodied the internalized corruption that AIM was formed to combat, the dynamics of indirect rule in Indian Country have become more elaborate and complex during subsequent decades. At present it would be hard to locate a more illustrative example of the contamination through patronage politics of a once-promising initiative in federal-First Nation relations, than in the so-called treaty negotiations currently underway in British Columbia.
It is more than mere coincidence that also made BC the site of Leonard Peltier's wrongful extradition without due process to the USA as well as the site of Canada's most infamous undeclared Indian war in 1995. The execution of that war represented a new frontier of federal-provincial co-operation as expressed particularly in the operations of Camp Zulu. Its currency of effectiveness was as much media manipulation, in other words "smear and disinformation," as land mines and army armoured personnel carriers. In the final analysis the rationale for this expensive mobilization of the most coercive forms of state power were to retain the domestic framework of the negotiations on title and jurisdiction with the First Nations of BC.
With Judge Stewart's ruling in the Pitawankwat case the domestication of negotiations on Indigenous peoples' title to land and resources has effectively been obliterated. Regardless of any future challenges to the ruling, this ground-breaking judgment has unalterably made the matter of the Original title of North America's First Nations an issue of foreign policy for the world's only remaining superpower. That fact alone promises to have tremendous implications for the future course of Canada-US relations in a hemisphere dominated by nation states who uniformly have risen up from the European side of the Columbian conquests that began in 1492 and arguably continue until this day. The underlying theme of the Columbian conquests has been empire and nation building through the genocidal extinguishment of First Nations titles to lands and resources.
The federal agents who gathered at the White House cannot be blind to the fact that a critical information mass is fast being reached in bringing to light their own central role in North America's continuing Indian war. Thus their opposition to clemency for Leonard Peltier can be seen as tangential to a more basic agenda on the part of the continent's security forces. As I see it, they have been signalling an understandable unwillingness to be made the sole scapegoats in the upcoming revelations about the extent of government lawlessness in the covert and largely successful campaign to sabotage AIM as well as its many devotees and attending organizations.
In spite of the covert assaults on AIM, an organization born of shared struggle in the prisons of North America where a disproportionate percentage of Native people spend many of their days, its influence has been present at virtually every assertive expression of First Nations jurisdiction, from the fish wars at Cheam or Burnt Church to the contested sun dance grounds at Gustafsen Lake. In the final analysis those most responsible for government lawlessness in the continuing war on AIM and in the illegal subjugation Indian Country are not the secret police or even the media purveyors of smear and disinformation.
The individuals who need to be held most accountable are rather our elected officials, who have consistently failed to find viable means of expressing politically those legal protections of Aboriginal and treaty rights entrenched in North America's founding constitutional instruments. The sacrifices of rule of law to fulfill the expediencies of the rule of politics has effectively cleared the way for the consolidation of ruthless and arbitrary forms of tyranny. Thus officialdom's crimes against the marginalized few become crimes against the mainstream many, as law enforcement agencies protest in the streets and as judges pre-empt the sanctity of the electoral process in the heartland of the American empire.
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Kashmir Ceasefire Extended by a Month
Economic Times ~ Dec. 21
The Centre extended the unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir by another month on Wednesday and said it would take exploratory steps to break the deadlock in peace talks with Pakistan. But a frontline pro-Pakistan guerrilla group responded quickly to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee?s move, dubbing the extended ceasefire "the second scene of the same old drama". Vajpayee told the Parliament there had been a decline in "terrorist activities" in rebellion-torn Jammu and Kashmir since India?s unprecedented truce went into effect at the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on November 28. "After careful consideration of all aspects, the government has, therefore, taken a decision to extend the period of 'no initiation of combat operations' by another month," he said.
Vajpayee said there had been a recognisable decline in attempts by "terrorists" to cross the Kashmir frontier from Pakistan into India, but added: "They must cease entirely". "As the initiator of the dialogue process with Pakistan, India remains committed to it," Vajpayee said. "The existence of a suitable environment for such a process is self-evidently necessary." However, he said that as part of its commitment to past peace accords, India would initiate exploratory steps it considers necessary so that the composite dialogue process could be resumed. New Delhi and Islamabad have not held any talks under their composite dialogue process since 1998.
Pakistan responded to Vajpayee's initiative on December 2 by declaring that it would exercise maximum restraint along the Line of Control, where troops from both sides have exchanged fire for years. Vajpayee noted that there had been a "marked improvement" in incidents of exchange of fire and that relative peace had prevailed along the line which was drawn after the last full-scale conflict between India and Pakistan in 1971. The opposition Congress party threw its weight behind Vajpayee's move, saying in the upper house of parliament that it would not seek any clarification of his statement to ensure that a unified message went out from New Delhi.
However, the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group said in Pakistan that the ceasefire extension was meaningless, and if India was sincere in wanting peace it should accept calls for tripartite talks involving India, Pakistan and Kashmiri leaders. "Until then, it is just ceasefire for the sake of ceasefire and it is meaningless," the group's spokesman, Saleem Hashmir, said. Al Badar Mujahideen, another pro-Pakistan militant group that carried out several armed raids during the ceasefire, said in a statement it also rejected the ceasefire and its extension. "By extending the ceasefire, India has once again tried to eyewash the world... If India is sincere it should withdraw its forces from Kashmir," the group said.
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By Vladimir Davlatov, IWPR ~ Dec. 21
The fate of thousands of Afghan refugees stranded on the Tajik border is hanging in the balance. The UN agency, UNHCR, is urging the Dushanbe authorities to admit the refugees, who fled fighting between the Northern Alliance and the Taleban movement in the north-east of Afghanistan. UNHCR is warning that 10,000 Afghans, marooned on islands in the Pyandj River, which runs along the border between the two countries, are threatened by disease and sporadic Taleban shelling. Military activity in the region has hampered efforts by aid agencies to supply food and clothing to the makeshift refugee camps. "UNHCR and other relief workers found that in addition to the grave security risks due to shelling, the Afghans suffer from a lack of food and an absence of proper shelter," said agency spokeswoman Delphine Marie. "Some of the people have been stuck in the border zone for up to six weeks now."
Taslimur Rahman, head of the UNHCR office in Dushanbe, called on Tajikistan to admit the refugees on December 4. There has been no official reply. Commentators suggest the procrastination stems from Dushanbe's fears of being inundated by further waves of displaced people. There are an estimated 200,000 refugees in Afghanistan. The official Afghan government is also nervous about an exodus of its citizens. Mohammed Solekh Registani, military attaché at the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe, warned that if Tajikistan accepted the stranded civilians more would follow. "The government of Afghanistan is against these people on the islands moving into Tajikistan, as this could lead to new waves of emigration," he said. Registani, who insisted Dushanbe didn't have the resources to care for the displaced Afghans, said he feared Taleban forces would occupy the homes of the refugees, discouraging them from eventually returning.
For the most part, the refugees are elderly men and women and children forced to leave their homes after recent Taleban victories in the north of Afghanistan. Since the capture of the Northern Alliance's stronghold of Taloqan in September, Islamic Movement has gone on to secure 90 per cent of the country. According to aid agencies, the refugees lack fuel, food and basic resources to survive the coming winter. There have already been outbreaks of typhoid and malaria. And some refugees have been killed or injured in Taleban rocket attacks.
Dushanbe is reluctant to admit the legions of displaced people assembling on its doorstep because Tajikistan, which experienced a serious drought this year, is itself in need of aid and is unlikely to be able to support a wave of Afghan civilians. In addition, Tajik officials are concerned that Taleban supporters may infiltrate the country under the guise of refugees. However, the governments of Tajikistan and Afghanistan both recognize that there is a serious need for immediate humanitarian aid. Registani has expressed regret that refugees are receiving limited amounts of aid, despite numerous appeals to the international community.
There are fears that plight of the refugees could worsen as the Taleban have called off UN-sponsored peace talks with the Northern Alliance after the Security Council imposed new sanctions on the Kabul regime. The move was aimed at pressuring the Taleban into handing over the Muslim militant Osama bin Laden. The sanctions - which include a tightening of the existing embargo and a new ban on arms sales to the Taleban - were denounced by the movement's leaders as an attack on the "Islamic system". Both sides in the Afghan conflict last month agreed to attend a peace summit, however, no date had been set. Meanwhile, the government of Tajikistan and the Russian border forces defending the Tajik-Afghan border have not ruled out the possibility of a wholesale acceptance of the refugees. This may take place in the event of a severe worsening of the refugees' living conditions or as a result of increasing pressure from the Taleban.
In a recent newspaper interview, the chief of the Russian border service in Tajikistan said preparations are already being made to accommodate the refugees. "The Tajik Ministry of Emergency Situations is preparing temporary dwellings and border checkpoints for the refugees, " said Vladimir Makarov. " As far as I know, Tajikistan can accommodate up to 20,000 refugees."
copyright IWPR 2000
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By Iskander Amanjolov, IWPR ~ Dec. 21
The Kazak authorities are concerned the south of the country is on the brink of being dragged into a conflict with Islamic militants. Astana's neighbours Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have been subjected to armed incursions by members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, IMU, for two consecutive years. The increasing extremist activity has alarmed the Kazak Security Council. "There is every reason to expect a worsening of the situation on the southern border of the region in the spring and summer of next year," said council secretary Marat Tajin. Kazak fears have also been raised by media reports of an increase in the number of unregistered religious organisations and even the existence of a remote military training camp in the south of the country. Meanwhile, orthodox groups such as the Khizbut-Takhrir have been stepping up their recruitment efforts in the region.
According to the Council for Relations with Religious Associations, half of the 2252 spiritual organizations in the country are unregistered. In the Southern Kazakstan Oblast (SKO) alone, 328 of the 426 religious groups operating in the area are unofficial. Some Kazak officials believe the SKO border with Uzbekistan, which runs through mountainous territory, is the most convenient location for IMU incursions. It is widely believed that many of the 1500 people recently deported for visa irregularities came from religious groups. It is unclear whether the security forces are equal to the task of dealing with the infiltration of Islamic militants. The question was raised by Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov after a shoot out in Almaty in late September which left four Uigur separatists dead.
In an effort to counter the terrorism threat, Astana is introducing a number of measures, including plans to extend army service for reserve officers, the creation of a new military district in the south and the setting up of 25 new frontier checkpoints. The Defense Ministry's budget will count for 1 per cent of GDP next year - the first time a fixed minimum has been set. But this limited sum makes the ministry's recent announcement that the army is primed for action an unjustifiably optimistic one. There is urgent need for arms, ammunition and experienced fighters. But Kazakstan is lacking in both. Indeed, snipers are currently being recruited from the ranks of local hunters.
Apart from bolstering the country's military response to the extremist threat, the authorities should consider the extent to which the dire state of the economy is contributing to the spread of militancy. What's clear is that religious fanaticism is strongest in poor rural areas. Tajin accepts that religious extremism may have economic roots and that military might may prove ineffective in countering the threat. In order to guard against the spread of militancy "it may not be enough to simply lock up the state border, " he said.
With Central Asia republics beset by political instability, mutual distrust and concerns over porous borders, the prospects of combating terrorism in the region do not look good. Indeed, regional security is likely to be high on the agenda this week at the meeting of CIS defence ministers in Moscow. According to Colonel Maxim Shepelev at the Kazak Defense Ministry, "There have been repeated calls for regional military-technical cooperation in the face of extremism, but progress is being held up by the fact that Central Asian states tend to distrust each other. Uzbekistan is continually accusing Kazakstan and Russia of exaggerating the danger posed by the Taleban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and raising tension in the region. The shortage of information about the problem and the absence of a willingness to share that information fully doesn't help either."
copyright IWPR 2000
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By Alla Pyatibratova, IWPR ~ Dec. 21
Cases of viral hepatitis have almost tripled in the southern Kyrgyz oblast of Osh over the last year, as a result of the authorities' failure to enforce the most elementary sanitary and hygiene standards. The source for many of the infections are the new snack-bars and restaurants which sprang up in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second largest city, in the run-up to its 3000th anniversary celebrations in early October. Historically a trading city, catering establishments have flourished in recent years and would have done so, with or without the anniversary, as demand for roadside helpings of local popular dishes like pilau, samsa, manty, lagman and shashlyk ensures constant custom. Such has been the growth in street trade, local authorities have failed completely to regulate the outlets. Meat, fish, fruit and vegetables vie for space on streets in every town and village amid piles of litter and traffic-choked streets.
On the rare occasions inspectors come calling, stallholders produce easily available stamped forms attesting to the sound health of their businesses. However, street vendors are only one reason behind the growth in the number of infections. Doctors, decrying the lamentable state of general hygiene levels, are particularly concerned about the state, or even absence of drinking water. From the suburbs of Osh to the more isolated regions of the oblast, there is still no clean water supply. Consequently, there are outbreaks of intestinal illnesses. Two years ago over a hundred cases were reported in Zhapalak after an outbreak of typhoid.
Those lucky enough to have running water are still advised to boil it when preparing food. Also, the danger of infection increases when it rains as tap water runs brown. Despite attending training programmes on the latest water purification techniques in the US and elsewhere, city officials seem powerless to prevent the seeping of river water into the system. This is because construction of the central water treatment plant on the banks of the Ak-Bura river was botched. Special dirt filtering sheets for the lining of reservoir basins were not available, so the builders simply used roofing material which lets unpurified river water leak into the basin. Due to a shortage of funds the city council was unable to complete the job, only managing to replace one of the sheets which cost up to $1000 a piece.
Insufficient financing also affects the work of the city's health department. Inspectors are limited for the most part to merely noting infringements. Their recommendations are usually ignored and fines are rarely paid. This summer, for example, milk infected with the hepatitis virus was found in one of the refrigeration units on Osh's main thoroughfare. Trading continued. Business as usual. At the end of every day rubbish piles up on the streets. But municipal authorities complain that they haven't even the funds to fuel garbage trucks never mind invest in new equipment.
Children have always been the most vulnerable to hepatitis and other infections. In the post-Soviet era, even more so. Before, one ill child would set alarm bells ringing. The kindergarten or school concerned would be shut down and quarantine restrictions imposed. Nowadays, staff are more likely to try hiding any evidence of, say, jaundice, concerned that the parents might demand the school be temporarily closed, depriving them of their salary. It's not uncommon for poorly paid teaching staff to take food, intended for pupils, home with them. The state has implemented various programmes in its struggle against infectious diseases. But there are ever-increasing numbers of sufferers. At the last meeting of the Emergency Anti-Epidemic Commission of the Osh oblast, it was noted that the situation concerning infectious illnesses, including viral hepatitis, was indeed a very complex issue. Yet another in a long line of decrees was adopted and all health services alerted that it's time they put their affairs in order. Time will tell.
copyright IWPR 2000
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UN Says Liberia is Weapons Conduit
By Evelyn Leopold, Boston Globe ~ Dec. 20
Declaring Liberia was heavily involved in the arms-for-gems trade with brutal rebels in Sierra Leone, a UN panel has recommended a ''complete embargo'' on all diamonds from Liberia."Liberia's President Charles Taylor is actively involved in fueling the violence in Sierra Leone, and many businessmen close to his inner circle operate on an international scale,'' said a report commissioned by the Security Council that accused Liberia of violating UN sanctions ''with impunity.'' The five-member panel probed for six months the link between illicit diamond sales and the flow of weapons to Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels. In addition to Liberia, Burkina Faso was actively involved in smuggling banned arms to the rebels, known for a nine-year campaign of maiming, killing, and raping men, women, and children who oppose them, the report said. The Security Council has put an arms embargo on Sierra Leone rebels and banned the export of all diamonds not certified by the government. There is also a 1992 arms embargo against Liberia.
Aside from a ban on Liberian-exported diamonds, the panel recommended the council ground Liberian-registered airlines and impose a travel ban on senior Liberian officials and diplomats. It also suggested a ''temporary embargo'' on Liberian timber exports, saying that officials in that industry were involved in illicit weapons activities. The United States, which has diplomatic sanctions against Liberia, was already engaged in drawing up a resolution to this end, US sources said. The panel named Maurice Tempelsman, longtime companion to the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and chairman of the US-based Lazare Kaplan International diamond company, for dealing with rebel leader Foday Sankoh when Sankoh was a ''strategic mineral'' minister in the government.
Damian Canon, a Lazare Kaplan employee, visited Sankoh in March. In a subsequent letter, according to the UN report, Tempelsman wrote that Canon had reported a ''commonality of views between you and this company on the possibilities of LKI reentering the Sierra Leone diamond business in a manner beneficial to all the people of that country as well as our company.'' But a spokesman for LKI said the letter was taken out of context and in an ''outrageous fashion misstated what happened.'' He said that Canon was invited to Sierra Leone along with other diamond industry representatives, at the urging of the United States, to meet several government ministers as well as President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
The purpose, he said, was to get the country's diamond industry back on its feet, and Tempelsman wrote several letters to ministers Canon had visited, citing conditions under which Lazare Kaplan would conduct business. The Tempelsman example was used by the UN panel to show how Sankoh, now in jail, bargained with potential investors, mainly to enrich himself by duping them into ''thinking they would reap exclusive benefits from the same thing.'' The report also said that DeBeers, the mining group based in South Africa, which has said it had banned ''conflict diamonds,'' handled such a large volume of gems that it had to ''accept some responsibility for trade in illicit diamonds.'' DeBeers merited further study because of its control of 65 percent of the world's rough diamonds, the panel added.
The report estimated the volume of diamonds Liberia exported varied from $25 million to as much as $125 million a year, in any case more than enough to sustain the rebels' military activities. Although the rebels have captured many weapons during confrontations with the Sierra Leone Army, and West African and UN peacekeepers, the panel found ''unequivocal and overwhelming evidence'' of Liberian involvement. It has provided training, weapons, logistical support, a staging ground for attacks, and a safe haven for retreat and for public relations activities, the report said. ''In short, Liberia is actively breaking Security Council embargoes, regarding weapons imports into its own territory and into Sierra Leone. It is being actively assisted by Burkina Faso'' and others, the report said.
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Letter of Protest and Complaint of the IRU and the RNC on the Holocaust US Court Decision
RomNews Network ~ December 19
The world's two largest international Romani organizations, the Roma National Congress and the International Romani Union are strongly concerned and protest the recent decision of the US Court dealing with the restitution of the assets and the other forms of racial persecution, including mass destruction of Roma and Sinti during the Nazi - World War II era. The Court showed no interest and respect to opinions expressed by Romani political representatives and attorneys, in overt violation of the legal proceedings needed to achieve not only a fair administration of justice, but a decent moral restitution of the dignity of the Roma and Sinti as individual persons, families and as a people.
For example, neither Judge Korman nor special Master Gribetz nether the Court officer ever replied to correspondence from the organizations. In the opinion of Dr. Hancock, letters from the attorneys of the RNC and IRU were not considered by the Judge at all. Allegedly, Judge Korman reached a final decision three days alter the last letters from the lawyers had been received. The Joint Co-Ordination Committee of the International Romani Union (IRU) and the Roma National Congress (RNC) are equally protesting and condemning the decision of Judge Korman who recommendations to entrust the International Organization for Migration (IOM) with the few money granted as restitution of Roma suffering and properties Europe-wide.
Signed by
Dr. Emil Scuka President International Romani Union
Rudko Kawczynski Chair of the Board of Directors Roma National Congress
RomNews is published by the RomNews Network on a Non-commercial basis European Central Office: PO Box 30 41 45 D - 20324 Hamburg, Germany Phone Hotline: ++ 49 170 58 12 852
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By S. Frederick Starr, Washington Post ~ December 19
Three little-noted recent measures on Afghanistan mark a fundamental shift in U.S. policy not only toward that impoverished land but toward all Central Asia and even the Middle East. Whether it succeeds or fails, the outgoing administration's latest gambit will damage basic U.S. interests. First, the United States has quietly begun to align itself with those in the Russian government calling for military action against Afghanistan and has toyed with the idea of a new raid to wipe out Osama bin Laden. Until it backed off under local pressure, it went so far as to explore whether a Central Asian country would permit the use of its territory for such a purpose.
This comes at a time when Central Asians are as concerned over recent Russian activities as they are over the Taliban -- specifically over Russian efforts to use the specter of terrorism and Islamic radicalism to regain control of their region. In fact, the United States' new militancy arises just as Afghanistan's immediate neighbors are preparing to accept the Taliban regime so long as it puts a stop to cross-border actions and otherwise respects their sovereignty.
Second, Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth met recently with Russia's friends in the government of India to discuss what kind of government should replace the Taliban. Thus, while claiming to oppose a military solution to the Afghan problem, the United States is now talking about the overthrow of a regime that controls nearly the entire country, in the hope it can be replaced with a hypothetical government that does not exist even on paper.
Third, the United States is supporting a one-sided resolution in the United Nations that would strengthen sanctions against foreign military aid for the Taliban but take no action against its warlord opponents, who control a mere 3 to 5 percent of the country's territory. These warlords, when they ruled in key areas, showed a brutal disregard for human rights and for other minorities that was comparable to the Taliban at its worst. Yet the fragment of a government they support limps on and, with U.S. backing, occupies Afghanistan's seat in the United Nations.
How did the United States become the junior partner to a misguided Russian policy arising from that country's desire for revenge against humiliations suffered in Afghanistan and Chechnya and from a kind of post-imperial hangover? The trail goes back to the Clinton administration's desire to throw Moscow a bone after brushing the Russians aside during the Kosovo crisis. That bone was support for Russia's crusade against "Muslim fundamentalism" and "terrorism." We bought the Russians' line that these forces, rather than seven generations of savage Russian and Soviet misrule, fueled the revolt in Chechnya.
It appears likely that the Clinton administration also supplied the Russians with special equipment used against the Chechens. Confronted on this point in a Senate hearing, a State department spokesman took two weeks to produce a letter claiming disingenuously that the State Department itself provided no arms -- as if Secretary Albright, rather than the Pentagon, controlled America's arsenal. By making itself the junior partner in a Russian-Indian crusade against Muslim Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United States will eliminate itself as a future mediator in one of the world's major trouble spots. This is all the more unfortunate because even today the United States is better positioned than any other country to resolve the Afghan tragedy and associated pathologies infecting the entire region.
The United States supported opposition to the Russian invasion of 1979 and welcomed the Taliban to the extent it reduced killing within the country. Even today, $9 of every $10 of food aid distributed there by the United Nations comes from the United States, and the Afghans know this. But few in the Islamic world will doubt that the object of Russia's and India's efforts is not just Osama bin Laden or specific policies of the Taliban regime but Islam as such. This in turn will further damage America's position as a broker in the Middle East. It will weaken Israeli moderates who have reached out to Muslim states such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Equally serious, the new states of Central Asia already sense that the United States is subordinating its policy toward them to Russia's aspirations in the region. The considerable credibility America gained from a decade of support for independence and development in their region will evaporate. These shifts add up to a fundamental redirection of American policy toward the world's largest and most vexed zone of conflict. All this is occurring without public discussion, without consultation with Congress and without even informing those who are likely to make foreign policy in the next administration. Thus the Clinton State Department is preparing a kind of land mine that will explode in the face of the incoming Bush administration.
The writer is chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
END
Letter to President Vladimir Putin
World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC) ~ December 19
President Vladimir Putin
15 December 2000
Your Excellency:
In keeping with our pledge to maintain a close watch on official developments affecting freedom of the press in the Federation of Russia, we are writing you to express our deep distress over governmental harassment of journalistic personalities in three different, high-profile cases -- those of Andrei Babitsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, and Grigor Pasko. While the cases are distinct from each other, there is a common thread in that each one involves a decision by official prosecutors to continue the legal harassment of someone who is prominent in the world of journalism. In each case, at some point, a court has already found the accused not guilty of official charges, or they have been amnestied. Yet prosecutors and courts insist on retrying them on the same or closely related charges. In each case, the accused was involved in journalistic activities critical of or embarrassing to your government. As you know:
1. Andrei Babitsky was reporting from the Chechen side of a civil conflict on the conduct of Russian Federal military forces in Chechnya. The Dagestan prosecutor's office has obtained a conviction of Mr. Babitsky for alleged use of a false Azeri passport given to him by captors linked to your services for the purpose of his "exfiltration" from Russian Federal territory.
2. Vladimir Gusinsky has headed the Media-MOST group of broadcasting and printed press, the leading independent press group in the Russian Federation. The group's outlets have often reported news in contradiction with the "line" pronounced by official spokesmen. Mr. Gusinsky was found to be innocent of fraud charges in connection with his purchase of a Saint Petersburg broadcast station. The Russian General Prosecutor's office has had him arrested in Spain for extradition to Russia on other fraud charges, involving a loan from a privatized company, even though Media-MOST had reached agreement with that company on the means of repaying that loan.
3. Grigor Pasko was found not guilty of espionage charges for publishing publicly available materials on the Russian Navy's dumping of radioactive waste materials in the Sea of Japan. But a military court has ordered him to return to Vladivostok for a new court martial on the same charges. Each case involves a decision to pursue a case after the defendant has satisfied his judges of his innocence. This pattern makes it hard to escape the conclusion that your government has embarked on a policy of systematic legal harassment of well-known journalistic figures.
The effect of such a policy can only be to create a threatening general climate for the exercise of press freedom in the Federation of Russia. If prominent journalistic personalities can be subjected to such determined, repeated legal harassment, what could be the reaction of other journalists who do not have the protection of general name recognition? We are forced to conclude that the situation of the free and independent press in Russia has continued to deteriorate since the visit to Moscow that we coordinated in July of the Russian Press Freedom Support Group, made up of six global free press organizations - the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, the International Federation of the Periodical Press, the International Press Institute, the World Association of Newspapers, and the World Press Freedom Committee.
In September, ten weeks after that visit, we felt constrained to express our continued concerns, given ten new instances that we enumerated of official abuses against press freedom. Now, once again, we must sadly conclude that - despite Your Excellency's encouraging statements about your government's and your personal attachment to press freedom - the situation in Russia is as bad or worse than ever for a free press. This can only be damaging to the image and standing of Russia, with inevitable long-term consequences for the acceptance of Russia in the community of free and democratic countries, as well as being harmful to the efforts to reform Russian society and the State which should serve it. We therefore urge you in the national interest of Russia, in the interest of democracy in Russia and abroad, and in the interest of Russian and world press freedom, to give the appropriate instructions to the officials under your authority to respect and act to guarantee the freedom of expression of journalists and others in the Federation of Russia. Most respectfully, James H. Ottaway Jr.,Chairman World Press Freedom Committee
For further information, contact Marilyn J. Greene at the WPFC, 11690-C Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, Virginia 20191 U.S.A., tel: +1 703 715 9811, fax: +1 703 620 6790, e-mail: freepress@wpfc.org
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The Dilemma of Intervention Criteria
By Yasushi Akashi, The Daily Yomiuri ~ December 18
Issues involving humanitarian intervention in armed conflicts are the greatest among the challenges facing the United Nations at the threshold of the 21st century, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has said. To put it differently, there is an urgent need "to forge unity behind the principle that massive and systematic violations of human rights--wherever they may take place--should not be allowed to stand," according to Annan.
In the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, the number of wars between states has markedly decreased. In contrast, the number of civil wars and other armed conflicts within the boundaries of states has dramatically increased, because of ethnic, religious, cultural, tribal and other differences. As a result, the lives of more than 5 million people have been lost in such conflicts during the past decade. The international community has no grounds for turning a blind eye to such tragedies simply because they have been taking place within the boundaries of the states concerned.
An exodus of refugees from one country is bound to create problems for surrounding countries. When images of civil war victims and refugees are broadcast on TV and information concerning their plight is reported in the media in many countries, public opinion often surges, pressing strongly their governments and the United Nations to take measures to prevent further tragedies from occurring, and for dispatching U.N. peacekeepers. The United Nations has based its existence on the principle of the sovereign equality of all member states. The world body has therefore taken the position of noninterference in respective countries' internal affairs.
In recent years, however, the international community has begun to monitor more closely various aspects of the behavior of individual states toward their citizens. The Millennium Declaration adopted at the end of the U.N. Millennium Summit in September referred to the importance of all governments' responsibilities to their respective peoples and the concept of what was referred to in the declaration as "good governance" in each country. The Millennium Declaration is symbolic of the magnitude of change the world has undergone since the adoption of the Charter of the United Nations 55 years ago.
Wary of intervention
The current of the times in favor of putting a higher priority on human rights than individual state sovereignty is undoubtedly irreversible. However, the process of movement toward adopting and implementing this position can never go in a beeline. Instead the tension and conflict between citizens' demands for "justice" and their governments' insistence on "public order" will certainly continue in the future.Although the trend toward universalism and respect for human rights definitely points to the future direction of humanity, it is impossible to disregard as negligible the self-centeredness of the major powers or the problems stemming from differences in cultures, historical backgrounds and stages of developments among members of the international community.
Responses from different governments to Secretary General Annan's call for U.N. member states to take concerted action in dealing with humanitarian tragedies have varied widely. The United States and West European countries are fully in favor of his initiative. Many countries in Asia and Africa, however, are cautious about Annan's appeal, while such countries as China and India have explicitly expressed alarm. In the eyes of countries that are wary of championing humanitarianism, their utmost priority is to keep intact their independence and national unity, which they have obtained at the expense of much blood and sweat.
Should the principles of territorial integrity and noninterference in internal affairs be weakened, multiracial countries--for instance China with the Tibetan separatist problem and India with the Kashmir conflict--could be placed in jeopardy of disintegration. These countries in this connection have been very critical of European countries and the United States over their records of colonialism and imperialism under the guise of such euphemisms as civilization and modernization.
In March last year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization intervened militarily in the Kosovo region of the former Yugoslavia. The intervention was aimed at putting an end to tragedies of huge numbers of refugees resulting from the ethnic cleansing policy of the administration of then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, which targeted ethnic Albaniansin Kosovo. The intervention, however, was carried out without obtaining approval of the U.N. Security Council. The result is that controversy still lingers over the legitimacy of NATO's military actions in Kosovo.
Consent for East Timor
However, the military intervention by multilateral forces that subsequently took place in East Timor came after consent was given for the operation by the Indonesian government of President Abdurrahman Wahid. The mission was also approved by the U.N. Security Council. Accordingly, no dispute arose over the legality of the intervention. The U.N. Charter stipulates the general principle of banning the use of force for settling disputes. But it also provides for two exceptional cases in which the use of force can be permitted. According to the U.N. Charter, individual states are allowed to use force for the purpose of exercising the right of self-defense or collective self-defense. The use of force is also permitted in accordance with resolutions made by the Security Council for U.N. sanctions for the purpose of stopping or preventing infringements of peace.
As the air strikes by NATO against Yugoslavia fall into neither of these two categories, they are considered by many as illegal in the light of international law. It should be noted, however, that there is considerable room for ambiguity in international law when compared with domestic legal systems. There is a body of opinion that holds that the NATO air strikes, even if questionable from a legal perspective, should be considered acceptable in view of the realities of international relations and the moral position the international community should hold.
In other words, such a viewpoint maintains that the air raids on Yugoslavia should not be deemed as unjustifiable even if they run counter to international law. The NATO air strikes have also been brought into question in terms of their ultimate effectiveness. Some observers have pointed out that even though the NATO strikes lasted 89 days, they failed to yield any major military effect. Skeptics note that a large number of ordinary citizens were killed and injured by bombings by mistake. They also express doubts about whether the strikes actually helped to alleviate the Kosovo refugee problem, while indicating that even after the massive NATO air strikes, there have yet to be signs of reconciliation among the ethnic groups involved in the conflict.
