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Historic triumph by the left in Uruguay
By Diana Cariboni
Montevideo, Uruguay, Oct. 31 (IPS) — For the first time
in the history of Uruguay, the left — a coalition of parties created
33 years ago — won the national elections Oct. 31 amidst a festive
but tranquil climate in this South American country, which has a strong
civic culture.
According to the first partial result, the Broad Front, whose name has
expanded with the incorporation of new sectors to “Encuentro Progresista-Frente
Amplio-Nueva Mayoría” (EP-FA-NM), garnered at least 50 percent
of the vote, thus making a second round in November unnecessary.
National Party candidate Jorge Larrañaga took more than 30 percent
of the vote, and Colorado Party candidate Guillermo Stirling approximately
10 percent.
The new administration to be headed by socialist candidate Tabaré
Vázquez, a 64-year-old oncologist, as of March 2005 will be the
first leftist government in this South American country of 3.3 million,
and the only one to enjoy a majority in parliament since 1966.
The Broad Front was founded in 1971 by socialists, communists, left-leaning
Christian democrats and politicians who left the two traditional parties
that have dominated the political life of the country since it became
an independent nation in 1825.
But much has changed in 33 years. For starters, the most popular sector
within the Broad Front today is the Popular Participation Movement (MPP)
led by former Tupamaro urban guerrillas, who observed with scepticism
the creation of the alliance in 1971, and did not take part.
In fact, to a large extent the Broad Front was created as a political
alternative to the Tupamaro insurgency, which was active since the early
1960s, and to a bi-party system that was cracking under the social tension,
aggravated by the broader context of the Cold War.
But on Oct. 31, the party list of the former Tupamaro leaders, who now
form part of the Broad Front, won more votes than the entire ruling
Colorado Party. And the ex-guerrillas now talk about practicing “responsible
capitalism” while they prepare to help govern.
In the elections of 1971, in which the Broad Front took 18 percent of
the vote, the leftist alliance proposed economic planning, the nationalization
of the banking system and of the large foreign trade companies, agrarian
reform and the elimination of the latifundium (large landed estates),
and radical reforms of the tax regime.
“What our Front is proposing is not only a profound change in the
structures, but the replacement of the classes that are in power, by
displacing the oligarchy from power and bringing the people to govern,”
Líber Seregni, a founder and long-time leader of the Broad Front
who died last August, said in February 1971.
Land reform and the nationalization of the banks disappeared from the
Broad Front platform in the mid-1990s. Today, the coalition proposes
action along five major lines: social policies, strengthening production,
fostering R&D in science and technology, deepening democracy and
the transparency of the State, and consolidating regional integration.
But attempts to include in the coalition’s platform positions like
rejection of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) — a proposed
hemisphere-wide trade bloc — reforms of the amnesty law that let
those guilty of human rights crimes during the 1973-1985 dictatorship
off the hook, and refusal to pay the foreign debt were not successful.
“The version of socialism that can be seen in the Broad Front is
actually fairly close to the old social democratic paradigm, although
in a more left-leaning version than the western European model,”
say political scientists Adolfo Garcé and Jaime Yaffé
in their book “The Progressive Era.”
The Broad Front emerged from the dictatorship, which imprisoned, tortured
and exiled its members in an attempt to destroy it, with a new political
identity, shaped by the years of persecution and resistance, and with
its defence of basic human rights and freedoms reinforced.
After the return to democracy in 1985, the Marxist sectors within the
Broad Front reacted in different ways to the disappearance of the Soviet
Union and the East European socialist bloc, a phenomenon that had an
impact on the leftist alliance’s basic conceptions.
But support for the Broad Front, which has grown steadily at the polls
since it was first created, did not stop growing.
“What did the left care about the most in the 1940s? Social change,”
political analyst Jorge Lanzaro, the founder of the Political Science
Institute at the University of the Republic, told IPS.
“In the 1960s and 1970s it began to be more concerned with becoming
a party capable of winning votes at the polls, and that aim took on
increasing importance, which turned [the alliance] more and more into
an electoral party, while its ideology gradually adapted to that dynamic,”
he added.
