MEXICO: Peasants Seek Ways to Block Canadian-Run Mine

August 31, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Sunday, August 31, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Diego Cevallos* – Tierramérica

MEXICO CITY, Aug 31  (IPS)  – The Canadian mining corporation Minefinders has explored a rural area of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua for 14 years. But as it gets ready to begin mining gold and silver there, its plans are threatened by peasant farmers’ protests.

The discontent with Minefinders after such a long time is due to the fact that ”we became aware of the trickery, the abuse from the company,” campesino (peasant) spokesperson David de la Rosa told Tierramérica. ”We became aware of the inequality of the relationship,” added Mario Patrón, an attorney who advises the group.

The residents of Huizopa, an enclave community in the Western Sierra Madre made up of 230 farming and ranching families who are self-sustaining, have maintained a camp since May near the not-yet-operating processing plant of the Compañía Minera Dolores, a subsidiary of Minefinders in Mexico.

Entire families from the Huizopa communal ownership association take turns there to ensure an uninterrupted presence. Although they do not get in the way of the mining company’s work, their demands and the potential for escalating their protest keep the Minefinders plans on edge.

The corporation holds a concession granted in 1994 by the Mexican government. With that authorisation and the initial approval of the peasants it made around a thousand perforations in search of gold and silver.

To initiate mining of the precious metals, in 2006 it signed an agreement with the Huizopa community leaders, stating that it can operate on some 1,200 hectares. However, a large portion of the community maintains that the required consultation process never took place.

”The agreement signed with the mining company is illegal because it was not studied and was not voted on by the community assembly, and furthermore it is unequal; it doesn’t have even the minimal principle of equality,” attorney Patrón said in a Tierramérica interview.

In addition, say the campesinos, the mining company has appropriated nearly 3,500 hectares of the 86,000 belonging to Huizopa.

A minority group among the residents supports the company, which has built houses and roads, but the majority wants a new agreement that includes financing for a community development plan, annual rental payments per hectare of mining, a system for participation in the profits, and environmental studies.

Minefinders says on its web site that it is 100-percent owner of the property at the Dolores mine, which it plans to exploit through open-pit operations for 15 years.

This is not an isolated conflict. In the last decade, recurrent problems have come to a head between the mining industry and the labour unions and residents in several Latin American countries, coinciding with the boom in international prices of precious metals.

In the past four years, gold prices have gone up 219 percent and silver 149 percent in a cycle that has brought multi-million-dollar profits for the companies and a jump in tax revenues collected by governments.

In Peru, there were 26 mining strikes in the first half of this year, just three fewer than the entire year of 2007. In Central America, where mining companies have identified at least 23 minable zones, citizen groups are on war footing, arguing that the mining executives are getting rich while destroying the environment and hurting the populations living near the mines.

The conflict between the government of Mexico and the leadership of one sector of the mining unions has continued since 2006.

The campesinos of Huizopa ”will not fall into violence, but we will not give up until we achieve real benefits from Minefinders, because we know it is going to see heavy profits,” said spokesperson De la Rosa.

They estimate that in 15 years the mining company will take in about 3 billion dollars and could cause serious damage to the surrounding environment. The operations for extracting gold and silver from the rock will involve toxic sodium cyanide.

The company says those economic calculations are mistaken. In Huizopa there are reserves ”equivalent to 3 billion ounces of gold,” president Mark Bailey said in March.

The corporation, which is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and has three other projects in Mexico, informed its shareholders on Jul. 25 that because of an ”illegal blockade” and ”threats of violence from demonstrators,” its operations in Huizopa are on hold, but assured that in the following quarter it will begin full operations for gold and silver mining.

Police are guarding the mine and, according to reports from the campesinos, the Mexican army has been called in to conduct intimidating patrols.

On May 27, federal forces used tear gas to disperse about 100 campesinos who were conducting a sit-in, and two days later two Huizopa leaders were detained, but they were released soon after due to lack of charges.

Minefinders has not acted in an honest manner, say the Huizopa association and the non-governmental Project for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a group to which jurist Patrón belongs.

The company says it has spent 12.7 million dollars on assistance for the community that owns the land and that it has financed student scholarships in geology at a university in Chihuahua.

In a bid to end the conflict, it is offering six million dollars more and to sponsor social programmes and activities focused on protecting the environment, and alleges that the campesinos have been egged on by people involved with the left-leaning and opposition PRD, Democratic Revolutionary Party.

”What they are offering proves the close-mindedness of the company. We have to take into account that they will be here for many years and we want good neighbourly relations and benefits that are equitable for all,” said De la Rosa.

The representatives of Minefinders in Mexico declined to make any further statements to Tierramérica, stating that the negotiations with the campesinos are now under way.

On Aug. 12, a committee in the Mexican Senate called on several government entities to investigate possible human rights violations of the people of Huizopa, to help establish a dialogue amongst the parties involved, to study environmental and social impacts of the mining, and to report on the presence of the army in the area.

The campesinos’ spokesperson said that as a result of efforts by the state government it was possible to begin dialogue with the company, but that there have been no results so far.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

Filed Under: News, Politics, Tensions

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Mass Evictions May Follow Lake Grab

August 29, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Friday, August 29, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Andrew Nette

PHNOM PENH, Aug 29  (IPS)  – A plan to redevelop Phnom Penh’s largest remaining natural lake into a residential and shopping precinct has ignited a storm of protests and claims that it could result in the largest eviction in Cambodia’s post-war history.

Local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) fear the redevelopment of Boeung Kak lake could be the precursor of a fresh round of evictions across the country and renewed pressure on communities involved in existing land disputes.

The commencement of the project comes ahead of a Sep.10 meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which will debate whether or not to extend the three-year mandate of Yash Ghai, the Special U.N. Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia.

