Untitled Document

By Justin Huggler

Jerusalem, Nov. 16— The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ending its emergency food program in the West Bank, saying the economic collapse there is the direct result of Israeli military closures and that Israel must live up to its responsibility as the occupying power for the economic needs of the Palestinians.

The move comes as the Israeli media reported that François Bellon, the Red Cross representative, told senior Israeli generals that the Palestinian Authority was on the verge of an “explosion” that could lead to “the worst ever humanitarian crisis” in the occupied territories.

Israel is concerned that other international organizations may follow the Red Cross, which would leave Israel to face the cost of providing the services they currently provide — a cost that some estimates put as high as $1.1 billion a year.

The Palestinian economy has collapsed under the weight of military closures of Palestinian cities, making it impossible for Palestinians to move their produce or travel to jobs in other cities or in Israel. Last year and early this year, curfews imposed for all but a few hours a week by the Israeli army made it impossible for Palestinians to work at all.

The Israeli government says the tight closure is needed to prevent Palestinian militants crossing into Israel to carry out suicide bombings and other attacks, but it has been accused of inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinians. Moshe Ya’alon, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, recently spoke out against the closure, saying it was increasing Palestinian resentment of Israel.

As a result of economic collapse, a fifth of Palestinian children are malnourished, according to a report last year by an American government aid agency. International aid organizations have stepped in to provide assistance. In the wake of the invasion and reoccupation of West Bank cities last April, the Red Cross launched an emergency food and essentials program for Palestinians.

The organization has spent $46 million over the past year and a half providing food and such necessities as cooking oil and matches to around 300,000 of the most needy Palestinians in the West Bank. But now the ICRC says that must stop, and that Israel must live up to its responsibility as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention to meet the economic needs of the civilian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Vincent Bernard, an ICRC spokesman, said: “This was humanitarian relief designed to assist in a humanitarian emergency, not to address the longer-term problems caused by curfews, closures and the collapse of the economy that has occurred. It is not our responsibility to take care of the economic needs of the Palestinians. We have repeatedly said it is the responsibility of the occupying power.”

Bernard denied Israeli press reports that the food program had been cancelled for budgetary reasons. “As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility to minimize the humanitarian consequences of its actions,” he said. “You cannot go on for ever with the curfews and closures which are destroying the Palestinian economy. They have to find a different way to guarantee their security. If they lifted these security measures, the Palestinian economy, though damaged, would start again.”

Bernard refused to comment on a report in Ha’aretz newspaper that Bellon had told senior Israeli generals at a recent meeting that the Palestinians were on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. But it is an assessment with which senior officers in the Israeli army are believed to agree.

For the time being, the UN’s World Food Organization has stepped into the breach, setting up an alternative food program until next summer.

Source: Independent (UK)

back to top

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

Belgrade, Serbia, Nov. 17 (IPS)-- Presidential elections failed for the third time in a little over a year in Serbia Sunday. The fragile democracy is in danger only three years after the ouster of former strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The danger comes from the failed democratic process and from the rise of the right, analysts say.

Only 38.6 percent of 6.5 million voters cast their ballots. The law requires at least a 50 percent turnout. Elections failed last year also because not enough people voted.

“The failure of the elections is the failure of democracy,” leading analyst Vladimir Goati told IPS. “They have shown Serbia to be deeply divided between supporters of reforms and the ultranationalism of Milosevic’s decade.”

Ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) candidate Tomislav Nikolic led with 46.3 percent of the vote. His opponent Dragoljub Micunovic from the ruling Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) obtained 35.4 percent.

Nikolic’s party was a close ally of Milosevic in the 1990s. Its leaders fanned nationalist hatred against non-Serbs, and took volunteers to wars in Croatia and Bosnia in 1991-95. Later they stoked anti-Western anger over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombing in 1999.

Party leader Vojislav Seselj is on trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague. Many see the SRS as a fascist party.

The party has found new support. Pro-democracy forces toppled Milosevic in 2000, but the majority of Serbs have seen little progress since. Improvement of living standards has been slow. The transition to the market economy has made tens of thousands jobless.

The extradition of Milosevic to The Hague to stand trial for war crimes deeply hurt the nationalist feelings of many Serbs.

“The large number of votes for Nikolic is a strong message to the pro- democracy forces,” analyst Srdjan Bogosavljevic told IPS. “They are paying the price for their inefficiency, political intrigue and arrogance.”

Corruption scandals have grown around the ruling elite for months now, as they had with the last regime.

The previously united DOS coalition that had toppled Milosevic in 2000 has split into several groups. Some former partners joined opposition parties in recent weeks to demand a vote of no confidence in the government. They asked their supporters to boycott the presidential elections Sunday.

The government dissolved parliament Nov. 13 and called fresh parliamentary elections Dec. 28.

The boycott call led to the lowest turnout yet for the presidential election. “It was a serious political defeat for supporters of democracy and reforms, because the nationalists showed what they can do,” analyst Zoran Lucic told IPS.

“Serbia is going through a major crisis,” foreign minister Goran Svilanovic acknowledged to reporters late Sunday night. “This is a political lesson for us, and the country is certainly going to see major setbacks in its efforts to get closer to the European Union, NATO Partnership for Peace Program etc.”

Serbia is now a country without a president, with a dissolved parliament, and a government that will last only until next month.

