Moscow police beat anti-nuclear protesters on Chernobyl Day

Police wrestle a photographer to the ground to confiscate his camera while tourists look on in Moscow, Apr. 25.
By Alisa Nikulina and Vlad Tupikin, courtesy of the Socio-Ecological Union

Moscow, Russia, Apr. 26 (ENS)— Anti-nuclear activists and journalists documenting their protest were roughed up by police Thurs., Apr. 25, on Red Square in front of the Kremlin. More than 20 activists from Moscow, Kaliningrad, Voronezh, Vladimir, Yekaterinburg, Ryazan, Orel, and Ozersk were arrested.

The action was organized by Eco-defense and the Youth Human Rights Movement and was dedicated to the 16th anniversary of the explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant on Apr. 26, 1986.

Activists from 30 Russian cities gathered in the center of Moscow to protest the government’s intention to import nuclear waste to Russia and against nuclear energy development in general. Journalists from international media outlets came to cover the action on Red Square, which was considered a bold venture, as it is one of the most heavily guarded places in Russia.

Dressed in white jumpsuits marked with a radiation danger sign, activists crawled across Red Square up to the Kremlin gates. Vladimir Slivyak of Eco-defense says this action “symbolized bringing of the nuclear waste right to the Kremlin, where the chief decision-maker sits.”

The action had been in progress for about 10 minutes, when police came and, without issuing warnings or requests to leave, started beating people. One demonstrator had her head slammed against the bars of a metal fence.

Slivyak was thrown down and stompted on by police boots, as was Nadezhda Kutepova of the environmental group in Ozyorsk, the location of the Mayak nuclear waste reprocessing plant, Russia’s only such facility.

Journalists covering the event were also beaten and arrested. Their video and photo cameras were taken away, and videotapes and film cassettes were taken out of the cameras. One of the cameras was broken.

Many tourists walking around Red Square observed the police action. Police searched the nearby streets for activists and journalists who escaped from Red Square. Police arrested journalists from several newspapers and from the Russian non-profit news agency Internews.

“After the action the square was covered by the light-struck films,” said one witness.

“We have not seen such violence from police for a long time. It seems that there was a special order to act like this,” said an activist who escaped the arrest and managed to smuggle film and camera away.

Police have released all the demonstrators they arrested. According to Slivyak, 23 protesters appeared in court today and Thursday, and two more will appear in court at a later unspecified date.

All those who came to court were charged with “participation in a non permitted action” under administrative, rather than criminal law. The judge found all the demonstrators guilty and handed down a “warning” to everybody, the lightest action the court could take. According to administrative law, for participating in a non permitted action, people can get a warning, or a fine of up to $500, or up to 15 days in jail.

The arrests in Red Square did not stop the protesters. On Apr. 26, there was an anti-nuclear rally in Moscow organized by a coalition of groups protesting a plan sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) to import spent nuclear fuel to Russia. It was approved by both the Russian parliament and President Vladimir Putin in 2001, and Russian law was changed to permit such imports.

Russian environmentalists say their country cannot even handle its own nuclear waste safely, and until problems with Russian waste are solved, waste from anywhere else should not be imported.

Sudan begins new offensive against rebels

By Katy Salmon

Nairobi, Kenya, Apr. 25 (IPS)— Sudanese government forces have launched a massive offensive in three southern provinces, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, according to Sudanese rebels.

“Mechanized infantry columns supported by helicopter gunships and ground to ground missiles began attacking rebel-held villages in Bahr el Ghazal and Western and Eastern Upper Nile provinces on Saturday,” according to a statement by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) this week.

The rebels, who have been fighting for self determination since 1983, say heavy fighting is taking place along a road connecting the government held town of Wau and rebel-held Gogrial, 1,000 kilometers southwest of the capital, Khartoum.

“It’s very serious. They came out of Wau town; they are heading towards Gogrial. They have also come out of Wau towards Tonj. As they were coming out of Wau they were attacking villages and they were burning villages,” said SPLA spokesperson Samson Kwaje.