The left thus began to expand, and to “compete” for votes
at the centre of the political spectrum. “It did not lose its identity,
but its positions became more moderate in order to reach a broader electorate,”
said Lanzaro, who coordinated production of the book The Uruguayan Left:
Between Opposition and the Government, a collective body of work.
A polarization between the left and the right, which did not exist in
the old party system, emerged in the 1990s, while the Broad Front capitalized
on the deep-rooted Uruguayan sentiments in favor of a strong state and
against laissez-faire economic policies.
“However, the left has not been impermeable to the neo-liberal
cultural revolution, and has incorporated some of its elements, like
the need for fiscal balance, the opening up of trade, and increased
competitiveness,” said Lanzaro.
In this campaign, the left put a strong emphasis on calming the financial
markets and business sector, announcing far ahead of the elections the
name of the future economy minister: Senator Danilo Astori, a prestigious
Broad Front economist who has a reputation as a moderate.
Vázquez and Astori traveled to Washington to assure the International
Monetary Fund that they planned to honor Uruguay’s bulky foreign
debt and maintain macroeconomic equilibrium.
The markets reacted favorably. There have been no bank runs or capital
flight in the past few months, and the peso even appreciated against
the dollar.
Support for the leftist coalition began to take off with the recession
of the late 1990s that culminated in the profound economic crisis of
2002, the worst in Uruguayan history.
In this country that was once known as the Switzerland of Latin America,
one million out of 3.3 million people are now living in poverty, and
the foreign debt is equivalent to 105 percent of gross domestic product
(GDP). More than half of all children are living in households that
have fallen below the poverty line.
Economic activity did recover significantly this year and unemployment
fell from 20 to 13 percent. But wages have not rallied, and many of
the working poor do not earn a living wage, while the gap between rich
and poor has widened, and tens of thousands of Uruguayans have left
the country, seeking better opportunities abroad.
The current Colorado Party administration of President Jorge Batlle
is one of the most unpopular governments in Latin America today.
Discontent with the traditional parties has grown enormously since 2002.
That is especially true in the case of the conservative Colorado Party,
which has governed Uruguay for most of its life as an independent republic,
and which built the country’s strong welfare state in the first
half of the 20th century.
At the same time, neighboring South American countries have begun to
turn away from the free-market policies, structural adjustment programs
and privatization that were all the rage in the 1990s.
Powerful countries like Argentina and Brazil have recently swung to
the left, and even the multilateral financial institutions have begun
to acknowledge the damages that neo-liberal policies have caused in
the region.
These policies have also been seriously questioned in Venezuela and
Bolivia as well.
Against that backdrop, a leftist coalition that survived 33 years, including
a 12-year de facto military regime, and grew until winning power at
the polls is now facing a unique opportunity to live up to the hopes
for social justice and in-depth change shared by its supporters.
“The Broad Front is an enormous popular party that you could say
is now assuming the place held by the Colorado Party in the 20th century,
and that will surely occupy it for a long time to come,” predicted
Lanzaro.
India: Outrage at guns for sterilization
policy
By Randeep Ramesh
Lakhimpur, India, Nov. 1 — On the fringe of north India,
five sweating men expertly scythe their way through a golden-green field
of paddy. The air is thick with the whoosh of sharpened blades. Nearby,
bullocks loll and veiled women walk carrying cowpats on their heads
for use as fuel.
Beneath the rural idyll, however, lies a village in torment because
of a radical new population control measure: guns for sterilization.
Three months ago, officials in three districts of Uttar Pradesh, India’s
largest and most populous state, announced that to obtain a single-barrel
shotgun, two people would need to be sterilized; for a revolver license,
the price would be five.
What happened to the quintet of farm workers perspiring in the fields
around the village of Shashitanda appears to be the unhappy result of
the radical policy. In late July, a rich farmer seeking a gun license
is said to have had all five forcibly sterilized at a nearby clinic.
