World Bank aid arrives
amid protests in Argentina

By Marcela Valente

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jan. 29 (IPS)-- The World Bank signed a $600 million loan Wednesday to provide urgent relief to struggling Argentine families with unemployed heads of household, while protests heated up against the government’s subsidy plan to demand broader coverage.

The loan, most of which will be disbursed this year, is among the first good news to come in the wake of the accord the Eduardo Duhalde government reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Friday, allowing this crisis-stricken nation to put off its debt payments to the multilateral credit agencies for eight months.

The World Bank deal comes amidst protests led by organizations of unemployed workers, who criticize the “political manipulation” of the subsidy program that is supposed to benefit them, and the paucity of the stipends paid out.

The protesters also charge that the state aid does not cover the population that was hardest hit by the collapse of the Argentine economy last year and who continue to suffer the effects of the recession, now in its fifth year.

However, World Bank vice-president for Latin America and the Caribbean, David de Ferranti, said he is optimistic about Argentina’s future.

The major challenges that confronted the Argentine people in 2002 are fading into the past, said De Ferranti, noting that the accord signed with the IMF contributed towards rebuilding the international financial community’s confidence in the country’s economic potential.

This, he said, justified the World Bank decision in favor of granting additional support to be earmarked for the Heads of Household program, implemented by the Duhalde government in May 2002 to aid 1.1 million people.

The monthly stipend for unemployed heads of household, financed until now with state resources alone, will now reach 1.85 million people, according to the Bank’s projections.

The World Bank’s aim is to support the most vulnerable sectors of Argentine society by working with the government-led plan, which the Bank considers a “fast, effective and transparent” vehicle for reaching the poorest people, said De Ferranti.

According to official figures, unemployment reached 21.4 percent of the economically active population in May 2002, and fell to 17.8 percent in December, when the government included the beneficiaries of the Heads of Household plan in the tally of the employed.

Under the government initiative, families with minor children or other dependents receive 150 pesos ($46) a month. This sum covers barely one-third of the “basic food basket” to feed a family of four.

Unlike other programs that distributed food to the poor and unemployed, this initiative of the Duhalde government entails cash payments that beneficiaries can collect at their local banks.

Labor minister Graciela Camaño says the World Bank loan, which is to be paid back in 15 years (with a five-year grace period), will give the plan greater maneuverability, though warned against high expectations that the program would provide for everyone in need or that the monthly stipend would increase.

This was Camaño’s nod to the anger that organizations of unemployed workers have been voicing for the last two weeks as they engage in protests and set up roadblocks on principle routes in the countryside and in the city.

The minister played down the demands, saying the protests are “extortion” and that the leaders of the movement are trying to gain control over the subsidies for their own political ends.

Protests continued Wednesday outside the Labor Ministry, and three groups of the unemployed — the Combative Classist Current (CCC), Land and Housing Federation, and the Teresa Rodríguez Organization — called a nationwide protest.

Around 400 protesters say they will camp in front of the Labor Ministry until their demands are heard, including the extension of the monthly stipend to cover the elderly and unemployed young people, and an increase to 300 pesos ($92).

CCC leader Juan Carlos Alderete said new protests would be launched Monday if Duhalde does not intervene to reinstate those who have been removed from the Heads of Household roster and put an end to the infighting within the ruling party about the distribution of the stipend.

The protests would consist of roadblocks on highways in all Argentine provinces, and could be maintained until the president agrees to meet personally with the movement’s leaders and takes steps towards meeting their demands, he said.

But minister Camaño responded Wednesday saying that the programs for the unemployed “will not be used as booty by political leaders or protest leaders,” and assured that the beneficiaries who were no longer on the program roster had found jobs, so were automatically removed.

She added that the program includes control mechanisms, such as a phone-in center for questions and complaints, which had received more than 1,000 claims.

“Some of the callers charged that the unemployed movement is extorting the beneficiaries,” the minister told World Bank officials.

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Mandela loses patience with Bush over Iraq

By Anthony Stoppard

Johannesburg, South Africa, Jan. 31 (IPS)-- Former South African president, Nelson Mandela has lost patience with diplomacy and launched a scathing personal attack on US president George W. Bush for his apparent determination to take military action against Iraq, if the Middle Eastern country does not prove it has no weapons of mass destruction to the satisfaction of the United States.

Mandela insists that the United States must act through the United Nations (UN) if it wants to move against Iraq. “What I am condemning is that one power, with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust,” said Mandela, in an address to an International Women’s Forum (IWF) conference in Johannesburg, on Jan. 30.

Mandela called on Americans to get rid of Bush through the ballot box, and if they were not able to do so before a possible attack on Iraq, then they should launch mass actions to protest and demonstrate against the war.

White House spokesperson, Ari Fleischer, has reportedly responded to Mandela’s remarks by saying that Bush “understands that there are going to be people who are more comfortable doing nothing about a growing menace that could turn into a holocaust.”

Although Mandela regularly insists that he is a retired man with no power and little influence, the remarks of the elder statesman are sure to strengthen the will of the international peace movement. And, although he is known to be fiercely independent in his thinking, Mandela remains a loyal member of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) and seldom steps out of line of government policy.