“They use artillery, which is for destroying buildings and random shelling. They also have some tanks,” he said.

Kwaje says “hundreds of thousands of civilians” have been driven out of their homes.

“The current government offensive in Bahr el Ghazal has created another humanitarian catastrophe of the highest scale, reminiscent of the 1998 famine. The entire population of Gogrial, Abyei, Twic and all Aweil counties are on the move due to the fighting,” the SPLA statement said.

The government of Sudan denies these allegations as totally baseless.

“We are observing our international commitments in full,” says Mohamed Dirdeiry, a senior official at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

“We are right now having a mechanism in place for monitoring any violations of the agreement for protecting civilians.

“If the SPLA has any serious allegations it should first file them with concerned international bodies, who can look into them,” he said.

United States former Senator John Danforth recently persuaded both the warring parties to sign a document promising to halt their attacks on civilian targets -- something both sides are repeatedly accusing the other of violating.

“The SPLA is intending to cover up what it is doing in other places. Only last week the SPLA killed more than 60 civilians in different places in southern Sudan.

“Also they have shelled the town of Wau and a lot of civilians were killed because of those indiscriminate activities. The SPLA now wants to cover up and tell the international community we are not doing this, it is the government,” charged Dirdeiry.

But aid agencies are backing up the rebels’ claims.

Paul Savage of Christian Aid says an attack on Gogrial has long been anticipated.

“I was in Mapel, which is southwest of Wau, at the beginning of the month. There were stories on the ground that the Government of Sudan — they kind of test things out a little bit, before they actually do anything.

“There was a build up of horseman militia in Wau and they had been going up and down the road to a place called Acumcum which is on the way towards Gogrial.

“They had been doing that and also coming down the road towards Mapel. Just testing out the ground really. I think to see how strong the SPLA were in the area,” he said.

Observers believe the Government of Sudan wants to recapture Gogrial before the end of the dry season. This would improve government supply lines and offer better protection for their oil fields, which are under rebel attack.

“They want to open a supply between oil fields and Wau so that there is no enemy. We are between their forces in Bentiu oil fields and Wau and they want to secure the oil fields,” said Kwaje.

“The rumors are that the main target is Gogrial because if they recapture Gogrial they have a wedge between western and eastern Bahr el Ghazal and strategically that would be the most sensible place to recapture,” agreed Savage.

However, he believes the SPLA’s estimate of the number of civilians displaced by the offensive is inflated.

Medecins Sans Frontiers, another aid agency working in the area, said it could not yet give a figure for the number of displaced.

Christian Solidarity International (CSI) estimates that 20,000 civilians in the area have fled their homes.

“The civilian population of Gogrial town was evacuated. The local administration is moving the displaced population to more secure areas,” it said in a statement this week.

The statement said SPLA Civil Commissioner of Gogrial County, James Lual, speaking to CSI, “urged the United Nations and Western governments to commence an immediate airlift of emergency humanitarian aid to the displaced thousands, and called for the suspension of US peace talks with Khartoum as long as it violates its US-brokered undertaking to protect civilians.”

This month, the Government of Sudan banned the UN and UN-related humanitarian agencies from delivering aid to more than 40 locations in southern Sudan, many in the vicinity of Wau and Gogrial.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima condemned the move. He urged the Sudanese government to rescind the decision, pointing out that this denial of aid would have serious repercussions on the entire population of Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal.

US pressure ousts UN chemical weapons chief

By Mario Osava

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Apr. 23 (IPS)— Multilateralism, the United Nations, and the disarmament effort in general have suffered a blow as a result of the US-led removal of José Maurício Bustani (pictured left) as director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Such is the assessment of Geraldo Cavagnari, a retired army colonel and the coordinator of the strategic studies program at the State University of Campinas, Brazil.

The “mafia-like” manner in which Washington imposed its power in the OPCW undermines the credibility of that and other international organizations, and “has repercussions for the entire multilateral system,” said Cavagnari, reacting to the Monday dismissal of Bustani.