Reasons and motives of major powers for deciding on military intervention for humanitarian causes can be considerably diverse. In 1994, for instance, the Security Council, in response to strong insistence by the United States, decided on intervention by force in Haiti for the purpose of helping restore democracy to the Caribbean island country. Criticism mounted, however, against the action, questioning the wisdom of forcing democracy upon a country from outside.
In 1991, the United Nations embarked on humanitarian intervention for the first time in its history for the purpose of protecting the human rights of Kurds in northern Iraq, imposing economic sanctions on the Iraqi government. The sanctions, however, fell short of leading to any policy change in Saddam Hussein's dictatorial rule. Instead, the U.N.-imposed sanctions ended up bringing serious hardship on the Iraqi people.
In 1997, Albania experienced political unrest because of a popular insurrection sparked by the collapse of fraudulent get-rich-quick pyramid investment schemes. It is doubtful, however, whether the Albanian political turmoil was really taking on proportions grave enough for it to be considered a humanitarian crisis. But the Security Council, in quick response to suggestions made by Italy and some other countries on the opposite shore of the Adriatic Sea, gave swift approval to the dispatching of multilateral forces to the Balkan state.
In contrast with the Albanian problem, the ethnic war in the Chechnya region of Russia that has been far larger in scale and far more tragic than the situation in Albania, has been left untouched by the United States and other Western powers in the United Nations, due largely to their fears of offending Russia. The United States, for its part, has been extremely wary of sending its ground troops overseas for U.N. peacekeeping activities and other humanitarian causes ever since 18 U.S. soldiers were brutally killed in Somalia in 1993. It was the United States that was the most boisterous in opposing the proposed sending of U.N. peacekeeping reinforcement troops to Rwanda in the wake of the massacres of about 800,000 Tutsi people by the Hutu tribespeople.
On the occasion of the subsequent crisis in eastern Zaire, Washington was particularly negative about playing a role in restoring peace in the central African country. Given this situation, African countries have understandably been critical of the United States and European countries for their inconsistency in showing reluctance to intervene in humanitarian crises in Africa on the one hand and their willingness to intervene on a massive scale in conflicts in part of Europe, the Balkans. Secretary General Annan notes that the fact that it is impossible to save human lives in all places of the world never provides individual countries with an excuse for not taking actions that they can afford to take. If and when crimes against humanity are being committed and no peaceful means can be found to put an end to such crimes, the Security Council should then perform its moral obligation of taking action against the crime's perpetrators, Annan says.
Single standard not in sight
However, even if Annan's calls for intervention from a humanitarian viewpoint are accepted as legitimate by the international community, a clear-cut yardstick is yet to exist with which to determine what kind of and what scale of infringements on human rights should be subject to such interventions. There is undeniably a possibility that humanitarian interventions by individual states will be affected by their own subjective judgments and self-interests.This is the root cause of the dissatisfaction felt by African countries with respect to the United States and European countries. Furthermore, the Africans even have felt a smack of hypocrisy regarding "double standards" for humanitarian interventions. Their question is: Are the lives of Africans of lesser importance than those of whites?
Prof. Adam Roberts of Oxford University has warned that the term "humanitarian intervention" might give the impression that military intervention in another country could be "humanitarian." Such a way of thinking is nothing more than a reflection of the arrogance of Western powers, which Roberts says is bound to lead to a hostile reaction on the part of countries subject to their interventions. Contradictions are possible between the principle of impartiality essential to humanitarian intervention and political, partisan nature of U.N.-imposed sanctions. Prof. Roberts appears pessimistic about the possibility of all countries concerned reaching a consensus over criteria for governing humanitarian interventions.
In addition, looking back over the 1990s, little consistency can be found in U.N. actions dealing with specific civil wars and other armed conflicts. The Security Council has so far taken the position of deeming its own actions for humanitarian interventions as exceptional measures used to cope with emergency situations. However, the council's decision making has followed a zigzag path of movement from one position to another. The council should redouble its efforts to cope with future conflicts in a way as flexible as possible and in a manner well suited to the realities of each particular situation, while paying due attention not to swerve from the course of world history toward the establishment of human rights and humanitarian assistance.
Issue not bipolar
It would be oversimplistic to consider the issue of humanitarian intervention as a bipolar one with the United States and European nations in favor and developing nations in Asia and Africa against. In reality, views are varied among countries in Asia, which is why the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) regional forum (ARF) finds it extremely difficult to reach any agreement on the issue, since its discussions are based on a formula of unanimous consent. It is encouraging that China, after many years of placing absolute significance on national sovereignty, has begun to show some, if not much, flexibility on the issue.
Japan's interest in the humanitarian intervention problem cannot be evaluated as sufficiently high. This country should be more active in joining international discussions on this problem. Japan has shared with the United States and European nations such values as democracy and human rights. So this country should take every opportunity to have straightforward discussions with them about what specific measures must be taken to have such basic values and purposes also shared by other Asian nations in spite of the complexities of their realities. Japan is better advised to invigorate such efforts with the aim of, for instance, helping facilitate the democratization process of Myanmar.
I believe it is worthwhile for this country to try to come up with a third approach in addition to the existing two patterns of humanitarian interventions, which are either approved by the Security Council or are made by individual organizations other than the United Nations. By the third approach, I mean that Japan may be better advised to work on the task of having the U.N. General Assembly more prepared to adopt resolutions in defense of the moral commitments of the international community. Although such resolutions will have no binding power, they, as the expression of the resolve of the world body, would certainly be conducive to eliminating the gray area under which humanitarian intervention takes place under the existing framework of international law. Japan, by encouraging such an approach, will be able to clarify its international role in in the 21st century as the cement that binds together the Asian region, the rest of the world and the United Nations.
Yasushi Akashi has served as U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, head of the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia and special representative of the U.N. secretary general to the former Yugoslavia. He currently is chairman of the Japan Center for Preventive Diplomacy.
END
Russia Plans New Security Alliance to Counter NATO
World Tribune ~ December 18
As President-elect Bush assembles his foreign policy team, Russia is planning a new security bloc including allies in the Middle East and Far East that would include Iran. The goal, officials said, would be to counter NATO's growing influence.The alliance would include other friends of Moscow such as China and India and develop a security regime that would extend from Europe through the Middle East until the Sea of Japan. Iran and Russia already cooperate in Central Asia and in Afghanistan.
The expanded alliance has been promoted in Russia's parliament, where members are pressing for increasing defense relations with Iran, Middle East Newsline reported. State Duma Defense Committee chairman Andrei Nikolayev called for the convening of a meeting attended by Russia, China, India and Iran. Nikolayev met last week with visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani in Moscow, who is arranging a visit by Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to Russia. Ahani obtained pledges from Russia that it would resist U.S. pressure to prevent the resumption of arms sales to Iran. Russian officials said both Teheran and Moscow do not want the United States to extend its influence in Central Asia. They envision a scenario where countries such as Azerbaijan would deploy its navy in the Caspian Sea, the border for five states.
For his part, Ahani expressed his opposition to an Azeri presence in the Caspian. Azerbaijan would be the supplier of oil and natural gas in a U.S.- proposed pipeline from Baku to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. "It is necessary to demilitarize the region gradually and start with reducing the existing navies," Nikolayev said. "In the second phase, we should eliminate naval forces possessing missile weaponry, torpedoes, mines and underwater weapons." The Iranian official agreed and said NATO threatens Russia Iran and India. He called for a meeting with Russia and such former Soviet republics as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to discuss security in the Caspian region. He said that in the second stage Turkey should be invited. Last week, a Russian diplomatic delegation held talks in Teheran on such topics as a nuclear free zone in the Middle East and nuclear non-proliferation. Russian officials said Moscow and Teheran reaffirmed their commitment to international nonproliferation accords.
END
by Leopold Unger, Gazeta Wyborcza ~ Dec. 17
In the first scene,"independent" Putin's system of justice sentences an American businessman Edmund Pope to 20 years in prison for spying. A fake trial, a fake evidence, a fake verdict; this suspense lasts only 24 hours. After that, everyone understood that Putin told his KGB-men to arrest Pope, then to convict him in the courts and in the end, to extremely fast send an application to the Pardon's Committe for clemency. Just to show to America and the whole world from Cuba, a proof of the Kremlin's humaneness.
In the second scene, the same Putin caused that the Russian, "independent" of course, Prosecutor's Office finally decided on discountinuance, "because of lack of traits of crime" of the famous investigation, of many millions of dollars - the Matabex affair - a bribery connected to the Kremlin's renovation, hanging over the "family's" head - meaning the closest associates of Yeltsin. Yeltsin has been already protected - Putin in his first decree assured him immunity from punishment. Now, he extended this on the wife and two daughter's of his predecessor. And on the side on Pavel Borodin - the main man in the Matabex affair. Because, according to the Prosecutor's Office, Borodin is without a "flaw", plus he's holding some ministerial position, that guaranties him immunity, in a "phony" Russia-Belarus Union, he can not be extradited, in spite that he's on the wanted list of the Swiss police.
In the third scene, we could see a reversal. Borodin hasn't been extradited, nor even arrested, but Gusinsky- the Russian "Murdoch" - the owner of the media holding "Media Most" has been already arrested by the Spanish police and could be extradited into the Moscow's hands. Gusinsky, a persona, I'm assuming, far from personifying morality, is formally wanted for corrupt practises. Nobody, including Gorbachov - Putin's follower, doesn't have any doubts that in reality, that's an attack of the presidential Kremlin on the freedom of speech and press. Media Most with it's NTV channel couldn't be subdued and persisted: for example in the critique of massacres of Chechens.
Three court farses, like a triple Japanese Kabuki theater in the Russian release, lead to double warning. First is coming from a statement that in Putin's Russia, the Russian justice system and police are being used more often for the realization of the presidents political goals. And recently, for the same service of the political goals of Russia, there are trials to suck in also the Western, in this case the Spanish - the European Union's system of policing and justice. The second warning, goes deep into the memory, to a"season" of horrible trials in Moscow in the 30-ties, when some "wise" Western intelectualists from Romain Rolland to Bernard Shaw, were coming back from Russia, full of admiration for the Stalinist justice. By extraditing and sentencing Gusinsky in this case (not because of blindness, but in the name of Realpolitik) and closing eyes on Putin's practises, the West is going to make the same mistake.
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Letter President Putin About Journalist Oleg Luriye
International Press Institute ~ Dec. 17
H.E. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin President
The Kremlin
Moscow Russia
Via Fax: + 70 95 206 91 11/206 41 68
Vienna, 18 December 2000
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, strongly condemns the assault on an investigative reporter in Moscow. According to our sources, Oleg Luriye, a journalist with the newspaper Novaïa Gazeta, was attacked by unknown assailants early in the morning on 17 December. Luriye and his wife were about to park their car when five persons approached them. The attackers locked Luriye's wife in the car and started beating him. Luriye believes the assault was directly connected to his work since he was not robbed of any valuables even though he offered to hand over money and his mobile phone. Prior to the attack, the journalist had been investigating the recently closed Mabetex case, in which a Swiss company had allegedly bribed senior members of the Yeltsin government. This incident is the latest of a series of disturbing threats and assaults directed at the journalists of Novaïa Gazeta.
On 12 May, Igor Domnekov, another journalist with Novaïa Gazeta, was attacked in front of the entrance to his apartment building. Suffering from severe head injuries, the journalist never regained consciousness and died on 16 July as a result of his injuries. It is believed that his attackers mistook him for another investigative reporter for Novaïa Gazeta, Oleg Sultanov, who lives in the same building. Sultanov says that he has been subject to threats from the Federal Security Service for his reporting. Novaïa Gazeta has published numerous articles on corruption, implicating people in the security services. Sultanov is now being protected by bodyguards. Aside from its investigative reporting into corruption, Novaïa Gazeta has on several occasions criticised the actions of Russian forces in Chechnya.
On 27 April, the magazine received a warning from the Ministry of Information for publishing an interview with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. Furthermore, an editor-in-chief of a local branch of Novaïa Gazeta, Yevgeny Rukin, was arrested at the beginning of the year for "abuse of authority". It is IPI's belief that these incidents are directly related to the reporting undertaken by Novaïa Gazeta and its journalists and thus outright violations of everyone's right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers" as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In addition, physical harassment and other measures of intimidation foster a climate in which journalists are more readily inclined to practice self-censorship in order to escape retribution for their reporting. This is detrimental to the free flow of ideas and to any democratic society. In the light of these worrying developments, we urge Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure the safety of journalists working in Russia. Moreover, we urge you to ensure that there is a thorough investigation into the assault on Luriye and the other attacks and threats against Nova Gazeta reporters and that those responsible are brought swiftly to justice. We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz Director
END
Ethiopian Woman Must Be Saved From the Death Sentence
Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association ~ December 12
The Bahrain newspaper Akbar AlKalij, in its issue of November 29, 2000 carried a headline reading: "DEATH FOR MAID WHO BUTCHERED EMPLOYER". The newspaper reported that a 20-year old young Ethiopian woman living as a migrant worker in Bahrain, who was found guilty of first degree murder by Bahrain's High Criminal Court for a murder she committed on December 1, 1998 had been sentenced to death. The deceased, Saadiyya Baltar, who was a Philippines national was a mother of two and married to a Bahraini. The newspaper reported, on the other hand, that the accused had tried to convince the court of the abuses her deceased employer had been perpetrating on her.
Here in Ethiopia, the December 9, 2000 issue of 'Eletawi Addis (Addis Daily), citing the newspaper Kalhiji Times, reported that the death sentence was passed on the accused on November 28, 2000 and that it would be carried within 40 days after the handing down of the verdict. It also reported that the accused had the right to appeal the sentence. The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association considers it only as one of the manifestations of the continuous suffering in the hands of employers that Ethiopian women refugees in Bahrain have been made to bear, not just as an isolated case involving one young woman alone. The disappointments and anger expressed by the people here and transmitted over the mass media over the last couple of days had as their core message exactly the same point we at the Association are raising in this Press Release.
It is well known that Ethiopian women, in an attempt to run away from the unbearable burdens of poverty in their country and hoping, in the process, to make a better living, have been flooding to Middle Eastern countries over the past few years. Once they got to what they considered would be a land of promises, however, they realized that not only did they not find things upto their expectations but, on the contrary, what they met with, to their utter dismay, was misery and suffering such as they had never thought would happen. What they found themselves in was a snare from which they couldn't extricate themselves such that they could only nurse their homesickness with no hope of ever coming back to their loved ones here. Quite a few have returned home either as mental patients or physically deformed and disabled. The number of those who left in a plane or by other means only to come back home in a sealed coffin is not small either.
The physical and mental torture they suffer are of a wide range: exposure to hunger; subjection to beatings; being denied earned wages; being forced to toil without sleep; being raped by employers; having parts of their body seared in boiling oil by wives of their employers; being grilled with hot iron; being thrown out of high-rise windows; being harassed by illegal brokers and the police; having their passports forcefully taken away; being robbed of their bodily organs while still alive; languishing in prisons for years on the pretext that they didn't have legal residence permits; and, as a result, being driven to despair and mental sickness and finally taking away their own lives.
It is not our belief that the abuses thus suffered by Ethiopian women in Bahrain are unknown either to the society at large or the country's Head of State or the Prime Minister. Among the actions taken by governments in the region the the process of establishing in Beirut, Lebanon, of a minor bureau whose task is the follow-up of the affairs of Ethiopian refugees living in the region. As of March 5, 1998 a Proclamation establishing the Agency to liaison between private enterprises and employees has been issued.
The aim of the proclamation is to give legal recognition to the hiring of refugees and to ensure that, in the event of conflicts arising between employers and employees, there would be individuals to be held legally accountable. A committee composed of representatives from government instiutions has been established to investigate into the nature of the problem. Except for these minor efforts, however, neither a sound policy has been formulated nor any serious action taken by the governments commensurate with the violation of the rights of women refugees or to stop the abuses perpetrated against them.
A. Legal Defense Opportunities Not Available to the Accused
Although the details of the legal proceedings against the young lady whose case forms the basis of this press release are not yet fully known, on the basis of the few evidences available to us, we have been able to make the following observations:
Although it is true that the accused has been found guilty of aggravated crime, she has been denied professional legal counsel in accordance with what the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
When one considers the gruesome nature of the crime the accused committed, it easily transpires that the accused is mentally disturbed. Evidences have been found that at present the accused is officially categorized as a mental case. This being the case, no official testimony by psychiatric professionals has been provided to the court that would exonerate the accused from guilt and to prevent the court from handing down the death sentence.
While the accused currently is 20 years of age, she could possibly have been less than 18 (and, therefore, a minor) at the time she committed the crime. Therefore, a criminal procedure set up for adults should not be applicable in her case. The Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits both life imprisonment and the death sentence.
B. The Question of Repatriating the Accused to Her Country
According to international law, in cases involving criminal acts, the country in whose territory the crime has been committed can make decisions on the basis of its national penal code. In this regard, although the deceased is a Philippines national and the accused an Ethiopian, since the crime was committed within the legal territory of Bahrain, the Bahrain law has full force. This is known in international law as 'territoril jurisdiction'. Although Ethiopia may claim 'personal jurisdiction', as the accused is an Ethiopian national, unless Bahrain is willing to hand over the accused to Ethiopia, Bahrain law takes precedence over that of Ethiopia. However, if the diplomatic efforts being now made through the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs prove successful, then there is a possibility for the accused to be repatriated to her country.
C. The Association's Call
If the death sentence handed down by the court of Bahrain is carried out in a situation where the gruesome murder committed by the accused was caused by the mental disturbance the accused sufferes, it will entail in an irremediable violation of international law. Because the right of the accused to be represented by a professional legal counsel has not been respected and, also, because it has not been established that the accused had actually reached the age to take legal responsibility for her action at the time she committed the crime, the following concurrent steps should be taken immediately to stop the carrying out of the sentence:
The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs should pursue the diplomatic efforts it has already started either bilaterally with the Government of Bahrain and/or through the mediation of the United Nations Human Rights Commission; it should also rally international support to persuade the governments of both Bahrain and the Philippines;
Both the Ethiopian Government and non-governmental organizations should join hands in the effort to appeal the case of the accused by acquiring paid or volunteer legal counsels who would be in a position to stand in front of a Bahrain court and argue the case of the accused, with the view to have the court's ruling overturned;
Establish a national committee with Ethiopian Women Lawyers' Association acting as a co-ordinating body. The task of the committee thus established shall be to rally individuals as well as groups around the cause of the accused and ensure that their efforts will get the appropriate response; the committee will further serve as a pressure group to make sure that future abuses on other women in the region are stopped.
Conduct continuous and regular media campaigns to attract international recognition of and sympathy for the unfortunate predicament and sad fate of the accused.
END
Burmese Sales to the Pentagon Spark Criticism
By Steven Greenhouse, Boston Globe ~ December 19, 2000
Pentagon agency that runs stores on American military bases imported $138,290 in clothing made in Myanmar at a time when the Clinton administration had banned new investments in that country, documents show. While such purchases are not illegal, they violate the spirit of the administration's economic sanctions, critics in Congress and in human rights groups are saying.
Shipping documents show that the agency, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, imported the clothing from Myanmar, the former Burma, in October when the administration was stepping up its criticism of human rights violations by the country's military government.
Human rights groups, labor activists and Cynthia A. McKinney, a Georgia Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, have criticized the agency, saying that its imports of goods helped prop up Myanmar's military.
"This is obscene," said Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Project at the Open Society Institute, a New York-based foundation pushing for democracy in Myanmar. "For the Pentagon to support this illegitimate military junta is absurd, especially when the nation's official foreign policy is to help end the repression there."
But Fred Bluhm, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which had $7.3 billion in sales last year at its 1,400 stores, said: "We're aware of the sanctions against Burma, but they have nothing to do with the sale or purchase of goods or services. What they have to do with are new investments, which we're not involved with."
In 1997, President Clinton announced a ban on new investment in Myanmar, following a law that required sanctions if the military there engaged in "large scale repression." The Clinton administration has not prohibited trade with Myanmar although it has often discouraged Americans from doing business with that country.
In obtaining goods from Myanmar, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service followed a strategy embraced by many American apparel companies, which, seeking to benefit from low-wage labor, have greatly increased imports from that country. Some studies have found that Myanmar's apparel workers earn just 8 cents an hour, making them among the world's lowest paid manufacturing workers.
In the first nine months of this year, American apparel companies imported $308 million in goods from Myanmar, more than double the level in the same period a year earlier.
An administration foreign policy official criticized the exchange services' imports from Myanmar, saying, "It's not consistent with the spirit of the administration's policy, which is very confrontational toward the regime."
The documents showing that the Army and Air Force Exchange Service imported goods from Myanmar were obtained from the National Labor Committee, a New York-based labor rights group that seeks to improve factory conditions overseas.
The documents show that the exchange service had about 10,000 pounds of garments made by the Newest Garment Manufacturing Company sent from Yangon, formerly Rangoon, to Los Angeles, arriving Oct. 19. The documents did not specify what garments had been sent.
When President Clinton announced the ban on investment, he said he was seeking to deny any economic support to Myanmar's regime. The military refused to recognize the 1988 election victory by the opposition party and its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been under house arrest for 6 of the last 11 years.
Two weeks ago, the president awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi. Her son accepted the award.
Several days earlier, four Senators — Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina; Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky; Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa; and Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont — wrote to President Clinton to urge him to ban all apparel imports from Myanmar as a way to advance Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's efforts to restore democracy.
They wrote, "The 1997 U.S. sanctions law on new investment in Burma primarily was clearly intended to deprive the Burmese military junta of funds with which to perpetuate human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing campaigns and to pressure the junta into commencing a dialogue with Suu Kyi's political party and ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, the new surge in apparel exports to the U.S. undermines the spirit of that law, allowing the regime to enrich itself and take advantage of unsuspecting American consumers."
END
Who Killed Newswatch Founding Editor-in-chief Dele Giwa?
Tobs Agbaegbu ~ NewsWatch ~ December 18, 2000
The controversial and unresolved murder of Newswatch founding editor-in-chief goes before the Oputa panel.
Who killed Dele Giwa? That is the big puzzle which security op- eratives in Nigeria have failed to resolve, 14 years after the founding editor-in-chief and chief executive officer of Newswatch was murdered through a parcel bomb in Lagos.
Emerging facts now indicate that those who killed Giwa that afternoon of October 19, 1986, may never even be publicly known unless the federal government bows to pressures from well-meaning Nigerians to reorder a thorough investigation into the gruesome murder. The Oputa commission is to hear two petitions on Giwa's murder December 11. Newswatch had reported that the military made deliberate efforts to cover up and frustrate official investigations into how Giwa died.
Abubakar Tsav, former commissioner of police in Lagos State, first blew the lid open in an exclusive interview with Newswatch last year. As the police officer in the force crime investigation department, CID, then, he was assigned the job of investigating Giwa's murder. Tsav told Newswatch he pursued the job with enthusiasm because it was a novelty in the country. "It is Giwa today, but tomorrow, it could be anybody else," he reasoned.
Two weeks after commencing the job, he said he wrote a preliminary report indicating that he had come up against a stone wall on all leads and would want next to redirect his search to the military. He said he directed his report and request to his boss then, Christopher Omeben, a deputy inspector-general, DIG, who was then in-charge of the Crime Investigation Department, CID.
Tsav said Omeben did not pass back the file to him. And he did not summon the courage to find out why there was silence from the DIG, for as he explained, in the police force, "when you write a report and submit to your boss, you don't go and ask him questions particularly in that case."
Tsav said he had genuine reasons for wanting to extend his search in the direction of the military. He told Newswatch: "During the cause of investigation, we were told that the envelope that was brought and handed over to Dele Giwa had Nigeria's coat of arms on it. So, it was generally believed that that must have come from the state house or probably a fake." Aside from this fresh angle, Tsav said he reached a dead end on other suggested clues.
Incidentally, some of the clues discarded were suggested by officials of the military government who accused the press of "sensationalising" Giwa's death. Duro Onabule, chief press secretary to Babangida then, accused the press of obsessively focusing attention on one direction (the government) and suggested that journalists should probe several options, including possible international connections.
The so-called international connections revolved around the Johnson Mathey Bank, JMB affair and wheat scandals, which Newswatch reported in a cover story and a Nigerian lead story in its editions of January 13 and October 21, 1986 respectively. Also mentioned was the hard drugs, - particularly the cocaine-syndicate, with its veritable international connection, operating in the country.
The JMB affair is the generic name for the series of scandalous business transactions involving Nigerians and foreigners, mostly Asians, who duped Nigeria of more than six billion naira in foreign exchange between 1980 and 1983. The British press first broke the story before Newswatch did an in-depth report on it.
But the wheat scandal told a story of foreign exchange rip-off perpetrated by wheat importers in Nigeria, which involved millions of dollars. None of the leads made sense after Newswatch directors punctured every argument linking Giwa's death to them.
While the various theories were being bandied about, the government of Babangida then, totally foreclosed the establishment of a judicial commission of enquiry, or the appointment of a special prosecutor, to probe the murder. Tony Momoh, information minister then, told Dodan Barracks correspondents on Thursday, October 23, 1986 that such a commission would not serve any useful purpose. He argued that a judicial commission would not get anything more than the facts already known. That statement contradicted Momoh's earlier announcement that government would probe the dastardly act.
Newswatch directors had earlier called for a judicial commission comprising a retired judge, a bishop and an imam, to probe the murder. The Newswatch stand was informed by the need for objectivity, candour and resistance to undue influence in the drive to find out those behind the murder. The directors also called for the arrest and detention of the principal characters involved in the sequence of official events immediately preceding Giwa's murder.
Soon after Tsav submitted his interim report, two things happened, confirming fears that the police authorities were only window-dressing the matter. First was a conscious effort to divert Tsav's energies and attention on the matter. He was assigned the new job of investigating the case of Lawrence Anini, a notorious robber from Edo State whose activities made the government of General Ibrahim Babangida restless. Secondly, the matter was reassigned. The new group chosen, according to Tsav, comprised "people they could just dictate to."
Babangida confirmed Tsav's revelation in an exclusive interview with Newswatch in July. He said the police submitted an inconclusive report and planned to continue with the search. He told Newswatch that the investigations were still open when he left office.
What the retired general failed to disclose, however, was why the police stopped where they did. Leads, arising from circumstances of the murder had created impressions that the military under Babangida were behind the murder. People like Gani Fawehinmi, Lagos lawyer whom Newswatch had engaged as consultant, had even directly accused the former head of state, Babangida of being behind the murder.
Also implicated in the murder case were Halilu Akilu, a brigadier- general who was director of Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, Apapa and A. K. Togun, a colonel and deputy director of the State Security Service, SSS. The two principal security officers had direct confrontations with Giwa before he died.
Since he returned to Nigeria practising a brand of journalism, which military authorities saw as objectionable attack on government of the day, he had been a regular invitee to the SSS and DMI. Notable encounters which readily come to mind include one which happened early in 1986 when Mamman Vatsa, a major-general and other soldiers accused of coup-plotting, were sentenced to death. The DMI invited Giwa for a chat on the suspicion that he had a copy of the judgment delivered by a tribunal which tried Vatsa and co., which Newswatch wanted to use for a cover story.
Later on September 19, 1986, he was invited by the SSS under Togun in respect of an article in his column, on the introduction of a Second-tier Foreign Exchange Market, SFEM. In that article, which he titled "God's Experiment", Giwa had said: "the only problem for the government is that all its leaders will be stoned on the street if the SFEM fails; and everybody will be hungry and things will be like in Ethiopia." But Giwa added also that "the source of hope is that (Ibrahim) Babangida is determined to make SFEM work."
Giwa had reported that he was asked to report to one Mrs. Aliyu and one Adeniyi-Jones, two senior members of the SSS, to make a statement. He did, and was later ushered into the office of Togun who said after their meeting that he did not find anything offensive in Giwa's article, more so, that Giwa had stated in the same column that the president was determined to make SFEM work.
On Thursday, October 16, three days before his death, Giwa was again summoned by the SSS. He went but was asked to repeat the next day. He was accompanied by his deputy, Ray Ekpu, who is now chief executive officer of Newswatch Communications Limited. On arrival, only Giwa was allowed to meet Togun while Ekpu was kept outside. When they met, Togun was reported to have confronted Giwa with four allegations.
First, Giwa was told that security reports indicated that Newswatch was planning a story on "the other side" of the Ebitu Ukiwe story. Ukiwe, a commodore, was then removed as chief of general staff, CGS, the second in command to Babangida. Newswatch reported the sacking of the CGS in its issue of October 20, 1986 under a cover titled: Power Games: Ukiwe Loses Out.
The second allegation was a fallout to the suspension of Alozie Ogugbuaja, then police public relations officer in Lagos State. Ogugbuaja had been suspended by police because he said before the Akanbi panel investigating the May 1986 students' protest in universities that it was because soldiers in Nigeria were idle that they had time to plan coups. Giwa had been accused of planning to give Ogugbuaja a job in Newswatch if the police ended up sacking him. The allegation turned out to be true.
A few days before Giwa was summoned by the SSS, he (Giwa) had phoned one of the executive directors of Newswatch saying Ogugbuaja was a good editorial material. "He is a good writer and in fact a mass communication graduate. Besides, he has a lot of contacts in and outside the police. If they fire him, don't you think we can take him?" Giwa asked. Giwa was reported not to have either denied or admitted the second accusation. He rather reminded the security officer that it was not his business whom he employed.
It was only the third and fourth allegations that were said to have made Giwa shiver. Togun alleged that he had security reports which showed that Giwa had been holding discussions with the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and students with the aim of destabilising the country and leading to the enthronement of a socialist revolution. Giwa was also accused of making consultations with some people on the possibility of bringing in arms into the country.
The grave accusations were said to have caused heated argument between Togun and Giwa who wanted the allegations substantiated. After he was allowed to go home, agitated Giwa was said to have reported the matter to Ekpu and said: "If they can think this of me, then I am not safe. They are only trying to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it."
Giwa also reported the matter to his lawyer, Fawehinmi. At Fawehinmi's chambers in Anthony Village, Lagos, Ekpu said they considered calling a press conference only to drop the idea when Fawehinmi promised to take the case to court on Monday, October 20.
Many things point to a feeling of premonition on the part of Giwa that some harm would happen to him after his encounter with the SSS. He seized every opportunity to notify whoever came across him about the frightening allegations.
Back in his office at 62, Oregun Road, Ikeja, he briefed Yakubu Mohammed, then executive editor of what transpired. He also took the case to Tony Momoh, his friend and former boss at the Daily Times, who was then serving Babangida's government as minister of information and culture.
He was told not to worry by the minister who promised, however, to check on the matter. Momoh was even said to have lessened his tension by saying: "they just want to rattle you."
Giwa refused to be easily persuaded that all was well. When he had an opportunity to meet Augustus Aikhomu, the CGS who replaced Ukiwe October 18, a day to his murder, he also tabled the matter before him. It was at a party organised by Aikhomu for media executives at his (Aikhomu's) residence.
Giwa had told Aikhomu: "To be specific, I was called yesterday by the SSS. You cannot believe some of the things they said to me. They said I was a gun-runner. Me, a gun-runner?" Aikhomu was said to have admitted that he knew about the case but he assured Giwa that there was nothing to it.
