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New Iraqi police fight US troops who trained them

By Damien McElroy

Baghdad, Iraq, June 27— With American fighter jets and helicopters buzzing the skies overhead, an officer in Iraq’s new police force approaches a group of fighters on Fallujah’s front lines with an urgent call to arms.

“I need a man who can use an RPG,” says Omar, who wears the uniform of a first lieutenant. Four hands shoot up and a cry rings out: “We are ready.” He chooses a young man, Bilal, and they drive to an underpass on the outskirts of the city.

There, on Highway One, an American Humvee is driving east. Bilal aims and fires his rocket propelled grenade, turning the vehicle into a smoking, twisted, metal carcass. The fate of its occupants is unknown.

First Lt Omar is sworn to uphold the law and fight the insurgency that threatens Iraq’s evolution into a free and democratic state. Instead, he is exploiting his knowledge of US tactics to help the rebel cause in Fallujah.

“Resistance is stronger when you are working with the occupation forces,” he points out. “That way you can learn their weaknesses and attack at that point.”

An Iraqi journalist went into Fallujah on behalf of the Telegraph on June 23, a day on which an orchestrated wave of bloody rebel attacks across the country cost more than 100 lives.

Inside the Sunni-dominated town, he met police officers and units of the country’s new army who have formed a united front with Muslim fundamentalists against the Americans, their resistance focused on al-Askeri district on the eastern outskirts of the town.

That morning, US marines had taken up “aggressive defense” positions on one side of Highway One. On the other side, militant fighters were dug in, ready for battle.

Their preparations were thorough. Along the length of a suburban street in al-Askeri, they had dug foxholes at the base of every palm tree. Scores of armed men lined the streets. Most had scarves wrapped around their heads but others wore the American-supplied uniform of Unit 505 of the Iraqi army, and carried US-made M-16 rifles. Yet more were dressed in the olive green uniforms worn by Saddam Hussein’s armed forces. Since April, when a US offensive failed to crush an uprising by Islamic fighters and Ba’athist loyalists, Fallujah has been effectively a no-go area for American troops.

A newly formed, 2,000-strong force known as the Fallujah Brigade, led by a Saddam-era general, Mohammed Latif, was supposed to disarm the rebels. Instead, the town remains a hotbed of resistance. Now, once again, US military pressure is being brought to bear.

Three separate air strikes have been launched on houses in the town in recent days, aimed at killing an al-Qaida leader believed to be based in Fallujah. The Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is believed to be behind the wave of kidnappings and terror attacks across Iraq.

US officials say that they narrowly missed their target on June 25, in their most recent strike on a house where he was suspected of hiding. Up to 25 people were killed.

On the ground in al-Askeri, tension was once again rising under the US attacks. Strangers had to seek permission from the “district commander,” a local imam called Sheikh Yassin who controls a broad coalition of Saddam loyalists and Islamic radicals, to move beyond the rebel lines. The sheikh, who has emerged as the neighborhood strongman since the uprising against American occupation, has used his following to unite all strands of resistance under his leadership.

His radio buzzed constantly as scouts, moving incognito in private cars, sent in reports about US positions around the suburb. The ground shook as F-16 Falcons dropped precision-guided 500 pound bombs on rebel positions near the football stadium, half a mile away.

US commanders have spoken of their frustration over the Fallujah Brigade’s failure to rein in rebels, and the ineffectiveness of the political deal struck with local tribes in April. “We’ve been prepared to pull the plug on it three or four times, but each time we detect a faint heartbeat,” a senior marine officer said. To Sheikh Yassin, the supposedly anti-rebel brigade is a useful tool, providing support for his fighters. “We respect the Fallujah Brigade — it never interferes against us,” he says. He openly acknowledges that his coalition was a marriage of convenience, bringing together the secular Saddam faithful and Muslim fundamentalists.

The imam, who wants Iraq to be governed by Islamic law, points to one of his companions — a colonel in the disbanded Iraqi army — and asks why he is still fighting.

The colonel is blunt. “Fallujah is the starting point of the return of the Ba’ath Party,” he says. “Our comrades in Baghdad and other provinces are joining our struggle. Here already we are free. No one can touch us.”

In violence June 26, a car bomb in the predominantly Shia city of Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed at least 15 people according to the Arabic satellite news channel Al-Jazeera.

Six guerrillas and several other people were killed in Baquba, north of Baghdad, when rebels blew up the local party headquarters of Ayad Allawi, Iraq’s prime minister, and attacked a moderate Shia political party’s office. Another car bomb killed a man in the Kurdish city of Arbil.

Source: Telegraph (UK)

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Mugabe is spooked by the letter Z

By Andrew Meldrum

June 20— A clever and daring underground movement has sprung up in Zimbabwe that is stoking public opinion against Robert Mugabe’s government.