NGOs plan to raise the Boeung Kak project at the meeting as evidence of the continuing problem of forced evictions in Cambodia.

Rumours about the lake’s redevelopment, circulating for more than a decade, were confirmed in February 2007 when Phnom Penh Municipality signed a 79 million US dollar, 99-year lease on the site with a company called Shukaku Inc.

Although little known, Shukaku Inc has been linked in the Cambodian press to Pheapimex, a giant land company owned by ruling party senator Lau Meng Khin.

Amid a heavy police presence, contractors began pumping sand into the lake on Aug. 26 in preparation for the development of a 133-hectare commercial and housing project.

According to Housing Rights Taskforce, a coalition of more than 20 local and international housing rights organisations, residents have been told the pumping will continue 18 hours a day until 80 hectares of the 90-hectare lake are filled.

Boeung Kak residents claim they were not notified about the work and have received few details about the project and what will happen to those affected.

Chou Ngy, lawyer for the residents, told an Aug. 27 press conference that the project breaches several Cambodian laws.

These include the failure to publicly release an environmental impact assessment and the lack of a bidding procedure preceding the agreement.

He said residents are currently preparing to file an injunction to prevent it going ahead.

”According to the 2001 Land Law, the lake itself should be inalienable state land, so its ownership cannot be transferred for longer than 15 years, during which time the function (of the property) must not change,” said a joint statement released this week by the Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and Amnesty International (AI).

”Many of the families have strong legal claims to the land under the Land Law,” it said.

Municipal authorities say around 600 families will be affected, but NGOs put the number at approximately 4,250 or roughly 30,000 people.

Local media has reported that residents have been given three choices by the municipality; they can move to government approved accommodation in the north east corner of the city which NGOs say is not yet completed, take an 8,500-dollar lump sum in compensation, or wait until alternative housing has been built around the new Boeung Kak lakeshore.

The market rate for land is up to 6,000 dollars per sq m. Under the terms of their lease, Shukaku is paying approximately 50 cents per sq m per year.

”We are very concerned what will happen to our houses and livelihoods and the possibility that we will have to move,” Som Vanna, one of the affected Boeung Kak residents, told the Aug. 27 press conference.

”We ask the company to halt the process of filling in the lake and meet the community to discuss the issue.”

Touch Sophany moved to Boeung Kak in 1979 and makes a living growing vegetables such as morning glory around the lake. ”I think I speak for all families when I say the Boeung Kak lake area is very easy to live in,” she said. ”Even poor people can make a living catching snails in the lake. The water is polluted, but this is being used as an excuse to force people out in the name of development.”

”I want to stress the compensation offer is not acceptable to the people,” said Sophany. ”They should pay us the market rate.”

International NGOs have criticised the planned development.

”If the government wishes to develop Boeung Kak, they should do so through a legal process, with the participation of communities that live around the lake,” said Dan Nicholson, Phnom Penh-based Asia Coordinator, COHRE.

Concerns are also being expressed about the potential environmental impact of filling in the lake, which NGOs maintain is a natural reservoir for excess rainwater during the monsoon season.

Officials from the ministry of water resources and meteorology disagree and have told the local media it is not a flood protection area. An environmental impact assessment conducted by the Phnom Penh Municipality also supported the decision to fill in the lake.

Land grabbing and forced evictions are a major issue in Cambodia,

Cambodia’s media is littered with stories of large-scale real estate and infrastructure projects, many of them involving the allocation of significant areas of land, often as concessions.

Two significant development projects have been revealed in the last month alone.

These are the development of an island the size of Hong Kong off the coast of the southern province of Sihanoukville and a two-billion-dollar residential project in the former French colonial resort of Kep.

Housing organisations are concerned about the rights of people in those areas given Cambodia’s recent history of forced, sometimes violent, evictions, many clearly illegal under the country’s laws, which occur without proper consultation or compensation.

So serious was the outcry about the issue that in the months leading up to the Jul. 27 election Prime Minister Hun Sen personally intervened in one dispute and threatened to dissolve the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes, seen by many as a lame duck for its lack of activity.

After a pre-election lull in evictions, there are fears that communities currently embroiled in land disputes will be under renewed pressure and that there will be a spate of new evictions.

”There is an expectation that a lot more evictions will happen and that evictions in the works for some time will now get the green light,” said David Pred from the NGO Bridges Across Borders, which operates a school in the Boeung Kak area.

”We are concerned that a number of evictions could be carried out after the election and we call on the government to respect the laws of Cambodia and their international human rights obligations,” said Nicholson.

Housing rights organisations aim to make Boeung Kak a major issue at the Sep. 10 UNHRC meeting.

The meeting will consider whether to extend the mandate of the current special representative for human rights in Cambodia and as such will look at the country’s human rights record.

COHRE, AI and Human Rights Watch are all expected to make presentations about the human rights situation, said Nicholson. ”There is no doubt that Boeung Kak and other evictions [in Cambodia] will be on the agenda,” he said.

Filed Under: Asia, Environment, Report

NEPAL: Dependence on Rice Adds to Food Crisis

August 29, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Friday, August 29, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Renu Kshetry

KATHMANDU, Aug 29  (IPS)  – Every year, around June, people living in the impoverished western half of this mountainous country suffer from food scarcity. This year was no different, except that the problem got aggravated by increasing dependence on rice flown in rather than locally grown food grains.

Earlier, people in the mountainous western areas used to grow a variety of grain including finger millet, buckwheat and barley, but the situation changed due to lack of productive land, loss of farming skills and knowledge and changing dietary habits.

Low productivity of millet, buckwheat and barley and higher demand for rice have forced people here to depend almost entirely on the state-run Nepal Food Corporation (NFC). But this comes at prices that the locals are unable to afford.