That Saturday, October 18, Akilu was reported to have called Giwa's house on telephone twice. Funmi, Giwa's wife who answered the calls, said Akilu's first call was to collect Giwa's phone number and the second for the home address. She added that Akilu explained that his reasons for the address was because he was not familiar with Ikeja and also that "the ADC has something for him (Giwa), an invitation or something like that."
Even before Giwa was torn to pieces by the parcel bomb, he was said to have received Akilu's phone call. The phone conversation took place 40 minutes earlier and they spoke for about 10 minutes during which Akilu assured him that the matter had been settled.
While Giwa was having breakfast with Kayode Soyinka, former Newswatch's London bureau chief, after the phone chat with Akilu, the death parcel was handed to him. Unfortunately, an unidentified motor- cyclist rider who was said to have brought it gave to Giwa's guard who, in turn, handed it over to Billy, Giwa's son, who handed it over to his father. Giwa suffered terrible burns when the parcel bomb exploded after he attempted opening it. He died later in the day at First Foundation Hospital. Before he finally gave up, he was said to have uttered: "they have got me."
In spite of the leads provided by the chain of events leading to the bomb explosion, neither Togun nor Akilu was arrested for interrogation by either the police or the military. The federal government even closed its ears to the confession of one Edmund Kechukwu Onyema who specifically claimed in an interview with Tell magazine, October 23, 1993 that he participated in the killing of Giwa.
The said Onyema said he was a former operative with DMI and worked with Akilu for the murderous act, adding that he was dismissed on account of the deal. He told Tell: "I was dismissed because on October 19, 1986, we carried out an operation. The operation was the killing of Dele Giwa, the editor-in-chief of Newswatch then. After the killing, the director of DMI, colonel Halilu Akilu, advised that we should leave the army and that we would all be settled and our identity changed. When I refused to leave the army, I was dismissed."
Newswatch had also made available to government, a hand-written confessional statement from an anonymous fellow who claimed to have been a police officer who was unknowingly made an accessory to the murder of Giwa. The letter to Newswatch was dated November 3, 1986.
The source pointed at two police officers from the police station in Ilupeju named Rasaki and Lasisi respectively as those who know the Dele Giwa killers. He said he joined Lasisi, in his car on a mission which turned out to be an enquiry to make sure the bomb was delivered. He said he sat in the car and read Sunday papers at a distance while Lasisi did the espionage. But when the car later pulled out, he confessed noticing "a rider (motorcyclist) in our front."
The source claimed to have been poisoned through a drink after he came to visit Lasisi later when it dawned on him that he had participated in the murder. While serving the notice that "by the time this letter gets to you, I would have been dead," he concluded by advising that Newswatch should "try everything to track Lasisi and Rasaki." No one was even subpoenaed when Fawehinmi took up the matter in the law courts, asking government to prosecute them.
In fact, initiating legal actions against suspected murderers was like fighting God. Fawehinmi had been at the centre stage of the legal crusade which started November 3, 1986 with his application to James Oduneye, then Lagos State director of public prosecutions, DPP, under section 342 (a) of the criminal procedures law of Lagos State, seeking the DPP's permission to file a murder charge against Akilu and Togun by private prosecution. Fawehinmi's proposed charge was on two counts: murder, contrary to section 319 (1) of the criminal code law-cap 31, Laws of Lagos State 1973; and conspiracy to commit murder contrary to section 324 of the same code.
This issue was to lead to series of other cases at the Lagos high court, court of appeal and finally at the supreme court. At the high court where Fawehinmi asked for leave to apply for an order of mandamus which would compel Oduneye to decide whether Akilu or Togun should be tried, he lost.
He also lost the appeal he filed against the high court ruling delivered on November 19, 1986 by Candido Johnson. In dismissing his appeal on February 23, 1987, the higher court said Fawehinmi's application was frivolous, hopeless, incompetent and constituting an abuse of legal process by a busy-body and was in bad faith.
Fawehinmi's application was eventually granted by the supreme court in a landmark ruling, December 18, 1987.The court, in a six-to-one decision, ruled that Akilu and Togun could be privately prosecuted for the alleged murder of Giwa. The argument of the justices in favour of Fawehinmi's application was, indeed, mind-touching. They said: "The peace of the society is the responsibility of all persons in the country and as far as prosecution against crime is concerned, every person in the society is each other's keeper. Since we are all brothers in the society, we are our brother's keeper... If consanguinity or blood relationship is allowed to be the only qualification for locus standi, then crimes such as are listed above will go unpunished and may become the order of the day and destabilise society. Can it be said that the death of Dele Giwa is not as much as a sad and bitter loss to his friend, lawyer and confidant (Fawehinmi) as it is to his family? The answer to the first question, therefore, in my view, is in the affirmative, that is, that (Fawehinmi) has locus standi. The right of private persons to initiate criminal proceedings is not a new creation." Given their reasons, the justices said Fawehinmi cannot be described as busy-body in the matter. But it turned out the only victory he recorded so far, on the effort to prosecute Togun and Akilu.
Akilu confirmed this in an interview published by the defunct Thisweek magazine, September 11, 1989. When asked whether the army tried him, Akilu said: "No. Why? They don't believe Gani. How can they try me? For what? I gave the military my own version of the story and they were convinced."
Akilu defended his inability to appear personally in court by arguing that such things are not common to the military. "It has never happened anywhere in the world for security chiefs to be taken publicly to court. Even where you commit court marshal cases, it is mostly done behind camera. It is never exposed," he told Thisweek.
Post-military events in Nigeria are proving Akilu wrong that the security veil cannot be lifted in cases of gross abuse of human rights. Unlike what would have amounted to attempting suicide in the past, Akilu and Togun have been detained and interrogated at various places since the return of civil rule last year.
Newswatch had, in fact, reported about the opening of investigation into the security chiefs' involvement in the murder of Giwa in the magazine's edition of November 9,1999. It was reported then that Akilu was held under house arrest in Kano and ditto for Togun in Lagos.
The arrest of the two former security chiefs had come in the wake of massive arrests of a number of top military officers of the Abacha regime who were also implicated in various human rights abuses. The officers who were arrested late last year and are now being tried in civil courts include Ishaya Bamaiyi, former chief of army staff, Hamza Al-Mustapha, former chief security officer, CSO, to Abacha and James Danbaba, a retired police commissioner.
Reliable sources at the presidency in Abuja told Newswatch that Akilu, Togun and many officials of government who served in the regimes of Babangida and Abacha will soon be arraigned in court in connection with the Dele Giwa murder. Apart from weighty evidence, which previous investigations are said to have assembled, prosecution of the implicated security chiefs is said to have been made apparent by the recommendation of the Oputa panel in October last year.
The panel had recommended that Giwa's case be taken to a regular court for prosecution. It arrived at that decision after it studied and almost became overwhelmed by series of petitions sent to the panel. Among the petitions was one sent by Newswatch Communications Limited.
In the petition dated July 27, 1999, and signed by Ekpu, chief executive officer, Dan Agbese, editor-in-chief and Yakubu Mohammed, deputy chief executive officer, the Newswatch directors asked the panel to investigate the gruesome murder. They stated that the murder amounted to "gross violation and abuse of fundamental human rights."
The 14-paragraph petition chronicled the events leading to the death of Giwa, asking for an "objective and rewarding review." They submitted that "the seeming helplessness of the police with regards to the security officials concerned with the events in Giwa's last four days and government's inexplicable stand in the question of an open judicial problem have begun to fuel speculations that there was a deliberate attempt to cover up the murderer(s) of Dele Giwa."
Six pertinent questions were raised by the Newswatch directors in their case for a review of Dele Giwa's murder. They asked: Why was Akilu so interested in Giwa's home address that weekend?; Why did Akilu not phone him on weekdays in the office? Does he need the home address in order to tell Giwa that "the matter is now settled?" Why did he not inform Giwa of the reason for his asking for the home address? Was the gun-running allegation a cover so that if Giwa died as he did, it would be said that it is the arms he allegedly imported that exploded in his home and took his life? How did a parcel bomb find its way to the shores of this country without the knowledge of the security operatives and the government.
Fawehinmi also sent an elaborate petition to the Oputa panel. In the petition dated July 30, 1999, he indicted Babangida, Akilu and Togun and described Giwa as "a dynamic, selfless and fearless journalist." Fawehinmi also sought two reliefs from the panel - that Babangida, Akilu and Togun should pay two billion naira compensation to the mother, widow, children and other dependants and relatives of Giwa, and that the three ex-government officials be prosecuted.
Details of Newswatch's accounts of what Giwa went through in the hands of the security operatives before he was murdered are shared by Billy, Soyinka and Funmi who made separate statements to the police.
Fawehinmi also commended the panel's decision to send the case to court. He told Newswatch that hearing the case in a regular court would serve the course of justice, truth and fairplay.
The panel may have also listened to the voice of reason on the issue, as it concerns Babangida. The former head of state was among military leaders subpoenaed by the panel last week. They were to appear in Abuja when the panel reconvenes. The order issued in Lagos summoned Babangida in respect of a complaint from Beko Ransome Kuti, a popular Lagos-based surgeon and human rights activist.
Among other things, Kuti complained that Babangida framed him up for coup-plotting in 1992 while he was the chairman of Campaign for Democracy, CD, campaigning against misrule in the country. Akilu was also subpoenaed in respect of a petition from Olu Awotesu, a former minister in the regime of former President Shehu Shagari. It is expected that the panel will seize the opportunity of the presence of the two former military officers, if they appear, to seek their clarification on all other cases of human rights abuses against them. The gravity of the multiple allegations against them, including the murder of Giwa, makes the widening of areas of interrogation against them, very compelling.
Copyright © 2000 Newswatch.
Distributed by allAfrica.com.
END
The Powell Doctrine: Do What We Say - And Do Not Expect Help. A Do-Nothing Isolationist at State
The Guardian (London) ~ December 18, 2000
In nominating General Colin Powell as the next U.S. secretary of State, George W. Bush has chosen a symbol not a diplomat, a soldier not a peacemaker, an ardent nationalist not an internationalist. His selection has been greeted with almost universal acclaim at home; confirmation by the Senate is assured. And there can be no doubting Gen. Powell's totemic status. He is the boy from the Bronx who rose to the top; the Vietnam GI who got to run the regiment; the Washington desk-warrior who became a role model for African-Americans and a conscience-cleanser for whites; the Cincinnatus of the streets who, retiring as Pentagon overlord in 1993 and scorning a bid for the presidency, returned to the plow (or, in his case, lucrative book deals and repairing old Volvos). Gen. Powell, it is said, is a hero, the personification of the American dream.
Unfortunately, his new job is about dealing with the deeply unheroic realities of life beyond America. For this he appears unsuited, except as a symbol of a different kind: the symbol of this new administration's likely refusal to engage on equal terms with a world it by turns distrusts, fears, cannot understand and seeks to dominate. Gen. Powell is famous for his military doctrine of "overwhelming force." His role now is to be the patriotic face of the equally menacing, go-it-alone "new unilateralism," the passport-challenged Dubya's foreign buffer, and the chief projectionist of a global power that seems increasingly unreceptive to the idea of shared global responsibility.
Gen. Powell has made a career out of refusing to get involved. He advised against U.S. intervention in Panama in 1989, against military action after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and against U.S. nation-building in Somalia. He firmly opposes U.N. command of U.S. troops and will reinforce Mr. Bush's skepticism about international peacekeeping. In 1993, he thwarted those who wanted the U.S. to relieve Sarajevo and halt ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. He was critical of Bill Clinton's decision to get involved in Kosovo. While he now says he will merely review Balkan force levels, it may be assumed that he will want to bring U.S. troops home at the first opportunity.
Yet when Gen. Powell has actually got involved, the results, contrary to myth, have often been unhappy. Those who were there do not forget the civilian casualties in Panama City, victims of the general's excessive use of force; or the mess inside Iraq after Desert Storm was prematurely halted on his advice. At the Pentagon, Gen. Powell stated emotively that American soldiers' lives came first, before anything else. It was always a silly argument. Simply sitting pat in the State department "putting America first" would be even sillier. It will melt no ice, for example, in Taipei, Srinagar, Pristina or Bethlehem. Such flashpoints are complex, messy and highly dangerous to all. They require skilled, informed, hands-on commitment at the top. There are no clear-cut solutions. And if the job is to be done properly, there is no exit strategy.
But, like his boss, Gen. Powell seems determined to delimit the U.S. world role, to view international obligations through the prism of narrow, national interest. Yet, again like Mr. Bush, he believes the U.S. retains the right to threaten unfavored regimes, dictate global business and trade terms, ignore environmental standards, flout treaties, defy international law, and build destabilizing, self-insulating missile systems in defiance of allies and adversaries alike. Gen. Powell helped create an army that will not fight. Now, symbolically, he looks set to sound the retreat from a multipolar world.
END
Supremacist Matt Hale wants Montana Practice
by Ron Selden, Today Correspondent
HELENA, Mont. - Matt Hale, head of the anti-Semitic and racist World Church of the Creator, says he'll likely relocate to the western Montana city of Missoula, just outside the Flathead Indian Reservation, if he's allowed to practice law here.
Hale, a 1998 graduate of the Southern Illinois Law School, has so far been prevented from practicing in his home state because bar officials there contend his racist beliefs and his criticism of federal equal rights guarantees are incompatible with service as a lawyer.
Hale appealed that decision and was rebuffed last year by the Illinois Supreme Court. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was not accepted for review, and Hale says he now plans to sue Illinois officials over the issue.
In September, Hale applied for membership in the State Bar of Montana, which has yet to issue a decision about his fate. Hale says he'd like to take Montana's bar exam in February and set up shop in Missoula as soon as possible. Hale, 29, says he wants to specialize in constitutional law and may also do criminal defense work.
Betsy Brandborg, the Montana bar's chief counsel, says she can't discuss Hale's application or the status of her organization's review. Hale says he sent a letter to the group in late November seeking a timeline on when a decision will be made.
Under Montana rules, every applicant who wants to take the state's bar exam "shall be of good moral character." An applicant can be denied certification for a variety of reasons, including another jurisdiction's denial for bar admission on character and fitness grounds, current mental or emotional illness or disorder, or "any other conduct which reflects adversely upon the character or fitness of the applicant."
"I don't think there is really a rational basis for denying," Hale says of his Montana application.
"The government shouldn't have the power over how people think. Here's a chance to affirm that the Constitution is indeed for everyone. Hopefully they will rise to that calling."
Authorities say Hale's organization was founded in 1973 by Ben Klassen, a nationally known separatist. Klassen, a one-time Florida state legislator and Florida chairman of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign, wrote a variety of racist books and articles, including "The White Man's Bible," "Nature's Eternal Religion" and "Rahowa! This Planet is All Ours," all of which tout the alleged supremacy of the white, non-Jewish race.
In his writings, Klassen blamed many of the nation's ills on Jews and minorities, whom he dubbed "mud people," and declared that racial holy war, or Rahowa, must be waged against them.
Klassen was the group's first "Pontifex Maximus," Latin for high priest or supreme leader, a post that Hale claimed in 1996, three years after Klassen committed suicide.
Since Hale's entry as the group's leader, the church has split into two groups. The Church of the Creator is run by former WCOTC head Rudy "Butch" Stanko out of his home near Billings, Mont.
Hale's organization, based in East Peoria, Ill, includes numerous adherents in Montana, and some of the group's conclaves are held about 50 miles west of Missoula. Several WCOTC members have been involved in racial acts of violence around the nation, including Benjamin Smith, who launched a shooting attack on minorities last year in Illinois. Smith killed himself at the end of the rampage.
WCOTC literature says the main goal of the group is "to keep expanding the White Race and keep crowding the mud races." WCOTC says one of its models is the U.S. government's attempted annihilation of American Indians, but church leaders nonetheless claim they're against violent takeovers.
"In doing so, we are only following the same principle as the colonization and westward expansion of America," the literature says. "During this great and productive epoch of the White Race, we kept expanding westward and onward by settling the lands that were occupied by an inferior sub-species, namely, the Indians. It is true that there were some minor clashes, but there was not any open war of extermination. Had America not pursued its program of pushing onward and crowding the Indian, we would never have built this great stronghold of the White Race which we now call America."
The group's Internet Web site serves as a clearinghouse for racist and anti-Semitic organizations from all over the globe. WCOTC's slogan is "White Pride, World Wide."
"Nature tells us to take care of our own kind," says one of the group's advertisements. "We do not regard any of the mud races to be our own kind. They may be some subspecies of some common ancestor, or they may not...."
"I haven't stopped preaching it, and I never will," Hale says. He adds that he thinks it's unfair that he's been scorned for calling for an end to equal rights.
"Swearing allegiance to the Constitution doesn't mean you can't work to change it," he says. "I know there's a lot of people in Montana who want me there."
At least one citizens group, however, is urging the bar association to deny Hale's application. Montana Human Rights Network spokesman Paul Shively says Hale has a right to think and say what he wants, but the public also has a right to speak out against him. The private, nonprofit group has organized a petition drive to discourage Hale from moving to the state.
"What we're saying is that you're welcome here, but your beliefs aren't," Shively says, adding that the group is wary about other problems Hale could bring with him. "It goes deeper than practicing law."
©2000 Indian Country Today
END
Taliban Bashing by Another Name
By Shameem Akhtar, Dawn ~ Dec. 18
The American-Russian draft resolution at the UN Security Council calling for the imposition of total embargo on the Taliban government in Kabul with exemption for the Northern Alliance is partisan, to say the least. The resolution virtually seeks to reduce the established government of Afghanistan to a pariah by prohibiting its leaders, diplomats and officials from visiting other countries or having normal dealings with them.
Afghan missions abroad will be closed down and the assets of Osama bin Laden will be frozen by the host governments. The United Nations observers will inspect Afghanistan to inquire into the allegations regarding the presence of terrorist training camps there. These are the harshest measures to be applied to any state after Iraq. In case of Afghanistan these could be enforced only by the accompaniment of an effective military force since the Taliban would never allow any UN inspectors to enter their territory. Unfortunately for the UN, its inspectors in Iraq have been engaged in espionage and destruction of its infrastructure, especially public utilities. The next step would then be to raise some multinational force or a joint US-Russian force to secure compliance by Kabul with the prescribed prohibitions. These are dangerous portents of a possible military conflict in the region with spillover effects going further afield.
While the Security Council will be tightening the noose around the Taliban, the world body will allow the rebel northern alliance regime to equip itself with the weapons supplied by Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran and India and finally invade Kabul. This policy contradicts the professed UN efforts to broker peace and reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Northern Alliance.
In fact, the United Nations never adopted an even-handed policy towards the Taliban and their opponents in the north. It still recognizes the ousted government of Burhanuddin as the legitimate authority in Afghanistan although it holds only ten per cent of the territory and excludes Taliban who control the rest of the country. That is the reason the UN peace efforts did not make any headway. The UN envoy, Francesc Vendrell, has been trying to involve the Indian government in the peace process in Afghanistan.
This will be outside the existing format of negotiations known as the six-plus-two involving Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan, China and the US and Russia. India had no role to play in the Afghanistan affairs during the war nor was it a party to the 1988 Geneva Agreement so there is no reason it should be involved in the matter. Pakistan has warned the big powers that if India gets involved in Afghanistan there will be complications. India has been trying to link the Taliban with Kashmir insurgency in an attempt to nlist the support of Russia and the US in its war against the Kashmiri freedom fighters.
If these powers side with New Delhi in its counter-insurgency operations, the ensuing conflict may spread to Kashmir, Afghanistan and the Central Asian states. Moscow has its hands full in Chechnya, and has also underwritten the defence of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan against the perceived threat of religious extremism. In fact Moscow and the authoritarian central Asian rulers have been raising the Taliban bogey to justify their repressive measures against their political opponents.
The joint American-Russian move against Kabul runs counter to the UN peace efforts which are flawed any way. Of the six plus two peace-makers Russia, China and Tajikistan are party to the Shanghai Five, an anti Taliban alliance while Uzbekistan has also signed a defence pact with Moscow to combat the Taliban threat. Turkmanistan, of course, has fallen out of line since it does not think that the Taliban have any designs on the Central Asian states.
It is indeed surprising that Russia, China, India and central Asian states should be fearful of the Taliban believing them to be an expansionist force. One may ask: whether they feel threatened by the army and the arsenal of the Taliban, or is it their obscurantist ideology that is making inroads into those states? If it is the ideology, then it should be resisted by a superior ideology and not the gun.
Tajikistan accuses Taliban of training the militants and sending them into its territory to join the United Tajik Opposition. The Taliban deny the charge, saying that the insurgency in Tajikistan erupted in 1992 - that is before the birth of Taliban movement. In fact, as the erstwhile constituents of the former Soviet Union, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan were very much part of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and since most of the Central Asian states are still under the influence of Moscow, their hostility towards Afghanistan still persists.
The passage of the Russian-American resolution at the security council would put the UN in a self-contradictory role: on the one hand it will be engaged in peace-making in Afghanistan and, on the other it will be engaged in punitive action against the dominant ruling entity in that country.
In toeing the American lineon the issue, an immediate purpose is to increase pressure on Kabul for the extradition of Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan. The law is very clear on this point. There has to be an extradition treaty between two states for the handing over of fugitives. Again, it is the court of a country where the offender resides which has the jurisdiction to decide whether or not a case has been made out against the accused, warranting his extradition. In the case of the Taliban, there is no extradition treaty between Afghanistan and the US. How can the US - and much less the Security Council - demand the extradition of Osama by the Taliban? By doing so the world body would open itself to the charge of acting illegally and out of partisan political motive.
If the Security Council were to intercept the flights of the Afghan Airlines in the exercise of the embargo, it will be deemed an act of piracy. From a legal point of view, the last resolution on Afhanistan and the present one are devoid of any validity since they are based on illegal premises.
Taliban have been victims of terrorism themselves as manifested in the cruise missile attack by the US on August 20, 1998, the bomb attack on the state guest house and the official residence of Mulla Umar, the assassination of the governor of Kunduz, bomb explosion in the car of the Afghan information minister last year and another explosion near the ministry of information in November last and the hijacking of Ariana Airlines at the beginning of this year. What measures has the Security Council taken against those responsible for these outrages? On the contrary, the world body has so easily forgotten the commendable role of the Taliban in rescuing the hijacked Indian passenger plane without any bloodshed.
If the UN really wants to bring peace to Afghanistan, it cannot do so by ostracizing the Taliban, the only stable government in the country, which can be expected to meet its international obligations. It should be given its rightful place in the world organization.
END
Week of Action to Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons
Tara Thornton, Military Toxics Project ~ Dec. 18 2000
Dear Friends,
I am writing today in the hopes that your organization can participate in MTP's International Week of Actions calling for a BAN on Depleted Uranium Weapons, planned for the week of January 15th through 21st, 2001. This week marks the tenth anniversary of the Persian Gulf War.
As many of you know, there are many veterans and civilians suffering from mysterious ailments, which have been dubbed "Gulf War Syndrome". The Gulf War also marks the first time depleted uranium weapons, which are both radioactive and toxic, were used in warfare by the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Most recently, NATO used depleted uranium munitions in Yugoslavia. MTP believes depleted uranium may be one of the sources responsible for Gulf War Illnesses and the increased rates of cancers (especially in children) in southern Iraq and we are calling for an International Ban on DU weaponry.
The U.S. Department of Defense estimates approximately 315 tons (630,000 pounds) of DU were fired in the Gulf in 1991. This firing resulted in the release of large amounts of DU dust, which contaminated thousands of tanks, vehicles and land. Depleted uranium dust can be transported by wind or water or can enter the body via wound contamination or injection (as in fragments), inhalation or ingestion. Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4 ½ billion years.
Among the short and long term health effects of inhaled or ingested depleted uranium particles are kidney and liver problems, immune system dysfunction, reproductive problems, birth defects and cancer.
DU weapons may impose on a nation a burden of health care and environmental cleanup costs that is expensive to address. In the United States, not only are veterans suffering from the impacts of DU weapons, but the health and environment of communities and workers are being compromised by exposure to uranium throughout the whole life cycle of DU weapons production. The mining and milling of uranium, the enrichment of uranium, the production and manufacturing of DU weapons, and DU weapons testing are all activities which have caused widespread contamination and health problems. The price of clean up of 152,000 pounds of depleted uranium fragments and dust on 500 acres at Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana (where DU rounds were tested) has been estimated at $4 to $5 billion dollars. The costs to human health are incalculable.
Depleted Uranium weaponry should be an international concern as the proliferation of these weapons continues. At least 16 countries including the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, Iran, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, Thailand, and Taiwan now have depleted uranium penetrators in their arsenal. Other sources assert that the weaponry has proliferated to Iraq, Oman, Jordan, Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission has taken up the issue of depleted uranium weaponry through its Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. The Sub-Commission adopted resolutions in 1996 and 1997 (resolution 1996/16 and 1997/36), which included depleted uranium weaponry among "weapons of mass or indiscriminate destruction", incompatible with international humanitarian or human rights law.
MTP organized with two other groups, the LAKA Foundation of the Netherlands and the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium of England, a workshop on depleted uranium at the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference in May of 1999. It was there that the International Campaign to Ban Depleted Uranium Weaponry was launched. One of the most important aspects of the international campaign was for each group to develop a national strategy to get their perspective governments to support the ban. As we know with nuclear issues, the Campaign to Ban Landmines, and other very important issues, the United States is the most difficult government to get to do the right thing. We need your help and the help of every major organization fighting for justice in the United States to be on board in support of the ban.
There are several ways your organization can get involved in the efforts to ban DU: Participate in and get the word out about the International Week of Actions from January 15 through January 21, 2001, marking the tenth anniversary of the Persian Gulf War. We would greatly appreciate any support your organization can give us to make this week of actions a success. We would also like your organization to take a position in support of an international ban on depleted uranium weaponry. Your organization can pass a resolution calling for a ban, participate in the petition drive to ban DU, and write letters to the editor and your members of Congress in support of the ban.
I am enclosing MTP's Call to Action packet, which includes; a flyer on the International Week of Actions, a blank petition, sample resolutions and a map of the US which highlights some of the most egregious examples of how DU adversely impacted the health and environment.
Please let us know if your organization supports the ban and if you will be participating in the International Week of Actions. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call toll free 1-877-783-5091 or visit MTP's Website at www.miltoxproj.org
Sincerely,
Tara Thornton, National Organizer
Military Toxics Project
END
South Armagh Farmers & Residents Organise Peaceful Mobilisation Against British Military Presence
Toni Carragher, South Armagh Farmers & Residents Committee ~ December 17, 2000
PRESS RELEASE
The South Armagh Farmers & Residents Committee today organised a second peaceful mobilisation against the British military presence in the area.
A protest of around fifty locals entered the British Army base at Crievekeeran on the Culloville/Crossmaglen road where they confronted heavily armed soldiers. Using wire-cutters, the protester occupied most of the base for over an hour, while the soldiers retreated inside an inner cordon.
Members of the committee found no evidence of demilitarisation as promised by the British government in the Good Friday Agreement and the Hillsborough pact of May 6th.
After making their point to the English soldiers, the demonstrators left the base. As they made their way out, masked RUC police who had gathered outside battened several in an entirely unprovoked and spiteful assault. An attack dog was set upon the protest and two demonstrators were badly bitten.
A photographer for the Irish News was threatened by the RUC and forced to erase his images.
The protest followed a similar event last Sunday at Glassdrummond base, three miles to the east.
Toni Carragher, PRO for the SAFRC said: "Today's action demonstrates the futility of the British military occupation in South Armagh. If the British Army cannot secure its own bases, it should abandon its pretence to be providing security for anyone.
"In reality, of course, these spy-towers are merely an incitement to conflict and an invasion of our lives and homes. Their presence would not be tolerated anywhere else in the world and they will not be tolerated here. In addition, the outrageous behaviour of the RUC in attacking an entirely peaceful protest demonstrates the kind of conditions we are living in.
"Despite the injuries received by our members, the RUC assault only served to expose their true nature. We will not be deflected from highlighting the injustice of being subjected to saturation military occupation in a time of peace."
----------------------------
Toni Carragher, Secretary & PRO
South Armagh Farmers & Residents Committee
Chairperson: Declan Fearon - 17 Faughil Road Jonesborough Newry, Co Down BT35 9DT Phone: (Home) 028 30 848340 & (Office) 028 30 848693
Secretary & PRO: Toni Carragher - 65 Glassdrummond Road, Crossmaglen Newry Co Down BT35 9DY Phone & Fax: 028 30 868465
END
No Human Rights Progress in Niger Delta, Protesters in Oil Regions of Nigeria Subject to Lethal Force
Human Rights Watch ~ December 14
The restoration of civilian rule in Nigeria has not seen a reduction of human rights violations in the country's oil-producing regions, Human Rights Watch said in a backgrounder released today. Soldiers, naval personnel, and paramilitary Mobile Police deployed across the Niger Delta carry out summary executions, assaults and other abuses on an ongoing basis, Human Rights Watch said. Nor have security forces been punished for the deeds of the past: In December 1999, soldiers killed hundreds of people in retaliation for the deaths of twelve policemen during an army assault on the community of Odi, in Bayelsa State. No one has been prosecuted in connection with these atrocities, committed largely against unarmed civilians.
The Human Rights Watch backgrounder describes a recent incident in which soldiers and naval personnel posted at a flow station operated by Italian oil company Agip opened fire on several boats without warning. The youths in the boats dived into the water in order to escape, but eight were killed at the site, and another died later in hospital. "The new government has taken some steps to improve the situation in the Niger Delta," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division at Human Rights Watch. "But the basic dynamic there has not changed: when local people protest, the security forces use indiscriminate lethal force in response."
In Ogoniland, although the severe repression of the military government of Gen. Sani Abacha is past, the security forces continue, on occasion to harrass those who oppose the resumption of oil production, which has been closed since 1993. In March and April 2000, repressive force was once again used in Ogoniland, when paramilitary Mobile Police deployed to the village of K-Dere, Gokana local government area. Several Ogoni civilians were killed and a number of others detained for various periods and charged with offenses.Human Rights Watch called for the Nigerian government to institute criminal prosecution of those allegedly responsible for the abuses, and for Agip to undertake an immediate review of security provision at its Nigerian facilities.
For more information, please contact: In New York, Peter Takirambudde: +212-216-1223 In Washington DC, Janet Fleischman: +202-612-4325 In London, Bronwen Manby: +44-207-713-1995 In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz: +32-2732-2009
END
Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper: Update on Human Rights Violations in the Niger Delta
Human Rights Watch ~ Dec. 14
The restoration of civilian rule in Nigeria has not produced a reduction of human rights violations in the oil producing regions of the Niger Delta, even though the location and types of abuse have changed to some extent. Since the inauguration of President Olusegun Obasanjo in May 1999, the government has continued to show a disturbing willingness to deploy indiscriminate lethal force in response to criminal activity, ethnic conflict, or protests related to oil production. In November 1999, soldiers killed hundreds of people in an assault on the community of Odi, where twelve policemen had been killed by an armed gang.
Soldiers, naval personnel, and paramilitary Mobile Police deployed across the delta carry out summary executions, assaults and other abuses on an ongoing basis. In Ogoniland, a small part of the Niger Delta, although the blanket repression of the military government of Gen. Sani Abacha is past, the security forces continue to target those who oppose the resumption of oil production, suspended since 1993. At this writing, no one has been held accountable for these abuses.
