Masked rebels take the stand in Congress

Masked Zapatista rebel commanders arrive in Mexico's Congress, March 28, 2001.

By Pilar Franco

Mexico City, Mar. 28 (IPS)-- The voice of Zapatista Commandante Esther resounded through Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies Wednesday with a message that the guerrilla leaders were ready for talks with the government in search of an agreement that would bring peace to the southern state of Chiapas.

Just over seven years after the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) declared war on the government and engaged in 12 days of fighting with the army, masked rebels occupied the front rows of the lower house of Congress accompanied by representatives of local indigenous communities.

The podium of the legislative palace is a symbol, as is the fact that ‘’a poor, indigenous woman was the first to speak out’’ in defence of a draft law that would enshrine the rights of Mexico’s 10 million Indians in the constitution, said Esther.

“My name doesn’t matter. I am a Zapatista, and that doesn’t matter either. I am an indigenous person and a woman, and that is what really matters,’’ said the guerrilla leader.

The message of the EZLN “is an outcry, but our word is one of respect,’’ and we are not seeking to humiliate, defeat, replace, legislate, “or beg for alms,’’ but to be heard, she added.

“We have ordered Subcomandante Marcos to arrange the mechanisms’’ necessary to prevent any military advance by the guerrillas on the positions from which the army was withdrawn in the past few days in the Zapatista-controlled parts of Chiapas, said Esther.

Mexican President Vicente Fox recently ordered the dismantling of the three remaining army bases in the conflict zone.

The withdrawal of army troops from seven bases in Chiapas, the release of all of the Zapatistas languishing behind bars, and the approval of the bill on Indigenous Rights and Culture, which would recognize indigenous rights in the constitution, were the three conditions set by the EZLN for the renewal of the peace talks, which stalled in 1996.

“We will not respond to a signal for peace with a signal of war,’’ stressed Esther. “The light of dialogue illuminates the darkness of the night into which Mexico’s indigenous people are born, and in which they live and die.’’

Esther called on civil society at home and abroad to set up “peace posts’’ in the military bases from which the army was withdrawn, in order to verify that no war-like actions were being carried out by the Zapatistas.

The rebel leader explained that Marcos did not deliver the Zapatistas’ keynote speech because “he is a subcom-mander. We are the commanders, who give orders as a community, obeying our peoples.’’

The charismatic Marcos -- the only non-indigenous “mestizo’’ (mixed race) EZLN leader -- was not present at the historic meeting with the lawmakers. Nor were the deputies of the conservative governing National Action Party (PAN), which voted against receiving the Zapatista leaders in Congress.

“We entrusted Subcomandante Marcos with the mission of bringing us to this rostrum’’ to offer “our word for a dignified and just peace in Chiapas,’’ said Esther.

The EZLN -- which first rose up in arms on Jan 1, 1994 -- ordered its leader Fernando Yáñez, known as ‘Comandante Germán,’ to act as a courier between the rebels and the executive branch, in order to ensure “compliance with the last two conditions’’ for renewing the peace talks, said Esther.

In Congress, Yáñez represented the 24 Zapatista leaders who set out in a convoy from Chiapas last month on their way to Mexico City to lobby for approval of the bill on indigenous rights.

The legislators have “the opportunity to see very far ahead’’ when they discuss recognition of autonomy for indigenous communities, which will enable them to build their own development, said Yáñez.

Those who believe the aim is to create Indian reservations forget that “we have been repressed, marginalized and in danger of extinction,’’ he added.

Historian Carlos Montemayor, author of “War in Paradise,” told IPS that “the Zapatistas’ visit to the legislative palace is one more step in the strengthening of the movement of the country’s indigenous peoples.’’

The presence of the rebel leaders in the Chamber of Deputies created the framework necessary for Mexico’s Indians “to occupy a space in political, and not just cultural, terms.’’

The tension prior to the parliamentary vote that opened the doors of the lower house of Congress to the Zapatistas ‘’was a reflection of what will happen in the debate’’ on the bill drafted by the parliamentary peace commission on the basis of the San Andrés accords -- the only agreements signed by the rebels and the government, said Montemayor.

Montemayor recommended that those legislators who are “reluctant to approve the draft law’’ obtain “more information regarding the advances made in recognition of autonomous territories in countries like Canada, Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.’’

Montemayor said that what has been happening in other nations can serve as an important tool for lawmakers when they discuss the concept of autonomy -- the portion of the draft law that has evoked the strongest objections in Congress.

Although autonomy is exercised in practice by some indigenous communities in Mexico, what the EZLN is demanding is constitutional recognition of that autonomy.

Comandante Esther said the proposal to defend indigenous customs and traditions was also aimed at changing practices that represented pain, neglect, disdain, and marginal-ization for women.

The EZLN was represented on the dais by Esther and comandantes David, Zebedeo, and Tacho, who discussed the advantages of autonomy for native peoples.

Conspicuously absent were seven indigenous people -- one who was killed, four of whom are in prison, and two of whom are facing arrest warrants -- whose seats were left empty among the spots reserved for the EZLN and its guests in Congress.

Thousands protest IMF in Turkey

Thousands march in Ankara, Turkey on Mar. 31, 2001to demonstrate their opposition to IMF-ordered governmental reforms.

By Orhan Coskun

Ankara, Turkey, Mar.31— Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across Turkey on Saturday to protest against economic reforms backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Shouting “IMF go home,” they gathered mainly in downtown Ankara and in Istanbul amid a heavy police presence.

