SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELEASE 7 August 2003 Embargoed until 9 August PUSHED TO THE EDGE SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL MARKS UN DAY BY NAMING TOP THREE ENDANGERED TRIBES Survival International, the worldwide organisation supporting tribal peoples, is marking 9 August, UN Day for Indigenous People, by naming the three tribes currently facing the greatest danger to their survival. The AYOREO-TOTOBIEGOSODE of western Paraguay are the last uncontacted Indians south of the Amazon basin. Over the last century, most of their land has been taken by loggers and cattle ranchers. Illegal incursions onto their land are increasing, and the Indians' last refuge is being squeezed from all sides. The GANA AND GWI 'BUSHMEN' and their neighbours the Bakgalagadi were evicted from their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana in 2002. The government claims this is to 'develop' them - but since the evictions, their land has been carved up for diamond exploration by companies including De Beers and BHP Billiton. Meanwhile the Bushmen are forced to live in grim government camps where their way of life is falling apart, and are desperate to return home. The JARAWA tribe, who number only 250-300 and live in the rainforests of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, hunting with bows and arrows, have resisted contact with settlers from mainland India for 150 years. Now, they are at risk of exploitation, and diseases to which they have no immunity, due to a road bulldozed through their land. An unknown number have already died in a measles epidemic. Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, the Bushmen and the Jarawa live in totally contrasting environments across three continents, yet the racism and the threats they face are startlingly similar. Unless these tribes are allowed to live on their own land in peace, they will not survive.' Photos and footage available. For more information www.survival-international.org

Africa

Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 5 Aug 2003 Can Africa Afford Its Own Force? COLUMN Jean-Jacques Cornish A marketing guru seeking to promote the proposed African Peace and Security Council (PSC) could hardly have come up with a better example than the brief and bloodless coup in São Tomé and Príncipe this month. Soldiers led by Major Fernando Pereira rebelled to express their unhappiness at the way the government of Fradique de Menezes was distributing the small country's oil riches. Within six days the intervention of former colonial power, Portugal, the regional power, Nigeria, and the continental chair, Mozambique, had settled their hash. With democracy restored, Africans are left wondering what would have happened if the story had not ended happily. Said Djinnit, the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, said São Tomé underlined the case for an African rapid reaction force. To turn this from "nice to have" to reality, Africa has to find both the money and the political will. The latter has become President Thabo Mbeki's pet project on the continent. He risked boring delegates at the AU summit in Maputo last month with repeated calls for members to ratify the protocols of the PSC. This body, styled on the United Nations Security Council, will enable members to intervene in other countries in cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Despite Mbeki's efforts the PSC has only half the 28 ratifications it needs to be brought into force. South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma explained before the summit that this did not necessarily indicate a lack of political will or support for the PSC. "It is a very complex issue making support for the PSC a part of your national law," she said. "We - who are very, very keen on the council - took a year to ratify the protocols. There are important issues of legality and sovereignty involved. It is not surprising that other countries are finding it a long process." Mbeki has meanwhile set the end of the year as the target date for making the council a reality. Even if this deadline is met, the possibility of a rapid reaction force remains distant. Funding could be obtained from the Western powers and other's who want Africa to assume greater responsibility for its own security. Previous concrete commitments from the United States to train such a force could presumably be revived. But which African country would be allowed to assume the power of leading, housing, equipping and training an African force? South Africa would be an obvious candidate and has made it clear it would expect to be a "permanent" member of the PSC. Fears of South African "gigantism" that extend beyond the region would make this problematic. A smaller, democratic state might be more politically palatable. But this would require additional expenditure on infrastructure that would use money that should be spent on men and equipment. A rapid reaction force would obviate the need for foreign military intervention in Africa, such as that by Britain in Sierra Leone, and France in Côte d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This foreign involvement is both politically sensitive and - as US reluctance to put boots on the ground in Liberia shows - unreliable. At last month's summit African leaders discussed no fewer than 11 conflict areas. They talked about the hot zones - the DRC, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, the Central African Republic, Burundi and Liberia - and they examined post-conflict problems in Angola, the Comores and Côte d'Ivoire. Strategic analysts could ask: "What about fundamentalist or separatist conflict in Algeria, Chad, Senegal and Uganda? And how far is Zimbabwe off this list?" The fact is, Africa remains crippled by conflict. This week the UN Economic Commission for Africa confirmed again that conflict had hamstrung economic growth on the continent. Estimates of the manpower Africa will need for peacekeeping in the short term run improbably into the millions. Providing such numbers is impossible for Africa and unacceptable to the international community where Africa takes up three-quarters of the UN Security Council's time. African misery does not make the A-list of world strategic considerations unless it affects on the all-embracing war on terrorism. Thus this elephant of conflict prevention and control has to be eaten by Africans themselves - one bite at a time. The first of these should be to pre-empt conflict and send in mediators rather than wait for the explosion and send in soldiers, says Herman Hanekom, an analyst at the Africa Institute. The second is to have a rapid reaction force to quell the fire as quickly as possible and prevent it spreading.

IRIN 13 Aug 2003 Countries Urged to Extend Citizenship Rights to 'Forgotten' Pygmies Advocacy group Refugees International (RI) has called on the international donor community to encourage countries in Africa's Great Lakes region to extend citizenship rights to the Batwa or "Pygmy" people. "Batwa occupy the role of second-class citizens," RI said in a report released on Tuesday titled "Forgotten people: The Batwa 'Pygmy' of the Great Lakes region of Africa". The report details the challenges Pygmies face. These are indigenous hunter-gatherer people who initially inhabited forests in central Africa. "They lack marketable skills, having neither access to their traditional forest economy or to any public services," RI said. "Education, healthcare, land ownership and equal treatment by the justice system are all less accessible to the Batwa that the general population," RI said. "Without the availability of traditional or state resources, the Batwa become the most vulnerable and most easily exploited populations during the conflicts [in the Great Lakes region] that began in the 1990s." Among other recommendations, RI said peace and reconciliation programmes should be created, in response to the conflicts in the Great Lakes, which "take into account the need to reconcile Batwa populations with other citizens and include them in reconciliation efforts". RI said forest conservation efforts in the region should take into account the traditional guardianship role the Batwa have played and incorporate them into all current and future forest conservation efforts. "Exposure to conflict has jeopardised the Batwa way of life," RI reported. "Violent conflict has spilled into all the countries of the Great Lakes since the Rwandan genocide in 1994." In the Great Lakes, the Batwa are found in Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Outside the region, they are found in Cameroon and Gabon. Refugees International also sought to correct misrepresentations of the Batwa, saying certain characterisation of the people has had devastating effects among them. "The popular perception of them as barbaric, savage, wild, uncivilised, ignorant, unclean and above all else, subhuman has seemingly legitimised their exclusion from mainstream society and left them with little support or outside resources in their current state of forced displacement," RI said. [The Refugees International report is available online at: http://www.refugeesinternational.org/cgi-bin/ri/index?id=eQhRdkMa]

Burundi

AFP 4 Aug 2003 Burundi ceasefire talks set to resume in Tanzania BUJUMBURA, Aug 4 (AFP) - The Burundi government and rebels from the war-torn central African state's main Hutu rebel movement are to resume talks Tuesday on an eight-month-old ceasefire deal which exists only on paper. Ambroise Niyonsaba, head of the government negotiating team, said the talks with the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of neighbouring Tanzania, would probably wrap up on Friday. The principal mediator in Burundi's peace process, South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, arrived in Dar es Salaam on Monday to mediate in the talks, Tanzania's Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete told AFP. Talks broke up last week to enable each team to consult with its leaders, Niyonsaba told AFP in Bujumbura before flying to Tanzania. Burundi's civil war broke out in 1993 pitting rebels from the Hutu majority against their Tutsi rivals, who control the military and held sway over the government until the interim power-sharing regime was installed in November 2001. More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died. An apparent breakthrough was made on July 20 in talks in Dar es Salaam sponsored by regional leaders aimed at persuading the Burundian government and the FDD to implement a ceasefire agreed in December at Arusha in Tanzania. The deal was signed by former Burundian president Pierre Buyoya and FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza but never respected, and both sides accuse each other of violating the truce. Another rebel Hutu group, the National Liberation Forces, is not involved in the discussions and last month it launched a major offensive on the Burundian capital. Its men were forced back by the army but fighting has continued in the surrounding countryside since then. However, Burundi's current President Domitien Ndayizeye and the FDD leader have agreed to continue negotiations ahead of a summit of regional leaders later this month. The two sides are expected to discuss integrating the FDD into the army and government, with Ndayizeye predicting agreement in about two weeks. Meanwhile, Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut, who arrived in Bujumbura late Sunday, said any resumption of military cooperation with Burundi would only be "in stages". "It is important to learn to walk before you run," cautioned Flahaut, after talks with Ndayizeye and other top officials. "We are going to proceed in stages." Belgium suspended military aid to its former colony after ethnic massacres rocked the country in 1972, but Bujumbura is seeking a resumption of the ties. A Belgian diplomatic source said it "premature" to expect the resumption of military ties anytime soon, saying first there would have to be an effective ceasefire and an agreement on integrating the FDD into the armed forces.

IRIN 7 Aug 2003 100 days of Ndayizeye's presidency NAIROBI, 7 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - The unexpected happened and the expected did not. This is how an analyst described Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye's first 100 days in power. Ndayizeye, a Hutu, took over on 30 April from Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, as head of a transitional power-sharing government for the second half of its three-year team, which is to culminate in democratic elections and, hopefully, end 10 years of civil war. The war has displaced hundreds of thousands, of whom some 350,000 are refugees in Tanzania. The change in the presidency is one of the terms of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, signed between Tutsi and Hutu political parties on 28 August 2000 at the end of two-and-a-half years of negotiations. So far, Ndayizeye has fulfilled some of the key conditions of the Arusha agreement. A draft electoral law in preparation for the multiparty polls at the end of the transitional period is seen as one of the main achievements of his government. Some politicians have claimed that the rival Front pour la democratie au Burundi (FRODEBU), a mainly Hutu party, and the mainly Tutsi Union pour le progress national (UPRONA) colluded in drafting a law tailored to their interests. Opponents say conditions are not ripe for the multiparty elections because there is no ceasefire. The response of the Ndayizeye government has been that the electoral law, drawn up by government-appointed experts from FRODEBU and UPRONA loyalists, would be reviewed by all national stakeholders. "All politicians will be given an opportunity to criticise the draft which is yet to be debated by the council of ministers, the national assembly and the Senate," Salvatore Ntihabose, interior minister, said. Genocide law Another area of progress is the national assembly's enactment of a genocide law. This measure has partially satisfied the Tutsi community, some of whom had always seen Ndayizeye as a Hutu hardliner. The new law states that an international commission is to investigate crimes committed between independence in 1962 and the date of the enactment of the law. However, anti-genocide organisations, whose membership is mainly Tutsi, insist on the implementation of UN recommendations following an investigation into a 1993 coup during which Melchior Ndadaye, the country's first democratically elected president and first Hutu head of state, was killed. Tens of thousands of people died in subsequent massacres. The UN investigators recommended that a tribunal be set up to judge those accused of the crimes committed in 1993. But powerful interests, because of their alleged involvement in Ndadaye's death and acts of genocide, oppose the idea of a tribunal. This, perhaps, explains why these erstwhile political enemies work together today. Ndayizeye recorded another success when the national assembly voted 140:0 (with one abstention) for a law on the mandate and composition of a proposed National Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Human Rights and Institutional Reforms Minister Alphonse Barancira said the commission's main task would be to "investigate and establish the truth on various crimes that befell the country, with a view to reconciling the Burundi people." Ndayizeye's administration has also been able to get some rebel factions to encamp their fighters in designated areas. Analysts see this as progress in forming a unified national army as envisaged under the Arusha accord. Beginning of cantonment The country's two rebel factions, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) and the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) are both split into two. The larger of the CNDD-FDD factions is lead by Pierre Nkurunziza and the larger FNL group by Agathon Rwasa. Neither of these has agreed to encampment, leaving only the fighters of the smaller factions - Jean Bosco Ndayikengurkiye's CNDD-FDD and the Alain Mugabarabona's FNL in the camps, although the process has lately been affected by lack of funds. Moreover, Rwasa's faction is not party to the 2000 Arusha accord. Nkurunziza's faction of the CNDD-FDD has, so far, refused to take part in a Joint Ceasefire Commission, although a delegation from this faction was in Bujumbura from 28 July to 2 August to discuss security and logistics before deciding on joining the commission, which was established by the government. Rwasa's FNL faction has refused to sign a ceasefire agreement with the government. However, Nkurunziza's faction promised regional leaders at a recent meeting on Burundi, held in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, that its fighters would start cantonment before a summit to be held in the second week of August. On assuming the presidency from Buyoya, Ndayizeye had promised "to make sure" the ceasefire agreements of 7 November and 2 December 2002 would be implemented, and to reform the security forces. He has not succeeded in implementing either because the government and the rebels disagree on which should come first: a ceasefire deal or military reforms. While the government wants a ceasefire agreement followed by talks on the implementation of army reforms, the rebels want the converse. "What Burundians want to see is that the army, responsible for the killings that took place in the country, is reformed and made a national army. This has to happen if the peace agreement is to be respected," Hussein Rajabu, the CNDD-FDD secretary-general, said. Difficulties likely to persist Another difficulty for Ndayizeye is political jockeying for the post-war elections. Evidence of this tussle is already emerging between FRODEBU and the Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD. Nkurunziza's faction has been complaining of FRODEBU encroachment on its territory for the purposes of campaigning. CNDD's recent abduction of four FRODEBU MPs in Ruyigi, exemplifies this tension. Analysts believe that this kind of action has everything to do with Nkurunziza effort to position his faction for the Hutu vote in preparation for an electoral showdown with FRODEBU. In addition, Ndayizeye has not yet implemented a deal his party signed on 28 March with UPRONA, to which Buyoya and current Vice-President Aphonse Kadege belong. Under that agreement Ndayizeye undertook to organise a debate on the electoral system for the period, which follows the reign of the transitional administration. Ndayizeye also agreed to let Kadege finalise negotiations on ceasefire agreements with rebel movements in the country and the integration of rebel fighters into defence and security forces. Similarly, he agreed to let Kadege countersign all security related documents. Ndayizeye pledged to contact mediators and the international community on ways to implement a global and permanent ceasefire or to call for political disqualification and sanctions against the FNL, and to give the army more money to crush the rebellion. Moreover, Ndayizeye agreed to ask the UN to set up a judicial commission of inquiry and an international criminal tribunal to bring to trial people accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Burundi between 1 July 1962 and 28 August 2000. Arusha accord The Arusha accord signed in 2000 set the boundaries of the transitional period, stipulating its duration. In addition, the agreement called for the "repatriation, resettlement of Burundians living outside the country and the rehabilitation of war victims". Its recommendations included a call for the creation of an autonomous national commission for the rehabilitation of war victims. UPRONA, FRODEBU's main partner in the transitional government, believes these to be the minimum needs to be met before it agrees to army reforms and democratic elections. Some UPRONA insiders say the objective of some of the conditions is to make sure "a Hutu does not hold discussions with Hutu rebels on the fate of Tutsis". Analysts in Bujumbura fear there could be a constitutional vacuum if Ndayizeye fails to implement these key components of the Arusha accord during his term, and that it could plunge the country into deeper crisis. Wary of becoming part of transitional institutions in which it does not have a say, Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD, with the support of Rwasa's FNL, has been calling for the setting up of new institutions to govern the transition period. The Tanzanian connection An understanding of Burundi's peace process would be incomplete without an examination of Tanzania's role in the evolution of political events in the country. Dar es Salaam has been hosting hundreds of thousands of Burundian refugees who have fled the war. Others have accused Tanzania of allowing the rebels to set up rear bases on its soil and feel it could end Burundi's misery if it wished by pressuring the rebels. "Tanzania needs only to tell the CNDD-FDD to stop fighting and the war stops immediately," Thomas Bukuru, the secretary-general of the Parti pour la democracie et la reconciliation (PADER), told IRIN. "Tanzania has some interests in Burundi and until those interests are satisfied, the war will not end." However, analyst Francis Grignon, of the International Crisis Group, told IRIN on 23 July that each time there were moves to reduce tension the Burundian government would argue that Tanzania was playing spoiler in the region. "This is an easy accusation to make after six years of negotiations," he said. "Tanzania does not have full control of its territory which would permit it to stop rebel activity on its soil," he said. "That is why one cannot rightly accuse it of allowing the rebels to do as they like in Tanzania." Tanzania, for its part, has been adamant about the need to repatriate all Burundian refugees. The governments of both countries and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Burundi signed a tripartite agreement on 8 May 2001 to this effect. But most refugees are unlikely to return home until security improves. The Burundi Ministry of Reintegration and Resettlement of Displaced People and Repatriates said that the number of returnees in May and June was higher than in the preceding period. The director general of the ministry, Zenobe Niragira, said the push factor was a reduction of food rations in Tanzanian camps and advances in the Burundi political process. Plight of IDPs Many refugees say they have been forced home due to the hash camp conditions and appear willing to risk the uncertainties of being internally displaced persons (IDPs) in their own country. The situation for IDPs has not improved. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes since 1 May, especially following the 7-13 July shelling of the capital by FNL fighters. Those displaced by the FNL attacks were from the predominantly Tutsi areas of Musaga, Gatoke, Mutanga Nord. "The situation for the displaced varies according to regions," Fabien Yamuremye, a specialist on repatriation affairs within the ministry, said. "In some areas, people have been fleeing due to rebel activities such as Kayanza while in others, rebels attacked existing camps, forcing people to flee again." FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said that if Ndayizeye resigned, "the situation will become much easier". "We have called on Tutsis to chose elders for talks with us," he said. "These are the people who will chose a president acceptable to everyone," he added. FRODEBU President Jean Minani says if the government fails to oversee the holding of democratic elections at the end of the transition period, "it would be a catastrophe". The implication here is that finding another agreement to replace the Arusha accord would be difficult at best, but more likely to prolong instability. "It will be an uphill task to fulfil all the conditions set up in the March agreement and in the Arusha agreement within the remaining period," Frederic Bamvuginyunvira, the former vice-president and chairman of the National Resettlement and Reintegration Commission, said. However, other observers believe that Ndayizeye still has a chance to succeed, and that he has enough time to satisfy the conditions for the holding of the elections. Some politicians contend that Ndayizeye will not be able to implement all that is laid down in the Arusha agreement during his presidency. But he does not seem to view this as a problem for the nation since the process could be continued. "Eighteen months is a short period if one takes to account what has to be done," he said in a June visit to Rwanda. "We will do what we can, what remains will be finished by others."

13 Aug 2003 Food distribution to CNDD-FDD rebels resumes BUJUMBURA, 13 August (IRIN) - Food distribution among Burundian fighters loyal to rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza resumed on Wednesday after a six-month suspension, Army Spokesman Augustin Nzabampema told IRIN. Reporters were not allowed to cover the food distribution. "We got instructions not to allow journalists to report anything, the operation was supposed to be done in secret," Col Nzabampema said. He added, "I don't know why the food distribution restarted, we are observers in this operation." An NGO worker, who requested anonymity, said that the food comprised beans, rice, palm oil, flour and salt. Witnesses said four lorries belonging to GTZ, a German NGO, and escorted by a unit of the African Union peacekeeping troops in the country, transported the food that was distributed among the rebels at Kayange in the northwestern province on Bubanza, on the edge of Kibira Forest. The forest is considered a stronghold for Nkurunziza's Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) rebel faction. The last food distribution to the rebels, decided upon by the government in a bid to prevent rebel attacks on civilians, took place in February. The operations were then financed by the EU. The CNDD-FDD has in the past justified attacks against civilians as a way of obtaining food for its combatants. It signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in December 2002 but both sides have violated the pact several times. Of late, talks have been going on between the transitional government and the CNDD-FDD on power sharing and the eventual integration of the rebel group into government institutions. Observers see the latest food distribution as a way of encouraging CNDD-FDD fighters to report to cantonment camps set up across the country. Only a few fighters from small rebel factions, the CNDD-FDD led by Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye and the Forces nationales de liberation faction led by Alain Mugabarabona, have reported for cantonment.

AFP 13 Aug 2003 Burundi peace talks postponed BUJUMBURA, Aug 13 (AFP) - A meeting between the Burundian president and the leader of the country's main rebel group planned for this week has been postponed, rebel sources said Wednesday. The meeting between Domitien Ndayizeye and Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), was due to take place Wednesday and Thursday in Pretoria, South Africa. The talks are aimed at ending the central African country's bloody 10-year civil war, in which tens of thousands of civilians have died. An FDD spokesman, Major Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe, said that Nkurunziza had left Burundi on Monday and was en route to South Africa where he was due by the weekend. "He is expected to meet President Ndayizeye in Pretoria, but we have not heard of any date yet," Ndabirabe added. The talks will focus on what posts the FDD might hold within Burundi's transition government, notably in security and defence bodies. A Burundian government source said Wednesday that Ndayizeye "stands ready to go to Pretoria at any time, he is only waiting for word from the (South African) mediator, Jacob Zuma. Monday August 19 has been put forward but is not yet certain". Regional heads of state are to hold a meeting on Burundi in Dar es Salaam on August 24, ahead of the Southern African Development Community summit on August 25 and 26. Burundi's civil war broke out in 1993, pitting rebels from the Hutu majority against their Tutsi rivals, who control the military and held sway over the government until the interim power-sharing regime was installed in November 2001. More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died. A ceasefire agreed in December last year at Arusha in Tanzania was never implemented with both the government and the FDD accusing the other of violations. But progress was made last month in talks on implementing the ceasefire after another rebel Hutu group, the National Liberation Forces, which is not involved in the discussions, launched a major offensive on the Burundian capital Bujumbura.

28 Aug 2003 Burundi: Three years since Arusha, peace remains elusive BUJUMBURA, 28 August (IRIN) - Burundi celebrated on Thursday the third anniversary of the Arusha accord for peace and reconciliation, but analysts say the agreement has not yet met the expectations of the country's people. Hailed at the time as a major step towards ending years of war because it brought important opposition parties together with the government, according to Human Rights Watch, fighting continued as the two main rebel groups, the Forces pour la defense de la democratie and the Forces nationales de liberation, refused to sign the accord. The conflict, which erupted in 1993 when Tutsi soldiers assassinated Hutu President Melchior Ndadaye, has claimed the lives of some 250,000 people, most of them civilians. "The most important thing Burundians expected from the Arusha accord was peace," Eugene Nindorera, former minister of human rights and institutional reforms and now an independent analyst, told IRIN. "The population wants an end to war. I travelled several times to the countryside to collect people's opinions, and there is one common call from the population: they seek an end to war." Another analyst, Nestor Bikorimana, who heads the Forum pour le renforcement de la societe civile, said the objectives of the Arusha accord - peace and reconciliation - had not yet been realised. "We all agree that the achievement of peace is a long process, but the accord itself is not fully implemented, apart from the power-sharing government that has been established," he said. "But there is no effective ceasefire; although there has been some progress, the war continues." For his part, Nindorera said the Arusha accord, in which Hutus and Tutsis agreed to share power, brought much hope to the population, but that there remained mistrust among the signatories of the accord. "There is some cause for hope, but we are far from the goal. On the other hand, the agreement's implementation has been handicapped by the pursuit of violence," he said. "If mistrust persists among partners, it is very difficult to think that there is a common will to go in the same direction." Another main problem, he said, was the question of impunity. "I do not believe that through the Arusha accord the signatories have advanced proposals to address this problem; there are proposals, but sometimes they contradict," he said. "We talk about a national truth and reconciliation commission, we talk about genocide law, yet at the same time we talk about immunity law. We don't know how everyone understands these questions - everyone has his own interpretation, and in the end we find ourselves confused. This is a major handicap." Nindorera also said that deficiencies in good governance also needed to be addressed: "Signatories of the Arusha accord think they cannot be arrested, despite wrongdoings. They must properly manage public wealth, and whoever mismanages must be replaced." Nevertheless, Bikorimana said he believed the Arusha accord was an important document because it enabled Burundians to discuss problems that had plagued them for years. "For the first time, Burundians sat down together and debated the questions that had divided them for decades, and there was a consensus reached. It is the first stone on which we should build even greater consensus," he said.

Côte d'Ivoire - Also read News Monitors for Côte d'Ivoire from 2002 and 2001

BBC 7 Aug 2003 Ivory Coast passes amnesty law Rebels still control much of the north of the country Ivory Coast's parliament has passed a law giving immunity for some crimes committed during the recent civil war in the country. The amnesty will not be applied to those who have committed serious human rights abuses or economic crimes during the hostilities, which left thousands dead and up to one million people displaced. BBC correspondent Liz Blunt says the bill removes a significant legal hurdle to disarmament, reassuring the rebels that they will not be prosecuted for treason the moment they abandon their weapons. The bill is part of the French-brokered peace deal between President Laurent Gbagbo's government and rebels who initiated the conflict. Compensation The amnesty was the subject of serious debate in the assembly, and outside the assembly building in the southern city of Abidjan, demonstrators protested against the idea of granting an amnesty to rebel forces. Our correspondent says both sides have already exchanged lists of prisoners. The bill also makes provisions to award compensation to those who suffered in the conflict. Ivory Coast is still split in two, with rebel forces still controlling the northern part of the country. However fighting has stopped and an agreement signed in France last January is gradually coming into force. Around 4,000 French troops and 1,200 West African peacekeepers are still in the Ivory Coast, monitoring the ceasefire lines drawn between rebels and those loyal to Mr Gbagbo.

Reuters 27 Aug 2003 Plots and perils in limbo-land Ivory Coast ANALYSIS By Clar Ni Chonghaile ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's president says his enemies are plotting to kill him. They say he is stockpiling weapons and scheming a return to war. The army is restless, the people on edge. There is a painful anniversary round the corner. Nearly a year after a rebel uprising and seven months after a peace deal was signed, whispers of imminent war are swirling in the West African nation's main city Abidjan. When former colonial master France said this week it had foiled a plot to destabilise Ivory Coast and arrested a group of mercenaries, it seemed the prophets of doom were right. President Laurent Gbagbo said the mercenaries planned to kill him. His spokesman accused rebels -- now part of a unity government -- of backing the plot. They denied the charge. Now everybody is waiting to see what happens next, as the looming anniversary of last year's uprising hones frustrations. "The end-game will not come in September but there will be an attempt to force some kind of end-game because it serves as a focal point," said Kojo Bedu-Addo, senior Africa analyst at the London-based Control Risks Group. "It might not force a complete resolution, but it will tilt the balance and my bet is it would be against Gbagbo," he said. Ivory Coast's war began with a failed coup attempt on September 19 last year. Rebels seized the north and west of the country and for months fighting waxed and waned. Thousands were killed and more than one million fled their homes. COUNTRY IN LIMBO Now Ivory Coast is in limbo. After the peace deal was signed in January, a new government was formed in April and the war was declared over in July. But the country is still divided between a government-held south and rebel-held north. The guns have fallen silent but they have not been laid down and the peace process is deadlocked because of a row over who should control key defence ministries. "I think we are seeing the calm before the storm now because nothing has been really settled between the opposing sides," said Bernard Conte, an Africa expert at Bordeaux University. Among the risks are a return to civil war or schisms in either the army or the rebel "New Forces". Some analysts say there is a risk the army might decide that Gbagbo is part of the problem, push him out and install some kind of transitional military administration. Hermann Hanekom, a consultant at the Africa Institute of South Africa, said he expected some kind of denouement in weeks rather than months after the alleged mercenary plot. "This could upset the apple cart completely as far as the government of national unity is concerned. It will increase the mistrust on Gbagbo's side," he said. In Abidjan, even little incidents raise fears of the worst. A police officer killed in a hail of bullets by bandits. The daily routine of sometimes-aggressive police roadblocks. Helicopters over the city -- all grist to the return-to-war rumour mill. THE FRENCH CONNECTION Standing between the Ivory Coast and a fresh outbreak of war are 4,000 French soldiers, deployed around the country to enforce weapons-free zones between the belligerents. This week, two French soldiers were shot dead in a dispute with drunk rebel fighters near the central town of Sakassou -- France's first combat deaths since deploying last year. The gunfight illustrates the dangers lurking in a nation, and region, awash with arms. "(The French force) has created a degree of stability but it has also consolidated the partition of the country and allowed everybody to continue arming themselves," said Conte. "The French have got themselves trapped. There's no way they can pull out now, that would be seen as France abandoning Africa," he added. For decades, Ivory Coast's people viewed themselves as being beyond the kind of horrific wars that beset West Africa. Now Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa grower, looks more like the region's tinderbox. Rebels from Liberia and Ivory Coast easily slip across the border between the two countries. Ivorians are fighting with Liberia's Model rebel group, while Liberians joined both sides of the conflict in Ivory Coast. "If anything goes wrong in Ivory Coast, it could impact on Liberia and vice versa," said Hanekom. (Additional reporting by Mark John in Paris)

DR Congo

AFP 1 Aug 2003 DR Congo ministers meeting in Bunia broken up by militia supporters BUNIA, DRCongo, Aug 1 (AFP) - A meeting in the troubled northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bunia attended by government ministers was broken up on Friday by local militia sympathisers, an AFP journalist reported. The three ministers had been sent from the capital, Kinshasa, in a bid to advance peace efforts in the northeastern Ituri region, where more than 50,000 people have been massacred in interethnic fighting between the minority Hema and majority Lendu peoples since 1999. As Defence Minister Jean-Pierre Ondekane, Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba and Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda -- all members of the recently installed transition government -- arrived in Bunia, they were greeted by hostile shouting from a visibly drunken crowd, according to an AFP journalist. The three were able to address a meeting in the centre of town, but representatives from the UN-backed Ituri Pacification Committee (IPC) were prevented from speaking by the crowds of protestors. The mob brandished signs reading "We want peace, not the IPC" and "France Belgium Artemis force = disastrous failure", the latter a reference to the French-led European Union peacekeeping force that arrived in Bunia in June. Ondekane, who addressed the crowd in Swahili and was understood, was spontaneously applauded when he said that the central government would speak to militia leaders with a view to integrating them in the political process. But Mbemba and Ghonda, who spoke in the language of western DRC, Lingala, were reportedly only applauded when the people leading the crowd signalled their approval. Many of those demonstrating had reportedly been bussed in from outside of town by the Union of Congolese Patriots (UCP) militia, and, spurred on by ringleaders, heckled the interim Ituri administration with death threats. The meeting came to an end after 30 minutes, with UN and EU troops barely managing to control a stampede towards the exit. The DRC ministers' visit coincided with a visit by the French and Belgian defence ministers, who praised the efforts of EU peacekeepers in the region. The force's mandate is confined to Bunia and its immediate surroundings, and the troops are unable to stop the continuing murders and brutalities elsewhere in the Ituri region. But they have succeeded in turning Bunia into a safe haven, and French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said it had become "a living town, a town with its activities and markets and lots of charm on the part of its children."

AFP 14 Aug 2003 Ituri militias rub their hands as EU peacekeepers prepare to go by Emmanuel Serot BUNIA, DR Congo, Aug 14 (AFP) - As the European Union's first peacekeeping mission outside Europe begins winding down in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) troubled northeast, local militias on Thursday said they were quite looking forward to their UN replacement. The EU mission, baptised Operation Artemis, was deployed with a UN mandate in June to protect civilians after inter-ethnic clashes claimed hundreds of lives within weeks in the regional capital Bunia and outlying areas of Ituri province. With a mandate to operate only in Bunia and the immediate surroundings, Operation Artemis was intended to be an interim measure while the UN prepared its own mission to the DRC -- MONUC -- along with a mandate to police the whole of the Ituri region. Some 50,000 civilians have been killed and half-a-million others displaced in Ituri since 1999 in ethnic bloodletting between members of the majority Lendu tribe and their rivals from the minority Hema group -- killings which continued in spite of the EU peacekeepers' presence. The MONUC mission, due to replace the EU force completely from September 1, will have an extended mandate to "open fire to complete their mission" compared to the previous authorisation only to open fire in self-defence. While MONUC is optimistic about its chances of success, as it will be taking over installations and checkpoints already set up by the EU force, local militia leaders expect the new peackeepers to be a pushover compared to the outgoing force. "We're just waiting for the force to go on September 1 and then we'll start attacking," one militia leader told AFP, rubbing his hands. Such feelings are shared by Bunia's inhabitants, who fear a repetition of the horrific violence seen earlier this year once the French-led force leaves. "If the French go, it's the end for the inhabitants of Bunia," said local shopkeeper Dieudonne. "The militias will massacre us." MONUC will be made up of 3,800 troops compared to the current 1,850 in the French-dominated force. The new force will draw on a battalion each from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Uruguay. More than 800 Uruguayan troops are already in Bunia, as are 960 Bangladeshis of which another 300 are expected Thursday, according to a MONUC spokesman. "The handover, already underway for officers, will begin on the ground on August 15," said EU force spokesman Gerard Dubois, adding that Bangladeshi peacekeepers would start taking control of checkpoints on Saturday. "But the tactical means at our disposal have in no way been reduced, with 1,000 soldiers still on the ground," he added. British army engineers and Belgian army medics have already left Bunia, while the first planeload of Pakistani peacekeepers is expected Friday, with another due the next day. Of the 3,350 tonnes of equipment the French brought with them, they will be taking back 1,150 tonnes, with dozens of cargo flights leaving Bunia for the long journey back to France in coming weeks. Meanwhile in Bunia, many are wondering how citizens of this former Belgian colony will communicate with the Bangladeshis, of which few speak French. "Bangladeshis or Banglabeshis (sic), I don't even know what language they speak. Is it Arabic?" asked Yousouf, a youth hanging out on Bunia's main drag.

BBC 4 Aug 2003 DR Congo's lifeline returns-- River barges similar to this one will boost trade leading to lower prices For the first time since the outbreak of the war five years ago, river barges carrying commercial goods have arrived in the north-eastern town of Kisangani from the capital, Kinshasa. A convoy of eight barges belonging to the Beltexco company arrived in the formerly rebel-held town on Sunday, carrying $10m worth of salt, cement and flour as well as thousands of bicycles. Thousands of people lined the banks of the river to greet the barges, with many more dancing aboard river boats drawn up alongside the barges. The economies of both Kisangani and the capital, Kinshasa are heavily dependent on the arduous Congo river which links them. Before the war, barges from the capital would arrive in Kisangani at the rate of about two a week. The barges took 35 days to make the journey upstream from Kinshasa. Lower prices The resumption of trade activity along the Congo river should lead to lower commodity prices. The arrival of the huge consignment of flour, for example, will reduce the price of the commodity and allow bread prices to be halved, according to an official of the UN mission for the DR Congo. UN troops are deployed across the country to secure the peace This renewed economic activity comes at a time when the DR Congo is in line for debt relief worth as much as $10bn (£6.2bn) after the International Monetary Fund and World Bank gave their blessing to economic reforms. An IMF review completed a week ago pointed to positive economic growth in 2002 and inflation dropping from 135% to 16% in just one year. But despite this positive news, the economy of the war-torn nation remains in tatters, and the appointment of a new government comprising both the former administration and rebel groups has not stopped widespread and vicious fighting. The situation is particularly dire in the resource-rich north-eastern Ituri region, where a United Nations force trying to impose peace has just had its mandate extended by another year.

IRIN 7 Aug 2003 MONUC head condemns killing of 11 civilians near Baraka NAIROBI, 7 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - The head of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), William Swing, has condemned the killing of 11 Congolese civilians near the town of Baraka in southeastern South Kivu Province. Speaking during a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa, on Wednesday, Swing, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the DRC and head of the UN Mission, known as MONUC, said he was "deeply saddened" to receive confirmation of the deaths of the Congolese who had been taken hostage in Kafulu, near Baraka. MONUC said reports indicated that the individuals were killed on 24 July by fighters belonging to an alliance of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), a rebel group from neighbouring Burundi; Rwandan former military (ex-FAR); and Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias in the area. One of the victims, Evariste Maheshe Chisagala, was a hydraulic engineer employed by the UK NGO Tearfund, while the other 10 were employed by the Water Committee of Baraka. Swing said that he "condemned these acts of violence on humanitarian and associated personnel" and called upon all parties "to take all measures necessary to ensure the safety and security of such personnel." He also called upon the competent authorities to investigate the attack, arrest the perpetrators and bring those responsible to justice. Fighting in and around Baraka reportedly opposes the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) former rebel movement against a coalition of FDD; ex-FAR and Interahamwe (Rwandan Hutu militias), both held to be largely responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda; and Mayi-Mayi forces. MONUC is facilitating talks aimed at ending the hostilities.

IRIN 14 Aug 2003 Trapped Fataki orphans safely back in Bunia, says church NAIROBI, 14 August (IRIN) - Some 30 orphans trapped by fighting between ethnic militias in the village of Fataki, 80 km north of Bunia, the main town of the embattled Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have reached Bunia safely, the Missionary Service News Agency, Misna, reported on Thursday. Bunia is currently under the protection of the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, and an EU-led peace-enforcement mission. According to Father Protect Dhena, who launched an appeal on 8 August for the safety of the 31 orphans - the oldest aged three - and the two nuns and four nurses accompanying them, the group had barricaded itself in the Sisters of Carmel convent, where there was no food. However, the group reported on arrival in Bunia that another nun, Sister Mathilde, elderly and unable to flee, had been killed during fighting last weekend. She belonged to the Servantes de Jesus congregation. Fataki, primarily inhabited by Hema and Gegere, was the scene of death for some 80 civilians on or about 20 July. Misna has blamed the attack in which they were killed on Lendu militias. Independent verification, however, proved impossible, owing to lack of access. Due to prevailing insecurity, MONUC has been unable to deploy outside Bunia, while the EU-led mission sent to reinforce MONUC until 1 September is not mandated to operate beyond the confines of the town. However, the UN Security Council recently adopted a resolution giving MONUC a stronger mandate and increasing its authorised strength from 8,700 to 10,800 troops. The council also extended the mission's mandate for another year, until 30 July 2004. Strife in natural-resource-rich Ituri between Hema and Lendu militias had prompted between 200,000 and 350,000 people to flee when fighting intensified in May, humanitarian sources reported. None of the ethnic-based militias fighting for control of Ituri is signatory to the national power-sharing accord leading to the installation on 30 June of a two-year transitional government led by President Joseph Kabila. Since 1998, economically driven ethnic strife has led to the deaths of about 50,000 people and displaced some 500,000.

Reuters 28 Aug 2003 U.N. Congo blue helmets chief aghast at violence STOCKHOLM, Aug. 28 — The violence in Congo is worse than anything the U.N. peacekeepers' new commander has seen during a career in hotspots such as Afghanistan, the Balkans and Lebanon, he said in an interview published on Thursday. ''I have never experienced such lawlessness and ruthlessness,'' Brigadier-General Jan-Gunnar Isberg, who will lead the contingent of blue-helmeted U.N. troops in the northeastern Ituri region, told the Swedish TT news agency. The United Nations and aid agencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo have reported indiscriminate killings and atrocities such as young girls being abducted and raped, elderly people hacked to death and families being made to eat the hearts of relatives killed by militiamen. ''The tragedy here is so apparent. The militia go around and club people to death without mercy. It's a massacre resembling Rwanda,'' said Isberg, a 56-year-old Swede. He assumes his command on Monday but has already been serving as number two in the U.N.'s Congo mission. Tribal violence flared into a genocide in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994, costing around 800,000 lives. When confronted by people carrying arms, the U.N. force, which includes troops from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, will be under orders to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. ''If anyone lifts a weapon against us, we'll shoot. If our soldier feels he is under threat, he'll shoot,'' Isberg said. The Security Council has authorised the U.N. peacekeepers to open fire to stop bloodshed. The latest war in the Congo began in August 1998, when Rwanda and Uganda sent troops to back rebels seeking to topple Laurent Kabila, Congo's president at the time. Despite a 1999 ceasefire and withdrawal of foreign troops, tribal fighting has continued in Congo's resource-rich northeast and eastern regions, where some militia groups serve as proxies for Rwanda and Uganda. Millions have died in the conflict, which prompted Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia to send forces to prop up the Kinshasa government.

IRIN 25 Aug 2003 Parliament launched KINSHASA, 25 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - The National Assembly and Senate of the two-year transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were opened on Friday in the capital, Kinshasa, presided by President Joseph Kabila and his four vice-presidents. "This meeting is very important, because it's the last stage of installation for the transition in Congo," Olivier Kamitatu, president of the National Assembly and member of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) former rebel group, told IRIN. The National Assembly is made up of 500 members from the numerous parties to the inter-Congolese dialogue, namely the former Kinshasa government, the unarmed political opposition, civil society and former rebel movements. The Senate, headed by civil society leader Pierre Marini Bodho, is made up of 120 members from the various parties to the national power-sharing accord. "All members of parliament will have an important role to play in consolidating the reunification and the pacification of Congo, and to adopt more than 60 laws regarding the constitution - among them laws on nationality, functioning and organisation of political parties, elections law, and institutional management," Kamitatu said. In his remarks, Marini said that there would no longer be impunity for the massacres and murders the Congolese people had suffered during nearly five years of war, while Kamitatu said that one of parliament's first priorities would be to discuss a general amnesty. He added that parliament should use its power to end fighting and the massacres that have continued in the Ituri District of the northeast and the Kivu provinces of the east. Meanwhile, Belgium said it would contribute €500,000 (US $543,600) to support the transitional government. The report follows a similar announcement by the Netherlands on 13 August that it would give $1 million for logistical support of the new government. The two chambers of the newly-inaugurated parliament postponed until a later date the installation of five institutions to be headed by civil society representatives to support the transitional government that were due to be launched on Monday - namely, a national human rights observatory; a high authority for media; a truth and reconciliation commission; and national elections council; and a commission for ethics and the fight against corruption, as called for by the inter-Congolese dialogue. "We decided that it was important that the two chambers [of parliament] meet before launching these bodies," Lambert Omalanga, the Senate rapporteur, told IRIN on Monday.

IRIN 26 Aug 2003 Controversy surrounds certain military appointees KINSHASA, 26 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - Human rights activists have criticised the recent appointment of military officials alleged to have been involved in massacres in Kisangani, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), during hostilities that erupted in May 2002. Gabriel Amisi and Laurent Nkunda, both from the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) former rebel movement and named brigadier-generals for a unified national army on 19 August by President Joseph Kabila, were cited by the rights groups - meeting under an umbrella organisation, the Reseau d'organisations des droits humains et d'education civique d'inspiration chretienne (Rodhecic) - as having been "the primary leaders of the Kisangani massacres". According to Human Rights Watch, Amisi, alias "Tango Fort", was the RCD-Goma's assistant chief of staff for logistics while Nkunda was the commander of the 7th Brigade, based in Kisangani. They and other senior officers were directly implicated in the killings, the international human rights defence NGO said. A statement issued by Rodhecic said that groups that investigated the events of 14-16 May 2002 in Kisangani, including a mission dispatched by the UN Security Council, Human Rights Watch and local NGOs, cited the two officers in several reports. The killings followed an apparent mutiny involving troops of RCD-Goma, then a Rwandan-backed rebel group that was the de-facto authority in eastern Congo. The group briefly occupied a local radio station and appealed to the public to expel Rwandan troops from the country. A number of people were immediately killed by a mob, after which RCD-Goma troops retaliated. According to the 23 July 2002 report presented to the UN Security Council, more than 103 civilians and more than 60 police officers were executed. The Security Council subsequently issued a strong call for accountability for the killings. In its statement, Rodhecic asked for the intervention of William Swing, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to the DRC, in resolving the controversy. Responding to the rights groups' complaint, RCD-Goma representative Moise Nyarugabo told IRIN on Monday: "We think that this is the wrong way of going about things. Of all the officers named [to the unified national army], there is not one who has not killed - otherwise, what was the war all about? These officers [Amisi and Nkunda] could only be replaced if a judgment had been rendered against them. If someone was judged and condemned, we could understand and replace him. You know, there are a great many people with even greater allegations against them, beginning at the highest level."

27 Aug 2003 UN rapporteur on human rights begins 10-day mission NAIROBI, 27 August (IRIN) - The UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Antoanella-Iulia Motoc, arrived in the capital, Kinshasa, on Tuesday to begin a 10-day mission that will also take him to the towns of Bunia and Bukavu in the northeast and east of the country, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) told IRIN. In Kinshasa, Motoc is scheduled to meet with members of the country's newly installed two-year transitional government, including President Joseph Kabila; National Assembly President Olivier Kamitatu; Senate President Pierre Marini Bodho; Foreign Affairs Minister Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi; Justice Minister Kisimba Ngoy; and Human Rights Minister Madeleine Kalala. UNHCHR added that the special rapporteur would also meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to the DRC, William Swing, who also head the UN peacekeeping mission there, known as MONUC, as well as heads of UN agencies, the diplomatic corps and civil society representatives. Motoc, of Romania, was appointed special rapporteur in December 2001, replacing Roberto Garreton, who had announced his resignation on 17 October, stating that his new responsibilities as the human rights advisor for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean were incompatible with the status of serving as an independent expert. Motoc is a lawyer and academic who has been a member or alternate member of the UN Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights since 1996, serving as its chair from 2000 to 2001.

IRIN 27 Aug 2003 Ituri militia leaders fear mutiny if they surrender KAMPALA, 27 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - Leaders of armed factions in the troubled Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) want to disarm but say they cannot because they are afraid of their own men, a UN peacekeeping official told IRIN on Wednesday. "Ituri's militia leaders are in a tight corner because while they know they have to surrender, they fear falling victim of a coup by their own men if they try. This is a dangerous situation, as their men are not all well controlled," Usman Dabo, the official, said. Dabo, who heads the Kampala, Uganda, office of the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, known as MONUC, had just returned from the DRC capital, Kinshasa, where the five main belligerent groups of Ituri had recently been holding meetings with MONUC and the newly-installed two-year transitional government, including President Joseph Kabila. Dabo said that for the first time, he saw a genuine willingness among the militia leaders to disarm to achieve peace. "It seemed to me that they have finally realised that something has to change – that they can't continue to carve up Congo between themselves. They have to come together to bring the whole country under a legitimate authority," Dabo said. The Kinshasa gathering brought together some 30 representatives of the Front des nationalistes et des integrationnistes, the Union des patriotes congolais, the Parti pour l'unite et la sauvegarde de l'integrite du Congo, the Forces populaires pour la democratie au Congo, and the Forces armees du peuple congolais. In a memorandum of understanding signed at the end of the talks, the Ituri militias agreed to work together with the new government in restoring state authority across the region. They also pledged to end hostilities and to bring an end to "uncontrolled" groups that have continued to commit massacres despite the signing of several ceasefire agreements. None of the ethnic-based militias fighting for control of Ituri is signatory to the national power-sharing accord that led to the installation on 30 June of the Congo's new government, led by Kabila. Last week's talks were aimed at including them in a peace and reconciliation process from which they had complained of being excluded. "They were very happy to be in Kinshasa and took this opportunity to move towards peace," Dabo said. "But they are clearly afraid of what happens next." Since the recent installation of the transitional government, activities of the Ituri militias have been officially outlawed by the new administration – a prohibition to be enforced with the help of MONUC, whose mandate and manpower were recently strengthened by the UN Security Council. The council also extended the mission's mandate until 30 July 2004. "The big problem that the Congolese military must face is what to do with all these soldiers," Dabo said. "What is on offer for them to be persuaded to lay down their arms? "Obviously, the ideal solution is to absorb them into the army - so the rebel groups laid this down as a condition of surrender." However, Kabila rejected the militia leaders' requests to include their men in the unified national army, currently in the process of being formed. "He cannot take in, train, feed and clothe all these combatants. He lacks the resources," Dabo said.

