Good morning/evening, here is my
World Roundup for
December 17, 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.
Presidential candidate Wesley Clark testified for a second day in the Hague trial against Slobodan Milosevic. General Clark's testimony will be redacted by the United States and released on Friday due to "national security" issues. Richard Holbrooke, the US official who brokered the 1995 peace accords, was asked to testify in the trial but so far has declined the invitation (why?).
In a slightly odd move with distinct political overtones, the leading Muslim religious authority in Indonesia has "outlawed" suicide bombing.
Indonesia's Muslims have traditionally been less "hardline" than in other parts of the world, but this move does smell like an appeal for clemency from the heavyhanded military crackdowns against Muslim "insurgents" in the island nation.
Autonomous region of Adjaria leader, Aslan Abashidze is headed to France to meet with the Council of Europe. Adjaria is the only breakway republic inside Georgia that is majority Georgian (ethnicity).
Abashidze was scheduled to meet with Georgian Minister of State Zurab Zhvania and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles in Ajaria on Tuesday, but "apparently this meeting will take place later," Bakuria said.
The tiny African nation of Guinea Bissau suffered another coup just last September but now the UN is saying there is "hope" for the country. Guinea Bissau has an absolutely atrocious human rights record and the government has plunged into debt and bankruptcy, but the IMF has just scheduled an emergency loan to keep the government afloat until Spring 2004. Maybe one day even a democratic election? Let's hope so.
A new report has South Africa reeling as child trafficking is now the most profitable criminal business in the country:
Girls between the ages of 12 and 16-years-old were the most vulnerable. They are being abducted in broad daylight at shopping centres, taxi ranks and schools.
Often the children are gang raped and forced into prostitution. They are hit, threatened and drugged. They are kept prisoner and often watched over by "guards". To escape is not easy and some are even killed, said Molo Songololo in a report.
According to the organisation, rapes and assaults were often filmed and sold as pornography.
As a matter of note, South Africa does not have any laws specifically against child trafficking.
The warden of the most maximum security prison in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, was gunned down by unknown assailants. A huge fraud case involving millions of dollars is currently being held inside the prison. Three of the people on trial are serving sentences in the same prison for ordering the assassination of a journalist in 2000, and the dead prison warden was accused of letting one of the assassins' accomplices go free earlier this year. Foul play is afoot in Mozambique!
Contrary to usual, the lower house of Parliament in Switzerland has caused an international controvery by passing a bill recognizing the 20th century's first genocide - the Armenian massacres in Turkey in 1915.
Turkey meanwhile is furious and has condemned Switzerland for recognizing the "so-called genocide". Turkey's position is that a few hundred thousand people were massacred in 1915 because they were ethnic Armenians, but that doesn't constitute "genocide". Many countries around the world have officially recognized the Armenian genocide of 1915, but alas not the United States.
Two policemen were killed by the Armed Islamic Group organization in Algeria. The country has been under martial law since 1992 when an Islamic party was about to win the general elections.
Colin Powell stopped by the tyrannical nation a few weeks ago to hobnob with President Bouteflika but was largely silent on the 100,000 or more people who have died since 1992 in government crackdowns.
Interesting note: the Arabic name for this country is Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash Sha'biyah
One of the 15 million landmines left in Angola after years of brutal fighting blew up yesterday when a truck drove over it, killing the 5 people aboard. Millions of other landmines are still in place worldwide (DMZ in Korea is a big one) and the United States has consistently opposed treaties to outlaw them or restrict their use.
If you want to donate to a team clearing landmines from Afghanistan, click here (click on the link even if you're broke ok?).
Speaking of Afghanistan, I just found a new pro-Muslim news website which is reporting that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a local warlord familiar to World Update readers, is now openly calling for a jihad against the American-led forces in the country.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday that he could not confirm a news report that American representatives had met with four commanders under Hekmatyar to persuade them to disarm and form political parties.
In other words, someone from the US tried but failed to bribe Hekmatyar into playing ball with the other bloodthirsty warlords who get paid to refrain from attacking Americans.
As reported in yesterday's World Update, government troops in Bhutan have their hands full as they try to evict KLO, NDFB and ULFA militias from nearby Assam province in India. At least 34 Bhutan soldiers were killed according to official reports. I expect that in a few days either Bhutan will give up or else be engaged in an all-out war involving these groups, who mean serious business and have been fending off the Indian Army for years.
At least 8,000 protestors in neighboring Nepal were in Kathmandu protesting against King Gyanedra. In case you forgot, in 2001 Gyanedra's older brother Dipendra went nuts and massacred his father, the king, and most of the rest of the royal family. Nepal, incidentally, hasn't had a representative government since 1960.
Meanwhile, Gyanedra's troops killed 17 Maoist rebels in a 6-hour shootout. At least 8,000 people have died since the Maoists formed in 1996 to overthrow the monarchy.
Interesting note: Nepal is the only country in the world where the majority of people are vegetarians.
The fighting continuous, forgotten, in the eastern African country of Somalia as 34 are dead in fresh inter-ethnic battles. The country has been torn asunder non-stop since 1991 when US-supported dictator Siad Barri's regime collapsed.
Libertarians take note: Somalia has no central government.
The good times continue for the "ghost soldiers" of Uganda. As you know from previous World Updates, over half the soldiers on the payroll that are supposed to be in the north, fighting the Lord's Resistance Army, do not exist. Somewhere, someone along the line either made up a name or else a soldier died or went to Rwanda, Burundi or Dem. Rep. of Congo but their paychecks keep getting issued and cashed.