Airlifting one quintal of rice to Humla in mid-west Nepal costs around Rs. 11,000 (160 US dollars), says Sunder Raj Sharma, deputy general manager of NFC. ”It takes nearly a year to send about 300 quintals of rice by road to Humla.”

The situation worsened this year due to strikes and bad weather, said Sharma. ”We do have a plan of action to tackle this scarcity in remote districts but it all depends on road conditions, as supplying these stuffs by air is just too expensive.”

Even if the NFC manages to send supplies to these districts, people do not have the money to buy the grain. Media reports have talked of local people having to sell their utensils to buy rice from the NFC depots.

Every year, the government has to deal with food crises from June till September in 18 remote areas with no or poor accessibility. NFC has been providing food supplies to the remote areas since its establishment in 1957. People in these remote districts have demanded a total of 90,200 quintals of rice this year. These districts include Bajura, Bajang, Darchula, Rukum, Rolpa, Kalikot and Achham.

Lack of agriculture workers (a majority of young Nepalese go abroad to work as labourers) and a huge dietary shift from coarse grains and low-value food grain to ‘superior’ varieties such as rice is responsible for the food shortage.

Dr. Aruna Uprety, a public health specialist, terms this a ‘rice crisis’ rather than a ‘food crisis’. Recalling her field trips to Mugu and Dolpa districts, she said that people in those areas have stopped harvesting traditional crops such as buckwheat, barley, finger millet and are now relying heavily on rice. ”There is this misconception among the people that rice is the standard food compared to other food grains,” says Uprety. ”They regard millet and barley as low quality food and prefer rice instead.”

Western Nepal’s population is already grappling with poor nutrition. According to the ‘Small Area Estimate of Poverty, Caloric intake and Malnutrition in Nepal’ carried out in 2006 by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Bank, in the hilly areas of western Nepal more than 62 percent of children are stunted and at least 45 percent are underweight.

Purna Chandra Wasti, senior food researcher at the department of food technology and quality control said the demand for rice has increased through the false notion that it is a culturally superior grain and that eating it is prestigious. One result of this obsession with rice is that nutritionally valuable grains like foxtail millet are now on the verge of extinction.

”There is an urgent need for investment in production, seed and agriculture research, promotion and commercialisation,” said Wasti. ”For food security there is a need of crop diversification.”

In response to the crises, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in partnership with WFP and Nepal’s agriculture ministry is now putting in money to provide technical support in the food-deficit districts to improve farming, not only of rice seeds but seeds of other crops like barley, maize, millet and wheat, along with potatoes and other vegetables. At present, FAO covers 16 districts benefiting 74,795 households.

Dilip Karki, senior agronomist at the FAO, said that these interventions are designed to extend the food availability period. ”FAO aims to support the government’s seed production system in the districts instead of transporting seeds there.”

”We partnered with FAO to provide improved wheat and vegetable seeds to nearly 30,000 drought-affected families receiving life-saving food through WFP food for work projects,” said country representative Richard Ragan. ”These improved seeds, coupled with WFP quick impact projects like small-scale irrigation, will help  families in living in drought-prone areas of mid- and far-western Nepal improve their longer-term food security.”

Filed Under: Report

LEBANON: ‘Switzerland of the Middle East’ Looks for Revival

August 29, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Friday, August 29, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Mona Alami

BEIRUT, Aug 29  (IPS)  – Lebanon was long dubbed the ‘Switzerland of the Middle East’ for its advanced banking sector. It lost its status 23 years ago at the dawn of the 1975 civil war, which lasted 15 years. The country has since been unable to regain the title, in spite of the brief economic revival witnessed in the 1990s.

Since 2005, Lebanon has teetered on the brink of civil strife, in a country where politics and economy are forever intertwined.

”The budget deficit is hovering between 3 to 4 billion dollars, the public debt at about 45 billion dollars, with a 2009 forecast of 49 billion. That is approximately twice our GDP (gross domestic product), making it the highest debt to GDP rate in the world,” says Dr Louis Hobeika, professor of economics at the American University of Beirut.

Lebanon’s economy took a dramatic plunge in 2005, after former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated. While GDP growth had reached 7.4 percent in 2004 — despite the rocky political situation caused by the extension of former president Emile Lahoud’s term in office — real GDP growth in 2005 reached only one percent. ”Although 2006 started off as a promising year, with 5 percent to 6 percent real GDP growth, it ended with a 3 percent contraction due to the July war with Israel,” says Nassib Ghobril, head economist at Byblos bank.

In 2007, the economy managed to achieve a GDP growth of 3 to 4 percent, even in the midst of war between the Lebanese army and a group of Islamic fundamentalists in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared. ”Together, the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 show lower combined GDP figures than 2004 levels. Lebanon has been faced with three years of lost opportunities, especially in light of the unprecedented riches and excess liquidity in the Gulf, which Lebanon could have certainly tapped into,” says Ghobril.

This year, levels show moderate growth. ”The government is forecasting a 5 percent GDP growth, although in my opinion, only half can be realistically expected,” says Hobeika. Ghobril’s estimations are, however, more positive, putting growth at a minimum of 4 percent — provided the political situation remains stable.

Since 2005 there has been a major — and at times, crippling — rivalry between Lebanon’s parliamentary majority and opposition. As a result, there has been a paralysis of all institutions over the past three years, starting with the presidential seat, which remained vacant for more than six months, and extending to parliament, which was closed for over a year.

”The Doha accords, however, turned things around and positively enhanced Lebanon’s economy, with the restoration of political institutions and the ensuing cabinet formation, which resulted in an upgrade by Standard and Poor’s and Capital Intelligence (credit rating agencies),” says Ghobril.

The economist also underscores the exceptional tourist season witnessed this summer in Lebanon, with occupancy rates in June up to 61 percent after plummeting to 40 percent during the first four months of the year. ”The return to normalcy is by itself an important factor that bodes well for improving confidence levels and reviving investment projects,” he adds.