The end of military rule has allowed greater debate over the issues feeding the ongoing crisis in the Niger Delta, in the National Assembly and elsewhere, but there is a growing frustration among those who live in the oil producing communities at the failure of the executive and legislature to respond to their demands for compensation for the damage done to their land and livelihoods by oil production and for a greater share of the oil wealth. Although the 1999 constitution provides that 13 percent of the revenue derived from onshore oil production should be paid to the states where it is produced, there have been substantial delays in calculating and paying these sums.
Groups from across the political spectrum in the so-called south-south zone have also demanded rather that the oil producing states assume "full control" over their natural resources, and pay tax from those revenues to the federal government. President Obasanjo has rejected the idea of any negotiation surrounding the further reallocation of revenue under the constitution, emphasizing instead the creation of a Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which will disburse funds for development projects. Many of those living in the oil producing communities reject the NDDC as an answer to their demands, charging that it is likely to be as corruption-ridden as previous similar bodies, and does not address the central issue of resource control.
Frustration at what is seen as a lack of movement in addressing the concerns of the oil producing communities has fed ongoing protests, ranging from demonstrations of small groups waving placards to attempts to close down production of oil at particular facilities in an attempt to draw attention to the demands of local communities. Oil company staff are regularly taken hostage by semi-organized groups of youths from the riverine areas of the delta, sometimes using armed force.
Hostage-taking has in some cases had the aim of raising the profile of local demands, but often has served to extort high ransoms for the release of oil workers-though all the oil companies deny publicly that ransom money is paid. In the most high profile recent incident, 165 oil workers on a drilling rig contracted by Shell's Nigerian subsidiary were held captive between July 31 and August 5, 2000, by some one hundred young men in Ekeremor local government area, Bayelsa State. Violence between neighboring ethnic groups and communities, often triggered by disputes over the siting of oil facilities and distribution of benefits related to the oil industry, continues to flare on a regular basis, leading to dozens of deaths over the past year.
The rupturing of fuel pipelines owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), usually by commercial operators who siphon off fuel for sale on the black market, has increased. Both NNPC and the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) have dismissed workers accused of facilitating the vandalization of pipelines for the purposes of stealing fuel. The result of these operations is not only to exacerbate Nigeria's chronic fuel shortages, but also, tragically, the death of hundreds of people engulfed in explosions as they try to scoop fuel from the leaking pipes after the commercial operators have left.
In the most serious such fire, in October 1998, more than one thousand people died in Jesse, Delta State, but similar explosions have continued to take place. Several hundred people died in July 2000 in a fire in Adeje, near Warri, Delta State, and dozens died from smaller explosions throughout the year. Shell has also reported increasing theft, or "bunkering" of crude oil from its facilities, resulting in the loss of up to 32,000 barrels per day of production recently. In response to this situation, the government has repeatedly announced new security initiatives for the Niger Delta, including the creation of a task force on the vandalization of pipelines, partly funded by NNPC.
However, the security forces have often failed to protect property from damage or civilians from violence, and have themselves carried out serious and widespread violations of human rights in response to such incidents. The pipeline vandalization task force has reportedly carried out several extrajudicial executions of persons suspected of vandalizing pipelines or stealing petroleum products. In November, the government reportedly threatened to reintroduce the death penalty for those convicted of pipeline vandalization.
Lack of Accountability for the Destruction of Odi
On November 4, 1999, an armed gang killed seven Nigerian policemen in the community of Odi, Bayelsa State. Five other police were killed in subsequent days. President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote to the governor of Bayelsa, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, threatening to declare a state of emergency if those responsible for the murders were not apprehended within two weeks-though responsibility for policing is, in fact, a federal duty in Nigeria. Before the deadline could expire, soldiers from the Nigerian army moved into Odi, a community of 15,000 people or more, engaged in a brief exchange of fire with the young men alleged to be responsible for the deaths of the policemen, and proceeded to raze the town. The troops demolished every single building, barring the bank, the Anglican church and the health clinic, and left graffiti that included ethnic slurs and reflected views that the town and the whole Ijaw ethnic group must be punished for the crimes committed by their sons.
One year later, information collected by community leaders from former residents of Odi indicates that perhaps as many as 2,000 people were killed by the army in this operation-described by a presidential spokesman as "a carefully planned and cautiously executed exercise to rid the society of these criminals." People were killed in their homes by mortar shells; in summary killings, especially of young men captured by the soldiers as they advanced into the town; or following torture and rape. Though young men were especially targeted, many, perhaps most, of those who died were old people or young children. Dozens of young men are believed to have been summarily executed by soldiers over the subsequent days and weeks after being picked up at road blocks and identified as Ijaw by characteristic tribal markings.
There has been no government-supported independent investigation of these events, and no military personnel are known to have been prosecuted for the atrocities committed in Odi. Indeed, although President Obasanjo has expressed "regret" for what happened, the officers who commanded the operation have reportedly been promoted. More than forty men are held in detention and have been charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with the original killings of the twelve policemen, and their trials are still pending. Only minimal relief has been distributed by government agencies to Odi residents, and such reconstruction of the devastated town as has occurred has been at the expense and on the initiative of those residents that have returned to rebuild their homes. In an attempt to obtain some redress, the victims are bringing civil suits against the Nigerian government for compensation.
Abuses in Ogoniland
The Ogoni, an ethnic group perhaps half a million strong, led the upsurge in protests at oil production over the last decade and demands for greater benefit from oil to be returned to the areas where it is produced. Ogoniland, their homeland, is close to the city of Port Harcourt in Rivers State. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), created in 1990 and led by Ken Saro-Wiwa, organized mass demonstrations which resulted in the closure of oil production in Ogoniland in 1993.
In response, the military government of General Sani Abacha cracked down on MOSOP's activities, detaining dozens of activists for extended periods, deploying a specially created military task force to Ogoniland, and setting up a special tribunal which convicted Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders after a trial that blatantly violated international standards of due process. The "Ogoni Nine" were executed in November 1995. Following the death of General Sani Abacha in June 1998, the interim government of General Abdusalami Abubakar disbanded the military task force that had been deployed to Ogoniland and released the remaining Ogoni political detainees. For the first time in years, Ogonis were free to meet and express their political views.
Although the situation in Ogoniland improved with the end of military rule, there are continuing human rights concerns. In March and April 2000, for example, repressive force was once again used in Ogoniland, when paramilitary Mobile Police deployed to the village of K-Dere, Gokana local government area. Several Ogoni civilians were killed and a number of others detained for various periods and charged with different offenses. According to reports from MOSOP and other groups monitoring the situation, the background to this violence centered on various development projects, in particular the construction of roads, to be funded by Shell, whose Ogoniland production remains suspended.
The new local authorities in Ogoniland, installed at the time of the restoration of civilian government in May 1999, tend to favor renewed oil production, since they can hope to benefit from the contracts likely to be awarded. Independent visitors to Ogoniland who have interviewed local people uniformly report their view that the majority of Ogonis oppose a return of Shell to the area. Any activity that can be interpreted as indicating a desire to resume operations, even if not directly related to oil production, therefore has the potential to create significant tension within the community.
On March 21, 2000, Ledum Mitee, a MOSOP leader and co-defendant of Ken Saro-Wiwa, wrote to the chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies, warning that the activities of its Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), risked reigniting conflict in Ogoniland. SPDC officials have repeatedly stated in meetings with Human Rights Watch and elsewhere that the company is only interested in making safe its facilities in Ogoniland, and in carrying out development projects aimed to restore community trust.
However, MOSOP charged that Shell's "local staff and contractors are now using similar tactics to those of the last decade in what appears to be a desperate attempt to establish a foothold in Ogoni which will allow the company to restore oil operations in the area." The organization condemned a failure to consult with local communities before operations to work on SPDC pipelines or projects, including road building, proceeded. MOSOP later reported that two vehicles of the Mobile Police, a paramilitary unit of the Nigerian Police Force, were present on March 21 in Gokana local government area, Ogoniland, where the road project was to proceed, and were shooting in the air in an attempt to terrorize the local population.
There were some clashes with local youths, and the police were reinforced in the days following, leading to an escalation of violence. On March 23, six people were arrested by Mobile Police following a demonstration at the site of the road, and tensions continued to escalate, taking the form of a dispute between two neighboring communities, K-Dere and B-Dere. Ledum Mitee informed the SPDC General Manager in Port Harcourt of these developments, and Shell's contractor working on the road project was withdrawn on March 23. The company later repeated previous statements that it is "committed to not working in areas where we are not welcome," and in correspondence with Mitee denied a lack of consultation over its projects. MOSOP reported that the community was quiet by the end of March.
On April 11, Mobile Police working with a group of civilian youths, about whose criminal activities MOSOP had previously complained to the police, entered the K-Dere community early in the morning, apparently with the intention of arresting those opposing the road project and intimidating others into dropping their opposition. At least ten houses in K-Dere, including Mitee's own, were burnt down. On April 13, Ledum Mitee was arrested, when he returned from a trip to Abuja, joining at least eight other people already in detention. Mitee was held for five days and then charged with two others with arson (of houses that are in fact undamaged) and attempted murder, and released on bail. These charges are still outstanding. All who had been detained were released on bail within three weeks.
According to MOSOP and other local human rights activists, at least four and possibly up to ten people were shot dead by police in the violence that took place over several days. On April 29, MOSOP reported that armed thugs had again attacked a venue where MOSOP was holding a meeting, though fortunately without causing casualties. Again, in August, there were reports that thugs had severely beaten one person and taken away two others, in advance of a planned demonstration in Tai local government area against a rumored return of Shell to the area. Similar tensions also came to the surface on November 10, 2000, the fifth anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, when scuffles took place between youths attempting to force businesses to close in commemoration of the date, and others apparently linked to the local government authorities.
At this writing, there has been no official inquiry, as called for by MOSOP, Human Rights Watch, and many other groups, into the abuses suffered by the Ogoni people under the military regime of General Abacha, nor have there been prosecutions of members of the security forces alleged to be responsible for those abuses. The only forum that may lead to some partial accountability is the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, headed by Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (commonly referred to as the Oputa Commission), which is investigating "mysterious deaths" and assassinations and other human rights abuses during the period January 1966 to June 1998.
More than 10,000 cases from Ogoniland were submitted to the Oputa Commission, which will hold public hearings in Port Harcourt in January 2001, at which some of these cases will be considered. However, given the limited resources of the commission, it is clear that the repression in Ogoniland can receive only the most superficial examination. President Obasanjo visited the delta, including Ogoniland in September 2000, in which he held a minute's silence in honor of the executed MOSOP leaders, but urged the Ogoni people to "put the past behind us so that we can move forward."
Olugbobiri: Nine killed by soldiers at an Agip flow station
On October 14, 2000, a group of fifty-one youths approached the Tebidaba flow station, operated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd (NAOC) near Olugbobiri, Bayelsa State, in three speedboats. According to information gathered by local human rights organizations, and interviews with eyewitnesses carried out by Human Rights Watch three weeks later, their intention was to enter the flow station and close down production, in order to protest the failure of NAOC to complete certain agreed projects in the Olugbobiri community to the satisfaction of the community. The youths were unarmed. Soldiers and naval personnel posted at the flow station opened fire on the boats without warning, using both a machine gun and what were described by the youths present as "bombs," presumably grenades. The youths dived into the water in order to escape, but eight were killed at the site, and another died later in hospital.
Several of the bodies have not yet been recovered. Sixteen were seriously injured, of which four were still in hospital at the beginning of the second week in November. Following the incident on October 14, the military stationed at the flow station were reinforced, according to community members. These forces have been responsible for razing to the ground a small fishing settlement close to the flow station, a satellite of the main Olugbobiri community, and for ongoing harassment of those attempting to get to their fishing grounds.
After the killing of the nine youths, the central zone of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), the most high profile youth organization in the riverine areas of the delta, held a meeting on October 22, at Okolobiri, Bayelsa State, where an ultimatum was given to Agip to vacate Ijaw territory. The following day, Felix Tuodolo, president of the IYC, was invited to the Rivers State police headquarters in Port Harcourt and detained for six hours. He was questioned by the Rivers State commissioner of police, who alleged that he had incited youths to kidnap and kill NAOC expatriate staff and blow up NAOC facilities, a charge Tuodolo denied. Visiting Olugbobiri six weeks after the incident, Bayelsa State governor Alamieyeseigha stated that he would set up a commission of inquiry into the incident.
There have been negotiations between NAOC and Olugbobiri for some years over development projects. In particular, recent discussions had centered on the construction of a road through the community, and there was discontent at what was described as a unilateral decision by Agip to reduce the width of the road from six meters to four meters and at flooding caused by the initial works. These discussions had resulted in correspondence between Agip and the community, and a meeting on October 3 at the Bayelsa State government house, at which Agip allegedly stated that it had been forced to sign a memorandum of understanding with the community under duress and hence was not obliged to complete the projects.
Several weeks prior to the October 14 incident, seven members of the community went to the flow station by boat in order to report a spillage at a flow line between wells eight and ten, and to request assistance from NAOC in providing diesel for the generator, since an important visitor was coming to the village. In a preview of what happened later, soldiers and naval personnel opened fire, though they aimed around the boat, rather than at it. They called the boat to come to the flow station, firing around it as they came. When the seven people, including the chair and secretary of the youth association and the interim chair of the community, got to the facility, they were stripped and beaten. Although the soldiers later apologized, saying that they had been informed that the delegation was intending to switch off the flow station, they were simply sent back to the community with no further redress.
The incident at Olugbobiri is one in a series of cases reported at NAOC facilities in which members of the armed forces have shot at and killed or injured civilians, or accidents at the site of Agip operations that have resulted in civilian casualties. In May 2000, for example, a devastating fire killed at least six people involved in cleaning up a spill from a NAOC pipeline near Etiama, Bayelsa State, allegedly as a result of a faulty pumping machine that ignited the spilled crude oil.
Human Rights Watch has received reports of additional cases of extrajudicial executions:
· the shooting dead of five youths by naval personnel posted at NAOC's Brass terminal in June 2000, following protests at the non-fulfilment of a 1994 memorandum of understanding with the community;
· the shooting dead of three other youths near a spill from a pipeline carrying crude to the Brass terminal in November 1999;
· and the shooting dead of eight youths from Ikebiri, Bayelsa State, on April 19, 1999, as they were on their way to attend a meeting with the state commissioner of police in Yenagoa, by armed escorts accompanying a NAOC maintenance crew.
Human Rights Watch asked Agip for comments on all these incidents, but had not received a response at this writing.
Recommendations
Human Rights Watch calls on the Nigerian government to:
· Undertake an immediate process of criminal investigation of the events described above in Olugbobiri and Ogoniland, with a view to instituting criminal proceedings against those allegedly responsible for the operations in each case, including both perpetrators and their commanding officers, where appropriate.
· Appoint independent and public judicial commissions of inquiry into the events in Ogoniland under the military regime and in Odi in November and December 1999, with a wide mandate to examine the causes and consequences of the security force operations and to make recommendations for appropriate redress to those affected in each case, including the monetary compensation and the institution of criminal proceedings against those allegedly responsible for the operations in each case, including both perpetrators and their commanding officers, where appropriate.
We call on Agip to:
· Undertake an immediate high level review of the provision of security at its facilities in Nigeria, including the incident at Olugbobiri; take steps to protest abuses with the appropriate authorities and urge that appropriate criminal and disciplinary action be taken against those responsible; and ensure that those allegedly involved in abuses are removed from guarding Agip facilities.
Ethel Higonnet, Africa Associate Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue 34th Floor New York, NY 10018 tel: (212) 216-1834 fax: (212) 736-1300
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Croatian Prime Minister Affirms Support For War Crimes Court
By Snjezana Vukic, HEJ ~ Dec. 14
Prime Minister Ivica Racan said Wednesday his government remains committed to cooperating with the U.N. war crimes tribunal despite public concern over speculation that prominent Croats are about to be indicted for the deaths of Serbs. "This government is fully committed to investigate and prosecute - itself, or in the cooperation with the tribunal - all war crimes committed on the territory of Croatia," Racan told reporters. Racan spoke amid media reports that the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, is preparing indictments against Croatian generals for atrocities against Serbs in connection with the 1995 offensive in which Croatia recaptured areas seized by the rebel Serbs during the 1991 war for independence from Yugoslavia. More than 200 Serbs were slain following the offensive. The tribunal has confirmed it is investigating the cases.
The prospect of indictments against men whom many Croats hail as war heroes threatens a major crisis for the Croatian government, which has increased cooperation with the war crimes court. Many Croats deeply resent that Western governments have embraced Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, although he refuses to extradite any war crimes suspects _ including his predecessor Slobodan Milosevic. Racan said his government "wants through a dialogue with the court, to solve some issues that would improve the cooperation and remove some obstacles to the cooperation." He did not elaborate.
On Wednesday, the Croatian newspaper Vecernji list, quoting unnamed government sources, said six generals who were in charge of the offensive in central Croatia, as well as two politicians from the former government of the late President Franjo Tudjman, are to be indicted early next year. The deputy chief prosecutor of the tribunal, Graham Blewitt, told HINA on Tuesday that the investigation was nearly finished.
Earlier Wednesday, the government news agency HINA quoted Croatian President Stipe Mesic as saying in Palermo, Italy, that The Hague court was on the verge of indicting six Croatian generals and two civilians. Later, however, Mesic told state-run Croatian television that reports of imminent indictments were "speculations." Since taking power in January, the Zagreb government has extradited one major war crimes suspect, delivered thousands of requested files to the court and opened investigations into crimes committed by Croats here and in Bosnia. That was in sharp contrast to the policy of Tudjman, whose refusal to cooperate with the court and whose denial that Croats committed war crimes brought Croatia to the verge of international sanctions last year.
But the cooperation triggered protests by Croatian war veterans, who claim prosecution of Croats would tarnish the image of what they consider a noble war. If the prosecutors allege, as is expected, that the 1995 offensive was aimed at cleansing the territory of the country's Serbs, it would infuriate the majority of Croats. For Croats, the offensive marked the long-awaited "liberation" of Croat lands which Serb rebels, backed by the Yugoslav army, took by force. Rebel Serbs leveled many villages to the ground, expelled non-Serbs from their homes and killed thousands of Croats. Such protests would come at a time when many people are increasingly disappointed with the government's failure to reduce unemployment and improve living standards. If Croatia refuses to hand over suspects, it risks renewed international isolation.
Racan's government has asked the court to "respect chronology and the range" of crimes here, an obvious reference to Croat demands that Serbs suspected of atrocities committed in 1991 be prosecuted first. Only four Serbs have been indicted so far for atrocities against Croats. Three of them are still at large, living in Yugoslavia. Racan's Cabinet has also insisted that the tribunal "should not apply double standards" - meaning that Belgrade must be pushed to hand over suspects too.
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Bombings of Civilian Targets in Sudan have Doubled
US Committee for Refugees ~ Dec. 13
Deliberate bombings of civilian and humanitarian targets in Sudan by Sudanese government planes have doubled this year compared to last year, according to field reports by humanitarian workers compiled by the U.S. Committee for Refugees. Sudanese planes have bombed civilian sites at least 132 times this year through December 12, compared to 65 known aerial bombings last year. The intensified bombing campaign continues to kill and terrorize innocent civilians, disrupt international relief efforts, and push families from their land and livelihoods. Sudanese government aircraft have struck civilian and humanitarian targets at least 259 times during the past four years.
The most recent attack occurred Dec. 8, when an Antonov bomber struck the southern Sudanese village of Yomciir, killing two people, including an aid worker. Four residents were injured. Residents reported that the plane strafed the village with machine gun fire immediately after the bombing. The bombing of Yomciir was the fifth aerial attack in southern Sudan this month by government planes. Sixteen bombings occurred during November. This year's dramatic rise in aerial attacks against civilian targets by the Sudanese government has largely been ignored by international leaders, who have issued occasional condemnations of the bombings but have failed to take forceful action even when UN planes and international relief workers have apparently been targeted in the attacks.
To learn more go to: www.refugees.org/news/crisis/sudan.htm
To read the press release issued today go www.refugees.org/news/press_releases.htm
The U.S. Committee for Refugees is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization that works for the protection and assistance of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people around the world.
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Falun Gong Member Dies After Beating
BBC ~ December 13
A Chinese college professor who belonged to the banned Falun Gong movement has died from severe injuries received while in police custody, her family say. Zhao Xin died at her campus dormitory on Monday, six months after a beating by police left her partially paralysed with three crushed neck vertebrae, according to family and friends. During her time in custody, the 32-year-old assistant professor at Beijing's Industry and Commerce University had also suffered bruised and swollen eyes, minor injuries to her head and difficulty with breathing, they said. She was transferred from a Beijing detention centre to hospital in critical condition on June 22, four days after she was arrested. The Falun Dafa online information centre says 89 members have died in police custody since the Chinese government outlawed the group in July last year. Most of them were tortured or beaten to death.
'Self-inflicted' injuries
The BBC's Beijing correspondent says Ms Zhao was arrested in a Beijing park in June for practising the deep-breathing exercises that are promoted by the group, but banned by the government. According to the Falun Gong's headquarters in New York, the police said Ms Zhao's injuries were self-inflicted, and that she had banged her head against a wall. Ms Zhao's parents have tried to file a complaint with the Beijing procurator's office, but the office refused to accept their petition. A lecturer at the college since 1992, Ms Zhao began practising Falun Gong in 1998. She was arrested many times for appealing to the government to lift the ban and for practising the movement's exercises in public places.
US resident jailed
Her death follows the jailing of a United States resident for exposing the detention of Falun Gong members in mental hospitals. Teng Chunyan, 37, who is married to a US citizen and lives in New York, was jailed for three years on spying charges. The 37-year-old female acupuncturist was the first overseas Falun Gong member to be tried in China, and only the second US green card holder. Hong Kong human rights groups said she was accused of stealing, prying into, buying and illegally supplying state intelligence. In Washington, the US Government said it was "deeply disturbed" by the jailing. Human rights groups believe the government may be trying to make an example of Ms Teng to deter other foreign Falun Gong practitioners and activists from coming to China.
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Extradition Based On False Evidence, Peltier Inquiry Says
By Kirk Makin, Globe and Mail ~ Monday, December 11, 2000
Toronto - The commissioner of an inquiry into the Leonard Peltier case has concluded that the Indian activist was extradited from Canada under false pretenses after a key witness, Myrtle Poor Bear, falsified evidence.
In a letter urging U.S. President Bill Clinton to consider granting executive clemency, commissioner Fred Kaufman said Mr. Peltier's 1976 extradition and subsequent imprisonment for murdering two FBI agents is now highly questionable.
"As you can see from her evidence, she acted under duress at the time, and much of what she said was false," wrote Mr. Kaufman, a judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal for 16 years.
"I am satisfied that if this had been known when the extradition hearings took place, the request to extradite Peltier would likely have been refused."
The letter was quietly sent to the White House late last week along with a transcript of the inquiry. It will be released at an Ottawa press conference Monday morning. Another copy is being sent to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Justice Minister Anne McLellan in the hope that they will intervene with Mr. Clinton.
Frank Dreaver, head of the Canadian branch of the Leonard Peltier Defence Committee, said his group has also been granted something it has sought for years: a chance to present its case this morning to officials at the U.S. embassy. "Everybody concedes this is a very important factual document," Mr. Dreaver said in an interview. "President Clinton has made it clear recently that he wants to look at the Leonard Peltier case fairly and take a position on it. That's why it was so important to put together as much information about the Canadian angle as we could."
Mr. Kaufman's conclusions add impetus to worldwide pressure on Mr. Clinton to grant Mr. Peltier clemency - a traditional prerogative of presidents leaving office - before his term ends Jan. 20.
The idea is opposed by senior FBI officials, who refer to it as a cruel obscenity that denigrates the deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
The shootings took place on June 26, 1975, when the two agents drove to the Jumping Bull Compound on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reserve to investigate a minor theft. They were shot during a six-hour firefight that involved scores of federal agents and about 30 natives. One of the natives, Joe Stuntz, was also killed.
Aware that he was one of 47 suspects, Mr. Peltier fled. In early 1976, he was captured in Hinton, Alta. At the heart of his Vancouver extradition hearing were a series of affidavits in which Ms. Poor Bear said she was his girlfriend.
Ms. Poor Bear, now 47, affirmed at the time not only that she witnessed the shooting, but that Mr. Peltier spoke to her about it afterward.
She was mysteriously dropped from the prosecution's witness list at Mr. Peltier's 1977 murder trial in Fargo, N.D. A district attorney told the court only that she was no longer considered "competent."
Mr. Peltier was convicted of the double murder largely on the basis of ballistics evidence which has since been brought into doubt. Ms. Poor Bear disappeared from sight, and little was heard of her prior to the one-day Toronto inquiry last October.
The Toronto hearing was organized by the Innocence Project, a group that attempts to expose wrongful convictions. Five witnesses, including Ms. Poor Bear and her sister, were examined under oath by two prominent Toronto lawyers.
Testifying for the first time in any venue, Ms. Poor Bear confirmed what many had long suspected: she had fabricated her story under pressure from FBI agents bent on avenging their dead comrades. Ms. Poor Bear broke down from time to time as she supplied details of how two agents kept her apart from her family for long periods and threatened her life in an attempt to coerce her into giving false testimony.
"I say without hesitation that each of the witnesses appeared honest and credible," Mr. Kaufman said in his letter to Mr. Clinton. He said this was particularly true of Ms. Poor Bear, who was obviously distraught as she told of her terror and subsequent shame at having helped perpetrate a miscarriage of justice.
In a supporting letter to the White House that will be released Monday, Peter Hogg, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, says he was shocked to learn of Ms. Poor Bear's recantation. Prof. Hogg, widely regarded as Canada's leading constitutional scholar, said it appears very likely that a miscarriage of justice has taken place in the Peltier case.
"I add my voice to those who urge that executive clemency be granted," he said. "He has served 25 years in prison, which is a terrible burden for someone who is probably innocent."
Law professor Dianne Martin, a co-director of the Innocent Project, said the possibility that Texas Governor George W. Bush will win the disputed presidency puts all the more pressure on Mr. Clinton. "Bush is not likely to have any interest at all in the Peltier case," Prof. Martin said in an interview. "If President Clinton has anywhere near the conscience we believe he has, he will know it is on his watch that this has to happen."
The Peltier case is without a doubt one of the most closely examined criminal convictions in North American history. Several books and a movie have centred on it, and Mr. Peltier's supporters span the globe. U.S. officials have been bombarded with thousands of information requests over the years, and numerous court challenges have been attempted.
A brief prepared for Mr. Clinton by Prof. Martin and fellow Innocence Project director Paul Burstein argues that the President is faced with a historic opportunity.
"Literally millions of people around the world - but most significantly, hundreds of thousands of Canadians, Americans and Aboriginal Peoples, have struggled ceaselessly to demonstrate that his extradition, conviction and continued imprisonment represent a profound miscarriage of justice," the brief says.
It says that granting clemency would also serve to close a chapter that has epitomized for many aboriginals their long history of oppression and injustice.
"The deaths on Pine Ridge will not be forgotten if clemency is granted to Leonard Peltier, the man wrongly held to blame for them," the brief said. "But acknowledging that many suffered from the events on Pine Ridge and that many wrongs - not just two - were committed, will begin healing the deep, historical wounds that Native Americans still endure."
Copyright 2000 | The Globe and Mail
END
China Sells Organs of Slain Convicts
By Ian Williams, The Observer ~ Dec. 10
For more than a week Yong Puay Sim had lain alongside 10 other kidney patients in a grim hospital ward in China to which she had travelled from her home in Malacca, Malaysia. She could understand little of the language being spoken by the doctors and the conditions were far from clean. Outside her window the air was thick with smog, the roads packed with people. But a Chinese festival was approaching, and a friend who had travelled with her to China brought the news she'd been waiting for: 'They are going to shoot - to execute - the criminals. Then we will have the organs and they can carry out the transplant for you all.'
This was in April, and Yong had travelled to a hospital run by the People's Liberation Army in the Chinese provincial city of Chongqing. She paid the hospital $10,000 in cash for her new organ. The friend who had travelled with her was Wilson Yeo, who had paid for a kidney from the same hospital a few months earlier, and has since helped many others make the trip. He, too, was in no doubt about where his new organ came from, though he did ask for more details about the donor.'I said to the doctor, give me more information, I'm worried, you know. He said: "Don't worry, yours is a 19-year-old kidney, probably a drug smuggler, put to death".' He had organised his trip directly with the head of the transplant unit and says the doctors were very open about the source of the kidneys.
One of Wilson's biggest worries was carrying so much cash. But he was met at the airport by the head of the unit, in army uniform, and taken by army van to Chongqing's Third Affiliated Hospital. 'At that point my only consideration was that I had to survive. I have a family. I have kids,' he says, 'I didn't think about the ethical part.' He says 30 people in three wards were waiting for a transplant during his stay. Four foreigners on his ward, paying twice as much as the Chinese, were given priority. He says one older man from Malacca was told he was unfit for the operation. But he slipped some extra cash to the doctor. He got his transplant, but died several days later. Yong, a science teacher, had been desperate, warned she would not survive on dialysis: 'It's only when the doctor said it's a problem, it's endangering my life, that I decided to go to China.' She says she showered the doctors with gifts after her operation - a pewter teapot, a silver chain and necklace. 'They treated us well, so we rewarded them.'
Support groups in Malacca reckon several dozen desperate people suffering from kidney failure have made the journey, since two top officials from the Chongqing army hospital visited in 1998. They gave a presentation in this ethnic Chinese community, offering what they called the 'special rate' of $10,000. An informal support network is centred on the Dialysis Association of Malacca. Five of the seven committee members at a meeting I attended have had transplants in China. They say their kidneys were all from executed convicts. 'Ethics is only applicable to those who are not involved personally,' says John Tan, a paramedic who runs a Malacca dialysis centre and helps run the association. He confirms most kidneys are from executed prisoners, and says the executions take place in the Chongqing hospital, the condemned prisoner being allowed to die under anaesthetic after organs have been removed. 'They do not suffer any pain as compared to the trauma they'd suffer just before being shot.'
The rush to China for transplants presents an acute ethical dilemma for kidney doctors in Malaysia, where there is strong cultural resistance to donating organs. There is a 16-year waiting list for a kidney: with more than 6,000 people on dialysis, there were only six donors in Malaysia lastyear. Although moves are afoot to strengthen the Malaysian donor programme, kidney failure for most means life on a dialysis machine - four hours a day, three days a week. The director of the National Kidney Foundation in the capital Kuala Lumpur, Dr Thiruventhiran, says people come to him daily asking about going to China. 'Most of my patients are desperate,' he says. 'I spend hours talking to patients. I'm not too sure what I'm doing now - trying to convince them not to do it or to do it. But I do want to give them a true picture of what's going on.'
He says hospital records show 60 to 70 people have returned after operations in China this year, though the true figure is probably much higher, since records show only those needing after-care. He reckons several hundred have made the journey from Malaysia to a string of provincial Chinese hospitals offering commercial transplants. He confirms most kidneys are from executed convicts and says those returning have no paperwork about the donor and often awful complications. It's to Chongqing, though, that most of those from Malacca have travelled for their transplants. Posing as a prospective client, a Mandarin-speaking colleague telephoned the army hospital and was put through to Professor Li Qian Sheng, deputy director of the transplant unit.