This ousting puts all efforts at arms control in question, whether or not they involve chemical weapons, because it has become evident that the OPCW and other bodies will not be able to operate independently of US interests, he said.

The former army officer commented, however, that it is not a permanent situation, because the removal of Bustani is due “to the style of the current government” of the US, under conservative Republican George W. Bush.

The Bush administration is unlike its predecessor, although it, too, exercised its prerogatives as the world’s superpower, but did so through “more subtle” means, he said.

The OPCW was established in 1997 to oversee the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the manufacture, stockpiling and use of such weapons.

Bustani, who led the OPCW since its creation, was removed as the result of a vote during a special session of the organization Mon., Apr. 21 at The Hague. The vote was 48 in favor, seven against, and 43 abstentions on a US proposal for his dismissal.

The motion alleged he had been responsible for “poor management” and financial problems as head of the organization. This came in spite of the fact that the administrative director of the OPCW is a US national who was proposed for that position by the US government.

According to diplomatic and news media circles, the US government’s maneuvers to get rid of Bustani came in response to his independent attitude and his efforts to convince Iraq to allow the OPCW to conduct an inspection.

If he were successful, the Bush administration would lose its arguments in favor of new military attacks against Iraq and the removal of President Saddam Hussein.

Of the Latin American countries represented at the 145-member organization, only Cuba and Mexico voted in favor of keeping the Brazilian leader at the helm. According to the Mexican delegation, they opposed a process that violated the OPCW’s rules.

In addition to Cuba, Mexico, and Brazil, the other countries that voted against the US proposal for Bustani’s dismissal were Belarus, China, Iran and Russia.

The abstention of Brazil’s Mercosur (Southern Common Market) partners Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela, came as a surprise, causing speculation that Washington had strong-armed their delegates or that the Brazilian government had failed to defend its diplomat.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Lafer rejected insinuations that Brasilia opted to preserve relations with the United States over working in favor of Bustani.

But Lafer had acknowledged last week that the fate of Bustani -- who served as an independent official as head of the OPCW, not as a Brazilian diplomat -- was practically sealed, given that it would be very difficult to compete with Washington’s power.

The United States provides 22 percent of the OPCW’s $60 million annual budget.

The minister, though in more cautious terms than those expressed by Cavagnari or Bustani himself, also recognized that the OPCW would suffer a credibility crisis no matter how the dispute was resolved.

Bustani said he has been the victim of “a lynching,” and pointed to the votes cast against him by small countries that had never before participated in an OPCW session and other maneuvers he said were the work of the United States.

Bustani and Cavagnari agreed in almost identical terms that the decision represents “a blow to multilateralism and sets a dangerous precedent.” It is the first case of a dismissal of this level under such conditions, Bustani said.

Brazil’s President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the Foreign Ministry expressed their regrets about the unfolding of the case, and announced that the official could return to the diplomatic functions he had left five years ago to lead the OPCW.

Bustani’s performance as director-general was recognized in May 2000 in a unanimous re-election to another four-year term, to end in 2005.

Just last year, US Secretary of State Colin Powell congratulated Bustani for a job well done in overseeing the elimination of one-fifth of the world’s chemical weapons and more than 1,200 inspections in 50 countries.

Washington’s sudden change of attitude, manifest since January, indicates that political, not administrative reasons prompted the campaign to oust Bustani, says David Fleicher, professor of international relations at the University of Brasilia.

The OPCW decision will not affect bilateral relations, assured US ambassador to Brazil, Donna Hrinak, who only presented her diplomatic credentials to President Cardoso on Tuesday.

But there are areas in which Brazil and the United States are of opposing opinions, such as their responses to the failed coup in Venezuela, and to the resolution critical of Cuba passed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, both of which occurred earlier this month.

Footage of refugees sparks calls for inquiry in Australia

By Bob Burton

Canberra, Australia, Apr. 25 (IPS)— Distressing scenes from a leaked video that shows a guard dragging an unconscious asylum seeker across a concrete floor have sparked calls for a commission of inquiry into conditions in Australia’s refugee detention centers.