The new government formed in the wake of the election of President Michel Suleiman three months ago is now faced with many challenges, namely reducing public debt through reforms such as the privatisation of the telecom sector, electric plants, the Casino du Liban and the national carrier Middle East Airlines, as well as cutting expenditures.

”Privatising these industries would generate as much as 10 billion dollars in revenues for the government, and bring down debt levels from 45 billion dollars to 35 billion,” says Hobeika. The AUB economist also emphasises that since Lebanon has been without a budget for the past four years, this year it should be submitted within the legal timeline.

The government is also confronting significant corruption. ”Although no serious studies on corruption have been conducted, international figures estimate it contributes to about 30 percent of government expenditure,” says Hobeika.

Ghobril adds inflation to the government’s to do list. ”At 6.2 percent for the first six months of the year, inflation is expected to reach as much as 12 percent by the year-end,” says the banker. ”And of course, ensuring security and stability ultimately affects the economic environment.”

Hobeika too speaks of the need to improve the political situation. ”Putting in place a new electoral law will definitely improve the economic environment and bolster investments in the long-term by, hopefully, ensuring four years of stability.”

The Lebanese economy been dependent on the tourism and service sectors since the 1990s, which is, according to Hobeika, a mistake brought to light during the 2006 war. ”The agricultural and industrial sectors, already weakened by the government strategy, were further impaired by the war, while the service industry came to a full stop during the entire time of the conflict. I believe this should prompt the new government to rethink its economic approach.”

Filed Under: Featured, Politics

US-PAKISTAN TOP SECRET MILITARY TALKS

August 29, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog
Friday, August 29, 2008

Copyright © B. Raman – South Asia Analysis Group
www.southasiaanalysis.org

B.RAMAN
The “New York Times” reported as follows on August 28,2008: “Top US and Pakistani army commanders had a highly unusual secret meeting on board an American aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean to discuss how to combat the escalating violence along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The leading actors in the day long conference were Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.The meeting had been convened on Tuesday (August 26) by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While officials of the two allies offered few details on Wednesday about what was decided or even discussed at the meeting – including any new strategies, tactics, weapons or troop deployment- the star-studded list of participants and an extreme secrecy surrounding the talks underscored how gravely the two nations regarded the growing militant threat.”.
2.The top secrecy surrounding the talks between Admiral Mullen and Gen.Kayani brings to mind a similar top secret meeting between Gen.Jehangir Karamat, the then Pakistani Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), and Gen.Anthony Zinni, the then chief of the US Central Command, on the tarmac of a Pakistani airport before the US launched Cruise missile strikes against Osama bin Laden and the training camps of Al Qaeda in Afghan territory in August,1998, in retaliation for the Al Qaeda-organised explosions outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam.
3.The US had fixed the Cruise missile strikes on a day (August 20,1998) when bin Laden was expected to visit a training camp to meet a group of Al Qaeda volunteers, who had completed the training. Nawaz Sharif was then the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The US did not want his Government to know in advance about the planned Cruise missile attacks lest the information leak to Al Qaeda. At the same time, it was worried that if the Pakistani Army detected the incoming Cruise missiles, it might mistake them for missiles launched by India and this could lead to a war between India and Pakistan.
4.Just before the launch of the missiles, Gen.Zinni landed in a Pakistani airport secretly. Only Karamat was informed in advance about his landing. Zinni had requested him to meet him secretly for a discussion on the tarmac of the airport. He also asked Karamat to come alone to the airport without being accompanied by any of his officers. As the two took a stroll on the tarmac, Zinni told Karamat about the impending missile strikes and asked him not to tell Nawaz or anybody else about the strikes. Immediately thereafter, Zinni took off. Shortly thereafter, the missiles were launched from US naval ships.
5.The missiles destroyed only some training camps of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) of Pakistan in Afghan territory. Al Qaeda camps had been evacuated from the area targeted by the Cruise missiles. Bin Laden had cancelled his visit to one of the camps. He and his camps escaped the strike.
6.Till today, it has been a mystery as to how bin Laden and his Al Qaeda came to know of the date and time of the strike. Did they get their information from their own sources? Or did Karamat inform his officers and Nawaz in violation of the assurance given by him to Zinni and did any of them leak out? No answer is available to any of these questions.
7.Recently, US military officers have been complaining in their testimonies to the Congressional committees as well as in their briefings of the media that the collusion between Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Taliban has reached such an extent that the Taliban and Al Qaeda had come to know in advance in some cases about planned strikes by US Predator aircraft on the hide-outs of these organizations in Pakistan. While some Predator strikes were successful, many others were not.
8.It is learnt from reliable Afghan sources that the NATO officials based in Afghanistan suspect that the leakages had been taking place not only from the ISI and some sections of the Pakistan Army, but also from some members of the Pakistan Government headed by Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani. The US suspicions are particularly focussed on the Awami National Party of Afsandyar Wali Khan, and the Jamiat-ul-Islam Pakistan of Maulana Fazlur Rahman It is understood that this matter of leakages of information was raised by President George Bush with Gilani when the latter visited Washington DC in the last week of July,2008.
9.It is likely that one of the purposes of the top secret meeting between Mullen and Kayani on board a US aircraft-carrier was to discuss how to prevent such leakages.(29-8-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

Filed Under: Featured, Geopolitics, Security, United States

POLITICS: S. Ossetia and Abkhazia Seek Voice in Security Council

August 28, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Thursday, August 28, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28  (IPS)  – Russia wants the U.N. Security Council to allow the leadership of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to take part in ongoing international talks over the future of their territories.

The two secessionist states are considered by Moscow as independent nations, but in the eyes of the United States and its Western allies remain an integral part of Georgia.