He offered the 'special' rate of 80,000 to 90,000 renminbi ($9,700 to $11,000) for a kidney. He said his unit had carried out 100 transplants this year alone on patients, largely from the overseas Chinese communities in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. His tone changed when asked whether the organs were from convicts: 'It's not convenient. I don't want to talk about this on the phone, but I can tell you they are good stuff.' Just say yes or no, we asked. 'No, no, no,' he said uncomfortably.
In Malacca, Yong had to spend a month in hospital with complications after her return. But she has no regrets, and is now running a stall in a busy tourist street, trying to raise money to pay back the loan her daughter took out for the operation. Wilson is now jogging most afternoons, and organising another small group for Chongqing early next year. They will travel ahead of a Chinese festival, traditionally a time of large-scale executions. Foo Eng Suan, a restaurant owner, hopes to be among them. He travels round the temples of old Malacca seeking donations to pay for his transplant. 'Nobody can give us a kidney [in Malaysia], not even our own brothers.' He has few qualms about accepting a kidney from an executed convict. 'That's the way they do things in China.' For the desperate - those who can afford it - it's a question of survival. And with no shortage of prisoners awaiting execution, the Chinese army hospital in Chongqing is only too willing to oblige.
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Few War Crimes in Kosova Will Ever be Prosecuted, Police Say
KosovaLive ~ December 9
Few of the murderers and almost none of the rapists who committed war crimes against the Albanian population in Kosova in 1999 are likely to ever be brought to justice, according to UNMIK police. "There were lots of lives destroyed with no way of ever investigating or bringing anyone to trial," Randy Gallant of the UNMIK police told KosovaLive in an interview this week. "There are lots of cases where yes, the incident happened, but we cannot prove who did it." Police statistics show that 22 people have been indicted for war crimes and nine for genocide since NATO intervention pushed Serbian forces out of Kosova in June 1999. Only two or three of the cases have been tried so far. The process is slow because it takes time to bring in the international judges and prosecutors desired to insure fairness in the judicial process. "The perpetrators exist and they are still on the loose," Gallant said.
There were many perpetrators. The precise number of murders and systematic rapes committed during the war may never be known. But investigators have exhumed more than 3,600 bodies of people believed murdered by Serbian forces. Gallant said that in the immediate aftermath of the war, there were reports suggesting as many as 2,000 cases of systematic rape. After initial investigations by the OSCE, that number was pared to 96 cases that warranted further investigation. But thus far, only one rapist has been convicted. Gallant said the number of rape investigations may be well below the actual occurrence of rapes because the victims were too ashamed or fearful to tell police what had happened to them.
The meager results of the war crimes investigations thus far anger Kosovare Kelmendi, of the Humanitarian Law Center in Prishtina. She said that she is not satisfied with the work of both the UNMIK Police and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). "The Kosovar people have directed all their hopes for justice at the Hague tribunal. However, the image of the tribunal has started to fade in their eyes," Kelmendi said.
Kelmendi said there cannot be peace and stability in Kosova without solving the "priority problems," such as the conviction of war criminals, as well as the release of Albanians still imprisoned in Serbia and the identification of missing persons. "Therefore, the Kosovars appeal to the Hague tribunal to work more seriously to capture the war criminals and deliver them into the hands of the law. This would present the only satisfaction to those families who have lost their most loved ones during the war," Kelmendi told KosovaLive.
The meager results of the war crimes investigations thus far anger Kosovare Kelmendi, of the Humanitarian Law Center in Prishtina. She said that she is not satisfied with the work of the both the UNMIK Police and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). "The Kosovar people have directed all their hopes for justice at the Hague tribunal. However, the image of the tribunal has started to fade in their eyes," Kelmendi said. Kelmendi said there cannot be peace and stability in Kosova without solving the "priority problems," such as the conviction of war criminals, as well as the release of Albanians still imprisoned in Serbia and the identification of missing persons. "Therefore, the Kosovars appeal to the Hague tribunal to work more seriously to capture the war criminals and deliver them into the hands of the law. This would present the only satisfaction to those families who have lost their most loved ones during the war," Kelmendi told KosovaLive.
But according to Gallant, director of the Central Criminal Investigations Unit of the UNMIK police, it is not so easy. The main reason for the failure to arrest and convict these criminals is insufficient evidence to prove their guilt. In some cases, he said, witnesses turn out to have only vague or second-hand information about rapes and killings. In others, the criminals were Serbian paramilitary forces or Interior Ministry police who came from Serbia, committed crimes in Kosova and fled back. This leaves the witnesses in a difficult position to identify the criminals, as they do not know who they were, Gallant said.
The UNMIK police are responsible for investigating and capturing the "trigger pullers," the individuals who actually committed the crimes. The Hague tribunal, according to the ICTY head of mission for Kosova, Alistair Graham, is responsible for indicting and prosecuting the higher echelons, the senior military, police, political figures who planned, ordered and coordinated the war crimes. There are five public indictments of figures responsible for war crimes in Kosova, including Yugoslavia's former president Slobodan Milosevic and several of his political colleagues. Asked by KosovaLive if there is any way of bringing the war criminals in Serbia to justice, Graham said that in order to "gain access to those people, it needs to be negotiated with the politicians in Belgrade."
According to Graham, in the summer months of the past two years, 50 to 60 ICTY pathologists gathered forensic evidence from crime scenes and exhumation sites throughout Kosova. About 3,685 bodies have been exhumed in 195 locations in Kosova. As the OSCE has taken up the process of identifying the victims on an individual basis, Rupert White, the OSCE Identification Project Officer, told KosovaLive that out of 280 unidentified bodies, 170 have actually been identified. Caroline Douilliez from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kosova said that their aim is to work for the victims, in this case helping the Kosovar families in finding their missing loved ones. "Not knowing is a terrible suffering for the family," Douilliez told KosovaLive.
Since Bernard Kouchner, chief of the U.N. Mission in Kosova, recognized the ICRC as the lead agency dealing with missing persons in Kosova, it has been easier for the Red Cross to gain access to the victims and places of conflict because it has contact with both sides. The ICRC is "neutral" in the eyes of all, Douilliez said, meaning that they have gained the trust of both sides. On the one hand, they remind the authorities of the rules of war and raise their attention to their violation. On the other hand, the Red Cross gathers information from the families of the missing persons, which is then forwarded to the ICTY, which in turn recognizes the "specific work" of the Red Cross as a neutral participant. According to Douilliez, there have been 5,165 tracing requests from families since January 1998 until November 2000. A total of 1,582 people have been found in detention or were confirmed dead. "Justice is very often a slow process," Douilliez said, "and it is always too slow for the people waiting." (Luljeta Kuraja)
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Russian President Urges U.N. to Intensify Anti-Terrorist Efforts
Russian Information Center ~ Dec. 10
During the Millennium Summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed Russia's principle position that in the face of the growing consolidation of terrorist structures worldwide, the United Nations is to assume more responsibility in mobilising international potential of countering terrorism. Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Sergei Lavrov, made a statement to this effect at an official session of the Security Council on Wednesday. The Russian delegation initiated the session dedicated to the U.N. anti-terrorist effort.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also stated this position at the Millennium Assembly, according to Lavrov. "Terrorists should not be able to find either support, or shelter" and "persecution for each terrorist act should be unavoidable," Lavrov said. "Not a single state can afford to ignore the problem of terrorism or to expect to resolve this problem on its own," Lavrov noted. "International terrorist network is often ahead of the countering it global community. They set up a wide cross-border net for implementing their evil objectives," he added.
Lavrov drew the attention of the session to the emergence of a new "arch" where terrorists became active: Balkans - Middle East - Caucasus - Central Asia - Afghanistan. "The Talib-controlled Afghan territory has become the main region of the international terrorism threat. A proper rebuff to a threat on such scale is impossible without allying all countries without exception," he pointed out. The Council adopted a statement in which concern is expressed over the increasing number of terrorist acts in different forms and expressions. The statement stipulated readiness to take steps to deter terrorist threats to worldwide peace and security. Lavrov read out this statement in the capacity of the Council's chairman.
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Georgia's Lawmakers Call for Leaving CIS
Moscow Echo ~ Dec. 10
Georgian lawmakers will discuss possible withdrawal from the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS), formed after the disintegration of the USSR. Georgian parliamentarians resolved to include this issue in the agenda after the leader of the opposition League of Georgian Traditionalists Akaky Asatiani delivered his speech Thursday.
Georgia has not benefited at all in the seven years of its membership in the CIS he said. Besides, as long as Georgia is the CIS-member state, prospects of integration into European structures remain vague, said Asatiani.
Russia's move to introduce visa regime for Georgian citizens traveling to Russia proves that Moscow consistently pushes Georgia out of the CIS, he said. Majority of Georgian lawmakers supported Asatiani's ideas. The proposal will first be discussed in parliamentary committees.
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Close the School of Assassins! "International Day of Action", January 17th
SOA Watch ~ December 9
On January 17th, people all over the world will hold vigils, demonstrations and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to voice their opposition to the "School of Assassins." This date marks the day that the SOA will be re-named "The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation." The U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), located at Ft. Benning, Georgia, is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. The SOA was established in Panama in 1946 * supposedly to promote stability in the region. But it's reputation for churning out despots soon earned it the nickname, "Esquela de Golpes" or "School of Coups."
In 1984, the SOA was kicked out of Panama under terms of the Panama Canal Treaty, and a major Panamanian Newspaper dubbed it "The School of Assassins." The name was well-earned and well-documented. SOA trained soldiers have left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where they have returned. During its 54 year history, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American troops, and continues each year to train hundreds of soldiers in combat skills such as commando tactics, military intelligence, and psychological operations. In 1996, a White House report revealed the existence of training manuals used at the SOA that advocated torture, execution, and blackmail.
SOA-trained troops have used these skills to make war against their own people, with disastrous consequences. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the "School of Assassins." In response to growing criticism, the Pentagon has mounted a smoke and mirrors PR campaign to keep the SOA open. Minor changes in the curriculum of the School -- which even SOA supporters have called cosmetic -- and the upcoming name change are part of this campaign. Rebecca Johnson is organizing a dawn to dusk vigil at the gate of Fort Benning for the entire month of January. A creative nonviolent civil disobedience action is being planned in January to coincide with the re-opening of the school. All are invited to join in for the entire month or any part of it. Limited housing will be available in Columbus.
If you'd like more information about this, please contact Rebecca at (508) 289-7813. SOA Watch is calling on local groups and individuals to take action on January 17th. Organize educational events, vigils, demonstrations and direct actions at federal buildings, Army bases and other appropriate locations. If we unite our voices and our strength, the powers that be will not be able to stop us from shutting down this "School of Assassins" once and for all. Let us continue to work together towards a future of Justice and Peace for all people.
Please contact us with information about actions being organized in your region so that we can include this in our media-blitz (phone: 202.234.3440, Email: soawatch@knight-hub.com) In Solidarity, SOA Watch PO Box 4566, Washington DC 20017.
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New Mass Grave Discovered in Bosnia
The Guardian ~ Dec. 8
Investigators began wading through tons of trash at a garbage dump in southeastern Bosnia on Thursday to uncover the remains of local villagers missing after the war and believed buried underneath. At least 60 people are believed by investigators to be buried at the site at Nevesinje, 41 miles south of the capital, Sarajevo. Excavations began after work was finished the night before on another mass grave in the nearby town of Visegrad, where investigators discovered a total of 50 bodies on the banks of the river Drina after waters receded. The bodies at both sites are believed to be those of local Bosnian Muslims, killed by Serb forces at the beginning of the 1992-95 war.
Amor Masovic, the head of the Muslim Commission for Missing Persons, said the bones found at the Visegrad site will be reassembled - "since the river mixed them all up'' - then the remains would be identified. Masovic said that at the garbage dump site where his team began work, the pit is some 40 yards deep "and has the form of an hour glass.'' He lowered himself into the pit by rope.
The bodies here are presumed to belong to some of the 150 Muslims that are missing from Nevesinje. "It will take us several weeks to deal with this one,'' Masovic said. An estimated 1,800 truckloads - or about 9000 tons of trash - has to be removed before the bodies can be exhumed. Some of the trash is continually burning, and firefighters had to be called before the investigation could begin.
Some 200,000 people died during the war here. Over 20,000 remain missing, of which 90 percent are Bosnian Muslims. The remains of the missing are gradually being found in numerous mass graves throughout the country.
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Clinton Grants Stay of Execution to Study Race Gap
Reuters ~ Dec. 8
President Clinton granted a six-month reprieve to murderer Juan Raul Garza, a Hispanic who was scheduled next week to be the first person executed under federal law since 1963. Clinton said in a written statement he was granting the reprieve to give the Justice Department time to further study racial and geographic disparities in the federal death penalty system that were documented in an earlier department report. "In this area there is no room for error," Clinton said Thursday in his statement. Death penalty opponents said Clinton's action was a welcome step, but that it fell short of the formal moratorium on federal executions they were seeking and failed to ensure an adequate study of the bias issue would be undertaken.
Garza's attorney, Greg Wiercioch, said of his client, "He's relieved, but I think also a little disappointed that the president didn't commute his sentence." He said there were sufficient doubts over bias in the case to warrant a commutation. Garza, 44, is awaiting execution in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was convicted in 1993 of ordering three murders to further control over a marijuana-smuggling organization based in Texas.
LEAVING THE DECISION TO A SUCCESSOR
Clinton's action leaves the decision over Garza's fate to his successor, either Republican George W. Bush of Texas or Vice President Al Gore. Democrat Gore and Bush, like Clinton, both say they support the death penalty. As Texas governor, Bush this year has presided over 39 executions, a record for any single state since U.S. authorities began keeping records in 1930. Clinton in August had delayed Garza's execution until Dec. 12 pending new Justice Department clemency guidelines. "Supporters of capital punishment bear a special responsibility to ensure the fairness of this irreversible punishment," Clinton said on Thursday.
Richard Burr, a Texas attorney who advises defense attorneys in federal capital cases, said the Justice Department will undergo a "huge upheaval" in the next administration and that Clinton's decision on Thursday failed to specify sufficiently how the department must conduct its study. "I think he has done a little better than punting, but he has done very little to ensure that the proper kind of examination that must be done should be done," Burr said. Garza's attorneys in the clemency appeal argued that his sentence should be reduced to life in prison, saying the execution has more to do with race and geography than the seriousness of his crimes.
They cited a Justice Department study in September that found racial and geographical disparities in federal death penalty cases. The study found that racial minorities were overrepresented in the federal death penalty system and all of the capital cases were concentrated in 49 of the 94 federal districts. Garza is among the 19 inmates awaiting execution in the special unit of the Indiana prison. Another inmate is there, but his death sentence has been set aside, a Justice Department spokesman said. The inmates comprise 14 blacks, four whites, one Asian and Garza, the sole Hispanic. Clinton said in his statement it remained unclear whether the disparities reflected bias in the justice system."I am not satisfied that, given the uncertainty that exists, it is appropriate to go forward with an execution in a case that may implicate the very issues at the center of that uncertainty," Clinton said. The last federal execution occurred in 1963.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 struck down state death penalty laws, a ruling that also brought federal executions to a halt. In 1976 the high court reinstated the death penalty after the adoption of new procedures. It was not until 1988 that Congress adopted a new federal death penalty law, which was expanded in 1994. U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, has sponsored legislation seeking a moratorium on federal executions. Feingold welcomed Clinton's action but said "a stay for only one inmate, of course, does not completely address the systemic flaws in the federal system. A moratorium on all federal executions is the only full and fair response to a system that appears to be plagued with possible racial and regional disparities."
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Russia Needs Reformed Secret Services
RBC ~ Dec. 7
The eighth annual conference: "The KGB: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" was held by the Glasnost Foundation. It was devoted to Russia's current secret services, which is bewilderingly inept, thoroughly corrupt and ready to go to any cynical lengths to tighten their grip over society. The speakers, who included former secret service officers, journalists and figures from a series of well-publicized "espionage" cases of recent years, painted a bleak picture. Russia's secret services are at once a powerful, criminalized empire methodically implementing a plan dating from Yury Andropov's time to take over the country, and a dismally underpaid, farcically incompetent lot that, as former KGB Col. Konstantin Preobrazhensky said, are in such a sorry state that even Estonian intelligence can get the upper hand over them.
Not even in the most open and liberal societies do secret services relish being subject to public scrutiny, but there are times when acertain dose of openness, however reluctant, becomes essential. This is particularly true of Russia today, where people with a secret- service background are rising to prominence. It is only natural that there should be public interest in the organizations that produced these people. It's fitting that the title of the Glasnost Foundation conference wasn't just the "KGB Yesterday and Today," but also referred to "Tomorrow." Secret services are like taxes, a necessary evil. Russia needs its secret services and they have a legitimate role to play. They won't change overnight, that would require in any case things like decent pay to help attract competent people. But it would be good if the next Glasnost Foundation conference had less to talk about, and not by virtue of having, say, been prevented from going ahead, the Russia Journal wrote.
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Korea, US Show Wide Gap in Assessment of Nogun-ri Case
By Son Key-young, The Korea Times ~ Dec. 6
Korea and the United States have shown great differences on what caused the killing of Korean refugees by U.S. troops during the Korean War and how to take follow-up measures, including compensation to the victims. The two countries yesterday held a meeting at the War Memorial in central Seoul to discuss how to make a final announcement on the year-long probe into the massacre, which allegedly left hundreds of Korean civilians dead at a hamlet of Nogun-ri. Kim Byoung-ho, assistant minister for public policy coordination, headed the Korean delegation, while the U.S. side was represented by Assistant Secretary of the Army Patrick Henry.
Timed with the meeting, hundreds of Koreans gathered near the War Memorial in a massive rally, urging the negotiators not to distort or manipulate the investigation results. Yesterday's meeting was the first bilateral negotiation aimed at discussing how to wrap up the issue and work out follow-up measures. Korean negotiators, citing the demands of Korean victims and their family members, called for appropriate U.S. actions, including an apology, the restoration of the victims' honor and, most of all, compensation to them. However, the U.S. side contended that it was an accident, as the investigators failed to find any hard evidence on the allegations that U.S. soldiers were ordered to shoot refugees at Nogun-ri. In addition, they noted that many testimonies by the witnesses lacked credibility because of their confusion over geographic knowledge regarding the site of the massacre and other reasons.
In contrast, a Korean victims' association has claimed that the U.S. troops killed their villagers ``intentionally and in an inhumane manner.'' As they showed far-reaching differences, the two countries are expected to hold another round of negotiations in the United States late this month, in a last-ditch effort to find a negotiated solution to the thorny issue. Already, the two sides entered into a stage of authoring a joint statement, with Washington transferring a draft, named a statement of ``mutual understanding,'' to Seoul.
The ``hot potato'' of these negotiations is whether the U.S. should make compensation to the Korean victims. Despite consistent demands by the Korean victims, the U.S. side has turned a deaf ear to the plea, out of fear that any provision of compensation to Korean victims might touch off a rush of similar demands and lawsuits in the other parts of the world. The incident took place in the turmoil of a hurried retreat right after North Korea seized the central city of Taejon on July 20, 1950. The war broke out on June 25.
The probe into the incident started in September last year, when the Associated Press, citing declassified documents at the U.S. military archives, reported that U.S. commanders ordered their troops to shoot civilians because North Korean commandos were believed to have hidden themselves in the stream of refugees. Originally, Korea and the United States sought to announce the results of joint investigations in June, timed with the anniversary of the breakout of the 1950-53 war. Officials here are concerned about the possible uproar from the Korean public, because the outcome of the investigation will apparently not meet their expectations. At present, the two countries are seeking to issue a joint statement on the outcome of the probe in both Seoul and Washington, although they show discrepancies in their findings and their assessment.
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Violence Against Jews Called on Rise
By Charles A. Radin, Boston Globe ~ Dec. 6
The Palestinian-Israeli battles that have convulsed the Middle East since late September have sparked the most intense wave of assaults on Jews and Jewish institutions worldwide since World War II, Jewish leaders say. In France, more than 50 synagogues have been attacked, some more than once, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of several organizations monitoring the events. Most assaults were firebombings, but there also have been numerous stonings, targeting students and worshipers as well as buildings.
In Germany and Britain, synagogues have been stoned and others hit with Molotov cocktails. The Al Mujahiroun Muslim group widely distributed leaflets and posters in London, Manchester, and Birmingham declaring that ''the final hour'' for establishment of God's kingdom on earth ''will not come until the Muslims kill the Jews.'' In Australia, 90 incidents have been reported, including assaults on homes of rabbis and an arson attack in which sacred scrolls were desecrated and prayer shawls tied together and used as a wick to ignite gasoline in the synagogue, said Shimon Samuels, Wiesenthal's director of international affairs.
Fewer incidents have occurred in the United States and Canada, but Molotov cocktails have been thrown or fires set in more than a dozen North American cities. Anti-Jewish sentiment also is on the rise in Russia, but it is unclear whether that is directly connected to the upheaval in the Middle East. Elsewhere, there is no doubt. Stone-throwers, graffiti-scrawlers, and attackers of individual Jews have made clear they believe any Jew is a fair target of retribution for Israel's attempts to suppress Palestinian rioters and demonstrators. ''It's all over Europe - in France, in Germany, in England, and it is here too,'' said Elie Wiesel, university professor at Boston University and a leading author of books on Jewish history and culture. ''Especially in Europe, they don't speak of the Israelis, they speak of the Jews.''
Since World War II, outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence have occurred previously, during oil crises and the first Palestinian uprising in the 1980s, but ''it is more violent, more concrete, more concentrated now,'' Wiesel said. ''On the other hand, in the 1980s Jews were killed. So far, no one is killed'' in the current outbreak. Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, said the outbreaks ''underscore the anti-Jewish, rather than anti-Israeli, character of the violence being directed by Palestinian figures in the Middle East.'' Steinberg said this is particularly disturbing to Jews, in Israel and elsewhere, who have advocated a political solution to the Mideast dispute. ''When we seemed so close to a peaceful resolution,'' he said, ''it seemed incomprehensible that the political dispute would be overlaid with this racist dimension.''
Rabbi Marvin Hier, head of the Wiesenthal Center, criticized Palestinian leaders for complaining that the Israeli Army is firing on civilians while 'Jewish schools, community centers, and synagogues are under attack all over the world'' by Palestinians and their supporters. ''These are institutions far removed from any battle scene, and whose people are not directly connected to the Israeli Army,'' he said.
Many Muslims condemn the violence against Jews and Jewish institutions but say it is understandable. ''We don't approve of this,'' said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. ''We don't like for a synagogue to be attacked with a firebomb any more than a mosque. But whenever you have this level of conflict and violence, it is not just going to be just localized.'' Hooper agreed the conflict is now far more focused on religion than in the past, but unlike Jewish leaders who said considerations of race and religion were an overlay on a basically political situation, he felt religion is the core issue. ''Muslims are realizing they are fighting for al-Aqsa'' and other ''holy sites in Jerusalem,'' he said, ''and Muslims worldwide are concerned.''
Many Jewish leaders said they are concerned about the apparent indifference of most countries to the attacks on Jews and synagogues at the same time that their representatives in the United Nations are supporting resolutions sharply critical of Israel's response to Palestinian protests. Samuels, the Wiesenthal center's director of international affairs, said that in a meeting Monday with top Argentinian officials, he objected to their abstaining from voting on a recent UN resolution that accused Israel of war crimes. "'The response I got was that Argentina was trapped by the Europeans,'' he said. ''France basically told them it would prefer a more extreme resolution against Israel, with Latin America abstaining, than a more moderate resolution with Latin American backing.''
France is the epicenter of the recent violence against Jews and their institutions. Nearly 80 of the 200 serious incidents recorded by Tel Aviv University's Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism and Racism have occurred there. Dina Porat, the head of the institute, said a series of events, starting with President Jacques Chirac's response to visits by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Paris at the beginning of the Palestinian uprising, signaled to Muslims and anti-Jewish right-wingers that France sided with the Palestinians. Chirac was widely perceived to have welcomed Arafat warmly and to have been cold toward Barak. Porat said anti-Jewish elements in France also were encouraged by the slowness of French leaders to denounce attacks on synagogues and the failure of French police to protect Jewish sites and investigate incidents vigorously.
Francois Delattre, spokesman for the French Embassy in Washington, rejected Porat's analysis yesterday, saying that ''the French authorities ... have condemned the violence against the Jewish community in the strongest terms. ... The Interior and Justice ministries have taken the necessary measures to ensure that Jewish religious buildings are protected and the perpetrators of the attacks brought to justice.''
A French diplomatic source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the proliferation of incidents in his country was not the product of resurgent anti-Semitism in France, but reflected the fact that France now has a Muslim population of 4 million and more than 600,000 Jews, the third largest Jewish population in the world. ''This violence,'' he said, ''is more a reflection of the current tensions in the Middle East, transported to France.''
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How Helms is Sparking a Real Crisis
By James Carroll, The Boston Globe ~ Dec. 5
Worrying about a potential constitutional crisis coming out of Florida, we hardly noticed a creeping constitutional crisis that showed itself in New York last week. At the United Nations, representatives of more than 100 countries are at work, until this Friday, on negotiations aimed at implementing the 1998 Rome Treaty on the International Criminal Court. Arising from American-backed tribunals in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the ICC will adjudicate genocide and other crimes against humanity. Replacing vengeance with law, the court represents a major step toward a new world-structure of peace.
Recall that, out of concerns for sovereignty, the United States has yet to sign this treaty, a demurral that puts us in the company of Iraq, Libya, China, and a few others. The Clinton administration, which supports the court in principle, has been working in a delicate process to obtain side agreements that address its concerns, and there have been hopes that the president would sign the treaty by the Dec. 31 deadline that would keep the United States actively engaged in the shaping of the court, even without full ratification.
But last Wednesday, in a clear violation of the American way, Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina preempted the administration's transcending responsibility to conduct foreign policy by dispatching his press spokesperson to the United Nations, where he held a press conference to spotlight his diehard opposition to the treaty. (An Associated Press story, my source, reported on this event, but it was not covered in the Globe or The New York Times). Helms will make his "American Servicemembers Protection Act" a "top legislative priority," the spokesperson said, referring to a bill that would not only spike US participation in the court, but would punish countries that ratified the treaty, and would severely restrict future American support of UN peacekeeping.
Thus Helms was not only inserting himself into an international forum, contemptuously intruding upon an American president's delicate and time-sensitive effort to shape foreign policy. He was threatening other nations with retaliation - a military aid cutoff - if they go forward with a court he doesn't like. And that is not all. Against the present administration, Helms produced a chorus of former officials to echo his intervention at the UN. On that same Wednesday - a coincidence? - a letter supporting the Helms bill was released by a dozen foreign policy heavy hitters, including Henry Kissinger, Jeane Kirkpatrick, George Shultz, and James Baker III - a sad demonstration of how far we've come from the post-World War II generation of internationalists who, in fact, gave first expression to the idea of an international war crimes tribunal.
Helms and his supporters claim to be speaking for "American servicemembers," but how do the military men and women who might find themselves subject to the ICC feel about it? In a phone conversation last Friday, I put the question to retired Major General William L. Nash, who commanded Task Force Eagle in Bosnia, a multinational division supporting the Dayton Peace Accords, and who has just returned from a stint as a UN administrator in Mitrovica, Kosovo. These responsibilities have given General Nash a clearer view of these complexities than almost anyone. He said, "My experience from Vietnam to Desert Storm to Bosnia tells me that you behave within the laws of war. The treaty does not change that. It is an endorsement of what we believe in." Indeed, by deterring war crimes, the ICC would be the true protection of Americans, along with everyone else.
General Nash is author of "The ICC and the Deployment of US Armed Forces," a chapter in a study of the court published recently by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The academy's program director for international security studies, Martin Malin, watched events unfold last week. The Helms intervention, he told me, "was timed to sharpen the divisions between the United States and other nations, threatening them by saying, in effect, 'If you support this court, you put your military relations with the US at risk.' Senator Helms is way overstepping the right of Congress to exercise authority in foreign policy."
That James Baker is a party to the Helms campaign signals that an incoming Bush administration would prefer to be shackled by a xenophobic Congress than to be constrained by multilateral and equitable agreements with other nations - a preference here for the old cycle of violence to a new structure of peace. Jesse Helms is an exact epiphany of the mindset, at once parochial and triumphalistic, that will guarantee not America's supremacy, as he so foolishly thinks, but its irrelevance. If, growing impatient, you thought there was nothing serious at stake anymore in whether Al Gore prevails in Florida, think again.
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Criminal Tribunals for Sierra Leone
Sierra Bar Association ~ Dec. 10
The President and Members
United Nations Security Council, New York
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dear Mr. President and Members,
Re: The Sierra Leone Special Court
We write on behalf of the Sierra Leone Bar Association, Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and Campaign for Good Governance, a non-governmental organization promoting democratic participation, gender empowerment, human rights and the rule of law in Sierra Leone, on the urgent and important matter of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. We have had the opportunity of reading the Report of the Secretary-General on the establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone (S/2000/915) and the annexed draft agreement and Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.We note the progress made so far in the establishment of the Special Court and write to draw your attention to the following issues:
1. PRIMACY OF THE COURT
In paragraphs 9 and 10 of the Report, the Secretary-General notes that the Special court has concurrent jurisdiction with and primacy over Sierra Leonean courts. The implementation of the Agreement at the national level would also require the agreement to be incorporated in the national law of Sierra Leone in accordance with constitutional requirements. Incorporating these provisions into the national law of Sierra Leone will require substantial amendments to entrenched provisions of the Constitution of Sierra Leone. These provisions can only be amended unless it is passed by Parliament and approved at a referendum and by not less than two-thirds of all the votes validly cast at the referendum.
2. CHAPTER VII
The present draft Statute provides that the Court's powers are limited only to national courts and do not extend to the courts in other countries. The Court also lacks the power to request the surrender of an accused from any third state and to induce of its authorities with that request. Considering that a number of suspects are presently in third countries and a number of others could easily travel to such countries, we call on the Security Council to request states to cooperate with the Court in the investigation and prosecution of person accused, and to arrest, detain and extradite such persons. Failing to grant the Special Court these powers will undermine the effectiveness of the Court.
3. TEMPORAL JURSIDICTION
The Report by the Secretary-General gives the proposed Court jurisdiction over crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since 30th November 1996. We are disappointed that the jurisdiction of the court is restricted by this time limit and we fear that this might inhibit the successful prosecution of persons accused. Further, it may result in a number of the persons "most responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law" going unpunished. We urge that this truncated scope of temporal jurisdiction be reviewed and that the court be given jurisdiction over all crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since 23rd March 1991, when the war started.
4. PROSECUTING CHILDREN
We believe that children between the ages of 15 - 18 must be accountable for offences they committed. We urge that the statute of the Court does not specifically prevent the trial of children but the decision whether to prosecute children be left to the prosecutor to determine on a case-by-case basis. This in accordance with existing international law.
5. LINK BETWEEN TRC AND SPECIAL COURT
The TRC and the Special Court will both play an important role to promote justice, accountability and reconciliation in Sierra Leone. The role of both institutions will overlap. It is therefore imperative that the relationship between these institutions be clearly and carefully considered. We call on the Security Council to mandate a cooperative relationship between these two institutions in the Statute establishing the Special Court. Without such cooperation, the two institutions might squander very limited resources and waste substantial time.