Guardian UK 30 Aug 2003 Comment: Diamonds that spell death Western commerce still feeds the war in Congo Tristram Hunt and Oona King Early next week a French-led contingent of multinational troops will pull out of the Congo town of Bunia after barely three months of peacekeeping. Thankfully, some high-level diplomacy at the United Nations by the secretary general, Kofi Annan, has secured a replacement force to serve a further year in an attempt to end the regional conflict which since 1998 has claimed more than 3.3 million lives. But while efforts are rightly focused on seeking a truce between the Hema and Lendu militia groups, and urging an end to Ugandan and Rwandan interference, western diplomats might also think about getting their own houses in order. In an uncanny repetition of western intervention in the region that dates back to the 19th century, complicit multinational corporations and unknowing - or unthinking - western consumers have contributed to the regional conflagration. The Democratic Republic of Congo is an area cursed by an abundance of natural wealth from gold through diamonds and timber to oil and even the mobile-phone mineral coltan. Foreign companies, happy to cut deals with military commanders, have sustained the conflict by exploiting natural resources with near-total disregard for human rights or long-term development. In turn, when we use our phone, give a PlayStation to a teenager, or buy a diamond for a loved one, we too risk being an unwitting accomplice. Since King Leopold II of Belgium first decided on Congo as a suitable site for his imperial ambitions in the 1870s, the west's role in the region's history has constituted an almost apocalyptic rape of resources and people. It was under the guise of the International African Association and with the assistance of that criminally overrated explorer, Henry Morton Stanley, that Leopold II carved out his territory. Local chiefs were forced to hand over vast tracts of land in exchange for cloth, beads and a couple of bottles of gin. But unlike France or Britain, Leopold was never interested in the geopolitics of Africa - he wanted the riches. To begin with, it was ivory. Trading posts were established along the Congo river manned by Belgian military officials with strict targets for collection rates. Armed with the gun and the chicotte (a whip made of hippo skin), they quelled local villages, who pressganged tens of thousands into railway construction and liquidated any resistance. Then came rubber slavery. With the demand for bicycle and car tyres growing in the west, the wild rubber trees of the Congo basin became a goldmine for Leopold. Whole villages were taken hostage to ensure men went into the jungles to tap trees. Villages that refused were massacred en masse and hands hacked off as evidence of orders carried out. Brussels always had a good eye for bureaucracy. Every bullet needed to account for every smoked limb. The "savage" African custom of mutilation - seen to such horrendous effect in Sierra Leone and Rwanda - owes much to the introduction of Belgian bureaucratic rigour. The forests and rivers of Congo became a killing field as King Leopold's officers destroyed a civilisation with the racial determination of Nazi death camp commandants. And as Adam Hochschild has shown in his masterful book, King Leopold's Ghost, it was no surprise that it was in this "heart of darkness" that Conrad found his Kurtz. Was the prototype Guillaume Van Kerckhoven, who paid his soldiers 2d for every human head they brought him during military operations, or perhaps Leon Rum, who surrounded his garden with severed African heads and thought himself, like Kurtz, "an emissary of science and progress"? By the time world opinion finally woke up to Leopold's atrocities, the Congo Free State had been stripped of its wealth, some 10 million people slaughtered in one of the worst genocides in history, and an entire cultural tradition extinguished. The west, of course, hadn't finished with Congo, deciding later in the 20th century to support the brutal kleptocracy of General Mobutu for some 30 ruinous years. Today a familiar pattern continues. A UN panel of experts recently concluded that foreign interests sustain the current war by illegally subsidising militias, in return for gold, diamonds, cobalt, coltan and other loot. Vast quantities of the country's natural wealth are shipped out illegally, leaving behind an impoverished population that is often pressganged into labour or, literally, pillaged and raped. The conflict has witnessed some of the worst sexual violence in history, and is dubbed Africa's first world war: millions of casualties, and 18 million people with no access to services of any kind - no clean water, health, education, transport, or housing. A wave of bloodletting earlier this year sparked fears of a Rwandan-style genocide. Renewed attempts to broker peace have now, thankfully, led to a transitional government headed by the young Joseph Kabila - son of Laurent - and the promise of an enhanced UN peacekeeping force. But history runs rings round Congo. Back in 1960 it had the dubious distinction of being the first country in the world to host a UN peacekeeping force. So what's new? Well, for a start, the UN might finally have some power. Next month, the UN mission, Monuc, will increase from just over 2,000 to approximately 8,000 by the end of September. Of course, it needs more. If it had the same troops-to-land ratio as in Kosovo, Congo would have 10 million peacekeepers. But Monuc's new power - a mandate authorising active intervention to protect civilians, rather than its former observer status - does mark significant progress. It is a departure from the UN's dark days in 1994, when it walked away from the Rwandan genocide only to return some months later to hang curtains around 800,000 corpses and accidentally provide sanctuary for the murderers regrouping in Congo, thus preparing the ground for today's conflict. Since the arrival of the French-led international force, including a British contingent, Bunia, the town where daylight robbery and murdering militias went hand in hand, has been demilitarised. But a large number of the population are displaced in the surrounding countryside, too terrified to return. The British government has so far increased humanitarian assistance this year to £16m. But Congo also needs protection from exploitative western interests. It needs an extension of controls on diamonds and other minerals; the enforcement of OECD guidelines for multinational businesses; an effective small-arms embargo; and stricter conditionality on assistance to other regional governments linked to Congolese resource exploitation. As Congo knows from its past, UN peacekeepers are not enough. Only good governance and economic transparency will drain the illegal swamp of economic and military networks that have, throughout its history, conspired in crimes against humanity. · Tristram Hunt teaches history at Queen Mary, London. Oona King MP is chair of the all-party group on the Great Lakes and genocide prevention.

Liberia

WP 5 Aug 2003 Rights Activists Worried By African Peacekeepers By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 5, 2003; Page A10 UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 4 -- As the first unit of Nigerian peacekeepers touched down in Monrovia today to try to halt Liberia's civil war, human rights advocates are criticizing the legacy of the organization that sent them. These activists have urged the United States, the United Nations and African leaders to ensure that the group -- the Nigerian-led Economic Community of West African States -- is held accountable if its troops commit crimes in Liberia. During more than 13 years as the region's principal peacekeeper, the organization has helped restore an elected leader to power in Sierra Leone and provided a safe haven in Monrovia for more than 1 million people through the early 1990s. But it has also gained a reputation for ruthlessness and corruption, looting property, arming local militias and conducting summary executions. Human rights organizations have sharply criticized the group, and the United Nations and the State Department have taken notice. "It's a laudable thing that they are willing to intervene," said Binaifer Nowrojee, a visiting fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University who has studied the coalition for nearly 10 years. "However, it should be done with checks and balances to make sure rights are respected by the peacekeepers, and that's where the U.N. can play a role." In the rush to persuade the Nigerians to intervene to avert chaos in Liberia, there has been little public debate in Washington or at the United Nations over ECOWAS's human rights record in West Africa. The Bush administration, which has pledged to provide cash and logistical support for the West African forces, ushered a resolution through the Security Council Friday that grants the peacekeepers broad immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed in Liberia. "I don't think [the West African human rights performance] was foremost in everybody's mind," said a U.S. official who tracks the issue. "ECOWAS has had some problems, but the situation in Liberia is so bad that people were looking to get a force in to stop them from fighting." The official said the Nigerian-led force is engaged in a risky effort to restore peace in Liberia and should receive the "benefit of the doubt." The enormous international attention being paid to the operation would ensure that the force stays in check, he said. "They are going to be operating under a microscope." In Sierra Leone, Human Rights Watch documented 180 cases of summary executions in 1999 by West African forces or by Sierra Leonean militias under their command. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and the State Department also cited reports of illegal killings by the Nigerian-led force, including a case in which West African troops killed an 8-year-old boy who was caught with a pistol and given no trial. One West African military officer, dubbed "Captain Evil Spirit" by local residents, oversaw the execution of at least 98 people on a bridge, according to a 1999 Human Rights Watch report. "Small groups of young men were brought to the entrance to the bridge in trucks and cars, and arrived usually stripped down to their underwear and often with their hands tied," the report said. "They were then marched onto the bridge where they were executed and thrown into the bay." On Jan. 11, 1999, West African forces executed more than 50 rebels in and around the Connaught Hospital, according to several witnesses interviewed by the New York-based rights organization. "Wounded rebels were dragged from their beds and executed within the hospital grounds, or shot directly in their beds or as they tried to flee on crutches and in wheelchairs," the report said. "Others were executed in the morgue where they were caught trying to hide among the corpses." Nigeria's chargé d'affaires at the United Nations, Ndekhedehe Effiong Ndekhedehe, said none of the allegations against Nigerian peacekeepers has been "substantiated." "By and large our troops are well disciplined," Ndekhedehe said in an interview today. "They behave themselves. We are governed by the rules of engagement laid down in the Geneva Conventions, so our troops know what to do." Despite questions raised about some West African peacekeeping units, U.N. officials said the first battalion of ECOWAS troops -- which has completed its tour of duty under U.N. command in Sierra Leone and is being deployed today in Monrovia -- performed with honor in Sierra Leone. "I'm sure that they will serve in Liberia in the same fashion and will also employ the basic principles of human rights to which we are all very much attached," said Hedi Annabi, a senior U.N. peacekeeping official. "As usual, the U.N. will keep an eye on such things and, should there be a problem, we would of course take it up." Human rights advocates say that internal reports by U.N. human rights officers alleging misconduct by the Nigerian-led force in Liberia rarely made their way into public accounts. One report involved a raid by Nigerian troops into the Lajoy Gold Mine on May 10, 1997, where several individuals were beaten, one of them fatally. "During interrogations, Ecomog [the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group] soldiers beat many people with wooden sticks and electric wire and slashed one man with razor blades," said the confidential report, obtained by Nowrojee. "In the past, troops that committed violations would be shipped off home, but there would be no sanctions or punishment," Nowrojee said. "The U.N. has been loathe to play the appropriate oversight role because it has so much gratitude for [ECOWAS's] willingness to intervene" in West Africa's civil wars. "This is an opportunity for the United Nations to step up to the plate and play a more responsible role."

AFP 12 Aug 2003 New clashes in Liberia's key port city ABIDJAN, Aug 12 (AFP) - Fighting has resumed in the second port city of Buchanan, a rebel leader said Tuesday, adding that his force has called on west African peacekeepers to deploy to the region. "Fighting is continuing in Buchanan," Thomas Nimely, chairman of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), told AFP by telephone. The MODEL, the smaller of two rebel groups which have been battling Liberia's government forces, late last month took control of the port town, located about 120 kilometres (75 miles) down the Atlantic coast from the capital Monrovia "We were attacked at nine in the morning (0900 GMT) yesterday and we are trying to join up with ECOMIL to clear the corridor leading to Monrovia via Harbel," Nimely said, referring to the west African force. He said he had spoken to the head of the ECOMIL force, General Festus Okonkwo, and said the Nigerian commander had approved his request for peacekeepers' help. An official from the Firestone rubber plantation, located in Harbel near the airport, told AFP by telephone that he had seen two ECOMIL trucks, crammed with troops, proceed for Buchanan. The MODEL, a group which first appeared in March and is based in southern Liberia, has been fighting along with the much larger rebel group LURD to overthrow president Charles Taylor. But after Taylor resigned Monday and went into exile in Nigeria, it was unclear whether they would make peace with the government and accept a new interim administration. Their leader Nimely said he had ordered his men to secure the road leading northwest from Buchanan to Harbel, but denied that they were trying to advance on the city. He said the MODEL's aim was to secure a "humanitarian corridor" on the road, but not push beyond a point called Cotton Tree, "about 30 minutes drive" from Harbel. But the official at the Firestone plantation, where thousands of refugees have gathered during recent months of fighting, said that the renewed fighting had already caused many people to flee Buchanan and seek shelter at nearby camps and two churches. Nimely, meanwhile, accused Liberian President Moses Blah, who took over from former warlord Taylor, of waging a "pointless" attack. "This thing is over now, there's no need to do something pointlessly," he said. The Liberian government has accused neighbouring Ivory Coast of backing the MODEL.

AFP12 Aug 2003 - South Africa to send troops to Liberia with UN: official PRETORIA, Aug 12 (AFP) - South Africa will contribute to a UN-led international peacekeeping force in Liberia, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said in Pretoria on Tuesday. "The president has indicated that we have to assist the United Nations. We just have to decide exactly how we can do so," Pahad told reporters. "South Africa will contribute to a multinational force in Liberia. This will have to go through the cabinet and through parliament. We also have to look at capacity." The decision by President Thabo Mbeki came after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote South Africa requesting its participation in a UN peacekeeping mission, Pahad said. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has already begun deploying its own troops in Liberia, where Charles Taylor stepped down from power on Monday before flying to Nigeria to begin a new life in exile. Faced with mounting violence in the country, which has seen 14 years of nearly uninterrupted fighting, the United Nations voted on August 1 not only to back the ECOWAS peacekeepers, but also to create a 15,000-strong international stabilisation force which will take over in October. Namibia, Pakistan and Bangladesh have already offered to contribute troops to the UN force. But it is still not clear how the project will be financed, with the UN saying the United States will have to put up at least a quarter of its projected cost of 500 million dollars (440 million euros). Hedi Annabi, head of the UN office for peacekeeping operations department, said last week that officials were working on a "fairly sizeable" force. But the full size and scope of the UN mission cannot be fully measured until the fighting has stopped and a clear assessment made. UN officials are eager for the UN project to avoid the fate of a similar operation that failed in Sierra Leone three years ago. The multinational forces aim to enforce a June 17 ceasefire between the Liberian government, now led by President Moses Blah, and two rebels groups which had been seeking Taylor's removal from power. But troop and money donors would first like to see a peace settlement among the warring factions and assurances of a continuing US presence after the UN takes over. There were reports of renewed clashes in Liberia on Tuesday, including some in the second port city of Buchanan. The United States meanwhile sent its commander in Liberia, General Thomas Turner, to Monrovia to try to open the rebel-held port to shipments of food and humanitarian aid.

Reuters 27 Aug 2003 Liberian president urges peacekeepers to secure volatile countryside areas REUTERS Wednesday, Aug 27, 2003,Page 6 Liberia's caretaker president urged West African peacekeepers on Monday to push into the lawless bush and stop carnage taking place despite a week-old peace deal meant to end nearly 14 years of conflict. Reports of civilians, including women and children, shot or hacked to death began to emerge from the hard-to-reach interior. There were conflicting accounts of who was to blame as civilians were once again caught in a crossfire of war and ethnic hatreds. "They killed some 25 people. I saw the bodies myself," Targen Wanteh, a former Liberian ambassador to Guinea, said by satellite phone from the bush near Bahn in eastern Nimba County after fleeing what he said was a rebel attack. "They shot some people, cut women and children into pieces, opened up their stomachs, cut their heads and laid the bodies in front of their houses," said Wanteh. President Moses Blah, due under the peace deal to hand over to the head of a new interim administration in October, said many people had been killed in Nimba County and that fighting was flaring in a string of places outside the capital Monrovia. The violence underlined the challenges in cementing the peace deal between the government and rebels when many fighters, including drugged-up teenagers, are deep in the bush beyond lines of control and communications. Blah called on peacekeepers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to spread out swiftly from Monrovia, which they have secured with the help of US Marines flown in from three warships off Liberia's coast. "We want ECOWAS to hurry up with the deployment and make sure they deploy throughout the country to stop the carnage on our people," Blah said at his home in Monrovia. Echoing his predecessor Charles Taylor, who stepped down and went into exile under international pressure earlier this month, Blah said Liberia's armed forces were unable to defend themselves because of a UN arms embargo. reports of massacre Liberia's state radio said on Sunday many civilians had been massacred by rebels in Bahn, some 240km northeast of Monrovia. It quoted one source as saying 1,000 civilians had been killed, but no independent confirmation was available. A spokesman for the peacekeepers, known also as ECOMIL, said they had no plans for now to deploy towards Nimba County. "We're still very thin on the ground. We don't have enough men," said Colonel Theophilus Tawiah, adding that the next target for the force would be to deploy to the rebel-held port city of Buchanan. About 1,550 peacekeepers are in Liberia and some 750 new soldiers are due this week from Ghana, Mali and Senegal. Wanteh said villages around Bahn had been burned down by fighters from Liberia's two rebel groups, Model and LURD. "Everybody said Nimba County was Taylor's stronghold, so they want to destroy this place and the international community is not doing anything," he said. A radio operator in Monrovia said contacts with Nimba County had produced reports of Model rebels hacking people to death with knives and machetes. Since Taylor launched a rebellion in 1989 to win power, Liberia has seen little but violence and has been the epicenter of a regional cycle of bloodshed in which 250,000 people have been killed. Taylor is now in exile in Nigeria. Last week's peace deal cleared the way for the creation of interim government to guide Liberia to elections in two years. But for many of those in the bush, it is not enough. "If nothing is done there will be a genocide," Wanteh said. "ECOMIL is sitting in Monrovia and we are here in the bush, surviving on bush yams."

AFP 28 Aug 2003 Liberian president decrees three days of national mourning MONROVIA, Aug 28 (AFP) - President Moses Blah Thursday announced that three days of mourning will be declared in the near future to remember all the victims of Liberia's long civil war. In a broadcast speech to the nation, Blah expressed his condolences to the families of those who had died in both sides of the conflict. He said the government would organize a symbolic burial in honor of the dead. Blah reiterated his commitment to the peace agreement, which calls for him to step down and hand over to Gyude Bryant, a businessman and political leader chosen by the belligerents to lead the country. "We have no political ambitions to govern past October 14," he said. Blah took over the presidency after the departure of Charles Taylor on August 11. Rejecting suggestions he was Taylor's man, Blah said, "the Liberian people have suffered too long and we are not here to play politics with their future." To ensure the nation's peace, Blah appealed to the US ambassador to Liberia, John Blaney, "to use his influence to stop the carnage." He said he wanted to be a factor for stability and peace during his brief period in the presidency, and pledged transparency in government, starting with a finance ministry audit of activities in the port of Monrovia.

28 Aug 2003 Uncontrolled gunmen could torpedo fragile peace process [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] MONROVIA, 28 August (IRIN) - The flare-up in fighting between Liberian government fighters and rebels in several parts of the war-ravaged West African nation this week, underscores the extreme fragility of Liberia's peace process. The government and the two rebel groups - Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), accuse each other of renewing the fighting. Interim President Moses Blah described the clashes as "madness" in an address to the nation on Thursday. He blamed the LURD and MODEL rebel groups for ignoring a peace agreement signed in Accra, Ghana, on 18 August. The Peace Agreement, which paved way for a broad-based Transitional Government to replace Blah on 14 October, demands that all Liberian warring factions stay in their present locations. It also calls for an immediate ceasefire throughout the war-ravaged country, to allow immediate humanitarian access to vulnerable people - the overwhelming majority of Liberia's three million population. "This madness only makes our already destitute people more destitute," the President told a gathering of top government, political and military leaders at his Executive Mansion in the capital, Monrovia. From Sunday until Wednesday, intense fighting continued near Gbarnga, 150 km north of Monrovia in Bong County, a former stronghold of ex-President Charles Taylor but now controlled by LURD. At the same time, MODEL launched attacks in Bahn, 240 km northeast of Monrovia, in Nimba County and in the southeastern Grand Bassa County, near Roberts International airport. The latter attacks sent 8,000 civilians fleeing for safety towards the town of Harbel. Liberian state radio reported that MODEL killed hundreds of people in Bahn. Information Minister, Reginald Goodridge, told IRIN the killings were "tribal revenge killings" by the Krahn tribe who dominated MODEL against Gio and Mano tribes, who supported Taylor. MODEL issued a statement denying that it had killed civilians. However eyewitnesses told international journalists that the rebels hacked at women and children with knives, opening up their stomachs. They burnt also down whole villages. The skirmishes between LURD and government troops around Gbarnga in north central Liberia sparked off a massive influx of thousands of displaced people, walking in driving rain to seek refuge in Monrovia. This dilapidated city of more than one million people is already overstretched by the presence of an estimated 300,000 displaced people sheltering in virtually all its nooks and corners. Of these, up to 50,000 took shelter in the national sports stadium following attempts by LURD to overrun the city in June and July. Many of the displaced civilians thronging Monrovia, had been living for years in camps of mud huts on the city's outskirts, forced to leave their original homes by a civil war that has festered on since 1989. They fled into the relative safety of the city centre as the rebels advanced into the northwestern suburbs and began shelling the city centre. "The security situation is still very fluid in many parts of Liberia and this hampers efforts by relief workers to reach vulnerable people," Ross Mountain, Special United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia told IRIN. The ebullient Liberian Defence Minister, Daniel Chea, blamed by many for sanctioning atrocities by government troops, said he was also concerned that renewed skirmishes would affect the activities of relief workers. "Renewed clashes have a very big impact on humanitarian work. It stops relief workers from doing their job. We don't want that to happen," Chea told IRIN in an interview. Civilians caught up in the clashes have found themselves missing out on rations because relief workers cannot reach them or because gunmen grab what they have been given. "There is no point giving us food when we are on the run. The armed fighters simply loot it from us," Robert Sulu, a local clan chief at Totota, 109m km north of Monrovia, told IRIN. The gunmen have also helped themselves generously to the property of relief organisations. More than half of the World Food Programme's (WFP) food stocks in the port of Monrovia disappeared during the recent fighting in the capital and LURD rebels stole about 70 vehicles, including most of the truck fleet of WFP and the UN refugee agency UNHCR. As a result, they are now struggling to undertake food distribution. "The rebels are attacking us and slaughtering civilians. We need to compel LURD and MODEL leaders to ensure they order their men to stop fighting," General Benjamin Yeaten, Liberian army commander told IRIN. Relief workers in Monrovia said there were so many undisciplined, unpaid often drunk gunmen roaming Liberia's villages and towns that it is difficult to tell which gunman belonged to which group. Last weekend, drunken government militias set up roadblocks near the airport to extort money. The airport is near MODEL controlled-areas. Soon tension built up, but on that occasion a patrol of Nigerian troops from the West African peacekeeping force ECOMIL diffused it. "The problem is West African peacekeepers deployed in the country are only 1550," one military expert in Monrovia said. "A few hundred Malians are expected on Thursday, but still the force lacks the manpower and other resources to police the whole country." The defence minister said the onus was on ECOMIL, to put pressure on rebel leaders to stop the fighting. "It is like a game of football. When you miss the ball, you try to get it from between somebody else's legs. The rebels are trying to distract us from the ultimate goal of pacifying Liberia, but we shall not lose sight of our goal," Chea said in an interview. ECOMIL spokesman, Major Ogun Sanya, told IRIN that while the force was gradually spreading out, it was trying to persuade the various rebel leaders to reign in their fighters. "We are in contact with their Commanders," he said. Out in LURD controlled areas, north of the capital, drunk and drugged up fighters with red bands tied around their heads, commandeer vehicles and race them up and down, oblivious of civilians. They mete out instant retalliation to any civilians who try to answer them back or to deny them a favour. Lives have however been saved because ECOMIL disarms the fighters before they enter Monrovia city centre. The fighters, many of whom are children, are still itching for a fight. "If government troops attack us, we will pursue them to where they came from," General Aliyu Sheriff, LURD Chief of Staff said. At Tubmanburg, a LURD-controlled town 50 km northwest of Monrovia, local civilians said LURD had pushed them out of their buildings. They also blamed the rebels for raping women and girls. In areas under government control, such as central and eastern Monrovia, the militias belonging to the different fighting groups formed by former President Charles Taylor have not been paid for months. Looting for them has become a way of life. On Monday, fighters who were fleeing from fighting in Gbarnga looted a vehicle driven by the Medical Superintendent of Phebe hospital, the only major health centre still operational in Bong County. They beat up the doctor. Yeaten said he rigorously enforces discipline among his fighters: "My soldiers know that if you rape or kill, we execute you. I have executed over 10 so far - in front of the public," he told IRIN. But relief workers say very few of the guilty have been so punished.

Nigeria

BBC 4 Aug 2003 Clashes in oil rich Nigerian area Ijaw militants have taken hostages to press their claim for more oil wealth Nigeria's police minister has called for calm after attacks in the oil-rich Delta region at the weekend left at least 10 dead and dozens of homes burnt. Chief Broderick Bozimo said the traditional rulers of the Ijaw and Itsekiri tribes were not doing enough to put an end to the inter-tribal hostilities. The attacks on three Ijaw villages followed reports that an Itsekiri village was attacked last week, resulting in the deaths of at least 15 people. Bloody clashes between the two groups over political power and land rights in the past few years have claimed hundreds of lives and made thousands more homeless. An Ijaw representative, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters news agency: "The situation is very tense, because the Ijaw people will definitely retaliate." The Ijaw group in particular want more of the benefits of the region's oil. During the election campaign earlier this year, violence led to several multinationals pulling their staff out of the poverty stricken Delta and led to Nigeria's crude oil exports to be cut by 40%. The elections themselves were marred by violence and fraud in Warri and the surrounding Delta State, observers said. The violence now appears to be escalating again. Delta State governor James Ibori summoned Ijaw and Itsekiri representatives for talks on Monday afternoon.

Vanguard (Lagos) 5 Aug 2003 Itsekiris sack Ijaw villages; 13 killed, 50 houses razed Sola Adebayo WARRI- ITSEKIRI youths, weekend, attacked three Ijaw communities of Erekongbene, Ojudorgbene and Gbaribodegbene, killing 13 persons and torching no fewer than 50 houses. Reacting to the attack, the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Rowland Oritsejafor, asked the warriors to lay down their arms, urging them to keep away from "further destroying our inheritance." Oritsejafor sounded a note of warning that government might be forced to employ maximum force should dialogue fail to achieve anticipated results of reconciling the warring factions. The minister told journalists shortly after addressing a cross-section of Ijaw and Itsekiri leaders as well as youths in his Warri residence, that the youths should channel the abundant human and material resources in Delta State towards their growth and development. Oritsejafor commended Gov. James Ibori for his recent peace initiative aimed at reconciling the warring factions, and said government would continue to employ dialogue and consultation in seeking solutions to the impasse. "We are not going to depend on deployment of troops, we would continue to talk to them. The governor has done very well in this connection by going round, dialoguing and talking with people on ground. That must be encouraged and he must be commended for the action. If we take these steps and these guys continue to kill and maim law-abiding citizens, force has to be used as the last resort. These guys must use our resources for what God wants us to use it for, which is for capacity building, empowerment and restoring the economic well-being of the country," the minister stated. He did not believe that fresh deployment of troops to the region was repressive, stressing that the clamour for better living conditions was not a licence to engage in unpatriotic activities. He said the Obasanjo administration had instituted far-reaching measures to alleviate the sufferings of Niger Deltans and pleaded for their understanding to nurture such people-oriented programmes into fruition. "NDDC is there, yet we may not be doing enough. There are a lot of programmes, youth empowerment, everything that is there, we are not going to handle it in a day; we are preaching, we are talking to traditional rulers and others, we hope they will listen and allow lasting peace to prevail," he stated. He assured his people that "from appointment and from what is going to happen, our fair share will be given to us and it has started. It is not going to happen overnight. At least, they can come and hold me now, I can't run away from here. I am from here, the Police Affairs Minister, Chief Bozimo; the CDS, General Ogomudia are from here, so there is no excuse that they cannot reach us; they have the right to come to us and ask what is happening in Abuja." Also reacting to the attack, Gov. James Ibori said it was only God's intervention that could stem the tide of bloodletting in the state. Ibori, who made the remark at a thanksgiving service to mark his 45th birthday anniversary at First Baptist Church, Ogharefe, regretted that the unending ethnic crisis had stalled the growth of the state. He attributed his second term mandate to divine intervention, asserting that God rescued him from the hands of evil doers before, during and after the April polls. "I am certain that God will allow me to accomplish that which is my heart's desire at this time which is peace for my people, Deltans. He has never failed me and I know He will not fail even now. These are trying times for our state, Delta, and it only requires the intervention of God to pull us through. Having saved my life all this while and having protected and given me back the mandate to serve the people of Delta State, I am very sure and I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that God will also give me the wisdom, the knowledge to solve the problems that we have in the state," Ibori said.

Vanguard (Lagos) August 9, 2003 Over 1000 Itsekiri killed so far in Warri crisis - Mabiaku Sola Adeboya No fewer than 1,000 Itsekiris have been killed in the unending ethnic crisis in the oil city of Warri and its environs from 1997 to date. Similarly, about 40 riverine Itisekiri communities have been razed, leading to the loss of property running into several billions of naira during the period under review. The Iyatsere of Warri Kingdom, Chief Gabriel Mabiaku made the revelations during a chat with our correspondents. Mabiaku told Weekend Vanguard that all the 40 communities have been taken over and are currently being illegally occupied by Ijaw ethnic militias The Iyatsere of Warri while answering a question on the losses of the Itsekiri due to the frequent bloody clash with their Ijaw and Urhobo neighbours said "our loss is monumental". His words: "It (losses) is going into billions, that is property, the human lives, you can't quantify; we have the statistics. I can't give you the figure but it is well over 1,000 people, from 1997 to date, not to talk of those who were maimed and also those in hospitals, both here and in the western region, including Lagos. Over 40 communities had been razed and taken over by the Ijaw invaders Mabiaku traced the woes of the Itsekiris to the admission of the Urhobos and Ijaws into their homeland of the three Warri Council areas of Warri North, South and South-West. He pointedly asserted that the three councils which are the outcome of the old Warri division were the homeland of the Itsekiris, maintaining that "every bit of the 1,550 square miles belonged to the Itsekiris. We have historical and legal background to buttress our claim. We have stated them very clearly." "Since we cannot stay aloof without having people in our midst, we too are in other people's midst, so Ij aws are in our midst, we have always welcome them, the Urhobos are in our midst, we have always welcome them. But this gesture has turned sour" he lamented. Iyatsere of Warn accused the Ijaws of expansionist tendencies, saying that "all along Ijaws have occupied the places they burnt down in 1997. Each time they burnt a place, they give it a new name. All the communities have been given one name or the other. Even in our midst here in Warri township, my own Estate, was taken over, after vandalizing, looting and burning since 1997". "We did not want to go into head-on collision with them, we reported the matter to the police, to the governor, to everybody over the years, we even reported this development to Danjuma Committee. The Olu ofWarri's property were also occupied, so too are about thirty or more property in Warri township here, taken over by Ijaws forcefully". He lamented that the usurpers bluntly refused to heed the order of the state governor, Chief James Ibori asking them to vacate the property. The Iyatsere also commented on the recent attack on Abi-Gborodo Community, stating that the invasion was planned in order to get at the state governor, Chief James Ibori and the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, for issuing quit notice to the usurpers as well as creating the enabling environment for the displaced Itsekinis to return to their respective communities. Uduaghan hail from Abi-Gborodo which is also the maternal hometown of Ibori. "So for the governor to have the effrontery to say the Itsekiris should go back to their homes, they say, okey, let us go and burn that place (Abi-Gborodo). I can't adduce any other reason", he stated. However, Mabiaku accused the State and Federal Government of not being decisive, stressing that the method being adopted in search of peace is "too soft". His words: "When you are too soft on issues, you never get to the place. For instance, how would it be explained that some soldiers were killed, some were dispossessed of their guns, they just came, peace moves, they brought eight guns, what has government done with those who stole the guns of the solders?" "Except you teach people a lesson, they never learn. I believ the government is taking a step which is too soft. If Itsekiri offend, punish them. If anybody offends, punish him or her according to the law. Don't allow criminals to go unpunished because you want peace, with that, you never get peace"."The criminals need to be punished. Arson is a serious offence in law." They know those committing arson and murder, nobody is touched. And they commend them for returning guns. Until the government takes positive steps to protect the indigenes of the country, what we are seeing now portend danger".

Reuters 16 Aug 2003 Fighting Erupts in Nigerian Oil City of Warri By Daniel Balint-Kurti LAGOS (Reuters) - Fighting erupted on Friday night and continued on Saturday morning in the southern Nigerian city of Warri, in a continuation of bitter conflict between rival ethnic groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta, sources there said. The fighting was some of the most serious in the region since an ethnic rebellion broke out in March, leading to dozens of deaths and forcing oil majors to evacuate key installations. Joel Bisina of local non-governmental organization Niger Delta Professionals for Development told Reuters ethnic Itsekiris attacked Ijaw residents near Warri's port and around a market area called McIver on Friday night. "As I speak to you there are still gunshots," Bisina told Reuters at five o'clock a.m. (0400 GMT) on Saturday from the city. He said he heard the sounds of assault rifles and heavier weapons being used. "There is a mix -- rapid shooting and intermittent shots," he said. "There are heavy bangs intermittently." Itsekiri representatives were unavailable for comment, but an Ijaw spokesman confirmed the fighting. "Itsekiri people came down and burned down Ijaw settlements in that area," said Daniel Ekpebide, a spokesman for the militant group Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities. He said he had been unable to get to the affected area himself and could not say whether anyone had been killed in the fighting. "We the Ijaw people are committed to the peace initiative by the government, but it is very, very unfortunate that the Itsekiris are provoking the Ijaw people," he said. "By the time Ijaws take their revenge, people should not cry foul." Sources in the Niger Delta said the latest fighting followed an attack on the village of Ode-Itsekiri on Thursday, in which four people were reported killed and 15 missing. Ode-Itsekiri is the traditional homeland of the Itsekiris.

IRIN 19 Aug 2003 Death toll mounts in Delta State violence LAGOS, 19 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - At least 45 people had died by Tuesday as the death toll increased in four days of gun battles between rival ethnic militias in Nigeria's southern oil city of Warri, witnesses said. Oil transnationals operating in the area had closed their offices. More than 40 houses were burnt and thousands left homeless as fighting, which broke out on Friday night between Ijaw and Itsekiri militias armed with automatic weapons, persisted despite a nighttime curfew imposed by the Delta State government. Twenty people were reported killed by witnesses in the first two days of fighting. Ijaw militants said 39 of their people were killed by troops deployed by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government to quell the violence. "The 39 people include women and children and 16 men killed in cold blood by soldiers," Bello Oboko, an Ijaw militant leader told IRIN on Tuesday. His claims could not be confirmed by independent sources. But Colonel Gar Dogo, commander of the 6th Amphibious Battalion of the Nigerian army, deployed to end the violence denied that his troops had killed innocent people. "It is not true we have killed any Ijaw people, my soldiers have been very restrained and we have no reason to take sides against Ijaws," he told IRIN. Bawo Omatsola, an Itsekiri resident, said more than 15 people were killed during attacks launched by Ijaws on their settlements on Sunday and the early hours of Monday. He said many people were still missing and may have died. Oil transnationals which use Warri as a key base for operations in the western Niger Delta asked their employees to stay away from their offices to avoid being caught in the crossfire. But both Royal/Dutch Shell and ChevronTexaco, which have big operations in the area, said their production and exports have yet to be affected by the violence. "We have asked people to stay home but our field operations are still going on," a Shell spokesman told IRIN. A ChevronTexaco official said employees "had "been advised to stay at home" but added the company’s oil export schedules were continuing unhindered so far. Colonel Ganiyu Adewale, the armed forces spokesman, said more troops were being deployed to the troubled city to create "a buffer zone" between the warring militias and added that the situation was now under control. "Normally in such a situation there must be casualties but I can't give anything in terms of numbers," he said in response to a question about death toll. Warri, a sprawling city of one million people set amid the swamps of the Niger delta, is a major oil base for companies that pump the crude oil that is the lifeline of the Nigerian economy from nearby oil platforms. Fighting between Ijaws and Itsekiris in March left at least 100 people dead and forced oil transationals operating in the area to shut down facilities producing 40 percent of Nigeria's daily export of two million barrels. At the heart of the violence are claims and counter-claims to the ownership of the oil-rich land. The individuals and communities who control the land mop up the many benefits that can be extracted from the oil companies whose wells have been drilled there. Ijaws accuse Obasanjo's government of abetting an Itsekiri ascendancy over their neighbours, giving them the best of government patronage and most of the few amenities that come to the impoverished region.

Weekly Trust (Kaduna) 2 Aug 2003 Discovery of Headless Bodies Renews Warri Crisis Aigbonoga Brodrick Delta State Governor Chief James Onanefe Ibori's peace initiatives among the warring groups in the area, has suffered a serious setback as tens of the headless bodies of victims of last week's savage attack by irate Ijaw youths from the Burutu Local Government Area on the sea-side Abi-Gborodo village in the Warri North LGA, have been discovered. Some of the headless bodies have been taken to Warri township hospitals for presentations pending trials while the decomposing ones are being quickly disposed off to prevent a probable outbreak of epidemic, Weekly Trust learnt. Abi-Gborodo is an Itsekiri town from where the secretary to the Delta State government Dr Emmanuel Oduaghan hails. The event which occurred on July 24 2003 in what looked like an apparent reprisal to the killings of 10 Ijaw people by unidentified pirates, on the Burutu waterways a forth night ago, has left a trail of brutal killings and carnages, akin to the Koko massacre, another Itsekiri settlement in the same area recently. Weekly Trust correspondent has been informed several wounded people most of whom are women, children and aged had been evacuated by the state government to mainland Warri for admissions into hospitals. Meanwhile, several people are feared to have been swept away by raging tide as the made desperate attempts to escape from the invaders. Information available to Weekly Trust shows that about 18 speedboats loaded with Ijaw militants had over taken the fishing village by surprise that Thursday afternoon where upon dismemberment, they unleashed horror on the unsuspecting inhabitants. As at the time this report, the number of survivors of the violence was not known even though it had been established that the area which had a population of about 4,000 people with hundreds of houses, has been turned into a ghost town as virtually all the structures there are feared to have been completely razed down. Efforts by the Weekly Trust to get the commandant of the 7th Battalion of the Nigerian Army at Effurum, near Warri did not yield fruits as he was said to be on the field directing the operations of troops deployed to restore normalcy in the area. The secretary to the state government could also not be available for interview as he was too busy working towards funding a solution to the crisis.

anguard (Lagos) August 20, 2003 Warri:- Ijaw Allege Death of 128 Kinsmen Osaro Okhomina Benin City IJAW in the three Warri local government areas of Delta State alleged, yesterday, that over 128 of their kinsmen had been killed, so far, in the ongoing mayhem in Warri. According to the Ijaw, the alleged killings which started in July was intensified to forestall the good intentions of the Federal Government at finding a lasting solution to the protracted Warri crises. The leaders, the Ibediwei of Diebiri Kingdom, Chief J.G. Ovubu; the head of Gbonweigbene, Chief John Gbonwei and the leader of thought, Mr. Clark Gbenewei in a statement issued in Benin City, yesterday, said the killings are the cause of the endlessness of the Warri crisis as manifested in the alleged attitude of Itsekiri who are taking advantage of the presence of the governor, Chief James Ibori to hatch the Itsekiri plan of driving the Ijaw from their home land. "In order to forestall the state governor's peace initiative to bring lasting peace to Warri and its environs, the Itsekiri carried out sporadic and premeditated attacks on the Ijaw and their communities soon after His Excellency ended his peace initiative tour of Ijaw communities and oil/gas flow stations located mostly on Ijaw lands in Warri South West and Warri North local government areas. The Itsekiri planned and executed their attacks on the Ijaws." The leaders who gave a breakdown of the alleged attacks carried out on their people stated that since the July 14 attack on one Captain Felix Amakoru and four others, the Itsekiri group have allegedly kidnapped five and killed 128 Ijaw. "Beside the killings", the leaders alleged, "several attempts were made by the Itsekiri with the connivance of borrowed military men to harass, attack and threaten Ijaw communities of Warri corner. Adu Island, all opposite the Naval Base. Warri and Ogbe-Ijoh, the headquarters at Warri South west local government. They appealed to the law enforcement agencies in Warri and its environs, not to allow the on-going crisis to stall the expected political solution being planned by the Danjuma Commission set up by the federal government. "Our appeal becomes necessary because any step we shall take to defend ourselves would be misinterpreted by the Itsekiri who run to the press for any little thing because of the free facilities they enjoy to blackmail the Ijaw and incite government against us."

IRIN 22 Aug 2003 100 die in Delta fighting, Red Cross says LAGOS, 22 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - The Nigerian Red Cross said on Friday about 100 people were killed in five days of ethnic violence that rocked the southern oil city of Warri. The federal government meanwhile set up a task force protect oil wells in the area and crack down on the massive theft of crude oil from pipelines. The shadowy figures behind this racket are widely believed to have flooded the Niger Delta with sophisticated weaponry that used by the tribal gangs to attack each other and the government's security forces. Fighting erupted between rival militias of the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups on 15 August, defying a night curfew declared by the Delta State government. Gangs of armed youths armed with automatic rifles engaged each other in a series of gun battles. Calm returned to the city on 20 August as troop reinforcements arrived. The Delta State government said it had persuaded the warring groups to agree a truce. "With calm now returning to the city we are beginning to see the extent of the damage and have reason to believe close to 100 people died," Emmanuel Ijewere, president of the Red Cross told IRIN. He said more than 1,000 people had been treated by the Red Cross, mostly for minor injuries, while more than 4,000 had been displaced from their homes. President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Friday he had set up a special military task force to pacify the volatile oil-producing region. Its primary task will be to secure oil installations and stop criminals from stealing crude from pipelines for sale in the international market. This ilicit trade in stolen oil is believed to be the source of funds for guns which are now awash in the Niger Delta, said Colonel Ganiyu Adewale, the defence ministry spokesman. "The task force will do anything we believe is necessary to stop the violence," he told IRIN. Delta State Governor James Ibori met with leaders of the Ijaw and Itsekiri communities on Friday to firm up the truce agreed earlier in the week. But leaders of the militant Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) refused to attend the meeting, saying they doubted the governor’s neutrality. Bello Oboko, president of FNDIC told IRIN the latest fighting in Warri was sparked-off by Ibori’s order for Ijaws to quit the MacIver area of the city. This is claimed by Itsekiris. "Ibori cannot broker any peace agreement that will be binding on the Ijaws," he told IRIN. At the heart of the violence are claims and counter-claims to the ownership of oil-rich land in a region whose inhabitants are still mostly dirt poor. The individuals and communities who control the land mop up the many benefits that can be extracted from the oil companies whose wells have been drilled there. Fighting between Ijaws and Itsekiris in March left at least 100 people dead and forced oil companies operating in the swamps of the Niger Delta to shut down facilities that produce 40 percent of Nigeria's oil exports. Ijaws accuse Obasanjo's government of favouring the Itsekiris, giving them the best of government patronage and most of the few amenities given to the impoverished region.

Rwanda (see Canada)

AFP 30 Jul 2003 US lifts arms embargo on Rwanda WASHINGTON, July 30 (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday lifted a nine-year-old embargo on weapons sales to Rwanda but kept in place a ban on such transfers to non-governmental entities in the African nation. The move, announced by the State Department in the Federal Register, means that Washington will not automatically deny export licenses or permits to companies seeking to sell arms to the Rwandan government and its military. "The policy of denial will remain in place for exports or other transfers of defense articles and defense services ... for use or originating in Rwanda other than by the government of Rwanda," the department said. The United States imposed the embargo in 1994, pursuant to a UN Security Council call for the restriction that was spurred by the ongoing civil strife in Rwanda. The change leaves only seven nations on the list of countries to which Washington has proscribed weapons sales: China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia and Sudan. The United States also severely restricts arms sales to Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria and Vietnam.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 4 Aug 2003 Eleven Sentenced To Death In Biggest Genocide Trial Eleven convicts were on Friday sentenced to death by a Rwandan court in the largest genocide trial after the 1994 Tutsi genocide. The 11 were part of a group of 142 on trial since July 2001 in the south Rwanda district of Gikonko in the province of Butare. In a silent finale to the first trial in connection to the massacres in the Gikonko area, 73 others were sentenced to life in prison, 37 were acquitted. The chamber composed of three judges sentenced the rest to jail terms ranging from one to twenty five years in prison. Two convicts who were minors at the time of the genocide were both sentenced to 10 years in prison. Two of the 142 were sentenced in absentia. They escaped from detention shortly after the start of the trial. One was sentenced to death while the other was sentenced to life in prison. An estimated 50,000 people were killed during in Gikonko (130 km south of the Rwandan capital, Kigali) during the genocide. Lead prosecutor, Apollinaire Gakombe told Hirondelle News Agency that he was largely satisfied with the judgement but intended to appeal against some of the judgements. He said that some of the individuals had been placed in categories that don't correspond to the crimes they committed. One of 17 defence counsels on the trial, Innocent Nkeshimana said, "I think it was fair". He was quick to add that, "I think things would have been better. We are going to appeal especially against the 11 death sentences". One of the suspects sentenced to death, 61-year-old former teacher at a local primary school, Athanase Nkurikiyimfura, told Hirondelle immediately after the judgement, "I don't think the judges considered my testimony. I think there were some emotions and bias. I'm going to appeal". Moise Kalinda, a parent to one of the victims said, "I'm delighted that finally the person that killed my son is going to pay". An excited daughter of one of the acquitted suspect, Immaculée Uwizeyimana, carrying a container with food for his acquitted father kept repeating, "Im so happy". The 142 judgements took two days to read. The court also ordered the state and the convicts to pay some $2 million as damages to 158 persons affected by the crimes.

Mail and Guardian SA Rwanda court convicts 100 in genocide trial Kigali 04 August 2003 16:25 At the end of a two-year mass trial, a court has convicted 100 people on various charges relating to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and sentenced 11 to death, a state prosecutor said on Monday. JM Ntete, prosecutor for Butare province, said charges against the 139 accused ranged from rape to torture and murder to crimes against humanity, all committed during the 100-day slaughter in mid-1994 during which at least half a million people were killed, most of them members of Rwanda's Tutsi minority. Political moderates from the Hutu majority were also victims. The three-judge tribunal, which conducted the country's largest mass trial in a temporary courtroom built in the settlement where the crimes were committed, sentenced 71 of the accused to life in prison and 18 others to terms ranging from 25 years to one year. It acquitted 39 in a sentencing hearing that ended August 1. Those who received the death penalty were convicted of being planners and masterminds of the slaughter and included influential people in Mugusa settlement like former deputy mayor Sylvestre Karekezi. Since Rwanda began trying those accused in connection with the genocide, more than 400 people have received the death sentence, but only 26 have been executed, 24 of them in April 1998. In neighbouring Tanzania, a United Nations tribunal is also trying people indicted on major genocide charges. The maximum sentence that tribunal can hand down is life in prison. Some 120 000 prisoners in Rwanda await trial on genocide charges in overcrowded jails. In an attempt to clear up the backlog, authorities have released a number of prisoners facing lesser charges to their home areas where they are facing trial in traditional courts known as gacaca. - Sapa-AP

IRIN 4 Aug 2003 Court sentences 11 to death for genocide KIGALI, 4 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - A court in Rwanda's southern province of Butare on Friday sentenced 11 people to death and 73 others to life imprisonment in a mass trial involving 142 people accused of involvement in the 1994 genocide. The Court of First Instance found the convicts guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed from April-June 1994 in the central African nation. Militant Hutus killed at least 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus during this period. The court also sentenced 21 people to between one and 25 years in prison and acquitted 37 others who included women and a Roman Catholic archdeacon. "I think it was a fair trial though I still expected better results," Innocent Neshimana, one of the defence lawyers, told reporters. "We plan to appeal in the cases where the death penalty was handed down." "I am disappointed with the judgment because the judges never followed my testimony," Pascal Nsabimana, a former primary school teacher who was sentenced to death, said. "There was a lot of bias and I detest the outcome." He said he would appeal against the sentence. Although he was pleased with the trial's outcome, state prosecutor Apolinel Gakombe said he would appeal against some of the acquittals. "I think there are instances where the court was too lenient," he told reporters. The convicted include teachers, former mayors, farmers and businessmen. Gikonko District, where the sentences were passed, lost at least 50,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the genocide. At least 100,000 genocide suspects are in Rwandan jails awaiting trial. The government opted for large joint genocide trials in order to reduce the backlog of pending cases. In 2002, the country introduced a traditional form of jurisdiction, known as "Gacaca" to speed up the trials. Gacaca involves trial of the suspects by communal courts. Officials in the ministry of justice said that up to 6,500 people have been convicted of crimes linked to the genocide, with up to 700 getting the death sentences. Only 23 death sentences have so far been executed.