South Africa, currently lobbying the majority of countries in the UN to oppose a possible US-led attack on Iraq, is determined to strengthen the UN, so that it can become a forum in which developing countries can deal with the United States — the world’s only remaining super-power — and other developed nations, on equal terms.

South Africa is also very concerned that a war in Iraq would destabilize the global economy at a time when it — and many other developing countries — are suffering from slowing international trade and weak financial markets.

Mandela condemned world leaders for not speaking out loudly enough against the possible war and called on those countries with a veto in the UN Security Council, to oppose the US’s push toward conflict. However, he also warned Iraq to co-operate fully with the UN and said he would support any UN sanction against the country, if it was found to have weapons of mass destruction.

Mandela also launched a stunning attack on British Prime Minister, Tony Blair — a strong supporter of the US in its campaign against Iraq. “He is the foreign minister of the United States. He is not longer the Prime Minister of Britain.”

Mandela’s attack on Blair comes just before South African President, Thabo Mbeki, meets with the British Prime Minister, in the United Kingdom, on Feb 1.

As chair of the 115-strong Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Mbeki is expected to underline to Blair that many countries want the Iraqi crises settled peacefully, and through a decision backed by the majority of the members of the United Nations.

In turn, Blair is expected to try and convince Mbeki of the strength of the case of the US and Britain, against Iraq.

South Africa has made it clear that it does not believe the UN weapons inspectors have come up with any evidence that justifies an attack on Iraq.

Mbeki and Blair are also scheduled to discuss the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) -- a program for the economic and social development of the continent — and British efforts to isolate the government of Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe. Britain has led international opposition to Mugabe’s government, which is alleged to have rigged Zimbabwe’s last general election, held in 2000.

In his speech at the IWF, Mandela also attacked Blair for trying to isolate Mugabe, rather than taking the lead of the Southern African Development Community, which is also trying to resolve the political and economic crises in Zimbabwe. He came out in support of French efforts to lift sanctions against Mugabe, so that the Zimbabwean leader could attend a conference on human rights in Paris. The move is opposed by Britain. The European Union (EU) is divided over the issue, and is still trying to reach an agreement on the matter before the sanctions expire in the next few days.

South African foreign affairs experts do not believe that Mandela’s remarks will seriously damage relations between the African country and the United States and Britain. They point out that while Mandela may have bluntly reflected South Africa’s positions, he is still a private citizen who is free to do and say what he wants. His comments are unlikely to result in a formal diplomatic rumpus between the three countries.

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US civil liberties group protests
FBI scheme to count mosques

By Jim Lobe

Washington, DC, Jan. 28-- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called a controversial new scheme by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to base inquiries and wiretap goals on demographic data--including the number of mosques in a given area -- ethnic and religious profiling of the kind that gave rise to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

"This is blatant religious and ethnic profiling," said Dalia Hashad, ACLU's Arab, Muslim, and South Asian advocate. "After Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma, the FBI did not install more resources in areas with large populations of military veterans."

A major Islamic-American group also protested the plan Monday and called for it to be scrapped. "This policy makes as much sense as counting Catholic churches in America in order to initiate an investigation of the Mafia," the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) charged in a statement.

The scheme was first reported in the Feb. 3 edition of Newsweek magazine. According to the report, orders have gone out from FBI headquarters for its 56 field offices to develop "demographic" profiles of their areas, including tallying the number of mosques. Those profiles will then be used to set specific numerical goals for counterterrorism and national-security wiretaps in each region. ACLU cited FBI officials as acknowledging that mosque tallies would be used to set quotas for investigations and wiretaps.

"Top bureau officials have signaled that if field offices don't meet their pre-established goals, they may be subjected to special reviews by inspection teams from headquarters," according to the Newsweek account, which noted that some FBI officials had raised concerns about the program.

The article quoted one "top FBI official" as saying that the plan arose due to concerns about undetected "sleeper cells" and evidence that some mosques were being used as cover for terrorist activity. "[I]t would be stupid not to look at this, given the number of criminal mosques that may be out there," the source was quoted as saying.

ACLU said the program is tailor-made for a witch hunt; instead of justifying why it is investigating a particular mosque, the FBI now has to justify why it is not. This notion, according to the group, is remarkably similar to the backdrop against which the Japanese-American internment 60 years ago was set.

"This misuse of resources is as ineffective as it is un-American, undermining both national security and civil liberties," said Timothy Edgar, an ACLU legislative counsel. "This Washington-driven plan requires trained and experienced field agents to use their limited resources to target Muslim communities and institutions -- even if the evidence doesn't back it up."

ACLU also noted how this may compound threats to civil liberties embodied in Attorney-General John Ashcroft's relaxation of FBI political spying guidelines last year that permit agents to monitor constitutionally protected religious activity without probable cause to suspect criminal activity.

"The FBI guidelines encourage agents to infiltrate mosques and other houses of worship," Hashad said. "The mosque-counting scheme virtually guarantees this invasion."

The FBI has issued a statement countering claims made by the groups.

"Any suggestion that the number of mosques in a field division is being used to set investigative goals for that division is wrong," according to the Bureau's assistant director Cassandra Chandler. "The survey, a small part of the FBI's much larger re-engineering effort, looked at a wide range of demographic and other measures."

Source: OneWorld US

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