And in other news, the UN is now flying Ugandan soldiers back home who were freelancing (mercenaries) in the Dem. Rep. of Congo. About 400 more Ugandan soldiers are expected to be repatriated by the UN in coming weeks.
The new ERJ145 jet, a joint venture between China and Brazil, passed its first test flights today. The planes have a range of 2,600 kilometers, 50 passengers and China expects to buy about 600 of them in the near future. Another 4,000 will be sold on the international market.
No surprise to anyone who reads the World Update, as Human Rights Watch has issued a report condemning the Nigerian military's crackdown on rebel Ijaw and Itsekeri tribal youths in the oil rich nation.
Thousands have been displaced and hundreds killed since ethnic clashes erupted in March.
Militant Ijaw youths have targeted oil firms and rival Itsekeri communities demanding a share of oil wealth.
Human Rights Watch called on Nigeria - the world's seventh largest oil exporter - to bring the perpetrators to justice, hold fresh elections in the region and crackdown on oil theft, which it said was fuelling the conflict.
"Although the violence has both ethnic and political dimensions, it is essentially a fight over the oil money, both government revenue and the profits of stolen oil," said Bronwen Manby, author of the report.
So there you have it in writing - oil officially fueling a conflict. No lies. No doubletalk. Just the awful truth.
The Red Cross in Nigeria is reporting that more than 100 people were killed in the inter-ethnic fighting in the Warri region.
Industry analysts estimate that at least 100,000 barrels of oil are diverted from official exports every day - rich pickings for the criminal underworld, using ethnic rivalries as an excuse for gang warfare.
That's 100,000 barrels of oil - every single day.
Somewhat good news as the Chechens who yesterday kidnapped 11 people in Dagestan have released their hostages. Russian media is reporting that 6 of the kidnappers were later tracked down and killed. In Chechnya itself, 5 Russian soldiers and 2 police officers were killed and another 19 wounded in separate attacks.
The fighting in Darfur has caused the US-sponsored peace talks, being held in war-torn Chad, to falter for The Sudan. It looks like the SPLA wants to claim Darfur and the northern government is unwilling to relinquish it.
The American State Department had a lot to say about the situation in Darfur as well:
Reports indicate more than 600,000 civilians have been internally displaced, 75,000 refugees have fled to neighboring Chad, and as many as 3,000 unarmed civilians have been killed.
The United States calls on all parties to agree to an observable humanitarian cease-fire and engage in substantive dialogue on ending the hostilities in Darfur. Further, the United States calls on the Government of Sudan to take concrete steps to control the militia groups it has armed, to avoid attacks against civilians and to fully facilitate the efforts of the international humanitarian community to respond to civilian needs.
China has wrapped up the successful Ministerial Conference in Ethiopia with many business contracts being signed. At least 13 African heads of state attended to try to wangle the best of the future infusions of Chinese cash.
The UN is confirming at least 21 and as many as 100 dead in the Anuak massacres near the town of Gambrella in western Ethiopia. The UN is planning on building a 1.8 million dollar refugee camp in the area for ethnic Dinka and Nuer peoples, angering the local Anuaks.
Late last year 41, mainly Dinka refugees from war-torn Sudan, were murdered in a refugee camp where some 28,000 people had sought protection. The killings were blamed on armed Anuak refugees who indiscriminately opened fire.
Four months earlier, 60 people were killed after gunmen from the Nuer ethnic group attacked Anuaks, forcing some 8,000 people to flee their homes.
Lebanese authorities have officially denied that Saddam Hussein's second wife, Samira Shahbandar, has entered the country. Some reports earlier this week said that she was alive and well in Lebanon and communicating regularly with the former Iraqi leader.
To the victor go the spoils! REPSOL, the oil giant from Spain has just signed a deal with "Iraq" (who in Iraq I wonder!) to buy 6 million barrels of oil in 2004. Oddly enough, Iraq itself is still facing severe shortages of gasoline and kerosene.
The formula is now clear: risk your citizen's lives but support the US and lucrative contracts will make it all "worthwhile".
The Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, is leading a serious crackdown on illegal guns and other weapons.
Thailand is considered to have been what some describe as an arms bazaar for the region, supplying rebels as far away as Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Thaksin Shinawatra said those who still hold guns illegally are clearly real bandits.
He said the government knew where the mafias were, and promised to eradicate them all.
The prime minister warned they would face a serious penalty of twenty years in jail.
Oh, did I mention that during his previous crackdown, a war on drugs, the police killed approximately 2,500 people in only ten months??
After more than two f*cking years, Terry Hicks was allowed to talk to his son David, who has been held illegally in Guantanamo Bay by the US and has not been charged with any crime. David Hicks has not talked to any family members in more than 2 years, has not talked to a lawyer in more than 2 years but will face a military tribunal next year. David Hicks by the way is an Australian citizen, not that it matters to the United States government.
A delayed story as Dominican-American indie film maker Albert Carvajal was robbed and then beaten to death last week in Havana, Cuba. Carvajal was in Cuba for a film festival and was showing off his latest work, "Capicu".
Not so Merry a Christmas in northern Colombia as bombs have detonated in three separate department stores, killing 1 woman and injuring at least 20. The woman who died was outside the department store on the sidewalk, selling lottery tickets.
And finally, over 100 people attended the funeral of Konstantin "Samokovetsa" Dimitrov, the Bulgarian crime boss killed on December 6 in the Netherlands. His replacement, Anton "The Beak" Miltenov attended the funeral.
Another day at the beach
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Peace!