WP 5 Aug 2003 • KIGALI, Rwanda -- A local tribunal has convicted 100 people of rape, torture, murder and crimes against humanity in the largest trial so far for acts committed during an ethnically driven campaign of genocide in 1994, a Rwandan prosecutor announced. A three-judge panel sentenced 11 people to death and 71 to life imprisonment, said J.M. Ntete, the prosecutor for Butare province. The crimes were committed during the 100-day slaughter in mid-1994 in which at least a half-million people were killed, most of them members of Rwanda's Tutsi minority. The trial was one of many taking place throughout this tiny central African nation of more than 7 million people. In neighboring Tanzania, a U.N. tribunal is also trying people indicted on major genocide charges in Rwanda's war. The maximum sentence that tribunal can hand down is life in prison.

The Monitor (Kampala) 14 Aug 2003 Rwanda Cabinet Rejects Twagiramungu's Party A Correspondent --- in Kigali Kampala President Paul Kagame's main rival in Rwanda's presidential elections, Mr Faustin Twagiramungu, has been dealt a major blow. Rwanda's cabinet announced on Tuesday that it had rejected the registration of Twagiramungu's new political party, ADEP-MIZERO. A statement issued by the Ministry of Local Government said that ADEP-MIZERO's statute and political agenda are contrary to Law No.16/2003 of June 27, 2003. This law prohibits politicians and political parties from enrolling foreigners and soliciting foreign aid. The statement also accuses ADEP-MIZERO of "being in conformity with a statute that does not recognise the national constitution". Twagiramungu is running for president as an independent candidate after a parliamentary select committee recommended the banning of his former, mainly Hutu party, the MDR, on grounds of ethnic divisionism. The latest hurdle in Twagiramungu's campaign comes barely five days after a key aide in his home province of Cyangugu, Damascene Ngirinshuti, defected to President Paul Kagame's RPF party. Twagiramungu has accused the RPF of political intolerance and harassment during the campaigns, prompting denials from Mr Christopher Bazivamo, the RPF national campaign co-ordinator. Twagiramungu has also told off political opponents who link him to the MDR-PARMEHUTU and MDR-PAWA, which both have had strong beliefs in extremist Hutu supremacy, which triggered off the 1994 genocide.

CNN 22 Aug 2003 Slurs mar Rwanda's landmark An election rally for Rwanda's incumbent President Paul Kagame KIGALI, Rwanda -- Rwandans go to the polls Monday for the first time since ethnic genocide claimed 800,000 lives nine years ago. Four candidates are standing for presidential election -- the first multi-party ballot ever to take place in the small African country of eight million people. But the campaign has become embroiled in accusations of intimidation and allegations of fomenting ethnic hatred. The favorite and incumbent president Paul Kagame, has been accused of using the security forces and state media to intimidate and administer a tight grip on campaigning. Kagame, a Tutsi, in turn alleges the main opposition, led by former prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu, is stirring ethnic strife in a country that has been riven by feuding between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi tribes. About 800,000 Rwandans, mainly Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers, died in the 100-day slaughter of 1994. Analysts say some Tutsis, who make up just 14 percent of the population, fear an election will allow the majority Hutus to wrest power. Police spokesman Tony Kuramba told Reuters Twagiramungu was under investigation for allegedly breaking the electoral law by using divisive propaganda. The Hutu Twagiramungu denies the accusations, saying many of his family were killed in the genocide because of his refusal to condone the radical ideology. He was smuggled out of the country by the United Nations in the luggage compartment of a plane. And he adds he never had any association with Hutu extremists. Twagiramungu was quoted by Reuters as saying: "I have become the target of fairly serious attacks, and mostly pointless ones. "Why? Because I'm a presidential candidate? That's my right. It's my right to exercise my freedom ... My God, whoever has seen my politics since 1994, who can really accuse me of separating Rwandans?" Twagiramungu was a moderate who served in the post-genocide government before falling out with his colleagues. He says he is standing for all Rwandans and preaches unity and reconciliation. All candidates say ethnicity is irrelevant to their politics, and it has been largely dormant in recent politics. Foreign observers, diplomats and Rwandans say government security forces are using threats to harass the opposition, reports say. Some opponents have fled into exile, others have been arrested, while several have disappeared, Reuters reported. Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party deny the accusation. CNN's Cynde Strand says Kagame is the only candidate who has the resources to fund a big and effective campaign. "His advance team has handed out T-shirts and posters, so when voters go to the polls Monday ... a lot of people will be voting for that face." But she added, most people are excited about the elections, and will vote for the president out of a traditional respect for authority. "Each side blames the other (of intimidation), but this is a campaign and it's politics." President Kagame has been lauded with establishing stability in the country, rebuilding schools and hospitals and attracting investment to boost the economy. He has been the main power in Rwanda since he took control of Kigali at the head of a rebel army in July 1994, ending the genocide. Analysts say they hope the poll will be the start of wider democracy. "There's no doubt that even if Twagiramungu lost the presidential poll, his presence in Rwanda will mark a turning point in the dormant politics of this country," a diplomat in Kigali said.

Reuters 23 Aug 2003 Ethnic Questions Resurface as Rwanda Goes to Vote Sat August 23, 2003 11:33 AM ET By Fiona O'Brien KIGALI (Reuters) - How can a country recover from genocide? Rwanda faces this test as it prepares for its first election since 1994, when extremists from the Hutu majority tried to wipe out the Tutsi minority, killing an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus who did not share their beliefs. It was the climax of decades of bloodshed, built on tribal divisions which colonialists cemented with biased policies and ethnic manipulation. While the past nine years have been suffused with government-led reconciliation efforts, the process remains superficial for many. The presidential election on August 25 -- the first multi-party poll in Rwandan history -- has inevitably brought half-buried tensions back to the surface, and questions of allegiance to the fore. Hutus make up about 85 percent of Rwandans. About 14 percent of the population is Tutsi, the remaining citizens Twa pygmy. The man widely regarded as likely to win Monday's poll is President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, who ended the genocide at the head of a rebel army in July 1994. His main opponent is a Hutu, Faustin Twagiramungu. At the time of the genocide, Twagiramungu opposed the extremist Hutus who attacked Tutsis. Many of his family were killed because he would not condone the killings. Now, after years in exile, he has returned to contest the election. Kagame accuses him of fomenting ethnic divisions, encouraging people to vote for him as Hutus, not Rwandans. He denies it. Tensions are high across the country. Twagiramungu says his supporters are harassed, while Kagame warns that voting for his opponent is tantamount to returning to the ethnic politics that made the country run with blood. All admit that true reconciliation between Hutus and Tutsis is some way off. Kagame says that while the problem has not been solved, great steps have been taken in the past nine years. "We still have a long road to go to build our country," he told a campaign rally. "We need to finish, to deal with past problems to do with dividing Rwanda...but there's no reason why Rwandans should not live together in peace and harmony, they used to in pre-colonial days. Then, there was not Tutsi, Hutu or Twa." DEEP DIVISIONS Twagiramungu says that the only way to bring true reconciliation is to acknowledge that everyone has suffered, regardless of ethnic background. He wants Kagame's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to admit it killed many Hutus in the years after the genocide. "There is only one issue that is dividing Rwandans, and that's the genocide," he told Reuters in an interview. "It is dividing them so deeply. All Hutus did not kill Tutsis. There's a kind of globalization, that all Hutus are bad before they are good...they are Rwandans who suffered. Death is the truth, we suffered in the same way." The genocide affected all Rwandans. Everyone is implicated, either because they killed, were forced to flee, or lost members of their family. In one of the world's most densely populated countries, everyone knows everyone's business and there is no hiding from the past. Pierre Kavubi is a 43-year-old Tutsi survivor. He was taken from his house in April 1994, brought to an open grave where his four children and wife were killed and thrown in. He was slashed with a machete and beaten with a hammer. He lost consciousness and was left for dead. "During the night it was raining," he said at his Kigali home. "I got up and I fell down twice, but luckily I was thrown on the top so I only had dead people underneath me and I got out before morning when they would throw more on." He went to hide, but militias found the trail of blood and followed him. He knew one of them, who convinced the rest of the gang to leave him to die rather than bludgeon him again. "They left and I left that place and went to a (Hutu) checkpoint, hoping they would kill me because I was half dead anyway," he said. At the barrier, a Tutsi infiltrator found him and took him to the Red Cross, who treated his wounds and helped him survive. POLITICS OF ETHNICITY At the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), country representative Macharia Kamau said the fact that election candidates were talking about economic issues is a big step. "It heightens the stakes of what elections are all about," he said. "It puts them on a different level from before, when ethnicity was the fundamental issue." But much campaigning is inevitably taken up with talk of ethnicity. Kagame appeals to people not to listen to ethnic propaganda, to vote because of a candidate's merit not tribe. Critics say he represses Rwandans, that his RPF threatens people, that voting for anyone else is equivalent to voting along ethnic lines. It is hard to know if there is truth in the allegation that Twagiramungu is trying to mobilize Hutus to guarantee support. Publicly he preaches tolerance, and reminds reporters that he too was targeted for not believing in Hutu dominance. Kavubi says he is living proof that it is possible to forgive. He says he has learned that the thousands in jail for their part in the genocide were puppets of a power-hungry elite, that with good governance Rwanda can and will recover. "All the things that happened, they were not because of the population," he said, the machete scars visible across his skull. "It was because of bad politics. The majority were taught to kill the minority for their own political power. Now we have good governance, they are ready to reconcile people and show why it was so bad."

BBC 22 Aug 2003 Profiles: Kagame's opponents By Robert Walker BBC, Kigali Three opposition candidates have dared to challenge President Paul Kagame in Rwanda's first presidential polls since the 1994 genocide. Faustin Twagiramungu President Kagame's main rival for the Rwanda's presidency is independent candidate Faustin Twagiramungu. Mr Twagiramungu stresses the importance of national unity Born in 1945 in the western province of Cyangugu, Mr Twagiramungu went on to attend university in Canada. He was an advocate of political change under President Juvenal Habyarimana regime - calling for the freeing of political parties in 1990. When this occurred the following year, Mr Twagiramungu was among those who revived the Republican Democratic Movement (MDR), the party of Rwanda's first president, Gregoire Kayibanda. Escaped death Mr Twagiramungu became the leader of MDR party in 1992, strongly opposing the Habyarimana regime and the Hutu extremists within his own MDR party. He narrowly escaped death himself when the genocide was unleashed in April 1994. Mr Twagiramungu became prime minister of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led transitional government in July 1994. He resigned the following year, after differences with Mr Kagame's RPF, and spent eight years in exile in Belgium, before his return to Rwanda in June this year. Mending fences Like Mr Kagame, Mr Twagiramungu is stressing the importance of national unity. But he is also calling for new directions in foreign policy, including mending of fences with neighbouring Uganda and DR Congo, and has made populist calls for fairer taxes and reducing unemployment. He is critical of what he says is RPF repression. During his campaign, Mr Twagiramungu has called for the release of jailed former Rwandan president, Pasteur Bizimungu, and for Rwanda's king to be allowed to return from exile. He has also demanded the government to explain the fate of certain individuals who have disappeared. Rwanda's main opposition presidential candidate, keen of the king's return and wants mend fences with DR Congo and Uganda. Alivera Mukabaramba Born in the central Rwanda in 1960, Dr Alivera Mukabaramba trained as a doctor in Russia. She practised medicine in Rwanda before entering politics. Dr Mukabaramba, the first woman presidential candidate in Rwandan history, is standing on the ticket of the newly formed Party for Progress and Concord (PPC). She was a member of the Democratic Republican Movement (MDR) before moves to ban that party earlier this year. Low profile Dr Mukabaramba then jumped ship with several MDR colleagues to launch the PPC, in time for the presidential elections. She had a low political profile before her presidential bid and even during the campaign has left most of the talking to PPC campaign chairman, Dr Christian Marara. Many see Dr Marara, head of Rwanda's post office, as the real driving force behind the party. The PPC has set out a platform of policies calculated to have voter appeal. Free universal education, lower taxes, and greater gender equity - among them. But the party has received little public support in its campaign meetings. Jean Nepomuscene Nayinzira Independent candidate, Jean Nepomuscene Nayinzira, is the veteran among the presidential hopefuls. Mr Nayinzira promotes security and beliefs in God Born in 1943 in Gisenyi Province, Mr Nayanzira, was a member of assassinated former Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana's MRNDD (Republican National Movement for Democracy and Development) party. He founded the Christian Democrat Party (PDC) when multipartyism was introduced in 1991. Mr Nyanzira became a minister in the post genocide transitional government, and later a member of parliament, where he resigned from parliament following an investigation into alleged 'unworthy' behaviour, charges he strongly denied. Believer After apparently retiring, he has bounced back to fight for the presidency on a platform which includes promoting unity, security and belief in God. But while the two main candidates, Faustin Twagiramungu and incumbent president Paul Kagame have criss-crossed the country, Mr Nayanzira has taken a low profile in campaigning, eschewing the public rallies of his opponents.

San Francisco Chronicle 23 Aug 2003 Kigali, Rwanda -- As Rwanda heads into its first real multiparty elections on Monday, the tensions that took nearly a million lives in the 1994 genocide here are resurfacing in accusations of ethnic "divisionism" and strong-arm election tactics. President Paul Kagame has accused the main opposition candidate, Faustin Twagiramungu, of playing the ethnic card by talking of "Hutus" and "Tutsis" -- words that have been practically banned from the political arena. "It will be a sin if you go back to the days of division politics," Kagame, the candidate of the ruling Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), warned attendees at a rally Sunday in the capital, Kigali. But Twagiramungu, a moderate Hutu who is running as an independent, charges that Kagame is using such accusations to create a "environment of fear." Twagiramungu's campaign statements have been denounced by government commissions and lambasted in the government-controlled press. Campaign workers have been harassed by armed men and refused permission to hold rallies. The charge of divisionism is not to be taken lightly in this country, where the majority Hutu tribe slaughtered 800,000 of the minority Tutsi and their Hutu sympathizers nearly 10 years ago, and where the Hutus still constitute 85 percent of the population. Rwandan law defines divisionism as attempts by anyone -- particularly political candidates -- to distinguish between Rwandans on the basis of ethnicity. But Twagiramungu said in an interview: "Divisionism these days means that you are not behind the RPF -- nothing more." Kagame, Rwanda's strongman since 1994, has been running a well-organized campaign in this nation of 8 million. His party's red-white-and-blue flags, hats and T-shirts are ubiquitous. His rallies draw up to 20,000 people, and few here doubt he will win. His challenger operates out of a small apartment with 12 staffers and a single computer. Human rights groups and international observers have expressed mounting concern about Kagame's presidency. In a report last year, the International Crisis Group, an African affairs policy group, wrote: "The RPF wields almost exclusive military, political and economic control and tolerates no criticism or challenge to its authority." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher issued a statement Thursday that subtly chided both men's campaigns by expressing concern about "recent reports of intimidation, harassment and the use of ethnicity as a means of inciting political division." Kagame, 47, has sought to focus the campaign on the RPF's achievements since it assumed power in 1994 -- bringing stability to Rwanda, improving the infrastructure and defending the country's borders. The RPF enjoys pointing out that Twagiramungu, who served as prime minister for a year after the genocide and then went into exile in Belgium, has done little for the country in eight years. Although the RPF is perceived as a primarily Tutsi party, it has prominent Hutu members and bills itself as a party that incorporates all ethnic groups. With nerves still raw from the genocide, avoiding explicit appeals to Hutus or Tutsis is essential, said Tito Rutaremara, a key RPF campaign organizer. "Saying you are Hutu or Tutsi is like saying you are black or white," he said. "If you say, 'Elect me because I'm black and he's white,' that's divisionism." Rutaremara maintains that the differences between the two peoples, who share the same language and culture, are artificial and should not play a role in political life. Kagame rarely if ever mentions the word "Hutu" or "Tutsi" in public. Twagiramungu, 58, who opposed the genocide and only managed to escape it himself by being wrapped in a tarpaulin and smuggled out of the country by U.N. forces, argues that the RPF's policy of denying ethnicity disguises the fact that the regime is essentially Tutsi. More important, Twagiramungu has dared to speak of the need to "prosecute all crimes" arising from the genocide and the wars it spawned in Rwanda and neighboring Congo. This statement is code -- plainly understood by all Rwandans -- for bringing to justice Tutsi members of the RPF who human rights groups believe murdered tens of thousands of Hutus in an orgy of revenge killings after the genocide. More than 100,000 Hutus who took part in the genocide have been jailed, and many are still facing prosecution in village courts and at the international war crimes tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. But very few Tutsis have been jailed for the revenge killings that followed -- a fact that has produced a seething, if quiet, resentment among Hutus. To address these simmering tensions, Twagiramungu has proposed a truth and reconciliation commission like the one formed in South Africa after apartheid. "There are means of dissipating hate," he said. "There are ways to live together." His pleas to debate ethnic questions have put him in the crosshairs of the Kagame government. Shortly before he started his campaign, several people who were laying the groundwork for a new political party were "invited in" for questioning at the police station; they have spent virtually every day there since. In another episode, election authorities ordered the seizure of Twagiramungu's leaflets. Most recently, the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, a powerful panel that runs re-education camps for former Hutu soldiers and is supposed to be nonpartisan, ripped into Twagiramungu and threatened legal action against him for his "divisionist" statements. "Twagiramungu must stop dividing people and using dangerous words in his campaign," the panel said in a communique. Twagiramungu believes that the RPF is behind these surreptitious efforts to stifle his campaign because he commands respect as a former prime minister. His opponents are trying not only to shut down his campaign, he says, but also to send an intimidating message to voters. "They have to terrorize people into not working with me," he said.

BBC 26 Aug 2003 Rwanda's lingering ethnic tensions By Mark Doyle BBC, World Affairs Correspondent Some of Twagiramungu's relatives were killed in the genocide The leader of the Rwandan opposition, Faustin Twagiramungu, says he rejects the result of Monday's election won by sitting President Paul Kagame, calling it "Stalinist". Mr Twagirimungu is a member of the majority ethnic Hutu group. Radical Hutus led the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis in 1994 before a mainly Tutsi rebel army, then led by Mr Kagame, took power. But, although he is Hutu, Mr Twagiramungu opposed the genocide and members of his own family were killed because of his stance. 'Divisionism' The vast majority of Rwandans are Hutu, and a large proportion of them seem to have voted for the Tutsi Paul Kagame. Many Hutus voted for Kagame Mr Kagame's supporters say this is a tribute to his message of reconciliation; the opposition leader Faustin Twagiramungu says it is a result of intimidation. In the campaigning for this election ethnicity was not allowed to be a public factor. Anyone who hinted at it was accused by the Kagame government of "divisionism". From the opposition's point of view this was political code for saying that Hutus who sought to oppose President Kagame were complicit in the genocide or planning another. Iron reconciliation In Mr Twagiramungu's case this is unfair because members of his family were victims in the killings. Memories of the genocide remain fresh But it is a measure of the political effect the genocide continues to have that almost any Hutu mobilising opposition support can be accused in this way. In a sense this is inevitable. If some of the radical Hutus who committed the genocide had been allowed to return home unpunished and re-organise themselves, there is no doubt that violence would re-occur. Hence the implicit message from Mr Kagame that as well as preaching reconciliation he will rule with an iron fist when necessary. This may be inevitable but it means the prospect of normal political life in Rwanda is still a long way off.

New Vision (Kampala) ANALYSIS 27 Aug 2003 Tutsi-Hutu Factor Still Dogs Rwanda Politics Asuman Bisiika Kampala Over four million Rwandans are expected to have cast their votes on August 25 in a Presidential Election viewed by many as an opportunity for the nation to rediscover herself after the infamous 1994 genocide. This election was not about which candidate was popular; it was about common sense. It is therefore instructive that Paul Kagame, who comes from the minority Tutsi ethnic group that is out-numbered by the Hutu in a five-to-one ratio, was widely expected to win. However, even without having to consider the advantages of incumbency, a loyal army and other factors, Kagame was still the best candidate, given the circumstances. Faustin Twagiramungu, Kagame's main challenger, comes from the majority Hutu. His political arguments, though convincing, seemed hypothetical and drawn away from the reality on the ground. Kagame is uncharitable to people who put an ethnic tag to the candidates or all Rwandans. In a BBC interview immediately after addressing his last campaign rally on Saturday August 23, Kagame said it was wrong for foreigners to continue referring to Rwandans as Hutu or Tutsi. "We are Rwandans of Rwanda not Hutu or Tutsi," he said. And yet, in spite of Kagame's repugnance to what he calls ethnic divisions, the mutual mistrust between the Hutu and Tutsi is real. And there is no indication that this mistrust can be wished away by forceful rhetoric or gestures by politicians or the threat of police questioning. The problem of Rwanda is a problem of socio-political justice. It only takes on an ethnic factor as a rallying point. Whereas it is not good to go the Burundi way where political parties openly identify themselves with ethnicity, forceful pursuit of national unity does not seem to be the most appropriate solution to ethnic mistrust. The idea of unity-in-diversity founded on mutual respect and appreciation of divergent political views can be explored. It is worthless to say you are uniting people (with a history of ethnic political violence by the way) when all political disagreements are interpreted by the government as being ethnically motivated. Whoever wins this election should know that his legitimacy is not limited to electoral victory but also in how he reacts to popular demands. The winner should therefore not see himself as a victor but as someone who is challenged to build national unity on the foundation of mutual respect and confidence. Kagame of course is better placed for this challenge because he has the advantage of background; he has after all been handling it since 1994. But he should know that the challenge is more than just telling Rwandans that they are Rwandans, not Hutus and Tutsis. The challenge calls for openness in all spheres of national life, particularly political openness. The civil society, particularly the media, should be allowed to pursue ideals of a free society without state interference. The two main candidates had their strengths. Kagame is the leader of the RPF that stopped the genocide while Twagiramungu was the embodiment of civil opposition. It is Twagiramungu's political activism that kept the fire of civil politics burning even before Kagame's RPF attacked Habyarimana's government. His political views should not be wished away as ethnic diatribes. "Twagiramungu's political record is clear. He fought Habyarimana who was a Hutu. He will continue fighting dictatorships, whether led by Tutsi or Hutu. In fact, it is Kagame who is causing ethnic division. When a Tutsi disagrees with him, Kagame calls him a coward whose contribution to the RPF war was minimal. When a Hutu disagrees with him, he is accused of playing the politics of ethnicity," said Twagiramungu's supporter. Kagame derives moral authority from the fact that he is the leader of the group that single-handedly stopped the genocide. His belief in a strong state, however, sometimes borders on the undemocratic. Any ideas that are not in conformity with state policy are viewed as anti-people and of course seen through ethnic lenses. And therein lies the weakness of unity and reconciliation in Rwanda. There is no opportunity to disagree with the government within Rwanda. Many former ministers are either in prison or exile. Notwithstanding his poor health, former President Bizimungu is now rotting in prison. But tempers should calm down after the elections because life must go on. Whoever wins, this should be seen as the beginning of the future. He should know that the stability of the country depends on how he reacts to legitimate demands for socio-political justice and charity.

New Vision (Kampala) August 27, 2003 Kagame Gets 95% Kigali Incumbent President Paul Kagame won 95.05 percent of the vote in Rwanda's first presidential polls since a 1994 genocide, according to provisional results released by the election commission on Tuesday. The candidate regarded as Kagame's strongest challenger, Faustin Twagiramungu, won 3.62 percent and a third candidate, Jean Nepomuscene Nayinzira, had 1.33 percent. Rwanda's electoral commission said Kagame had won the first multiparty elections since the country got independence from Belgium in 1962. Twagiramungu rejected the result. "The winner is His Excellency Paul Kagame," Cheikh Mussa Fazil, the commission's vice-president, told Reuters, adding that all returns from Monday's voting had now been counted. Twagiramungu, said he could not accept provisional results giving Kagame 95.05 percent of the vote. "I do not accept this election...That's not democracy. They are trying to have a Stalinist style one-party system. Almost 100 percent? That's not possible. I will write a letter to the Supreme Court." Both Twagiramungu and the third candidate Jean Nepomuscene Nayinzira have said their supporters have been harassed by Kagame's agents and voters were intimidated into choosing him. Police say they are probing all complaints of harassment that they have received but have not found any evidence so far of such action by Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Kagame denies harassment and says Twagiramungu has used ethnic propaganda to win votes. Twagiramungu denies that charge. Earlier, Kagame told an overnight victory rally at the capital's Amahoro (Peace) stadium. "This is a true victory, irreversible, and not a surprise. "Our victory should serve as a lesson to the outside world, that Rwanda is on the right path," Kagame said, holding aloft his fist in a gesture of triumph. "Our victory means that even our opponents should join us in building our country." Analysts and human rights groups say that while Kagame supporters are happy to voice their opinions, others are too nervous to speak freely. Observers said voting passed off peacefully, although a European Union observer raised concerns about allegations of intimidation of opposition supporters during campaigning. Provisional results released earlier from some 50 out of Rwanda's 106 districts showed Kagame had won 94.3 percent.

Independent UK 27 Aug 2003 Kagame rival calls election 'Stalinist' By Declan Walsh in Kigali 27 August 2003 The Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, tightened his grip on power, winning a landslide victory in Monday's controversial poll and drubbing his main rival, who rejected the result. Early counts gave Mr Kagame, the one-time rebel leader who ended the 1994 genocide, 95 per cent of the vote compared with just 3.62 per cent for the Hutu politician, Faustin Twagiramungu. Mr Twagiramungu described the figures as "ridiculous", saying: "They are trying to have a Stalinist-style one-party system. I do not accept this election." Mr Kagame has dominated politics since seizing power nine years ago, ending the slaughter of more than 500,000 Tutsis and Hutus. Supporters said the election was a step towards reconciliation but critics said he prized power over democracy. Mr Kagame told a 3am rally in Kigali's Amahoro (peace) stadium that his victory "should be a message to the outside world that Rwanda is on the right path". The win was more remarkable because Mr Kagame is a Tutsi and 85 per cent of Rwandans are Hutu. Mr Twagiramungu's officials and supporters complained of being harassed and imprisoned. Mr Kagame said they were promoting ethnic "divisionism", a reference to fears of further genocide. Police said they had not found any proof of harassment. Foreign election monitors are due to report today. Mr Twagiramungu said he expected to be imprisoned for complaining. Several other Hutu politicians, including Pasteur Bizimungu (the President from 1994 to 2000) are being detained.

IRIN 28 Aug 2003 Polls a new step forward, but EU notes irregularities KIGALI, 28 August (IRIN) - Rwanda's first post-genocide presidential election, though peaceful, was marred by numerous irregularities, the EU Observer Mission in Rwanda reported on Wednesday. "I would consider the election to be free and democratic but as far as we can judge, the optimal conditions were probably not entirely met," Colette Flesch, head of the EU mission, told reporters in Kigali, the capital. Reading from a prepared statement, she said: "There was illegal manipulation of the voter lists. There were significant differences between the number of counted ballot papers and the number of people on the voters' register, which could probably mean that there incidences of ballot stuffing." The EU delegation also reported that the run-up to the polls was characterised by intimidation of supporters of the main opposition candidate, Faustin Twagiramungu, and "pressure" on them to vote for Rwanda Patriotic Front candidate Paul Kagame. "People handing out ballot papers were in some polling stations indicating to the voters who to vote for," Flesch said. "In other cases Kagame's representatives took charge of the polling stations, intimidating both the electoral officials and the voters themselves." Kagame won 95.05 percent of the votes, Twagiramungu 3.62 percent and Jean Nepomuscene Nayinzira 1.33 percent. Twagiramungu and Nayinzira have also claimed that Kagame's agents have harassed their supporters and intimidated them into voting for the incumbent. However Flesch, Twagiramungu and Nayinzira did not say what form the intimidation took. The EU mission also said that contrary to the law, Kagame used government vehicles and buildings during his campaigns. The EU accused Kagame of buying voters with promises of livestock, such as goats and cows, during the campaign. Twagiramungu welcomed the EU report but said: "The report tells the truth but I doubt it will have any impact. There seems to be a wide approval of Kagame's victory on the diplomatic front." But the National Electoral Commission dismissed the report accusing the EU of bias. "The report is only one sided which is based on unrehearsed material. Why couldn't these observers consult us before making the findings public?" Christopher Karangwa, president of the commission, told reporters. "There's no doubt that this report is geared at damaging the transparency with which our elections were conducted," he said. The South African and African Union observer teams endorsed the polls as "free and fair and a reflection of the will of Rwandan people". Also, in a wide-ranging interview granted the privately owned Ugandan newspaper, the Monitor, Kagame denied charges of an unfair campaign and poll. "You go to villages and ask them; if you find any district that says it predominantly voted for Twagiramungu, if you find a village complaining how did we lose, then you have a reason to suspect something. "Or if they say here there was something like rigging, then you have reason to suspect and that can be investigated. So, for me, it is a very straightforward thing," Kagame told the Kampala daily.

NYT August 30, 2003 BOOKS OF THE TIMES | 'THE GREAT LAKES OF AFRICA' A Deep Crisis, Shallow Roots By JOHN SHATTUCK THE GREAT LAKES OF AFRICA Two Thousand Years of History By Jean-Pierre Chrétien Translated by Scott Straus Zone Books, 503 pages. $36. In central Africa, a genocidal war has raged for nearly a decade, costing more than four million lives in Rwanda, Burundi and Congo and precipitating the worst humanitarian crisis in more than half a century. Central Africa shares this gruesome recent past with southeastern Europe, where in the 1990's the Balkans were swept by a wave of killing and "ethnic cleansing." In both cases, genocide was widely misunderstood to be the inevitable product of "ancient hatreds." Jean-Pierre Chrétien, a French historian with vast experience in the Great Lakes region of Africa, has undertaken the formidable task of tracing the roots of the region's violence and exposing the ideological myths on which the ancient-hatreds theory rests. In a monumental study that marches through two millenniums before approaching central Africa's contemporary agony, Mr. Chrétien punctures the sense of inevitability that permeates our thinking about the Rwandan genocide. Along the way, he illuminates the responsibility of a wide range of actors from the colonial period through the present. As warlords continue today to compete for power in a thoroughly ravaged Congo, Mr. Chrétien helps us understand how this all came about and why it matters that we know. The story begins with the geography of the central African highlands. Despite its equatorial location, Mr. Chrétien says, "the region is blessed with good climate, is rich with diverse soils and plants, and has prospered thanks to some strong basic techniques: the association of cattle keeping and agriculture; the diffusion of the banana a millennium ago; and the mastery of iron metallurgy two millennia ago." In this healthy environment, complex social structures evolved in which the idea of kingship and strong central authority took hold and flourished for more than 300 years before the arrival of colonial powers in the mid-19th century. The fertile lands around the Great Lakes were settled by indigenous Hutu cultivators, while the more mountainous areas were used for the raising of cattle by Tutsi pastoralists. In the early kingdoms of the region, agricultural and pastoral systems were integrated because they controlled complementary ecological zones and served mutually beneficial economic interests. As Mr. Chrétien argues convincingly, nowhere at this time could the "social dialectic be reduced" to a Hutu-Tutsi cleavage. That began to change in the 19th century. As social structures became more complex, the success of the central African kingdoms depended increasingly on territorial expansion through raiding, colonizing and annexing of neighboring lands. At the same time, Tutsi cattle raisers in search of more land began to emerge as a new elite and a driving force behind expansion. The kingdoms of Rwanda and Uganda were particularly expansionist, but were soon thwarted by the arrival of colonial powers. The immediate effect of colonialism was to reorient the stratified and dynamic societies of the Great Lakes around competing poles of collaboration with, and resistance to, the new foreign occupiers. Since these remote societies had been untouched by the slave trade that ravaged Africa's coastal regions, they presented the Europeans with a range of robust aristocracies and royal courts to win over. At this crucial point, the issue of race entered the picture. Obsessed by their theories of racial classification, 19th- and early-20th-century Europeans rewrote the history of central Africa. Imposing their own racist projection of superiority on Tutsi "Hamito-Semites" and a corresponding inferiority on Hutu "Bantu Negroes," missionary and colonial historians began to attribute the rise of the Great Lakes kingdoms to the arrival of a superior race of "black Europeans" from the north. Mr. Chrétien quotes many examples of this toxic "scientific ethnicism," which the Belgians purveyed to their central African colonies until just before independence. A typical example from a colonial school newspaper in Burundi in 1948 states that "the preponderance of the Caucasian type is deeply marked" among the Tutsi, making them "worthy of the title that the explorers gave them: aristocratic Negroes." Anointed by the Belgians as their administrators and collaborators in Rwanda and Burundi, the Tutsis, who never constituted more than 18 percent of the population, were presented with a poisoned chalice combining ethnic elitism with economic favoritism. In educating their chosen elites, the Belgians were relentlessly racist. Starting in 1928, all primary schools in Rwanda were segregated, while at the secondary-school level Rwandan (and later Burundian) Tutsis were three to four times better represented than Hutus. Not surprisingly, the majority Hutu population chafed at this discrimination, and in the late 1950's a Hutu counter-elite began calling for the end of "Tutsi feudalism." On the eve of independence, the growing Hutu rebellion was backed, in a catastrophic reversal, by the Roman Catholic Church and the colonial administration, which now claimed that the Hutu majority represented "democratic values." The outcome, as Mr. Chrétien shows, was that "the new Rwanda declared its national past `Tutsi' and thus despicable." The post-colonial period was marked by a zero-sum ethnic fundamentalism that destroyed the social fabric. Mr. Chrétien argues that "the generation catapulted to the top of the former kingdoms thus squandered the opportunity offered by independence." The deep ethnic insecurities created by European rewriting of African history made the competing ethnic groups far more concerned about their own survival than about the task of nation-building. As a result, he writes, the elites were "haunted by a passion — which some admitted and others covered up — about the supremacy of their ethnic group." In Rwanda, the Hutu revolution led to a series of pogroms against the Tutsi minority, culminating in the 1994 genocide. Thus, modern hatreds, not ancient ones, destroyed Rwanda. Far from being inbred in the country's ancient social structures, these destructive animosities were created during its recent colonial past. Even then, it took the manipulation of ethnic identity by the country's new elites to produce the atmosphere of fear and recrimination that expanded through the Rwandan countryside and later into vast reaches of Congo in the genocidal war that has gripped the region for nearly a decade. In this respect, the Rwandans were no different from Slobodan Milosevic, Franjo Tudjman and the other authors of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. But the world has so far done far less to confront them, and Mr. Chrétien's extraordinary book prompts one to wonder whether the reason is rooted in the racism reflected in the violent rewriting of central African history

BBC 30 Aug 2003 Rwanda tries to heal its wounds By Andrew Harding BBC correspondent in Rwanda About 800,000 people died in Rwanda's 100-day genocide in 1994 Noel Kayanda is a small man with the creased face and blank expression of someone who is used to doing what he is told. Right now, he is making bricks - about 500 are already drying in the sun on a patch of grass. Noel makes two at a time, squeezing the wet clay he has dug from the riverbed into a simple wooden mould. We are about half an hour's drive east of the Rwandan capital, Kigali, in a valley surrounded by small green hills. It is a warm day and Noel's bare arms and chest are covered in mud. Dark past Nine years ago - in April 1994 - Noel hacked a woman and a 15-year-old girl to death with a machete. Rwanda's 100-day genocide was at its peak. He did it quickly on the path just outside his cottage halfway up one of the hills. I had no choice. I took my machete and I killed the girl and then I killed the woman Noel Kayanda That memory will not fade, he says, slowly wiping the mud off his hands. I'd found Noel by going along to the nearby town of Kabuga, and asking at the mayor's office if anyone knew of any confessed Hutu killers who had recently been released from prison under a new amnesty scheme. Kabuga's executive secretary, Valentin Rurangwa, checked my documents and accreditation thoroughly, then smiled and said: "Certainly, I have one of them working for me right now - making bricks." Valentin is tall, and thin, with delicate features - a classic Tutsi - the minority which bore the brunt of the genocide. "Cut down the tall trees," was one of the chilling slogans of the Hutu extremists who forced men like Noel to become killers. I ask Noel if we can follow him back to his home to talk more. His boss, Valentin, answers for him - "Of course you can. He'll do what he's told." Regret So we all squat, awkwardly, in Noel's tiny, empty mud hut. An afternoon rain shower rattles on the tin roof like a wave of applause. Noel explains how a truck turned up in the village of Nyagukombe nine years ago, full of soldiers. They had brought the woman and girl with them. Rwandans recently voted in the incumbent President, Paul Kagame, for a seven-year term First they told Noel's brother to kill the woman. When he refused, the soldiers shot him. Then they bayoneted Noel. He shows me the scar on his left side just below the ribs. "I had no choice," says Noel. "So I took my machete and I killed the girl and then I killed the woman. "I did not know them. "The soldiers told me to stay in the village, but I ran away," he said. Eventually, Noel ended up fleeing westwards into neighbouring Zaire - now called Congo. His wife and seven-year-old son were with him. So were several hundred thousand fellow Hutus - running away from a rebel army which had come to end the genocide, and to wreak vengeance on the killers. First, Noel's wife died of starvation in Zaire's jungles. Then his son. "So I came back home," he says. "And went to prison." Rehabilitation Two months ago, Noel was released. Rwanda's new government is trying to speed up the process of reconciliation between Hutus and Tutsis, and take the weight off a prison system still struggling with 100,000 genocide suspects. To qualify, Noel had confessed to his crime, and asked for forgiveness. Rwanda is reinventing itself as a country at peace He still doesn't know the names of his victims. His neighbours seem happy to see him return. A radio blares next door. Children play in the banana grove. Two old men cycle by - sacks of grain bulging over their back wheels. Jacqueline Mukobwa, a Tutsi woman living down the road, lost more than 30 relatives during the genocide. "But it is OK now for men like Noel to come back," she says. "So long as they ask for forgiveness." Tough job During the past few years Rwanda's Government has pursued an aggressive campaign of what you might call de-ethnicisation. People are told to think of themselves not as Hutus or Tutsis, but simply as Rwandans. Judging by this week's presidential election result, it has been a reasonably successful policy. Genocide leaders are still prosecuted at the tribunal, but Rwanda is pardoning lesser participants Over 90% of voters backed the incumbent, Paul Kagame - who happens to be a Tutsi. But the genocide has left a complicated legacy. You can't just wish away generations of ethnic rivalry. Nor can you ignore the moral ambiguities which still fester in every village. Is Noel simply a killer, or is he too, in his own way, a victim? The rain has stopped, and we walk out of Noel's hut. His boss, Valentin, heads back to his office, and Noel points down the hill to a small banana grove. "That's my land," he says. He is shaking with anger. "It was stolen from me when I was in prison. By a Tutsi. "I've offered to share it with him, but he says no." .

Sierra Leone

NEws 24 SA 31 July 2003 Papers lash out at Sankoh 31/07/2003 22:32 - (SA) Print article email story Related Articles Foday Sankoh: 'I'm God' Foday Sankoh dies Psychiatric tests for rebel chief Tribunal indicts rebel leader S Leone's Sankoh in court Freetown - The death of rebel leader Foday Sankoh was splashed across the Sierra Leone press on Thursday, with many newspapers openly displaying their hatred for the man who led a brutal 10-year terror campaign in the west African country. "May Sankoh's soul rot in hell," wrote the Independent Observer while the Daily News opined: "Sankoh was a liability to this nation, a complete bastard." The 70-year-old former head of the notorious Revolutionary United Front (RUF), who had suffered a stroke last year and was partially paralysed, died of natural causes shortly before midnight Tuesday at a Freetown hospital. Sankoh was in the custody of a UN-backed war crimes tribunal, which indicted him in March for crimes including murder, rape, acts of terror, enslavement, looting and burning, sexual slavery and conscription of children into an armed force during the 1991-2001 war. "For the better part of his life, he lived a savage life. His lust for power and pride saw him hatch one of the most brutal guerrilla warfares ever in modern history," wrote the Daily News. The daily Awoko newspaper carried the headline "The Lion is Dead" and showed a picture of Sankoh hugging his Senegalese wife Fatou with a caption reading "when the times were good" next to another picture of Sankoh wheelchair-bound above the caption "when it became bad". The Concord Times reported that Sankoh's death is to be investigated, while the New Storm newspaper quoted Sankoh's wife as suggesting that the rebel leader may have been murdered. - Sapa-AFP

AP 1 Aug 2003 Sierra Leone war criminal dies in UN custody after stroke AP Friday, Aug 01, 2003,Page 5 Foday Sankoh, an indicted war criminal whose Sierra Leone rebels routinely hacked off the limbs of men, women and infants during an infamous 10-year campaign, died in UN custody at a Freetown hospital, the war-crimes court said on Wednesday. He was 65. Sankoh died late on Tuesday, said David Hecht, spokesman for the UN-Sierra Leone war crimes court trying him. The imprisoned guerrilla leader, who reportedly suffered a mild stroke after his capture in early 2000, died of natural causes and was "granted a peaceful end that he denied to so many others," said a statement from the office of the court's chief prosecutor, American David Crane. Prosecutors promised a post-mortem to determine his cause of death. "God has taken his course," said El Hadji Lamin Jusu Jarka, an official at a Freetown camp helping to provide housing and training to Sankoh's mutilated victims. "And God will judge him." Jarka was one of Sankoh's victims -- his wrists are capped by metal claws. Sankoh trained in the Cold War guerrilla camps of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi and launched his insurgency in 1991, bent on winning control of Sierra Leone's government and diamond fields. His drugged, drunken fighters increasingly targeted civilians by the late 1990s, killing, raping and kidnapping civilians and burning homes. Prosecutors estimate the death toll at 75,000. Sankoh's machete-wielding rebels made a grisly specialty of cutting off the hands, feet, lips and ears of men, women and children, including babies. "This is a man who terrorized his people and almost destroyed Sierra Leone," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in New York. "In the end, he died an indicted war criminal, a lonely and a broken man." Sankoh, who repeatedly broke peace accords, was arrested in May 2000 after his fighters gunned down more than a dozen peace demonstrators outside his Freetown home. After his capture, his health and sanity deteriorated rapidly. Decisive military intervention by former colonial ruler Britain, neighboring Guinea and the UN crushed the rebels, and Sierra Leone formally declared the war over early last year and held peaceful elections. Sankoh's rebel group stood candidates for parliament but received no seats. Amputees used metal hooks on the stumps of their arms to shove their votes into ballot boxes. The Sierra Leone government hoped to see Sankoh face the war crimes court to explain his "barbaric acts," presidential spokesman Kanji Daramy said on Wednesday. Sankoh's testimony might have helped the West African country's people understand "what was happening in his mind, for him to have committed so many atrocities," Daramy said. Sankoh, who also faced charges in the national court, appeared ill and disoriented almost from the start of his imprisonment. "I'm a god," the handcuffed ex-warlord, disheveled and in matted white dreadlocks, told the court in June last year. "I'm the inner god. I'm the leader of Sierra Leone."

South Africa

SAPA 4 Aug 2003 SA doctors 'guilty of genocide'? Charlene Smith | Durban 04 August 2003 13:27 The government will save R30 by not giving Nevirapine to save a baby's life, but spend R600 a month thereafter on treating the HIV-infected child, a leading paediatrician warned on Monday. Dr Ashraf Coovadia of the SA Paediatric Association was responding to an Inkatha Freedom Party call for doctors to do more to protest against the Medical Control Council threat to delist nevirapine for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTC). The MCC has given manufacturer, Boehringer Ingleheim, 90 days to present more safety and efficacy data. The MCC stance has been widely criticised. IFP health spokesperson, Dr Ruth Rabinowitz said: "It is not enough for the Medical Association South Africa (Masa) to compare South Africa's Aids policy to euthanasia. "Doctors are in the front-line of implementation of policies that are clearly unethical, dangerous, unscientific and damaging to public health. It is high time they began to implement their commitment to serving patients by boycotting the current policies." Coovadia said he was not sure what more doctors could do. "We make a noise whenever and however we can," he said. Coovadia, who is a paediatrician at Johannesburg's Coronation hospital, said nevirapine had reduced the rate of transmission to babies from HIV positive mothers to nine percent at that hospital. "Around a quarter of new paediatric admissions are HIV-infected and around 40% to 50% of the children lying in our wards are HIV infected. "They stay in hospital longer and have more complications. It costs R300 a month for medications to care for an HIV infected child, and R600 a month if one includes the costs of medical monitoring and care," Coovadia said. A single dose of nevirapine to mother and child to prevent HIV transmission, however, costs R30, although at present government receives the medications from Boeringer Ingleheim for free for the next three years. It is estimated that around 8 000 babies are born to HIV infected mothers each month in South Africa. Few live beyond the age of four and they need repeated hospital admissions during their short lifespan. Rabinowitz called for "a revolt on behalf of the entire medical fraternity so that we are not found guilty of complicity with genocide". "Anonymous testing of women for HIV, the refusal to acknowledge the value of nevirapine in preventing mother to child transmission, the refusal to accept $73 million (R548-million) for HIV programmes in KwaZulu-Natal and the refusal to provide anti-retrovirals top the list of human rights abuses by government," Rabinowitz said. "The South African government is determined to have its way. Doctors of conscience should not assist them. "Life, it appears, has become disposable in the rainbow nation." - Sapa

Sudan

IRIN 22 Aug 2003 Bashir urges negotiating teams to reach agreement "soon" NAIROBI, 22 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - Sudanese President Umar Hassan al-Bashir has called on the negotiating teams at peace talks underway in Nanyuki, Kenya, to conduct the deliberations in an atmosphere of mutual trust and reach a final peace agreement soon, the Kenyan ministry of foreign affairs announced. The statement was issued on Thursday after Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka arrived home from a two-day visit to Egypt, during which he made a stopover in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum and held talks with Bashir. According to the statement, Bashir reiterated his "faith and trust" in the Kenya-led Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiative to restore peace in Sudan. Noting that the negotiations taking place in Nanyuki had reached a critical stage, the statement added that the Kenyan government was keen to see the peace initiative "bear fruit for the sake of stability and development in the region". The ministry statement was issued as the mediator in the talks, Gen Lazarus Sumbeiywo of Kenya, was reported to be holding separate meetings with the government and rebel teams in Nanyuki to get them back to the negotiation table, after the talks were postponed indefinitely on Monday. The two sides have reportedly failed to agree on an agenda for negotiations. Sudan analyst David Mozersky from the International Crisis Group (ICG) told IRIN on Friday if the Nanyuki talks ended without a breakthrough, "this does not mean that the process is dead, unless something drastic happens". "Instead, it means that the mediators and observers will re-group, and join together to push a new strategy," he said. "What is important is that the international community stays committed to the process, and applies pressure on both parties to keep the process moving forward, and prepares more significant incentives and pressures as the endgame draws near." He noted that the disagreement between the negotiating teams was centred around the Sudanese government's rejection of a draft document signed in July in the Kenyan town of Nakuru. "The SPLA [rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army] is demanding that the Nakuru draft remain the sole basis for any negotiations," Mozersky said. "The government has strongly rejected the draft, and is trying to find alternate ways of continuing the discussions, without formally accepting the draft." "The mediators are trying to find creative solutions that can somehow satisfy both parties, so that the substantive discussions can continue," he added. The peace talks resumed on 10 August after stalling in July because of the government's rejection of the draft accord. The Sudanese government said at the time that its opposition to the draft was unlikely to scuttle the peace process. Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN on 12 August that although his government had rejected the draft as a basis for negotiation, he was hopeful that the talks would result in a "more reasonable" draft.

