More Iraqi civilians killed after US
promises softer touch
Family shot dead by US troops
Compiled by Eamon Martin
Aug. 13 (AGR)— The United States overseer
in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, argued this past week that Iraqis’ freedom
from Saddam Hussein mattered much more than the problems facing the
four-month occupation since the dictator was overthrown.
“Freedom matters,” Bremer told reporters in Baghdad, defending
the occupation even as restoration of basic services and security seemed
far on the horizon.
Iraqis should measure their progress by the freedoms they enjoy, not
the services they don’t have, Bremer said Tuesday, Aug. 12.
“It’s important to remember this and look beyond the shootouts
and blackouts and remind ourselves of the range of rights Iraqis enjoy
today because of the coalition’s military victory,” Bremer
said in a bid to silence his critics who point to brutal US raids, escalating
guerrilla warfare, and extreme water, power and fuel shortages around
the country.
As Bremer insisted that Iraqis appreciate the invasion and occupation,
a US soldier was killed and two more were wounded in a bomb blast outside
the town of Ramadi.
At least 58 US soldiers have now been killed in guerrilla-style attacks
since the White House declared major combat operations in Iraq over
on May 1, casting a pall on the US-led occupation’s assertion that
the Iraqi people fully back the US forces.
But common Iraqis themselves appear less and less patient, finding fundamental
offense in the foreign occupation of their country more compelling than
any sense of “liberation”.
Frustration over power outages and fuel shortages has boiled over in
recent days with summer temperatures creeping above 120°F exacerbating
the problems.
Thousands of people rioted and barricaded roads with blazing tires last
weekend in the southern city of Basra to protest fuel, water, and electricity
shortages. At least one Iraqi involved in the protests was killed and
two others were wounded.
US troops, meanwhile, continued to raid homes and round up Iraqis across
the countryside in order to capture those that the military suspects
of showing “loyalty” to overthrown dictator Saddam Hussein.
The latest mission: Objective Taco Bell — named after a Mexican-style
fast-food chain in the United States.
Objective Taco Bell is the latest in a series of military operations
in which American soldiers raid homes in broad sweeps, arresting anyone
caught in their net.
But Iraqis say what is most distressing is their physical treatment
during and after arrest.
A common complaint among many is that during arrests, US troops put
their boots on the back of men’s heads as they lay face down, forcing
their foreheads to the ground. There is no greater humiliation, many
Iraqis say, because Islam forbids putting the forehead on the ground
except in prayer.
Lt. Col. Henry Kievernaar, commander of the 3rd Squadron of 3rd Armored
Cavalry Infantry in Ramadi, agreed that cultural differences between
US soldiers and the Iraqi people regarding what is and what isn’t
socially acceptable behavior is a problem. “All the issues between
[the occupation forces and Iraqis]” stem from a “lack of communication,”
he offered.
Seventy-three persons were rounded up in an initial sweep of the homes,
and 66 were screened and released. No large weapons caches were found.
At the same time, US forces received a stern warning from one of their
best friends in Iraq, the 25-member interim Governing Council installed
by the occupation last month.
Ibrahim Jafari, the council’s first president, demanded on Monday
that US forces treat Iraqis better and warned that rough conduct would
only let “hatred grow against them.”
Jafari said “the blood of our compatriots has huge value in our
eyes, especially when soldiers kill innocent people.”
Reports of US military misconduct have grown since the invasion began,
but have recently intensified with well-publicized condemnations by
internationally recognized human rights groups. Concerns about human
rights abuses by the US military were only inflamed after a July 27
raid in the Baghdad district of Mansour left at least four civilians
dead after soldiers opened fire on two cars that unwittingly drove near
the scene of the operation.
The top commander in Iraq, US General Ricardo Sanchez, later expressed
regret about the incident, but since then, Iraqi civilians and policemen
have been struck down in similar circumstances.
Sanchez announced last Thursday that US soldiers would start to change
their ground tactics in order to avoid alienating the local population.
But the new strategy would rely mainly on “better intelligence”
and the theory that when troops seal off a building, they will now knock
on a door, and ask permission to be let in, rather than just charge
in.
However, Sanchez warned that the “cordon and knock” technique
would be used only when appropriate, and stressed that the rules of
engagement for soldiers’ opening fire have not changed.
The next day, six Iraqis, including a father and three of his children
— one of them only eight years old — were killed in Baghdad
by US troops who opened fire on them as they hurried home to beat the
city-wide curfew. The abd al-Kerim family didn’t have a chance.
American soldiers opened fire on their car with no warning and at close
quarters. Now only the mother, Anwar, and a 13-year-old daughter are
alive to tell how the bullets tore through their windshield and how
they screamed for the Americans to stop.
“We never did anything to the Americans and they just killed us,”
the heavily pregnant Ms. abd al-Kerim said. “We were calling out
to them ‘Stop, stop, we are a family’, but they kept on shooting.”
The story of how Adel abd al-Kerim and three of his children were killed
emerged on Saturday, exactly 100 days after US President George W. Bush
declared that the war in Iraq was over. On that same day in Washington,
Bush declared in a radio address: “Life is returning to normal
for the Iraqi people ... All Americans can be proud of what our military
and provisional authorities have achieved in Iraq.”