At a rally outside the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMIA) head office in Canberra Wednesday, the Refugee Action Collective said that there had been a protest last Friday night and this was just the culmination of a series of incidents over the past months.

The day before, a 12-year old Iranian child attempted to commit suicide, an Afghani man jumped off a roof into razor wire, and two men cut their stomachs and wrists.

The Friday protests at the Curtin detention center in western Australia are believed to have erupted when asylum seekers grew frustrated at their inability to get phone access to external supporters. Since last weekend, direct phone access to the refugees has been impossible.

“The people inside Curtin are now without a voice. The only information that is coming out is through DIMIA. We were getting phone calls from inside the detention center. We need to tell their story, to get their story out,” said Cathy Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Refugee Action Collective.

The leaked video was screened on national television this week, revealing two refugees bashing their heads into concrete walls after being told they would not be allowed to apply for refugee status in Australia.

Australian Correctional Management (AMC), the company contracted by DIMIA to manage the Curtin detention center, recorded the video in June 2001.

The video showed one asylum seeker knocking himself unconscious and then being dragged across the concrete floor by a guard and apparently left without medical attention. Medical staff later treated the other man, who had blood streaming from his head.

Later that day, a full-scale riot erupted. In the wake of the riot, one of the refugees was sentenced to five years in jail for rioting.

The screening of the leaked video footage has created a furor over the treatment of those held in Australia’s detention centers, and has prompted the Catholic Commission for Justice, Development and Peace (CCJDP) to call for a full inquiry into the management of the detention centers.

“We need a full judicial inquiry into incidents of self-harm and procedures for dealing with such incidents in Australian immigration detention centers,” said the Catholic commission’s executive officer, Marc Purcell.

With media access to the centers heavily regulated and professionals obliged to sign contracts with confidentiality clauses, the only source of information on conditions inside the centers is through refugees directly contacting support groups or having lawyers pass information on.

DIMIA acknowledged that 100 of the 340 people held in the Curtin center were involved in protests Friday night. The protests, it claimed, resulted in five staff injured and buildings damaged.

The Refugee Action Collective, along with parliamentarians such as Greens Sen. Bob Brown, has called for all the videos recorded by ACM of both the June 2001 and last week’s incidents to be publicly released.

Since the video was first aired by the publicly funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday night, Australian Prime Minister John Howard sought to downplay the rough treatment of the unconscious refugee by the guard.

“I’ve been told that the staff were prevented, because of the conduct of some of the detainees, from providing it (assistance) and when they could, they did,” he told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

“Look, I strongly support our policy of mandatory detention and I’m not going to criticize what occurred there,” he said.

The acting minister for immigration, Senator Chris Ellison, said that the two people shown in the video, whose first applications were rejected, were later accepted.

After airing the leaked tape, ABC followed up the initial story with a program featuring extensive interviews with three psychologists who worked in the Woomera detention centers in the harsh South Australian desert.

The psychologists told ABC’s Lateline program that self-mutilation and attempted suicide was a daily occurrence in the detention centers and that the attitude of staff was often dismissive.

Colombia groups alarmed by US anti-terror proposals

United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries. Photo courtesy of the Cascadia Media Collective

By Rachel Rivera

New York, New York, Apr. 25 (IPS)— A US administration campaign to link US anti-drug funds to the Colombian government’s battle against rebel groups it deems to be terrorists will intensify a 40-year civil war, say Colombia advocacy groups.

The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) include US-based solidarity groups and an association of displaced Colombians of African descent, estimated to account for half of all people forced from their homes, lands, and livelihoods by armed combatants.

They are calling attention to the plight of war-displaced communities in Colombia and urging US citizens to call on Washington to shift its focus from funding Colombia’s drug and counterinsurgency wars, to supporting economic and social development programs that would help their communities.

“Turning the anti-drug war to an anti-terrorist war will only intensify the war in Colombia. This will only mean more weapons, and more killings, and more suffering for our people,” said Victoria Maldonado, co-founder of the Colombia Media Project, a New York-based human rights group.