The protests came as the government met union leaders and employers in a bid to muster broad public support for a new economic program after a devastating financial crisis.

A senior economic official said the government would call for sacrifices from all sides at a Social Council meeting, including restraint in upcoming collective wage negotiations.

Economy Minister Kemal Dervis is working on a program of major structural reforms that he says are essential to win support from international lenders and the markets.

Dervis, a former senior World Banker, was brought in to take over the reins of the economy at the start of March after a crisis that ripped apart an $11 billion IMF program.

“The policies of the IMF and the World Bank do not aim to help Turkey but to assure that Turkey can pay its debts on time and in full,” said Bayram Meral, president of Turkey’s largest union confederation Turk-Is, in the text of a speech prepared before the meeting with the government.

Major unions under the umbrella of the Labor Platform say a new IMF-backed economic program based on the principles of the Fund will be unacceptable and that protests and work stoppages will be the response. They want wage rises to match real inflation rather than price targets, which have been missed in the past.

“In the program that is being prepared there should be a remedy for poverty because as in all economic crises the price of this crisis is paid most heavily by the workers,” said Recay Baskan, head of the Hak-Is union confederation.

Friction within government

Turkey was forced to float the lira on Feb. 22, abandoning a crawling currency peg that had been the centerpiece of a three-year, IMF-backed disinflation program. The lira has since lost around a third of its value against the dollar.

On Friday, Turkish military and political leaders signaled unity in efforts to combat the crisis, condemning speculation that the government could soon fall to make way for an “interim regime.”

But the military-dominated National Security Council (MGK) tried to squelch such talk on Friday, saying it had discussed speculation about an “interim regime” — a euphemism for a non-political government sponsored, if only tacitly, by the military which has carried out three coups since 1960.

The High Planning Council, a government forum for economy-related ministers and bureaucrats, issued another reassuring statement later on Friday, saying drafts of key reforms would be sent to the prime minister’s office next week, paving the way for swift passing of new laws.

Worries about apparent friction within the three-party coalition over Dervis’s stewardship and the government’s ability to implement reform laws had sent markets tumbling.

Turkey reached a framework agreement with the IMF earlier this month on a new economic program which it aims to finalize with a letter of intent to the Fund to be signed by the end of April. The IMF wants to see concrete evidence that Ankara is implementing its promises, particularly in reforms of the banking sector, before it will discuss any new lending.

But privatization and reform of state banks, which have for years supported industry via subsidized lending, are likely to be painful, at least in the short term.

“Today in the real economy, production is approaching a standstill,” said Refik Baydur, head of the Turkish Employers Unions Confederation. “Our country is facing the threat of major unemployment. The government has to listen to our demands.”

Source: Reuters

Europe disgusted by Bush’s renunciation of Kyoto Protocol

Paris, France, Mar. 29— Europeans reacted sharply last week to President George W. Bush’s repudiation of the Kyoto global warming treaty, with France denouncing it as a scandal and an alarmed European Union announcing it would send top-ranking representatives to Washington. French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet said: “Mr Bush’s unilateral attitude is a scandal.”

His behavior was “entirely provocative and irresponsible,” she added. Christine Todd Whitman, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has lost her credibility after telling the G8 on March 3 that the US is not backtracking from an international commitment it made in 1997 to cut the pollution blamed for global warming.

The European Commission announced in Brussels it will send a delegation to Washington next week for talks with the Bush administration. Italy’s Environment Minister Willer Bordon called the US move “extremely serious.” He said Washington should be forced to state its position officially.

If Washington persisted in renouncing the Kyoto Protocol, which limits emissions of greenhouse gases, then Europe, Russia and Japan should implement the accord unilaterally, he said.

British Environment Minister Michael Meacher said: “This is not the end of the story. There is clearly a power struggle going on in Washington and we have to keep hammering on.”

Meacher also mentioned a series of negotiations coming up, including a G8 economic summit in Genoa and a summit in Sweden in July which Bush would attend, when European politicians could put pressure on him to respect the Kyoto Protocol.

“This is not just an environmental issue. We are talking about a transatlantic and global foreign policy issue,” Meacher said. As the United States discharged a quarter of the global total of greenhouse gases it was unthinkable for it not to be part of the treaty.

The planet faces extreme weather conditions if nothing is done to reduce the polluting gases caused by transport and industry.

The White House announcement that Bush had effectively ditched the 1997 accord came only days after the EU reaffirmed its commitment. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the accord “is not in the United States’ economic best interest.”

But Meacher said climate change was “the most dangerous and fearful challenge to humanity over the next 100 years.

“If temperatures rise six degrees, then parts of the world are going to become uninhabitable, have droughts on a scale that we have never seen, tornadoes and floods and extreme weather conditions.”

Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, in Washington for talks with Bush, said he would conduct candid but friendly talks with him on the issue.

No major European nation has actually ratified the accord. Negotiations to agree on rules collapsed in The Hague last November amid divisions within the EU and accusations Washington was exploiting loopholes to ease the cost of meeting the treaty’s targets.

The negotiations are set to resume in Bonn in July.

Charles Secrett, executive director of the environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth, called the US decision “a disaster.”

EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom told a Brussels press conference she would go to Washington with representatives of the Swedish EU presidency and the upcoming Belgian presidency.

“We don’t like what we are hearing,” she said. “We have to make absolutely clear to the United States that this is not a marginal issue that can be ignored or played down.”

Source: Agence France Presse