Good morning/evening, here is my
World Roundup for
December 07, 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 not be covered here.
China's head of state, Premier Wen Jiabao will be arriving in the United States tonight for a three day state visit. The US imports 102 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods per year. Clearly, the biggest issue on the table however will be the subject of Taiwan.
The El Espectador newspaper has an amazing interview with a long-time member of FARC, the leading opposition force in Colombia(es). He details how he participated in the infamous Beer Company bombing on November 15. Well worth the time to read if you want to gain an understanding of the situation in the country.
The BBC has an excellent in-depth article on the situation in Haiti, the poorest country in the American hemisphere. Haiti became independent in 1804. Colombus made his first landfall in the "New World" on what is now Haiti in 1492.
After more than 25 years, some members of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge are going on trial in Cambodia for crimes of genocide. 1.7 million people died under the regime of Pol Pot, who was overthrown after Vietnam invaded the country.
It looks like Britain will lower the voting age from 18 to 16, and its causing a lot of controversy.
A cabinet minister in Kenya was brutally carjacked, assaulted, robbed and then thrown in the rear of their own vehicle. A Catholic priest, who was a passenger in the Minister's vehicle, was also robbed and thrown into the back of the vehicle before both were dropped off on the outskirts of the city. The assailants have not yet been caught.
This tragic report details the rise of sex crimes against children in Kenya (warning: very graphic). It seems that in Kenya there is little prosecution for these crimes, which encourages attackers.
Forgotten wars: 74 young men and women hacked to death by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. The LRA has killed at least 30,000 people and displaced 1.3 million. The LRA is financed partly by the SPLA (see below) in The Sudan.
Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni has purged 28 top generals from the Army, which has failed to contain the LRA after years of fighting.
Forgotten wars: 6 people were gunned down in the Indonesian province of Aceh by government forces. The Free Aceh Movement has been trying to gain independence from Indonesia since 1976. The Indonesian military launched an all-out offensive to crush the movement on May 19.
Forgotten wars: A rioting crowd throwing stones attacked the UN envoy in Mitrovica in Kosovo. The UN delegation's bus was heavily damaged and two Kosovo police vehicles were burned. The crowd gathered spontaneously after someone spotted the UN delegation eating in a restaurant. After fleeing the restaurant, the UN team went to the hospital where the crowd grew in size and violence. Stopping in Mitrovica was an unplanned and unannounced event. Hatred still runs very deep in this area against the UN and the international envoys.
Forgotten wars: Itsekiri tribe members burned down two Ijaw tribe houses near the city of Warri in Nigeria. The Air Force brought in helicopters to break up the Itsekiri mob.
Forgotten wars: The leader of the Abu-Sayyef independence movement has reportedly been captured in the Phillipines. The United States has approximately 1000 troops in the area to help the Phillipine government fight the Abu-Sayyef organization. The US has also given the Phillipine government millions of dollars in aid for this operation.
Forgotten wars: Elsewhere, an American citizen was killed by the New People's Army in the northern Phillipines. The NPA has been waging a war of independence since 1969.
Forgotten wars: A young man in India's Bihar province was blinded when acid was poured into his eyes. A few months ago two other youths had their eyes gouged out. When police came to investigate this latest incident, villagers stoned the authorities, injuring 8. Police had to break up the villagers with batons, which caused several other injuries.
Meanwhile, 5 dead and 27 injured in Hindu against Muslim riots in the city of Hyderabad. 3 of the individuals were killed by police. In 1992, Hindu activists destroyed a mosque in the area, which led to mass riots that left 2000 people dead nationwide.
Better news from the oil rich Assam province as 2623 Bodo Liberation Tigers turned in their weapons as part of a peace deal granting ethnic Bodos autonomous regional authority.
Tragedy: 23 killed and 17 injured when a bus full of people going to a wedding overturned and rolled down a steep gorge in Kashmir.
It looks like the US is trying to pay for peace in The Sudan. The recognized government in the north is at the peace table with the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) based in the oil rich south. A high-ranking US official, remaining anonymous, has leaked the fact that the US will pay the country 200 million dollars if it can reach a peaceful agreement to end the fighting that has been ongoing since 1983 and has killed approximately 1.5 million people.
