Good morning/evening, here is my
World Roundup for
December 23, 2003
Legend:
fr = French language
it = Italian language
ro = Romanian/Moldovan language
es = Spanish language
de = German language
pt = Portuguese language
is = Icelandic language
su = Suomi language (Finnish)
nl = Dutch language
Everything else in English language
Note: That which you can see on your evening news will (usually) not be covered here.
We must begin with the news from Russia as a key development needs some analyzing.
The headline most people are familiar with is Russia's pledge to "forgive" 8 billion dollars of Iraqi debt. Why? The Russians have been stalwart opponents of the American occupation of Iraq. Why suddenly just write off 8 billion dollars in old debt? That's a lot of cash for any nation and Russia could really use it.
The key however, is that Russia will get a lot of that 8 billion back, if not more. How? By agreeing to play ball with the Americans, Russian companies will get access to "reconstruction contracts" in Iraq. Guess who is financing the Iraqi reconstruction contracts? The American taxpayers - currently pledged in for a cool 87 billion. How's that for irony? Americans will pay Saddam Hussein's debt to Russia (and France and Germany etc)!
"It would be wrong to reduce everything only to Iraqi oil," Russia's federation committee chairman Mikhail Margelov said on Monday.
"Infrastructure contracts are even more interesting to us in the initial stage because they give real money," he added.
Last week, Mr Putin met US President George W Bush's special envoy on Iraq, James Baker, in Moscow.
The US believes that reconstruction may be more difficult unless much of Iraq's $12bn debts are written off.
There you have it - and now you know why James Baker, evil emissary of the Bush dynasty, was successful in getting these long-time recalcitrant US allies to "forgive", or better said, "transfer" their debt to the American people.
In other news, the Russian military has just deployed another "batch" of its state-of-the-art intercontinental Topol-M missiles. For anyone who thinks the cold war meant the end of the international nuclear arms race, think again.
The Topol-M missiles, capable of hitting targets more than 10,000 kilometers away, so far have been deployed in silos. Its mobile version, mounted on a heavy off-road vehicle, is set to become operational next year, Strategic Missile Forces chief Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov said in televised remarks.
Izvestia said the Topol-M lifts off faster than its predecessors and maneuvers in a way that makes it more difficult to spot and intercept. It is also capable of blasting off even after a nuclear explosion close to its silo, the newspaper said.
The Topol-Ms deployed so far have had single nuclear warheads, but it is planned to equip each missile with three individually targeted warheads, Izvestia said.
Forgotten wars: Near the village of Zamai-Gurt in Chechnya, rebels attacked and killed 3 Russian troops and wounded 5. And in the Chechen village of Galaity, rebels blew up an armored vehicle by detonating a landmine, killing 7 Russian troops. A firefight also took place in the autonomous republic of Dagestan between Russian police and 18 rebels.
A new report from Japan states that 175 school teachers were punished for "obscene conduct" in 2002. An additional 451 were punished for using corporal punishment on their students, which is forbidden by Japanese law. And 44 were punished for not playing the national anthem in school.
Police commissioner Mr. Innocent Ilozuoke in Nigeria reported that last week's attack on an Islamic school, which killed 4 students, was in response to a report that "terrorists" were hiding out in the school. Commissioner Innocent reported that the police had nothing to do with the attack and that the Army was to blame.
As former President Charles Taylor's militias continue to rampage, the UN has stated that it will continue sanctions against Liberia for another year. In February 2004 an international conference will be held in New York City to raise money for Liberian reconstruction contracts. Do you think they'll get 87 billion? 8.7 billion? I think they'll be lucky to get 8 million. Pitiful.
The trial begins for 36 individuals accused of collaborating in the assassination of Zoran Djindjic, the former Prime Minister of Serbia. Mr. Djindjic's murder in March 2003 led to the collapse of the pro-western government installed in Serbia after the seizure of Slobodan Milosevic. Serbia will hold its fourth national elections since March on next Sunday. The last three failed to count because an insufficient quorum of voters participated.
Whatever your opinion of the NATO bombing and extirpation of power in Serbia in 1999, it is clear that the country is much worse off today than it was under Milosevic, and that's saying something.
Following similar moves by President Bush of the United States and Jose Ma Aznar of Spain, Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland, has gone to Iraq to visit his country's troops.
The president acknowledged the unpopularity of the Polish mission among many citizens, who were also largely opposed to the war.
"It may be true that even in Poland opinion is divided over our stabilisation mission but all Poles are united in recognising your professionalism and dedication," Mr Kwasniewski told the troops.
A total of 1 Polish soldier has been killed in Iraq. Poland currently has 2,350 soldiers in Iraq and the government has recently announce it will extend Polish soldiers' tours of duty in Iraq, currently fixed at 6 months.