“This is a dangerous, dramatic phase of instability,” deputy prime minister Zarko Korac said.

In neighboring Croatia the major contest in parliamentary elections Nov. 23 is between the reform oriented Social Democratic Party that has ruled the country for the past three years, and the ultranationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman.

Tudjman led Croatia to seek independence in 1991. That ignited the war in former Yugoslavia. Tudjman died in 1999, and his party lost the parliamentary elections the following year.

“The return of the right to power in Croatia would not be a good thing,” analyst Stjepan Gredelj says. “A reversed road to democracy in both Serbia and Croatia can be dangerous.”

back to top

‘Shoot-to-kill’ protester license demanded
by US for Bush visit

By Martin Bright

Nov. 16- - British Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers traveling to Britain as part of President George W. Bush’s visiting entourage this week.

In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush’s protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.

The issue of immunity is one of a series of extraordinary US demands turned down by British Ministers of Parliament and Downing Street during preparations for the Bush visit. These included the closure of the Tube network, the use of US air force planes and helicopters and the shipping in of battlefield weaponry to use against rioters. In return, the British authorities agreed numerous concessions, including the creation of a “sterile zone” around Bush with a series of road closures in central London and a security cordon keeping the public away from his cavalcade. The White House initially demanded the closure of all Tube lines under parts of London to be visited during the trip. But British officials dismissed the idea that a suicide bomber could kill the President by blowing up a Tube train. Ministers are also believed to have dismissed suggestions that a “sterile zone” around the president should be policed entirely by American special agents and military. Demands for the US air force to patrol above London with fighter aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters have also been turned down.

The President’s protection force will be armed and around 250 Secret Service agents will fly in with Bush, but operational control will remain with the Metropolitan Police. Under their command, 16,000 British police officers have been activated for this occasion. The three day trip will cost $20 million for Bush-ordered security.

The Americans had also wanted to travel with a piece of military hardware called a “mini-gun”, which usually forms part of the mobile armory in the presidential cavalcade. It is fired from a tank and can kill dozens of people. One manufacturer’s description reads: “Due to the small caliber of the round, the mini-gun can be used practically anywhere. This is especially helpful during peacekeeping deployments.” Ministers have made clear to Washington that the firepower of the mini-gun will not be available during the state visit to Britain.

An internal memo sent to British Cabinet Office staff and leaked to the press this weekend urged staff to work from home if at all possible during the presidential visit. Serious disruption would be caused by “the President Bush vehicle entourage requesting cleared secured vehicle routes around London and the security cordons creating a sterile zone around him.”

The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, protested what was happening to his city, saying this week that Bush should not be shielded from public anger about the Iraq war, and Londoners should not have to pick up the exorbitant policing bill. Livingstone said: “To create a situation in which perhaps 60,000 people remain unseen would require a shutdown of central London which is just not acceptable.”

British newspaper The Independent revealed this week that Bush will be accused of lying about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction in a face-to-face meeting with the families of British soldiers killed in the war.

Bush announced last week he was prepared to meet a small group of families of the British war dead. The names have not been officially revealed but two of the invited families came forward to talk exclusively to the newspaper, saying they will challenge the US President to explain why he went to war without a United Nations mandate and why no chemical and biological weapons have been found in Iraq.

Lianne Seymour, whose husband, Commando Ian Seymour, was killed in a helicopter crash at the outbreak of the war, welcomed the chance to meet Bush. But she dismissed his claim that the 53 Britons killed so far in Iraq had died in a good cause. She said: “Bush has been suggesting that he’s going to put our minds at rest. He suggests our husbands’ lives weren’t lost in vain. However, I’m going to challenge him on it.

“They misled the guys going out there. You can’t just do something wrong and hope you find a good reason for it later. That’s why we have all the UN guidelines in the first place.”

Another relative, Tony Maddison, whose stepson Marine Christopher Maddison was killed, allegedly by friendly fire, during a battle near Basra, said: “I’m beginning to feel Blair has been a puppet, so I’m looking forward to meeting Bush, to ask: ‘What are you doing to our Prime Minister? Look what he’s doing to our country.’”

Maddison and his wife, Julie, suspect that the specter of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction was raised to “frighten” the country into war, although they think it was right to topple Hussein. “We’ve gone to war for the wrong reasons,” he said. “I’m still hoping that weapons of mass destruction will be discovered, but I’m beginning to think we were being lied to.”

Details of Bush’s meeting with the families are being kept secret for security reasons, but it is expected to take place at the end of the week at an undisclosed location in London.

On Nov. 16, it was revealed that the US president was scrapping his speech to Parliament because he feared being heckled by anti-war Ministers. Bush had originally planned to give a joint address to the Commons and Lords during his visit.

Source: Observer (UK) with additional info from Independent (UK), Mirror (UK)

By Mark Bourrie

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Nov. 14 (IPS)— A civilian watchdog appointed by the federal government to probe complaints against the national police force has denounced the way police handled security at the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

The meeting was held to discuss the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which, coincidentally, is the subject of a meeting of trade ministers from 34 countries in Miami next week.

The report damns the “O” division riot squad of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for using excessive force and for denying medical aid to protesters injured by police.

In a brief 15 pages the report paints a picture of riot police who used high-voltage Tasers to subdue non-violent demonstrators, goaded protesters, and used excessive force against them.