It looks like the neighboring country of Chad is about to start prospering from recently developed oilfields. The linked article has an excellent background on how countries with oil end up suffering economically and the common people rarely benefit. I've known people who have won the lottery, sometimes even millions of dollars, and their stories are very similar - unearned wealth rarely has happy endings.
A lot happened this weekend in The Netherlands as authorities in Rotterdam arrested two men for allegedly murdering Serbian PM Zoran Djindjic on March 12. Police blame his killing on the Serbian mafia.
Elsewhere, the Russian mafia is being blamed for the murder of a Bulgarian crime figure Konstantin Dimitrov, also known as "Samokovetsa".
The Dutch citizen alleged to have killed Mr. Dimitrov was seized by local police after local citizens grabbed him as he attempted to flee the scene. Mr. Dimitrov survived an earlier assassination attempt in May when his car ran over 15 kilograms of explosive on a road outside the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. His car was heavily armored and he was not injured in the blast.
Russia is holding its elections for the Duma or "House of Representatives". You may be surprised that 1,178,000 Russian citizens who live outside the country will be voting as well.
In Moscow, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was on TV at a polling station casting a vote when a young woman threw an egg in his face. "This little incident is part and parcel of democracy," he later stated.
The President of Brazil, Ignacio da Silva, is in Lebanon on a state visit. President da Silva has called for the strengthening of ties between the two countries. Brazil, home to at least 7 million citizens of Lebanese origin, is trying to drum up support in the Arab world to grant Brazil a permanent seat on the UN Security Council next year.
Chancellor Schroeder of Germany was in oil rich Kazakhstan on Friday, where he stated that the partnership betwen the two countries will be consolidated. Germany has already invested 110 million Euros in Kazakhstan. The dictator of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev said that he had signed a decree awarding Schroeder the country's most distinguished order of the Altyn Kyran (Golden Eagle) for what he had done to improve political and economic ties between the two countries.
In the Republic of Georgia, a Russian diplomat was carjacked. Russia has called on Georgian authorities to provide better protection for its embassy staff and other diplomatic personnel.
To the victor goes the spoils. The country of Poland is being rewarded as a Polish arms company BUMAR is in the running for a 600 million US dollar contract to supply weapons to new the Iraqi army. The contract of course will be awarded by the CPA, not the Iraqi people, but conveniently the Iraqi people will pay the 600 million dollars for these weapons, one way or another.
Things aren't going so well in future NATO member Slovakia as many schools had to close because they couldn't afford to pay their power bills.
A single-hulled oil tanker is loading its cargo in Latvia, on its way to Singapore. Single-hulled oil vessels are banned in the rest of Europe and Spain has said it will use its Navy to keep the vessel outside the 200 mile territorial limit when it passes around its coastline. A year ago, the single-hulled tanker Prestige floundered and caused a huge ecological disaster on the coasts of Spain and France.
In Armenia, 6 people received a sentence of life in prison for their participating in the October 27, 1999 parliament massacre. A seventh person received 15 years for his participation. The attackers shot and killed the speaker of parliament, the prime minister and several other MPs.
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to a face-to-face meeting in an attempt to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh situation. The N-K region is largely populated by ethnic Armenians but is located inside the nation of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan meanwhile has non-contiguous territory on the other side of Armenia. Armenians are mostly Christian and Azeris are mostly Muslim and the entire region has been host to a lot of bloodshed and wars due to these mixture of ethnicities and religions.
Looks like the country of Venezuela is falling apart, as predicted. Opposition lawmakers gathered enough signatures to force a recall election next year against President Chavez, but he has mobilized his supporters, who forced out a mayor east of Caracas when the crowd threw stones and other objects at him. President Chavez has called the referendum signature drive a "super fraud". Better local article here(es). A nice historical analysis of Venezuela and similar political situations in South America here.
Trouble again in Brazil as another police office received heavy gunfire from unknown individuals(pt). Luckily, no one was hurt.
The government of Brazil has formally granted political asylum to three activists from Paraguay, who were tortured and jailed last year for opposing the government(es).
A sperm whale dives off the coast of Mauritius. The picture was taken from the ship Odyssey, which is on an around-the-world trip to monitor sperm whales.
Peace!