Doctors said the father and his two daughters would have survived if
they had received treatment quicker. Instead, they were left to bleed
to death because the Americans refused to allow anyone to take them
to a hospital.
The shooting happened at 9:30 at night, an hour after sunset, but long
before the start of the curfew at 11pm. Another car, driven by an Iraqi
youth, Sa’ad al-Azawi, drove to another checkpoint further up the
street. Al-Azawi and his two passengers did not hear an order to stop,
as their stereo was turned up too loud. The US soldiers, thinking they
were under attack, panicked and opened fire.
Sa’ad al-Azawi was killed.
The morning after senior US officers said they were scaling down the
iron-fisted way their forces have been policing the country, US forces
also killed three Iraqis and wounded five others when they opened fire
on a suspected gun dealer at a busy market in Tikrit, enraging residents
who questioned why such lethal tactics were used. Among those wounded
by shrapnel fire was a 10-year-old boy who had been selling doves.
“We were happy when Americans first entered, but my opinion toward
them has changed,” one of those wounded in Friday’s gunfire,
50-year-old farmer Ghabbash Khaddum, said from his hospital bed. He
had come to the market to sell okra and caught a bullet in the right
shoulder as well as shrapnel over much of his upper body. “They
promised us freedom, and now they are shooting us.”
The next day, soldiers in Baghdad shot dead an Iraqi policeman they
mistook for an attacker, killed one person as he tried to surrender,
and then beat another.
Sources: Agence France-Presse,
Associated Press, Guardian (UK), Independent (UK), Los Angeles Times,
Reuters
Canadian troops fear being mistaken for
US soldiers in Afghanistan
By Stephen Thorne
Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 8— The No. 1 challenge
facing Canadian soldiers patrolling the Afghan capital will be distinguishing
themselves from their American brethren, says the commander of the German
battle group they are replacing.
Lt.-Col. Helmut Remus met with his counterpart, Lt.-Col. Don Denne,
just hours after the new battle group’s officers and NCOs arrived,
the first Canadian infantry to land here as part of a NATO peace-support
mission.
“Not all Afghanis know what Canada is,” Remus said in an interview.
“They think you are Americans. This could cause problems.
“It is very important for the Canadians to show the flag —
the Maple Leaf. Some Afghanis are not happy about the Americans here.
It is important to make it clear that Canada is not America.”
In fact, the nearest American presence is about 40 minutes’ drive
away in Bagram where, along with troops in the southern city of Kandahar,
the United States is still waging war on elements of al-Qaida and the
Taliban.
Those same threats, plus rogue warlords, weigh heavily on the minds
of commanders and troops of the 25-nation International Security Assistance
Force in Kabul.
Remus said they face daily threats of rocket and suicide bomb attacks.
Plots are discovered and foiled continuously, he said — including
threats to Canadian operations, Denne confirmed.
Remus’s contingent has suffered 52 casualties in a little over
a year, including four killed and 29 wounded in the suicide bombing
of a busload of German troops this spring.
“Everybody in ISAF should expect casualties,” said Remus.
“You have to deal with this. You have to be friendly and work with
the Afghanis.
“But at your back, you feel the threat every minute. We know our
enemies, but we don’t see them. This is a really hard mission.”
Remus said the Americans alienated many Afghans with their bombing campaign
prior to the coalition ground offensive last year.
The implication from some of the German’s comments — and echoed
elsewhere — was that the Americans have been long on destruction
and war, but short on reconstruction and humanitarian measures.
“Afghanis are a naturally friendly people,” he said. “If
you wave and smile, you will win their hearts.”
The Canadians have already taken steps to distinguish themselves from
other international forces, including opting for green combat fatigues
rather than the desert browns so popular among Germans, Australians,
Britons and Americans.
The Canadians also are taking extra precautions to protect the lives
of their soldiers, even before they take to the streets and alleyways
of southwest Kabul by foot, day and night.
The two Hercules aircraft carrying more than 100 Canadian soldiers ended
their 4 1/2-hour flights into Kabul on Aug. 7 by flying low on their
approaches to the city.
Veteran soldiers said newer recruits on their first overseas missions
were wide-eyed as the aircraft took evasive maneuvers, bobbing and weaving
and dropping missile-deterring flares on their final runs into the airport.
The Canadian troops, who now will be arriving almost daily until they
assume Remus’s responsibilities on Aug. 21, are transported to
the base in armored vehicles like Spam in a can — with no view
of the city they are to protect and, more importantly, no view in from
outside.
The convoys change their routes each day, weaving through normally crowded
adobe neighborhoods at a relatively easy pace on the quiet Muslim holy
Friday.
They passed waving children, indifferent elderly and even the occasional
shaken fist or thumbs-down. Some convoys have had rocks thrown at them.
Nevertheless, Denne says his troops are ready and morale is high after
more than a year preparing, first as a battalion for an unspecified
overseas mission, then as a battle group for Afghanistan.
Remus said they will have to be vigilant and strong. After ISAF has
invested more than a year and 20 lives in the operation, the German
colonel raises his palms and asks: “Where can you see the success?”