Maldonado’s group organized a public forum here Wed., Apr. 24 to coincide with hearings in Washington by the House International Relations Committee, which was to unveil a report on Apr. 25 citing alleged links between Colombia’s major rebel organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and terrorist groups in Northern Ireland, Iran, Cuba, and Spain.

The report follows recent White House proposals to shift US Colombia policy to allow the military there to use US anti-drug funding for its counter-insurgency operations.

Colombia is the third-highest recipient of US military aid after Israel and Egypt and receives $535 million per year in military and police aid for its anti-drug war, according to the Center for International Policy (CIP), a Washington-based human rights group that monitors military aid to Latin America.

“Doing away with restrictions that currently bar the Colombian government from using anti-drug aid for its anti-guerrilla war will give it free reign to give more support to the paramilitary forces, which will lead of course to more human rights violations,” said CIP research associate Ingrid Vaicius.

“There are clear indications that the Bush administration will now try to increase US military aid to Colombia in order to support its anti-terror campaign,” said Vaicius on Thursday.

For Colombian communities that have been displaced in mass numbers by the armed conflict in their country, the calls in Washington to fund Bogota’s anti-guerrilla war are especially alarming.

“We have been the military targets of all armed groups,” said Marino Cordoba, president of the Association of Displaced Afro-Colombians, who fled Colombia in February after escaping two assassination attempts. Cordoba is seeking political asylum in the United States.

According to Cordoba’s group, out of the two million people displaced in Colombia, close to half are Colombians of African descent.

Afro-Colombians make up about 26 percent of the country’s total population of 40 million and the majority of them inhabit areas along the Pacific coast, a region rich in forest and mineral resources.

Cordoba says the mass displacement of black populations from the Pacific coastal areas is the result of military actions by paramilitary forces supported by the government’s armed forces and acting on behalf of companies with interests in the region.

A law enacted in 1993 granted Afro-Colombian communities the right to collective land titles. In 1996, Cordoba explained, paramilitary forces started attacking Afro-Colombian communities just as the law began taking effect and the first collective titles were issued.

“It is a myth of the media that we have been displaced by the conflict between the paramilitary and the guerrillas,” says Cordoba. “It was the paramilitaries who came and took our land.”

When paramilitary forces entered his town of Riosucio in northwest Colombia, Cordoba recalls, many were massacred and people were driven from their homes. Many fled to the cities of Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena, where most were unable to find jobs and ended up living under desperate conditions, unable to fish for their livelihood or grow food to feed their families.

“We have the land titles but the land has been taken from us. We can’t return as long as the paramilitaries are there,” says Cordoba.

Three major armed groups have been waging war in Colombia: the left-wing FARC and National Liberation Army (ELN), and the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

“I don’t defend any of the armed groups because none of the armed groups are defending the interests of my people,” says Cordoba.

Acid attacks on women in Bangladesh on the rise

Dhaka, Bangladesh, Apr. 28— Holding a red banner that read “Resist acid, save women,” Dolly Begum marched slowly through the streets of Dhaka. Walking with her were 100 other victims of acid attacks, followed by columns of men demonstrating their commitment to ending a crime that disfigures hundreds of young women across Bangladesh every year.

The rally, organized jointly by the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) and the Bengali daily Prothom Alo, was aimed at displaying the collective shame and anger of Bangladeshi women and men. “It’s a revolting crime,” said Habibur Rahman, a former chief justice, who joined the rally.

Acid attacks against women are on the rise in Bangladesh. Throwing acid is used as a cheap and brutal way of revenging romantic disappointments, dowry disputes, domestic fights and arguments over property.

Dolly, 14, aspired to become a doctor. Her dreams evaporated when a spurned suitor hurled acid on her face as she slept on a rainy night last year in her village in the northern Bogra district. Even after six painful operations to reconstruct her face, she is still badly disfigured.

“What have I done to deserve this?” she asked, her voice dropping to a whisper. Her only crime was to be audacious enough to reject the overtures of a neighbor, Hafizur.