Zvakwana — which means “enough” in the Shona language — has launched a bold campaign expressed through graffiti, emails and condoms to encourage the Zimbabwean people to rise up.

The clandestine campaign is building up steam just as the progress of Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has stalled under the burden of torture of its leaders and state violence against its supporters.

A black Z on a bright yellow handprint is appearing mysteriously on the walls of bus stations, on busy streets and over billboards across Harare and other cities. Thousands of “revolutionary condoms” have been distributed, emblazoned with the letter Z and the double-entendre message “Get up! Stand up!”

Matchboxes stuffed with resistance messages are left in public places to be picked up by unsuspecting citizens. Thousands of Zimbabweans are led to the Zvakwana website.

Zvakwana has compiled a CD of resistance songs featuring Bob Marley, Hugh Masekela, Thomas Mapfumo and many Zimbabwean musicians, which it has managed to distribute across Zimbabwe. The messages are often humorous, but the Mugabe government is taking Zvakwana seriously. Now a team of senior investigators from the Law and Order section, notorious for torturing scores of opposition politicians and civic leaders, has been assigned to track down the activists. The unit has in the past few weeks raided the offices of the MDC and other civic groups and has arrested and interrogated opposition politicians, civic leaders, journalists and musicians.

“We are not linked to Zvak-wana,” said MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi. “But to the extent that the group fights for political change, democracy and human rights, we share the same values and we support its efforts. Police have raided our offices hunting for Zvakwana because they believe any group that advocates change and democracy is linked to the MDC.”

A police spokesman said: “These people have been spreading material and literature aimed at inciting members of the public to lawlessness.” Zimbabweans report irate police making house-to-house searches for tell-tale yellow paint or piles of matchboxes. “They kept asking me, ‘Who is Zvakwana? Who is Zvakwana?’” said one Harare resident who was arrested and later released.

Speaking to The Observer through the anonymity of the internet, Zvakwana responded: “It is no surprise that they are hunting for us. This is because we are living under a dictatorship. If we were living under a democracy, then the government in power would allow voices of dissent. It is clear that Zanu-PF wants to suffocate any glimmer of hope or resistance. Hope is considered most dangerous by tyrannies.”

There is plenty to protest about. Inflation has hovered at 600 percent for most of the year; unemployment is at 70 percent. Last week, the government closed the Tribune newspaper, the third to be shut down in less than a year. The Zvakwana spokesman said: “The current situation in Zimbabwe is bringing up the right conditions for revolution.”

Zvakwana carried out one of its trademark “non-violent civic actions” in Harare just before Zimbabwe’s Independence Day events on Apr. 18. Activists spray-painted lampposts and the large pipes next to the main Tongogara Avenue, used by Mugabe’s 27-vehicle motorcade when he travels to the National Sports Stadium, and “Get UP Stand UP” appeared on stadium turnstiles and walls. “There was so much graffiti,” crows the group, “the regime couldn’t repaint it before Mugabe’s trip, so he had to take a different route.”

The group also claims to distribute videotapes of a BBC documentary exposing the government’s militia camps, where youths are trained in torture techniques to be used against Mugabe’s opponents.

Zvakwana’s main methods of communication have been the internet and email. It sends out regular newsletters about events in Zimbabwe. In addition to encouraging anti-government slogans, its website offers “activist tips,” such as: “Organize yourself in pairs. Keep an eye out for your partner at all times. Make sure that you know their personal details and who to contact in the event that they are hurt or arrested.” It also advises on how to cope with tear gas: “Stay calm and focused . . . When your body heats up (from running or panicking, for example), irritation may increase.”

Its success in using the anonymity of the internet to spread its message has made its website one of the most popular in Zimbabwe. The government’s frustration with Zvakwana has resulted in draconian action to force all internet service providers to censor all email correspondence.

“We are encouraging Zimbabweans to make that shift from lives drenched in fear to a future where we can all live more positively and with dignity,” said the group. “Zvakwana is asking Zimbabweans to stop waiting, and to Get Up!”

Source: Observer (UK)

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Asia shifting towards economic regionalism

By Tim Shorrock

Washington, DC, June 28 (IPS)— Led by Japan and China, the disparate nations of East Asia are in the midst of a free trade revival that could create one of the world’s largest economic blocs.

Last week, Japan and South Korea began a fourth round of negotiations aimed at creating a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) by December 2005. The talks would unite two economies with a combined gross domestic market of $5 trillion, or about 75 percent of the entire East Asian economy.

Japan signed an FTA with Singapore in 2002 and is negotiating similar bilateral deals with Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

On June 30, China and the 10 countries that make up the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) will conclude talks on which products should be included in a proposed free trade zone scheduled to be completed by 2010.