Jagdish Singh, 20, shifting nervously in front of assembled villagers,
claims he went along with the farmer because he was offered work cutting
grass at $1 a day. “[Instead] I was taken to hospital and given
a green pill which I was told was to protect against malaria. I don’t
remember anything else until I woke up the next day in pain.”
Jagdish, an unmarried laborer, was held hostage after the operation
in the farmer’s house, and only released when the rest of the villagers
turned up to rescue the five men. “My life is over,” he said.
“I have no children. How can I become a man again,when everyone
knows I have had this done to me?”
All five men, four of whom have children, have complained to police
and registered a case with a local lawyer but say little has happened
as a result.
“My wife is very angry with me, she scolds me day and night. What
can I do? I have been cheated for a gun,” says Preetam Singh, who
also claims he was operated upon without his consent.
Avatar Singh, the farmer accused by the five, agreed he had wanted a
gun but denied he had forced anybody to undergo the operations. “I
did not do anything wrong. The matter is now closed,” he said.
Population remains a pivotal issue for India, the world’s largest
democracy, where there is an increase of 20 million people each year.
India expects to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation
by the middle of the century.
Uttar Pradesh, of all the nation’s states, sits on top of the demographic
explosion. It crams 170 million people — more than Russia —
into a space the size of Britain. The state, largely rural, contains
a tenth of the world’s poor and half of its female adult workforce
cannot read or write.
Sharp divide
India’s latest census revealed a sharp divide between economically
advanced southern states and poorer northern ones. Whereas the former
revealed a sharp decrease in the rate of population growth in the last
decade, the hugely populous states in the north registered rises.
The specter of coercive sterilization evokes dark memories for India.
In the mid-1970s, the country’s then prime minister, Indira Gandhi,
suspended democracy — imposing press censorship and imprisoning
political opponents — for 21 months. During this time, her ambitious
son, Sanjay, organized a nationwide compulsory sterilization campaign
aimed at lowering the birthrate. The campaign, which mandated vasectomies
for men with families of two or more children, met with widespread fear
and resistance. Thousands were forcibly sterilized.
Uttar Pradesh’s population policy calls for 930,000 sterilizations
this year. It has been backed by $360 million of aid money from USAid,
the American government’s donor agency.
Campaigners say the money would be better spent raising educational
standards, encouraging the use of contraception and setting up an efficient
public health system. “Sterilization is an extremely invasive procedure,
especially for women,” says Jashodhara Dasgupta of Healthwatch,
which campaigns on public health issues in Uttar Pradesh. “It is
carried out here in unhygienic conditions often under poor medical supervision.
Yet it is being promoted while contraceptives like the diaphragm are
being withdrawn. The whole thrust of the policy is that we have to stop
poor people from reproducing.”
But officials say they only manage to meet half the annual sterilization
target and the state must reduce fertility with further incentives.
With half a million pending applications for firearm licenses in Uttar
Pradesh, the upshot is the new “guns for sterilization” population
policy.
The new directive has been condemned by critics as encouraging gun culture
in a state that already accounts for half of India’s firearm murders.
It is fairly common in Uttar Pradesh to see men strolling around with
rifles slung over their shoulders or revolvers hung from their waists.
In the northern town of Lakhimpur, rows of gun shops sell pistols and
double-barreled shotguns for a few hundred pounds. Shop owners say there
are two main reasons for the gun culture: the emergence of weapons as
a status symbol and deteriorating law and order.
Gurpreet Singh, a 35-year-old businessman, carries a revolver to “protect
oneself and one’s family.”
“I decided to get a gun after my neighbor and his family were killed
by robbers a while ago,” he said. “If you have money you are
a target around here.”
Administrators remain unapologetic, pointing out that a carrot-and-stick
approach has long been practiced in Uttar Pradesh. For years, poor people
who are sterilized receive priority for houses, small loans, and extra
rations of essential items like sugar.
“We have to meet our [sterilization] goals. The target in this
area alone is 18,000 and so far we only have 3,000 sterilizations,”
said Iqbal Hussain, chief medical officer of Lakhimpur district. “This
is a healthy incentive scheme no different to when we offer extra bags
of sugar or cash to people to have operations.”
