Greenpeace dumps biotech corn at EPA headquarters

Greenpeace activists block the entrance to EPA headquarters with genetically modified corn.

Washington, DC, Feb. 8— On Wednesday, Greenpeace members dumped more than a ton of genetically modified StarLink corn in the driveway at the headquarters of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a bid to gain the attention of newly installed EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman. StarLink had been approved only as animal feed and for industrial uses but wound up in the human food chain. The dumping coincided with the filing of a lawsuit this week by farmers who say they have been harmed financially by the StarLink mix-up.

StarLink, produced by Aventis CropScience, has been genetically altered to produce a protein, Cry9C, to repel pests. It is feared the protein is a human allergen and the EPA currently is considering whether to grant Aventis a waiver allowing the corn that accidentally made its way into the food chain to work its way through the food processing system without necessitating massive recalls.

The dumping was accompanied by activists dressed in biohazard suits, displaying a banner reading, “Genetic Experiment - Whitman: StarLink Corn Isn’t Food.”

Greenpeace claimed Whitman, as governor of New Jersey, was soft on polluters and likely to favor the chemical and biotech industries.

“Christy Whitman has been cozying up to the chemical and biotech industries while environmentalists and consumers are left holding the feed bag,” said Charles Margulis, Greenpeace genetic engineering specialist. “Wealthy companies should not be granted pardons. They should be held accountable for polluting our food.”

A group of Iowa farmers earlier this week filed a class action suit in state district court in Des Moines, saying they were financially hurt because of consumer fears generated by StarLink. Aventis has been unable to account for 1.2 million bushels of StarLink and there is some evidence StarLink cross-pollinated with another brand of genetically modified corn. The company has said it would compensate farmers and grain elevator operators for losses, possibly totaling as much as $1 billion.

Attorney Roxanne Conlin said the suit was filed in Iowa court because the state court system moves faster than the federal courts, where class actions suits were filed on behalf of growers nationwide in December.

Many farmers and grain elevators have been unable to sell their corn because traces of StarLink have been found in the stocks. Some farmers have said they never were told they had to segregate StarLink from the rest of their crops.

Aventis claims StarLink is safe for human consumption and some new research by the University of Illinois (UI) at Urbana-Champaign may bear that out.

UI plant biologist Margaret Gawienowski has released findings indicating the DNA of corn breaks down and becomes unidentifiable once corn is wet-milled for such products as flakes although it remains intact in dry-milling, which is used to make corn meal.

The StarLink controversy erupted in September when the altered corn was detected in Taco Bell taco shells produced by Kraft for sale in grocery stores. Since then it has turned up in numerous other brands of taco shells, corn meal and corn flour.

Source: Comtex: www.enn.com

Colombian death squads target peace volunteers

By Martin Hodgson

Bogota, Colombia, Feb. 10— Rightwing death squads have threatened to kill members of an international human rights group working in some of the most dangerous regions of Colombia.

Paramilitary gunmen have warned members of Peace Brigades International (PBI) that they are now considered a “military objective” because of their work with community groups in the northern town of Barrancabermeja.

PBI teams - which include British, Canadian and Australian volunteers - provide unarmed escorts for community activists, trade unionists and human rights workers who are often targets of the rightwing militias.

Two gunmen burst into the offices of the Popular Women’s Organization (OFP), a local women’s group, during a peace demonstration on Wednesday.

Identifying themselves as members of Colombia’s largest paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Force of Colombia (AUC), they confiscated mobile phones and a passport belonging to a Swedish PBI volunteer. “From this moment onwards, you are targets,” they warned.

OFP runs soup kitchens for war refugees in Barrancabermeja, an industrial town of 200,000 people which has become a battleground for the warring factions.

Once a stronghold of leftwing rebels, the town is now dominated by the paramilitary squads. Guerrillas and paramilitaries rarely confront each other directly, and most of their victims are unarmed civilians accused of collaborating with the other side.

Last year the bloody conflict claimed more than 500 lives in Barrancabermeja. Human rights monitors say most killings are the work of the paramilitaries. “We know that when they make a threat they’re not playing around,” said Yolanda Becerra, an OFP organizer.

OFP organizers say that they have been targeted for denouncing paramilitary abuses. “They are recruiting boys as young as 12 ... they seduce them with £150, a cellphone and a gun. As women and mothers, we cannot allow this,” said Ms. Becerra.

“The paramilitaries don’t understand that a women’s group can have an independent political position. They say that we’re a front organization for the insurgents,” she said.

Since the early 1980s PBI has accompanied endangered activists like Ms. Becerra in countries around the world. Volunteers have been harassed, mortar-bombed and stabbed, but they are believed to have saved scores of lives. “We’re unarmed, so in terms of protection we depend on the support of the community behind us,” said a PBI spokeswoman, Emma Eastwood.

In Barrancabermeja, nine volunteers provide 24-hour accompaniment for the OFP and other local groups.

“The organizations we accompany have been threatened very seriously over the years and are now threatened on a daily basis,” said Denise Cauchi, 33, a former journalist and one of four British PBI volunteers in Colombia.

“I wouldn’t say you ever get used to [the danger], but there’s no time to get carried away by your emotions. There’s only time to focus on what you have to do.”

Wednesday’s death threat came as President Andres Pastrana met the leader of Colombia’s largest rebel group in what many saw as a last-ditch attempt to save the country from all-out war.

He traveled to the heart of guerrilla-controlled territory for a two-day meeting with Manuel “Tirofijo [Sureshot]” Marulanda, commander of the 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The militias have grown rapidly in recent years, now fielding some 8,000 fighters, and despite government denials, human rights groups say that the militias still receive support from some police and army officers.

FARC has refused to make any concessions or declare a ceasefire. Rebels continue to kidnap civilians and attack villages, even though the government has withdrawn police and troops from an area twice the size of Wales, a condition for negotiations.

Colombians have steadily lost faith in the talks, which have failed to bear fruit and many are calling for a tougher stance against the guerrillas.

“There is an incredibly polarized conflict in Colombia. They’re in a situation which could almost be described as a civil war, and in that kind of situation, the civilian population and organizations which defend it tend to get caught up in the crossfire,” said East-wood.

Source: Guardian Newspaper