“He used to pester me almost every day. I got fed up and one day told my parents about it.” Undeterred, he sent a marriage proposal, which was turned down by Dolly’s parents.

A few days later, Hafizur took his revenge. “Suddenly I felt my whole face was burning. I screamed,” she said.

Almost a year later, Dolly has made a good recovery from the trauma, thanks to the emotional and material support given by the ASF. A private charity, it provides victims with a refuge, counseling and medical and legal help.

Sitting in its offices in the Banani residential district of Dhaka, Dolly pondered her uncertain future. “My life is finished. Nobody will give me any shelter, let alone marry me.” Her parents are not in a position to help.

“There’s no escape for us,” said Runa Laila, 21, who was sitting next to her. She was attacked by a rejected suitor in 1998.

Such macabre stories abound across Bangladesh. The foundation catalogued 221 incidents in 2000 and 340 in 2001, a 55% increase. By March of this year, 84 cases have already been reported.

Sociologists and women’s rights activists are baffled as to why this crime is more prevalent in Bangladesh than anywhere else. The country is not unique in its poverty or its treatment of women. They are also puzzled as to why the crime occurs mostly among the poor; it is virtually nonexistent among the better-off.

Experts attribute the increase in attacks to the easy availability of acid and the lack of exemplary punishment for offenders. The complicated legal process, coupled with corruption, often lets culprits off the hook. Most attackers, like those of Dolly and Runa, are never arrested and those who are seldom come to trial. Despite the introduction of the death penalty, no one has been executed.

“It’s extremely difficult to pursue the cases,” said Badrunnessa Khuku, the legal coordinator at the ASF. Invariably, the victims are poor and they lack the resources to pursue their case.

Against this backdrop, parliament last month passed another law aimed at restricting sales of acid -- imposing up to 10 years’ imprisonment for those who sell it illegally -- and at concluding trials within 90 days.

Yet legal experts remain skeptical. Hasan Ariff, the attorney general, was at the rally. “There is nothing wrong with the existing law,” he said. “The problem lies in its implementation.”

Source: Guardian (UK)

More US ties to failed Venezuelan coup surface

Compiled by Eamon Martin

May 1— The US had been considering a coup to overthrow elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, since last June, a former US intelligence officer told reporters this past week. It is also alleged that the US navy aided the failed coup, which took place in Venezuela on Apr. 11 with intelligence from its vessels in the Caribbean. Evidence has also emerged of US financial backing for key participants in the coup. Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the US navy, told reporters this week that US military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup.

“I first heard of Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers [the assistant military attaché now based at the US embassy in Caracas] going down there last June to set the ground,” Madsen, an intelligence analyst, said. “Some of our counter-narcotics agents were also involved.”

He said that the navy was in the area for operations unconnected to the coup, but that he understood they had assisted with signals intelligence as the coup was played out. Navy vessels on a training exercise in the area were supposedly put on stand-by in case evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela was required.

In Caracas, a congressman has accused the US ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, and two US embassy military attaches of involvement as well.

Roger Rondon said that the military officers, whom he named as (James) Rogers and (Ronald) MacCammon, had been at the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the coup leaders during the night of Apr. 11-12.

Referring to Shapiro, Rondon said: “We saw him leaving Miraflores palace, all smiles and embraces, with the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga [who was installed by the military for two days] ... [His] satisfaction was obvious. Shapiro’s participation in the coup d’état in Venezuela is evident.”

The US embassy dismissed the allegations as “ridiculous.” Shapiro admitted meeting Carmona the day after the coup, but said he urged him to restore the national assembly, which Carmona had extinguished.

Carmona, himself, however told reporters that no such advice was given, although he agreed that a meeting took place.

A US embassy spokesman said there were no US military personnel from the embassy at Fuerte Tiuna during the crucial periods from Apr. 11 to 13, although two members of the embassy’s defense attaché’s office, one of them Lt. Col Rogers, drove around the base on the afternoon of Apr. 11 to “check” reports that it was “closed.”