Shirley Heafey, chairwoman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, wrote the paper after a complaint was filed by New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Svend Robinson.

“RCMP members used excessive and unjustified force in releasing tear gas to move the protesters when a more measured response could have been attempted first,” Heafey says in her report.

Police trained gun site lasers on the crotches of cowering demonstrators and made taunts against protesters who could not speak English.

Robinson says he was shot at with a runner bullet that ripped his pants before being arrested. He is suing the RCMP in a separate legal action.

The RCMP is studying the report and refused to say whether any officers will face disciplinary measures.

A senior Canadian government official said the administration did change its policy on the use of force after the summit.

“There has never been anything like that in Canada since 2001. We now want to bring dissent into the process and embed journalists into the security apparatus, rather than have them as adversaries, as they were in Quebec,” said the official, who works in Canada’s policy-setting Privy Council (cabinet) Office.

The commission’s report concludes that police failed to follow appropriate procedures, breaching the protesters’ constitutional rights. It says they mocked demonstrators and gave them no chance to escape from 50,000-volt Tasers, flash grenades, and tear gas.

Police built a high chain-link fence around the center of the city, which is the capital of the Province of Quebec. Heads of government and trade ministers met inside the perimeter to negotiate the free trade agreement for the western hemisphere.

But when police moved on protesters, says the report, “the members did not issue a proper warning, and clearly failed, given the size of the crowd and the confined space in which they were gathered, to allow the crowd sufficient time to disperse.”

Protesters were only 10-15 meters away from the riot officers’ lines when police opened fire with rubber bullets.

According to the report, the officers teased four men for not speaking English, though they were in Quebec City, where French is by far the predominant language.

“Without any warning in French or English, three (RCMP) members equipped with what appeared to be (rubber-bullet guns) raced forward, chased the civilians down the street and fired approximately four rounds directly at them,” it says.

The police then “laughed, joked and continually marked (one of the civilian’s) crotch with multiple laser-range finders. This conduct was inappropriate and oppressive,” the report says.

A high-voltage Taser was used to stun a protester who was on his knees and waiting to be arrested, the report adds. “The protester was not struggling and represented no threats to the members, to himself, to the public or to property.”

“In issuing an inadequate and improper warning to the protesters before releasing tear gas, the members contributed to unnecessary injury to members of the public, including Mr. Robinson.”

Inspector Robert Lanthier, a troop commander and coordinator of tactical teams at the summit, and Inspector Ronald Allen, ranking officer of the “O” division troop, are blamed in the report for the “oppressive” conduct of the tactical division.

The document has been forwarded to RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli. Heafey will incorporate his comments into her final report. No date has been set for its release.

Robinson released a statement Wednesday calling for action from Solicitor-General Wayne Easter, the minister responsible for the RCMP. Robinson wants several of the commanding officers to be fired.

“This report is a damning indictment of the gross abuse of power by the RCMP “O” division tactical troop in attacking peaceful protesters in total contempt of the law and their own procedures,” Robinson said. “Such abuse of police power in a democracy is an outrage. In response to the initial RCMP whitewash of my complaint, the commission has issued a powerful rebuke to the RCMP.

“I would encourage anyone illegally attacked by the RCMP to take the action I have taken and launch legal proceedings against the RCMP for assault.”

Malcolm Rogge, a Toronto-based filmmaker who was arrested at the Quebec summit just minutes after arriving, applauded the report.

“The police were way out of control,” he told IPS. “They obviously did not want any kind of dissent in Quebec City and they didn’t want a record of it,” he said.

Rogge says he was arrested before any protest had started.

“I was two blocks away from the wall that they built around the summit. I wasn’t a threat to anyone, but they treated me like a criminal or a terrorist.”

back to top

Bobigny, France, Nov. 15 (IPS)— The dismantling of welfare institutions in Western Europe and the growth of capitalism in Eastern Europe are eroding women’s rights, feminist groups say.

Members of women’s organizations from several Western and Eastern European countries participating in the European Social Forum (ESF) have expressed alarm over the deterioration of living conditions among women all over the continent.

“The application of neo-liberal economic and social policies in Western Europe is bringing about the dismantling of welfare state institutions to the detriment of women,” French activist Maya Surduts said at a debate in Bobigny, 10 km north-east of Paris.

The debate on women’s rights in Europe took place at the ESF held Nov. 12- 15 in and around Paris.

The ESF brought together some 40,000 people to discuss ways to establish “a new Europe of social rights and economic justice”, as the event’s main slogan put it. The ESF was seen also as a preparatory meeting for the World Social Forum to take place in the Indian city Mumbai next January.

The dismantling of the welfare state in Western Europe is creating a new gap between rich and poor women in their access to abortion and contraception, Surduts said. The restoration of the continent’s Christian heritage in the new European constitution will also damage women’s rights, Surduts said.

“By reducing medical rights, neo-liberal policies are reducing the possibilities of working class women terminating unwanted pregnancies or practicing contraception,” Surduts said. “The European Union is about to erode the rights to contraception and abortion, which are fundamental to giving women freedom.”

Similar allegations were made by Russian and other Eastern European activists.

“The Church is gaining ground in Russian life, and trying to reduce women’s rights such as access to abortion and counseling for contraception,” 20-year-old Elena from Russia told IPS.