Source: Canadian Press
Ecuador indigenous pull out of
alliance, leaving govt. weak
By Kintto Lucas
Quito, Ecuador, Aug. 7 (IPS) — Ecuador’s indigenous
movement made good on its threat to pull out of the government of President
Lucio Gutiérrez, accusing him of turning his back on the leftist
alliance that brought him to power, and of seeking support from the
right.
The fragile political alliance that put Gutiérrez in office in
January, which also included leftist groups, former military officers,
and representatives of social movements, finally collapsed after the
powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE)
decided to cut off its channels of communication with the government.
Gutiérrez “betrayed the mandate he was handed by the Ecuadorian
people in the last elections, which committed him to defending national
sovereignty and the country’s natural resources, adopting measures
to revive production while bolstering equality, and demonstrating a
strong commitment to peace,” said CONAIE president Leonidas Iza.
The split has placed the indigenous movement and other social movements
in opposition to Gutiérrez, whose 21 de Enero Patriotic Society
Party (PSP) holds just six seats in the 100-member single-chamber Congress.
His only other source of support — albeit circumstantial —
are the 25 lawmakers of the right-wing Social Christian Party (PSC).
Although the PSC is the largest group in parliament, the president still
falls far short of a majority.
The alliance began to crumble a month ago, when the Popular Democratic
Movement (MPD), a Marxist party, withdrew on the grounds that Gutiérrez
was turning more and more to the right, and that he had failed to live
up to the agreements on which the alliance was based.
But the final straw occurred on Tuesday, when the president pressured
the legislators of the Pachakutik-New Country Movement of Multinational
Unity — the political arm of CONAIE — to vote for a labor
reform bill.
The lawmakers responded that they would not yield to pressure, and would
vote against the bill, arguing that the more flexible labor laws it
was designed to usher in would undermine workers’ rights.
The bill, which was voted down by parliament Wednesday, would have expanded
the 40-hour work-week to 48 hours, made it easier to fire public sector
workers, and frozen the salaries of public employees.
The adoption of the proposed labor reforms was among the commitments
that the government assumed in a loan agreement that Gutiérrez
signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shortly after he took
office on Jan. 15.
“Gutiérrez’s recent statements have demonstrated his
increasing authoritarianism,” said Pachakutik legislator Ricardo
Ulcuango. “This is not a dictatorship in which he can impose his
will and issue orders to representatives of other branches of the state.”
The president “can sack his ministers and friends and relatives
who are government officials, but he is wrong if he thinks that he can
silence our lawmakers with threats,” he added.
In the end, 54 legislators, including the members of Pachakutik, voted
against the bill. That led PSP Deputy Gilmar Gutiérrez, the president’s
brother, to call for the removal of the indigenous movement’s government
ministers.
But before the president asked the ministers to resign, the leaders
of the indigenous movement decided to instruct Pachakutik to break off
all ties with the government.
Gutiérrez won the second round of elections in November with
54.4 percent of the vote, defeating banana industry tycoon Alvaro Noboa,
who took 45.6 percent.
CONAIE and the Pachakutik Movement represent Ecuador’s Indians,
who make up around 30 percent of a total population of 12.5 million.
Although the poorest of the poor in this Andean nation, indigenous people
have found strength in numbers, and have played a key role in bringing
down governments in recent years, like the administration of Jamil Mahuad
in 2000.
Gutiérrez, a former army colonel, backed that indigenous uprising.
The Pachakutik Movement also comprises environmentalists, women’s
groups and other civil society organisations.
Humberto Cholango, the president of Ecuarunari, the biggest CONAIE member
organization, which represents the Kichwa people — the largest
of the country’s 12 distinct indigenous groups — argued that
it was necessary to break up the alliance because Gutiérrez was
governing in a way that ran counter to the country’s interests.
“In the past six months, he has signed a letter of intent with
the IMF, stating his willingness to privatize the oil and power industries,
the telephone company, and other natural resources like water, and to
make the labour market more flexible with measures that destroy the
guarantees and rights won by workers,” he said.
CONAIE has ordered all Pachakutik members holding government posts to
immediately resign, and has called on “all of the national indigenous
movement’s grassroots organizations to remain on the alert and
to mobilize.”
“CONAIE had instructed the Pachakutik Movement to attempt to guide
the government of Lucio Gutiérrez in another direction, and to
create a political alternative for the country from the spaces it had
legitimately won in the government,” the group stated in its communiqué.
From the ministries and other public spaces held by Pachakutik members,
the indigenous movement has shown “its profound commitment and
responsibility towards the country, as well as honest, transparent and
upright handling of the public responsibilities entrusted to the indigenous
movement,” the statement added.
Pachakutik members in the government included Agriculture Minister Luis
Macas, Foreign Minister Nina Pacari, and Education Minister Rosa María
Torres, as well as Tourism Secretary Doris Solís, several assistant
secretaries, and public office-holders in provincial administrations.
Shortly after CONAIE ordered its ministers to resign, the president’s
spokesman, Marcelo Cevallos, announced at a press conference late Wednesday
that the alliance had fallen apart, and that the president had asked
all Pachakutik members holding posts in the government to step down.