Rondon has also said that two foreign gunmen, one American and the other Salvadoran, were detained by security police during the anti-Chavez protest on Apr. 11 in which around 19 people were killed, many by unidentified snipers firing from rooftops.

“They haven’t appeared anywhere,” he said. “We presume these two gentlemen were given some kind of safe-conduct and could have left the country.”

Chavez’s opponents claim pro-Chavez gunmen shot protesters while his supporters say the shots were fired by agents provocateurs.

US funding uncovered

In the past year, the United States has channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to US and Venezuelan groups opposed to Chavez, including the labor group whose protests sparked off the coup. The funds were provided by the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit agency created and financed by the US Congress.

As Chavez increasingly clashed with various business, union and media groups, the endowment quadrupled its budget for the country to more than $877,000.

Of particular concern is $154,377 given by the endowment to the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), the international arm of the AFL-CIO, the US union umbrella body. The ACILS had been giving crucial support to the Venezuelan union, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CVT), which led the work stoppages that galvanized the opposition to Chavez. The union’s leader, Carlos Ortega, had worked closely with Pedro Carmona in orchestrating the events that led to Chavez’s brief ouster.

Coup linked to Bush team

This week, Chavez’s chief ideologue — Guillermo Garcia Ponce, director of the Revolutionary Political Command — said anti-Chavez groups in the US had plotted the president’s removal.

“The most reactionary sectors in the United States were implicated in the conspiracy,” he said. It has now been established that the failed coup was closely tied to senior officials in the US government who have long histories of involvement in the US counter-insurgency wars of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.

Washington’s involvement has resurrected fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere. It has also deepened doubts about policy in the region being made by appointees to the Bush administration, all of who played instrumental roles in covert wars while serving under US President Ronald Reagan.

One of them, Elliot Abrams, who gave official approval to the attempted coup, was convicted for misleading Congress over the infamous Iran-Contra affair.

In the weeks since the failed takeover, the Bush administration has been trying to distance itself from the coup. It had immediately endorsed the new Carmona government. But the coup was sent dramatically into reverse after 48 hours.

Now officials at the Organization of American States (OAS) and other diplomatic sources assert that the Bush administration was not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it, presuming it to be destined for success.

The visits by Venezuelans plotting the coup, including Carmona himself, began, they say, “several months ago,” and continued until just weeks before the final push. The visitors were received at the White House by the man President Bush had tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Otto Reich.

In January, Bush, against the advice of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, appointed Reich, a man with a dynamic record of covert meddling in Latin American politics. Reich is a right-wing Cuban-American who, under Reagan, ran the Office for Public Diplomacy. It reported in theory to the State Department, but Reich was shown by congressional investigations to report directly to Reagan’s National Security Aide, Colonel Oliver North, in the White House.

North was convicted and shamed for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, whereby arms bought by busting US sanctions on Iran were covertly sold to the Contra guerrillas and death squads, in revolt against the socialist government in Nicaragua.

Reich is said by OAS sources to have had “a number of meetings with Carmona and other leaders of the coup” over several months. The coup was discussed in some detail, right down to its timing and chances of success, which were deemed to be excellent.

On the day Carmona claimed power, Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office. He said the US would support the Carmona government.

But the crucial figure around the coup was Abrams, who operates in the White House as senior director of the National Security Council for “democracy, human rights and international operations.”

Abrams was a leading theoretician of the school known as ‘Hemispherism’, which put a priority on combating Marxism in the Americas. It led to the coup in Chile in 1973, and the sponsorship of regimes and death squads that followed it in Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and elsewhere. During the Contras’ rampage in Nicaragua, he worked directly for North.

Congressional investigations found Abrams had harvested illegal funding for the Contra proxy war. Convicted for withholding information from the inquiry, he was later pardoned by George Bush senior.

After seizing office, Carmona wasted no time in revealing his vision of Venezuelan democracy: abolishing the elected national congress, disbanding the constitutionally established Supreme Court, suspending 48 laws passed Constitutionally by the Chavez government and Congress, and immediately decreeing that new presidential elections would be delayed until up to a year from then.