Feminist activists condemned the legal disadvantages women continue to face both in Eastern and in Western Europe, especially in the face of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

Suzy Rotjman, a French campaigner against violence in marriage said women in Western Europe face major legal difficulties.

“The first concerns cases of sexual abuses or violence in the family,” Rotjman said. “Because justice continues to be a gender-biased process, men are seldom penalized for crimes against women.”

The second problem is a consequence of this bias, she added. “Women seem to know intuitively that there are few chances that justice will be done in cases of sexual abuse.”

In France less than 10 percent of all rapes are reported to the police, she said. This would mean about 30,000 cases of rape going unreported every year.

Male violence against their spouses or children is similarly ignored, Rotjman said. “Even in the face of charges of violence or sexual abuse, judges give defendants the right to visit their children or their former wives, ignoring the risk of repeat violations.”

Activists from Eastern European countries said earlier laws have been substituted by new patriarchal legislation. New law in Russia does not see marital rape as a crime, said Eizaveta Boshkova from the Forum of Independent Russian Women.

Discrimination against women extends to unexpected economic areas such as insurance, Cécile Greboval from the European Women’s Lobby told IPS. “Saying that women live longer than men, insurance companies are charging women higher tariffs for all kind of insurance.”

Women’s life expectancy is not genetically determined, but the consequence of a certain lifestyle, she said. “We want the European Union to end such discrimination.”

Women’s organizations are urging governments to modify the proposed constitution for Europe to include gender equality. “The European constitution must include an article against gender discrimination to guarantee, at least on the paper, an egalitarian Europe,” Greboval said.

Other feminist activists said the capitalist view of the economy sees typical women’s responsibilities such as family and community work as social duties, not as economic activities.

“Women’s work is underestimated in national accounting and in social and economic consideration, leaving women with inadequate social protection despite the central role they play in society,” Mirjana Dokmanovic from the Serbian Center for Democracy and Human Rights told IPS.

But women’s access to economic security through social protection systems is essential for achieving greater gender equality, Dokmanovic said. “In practically all cases of macro-economic adjustment, women carry the heaviest weight.”

Nov. 17— Riot squads fired tear gas to disperse groups of anarchists who threw petrol bombs and rocks at police guarding the US embassy in Athens today.

Authorities said about 40 people were arrested during the rally held to mark the anniversary of a student-led uprising in 1973.

Clashes also broke out in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, where police used tear gas against anarchists hurling petrol bombs. The violence came after about 8,000 people held a peaceful march to the US consulate.

Demonstrations are held each year in protest at the belief Washington gave to the 1967-74 military dictatorship that crushed the student rebellion.

In Athens, several hundred self-styled anarchists smashed dozens of store fronts and firebombed two banks. Police fired tear gas at the hooded rioters, who set fire to rubbish bins as they fled.

Earlier, the main group of about 10,000 demonstrators broke up peacefully after reaching the embassy on the 30th anniversary of the uprising.

The clashes in Athens occurred despite an enormous security operation that involved more than 7,000 police and riot officers.

Police were given greater latitude to move against demonstrators, under security measures being implemented for next year’s Olympics.

The violence was sparked by protesters angry at the detention of five people arrested during riots in June against a European Union summit. On a hunger strike, the five have become a rallying point for anarchists and others.

A group calling itself Revolutionary Solidarity claimed responsibility for a series of firebombing attacks on Friday that damaged five banks and an office of the main opposition conservative party.

They demanded the release of the five suspects: a Briton, two Spaniards, a Syrian and a Greek.

Source: The Scotsman

back to top

Bolivia awaits real democracy - activists

By Miriam Kagan

Washington, DC, Nov. 17 (IPS)— Bolivia’s recently ousted former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada has been making the rounds in Washington, trying to convince power brokers here that he did not deserve his fate.

Sanchez de Lozada was forced to resign in October after mass demonstrations protesting the government’s plan to export natural gas led to severe clashes between government and protestors, killing 82 civilians.

Helping Sanchez de Lozada to plead his case is the US media, led by the Washington Post, which hailed him as an “enormously talented leader.’’

According to Sanchez de Lozada, who lamented his fate in a Post opinion article, drug money, and anti-globalizing, anti-American anarchists incited the poor, uneducated, ignorant Bolivian masses to overthrow a man who, “devoted a quarter-century of public service to the restoration of Bolivia’s democracy.’’

Perhaps in response to Sanchez de Lozada’s publicity, other Bolivians have begun arriving in Washington to emphasize that the government of Carlos Mesa (Sanchez’ replacement) is now the legitimate ruler and is supported by a large majority of Bolivians.

At a discussion Monday sponsored by the think tank Institute for Policy Studies, Sacha Llorenti Soliz, vice president of the human rights group Asamblea Permanente de Derechos Humanos de Bolivia, and Marcela Olivera, a long time activist, gave their opinions of the Sanchez de Lozada regime and what his resignation means for Bolivia’s future.

Despite the impression in the United States that Sanchez de Lozada’s ouster was caused by a “coup d’etat organized by drug money, it was really a result of a long-term structural crises,’’ Soliz told listeners.

He also argued that since the toppling of Bolivia’s last dictator in 1982, the country has been a democracy in name only.

Under the Sanchez de Lozada regime, a few political parties had a monopoly on representation and did not represent the views of Bolivia’s indigenous majority, said Soliz.

Corruption was also rampant, with the World Bank ranking Bolivia the second most corrupt country in the world for several years.