6. "SIERRA LEONEAN JUDGES'
We note with disappointment that reference in the Statute and the Agreement to "Sierra Leonean judge" be replaced by "judges appointed by the Government of Sierra Leone" at the request of the Government of Sierra Leone. While we recognize that that this does not preclude the appointment of a Sierra Leonean judge, it creates a possibility that Sierra Leoneans may not play any adjudicating role in this process. The Special Court presents a unique opportunity to develop the judiciary and the legal system in Sierra Leone. Limiting the role Sierra Leoneans play in the process may alienate thecitizens of Sierra Leone from the entire process.
7. TIME
The need for justice in Sierra Leone is urgent and the expectations are high. We note with disappointment that recent estimates suggest that the Court will at the earliest be operational in about 2 year's time. We also note the slow progress since the report was presented. With every passing day, the evidence continues to disappear. We urge that you continue to do everything within your powers to expedite the functioning of the court.
In the light of the above-mentioned we urge that the draft agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone on the establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone and Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone be reviewed.
Yours faithfully,
E.E.C. Shears-Moses Zainab H. Bangura, President Coordinator, Sierra Leone Bar Association Campaign for Good Governance
Ibrahim Tayyib Bah, President, Sierra Leone Association of Journalists
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By Galima Bukharbaeva, (IWPR) ~ Dec. 7
The Taleban movement in Afghanistan has admitted Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, IMU, leaders are sheltering in areas under Kabul's control. Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said the admission had come during talks with Taleban representatives in Islamabad, Pakistan, but added the Afghans were refusing to hand over the suspects to Tashkent. The Uzbek government has blamed IMU for two bombings in Tashkent in February 1999 and armed incursions into the country in November 1999 and August 2000. Two IMU leaders, Takhir Yuldash and Juma Namangani, both believed to be in Afghanistan, were sentenced to death in absentia by an Uzbek court for their alleged involvement in the attacks.
Despite the Taleban's refusal to extradite the IMU leaders, Kamilov said Uzbekistan would maintain ambassadorial level contact with the Taleban, but would keep up pressure on the organisation to end the activities of anti-Uzbek government forces and "various bandit groups" operating out of Afghanistan territory. "So far we haven't had any concrete promises on the issue from Taleban," Kamilov conceded.
The minister said the Taleban had adopted an "incomprehensible" position on the issue of the IMU leaders."They say that according to Afghan traditions these people are guests and that the Taleban authorities therefore can't take any action whatsoever," Kamilov said. "Well, we can't take that seriously and will continue to apply pressure to ensure no threat to Uzbekistan comes from Afghanistan." The minister added that should Afghanistan guarantee to eliminate security threats to Uzbekistan, "then we will be ready to develop good-neighbourly, two-way relations with Afghanistan."
Mir-Akbar Rakhmankulov, Uzbek National Security Council Secretary, believes the IMU's goals are limited to destabilising the region as a whole. "We are not expecting any major military operations from them," Rakhmankulov said. "It's these very groups which are the largest organisers of drugs trafficking." According to Uzbek officials the organisation consists of small irregular units and sub-units, capable of sabotage actions and "terrorist" strikes."The IMU is capable of carrying out sabotage actions and terrorist actions on the territory of Uzbekistan, but does not present a major threat in the way that the mass media in certain countries has reported, with claims that Uzbekistan stands on the brink of war, " Rakhmankulov said. This statement was made in response to media reports and official comments, especially in the Russian and Kazak media, warning of possible IMU offensives extending as far as Kazakstan.
Tashkent believes these warnings are exaggerated. Officials say they have more to do with Russian and Kazak national interests, than any real threat posed by the IMU. A report in the Russian daily Izvestia, for example, claimed Tashkent was planning to allow the United States to launch air strikes against Osama bin Laden from Uzbek territory. Bin Laden, blamed by the US for several bomb attacks, is based in Afghanistan."We haven't had any such discussions on this subject with anybody and we consider such a publication to be a clear case of provocation aimed at complicating relations between the countries mentioned, and first and foremost at complicating relations between the USA and Uzbekistan," said Rakhmankulov.
Both Moscow and Astana are pushing for a so-called regional "rapid reaction force" and various anti-terrorist centres within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS. They want all the Central Asian republics to contribute. Uzbekistan left the CIS Collective Security Treaty in January 1999, a move which angered Moscow and other CIS states. Russia and Kazakstan would like to see Uzbekistan join once again into a unified military formation, thereby limiting Tashkent's room to manoeuvre independently on security issues. By heightening the atmosphere of tension in the region Russia also stands to gain from any resultant increase in arms expenditure. Uzbekistan is already engaged in over 20 joint military projects with Russia, and as Uzbek President Islam Karimov once said, "Russia does do it for free we are paying for it." Galima Bukharbaeva is IWPR's Project Editor in Tashkent.
Copyright IWPR 2000
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By Rozlana Taukina (IWPR) ~ Dec. 7
The Kazak government banned one of the leaders of the opposition Republican People's Party (RPP) last week from travel outside Kazakstan for five years, in the latest crackdown on the activities of its opponents. The restriction order against RPP deputy chairman Amirjan Kosanov, press secretary in the government of ex-prime minister Akejan Kajegeldin, followed an incident in March in which he and two other opposition figures were walled into their apartments at night by unknown assailants. Two other supporters of Kajegeldin, President Nursultan Nazarbaev's main political opponent who fled into exile after resigning as prime minister in 1997, were sentenced to three and a half years in prison earlier this year.
Pyotr Afanasenko and Satjan Ibraev had acted as couriers between the organized opposition in Kazakstan and their leader.Yermurat Bapi, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper SolDAT, and political analyst Nurbulat Masanov, another victim of the March incident, face trial on charges of insulting the president and the Kazak people. Opposition newspapers are refused service in printing houses. The security services halt print runs, tax authorities pursue the managements and the authorities bring legal suits. Telephones are tapped and opposition leaders face routine threats, burglaries and harassment. RPP Chairman Gaziz Aldamjarov, the most persistent and experienced opposition leader, won 87 per cent of the vote in the oil-rich Atyrau Oblast in the west of Kazakstan in last year's parliamentary elections, only to have the victory nullified by the Central Election Commission because two drunken youngsters had turned a ballot box upside down.
In June this year, all the computers in Aldamjarov's offices were stolen, even though the safes were left untouched. In October, thieves took his most presentable suit, two shirts and a family photograph album from his apartment, ignoring money, valuable equipment and decorations. Recently, an anonymous caller threatened Aldamjarov with unspecified consequences if he didn't end his political activities. The bizarre operation against Kosanov, Masanov and Seidakhmet Kuttykadam, leader of the social organization Orleu, in March was perhaps the most blatant gesture of intimidation.
Using 50 kilograms of cement and metal bars, the assailants blocked off the doors to their apartments. The entrance ways to the buildings were covered in offensive and threatening graffiti and their telephone lines were cut. The blockage prevented three activists from attending a protest meeting where they were supposed to call for national dialogue between the Kazak leadership and the opposition. The police opened a criminal investigation, but no one was brought to trial despite the well-organized and coordinated character of the assault. Several days later, all three received enormous bills for international calls they had not made.
Kuttykadam has also been blackmailed with secret compromising film of his visits to a banya. After announcing his intention to continue his political activities, the blackmailers handed the film to a television channel belonging to the holding company of the president's daughter, where it was shown with an ironic commentary, and placed it on an internet site. Kosanov's restriction order was based on the state secrets law and referred to his job in the Kajegeldin government. It came after he was prevented from travelling to United Kingdom, despite having all the required documents including the still obligatory exit visa and British entry visa. "I will sue the Security Department for violation of my rights," he said.
Masanov, the third victim of the walling-in, faces charges of insulting the Kazak people following the publication on the internet of an alleged interview with him. The item was republished by the pro-government press. Bapi, the editor-in-chief of SolDAT, is charged with stirring up international conflicts and insulting the honour and dignity of the president, after he reprinted material from the Western media published on the internet.
Many media figures have fled into exile following pressure and threats of physical retribution - including the director of RIK radio, Serik Medetbekov, the founder of the Vremya Po newspaper, Yulia Firsova, and its editor-in-chief, Nurlan Ablyazov. Office equipment and the personal property of newspaper owners have been illegally seized. Newspapers which can be published abroad, in Kyrgyzstan or Russia, encounter huge problems from customs and the national security committee when they are brought into the country. Every day, the distribution of newspapers that criticize the authorities becomes more difficult.
Attempts by the director of the Kazak International Bureau for Human Rights, Yevgeny Zhovtis, to sue against systematic distribution of false and offensive statements have been blocked at every legal level. The leader of the Pokolenie pensioners' movement, Irina Savostina, faces weekly calls to appear in a municipal court charged with insulting the dignity and honor of two men - a retired lawyer and the editor of the Kazakhskaya Gazeta newspaper. The chairman of the Edinstvo (Unity) movement of representatives of small business, Dametken Alenova, a critic of the state's fiscal policies, was deprived of his title as a professor and her shop was robbed and part of it burnt down. Former deputy Vladimir Chernyshev and the co-chairman of the Azamat party, Pyotr Svoik, have been repeatedly beaten by people in masks at the entranceways to their buildings.
These actions come as the president and members of his family concentrate more and more power into their own hands. The son-in-law of the president, Rakhat Aliev, has, for example, become one of the chiefs of the Committee for National Security, which calls in opposition figures for 'spiritual' discussions. They all have the same aim - to force the leaders of the opposition to end their political activities and to put pressure on them by frightening their families.
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Alarm Over Kyrgyzk Death Sentences
By Yrysbek Omurzakov (IWPR) ~ Dec. 7
The Kygyz authorities are preparing to extend the number of offences qualifying for capital punishment in defiance of calls by human rights organisations for the death penaltry to be scrapped. Prime Minister Amangeldy Muraliev proposes extending capital punishment to crimes such as terrorism, the taking of hostages, banditry, the organisation of and belonging to criminal gangs, trading in narcotics and plotting insurrection. If parliament adopts the proposals, then the number of crimes qualifying for the death penalty will be doubled.
Under pressure from human rights groups, headed by Amnesty International, President Akaev issued a decree on December 2 extending a two-year moratorium on executions for another year, but courts continue to issue death sentences. There were over 60 people in Kyrgyzstan awaiting execution at the beginning of the year 2000. Human rights activists say this is an uncommonly high figure for a democratic country of only five million people. President Akaev imposed the moratorium by decree in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the General Declaration of Human Rights. This silenced the firing squads but did not prevent the courts from delivering about 30 death sentences a year.
Human rights leaders argued that what they called questionable standards of the judicial authorities and law enforcement agencies made it all the more necessary to abolish the death penalty altogether. The death penalty dispute divides the Kyrgyzstan society. Deputy Zainitdin Kurmanov of the legislative assembly of parliament commented, "From the point of view of my party, Moya Strana ('My Country'), the death penalty is amoral. The right to life is the same as the right to marriage or to a family and nobody can take that right away. But our society hasn't yet learned the value of human life."
At the same time, Kurmanov believes it's too early to talk about abolishing the death penalty. More lenient punishments for serious crimes would not be understood by the people, he said. For the time being, he thinks it is sufficient to simply extend the moratorium. Nazarbek Tabrisov, assistant to the special prosecutor's office of Kyrgyzstan, believes punishments should be made harsher still. "Taking the life of a killer, in the same way he has taken the lives of other citizens, is justified," he said.
Most journalists also believe capital punishment is needed to protect society. Sergei Bogdanov, for example, believes it is too early to abolish the death sentence. But he thinks courts should be more careful before imposing them. "You can't ignore evidence and blindly believe the investigating officers," he said. "If courts adopt a more responsible approach then there will be less death row inmates." Natalya Ablova, director of the Kyrgyz-American Bureau of Human Rights and the Observation of the Law, said, "Claims that people won't understand the abolition of the death penalty are incorrect. In my offices relatives of those that have been sentenced to death cry and ask for help.
"They go through the sort of trials and tribulations that make all the conclusions of death penalty advocates unconvincing. Confessions are extracted through torture, people who can't have been guilty are convicted, sentencing is carried out in the absence of lawyers. In 1994 in Bishkek a mentally ill person was executed. The death penalty is a punishment only inflicted on the poor." Abdynazar Mamatislamov, a member of the Djalal-Abad human rights organization Spravedlivost ('Justice') expressed similar concerns. "The death penalty has to be abolished," he said. "Kyrgyzstan has chosen a democratic path of development. The state shouldn't put itself on the same level as people who have taken the lives of other citizens."
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By Slujan Ismailova (IWPR) ~ Dec. 7
Ethnic Russian activists in Kazakstan are making preparations for the mass migration of this minority to its historic homeland. The move follows Russian President Vladimir Putin's calls for the community, which forms about a third of the Kazak population, to return to their ancestral lands. Representatives of the Slavic movement Lad, which had been at the forefront of campaigning for an improvement in the political rights of ethnic Russians, is now playing an instrumental role in organising the minority's exodus."We're talking about resettling in the regions of Central Russia - Voronezh, Kursk, Saratov, Volgograd, places like that, " said Lad member Yakov Belousov.
While ethnic Russians are employed in key sectors of the economy, many are dissatisfied with their political status in the country. Few are represented in high-ranking government jobs, while their language no longer enjoys the same status as Kazak. But despite being squeezed out of political decision-making, many Russians believe they are better off here than their homeland, as in Kazakstan they at least have reasonably good jobs. "Nobody wants us there," said Yevgenia Seredenko, a housewife." I know that the attitude to those moving back is very bad".
In the central regions of Russia, where most of those leaving Kazakstan head for, we're seen as unwanted competition, because people from here are harder working, don't like drinking vodka, and put family interests above all else."The locals in those places don't really like that. Sometimes, it goes as far as direct threats. My friend, who moved to Nizhny Novogorod, says he would have come back to Almaty long ago if it weren't for the wonderful house he's built there. Who told Putin we're living badly? I personally don't look at it that way. Why should I return to a place I never left?"
Many ethnic Russians were greatly surprised when Putin urged them to leave during his visit to the country in October - they had been expecting him to stand up for their political rights. The Slav minority had hoped the Moscow leader would pressure Astana into elevating the status of their language and removing language restrictions for those Russians who want to enter the civil service. "I didn't like what Vladimir Putin had to say, " said taxi driver Andrei Tolstonogov. " I was expecting something else from him. Is it really not worth us standing up for our rights here?"
Yermek Narymbaev, a departmental head of the Russian and China Institute, said Putin is faced with a hard choice: either he tackles falling birth-rates and decreasing life expectancy in his country by encouraging ethnic Russians to return home or he campaigns for their rights in the former Soviet Union. "Judging by his statement, he's chosen the first option," he said. "However, I don't think Putin did the right thing. "Firstly, he's ruled out the possibility of using the influence of the very strong Russian diaspora in Kazakstan to promote his interests in the region."Secondly, the statement has effectively demoralised the Russian population in Kazakstan. People don't know what to do: to leave or stay."
Lad has already begun organising the departure of those Russians who wish to leave. "We will help people leave, local authorities at the other end will provide a reception," Belousov said. "We'll settle the material and legal problems here. We're predicting up to two million citizens will eventually go." But others believe the exodus will be nothing like as large. Fyodor Miroglov, representative of the 'Russkaya Obshina' association, said "we're not talking about millions, but maybe tens or hundreds of thousands."
The departure of so many ethnic Russians will have disadvantages for Kazakstan. Most of them live in the northern part of the republic, where, in some areas, they make up 80-90 per cent of the local population - working in key sectors of the economy. Many Kazaks fear highly qualified personnel will be among those leaving and that they will take with them millions of dollars from the sale of their apartments, private enterprises and other property. Some analysts point out that the exodus might help Kazakstan's policy-makers to achieve the aim of shifting demographic balance in favour of indigenous nation.
But at the same time, they warn that economic consequences of the migration could have long-term adverse effect on the country. "Bearing in mind the enormous separatist potential of the Russian population, Kazakstan must seek to increase the Kazak proportion of the population," said commentator Yermek Narymbaev. "However, it's not in the national interest to see the entire Russian population leave." Even some Kazak nationalists have begun to talk about a need to stop the departure of Russians. The leader of the small Alash party, Savetkazy Akatai, said, "It's very good that the Russians live and work here. I wouldn't want the Russians to leave Kazakstan so suddenly."
As a consequence, some experts talk about trying to persuade Russians who were born in Kazakstan to stay by improving their political rights. "A different national policy is needed, " said Narymbaev. " We must do everything we can to support and improve the role of Russian specialists who know some Kazak." So far government officials in Kazakstan have delivered no reaction to the projected migration. Nor have mainstream political parties and social organisations. You get the impression that everyone is awaiting the decision of President Nazarbaev.
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By Bektash Shamshiev, (IWPR) ~ Dec. 7
The sudden resignation of Kyrgyzstan's Deputy Premier Boris Silaev has stoked fears of an imminent government collapse which could intensify the economic woes of this Central Asian republic.To general astonishment, Silaev announced on November 15 that he had accepted a job offer from Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. He said he was leaving home to run a prefecture in the Russian capital. The departure of such a highly experienced political figure convinced many analysts that the fall of the government headed by Prime Minister Amangeldy Muraliev must soon follow.
Without Silaev, the government will clearly be weakened. It would then not be difficult for President Akaev to dissolve the administration. This, he probably calculates, would demonstrate to the West that he is serious about turning the country around economically. There was a storm of speculation that Silaev's exit might be linked to the scandal now raging over a massive contract to build a 23,500-square-metre luxury hotel complex in the centre of Bishkek, on the site of a dilapidated sports stadium.
A parliamentary investigation found that the project contravened a number of laws governing architecture and municipal construction. The Prime Minister ordered a halt to the project. But the building still went ahead, despite protests from deputies. Analysts believe the building scandal will not in itself bring down the government, but might be used as pretext for ministers to walk out before they are sacked by Akaev and used as a scapegoat for the economic crisis. In 2001, Kyrgyzstan is due to repay 160 million dollars of external debt, 20 per cent of which the government hopes to cover with foreign credits.
In recent years, well over 1.5 billion dollars in foreign aid has flowed into the country. Without foreign assistance Kyrgyzstan would struggle.With the coming of winter the government urgently needs credits for restructuring the energy sector. The Kyrgyzenergo organisation has debts of well over 20 million dollars. Other bodies such as Kyrgyzgaz and Kyrgyztelecom are in a similar plight. The government would like to privatise these institutions but cannot find anyone in impoverished Kyrgyzstan who could afford them. It hopes to gain some relief from the latest tranche of credit from the World Bank.
To make things worse, relations between Kyrgyzstan and the West have seriously deteriorated since this year's parliamentary and presidential elections which attracted international accusations of ballot-rigging and bribery. Leaders of major Western countries have yet to congratulate Akaev on his overwhelming election victory for a third term in office. President Akaev is thought to want to repair fences with the West in several ways: admitting that some state bureaucrats are corrupt and obstructing reforms; putting foreign investment as a top priority; or even, it seems, sacking the government. He recently invited US congressmen to visit Kyrgyzstan and inspect its democratic credentials.
But the departure of one of Kyrgyzstan's most influential politicians is seen by many observers as a captain abandoning a sinking ship. In his farewell speech, Silaev openly admitted that prospects for development of Kyrgyzstan are too hazy to place any long term hopes in them. Ordinary people were shocked by his last interview in which he said, "There will be nothing for me here. In Moscow there is hope for something better. For me, for my children and for my grandchildren."
Copyright IWPR 2000
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Hundreds of Thousands March in Solidarity With Indigenous Australians
By Chris Sitka ~ Dec. 6
On December 3rd in Melbourne Australia an estimated 400,000 people joined a walk to show their support for Reconciliation with indigenous Australians. This follows a walk in Sydney during May this year which also saw hundreds of thousands of people come out on the streets in support of this issue. These numbers are highly significant in a country with an overall population of only 19 million. All the other state capitals have also seen marches with turn outs larger than have ever been seen on any issue before.
The hugely significant people's movement for reconciliation has been sparked by outrage at the conservative Federal Government's refusal to apologise to its indigenous population for the atrocities that were committed against them during the process of white colonisation over the last 212 years. In contrast large numbers of marchers carried posters or wore T-shirts emblazoned with the word SORRY. People are especially sorry about the policy of removing indigenous children from their families and forcing them to be brought up in mission dormitories and white foster homes. A recent report entitled The Stolen Generations sparked popular outrage at genocidal practices. Despite such widespread public sympathy and concern the living standards of most Aboriginal Australians are still atrocious and far below those of non-indigenous Australians. In fact they are often described as 4th World.
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Commune Elections More Important Than Flawed KR Trial
By Ron Abney, The Cambodia Daily ~ Dec. 4
During the recent visit of US Senator John Kerry to Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that the proposed law to set up a Khmer Rouge tribunal will become Cambodia's top legislative priority. While this outcome sounds desirable after months of dithering, it is in fact an outcome that shortchanges the Cambodian people. The proposal pushed by Senator Kerry (and that will apparently go before the National Assembly) is a bad law -- a compromise forged by diplomats and officials like Kerry who would rather take credit for initiating a deeply flawed tribunal than show the patience or apply the pressure necessary to bring about conditions for a good one.
Simply put, the draft law does not provide a sufficient framework to bring Khmer Rouge leaders to justice. The law proposes that the trial be held in Cambodia, with a majority of government-appointed Cambodian judges and a Cambodian prosecutor who may be able to veto indictments brought by a foreign prosecutor. It relies on judges and lawyers from a judicial system that is hopelessly corrupt, inexperienced and subject to political manipulation.
The agreement of one foreign judge is required to convict or to block an indictment under the proposed formula, but it is also possible for Cambodian judges to block any convictions. As Cambodia observer Philip Short recently put it: "Given the absence of reliable legal system in Cambodia, and the impotence of police and judges alike in the face of political and financial pressure, any tribunal -- international or not -- in which Cambodia has a voice will be fundamentally flawed from the outset."
In May, a Human Rights Watch report suggested that the international community "make it clear to Prime Minister Hun Sen that they will not provide funding, technical assistance, judges, or other support until minimum standards of justice are guaranteed," that a majority of judges "should be non-Cambodian" and that prosecutors should be "given independent authority to indict." None of these conditions are being insisted on by the UN or Senator Kerry.
The larger reason that Cambodians are shortchanged by this deal is that a flawed Khmer Rouge tribunal should not be the top legislative priority for the National Assembly. The top legislative priority should be the passage of enabling laws for local elections -- elections that were promised long before serious talk of a Khmer Rouge tribunal had begun. A tribunal of Khmer Rouge leaders seeks to deal with crimes of the past, but is guaranteed to fail given the political conditions in Cambodia. Local elections are about Cambodia's future and planting a genuine seed of democracy and accountability, conditions that will be necessary for a credible trial to take place.
At stake in the local elections is the leadership of Cambodia's 1609 communes, the most significant administrative unit in Cambodia. Commune government has changed little since Cambodia was a communist state under Vietnamese occupation. It remains completely controlled by Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party as it has for two decades. Commune elections are the best opportunity to end the CPP's corrosive monopoly on power and bring genuine political stability founded on clean and accountable government.
Hun Sen's government, has shown no political will to move forward with local election plans, as democracy at the local level must equal a loss of power over commune affairs that the CPP has held for 20 years.Despite early promises of holding local elections in 2000, even 2001 now looks unlikely, as the government has not taken action to consider the necessary laws. Kerry and others in the international community share the blame for this. They are rapidly spending down the influence the US and other nations may bring to bear upon Cambodia for a trial that is of dubious value to Cambodians and is doomed to failure. Credible local elections may lack the sex appeal of a big and expensive trial for a handful of aging cadre the government has chosen to sacrifice, but local elections will bear much more fruit.
Elected local leadership, accountable to voters -- not Phnom Penh or party bosses -- will at last have an incentive to develop Cambodia's impoverished countryside and protect the rights of local citizens from land grabs and shakedowns by corrupt officials. Voters may finally begin to have faith in government for the first time in three decades. The spread of accountable government and democratic norms through local elections will create a climate in which the resolution of outstanding national issues can finally take place.
If the people learn to demand accountability from their government, and the government learns to be accountable, then political, legal and economic reforms critical to national development can finally take place. With popular demands for accountability, justice for the victims of the Killing Fields may finally be within reach. Abney, a resident of the US state of Georgia, lived in Cambodia from 1993 to 1994 and 1996 to 1997. He was injured in the March 1997 grenade attack on the Sam Rainsy Party rally in Phnom Penh.
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Meles Zenawi's Regime Intensifies Human Rights Abuse in Ethiopia
By Gashu Habte, Ethiopian Democratic Action League ~ Dec. 3
E-mail: tegbar@juno.com Tel/Fax: 703 866 0709
Incredibly cruel methods are being used to punish political dissidents in Ethiopia. According to a report issued on November 25, 2000, by Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners (SOCEPP), Meles Zenawi's regime in Ethiopia has built "underground" prison cells that are dug deep into the ground for holding political prisoners. There had been reports about these dark underground prison cells where political prisoners are held and made to die in an extremely cruel way deprived of food, medicine and clothes. Their extensive use in several parts of Ethiopia by the Meles regime has now been exposed by a high ranking security official of the regime named Fiseha Hailemariam who has recently defected.
Ethiopian Democratic Action League joins SOCEPP in calling for an immediate international inquiry into this charge of inhumane and shockingly crule act by Meles Zenawi's regime in Ethiopia. The harassment by Meles Zenawi's regime against independent journalists is also intensifying. Late last month, the regime has arrested the vice president of Ethiopian Free Journalists Association (EFJA), Ato Zegeye Haile. His lawyer and EFJA officials are unable to contact him.
Currently there are over 15,000 prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia. Dr. Taye Woldesemayat, Fitawrari Mekonnen Dori and thousands of other prisoners of conscience--including political and civic activists, journalists and average citizens who voice criticism against the regime's dictatorial ethnic apartheid policies--continue to languish in TPLF's disease-infested jails under inhumane conditions. Many of the prisoners are dying in prison deprived of medical treatment. We call on every one to help expose these and other gross human rights violations being committed by Meles Zenawi's ethnic apartheid regime by making phone calls and writing petition letters to governments around the world and international institutions such as the United Nations, OAU and others. Please also join us in the bi-weekly demonstrations we are holding in Washington DC in front of the Ethiopian embassy and the U.S. Congress. The next demonstration will be held in front of the Ethiopian embassy on December 6, 2000 from 12 noon - 1 PM. Give voice to the voiceless.
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Biological Weapons in the Drug War: A Review of Opposition in South America
The Sunshine Project ~ Dec. 1
(sigue en español)
The Sunshine Project announces a new report released today (1 December): Biological Weapons in the Drug War A Review of Opposition in South America. With Examples from Other Regions, Intergovernmental Agencies, and NGOs. Available on our website (http://www.sunshine-project.org), this 8 page report details political action against Agent Green, the biological weapons to eradicate crops that have been proposed for use in the Drug War in Colombia and elsewhere. The report is a resource for policymakers, NGOs, and others opposed to the use of biological weapons in forced crop eradication.
The report focuses on political action by governments and legislatures in South America, detailing the intense opposition to the use of these weapons from Argentina to Venezuela. It also includes updates on the positions of intergovernmental agencies including UNDCP, UNEP, the OAS, and the Andean Community. Examples of action by countries outside of South America are also included as well as details from the BBC's recent interviews with US proponents of using biological weapons. To directly access the report, please visit: http://www.sunshine-project.org/bk3en.html The report is also available in Acrobat (PDF) format.
Spanish Version
El Sunshine Project Anuncia un Nuevo Informe Divulgado Hoy
The Sunshine Project ~ 1 de diciembre
Armas Biológicas en la Guerra contra las Drogas Una Revisión de la Oposición en Sudamérica Con Ejemplos de Otras Regiones, Agencias Intergubernamentales y ONGs Disponible en nuestro portal de internet (http://www.sunshine-project.org), este informe de 8 páginas narra la acción política en contra del Agente Verde - las armas biológicas para erradicar cultivos propuestas para ser usadas en la Guerra contra las Drogas en Colombia y el resto del mundo. El informe constituye un recurso para los tomadores de decisiones, ONGs y otros que se oponen al uso de armas biológicas en la erradicación forzosa de cultivos.
El informe se concentra en la acción política de gobiernos y legisladores de Sudamérica, narrando la fuerte oposición al uso de armas biológicas desde Argentina hasta Venezuela. También incluye una actualización de la posición de agencias intergubernamentales, tales como UNDCP, PNUMA y OEA y la Comunidad Andina. Ejemplos de otros países por fuera de Sudamérica también han sido incluidos, al igual que detalles de las recientes entrevistas de la BBC con los proponentes del uso de armas biológicas.
La introducción y tabla de contenido en español se encuentra disponible en http://www.sunshine-project.org/bk3essumm.html. Para acceder directamente al informe completo en inglés, por favor visite: http://www.sunshine-project.org/bk3en.html. El informe también está disponible en formato Acrobat (PDF).
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Eight Killed in Irian Jaya Protest
By Geoff Spencer, Washington Post ~ Dec. 2
Tensions between Indonesian forces and separatists pushing for Irian Jaya's independence exploded into violence Saturday when police fired on a group of bow-and-arrow-wielding separatists during a clash. Eight people were killed. Gen. Sylvanus Wenas, a top police commander in the troubled province, said the two sides clashed after the separatists tried toraise an outlawed rebel flag in the southeastern town of Merauke. He said the independence supporters challenged police during the flag-raising ceremony and also fired arrows at settlers from other parts of Indonesia, wounding three. Wenas said seven separatists were killed. Local police said an eighth man, a taxi driver from Java island, died from his injuries later. It was not known whether the taxi driver was one of the settlers, nor was it clear whether the separatists physically attacked police before the officers opened fire.
The deaths bring to 10 the number of people killed during the past two days as the restive province marks the anniversary of a failed 1961 independence bid. The anniversary has prompted a security clampdown in the region. Irian Jaya, a mineral-rich, jungle-covered province 2,500 miles west of Jakarta, is one of several regions pushing for more freedom from the sprawling Indonesian nation of 17,000 islands and 210 million people. In 1961, tribal chiefs here declared independence from Dutch colonial rule. The independence move failed, and two years later Indonesia seized the region. Independence activists have been battling Indonesian rule ever since.
In June, 501 tribal leaders declared independence and named their homeland West Papua. Across the region, people pulled down the Indonesian flag and raised the red, blue and white "Morning Star" independence flag. Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has ordered tough action against secessionists and has vowed to keep his crisis-ridden country from breaking apart. Earlier this week, senior police warned they would shoot violent troublemakers during the Irian Jaya independence rallies.
The first two deaths came Friday in Fak Fak on the province's west coast, where police shot two men to death after about 50 tribespeople staged a pro-independence protest and then rioted. Wenas said police there opened fire when the mob attacked them with bows and arrows. On Saturday, heavily armed Indonesian police seized control of a cultural center in the provincial capital, Jayapura, that had been occupied by the ragtag separatist movement for the past year. Riot police with guns, shields and batons entered the building soon after dawn. In a gesture of conciliation, officers said some activists could stay temporarily as long as no rebel flags were raised at the site. There was no resistance by the separatists, who have been cowed by a heavy military and police presence and several arrests over the last few days. Four senior secessionist leaders have been detained, and two have been charged with subversion.