”This meeting can’t be fully valid without the representation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” said the Russian ambassador to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin, while addressing a Security Council meeting Thursday. The public meeting of the Council was called by its president at the request of Georgia.

In his speech, Churkin defended his country’s decision to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states and reiterated that Moscow was forced to do so as a result of Georgia’s breach of the six-point agreement to put an end to the armed conflict. The ceasefire agreement was brokered by France on Aug. 12.

Diplomats from the United States and the European Union deplored Russia for its move to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia and charged that Moscow’s act was in violation of the U.N. Charter and international law. They also reaffirmed their support for Georgia’s claim that both the regions were an integral part of its territory.

However, Russia seemed somewhat successful in having its point of view endorsed by some of the non-permanent members of the Council from the developing world. Indonesia and South Africa, for example, agreed with the Russian position on the failure of Georgia to abide by the Aug. 12 agreement.

”This agreement presented a good basis,” said South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, who thinks the situation has become ”complicated” because all the parties involved in the conflict did not accept it fully. Kumalo also supported the Russian demand for the inclusion of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia leadership in the talks.

Indonesia, another major developing country in the Council, expressed its frustration over the deadlock in diplomatic talks over the Georgian conflict and said it still ”welcomes” the six-point agreement between the parties.

The six-point agreement signed by the Russians and Georgians calls for the withdrawal of the Georgian forces to their permanent bases and the Russian military to ”the line prior to the beginning of hostilities,” meaning South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

In accordance with the agreement, the Russians have pulled out their troops from Georgia — but not from the separatist regions. Russia says it wants the world community to open a discussion of larger security and stability arrangements in the two regions.

But Georgia and its powerful Western allies insist that Russian forces leave all the disputed territories, a condition Moscow seems unwilling to accept.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ossetia and Abkhazia had become part of Georgia, although it was widely reported at the time that people in the two regions aspired to have their own sovereign states. The former Soviet constitution allowed the states to secede.

The Russians created their peacekeeping forces in the two regions in 1992 and 1994, following the Georgian military’s incursions in 1992 under the slogan, ”Georgia for Georgians.”

Moscow justifies its decision to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by citing the U.N. Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and other fundamental international instruments that recognise nations’ right to self-determination.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday he had tried to preserve Georgian unity for 17 years, but was forced to change course after the Georgian government carried out a massive military crackdown in South Ossetia early this month.

The Aug. 8 army action resulted in hundreds of deaths as well as the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

When asked for his response to the Russians’ call to include the South Ossetian and Abkhazian leadership in the U.N.-led talks, the U.S. deputy representative to the U.N., Alejandro Wolff, told IPS: ”We see no basis for inviting them and rewarding them.”

According to some unconfirmed reports, the Ossetian and Abkhazian leaders are eager to take part in the Security Council talks, but have failed to obtain visas from the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

Surprisingly, China, a giant power in the developing world that holds veto power in the Council, did not take part in the debate.

When asked to comment by a journalist, the Russian ambassador said: ”We have no complaint about our colleagues [from China].”

Churkin told the Security Council that Moscow was fully prepared to start negotiations with the leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to sign a bilateral agreement on friendship and cooperation. The representatives of the two regions have already welcomed Moscow’s move to recognise their territories as independent countries.

Churkin said many members of the Council were supportive of the six-point agreement and that he felt optimistic about the outcome of the ongoing international talks. ”There’s discussion about the U.N. observers [in the regions],” he said. ”But we will have some more discussions.”

However, conversations with Western diplomats suggested there was no imminent resolution to the dispute over the Georgian situation. ”No, there is no hope of any breakthrough soon,” a French diplomat told IPS before stepping into the Security Council chamber to take part in the debate.

Filed Under: Report, Separatism, United Nations

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Life in Prison for Two Retired Generals

August 28, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Thursday, August 28, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 28   (IPS)  – Retired Argentine General Antonio Domingo Bussi was sentenced to life in prison for a crime against humanity committed in 1976. But he won’t be going to prison for now.

A federal court in the northern province of Tucumán, where Bussi was stationed during the 1976-1983 dictatorship, found him guilty of torturing and killing provincial Senator Guillermo Vargas Aignasse, who was abducted from his home on Mar. 24, 1976.

Sitting in a wheelchair and with a nose tube, the 82-year-old retired general, Bussi — who according to the judicial investigators can walk and was fit to stand trial — had to be removed on a stretcher at the start of the trial.

He wept several times during his testimony, but far from expressing remorse for the crimes of which he was accused, he defended them as part of the ”war to annihilate the Marxist-Leninist attack.” He said the suspects were ”mobile targets” who could be arrested without a warrant to verify what kinds of activities they were involved in.

To the indignation of the Vargas Aignasse family, Bussi repeatedly accused his victim of cowardice, and the prosecutor of acting out of a sense of ”vengeance and spitefulness.”

Between bouts of shedding tears, he described himself as the victim of ”political persecution,” and thanked the soldiers who helped him ”fight communism.”

Bussi is accused of some 500 forced disappearances. As the head of the repression against guerrilla groups in Tucumán, he set up and ran a number of torture camps.

Retired General Luciano Benjamín Menéndez was also sentenced to life in prison, for the same charges. The 81-year-old was commander of the Third Army Corps from 1976 to 1979, with jurisdiction over 10 provinces in the northwest, including Tucumán. In his words, ”Argentine society suffered a war unleashed by the hired killers of international communism,” and ”the terroristsàare now in power.”

Menéndez, who is in prison, had already been handed a life sentence in July for human rights violations committed in the northern province of Córdoba.

Bussi, however, had never been sentenced.

Menéndez will remain in prison, but Bussi is under house arrest.

Thanks to two amnesty laws passed in the mid-1980s, the two men were able to elude justice for over two decades. However, the laws were struck down by the Supreme Court. Since then, 32 human rights abusers have been convicted and sentenced, according to human rights groups.