Most discouragingly, noted Soliz, the advent of democracy in Bolivia did not bring a new dawn of human rights.

Soliz claimed that since 1985 more than 300 people were killed by government agents, more than 7,000 were illegally arrested, and countless more harassed. No one was ever charged or convicted in any of the 300 civilian deaths, he added.

According to Soliz, what Sanchez de Lozada referred to as “Bolivia’s democratic process,’’ was not at all democratic.

“Democracy in Bolivia is to vote once in five years — that’s where democracy starts and ends.’’

“In Bolivia, the government has one idea of what democracy is and the people have another, and this is where the problems started. The people want to decide for themselves,’’ added Olivera.

The issue that managed to unite the different factions of Bolivia’s opposition was a proposed natural gas pipeline that would take advantage of Bolivia’s vast natural gas reserves (one of the largest in Latin America).

In the Washington Post Sanchez de Lozada claimed, “I instituted policies that enabled Bolivia to find and develop reserves that could last us hundreds of years.’’

Not so, explained Soliz. Under Sanchez de Lozada’s deal with Pacific L&G, the multinational consortium planning to develop the gas reserves, ordinary Bolivians were largely left out of the profit margin.

During his first term as president, Sanchez de Lozada changed a long-standing law that required at least 50 percent of profits from natural resource exploration by private companies to go to the Government of Bolivia, lowering the requirement to 18 percent.

Under the still murky terms of the deal, which was conducted behind closed doors with no public input, over the next 14 years Bolivia would receive $700 million in income from natural gas exports, while the consortium would make over 20 billion dollars.

Because Bolivia is a land-locked country, the deal called for a pipeline to run through Chile to the Pacific Ocean.

Soliz said this meant that over 50 percent of the investment in the project would end up benefiting Chile, and the project was structured so that Bolivians would have to pay for electricity imported from Chile, made using Bolivia’s own natural gas.

Soliz and Olivera admit that new President Carlos Mesa faces a tough road ahead.

He has promised to draft a new constitution and hold a first-ever national referendum on what should be done with the natural gas reserves by next April.

A quick referendum is essential, says Olivera, because Bolivians are impatient to decide as a people when and how to develop their natural wealth.

“They [Sanchez de Lozada supporters] portray us as ignorant, like we don’t know what’s good for us. We are not opposed to the sale of natural gas; we are opposed to it under the conditions of the deal that was made,’’ said Olivera.

“We have said no to the IMF, no to the World Bank, but what are the alternatives? If we do not present the people with alternatives it will be a huge mistake,’’ she added.

“One of the main questions now is how will the referendum be presented to the people? What will be their choices?” added Soliz.

Both Soliz and Olivera criticized Washington, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for supporting Sanchez de Lozada and looking after the interests of multinational corporations instead of listening to the will of the Bolivian people.

‘’The pressure of the US government in Bolivia is enormous. The US will protect the investments of US multinational corporations above Bolivia’s interests,’’ said Soliz.

“What happens in the next two to three years will determine Bolivia for the next three to four decades,’’ concluded Soliz.

back to top

Disaster looms for Israel, say ex-security chiefs

By Justin Huggler

Jerusalem, Nov. 15— Four former chiefs of Israel’s Shin Bet security service launched an extraordinary attack on Ariel Sharon yesterday, saying his policies were catastrophic and endangered Israel’s future as a Jewish state.

The four men gave a joint interview to the mass circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth, in which they called for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and evacuate Jewish settlements there.

Ami Ayalon, the Shin Bet director from 1996 to 2000, said: “We are taking very sure and measured steps to a point where the state of Israel will not be a democracy or a home for the Jewish people.”

Yaakov Peri, the director of Shin Bet from 1988 to 1995, supported him, saying: “From whatever aspect you look at it we are going in the direction of decline, nearly a catastrophe. If something doesn’t happen here, we will continue to live by the sword, we will continue to wallow in the mud and we will continue to destroy ourselves.”

The attack by the four Shin Bet men follows a similar outburst from the current chief of staff of the Israeli army, General Moshe Ya’alon, who said the current policy of strict closures on Palestinian cities was increasing Palestinian resentment of Israel.

The criticism from the Shin Bet directors- who included Avraham Shalom, director from 1980 to 1986, and Carmi Gillon, director from 1995 to 1996 - went deeper, and it is all the more damaging because it comes from former chiefs of a service linked to assassinations, closures and roadblocks.

Gillon said: “If we continue our conflict with the Palestinians, this country will go from bad to worse.”

Shalom said: “All the steps that we have taken are steps that are contrary to the aspiration for peace. If we do not turn away from this path, of adhering to the entire land of Israel, and if we do not also begin to understand the other side we will not get anywhere. We must admit that there is another side, that it has feelings and that it is suffering, and that we are behaving disgracefully.”

Asked about ideological settlers who would oppose a withdrawal from the occupied territories, Ayalon said: “At issue are 15 percent or even 10 percent of the settlers, and we have to be capable of facing such a number.”

The men condemned Sharon for making progress on the American-backed road map peace plan dependent on the Palestinian Authority suppressing militant groups. “It is an excuse for doing nothing,” Shalom said.

The men accused Sharon of a strategic mistake in refusing to deal with Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian President. “We will not determine who is relevant and who isn’t,” said Shalom. “Nothing can happen without Arafat.”