Tanzania

WP 9 Aug 2003 U.N. Prosecutor Fights To Keep Her Job Intact By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, August 9, 2003; Page A12 UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 -- The United Nations' chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, made a last-ditch effort today to hang on to her job as head of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, warning that a proposal by Secretary General Kofi Annan to replace her would leave a "leadership vacuum" at the court and "seriously undermine" its independence. In an unusual challenge to the U.N. chief, the Swiss prosecutor said that Annan's July 28 proposal to split her authority over the United Nations' main war tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda to enhance their efficiency would not work. Annan recommended that Del Ponte be allowed to keep her job as prosecutor for the Yugoslav war crimes court for an additional four years once her term expires on Sept. 14, but that a new prosecutor be appointed "in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness" to run the court on Rwanda. "In carrying out my mandate, I have always been led by the fundamental principle of the independence of the prosecutor," Del Ponte told the 15-nation council in a closed-door session. "I strongly believe that the separation of the mandates, at this stage, would seriously undermine that very independence." Del Ponte's advisers said privately that Rwanda and its two closest allies in the council, the United States and Britain, orchestrated the move to replace her to prevent her from prosecuting senior members of the Rwandan military. "Undue pressures took place to push me to abandon certain investigations," Del Ponte told the council. "Although I always considered my task as a prosecutor to be outside the scope of politics, I was unfortunately exposed more than I would have liked to politics." Despite the prosecutor's appeal, the Bush administration said today that it will introduce a resolution early next week that would formally separate supervision of the two courts and establish a new prosecutor for Rwanda. Although some council delegates favored another term for Del Ponte in running both courts, they said they will not oppose the U.N. chief's recommendation, ensuring the easy adoption of the U.S. resolution. A U.S. official maintained that splitting the authority over the courts would increase efficiency and accelerate the completion of the most important cases. The Bush administration is pressing for the Rwanda court to complete its investigations by the end of 2004, and complete all trials by 2008. In outlining her case, Del Ponte said the decision to appoint a new prosecutor would add additional costs to administering the court for Rwanda and "have a detrimental effect" on its ability to wrap up its work by the end of 2008. She also said her deputy, Bongani Christopher Majola of South Africa, is "not well-equipped" to assume her post, suggesting that a lengthy search would be required to find a replacement. The Security Council established the temporary war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in 1994 to try perpetrators of the worst acts of mass killings. More than 500,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda in 1994 by Hutu extremists from the former government. The chief authors of the Rwandan genocide were driven from power by forces loyal to Rwanda's current Tutsi-dominated government. Del Ponte's pursuit of indictments against senior military officers alleged to have committed reprisal killings of Hutu civilians during their military campaign against the perpetrators of genocide has fueled deep resentment against the court. It also raised concerns among U.S. and British officials that an indictment of high-level Rwandan officials could jeopardize stability in the region. The United States organized a meeting in May between the Rwandan government and Del Ponte to strike a deal that would give Rwanda the first shot at investigating and prosecuting senior military officials. "She would hand over this dossier, and we would investigate," said Gerald Gahima, the Rwandan supreme court's general prosecutor. "She would determine whether the investigation was genuine and in good faith, and if she determined that investigation had not been in good faith, she would take it over. This was the agreement we reached." A senior aide of Del Ponte conceded that the meeting took place but said that the U.N. prosecutor refused to endorse the written agreement presented to the two sides for their approval by the U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper.

IRIN 14 Aug 2003 Genocide suspect transferred to UN tribunal © IRIN ICTR building in Arusha, northeastern Tanzania. NAIROBI, 14 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - A former mayor suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was transferred on Wednesday to the Tanzania-based UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) after his arrest in Uganda, the tribunal reported. In a statement, the tribunal said that Juvenal Rugambarara, a former mayor of Bicumi Commune in Kigali Rural Province, was in the ICTR detention facility in the northeastern town of Arusha, awaiting trial for genocide and crimes against humanity. Rugambarara, a physician by profession, is due to make an initial appearance before a judge on Friday, the tribunal said. He faces nine charges that include genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide and three counts of crimes against humanity. He became the Bicumbi mayor in 1993. He allegedly "ordered, instigated, encouraged, aided and abetted the preparation and execution" of crimes against ethnic Tutsis in Bicumbi during the April-June 1994 genocide. The tribunal reported that Rugambarara's arrest brings to 56 the number of people in its custody. The UN Security Council established the tribunal in 1995 to bring to trial alleged perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. The court has so far handed down 12 convictions and one acquittal.

AFP 27 Aug 2003 Six killed in rebel clashes in northern Uganda, children rescued KAMPALA, Aug 27 (AFP) - At least five rebels and a civilian have been killed in clashes in northern Uganda between government forces and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, while up to 60 people were rescued from rebel captivity, an army spokesman said Wednesday. Army spokesman Chris Magezi said two rebels were killed on Tuesday in Obolokome in Kitgum district after the army pursued a group of rebels that had the previous night staged an attack on Kitgum town, while three others were killed in a battle at Omoti in the Lira district. "This brings to 13 the number of rebels killed in the past one week, during which a civilian abductee was killed in crossfire and two soldiers also died," Magezi told AFP by telephone from Lira. He said that up to 60 people, mainly children, were also rescued, some of them girls who were kidnapped in June from Lwara Girls' Secondary School in northeast Uganda. Magezi said that the LRA had made a daring attack on Kitgum town, with the aim of looting foodstuffs, when the army's night patrol units responded. The LRA has been battling government forces in the north of the country since 1988 with a declared aim of replacing President Yoweri Museveni's secular government with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments. But their campaign has been marked by brutality against the civilian population of northern Uganda, continuously abducting the boys for forced recruitment as rebel fighters and girls as sex slaves for rebel commanders. Over 800,000 people have displaced by the rebellion.

IRIN 29 Aug 2003 Security Council appoints separate prosecutor for ICTR NAIROBI, 29 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - The 15-member UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to create a separate prosecutor's post for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, UN News Service reported. Until now, Swiss lawyer Carla Del Ponte held the post along with that of chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The council split the two jobs saying it was convinced that both tribunals would operate more "efficiently and expeditiously" with their own lead attorneys, UN News reported. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the council to reappoint Del Ponte to the Yugoslav tribunal for a four-year term beginning on 15 September; and for Justice Hassan Jallow, of The Gambia, to head the Rwandan tribunal for the next four years. The deputy prosecutor of the Rwandan tribunal, Bongani Majola, will assume duties of that court until Jallow is sworn in. In its resolution, the council called on both tribunals to ensure the completion of investigations by the end of 2004 and to complete all trials by the end of 2008. All works of the court should be finished in 2010. The Rwandan tribunal was established to investigate and prosecute persons responsible for orchestrating the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed. The body can also prosecute those responsible for human rights abuses. Rwanda has complained about what it said was the slow progress in judging the suspects held in the tribunal's detention facility in Arusha, northeastern Tanzania, and of mismanagement of the court. In turn, Del Ponte has accused the Rwandan government of refusing to provide travel clearance for Rwandans at home to go stand trial at the court. Reports say that the Rwandan government started to invoke these procedures when Del Ponte threatened to prosecute soldiers of the present army, accused of having carried out mass retaliatory killings of Hutus soon after the genocide. In Kigali, while welcoming the Security Council's decision, Rwandan Prosecutor-General Gerald Gahima said, "We need the tribunal to be efficient, expedite trials and be responsive to the aspirations of the victims of genocide."

BBC 29 Aug 2003 New Rwanda prosecutor named Hassan Jallow has worked for Del Ponte A Gambian judge is to be nominated by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as the new chief prosecutor for the Rwanda genocide court. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced Hassan Jallow, 52, a former Gambian Supreme Court judge and solicitor general, as his choice, just hours after the Security Council voted to remove Carla Del Ponte from the role. She had been chief prosecutor for both the Balkans war crimes tribunal and the Rwanda court for four years, but the council decided to split the two posts, which they considered too much work for one person. Del Ponte has led prosecutions at the court in Arusha since 1999 The tribunal, based in Arusha in northern Tanzania, was set up in 1995 to investigate the massacre of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists in 1994. Despite a large budget, 16 judges and 800 members of staff, only eight people have been convicted so far of genocide-related crimes, with one person acquitted. Ms Del Ponte will retain her Balkans position when her initial term of office expires on 14 September. The new prosecutor, who will take charge of cases stemming from the 1994 Rwanda genocide, is currently an appeals judge for the UN-backed court trying war crimes in Sierra Leone. He has also served as a judge on the Balkans tribunal. Mismanagement claims Ms Del Ponte, the former Swiss attorney general, had argued against the split, complaining to the Security Council that she was a victim of undue political pressure from Rwanda, and saying that international justice could be damaged if her duties were shifted. Ms Del Ponte accused the current government of seeking her removal after she tried also to investigate claims that members of the Tutsi-dominated army killed up to 30,000 Hutus, as it took control of Rwanda in the wake of the genocide. GENOCIDE IN RWANDA Rwanda's anger over Del Ponte The Rwandan Government has lobbied hard to have its own prosecutor, but insists it is not responsible for Ms Del Ponte's removal. Rwandans have long argued the International Criminal Tribunal in Arusha has been plagued by mismanagement and a lack of attention from successive prosecutors. Gerald Gahima, Rwanda's Prosecutor General, said people took "strong exception" to the fact that the investigation of almost one million deaths has been made a "part-time job of a prosecutor based on another continent". Mr Annan himself recommended that the jobs be separated. The UN resolution, sponsored by the United States, which the council voted unanimously to support, said the council was convinced that the tribunals "can most efficiently and expeditiously meet their respective responsibilities if each has its own prosecutor". The new resolution also sets out the timetable for completing the work of both the Rwandan and Balkans tribunals by 2010. It urges both tribunals to focus on rounding up and prosecuting leaders and allowing cases involving lower ranking suspects to be transferred to national courts instead.

Uganda

Reuters 14 Aug 2003 Rwanda Genocide Suspect Arrested in Uganda By REUTERS Filed at 6:04 a.m. ET NAIROBI (Reuters) - A Rwandan doctor has been arrested in Uganda and brought to a U.N. tribunal on charges of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed, a court spokesman said on Thursday. Juvenal Rugambarara faces nine charges including genocide and crimes against humanity during the massacres in which ethnic Hutu extremists slaughtered minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates. ``He was arrested by Ugandan authorities on Monday in Uganda and he was transferred to Arusha (Tanzania) yesterday,'' said Roland Amoussouga, a spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, said by telephone. Amoussouga said Ugandan authorities were acting on an arrest warrant issued against Rugambarara in July 2000. His arrest brings to 56 the number of people in the ICTR's custody. Rugambarara is due to make his initial appearance in the Tanzania-based tribunal on August 15. If convicted, he faces a maximum of life imprisonment.

AFP 14 Aug 2003 LRA rebels kill three in northeast Uganda road ambush: army KAMPALA, Aug 14 (AFP) - Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on Thursday killed three people when they ambushed a World Food Programme (WFP) convoy in northeastern Uganda, army spokesman Major Shabaan Bantariza said. Bantariza said the victims were travelling in a convoy of four WFP trucks, which was delivering food supplies to Uganda's drought-stricken Moroto district. "They drove the trucks against our advice and, unfortunately, they fell into an ambush and three of them were killed at a road linking Soroti and Moroto, all in the northeast region," Bantariza said. "We have announced time and again that they don't move on this road until we (the Ugandan army) give them clearance, but we don't know why these people drove on against our advice," he added. The LRA has been waging a 15-year guerilla war against President Yoweri Museveni's secular government, ostensibly to replace it with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments. The group is notorious for its cruelty towards civilians and has been condemned by human rights groups, church leaders and the UN aid agencies. Thousands of children are believed to have been abducted by the LRA since the start of the conflict. vm-bb/lto/ec

BBC 14 Aug 2003 Idi Amin seeks kidney donor Amin has spent four weeks in hospital The ailing former President of Uganda Idi Amin Dada is seeking a kidney to keep him alive, according to his son, Hashim Amin. Two kidneys donated by anonymous donors were found to be incompatible with those of the former military strongman. Hashim Amin told the BBC's Ali Mutasa in Kampala that two more donors had come forward and that his father was surviving through a haemo-dialysis machine which acts as an external kidney. Last month, the 78-year-old Idi Amin was admitted to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah, where he has remained ever since. Threats Hashim Amin also said his father has been placed under heavy guard following earlier threats on his life. He did not, however, disclose the nature of the threats. Mr Amin should be kept alive as long as possible, to suffer the memories of what he has done to his victims Robert Morpheal, Canada Should Idi Amin have a transplant? The Ugandan Minister for the Presidency, Kirunda Kivejinja, said on Thursday that the government would not prevent any Ugandan from donating their kidneys to the man whose regime was one of the bloodiest in African history, with up to 400,000 deaths and disappearances. The government had earlier helped arrange for one of his wives, Madina, to fly to Saudi Arabia. Mr Amin's family had appealed to the government to allow him return home. But President Yoweri Museveni said that Mr Amin would face charges of human rights abuses if he returned to Uganda alive. Burial In July 2003 Idi Amin's family was reported to have earmarked a spot where the former president will be buried after he emerged from a coma at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The former president has lived in Saudi Arabia with his entourage for more than 10 years after spending almost a decade in Libya following his overthrow in 1979. Mr Amin has not been back to Uganda since he was ousted by Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles. His supporters, many of them northerners like Mr Amin, have been urging the government to allow the former president to return home.

AP 16 Aug 2003 Idi Amin, a Brutal Dictator of Uganda, Is Dead at 80 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Aug. 16 — Idi Amin called himself "a pure son of Africa," but his bizarre and murderous eight years as president of Uganda typified the worst of the continent's military dictatorships. He was 80. Mr. Amin died today at King Faisal Specialist hospital, a hospital official said. He had been hospitalized on life-support systems since July 18. He was in a coma and suffering from high blood pressure when he was admitted to the hospital. Later, hospital staff said he suffered kidney failure. A onetime heavyweight boxing champ and soldier in the British colonial army, Mr. Amin seized power on Jan. 25, 1971, overthrowing President Milton Obote while Mr. Obote was abroad. What followed was a reign of terror laced with buffoonery and a flirtation with Palestinian terrorism that led to the daring 1976 Israeli raid to rescue hijacked hostages in his country. Mr. Obote once called Mr. Amin "the greatest brute an African mother has ever brought to life." President Jimmy Carter said events in Uganda during Mr. Amin's rule "disgusted the entire civilized world." Ugandans initially welcomed Mr. Amin's rise to power, and his frequent taunting of Britain, the former colonial ruler of much of Africa, often played well on the continent. But his penchant for the cruel and extravagant became evident in 1972, when he expelled tens of thousands of Asians who had controlled the country's economy. Deprived of its business class, the East African nation plummeted into economic chaos. Mr. Amin declared himself president-for-life of his landlocked country of 24 million, awarded himself an array of medals and ran the country with an iron fist, killing real and imagined enemies. Human rights groups say that from 100,000 to 500,000 people were killed during his eight-year rule. Idi Amin was born into the small Kakwa tribe in Koboko, a village in northwestern Uganda. His mother was a self-proclaimed sorceress of the Lugbara tribe and he was in his 30's before he had regular contact with his peasant father. A semiliterate school dropout, Mr. Amin boasted that he knew "more than doctors of philosophy because as a military man I know how to act." He was a well-regarded officer at the time of Uganda's independence from Britain in 1962, and Obote made him military chief of staff in 1966. The 250-pound president called himself Dada, or "Big Daddy," and in 1975 was even chosen as for the one-year rotating chairmanship of the Organization of African Unity despite objections from some member states. But mismanagement and corruption of his entourage drove Uganda into an abyss and its economy tumbled toward subsistence levels. The United States and Britain severed ties during Amin's rule. His overreaching designs led to his downfall after his troops failed in their attempt to annex parts of Tanzania in Oct. 1978. Tanzanian troops counter-invaded, routed Amin's Soviet- and Arab-equipped army and reached the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in April 1979. Mr. Amin, a convert to Islam, fled to Libya, then Iraq and finally Saudi Arabia, where he was allowed to settle provided he stayed out of politics.

News 24 SA16 Aug 2003 Death of 'Big Daddy' Jiddah, Saudi Arabia - Idi Amin called himself "a pure son of Africa," but his bizarre and murderous eight years as president of Uganda typified the worst of the continent's military dictatorships. Amin, who died on Saturday, was 80, Ugandan officials said, though other sources had him born in 1925. Amin, who had lived for years in exile in this Saudi port city, had been hospitalised on life-support since July 18. He was in a coma and suffering from high blood pressure when he was first admitted to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. Later, hospital staff said he suffered kidney failure. He died at 08:20, the hospital official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A one-time heavyweight boxing champ and soldier in the British colonial army, Amin seized power on Jan. 25, 1971, overthrowing President Milton Obote while Obote was abroad. What followed was a reign of terror laced with buffoonery and a flirtation with Palestinian terrorism that led to the daring 1976 Israeli raid to rescue hijack hostages in his country. Obote once called Amin "the greatest brute an African mother has ever brought to life." President Jimmy Carter said events in Uganda during Amin's rule "disgusted the entire civilized world." Ugandans initially welcomed Amin's rise to power, and his frequent taunting of Britain, former colonial ruler of much of Africa, often played well on the continent. Economic chaos But his penchant for the cruel and extravagant became evident in 1972, when he expelled tens of thousands of Asians who had controlled the country's economy. Suddenly deprived of its business class, the East African nation plummeted into economic chaos. Amin declared himself president-for-life of his landlocked country of 24 million, awarded himself an array of medals and ran the country with an iron fist, killing real and imagined enemies. Human rights groups say from 100 000 to 500 000 people were killed during his 8-year rule. Bodies were dumped into the Nile River because graves couldn't be dug fast enough. At one point, so many bodies were fed to crocodiles that the remains occasionally clogged intake ducts at Uganda's main hydro-electric plant at Jinja. "Even Amin does not know how many people he has ordered to be executed ... The country is littered with bodies," said Henry Kyemba, Amin's longtime friend and a former health minister, when he defected to Britain in 1977. Amin was born into the small Kakwa tribe in Koboko, a village in northwestern Uganda. His mother was a self-proclaimed sorceress of the Lugbara tribe and he was in his 30s before he had regular contact with his peasant father. A semiliterate school dropout, Amin boasted that he knew "more than doctors of philosophy because as a military man I know how to act." "I am a man of action," he said. Boxing match And words. He said Hitler "was right to burn six million Jews," and offered to be king of Scotland if asked. He challenged his neighbor and frequent critic, Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, to a boxing match, and wrote to Richard Nixon wishing him "a speedy recovery" from Watergate. Amin was a well-regarded officer at the time of Uganda's independence from Britain in 1962, and Obote made him military chief of staff in 1966. The 112-kilogram (250-pound) president called himself Dada, or "Big Daddy," and in 1975 was even chosen as for the one-year rotating chairmanship of the Organization of African Unity despite objections from some member states. But mismanagement and corruption of his entourage drove Uganda into an abyss and its economy tumbled toward subsistence levels. The United States and Britain severed ties during Amin's rule. Israel went from staunch military and economic ally to hated enemy for refusing to support his aggressive military ambitions. In 1976 a Palestinian group hijacked an Air France airliner to Entebbe Airport in Uganda and kept its Israeli passengers as hostages. Israeli commandos flew to Entebbe under cover of darkness and rescued the captives. Amin claimed he had been trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution, but there was plenty of evidence that he was in league with the hijackers. Amin's overreaching designs led to his downfall after his troops failed in their attempt to annex parts of Tanzania in October, 1978. Tanzanian troops counter-invaded, routed Amin's Soviet- and Arab-equipped army and reached the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in April 1979. Amin, a convert to Islam, fled to Libya, then Iraq and finally Saudi Arabia, where he was allowed to settle provided he stayed out of politics. In later months, he was joined by one of his two wives and his 22 children. Obote returned to power in 1980 elections and unleashed what many felt repression even worse repression than Amin's. Since 1986 Uganda has been ruled by President Yoweri Museveni. Uganda remains a one-party state but has gradually returned to relative peace and normality. Amin, meanwhile, moved into a luxury house in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah, with cars, drivers, cooks and maids paid for by the Saudi government. He would occasionally telephone journalists abroad to announce fantastical schemes to reconquer Uganda, or to protest against cuts in his gasoline allowance. But the Saudis got angry and made him stop. In a rare interview in 1999, Amin told a Ugandan newspaper he liked to play the accordion, fish, swim, recite from the Quran and read. He said most of his food - including fresh cassava, cassava flour and millet flour - still came from Uganda. He was sometimes spotted on evening walks along the coast or attending Friday prayers in a nearby mosque.

NEws 24 SA 17 Aug 2003 Fifteen die in rebel massacre 17/08/2003 12:23 - (SA) Kampala - Ugandan insurgents massacred up to fifteen people and abducted several dozen others in a raid Saturday on a village in the northern district of Lira, officials said Sunday. "They attacked at dawn. People were sleeping and they hacked them to death using machetes because the rebels do not usually use guns. They use machetes and cutlasses. I am sure over ten people were hacked to death but the number is believed to have reached fifteen," Lira district chairman Franco Ojur said on Sunday. Lords Resistance Army (LRA) guerillas who have been fighting the Ugandan government for the past 17 years carried out the Saturday attack on the village of Bata, about 250km north of the Ugandan capital Kampala. Ojur said that the rebels abducted up to 40 people, mostly children below the ages of 15. LRA fighters whose rebellion has displaced over 800 000 people and left thousands of others dead or maimed always abduct children during their raids and force the abductees to join their forces and carry out atrocities. Reached later for further details, Lieutenant Chris Magezi, a spokesman for the military battalion fighting the LRA in Lira district said that 13 people were killed in the attack on Bata village. "The people were killed by a group of rebels whom the army has been pursuing from (the nearby district of ) Katakwi. They reached a certain place, dispersed in small numbers and killed these people," Magezi said. In a similar development, the military said that in the past week, government forces in the northern region killed 20 LRA rebels and rescued 127 people, mostly children who had been abducted by the rebels. "Three of our soldiers were injured, one seriously and ten rebels reported (surrendered) to the UPDF (government army)," a statement faxed to Deutsche Presse Agenture, said. dpa hw sr - Sapa-DPA

Monitor (Kampala) August 2003 www.monitor.co.ug Rejected then taken in by dad; a timeline By Fred Guweddeko "Amin's parents separated after suspicion that he wa fathered by Kabaka Chwa" Idi Amin (2nd right) with former Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta (Extreme left) and their wives (File and photo) His childhood real names were Idi Awo-Ongo Angoo. He was born on May 17, 1928 at about 4.00 a.m. in a police barracks at the present International Conference Centre in Kampala. He was of the Adibu clan of the Kakwa ethnic group. His father was initially Andreas Nyabire, a Catholic who converted to Islam in 1910 and became Amin Dada. Andreas Nyabire Amin Dada was born in 1889 and died in 1976. He was a Kakwa from Adida in Southern Sudan. The mother of Idi Amin was called Assa Aatte. Born in 1904, she died in 1970. She was daughter of a Lugbara Sultan (Chief) at Leiko Iruna in the present day Democratic Republic of the Congo. Aatte was a traditional herbalist dealing with pregnancy and fertility complications. Aatte had among her patients in 1924-1929, Lady Irene Druscilla Namaganda, the Nabagereka of Buganda and the Kabaka Sir Daudi Chwa. Amin’s parents married in 1921 in Arua, produced their first son in 1922, a daughter in 1925 and Ango (Amin) in 1928. Idi Amin’s father served in the 4th King’s African Rifles (KAR) from 1915 to 1920 and joined the Uganda Police in 1921. His job in the Uganda Police was to administer corporal punishments called kibooko to natives. Idi Amin’s parents separated in 1931 while living at a new police barracks at Kololo. Apparently, the separation resulted from suspicion that Idi Amin, the baby, had been fathered by Daudi Chwa rather than by Dada. Idi Amin’s mother got money from the Kabaka and built a house at Kitubulu near Entebbe. Amin’s father, Dada, rejected him. He grew up with his maternal family. His brother and sister died in 1932. Three decades later, in 1964, Amin’s father accepted him back. In 1933 Idi Amin lived with his mother’s relatives at Mawale near Semuto in the present Luwero district. There he reared goats from 1936 to 1938. He then moved to the home of Sheikh Ahmed Hussein in the present Semuto town from 1938 to 1940 where he started reciting the Koran. In 1940 he came to Bombo to live with his marternal uncle Yusuf Tanaboo. He tried to register for the equivalent of Primary One but Nubians were not admitted in schools. As a twelve-year-old Amin participated in the Nubian riots against discrimination and was injured by Makerere College students at Wandegeya. In 1941 Amin joined Garaya Islamic school at Bombo, and again excelled in reciting the Koran under Mohammed Al Rajab from 1941 –1944. Amin and Abdul Kadir Aliga won honours in reciting the Koran in 1943. At the end of 1944 Amin and fifteen other students at the Bombo Garaya were taken for conscription into the army. Amin and five others were released for being underage. He then went to the present Kiyindi zone at Kalerwe near Bwaise and started doing odd jobs in 1945. He got a job as a door hat and coat attendant at the Imperial Hotel at the end of 1945. Later in 1946 a British army officer was impressed and offered to recruit Idi Amin in the army. Amin served at Magamaga Barracks in Jinja as a laundry and kitchen army staff as he trained until 1947 when he transferred to Kenya for real military service. He served in the 21st KAR infantry brigade at Gilgil, until 1949 when his unit moved to Somalia at Belet Uen to fight the Shifta animal raiders. In 1950, Amin’s unit returned to Fort Hall in Kenya. There he trained in the Scottish military band. In 1951 he returned to Jinja but went back to Kenya the same year. In 1952 his battalion was deployed against the Mau Mau. Amin became corporal the same year. In 1953 he became a sergeant for his role in starting the mobile foot patrols in the forests occupied by the Mau Mau. While fighting the Mau Mau, Amin had a son and a daughter with two Kikuyu women. Amin’s name appeared on the list of those soldiers who performed best against the Mau Mau. He was also nominated for promotion to the new rank of efendi (that is, warrant officer equivalent). He returned to Jinja, Uganda in 1954 where he was selected best in the parade for Queen Elizabeth. In 1955 Sgt Amin again led the guard or honour to welcome Kabaka Edward Mutesa from exile. He moved to Lango district in 1956 and successfully defended the Langi from the Karimojong raids as head of a platoon. He got a child with a Langi woman. The same year 1955, Amin’s unit was deployed to quell a military mutiny in southern Sudan. He again performed well by the standards of the time. In 1957 Amin led requests for salary increment. It was denied. Amin also failed the intellectual (written and oral) tests for promotion. He was posted to the KAR band. In 1958 Amin again failed promotional exams but passed field exercises in 1959 and was promoted in December of that year. In July 1960 a British officer called Ronald Cedric Weeding was defeated and killed by the Turkana in Karamoja. Amin was sent to Karamoja. The army spokesman described Amin as having “restored the prestige of the forces of law and order in the region of Karamoja”. Subsequently, Amin was commissioned to Lieutenant in July 1961 by Sir Frederick Crawford. The same year Amin and Daudi Ochieng were assigned the duty of negotiating with Sir Edward Mutesa for a political compromise. He convinced Mutesa that the Uganda army in which Amin was part, would never move against the Kingdom. The mission was a success. Idi Amin then moved against the Turkana in 1962 with two convoys of the 4th KAR. Using the threat to cut off their penis, Amin disarmed the Turkana without a fight. He was again part of the initiative to placate the unhappy Mutesa when in 1963, he proposed that the Kabaka becomes Major General and Commander-in-Chief of the army. Ironically, the same year, Amin prevented the recruitment of Kabaka Yekka and Uganda People’s Congress youths into the army. He instigated complaints about the drive for educated people to take over army leadership. Early in 1964 Idi Amin complained that the army was doing all the heavy work of the independence government of the Rwanda where it was helping to keep law and order. He said that they were also working in the Rwenzoris and on the Sudan border but had not benefited from Uhuru like the civil servants and the politicians. The British army commander Lt.-Colonel W.W. Cheyne blocked Idi Amin’s request for a salary increment. Idi Amin instigated the February-March military mutiny. Idi Amin was proposed for the role of mediator between the mutineers and the UPC-KY government for the mutiny he had started. The end of the mutiny saw the British officers lose their jobs to Amin. He also got a salary increment, the promotion to Major and the command of the First Battalion. Idi Amin who in 1962 had been discontinued from a platoon commander course at Wiltshire in the U.K and who in 1963 failed to complete a paratrooper course nevertheless became a deputy Army Commander in 1964. In 1965 Idi Amin was given the task of supporting the Congo nationalists to resist the foreign supported government of Mobutu Sese Seko. Idi Amin benefited financially and invested in a bus company called Trans-Nile. At the end of 1965 the Congo mercenaries defeated the Idi Amin-backed rebels in the Congo. In Uganda Amin was identified with Prime Minister Obote who was being pressured to leave office. Idi Amin on February 22, 1966 resisted the military coup to oust Obote and helped execute a counter-coup to give Obote absolute power. Idi Amin proceeded to Makindye and convinced Mutesa to order the soldiers under Brigadier Shaban Opolot not to fight. Amin promised to mediate between Obote and Mutesa. Idi Amin was promoted to Colonel and became the Army Commander replacing Brigadier Opolot in 1966. Amin led the assault on the Lubiri but contrary to orders from Obote seized only one side instead of encircling the Lubiri. Mutesa escaped. In February 1967 Idi Amin started attending English lessons under the adult studies programme at Makerere University Continuing Education Department. In the same month Idi Amin was given powers to increase the size of the army by two more battalions. Idi Amin used the powers to recruit from West Nile and southern Sudan. In April 1968, Obote promoted Amin to Major General – a reward for his loyalty during the Republican Monarchist crisis. In 1968 as Army Commander Idi Amin involved Israeli-sponsored operations to support the rebellion in southern Sudan. In 1969 Idi Amin was challenged over his capacity to lead the army during a revolutionary Socialist UPC Move-to-the-left period. Amin lost control of the army units under Acholi and Langi command. He joined UPC and attended lessons in Socialism in 1969. At the end of 1969 Idi Amin was accused of cowardice in the incident of Obote’s attempted assassination. In January 1970 Idi Amin organised through a man called Christopher Luutu the assassination of Brigadier Okoya who had accused him. Later in 1970 the assassins of Okoya while hiding for fear of Amin eliminating were arrested and revealed their role in the assassination through Luutu, a brother to Captain Smart Guweddeko. Idi Amin was also found to be linked with the loss of Shs 40m from the Military Operation Fund. Obote removed Amin from direct command of the army at the end of 1970. In January 1971 Obote ordered for a prosecution file on Idi Amin to be prepared. On January 24, 1971 Idi Amin fled Kampala to avoid arrest. Soldiers led by Sergeant-Major Moses Ali received a misinterpreted message from a signaller and they resisted preparations to arrest Idi Amin. Power was seized in Kampala and Idi Amin was sought to take over. Idi Amin appeared just as Captain Charles Arube was volunteering to become president. Amin accepted to become president on January 25, 1971. In April 1971 Acholi soldiers who survived the coup started fleeing to southern Sudan fearing for their lives. In July 1971 Idi Amin visited the UK where his speechwriter James Namakajo caused embarrassment by failing to provide a speech at one of the functions. Britain demanded commitment from Idi Amin without them promising to meet his needs on weapons and drilling the Lake Albert Basin oil. In August 1971 Idi Amin re-engaged John Bikobo as Presidential Advisor. Bikobo had been working under Obote and was responsible for the Move-to-the-left, the Common Man’s Charter, and the Nakivubo Pronouncements. With Bikobo at his side, Amin took similar an even more radical political stand than Obote. He turned on the Israelis, British, and all other imperialists and even changed from the promoted 18 months caretaker period to five years so as “to put the country’s politics in order.” Idi Amin showed clemency to former Obote government ministers and operatives. He allowed them to stay and live as private citizens. In November 1971 and February 1972 he released Obote’s former intelligence operatives. In July 1972 Idi Amin received a petition from Augustine Kamya to place the economy of Uganda into the hands of the indigenous people. On August 1, 1972 Idi Amin declared the economic war. On that day Asians were to start leaving Uganda. The country was attacked by Obote and Museveni troops with the intention of engaging Idi Amin’s troops as the British landed to prevent the Asian exodus. From October 1972 Idi Amin started eliminating all the people linked or suspected of working with the British, Obote, and Museveni against his government. Idi Amin established the State Research Bureau into a killing machine targeted at his opponents and those with links to imperialists. In July 1973 Obote gave up fighting Idi Amin. In August 1974 Museveni also gave up fighting to start an internal guerrilla war against Amin. The British government however continued undermining the economy under Idi Amin in Uganda. In March 1974 Idi Amin eliminated Tanzanians seeking assistance from him to topple the government of Nyerere. Their crime was to claim that they had the support of Britain to fight an African country. In July 1974 Amin rejected a budget increasing taxes by very high percentages. He said that he would never allow the overtaxing of the people at a time when they were involved with his government in a war against poverty. In August 1974 Amin admitted that an economic war was probably much more difficult than a military war. Amin declared a double production campaign and signed a decree to punish by death people sabotaging the economic war. He also declared on behalf of all African countries war for the total liberation of South Africa from Apartheid. He offered himself as the first volunteer in the war to uproot Israel from Palestine. In 1975 Amin became OAU chairman and immediately sought to use his position to rid Africa of all kind of imperialism from both capitalist and communist countries. During the OAU conference, General Gowon of Nigeria who had promised to support Amin was overthrown. Idi Amin sought and won the title Doctor of Laws (PhD) from Makerere University. He sought to use this title to wear the intellectual authority necessary to advise the rest of Africa on policy vis-à-vis the unliberated regions of the continent. In 1976 Uganda suffered from very poor economic conditions. Amin became more impatient dismissing ministers and civil servants by the day. Insecurity both real and imagined increased in the population as the SRB ensured the disappearance of more people. Early in 1977 the UPC moved to take advantage of the pathetic situation in Uganda and cause an uprising with arms smuggled under the cover of the Church of Uganda Centenary (1877-1977). Amin learnt of the plot from the SRB and killed the people involved. From March 1977 Amin became increasingly suspicious of the people around him including those from the Nubian ethnic groups. Transfers in the army and temporary appointments became so common that by the end of 1977 more than 50 percent of ministerial and military posts were either vacant or occupied on a temporary basis. To mitigate the economic crisis, Amin allowed imports to enter free. He started providing for the army directly through goods ferried by a chartered aircraft. To finance these ad hoc transactions Amin started selling coffee on cash basis – with money paid directly to him. At the end of 1978 Amin launched a military exercise called Operation Magurugur on the Uganda-Tanzania border. The untrusted army units were not provided with planes and communications equipment. When the artillery shells started falling the troops without communications fled to Tanzania. This triggered off the war that brought Amin’s mercurial regime to an end. Amin fled to Libya in April 1979. While there he failed to maintain his leadership over his followers in Zaire and Sudan who accused him of causing their ejection from Uganda. His host Col. Gadhafi resolved to work through Brig. Moses Ali in alliance with Museveni’s NRM to restore the losses of Islam in Uganda. Idi Amin fell out totally with Col. Gadhafi and had to find sanctuary in Saudi Arabia in 1981. In 1989 he however, did try to return through Kinshasa to lead an armed group organised by Col. Juma Oris. The attempt was a failure. Idi Amin remained in Saudi Arabia sending financial assistance to his brother Ramathan (RIP) and six other relatives and friends. Until his deatg from a combination of hypertension and kidney complications. Right up to his death, Amin believed in the mission of his leadership that problems of Africa are caused by imperialist interest particularly US and Britain with “their local agents” calling themselves politicians.

Zimbabwe

AFP 13 Aug 2003 EU gives 25 mln euro to stave off looming starvation HARARE, Aug 13 (AFP) - The European Union has donated 25 million euros (28 million dollars) to help alleviate widespread hunger in Zimbabwe, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday. The WFP office in Zimbabwe said that without the donation it could have run out of food in the next two weeks putting at risk the lives of several million people who this year rely on relief aid. "Without it food supplies for Zimbabwe would have run out by the end of this month," said Kevin Farrell, WFP chief representative in Harare. The contribution will be used to urgently buy 60,000 tonnes of the staple maize (corn) from neighbouring countries that harvested surplus this year. "This donation could not have come at a more critical time," he said. Three weeks ago the Zimbabwe government launched an appeal for 711,000 tonnes of grain to feed some 5.5 million people until the next main harvest in early 2004. "The food security situation in Zimbabwe remains alarming and without continued international support, a significant proportion of the population will remain at serious risk," Farrell said in a statement. A recent WFP/Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) assessment found that about 3.3 million Zimbabweans are currently in urgent need of food aid and by January 2004 the number is expected to jump to 5.5 million. The WFP said Zimbabweans were increasingly showing up at rural food distribution centres begging for food aid, but due to scarce resources the WFP was forced to restrict its rations to the most vulnerable. "People are so desperate for food that at some distribution sites beneficiaries have been seen opening and eating uncooked rations on the spot. Some reportedly lack the strength to even carry their food home," WFP said. The WFP recently launched a 308 million US dollar appeal to donors to continue feeding up to 6.5 million people throughout southern Africa over the next 12 months. About two-thirds of the budget will go to support the hungry in Zimbabwe. Aid agencies blame Zimbabwe's controversial land reforms of taking farmland from whites and giving it to blacks for the country's food shortages.

Business Day (South Africa), August 14, 2003, Politics; Pg. 7, 421 words, NGOs threaten action in Zimbabwe, Jonathan Katzenellenbogen NGOs threaten action in Zimbabwe International Affairs Editor ZIMBABWEAN civil groups are threatening to take members of the ruling Zanu (PF) to the recently established International Criminal Court on torture charges. At a conference outside Johannesburg that ended yesterday, a number of representatives said the intensity of the crackdown in Zimbabwe appeared to have somewhat abated, but that they tended to occur around the time of elections. They said extensive state-sponsored violent intimidation was used to crush the recent mass action orchestrated by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Nongovernmental organisation (NGO) leaders fear a renewed crackdown with the onset of council elections in a number of towns. Yesterday they said there should be no blanket amnesty for human rights abuses, something that could rule out part of a widely rumoured exit package for President Robert Mugabe. Taking members of the Zanu (PF) to the international court and an SA-type truth and reconciliation commission are two of the avenues being investigated by the NGO's, which include human rights and women's groups, and trade unions. To take the Zanu (PF) elite to the court, the groups would have to establish that there has been widespread and systematic use of torture, which would, under human rights law, constitute a crime against humanity. As Zimbabwe has signed but not ratified the Rome Statute, which set up the international court, those who planned and executed the torture could not be charged now. But should a future Zimbabwean government ratify the court's statute, the groups say that charges could be made. The groups are also investigating whether Mugabe and others could be held accountable for the massacre of an estimated 10000 people in Matabeleland between 1982 and 1983 by the Zimbabwean army's North Korean trained Fifth Brigade. The Amani Trust has evidence of 3000 cases of torture over the period since February 2000, half of them involving intense beating of the soles of feet. Beating inflicted on this area causes severe pain and very often leaves little evidence in the form of scarring. The Zimbabwean Doctors for Human Rights also point to the extensive head-to-toe beatings and the use of cupped hands slamming against ears, which often ruptures ear drums. Arnold Tsumba, director of the Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights, says there is also a clear pattern of holding political detainees incommunicado.

AFP 28 Aug 2003 Zimbabwe forces more white farmers off land in fresh wave of evictions HARARE, Aug 28 (AFP) - About 50 white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe have been driven off their land in a fresh wave of farm evictions around the southern African country, the head of the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said Thursday. "There are at most 50 farmers affected, mostly from Mashonaland and Manicaland provinces. In a couple of cases, some farmers were attacked by settlers or gangs," CFU president Doug Taylor-Freeme told AFP. "These evictions are illegal. Farmers will protect themselves through legal means," he said. While the Zimbabwe government says it has successfully completed its controversial fast-track land reforms, white-owned farms continue to be listed regularly for compulsory acquisition. Two weeks ago, the latest list of 152 properties which the government intends to seize was published in the state media. The new list came out after it was revealed at an annual congress of a small group of embattled white farmers still remaining in the country that agricultural production levels have fallen by over 50 percent in Zimbabwe over the last few years. The eviction of white farmers has been partly blamed by aid agencies and critics for Zimbabwe's worst famine in living memory which left about two thirds of the 11.6 million people facing severe food shortages. Taylor-Freeme said most of the farms affected in the latest seizures were tobacco farms. To date, the government says it has resettled 210,000 peasant farmers and 14,880 commercial farmers on 11 million hectares (26 million acres) of formerly white-owned land. An estimated 400 white commercial farms remain in Zimbabwe, out of about 4,000 when the land invasions started in 2000.

AFP 28 Aug 2003 US assails SADC stance on Zimbabwe sanctions, calls for Mugabe's isolation WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (AFP) - The United States on Thursday angrily denounced this week's calls for the lifting of US and EU sanctions against Zimbabwe by the leaders of southern African nations and urged them to "openly distance" themselves from President Robert Mugabe's government. The State Department said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was misguided in making the appeal and suggested its leaders did not understand the dire situation in Zimbabwe. "The statements on Zimbabwean sanctions ... are disappointing and do not accurately reflect conditions on the ground," said Jo-Anne Prokopowicz, a department spokeswoman. She said Mugabe and his policies and not the sanctions were responsible for the poor economic and social conditions in which the people of Zimbabwe are now living and accused the government of manipulating the crisis to consolidate power. "The humanitarian and economic crises in Zimbabwe are a direct result of failed Zimbabwean government policies," Prokopowicz said, citing the imposition of price controls, artificial exchange rates and a controversial land reform program as examples. She added that foreign and local investment in Zimbabwe had been paralyzed by the Mugabe government's "decision to abandon the basic tenets of rule of law and democracy." "There is clear evidence that the government is trying to consolidate its own political position with no regard for democratic institutions or the effect on the citizens of Zimbabwe," Prokopowicz said. On Monday, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, the chairman of the SADC, declared that US and European Union sanctions against Zimbabwe were unwarranted and ineffectual and called for them to be lifted. The State Department ridiculed his allegation, noting that the sanctions affected only Mugabe and his inner circle and said that if southern African nations truly cared about the Zimbabwean people, they would work to isolate the government in Harare. "SADC member states concerned about conditions in Zimbabwe should openly distance themselves from the failed economic and political policies of the Mugabe regime and press for full restoration of democracy and the rule of law," Prokopowicz said. The US and EU sanctions were imposed last year over the effects of the Mugabe government's often violent land redistribution program launched three years ago and his re-election in 2002 polls widely condemned as fraudulent. The SADC includes Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Americas

Argentina (see Spain)

BBC 22 Aug 2003 Argentina scraps amnesty laws Some 30,000 people may have been killed during the Dirty War The upper house of Argentina's parliament, the Senate, has voted to abolish amnesty laws which protect members of the former military governments from prosecution for human rights abuses. The vote opens the way for charges to be brought against hundreds of security officials suspected of murder and torture during the military dictatorship. The Supreme Court will now have the final say on the matter, but experts say the court - itself undergoing a shake-up after accusations of corruption and political bias - has not signalled whether it will make a ruling. Human rights group estimate that up to 30,000 Argentines were officially reported as dead or missing during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. This is a great victory and an important step forward Nora de Cortinas, whose daughter disappeared during the Dirty War Members of groups representing victims' families lined the hallways of the Senate chamber and shouted "Ole! Ole! Ole!" after the vote. "Today we are carrying out an act of moral and institutional reparation and reconstruction of Argentina," said Peronist Senator Cristina Kirchner, the wife of President Nestor Kirchner, just before the vote. Legal test After nearly eight hours of debate, the senators voted 43-7 with one abstention and 21 absent from the vote. Last week, the lower house of Congress also voted to annul the laws. The measure now has to be signed into law by President Kirchner, who after his inauguration three months ago launched a series of high-profile initiatives to crack down on impunity. The courts will then have to sift through the thousands of allegations of torture and murder dating back to the period two decades ago commonly known as the Dirty War. Experts say the Senate vote is largely symbolic, as the Supreme Court is likely to be the final arbiter on the constitutionality of the laws. The BBC's Americas editor, Robert Plummer, says it is not yet clear how impartial the court - where some members could face corruption charges - will be as it prepares to rule on the matter. "No one pressures the court on anything," Carlos Fayt, the head of the court, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying. Experts also say that supporters of the laws are expected to appeal to the justice system to maintain them. In the 1980s, Congress, fearing another military rebellion after decades of coups, passed two amnesty laws.

Guardian UK 22 Aug 2003 Argentina gives lead The Argentine senate yesterday took an important stand against impunity by declaring the country's full stop and due obedience laws null and void (Argentina eyes new era of justice, August 19). For years these "amnesty laws" have obstructed truth and justice for victims of crimes against humanity committed under military rule. They are incompatible with Argentina's international obligations to investigate, bring to trial and punish authors of such crimes. Peru has taken a similarly brave step in facing its past and demanding the extradition of Alberto Fujimori to face murder and abduction charges. Sadly, elsewhere in the Americas, impunity still reigns. Chile's proposal to provide recompense to torture victims is an important step, but its "amnesty laws" are still in place. Plans to grant immunity to those who argue they were "acting under orders" when committing acts of torture and murder will mean that many victims will still see no justice. Perhaps the greatest culprit here, however, lies further north. The US's efforts to hinder the international criminal court, particularly by pressuring other nations to sign immunity deals, are reprehensible. The ICC, the greatest step forward in decades for international law, should ensure that those who commit the worst of all crimes are never safe. Lesley Warner Amnesty International UK

AP 22 Aug 2003 Argentina 'Dirty War' moms claim victory 0BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Mothers who lost their children in Argentina's Dirty War claimed victory Thursday after Congress repealed two amnesty laws that shielded hundreds of military officers from prosecution for human rights abuses. The gray-haired women, some holding yellowing photographs of their missing sons and daughters, chanted and clapped after the Senate voted to scrap the laws in an early morning vote, calling it a crucial step in their quest for justice. Shouts of "The impunity is going to end! Justice will prevail!" went up from the women wearing white scarves representing the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a prominent human rights group that emerged during Argentina's 1976-83 military dictatorship. "This is great victory and an important step forward," said Nora de Cortinas, whose daughter was among the thousands of leftists who disappeared during military rule. "But our happiness is measured today, because we know there is still a lot of work to do." Argentina's Supreme Court must now decide on the constitutionality of the laws. The nine-member court has not signaled if it will take up the issue, but legal experts say Congress' move and other cases now working through the judicial system are likely to add pressure for the court to act soon. Lower courts have ruled them unlawful. The "Full Stop" and "Due Obedience" laws were enacted after democracy was restored and in the wake of a series of military uprisings. The government sought to temper anger among military leaders over public trials of high-ranking officials. Many human rights activists who have spent years fighting to find out what happened to their children said they felt encouraged by the vote. "Justice is finally coming to life in this country after a long struggle," said Berta Schuboroff, a member of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo group that helps in the search for the missing. "We are finally beginning to feel at peace and that something is happening in our country." Human rights groups say as many as 1,300 current and former military officers could face trial if the laws are annulled by the high court. Official estimates say about 9,000 people died or went missing during the junta years, but human rights groups claim the number could be as high as 30,000. During that time, leftists and dissident opponents were hunted down, kidnapped off the streets, tortured and executed. President Nestor Kirchner, who was briefly held by the military as a student, had pushed for the laws to be repealed -- a decision that led to tensions with Vice President Daniel Scioli, who opposed the move. The differences heightened tensions between the two, culminating in Kirchner's decision to force several of Scioli's closest aides to resign this week. The vote came as several European countries have sought to extradite former officials to face trial. This month, Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon asked Spain's government to seek the extradition of 26 Argentines. On Thursday he added another 14 to the list, including two former leaders of the military junta, Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera. Garzon is seeking their extradition under a Spanish law that says crimes like genocide can be tried in Spain even if they were not committed there. Judges in France, Sweden and Italy are also seeking the extradition of several former military officers. Following Argentina's dictatorship, many ranking military officers were tried on charges of abduction, torture and execution of suspected opponents of the regime. They were imprisoned in 1985 and later pardoned in 1990 by then-President Carlos Menem. Many of the junta's top leaders and other officers are now under house arrest on charges of kidnapping children belonging to mothers who "disappeared" during the military's rule. Those charges were a way to skirt the amnesty laws. Gen. Jorge Videla and Adm. Emilio Massera are among those under house arrest and facing accusations they allowed the adoption of more than 200 children born to mothers who vanished during the Dirty War

Brazil

BBC 28 Aug 2003 Rio police killings condemned By Jan Rocha BBC Sao Paulo correspondent In a damning report issued to mark the 10th anniversary of two massacres of civilians by police in Rio de Janeiro, which sparked worldwide condemnation, Amnesty International says that little has changed in the city. In the first six months of 2003, 621 civilians were killed by the city's police, the report says. The massacres in 1993 were carried out by military police The two massacres in 1993 horrified world opinion. In the first, in July, eight street children and young adults were shot dead as they slept on the steps of the Candelaria church. In the other, just a month later, 21 residents of a Rio shanty town known as Vigario Geral, were murdered. In both cases the killers belonged to the military police force. Ten years on, only two of the 50 policemen accused in the shanty town shooting are in prison and none of the families have received full compensation. Green light for murder Amnesty International says they have found consistent evidence that the context in which these killings took place has not changed. In the first six months of this year alone, police in Rio killed over 600 unarmed civilians. According to the human rights organisation, politicians in the city have repeatedly made public statements which support police killing as a necessary part of crime control, thus giving a green light to kill. Almost all these killings take place in favelas, or shanty towns, and according to the police version, happen during shoot-outs, with the victims usually being described as drug-traffickers. But for Amnesty International, to be poor in Rio de Janeiro still means to be trapped in a cycle of violence, subject to violent, repressive and often corrupt policing. Such communities, says the report, are not only excluded from access to fundamental economic and social rights, but from the right to live in peace.