“Pachakutik has lost this great opportunity to co-govern the country,”
he said.
For his part, Iza underlined that as foreign minister, Pacari had emphasized
Ecuador’s image of a peace-loving country that respected the self-determination
of all nations, while Macas in the Agriculture Ministry had underlined
the need for a policy of food sovereignty.
Gutiérrez had already removed Torres from her post as education
minister two weeks ago, arguing that she had criticized him in remarks
to the press.
At that time, CONAIE slammed the president’s decision as “unilateral
and arbitrary,” cut off its direct dialogue with Gutiérrez,
demanded that Pachakutik do the same, and convened an ongoing assembly
to discuss a proposal for pulling out of the governing alliance.
Analysts say the collapse of the alliance reflected a shake-up of the
leadership within the Pachakutik Movement, after the group’s leaders
drew harsh criticism for supporting the government’s “neo-liberal”
economic policies.
For example, Fernando Buendía, Pachakutik’s economic adviser
in the Finance Ministry, was berated for backing the loan agreement
signed with the IMF and for stating that the multilateral body had taken
a “sensitive” stance towards Ecuador.
The indigenous movement also complained that Augusto Barrera, in the
Secretariat of Planning and Dialogue, a body with ministerial rank that
answers directly to the president, had promoted talks aimed at bringing
about the privatization of the country’s state-owned power companies.
Zimbabwe women speak out about brutalization
By Farai Samhungu
Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug. 11 (IPS)— When
she opened the front door to her house, 28 year-old Patience Makoni
(not her real name) thought she was letting in a friend who had called
earlier to say she would be visiting her later that day.
Thirty minutes later, with a split upper lip, a severely bruised neck,
and bleeding from her vagina, it became clear to her that she had opened
a door to the biggest violation of her life.
Events of that day are still vivid in her mind. Makoni, a vegetable
vendor and supporter of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was
brutally and repeatedly raped by seven soldiers during the mass action
organized by the opposition and civil society groups in June to protest
gross human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
In a moving testimony that left many in tears, Makoni described how
she was attacked.
“Ten men came to fetch me. They accused me of receiving support
from (MDC leader) Morgan Tsvangirai. They walked me to a bush nearby,
started assaulting me with their guns and fists. One of them tore off
my underwear and they each took turns to rape me, while holding me down
by the neck,” she testified.
Three of the soldiers refused to participate because they did not have
condoms on them.
Makoni is just one of the hundreds of women in Zimbabwe who are bearing
the brunt of politically motivated violence. The government refuses
to acknowledge that violence exists and has been accused of further
perpetuating it. Survivors, trying to report beatings, rape, ransacking
and looting of their property, and other criminal acts are sometimes
arrested, while the perpetrators are walk freely in the streets.
Determined that nothing will break their spirit to bring back peace
to Zimbabwe, Makoni and a group of other women, who have also suffered
other forms of violence, are telling their stories in the hope that
this will mobilize action both at home and abroad to force the government
to put an end to this violence.
These women are risking their lives. They could be targets for even
more fierce attacks.
“I am not afraid anymore, nothing else could be worse than what
I have experienced already,” said Makoni.
South Africa is their first stop, as part of their tour that will take
them to other African countries under the auspices of Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition. Taking advantage of South Africa Women’s Day, commemorated
on Aug. 8, the South African-based Zimbabwe Advocacy Campaign in collaboration
with Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition brought five women from Zimbabwe to
tell their stories.
“Government has been unrelenting in its efforts to try and prevent
me from demanding good governance through my support of the MDC,’’
said Sarah Muchineripi. “I have been beaten repeatedly, my leg
and arm broken. I have lost all my property, pots and pans, my house
and the means to take care of my children,” she told a group of
people, including human rights activists, who gathered in Johannesburg
to listen to their stories on Saturday.
Zimbabwe’s state machinery has been perfected over years to divide
and rule the society. The community spirit is broken as women like Muchineripi
can no longer fall back on family and friends for support because anyone
seen helping them will be victimized too. Muchinerip’s uncle has
been in hospital since June recovering from wounds sustained when he
was beaten for allegedly sheltering Muchineripi.
“I am really saddened by all this because my uncle was not even
aware of my whereabouts — they just attacked him because he is
related to me,” lamented Muchineripi.
In 2000 the world celebrated the dawning of a new millennium. Unfortunately
for Zimbabwe, that year ushered in political instability which started
after the majority of Zimbabweans refused to accept a new constitution
which was considered a product of a flawed process that did not reflect
the wishes of the people.
Parliamentary elections that followed in June of the same year saw the
government facing its toughest opposition since independence in 1980.
The ruling ZANU PF lost a majority of its seats in urban areas to the
opposition MDC. The violence escalated.
Presidential elections, dogged by controversy, followed in 2002, sending
a clear message to the government that the support that they once enjoyed
was waning fast and support for the opposition was clearly swelling.
The government panicked. They unleashed militia groups (made up of young
men and women), who are trained to use violent tactics to silence any
opposition.
Unfortunately women continue to bear the brunt of this violence. Human
rights activists believe that women are easy targets for violence because
of their status in society.