Next year, China will open free trade talks with New Zealand, its first such negotiations with a developed country. New Zealand and Australia are also contemplating a recent ASEAN initiative for an FTA.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is floating a proposal for an Asian inter-regional trading group similar to the European Union. His proposal is a likely topic of debate at the 37th ASEAN ministerial meeting set for June 29-30 in Indonesia.

There, ASEAN, South-east Asia’s key diplomatic club of 10 countries, is expected to formally request FTA talks with New Zealand and Australia.

Badawi is calling for an FTA that would be signed by all members of ASEAN plus China, Japan and South Korea, as well as a regional monetary fund that would supplement the Washington-based International Monetary Fund [IMF].

In a June 21 speech in Kuala Lumpur, Badawi admitted that creating an East Asian free trade area could take up to two generations. But he said an economic community is essential for Asia to retain its independence as a region.

“Our present and our future are incredibly dependent on decisions made in Washington or New York or Geneva,” he said “We are punching way below our weight.” East Asia, he added, is “a heavyweight, compartmentalized and cribbed in the featherweight class.”

These moves towards regionalism in Asia are partly a reaction to the economic cohesion in Europe and North America created by the EU and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which will soon expand to include Central America.

At the same time, they reflect a general sense that the region was left to fend on its own by the IMF and the World Bank after the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, said Kinoshita Toshihiko, a trade expert at Tokyo’s Waseda University and a former official with Japan’s Export-Import Bank.

At the time, “East Asia felt an identity that they were all on the same boat,” Kinoshita said at a recent Washington forum organized by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

During the Asian crisis, Kinoshita noted, the United States brusquely shot down a Japanese proposal to create an Asian Monetary Fund to act as a regional IMF. Earlier, in 1991, the US government opposed a proposal by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for an Asian free trade zone that would have excluded the United States.

Japan, taking the US lead, was “lukewarm” to the idea as well. As a result, the term East Asian Economic Community – the would-be name of this forum – “became taboo in this area,” he said.

The “centrifugal forces” behind free trade are very strong, and Asia is already experiencing “the fruits” of regional cooperation, said Kinoshita. Under the “ASEAN-plus-three” structure, he noted, Asian countries recently launched an Asian Bond Market Initiative and an Asian Bond Fund so local governments will have access to capital during a future financial emergency.

In addition, intra-regional trade now encompasses 45 percent of the area’s total trade and Japan’s trade with East Asia is increasing as its trade with the United States slows.

Last year, for example, Japan’s exports to East Asia rose 22 percent in comparison to a three percent rise with the United States. Japan’s imports from East Asia rose 16 percent, while its US imports rose only two percent.

For Asian regionalism to work, Japan must take a strong lead and convince the United States that the process is not aimed at reducing US influence, Kinoshita argued. “By acquiring the trust of the United States, Japan could take leadership in its own way,” he said.

Richard Katz, the senior editor of The Oriental Economist Report and a long-time expert on the Japanese economy, took exception to Kinoshita’s interpretation of trade statistics.

While Japan is more trade dependent on Asia, he said, Asia is becoming less dependent on Japan.

“Japan is neither hub nor brain” of East Asian economic integration, he said, noting that South Korea has overtaken Japan as China’s number one trading and investment partner.

Moreover, said Katz, much of the increase in Japanese trade involves “captive” exports and imports -- that is, Japanese firms shipping goods to and from their affiliates in China and elsewhere.

“The overwhelming share in the growth of Japanese imports [from Asia] is from Japanese affiliates,” he said. “So, yes, there is integration in Asia, but Asia is not integrating with Japan.”

Alan Tonelson, a research fellow at the US Business and Industry Council Educational Foundation in Washington and a long-time critic of US trade policy, agrees with Katz that trade statistics tell only part of the Asian economic story.

In an interview with IPS, Tonelson said discussions of FTAs in Asia often overlook the fact that China and its Asian competitors continue to view the United States as their primary market.

“In my view, the main element of the Asian model is that it relies very heavily for growth on net exports to the United States,” Tonelson told IPS. Much of China’s growth in recent years, he contends, is due to heavy investments in Chinese manufacturing and high-tech industries by US multinational corporations that use China as an export platform to ship products back to their home market.

“If you’re interested in the implication of trade flows, the fact that manufactured goods are stopping at more places [in Asia] is not important,” he said. “The end result is, trade flows are more lopsided and Asia’s dependence on the United States as a final consumption market continues to grow.”

Back at the symposium, Adam Posen, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics, argued that Asian countries have yet to find a driving force for regionalism. “We don’t have an agreed-upon engine for Asian transformation,” he said.

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