Canada

Canadian Press 6 Aug 2003 Court: No need for Oberlander review TORONTO (CP) - The federal government's decision to strip accused war criminal Helmut Oberlander of his citizenship should not be subject to a judicial review, the Federal Court of Canada has ruled. In a written decision, Justice Luc Martineau found that the federal cabinet's actions were "neither clearly wrong nor patently unreasonable." "In my view, the Governor in Council performed its functions within the boundary of the parliamentary grant and in accordance with the terms of the parliamentary mandate." The federal cabinet paved the way for Oberlander's deportation when it stripped him of his citizenship in 2001 after a finding that he misrepresented his wartime role during the immigration process. Oberlander, 79, served as an interpreter with a notorious Nazi death squad that executed thousands of civilians, mostly Jews, in Ukraine from 1941 to 1943 during the Second World War. The federal government initiated efforts in 1995 to deport Oberlander for his role with the death squad. B'nai Brith Canada, Jewish Canada's leading advocacy and human rights group, praised Martineua's ruling, which came down Aug. 1. "The government should delay no longer in seeking a removal order against Oberlander," David Matas, senior legal counsel for the group, said in a release. Oberlander's lawyers were seeking a review in Federal Court of the cabinet decision to strip him of his citizenship. They have argued that the federal government is belatedly pursuing peripheral players like their client to appease those who are critical of Ottawa's track record on war criminals. His lawyers say it's unfair to seek his expulsion now, because government officials have known Oberlander served with the Nazi unit since German authorities contacted them in 1970. See News Monitor from Oct 2002, Feb 2003 and Oberlander v. Canada (Attorney General) (2002), 22 Imm. L.R. (3d) 122 (F.C.T.D.).

B’nai Brith Canada PRESS RELEASE B’nai Brith Canada Applauds Federal Court Decision on Oberlander “All Nazi War Criminal Cases must be expedited” Toronto, August 6, 2003 For Immediate Release Toronto, August 6, 2003 — B’nai Brith Canada has applauded the decision of the Federal Court of Canada — Trial Division, which today rejected an application for judicial review of the federal Cabinet’s decision to revoke the citizenship of Helmut Oberlander. The revocation was based on an earlier finding in the same court that Mr. Oberlander obtained his Canadian citizenship by false representation or by knowingly concealing material circumstances. Rochelle Wilner, President of B’nai Brith Canada stated: “Our justice system has already determined that Mr. Oberlander concealed his association with the Einsatzkommando, a notorious Nazi death squad, in order to gain entry to Canada. His unit was responsible for the brutal murder of more than 90,000 Jewish men, women and children. Why is this man still in Canada?” Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President commented: “As we have done repeatedly in the past, we call on the government to take all necessary steps to expedite Oberlander’s removal from Canada. Every day that Oberlander remains in this country is a scandal.” David Matas, Senior Legal Counsel, added: “The government should delay no longer in seeking a removal order against Oberlander. It is eight and a half years since the government initiated its revocation case against him. Such unconscionable delays in war crimes cases make a mockery of our justice system.”

ctv.ca Dallaire book slams U.S. on Rwandan genocide Romeo Dallaire CTV.ca News Staff Updated: Thurs. Aug. 21 2003 1:01 PM ET A new book by retired Canadian lieutenant-general Romeo Dallaire slams the United States, Britain and France for convincing the United Nations to ignore the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which saw 800,000 people murdered. "Ultimately, led by the United States, France and the United Kingdom, this world body (the UN) aided and abetted genocide in Rwanda," Dallaire writes in the book. "No amount of its cash and aid will ever wash its hands clean of Rwandan blood." It's been almost 10 years since Dallaire was head of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda. Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda details how his pleas to UN headquarters for reinforcements were ignored before the horrifying genocide took place. The former peacekeeper also rebukes the U.S. and France for their failures. "The UN and the secretariat are small-time culpable compared to the U.S. and France and their actions and inactions," Dallaire said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. He said France and the U.S. were "dominated by self-interest and the psychology of still having imperial, colonial traits." Using detailed daily notes taken by an assistant in Rwanda, Dallaire chronicles how a Hutu majority launched a ferocious attack on Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Among the horrors Dallaire describes in the book: picking his way over stacks of bodies clogging a creek, and walking in front of his vehicle to move pieces of bodies out of the way. He also frankly describes his sometimes public struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder -- a result of what he witnessed in Rwanda. "People thought maybe writing it was going to be therapeutic, but I don't think it really was," he told The Globe. "The only positive aspect is that I don't have it all in my head anymore. The book is 600 pages, but I wrote a couple of thousand pages, and a lot of the weight in having it all in memory -- it's taken away a lot of pressure."

www.globeandmail.com Toronto 21 Aug 2003 Dallaire book slams U.S., UN, on Rwanda By STEPHANIE NOLEN Aug. 21, 2003 France and the United States stood by and let 800,000 people be murdered in Rwanda in April, 1994, retired Canadian peacekeeper Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire writes in a powerful new book to be published this autumn. The account also indicts the United Nations for its failure to respond adequately to the genocide. "Ultimately, led by the United States, France and the United Kingdom, this world body [the UN] aided and abetted genocide in Rwanda," Gen. Dallaire writes in the book. "No amount of its cash and aid will ever wash its hands clean of Rwandan blood." Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda is Gen. Dallaire's account of his tenure as head of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), a story that has taken him almost a decade to tell. It goes on sale in November; an advance copy was obtained by The Globe and Mail yesterday. "The UN and the secretariat are small-time culpable compared to the U.S. and France and their actions and inactions," Gen. Dallaire said in an interview yesterday. "The UN mostly in its ability to handle so many very complex problems. France and the U.S. were dominated by self-interest and the psychology of still having imperial, colonial traits." Using the detailed daily notes that were taken by his assistant in the field, Gen. Dallaire painstakingly recreated the events leading up to the genocide and provides a minute-by-minute account of the eruption of bloodshed in April, 1994, as his pleas for reinforcements to UN headquarters in New York were ignored. "The Security Council and the office of the secretary-general were obviously at a loss as to what to do," he writes. "I continued to receive demands to supply them with more information before they would take any concrete action. What more could I possibly tell them that I hadn't already described in horrific detail? The odour of death in the hot sun; the flies, maggots, rats and dogs that swarmed to feast on the dead. At times it seemed the smell had entered the pores of my skin . . . We had sent a deluge of paper and received nothing in return; no supplies, no reinforcements, no decisions." The book describes how the United States sent a tip one night based on detailed intelligence information that Gen. Dallaire was targeted for assassination by a Rwandan militia. Yet at the same time, U.S. officials claimed to have so little information about what was going in Rwanda that they could not intervene. Gen. Dallaire also describes watching the departure of a Belgian peacekeeping unit, withdrawn just as the killing reached its height: "I gave myself over to hate of a nation that had not only lost its nerve to stay in the fight but that was prepared to sacrifice the names and reputations of its own soldiers to soothe its own conscience." The book chronicles horrifying scenes from the genocide, when the Hutu majority, led by a band of Western-educated extremists, launched a savage attack on Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Gen. Dallaire describes picking his way over stacks of bodies clogging a creek; driving between piles of them along roadsides, bones jutting through flesh and starting to whiten in the sun, and walking in front of his vehicle to move pieces of bodies out of the way. "What's in the book is what we felt people could bear," said Anne Collins, his editor at Random House Canada, which will publish the English edition. "But Gen. Dallaire had to remember all of it. We only put in the minimum — he wanted to show what it was like, to walk through a slurry of blood and mud up to your knees. But he did not want to make a document that you could not bear to read." Gen. Dallaire also provides a frank account of his own struggle to live with what he has seen, which has led to his sometimes public struggle with posttraumatic stress disorder. "People thought maybe writing it was going to be therapeutic, but I don't think it really was," he said yesterday. "The only positive aspect is that I don't have it all in my head any more. The book is 600 pages, but I wrote a couple of thousand pages, and a lot of the weight in having it all in memory — it's taken away a lot of pressure." Ms. Collins spoke of the immense effort it took Gen. Dallaire to tell the story. "He had so many things to wrestle with including his extraordinary sense of responsibility to the people of Rwanda and the soldiers he lost," she said. "It was so overwhelming at times it almost shut him up. We postponed the book for a year, because he got to [writing about] the eve of the genocide and he had to stop. He had to stop for some time just to gather himself."

Rosbalt www.rosbaltnews.com 25 Aug 2003, 15:08 No Statute of Limitations on Armenian Genocide, Scholar Says TORONTO, August 25. The genocide of Armenians in Turkey in 1915-23 remains alive as a matter of law, Alfred de Zayas, the former secretary of the UN Commission on Human Rights and an expert on international law, said in a lecture at the Armenian Community Center here. < p> As reported by Arminfo news agency, Dr. de Zayas asserted that Turkey's obligation to pay compensation for damages inflicted by the genocide also is not subject to a statute of limitations. He noted that the UN Convention on Genocide, adopted in 1948, specifically recognized the Armenian genocide of 1915-23 and calls for compensation by Turkey. De Zayas has taught international law at several European and North American universities. He recently retired after serving as secretary of the UN commission for 22 years. He is a member of the American Society for International Law and the International Association on Criminal Law.

Chile

NYT 28 Aug 2003 Chile court rules out new Pinochet rights trial By Fiona Ortiz SANTIAGO, Chile, Aug. 27 — A fresh bid to have Chile's former strongman Augusto Pinochet face human rights charges failed on Wednesday when a panel of judges voted against taking away his immunity. ''The petition to strip him of immunity was rejected by a vote of 15 to eight,'' Alfred Pfeiffer, president of the Appeals Court told reporters after a one-day hearing in the case of five Communist Party leaders kidnapped and presumed killed in 1976. Human rights lawyers who accused Pinochet of ordering the four men and one woman killed because they opposed his military government said they regretted the ruling, which cannot be appealed, but would press on with hundreds of other cases. ''We will insist on a trial in each case so that it is more than clear that victims' families and all of us who fight against impunity will not back down in our fight for truth and for punishment of the dictator,'' said lawyer Eduardo Contreras. The 23-judge panel will not give a reason for the vote until it publishes its decision in a few days. But the appeals court has traditionally ruled in favor of Pinochet. The hearing marked the revival, after two years of dormancy, of a drawn-out legal battle to force the 87-year-old Pinochet to stand trial for human rights abuses during his 1973-1990 rule. The case of the five communist leaders was the first formal human rights complaint filed against Pinochet, in 1998. About 3,000 people died in the violent aftermath of the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power, but, given his poor health and defense delay tactics, no one expects him to ever appear in court. Pinochet once did lose the immunity he enjoyed as a former president when Chile's highest court ordered him to stand trial in 2000 for a different human rights case. The trial started but was cut short in 2001 when he was ruled mentally incompetent. Pinochet, who lives secluded at home with round-the-clock nurses, made headlines around the world during his 17-month detention in London from 1998-2000 on torture charges brought by a Spanish court. The judges also rejected a request for new medical exams. The lawyers had argued that Pinochet must be mentally fit because he recently gave a pep talk at a luncheon for retired generals. Pinochet's son told Reuters on Wednesday that his father understands what is going on around him despite his diabetes, frequent small strokes, back problems and other ailments. ''Everyone knows the illnesses he suffers, which make him good one day, bad the next. ... It's hard for him to walk and his hearing is bad. He feels the weight of his age. But he's very intelligent and knows what goes on, but he doesn't talk much,'' the son said. In the 1990s, the country was deeply divided between the anti-Pinochet left and the pro-Pinochet right, but recently Chile's rightists have distanced themselves from Pinochet. President Ricardo Lagos has introduced a human rights plan to rush dozens of other human rights cases against security officials through the courts, but his government says Pinochet is unlikely ever to go to trial because of his advanced age. (Additional reporting by Gabriela Donoso and Ignacio Badal)

BBC 28 Aug 2003 Peru strife killed 69,000 - Quechua-speaking highland Indians bore the brunt of violence At least 69,000 people died or disappeared in Peru's political violence between 1980 and 2000, according to a landmark government report. The figure far exceeds earlier estimates, in which humanitarian groups had said that as many as 30,000 had been killed during the state's crackdown on left-wing rebels. In a two-year investigation, Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission collected 17,000 testimonies from people affected by the violence, including jailed rebel leaders. The report says most of the victims of Peru's internal war are believed to have come from indigenous communities, trapped between state troops and rebel insurgents such as the Shining Path. The investigation, in which members of the commission were given unprecedented access to military documents, blamed the start of the violence on Shining Path, a Maoist group, which launched an uprising in 1980. Methodical killers The commission says that Shining Path employed a systematic "terrorist methodology" to carry out massacres. You didn't realise that often it was innocent people who died Zuniga, Lima resident However, the report also accused the army and police of playing a part in what it described as crimes against humanity. "The last two decades of the 20th Century were marked by horror and dishonour for Peruvian society," the commission's president, Salomon Lerner, said as the report was handed over to Peru's President Alejandro Toledo. "The most likely figure of victims is more than 69,000, who died at the hands of subversives and forces of the state," he said, adding the number was "overwhelming." He said those deemed responsible should be punished. Violence ignored The report's nine volumes of evidence and other information cover Peru's brutal civil war, which ranks among the bloodiest in Latin American history. Zuniga, a 30-year old resident of Lima, said people did not take note of the fighting before it reached the capital. "I was only 15. We didn't pay attention to what was happening in the countryside," she said. "It didn't affect us. You didn't realise that often it was innocent people who died."

BBC 28 Aug 2003 Peruvians wait for answers By Hannah Hennessy BBC correspondent in Ayacucho, Peru Arquimedes Mendoza was a 19-year-old student when he was dragged from his bed and away from his family by hooded soldiers carrying assault rifles 20 years ago. Mama Angelica has waited 20 years to know the fate of her son Since then, his mother has been trying to discover what happened to him. Mama Angelica hopes Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission will answer her questions. "I want to find my son. Is he dead? Is he alive? Did they bury him? What did they do to him? That's what I want them to tell me," the 73-year-old said in a mixture of Spanish and Quechua, the language of many of Peru's indigenous communities. Dressed in the traditional shawl and white high crowned hat, the pain of memory etched on her face, Mama Angelica described how she would visit the mountains on the outskirts of Ayacucho. There she searched in vain for Arquimedes, among piles of mutilated bodies, guarded by soldiers. Many of the bodies belonged to students who, like Arquimedes, attended the local university, viewed by the military as a rebel stronghold. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is delivering its findings after a two year investigation into violence by government-backed troops and left-wing rebels. Terror It is expected to say that at least 40,000 people disappeared or died between 1980 and 2000, although the exact number of victims may never be known. But one thing is certain. The colonial city of Ayacucho and its surrounding region of rugged mountains and jungle-cloaked valleys, experienced the worst of the atrocities. Mama Angelica, who heads a group of relatives of those who died or disappeared, says she believes 20,000 people from this area were killed during Peru's own "dirty war" and more than 5,000 are still missing. Many of them were poor indigenous people who spoke Quechua. It was a time of terror for this Andean city, the birthplace of the brutal Shining Path insurgency and the focal point of the government's attempts to quash it. People remain sceptical of the commission's outcome Both sides resorted to savagery. The Maoist rebels terrorised the local people, massacring those who refused to join their fight. Government forces tortured, abducted and often killed those it suspected of sympathising with the rebels. Many people in Ayacucho became victims of both sides. Feliciana Quispe Huamani was one of them. She said her husband, three brothers and brother-in-law were killed or abducted by government troops. Her sister was murdered by the Shining Path. "For my part, they took me to the military base at Huancapi. There they made me suffer greatly. They tortured me, raped me and imprisoned me and my two daughters," she said, her voice trembling with sorrow. Ayacucho suffered some of the worst atrocities Like many of Peru's indigenous people, who have often been treated as second class citizens in this country, she is suspicious of the government-backed Commission. "We want justice. Who's going to give it to us? Who's going to let us know who killed them, where they took the prisoners? Why did they kill my husband? That's we want to know. The Truth Commission hasn't investigated well." Almost a generation after Ayacucho's nightmare began, a relative peace seems to have returned to its streets. The sound of Quechua, the local language of the Incas, fills the air. Here peasants sell homemade clothes and food on the dusty streets, while tiny children with toothless grins tug at the clothes of passers by, begging for money. But the people are tormented by the past and say they cannot let go until they see truth and justice done. Mama Angelica and Feliciana Quispe Huamani know this may well be a long way off. In Quechua, Ayacucho means "the corner of the dead". The people here will always know what it means to live in a place of that name.

Guatemala

NYT August 1, 2003 Former Dictator to Seek Guatemalan Presidency By DAVID GONZALEZ UATEMALA CITY, July 31 — Efraín Ríos Montt, a former military dictator accused of presiding over atrocities during the harshest era of Guatemala's civil war, registered today as a presidential candidate. His registration came less than 24 hours after the Constitutional Court, the country's highest court, ruled in his favor, ending a judicial crisis over legal challenges filed in a lower court by opposition parties. His registration also came less than a week after mobs apparently organized by his political party rampaged through upper-class neighborhoods in the capital demanding that he be allowed to run. The Constitutional Court also reversed two of its rulings in 1990 and 1995 that had prohibited Mr. Ríos Montt from seeking the presidency. Opposition leaders faulted the court's 4-to-3 decision, saying the judges should have recused themselves over conflicts of interest for having been friends of Mr. Ríos Montt or having served as ministers during the present government, which is dominated by his Guatemalan Republican Front party. Mr. Ríos Montt, a 77-year-old evangelical Christian, is third in opinion polls, but the ranking may not accurately gauge his popularity in remote rural provinces where his party enjoys its greatest support. It was in those rural provinces that Mr. Ríos Montt imposed his harshest rule, forcing indigenous men into patrols that joined troops in numerous massacres, according to a report published after the 36-year civil war ended with peace accords in 1996. "Under Ríos Montt they no longer committed selective massacres of men," said Victoria Sanford, an anthropologist and the author of "Buried Secrets," a recently published book that looked at human rights in Guatemala and analyzed data on massacres. "Ríos Montt killed more people, he killed more women and children. It was a systematic practice." Mr. Ríos Montt has immunity as president of the Congress. "Morally, his candidacy is a tragedy," said Frank LaRue, director of the Human Rights Legal Action Center here, which has filed a complaint against him. "He does not have the moral qualities to be president. And we will follow the case whether he is president or not." Mr. Ríos Montt has dismissed the criticism. He has not apologized for any crimes or excesses during his rule. He has presented himself as a champion of the poor who will impose order — promises that appeal to impoverished rural communities.

NYT 1 Aug 2003 Editorial: Guatemalan Power Play Guatemala's Constitutional Court made a fateful mistake this week when it ruled that Efraín Ríos Montt can run for president in November. Mr. Ríos Montt has already proved his unfitness for the job — he was Guatemala's dictator in 1982 and 1983. Backed by clandestine security forces, his victory could once again allow fear to rule Guatemala. The Constitutional Court, the nation's highest, has bought the contorted argument that Mr. Ríos Montt is not covered by a law that bars anyone who took power in a military coup from serving as president. Mr. Ríos Montt took over the government in a coup, and the law clearly applies to him. In fact, it was approved because of his coup. It is legal sophistry to suggest, as the court did, that it does not apply to him because his seizure of power occurred three years before the law was adopted. Mr. Ríos Montt's misrule was disastrous for Guatemala. The truth commission in Guatemala concluded that during his brief time as president, 400 Mayan villages were destroyed and some 17,000 people murdered. These were the worst atrocities of the country's 36-year civil war — the truth commission called them acts of genocide. Mr. Ríos Montt, a retired general, tried to run for president in 1990 and 1995 but was blocked by the Constitutional Court under the same law. The difference this time is that his party, the Guatemalan Republican Front, controlled several of the court appointments. A supposedly random lottery to choose judges to sit on the case was conducted in private by the court's president, a former minister in the current Republican Front government. Mr. Ríos Montt serves today as president of Congress and is widely seen as the power behind President Alfonso Portillo. Intimidation is openly part of his strategy — thousands of his supporters were recently allowed to carry out a daylong protest in the city center, and they looted stores, burned cars and attacked reporters — fatally, in one case. His supporters are also widely thought to be behind a series of attacks on democracy advocates. The next president's term in office will coincide with the withdrawal from Guatemala of a United Nations' monitoring mission, a move that will sharply reduce the world's interest and scrutiny. If Mr. Ríos Montt comes back to power, there will be virtually nothing to stop him and his network of former military officers from returning Guatemala to the dark ages.

Denver Post 1 Aug 2003 Ex-dictator seeks presidency -- Guatemala's poor back Rios Montt despite bloody history By Billie Stanton, Special to The Denver Post GUATEMALA - Former dictator Efran Rios Montt, 77, registered as a presidential candidate Thursday, 20 years after a reign that was widely denounced by human rights groups. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal accepted Rios Montt's registration for the November election after the nation's top court ruled he was eligible despite a constitutional provision banning from the presidency those who have seized power in the past. After an initial court ruling last week against Rios Montt's candidacy, an angry mob of more than 5,000 demonstrators rioted in Guatemala City, wielding weapons including machetes. Many of those demonstrating on Rios Montt's behalf came from Guatemala's poor villages, such as San Antonio Aguas Calientes, about 30 miles from the capital. The village sits in a verdant valley encircled by volcanoes - and it is plastered with posters of support for "Seguridad, Bienestar, Justicia," and for Rios Montt's party, the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco. Security, the good life, justice - promises critics say drip with irony, considering Rios Montt's previous 18-month presidency. More than 60,000 people were killed or disappeared in a campaign that lay waste to 440 indigenous Mayan villages, according to international human rights groups. But 32-year-old Juan Perez, of the village of Ciudad Vieja, said Rios Montt has his vote. "I was a child when this (genocide) happened. (But) I don't think he would do that now because the laws are stronger," Perez said. When Montt took office in March 1982, he annulled the nation's 1965 constitution, disbanded Congress and convened secret courts to try his opponents and other "subversives," according to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. But Perez shrugs off the complaints. "Rios Montt's party gives fertilizer to the farms. I will vote for Montt." In San Antonio, the tiny white snack shop run by Maria Lopez sports blue stenciled slogans supporting Rios Montt. "The majority of the town supports Rios Montt," so she lets his party post the advertisements, said Lopez, 47. Still, Lopez recalls indignantly how Rios Montt, a former evangelical minister, snubbed a papal visit to this predominantly Catholic country. "He started off good, normal. But later he changed. He doesn't care about the indigents. But he pays them, in other places," for their votes. Many urban residents support presidential candidate Oscar Berger, saying his independent wealth will preclude him from corruption. Educated Guatemalans don't think twice when asked how Rios Montt can muster support from the very people whose villages were decimated. He feeds them, they say. And he pays them - powerful tools in a country where at least 80 percent of the people live in extreme poverty, according to a Harvard University report. The nation's illiteracy rate exceeds 30 percent, according to Stanford University. "Rios Montt drives the poor people in all the country, because he knows the hatred toward the social class for many years," said Sergio Anleu, 42, an environmental engineer. "Poor people don't read the papers; they don't pay attention to politics; they don't know anything. Rios Montt wants to destroy the (democratic) system of government, and then he will take the power. Poverty and corruption here are hand-in-hand."

Pacific News Service, 12 Aug 2003 Why Won't Bush Condemn Rios Montt, the 'Central American Saddam Hussein'? Commentary, Roberto Lovato, Editor's Note: The Guatemalan Constitutional Court has recently cleared the way for Efrian Rios Montt, responsible for mass killing in Guatemala in the 1980s, to run for president. The writer explores why the U.S. barely denounces Rios Montt while it condemns Saddam Hussein daily. We don't need to spend $4 billion a month to bring a genocidal dictator to justice. Not a single drop of American or non-combatant blood needs to spill in order to punish someone universally acknowledged in the early 1980s to have gassed, tortured and killed as many people as Saddam Hussein. Instead of sending out several naval fleets to pursue justice, all that's needed are a few airline tickets -- to Guatemala. U.S. marshals then can simply go to the Guatemalan Congress and arrest the current head of that body, former dictator Efrain Rios Montt. But instead of pursuing justice against the 77-year-old retired brigadier general whom some call the "Guatemalan Saddam Hussein," the interventionist Bush administration responds to Montt's potential return to power with laissez-faire human rights policy. Lack of U.S. government condemnation of the former dictator places the United States in an untenable moral position and endangers the peace and people of Guatemala. Following a decision on July 30, 2004, by Guatemala's Constitutional Court clearing the way for a Rios Montt candidacy, Guatemalans and human rights activist are on red alert for the renewed possibility of terrorist attacks -- by their own government. During his 17 months as Guatemala's president, Rios Montt presided over a military responsible for almost half of all atrocities committed in Guatemala over the past 30 years. But as human rights activists like Rosalina Tuyuc wasted little time warning of another potential "genocidio," the Bush administration weakly responded to the possibility of a Rios Montt presidency, calling it "problematic." Why the fuzziness about the man in the Americas who most embodies Bush administration descriptions of "evil"? Steady, daily denunciations of Saddam Hussein over the last 23 months contrast staggeringly with the deadly silence around Rios Montt. It's hardly the response we've come to expect from an administration bent on redefining the moral discourse of the world. So why is Washington being evasive? Some observers believe that lack of resources like oil in Guatemala condemns it, and, for that matter, the entire Central American region, to perpetual neglect. Others think that former President Ronald Reagan's influence on the Bush administration guarantees that the mass graves of Guatemala will not see the light of CNN, though such sites were being uncovered at about the same time as those in Iraq. Declassified State Department documents released by the Clinton administration in 1999 reveal that high-level U.S. officials knew that Guatemala's mass graves were created after "executions ordered by armed services officers close to President Rios Montt." On Dec. 4, 1982, President Reagan visited Central America and met with Rios Montt, whom he described as a "man of great personal integrity and commitment" who had been "getting a bum rap." Forensic anthropologists later found that three days after the meeting, Rios Montt's military slaughtered more than 300 villagers in the hamlet of Dos Erres. A month after the massacre, Reagan managed to free military aid to Guatemala that had been frozen in Congress because of human rights concerns. Many of the same people who crafted Reagan's policies and pronouncements in Central America now shape Bush policy in Iraq. The high moral tone of current Bush administration discourse has its roots in Central America policy by way of high-level policymakers such as former Reagan administration assistant secretary of state Elliot Abrams, who was largely responsible for U.S. policy in Central America in the 1980s. Abrams is now senior adviser on the Middle East at the National Security Council. The re-emergence of Rios Montt puts the Bush administration in a quandary. Silence in the face of his past crimes looks bad. But bringing attention to Rios Montt's legacy risks the exposure of decades of U.S. support for genocide in Central America. Human rights advocates continue efforts to put Rios Montt on trial for crimes against humanity in Nuremberg-style proceedings. Bush must call on Montt to withdraw his candidacy and submit himself to international tribunals or face arrest. Rios Montt and his cronies threaten a peace already paid for with the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocents in Guatemala. PNS commentator Roberto Lovato (robvato63@yahoo.com) is the former head of the Central American Studies program at California State University, Northridge.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel 13 Aug 2003 Ex-dictator loses support By Robert Buckman Special to the Sun-Sentinel Posted August 13 2003 GUATEMALA CITY · Former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt has slipped to fifth place in the presidential race, apparently a victim of the violence his supporters unleashed in the capital last month. A new survey, published in Tuesday's edition of Prensa Libre, was conducted from July 28 to Aug. 4 by the firm Vox Latina, the week after supporters of Ríos Montt's ruling Guatemalan Republican Front, or FRG, went on a violent rampage in the capital. It shows Ríos Montt with only 3.3 percent of support. The poll also shows the frontrunner, former Guatemala City Mayor Oscar Berger of a new three-party coalition called the Grand National Alliance, or GANA, close to a first-round victory on Nov. 9 with 44.4 percent. A distant second was Alvaro Colom, candidate of a left-wing coalition called the National Unity of Hope, or UNE, with 17.1 percent. The survey included 1,200 respondents from throughout the country and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. In the last Vox Latina poll on July 2, Berger had 36.9 percent, Colom 13.1 percent and Ríos Montt 7.9 percent. "The polls for more than a year have shown a downward trend for him [Ríos Montt] because of corruption and unkept promises," Berger said on Thursday. Berger , who lost the 1999 election to the FRG´s Alfonso Portillo, cited his own poll showing him winning a first-round victory with 51 percent, but he said he fears the FRG will resort to fraud. "His popularity is stronger in the rural areas, where they have a very disciplined organization, where they have undertaken public works," said Berger, who turned 57 on Monday. "We don´t worry that much about actual electoral fraud, but about intimidation. These are some very violent people, and the [Indians] are very timid people. They are very easy to intimidate. About 60 percent of Guatemala´s 12 million people are of Mayan descent. Berger is of Belgian descent. Interviewed Friday, Ríos Montt´s daughter, Zury Ríos Sosa, the second vice president of Congress, discounted polls showing her father´s drop in popularity as a ploy of what she called "the oligarchy." "Polls in Guatemala are not very sophisticated and you can make them say whatever you want them to say," she said. On July 24, which the media have dubbed Jueves Negro, or Black Thursday, dozens of FRG supporters wearing ski masks and carrying clubs committed acts of vandalism, burned tires and attacked journalists, one of whom died of a heart attack. They were protesting a Supreme Court decision that briefly delayed legalization of Rios Montt's candidacy. For years, Ríos Montt, 77, who ruled from 1982-83 and is blamed by human rights organizations for committing genocide during the 36-year guerrilla war, was barred from running by a provision in the 1986 constitution that blocks those who have participated in military coups from seeking the presidency. On July 14, the Constitutionality Court, a majority of which is composed of FRG appointees, voted 4-2 to overturn the ban and permit Ríos Montt, now the president of the Congress, to run. The anti-Ríos Montt media published photographs and aired video footage of FRG deputies, high-ranking party officials and Ríos Montt´s niece, Ingrid Argueta, participating in the disturbances. Mario Antonio Sandoval, a political columnist for Prensa Libre and president of the paper´s new cable channel, Guatevisión, linked Black Thursday to Ríos Montt´s precipitous drop in the newest poll. "Guatemalans reject violence, especially when someone who has been accused of violence is being violent again," said Sandoval, a harsh critic of Rios Montt. If a runoff is necessary, it will be held on Dec. 28.

Peru

WP 1 Aug 2003 asia • TOKYO -- Defiant in the face of an extradition request, former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori dismissed murder charges against him back home as baseless. Just hours after Peruvian authorities formally petitioned Japan to deport him, Fujimori said he was "completely innocent." He said he would eventually return to Peru -- not to stand trial but to head a new political party that he launched this week through supporters in his South American homeland. Fujimori fled to his parents' homeland in November 2000 as his government collapsed in a corruption scandal. He was granted Japanese citizenship. As a Japanese citizen, Fujimori, 65, is shielded from extradition. europe • THE HAGUE -- The U.N. war crimes tribunal sentenced a prominent Bosnian Serb politician to life imprisonment for exterminating and persecuting Bosnian Muslims but acquitted him of genocide. It was the first time in the court's 10-year history that it handed down a life sentence. Milomir Stakic, 41, a physician, was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for establishing prison camps where hundreds of Muslims were killed and thousands tortured, raped or treated with extreme brutality in 1992. • VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia -- The Russian military killed 25 separatist rebels in a string of operations in southern Chechnya, a military spokesman said. The rebels were killed during reconnaissance and search operations in Chechnya's Itum-Kale and Shatoi districts and the Argun Gorge, Col. Ilya Shabalkin told the Interfax news agency. About 10 Russian servicemen were killed in the same 24-hour period in clashes with the separatists and in mine explosions, an official in the Moscow-backed administration said on condition of anonymity.

WP Peru Panel Details Toll Of Violent 2 Decades Over 69,000 Perished; Rebels, Military Blamed By Scott Wilson Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, August 29, 2003; Page A01 LIMA, Peru, Aug. 28 -- A civilian commission examining Peru's political violence has concluded that more than 69,000 Peruvians died or disappeared from 1980 to 2000, a period of barbarous civil war and authoritarian government that the investigators labeled "a time of national shame." In a nine-volume document drawing on two years of testimony and investigation, Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission reported today that most of the killings of civilians were committed by the Shining Path, a radical Maoist insurgency that ravaged the countryside during the mid-1990s in its war against the Peruvian state. But the report was equally critical of Peru's aloof political class and its armed services, attributing just under half the atrocities committed over that time to the security forces and renewing a bitter debate over who bears responsibility for the war. Three of every four victims of the violence during that period -- in massacres, kidnappings and assassinations -- were Peruvians whose native language was Quechua or another indigenous tongue. Salomon Lerner, president of the 12-member commission, said Peru's security forces employed a "systematic or generalized practice of human rights violations" that could support charges of crimes against humanity. "Today is Peru's moment to confront a time of national shame," Lerner told a hushed audience at the National Palace during a ceremony marking the report's official release. "This report exposes a double scandal -- the killings, disappearances and torture on a huge scale, and the indolence, ineptitude and indifference by those able to intervene in this human catastrophe and who did not." The report is an attempt to reconcile Peruvians with their brutal past by offering an official acknowledgment of what transpired and why. The commission was created in June 2001, seven months after President Alberto Fujimori's flight into exile ahead of corruption and murder charges stemming from his alleged connection to anti-guerrilla death squads. Like similar panels in El Salvador, Guatemala and South Africa, Peru's truth commission was created after a period of intense internal conflict to help unite a country traditionally divided along racial and economic lines. But in assessing blame for the most horrific chapter in Peru's recent history, the findings have stirred up political passions at a fragile moment for President Alejandro Toledo, whose popularity since his 2001 election has fallen to the lowest level of any Latin America president. In the weeks preceding the report's release, political allies of Fujimori and Alan Garcia, two of the three presidents whose terms fall under the investigation, have accused the commission of attempting to recast the war in terms favorable to the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a smaller Marxist insurgency held responsible for 1.5 percent of the civilian deaths. Defenders of the Peruvian military have also criticized the commission, fearing that the detailed report will set the stage for criminal trials. Peru's leading human rights groups, as well as the thousands of victims' families, want the report to serve as the foundation for broader prosecutions of military officials implicated in massacres, disappearances and other crimes detailed in its pages. Lerner called today for the "criminal justice system [to] act immediately without vengeance, but at the same time with energy and without vacillation." Almost all of the Shining Path's leaders are either dead or serving prison sentences, including its founder, Abimael Guzman. The former college professor from the southern city of Arequipa, who called on his followers to kill 10 percent of the population to make way for a new political system, was captured in 1992. But the Shining Path is showing tentative signs of rising again, mostly in the coca-producing regions of Peru's eastern jungles. Hundreds of jailed members are scheduled for new trials in the coming months, following a high court decision that their convictions in military tribunals were unconstitutional. The report concludes that the Shining Path was responsible for 54 percent of the civilian deaths. The defeat of the Shining Path "was a great victory for the armed forces -- with excesses, no doubt," said Jose Barba, a conservative congressman who has sharply criticized the truth commission. "But I don't know of such a thing as a clean war. This report is vengeance, vengeance by the Shining Path. And it is going to divide Peruvian society totally and absolutely." The commission's findings show Peru's political violence to be far broader and more intense than earlier believed, even by human rights experts who have been trying for decades to track the number of victims. Until now, the number of Peruvians who died or disappeared during the war and its aftermath was thought to be about 30,000. The commission, which comprises human rights activists, academics and other prominent Peruvians, confirmed 24,000 deaths through witnesses and used statistical projections to arrive at the final toll. The report draws on testimony from about 17,000 people, collected in emotional public hearings and private interviews over the past two years. Guzman participated in more than a dozen interviews with commission members. The project, which began under the interim presidency of Valentin Paniagua, who served between Fujimori's flight to Japan and Toledo's inauguration, cost an estimated $13 million. During the years immediately following the Shining Path's declaration of war in 1980, the political violence remained concentrated in Peru's central highlands before spreading across the country and into the cities. Of the estimated 69,280 victims, 85 percent came from six poor political divisions known as departments that ranged from Apurimac in the south to San Martin in the north. But the most severely affected was Ayacucho, southeast of Lima, home to more than 40 percent of those who died or disappeared. The violence ebbed and flowed over the 20-year period studied by the commission. The report shows that 1984 was the single bloodiest year of the war. The upsurge followed the government's October 1981 emergency decree in Ayacucho, which placed the region in the effective control of army Gen. Clemente Noel. An estimated 4,500 people died or disappeared that year as Shining Path massacres mounted in the central highlands and the government used increasingly brutal methods against the insurgency. The report also shows a sharp decline in deaths after 1992, the year Fujimori dissolved the Peruvian parliament and instituted a form of martial law. But human rights officials here say the numbers are misleading because Fujimori and his domestic intelligence adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, began employing such techniques as mass arrests and trials by hooded anti-terrorism tribunals that have since been ruled illegal. The report, which will be presented in Ayacucho on Friday by the truth commission during a special ceremony in memory of the victims, has shown few signs of healing the country. Toledo, who has never been popular with the Peruvian military, now faces the politically delicate task of weighing the growing public cries for justice against allowing the report to stand as the final word on the war. In accepting the report today, Toledo said justice and reparations for the victims were "a state imperative," but also offered a general statement of support for the armed forces. "It is indispensable that we look into the mirror of the past," Toledo said. "We can't open the doors to the future without looking first at the past." Coming so soon after the end of the strife, the report poses a threat to a number of Peru's leading politicians and military officials who are still central figures in the national arena, including Fujimori and Garcia. Fujimori has suggested he might return to Peru and run for president, despite facing murder charges stemming from his alleged connection to squads that carried out two massacres in Lima early in his tenure. Garcia already has said he will seek another presidential term. During an evening rally in support of the truth commission outside the Palace of Justice here this week, Teodora Cardenas, 26, held a small sign aloft bearing the word "Reparations." In 1990, her brother Federico, then 26, was taken away by a military-trained peasant militia in her village of Satipo in the Junin department, allegedly for belonging to the Shining Path. She never saw him again. "We don't know where he was buried," Cardenas said. "We demand justice for his death, and the return of his body." But just a few feet away, Rolando Pimental, who had two uncles murdered by the Shining Path in the Apurimac department, was unable to forgive. One uncle, a mayor, was stoned to death in front of his family. The other, an agricultural engineer, was taken away, never to be seen again. "We always knew the truth. Do they think I am blind, that I am stupid?" said Pimental, 33, an engineer for a cell phone company. "This commission never wanted to hear from us, and now the terrorists want to return. Is it possible to reconcile with killers?"

NYT August 31, 2003 Truth Commission Leaves Many Indians in Peru Unsatisfied By JUAN FORERO AYACUCHO, Peru, Aug. 30 — Some stood clutching grainy old photographs, or dog-eared identification cards, the only evidence left that their husbands or sons had ever lived. A few held aloft cardboard placards, scrawled with the names of loved ones and the dates they disappeared. Crowding into the colonial plaza here, they came in support of a government-appointed commission that had just issued a landmark report on 20 years of brutal conflict in Peru. But they also came for answers, to ask if anyone would ever be able to tell them what happened to loved ones who vanished. "To this day I still do not know," said Julia Aparacio, 58, whose son, Guillermo Mendoza, 17, was taken away by a police patrol in 1984 and never seen again. "You remember everything. You cannot forget, so I have cried and I have suffered." A day after releasing its voluminous report — which found that 69,280 people died, more than twice as many as previously thought — the Truth and Reconciliation Commission came here Friday for a symbolic presentation. It is here, in the craggy mountains and deep ravines of the Peruvian highlands, where most of the suffering was centered. Most of the perpetrators, the report said, were members of a fanatical guerrilla group, or the armed forces. Most victims, like those who crowded the plaza, were Quechua-speaking Indians, descendants of the Incas, a people long accustomed to neglect and racism. The report, based on testimony from 17,000 people and reams of documents, has given them the first real hope that they could learn the truth about what happened. "Now we are going to look for justice and we are going to get ahead," said Victoria Pariona, whose 14-year-old son, Raul Sacsara, disappeared in 1983. "We cannot stop now." The report, thousands of pages in nine volumes, contains lengthy passages on the most brutal crimes and a data bank with the names or pseudonyms of nearly 34,000 who died. Much of the work centered here in Ayacucho, the state where 40 percent of the victims lived. It was here, just around the corner from the central plaza where the people gathered, that an obscure professor, Abimael Guzmán, founded the Maoist rebel group Shining Path. The group set out to topple the state, brutalizing civilians and prompting a vicious response from military forces, the commission found. The commission's work is considered by human rights groups and foreign governments to be among the best of a string of similar boards formed to investigate conflict and authoritarian governments from Guatemala to South Africa. Still, the report has shortcomings — a product of the murky nature of a conflict in which thousands died in obscure massacres, their bodies buried in unmarked graves. More than half of those estimated to have died — 35,000 people — are unidentified. Limited resources and time also prevented the commission from exhuming 2,000 mass graves. "There is so much more to investigate," said Elisabeth Acha, a sociologist who helped with investigations for the report. The people here were told as much. In a solemn speech translated into Quechua, Salomon Lerner, president of the commission, said the government should pay reparations to the victims, even if symbolic. He said the commission's work, providing ample detail on miserable living conditions and racism, was meant to pressure the government to provide education and other services. He also said the commission would forward evidence of crimes to prosecutors. "Our work concludes here today with this ceremony, but the work of doing justice is just beginning," he said. As he spoke, a throng of women in the broad-brimmed hats and multilayered skirts of the highlands pressed forward. Some cried softly. Others held aloft tiny pictures of family members who have not been heard from in a generation. "This is all fine, but we want to know where they are," said Luzmila Farfan, 58, whose sons, Adrill and Roberto Ramos, were hauled away by a military unit in 1990. "We need to know if they are alive. And if they are dead, we want the bones." Those who have worked closely with the commission say that its success prompted people who had long been ignored to demand an accounting. "The problem is that it generated more hope than could possibly be fulfilled," said Rocio Vargas, the government's human rights ombudsman in Ayacucho. Hilda Garcia is among those who still expect answers. Her husband, Isidoro Bedoya, disappeared in 1983.

United States

News24 SA 1 Aug 2003 Immunity demand 'a violation' US slaps military ban on SA US stops aid to 32 countries US troops escape ICC probe New York - A United States demand for jurisdictional exemption from the International Criminal Court for a members of a multinational peacekeeping force in Liberia will violate international law, say legal experts. The United States on Wednesday tabled a resolution in the UN security council that would authorise deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force in Liberia. But, it included a proviso that those in the force be exempt from the ICC's jurisdiction. William R Pace, convenor of the coalition for the ICC said inclusion of the provision was "particularly disturbing" and would violate "treaties and international laws". Several members of the security council expressed similar reserves. "This article in its current wording is difficult to accept," said a diplomat of a security council member country. Must hold the line Michael Posner, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, called the US position "wrong and ill-advised". "No one should be shielded from prosecution for committing systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide," said Posner. "Stripping the permanent exemption language from this resolution is critical because the Liberia resolution will set a precedent for how the security council handles this issue in the future. "It is critical that states who have been supportive of the court... continue to hold the line." US ambassador to the UN John Negroponte supported the resolution as introduced," telling reporters on Wednesday, "I don't think our position on the question of ICC exemption is any surprise. "I think we may have to sit down with the other experts and try to find the right form of words. "But we've worked out satisfactory language before on the question of the ICC with our colleagues on the security council, and I think we should be able to do that again."

Harlan Tribune (Iowa, USA) 1 Aug 2003 Dean promotes economic plan Presidential candidate Howard Dean campaigns in Harlan HARLAN -- Former Vermont governor turned Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told Shelby County residents Thursday that he's ready to make a run for the White House. Dean is the first presidential candidate to visit Harlan and Shelby County this year, making a public appearance at the Harlan Library in front of a crowd of roughly 50 people. Touting his "health care for all Americans" policy, his economic policy and his vocal opposition to the war in Iraq, Dean fielded a few questions after a short speech before heading to Des Moines for a presentation on jobs and the economy, an area he highlighted on his Harlan stop. "There are a lot of things I'd like to do for this country," said Dean, who said starting with a sound farm policy and economic policy are keys to growing the economy. "If you don't get those right, then the country's in a lot of trouble." Dean said the loss of 3 million private sector jobs in the last three years, coupled with enormous debt and deficits at the federal level shows there needs to be a change in policy. He called President George Bush's tenure a "credit card presidency" where debt and deficits are being passed on to the next generations. Dean said he's pushing a policy that gets rid of the president's tax cuts in favor of funding other areas that will grow the economy. "You can have the president's tax cuts, or you can have health insurance that will never be taken away," said Dean, whose policies outline a plan to allow everyone to be covered by health insurance. "You can have the president's tax cuts or you can have fully funded special education, so your property taxes will go down. You can have the president's tax cuts or you can have movement toward a balanced budget and an investment in America. "I believe most Americans would gladly pay the same taxes they paid when Bill Clinton was president if only they could have the same economy they had." Dean said his campaign promises include an economic plan that will bring about jobs. He calls for balancing the budget, pumping money into small businesses and investing in America's roads, bridges, schools, etc., which will create employment. "It puts people to work," he said. Dean also pledged to intensify development of renewable energies, such as ethanol, wind power and bio-diesel. War words Dean said of all the Democratic candidates for office, he is the only one openly critical of the War in Iraq. He called the war one that was based on faulty information. Although he's willing to send troops abroad if needed, Dean said there has to be good reason, such as if the United States is attacked, there is an imminent, immediate threat or to prevent genocide. "This was not a just war," he said. "This was the wrong war at the wrong time. "The president told us that Iraq was on the verge of purchasing uranium, and that wasn't true...that there was a connection between Iraq and Al Quada terrorists...and that wasn't true." Reports from the office that Iraq was on the verge of becoming a nuclear power or that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq also have proven untrue, said Dean. "I will never send American troops to a war abroad...putting them in harm's way, without telling the truth to the American people about why we're going."