“The fact that hundreds of women are being raped clearly indicates
a pattern of violence against women, resulting from socially constructed
perceptions of the position of women in society and the power of men,”
said Everjoice Win, a gender and human rights activist. She is also
spokesperson for Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.
Violations of a sexual nature continue unabated because rape is still
not considered a serious issue by society. Win also feels that Zimbabweans
and foreigners have not yet grasped the gravity of the political violence
in Zimbabwe because the victims do not have an identity.
“The world is hearing stories about women and girls being raped
in Zimbabwe. But the world does not know who these women are, what their
names are and never get to hear their voices describing what has happened
to them,” she said.
“By bringing these women to South Africa to talk about their experiences,
we hope you are able to put names and a history to the victims of violence
in Zimbabwe, instead of just talking about the hundreds of women who
are being raped,” Win told the gathering.
By telling their stories, these women want the world, especially Zimbabwe’s
neighbors, to understand the extent of human rights abuses being perpetuated
against women. They want to contribute to efforts of building better
coordinated response to the crisis in Zimbabwe and in other parts of
the world where women find themselves in similar circumstances.
To the victors go the spoils of war
BP, Shell and Chevron win Iraqi oil contracts
By Pratap Chatterjee and Oula Al Farawati
Aug. 8— In the hours and days before the United
States and Britain invaded Iraq, a team of British Petroleum (BP) engineers
in Kuwait taught combat troops from the 516 Specialist Team Royal Engineers
how to run the oil fields in southern Iraq. As soon as the troops had
secured southern Iraq, Robert Spears, a Scottish manager from BP, was
drafted by the British government to help direct the effort to rebuild
the refineries.
In mid-July BP took possession of its reward — one of the first
tankers of oil from Southern Iraq, having won 25 percent of the initial
sale of 8 million barrels of the existing stockpiles of Iraqi oil. The
previous month California-based Chevron shipped back an equal quantity
of oil from southern Iraq.
Retired engineers from Royal Dutch/Shell Group also helped in training
the troops in Nottingham, England. Once the oilfields had been seized
by the invaders, company workers were drafted by the British army and
sent into southern Iraq to help with the reconstruction.
“We leveraged the private sector,” US Brigadier General Robert
Crear commented to the Wall Street Journal. Crear commands the Southwestern
Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge
of reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
While the Bush Administration is under fire for failing to produce a
single Iraqi weapon of mass destruction three months after the official
close of the war, critics claim that the motive for the invasion all
along was control of Iraqi oil. And if the bonanza in oil contracts
won by giant oil companies is any indication, Washington is moving swiftly
to secure access to Iraq’s oil wealth once and for all.
To the victors go the spoils
Shell, along with Chevron, BP, and seven other oil giants, has won contracts
to buy Iraq’s new oil production of Basra Light crude. The contracts
cover production from the Mina Al-Bakr port in southern Iraq from August
to December of this year. Under the deal, Iraq will supply 645,000 barrels
per day (bpd) for export, an increase on the 450,000 bpd produced in
July but still just a third of pre-war levels.
BP and Shell will each send one very large tanker every month to Iraq
to pick up their two million barrels. Among the other companies that
have signed deals to buy the oil are ConocoPhillips, Valero Energy and
Marathon Oil, Total of France, Sinochem of China, and a company from
the Mitsubishi group, which is buying for Japanese refineries.
Iraq’s northern export pipeline from the Kirkuk fields through
Turkey has remained closed since the US occupation because of sabotage
bombings and war damage.
The main job of overseeing the repair work of Iraq’s oil infrastructure
was discreetly awarded to Halliburton, a company formerly headed by
United States Vice President Dick Cheney, just after the invasion of
Iraq was completed. The company is the favorite to win the two contracts
for reconstruction of the oil industry, one for the oil industry in
northern Iraq and the other for the south. A total of 220 projects are
planned which must be completed for Iraq’s oil production to reach
prewar levels. The projects are divided into three phases, with a total
estimated cost of $1.14 billion.
Working in Iraq has helped bolster Halliburton’s finances. The
company made a profit of $26 million, in contrast to a loss of $498
million over the same time period a year earlier. The company stated
that 9 percent, or $324 million, of its second-quarter revenue of $3.6
billion came from its work in Iraq.
Meanwhile the reaction to this news in the streets of the Arab world
has been one of anger. Radwan Aziz, an Emirati citizen in Dubai, said:
“Oil is what the US was after from all this.”
Russia left out in the cold?
The sales contrast sharply with contracts signed by the previous regime
of Saddam Hussein with Russia and France. “Unfortunately, not a
single Russian company managed to clinch a contract, as we went for
the best price,” says acting oil minister Thamer Ghadhban.
But Russian companies are worried that they are being shut out of new
contracts and may even lose previous agreements. For example, in 1997
Russia’s Lukoil signed a 23-year contract for the West Qurna field
as the head of a consortium. The project is expected to produce 600,000
barrels of oil per day.
Shortly after the invasion in March, Leonid Fedoun, vice president of
Lukoil, told the Russian daily Kommersant that his company would sue
any rival for Iraq’s huge West Qurna oil field for at least $20
billion.
