Aerial spraying is bone of contention in Colombia
The Colombian government’s decision to use a higher concentration of the defoliant glyphosate in aerial spraying of crops of coca, which is used to produce cocaine, has heightened the sense of alarm among environmentalists and local authorities. The decision to increase the concentration of glyphosate—a chemical defoliant known more widely as Monsanto’s Roundup—was based on US State Dept. report findings that in some cases, it served more as a fertilizer for native plant species than as an herbicide that destroyed coca. The report also says glyphosate poses no threats to human health. Environmentalists say glyphosate, used in Colombia since the early 1990’s, destroys subsistence crops, sickens domestic animals, contaminates water supplies, harms richly diverse flora and fauna, and merely forces coca growers to relocate to more remote areas. Sprayed by government planes, glyphosate often falls directly on indigenous peoples. The government has received hundreds of complaints from farmers of skin, eye, respiratory, and digestive ailments. (IPS)

Anti-war protesters tortured in Egypt
Anti-war activists and protesters detained by Egyptian authorities in recent days are being tortured by police, Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged Monday in a detailed release that includes accounts by eyewitnesses and activists. HRW added that hundreds more people have been injured by brutal police actions—using clubs, water cannons, dogs, and even stones—to contain and suppress the protests against the US-led invasion of Iraq and Israeli actions in the Occupied Territories, which have reportedly shaken the 21-year-old government of Pres. Hosni Mubarak.
“The crackdown many feared has come,” said a HRW director. “Fundamental freedoms are now under serious threat,” he added.
In Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, at least three people were killed and scores more injured during a violent clash involving tens of thousands of people over the weekend, while thousands of protesters fought with riot police in Amman, the capital of Jordan. If the protests become more violent, Arab leaders friendly to the US could face “a serious threat,” said Diaa Rashwan, a prominent political analyst in Cairo. “Arab leaders, especially in Egypt and the Persian Gulf, are in a very, very, very dangerous situation,” he said. “We could all feel this danger coming.” (IPS)

Judge tosses Bhopal lawsuit
A federal judge threw out a lawsuit Mar. 18 that sought damages for those living near the deadly 1984 gas leak in a Union Carbide (UC) plant that killed thousands in Bhopal, India. The judge rejected arguments raised in a 1999 lawsuit in federal court that tried to revive legal claims stemming from the world’s worst industrial accident which has led to the death of more than 14,400 people over the years. The judge said UC “has met its obligations to clean up the contamination in or near the Bhopal plant. Having sold their shares long ago and having no connection to, or authority over the plant, they cannot be held responsible at this time.” UC paid $470 million as part of a 1989 out-of-court settlement and sold all of its shares in the plant, using the proceeds to build a hospital in Bhopal. Plaintiffs were not satisfied with this compensation. UC accepted moral responsibility for the disaster but blamed it on sabotage by an employee. (AP)

IMF admits its policies seldom work
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the DC-based bank set up to police the financial globe and assist developing countries, last week made the startling admission that the policies it has been pursuing for the last 60 years do not often work. The report said that countries that follow IMF suggestions often suffer a “collapse in growth rates and significant financial crises.” A recent study by the United Nations found that the 47 poorest countries in the world—the biggest recipients of loans from the IMF and World Bank—are poorer now than they were when the IMF was founded in 1944. At the start of the 1990’s, market reformers claimed a “decade of hope” as free trade grew and poor nations opened up to foreign investment. The IMF report says that “financial integration” has often led to an “increased vulnerability to crises” due to foreign speculators pulling out at the first sign of trouble. An IMF spokesperson said the report should not be seen as an admission the IMF itself has failed, but admitted it was considering an overhaul of its practices. “There hasn’t been overwhelming evidence for the benefits of globalization. We are not the only perpetrators of this—we are not ground zero for globalization. This is an economic analysis; it is not institution specific,” he said. (Daily Telegraph UK)

CIA questioned documents linking Iraq, uranium ore
CIA officials now say they communicated significant doubts to the Bush administration about the evidence backing up charges that Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Africa for nuclear weapons, charges that found their way into Bush’s State of the Union address, a State Dept. fact sheet, and public remarks by numerous senior officials. That evidence was dismissed as a forgery earlier this month by United Nations officials investigating Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program. The Bush administration does not dispute this conclusion. Asked how the administration came to back up one of its principal allegations against Iraq with information its own intelligence service considered faulty, officials said all such assertions were carefully tailored to stay within the bounds of certainty. In a letter sent to Bush on Mar. 17, Sen. Henry Waxman (D-CA) asked for a full accounting of “what you knew of the reliability of the evidence linking Iraq to uranium in Africa, when you knew all this, and why you and senior officials in the administration presented the evidence to the UN Security Council, the Congress, and the American people without disclosing the doubts of the CIA.” (Washington Post)

back to top