Sharon was also criticized for maintaining there was no partner for dialogue on the Palestinian side. Ayalon said: “If the state of Israel were to leave the Gaza Strip...and really and truly begin to dismantle illegal settlements...the Palestinians would come to the negotiating table.”

The separation fence that Israel is building in the West Bank also came in for heavy criticism. Shalom said: “Today’s fence is creating a political and security reality that will become a problem. It creates hatred, it expropriates land, and annexes hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the state of Israel.”

Israeli military tactics were also questioned. The policy of assassinating leading militants “has become an excuse,” said Ayalon. “If we were quieter, there would be fewer terror attacks.” Peri added: “I don’t understand why a tank driving through Ramallah has to also crush the cars parked on the side of the road.”

Ayalon concluded bleakly: “Much of what we are doing today in [the West Bank] and Gaza is immoral, some of it patently immoral. But I think what has happened to us is the loss of hope. And I’m speaking of both sides. Almost everything that we do to them and that they do to us, were we able to put it into a context of time and to say this is a stage on the way to something better, would be tolerable. The problem is that today, neither us nor they see any better future.”

Source: Independent (UK)

Cheney ignored war chaos alert

By Kamal Ahmed

Nov. 16— British warnings that America was failing before the war to prepare properly for a crumbling security situation in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was ousted were ignored by Vice President Dick Cheney and the Pentagon.

In some of the first direct evidence of serious divisions between the key allies in the run-up to the conflict, the former British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, said the US had failed to focus on what might happen after Saddam had been overthrown.

His admission raises serious questions that a lack of planning by US forces is at least partly to blame for Iraq’s present security problems.

Meyer, who was ambassador just before the war began, said there were a series of meetings between British and American officials between the signing of the United Nations Resolution 1441 last November and the start of the war in March.

The British regularly raised their concerns about how much planning was going on to secure the country after Saddam Hussein, but the issue was largely ignored.

“One of the things that did not work out between us was a properly agreed strategy,” Meyer said.

“I suspect that a lot of things that we were saying to the Americans when we had a number of meetings towards the end of last year on post-Saddam strategy, a lot of those things have now been shown to be right.”

Meyer was referring to the security situation in Iraq, which critics say has been blighted by a lack of coordination between American forces and a lack of understanding about what the response of sections of the Iraqi population would be to the occupation.

Asked if the government had warned the US about the need for planning the post-Saddam era, he said: “Absolutely, absolutely.”

Meyer said British concerns were “well taken in the State Department,” but they “could not agree on an approach with the Defense Department and the Vice President.”

Meyer revealed that Tony Blair had made a personal appeal to Bush in the new year to delay the war.

At their Washington summit in January, Bush had made it clear that America was ready to attack the following month, well before all the diplomatic avenues had been exhausted and before Britain felt that its military capability was ready.

“Two issues had to be thrashed out,” Meyer said. “Would the Americans support us going for a second resolution. The other was [that] we needed some delay — less to work through the diplomacy, more to get the British deployment there.

“I remember sending something to London on the eve of that meeting saying: ‘Neither argument had been won in Washington. Tony Blair is going to have to come to Washington and argue for support of the second resolution and argue for some delay which is desirable’.”

Source: Observer (UK)

back to top

US occupation reminds
Iraqis of West Bank

Nov. 19 (AGR)— This past week, US forces, accompanied by selected journalists and cameramen, conducted dozens of operations throughout Iraq, mounting house-to-house raids, and firing off several 500 lb satellite-guided missiles in an effort to show the world and the insurgency that they are now getting tough. In Tikrit and western Baghdad, the US military has brought into play some of its most sophisticated equipment, including jets, attack helicopters and AC-130 Specter gun ships. Commanders have said the shift in tactics aims to highlight the overwhelming strength of the US military in Iraq.

But the new raids are an acknowledgement of the threat Iraq’s insurgents now represent.

On Saturday, Nov. 15, the US military suffered its single biggest loss since the war started when 17 soldiers died as two Black Hawk helicopters collided over Mosul, in northern Iraq. Witnesses insist one of the helicopters had been hit by fire from the ground. Five helicopters have been shot down in the past three weeks. Sixty US soldiers have been killed in the first two weeks of November alone.

The heavy US military presence in Iraqi towns, particularly in places such as Tikrit, is rarely welcomed. Last week there were few cheers as the tanks, some marked “Cowboys from Hell,” rumbled through.

Military press officers talk of attacking “guerrilla hideouts” and buildings being used as “meeting places” for the rebels, suggesting a guerrilla army living in the field, separate from the population. In reality, the hideouts are people’s homes, their headquarters — apartments and living rooms.

In a tactic reminiscent of Israeli crackdowns in the West Bank and Gaza, the US military has begun destroying the homes of suspected guerrilla fighters in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle, evacuating women and children, and then leveling their houses with heavy weaponry.

This past week at least 15 homes were destroyed in Tikrit as part of what has been dubbed Operation Ivy Cyclone II, including four leveled on Nov. 16 by tanks and Apache helicopters.

Family members at one of the houses, in the village of al Haweda, said they were given five minutes to evacuate before soldiers opened fire.

The next day, angry residents of al Haweda, where three of the homes were destroyed, said the tactic would spawn more guerrilla fighters and perhaps spark an Iraqi uprising similar to the Palestinian intifada in the West Bank and Gaza.