JTA 12 Aug 2003 Bank apologizes for praising Hitler, while Jews consider lessons learned By Pauline Dubkin Yearwood Chicago Jewish News CHICAGO — As Chicago Jewish leaders ponder what the long-term response should be to a bank´s newsletter article that praised Adolf Hitler for his economic policies, bank president David Raub, the author of the article, admits that he made a "shocking error" because he "had tunnel vision blinders on to a shocking and astounding degree." Bank executives have apologized to the Jewish community, but the incident has left Chicago Jews shaken and wondering how such an article could have appeared, particularly in the newsletter of a bank catering to clients in the heavily Jewish North Shore suburbs. The incident began with an article in Outlook, described as a "publication for trust clients and friends of the Glenview State Bank." The newsletter is distributed to about 500 of the bank´s clients. The 1,500-word article from the newsletter also appeared on the bank´s Web site (www.gsb.com). Glenview State Bank was ranked the 36th largest bank in the Chicago area as of June 2002, with deposits of $621.4 million. In the newsletter article, Raub, discussing the Great Depression of the 1930s and its similarities to today´s economic situation, wrote that "the world´s leading statesmen seemed helpless to defeat" the "falling prices, staggering unemployment and shattered stock markets" that marked the economic climate of the time. He continued: "All except one. His name was Adolph Hitler. Unlike France and Britain, and unlike the United States, Germany spent most of the 1930s growing economically, not declining. If we can understand why Depression-era Germany resisted the disease, we may better understand how alarmed we should be." "Hitler reduced unemployment in Germany three times as fast as America´s Roosevelt" and other leaders, Raub wrote. "He did not do this through public works programs like Roosevelt´s, or armaments programs. (The German military certainly grew strongly during the Thirties, but so also did private employment)." Later in the article, in discussing consumer confidence, Raub wrote that "America is showing that it stands for something more than its own narrow self-interest by taking on thankless jobs in Palestine, Africa and Iraq." The article ended by stating that the bank´s investment managers are "confident" and are "buying and holding our favorite long-term growth stocks." The Jewish community responded immediately, according to Shoshana Buchholz-Miller, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League´s Midwest office. The organization sent a letter to the bank, written by Regional Director Richard S. Hirschhaut. "Hitler´s economic policies cannot be divorced from his greater policies of virulent anti-Semitism, racism and genocide. Hitler used brute force, intimidation, and ethnic scapegoating to gain support, which are not the same as ‘building confidence,´" Hirschhaut wrote. The letter goes on to say, "To write of Hitler without the context of the millions of innocents he slaughtered and the tens of millions who died fighting against him is an insult to their memories. There are really no circumstances under which Hitler should be considered a good role model." After receiving the letter on July 29, bank officials on the same day posted a formal apology on their Web site, along with the ADL letter. The apology replaced the newsletter article, which was removed from the site. "We sincerely apologize for this error. We did not intend to offend anyone. Please forgive us for this mistake," bank executives wrote. They also apologized for using the reference to "Palestine." The apology was signed by Raub; Paul Jones, chairman of the bank; and John Jones, chairman of Cummins American Corp., which owns the bank. John Jones is a World War II veteran. Raub echoed a similar theme in a telephone interview, calling the article "a shocking error. As I look at it now, I myself can´t understand how I could be so narrow as to think about that subject without its broader context," he said. "I don´t think of myself as an insensitive person, but I am certainly capable of making a major blunder, and I did. I wanted to focus on the risk of deflation, and I got so wrapped up in the narrow point of view of my source (a book about economic growth in the 1930s) that I didn´t have the sense to look outside myself." His message to the Jewish community, he said, is that "I very much apologize for the offense the article gave. I am sincere. It was truly an unintended offense, but nevertheless real. Many mistakes can be labeled as stupid, but they still do damage. We ask for forgiveness." Meanwhile, some in the Jewish community are looking at ways to increase understanding and sensitivity to prevent more such "mistakes" from happening. Emily Soloff, regional director of the American Jewish Committee, which focuses on outreach and interfaith understanding, said she agrees that Raub "was probably more clueless than venal." She said she doesn´t believe the answer is more Holocaust education, which is already mandated by law in Illinois schools. "I think it comes down to real relationships with Jews, beyond the business relationship. It´s fine to say, we have a lot of Jewish customers, but do you take the time and trouble and have the opportunity to know how that person lives, what their background is? "If you don´t know anything about my history and background as a Jew, how would you know that Hitler is such a powerful negative icon?" she said. She cited a recent Chicago Tribune cartoon, widely considered to be anti-Semitic, as another such example of "cluelessness — not having a relationship with Jews enough to understand what are the issues that really hurt us." The ADL´s Buchholz-Miller agreed that the article probably grew out of "ignorance and insensitivity rather than racism. There is a concern that as the years pass and the memories of the Holocaust fade, as we lose people who are survivors and veterans, people will look at the Nazi era and not grasp the full horror of what happened. "We have to remind them that you cannot remove one aspect of Nazi life without looking at the whole picture," she said. The answer, she said, is "education for all age groups. Holocaust education is mandated in schools, but it is also important to educate adults — they need to be reminded what really happened." The organization, she said, is "talking with the bank about continuing our conversation" and hopes to put together an educational program designed for its leadership and staff members. State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, whose legislative district includes Glenview State Bank, said that bank executives "could not have responded more appropriately. It´s unfortunate that this incident should have obscured the many fine things in the community that this bank has done," he said. But he added that he finds it "frightening" that "this level of ignorance exists even among bank presidents in the community. It doesn´t speak well for the potential for further anti-Semitic incidents to occur. There is a very unsettling climate emerging even among the well-informed that tolerates anti-Semitism," he said. "That´s why we need to rethink how we are educating those who operate under these dangerous myths." As for the bank, "I don´t think we have achieved closure," he said. "Now that they have issued a formal apology, the question is what steps are necessary to ensure that there have been lessons learned." Schoenberg said he will ask to have a meeting with the bank´s leadership, possibly in connection with the ADL, to discuss what those next steps will be. The bank itself has already made one move. It has announced that Raub is stepping down as the bank´s president.

www.news-press.com 13 Aug 2003 Abortion really is black genocide JANE M. JAMES Fort Myers, FL Published by news-press.com Re: “Abortion leading cause of African-American deaths,” Ismael Hernandez, Aug. 6. Mr. Hernandez is 100 percent correct. I wish every American could read it. I can remember when Jessie Jackson called abortion “black genocide,” but to please his white Democrats, he changed it almost immediately. But there is even a greater tragedy in the United States. All those people who consider themselves to be “believing Christians” and will still vote the Democratic party that supports killing babies both pre-born and those that are about to be born.

AP 13 Aug 2003 Faction fights eviction from tribal homes August 13, 2003, 4:47 PM EDT recognizes Schenandoah as a clan mother; RECASTS graf 8 to add Halbritter's position on Grand Council AP Photo wkrsmvfon ONEIDA, N.Y. (AP) _ A group of Oneida Indians facing eviction from their reservation homes in central New York are taking their case to a federal appeals court, claiming they are victims of "cultural genocide" by tribal leaders. The group will ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the Oneida Indian Nation from forcibly inspecting houses, overturn the nation's housing ordinance, and prevent the nation from demolishing their homes, said the group's attorney, Donald Daines. The group claims Oneida leaders are violating the federal Indian Civil Rights Act by using nation laws to punish them for opposing Ray Halbritter, the Oneidas' federally recognized leader. A federal district court last week ruled against the group, which includes Halbritter's 71-year-old aunt, Maisie Schenandoah, a clan mother. A spokesman for Halbritter says the recognized Oneida leadership no longer considers Schenandoah a clan mother. "We are standing firm. These are our aboriginal lands and we are entitled to live here," said Diane Schenandoah, whose trailer home is one of four scheduled for demolition. The trailers were condemned by the tribe as part of a nearly decade-old nation housing improvement program and not as a way to suppress political dissent, said Clint Hill, a member of the tribal council. The dispute goes beyond housing. Those facing eviction are traditionalists who do not recognize Halbritter as the tribe's leader and claim he rules as a dictator. Under traditional law, chiefs are picked by the clan mothers and must have consensus approval. In 1993, the Grand Council of the Six Nations' Confederacy _ the traditional governing body of the Iroquois tribes _ stripped Halbritter of his leadership. Halbritter's spokesman said the Grand Council has no authority in this area and that each Indian nation is a sovereign state. However, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to recognize Halbritter as the Oneida leader. "They are using their power to make people homeless, to steal their property, to take away their voices," said sister Vicky Halsey Schenandoah, another resident whose trailer was condemned. "They want to destroy anyone who wants to follow the traditional ways." The trailer homes are located on the Oneidas' ancestral 32-acre reservation, located 30 miles east of Syracuse. They were scheduled for demolition on Aug. 20 but that has been put on hold while the case is under appeal, said Oneida spokesman Mark Emery. The housing program was started because tribal members were concerned about safety and health issues, Hill said. He also noted that Halbritter lost another aunt and uncle in a trailer home fire in the mid-1970s. Hill said his trailer was condemned two years ago and he was required to move into new nation housing. Emery said so far 12 homes have been destroyed under the program so far. Those displaced are offered new subsidized housing. Since 1996, the Oneidas have built 20 new single-family homes, 10 duplexes and 40 townhouses, he said. Previously, only Danielle Patterson, another traditionalist, had contested the condemnation of her trailer, Emery said. Patterson, a 32-year-old mother of two, pleaded guilty to criminal contempt in tribal court in November after scuffling with nation police who came to evict her from her home. Patterson, like those presently facing eviction, refused new housing, Emery said. As a result of their past defiance, Maisie Schenandoah and her two daughters were among three dozen tribal members who in 1995 formally "lost their voices" in nation affairs. Such status means they are not eligible for nation programs and services and do not receive the approximately $5,000 quarterly distributions paid to tribal members in good standing. Since 1995, about half of the 36 have regained their membership by appealing to the tribal council, a step the remaining dissidents can take at any time, Emery said. Last week, U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue ruled that he did not have jurisdiction to consider the case, adding that the complaint contained no facts to support the allegations. A tribal court judge previously ruled that he did not have jurisdiction over political or membership questions. "The tribal court is a charade. Halbritter appointed the judges. They aren't going to go against him," said Diane Schenandoah. "The federal court should have jurisdiction. It's their government that recognizes Halbritter," she said.

www.pioneerlocal.com 14 Aug 2003 Bank president steps down BY LYNNE STIEFEL STAFF WRITER Dave Raub has stepped down from his position as president of Glenview State Bank, following the controversy caused by an article he wrote for a bank newsletter that contained an analysis of the virtues of Adolf Hitler's economic policies. Raub's move was announced last Thursday, a week after the July edition of the bank's monthly newsletter, "Outlook," was pulled from the bank's Web site and bank officials apologized for its contents. "We believe this action will allow us to move forward and continue our tradition of providing quality service to our customers, and supporting worthy causes in our community," John Jones, chairman of the bank's executive committee, said in a statement. Chairman and CEO Paul Jones has assumed the responsibilities of president. Raub will continue as senior executive vice president of the trust department, where he will be responsible for the development of various investment strategies and services for the bank and bank customers, according to the statement. Raub said last week he had been writing the newsletter for about 20 years, and often looked at historical economic stories in terms of their relevance to current events. His article in the July newsletter, mailed to the bank's trust customers and posted on the Web site, had tried to draw a comparison between how Germany responded to dismal economic conditions in the 1930s and today's economic mindset in the U.S. The article noted how Hitler was the only one among the world's leaders able to respond to the Great Depression. It drew critical responses from bank customers, the Jewish community and the Midwest branch of the Anti-Defamation League. The league's letter, which noted the article failed to mention Hitler's "greater policies of virulent anti-Semitism, racism and genocide," was posted on the bank's Web site along with an apology. The reaction that the newsletter "glorified, praised or admired an aspect of Hitler's monstrous regime" was not intended, bank officials wrote. "Please forgive us for this mistake." Raub, John Jones and Paul Jones said they were personally answering telephone calls, e-mails and letters.

www.dfw.com (Fort Worth, Texas) 17 Aug 2003 'Massacre' highlights dark spot in Mormon history By James Ward Lee Special to the Star-Telegram BOOK COVER American Massacre is the story of the cold-blooded murder of 120 men, women and children headed west from Harrison, Ark., toward California in 1857. As the Fancher-Baker wagon train passed through the Utah Territory, the word went out from Brigham Young that nobody was to sell any grain or food to emigrants from Arkansas nor offer them assistance in any way. Young, who was territorial governor of Utah, Indian agent and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was in a cold war with the United States and in no mood to offer help to anyone from the States who was crossing Utah. When the wagon train reached Mountain Meadows in southern Utah, a Mormon Militia disguised as Indians surrounded it. The Fancher-Baker train circled the wagons and spent three days besieged. Finally, a Mormon leader, John D. Lee, came under a flag of truce and offered to guide them safely away from the "Indians." Lee ordered the emigrants to lay down their weapons. When they did, they were lined up and slaughtered. Some were shot, some were knifed, and some women were murdered with axes. The train was robbed of more than $30,000 worth of gold, the bodies stripped of their clothes and the corpses left to rot or be eaten by animals. The bones were not buried until the U.S. Army interred them two years later. The Dunlap sisters, aged 14 and 16, were allegedly "raped, stripped of their clothing, and then brutally murdered by Lee after they promised to love him and obey him for the rest of their lives." Several apostate Mormons who had joined the train had their throats cut in a symbolic act that Mormons at the time called "blood atonement." Children under the age of 8 were spared. Under Mormon doctrine they were called "blood innocents" because they were under the age of accountability. These children were parceled out to Mormon families. But when the affair in all its horror became a national scandal, the children were returned to relatives in Arkansas. Little Kit Carson Fancher told a reporter, "My father was killed by Indians. When they washed their faces they were white." Despite full-scale efforts to cover up this crime, word gradually got out. It took 20 years, but John D. Lee was convicted and sentenced to death by a firing squad. While in prison, he wrote a long memoir laying the blame for his actions on orders from Brigham Young. Denton believes that Young ordered the emigrants killed and that "the Mormon pontiff" made a deal with prosecutors to absolve him and focus on Lee. The Mormon Church has maintained from 1857 to the present that Indians were involved and that Brigham Young gave Lee no orders to kill these "Gentiles," as LDS members call non-Mormons. Half the book is an unsympathetic history of the Mormon Church from Joseph Smith's visit by the angel Moroni to the death of Brigham Young, Smith's disciple and successor as prophet of the Latter-Day Saints. The other half is a detailed narrative of the Mountain Meadows massacre, which Denton calls the worst act of mass murder by Americans prior to the Oklahoma City bombing. Denton, a descendant of Mormons, is no friend of the LDS. This book will not go down well on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. American Massacre by Sally Denton Knopf, $26.95 - James Ward Lee is co-editor of Literary Fort Worth.

Armenian Reporter International http://216.211.204.120/ 20 Aug 2003 Celebrated Writer Hagop H. Asadourian Marks 100th Birthday, Then Passes On TENAFLY, NJ – Hagop H. Asadourian, a native of Chomaklou (present-day Turkey), who survived the Armenian Genocide as a young lad and lived to become the oldest active Diasporan Armenian writer, passed away this week at the age of 100. Although he had made his living as a rug dealer for half a century, he was better known for his writings, which were published in a dozen or so volumes. Despite his advanced age, Asadourian’s death comes as somewhat of a surprise, inasmuch as he seemed to be holding his own. It was only a few months ago, on April 24, in fact, that he spoke in public at the Armenian Genocide commemorative program at Cooper Union organized by the Naregatsi Art Institute. That appearance was preceded by a celebration of his centennial on March 2, 2003, organized by the Tekeyan Cultural Association of NY/NJ, at which he delivered a moving address. He is survived by two sons, John and Richard, daughter-in-law Silva and granddaughter Tamar.

Asia-Pacific

Afghanistan

AFP 14 Aug 2003 Afghanistan calls for world help after explosion of violence KABUL, Aug 14 (AFP) - Afghanistan needs international help to combat rife insecurity, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said on Thursday, after a day of bloodshed across the war-shattered country left dozens dead. "We face major security challenges," Jalali told a news conference. "The reason is that our security capacity, our national capacity, is not proportioned to the significance of (the) insecurity challenges that we face. Therefore until we build up our security capacity to the extent that we can respond to challenges independently, we definitely need international support." On Wednesday a bomb blamed on the Taliban tore through a bus in the southern province of Helmand, killing 15 people including six children and a woman, while factional fighting in the central province of Uruzgan left 20 people dead, according to reports. On the eastern border with Pakistan, Afghan forces killed eight suspected Taliban guerrillas and in the capital Kabul two suspected al-Qaeda militants accidentally blew themselves up while building a bomb. Jalali said the government was trying to accelerate the training of thousands of new police to deal with country-wide violence from rival factional fighting and anti-government rebel attacks. "But in the meantime we need international support in order to enhance the security capacity needed to respond to security challenges across the country." The international community is already contributing 12,500 troops to a US-led military coalition to hunt Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, and 5,300 troops to a Kabul peacekeeping force newly taken over by NATO. Wednesday's explosion of violence underscored the absence of law and order which has triggered repeated calls by the Afghan government and the United Nations for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to be deployed beyond Kabul. The UN's special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, renewed the call in a briefing to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, saying there was "certainly an increase in military activity attributable to the Taliban". "I hope that with the arrival of NATO to take over the leadership of ISAF all concerned might, at the very least, sit down to consider what the options are to extend security, and thus the reach of the state, beyond the capital," Brahimi said. NATO, which took command of ISAF on Monday in the first operation outside Europe in its 54-year history, has said it will discuss moving to the provinces but has insisted on sticking to the confines of Kabul for the time being. The toll in the massive minibus blast outside the Helmand provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, 550 kilometres (340 miles) southwest of Kabul, was originally listed at 17 but police revised it downwards on Wednesday. Jalali said it was unclear how many had been killed in the fighting in Uruzgan.

Australia

Sydney Morning Herald 25 Aug 2003 The tragedy is compounded by absurdity One great "defect" has resulted in another, at the expense of Tasmania's Aborigines. Within 30 years of the British arrival in Tasmania, the near-extinction of the indigenous people had occurred. Ever since the 1830s, civilised opinion has regarded Tasmania as the site of one of the greatest tragedies in the history of British colonialism. At least in Australia, this view is presently under challenge. Late last year Keith Windschuttle published The Fabrication of Aboriginal History. It claimed that in the story of the empire, Tasmania was probably the place where "the least indigenous blood of all was deliberately shed". Windschuttle claimed that in Tasmania only 118 Aborigines had been killed, a little over half the number of British settlers who had died violent deaths at Aboriginal hands. Such clashes arose, he claimed, not because, as all previous historians had believed, the Aborigines were defending their lands from intruders, but because of the pleasure these savage people took in the act of murder and because they had come to covet British "consumer goods". advertisement advertisement Windschuttle attributed the large number of Aboriginal deaths, almost entirely, to introduced diseases, to the brutal disregard of Aboriginal men for their women, whom they wantonly sold into prostitution, and the maladaptation to their environment of a people so primitive that their survival for 35,000 years could rationally be explained only by a rather extended period of good luck. The most unsettling aspect of the publication of Fabrication was the enthusiasm with which it was greeted by the right, including by the Prime Minister, who awarded Windschuttle a Centenary Medal for services to history. Geoffrey Blainey described Fabrication as "one of the most important and devastating books written on Australian history in recent years". There was clearly something about the song Windschuttle was singing that was both familiar and appealing to certain ears. Following the reception of Fabrication two things seemed clear to me. If Windschuttle's interpretation of the dispossession came to be widely accepted, then all prospect for reconciliation - that is to say for a history which indigenous and non-indigenous Australians might share - was dead. And if the flaws in Windschuttle's interpretation were ever to be understood, it could only be through the publication of a non-polemical, scholarly book, written by those who knew, through their different expertise, that what Windschuttle had produced was not a genuine history, but plausible, counterfeit coin. Whitewash, which I edited and which was launched on Saturday at the Melbourne Writers' Festival, by Malcolm Fraser, Patrick Dodson and Henry Reynolds, is the result of these two thoughts. In order to demonstrate the falsity of Fabrication, let me consider what contributors to Whitewash show about just one of Windschuttle's most famous claims, namely that in Tasmania only 118 Aborigines were deliberately killed. The first problem with this figure is that the scholar on whom Windschuttle is almost entirely reliant, Brian Plomley, made it absolutely clear that he believed no even remotely reliable total of Aboriginal killings could ever be reached. The reason, according to Plomley, was simple. The written record had one great "defect"; "it was concerned only with attacks by Aborigines on British settlers" and not with British attacks on Aborigines. Plomley was aware, in particular, that an unknowable number of Aborigines had been killed by stock-keepers, sealers, timber-cutters and escaped convicts, who had no reason to report their killings and good reason not to do so. Windschuttle apparently believes that in Tasmania a death unreported or unrecorded is a death which did not occur. By use of a similar methodology, it would be possible to prove that virtually no sexual abuse of children occurred in Western societies before the 1970s. There is a second reason why Windschuttle's figure cannot be taken seriously. Assume, for the sake of argument, that every time a settler shot an Aborigine some record was made. Still no remotely accurate figure of Aboriginal killings could be produced. The reason is straightforward. As Henry Reynolds points out, in violent encounters between the British and the Aborigines, while some Aborigines died on the spot, others merely suffered wounds. There is obviously no way of knowing now the ratio of wounded to killed. It is, of course, quite certain that a sizeable proportion of the wounded subsequently died. No settler would ever have known. There is a third reason for rejecting Windschuttle's pseudo-precision about the 118 dead. If anyone claims to be able to arrive at an exact number of Aboriginal killings, at the very least it can be asked of them that they have examined all the published and unpublished sources which exist. Windschuttle has not, even remotely, done this work. According to James Boyce, of the 30 books on Van Diemen's Land published between 1803 and 1834, Windschuttle has consulted at most five, more likely three. Moreover he has examined almost none of the unpublished diaries or collections of letters available to scholars where records of killings or attitudes to Aborigines are likely to be found. Given his claim to omniscience, this failure to do the basic research is, quite simply, scandalous. There is, moreover, a systemic bias in his work which distorts his calculations. As Phillip Tardiff shows in the case of the killings at Risdon Cove, and as Ian McFarlane shows in regard to the massacre at Cape Grim, where there are disagreements between witnesses to Aboriginal deaths, Windschuttle invariably accepts the witnesses who supply the lower figure, even where their evidence is less plausible, or where they have far greater motive to lie. By now I hope it is clear that Windschuttle's claim - about Tasmania as the place where, in the history of British colonialism, the least indigenous blood was shed - is fatally flawed. Yet what must be stressed is that this is only one of a dozen or more issues of equal importance which are exposed by the writers assembled in Whitewash. I know that Whitewash will not convince those ideologues for whom Windschuttle has become a champion in a broader cultural war. I hope, however, for the sake of the nation, that it will convince those many open-minded conservative Australians, who might initially have been misled by the self-confidence of Windschuttle's prose and the chorus of right-wing praise. I hope they might even come to see that his book about the tragedy in Tasmania is not only one of the most pitiless ever written about the Australian experience but also one of the most empirically absurd. Robert Manne is professor of politics at La Trobe University. Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle's Fabrication of Aboriginal History is published by Black Inc. Contributors include Henry Reynolds, Marilyn Lake and Cassandra Pybus..

Australian Broadcasting Corporation 29 Aug 2003 Hope for memorial service to boost reconciliation The Central Land Council (CLC) hopes a memorial service marking one of Australia's worst massacres will spark reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Next month will mark the 75th anniversary of the Coniston Massacre, which claimed at least 31 lives. A memorial to those who died will be unveiled at a ceremony near Coniston, north-west of Alice Springs, on September 24. The massacre occurred as a series of raids between August and October in 1928 led by Constable George Murray. He led a reprisal party after the death of one non-Indigenous man and an attack on another in two separate events. The CLC says accounts vary, but the retaliation for the attacks led by Constable Murray saw many innocent Aborigines killed. The council says researchers put the death toll at about 60 compared with the official toll of 31. About 1,000 people, including descendants of both the victims and Constable Murray, are expected to attend the ceremony. http://www.abc.net.au/frontier/education/coniston.htm

Cambodia

Reuters 1 Aug 2003 Cambodia's Sihanouk to Stay Out of Poll Deadlock Reuters Friday, August 1, 2003; 5:51 AM By Ek Madra PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's aging and revered King Sihanouk, who stepped in to defuse a bloody political crisis in the wake of 1998 elections, said on Friday he would not get involved in a similar stalemate now playing out. "His Majesty the King must not interfere in politics," Sihanouk said in a statement read out on royalist radio. Diplomats have said the king, who commands wide respect as the father of national reconciliation in the war-torn Southeast Asian state, could break the deadlock caused by Prime Minister Hun Sen's need for a coalition partner. Even though he won 47 percent of the vote in Sunday's poll, Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is unanimously forecast to fall short of the two-thirds of seats he needs to control the 123-member National Assembly on his own. The royalist FUNCINPEC party, a junior coalition partner with Hun Sen in the previous administration, has said the poll was flawed and that its relationship with the CPP is over. Even though international observers have given the election a general thumbs-up, the opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, has also sworn never to enter any Hun Sen-led coalition. Sihanouk defused a similar sequence of events after 1998's general election, but not before mass demonstrations on the streets of the capital in which several people were killed by riot police. "Let the three parties solve their tripartite problems by themselves," the octogenarian Sihanouk said. With Hun Sen's rivals seemingly united against him, the deadlock looks set to rumble on for some weeks and could delay the final ratification of a landmark law to establish a U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge genocide trial. "We have a joint position and this is the last chance for democrats to remove the communist regime from Cambodia," said Sam Rainsy, using his favorite reference for Hun Sen, who had the close backing of Vietnam when he came to power in 1985. Despite the impasse, diplomats say the atmosphere is calmer than 1998 and neither the royalists nor Sam Rainsy, a French-educated former finance minister, are prepared to put their supporters on the streets just yet. "FUNCINPEC has no plans to hold any demonstration at all," said secretary general Prince Norodom Sereyvuth. Sam Rainsy is due to meet Sihanouk on Saturday, although no agenda has been announced.

WP 8 Aug 2003 The Election Cambodia Deserves By Christine Todd Whitman Friday, August 8, 2003; Page A17 Today Cambodia's National Election Commission is to announce the results of the July 27 parliamentary elections, the country's third since a peace agreement a decade ago ended years of genocide and civil war. Many diplomats and international observers have already blessed this election as credible and legitimate. The truth is far more complicated and frustrating. I came to this conclusion after leading an election observation mission for the International Republican Institute, which has closely monitored Cambodia's political climate for 10 years. In Cambodia, as in other countries, no election takes place in a vacuum. The cultural and political history of a country sets the stage for the effectiveness of the process and the pressure applied to it. In 1993 the Cambodian people surprised observers by overcoming violence and intimidation to vote out the government of Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). But Hun Sen, the prime minister, forced the winning party into a coalition government and then wrested full control in a 1997 coup. Subsequent elections that cemented the CPP's dominance were racked by further violence and fraud. The notoriety of Cambodia's horrific past can have the effect of making any subsequent regime or leader look good by comparison. There is also the temptation to measure this Cambodian election simply in relation to the previous election. Were fewer people killed? Was there less intimidation? Did the opposition have more access to the media? Or, as I heard many times, particularly from European observers, aren't things "better" this time? This year Cambodia did see more open expression of political opinion and lively campaigns. Parties could reach voters through events and grass-roots voter outreach. For the first time, Cambodia held multiparty debates that were broadcast on radio. Some media coverage criticized the government, the CPP and even the prime minister. The voting and counting procedures were efficiently administered and relatively free of major irregularities. But the correct question for the international community should really be: Did Cambodia meet recognized international standards for the conduct of free and fair elections? Despite the many improvements, the answer is no. While the number of politically motivated murders declined from that of the 1998 election, less visible but equally effective methods of intimidation were reported to both human rights groups and election observers. It does not take much, after all, to create a sense of menace in a country with a long history of bloodshed and civil conflict. In some rural areas, government-appointed village chiefs gathered citizens to swear oaths -- sometimes over a bullet -- to the CPP. I watched other village chiefs sit outside polling stations and check off voters as they entered and exited, providing a palpable sense they were being monitored despite casting a secret ballot. I talked to another voter who had been threatened by the CPP village chief for his support of an opposition party. The ostensibly neutral National Election Commission is dominated by government appointees from the CPP. Even though nongovernmental organizations and human rights groups documented hundreds of election law violations, this commission imposed no penalties until three village chiefs were temporarily suspended two days before the election. In Cambodia, where one-third of the population is illiterate, access to television and radio time is even more critical than in the United States. This year opposition parties were given only a few minutes a day on state television to broadcast their campaign messages. The rest of the day's broadcasts invariably consisted of footage and reports touting the accomplishments of the government and Hun Sen. When opposition parties and human rights groups tried to acquire their own radio station licenses, they were told that no more frequencies were available. Yet the government later awarded a radio license to an adviser of Hun Sen. Last week the Cambodian people showed an inspiring determination to vote. Many traveled for hours to reach a polling place, only to wait several more hours in the oppressive heat and humidity. Early reports indicate that voter turnout exceeded 80 percent. There isn't one election standard for Cambodia and another for the rest of us. The international community must continue to follow the implementation of the election results, encourage further reforms that reflect accepted democratic standards and call on the Cambodian government to thoroughly investigate the allegations of political misconduct and ensure the punishment of the guilty. The Cambodian people deserve no less. The writer has served as governor of New Jersey and administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. She headed an election observation delegation in Cambodia for the International Republican Institute, a nonpartisan organization that supports democracy overseas.

Guardian UK 5 Aug 2003 Pol Pot's soldiers escape justice for genocide - Only senior Khmer Rouge officers will stand trial for 1.7m deaths John Aglionby in Phnom War Tuesday August 5, 2003 The Guardian Sam Serey does not look like a stereotypical perpetrator of crimes against humanity. Shuffling around the potholed roads of the southern Cambodian district of Phnom War in a grubby shirt, ripped shorts and bare feet, this grey-haired, 55-year-old farmer appears more deserving of sympathy than hatred. But he admits that for more than 20 years he was a member of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia's Maoist movement which was responsible for the genocide of more than 1.7 million people while it held power from 1975-79. "I was just a simple young man who joined to help the king after he was overthrown," he claims by way of explanation for why he volunteered in 1970. "I never knew what it really meant to be a member of the Khmer Rouge until many years later." Sam Serey, who lives in a Khmer Rouge veterans' community, is willing to talk because after six years of international negotiations he now knows he will escape justice. The jurisdiction of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, agreed by the UN and Cambodia, is to be limited to "senior leaders ... and those most responsible for the crimes [the regime committed]". So, hundreds of footsoldiers, such as Sam Serey, now live without fear of a trial. Youk Chheng, head of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, a group that has catalogued the horrors of the regime, thinks the line over who to prosecute has been drawn in the right place. He believes in "symbolic justice ... that we can justify as our own individual revenge. For the interests of the country, for stability, for resources, I think the top 10 are sufficient for all of us," he said. Few Cambodians were left untouched by the Khmer Rouge "killing fields" - as the horrors were dubbed by the 1984 Hollywood film of that name. "They were just crazy," said Ly Sareon, a neighbour. "People close to starvation would be killed on the spot for stealing a potato. We don't know why they behaved like that, so of course we need to have the truth revealed." Questions remain, however, about the government's commitment to seeing justice done. Much of the delay has been attributed to the prime minister, Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who changed sides, insisting on Cambodia retaining control of the process. Human rights activists and diplomats, including the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, oppose this as they fear a Cambodian-led tribunal could be easily manipulated. Most Cambodians would also prefer an international tribunal. Kek Galabru, of the Cambodian human rights group Likadho, said 18 human rights groups who solicited ideas across the country had not found one person wanting a local tribunal. Hun Sen shut down the survey after 84,000 people were polled. And divisions within the international community have ensured that Hun Sen, who could be implicated at the tribunal, has triumphed. But diplomats say that some sort of process needed to get going before all the potential defendants died - the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. The compromise, panned by human rights groups, is that international judges and prosecutors will play a subsidiary role. The treaty still needs to be endorsed by Cambodia's national assembly. However, after 24 years, there is now hope that justice will be served. "All Cambodians want to see someone held responsible for what happened," said Vann Nath, one of only eight of 17,000 inmates to survive the regime's Toul Sleng jail in the capital, Phnom Penh. "If the government doesn't take care of the Khmer Rouge, [we] victims will always feel sad and incomplete."

AP 5 Aug 2003 Cambodian king calls genocide tribunal an 'insult', PHNOM PENH, Cambodia King Norodom Sihanouk has leveled fresh criticism at a proposed genocide tribunal for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, saying the plan for a joint Cambodian-U.N. court is an insult to the memory of the regime's victims. Sihanouk expressed dismay that former Khmer Rouge "criminals" would be tried by a U.N.-assisted panel dominated by local judges in Cambodia rather than by an "international tribunal" at The Hague, in the Netherlands. He was apparently referring to the International Criminal Court, established there in July 2002. Cambodia refused to allow them to be tried at The Hague, saying it would infringe on the government's sovereignty. Sihanouk has had an uneasy relationship with the government for the past few years. Even though, as king, Sihanouk retains a great amount of popular respect, his political influence has waned as Prime Minister Hun Sen has proven himself the country's most adroit politician. Relations have recently declined further as Hun Sen has made clear he will have the most influence in deciding who will eventually succeed the 80-year-old Sihanouk. During their 1975-79 rule, the Khmer Rouge's utopian communist policies led to the deaths of some 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, disease, overwork and execution. The movement collapsed some five years ago, but none of its leaders has stood trial for their alleged atrocities. Its leader Pol Pot died in 1998. Trying them in Cambodia "insults the memory of the innocent victims of the Khmer Rouge while sparing the killers ... from being presented in front of an international court," he said in a statement dated Monday. Cambodia and the United Nations agreed in June to form a tribunal for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. The plan, still to be ratified by Cambodia's legislature, calls for a panel that would be dominated by local judges. Human rights advocates and other critics have opposed the plan, saying it will compromise international standards of justice. Cambodia's justice system is widely viewed as incompetent and susceptible to political influence. "How can one describe the court in question as serious, credible, honorable?" said Sihanouk, who lost members of his family during the Khmer Rouge period, in the statement posted on his Web site. He said if the United Nations dared to call the court "serious, credible and honorable, it disgraces itself." Sihanouk questioned the ability of the future tribunal to indict Pol Pot's lieutenants, including former foreign minister Ieng Sary, who he described as the "right arm of Mr. Pol Pot." Ta Mok, formerly the Khmer Rouge's army chief, and Kaing Khek Iev, the chief interrogator also known as Duch, are the only two senior Khmer Rouge figures currently in detention awaiting trial. "There are innumerable other big killers" still living with influence and honor in the country, the king said.

www.norodomsihanouk.info/Messages/ec%200408.htm Kampuchean Studies by Norodom Sihanouk Phnom Penh, August 4, 2003 In July 2003, I spoke about my case vis-a-vis the COURT UNO-grc which will be set up and to function to judge and perhaps condemn certain Khmer Rouge Leaders still alive. In connection with what I said and wrote in July 2003, a foreign personality judged, with contempt, which SIHANOUK had created " a storm in a cup of tea " - sic! -. Cheer with this Mister! * * * But in my present Text, I must make certain note: I/- Certain foreign governments, foreign personalities, international organizations affirmed that our magistrature, our " Judiciary " (in English) is archi-corrompu, inefficient, symbolizes the Injustice instead of Justice, is not independent because it is a creature and a servant of the government (supposedly Royal). Under these conditions, how can one qualify COURT UNO-grc in question of " serious ", " credible ", " honourable "? If UNO dares statement that this Court will be " serious ", " credible ", " honourable " it dishonours ipso facto. It should be added the fact that, within this COURT, the foreign judges are minority. * * * II/- S.E. IENG SARY profited, thanks to Samdech Norodom Ranariddh and to Samdech Hun SEN and a majority of the members of the French National Assembly, of a Royal Amnesty. How famous Tribunal in question it will solve this problem: will one put " side " this " Amnesty Royal " to judge and condemn this " right arm " of Mr. pol. Pot? In addition, famous will Tribunal UNO-grc dare to condemn and make imprison LLEE NUON CHEA, KHIEU SAMPHAN, IENG THIRITH that our respected Chef of the GRC had received with arms opened, as patriotic brothers-s?ur and large? * * * III/- There are other innumerable large " KILLERS " which have, under the reign of POL. POT, clerk of atrocious crimes against their own people and the humanity and which very influential and are now honoured within the Army supposedly Royale. Some are always the very powerful Masters of the areas of PAÏLIN, SAMLAUT, etc?, with " de facto " right of life and of died on the people. Some of these large KILLERS will sit within the French National Assembly, of the Senate and the GRC. Under would these conditions, which significance have the (éventuelle) judgment of the only MT MOK and two or three other ex-of torture? * * * IV/- Hitlériens, including the Diplomat nº1 von Ribbentrop, overcome in 1945, were considered and very severely condemned (in mass) by an international Court differently more serious and more credible than our Court UNO-grc to Phnom Penh. * * * V/- Cheer for the so-called Defense of the Sovereignty and the Dignity of Kampuchea with this success obtained by respected and prestigious Head of our Government with regard to the place where the Court devoted to the red business khmère " must be ". This Court is in Kampuchea. One does not send the Khmer Rouge archi-criminals in front of an International Court to the Hague or elsewhere. But, by doing this, one insults the memory of the innocent victims of the Khmer Rouges by avoiding with the KILLERS of the innocent Khmer People " the nuisance " presenting itself in front of an International Court. * * * I am a King who " reigns but does not control ". There is thus no question for me of not accepting Court UNO-grc in Kampuchea. But as a Khmer Citizen, I have the Right to say and write what I think of this Court. In any event, it is only about one " storm in a cup of tea ". Thus it is! Amen.

ABC Radio Australia News 13 Aug 2003 Cambodia secures genocide trial documents overseas In Cambodia, thousands of documents alleging atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge have been dispatched to the United States, Britain and France, after a series of security threats. The director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, Youk Chhang, says 70 percent of evidence collated by the centre for use in the pending genocide trial is now safely secured in those countries. He says the Cambodian Government has warned him that threats from members of the former Khmer Rouge have been received and the documents have been sent to the United States, Britain and France for safe keeping. Youk Chhang has declined to detail what those threats entailed. The Documentation Centre for Cambodia has spent the past eight years documenting evidence from victims of Pol Pot's Killing Fields for the trial, which is expected to get underway within the first quarter of 2004. About two million people perished through alleged genocide, starvation and illness between 1975 and 1979 when the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia.

China

http://coranet.radicalparty.org 8 Aug 2003 | UN SUB-COMMISSION: THE TRP DENOUNCES THE CULTURAL GENOCIDE OF THE UYGHURS AND CALLS FOR A DOCUMENTATION OF THE VIOLATION OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL RIGHTS IN EAST TURKESTAN. - Geneva, 8 August 2003. Mr. Enver Can, President of the East Turkestan National Congress and member of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party, speaking on its behalf at the 55th Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights denounced the systematic violation of the civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights of his people living in the colonial province Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Mr. Can emphasized how the struggle or the ascertainment of his people’s rights had found in non-violence a hope for the internationalization of their dire living conditions and in the TRP an organization equipped to assist them in this regard. These rights, all guaranteed under the Chinese Constitution are fare from being respected in the everyday life of the Uyghurs. The destruction and the rewriting of Uyghur history is a pretext for a complete elimination of their cultural, social and economic identity. As Muslims, the Uyghurs don't have any right to their religious activity since the authorities consider them illegal. Further proof of this cultural genocide is the negation of the Uyghur language as the official language of the autonomous region, the burning of historical books in 2002 and the destruction of the ancient architecture in the city of Kashgar. Therefore, the Transnational Radical Party urges the Sub-Commission to use its expertise to reach out to UNESCO to immediately stop the destruction of the cultural heritage of Kashgar as well as to send a formal delegation to the city. Lastly, the TRP invited the UN body to put pressure on the Chinese authorities to repeal the decision of abolishing the Uyghur language in the educational system and to appoint a special rapporteur for East Turkestan in order to document the violations of cultural, social and educational rights of the Uyghur people.

NYT 19 Aug 2003 China Readies Super ID Card, a Worry to Some By DAVID W. CHEN BEIJING, Aug. 18 - For almost two decades, Chinese citizens have been defined, judged and, in some cases, constrained by their all-purpose national identification card, a laminated document the size of a driver's license. But starting next year, they will face something new and breathtaking in scale: an electronic card that will store that vital information for all 960 million eligible citizens on chips that the authorities anywhere can access. Officials hope that the technologically advanced cards will help stamp out fraud and counterfeiting involving the current cards, protecting millions of people from those problems and saving billions of dollars. Providing the cards to everyone is expected to take five or six years. But the vagueness and vastness of the undertaking has prompted some criticism that the data collection could be used to quash dissent and to infringe on privacy. The project comes at a time when China is doggedly remaking itself into a leaner economic machine in line with the standards of the World Trade Organization. But China is also struggling to track a restless and poor rural population that continues to gravitate toward the cities. So officials are no doubt gambling that the cards can help them juggle two important if conflicting interests: promoting economic liberalization, while monitoring citizens in an increasingly fluid society. There has been little public discussion or news about the new cards. Brief but rapturous accounts in the official press say the cards will "protect citizens." Yet many of China's toughest critics, at home and abroad, are skeptical, objecting to the concentration of so much information at the government's fingertips. "Given the record of the Chinese government on protecting the privacy of its citizens and given the prevalence of corruption, how can we ensure that this information will be managed properly?" asked Nicolas Becquelin, research director at the Hong Kong office of Human Rights in China. "It's scary what the Chinese government is doing, because there is no counterweight." The original identification card, introduced in 1985, contains such personal data as one's nationality and birth date and an 18-digit identification number. It also indicates a person's household registration, which has traditionally tied a person to his or her province of birth. In June, China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, passed the National Citizen ID Law, approving the cards. They are to have a microchip storing personal data, but the face of the card is not to contain details any more personal than what is on the current cards. The cards are to be tested early next year, first in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Huzhou, a city in Zhejiang Province. The agency in charge of the program, the Ministry of Public Security, declined to answer written questions seeking details. But in an interview published in July with Cards Tech and Security, a magazine of the Smart Card Forum of China, a trade group, two Public Security officials, Guo Xing and Liu Zhikui, said the current cards were too easy to forge and did not take advantage of technological advances. They also said the new cards, which will feature a rendering of the Great Wall, would not look much different from the old ones. "The ID card and the ID number are mainly going to be used to verify a resident's identity, safeguard people's rights, make it easier for people to organize activities and maintain law and order," Mr. Guo said. The use of electronic cards is not particularly new. Other governments and companies issue them. Hong Kong began issuing its own electronic ID cards in June. With the Olympic Games approaching in 2008, China expects a growing demand for various cards, including transit cards, bank cards and social security cards, said Jafizwaty Haji Ishahak, an analyst in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with Frost & Sullivan, a consulting company. The social services cards that are to be phased in should be able to track all the government services an individual receives, from health care to welfare. "If you want to live in the fast lane, you have to deal with technology, but you cannot have total freedom," said Frank Xu, executive director of Smart Card Forum of China, who is from Huzhou, one of the test cities. "There have to be conditions." But detractors say freedom has a far different meaning in China, a place where security officials have never been shy about following or using listening devices on dissidents, journalists or students. While it may make sense to track would-be terrorists, the cards would also make it much easier for the government to monitor political or religious dissidents. After China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, the government televised photographs and identification card numbers of student leaders being sought. Under the new system, tracking dissidents would be much easier, said Mr. Becquelin of the rights group in Hong Kong. There are concerns that the technology could be prone to abuse, corruption or the whim of the local authorities who routinely thumb their noses at Beijing. This may be particularly true with China's surging population of rural migrants, now estimated at more than 120 million and growing by 13 million a year. "This new card will make it possible to locate people who haven't registered, so I think the migrants will be more subject to abuse," said Dorothy J. Solinger, a professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine. So far, anyway, most Chinese who have heard about the new cards do not seem to mind; indeed, many are enthusiastic. Yes, they say, there is always the possibility of corruption. Yes, one's privacy may be invaded from time to time. But many Chinese said they liked the idea of guarding against identity theft and ensuring that someone who claims to be, say, a nanny, is telling the truth. Besides, there is also a sense of resignation. "Our security officials already have all the information about us, anyway, so this is not a big change," said one man, surnamed Sun, who is a science professor in Beijing.

China (Hong Kong)

AP 12 Aug 2003 Fashion chain scraps 'Nazi' clothing range A Hong Kong fashion company has removed Nazi-themed clothing from its 14 stores after complaints from Israeli and German diplomats. "We don't want to upset anybody," said Deborah Cheng, marketing manager of the www.izzue.com retailer. "We were a bit politically insensitive. We don't wish to make any race unhappy about it." Israeli consul general Eli Avidar had accused the company of immoral actions by launching a sales campaign that "totally desecrates the deaths of millions of people under the Nazi regime and legitimises evil". German consul general Heinrich Beuth also complained. The company first decided to remove all Nazi-themed store decorations, including flags and a propaganda video. But the clothing initially stayed on the shelves. Cheng had said earlier the company did not believe many Hong Kong Chinese customers would be offended by the Nazi T-shirts and other items, but acknowledged today that executives had not counted on getting such a response from foreigners. Disputes over Nazi symbols as marketing tools have emerged before in Asia, where many people are not as sensitive to the Holocaust as Europeans and Americans. In April, Coca-Cola pulled a promotional robot figurine adorned with what appeared to be swastikas, following criticism from a Jewish leader in Hong Kong. Taiwan's ruling party used an image of Hitler in television ads two years ago, but withdrew it after fierce criticism from Jewish groups. © Associated Press Story filed: 07:48 Tuesday 12th August 2003

AP 17 Aug 2003: Hong Kong Nazi Bar For four years, the walls of Hong Kong’s Bar Pacific have been adorned with photos of Nazi Germany, including portraits of Hitler and a picture of a Nazi soldier executing a Jew in front of a mass grave: Bar's Nazi Memorabilia Brings Criticism. HONG KONG - An Israeli diplomat criticized the owner of a Hong Kong karaoke bar Sunday for displaying photographs of Adolf Hitler and a Nazi execution. The popular Bar Pacific has been decorated with photographs of Hitler and Nazi soldiers for four years. One photo — removed on Sunday — shows a Nazi soldier shooting a man on the edge of a pit piled high with bodies. "It is way beyond my understanding, how people can enjoy a drink and sing karaoke whilst viewing pictures of executions carried out by Nazi soldiers," Israeli Consul-General Eli Avidar said in a statement. The bar's owner, Jackie Chan, removed the execution image Sunday after a local newspaper reporter complained that it made people uncomfortable. But he said he would not remove the 37 other Nazi and World War II images, including four portraits of Hitler. "I love history and I just want to tell the younger generation about what happened in the past," Chan said. "I have no intention to support any dictator."

AFP 24 Oct 2003 Hong Kong's Nazi cool sends shivers across the world by Destro Sunday August 24, 2:59 PM Hong Kong's Nazi cool sends shivers across the world Fashion stores bedecked with swastikas, karaoke bars with photos of a "heiling" Adolf Hitler. Some 60 years after six million Jews were wiped out in the Holocaust, it seems the unspeakable has happened in Hong Kong: Nazis are cool. The former British colony, which saw its share of World War II horrors at the hands of the Imperial Japanese army, has been hit by a series of minor scandals this month involving an unexpectedly blatant use of Nazi imagery. Although condemnation has been swift and apologies forthcoming, the incidents have ignited concern both in Hong Kong and worldwide that Asians are growing up oblivious to one of modern history's most terrifying lessons. "This seems to be proof that many people in Asia simply have no clue about the extent of the evil perpetrated by Nazi Germany," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who regularly visits the region as a representative of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for preserving the memory of the Holocaust. Cooper was referring to an interview earlier this month in which a staff member of Bar Pacific, a karaoke lounge in Hong Kong's heavily-populated Kowloon area, defended pictures hanging in the military-themed establishment. Photographs of Hitler and Nazi soldiers carrying out executions were excusable because "customers enjoy it. It helps them know more about war," bar spokeswoman Eva Tse told the South China Morning Post newspaper. The pictures were later removed following complaints from, among others, Israeli consul Eli Avidar, who had been forced to voice outrage just a week earlier when a Hong Kong fashion chain festooned its stores with Nazi regalia. Initially defending its new line, the online-monikered retailer "http://www.izzue.com" eventually removed a collection of Third Reich-inspired apparel from its 14 stores, apologising and blaming "ignorant" designers. "There seems to be a black hole of history opening here," Rabbi Cooper told AFP by telephone from the Wiesenthal Centre's Pacific Rim headquarters in Los Angeles. "Certainly in North America there is a growing awareness about the part of World War II that affected Asia, but there seems to be, especially among Asia's younger generation, no clue of the broader implications of displaying pictures of executions or other Nazi symbols." According to Cooper, although anti-semitism appears to be minimal in Asia, the Wiesenthal Centre has tracked a number of similar uses of Third Reich regalia by bars and retailers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. On the crowded streets of Hong Kong, where locals happily rub shoulders with a sizeable Jewish community, young people seem indifferent to Cooper's concerns. "It's OK, these people are just using these symbols for fashion or decoration, they are not bothered about the ideology behind them," said 32-year-old radiographer Lyman Lee. "In the East, the symbols are remembered as a reference to something that has happened in the past and will not happen again. We look to the future." Student Allen Tse, 22, agrees that any display of Nazi imagery is inappropriate, but suggests the recent furore has been overblown. "It's not a big issue here in Hong Kong. People know about the Nazis, but they're not seen in the same way as they are in the West. It doesn't mean people support what they stood for, they're just not affected in the same way." Office manager Polly Wang argued the issue was one of free speech, currently a sensitive issue in Hong Kong as the government considers new security laws that have sparked protests over civil liberties. "We understand what these symbols mean to some people, but they are not from Hong Kong and for us the symbols are mostly meaningless. "People in Hong Kong must be able to wear what we want and say what we want." More than 500,000 people hit the streets of Hong Kong in July in unprecedented protests which forced the territory's Beijing-backed leaders to rethink controversial new laws seen as undermining freedoms. The protests also vented frustration over the government's handling of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemic, which centred on Hong Kong and left the region temporarily isolated, causing massive economic losses. According to Rabbi Cooper, who is helping organise two Hong Kong exhibitions on the Holocaust in November, incidents such as the SARS crisis should make Hong Kong think carefully about its global image. "There is no problem using these (Nazi) images if you live in a hermetically sealed society. But Hong Kong's existence is based on export. "It wants to be a jewel in Asia, and is trying to reclaim this image after SARS. But, with the greatest respect, the views of many young people seem to be short sighted and myopic. "If, in its marketing genius, Asia starts exporting symbols of the biggest genocide in the history of the planet, then it will pay a price."