On Friday night, police pulled down a "Morning Star" flag outside the cultural center in Jayapura as hundreds of independence supporters watched in silence at the end of a day of subdued protest. Some protesters sobbed as their flag stopped flying. "We allowed them to lower it to protect our people's safety," said Katerina Yabansubru, a senior pro-independence activist. "It is only a symbol. It doesn't mean our freedom struggle is over." Analysts in Jakarta said Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri - whose father, former president Sukarno, occupied the province in 1963 - had demanded that security forces crack down on separatists in Irian Jaya and Aceh, another independence-minded region on the western end of the country. President Wahid is fending off calls to resign over a range of crises and scandals. Many believe the separatist and communal violence that has killed thousands across the country could help push him from office.
In Maluku province, also known as the Moluccan islands, two people were shot to death Friday after a mob of about 2,000 Muslims threw homemade bombs at security officers. On Thursday, police said 50 people were massacred in a remote village in the region, about 1,600 miles northeast of Jakarta. The islands have been the scene of vicious fighting between Muslims and Christians since 1999. More than 4,000 people have been killed. In the far western province of Aceh, rebel leaders asked that a new round of peace talks with the Indonesian government be postponed for two weeks to Dec. 15. The Free Aceh Movement, which wants an independent Islamic-oriented state, said it needed more time to prepare for negotiations. Fighting between government forces and the separatists has continued in Aceh even though a truce was signed in June. More than 250 people have been killed since then, and 5,000 have died in the past decade.
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Rebels With a New Cause; NATO, Yugoslavia Join to Rein In Deadly Successor To KLA Militia
By Peter Finn, The Washington Post ~ December 2
At a former Yugoslav police checkpoint at the bottom of a wooded ravine outside this village, Commander Hairy, so named because of his thick beard and hair, pulls up in a black Yugo car. A cluster of young uniformed men--who, with automatic weapons and hard stares, now man the sandbagged shack--are under Hairy's command. And their presence on this patch of brown earth, about a mile from hardened Yugoslav troops on one flank and a mile from NATO on the other, is testament to the growing confidence of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medveda and Bujanovac. The ethnic Albanian guerrilla group is known as UCPMB, its initials in Albanian. "People feel much safer with us here," said the 36-year-old commander, who refused to give his real name. The people he claims to protect are the ethnic Albanians of Serbia's Presevo valley, which runs along the U.S.-patrolled section of eastern Kosovo.
The valley is the latest flash point in the Balkans. Last week, the guerrillas took this checkpoint in a brief firefight. Elsewhere, they ambushed and killed four Serbian Interior Ministry policemen. Things were calm today, but in places the valley felt eerily like Kosovo in the months before NATO bombed Yugoslavia in response to its brutal counterinsurgency campaign against the Kosovo Liberation Army: pillaged farmhouses, refugees in tractor-drawn farm wagons, cocky guerrillas and, in the near distance, Yugoslav troops.
The difference is that this time NATO and Yugoslavia are united in trying to prevent another Balkan conflict. The Yugoslavs are holding back their attacks; NATO troops are trying to cut off a flow of weapons to the guerrillas from Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic. "Our cooperation is better than before, and there is a will to improve it," said Stevan Nikcevic, co-head of the Serbian Interior Ministry. "We are exchanging information" with NATO. "This is a very real problem," said a senior Western diplomat in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital. "But we have been very pleased with everything we have heard from the government of [new, democratically elected President Vojislav] Kostunica. That's the good news."
Still, the UCPMB's numbers have swollen to close to 1,000, and it appears to have a ready supply of small arms, including grenade launchers and mortars. Most appear to come from hidden caches of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian militia group that--despite its claims to have disbanded after NATO's entry--maintains a shadow presence in the province.
The paradox for NATO is that the agreement it signed with Yugoslavia to end the bombing last year spawned the UCPMB. A demilitarized buffer zone that the deal set up between NATO and Yugoslav forces has come to provide an almost perfect vacuum in which the guerrillas can build their organization. Only lightly armed Yugoslav police can legally enter the zone, and those who do are killed. A drive along mountain roads in the buffer zone today suggested that the guerrillas, some of them teenagers, were in firm control, manning checkpoints, standing guard with old AK-47 assault rifles, grenades strapped to their waists. "What business do Serb police have here?" asked Xhevat Hasani, a 39-year-old guerrilla in the village of Muhovac, where a dozen or so UCPMB members gathered at a farmhouse serving as their local headquarters with a map on the wall, binoculars on the desk and AK-47s leaning against the wall.
The local commander in Muhovac, Muhamed Xhemaili, wore a uniform with KLA insignia, as did a number of other guerrillas in the valley. And many admitted they had fought in Kosovo and were spoiling for another fight with the Serbs. "I've been in the war for 2 1/2 years," said a fighter named Isuf, who said he was from near Prizren. And Kaltaima Pajaziti, a 16-year-old from the Kosovo capital, Pristina, said she was here to "maybe kill a Serb" when asked why she was in uniform in a place that was not her home.
Many of the guerrillas want to unite the area with Kosovo. They argue that the Presevo valley was part of the province until the internal borders of the former Yugoslavia were redrawn in 1957. "Between the dictatorship of Milosevic, and the dictatorship of Kostunica, the only difference is the outside sheen," said Isuf Bajrami, who sympathizes with the group. "Since the borders were put there without the approval of the people, you can't blame the people for wanting to change them." But some, including Commander Hairy, suggested that they could find a place within a democratic Serbia. "We want to live as the rest of the world lives, without hurting people," he said. "The Serbs of Bujanovac never did any harm to Albanians, and I have great respect for them."
The Yugoslav authorities have complained that Serbia's border with Kosovo, some of which is rough, forested terrain, is not adequately guarded by NATO and that the guerrillas move personnel and weapons into the valley at will. Many outside analysts agree, saying that Western governments, fearing casualties, have been loath ever since last year to use NATO troops aggressively to root out the KLA and its arms.
NATO has said it recently stepped up security at the border to stop the infiltration of guerrillas and weapons. Today it announced that 250 British troops will join the effort. At major crossings, U.S. and Russian troops work together and search almost every car. But elsewhere, the scrutiny is much more slack. At a crossing manned by Russian troops, cars drove in and out without being stopped, including one Audi that dropped an armed man within sight of the soldiers, who were lounging in chairs.
For now, the Yugoslavs have chosen to wait, though their army could probably rout the guerrillas in 48 hours. Commander Hairy acknowledged as much today, saying, "we know our limits." Kostunica's government, which is courting Western support, wants to avoid the brutality of the rule of former president Slobodan Milosevic. "They realize they have to be smarter than they were in Kosovo," said the Western diplomat in Belgrade. "The tactic of seeing guerrillas shoot[ing] from a farmhouse and then destroying the village is not going to work."
When Yugoslav forces reentered the village of Lucane, just outside the buffer zone, this week, they acted with restraint, firing no shots and assuring elderly people whose relatives had fled that it was safe to return. They even allowed Western news agencies to accompany them when they moved into the village. That approach contrasts sharply with a raid on Mali Trnovac this summer when Yugoslav special forces entered the village where the UCPMB had been active. Several months later, most homes in the village still have broken windows, smashed furniture and graffiti on the walls. With the UCPMB now in control, residents have begun to trickle back, further bolstering the guerrillas' reputation as the people's only defense against the government in Belgrade.
To press the point that the Milosevic era is over, Kostunica has visited the area and sent representatives to meet with local ethnic Albanians in an effort to resolve the crisis and address some of the genuine grievances of the Albanian population. In Bujanovac, for instance, voting districts are gerrymandered to ensure Serbian control of the region even though ethnic Albanians are in the majority. There are no ethnic Albanians in the local police or judiciary. Their numbers in the local administrations are minuscule, and there is clear discrimination in the allotment of services to Serbian and Albanian villages.
Moderate local ethnic Albanian leaders here said Kostunica could sideline the UCPMB with genuine political reform coupled with military restraint. "What we have in mind is that the democratic authorities of Serbia acknowledge that we are equal citizens of this state living here," said Galip Beqiri, president of the village of Veliki Trnovac. "What we are hearing [from Belgrade] would give us some hope, but we have not felt any change here yet."
END
Russians Seize Maskhadov's "Right-Hand Man"
Dmitri Nepomnyaschy, IWPR ~ Dec. 1
MOSCOW Mystery shrouds the arrest of Chechen security minister Turpal Atgeriev, one of Russia's most wanted men, who is currently languishing in Lefortovo Prison.
Last week, government sources were unable to agree how long Atgeriev had actually been in custody while the Federal Security Service (FSB) - usually swift to trumpet any coup against the Chechen rebels - has refused to confirm that he has been arrested at all.
The situation has prompted many observers to speculate that the security forces are hoping to strike a deal with Atgeriev, who has twice walked free from federal custody over the past 18 months.
According to the Vremya Novostei newspaper, Atgeriev was seized by FSB officers at the end of October when he flew to Makhachkala for secret negotiations with the security services. The paper claims that he has been interrogated for the past two weeks without being given access to relatives or lawyers.
However, the pro-Russian civilian administration in Gudermes claims that Atgeriev was arrested in Chechnya in late November and taken to Lefortovo in secret.
Whatever the case, Atgeriev remains the most enigmatic of the Chechen leaders - a man who was released from prison in 1999 by the personal intervention of the Russian prime minister and who was allegedly embroiled in the Andrei Babitsky scandal earlier this year.
Atgeriev first rose to prominence in January 1996 when he joined Chechen warlord Salman Raduev (another resident of Lefortovo) for the ill-starred raid on Kizlyar, just across the Dagestani border.
The Russian prosecutor's office subsequently issued a warrant for his arrest - a move which did little to hamper Atgeriev's rapid ascent up the Chechen political ladder. A distant relative of President Aslan Maskhadov, he was soon appointed head of the president's administration, then security minister.
He resigned from this post in March 1999 when he was put in charge of a new commission aimed at combatting organised crime in Chechnya - particularly the burgeoning slave trade.
Three months later, Atgeriev was arrested at Vnukovo airport whilst on his way to hold talks with senior ministers in Moscow.
However, just days after the arrest, Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin personally intervened and secured Atgeriev's release from the Matrosskaya Tishina prison. Observers in the Russia media commented that the two men were old acquaintances and Atgeriev had once presented Stepashin with a ceremonial Chechen dagger.
On the Ingushetian border, the ex-security minister was met by a welcoming committee of 300 rebel fighters who fired volleys of machine-gun bullets to celebrate his release. Atgeriev claimed that his arrest had been deliberately timed to scupper a forthcoming meeting he had arranged between President Boris Yeltsin and Aslan Maskhadov.
Back in Grozny, Atgeriev conducted a series of telephone negotiations with the then head of the FSB, Vladimir Putin, who invited him to a face-to-face meeting in Moscow.
However, when the Chechen minister arrived in Moscow, Putin cancelled the appointment and invited Atgeriev to meet his deputy instead. Atgeriev refused, claiming the deputy was "not senior enough".
In July this year, the FSB again announced that Atgeriev had been arrested and charged not only with taking part in the Kizlyar debacle but also of planning terrorist attacks on the civilian administration in Gudermes.
By September, however, Atgeriev was again at liberty, this time allegedly offering to surrender to the Russian forces together with 200 of his fighters. On the following day, "a man who introduced himself as Turpal-Ali Atgeriev" rang the Ekho Moskvy radio station and refuted these claims.
He also denied that he had taken part in the exchange of Radio Liberty reporter Andrei Babitsky for two Russian POWs - as the federal special forces had previously claimed.
Dmitri Nepomnyaschy is a regular IWPR contributor
Copyright IWPR 2000
END
VISA Threat Spurs Georgia Into Action
Mikhail Ivanov, IWPR ~ Dec. 1
In the climax of a bitter war of words between Moscow and Tbilisi, the Kremlin has confirmed that, as of December 5, Georgian citizens will need a visa to enter the Russian Federation.
The announcement quashes a recent statement by President Eduard Shevardnadze who claimed the policy change had been delayed by three months. In fact, the three-month "grace" is merely aimed at giving Georgians living in Russia (and Russians living in Georgia) time to obtain their visas.
The introduction of visa regulations is likely to deliver a crippling blow to the Georgian economy. Around 500,000 Georgians currently work in Russia, bringing home an estimated $1.5 billion annually. The cynical ORT TV host, Mikhail Leontiev, recently commented, "It's the only industry in Georgia that actually works."
Clearly, the diplomatic measures are thinly disguised sanctions against the Tbilisi government which Russia has accused of harbouring Chechen rebels in the notorious Pankisi Gorge.
Vladimir Putin had threatened to close the border with Georgia in November 1999, shortly after Russia launched its military operation in Chechnya. A fact-finding mission to Georgia by Russian security supremo Sergei Ivanov earlier this year did little to set the president's mind at rest.
In the wake of the visa announcement, the Kremlin's spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, made a point of clarifying Russia's position in an interview on the state-run ORT channel. He called the move "a difficult decision" since Russia and Georgia had been allies for more than a century.
However, said Yastrzhembsky, Moscow saw no other option given Tbilisi's "odd" attitude to the Chechen conflict and the continued presence of Chechen rebels in the Pankisi Gorge where, he explained, the warlords "had built themselves quite a few cosy nests".
The Kremlin spokesman reminded the TV audience that Russia had repeatedly voiced its protests but the Georgian government had failed to take any decisive action. Nor did Russia see any "burning desire" on Georgia's part to tackle the problem in the future.
Relations between the two countries have also been soured by Shevardnadze's overtures to NATO - the Georgian president has pledged to coming "knocking on NATO's door by the year 2005".
For some time, however, it seemed that Russia might delay the introduction of visa regulations due to fears that Georgia would take retaliatory action. The Tbilisi government has expressed particular outrage over any suggestion that Abkhazia and South Ossetia might be exempt from the visa regime.
Both territories - which now enjoy de facto independence from Tbilisi - received Russian military support during their wars with Georgia. The Georgian parliament now says that preferential treatment over visa regulations would amount to "an annexation of these territories by Russia".
Last week, Kommersant daily newspaper quoted the parliament's speaker Zurab Zhvania as saying, "If this were to happen, we would raise an international outcry at Russia's policy of arbitrary annexation and invasion of territories which are indisputably Georgian".
Tbilisi also considers such a move will amount to a violation of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) charter (which Georgia joined last year). In the event, Georgia would protest against Russia's proposed membership of the WTO - which depends on a unanimous consensus of existing members.
Putin and Shevardnadze were due to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's when they met at the CIS summit in Minsk at the end of last week. Some observers speculated that the Russian foreign ministry announcement coupled with Yastrzhembsky's comments may have been timed to set the tone for this meeting.
In the event, the summit was inconclusive. ORT reported that both leaders had entrusted their diplomatic corps with the task of drafting a new bilateral treaty to replace an existing document which is already six years out of date.
Shevardnadze was quoted by ORT as saying that the introduction of a visa regime will "complicate bilateral relations to a certain degree".
However, last week it seemed that diplomatic pressure from Russia was paying off. According to official reports, the Georgian government has admitted that the situation in the Pankisi Gorge was getting out of control while security minister Vakhtang Kutateladze pledged that urgent measures would be taken to address the problem.
Meanwhile, according to Sevodnya daily newspaper, villagers in Alvaani in the Akhmetsky district have staged a protest meeting to demand tougher action against Chechen gangs responsible for a series of kidnappings and cattle heists in the region.
Georgia's security and interior ministries are to launch a concerted campaign to seal off the mountain paths leading into Chechnya by December 11-12.
Mikhail Ivanov is executive editor of Russian Life, a bimonthly magazine published by Russian Information Services, Inc.
Copyright IWPR 2000
END
Sukhumi's Monkeys Are Tough Nuts To Crack
Erik Batuev, IWPR ~ Dec. 1
SUKHUMI As vicious battles raged through the streets of Sukhumi in 1992, Abkhazia's world-famous colony of laboratory monkeys faced its darkest hour.
Desperate to save the terrified animals from marauding troops, scientists daubed the words "Danger, AIDS" and "Danger, Radiation" on the walls of the compound. As a result, both Georgian and Abkhazian soldiers kept a respectful distance and the colony - which won undying glory during the first Soviet space missions - was saved from extinction.
The monkeys, however, were traumatised by their experiences during the war and, for the next eight years, were unable to breed. It was only this summer that things began to return to normal and the next generation of Sukhumi monkeys was born.
The colony is part of the Research Institute for Experimental Pathology and Therapy which develops and tests new drugs for fighting infectious diseases.
Tests are only conducted on animals reaching the end of their lives.
The compound is dominated by a monument to the monkeys who have died in experiments to find vaccines against hepatitis, polio and smallpox. In the 1950s and 1960s, the institute also received funding from the Ministry of Defence which used its simian inmates to test treatments for radiation poisoning.
Most famously, Sukhumi monkeys had the dubious honour of taking part in the first unmanned missions into outer space.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the institute was hit by funding problems and a dramatic fall in commercial contracts. Today, the scientists receive salaries of just $12 a month.
However, the long-term effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have given the facility a new raison d'etre.
The institute's director, Sergei Ardzinba, explains, "We have a unique radiological department which is unmatched anywhere else in the world.
"Some of the firefighters at Chernobyl have experienced pathological changes in their blood. We're currently testing out new equipment which can pinpoint radiation sickness long before the physical symptoms appear."
Meanwhile, the institute is seeking funding for another ongoing experiment. Shortly before the war in Abkhazia, a large group of monkeys was released into the wild in a bid to establish whether they could develop the resilience necessary to survive in an alien climate.
According to the institute's scientists, the monkeys have adapted to their new environment surprisingly well - to such an extent that it has proved impossible to recapture them and examine their physical condition.
"We urgently need to get hold of a special stun gun which will enable us to get the monkeys back," says Ardzinba. "The problem is these guns are very expensive and we have no idea how to get one. We don't have any sponsors at the present time."
Erik Batuev is a regular IWPR contributor
Copyright IWPR 2000
END
Yugoslav Tribunals, Reuters ~ Dec. 1
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted on Thursday to increase the number of judges in an effort to cope with the backlog of trials and appeals in its war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
In a unanimous decision, the council adopted a resolution creating a pool of two dozen temporary judges for the Yugoslav court in The Hague. It also agreed to increase by two to seven judges for an appeals court to hear cases from the Rwanda and Yugoslav tribunals.
The Yugoslav court was created by the council in 1993 during the Balkan wars to prosecute Serbs, Croats and Muslims accused of murder, torture, mass expulsions and other abuses. It was the first such court since the prosecution of war criminals in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan at the end of World War II.
The Rwanda court, based in Arusha, Tanzania, was authorized in late 1994 to punish those accused of genocide in which more than half a million people, most of them minority Tutsis, were massacred by Hutu militants.
Judge Claude Jorda, president of the Yugoslav tribunal, told the council last week it could take up to 15 years to clear his docket unless changes were made, including adding more judges. This would allow the court to complete its work by the year 2007, he said.
The Rwandan court is also overburdened and has only convicted seven people to date.
END
Chile Places Pinochet Under House Arrest,
Clifford Krauss, New York Times ~ Dec. 2
A Chilean judge formally charged Gen. Augusto Pinochet today in the kidnappings of opponents after he overthrew the Socialist government of Dr. Salvador Allende in 1973, and ordered him placed under house arrest.
The former dictator, who recently turned 85 and is ailing, remains many legal steps away from spending time in prison. And before any trial can begin, he will have to undergo medical tests and probably months of defense appeals.
General Pinochet was in a country house and might need to be transferred to his home in the capital. Tonight, his lawyers said they would appeal for a stay to the arrest order.
Nevertheless, the decision by Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia, who under Chilean law serves as prosecutor, to charge General Pinochet represents a major blow to the man who has long claimed to have saved Chile from Communism. After months of legal maneuvering and hundreds of criminal complaints, this was the first time General Pinochet had been charged in his homeland. It is the most important legal action brought against the 17-year dictatorship by Chile's judicial system, which until recent years remained controlled by judges appointed by the military.
The announcement was issued suddenly, without an expected interrogation of the general and before an examination to ensure that he is fit to stand trial. But an arrest order had been widely predicted since the Supreme Court stripped the general of his senatorial immunity in August.
The arrest was cheered by human rights advocates, but the commanders of the armed forces were meeting behind closed doors to consider the situation. They continue to support their former leader, although more in words than in action.
"This decision is a huge step forward in the attempt to make Pinochet accountable for atrocities committed under his rule," said José Miguel Vivanco, a Chilean lawyer who heads the Americas division of Human Rights Watch. "It helps re- establish the credibility of the Chilean judiciary, and it will help push forward other cases."
The general has been the object of 177 criminal complaints in the last several years by human rights groups, families of people who disappeared and torture victims. The case against him began to gain currency in Chile only after General Pinochet was arrested two years ago in London on a Spanish warrant. Last March, he was allowed to return on the grounds that he was not healthy enough to stand trial. But he has been besieged by legal problems since then.
The central case under investigation by Judge Guzmán involves a death squad known as the Caravan of Death, led by an important aide to General Pinochet in the months after the United States-supported coup that overthrew President Allende. The helicopter-borne squad traveled around northern Chile, picking out political prisoners from military installations. The prisoners were never seen again alive. Most of the victims were functionaries in Dr. Allende's government, members of leftist parties or union leaders.
Judge Guzmán has concentrated on the case because it offers a loophole in an amnesty decreed while General Pinochet was in power to cover the most violent years of repression. The bodies of 19 of the 74 people seized by the caravan group have not been recovered, leaving Judge Guzmán with the argument that the missing people might be alive as the victims of kidnappings.
As a continuing crime, at least theoretically, the 19 kidnappings cannot be covered by the amnesty, Judge Guzmán has argued for two years.
Judge Guzmán's interpretation was affirmed by high-level courts last year, while General Pinochet was under house arrest in London. General Pinochet's supporters say that the loophole is based on a lie, because it is clear that the victims have long been dead, and that it signifies a politicization of justice.
"This is an aberration of jurisprudence," said Fernando Barros, a lawyer who has spoken in defense of General Pinochet on a radio program. "Without even questioning him, Pinochet is being put on trial."
A lawyer for General Pinochet, Pablo Rodríguez, accused Judge Guzmán of overstepping his powers and ignoring due process, saying that the arrest order "expressly contravenes legal processes that he cannot ignore as a judge of the republic."
Judge Guzmán did not speak at length about his arrest order, but he told reporters that he would also press a case that General Pinochet was the "intellectual author" of the deaths of 55 people picked up by the caravan group whose bodies were found in mass graves around northern Chile.
A government report has documented that 3,197 people died or disappeared in political violence in the Pinochet years. Apart from 90 members of the security forces, all are considered victims of the army, the police or paramilitary death squads. Tens of thousands of leftists were tortured by the security forces.
The judge ordered the house arrest a week after General Pinochet had released a partial and diffident admission of responsibility for excesses committed in his government. "As a former president of the republic," he said in a taped message released on his birthday, "I accept all the facts that they say the army and the armed forces did."
But he added that many of the criticisms were based on propaganda.
The statement was part of an effort to appeal to the estimated one-third of the population that still condones his rule.
Judge Guzmán will probably next try to have General Pinochet examined to see whether he is mentally fit for a trial. Family members say that a mental test would be humiliating. They say the general is physically unfit to stand trial after having suffered a series of strokes while being held in London. The general, who recently recovered from pneumonia, also suffers from diabetes and has a history of heart problems.
But Judge Guzmán has argued that under Chilean law only mental disability can be considered to avoid a trial.
General Pinochet faces other legal problems outside Chile. In October, Argentina requested that Chile extradite him on suspicions that he was involved in the car-bomb killing of a retired Chilean general in 1974 in Buenos Aires.
President Ricardo Lagos, the first Socialist to govern since the 1973 coup, said from Mexico, where he was at Vicente Fox's inauguration, that the arrest was "an expression of the strength of our democratic system."
END
Reuters ~ Dec. 1
MADRID, Dec. 1 (Reuters) - The human rights lawyers who led efforts to prosecute Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Spain hailed a Chilean judge's decision today to arrest and try him.
"It is a positive step for universal justice and the citizens of Chile to affirm their independence and their ability to apply the law to the biggest criminal in the history of Chile," said Joan Garcés, a Spanish lawyer.
General Pinochet was arrested in Britain in October 1998 at the request of a Spanish judge who wanted him to stand trial on charges including torture. He eventually escaped prosecution here when Britain ruled him unfit for trial.
END
Chile Judge Indicts Former Dictator Pinochet for Kidnapping
Fox News ~ Dec. 1
A Chilean judge Friday indicted former dictator Augusto Pinochet on kidnapping charges and ordered him to face trial in the disappearances of 19 prisoners, lawyers on both sides said.
The charges stem from disappearances that occurred in the first months of Pinochet's 17-year rule, which began in 1973 and ended in 1990.
According to an official report, 3,197 people died or disappeared - and are presumed dead - in political violence during Pinochet's rule. Several thousands were also illegally detained and tortured.
Pinochet faces 177 criminal complaints stemming from the human rights violations during his rule.
Judge Juan Guzman said he also ordered the 85-year-old former strongman to be held under house arrest.
Guzman, a federal magistrate who has led efforts to prosecute Pinochet, confirmed the indictment upon leaving a Santiago courthouse. He said Pinochet was also wanted on suspicion of being the "intellectual author" of some 55 deaths - as well as the 19 disappearances.
Those cases stem from the so-called Caravan of Death, one of the most notorious human rights cases during Pinochet's rule. In the first weeks after a September 1973 coup led by Pinochet, military officers led a flying death squad along the length of Chile, pulling suspected opponents from jails for execution, human rights groups charge.
Last week, Gen. Pinochet made a hesitant admission of responsibility for atrocities the military committed during his years in power, saying in a taped birthday message that he accepts "all the facts."
"As a former president of the republic, I accept all the facts that they say the army and the armed forces did," Pinochet said, speaking haltingly. But he also added that some of the accusations against his government are just propaganda.
In October 1998, police arrested Pinochet in Britain at the request of a Spanish judge who wanted to try him on charges of torture. The general spent 503 days in custody before being allowed to return home after Britain ruled he was too old and sick to undergo trial in Spain.
In Spain, Joan Garces, the human rights lawyer who spearheaded efforts to prosecute Pinochet in Spain, welcomed the decision.
"It is a positive step for universal justice and the citizens of Chile to affirm their independence and their ability to apply the law to the biggest criminal in the history of Chile," Garces told Reuters.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
END
Gulf War Uranium Warning Failed To Reach Troops
Nicholas Watt, Guardian ~ Dec. 1
Thousands of soldiers were placed at risk from the effects of depleted uranium, the substance linked to Gulf war syndrome, after a safety notice failed to reach troops in Saudi Arabia during the 1991 conflict.
A breakdown in communications meant that the notice from the Ministry of Defence in London never found its way to soldiers attached to tanks armed with ammunition containing the fatal substance, the government said last night.
In a written parliamentary reply, the defence minister, John Spellar, said officials had uncovered a message which was sent from the MoD to 1 Armoured Division in Saudi Arabia on 25 February 1991 about the dangers posed by the substance. A second message, advising on how to avoid breathing in depleted uranium dust, never reached its destination.
Mr Spellar's admission is an embarrassment to the MoD, which is fighting claims by Gulf war veterans that they were poisoned by depleted uranium during the war.
Veterans reacted angrily last night to the MoD statement. Shaun Rusling, of the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, said he did not believe safety messages were ever sent to the Gulf.
"I think the MoD statement is untrue and is designed to cover up their failure to issue any warnings," he said. "This is very disturbing. I would like to see their documentation as we can prove the MoD was fully aware of the dangers and yet did nothing to advise troops."
The MoD statement came as new figures showed nearly 300 Gulf war veterans have died in the last three years. In a parliamentary reply, Mr Spellar said 278 Gulf war veterans have died since 1995. None of the dead has been officially confirmed as a victim of Gulf war syndrome.
Fifty committed suicide.
Stephen Childs, 47, who died of liver and pancreas cancer on Saturday, was the most recent Gulf war soldier to die. His doctor believes exposure to depleted uranium while he recovered damaged vehicles caused his illness.
The MoD said last night that it regretted that its safety notice failed to reach troops. But a spokesman insisted that there was no proof that soldiers fell ill as a result of depleted uranium, which is used to strengthen the tips of shells.
The spokesman said that the substance only posed a risk to Iraqi troops when it vapourised after piercing armour. "We do not believe it is a problem for British veterans, but we have offered them tests. This has not been accepted."
The veterans' campaign received a boost earlier this year after tests were carried out on the body of Terry Riordon, a Canadian military policeman who died after suffering Gulf war syndrome. They found substances linked to depleted uranium in his bone tissue.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000
END
Republicans Against Global War Crimes Tribunal
Times of India ~ Dec. 1
UNITED NATIONS: Top Republican lawmakers, led by US Sen. Jesse Helms, have launched a new campaign against the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, which they say will threaten American sovereignty.
Helms, the conservative chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, plans to make passage of a bill barring US cooperation with the court a top priority next year, a spokesman said Wednesday.
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay spoke out Wednesday in favor of the bill, which Helms introduced earlier this year. It also won backing from a bipartisan group of a dozen former US administration officials from ex-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to ex-CIA director R. James Woolsey.
"This court will circumscribe the United States' ability to project force ... to defend not only its (global) interests but humanitarian interests as well," Helms spokesman Mark Thiessen said.
The International Criminal Court, which supporters predict will start operating in two years, was created to deal with the world's most heinous crimes - genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It would step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves.
But since the treaty establishing the court was signed in Rome in July 1998, the United States has been campaigning to exempt U.S. soldiers and government officials from prosecution - so far without success.
The United States objects to the idea that American citizens could be subject to the court's jurisdiction if a crime is committed in a country that had ratified the treaty - even if the United States is not a party.
Washington says that would leave U.S. troops and citizens vulnerable to politically motivated prosecutions.
The Helms bill, sponsored by Republican leaders in both houses of the US Congress, would require US personnel to be "immunized" from the court's jurisdiction before the United States would participate in any U.N. peacekeeping operations. It would also ban US military assistance to any country that has ratified the treaty, with a waiver for US allies that agree to protect Americans from extradition.
Helms, a North Carolina Republican, plans to make passage of the bill "one of his top legislative priorities next year," Thiessen told a press conference as more than 100 countries met here to continue preparations for establishing the court.
The Clinton administration agrees that the court should not be able to prosecute Americans. But the administration objects to the Helms bill for a variety of reasons, including the unacceptable conditions on US participation in UN peacekeeping operations, US Mission spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said.
The Rome treaty has been signed by almost 120 countries and needs 60 ratifications to come into force. It now has 23, and Philippe Kirsch, chairman of the commission preparing for the court's operation, said he expects that "in two years the court will be in existence."
Human rights groups and supporters of the court, including many US allies, insist that there are sufficient protections in the treaty and that its rules of operation prevent political prosecutions.
Richard Dicker, associate counsel of Human Rights Watch, said Helms is too late to stop the court anyway.
"The train has left the station and they may not have recognized it in Washington," he said. "If anything, this kind of showmanship and theatricality from the US is only going to intensify governments' desire to ratify" the treaty. (AP)
END
The Massacre Starts Tomorrow And Britain Will Share The Blame For What's About To Happen In West Papua
George Monbiot ~ Nov. 30
There's an odd component of globalisation, which I find myself at a loss to explain. We are, we're assured, living in a global village, whose people are daily brought closer together. Yet we hear ever less about what is happening in distant parts of the world. There is less foreign news in the papers than there has been for sixty years. Foreign documentaries are almost extinct. Parliamentary debate about overseas issues has all but dried up. In the midst of the communications revolution, we are becoming strangers to each other.