Source: The Guardian (UK)
New oil find fuels China’s worries
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Oct. 26 (IPS) — News of the
discovery of a new offshore oil field in northern Vietnam may be drawing
toasts at home, but threatens to add fuel to a long-time controversy
with China over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Just a day after the Oct. 20 announcement of the find by a partnership
of oil companies from Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and the United
States, a Chinese spokesman made clear Beijing’s position toward
future oil exploration in the region.
“China is seriously concerned and strongly dissatisfied,”
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said. In contrast,
an official with the oil companies called the oil find a “lucky”
one for Vietnam.
The oil find, announced by a group of companies comprising Petronas
Carigali Overseas of Malaysia, American Technology Inc Petroleum (ATI),
Singapore Petroleum Company and PetroVietnam’s Petroleum Investment
and Development Company (PID), is at Yen Tu field, about 45 miles
east of Hai Phong sea port.
This is west of China’s Hainan island and for Beijing, not too
far from the South China Sea, where its territorial claims would cover
80 percent of the area.
Six claimants — China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia,
and Taiwan — lay claim to part or whole of the Spratley island
chain in the South China Sea.
At the height of wariness by China’s neighbors about its intentions,
this used to be considered a key security flashpoint in the region,
especially when different claimants used different means to strengthen
their presence there.
Tensions rose over actions such as Malaysia’s announcement that
it would organize tours to the region. In the mid-nineties, the Chinese
put up what it called shelters for fishermen on islets claimed by
the Philippines, fuelling concerns in the Association of South-east
Asian Nations (ASEAN) about increased aggression by China and prompting
increased diplomacy to engage Beijing.
China’s reaction this month to the Vietnamese government’s
invitation for public bidding in oil exploration in the South China
Sea is reminder that while relations between Beijing and South-east
Asia are much warmer these days, old territorial disputes are very
much around.
This is particularly so for China and Vietnam, whose forces clashed
in the South China Sea in 1988 and 1992, and where on both occasions
the Chinese emerged victorious. China seized the Paracels from Vietnam
and now considers them part of the nearby island province of Hainan.
Last year, China and Vietnam agreed to abide by the consensus to keep
the status quo in the region and the Declaration on the Conduct of
Parties in the South China Sea, which was signed by China and ASEAN.
The South-east Asian grouping considers the document vital to avoiding
moves that add tension in the disputed waters, one it finally obtained
after years of refusal by the Chinese to discuss the issue multilaterally.
Now China is invoking the same document, reflecting its worries that
oil exploration involving foreign companies dealing with Vietnam would
undercut its claims.
China’s Zhang Qiyue urged Hanoi to “correct its wrong conduct”
and abide by the consensus reached in the Declaration on the Conduct
of Parties in the South China Sea.
“As is known to all, China has indisputable sovereignty over
the Nansha Islands and the adjacent waters,” the Chinese official
said. “The above action by the Vietnamese side constitutes an
infringement upon China’s sovereign rights and maritime rights
and interests.”
China calls the Spratley Islands Nansha, while Vietnam calls them
Truong Sa. Both countries have fielded historical and archeological
evidence to support their claims in the disputed waters.
Zhang Qiyue has asked Vietnam to “cease to adopt any unilateral
action that would complicate or give rise to further expansion of
the disputes.” She also called on international petroleum companies
to cease to do anything that would impair China’s sovereign rights
and maritime rights and interests.
According to ATI General Director Dinh Duc Huu, many companies have
been exploring in Yen Tu for oil and natural gas but this was the
“first oil strike” in the waters of northern Vietnam. He
estimated preliminary reserves at 181 million barrels.
Huu said exploration would be launched to find oil in Block 106, close
to Chinese territorial waters. Chinese firms had also struck oil in
several fields near Block 106 earlier.
Most of Vietnam’s daily output of 400,000 barrels per day comes
from oil fields off its southern coast. The country is the third largest
producer in South-east Asia.
The joint venture, which started operations in mid-2000, has spent
about 20 million US dollars on exploration, and according to Huu,
will need 100 million dollars more over two to three years before
oil could be removed.