“This is something Sharon would do,” said 41-year-old farmer Jamel Shahab, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. “What’s happening in Iraq is just like Palestine.”

Shahab stood amidst the rubble of the former home of 55-year-old farmer Omar Khalil, who was arrested shortly before the home was destroyed. The military said Khalil’s son, who escaped, is one of the suspects in the downing of the Black Hawk.

Khalil’s wife, Kafey, sat wailing near her wrecked house. “I have no son. I have no husband. I have no home. I will be a beggar.”

Kafey Khalil said military officials first visited the house two days ago, demanding that her husband turn in her son. He refused.

Then at about 10pm Sunday, the military returned, she said.

“They started shouting at us, ‘Get up! Get out!’’’ she said. “They brought a big truck for us. It was so cold we felt like we were dying. After five minutes they started shooting. We didn’t have time to get anything but blankets. They brought in the tanks and the helicopters and started bombing.”

After the shooting stopped, the women and children were released and were left at the scene, they said. They were sifting through the wreckage on Monday, attempting to salvage what few items remained.

Two other homes nearby were also in shambles. What walls remained were pierced by tank rounds. A small boy held up what was left of the family’s TV set.

In the backyard of one home, a cow lay dead, its stomach split open by a large caliber round, its unborn calf half-exposed. A dog limped nearby, a piece of shrapnel protruding from its body.

US Col. James Hickey, commander of the 1st Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, promised no letup in the campaign. He also promised to deal harshly with weapons violations. “If we see someone with a weapon,” he said, “he becomes a ballistics test,” meaning the man is shot.

This week in Tikrit, American forces attacked what they said were “enemy” positions with tank and mortar fire, saying they killed six insurgents. Some 2,000 troops also took part in a raid on a 20-block residential area in Baghdad, emerging with only a few dozen guns. In Awja, the crackdown is less photogenic, but as significant. On Oct. 30, two rifle companies from the US army’s 4th Infantry Division turned up at night and sealed off the town.

“We were asleep,” recalled Mohammed Shakr al-Nassiri, 33, a shopkeeper. “We did hear some work going on during the night. When we got up, we found all this barbed wire around us. We don’t understand the point of it. Why us? There’s been resistance all over Iraq.” In the case of Awja, the Americans appear to have resorted to this strategy after concluding they have no hope of winning over the people.

The Americans have decided they have little to lose by sealing the town off in the hope that it will stifle guerrilla activity. Residents seem to think the approach is doomed to fail. A young policeman said over the wire barricade: “It will make the resistance stronger. Even those who did not fight when the Americans came to Iraq are being pushed to join the resistance.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell of the 4th Infantry Division, who came up with the scheme, told The Washington Post in an interview last week: “The insurgents should not be allowed to swim among the population as a whole. What we elected to do was make Awja a fish bowl so we could see who was swimming inside.”

But if Washington doubts there is Iraqi public support for guerrillas killing its troops, it should consider the teenagers in the Sarafiya district of Baghdad who happily watched American blood spill on Nov. 12.

After a roadside bomb ripped through a military vehicle and wounded two soldiers, Iraqi boys rushed out of their homes to survey the damage.

“This is good. If they ask me, I will join the resistance. The Americans have to die,” said Ali Qais, 15. “They are just here to steal our oil.”

The US administration has long dismissed the guerrillas as isolated “terrorists” who are Saddam Hussein loyalists or foreign Islamic militants.

But the scene in Sarafiya suggests they are winning the sympathy of Iraqis, whose joy at Hussein’s fall has been overshadowed by anti-American rage.

Teenage boys were irritated to hear that two American soldiers were just wounded, not killed.

“They are watching us die and laughing. They humiliate us. They handcuffed me and arrested me in front of my parents late one night because I stood on my house porch after curfew,” Abdullah Oman, 18, said.

On Nov. 17 an American patrol opened fire on people in Baghdad’s gun market, killing three, including an 11-year-old boy, after the soldiers mistook the gunfire of customers testing weapons for an attack.

US chief occupation authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said on Nov. 16 that US forces were likely to remain in Iraq long after an interim government assumed power in June.

“We have thousands of terrorists here, and they are not going to be gone by June,” Bremer said.

Bremer also suggested that US-led forces would remain on a different basis. “Our presence here will change from an occupation to an invited presence,” he said. “I’m sure the Iraqi government is going to want to have coalition forces here for its own security for some time.”

Sources: Financial Times (UK), Guardian (UK), Independent (UK), Knight-Ridder, Observer (UK), Reuters

New York, New York, Nov. 13 (IPS)— Human rights group Amnesty International is demanding a full and impartial enquiry after six people were killed and many injured in a general strike over severe energy cuts and rising prices in the Dominican Republic.

The 24-hour strike was called Tuesday by a coalition of grassroots women, student, community and trade union groups, which demanded an end to foreign debt repayment and to agreements between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Protests over the country’s declining economy have turned violent previously, but Tuesday’s demonstration drew especially strong support and a major mobilization of troops in response.

Official sources report that six people, including one police officer, were killed and over 30 wounded, while press accounts point to a death toll of at least nine, with over 50 wounded.

Strike organizer, the Council of Unified Transportation Workers Union, said nine people were killed and more than 100 injured.