“Nobody can develop this field without us in the next eight years.
If somebody decides to squeeze Lukoil out, we are going to appeal in
the Geneva arbitration court [the International Commercial and Industrial
Arbitration Court], which will immediately arrest this field,”
said Fedoun. The case could last up to eight years. Fedoun also threatened
to have tankers of Iraqi crude halted to keep from losing the $3.7 billion
investment in West Qurna.
Bush makes sure US companies go unchallenged
But legally there is not much that the Iraqis or Russians can do to
contest this in the United States because of an executive order signed
by president George Bush in late May. Executive order number 13303 states
“any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment,
or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and
void”, with respect to “all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum
products, and interests therein.”
With this, Bush granted Iraqi oil a lifetime exemption provided US companies
are involved in the oil’s production, transport, or distribution.
This order applies to Iraqi oil products that are “in the United
States, hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter
come within the possession or control of United States persons.”
(Under US law, corporations are “persons.”)
“In other words, if ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco touch Iraqi oil,
anything they or anyone else does with it is immune from legal proceedings
in the US,” explained Jim Vallette, an analyst with the Sustainable
Energy & Economy Network of the Institute for Policy Studies in
Washington DC.
“Anything that has happened before with oil companies around the
world — a massive tanker accident; an explosion at an oil refinery;
the employment of slave labor to build a pipeline; murder of locals
by corporate security; the release of billions of tons of carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere; or lawsuits by Iraq’s current creditors or
the next true Iraqi government demanding compensation — anything
at all, is immune from judicial accountability,” he says.
“Effectively Bush has unilaterally declared Iraqi oil to be the
unassailable province of US oil corporations,” Vallette added.
Source: CorpWatch
Cheney firm’s rival forced to
drop oil bid
One of the main bidders for the lucrative contract to
rebuild the Iraqi oil industry has dropped out of the race, amid concerns
that the tender process unfairly favors Halliburton, the company with
close ties to US vice president Dick Cheney.
The construction giant Bechtel, one of the biggest engineering companies
in the world, now plans to sidestep Washington and apply directly to
the Iraqi oil ministry for work.
A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, was quietly awarded
a contract without tendering in the spring to perform immediate repairs
to Iraq’s oil infrastructure and extinguish oil fires. Two further
contracts have also been offered by the Army Corps of Engineers, but
a week ago the date for completion of the work was brought forward to
Dec. 31, sparking concerns that the deadline would be nearly impossible
to meet for any company not already on the ground in Iraq.
At a meeting with the Army Corps last month to discuss the forthcoming
contracts, several of the putative bidders expressed concerns that Halliburton
would have an unfair advantage because it was already working in Iraq.
Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton, and left with a $36 million
severance package in 2000 to join the White House campaign.
Democrats have expressed dismay that a single company should make so
much from the rebuilding of Iraq, and questioned the links between Cheney
and the firm. (Guardian UK)
US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe
Washington, DC, Aug. 10— American pilots dropped
the controversial incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops during the
advance on Baghdad. The attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated
several Iraqi positions.
The Pentagon denied using napalm at the time, but Marine pilots and
their commanders have confirmed that they used an upgraded version of
the weapon against dug-in positions. They said napalm, which has a distinctive
smell, was used because of its psychological effect on an enemy.
A 1980 UN convention banned the use against civilian targets of napalm,
a terrifying mixture of jet fuel and polystyrene that sticks to skin
as it burns. The US, which did not sign the treaty, is one of the few
countries that makes use of the weapon. It was employed notoriously
against both civilian and military targets in the Vietnam war.
The upgraded weapon, which uses kerosene rather than petrol, was used
in March and April, when dozens of napalm bombs were dropped near bridges
over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris river, south of Baghdad.
“We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches,” said Colonel
James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11. “Unfortunately there
were people there ... you could see them in the [cockpit] video. They
were Iraqi soldiers. It’s no great way to die. The generals love
napalm. It has a big psychological effect.”
A reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald who witnessed another napalm
attack on Mar. 21 on an Iraqi observation post at Safwan Hill, close
to the Kuwaiti border, wrote the following day: “Safwan Hill went
up in a huge fireball and the observation post was obliterated. ‘I
pity anyone who is in there,’ a Marine sergeant said. ‘We
told them to surrender.’“
At the time, the Pentagon insisted the report was untrue.
“We completed destruction of our last batch of napalm on 4 April,
2001,” it said.
The revelation that napalm was used in the war against Iraq, while the
Pentagon denied it, has outraged opponents of the war.
“Most of the world understands that napalm and incendiaries are
a horrible, horrible weapon,” said Robert Musil, director of the
organization Physicians for Social Responsibility. “It takes up
an awful lot of medical resources. It creates horrible wounds.”
Musil said denial of its use “fits a pattern of deception [by the
US administration]”.
The Pentagon said it had not tried to deceive. It drew a distinction
between traditional napalm, first invented in 1942, and the weapons
dropped in Iraq, which it calls Mark 77 firebombs. They weigh 510 lbs,
and consist of 44 lbs of polystyrene-like gel and 63 gallons of jet
fuel.