Bussi, who governed the province of Tucumán with an iron fist during the dictatorship, was elected as governor in 1995, as a national legislator in 1993 and 1999, and as mayor of the capital of his province in 2003.

After he won a seat in Congress in 1993, he served in that position until he was elected as governor. While in that post, it was discovered that he had secret bank accounts in Switzerland that he had not declared. However, he was once again elected to the national legislature in 1999, although the lower house ruled him morally unfit to serve as a legislator and prevented him from taking his seat.

”Tucumán society was very confused and let itself be carried away by a man who, with all the power that he boasted of, exuded an aura of efficiency,” legislator Gerónimo Vargas Aignasse, the murdered senator’s son, told IPS.

”We have taken part with indignation in all of the elections in which Bussi participated, with respect for democracy, but the overturning of the amnesty laws finally removed the veil and now there is a clearer picture of the magnitude of the crimes he committed,” he added.

Gerónimo Vargas was only five years old on Mar. 24, 1976, the day of the military coup. In the early hours, a group of hooded, armed men burst into their house and took his father away. His mother was left alone with him and his four siblings, a 12-year-old disabled boy, another son aged nine, a three-year-old girl and their youngest daughter, aged one.

Bussi admitted that since February 1976 the senator had been on a list of prospective detainees, for warning of the imminent plans for the coup. Vargas Aignasse was taken to the Villa Urquiza prison. According to Bussi’s defence counsel, he was later released and a group of unknown persons ”kidnapped him.”

However, the court rejected this version of events and asked for four witnesses to be investigated on charges of forging documents and perjury. Although his body has never been found, Vargas Aignasse was murdered in prison, according to the testimony of political prisoners who saw him with signs of having been tortured.

The prosecution called for Bussi to serve his sentence in prison, and the victim’s widow and children were confident that he would be put behind bars, despite his advanced age. Since his indictment, Bussi has been under house arrest at his posh home in Yerba Buena, close to the provincial capital, for alleged health reasons.

But in a surprise move, the judges delayed their verdict as to Bussi’s place of detention, and he is still under house arrest.

Thus, the satisfaction of Vargas Aignasse’s family members, and those of other victims of forced disappearance in Tucumán, at seeing justice done is incomplete. Outside the courthouse, demonstrators carrying placards against Bussi broke through crowd control barriers, threw stones at the police and attacked them with their fists when the sentence was announced.

The police tried to disperse the protesters with teargas and then shots. In a matter of minutes, even before the convicted men left the building, the streets had turned into a battleground.

Now human rights organisations are hoping that at their next session, the judges will revoke Bussi’s house arrest. If that does not happen, they will seek his incarceration in the future trials he faces for crimes against humanity in his province.

Filed Under: Justice, Politics

POLITICS-US: Democrats Vow to Unite and Conquer

August 28, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Thursday, August 28, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Bankole Thompson

DENVER, Colorado, Aug 28  (IPS)  – With Sen. Barack Obama’s formal anointing as the first African American presidential nominee of a major political party in U.S. history, delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver say Obama can win in November on universal issues like the economy and health care.

Since the beginning of his historic bid for the presidency, Obama, whose mother is a white woman from Kansas and whose father is from Kenya, has sought to run a campaign that transcends race.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, a delegate from the state of Kentucky, said Obama’s biggest hurdle after the Denver nomination would be to ”give a comfort level to a lot of people across the country who may not feel comfortable electing an African American for president.”

That sentiment rings true in crucial battleground places like western Pennsylvania, where Sen. Hillary Clinton defeated Obama in the primary election.

”Racism is so strong and ingrained in Western Pennsylvania that he will need to convince voters that as much as they don’t want to vote for him, they cannot afford to have another Republican administration,” said 20 year-old Steve Lucas, one of Pennsylvania’s youngest delegates. ”A lot of people are going to make excuses because he is black and that would make it harder to get him elected.”

Lucas said he is already campaigning among the blue-collar working-class people in that state to get them to realise that the stakes are too high in 2008.

”I’m telling people to support Obama because he has a real progressive message for change,” Lucas told IPS. ”He is inspiring.”

Health care, gay rights and education are issues that matter to a lot of people in Pennsylvania, Lucas said.

Obama has demonstrated he’s not afraid of being a liberal.

Patricia Tupacz Scribner, a 20-year United Auto Workers veteran and delegate from Michigan — which Republican presidential candidate John McCain has carried before — said voters in the Wolverine state should not be stuck on the candidate’s race in this election.

”The average worker needs to know that they need to support Obama because we would not get anything from John McCain except hardship for most of us,” Scribner said. ”I hope our country is better than that. But I don’t trust the Republicans. They would do anything to inject fear in people to not vote for Obama.”

Michigan, which has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in the recent economic downturn, is considered a ”swing state”, with no secure majority for either candidate. A recent WDIV/Detroit Free Press poll showed Obama leading with 46 percent, McCain with 39 percent and 12 percent undecided. About 31 percent of those polled indicated they could have a change of mind by Election Day.

”What we need to focus on as a country is on the issues and not race. All people are created equal,” Scribner told IPS. ”I’m upset that in this country we don’t have healthcare for all. We have senior citizens who don’t have health insurance, and that’s a shame.”

Issues like healthcare that Democrats have trumpeted in this presidential campaign could impact how some voters will cast their votes. An estimated 40 million U.S. citizens have no health insurance and the Democrats have lambasted the Republicans for rewarding insurance companies and the drug industry instead of insisting on an affordable health insurance for all. For voters like Scribner, that is the issue she believes Obama will tackle if he gets elected.

In Florida, which decided the 2000 presidential election by 537 votes and has a large Hispanic population, Democrats are focusing on registering new voters to take out the Republicans in that battleground state.