Of late, Vietnam has been offering new investment opportunities for
foreign crude oil and gas firms.
At a Hanoi seminar on Oct. 15, Petro-Vietnam invited foreign companies
to Vietnam’s 2004 Licensing Round, which covers nine blocks in
Phu Khanh Basin offshore. The deadline for bids was set for Mar. 31,
2005.
“Phu Khanh Basin may contain the equivalent of 5.4 billion barrels
of oil, or 16 percent of the 33.6 billion estimated to lie in Vietnam’s
continental shelf,” Tran Duc Chinh, Petro-Vietnam’s acting
general manager for exploration, said in an interview.
The nine blocks, named 122 to 130, cover about 6000 sq miles and are
located 350 miles northwest of Ho Chi Minh City. According to PetroVietnam
chief executive Tran Ngoc Canh, they are at an “early exploration
stage.”
But as PetroVietnam Vice President Nguyen Fang Lieu remarked: “When
oil prices are high, the efficiency of investment increases.”
Record-high oil prices of above 50 US dollars a barrel will probably
spur interest from oil companies in the Phu Khanh Basin, officials
add.
South Korea’s biggest oil refinery has already expressed its
interest. Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Corp, won a pledge by PetroVietnam
President Tran Ngoc Canh to push for joint exploration activities
in Vietnam’s offshore oil fields.
So far, PetroVietnam has signed 43 contracts with foreign firms to
carry out exploration and production operations in shallow-water areas
with a depth of less than 200 yards.
Suicide bomber strikes Tel Aviv market
Arafat’s absence raises questions
as to the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations
Compiled by Josh Ferguson
Nov. 3 (AGR) -- On Nov. 1, a 16-year-old Palestinian blew
himself up in a crowded outdoor market in central Tel Aviv, killing
three Israelis and wounding 32 in the first of such attacks since
Yasser Arafat left the region for medical treatment in France.
The ground shook in Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market as the explosion
ripped through a dairy store and damaged a neighboring vegetable stall.
Paramedics treated dazed shoppers and wheeled away bodies in black
plastic bags.
“I saw lots of people lying on the ground, lots of people wounded,”
shopper Michal Weizman, who was about 30 feet away from the blast,
told Israel Army Radio. “There was a woman whose entire body
was torn up.”
Police confirmed that four people were killed, including the bomber.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction,
claimed responsibility, identifying the assailant as Eli Amer Alfar,
from the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Alfar’s identity card showed he was 16, making him one of the
youngest Palestinian suicide bombers to date. However, it is not unusual
for children to be involved in the conflict. Increasingly, militant
groups are recruiting women and children as suicide bombers, with
the hopes that they would be less likely to be stopped at checkpoints
than their adult male counterparts.
Arafat’s absence has raised concern about instability among the
Palestinians. The blast — the first suicide bombing since September
— signaled that Palestinian militants are seeking to set the
pace, not Arafat’s aides, who have been trying to convey normalcy.
From his sickbed in a military hospital near Paris, Arafat condemned
the bombing and “appealed to all Palestinian factions to commit
to avoid harming all Israeli civilians,” also appealed to Sharon
to “take similar initiatives to avoid harming Palestinian civilians,”
Arafat’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.
On Nov 2, the Israeli army destroyed the homes of the bomber and of
two men that Israel says were behind the attack.
Israel routinely destroys the homes of Palestinians involved in bombings,
hoping it will act as a deterrent.
On Nov. 1, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian
boy in Askar who was throwing stones at an Israeli patrol, local doctors
said. The army had no immediate comment.
This shooting came days after Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 14-year-old
boy during an anti-Israel demonstration in Jenin, in the northern
West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon confirmed that Israel “will
not stop its war against terrorism.”
“I’m not changing my policy until there are changes in the
Palestinian administration and until it stops its incitement and its
terror,” Sharon said.
However, Israel has said that while the Palestinian leader is away
it would show restraint in its battle with militants.
Arafat was flown to France on Oct. 29, suffering from an undisclosed
ailment that left him in serious condition. Doctors there have not
yet announced results of medical tests, except to discredit rumors
of leukemia.
The Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee in Israel’s parliament
dedicated its weekly session Nov. 1 to Arafat’s condition. A
military intelligence official testifying before the closed-door session
said he believed Arafat either has cancer or a severe viral infection.
In a statement made on Israeli public radio, Foreign Minister Silvan
Shalom told Israelis that Israel would be monitoring Arafat’s
medical condition “with the utmost attention.”
“Our aim is to be ready for the day after Arafat, but this is
not something we can fix in advance, it is still too early to bury
him,” Shalom said Oct. 27.
Prime Minister Sharon has vowed not to allow the man who has personified
the Palestinian struggle for statehood to be buried in Jerusalem’s
Al-Aqsa mosque compound — the third holiest site in Islam.
Meanwhile, Israel is making plans for interaction with a new Palestinian
leader who would replace the ailing Arafat, although Arafat has not
groomed anyone to become his successor.
Sharon claims that there is no partner for peace on the Palestinian
side, which has forced him to act unilaterally -- building a wall
through and around the West Bank, and proposing a withdrawal of settlers
and soldiers from the occupied Gaza Strip.
Part of this plan involves compensation payments for Jewish settlers
leaving the area. The US-backed plan to evacuate troops and settlers
from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank next year
has thrown politics into turmoil in the Jewish state and sparked warnings
of civil strife.
It would be the first time that Israel has removed settlements from
land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, though Palestinians fear
it would strengthen Israel’s hold on most West Bank settlements
and deny them a viable state.
Sharon says his plan for “disengagement” from years of conflict
with the Palestinians will make Israel easier to defend while strengthening
its hold on West Bank settlements far bigger than those in Gaza.
Sources: AFP, AP, Green Left Weekly,
Reuters
Gene wars only a few years away, say
doctors
By Helen Nugent
Oct. 26 — Genetically targeted weapons capable of ethnic
cleansing could become a reality within five years because the “window
of opportunity” to tackle their development is shrinking fast,
doctors said yesterday.
The warning comes after a report by the British Medical Association
(BMA), which stated that within a decade genetic research would unleash
new and terrifying biological weapons capable of killing only people
of specific ethnic groups.
Since the publication of the BMA’s first study five years ago,
the association believes that governments have failed to halt the
advance of biological and genetic weapons technology.
Dr. Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the BMA, said:
“The situation today is arguably worse than when we published
our last report.”
“The very existence of international laws to protect us is being
questioned, the anthrax attacks in the US in 2001 caused widespread
panic and fear and, most worryingly, it’s never been easier to
develop biological weapons. All you have to do is look on the internet.”
Scientists are making great progress in identifying the human genetic
code. BMA doctors are worried that legitimate research, often conducted
to find potential therapies for debilitating diseases, could be perverted
to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The author of the report, Malcolm Dando, head of Peace Studies at
the University of Bradford, has studied arms control for 20 years.
“Every major piece of scientific research has been used for malign
purposes,” he said.
“If the life sciences are misused, there are major threats to
human rights, human dignity, and human safety.”
Although the BMA insisted that genetic weapons have yet to be built,
it conceded that their construction “is now approaching reality.”
If a genetic bomb was developed, it could contain anthrax or the plague
and be tailored to activate when it identified a certain group of
genes — indicating membership of a particular ethnic group —
in the infected person.
“Questions need to be asked about where the research could lead,
where the results will be published and who has access to the data,”
Professor Dando said.
He also gave warning that the threat from biological weapons has outstripped
that of chemical and nuclear weapons because of the “riotous”
development in biotechnology.
“Unless great care is taken to ensure openness about the vastly
increased funding going into the US and other biodefense programs,
suspicions could easily arise and inadvertently help to fuel an arms
race which would be in all our worst interests,” his report,
Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity II, published yesterday, stated.
Professor Dando added that if biological advances continue unabated,
then terrorists could misuse the research to wreak widespread havoc
and destruction.
The reluctance of the United States to agree a multilateral approach
to biological monitoring has hampered the international community’s
attempts to stop the spread of biological, chemical and genetic weapons,
he said.