Officials said that if journalists had asked about the firebombs their
use would have been confirmed. A spokesman admitted they were “remarkably
similar” to napalm but said they caused less environmental damage.
But John Pike, director of the military studies group GlobalSecurity.Org,
said: “You can call it something other than napalm but it is still
napalm. It has been reformulated in the sense that they now use a different
petroleum distillate, but that is it. The US is the only country that
has used napalm for a long time. I am not aware of any other country
that uses it.” Marines returning from Iraq chose to call the firebombs
“napalm.”
Musil said the Pentagon’s effort to draw a distinction between
the weapons was outrageous. He said: “It’s Orwellian. They
do not want the public to know. It’s a lie.”
In an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Marine Corps Maj-Gen
Jim Amos confirmed that napalm was used on several occasions in the
war.
Source:
Independent (UK)
Indigenous tribes face threats worldwide
By Jim Lobe
Washington, DC, Aug. 8— On the eve of United
Nations Day for Indigenous People on Aug. 9, the world’s foremost
advocate for indigenous populations, Survival International, named three
tribes — in Paraguay, Botswana, and islands off India — that
face the greatest danger of extinction.
The three groups, each separated from the other by an ocean, “live
in totally contrasting environments across three continents,” said
Survival’s director, Stephen Corry. “Yet the racism and the
threats they face are startlingly similar. Unless these tribes are allowed
to live on their own land in peace, they will not survive.”
In a statement released from its London headquarters, the group said
the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode of western Paraguay, the Gana and Gwi “Bushmen”
and their neighbors, the Bakgalagadi, in the Central Kalahari Desert
of Botswana, and the Jarawa of the rainforests of the Andaman Islands
in the Indian Ocean faced the greatest threats to their survival at
the beginning of the 21st century.
The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, the last uncontacted Indians south of the
Amazon basin, currently face a serious crisis. Until recently, the land
claimed on their behalf by supporters in Paraguay was mostly undisturbed
scrub forest and grassland whose title was in the hands of large, land-owning
companies. Recently, however, two landowners sold their properties to
Brazilian companies which, according to Survival, are intent on harvesting
the valuable hardwoods found in the forest and clearing the scrub land
for cattle ranching.
Several injunctions preventing all work on the land have recently been
lifted by a local court, and overflights of the area show huge tracks
bulldozed into the forest, even in areas still protected by injunctions.
Survival said the land surrounding the claim is also being illegally
and rapidly logged, and there is real concern that unless the government
moves quickly to title the land to the Indians, it is almost certain
that violent clashes between invading loggers and the Indians will take
place. Much could depend on the attitude taken by incoming Paraguyan
President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, according to Survival.
The oldest inhabitants of southern Africa’s Kalahari desert —
where they have lived for at least 20,000 years — the Bushmen,
or San, were traditionally hunter-gatherers who ranged over a vast territory.
Beginning about 1,500 years ago, however, their lands were invaded by
cattle-herding Bantu peoples and, in the last several hundred years,
by white colonists. As a result, their numbers have diminished from
several million to about 100,000 across southern Africa, the vast majority
of whom, however, now live in settled but often impoverished communities
where they have been forced to adopt an entirely different lifestyle.
The Gana and Gwi tribes in the game reserve are among the most persecuted,
according to Survival. Since 1986, they have been harassed and pressured
by the government to move off the land, and the first forced removals
began six years ago. Those who remained faced torture, drastic restrictions
on their hunting rights, and routine harassment. In early 2002, the
harassment intensified with the destruction of the Bushmen’s water
pump, the draining of their existing water supplies into the desert
and the banning of hunting and gathering. Almost all of the 700 who
remained at the time were forced to leave, although a large number have
since tried to return.
Since their eviction last year, concessions have been granted for diamond
exploration by De Beers and BHP Billiton, Survival said, although the
central government has long insisted that the removals had nothing to
do with the development of the Central Kalahari’s mineral resources.
The Jawara, another hunter-gatherer people about whom very little is
known, have inhabited the India’s Andaman Islands for centuries
but maintained almost complete isolation from British and Indian settlers
who began arriving in the islands in the mid-19th century. DNA tests
suggest that they are most closely related to East Africans, and very
little is known about their language and its origin. They live in bands
of 40 to 50 people and resisted all contact with the outside world until
1998, when some Jarawa came out of the forest to visit nearby towns
and settlements.
The main threats to their survival include encroachment on their land
sparked by the construction of a road through their forest in 1970,
and the risk of being settled forcibly by the government. The road has
brought settlers, poachers and loggers into their lands, exposing them
to new diseases. According to Survival, forced resettlement has proven
disastrous for other peoples in the Andaman Islands, who proved susceptible
to diseases and vulnerable to alcoholism and despair.
As a result of a campaign by local indigenous rights movements and Survival,
the Indian government abandoned plans to resettle the Jarawa, and last
year the Indian Supreme Court ordered the closure of the road, the removal
of settlers, and a ban on all logging.
Source: OneWorld.net
‘March of the hungry’ negotiates
with govt. in Nicaragua
By José Eduardo Mora
San José, Nicaragua, Aug. 8 (IPS)— A
promise by the Nicaraguan government to distribute 3,409 hectares of
farmland to jobless rural laborers within the next month and a half
was the first victory scored by the “march of the hungry.”