”I’m a strong supporter of Obama and a member of his national steering committee for Hispanics,” said Luis Laredo, a Florida delegate. ”We are very energised and excited and we’re going to come out of Denver united.”

Laredo said, ”I know for a fact that there is no such thing as an easy election,” but he’ll work hard to ensure that Hispanics in that state cast their vote for Obama.

Pres. George w. Bush carried Florida in 2004, but Laredo said that Hispanics, a key voting bloc with leverage due to the recent immigration overhaul debate, will decide the election there.

”The GOP [Republican Party] are geniuses in negative campaigning, but we’ll do everything we can to get Obama elected,” Laredo said. ”Race will always play [a role] in politics. But Obama as a nominee is a very good thing for America.”

”Eminently qualified,” is how Laredo describes Obama.

”I’m a conservative Democrat. I don’t care what the colour of his skin is,” he said.

Illinois Rep. Karen Yarbrough, who served with Obama when he was a state legislator, said what she’s observed as a delegate to the convention is that people are coming together for Obama.

”This is not about black or white,” Yarbrough said. ”This is about green [money and the economy] more than anything else. We can’t be scared about voting for him. I’ve seen him fight for people. He didn’t just start here.”

The Illinois legislator said Obama will bring about meaningful change at a time when economic woes are driving citizens from their homes, with escalating foreclosures.

Delegate D.A. Logan Dobbs from Nebraska said the state of the economy is perhaps the most important issue in November. A student of Hastings College, Dobbs said most college students are poised to vote for Obama. ”Race is not an issue for us,” Dobbs told IPS.

He cited the U.S. Basketball team, at the recently concluded Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, saying, ”The team was all black. But they were representing America. No one said they were representing blacks.”

Obama will accept the Democratic nomination at Denver’s Invesco Field on Thursday night, the same day civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the didactic ”I Have a Dream” speech 45 years ago in Washington.

Filed Under: Elections, News, United States

POLITICS-ANGOLA: Some Parties More Equal Than Others

August 28, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Thursday, August 28, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

IPS Africa

LUANDA, Aug 28  (IPS)  – It seems like a playground game. Every day, Angola’s main opposition party sends teams out across Luanda to hang flags, posters and pictures of their leader Isaías Samakuva.

But usually by the next morning the green and red of UNITA (União Nacional pela Independência Total de Angola) has been replaced by a shower of red, black and yellow û- the colours of the ruling MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) party û and larger photographs of their leader and the country’s president Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Ok, so this is a petty competition on a few city streets, but it speaks volumes for the way this election campaign is being run.

Angola’s media is largely state-run and while there are some private weekly newspapers and radio stations in the capital, little ”opposition” news reaches the provinces.

In a gesture to the 14 parties running in the election, the government agreed to give each party equal slots on state television and radio.

But this is competing with the endless hours of air time and pages of column inches dedicated to government successes including new schools, water systems, health centres and housing.

Jardo Muekalia is a senior member of UNITA and the party’s spokesman on electoral affairs.

He said, ”There’s this hazy line between government and the party. The ruling party is basically doing its propaganda and its electoral campaign using government actions.

”The other thing is the party doing its campaign but of course they are mixing all of these and using public funds and public resources to conduct the campaign, transportation… all these resources.

”There is this unending saga with where the party ends and where the government begins.”

On Tuesday the President visited Huambo province — also known as the Planalto — which was a key battleground in the 27-year civil war.

Six years after peace returned, the region is getting back on its feet with new roads and redeveloped infrastructure.

But does a president’s visit to a province on day 19 of an election campaign really warrant days of front pages and hours of airtime?

UNITA has been in Huambo since day one of the campaign but their presence there has barely even made it into the electoral diary published in the daily Jornal de Angola newspaper.

UNITA — along with FDLA, (Frente Democratica Libertação Angola) PADEPA-ANA, (Partido de Apoio Democrático e Progresso de Angola) and FPD (Frente para Democracia) — has written to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to express its concerns about the imbalances in the media.

Muekalia said, ”We are supposed to be selling ideas and programmes and then have people choose on that basis. But if those in power are short on ideas but plenty on goods, that has a potential to distort what we are trying to do here.”

An editorial in Wednesday’s Jornal de Angola hit back at these types of criticisms and said the paper was not taking sides and was not part of the electoral campaign. It went on to say it wrote more about the MPLA that the opposition parties because the MPLA had a bigger campaign and was staging more events.

But Rafael Marques, a Luanda-based independent Angolan journalist and commentator, blasted this article as ”rubbish”.

He said: ”Clearly Jornal de Angola is working for MPLA. The state media is being overwhelmingly used to publicise MPLA. Every time the television shows an event or rally by the opposition, it will show the worst possible images, while for the MPLA it’s all very neat, very composed, very nice.”

International lobby group Human Rights Watch is also concerned about the role of the state media and its propaganda and intimidation against opposition voters in the run up to the election. Georgette Gagnon, Africa director, said: ”It’s clear Angolans aren’t able to campaign free from intimidation or pressure and unless things change now, Angolans won’t be able to cast their votes freely.”

”Patterns of violence include sporadic assaults by local MPLA supporters, sometimes involving traditional authorities and local MPLA leaders, against local UNITA party members and their property and party symbols,” a spokeswoman added.

The ruling party hit back at these allegations saying they were not fair, but UNITA has itself reported a handful of  incidents in Huambo, Lunda Norte and Huila where some party supporters were hospitalised following ”scuffles” with MPLA groups.

Muekalia said: ”Obviously in the interior provinces there is still some fear out there. And that fear stems from the fact there has been quite a lot of intimidation in some these provinces and also there have been some statements from government officials suggesting that if the MPLA losesà there will be an earthquake in Angola.