Forgotten wars: The "Arrow Boys" militia in combination with the military (UPDF) in Uganda have announced that their campaign against the unholy Lord's Resistance Army in the province of Teso has resulted in 502 LRA being killed.
The LRA is composed mostly of drugged children, abducted from their homes and forced to fight. The UPDF has been fighting the LRA unsuccessfully for 17 years.
Forgotten wars: 14 people injured in grenade attacks and 7 killed in the disputed province of Kashmir. Since the temporary truce was signed between India and Pakistan last month, 143 people have been killed. A total of 40,000 have died since 1989 in fighting.
Elsewhere, in the Indian province of Manipur, 2 rebels were killed and 9 injured.
Forgotten wars: 5 people gunned down in the separatist province of Aceh in Indonesia. The Indonesian government launched its bloodthirsty crackdown on Aceh in May of this year, garnering a lot of criticism from international agencies for its horrific human rights abuses (see earlier World Updates).
Note: the US government gave the Indonesian government 50 million of American taxpayer dollars to "fight terrorism" in 2002.
Tragedy: 70 people dead and more missing when a ferry sunk off the coast of the Phillippines.
Forgotten wars: 2 rebels were killed and 5 wounded in a firefight with government paramilitary units.
Note: Earlier this year, Bush pledged 356 million of American taxpayer dollars to the Filipino government, as well as 30 advanced military helicopters and 30,000 M16 rifles.
Good news from Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) as the rebels have signed a new peace deal with the main government. The agreement will have the rebels participating in the national government. Cote D'Ivoire has been in a state of civil war since 2002.
All hell is breaking loose in the embattled nation of Zimbabwe as white farmers are being looted by mobs.
Attacks against farmers in Zimbabwe are not only on the increase but it has also become a free-for-all where farm invaders are concerned.
Not only are these invaders ordering farmers off their land but they are also helping themselves to these families' possessions.
In one instance a farmer, his wife and their two-year-old daughter were trapped in their bedroom while attackers plundered their house.
Last week another couple was violently attacked in the Rusape district, while a farmer, whose farm has been in his family for 70 years, was given only a few hours to pack his belongings and vacate his home.
According to one Rusape farmer, farm invasions in the past have been organised take-overs. "This is no longer the case," he said.
"It's each man for himself," said Tienie Martin, who was driven off his farm the week before last.
Also good news from the African island nation of Comoros, where South African President Thabo Mbeki has gotten all sides to sign a power sharing agreement. 2 of the nation's 4 islands had earlier threatened to secede and form their own nation.
It looks like order has been restored near the town of Gambella in western Ethiopia. Last week's interethnic rioting killed between 30 and 100 people. 56 people have been arrested in connection with the violence.
We'll call it the "peace hat trick" as a new, more binding, peace accord has been signed in Chad between the government and the MDJT rebels.
"The MDJT decides at this solemn day to shut up the language of weapons and to privilege a pacific mode of expression, that is to say, by political means," declared Brigadier General Abbo, after signing the agreement.
Can't argue with the poetry of peace!
The bizarre trial against former dictator Ould Haidalla continues in Mauritania as prosecutors working for new dictator Ould Taya have alleged that Libya gave money to support Ould Haidallah's "coup attempt".
The government had earlier hinted that Libya was harbouring the ringleaders of a bloody coup attempt that nearly ousted Ould Taya in June.
The Libian foreign ministry denied all these accusations, saying it had no link with Haidalla and had never plotted to overthrow Ould Taya.
Current dictator Ould Taya has strong ties with the United States after pledging to fight international terrorism. The US currently spends about 10 million taxpayer dollars on Mauritania.
The ruler of the Islamic African republic Mauritania is doing his utmost to be a loyal ally in the war on terrorism, jailing Muslim clerics for speaking against the war in Iraq, banning political sermons and outlawing anti-U.S. rallies.
Sparing no step, President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Taya also has cracked down on mosques allegedly recruiting fighters for Iraq, shuttered some foreign-funded Koran schools, and expelled some foreign Islamic aid workers.
Outlawing anti-US rallies? Pretty cheap for a paltry 10 million bucks to a brutish, backwards country where slavery is still ongoing I guess.
In case you think I am always reporting only negative things about oil rich countries, I am proud to report that British Petroleum will spend approximately 3 million dollars in "social programs" along the path of its nearly-finished oil pipeline from Baku to Tblisi to Ceyhan. These "programs" include the building of access roads and sanitation facilities for the workers who will tend the pipeline.
In a totally unrelated story, it seems that overthrowing governments is getting cheaper. Nefarious US ambassador Dick Miles has told the new government in Georgia that the US taxpayers will send them a fresh 27 million dollars in cash aid but it is for the "last time".
US Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles said today that the US will allocate money for the last time to finance a heating assistance program for the poor in Georgia. 'In the future, Georgia's government would have to cope with the problem itself,' he said.
Georgia is one of the most corrupt nations on the face of the planet and international aid rarely reaches its intended recipients.
Russia is turning up the diplomatic heat against the west by announcing it will open a consulate in the Transdniester "capital" of Tiraspol in Moldova. World Update readers will be familiar with the fact that the Transdniestr region is protected by thousands of Russian troops and is effectively outside the control of the government in Chisinau.
And sadly, a new report shows that 25% of Moldovans are forced to work in other countries to make ends meet.
For Moldovan villages, abandoned almost totally by the able-bodied population, labour migration is the only way to survive. The study showed that 80 per cent of Moldovans would like to leave the country.
There are approximately 4.2 million Moldovans in the world, meaning that approximately 1 million work and live outside the country.
The dictator of The Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, is foiling Russian energy companies from acquiring state-owned assets. President Kuchma is not looking out for the people of the Ukraine, but rather seeking to line his own pockets.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma appears to be reshuffling state assets in a move that will likely benefit his own family and Russia's Unified Energy Systems, analysts said Monday.
The surprise announcement was interpreted by some to be a poke in the eye for Anatoly Chubais, who only two weeks before visited Kuchma to seal a deal that resulted in UES owning stakes in 10 of the country's 27 oblenergos.
"The ban on privatization may be seen as being directly targeted against UES. However, in the byzantine world of Ukrainian politics, nothing is what it seems at first sight," said Andrei Zubkov, analyst at Trust brokerage.
After serving up Saddam Hussein and repressing anti-American rallies and protests, the newly unified Kurds in Iraq are now demanding a little payback: the town of Kirkuk.
Masud Barzani, a prominent Kurdish member of Iraq's interim Governing Council, has said the Kurds are claiming the Kirkuk region as a historical right and not for its oil riches.
"The Kurds are not claiming Kirkuk because the region is rich in oil... but because its towns and villages are important in Kurdish history and are situated within the geographical borders and administrations of Kurdistan."
I'm sure the oil won't hurt the Kurds' drive for autonomy and independence under their new "federalization" plan they are proposing for June 2004.
In a decidedly modern twist, the repressive government in the Asian nation of the Maldives has banned an opposition party's website. Rhyming dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is now on his sixth consecutive term as President, which he won with "90% of the popular vote".
Similarly "popular" dictator President Lansana Conte of Guinea is set to win a third consecutive term after last Sunday's elections.
"This is a farce... it's not an election," said Sidya Toure, an opposition leader who served as a prime minister in the late 1990s.
Police in Italy discovered a large weapons cache, including explosives, after a raid on a house belonging to the terrorist group "Red Brigades".
Personal note: The Red Brigades blew up the train station in Bologna, Italy when I lived there, permanently blinding one of my friends and killing his grandmother.
Thousands of people are protesting in Argentina to demand jobs and more benefits for the poor and unemployed.
Demonstrations by groups of jobless - known as piqueteros or picketers - have become an almost daily occurrence since Argentina's economy collapsed in 2001.
The economy is slowly recovering but unemployment still exceeds 14%. Indeed, activists say it is much higher because the government counts welfare recipients as employed.
This isn't the place to get into it here, but it's almost certain that strict adherence to IMF and World Bank policies caused the collapse in 2001.
And finally, the US corporate media have finally been recognized for their excellence with the PU-Litzer prize. Excellence in being the "stinkiest media performances of the year" for their lapdog coverage of the Iraq war.
The awards are based on US media because "it's a cornucopia of spin", said Solomon.
"Some of the main criteria for the prize is a sycophant to the powerful rather than a watchdog," which he said is "a common characteristic to all those who won".
"People who get these awards don't want them," he added.
The majority of the winners were recognised for their coverage of the Iraq war since there was an overwhelming quantity of contestants to choose from, said Solomon.
The Media Beat columnist described the reporting of the US-British launched war as "dismal", saying it was often "not independent but simply spun largely by the US government".
Respected NBC anchor Tom Brokaw won the Liberating Iraq prize.
During an interview with a military analyst as US warplanes headed to Baghdad on the first day of the war, Brokaw said: "Admiral McGinn, one of the things that we don't want to do is to destroy the infrastructure of Iraq, because in a few days we're going to own that country."
These type of statements are "a reflection in the upper reaches in US television networks that reporting is often more akin to prostitution rather than independent journalism", said Solomon.
Although Solomon and Cohen keep an eye on media organisations outside of the United States there are an "overwhelming amount of contestants in the US," he said.
Don't forget to check out my blog for more hijinks and adventures!
Peace!