East Timor

straitstimes.asia1.com.sg (Singapore) 15 Aug 2003 East Timor atrocities: Submit to international tribunal By WILLIAM J. FURNEY FOR THE STRAITS TIMES SPARE a thought for the judges who heard cases of atrocities at Indonesia's special crimes tribunal for the former East Timor: With almost every major international human rights group slamming the trials of 18 former officials as an unabashed 'whitewash', these are put-upon, mercurial justices of the law. Most of the Indonesian military and civilian officials - charged with crimes against humanity and, in some cases, genocide - have been let off the hook, acquitted by the court in Jakarta before the dust had even settled on the gavel's opening strike. However, in a surprise verdict in the final trial last week, the court sentenced the former military commander of East Timor - now Timor Leste - to three years' jail, despite the fact that prosecutors had requested the charges be dropped for lack of substantive evidence. Major-General Adam Damiri had denied responsibility for failing to stop his underlings from brutally slaying 153 people in five separate massacres in the former Indonesian province, and for subsequently not bringing the officers to justice. He maintains that he was 'not in the field' at the time, stationed as he was on the resort island of Bali. It is thus highly likely that he, along with five other military and civilian personnel convicted, will appeal the verdict. This means the tribunal, set up to assuage international outrage over the killings of around 1,000 Timorese, has so far failed to put anyone behind bars for the atrocity. Stonewalling the trials is undoubtedly the all-powerful Indonesian military machine, which is experiencing a return to glory after the downfall of former president Suharto in 1998. The armed forces chiefs now have a willing ally in the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Acquiescing to international pressure, Jakarta established its ad hoc court early last year. And for a while, it seemed keen to comply and hold to account those responsible for the mayhem in the former Portuguese colony it annexed in 1975. But not for long. Soon, in case after case, officials either walked free or were meted out minor sentences. Jocular scenes in military personnel-filled courtrooms were the norm as those accused thumbed their noses at the pseudo-proceedings. The new government of Timor Leste has been remarkably subdued in its response to growing concerns over the direction the trials have taken - apart from Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who called for the establishment of a United Nations-backed tribunal, but was quickly silenced. President Xanana Gusmao has adopted a courting stance towards Jakarta. Rather than lash out at the Indonesian government over the trials' outcome, he has remained mute on the subject, and it can only be assumed that he sees cordial relations with the former colonial master as the best way forward for the world's newest nation, and among its most impoverished. The outcome of the Damiri case, however, seems to have been the straw that broke a strained camel's back for Timor Leste. Days after the verdict was handed down, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta hit out at what he called a lenient sentence, but - again refuting overseas trials - passed the buck to the European Union (EU) and the United States to press for a foreign-based tribunal to re-hear the cases. With human rights groups increasingly calling for the establishment of an international court to re-hear the cases - similar to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, where ailing former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic is being tried - it seems increasingly likely that momentum among concerned governments and institutions might see one come about. In the latest broadside on Indonesia, the EU, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland issued a joint statement last week condemning the tribunal for having 'have failed to deliver justice' and chided prosecutors for not presenting evidence from UN and independent Indonesian investigators. The State Department in Washington also voiced its dismay. Even if an international court sees the light of day, though, it is clear that the military chieftains in Indonesia would simply snub it. Buoyed by domestic and international support for its current war against separatist rebels in Aceh province, the military is flexing its muscles as it revels in its return to glory days. However, there are dark days ahead for Indonesia, with cascading criticism of the military at the vanguard of an impending downward spiral. A recent editorial in The New York Times on last week's deadly hotel bombing in Jakarta warned that Indonesia 'is acquiring a reputation as a soft target for international terrorism' due largely to 'chronic misgovernment'. 'Helping fight terror in Indonesia should not mean handing unchecked power to its already unaccountable army, which remains repressive more than five years after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship.' Now, authorities are considering draconian legislation akin to Singapore and Malaysia's Internal Security Act, laws that would give broad powers of arrest and indefinite detention. Coordinating Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono even went as far as saying, in the wake of the Jakarta bombing, that basic human rights could be forsaken in the interests of looking after the common folk. If such a scenario comes to pass, we could see a roll-back to the days before former president Abdurrahman Wahid separated the dual role of the military and police, when the military adopted overall responsibility for maintaining order. Not only has the man who was chief of the Indonesian military in 1999, General Wiranto, not been indicted, but he has also opted to contest Indonesia's first direct presidential elections next year, and his ballot bid is now in full swing. However, whatever the political machinations in Jakarta, there remains a strong desire among foreign nations and global organisations to see that justice is done over Timor Leste. To that end, Jakarta would be well served to meet demands for an international tribunal - and ensure indicted former military officers and civilian officials are given a plane ticket. The writer is a freelance journalist based in Jakarta.

Amnesty International 29 Aug 2003 Timor-Leste: International community must press for justice for crimes against humanity AI Index: ASA 57/007/2003 (Public) On the fourth anniversary of the vote for independence by the people of Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor), Amnesty International is launching a new campaign to ensure that the victims of the 1999 violence do not have to wait another four years for justice. On 30 August 1999, the people of Timor-Leste voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. An estimated 1,300 people were murdered by the Indonesian security forces and pro-Indonesia militia opposed to independence. The crimes committed were so widespread and systematic that they are considered to be crimes against humanity. Four years on, the majority of victims and their families are still waiting for justice. "The plight of the survivors and families of those who were attacked, killed, tortured or raped must not be forgotten," Amnesty International said. "The persistent refusal of the Indonesian authorities to cooperate with the justice process in Timor-Leste, and the failure of the recently completed trials in Jakarta, Indonesia, to uncover the truth and bring the perpetrators to justice, means that the international community must now take action," Amnesty International added. The organization is calling on the United Nations (UN) to undertake an independent review of the Jakarta trials with a view to recommending further measures to ensure that justice is achieved and the truth revealed. Among those killed in Timor-Leste in 1999 were Ana Xavier da Conceição Lemos, a prominent political activist, primary school teacher and mother of three children. Ana had been outspoken in her criticism of the Indonesian military and in her support for independence . On the day of the independence ballot she was beaten and interrogated by militiamen led by an Indonesian military officer. She is subsequently reported to have been raped in detention before "disappearing". Her body was discovered in November 1999. Students Augustino de Carvalho and Estevao Xavier Pereira were witnessed being beaten and kicked by Indonesian soldiers in May 1999. The eyewitness later heard two shots ring out and a vehicle driving away very fast. The students' bodies were discovered buried together with their hands tied. Anacleto da Silva, a young father of two, was working as an interpreter for a British journalist and an American photographer. In September 1999 the men were travelling in a taxi when they crossed paths with Indonesian military Battalion 745, which was withdrawing its troops back to Indonesia. After attacking the taxi driver and blinding him in the eye with their rifle butts, soldiers forced Anacleto into a truck with other prisoners. He has not been seen since. These tragic cases represent just a tiny number of the victims of the violence in 1999. In addition to those killed, unknown numbers of men, women and children were tortured or raped. Often targeted because of their support for the independence movement, the victims included political activists, community leaders, students, priests and nuns, and local people employed by the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET). The Indonesian security forces were responsible for protecting the people of Timor-Leste, but stood by as the violence escalated and often participated directly in many attacks. Today, many Indonesian military or police officers who colluded in the violence remain in active service, some in senior posts. Background On 30 August 1999, in a UN-organized ballot, 78.5% of voters chose to reject Indonesian rule. Extensive evidence shows that the militia groups responsible for the violence before and after the ballot received the active support of the Indonesian armed forces, police and civilian authorities. Trials of suspected perpetrators, which recently concluded in Indonesia, have been seriously flawed. The majority of defendants were acquitted, while six men who received short prison terms have been released pending appeal. They include several members of the Indonesian military or police who remain in active service. A parallel justice process in Timor-Leste has made considerable progress in investigating the crimes. Indictments have been issued against more than 300 individuals, the majority for crimes against humanity. 221 suspects named in the indictments remain in Indonesia, but the authorities have consistently refused to transfer them to Timor-Leste to stand trial. For further information and to take action, please see AI's web action: http://web.amnesty.org/pages/tmp-290803-action-eng

India

BBC 1 Aug 2003 Funeral for Ayodhya temple activist Mourners have been paying last respects The funeral of a Hindu leader at the centre of a religious dispute is being held in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya. Ramchandra Das Paramhans was at the forefront of the movement to build a temple on disputed holy land in the city. He died on Thursday at the age of 92. Thousands of people died in nationwide riots in 1992 after Hindu rioters demolished the Ayodhya mosque. It had been built in the 16th century on what Hindu hardliners argue was the birthplace of the god-king Ram. India's Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is among those expected to attend Friday's funeral. The president of his governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Venkaiah Naidu, said Mr Paramhans' death was a great loss to the nation. "The BJP is shocked over his demise," Mr Naidu said. "He was a source of inspiration for millions." Temple icon Ramchandra Das Paramhans had been suffering from liver cancer. With his beard and long, matted hair, Mr Paramhans became well-known to Indian television viewers. He had been involved in the Ram temple movement for the past 70 years and headed the trust formed to build the temple. The mosque was pulled down in 1992 The BBC's Ram Dutt Tripathi in Lucknow says his death will be a major setback to the movement. Mr Paramhans' successor has been named as Baba Nrityagopal Das. The Ayodhya temple campaign was spearheaded by right-wing Hindu groups closely affiliated to the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was partly responsible for the sudden rise in the party's fortunes in the 1990s. Hardline pressure The site, holy to both Hindus and Muslims, has been a constant source of religious clashes. In the worst incident more than 3,000 people died in 1992 in nationwide riots after Hindu zealots destroyed a 16th Century mosque on the site, saying it had been built over a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu God Ram. In recent weeks the BJP has come under pressure from right-wing Hindu nationalists to try to implement a law to ensure the temple can be built. A new law would bypass the courts which have failed to bring about a resolution to the problem. An archaeological dig is under way at the site to try to determine whether a Hindu temple did once exist on the site of the destroyed mosque. Earlier this month the high court in the city of Lucknow gave archaeologists working at the site five more weeks to carry out their investigations and another two weeks to complete their report.

BBC 1 Aug 2003 Vajpayee in Ayodhya vow Mr Paramhans' body was positioned "according to saintly tradition" Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has told mourners at the funeral of a Hindu religious leader that he will fulfil the dying man's wish by building a temple on the disputed Ayodhya site. He was speaking at the funeral in Ayodhya of Ramchandra Das Paramhans who spearheaded a hardline Hindu campaign to build the temple on the site where a 16th Century mosque once stood. Thousands of people, mainly Muslims, died in religious violence all across India when a crowd of Hindus tore down the mosque in December, 1992. "I'm confident all hurdles in the path of construction of the temple will be removed and the temple will be built," Mr Vajpayee said. "Nothing is impossible," Mr Vajpayee told devotees on the banks of the Sarya river as the 92-year-old cleric was cremated. "Everyone should try to fulfil his dream. I shall fulfil his last wish. I make this commitment in front of his funeral fire and ashes." Nationwide riots Thousands of weeping mourners had gathered in Ayodhya for the funeral. Mr Paramhans' open coffin was carried through the city as followers chanted "Long live god Ram, long live Paramhans. We will fulfil your dream". "Long live Paramhans", mourners chanted during the coffin's journey His body was arranged in a seated, meditating position "according to traditions of saints", an aide said. His head was smeared with sandalwood paste and his body bedecked in flower garlands. The president of his governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Venkaiah Naidu, said Mr Paramhans' death was a great loss to the nation. "The BJP is shocked over his demise," Mr Naidu said. "He was a source of inspiration for millions." Major setback Ramchandra Das Paramhans had been suffering from liver cancer. With his beard and long, matted hair, Mr Paramhans became well-known to Indian television viewers. Mr Paramhans was an "inspiration to millions", the BJP president said He had been involved in the Ram temple movement for the past 70 years and headed the trust formed to build the temple. The BBC's Ram Dutt Tripathi in Lucknow says his death will be a major setback to the movement. Mr Paramhans' successor has been named as Baba Nrityagopal Das. The Ayodhya temple campaign was spearheaded by right-wing Hindu groups closely affiliated to the BJP and was partly responsible for the sudden rise in the party's fortunes in the 1990s. The site, holy to both Hindus and Muslims, has been a constant source of religious clashes. In recent weeks the BJP has come under pressure from right-wing Hindu nationalists to try to implement a law to ensure the temple can be built. A new law would bypass the courts which have failed to bring about a resolution to the problem. An archaeological dig is under way at the site to try to determine whether a Hindu temple did once exist on the site of the destroyed mosque. Earlier this month the high court in the city of Lucknow gave archaeologists working at the site five more weeks to carry out their investigations and another two weeks to complete their report.

www.dailytimes.com.pk 12 Aug 2003 Most victims of Kashmir militancy are Muslims’ By Shaukat Piracha & Shahzad Raza ISLAMABAD: Most of the victims of Muslim militants in Indian-administered Kashmir over the last 11 years have been other Muslims, Mani Shankar Aiyar, an Indian politician of the Congress party, said in an interview to Daily Times on Tuesday. Mr Aiyar is a member of the Lok Sabha, the Indian lower house of parliament, and one of India’s best-known commentators and most outspoken critics. He was a close friend and adviser to the late Rajiv Gandhi. He is currently on a visit to Pakistan as part of a delegation that attended the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) peace conference in Islamabad. He opposes third-party mediation in the Kashmir dispute, but favours a plebiscite, subject to Pakistan fulfilling all the provision of the relevant UN resolution, including the withdrawal of Pakistani troops from Azad Kashmir. Daily Times: What next for India and Pakistan? Mani Shankar: Don’t ask us this question, ask our governments. Love is our message. We are from the opposition, and have told our government that if it wants friendly relations with Pakistan, we are with it. I have found that the members of parliament of your country have similar views. We have fulfilled our duty. DT: You said the onus to establish friendly relations with Pakistan is on the BJP government. But the BJP is more flexible towards Pakistan than Congress. MS: As I am in Pakistan, I don’t want to say a single word about the political differences among the parties of my country. But I am really ashamed at the attitude of the BJP members, who exploit their visit to Pakistan for domestic political gains. There have been many stages in the last 57 years. I don’t want to go into history, as I am looking to the future. We didn’t put any precondition for dialogue. We held that cross border terrorism if stopped would result in a good atmosphere for the dialogue. The responsibility is the government’s. If it goes for peace we are with it. DT: Given that Pakistan has taken the lead in normalising relations with India and maintaining peace in the region, why does India continue to accuse Pakistan of cross-border terrorism and why doesn’t it accept the deployment of UN observers along the Line of Control (LoC)? MS: Do we need observers to see that our innocent children, women and people are being massacred? This is the truth whether you accept it or not. We are victims of this. In the last eleven years, the victims of terrorism have been innocent Muslims. Kashmir is a small valley, but the war is on the border. There is a Pakistani soldier to face an Indian solider. We have deployed our soldiers to safeguards our frontiers. It is totally wrong and baseless to say they are there for the genocide of the Kashmiri people. In a preplanned conspiracy, Pervez Musharraf sent his troops to Kargil in the guise of Mujahideen. What might have happened if our troops were not there? Our army is in Kashmir to save us. Once Najam Sethi came to India and described the condition of the people of Pakistan. I asked why if 120 million Muslims in Pakistan were living in such poor conditions, 30 million Kashmiris would choose to be part of Pakistan. DT: Why don’t you respect the long-pending UN resolution on Kashmir that the people must be given their right of self-determination? MS: Who accepted the UN resolution first in 1948? Hindustan. And who rejected it? Pakistan. The UN resolution is based on three points. First, Pakistan would withdraw its troops from Kashmir. Second, India would reduce its forces to a certain extent. And third, there would be a plebiscite. You were not ready to take the first step, for you knew that you would lose the plebiscite. We waited three years for Pakistan’s response. After 1965, when you attacked us, the UN Security Council didn’t raise the issue of Kashmir, it condemned Pakistan for attacking India. DT: The UN resolution on Kashmir talked about multilateralism instead of bilateralism on the Kashmir dispute. But India never accepted that part of the resolution. MS: Who says the problem cannot be resolved bilaterally? I would say the process of resolution never started. And this is my point. Zufikar Bhutto and Indira Gandhi decided in 1972 that both sides must talk directly on the issue of Kashmir. Let me ask a question. Was any forum or working group formed between 1972 and 1989 to prepare for the official talks on the Kashmir dispute? A dispute is something in which a mediator jumps in to resolve the matter. We went to the UN, we complained about Pakistan’s unlawful attack on Kashmir. We asked the UN to vacate Pakistan from the valley. We accepted 31 years ago in the Simla Agreement that whatever the disputes between the two countries, they must be discussed bilaterally. We accepted that we would discuss the issue of Jammu and Kashmir with you. Why should we accept Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed state when the Independence of India Act states that the Maharajas would decide the fate of the princely states? DT: Three clear points in the Independence Act were that the fate of princely states would be decided according to the majority of the population, geographical continuity and will of the people. Now how would you justify your claim on Kashmir? MS: No! The condition was not of the people’s will but the will of the prince. The state is geographically continuous with both India and Pakistan. As far as the majority population is concerned, that was for British India. The plebiscite proposal never came from Pakistan. We held a plebiscite in Junagadh. Actually, we were against the formation of a state on the basis of religion. If religion is the foundation of the state, then why is there a border between Pakistan and Iran or Pakistan and Afghanistan? DT: Does that mean you don’t accept Pakistan? MS: No! Never! We don’t accept the two-nation theory. But I recognize the reality. Today there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan or Bangladesh. Let me say in one phrase that I do not accept the two-nation theory, but I do accept the three-nation reality. And we don’t want to revert from that reality. We wish Pakistan a long life. DT: What do you think about the communal violence in Gujarat that claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Muslims? Did they not establish that the separate homeland for the Muslim was a must? Was that not due to the fundamentalist BJP government in the centre? MS: There is no BJP government in the centre. There is coalition government, namely the National Democratic Alliance. And we, the Congress, are striving throughout India to prevent the BJP from forming a government, for we don’t trust them. We condemned what happened in Gujarat in the strongest words. The government of Gujarat backed the rightists. We want to reveal the truth through the courts. It is the government’s responsibility to get involved and stop the riots as soon as possible. And the criminals should be punished.

BBC 26 Aug 2003 India blast prompts war of words-- Advani wants Pakistan's co-operation, not just condemnation Pakistan has rejected an allegation of involvement in acts of terror in India, in the latest exchange of words following Monday's bombings in Bombay. Earlier India's Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani stopped short of directly blaming Pakistan for the two blasts in the financial capital which left about 50 people dead. However he did accuse Islamabad of waging a "war of terrorism" against India in recent decades - comments Pakistan dismissed as baseless and irresponsible. He also suggested that Pakistan's condemnation of the attack - which deplored the "wanton targeting of civilians" - was a "mere formality" unless Islamabad handed over 19 people wanted over previous attacks. Pakistan immediately rejected the demand, reiterating that no such criminals were being protected by Islamabad. Blame No group has claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks, but Mr Advani has said the banned Islamic students group, acting with the support of Pakistan-backed Kashmiri military group Lashkar-e-Toiba was to blame for other recent attacks in Bombay. STUDENTS ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF INDIA (SIMI) Formed in Uttar Pradesh in 1977 Declared jihad (holy war) against India and aims to convert it to Islam Banned after 11 September attacks, its offices closed and assets seized Simi president Shahid Badar charged under Prevention of Terrorism Act. In jail awaiting trial Has 400 full-time cadres and 20,000 members under 30 Source: Institute for Conflict Management Eyewitness: City in chaos Lashkar-e-Toiba is one of the two Pakistani rebel groups that Delhi blames for the December 2001 militant attack on its parliament which left 15 people dead, including five attackers. After inspecting the damage in the city, which is also known as Mumbai, Mr Advani told reporters on Tuesday: "The people responsible before appear to be the people responsible now. " So far the blast in Bombay and the statements and counter-statements from the two sides appear not to have affected the recently started process to improve relations. Senior aviation officials from India and Pakistan are expected to hold talks in Islamabad on Wednesday, in pursuit of agreement to resume air links between the two countries, the BBC's Zaffar Abbas reports. However another theory that has been aired is that of a possible link to last year's violence between Hindus and Muslims in the state of Gujarat. Maharashtra state's Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujpal said the attacks appeared to be in revenge for the riots in Gujarat, which left more than 2,000 dead. Drivers interrogated Security has been stepped up in India following the attacks, with police on alert at airports, railway stations and religious buildings. Citizens of Bombay give their reaction to Monday's deadly bombing In pictures Police are intensifying the search for the people who planted the two powerful car-bombs timed to explode within minutes of one another in the heart of the city. Investigators have been interrogating one of the taxi drivers in whose vehicles the bombs were planted and police say they have obtained vital information in their hunt for the perpetrators. In the last six months there have been a series of bomb blasts in the city and the reaction is shock and an increased sense of nervousness, says the BBC's Frances Harrison in Bombay. Small groups of people have been coming to the bomb sites to pay homage to the dead.

www.hipakistan.com 27 Aug 2003 India’s ‘very own’ Jihadis ready to combat Hinduvta KARACHI: The twin bombings in India’s business capital of Mumbai on Monday basically symbolised an organised militant response from Indian Muslim groups which now seem determined to battle the rise of Hindu fundamentalism in India and avenge the 1993 and 2002 massacres of Muslims in Mumbai and Gujarat, respectively, according to security affairs experts in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. In many media interviews since the recent bombings, Indian intelligence and police officials have also confirmed that several militant Muslim groups in India — not linked to Kashmiri guerrillas — have successfully armed and trained their cadres to launch retaliatory terrorist strikes in major Indian cities. Before the blasts that rocked Mumbai, five separate cases of bomb explosions were reported in the city, killing at least 15 people since December 2002. Most of these blasts occurred in buses, local trains and at railway stations. Thoroughly confused after the twin bombings, which had left at least 58 people killed at the Gateway of India and at the Zaveri Bazaar in the downtown, Mumbai police, the home ministry and intelligence services have so far listed 10 Indian Muslim groups suspecting their involvement in bombings. While India’s deputy prime minister believes that Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the twin bombings, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal believes that disgruntled Muslim youth from Gujarat caused the incident. Indian intelligence bureau officials in Mumbai think that a newly formed militant Indian Muslim group Lashkar-e-Khaledeen was responsible, Mumbai police charge Jaish-e-Muhammad, while the intelligence bureau in Kolkata thinks that an ISI man in Dhaka was the organiser. Lashkar-e-Khaledeen, with a membership of some 400 fanatic Indian Muslim youth, is devoted to combat the Hinduvta on Indian soil. It says that Lashkar members would fight the covert Indian state-sponsored terrorism against Muslims with overt anti-Hinduvta terrorism. India’s home ministry and Mumbai police’s crime branch have strong suspicion that Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was responsible. Some officials in RAW have cited the involvement of an unidentified Gulf-country based Darul Lashkar in the blasts, but Mumbai police officials believe that it could be the work of Dawood Ibrahim group, while some elements in the India home ministry have speculated the involvement of an ultra-radical Muradabad-based Gobra faction of Ahle Hadees sect. The SIMI, now considered a hot suspect in Mumbai blasts, is dedicated to the ‘liberation of India’ by converting it to an Islamic land. The SIMI, an organisation of young fanatical students, has declared Jehad against India. The SIMI, banned by the Indian government in 2001, has a membership of about 30,000 Indian Muslim students. Accused by the Indian government of allegedly causing scores of cases of terrorism all across India, the SIMI was headed Dr Shahid Badar Falah while Safdar Nagori served as the secretary-general till the organisation was banned. The Delhi police arrested Falah on September 28, 2001 and he has subsequently been charged with sedition and inciting communal disharmony in Uttar Pradesh. The underground Lashkar-e-Khaledeen and SIMI members in secret messages to renowned Muslim militant groups early this year had sounded that the ruling BJP in India was on course to "systemic annihilation of Muslims ". These organisations, recalling the Muslim carnage in Gujarat and Mumbai, said the BJP has allowed Hindu terrorist training camps at various sites on mainland India. Under the patronage of Indian military and RAW the fundamentalist Hindu groups such as Bajrang Dal, Sangh Parivar, RSS, Durga Vahini, Shiv Sena, Hinduvta Unity, Hinduvta Brotherhood, Soldiers of Hinduvta, Saffron Tigers and Hindu Jagran Manch are operating terrorist training camps, said an e-mail communication from SIMI in June this year. Notwithstanding the ever confusing list of suspects that only confirms the existence of a large number of militant groups in India, most Indian security officials and some senior politicians agree that the twin bombings was an expected outcome of last year’s carnage of Muslims in Gujarat. "No doubt" the blasts at Zaveri Bazaar and in front of the Gateway of India were linked to the Gujarat riots, said Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal in an interview. Bhujbal was referring to the fact that Gujarati businessmen dominate the jewellery hub of Zaveri Bazaar, the target of the first blast that killed at least 9 Hindu businessmen from Gujarat state. Reinforcing Bhujbal’s assertion, Gujarat director-general of police K Chakravarty revealed in an interview on Tuesday that a post-riot probe by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into Gujarat incident had found that at least 500 Muslim youth from the state had abandoned their homes to avenge the massacre of their loved ones by Hindu fundamentalists. Indian officials said that most of those 500 youth joined either the SIMI or Lashkar-e-Khaledeen cadres. In media reports Indian officials named a prominent Gulf country for providing financial support to the Indian militant groups. They also alleged that the same country provided secret location for the guerrilla training of the Muslim youth from Gujarat, desperate to fight state-sponsored anti-Muslim wave in India. "It is immature on part of several politicians also to dump the Mumbai bombings on the ISI," says KP Narayanan, former head of India’s Intelligence Bureau in an interview from Madras. Narayanan said in the aftermath of Gujarat tragedy, India has enough of home-grown terrorists and the union’s future was threatened by the indigenous groups. Former Indian I B chief Narayanan is joined by his fellow Indian security officials, besides many Pakistani and other security officials in the region, who thought that the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat last year and similar carnage of Muslims in Mumbai in 1993 have given birth to most militant groups of Indian Muslims, whose sole aim is to battle the Hinduvta in their country. An independent group of reputed Indian observers headed by former Indian naval chief L Ramdas, which had a tour of Gujarat after last year’s violence, had reported to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that "genocide" of Muslims took place in Gujarat. They reported: "5,000 Muslims killed, 50,000 made homeless, hundreds of mosques, and dozens of hotels, shops, and villages destroyed during riots in the Indian province of Gujarat." The panel also reported: "Hindu extremists, armed with swords and rifles, are reported to have exploded houses and mosques with LPG and oxygen cylinders, and to have been supplied with trucks loaded with gasoline and gas cylinders. They are also reported to have been paid Rs 500 ($12.50) per day, and provided food, water, wine, and medical aid. If arrested, their legal expenses were to be covered by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and if they were killed, it is reported, their families would be given Rs 200,000 ($5,000)." Based on "actual field surveys and counts in the State of Gujarat", Indian naval chief Ramdas also reported to Prime Minister Vajpayee: "72 Muslims burned inside their homes in Gulmarg society, 29 Muslims killed in Mehsana village, 46 killed and burned in a truck on Lunawada highway, 18 Muslims burned in the "Best Bakery" in Baroda, 350 Muslim dead, thrown into a well near Naroda Patiya, young girls and women molested and raped before being burnt." Reporting on the destruction of holy Muslim places in Gujarat, the Ramdas panel told the Indian prime minister: "Mosques destroyed: 12 in Baroda, 10 in Ahmedabad, all in the villages affected by riots, and several converted into Hindu temples." Identical anti-Muslim riots that had taken place in Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993 had left thousands of Muslims killed, tens of thousands of them homeless, their businesses ransacked and their women molested. The anti-Muslim rioting in Mumbai was followed by serial bomb blasts that caused death of more than 200 people in India’s business capital. Supreme Court Judge Justice BN Srikrishna, who was appointed by the Indian government to probe the Mumbai riots, had reported that under the patronage of Mumbai police and state politicians at least 1,500 Muslims were killed, 1,829 injured and 165 are still missing in the gruesome riots of December 1992, and January 1993 in Mumbai. South Asian security officials noted that Indian government’s indifference to its own reports that had cited the involvement of officials and ruling politicians in the killings of Muslims and destruction of their properties in Mumbai and Gujarat has principally contributed to the widening gulf between the Muslims and Hindus in India. During a session of Indian parliament held just after the Gujarat riots last year, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, a member of parliament from the Congress party, had shown remarkable vision by predicting: "Today, Gujarat is burning; tomorrow, the country will burn."

PTI 25 Aug 2003 Mumbai panics as twin blasts kill 46 Bombs hidden in taxis Zaveri Bazar, Gateway of India targeted Shinde government ouster demanded S. Iyer Mumbai, August 25 Mumbai was reduced to a state of panic today as two powerful bomb blasts claimed more than 46 lives and injured more than 200. The bombs, made from high-grade explosives, were hidden in the boots of taxis parked at the Gateway of India and the crowded Zaveri Bazar, a few kilometres from each other. The bombs were wrapped in nails and iron filings to cause maximum damage, according to the police. This resulted in the bodies of several victims being torn apart by the impact of the explosions, the police said. Eyewitnesses spoke of body parts of victims of the blasts being scattered all over the place. Both blasts, between 1 and 1.30 in the afternoon, were aimed at inflicting maximum casualties on the lunch-hour crowd that comes out for a break. The blasts were so powerful that buildings in the vicinity of both areas suffered damages. While the Gateway of India located near the southernmost tip of Mumbai suffered no damage, glass panes at the Taj Mahal Hotel nearby were shattered and scores of expensive cars parked outside were mangled beyond repair. A car wrecked by a powerful bomb that ripped through it near the Gateway of India in South Mumbai on Monday. — PTI photo People stand next to a taxi damaged by a powerful bomb explosion in Mumbai on Monday. — Reuters photo A police official examines a taxi that was destroyed in a bomb blast. — Reuters photo Speaking to reporters at the site of the blasts, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde warned that the blasts were aimed at provoking communal riots in Mumbai. “This is an attack on the country’s economy and we must maintain peace at all costs,” Mr Shinde said. Coincidentally, the blasts happened while Mr Shinde and senior police officials were reviewing the security situation for the 10-day Ganpati festival from Sunday. Panic-stricken Mumbaiites fearing a reprise of the March 12, 1993 serial bombings telephoned offices of newspapers and television stations even as rumours spread of several bombs going off across the city. Telephone and mobile networks were stretched to capacity as people frantically tried to reach their near and dear ones as the news of the blasts trickled in. The bomb blast sites witnessed heart-rending scenes as police and fire brigade personnel collected handbags, wallets, jewellery and other belongings of the victims for safe-keeping. Mumbai’s famed civil society was in action within hours of the blasts as volunteers organised blood donation drives in different parts of the city. Cable television networks were broadcasting appeals for blood and volunteers were queueing up at civic and government hospitals in different parts of the city. Meanwhile, confusion prevailed at the JJ, GT and St George hospitals with relatives seeking information of their loved ones. The lobby of J. J. Hospital in South Mumbai has been converted into a makeshift morgue. Victims from both the blasts were rushed to this hospital. Witnesses said 20 bodies were laid out on the bare floor of the makeshift morgue. Most of the bodies were charred and the victims’ clothes torn due to the impact of the explosion. Mumbai has a history of bomb blasts. On March 12, 1993, as many as 13 bombs went off in different parts of the city, including the one at Zaveri Bazar. More than 250 persons were killed then. There have been six blasts in the city prior to today’s serial bombings since December. All explosions took place in train or bus stations. The opposition Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine has called for the dismissal of the Shinde government in Maharashtra. BJP leader Gopinath Munde said from Aurangabad district, 700 km from here, that the state government had failed to maintain law and order and must go. UNI adds: The Maharashtra Government tonight announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in the twin blasts in the city. The injured will get Rs 50,000 each as compensation, official sources said here.

The Hindu 26 Aug 2003 ASI finds ``massive structure'' in Ayodhya LUCKNOW AUG. 25. In what could be a turning point in the Ayodhya dispute, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has reported to the High Court here that its excavations found distinctive features of a 10th century "massive structure" beneath the Babri Mosque site even as the Sunni Central Waqf Board (SCWB) termed the report "vague and self-contradictory". The 574-page report consisting of written opinions and maps and drawings was opened before the full Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court this morning. It said there was archaeological evidence of a massive structure just below the disputed structure and evidence of continuity in structural activities from the 10th century onwards up to the construction of the disputed structure (Babri Mosque). The archaeological evidence and other discoveries from the site were indicative of remains that are distinctive features found associated with the temples of north India, the report said. PTI

Times of India 25 Aug 2003 No evidence of temple at Ayodhya: Expert PRANAVA K CHAUDHARY TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2003 11:10:22 PM ] PATNA: No evidence of an ancient Hindu temple had been found at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The ASI report is "vague and self-contradictory and something prepared under political pressure". This observation has been made by one of the experts who had been recently summoned by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court hearing the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit to make their observation. Sita Ram Rai a former director of Bihar state archaeology, who has already spent more than a fortnight at the Ayodhya excavated site during the month of June alleged that the ASI has carved "pillars out of the excavated floor to "draw" some inaccurate conclusions in favour of the contesting party. The ASI which released its report on Monday with "motivated suggestions and wilful omissions makes its clear that its saffronised heart is in the right place", he said. Besides Rai, other experts were former head of the department of archaeology, Kurukshetra University, Suraj Bhan, former professor of archaeology, Allahabad University, D Mandal and former professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi, Shireen Ratnakar. Both Rai and Mandal belong to Bihar. Rai who conducted several archaeological excavations at Nagarjunkonda (Andhra Pradesh), Vaishali and Lota Pahar in Singhbhum, told TNN on Monday: "No structure was demolished before the construction of mosque (1528 AD)". Rai, who has written on the excavations of Chirand (Saran) and Sonepur in the Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology, had appeared as a witness before the Lucknow bench in April, 2002. These archaeologists made detailed studies of the ASI's method of excavation and the artefacts recently excavated at the Ayodhya site. "All of us believe that there was no temple at the Ayodhya site", Rai said. According to Rai, from the 13th century onwards artefacts belonging to Muslim period including coins belonging to Akbar's period have been in abundance in the whole region. The structural remains of broken bricks represented the habitation of the common masses, he said. Rai says," whatever few structural remains of bricks have been used in the construction of houses were brought here from outside during the pre-mosque period". The court had summoned these "progressive archaeologists" in view of complaints from the Central Sunni Wakf Board and other plaintiffs in the Ayodhya title suit, sources said.

Times of India 26 Aug 2003 Sunni Waqf Board to challenge ASI report SRAWAN SHUKLA TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2003 12:28:01 AM ] LUCKNOW: Coming as a shot in the arm of the saffron campaigners, the Arhaeological Survey of India (ASI) has concluded existence of a temple-like 'massive structure', belonging to 10 AD onwards, beneath the disputed site in Ayodhya in its 574-page report. The ASI report, submitted on August 22, was opened by the three-member full Bench, comprising Justice SR Alam, Justice Khem Karan and Justice Bhanwar Singh on Monday. The Bench has given six-week time to contesting parties for filing objections on the sensational revelations made by the ASI in its two- volume report. "Viewing in totality and taking into account the archaeological evidence of a massive structure just below the disputed structure and evidence of continuity in structural phases from the tenth century onwards up to the construction of the disputed structure alongwith yield of stone and decorated bricks as well mutilated sculpture of divine couple...., fifty pillar bases in association of the huge structure, are indicative of remains which are distinctive features found associated with the temples of north India," concluded ASI in its report. The ASI team, led by Hari Manjhi and BR Mani, had excavated the disputed site for nearly five months between March 12 and August 7, 2003 on a high court order of March 5 . In its report , the ASI has dwelt at length the period from circa 1000 BC to 300 BC and from Sunga (first century BC) to Kushan, Gupta, post-Gupta up to medieval Sultanate level (12-16 century AD) and post-Mughal period. The report makes mention of a huge structure (11-12th century) on which a massive structure, having a huge pillard hall (or two halls), with at least three structural phases and three successive floors attached with it were constructed later on. "There is sufficient proof of existence of a massive and monumental structure having a minimum of 50 x 30 metre in north-south and east-west directions respectivley just below the disputed structure," claims the report. To prove its point, the report says that during the course of digging, nearly 50 pillar bases with brickbat foundation, below calcrete blocks topped by sandstones were found. Significantly, it also suggests existence of a sanctum sanctorum or a place of importance. But it could not excavate the spotted area due to the presence of the Ram Lala makesheift temple. "This area is roughly 15 X 15 metre on the raised platform. Towards east of this central point a circular depression with projection on the west, cut into the large sized brick pavement, signify the place where some important object was placed," points the report. Ironically, the ASI report did not give any weightage to the glazed wares, graves and skeletons of animals and human beings found during the excavations. Rather it suggests that the glazed tiles were used in the construction of original disputed structure. Similarly, the celadon and porcelain sherds and animal bones, skeletons recovered from trenches in northern and southern areas belong to late and post-Mughal period, the report adds. In drafting its report, the ASI has also given importance to the carbon dating to ascertain the period of soil and artefacts found during digging. About the habitation around the disputed ground, the ASI report observed that "below the disputed site remained a place for public use for along time till the Mughal period when the disputed structure was built which was confined to a limited area and population settled around it as evidenced by the increase in contemporary arcaheological material, including pottery." The ASI report has come as a rude shock to the Sunni Central Wakf Board (SCWB) and other Muslim oragnisations. "It is baseless, misinterpreted, based on wrong facts and drafted under intense political pressure," reacted Zafaryab Jeelani, counsel for SCWB while announcing to challenge the report. On the other hand, it has brought jubilation in the saffron camp as the ASI report has put an 'arhaeological seal' on the mythology propagated by saffron campaigners about the existence of a temple below disputed ground where Babri mosque once stood. ASI report · A shot in the arm for saffron campaigners · The court has given six weeks' time to contesting parties for filing objections · The ASI has dwelt at length on the period from circa 1000 BC to 300 BC and from Sunga to Kushan, Gupta, post-Gupta up to medieval Sultanate level (12-16 century AD) and post-Mughal period · The report says there is sufficient proof of existence of a massive and monumental structure having a minimum of 50 x 30 metre just below the disputed structure · Significantly, it also suggests existence of a sanctum sanctorum.

Times of India 25 aug 2003 Blasts fallout of Gujarat: Intelligence MANOJ JOSHI TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2003 11:28:46 PM ] NEW DELHI: No one has yet claimed responsibility for Monday’s twin blasts in Mumbai that has killed more than 40 people. While several jihadi organizations are suspected, intelligence officials in New Delhi say that the blast and five other such events since December last are a fallout of the Gujarat massacres of 2002. ‘‘The jihadis got a recruitment pool of disaffected Muslims, some of them refugees from Gujarat,’’ said one official, ‘‘and they appear to be making full use of them’’. Speaking in Delhi after a meeting with the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said that the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the Pakistani jihadi outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba could be behind the act. Advani steered clear of blaming the usual suspect, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). After the March 14 blast that killed 10 people in a Mumbai suburban train, the DPM had blamed SIMI and Jaish-e-Mohammed, another jihadi outfit. Intelligence officials said it is beyond doubt that the ISI was the mastermind behind the blasts. ‘‘For the 1993 blasts they used the Mumbai underworld, but now that th e dons have been forced to migrate to the Gulf and Pakistan, they have changed their modus operandi,’’ said one official. According to Imran Rehman Khan, the main accused in the Ghatkopar blast of December 2002, Lashkar cells and in some cases, D-company expats in the Gulf countries are used to recruit Indian Muslims. The choice of targets, too, is revealing and indicates ISI involvement, says the official. ‘‘The Gateway of India is an obvious symbol of the country, while the Zaveri bazar, besides being dominated by Gujaratis, is a major economic centre which was also one of the targets of the 1993 blasts.’’ The Monday blast was the sixth explosion since December last year. A total of 15 people were killed and 117 injured in five earlier explosions since December 2002. Most of these blasts occurred in buses, local trains and railway stations. In the 1993 serial explosions that killed nearly 300 persons, RDX was used, while in the recent blasts, locally available chemicals appear to have been used along with gas cylinders, sharp nails and objects to inflict heavy casualties. Officials say that the major impetus for the recent spate of blasts in Mumbai were the Gujarat massacres of 2002. Imran Rehman Khan told interrogators in Mumbai that after being recruited in April 2002, he was summoned by a Lashkar front organisation in Saudi Arabia to formulate a plan ‘‘to avenge the Gujarat killings’’.

BBC 26 Aug 2003 Experts split on Ayodhya findings Jyotsna Singh BBC, Delhi Hindus welcomed the findings of the archaeological report A key report by Indian archaeologists on the disputed Ayodhya religious site has split not only Hindus and Muslims but experts too. The report said there was indeed evidence of an earlier temple built beneath a 16th century mosque that was destroyed by Hindu activists in the northern city in 1992. Hindus welcomed the findings while Muslims rejected the report. But although the study is expected to have far-reaching implications in moves to solve who holds claim over the site, legal experts say it cannot be taken as a conclusive evidence. "As far as the legal case in concerned, it is a title suit about the ownership of the land between Hindus and Muslims," lawyer Rajiv Dhawan told the BBC. "The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report cannot be taken to be conclusive. This is only part of the evidence. The report will be analysed, its authors will be cross-examined to find out whether they are right or wrong. It will be a long, drawn-out process," he said. Matter of interpretation Mr Dhawan said the legal case did not relate to the question of whether a temple existed on the site or not. Our excavations in Ayodhya in 1978 proved the existence of a temple dating to the 11th century. The ASI report just pushes it back by 50 or 100 years KN Dixit, archaeologist The existence of the temple became part of Hindu rhetoric in the dialogue process begun in 1989 between the All India Babri Mosque committee and the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). However, Mr Dhawan says, as the land was owned by the Sunni WAQF board (an elected body of Muslim theologians) until 1945, the Hindus could have only moral right over the land if the existence of a temple were proven. Several historians opposed to the VHP's claim have questioned the validity of the ASI findings. Although there is no dispute that objects were recovered from the site, the interpretation is the key. Professor of history at Aligarh Muslim University, Irfan Habib, told the BBC: "The floors of the mosque have been declared to be a temple. Broken bricks and stones used for filling up the floor of the mosque have been declared as pillars of the temple. "Glazed pottery common to Muslim architecture has been completely ignored. Flower motifs are common to Muslim architecture but the ASI has interpreted it as a Hindu pattern." The Babri mosque was destroyed by hardline Hindus in 1992 He added: "The ASI is using the same language that the VHP uses by calling the mosque a disputed structure. The ASI has said what the Hindu nationalists wanted to hear. There is a legal issue and this is a long debate. The ASI report has only confirmed the fears about the objectivity of this exercise." Archaeologists supported by Hindu hardliners dismissed these allegations, saying the report justified their long-held observations. SP Gupta, of the Indian Archaeologist Society (IAS), a VHP-backed organisation, said: "The ASI report is nearly the same as our reports, because we are also archaeologists. We have seen the digging. It is a science so our observations based on scientific facts are bound to be similar." A colleague of Mr Gupta, KN Dixit, added: "Our excavations in Ayodhya in 1978 proved the existence of a temple dating to the 11th century. The ASI report just pushes it back by 50 or 100 years." Another archaeologist, RK Sharma, said the motifs found "proved the existence of a 7th century Shiva temple". It is clear the report will not change opinions among hardliners on either side and those opinions may well become even more entrenched as next year's general elections loom.

Sify.com 29 Aug 2003 `Hawayein`: Anti-Sikh riots on screen New Delhi: Kashmir and Pakistan make successful subjects on the silver screen, but writer, director and actor Ammtoje Mann has chosen another theme for his new movie. Hawayein is all about the brutal hate that swept the streets of Delhi and its neighbourhood following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The movie is set for release today. Ammtoje Mann, feeling restricted to portray "empty anti-Pakistan rhetoric", has crafted Hawayein which he says depicts Punjab's unrest, the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage, its trigger, and its aftermath in multi-dimensional ways. The film, Mann told newspersons, also shows circumstances that forced some Sikhs to go for the gun, but at the same time it does demarcate terrorists from victims of injustice. The film brochure shows a much criticised remark of then newly-installed Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the anti-Sikh violence that broke out after his mother's assassination and the movie, Mann said, has one character representing several politicians accused of stirring anti-Sikh passions after October 31, 1984. But the timing of the movie release in the capital ahead of November Assembly elections in Delhi is a mere co-incidence, he claimed. "We also received several proposals from different groupings and political parties about their support, but we rejected them all because we did not want to give any political colour to our work which is based on extensive research." Hawayein also touches upon police role in restive Punjab. "The movie cannot be said to have achieved its objective without a character resembling Punjab Police chief K P S Gill," he added while claiming the film has split apart numerous strands entwining together the trouble in the state, Operation Blue Star, Mrs Gandhi's assassination, the anti-Sikh massacre and gross human rights violations in Punjab. Mann has based his movie on first-hand experience. "I have seen it myself how police would pick innocent youths in Punjab. In Delhi, I met a number of victims of the 1984 violence. And I think, not much has changed over the past 20 years," he said while drawing similarities between the anti-Sikh riots and last year's communal violence in Gujarat. Hawayein covers a period from September 1984 to 1992, though trouble in Punjab began as early as 1978. "Operation Blue Star in June 1984 led to the assassination of Mrs Gandhi, but we cannot show the Golden Temple on sets. Nor have we shown the attack on the then Prime Minister. We have also avoided giving a specific identifying getup to the politician inciting anti-Sikh violence because that would have narrowed the entire subject of the movie," Mann said. A burning tyre round the neck of a Sikh did invite little official cut, but otherwise the movie got the Censor Board's clearance to the surprise of producers Nippy Dhanoa, Baldev Bhatti, Babbu Mann and Amrinder Singh. "It's doing a wonderful business overseas," claimed the director who puts the film budget at around Rs 25 crore. However, he agrees it was a big risk. "We did take a huge amount of risk, but seeing the audience response we can say the film will do good business." Hawayein is not completely devoid of Pakistan's role in fanning trouble in Punjab. "It does show -- but in a realistic way -- Pakistan's aims to carve a route to Kashmir through Khalistan," Ammtoje Mann said. There are tinges of romance too in the film dealing with a serious subject. "It's not a romance story but a story with some romance." The movie will be released in Delhi, parts of UP, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Hyderabad and Rajasthan today. ANI .