”Of course people interpret this in different ways. Will this be an earthquake in the country or within the MPLA party?

”Our message to people is: people will vote on September 5 and life will continue. The sun will rise just as it normally rises, we will wait for the results to be announced and we will simply continue to live our lives waiting for the next election.”

This is Angola’s first election in 16 years and only its second since independence from Portugal in 1975. The 1992 poll sparked a second stage of the civil war.

The long-running war between MPLA and UNITA came to a halt in 2002 following the death of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi.

Six years after this ”outbreak of peace,” the country’s economy is booming with Angola now the largest exporter of oil to China. Angola earned an estimated record $41 billion in oil exports last year, up from $30 billion in 2006, according to estimates by JP Morgan.

Dozens of new hotels and football stadiums are being built to prepare for CAN 2010 and billions of dollars are being pumped into the country’s real estate market.

International observers from the European Union and SADC (Southern African Development Community) are in Angola to witness the poll. They are joined by the national observers.

Luisa Morgantini, the chief of the EU observer mission, said she was satisfied so far with the country’s preparations and she praised the politicians, including the president, for the language of tolerance and their commitment to peace among the electorate.

Marques noted: ”I think the most important note of the campaign is how peaceful it is going and that’s extremely important to give confidence for people to go to the polls.”

Filed Under: Africa, Commentary, Elections

ICELAND: Filling Up on Hydrogen

August 28, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Thursday, August 28, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK, Aug 28  (IPS)  – Earlier this year, the Icelandic whale-watching boat Elding was fitted with a hydrogen-powered generator that fuels its lighting system, electric equipment and navigation machinery. It is the first of its kind in the world.

The hydrogen generator replaces an oil-based generator. It is particularly appropriate for the whale-watching ship as the generator is silent, which means that when whales are spotted and the ship’s main engines are switched off, there is no background rumble of a diesel generator.

The project is part of Sustainable Marine and Road Transport — Hydrogen in Iceland, or SMART-H2, as it is more commonly called. SMART-H2, which was started in March 2007, is run by the company Icelandic New Energy and the University of Iceland, and will run for three years.

Besides the boat, the car rental firm Hertz has introduced three hydrogen-powered Toyota Prius cars that are rented out. The cars are part of Hertz’s effort to improve its environmental performance.

Asked whether the cars cost more to hire, Sveinn Sigmarsson, fleet manager for Hertz, says: ”Yes, the cars are very expensive — they cost about the same as a Land Cruiser jeep. The reason is that the cars have to be custom-made.

”The cars are primarily rented by tourists who are extremely ecologically-minded, although they are also very popular with journalists. The drawback is that there is currently only one hydrogen filling station in the country, which means that customers can only travel 160 km before needing to refuel.”

The lack of refuelling stations is one of the main obstacles faced by those promoting the use of hydrogen-fuelled cars. But Minister for Industry Ossur Skarphedinsson has said that he intends to engage municipalities and companies in setting up filling stations all over Iceland where drivers can fill up on methane, hydrogen, ethanol or methanol, as well as petrol or diesel. Facilities for recharging electric cars will also be available at these stations.

Many environmentalists are critical of hydrogen power, saying that its production consumes vast amounts of energy which in turn produces the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide along the way. While this may be true of hydrogen power in some countries, in Iceland hydrogen power is produced in an eco-friendly way.

”In Iceland, either geothermal energy or hydroelectric power is used to fuel the production of hydrogen fuel. But many countries have ample amounts of wind energy or solar power that can be used for powering hydrogen fuel production,” says Jon Bjorn Skulason, general manager for Icelandic New Energy.

”I know that there are criticisms from some environmentalists about the production of hydrogen from fuels such as natural gas, but because the efficiency of hydrogen as a fuel is approximately 40 percent rather than the 18-25 percent for petrol or diesel, hydrogen still works out as a better option.”

Hydrogen fuel is produced by electrolysis of water into its elements, hydrogen and oxygen. No greenhouse gases are emitted when it is burned.

Since the hydrogen project began in Reykjavik in 1999, a number of students and other researchers have worked on the issue. ”Altogether, there have been nine student projects over the last four years. There are currently two students, but we expect the number to increase in the near future,” says Skulason.

Iceland has always been in the vanguard of hydrogen technology. It was the first country to use hydrogen-fuelled buses (three) as part of the Reykjavik transport system. The hydrogen fuelling station, which was opened in 2003 when the buses came into operation, is now open to the public — again a first. The hydrogen buses were running until 2007, a year longer than originally planned. The trial was originally meant to last three years.

Ten hydrogen-fuelled cars are also currently in use by energy companies. Icelandic New Energy’s aim is to test 25-30 hydrogen-fuelled cars by 2010. It is aiming for a fossil fuel free Iceland by 2050.

”But it is important to make clear that this is not government policy,” says Maria Maack, environmental manager for the company. ”They (the government) support various tests and demonstrations and expect a well-informed market to pick the most viable choice for locally made fuel types. And although we test the cars, if they are not satisfactory on our terms, we may send them back. We do not have the financial resources to test more than this number of cars.”

Meanwhile, some car manufacturers — notably Honda, Toyota, Ford and Daimler — are making progress in hydrogen-powered cars for commercial use. Although full commercial production is not expected until at least 2015, series production may start within a few years.

The main setbacks to be overcome are related to storage of the fuel and methods of increasing driving range. Honda and Daimler have both managed to produce a prototype that will run for about 430 kilometres before refuelling, while Toyota says its new model could be driven 830 kilometres without refuelling.

Hydrogen can also be used to fuel motorbikes. Sveinn Hrafnsson, an Icelandic car mechanic living in London, has modified his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to run on hydrogen. According to a report in the Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid, the bike is both more fuel-efficient and more powerful.

Filed Under: Energy, Environment, Featured
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