Given the designated responsibility of Abrams’ post to oversee the development of Latin American “democracy” and “human rights,” his history, as well as his speedy endorsement of Carmona’s brief dictatorship has reinforced suspicions about the integrity and honesty of US ambitions for the region.

The director of the school of international studies at the Central University of Venezuela, Franklin González, said that the US actions in the crisis “are cause for many doubts,” and that this was evident from the moment Chávez was temporarily removed from power.

“The first statement issued by the US State Department — instead of condemning the coup — said Chávez had brought it upon himself,” González pointed out.

Bush told Chávez, after the latter returned to power, that he should “learn his lesson” and respect the Constitution and democratic rules — a warning that Washington did not see fit to issue to the provisional government of Carmona.

Venezuela is the third-leading supplier of oil to the United States.

Sources: Guardian (UK), IPS, New York Times, Observer (UK), Reuters, The Times (UK)

WORLD BRIEFS
Turkey to take over Afghan operation
Turkey officially agreed Apr. 29 to take command of the “peace-keeping” mission in Afghanistan. The US seems keen to show that because Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country, the war against terror is not between Islam and the West.

The Turkish government said it would take command of the 4,500-member, 18-nation force from Britain for six months, but did not specify the hand-off date. British officials speculated it would happen before June.

The US government has promised full support for the economically stressed nation in return for taking over the mission, to the tune of $200 million in economic aid and $28 million in military aid, which the Bush administration plans to ask Congress for approval.

Turkey already has some 270 “peacekeepers” in Afghanistan, and is the only Muslim country that has contributed to the operation there. (AP)

Bombs greet Rumsfeld at Afghani airport
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Afghanistan Apr. 27 for talks with military leaders coordinating the war against remaining Taliban and al-Qaida forces, after three bombs exploded Apr. 26 at the Kabul airport.

A British spokeswoman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the explosions and said there were no reported injuries. Anonymous ISAF sources said that the explosions were caused by three rockets launched close to the airport.

All of the rockets were fired within the space of five minutes, and ISAF sources said ballistic studies were underway to determine their origin. British and French troops based near the airport were put on full alert following the blasts. (AFP)

Quebec set to recognize same-sex
couples by June
Quebec will give legal status to unions of same-sex couples by late June, said the Attorney General on Apr. 26. Quebec will become the second Canadian province to legalize civil unions of same-sex couples; Nova Scotia was the first.

The bill, expected to be adopted at the end of the current session of the legislature, would give same-sex couples the same rights and obligations as married heterosexual couples, including adoption and artificial insemination, health and life insurance benefits, tax status, and rights to benefits after divorce or death.

The Attorney General said public opinion in the province led the government to move forward on the legislation. Twenty percent of all couples living in Quebec have common law status, three percent are gay or lesbian. (Reuters)

US strong-arms to get seat
on UN commission
After pressuring potential candidates to keep off the ballot, the US was elected Apr. 29 to the primary UN human rights body from which it was ousted last year.

The US returned to the 53-member UN Human Rights Commission courtesy of uncontested elections for four Western European seats.

Some diplomats said Italy and Spain were forced to withdraw their candidates, mostly because of US pressure.

Human Rights Watch said the US wanted a “guaranteed seat” to avoid a replay of last year when the US was kicked off the Commission, prompting Congress to threaten to further hold back some $244 million in US back dues to the UN. (IPS)

Mexican farmers disarm police
On Apr. 25 a group of more than 100 campesinos protesting plans for a new Mexico City airport disarmed state police agents who tried to stop them from attending a demonstration. The campesinos, have been holding sit-ins and other protests over the proposed airport, to be located on farmland since October.

The campesinos had planned to protest at a nearby ceremony. The state was giving 10 patrol cars, four motorcycles and a number of trucks to the local police command, a move that the protesters say was meant to intimidate them. Agents tried to block the demonstrators, who arrived in several vans. The protesters overpowered the four agents and took their guns and the keys to their patrol cars and returned to their sit-in. Local police came two hours later, armed only with machetes, and negotiated the return of the keys and weapons. (La Jornada)