“The US took their eye off the ball during the Clinton Administration.
There were clearly inter-agency differences; therefore, although we
had announcements that were in favor of strengthening existing agreements,
they didn’t take a leadership role.”
In 1975 the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) was set
up to try to provide protection from the proliferation of biological
weapons. Calls in 1999 to strengthen the convention “failed abysmally”
after the US Government claimed that imposing controls on biotechnology
would interfere with benign research being carried out. As a result,
the United States pulled out of international talks aimed at boosting
the BTWC in 2001.
Yesterday the BMA urged governments around the world to find a way
to strengthen up the convention. The doctors also called for scientists
to realize the potential risks and responsibilities of their cutting
edge work.
Nathanson said: “This report does not make comfortable reading,
but it is essential that governments take action on this issue now.
If we wait too long it will be virtually impossible to defend ourselves.”
Source: The Times Online (UK)
Leaders sign up for EU constitution,
await verdict of their people
By Stephen Castle
Rome, Italy, Oct. 30 — Europe’s leaders signed
the EU’s first constitution Oct. 29, setting aside fears that
the document will be rejected by voters and celebrating a new chapter
of integration with a lavish ceremony.
In the room that witnessed the birth of the Treaty of Rome in 1957,
heads of government endorsed a document that took 28 months to negotiate
and which has been fiercely criticized by Eurosceptics.
As many as 11 countries will submit the constitution to a referendum
and, while it will be a formality in nations such as Spain, just
one “no” vote could - in theory - stop it coming
into force in 2007.
For one morning, leaders laid most of these problems to one side
for the signature of the constitution. Tony Blair and the Foreign
Secretary, Jack Straw, added their signatures as they sat in front
of a large statue of Pope Urban VIII in the Renaissance splendor
of the Campidoglio, the city hall inspired by Michelangelo.
Inside, the strains of the European anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode
to Joy,” were heard, while outside, helicopters hovered overhead.
A security force of around 7,000 was on hand as large chunks of
the city were closed off, Rome’s second airport was closed
and a squadron of F-16 fighter jets enforced a no-fly zone over
Italy’s capital.
Jan Peter Balkenende, the premier of Holland, which holds the EU
presidency, said economic and political integration had turned Europe
into a realm of peace and cooperation. “We have seen former
dictatorships turn into democracies and witnessed the reunification
of Europe,” he said.
With TV coverage directed by the film maker Franco Zeffirelli and
thousands of tulips donated by the Dutch, the events were designed
to provide a publicity set piece for the Italian premier, Silvio
Berlusconi.
But even his efforts to concentrate on photo opportunities could
not prevent politics creeping in, following confirmation by the
British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, that a UK referendum will
be held early in 2006.
Britain poses one of the biggest risks to the future of the EU constitution,
with opinion polls solidly negative and a largely Eurosceptic press
relentlessly hostile.
The constitution, which is designed to simplify and improve decision-making
in an enlarged EU, will create a new president of the European Council,
an EU foreign minister, trim the size of the European Commission
and give Europe a Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Blair left Rome after just a few hours on Italian soil, before the
formal lunch and without talking to the press about his plans to
sell the constitution to a skeptical British public. However, one
high-ranking participant said that, in historical terms, a British
prime minister’s decision to sign a constitution was truly
remarkable.
The signing of the constitution comes five months after the EU admitted
10 countries, and ahead of a crucial decision on membership talks
with Turkey - one of the signatories.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “We were not here in 1957
and we have been playing catch-up ever since. We are very much at
the center of Europe.” Ireland’s premier, Bertie Ahern,
who clinched a deal of the constitution in June, told fellow leaders
that the treaty “simplifies and clarifies the legacy of the
last 50 years,” adding: “It is of fundamental importance
that all 25 member states ratify. The process of ratification will
not be easy.”
Asked later about the UK’s referendum prospects, Ahern, who
met Blair yesterday, said: “To be honest, he’s tired,”
adding: “Tony will, as soon as the [general] election is over,
put his mind to it.”