“The authorities must demonstrate their commitment to international standards governing the use of force by law enforcement officials by promptly bringing those involved in the reported violations to justice before ordinary courts,” said Amnesty International in a statement.

“These most recent deaths come in the wake of months of civil disturbances in the Dominican Republic, in which scores of demonstrators and bystanders, as well as some police, have been killed or injured,” it added.

The military denied responsibility for the deaths. “People have died, but not as a result of the strike,” said spokesman Major Maro Acevedo.

President Hipólito Mejía ordered soldiers and police not to shoot unless fired upon, his spokesman Luis González Fabra told the independent radio station FM-101.

Demonstrators blocked roads with flaming tire barricades and marched through the streets. They also set fire to the governing Dominican Revolutionary Party’s offices in the town of Azua, 120 kilometers west of Santo Domingo, according to television station CDN.

Most businesses were closed, classes were cancelled and public buses were idle. Traffic in the capital came to a standstill as heavily armed soldiers randomly searched vehicles for weapons.

The strike coincided with Mejia’s government this week resuming talks with the IMF over a stalled $600-million, two-year standby loan.

It hopes to use the money to prop up the economy after the collapse of a major bank, Banco Internacional (Baninter), which the government has blamed on fraud.

Baninter, the republic’s second-biggest commercial bank, racked up record losses of $2.2 billion, 80 percent of the government’s annual budget.

The IMF suspended its agreement when the administration announced it would buy back two power distribution companies from Union Fenosa of Spain. The expenditure had not been approved in the IMF agreement.

The situation in the electricity sector is especially severe, with some areas of the country suffering blackouts for up to 20 hours a day.

The government has not had the cash to pay subsidies to energy distributors, who in turn could not pay generators.

The protests marked the second time this year that frustrated Dominicans took to the streets. In March, tens of thousands of opposition supporters paraded through the capital Santo Domingo demanding that the government do more to bring down the cost of living.

The demonstrators shouted “We are hungry” and “The country is broke” as they marched, banging pots and carrying banners.

The Dominican peso has lost more than one-half its value against the dollar in the last 12 months.

Tblisi, Georgia, Nov. 15— The former Soviet republic of Georgia stepped back from the brink of civil war when 15,000 opposition supporters who had marched on the offices of President Eduard Shevardnadze, demanding his resignation, dispersed peacefully late last night.

Hundreds of riot police and interior ministry troops were stationed across the capital on high alert.

The protesters linked arms to form a human chain around the heavily guarded presidential administration, calling on Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, to announce he was annulling the parliamentary elections that were held on 2 November, which opposition parties claim were rigged.

The opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili told protesters: “We are within 15 meters of Shevardnadze’s offices. If he does not have the courage to walk this distance, it will be up to you to cast your verdict on his criminal regime. This man stole everything from us and he is not going to take notice of his own people.”

The crowd moved from parliament along the main Tbilisi thoroughfare to outside his offices. Interior ministry troops watched as protesters chanted “step down” and “traitor”. Yesterday’s protest was the latest and most fervent expression of popular discontent since the elections. International observers said there had been “spectacular irregularities” in the ballot. No official results have been published, but provisional results, produced more than a week after the election, give Shevardnadze’s New Georgia bloc a narrow lead.

Shevardnadze, who is not due to step down as President until 2005, has so far given no sign of yielding and has held talks with the head of a regional party, Revival, which came second.

Yesterday, as protesters gathered, he gave an unscheduled television address, warning, for the first time, that the country faced civil war. “While I am alive, while I am President, I will not allow a civil confrontation,” he said. “It will be followed by civil war. There is a very real threat of it.” He said that he had no intention of standing down until his presidential mandate expired, adding only that he would “never follow the fate of either Milosevic or Ceausescu.”

All week protesters have been camped outside the parliament building in central Tbilisi. They dispersed peacefully last night and may launch a campaign of civil disobedience. Igor Gochava, a tall, slight man with silvery hair, said he had been there since last Saturday. Gochava, his wife, their three sons and four grandchildren live in two rooms on the outskirts of Tbilisi. The building used to be a nursery school but is now full of refugees, such as Gochava and his family, from the conflict in Abkhazia.

The breakaway region severed all ties with Tbilisi in 1993, and thousands of Georgians from the area are now living in hostels, public halls and even schools across the country. “None of our sons can find work, so the 12 of us have to get by on my pension,” he said. That comes to 28 lari, or £9, a month. “It isn’t even enough to buy bread,” he said.

Gochava’sis not an isolated case. Unemployment is rife, corruption among officials common and poverty widespread. Public services do not work, the roads are full of holes and there are frequent power cuts. The once-abundant orchards have fallen into neglect because there is no money to tend them.

Shevardnadze, once regarded as Georgia’s savior, is widely blamed for the decline of a nation that used to be known as the fruit bowl of the Soviet Union, its lush hills and copious vineyards making it one of the most affluent of the republics.

Now, many fear that there could be a return to the violence of the early 1990s, when the country was racked by civil war. Renegade army units drove tanks through the capital, and snipers climbed on to roofs to take pot shots at protesters.

The brief civil war ended when Shevardnadze, the last Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, agreed to become President of his native Georgia, on a platform of national unity.

Aslan Abashidze, a powerful Georgian regional leader, said last night that the unrest was increasingly reminiscent of events that drove the country to civil war after the collapse of the Soviet Union.