Some 5,000 landless peasants, who are now camped along the Interamerican
Highway 97 km north of Managua, set out for the capital from the central
department of Matagalpa 10 days ago to demand that the government live
up to the terms of an agreement signed in September 2002.
In the agreement, reached after a similar march was held last year,
the government had pledged to provide plots of land on which the hungry
laborers could grow subsistence crops, create workfare schemes, and
improve health and education coverage in Matagalpa.
The economy of Matagalpa, a department of 6,800 sq km located 130 km
north of the capital, was dependent on large coffee plantations, which
began to go under when international prices plunged around five years
ago.
After initially refusing to negotiate, the center-right government of
Enrique Bolaños agreed to engage in talks with the protesters
this week.
Representing the government in the negotiations are Agriculture Minister
José Augusto Navarro, deputy ministers for the interior and health
Alfonso Sandino and Margarita Gurdián, and the director of the
Institute of Rural Development, Sergio Narváez.
Two non-governmental organizations, the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center
(CENIDH) and the Office of the Human Rights Procurator, as well as the
Catholic Church, through Archbishop of Matagalpa Leopoldo Brenes, will
oversee compliance with whatever agreements are reached in the talks.
“Getting the Bolaños administration to agree to negotiate
is an enormous victory for the peasant farmers, because it had absolutely
refused to listen to our demands,” said Alfonso Espinoza, the coordinator
of the Association of Rural Workers (ATC), one of the groups taking
part in the talks.
The rural workers are asking to be assigned land that is now in the
hands of a public agency, the National Public Sector Corporation (CORNAP),
in order to grow crops.
They are also demanding medicine, housing, education, jobs, food assistance
and measures designed to revive production in Matagalpa.
Speaking in Las Tunas, the village along the Interamerican Highway where
the negotiations are taking place, Sandino and Gurdián said the
government wanted to keep the rural workers “from continuing their
march on the capital by seeking to make the talks mutually beneficial
to both sides.”
Espinoza underlined that “Gaining legal title to land now held
by CORNAP is a thorny issue, but we are confident that an agreement
will be reached, which would benefit the 2,500 families taking part
in the march.”
Women, children and elderly persons are among the protesters, who have
set up makeshift camps on either side of the Interamerican Highway,
which Espinoza warned could be blocked if the talks come to a standstill
within the next few days.
Many of those participating in the protest are severely undernourished.
Nine children and seven adults died in last year’s march, but no
casualties have been reported so far, said Espinoza.
On Friday, CENIDH asked the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) for the adoption of precautionary measures for 29 children suffering
acute malnutrition, who form part of the group of protesters.
CENIDH legal adviser Anielka Pacheco told IPS that in last year’s
march, which was held after a number of people had died of hunger in
Matagalpa, her organization had asked the IACHR for the adoption of
precautionary measures for 56 children whose lives were at risk due
to acute malnutrition.
“Despite having reached this first agreement (on the distribution
of 3,409 hectares of land), we have perceived little decision-making
capacity on the part of the government, and its wishy-washiness is designed
to obstruct implementation of the accords,” said Espinoza.
The activist said the region of Matagalpa, where the big coffee plantations
declared bankruptcy five years ago, has been “totally abandoned
by the state, which has neglected to provide support for agriculture,
education, health, housing and credits.”
Despite the disappointment created by the state’s failure to keep
its promises last year, the rural workers hope that the current negotiations
will produce significant improvements for thousands of families who
have lost their source of income due to the coffee price debacle.
According to ATC statistics, the surge in unemployment has driven between
50 and 60 percent of families in Matagalpa to emigrate to other parts
of Nicaragua or to other Central American countries, especially neighboring
Costa Rica, where 332,000 Nicaraguans were already living at the time
the 2000 census was carried out.
Edmundo Gutiérrez, one of the CENIDH representatives who is to
oversee compliance with the agreements reached in the talks, said the
first point agreed on was a result of “consensus, which showed
that both sides are willing to negotiate.”
He added, however, that the negotiations on the property to be handed
over to the rural workers by CORNAP and the creation of jobs will be
touchy, which is why the government has asked for representatives of
the Central Bank, which administers coffee plantations that have gone
bankrupt, to take part in the talks.
If agreements on those issues are reached, the result will be local
public works jobs, such as road repairs and maintenance and clean-up
of agricultural areas, said Gutiérrez. But he pointed out that
those taking part in such workfare schemes would only earn the equivalent
of around $1.57 a day.
Central American Human Rights Commission (CODEHUCA) figures show that
Nicaragua has the lowest minimum wage in the region, $33 a month, while
Costa Rica’s minimum monthly wage of $175 is the highest.
CODEHUCA statistics also indicate that in Nicaragua, the second- poorest
country in the hemisphere after Haiti, 39 percent of the population
of 5.8 million lack access to clean water.
Studies by the World Food Program (WFP), a United Nations agency, have
found that 45 percent of children in Nicaragua’s rural areas are
suffering from chronic malnutrition.