Though eight nations are committed to a plebiscite, Jens Peter Bonde,
the veteran Danish Eurosceptic MEP, said he expects referendums
in the three Benelux countries, the Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark,
the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and France. He added: “There
is no chance that this constitution will get through in all 11 countries.”
In theory, the constitution will be dead if any one of the 25 member
states refuses to ratify it. That means that Britain, which is likely
to be one of the last countries scheduled to hold a vote, may never
have to do so.
In practice, the fate of the document, drafted by a convention chaired
by the former French president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing,
depends on which - if any - of the member states rejects
it.
Were France’s referendum to yield up a “no,” many
believe that the document would be killed. But politicians are optimistic
they can win support for a constitution whose main architect was
French.
Rejection by a smaller nation, such as Denmark or the Netherlands,
is unlikely to kill off the constitution. Meanwhile, if the UK votes
against the constitution, it is bound to provoke a debate about
Britain’s wider relationship with the EU.
The first referendum, scheduled for February in Spain, is almost
certain to produce a “yes,” but the Dutch vote -
which might be held on the same date as one in Belgium and Luxembourg
- will be the first real test.
Source: Independent (UK)
Riot in Panama halts banana exports
Nov. 1 — Late on Oct. 21, residents of
the port town of Almirante, in Bocas del Toro province on Panama’s
Caribbean coast, blocked the road to the port to protest a lack
of water and fire trucks after an unchecked fire destroyed three
homes. The fire was started by a short-circuit in the town’s
electricity grid, caused when power was abruptly restored following
a 13-hour blackout. Protesters kept the road closed through the
weekend — halting all banana exports from the area. Virtually
the only industry in Almirante and the nearby town of Changuinola
is banana production, controlled by the US-based multinational fruit
company Chiquita Brands. Most residents work for Chiquita’s
local subsidiary, Bocas Fruit Company, which also owns and operates
the electricity grid and water supply in the two towns.
At 6am on Oct. 24, 100 riot police agents arrived in Almirante from
Changuinola to try to break up the blockade. As tear gas spread
through the town, residents became angrier; they took three police
agents hostage for five hours, confiscated their weapons (including
a grenade launcher) and broke their legs. Police say demonstrators
burned two police vehicles and took over a gas station to steal
fuel for molotov bombs. At 10:45am, the police retreated and the
demonstrators resumed their blockade. A total of 24 police agents
and at least four civilians were injured (Cuban state news service
Prensa Latina reported 16 civilians injured).
Later on Oct. 24 the protesters met with Almirante priest Max Vidal,
gave him the confiscated police weapons and agreed to end the blockade.
As of Oct. 25, two injured demonstrators remained hospitalized in
Changuinola, while the injured police agents had all been treated
and released. On Oct. 25 police arrested 20 people in connection
with the protests.
The conflict first erupted on Oct. 1 when Bocas Fruit Company announced
it was raising electricity rates in Bocas del Toro province. Protests
and roadblocks began that same day, led by a new local civic movement,
the Commission of Courage and Dignity. At the same time, Chiquita
fired 11 workers for protesting and imposed a three-day suspension
on union leader Fidencio Abrego; some 800 local banana workers went
on strike the same day, Oct. 1, to demand reinstatement of the fired
workers.
Bocas Fruit Company refused to meet with the civic movement’s
leaders, but government negotiators reached a truce on Oct. 4 which
brought a temporary suspension of the rate hike and an end to the
blockades. The government promised to present a series of proposed
solutions by Oct. 25 to address local concerns about electricity
and water services. The company restored electricity to the area
but imposed lengthy blackout periods. The banana workers remained
on strike until Oct. 5, when Labor Minister Reynaldo Rivera brokered
a compromise under which seven of the 11 fired workers were rehired,
the other four accepted severance benefits and Abrego’s sanction
was reduced from three days to one.
Meanwhile, Panama’s Congress has approved a packet of constitutional
reforms which would require any future expansion of the Panama Canal
to first be approved by the legislature, then put to voters as a
referendum. Campesinos from Coclé province have been protesting
a canal expansion project which would flood their lands.
Source: Americas.org
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