So the massacres due to begin tomorrow will take almost everyone by surprise. Indeed, there is hardly a news editor who has even heard of the land in which they are scheduled to take place.
West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, which has been occupied since 1963 by Indonesia. Tomorrow, local people expect the Indonesian army to launch a one-sided war, bloodier even than the carnage in East Timor last year. The troops and militias have been armed and trained and are awaiting orders. Only the international community can stop them. But, though Western nations such as Britain are up to their necks in it, they haven't the faintest intention of seeking to prevent the Indonesian plan from going ahead.
In 1961, the 800,000 Melanesian people of West Papua were promised independence. Holland, the colonial power, began to transfer the administration to local people. In 1962, Indonesia invaded. The attack failed, but John Kennedy, with Britain's backing, coerced the Dutch into surrendering West Papua to the United Nations, on the grounds that if the Indonesian government were not appeased it might succumb to communism. The UN, as planned, promptly gave West Papua to Indonesia, but on condition that within five years its people would be granted "the right of self-determination". In the event, 1000 Papuan men were rounded up and forced to vote on pain of death for Indonesian sovereignty.
Since then, tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of Papuans have been tortured, mutilated and killed by Indonesian soldiers. The government launched a eugenics programme whose purpose, according to the former governor, was to give "birth to a new generation of people without curly hair, sowing the seeds for greater beauty". The Papuans have been pushed out of their lands and replaced by people from the central islands of Indonesia, brought in by the government to pacify the province. Its forests have been sold to logging companies, its mountains to western mining firms. When villagers have sought to defend their lands, they have been bombed and strafed. Now the whole place is about to explode.
Tomorrow, the indigenous people will make a formal declaration of independence. The Indonesian army has been waiting for months for just such a moment. Since August, thousands of commandos and paratroops have been flown into West Papua. British-made Hawk jets have been overflying the province's central highlands. Their deployment there was, according to the Financial Times, sanctioned by Britain's Foreign Office. Militias are currently being trained by the army outside the town of Wamena, one of the centres of Papuan resistance. Some 12,000 firearms have been flown in, presumably for distribution to Indonesian volunteers. Local people, by contrast, are armed with spears and bows and arrows.
The Indonesian army has been encouraging the Papuans to rise, planting agents provocateurs and issuing public statements suggesting that independence ceremonies will be tolerated (all previous rituals have been ruthlessly crushed). Here, as in East Timor, the army will seek to unleash sufficient force to persuade the indigenous people to abandon their hopes of self-determination.
Papuan leaders have repeatedly sought to reach a peaceful independence settlement with the Indonesian government. But while President Wahid seems vaguely sympathetic to their cause, vice-president Megawati, who has, in effect, ultimate control over the province, appears interested only in delivering lucrative logging and development concessions to the army in order to secure its support. The Papuans have approached the British government for help. It has ignored them. And still it continues to sell arms to Indonesia.
When the massacre begins, our officials will doubtless wring their hands and lament the failure of Indonesia's people to resolve their differences by peaceful means. Having seen what happened in East Timor and having failed to do anything to prevent its repetition, the blood this time will be on our hands. We helped to start all this. Now we must stop it.
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Tensions Mount as Independence Anniversary Approaches for Indonesian Province of Irian Jaya
Stratfor, Inc., Dec. 1
Some 39 years ago, Indonesian troops moved into West Papua. The anniversary, Dec. 1, is an unofficial holiday for separatists in what has become the mineral-rich Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. Beginning today and through the weekend, Irian Jaya's indigenous separatists may be prepared to escalate violence to demonstrate just how far they are willing to go to reclaim West Papua. Dec. 1 marks the 39th anniversary of West Papua's declaration of independence from the Netherlands. Seen as a holiday by local tribes, the day will be a litmus test on just how well organized the local separatist movement has become in the past year.
Indonesian security forces, pro-Jakarta militia groups, and the indigenous separatist movements within what is now Irian Jaya appear headed toward a clash this weekend. Though the area is poor and undeveloped it is strategically significant. Between 1992 and 1997, the giant Freeport Indonesia copper and gold mine alone paid Jakarta over $899 million in taxes and royalties. But the coming days will demonstrate how far the Irian Jaya separatists have come. The Indonesian military, which has reportedly been arming pro-Jakarta militias in Irian Jaya, can crush any unrest in the province. But the separatists may be ready to substantially escalate violence there.
Indonesia troops moved into West Papua in 1963. Formally annexing West Papua in 1969 in a highly questioned referendum, Indonesia renamed the new province Irian Jaya. Since then, migrant workers from Indonesia's more populous areas have flooded the island to the detriment of the mostly uneducated and unskilled indigenous tribes. Tensions between pro-Jakarta migrants and the indigenous tribes have led to the emergence of numerous pro-independence groups vying for supremacy. Indeed, the separatist movements in Irian Jaya have been brewing for decades. Last year, protests marking the Dec. 1 holiday led to at least two deaths and dozens injured. Similar riots have occurred since 1996. In the last year, however, the separatist movement has begun to organize with the establishment of the pro-independence Papua Presidium Council in February.
In June, this political arm of the separatist movement representing 245 indigenous tribal groups convened the first Papua National Congress and called on the Indonesian government to recognize West Papua's independence. Though still divided between moderates and extremists, the movement has begun to coalesce into a viable opposition to Jakarta. As yet, the movement is no match for the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) currently stationed in Irian Jaya. In the past week, these units were reinforced with an additional 1,200 troops from the Kostrad, the Indonesian Army Strategic Reserve Command. This anniversary may be a bloody one, however, if pro-independence groups such as Operasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) and Satuan Tugas Papua carry out their intent to declare independence and set up a provisional government. Last year's independence referendum in East Timor opened Pandora's box. Since then, separatist movements throughout the Indonesian archipelago have tried to gather strength to press their own claims for self-determination.
Indeed, the Irian Jaya movement gained international recognition in October with the inclusion of four OPM representatives at the 31st Pacific Islands Forum as part of the Nauru delegation. Further momentum can be expected next year as East Timor is formally recognized as an independent nation, setting an example for separatists everywhere. Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has taken a more conciliatory stance toward the separatists to encourage negotiation. He has ruled out referendums like that in East Timor, but he has proposed greater autonomy for provinces like Irian Jaya. However, Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, various nationalist political parties and the military have opposed any form of compromise with separatist elements. They have forced Wahid to backtrack on his proposals, fomenting further unrest.
According to Reuters, the military has begun organizing and arming pro-Jakarta militias in Irian Jaya in an echo of similar tactics that brought so much destruction to East Timor last year. In October, approximately 30 people were killed when separatists clashed with migrant workers and police in the town of Wamena over the display of the separatist Morning Star flag. In the past three days, two top leaders of the Papua Presidium Council, including Chairman Theys Eluway, have been arrested and charged with subversion. Troops have begun massing in the provincial capital of Jayapura and in the major port cities. The crackdown has already begun.
The next few days will show how far the separatists have come. No doubt the Indonesian security forces can crush any unrest in the province. However, the level of violence this weekend will indicate just how serious the separatists are about reaching their goal.
(c) 2000 Stratfor, Inc. 504 Lavaca, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701 Phone: 512-583-5000 Fax: 512-583-5025 Email: info@stratfor.com
END
Campaign Launched Against UN Court
By Edith M. Lederer, (AP) ~ Nov. 30
Top Republican lawmakers led by Sen. Jesse Helms have launched a new campaign against the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, which they say will threaten American sovereignty. Helms, R-N.C., plans to make passage of a bill barring U.S. cooperation with the court a top priority next year, a spokesman said Wednesday. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, spoke out Wednesday in favor of the bill, which Helms introduced earlier this year. It also won backing from a bipartisan group of a dozen former U.S. administration officials from Henry Kissinger to ex-CIA director R. James Woolsey. "This court will circumscribe the United States' ability to project force ... to defend not only its (global) interests but humanitarian interests as well,'' Helms spokesman Mark Thiessen said.
The International Criminal Court, which supporters predict will start operating in two years, was created to deal with the world's most heinous crimes - genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It would step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves. But since the treaty establishing the court was signed in Rome in July 1998, the United States has been campaigning to exempt U.S. soldiers and government officials from prosecution - so far without success. The United States objects to the idea that American citizens could be subject to the court's jurisdiction if a crime is committed in a country that had ratified the treaty - even if the United States is not a party. Washington says that would leave U.S. troops and citizens vulnerable to politically motivated prosecutions.
The Helms bill, sponsored by GOP leaders in both houses, would require U.S. personnel to be "immunized'' from the court's jurisdiction before the United States would participate in any U.N. peacekeeping operations. It would also ban U.S. military assistance to any country that has ratified the treaty, with a waiver for U.S. allies that agree to protect Americans from extradition. Helms, the conservative chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, plans to make passage of the bill "one of his top legislative priorities next year,'' Thiessen told a press conference as more than 100 countries met here to continue preparations for establishing the court.
The Clinton administration agrees that the court should not be able to prosecute Americans. But the administration objects to the Helms bill for a variety of reasons, including the unacceptable conditions on U.S. participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations, U.S. Mission spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said. The Rome treaty has been signed by almost 120 countries and needs 60 ratifications to come into force. It now has 23, and Philippe Kirsch, chairman of the commission preparing for the court's operation, said he expects that "in two years the court will be in existence.''
Human rights groups and supporters of the court, including many U.S. allies, insist that there are sufficient protections in the treaty and that its rules of operation prevent political prosecutions. Richard Dicker, associate counsel of Human Rights Watch, said Helms is too late to stop the court anyway. "The train has left the station and they may not have recognized it in Washington,'' he said. "If anything, this kind of showmanship and theatricality from the U.S. is only going to intensify governments' desire to ratify'' the treaty.
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Horrors Behind Rebel Lines in Sierra Leone
By Noritmitsy Onishi, New York Times ~ Nov. 30
The villagers crept out of the bush on a recent morning, and although the soil here is among Africa's richest, some arrived with hollow cheeks and shrunken limbs. They were temporarily safe here in Bumbuna, a small town that offers a tiny haven in the heart of an area ruled by one of Africa's most brutal rebel groups. The tales they told offered some inkling of what life is like behind rebel lines, a peek into a broad region of thousands of square miles that is one of the grimmest and least accessible parts of the globe. A brother and sister, William and Sirah Kargbo, said rebels in their village had taken 10 young women as sex slaves, forced the village men to work and give them food and, until earlier this year, chopped off the hands of those who disobeyed. "If we don't contribute, they will take everything or kill you," said William Kargbo, 30, who taps palm trees for wine and has often been forced to carry goods for the rebels.
A woman, Jemilatu Bangura, 30, arrived with her son, Samba Diallo, who was 4 years old but looked maybe 2. Her village, like the Kargbos', is only 15 miles from here. But so isolated was Ms. Bangura that she did not know whether Sierra Leone was at peace or at war. She did not know that such a thing as the United Nations existed, much less that it now had 12,500 troops in her country. "I don't know, I don't know," she repeated.
Two-thirds of Sierra Leone remains under the control of the rebels, who call themselves the Revolutionary United Front. They have waged war by deliberately making civilians their target - killing and raping them and, in the iconic images of this conflict, cutting off the hands and arms of men, women and children. The rebel areas have been inaccessible to outsiders; life there a black hole. Bumbuna - protected over the years by South African mercenaries, Nigerian peacekeepers and now Sierra Leonean soldiers, because the town is the site of a huge unfinished hydroelectric dam - provides a rare window into one of the bleakest places in West Africa.
It takes an hour to get here by helicopter from the capital, Freetown, 115 miles away, flying over endless canopies of trees and lush mountains. Sometimes a clearing appears below with a few huts, a soul or two. Then past a ridge of green mountains, a large valley finally emerges with a hundred or so houses, their sloping zinc roofs redder than the area's laterite earth: Bumbuna. In August, after an absence of three years, international relief organizations began making day trips to Bumbuna, alighting in the morning and taking off before dark.What they discovered confirmed some of their most pessimistic expectations: inhabitants of a land so fertile emerged shrunken and shriveled, as if they had crossed the Ethiopian desert. Prevented from farming by the rebels, mothers appeared with cadaverous babies who could fit inside a large man's hand.
If United Nations peacekeepers are eventually deployed in rebel-held areas, similar suffering may turn up elsewhere. What is more, as this war has widened into a regional conflict involving Liberia and Guinea, thousands of Sierra Leoneans who took refuge in Guinea have been pouring back into this country. The increasing needs, coupled with a decreasing interest among rich nations in donating resources to Africa, might make it impossible for relief organizations to satisfy the demands here, according to the World Food Program, a United Nations agency that is a major food distributor here. "If we don't get some food soon in the country," said Aya Shneerson, a spokesman for the World Food Program in Freetown, "we might be in a situation where we don't have any food in December."
The United Nations has yet to send peacekeepers to Bumbuna. The only peacekeepers spotted so far were disoriented Kenyans who fled here on foot in May, when the rebels attacked their position 60 miles southwest of here in the process of taking 500 United Nations peacekeepers hostage. A battalion of Sierra Leonean soldiers, one of the few to have always remained loyal to the government, now holds Bumbuna and its dam against the rebels, who mounted an attack most recently in August.
Sauntering across a footbridge high above a river here, Lt. Col. Moses Samura, the commander of the battalion, surveyed in a lordly manner the critical patch of land his soldiers have never surrendered. A rebel-held village called Tonkolili is only six miles south of here. Colonel Samura peered at the hydroelectric dam that stood a quarter of a mile up the river, an enormous black wall in the middle of the deep- green jungle of West Africa, and said: "That is why we are here. That is the future of Sierra Leone. When millions of dollars have already been spent to build this, for them to come and destroy it - we cannot allow it."
With its promise of giving light to every Sierra Leonean, the Bumbuna hydroelectric dam occupies the prestigious space on the country's largest denomination of currency, the back of the 5,000-leone bill. In reality the dam, though tantalizingly close to completion, has yet to produce one watt after nearly three decades in the making. As the World Food Program's helicopter made its weekly trip to Bumbuna on a recent Tuesday, about 400 villagers from the surrounding area appeared, some having trekked days through the bush, past rebel checkpoints. Finah Thoronka, an emaciated woman in her 40's, was so weak that her sister, Musu Jalloh, and two others carried her in a hammock for three days from their village 30 miles away. She said the villagers had not been able to farm in five years, and had survived on cassava and wild yams. Twelve relatives in her family of 30 died. "There is nothing to eat," Ms. Thoronka said. "People are hungry, but they are not strong enough to come here."
The Kargbos, the brother and sister, said that in recent days, since the signing of a cease-fire earlier this month, the rebels had begun treating the villagers better. But they said they did not trust the Revolutionary United Front leaders, like Col. Top Gorilla, Capt. Burntrouble and Maj. Tupac. They had not kept their word in the past. In their village, waves of violence followed periods of calm, they said. Earlier in the year, after the rebels took 500 United Nations peacekeepers hostage and a peace accord collapsed, the rebels cut off villagers' limbs, the Kargbos said, adding that the village now had about 20 mutilated people.
"They say they now want peace," said Sirah Kargbo, 24. "But I don't believe them. They may talk of peace, but they are still exploiting us." On that day the rebels allowed them to leave their village, they said. But to return they would have to give them some of the food they had accumulated on their trip. "This is the only place that's safe from the R.U.F.," said Ibrahim Sankoh, 40, the director of the local health clinic. He added that more and more villagers had started coming here as word of the World Food Program's weekly visit reached deeper into the bush.
There is little else here for those who come out of the bush, and so most return to rebel-held areas. Many have taken refuge here in the past, but there is no land for outsiders. Because Bumbuna is surrounded by rebels, goods here are expensive, sometimes costing twice or three times as much as in Freetown. Gibrilar Kargbo, 22, who is not related to the other Kargbos, sells used clothing at the market - $1.75, a huge sum here, for a T-shirt. Once every two months, Mr. Kargbo said, he walks through the bush for a week to get to Freetown.
On his last visit to the capital, he bought $37 worth of used clothing, which he carried in a bundle on his head. He then made the weeklong trip back here, paying 40 cents at each checkpoint he encountered on the way - $4 total for the round trip."Good shirt," he said, holding by a hanger a black T-shirt with the pocket logo "Toys `R' Us." Flanked by a handful of armed soldiers - some of them dressed properly, others in T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops - Colonel Samura urged the day's visitors to take in Bumbuna's natural beauty, its verdant, mist-covered mountains, the river's clear water. "The scenery is superb," he said with a smile. "I hope this area will attract tourists."
"Someday," one of his soldiers chimed in. "Someday," the colonel said.
END
Kazakstan Builds Bridges With Taleban
By Adil Kojikhov and Tolgonai Umbetalieva in Almaty, IWPR ~ Nov. 27
Kazakstan has become the latest Central Asian state to try to reach an accommodation with the Taleban following the Islamic movement's recent military victories in Afghanistan.
Astana, which has in the past accused the Taleban of threatening the region, has held a series of meetings with representatives of the radical Muslim organisation - the most recent of which took place in Islamabad last week.
The Kazak authorities say they are ready for dialogue with the Taleban which now controls more than 90 per cent of Afghan territory, following its capture of the Northern Alliance stronghold Taloqan two months ago.
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - who share a border with Afghanistan - appear to have already adopted a more pragmatic approach towards the Islamic movement since the Taloqan victory, which brought fighting closer to the Central Asia states.
It's taken Kazakstan longer to try to reach an accommodation with the Taleban for two reasons. Firstly, it does not share a border with Afghanistan. And secondly, recognition of the organisation's influence in the region risks upsetting Moscow, one of the main sponsors of the Northern Alliance.
Russia's opposition to the Taleban, however, appears to be softening. Moscow diplomats have met the movement's representatives unofficially on several occasions.
The first public signs of Kazak overtures towards the Islamists came earlier this month following a meeting between the military ruler of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, and President Nazarbaev in Astana.
"Kazakstan is ready to establish contact and have talks with all groups and movements in Afghanistan including the Taleban," Nazarbaev said after the talks.
Prime Minister Kasymjomart Tokaev went even further, saying that Kazakstan regards the Islamists as one of the most powerful military and political forces in Afghanistan.
"Regardless of what administration Afghanistan will have in future, the Taleban are likely to play a leading role, " he said. "Therefore international community should not ignore them."
Officially, Musharaf's visit was part of his attempts to establish good relations with Pakistan's neighbours, but many analysts believe its real purpose was to persuade Kazakstan to move closer to the Taleban. A senior Saudi politician also recently visited Astana with apparently the same goal.
"These high profile visits from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan - two of only three countries who officially accepted legitimacy of Taleban's rule in Afghanistan - can not be just a coincidence," one local political observer said.
The Kazak leadership has indicated that it sees the radical Muslim movement as a force capable of ending the chaos in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov said he believed it would be able to "restore peace and order and pave way for the country's integration into international community".
Astana's rapprochement with its former enemy has met with some domestic criticism. Several newspapers argued the move would damage the country's reputation.
An editorial in the newspaper Panorama accused the Kazak government of following a short-sighted policy and warned that having an authoritarian Taleban-run state would set a bad example for the young democracies of the Central Asian region.
Other analysts suggest the authorities hope improving ties with the Taleban will curb the activities of regional Islamic groups suspected of getting assistance from the movement.
Few doubt that Astana would have changed its Afghan policy without Moscow's approval. Indeed, some analysts suspect that Russia wants to use Kazakstan as an intermediary in its efforts to establish links with the Islamists. They say the issue was raised during Putin 's recent talks with Nazarbaev in Moscow.
In any negotiations with the Taleban Moscow will demand that the Northern Alliance be allowed to retain control of the northern territories in Afghanistan which it currently occupies. This would enable the Kremlin to maintain some degree of influence in the country.
Russia clearly fears that the anti-Taleban forces are facing defeat and that a deal of some sort should be brokered before it is too late "It appears that Russia wants to bring the Northern Alliance and the Taleban to the negotiationg table while the anti-Taleban Akhmad Shah Massoud's forces are still able to fight," said Vladislav Yuritsin, an analyst for newspaper Vremya Po.
Adil Kojikhov and Tolgonai Umbetalieva are political analysts in Almaty.
Copyright IWPR 2000
END
By Igor Grebenshikov in Bishkek, IWPR ~ Nov. 27
Key Kyrgyz opposition leaders have jumped ship in the wake of last month's re-election of President Askar Akaev.
Former deputy president Felix Kulov and president candidate Almazbek Atambaev have both indicated that they intend to ally themselves with Akaev, leaving the opposition without any prominent politicians.
This is likely to further weaken the opposition whose effectiveness has been blunted over the years by its failure to mount a unified front against Akaev.
Kulov, a former national security minister still facing charges of abusing his ministerial powers, said that he held exactly the same position as Akaev on many issues.
"There are two options: to ignore the results of the elections or, alternatively, to work with the existing authorities. I chose the second ," he said in a statement on November 16.
Kulov's manoeuvring is treated with scorn by the public who see it as demonstrating his inconsistency and the general weaknesses of opposition leaders.
The hasty tactical union between Kulov and presidential candidate Omurbek Tekebaev during the campaign for the October 29 election failed to convince voters. Shortly after the ballot, Kulov split with Tekebaev, who received just over 13 per cent of the vote.
Social Democratic Party presidential candidate Almazbek Atambaev also announced his return to the political mainstream after the vote.
Atambaev, who built his campaign around criticisms of Akaev's economic and political policies, fears the authorities will undermine his business interests unless he becomes more cooperative.
The communists remain the only stable form of opposition in Kyrgyzstan. But Akaev's government no longer sees them as dangerous. They are well organized, but generally restrained and rarely manage to stir up the public.
The authorities admitted their most dangerous opponent was Topchubek Turgunaliev. The former Bishkek University rector was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment just before the election on charges, widely held to have fabricated by the Ministry for National Security, of organizing an assassination attempt on the life of the president. Turgunaliev, the leader of the Erkindik opposition party, has been three times declared a "prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty International.
The opposition has not been helped by the authorities crackdown on the independent press, which faced intense pressure during the campaign. Many titles were drawn into judicial proceedings which effectively bankrupted them.
The newspaper Delo No is perhaps the only remaining publication which attempts to cover political events objectively. But even this newspaper is increasingly moving away from political coverage as, after the defence of Felix Kulov, it has been subject to pressure from the authorities.
The authorities have also targeted non-government organizations which form an arguably more effective form of opposition than anti-Akaev politicians.
The Chairman of the Central Election Commission Suleyman Imanbaev has denounced the influential Coalition of Non-Government Organizations for being "politically partisan". Lidia Fomova's Society for Social Defence stands accused of financial infringements and swindling. The Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights Ramazan Dyryldaev faces imminent arrest.
The political opposition, however, bears some responsibility for its present condition. Their leaders do not see each other as allies, but as competitors. Their parties represent regional interests, and many of their programmes present only a ramshackle collection of principles.
Most Kyrgyz opposition figures are former high-ranking bureaucrats, but they have failed to establish a unified system for opposition. Even on a parliamentary level, they do not work together to resist the authorities and influence the direction of the country.
The largest parliamentary faction, where the communists form a bloc with the Ata-Meken Socialist Party, confines itself simply to seeking a more limited mandate for the president.
Igor Grebenshikov is a regular IWPR contributor
Copyright IWPR 2000
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"Peaceful" Uzbek Muslims Jailed
By Galima Bukharbaeva in Tashkent, IWPR ~ Nov. 27
Uzbekistan is pursuing a harsh crack-down against Islamic campaigners who profess to be engaged solely in peaceful religious work .
Human rights activists protested loudly last week after 23 members of a Muslim organisation from the Ferghana Valley were sentenced to between 16-20 years imprisonment.
Defence lawyers claimed the government had fabricated charges that the group, known as Insonlik Va Insonparvarlik (Humanism and Humanity), set up a criminal organisation in the town of Kokand, east Uzbekistan, with the aim of creating an Islamic state in the Ferghana Valley.
The lawyers described the sentences as part of both a continuing repression against people deemed to have unacceptable views, and a government fear of any socially independent association which might become an opposition force.
The 23 defendants, packed into a courtroom cage, were accused of possessing machine guns, grenades and pistols. Some were charged with possessing heroin and opium.
According to Judge Nizom Rustamov, the accused had wanted to arm the youth of Kokand in order to overthrow the authorities and replace them with an Islamic administration. They were also charged with inflicting moral and physical harm on local residents.
The court found the defendants guilty on charges which have already become standard in such cases: terrorism, the incitement of national and religious conflicts, encroachment on the constitutional structure of Uzbekistan, sabotage, the organisation of a criminal group and the illegal possession of firearms.
The Insonlik Va Insonparvarlik organisation was founded in Kokand in December, 1991. The Uzbek Justice Ministry registered it as a legal body. Lawyer Mavluda Yerkabaeva, who represented four of the defendants, said the group never called for an uprising nor wanted an Islamic state.
The organisation's aim, the lawyer went on, was simply to achieve purity in society, speak out against drugs, prostitution and common human vices.
As for the moral and physical harm charge, the defendants admitted abducting some prostitutes in 1992 to carry out 'educational procedures ' before letting them go. They did the same thing with abusers of drugs and alcohol.
"But at the hearings these men and women, who had received such 're-education' agreed their abductors had been right and that they had since given up prostitution, got married and pursued normal lives, "said Yerkabaeva. " Former drug addicts and alcoholics said the same thing."
The accused told the court they had confessed to the charges under torture. But Judge Rustamov dismissed this. "I believe the evidence given during the trial was false and the evidence given during the investigation was valid," he ruled.
Lawyer Yerkabaeva declared, "The court didn't admit the evidence of the witnesses nor the evidence of the accused themselves, nor what the lawyers said. They handed in a verdict purely on the basis of allegations of police in the Ferghana Valley."
Weeping relatives of the defendants said even murderers did not suffer such cruel sentences. Fatima Makhmudova, wife of Khamdam Makhmudov who was sentenced to 18 years, said her husband never committed a crime in his life and hadn't hurt anybody: "Why," she wailed, " was my husband given 18 years, when those sentenced for the Tashkent explosions which killed people were given the same sentences or even less?"
Zamira Mamatkhodjaeva, whose brother Shokhid Mamatkhodjaev was sentenced to 20 years, said she believes the accusations to be entirely fabricated. "It's quite common for the Uzbek militia to plant drugs and weapons when they haven't got anything to charge you with," she said." Why, if they had found weapons on the accused, didn't they present them as evidence in court?"
This latest case seems particularly harsh compared with a case in Tashkent two weeks ago against the leaders of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The chief defendant, Murodullo Koziev, was accused of driving a car packed with explosives up to the building of the Uzbek Cabinet of Ministers, then running off and shooting two girls who were out shopping. Koziev was sentenced to 20 years.
Among the latest 23 accused, there were about ten people who had already served sentences, having been convicted in the mid-1990s for the same offences. Some of them served less than a year and one only two months. The latter will now be doing 18 years.
Uzbek leaders resent Western criticism of its human rights record. They see it as part of a hostile foreign plot against Uzbekistan's fight to maintain security.
Last week's sentences are just the latest in a series of prosecutions against religious organisations accused of anti-state activities.
According to human rights organisations, more than 4,000 people have been convicted over the past few years of attacking the Uzbekistan constitution with the aim of creating an Islamic state.
A more pressing problem for Uzbekistan is the activities of armed Muslim militants launching attacks across the border from neighbouring countries. In late summer President Islam Karimov offered an amnesty to these rebels if they would lay down their arms and come home. Take up of the offer has been low, partly due to distrust of the government and partly due to fear of being executed by their fellow rebels.
It seems unlikely that jailing people who called for a struggle against human vices will bring calm to Uzbekistan. Critics say the authorities in Tashkent really don't care so long as they can stay in power.
Galima Bukharbaeva is IWPR's Project Editor in Tashkent.
Copyright IWPR 2000
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Astana Set To Curb Russian Broadcasts
By Slujan Ismailova in Almaty, IWPR ~ Nov. 27
When it comes to radio and television, Kazaks like Russian programmes. They dominate the ratings, but this may soon change.
Draft amendments to media legislation are before the lower chamber of the Kazak parliament. The changes would limit the proportion of rebroadcast Russian programmes to 20 per cent of total output.
Kazaks are up in arms. The country has a 30 per cent ethnic Russian minority and most of the channels in Kazakstan - ORT, NTV and RTR - are Russian.
Among radio listeners, Europa Plus Kazakstan and Russkoe Radio (Russian Radio) are the favourites.
"More often than not I'll watch ORT or NTV because their programmes are more interesting and the news are more honest," said pensioner Yevdokia Samokhina. "On the local television channels there's little of any interest, and I don't believe the news here at all."
According to Kazak Foreign Minister Kasymjomart Tokaev, the changes are necessary to protect the local radio and television industry.
"At present we in effect broadcast Russian television programs for free, using up television and radio frequencies that are badly needed by Kazak producers," a bureaucrat in the presidential administration said.
"There can't be any talk of infringing rights and freedoms here because we're not banning people from watching Russian television. Let them watch it on cable or with a satellite dish. I think it's fair when a sovereign state protects its own producers."
But Sergei Vlasenko, a lawyer for the non-government organization Internews Kazakstan, argues that the changes may damage domestic media. "Rebroadcasting attracts advertisers, because the Russian programmes are so popular. Thanks to that the domestic channels have the income and resources to create their own broadcasts."
Vlasenko also cautions that the proposed legislation contravenes a March 1996 agreement between Astana and Moscow on the joint creation of favorable conditions for television and radio programmes. "We have to comply with these documents," he said.
Sergei Duvanov, an independent journalist, also sees the moves as bringing more problems for private local channels.
"There will be absolutely no protection of domestic producers," he said. "A ban on the rebroadcasting of Russian channels will lead to a drop in popularity of local private channels. This means that private channels will automatically become less attractive to advertisers. It's clear that this will lead to a further substantial cutting of financial resources, which we need to make our own programmes."
Duvanov said state channels such as Khabar, headed by the president's daughter, Dariga Nazarbaeva, stand to gain from the changes. "It's not dependent on advertising, but the proposed measure will mean that without improving quality, the channel will increase its viewing public, " he said. "The amount of adverts will also significantly increase. And, accordingly, the financial resources of Khabar will also grow."
Since 1997, when several channels critical of the government were closed as a result of a redistribution of television and radio frequencies, there has been a clear tendency to apply pressure on the independent mass media.
Over the last year alone, the most popular opposition newspapers, Nachnyom s Ponedelnika, Sol Dat and XXI Vek have been closed and criminal cases brought against their managers. In essence, the programmes of all the domestic television channels are already subjected to censorship.
Against this background, the latest round of changes to mass media legislation looks very much like turning the screw.
Duvanov believes the proposals are motivated by the administration's desire to assert its independence from Moscow.
"The situation which has developed in the information field of the country is not suited to the government of Kazakstan because, in my view, about 70 per cent of the air time is occupied by Russian television, " he said. " And that means that although the state owns the bodies, it doesn't own the minds of its citizens."
Duvanov also sees it as another attempt to gag the opposition through the mass media, "Cutting foreign broadcasting means that criticism of Kazakstan will be reduced to a minimum. And that means a lot of security for Nazarbaev's regime. "
The move has cast long shadows over the future of many commercial broadcasters. "We're panicking - If they adopt the law we could simp