Indonesia

BBC 1 Aug 2003 Aceh police accused of abuse The Indonesian military is battling separatist rebels in Aceh A Scottish academic says she has disturbing evidence about human rights abuses by the Indonesian military in the province of Aceh. Lesley McCulloch is in regular touch with a policeman in Aceh who has been sending her news about torture at the police station in the province's capital, Banda Aceh. The Indonesian military continues to crack down on separatist rebels in the province, effectively sealing Aceh off to outsiders and making such allegations difficult to verify. But Ms McCulloch, herself imprisoned in Aceh in 2002, says her contact has witnessed a number of serious rights violations in recent days. I have never heard of such a thing. This is ridiculous Indonesian military spokesman "He told me that people are being beaten, and deprived of sleep, food and water," Ms McCulloch told the BBC's East Asia Today programme. Her contact had witnessed detainees being burnt with cigarettes and lighters, and tied to the bars of their cells before being severely beaten, she said. "In the last week, he has also told me of a few cases of people being removed dead from the police station," she added. Poor rights record But a spokesman for the Indonesian military, Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuyki, was quick to deny Ms McCulloch's allegations. "I have never heard of such a thing. This is ridiculous," he told East Asia Today. "We are not jungle soldiers." At least 600 people, many of them civilians, are now thought to have died since the military offensive began in May. The crackdown, against rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (Gam), erupted after a fragile five-month peace agreement collapsed. The military has a poor human rights record in the province, but has frequently denied accusations of rights abuses. Since the offensive began, several soldiers have been charged with abuses against civilians, in what the government cites as evidence of efforts to curb excess brutality. Gam rebels have been fighting for an independent state in Aceh since 1976. At least 12,000 people have died in the campaign so far.

AFP 14 Aug 2003 Indonesian military says 683 Aceh rebels killed in three-month blitz JAKARTA, Aug 14 (AFP) - The Indonesian military said Thursday that 683 separatist rebels have been killed in Aceh province and 1,560 have been arrested or surrendered since a massive operation to crush the guerrillas was launched three months ago. A total of 304 weapons have been seized from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and 43 soldiers and 12 police have died since May 19, said a military spokesman, Ditya Sudarsono. An estimated 30,000 troops and 10,000 police are battling a guerrilla force originally estimated at 5,000 in the energy-rich province on Sumatra island, where GAM has been fighting for independence since 1976. Human rights activists and some other groups have questioned the military figures for rebel deaths. One rights group in the province said Monday that almost 300 civilians were killed in the first two months of the operation alone. The Aceh Referendum Information Centre did not say which side it believes is responsible. An international think-tank, in a report last month, said the military assault is only alienating ordinary Acehnese and fuelling support for GAM. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group also questioned military figures for rebel dead, saying there is no way to verify whether these were really guerrillas. Kusnanto Anggoro, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, was quoted by Wednesday's Jakarta Post as citing the small number of firearms seized compared to the total number of captured or killed GAM members. "If the military manages to seize only 200 firearms but the number of captured GAM members reaches almost 2,000, I suspect that there are many civilians who have been treated as rebels," he was quoted as saying. Jakarta unilaterally pulled out of a December peace agreement, imposed martial law and launched its military operation after the breakdown of last-ditch peace talks with GAM in Tokyo. It accused the rebels of not respecting the pact.

AFP 27 Aug 2003 Indonesia shelves Papua division after deadly clashes JAKARTA, Aug 27 (AFP) - The Indonesian government on Wednesday decided to shelve plans to split easternmost Papua province into three after three days of street clashes involving supporters and opponents of the move left three people dead. "Based on political and administrative considerations, the division of Papua province... has been put off and (Papua) will be kept in the status quo," top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a press conference. The government would take into account economic and social-cultural factors before deciding whether to go ahead with the division, the minister said, insisting that the plan had not been abandoned completely. The central government says the purpose of dividing the existing province into three is to improve administration in the mountainous 411,000-square-kilometre (158,700 square mile) territory, which has a population of about three million. Opponents say the real aim is to lessen support for a long-running separatist movement. They say it violates the grant of special autonomy to the resource-rich province which went into effect in 2001. Police reinforcements were flown Wednesday to the town of Timika, where clashes between supporters and opponents of the split have erupted since Saturday, leaving three people dead and dozens injured. One company -- about 100 men -- of paramilitary police arrived from the provincial capital Jayapura on Tuesday and another company would arrive from Makassar in South Sulawesi later Wednesday, said provincial police chief Budi Utomo. He said police would form a buffer force between the two warring groups and try to mediate a settlement. The clashes have pitted thousands of mostly Amungme hill tribesmen who oppose the establishment of a new province of Central Irian Jaya against hundreds of supporters of the plan. "They are to maintain a barricade between the two sides so that they do not attack each other again," Utomo told Metro TV station in a telephone interview. The tribesmen have used bows and arrows and spears during clashes on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Around dawn Wednesday tribesmen angered by police efforts to prevent a renewed clash slightly injured one officer with an arrow, Captain Ruslan Abdul Gani told AFP from Timika. He said Utomo was currently mediating a peace deal between the two camps involving "compensation under tribal laws." Tribesmen have said the violence will not end until the number of fatalities from each side is the same. Two of those killed were opponents of the new province. "We are trying to persuade them to accept another form of compensation," Utomo said earlier in his radio interview. He said it may include the slaughter of pigs, highly prized animals in the local culture. Tribal representatives say they feared an influx of outsiders to help run the new province will marginalise them like Australia's Aborigines. Trouble began after the declaration Saturday of the new province by local legislators and administrative leaders. Indonesia has faced a sporadic low-level armed separatist revolt, along with peaceful pressure for independence, since it took control of Papua in 1963 from Dutch colonialists.

AFP 28 Aug 2003 Death toll in unrest in Indonesia's Papua rises to four JAKARTA, Aug 28 (AFP) - The death toll in several days of clashes in Indonesia's Papua province has risen to four, police said Thursday after the unrest prompted the central government to shelve controversial plans to split the province into three. One man wounded early Wednesday has died in hospital, said Abdul Gani, a senior police officer in the town of Timika. Hundreds of Amungme hill tribesmen, armed with bows and arrows and spears, and other opponents of the new province of Central Irian Jaya have been battling hundreds of supporters of the plan. Three of those killed, including the latest victim, were opponents. Late Wednesday the government announced it was shelving the reorganisation. Top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government would take into account economic and social-cultural factors before deciding whether to go ahead with it. The government says the purpose of dividing the province into three is to improve administration in the wild and mountainous 411,000-square-kilometre (158,700 square mile) territory, which has a population of about three million. Opponents say the real aim is to lessen support for a long-running separatist movement. They say it violates the grant of special autonomy to the resource-rich province which went into effect in 2001. Tribal representatives say they fear an influx of outsiders to help run the new province will marginalise them like Australia's Aborigines. Trouble began after the declaration Saturday of the new province by local legislators and administrative leaders. More clashes occurred on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. Gani said about 15 people were injured when tribesmen angered by police efforts to prevent a renewed clash attacked officers early Wednesday. He said there had been no fighting Thursday. Indonesia has faced a sporadic low-level armed separatist revolt, along with peaceful pressure for independence, since it took control of Papua in 1963 from Dutch colonialists.

AFP 29 Aug 2003 Eleven people killed in fresh violence in war-torn Aceh BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Aug 29 (AFP) - Nine suspected separatist rebels and two civilians have been killed in Indonesia's Aceh province during the fourth month of an operation to crush the guerrillas, police and the military said Friday. More than 30 members of the police paramilitary unit shot dead a member of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) during a raid Thursday in the Mancang Puntong area of North Aceh, said police spokesman Sayed Husainy. Soldiers patrolling the Indra Damai area of South Aceh on the same day shot dead four rebels during a 30-minute gunfight, said military spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki. Also on Thursday security forces shot dead three rebels in two separate incidents in North Aceh district, Basuki said. Soldiers also killed a rebel in Singkil district. The spokesman accused GAM of killing two civilians in Central Aceh district and in Pidie district on the same day. He said rebels had also kidnapped four men who were travelling in a car in East Aceh. GAM could not be immediately reached for comment. Basuki said troops in South Aceh arrested three suspected rebels during raids in South Aceh and in the outskirts of Banda Aceh on Thursday. The government on May 19 launched a massive military operation to crush the guerrillas, who have been fighting since 1976 for independence for the energy-rich province on Sumatra island. As of Thursday, Basuki said 765 rebels have been killed and more than 1,700 have been arrested or have surrendered since May 19. Thirteen police and 46 soldiers have died. Troops have seized 340 firearms from the rebels, he said. Human rights activists and other groups have questioned whether the military figure for guerrilla deaths also includes civilians.

Iraq

NYT 1 Aug 2003 U.S. Wants Iraqis to Judge Hussein By THOM SHANKER and NEIL A. LEWIS ASHINGTON, July 31 — The United States has plans to create a special tribunal of Iraqi judges to try Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity if he is captured, State Department officials and administration legal advisers said today. "We're looking for an Iraqi-led process to deal with these abuses," a senior State Department official said. "It's important that we bring ownership of these matters to the Iraqi people." The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration had ruled out seeking a broad-based international tribunal or a United Nations-led effort to try Mr. Hussein. However, the official said, the Iraqis who would lead the court could seek assistance from other Arab countries or elsewhere. "But it will be up to them," the official said. "The Iraqis will play the undisputed leadership role in this process." As military officials sound more optimistic that an increasing number of tips from Iraqis will help locate Mr. Hussein, discussion within the administration over how to deal with the ousted Iraqi leader, if captured, has accelerated in recent days. American administrators in Baghdad and officials in Washington have devoted their attention to how to form a court that would have the authority to try Mr. Hussein on charges of crimes against humanity, including attempted genocide against the Kurds and marsh Arabs of Iraq. Judge Gilbert S. Merritt, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, recently returned from several weeks in Iraq advising the American and Iraqi authorities about establishing war-crimes courts and other legal issues. He said officials were looking to create a tribunal that would have the stature to be seen as free of American control. "Many Iraqi judges and lawyers said to me that they believe it is important that they be given the authority to try him if he is captured," said Judge Merritt, the former chief judge of the circuit court. He said the most important reason for doing so was that it would be "a vote of confidence in the Iraqi judiciary to have them conduct any such trial." Judge Merritt said the judges could be chosen from the several who were dismissed or exiled under Mr. Hussein's government. He said the principal proposal was for a three-judge panel of newly reinstalled jurists. United States officials in Baghdad have said they hope to have some sort of working court system in place over the next several months for crimes like murder. But administration officials said today that war crimes trials for Mr. Hussein or any of his senior aides would not necessarily have to wait until a court system was fully functional. "This can proceed on a swifter track," the senior State Department official said. The Iraqi tribunals, officials said, would be used to try Mr. Hussein and members of his government or military for actions against Iraqis, not for any violations of the laws of war that might have occurred in the American-led conflicts with Iraq in 1991 and this year. Bush administration officials have previously said that any violations of the laws of war committed by Iraqis against Americans in those conflicts might be prosecuted before American military tribunals. But from discussions with officials, it appears the administration has not made that issue a major part of its planning about Mr. Hussein's legal fate, instead focusing on a solely Iraqi tribunal. United Nations officials, however, have been considering different approaches. Early in July, the United Nations convened a small group of international legal scholars and Iraqis in Baghdad to discuss what kind of trial would be best if Mr. Hussein were captured. One scholar invited to advise the United Nations-sponsored group, Diane F. Orentlicher, a professor of international law at American University here, said participants discussed several specific options. Among them were granting jurisdiction to an international tribunal, organizing a hybrid court of Middle Eastern judges working with Iraqis, or waiting for Iraq's new legal system to mature sufficiently to do the job, she said. But the United States has shown little appetite for international tribunals, notably refusing to participate in the recently established International Criminal Court. That court could not be used for most of the potential human rights issues in Iraq anyway, because it can only deal with crimes that occurred after July 1, 2002. American diplomats have said that some Iraqis oppose an international tribunal outside of the country, because that might diminish the impact of the justice meted out, which is viewed as important to the political development of post-Hussein Iraq. A hybrid legal system could follow the lines of the court established for Sierra Leone, Ms. Orentlicher said, as well as one proposed for Cambodia. The international legal session in Baghdad was called by Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations special representative to Iraq. Attempts to reach him by telephone in Baghdad today were unsuccessful. But in briefing the Security Council last week, he said that given the gravity of the crimes in question, "I believe there is much merit in considering the establishment of a mixed Iraqi and international panel of experts to consider in detail the options that would best suit Iraq." Any trial, officials noted, would depend on Mr. Hussein's being taken alive. Pentagon officials have said that decision rests largely with him, and they cite as an example the battle this month in northern Iraq in which Mr. Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, violently resisted American troops and were killed. Bush administration officials and their legal advisers say they are contemplating some kind of prosecution for as many as 200 high-ranking Iraqi officials on whom they have compiled dossiers. In addition to calling witnesses, prosecutors in an Iraq trial would be able to use a large cache of documents taken out of Iraq during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. The documents, which detail mass killings at Saddam Hussein's behest, were obtained by Kurdish militia fighters who raided the offices of military and Baath Party security officials in the northern cities of Erbil, Kirkuk and Sulaimaniya. In addition, Indict, a London-based group, has been collecting accounts of atrocities from Iraqis that could be used in any trials of Iraqi officials. Peter W. Galbraith, a former American diplomat who is a board member of Indict, said a United Nations tribunal would be preferable to one conducted by Iraqis. "The evidence that could be presented is overwhelming, and these cases would be easy to try," he said. "This case should be taken before the world."

NYT August 6, 2003, Wednesday EDITORIAL DESK Trying Saddam Hussein To the Editor: Re ''U.S. Wants Iraqis to Judge Hussein'' (front page, Aug. 1): The case against Saddam Hussein should be brought before the world community through the United Nations. This would restore confidence in a beleaguered United Nations and strengthen our own credibility with the civilized world. Turning Saddam Hussein and his henchmen over to an Iraqi tribunal would be a disaster. How can we expect a country struggling to form a new government, constitution and infrastructure to provide an immediate framework for justice? An Iraqi tribunal would be seen as a kangaroo court led by the United States -- a perception that will certainly not help our efforts to gain United Nations assistance in the reconstruction of Iraq. SPENCE MEDFORD Chicago, Aug. 1, 2003 Published: 08 - 06 - 2003 , Late Edition - Final , Section A , Column 5 , Page 16

WP 7 Aug 2003 Cloud Over Halabja Begins to Dissipate Relief Sweeps Town Gassed by Hussein By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, August 7, 2003; Page A10 HALABJA, Iraq -- Fifteen years ago, this remote Kurdish town near the Iranian border entered the world's lexicon of modern-day horrors. First, Iraqi warplanes bombarded the rebellious enclave for several hours, shattering doors and windows. Then, at about 2 p.m., they swooped lower. "We smelled something rotten, and when we breathed in, we couldn't breathe out," said Wais Abdel Qadr, a gaunt man of 30 with a deep and chronic cough. "The sky was full of smoke, and someone said it was chemicals. People started crying and running toward the mountains. I was burning and I became blind, but someone led me out. After walking for two days, we reached Iran." Qadr was the only member of his family to survive the gassing of Halabja by the Iraqi military on March 16, 1988. About 5,000 people perished in an attack that stunned the world and revealed the ruthlessness of Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein. Now that Hussein has been driven from power, Halabja's 50,000-odd residents can finally breathe freely again. Though dozens of blocks still lie in ruin and hundreds of residents still suffer from effects of the gassing, there is an atmosphere of relief in the streets and an unabashed pro-Americanism that has lingered long after people in many other parts of Iraq have soured on the U.S. military presence. In the busy central bazaar this week, there was no hint of tension or danger. Shopkeepers in turbans and billowing trousers invited an American journalist for endless tiny glass cups of tea. Teenage boys proudly displayed collections of soccer cards (David Beckham and Ronaldo were the most popular), and cheered when a U.S. military helicopter passed overhead. White geese waddled proprietarily down the street. There was not soldier or gun in sight. "Saddam wanted to kill us all, but now he's gone and the Americans have come to bring us law and democracy," said Jamil Azad, 35, who has fashioned a tea shop out of cinder blocks covered with sacks. His brother's family escaped to Iran and then Sweden after the 1988 attack, and he was eager to send them a message. "Please tell them Halabja is safe now," he said. "It's all right to come home." Halabja is firmly under the sway of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two major Kurdish parties that divided administrative power in this semiautonomous region of northern Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and continue to exercise control here. The PUK contributed several thousand guerrilla fighters to the military campaign that toppled Hussein in April. But the town is also home to several militant Islamic groups that once violently battled the PUK and that still make many residents uneasy. In recent weeks, the groups have fallen under the scrutiny of U.S. military forces, who suspect they may have links to al Qaeda or other armed Islamic movements. On Saturday at dusk, a convoy of about 35 U.S. military vehicles roared into Halabja as attack helicopters hovered overhead. They went straight to the house of Ali Abdul Aziz, an Islamic leader in his eighties. The heavily armed troops burst in, handcuffed Abdul Aziz and took him and about 15 other men into custody, witnesses said. Then the convoy roared off again, with the choppers still circling. When a journalist located the house on Sunday, it was full of women in black veils, wailing and shrieking in grief. In the parlor, Abdul Aziz's daughters and aides insisted repeatedly that he had done nothing wrong, that his group was nonviolent and wanted only to spread Islamic values in society. "We expected the Americans to come and help Halabja rebuild. Instead they came to occupy us and make chaos," said Kamel Hajj Ali, a political aide to Aziz. He said his movement had split in 2001 from Ansar al-Islam -- a militia based in northeastern Iraq that is considered a terrorist group by U.S. officials -- and that it was now involved in mainstream politics. "We can think of no reason for this arrest," he said. American military spokesmen in Baghdad would not comment on the raid, but Kurdish regional officials in the nearby city of Sulaymaniyah said they fully supported the U.S. actions. So did many Halabja residents, who said they were afraid of the Islamic group because it had a history of violence and intimidation. Despite the revitalizing effect that the fall of Hussein has had on Halabja, the town is still very much a place in mourning. Virtually every family here lost a relative in the gassing, and the main cemetery is full of large, grassy plots where entire clans are buried. A sign at the entrance says "Baathists Keep Out," a reference to the Baath Party that was headed by Hussein and controlled the country for 35 years. The town's major landmark is a stark white monument to the dead. Inside is a plaster tableau of lifelike victims frozen as they fell, covered with chemical ash and cradling their children for protection. The center is a rotunda in which some 5,000 victims' names are carved in black stone. The 1988 attack, in which Hussein's bombers dropped a mixture of nerve and mustard gases, occurred near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, in which some Kurdish guerrilla groups fought on the Iranian side. The incident spurred an outpouring of aid from around the world that rebuilt schools, clinics, houses and orphanages. Yet officials and residents complained this week that the help fell far short of what was needed to rebuild their devastated town or bring back thousands of inhabitants who fled abroad. They acknowledged that their joyful reaction to Hussein's ouster has been partly linked to the hope that it will bring more foreign aid. "Halabja was once a beautiful and historic place. We had famous poets, and we took many heroic stands," said Jamil Abdulrahman Mohammed, the mayor. "When Saddam fell, everyone here fired shots in the air" in celebration. "But over the years we have had so many martyrs, so many missing, so many who ran away. You cannot rebuild the spirit of a place with bricks." If Abdel Qadr is any example, however, the determination to revive Halabja is strong. Despite his medical problems, Abdel Qadr, who teaches Arabic in a local school, helped establish the Halabja Society Against Chemical Weapons and spends all of his spare time keeping the organization alive. Standing in the ruined courtyard of his childhood house, where his mother, father, sisters and brothers all died in the gassing, Abdel Qadr said he could visualize the horror as if it had happened yesterday. "Sometimes I think the only reason I survived was to tell people what happened," he mused. "It has been a long time, but I think now I can be happy. Saddam is in the dustbin of history, and the black cloud has gone from the Iraqi sky."

KurdishMedia.com 18 Aug 2003 ’An Orderly Return’! - By Dr Rashid Karadaghi The statements made by the Kurdish Governor of Kirkuk in an interview on one of the Kurdish satellite television stations yesterday, like other statements made by other Kurdish politicians regarding the return of the Kurdish victims of Saddam’s criminal Arabization campaign to their original homes and properties, are yet one more confirmation of what I was saying in an article I wrote last year entitled “When Your Lawyer is Against You.” The Governor’s answer to a question regarding the return of tens of thousands (by some estimates over a quarter of a million) of the Kurdish inhabitants of the Kirkuk province who were evicted forcibly from their homes and properties as part of Saddam’s racist Arabization campaign was the last thing one would have expected to hear from a Kurdish patriot who is in office, we presume, only because he is supposed to serve the interests of his people. To be fair, we have heard similar statements from other Kurdish politicians in the last few months, too. The gist of the Governor’s statement was that there must be “an orderly return” of the evictees to their previous homes and they can only return “after we find jobs for them.” Since the interviewer didn’t even bother to ask the Governor any follow-up question, we would like to ask him if there was anything orderly about the way these people were evicted from their ancestral homes so he would decree that their return be that way. No one is for a chaotic return, but “orderly” is nothing but a code word for “never.” More importantly, we should also ask the Governor about the rate of unemployment for the people who are already in the province and were not evicted and why and on what basis he requires as a condition for the return of the victims of Saddam’s ethnic cleansing finding jobs for them when we all know how high the rate of unemployment is not only in his province but in the country as a whole. This kind of response illustrates a lack of understanding and sympathy for what the victims have gone through over the years. He might as well have said “Let them eat cake”! Such statements cannot be but shocking to every Kurd because they prolong the suffering of the victims of one of the ugliest of Saddam’s policies. Instead of accommodating them and compensating them for their enormous suffering over the years, the new administrators are perpetuating these victims’ suffering and their victimization, whether by design or because of a lack of boldness and decisiveness, by denying them their right to an immediate return to their former homes and properties. Everyone recognizes that righting the wrong created by Saddam’s ethnic cleansing of the Kurds is a difficult and thorny issue; nevertheless, we must not forget the non-negotiable fundamentals: All the Kurds who were evicted forcibly from their homes and properties must return to their previous homes and properties and must be compensated for their loss and helped to get reestablished, and all the Arab settlers must go back to where they came from regardless of when they were illegally brought there. It is the new Iraqi government’s obligation to help them resettle in their previous places and help them financially to get a new start in life. The bottom line here is that the victims of Saddam’s hated Arabization campaign should not continue to suffer and pay for the crime perpetrated against them by being barred from an immediate return to their homes and properties on bogus pretexts. Justice must be done and done without further delay.

Jordan Times 22 Aug 2003 'Chemical Ali' captured UNITED NATIONS/BAGHDAD (Reuters) — The United States pushed for a new UN resolution on Thursday that would encourage countries to send troops to Iraq but quickly encountered some resistance from key Security Council members demanding greater control. US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who met with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan after the devastating attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad, said he was exploring a new Security Council resolution that "might encourage others" to support the struggling US and British effort to stabilise the country. "We're looking forward to language that might call on member states to do more," Powell said. In Baghdad, where rescue efforts continued amid fading hopes two days after the deadly truck bomb killed 23 people, the US military reported a success, announcing the capture of Saddam Hussein's feared cousin, "Chemical Ali" Hassan Al Majid, No. 5 on a US list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqi fugitives. His capture, the second of a senior Iraqi leader this week, fuelled US hopes its forces might be closing in on Saddam and are capable of quelling the chaos that has gripped the country. The top UN envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was killed in the blast and his spokesman, Salim Lone, said: "We hope until the bitter end to find someone, but it does not look good at this stage." Annan told Baghdad staff in a recorded message: "The ache in our souls is almost too much to bear." A previously unknown Islamist group claimed responsibility for the suspected suicide bombing in Baghdad, Dubai-based Al Arabiya reported. The Arabic television channel said the group called itself the "Armed Vanguards of the Second Mohammad Army." US presses for help The United States seized on the bombing to try again to get international help in Iraq, where ambush attacks and sabotage have continued since the United States declared major combat operations over May 1. Most attacks had been directed against occupying American soldiers, before Tuesday's carnage at the world body. The United States wants countries to commit more troops to Iraq to provide security for humanitarian work despite its insistence on remaining firmly in control of the occupation and reconstruction of the country. One purpose of a new resolution would be to get Muslim troops into Iraq, both from Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries, which have refused to send soldiers without a UN mandate. Powell said about 30 countries besides the United States have contributed 22,000 troops, and more were expected. But France immediately said Washington would have to broaden the political role of the United Nations if it wanted other nations to pitch in. "To share the burden and the responsibilities in a world of equal and sovereign nations, also means sharing information and authority," French envoy Michel Duclos told a Security Council discussion on Iraq. Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov agreed. Annan said he thought that despite differences among Security Council members, there was a willingness to see that Iraq was stabilised. "I think the issue of Iraq is of great concern to everybody, regardless of the divisions that existed before the war," Annan said in reference to the refusal by the Security Council, driven by France, to authorise the invasion of Iraq. Annan vowed the United Nations would stay in Iraq and continue its work but operations were expected to resume Saturday with a reduced staff. In Jordan, UN officials said a "partial evacuation" was under way, with planes carrying wounded staff and others who chose to leave arriving in Amman. More were expected in coming days, with close to half of the 350 UN staff in Baghdad expected to leave, at least temporarily (see story on page 3). Majid, the King of Spades on a US military deck of cards depicting fugitive members of Saddam's government, was initially reported killed during the war in Iraq. Central Command gave no details on when or where he was captured. He was a ruthless member of Saddam's clan who earned his nickname by using poison gas to kill thousands of Kurdish civilians in the village of Halabja in 1988. Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's vice president, was captured Monday night.

Christian Science Monitor 22 Aug 2003 How important is capture of ’Ali’? By Peter Grier and Faye Bowers Catching key Hussein aide is a coup - but isn’t likely to stem violence. There aren’t many top leaders of the Saddam Hussein regime still at large. Thursday’s capture of Ali Hassan al-Majid, the infamous "Chemical Ali," means that 39 of the 55 people on the United States’ list of most-wanted Iraqis are now accounted for. The capture or death of rulers of the old Iraq does not seem to have improved the nation’s security - at least, not yet. Wednesday’s bombing of the UN’s Baghdad headquarters is tragic evidence of that. Nevertheless the elimination of these symbols of Hussein’s rule may send an important signal of intent to ordinary Iraq citizens. "It is extremely important for Iraqis to see those people are all picked up," says David Newton, a former US ambassador to Iraq. Mr. Majid was number five on the US list - the highest ranking Iraqi fugitive, other than No. 1, Hussein himself. A relative of Hussein, Majid was notorious for his role in directing chemical weapons attacks against rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq in the late 1980s. On Thursday, the US military announced that he was in custody, but it was not immediately clear when or how he had been captured, or where he was being held. During the battle for control of Iraq last spring, US commanders thought for a time that they had killed Majid in an airstrike on a house in the south of the country. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld went so far as to publicly proclaim that "the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to an end." But shortly thereafter, interrogations of Iraqi prisoners indicated that Majid was still at large. Majid is a paternal first cousin of Hussein and a longtime member of Iraq’s inner circle. Before the 1968 Baathist Party revolution, he was a simple Army noncommissioned officer. But as a secret member of the party, and Hussein intimate, Chemical Ali rose rapidly following the overthrow of President Abdel-Salim Arif. After Hussein seized power in 1979, he promoted his relative to full general. By the mid-1980s he was a key member of the military and intelligence councils that ran the country. MAJID has also been called "Butcher of the Kurds" for his brutality against Kurdish groups that sought autonomy in northern Iraq through the 1980s. Some 4,000 Kurdish villages were razed at Majid’s behest, and hundreds of thousands of Kurds were relocated elsewhere in the country. In March 1988, 5,000 people died in the border town of Halabja when it was bombed and shelled with cyanide gas. Appointed interior minister in 1991, he was part of a delegation that met with Kurdish leaders. When they said that by their calculation 182,00 Kurds had disappeared during Majid’s reign of terror, he rose to his feet in indignation. "What is this exaggerated figure of 182,000? It couldn’t have been more than 100,000," he said, according to the book "Out of the Ashes" by Andrew and Patrick Cockburn. "Whenever people were slaughtered - Kuwait, southern Iraq, or the Kurds - Chemical Ali ran the operation," says David Newton, who is now head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The capture of Majid and such other leaders as former Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan is important in itself, say analysts. But more important may be the hunt for smaller fish, who appear to be directing the resistance to the US by regime remnants. "There are much more significant numbers of mid-level Baathists who are being tracked down and either killed or captured every day," says Richard Shultz, director of the International Security Program at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. "At some point that’s going to ... deescalate this hit-and-run war that they’re conducting against the US." Majid’s capture also may indicate that the US intelligence system is being to take hold. He was apparently captured as the result of a tip about his whereabouts. "That means that we’ve got human intelligence sources that in this huge nation of 25 millionpeople are telling us where to go look," says Gen. Barry McCaffrey, professor of international security studies at West Point. "And that can’t happen unless the people are beginning to believe that we’re going to be there, that they’re not going to be thrown back into the hands of these cruel people." Still, at this point, violence continues virtually unabated in Iraq, indicating that the US has a lot more to do than just catch Hussein’s former lieutenants.

Daily Star (Lebanon) 23 Aug 2003 Answer ‘Chemical Ali’ with a tribunal The capture in Iraq on Thursday of Ali Hassan al-Majid offers an extraordinary opportunity for Iraqis to bring some measure of justice to tens of thousands of victims of Baath Party rule. But this can only happen if he is put on trial before a tribunal that is fair, impartial and independent. And for that to happen, the United States will have to reconsider its perverse aversion to an accountability process that involves the international community. Aside from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, no former official embodied the criminal rapacity of the Baath government more starkly than Ali Hassan al-Majid, an army general and Saddam’s cousin. Ali Hassan earned the sobriquet “Chemical Ali” following Iraq’s murderous chemical weapons attacks ­ “special bombardments” was the term he used in his directives ­ against at least 60 Kurdish villages between April 1987 and August 1988, including the attack on the town of Halabja that alone killed some 5,000 people. But that was not all. As head of the Baath Party’s Northern Bureau at the time, he was the architect of the notorious Anfal campaign of 1988, in which more than 100,000 Kurds were killed or “disappeared.” Subsequently Ali Hassan al-Majid was in charge of suppressing the mass anti-government uprising in the largely Shiite south in March 1991. In retaking the southern cities, loyalist forces under his overall command fired indiscriminately into residential areas, executed people on the streets and arrested and made “disappear” thousands. Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former vice-president who was taken into custody earlier this week, also played a leading role in that campaign. Iraqis now know what they long suspected: that almost all of those Kurds and Shiites who disappeared ended up in mass graves, a good number of which have been uncovered in recent months. One survivor from a 1991 massacre near the southern city of Al-Hilla, Nasser Khadi Hashim al-Husseini, was 12 years old at the time. He told my colleagues at Human Rights Watch this May how security forces rounded up people, held them for several days, then loaded them onto buses and drove them to a remote abandoned canal. They pulled the people off the buses, threw them into a specially dug pit, machine-gunned them and buried them with a bulldozer. Nasir al-Husseini survived the shooting and managed to crawl to a spot where he could breathe through some bamboo covering until night fell and he could escape. Another witness, Hassan Muhsin al-Ardawi, described a month of daily executions near the Al-Mahawil military base in the Al-Hilla area, the site of another mass grave from 1991. “They used to take them from the cars and push them in the holes, their hands tied and eyes covered,” he said. “They used to hit them, they had no mercy … they would just start to shoot them. After they were killed they buried them using the bulldozer shovels.” The capture of Chemical Ali highlights the failure of the US-led occupation to adequately prepare for bringing to justice those Iraqi leaders responsible for these atrocities. The Iraqi governing council appointed by US civil administrator Paul Bremer has a role to play, but the “Iraqi-led process” that the Bush administration invokes does not yet exist, and any tribunal established solely under US auspices will smack of vengeful “victor’s justice.” That’s why a tribunal should be established in Iraq using Arabic and Kurdish as official languages, and be presided over by Iraqi judges and judges from other countries ­ not just the United States. Few if any Iraqi judges, prosecutors and investigators have participated in cases as complex as those involving war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Technical expertise is needed for conducting focused investigations, analyzing documentary and forensic evidence, deposing witnesses, and so forth. All this will require tapping into the experience of the international ad hoc tribunals prosecuting similar crimes in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia. Veterans of these efforts should be invited to help set up, along with Iraqis, a “group of experts” who can coordinate evidence collection and preservation and recommend the most appropriate mechanisms to bring former officials to account for these serious crimes. Ali Hassan al-Majid issued the world a challenge in 1988. On an audiotape of a meeting of leading Iraqi officials held to discuss the Anfal campaign, he is heard shouting, “I will kill them all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything?” The time has come for Iraqis and the international community together to provide the answer to his question. Joe Stork is Washington director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR

WP 24 Aug 2003 11 Killed In Ethnic Violence In N. Iraq -- U.S. Troops Intervene In Riots, Slaying Six By Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, August 24, 2003; Page A16 TUZ KHURMATU, Iraq, Aug. 23 -- An ethnic feud over a religious shrine in this dusty town north of Baghdad escalated into riots in which eight people were killed here Friday and three others slain today in Kirkuk, 50 miles north. U.S. troops trying to quell the violence between Kurds and ethnic Turkmens killed three of the people in Tuz Khurmatu and three in Kirkuk, the U.S. military said. By dusk, Tuz, as the Iraqis call the town, was calm, although Apache attack helicopters made a series of air patrols at sunset. In Kirkuk this evening, however, a couple of explosions of unknown origin rocked the city. Mounting attacks on U.S. troops have overshadowed simmering ethnic tensions among Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs in the north. But the eruption of communal violence and the speed with which the problems spread beyond Tuz Khurmatu was a stark reminder that the issue has not disappeared. Formerly displaced Kurds and resident Arabs continue to tussle over property in and around Kirkuk. Turkmens, a small minority in Iraq, accuse Kurds of trying to terrorize them out of their homes in Kirkuk and surrounding areas. Kurds claim that the Turkmens form a fifth column for Turkey, which opposes Kurdish aspirations for autonomy in the north. Meanwhile today in southern Iraq, until recently a relatively quiet region, three British soldiers were killed in an ambush in Basra, the second-biggest city in Iraq. An attacker fired on their two-vehicle convoy, and one of the vehicles lost control and crashed. Shiite Muslims, the largest religious group in Iraq, dominate Basra and are vying for control in postwar Iraq after being excluded from power during President Saddam Hussein's rule. "I've never hidden the fact that we've had security problems," L. Paul Bremer, the American civilian administrator in Iraq, said today. He called the past week a "grim one" and said suspicion for Tuesday's suicide truck bombing at the U.N. headquarters fell on loyalists to Hussein, foreign militants or a combination of both. The bombing killed 23 people. In northern Iraq, the violence started Thursday when a group of Turkmen Shiites decided to march to the shrine of Imam Ali Zein Abeddine, one of their most revered holy men. The domed shrine had been destroyed during the Hussein era. Townspeople rebuilt it after the Iraqi leader was deposed, and Thursday was its inauguration. On the way out of town, however, the Turkmens encountered hostile Kurds, who are Sunni Muslims, and exchanged insults with them. One of the few things that Tuz Khurmatu residents agree on is that religion played a secondary role in the dispute: The primary source of the tension between Kurds and Turkmens is a political struggle over the administration of Tuz Khurmatu. Overnight, someone fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the shrine's dome, caving it in. Friday morning, enraged Turkmens marched through town. Gunfire broke out, and U.S. armored vehicles and helicopters attached to the 173 Airborne Brigade fought off the rioters, U.S. officials said. Three people were killed in the exchanges. Today in Kirkuk, Turkmens marched on the heavily fortified mayor's office. Shooting broke out, and the Turkmens burned a police station as well as a Kurdish flag. U.S. troops guarding city hall intervened. In Baghdad, Turkmens also protested, but no violence was reported. Tuz Khurmatu police chief Abbas Mohammed Amin, a Kurd, said Hussein supporters and "Islamic extremists" were behind the violence. "Anyway, everyone has a gun here," he said, "so once problems began, people were sure to die." Members of his police force retreated when the protesters began firing at them. "It was like breaking up a fight between husband and wife. They turned on us," said Amin, whose force is majority Kurd. Hashem Nori Hassan, a member of the Turkmen Front political party, charged that the Kurds shot first and police let them get out of control. "We don't feel in Tuz that we are properly represented. The Americans appointed a Kurdish mayor. The police chief is Kurd. Property from the regime has been given to the Kurds. Yet, we are the majority. The name of the town is in Turkmen language!" he said. He was nursing a slightly wounded right thigh in his living room. At the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Yusef Younis Johar, the local leader of the party, blamed the violence on Ansar al-Islam, a group with links to the al Qaeda terrorist network. "It wasn't us," he said. "The Turkmens started the shooting and the terrorists blew up the shrine." Capt. David Swenson of the 1st Armored Division, who is in charge of Tuz Khurmatu, spent part of today trying to persuade local leaders, imams and clan chieftains to avoid revenge attacks. "I want the families of the victims to visit each other and make peace," he said. The Kurds and Turkmens of Tuz Khurmatu have been squabbling over the town's place on a future map of Iraq, Swenson added. The Kurds want it joined to an expanded autonomous zone they hope to get under a new constitution. The Turkmens want to keep Tuz Khurmatu attached to a district containing Arab, Sunni Muslim towns to the east. The violence in Kirkuk also began with a march, this one by local Turkmens, in solidarity with their ethnic kin in Tuz Khurmatu. At one point, shots rang out as the marchers passed the precinct police office. The Turkmens say the Kurds fired first; the Kurds claim it was the Turkmens. When the marchers reached city hall, they burned the Kurdish flag, and more shots were fired. U.S. troops moved to disperse the crowd. "The helicopters appeared and everybody fled," said Alfan Asse, a Turkmen witness. "We're afraid of the Kurds. I work in the bazaar, and every once in a while, someone shouts, 'The Kurds are coming, the Kurds are coming.' Everyone closes their shop. Peace in this town is only on the surface." Sgt. Todd Oliver, a U.S. military spokesman, said the Americans returned fire from the mob. He said outside agitators ignited the shooting, but declined to say who they were. As in Tuz Khurmatu, U.S. military officials met with leaders to try to dampen fiery emotions. Outside city hall, someone had scrawled graffiti that read, "Avenge Tuz." Inside, the U.S.-installed mayor, Abdul Rahman Mustafa, insisted that today's bloodletting was an anomaly. "We are proud of our tranquility," he said of Kirkuk. "We're investigating. We think it's outsiders. Someone who wants to make trouble here. But Kirkuk is really peaceful." He left his office through an anteroom filled with 18 bodyguards, all carrying AK-47 rifles. They boarded a convoy of armored cars for the ride home. Correspondent Anthony Shadid and staff writer Theola Labbé in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Zaman (Turkey) 28 Aug 2003 Ecevit: Neutralizing MGK was an Unnecessary Decision Istanbul, TURKEY, August 28, 2003 - The Democratic Left Party (DSP) Leader and former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said that government's steps to disable the National Security Council (MGK) was an unnecessary decision. Ecevit came to the party headquarters yesterday with his wife Rahsan Ecevit after he was discharged from Gulhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) where he was receiving treatment. In a statement to journalists, Ecevit said that he was in the GATA for a very short time and that it was not even necessary to stay that long. However, the GATA has been very meticulous. Ecevit went to the hospital because of hypertension, which was then normalized after a day. "They made me stay a few days longer for a thorough check-up. But they did not find anything negative." said Ecevit. Commenting on politics, and the attacks against Turkmens in Northern Iraq, Ecevit said, "It is obvious that Turkmens are facing a danger of genocide. Turkey should definitely give Kurdish clans in Iraq serious warnings." The DSP leader went so far as to say that Turkey should take control of certain localities in northern Iraq and added, "We had a certain amount of troops in Northern Iraq during the terror years of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Now, it appears that more troops are needed. The government needs to take care of the situation immediately, otherwise big problems are likely to emerge."

AFP 28 Aug 2003 UN revises Iraq bombing death toll to 22 UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28 (AFP) - The United Nations on Thursday said 22 people died in the bombing of the world body headquarters in Baghdad, one fewer than earlier announced. The UN spokesman's office said an Iraqi victim had mistakenly been counted twice and was listed under two different names. Nine of the victims were Iraqi and the others came from 10 countries, according to the final list of victims. The foreigners included: three Americans, two Canadians, two Egyptians, one Brazilian, one Briton, one Spaniard, one Iranian, one Jordanian and one Filipino. Six of the victims were not working for the United Nations. Among the dead were UN special envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, whose funeral was held Thursday in Geneva. They were killed when in suicide truck-bomb attack on the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital on August 19.

WP 29 Aug 2003 Bomb Explosion in Najaf; At Least 95 Dead Among the Dead is Shiite Cleric By Anthony Shadid and Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, August 29, 2003; 6:48 PM NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 29 -- A powerful car bomb tore through a crowded street next to Iraq's most sacred Shiite Muslim shrine today, killing at least 95 people, including an influential cleric, and deepening tensions among a Shiite majority already riven by factional disputes. The bomb was detonated soon after Friday prayers ended, a moment when the narrow streets and dun-hued markets of the holy city were teeming with pilgrims, worshippers and shoppers. It appeared to have been aimed at Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim, the son of one of Iraq's greatest clerics and the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who had returned to Iraq in May after 23 years in exile. The blast -- the third car bombing in Iraq in 23 days -- blackened one wall of the shrine, which was last damaged during the Shiite uprising that followed the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Tan bricks were blasted off, and four chunks of tiles were missing from a portico. Houses and shops all along a colonnade shook, and some collapsed into piles of rubble. Windows shattered, and at least six cars littered the street, their paint seared off. The death of Hakim, 64, the most influential Iraqi cleric openly allied with the U.S.-led occupation, dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to build a representative postwar government. While long funded and supported by Iran, Hakim had appeared to moderate his views on an Islamic state since his return to Iraq. He also had the final say in bringing his movement -- the best-organized among Shiite groups -- into the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council this summer. L. Paul Bremer, the civilian administrator of Iraq, blamed the attack on "the evil face of terrorism." "The bombing today in Najaf shows again that the enemies of the new Iraq will stop at nothing," Bremer, who is currently in Washington, said in a statement. Hakim's death seems sure to complicate the growing rivalry for leadership of Iraq's Shiite majority, which many believe holds the key to Iraq's stability. U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed worry that turmoil among the Shiites could delay or even derail reconstituting a government and writing a constitution -- efforts already beset by attacks on occupation troops, rampant crime and growing cleavages along ethnic and sectarian lines. Shiite factions are divided primarily over the U.S. occupation. Iraq's senior clerics -- men known as grand ayatollahs who carry great influence -- have tacitly supported the occupation, younger, more militant clergy have gathered around Muqtada Sadr, 30, have demanded an American withdrawal. On Sunday, a bomb planted outside the house of Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed Hakim, the uncle of the cleric killed today, killed three people in Najaf. The elder Hakim was only slightly wounded. Some in the city suggested Sadr's men were responsible, although they denied any role. But in the crowds today, most blamed loyalists of former president Saddam Hussein -- whose repressive government assassinated and executed hundreds of clergy over three decades -- and ruled out the possibility of a co-religionist damaging the shrine of a man Shiites believe was the heir of the prophet Muhammed. "They violated the sanctity of Imam Ali. It's not possible a Shiite could do such a thing. They respect Imam Ali," said Jamil Hashim, 33, who was helping control crowds inside the mosque when the bomb detonated. Others blamed U.S. forces for failing to bring security to a country that many complain is adrift and lawless. "It's the Americans who have created chaos. It's the Americans who are responsible for the lack of security," said Mohammed Aboud, 23. "They're not finding a solution, and they're not letting us make a solution." Today's bombing left a panorama of misery and devastation unparalleled since the fall of Hussein's government on April 9. The brick facades of shops were sheared away. Cars were flipped and hurled onto the sidewalk. Burned, mangled and dismembered bodies littered the street, trampled as others ran in confusion and panic for safety. Into the night, lit by a crescent moon ordinarily regarded as a good omen, desperate residents dug with pick axes and bare hands into piles of brick and debris. Shouting "God is greatest," they searched for survivors, more out of piety than hope. Thousands had gathered in the gold-domed shrine of Imam Ali to hear Hakim, who had led traditional Friday prayers there since the summer. As in past sermons, he called for Islamic unity. Witnesses said the bomb, about 15 yards away, exploded just after he left the mosque and got into a blue sports-utility vehicle, parked behind a convoy of at least four other cars. "It sounded like a missile landing," said Ghalib Abed, who was working in a fabric store on the corner and was cut on his arms, legs and shoulder by flying glass. "I couldn't feel anything. It was though I was unconscious. I just ran and ran." Qassim Jabr had arrived, as he did every Friday, to sell peanuts from a cart near the shrine, a sprawling complex of tan and blue brick with four intricate porticos of turquoise tile. He left the cart to pray, and when he moved toward the exit, he saw a bright flash of light, followed by darkness. He was knocked unconscious, then awoke to someone pulling him into a taxi. "I saw arms, I saw people and their clothes were gone," he said from Najaf's Teaching Hospital, where thousands had gathered to donate blood. "I saw women and children covered with blood." Outside the mosque, vendors' wooden stalls lay splintered in blackened pools along with charred metal and brick. On one sidewalk, men searched with their hands through shards of glass for silver rings blown from a display case. Pieces of cars were hurled through restaurants and storefronts frequented by Iranian and Indian pilgrims, who, like all Shiites, seek to visit the shrine at least once in their lifetimes. By dusk, thousands of residents, tribesmen and clerics milled around the shrine, their bodies pressed together in an impromptu wake. Some stretched to see the damage, and others clapped their hands in a show of resignation. Many of their faces were grim, with a look of shock and anxiety that suggested more trouble ahead, although the city remained largely calm. For hours, many in the crowd believed Hakim was still alive. Every so often, his followers surged through the crowds, carrying posters of his aquiline face and gray beard. "God's prayers on Mohammed," they shouted. But at 8 p.m., the loudspeaker at the mosque announced his death. "We are from God, and to God we return," the voice said. At that moment, a hush fell across the crowd. One man started sobbing uncontrollably. Another put his head on a foam cooler. Along the curb, men cried into their soiled robes or sobbed into their hands. "The assassination of Hakim is the beginning," said Mohammed Aboud, as he heard the news. "It will only get worse." Doctors at the Teaching Hospital, Najaf's largest, said 95 bodies had arrived at the morgue and estimated the number of wounded at more than 200. By evening, hundreds had gathered outside the hospital gates, offering to give blood. They were eventually turned away, although doctors complained of shortages of antibiotics and intravenous fluids. A U.S. military armored vehicle was parked outside, and a translator began reading the names of dead and wounded: "Aida Ali Abbas, Mohammed Nasser, Abbas Hussein Ali, Ali Abbas, Zahra Hussein Ali Yusuf, Hussein Abed Jawad." At one point, a man started wailing and pounding his forehead. He collapsed and was carried off by friends and relatives. To the mourners, Hakim's death -- as a martyr and as a holy fighter, in the words of the loudspeaker -- fit almost seamlessly into a Shiite narrative of suffering and martyrdom that began with the death of Ali's son, Hussein, on a 7th century battlefield. "When we love a cleric and when we follow him, they always try to kill him," said Ali Hadi. The aftermath of Hakim's death reverberated across Iraq. Thousands left their homes in Sadr City, a sprawling neighborhood that is home to the majority of Baghdad's Shiites, and poured into the streets to march to the headquarters of the Supreme Council. They carried Hakim's pictures and unfurled a banner that read, "Loyalty to the Hakim family, we condemn the cowardly attack." Men and boys, beating their chests in a ritual known as lutm, shouted, "Mohammed, after you, we are orphans." Others cried, "We will not forget Mohammed Bakir Hakim as long as we live." In other rallies, hundreds chanted, "There is no god but God. The Baathists are the enemies of God." Across the city, hundreds visited to mosques to pray or marched to neighborhood worship halls. Sadr's office in Najaf issued a statement urging its followers to remain calm and calling for peaceful marches in all Iraqi cities "to demonstrate our unity to the world." It declared a day of mourning and a three-day strike to protest Hakim's death. Staff writer Theola Labbe in Baghdad contributed to this report.

WP 31 Aug 2003 Bombing at Iraqi Shrine Appears Carefully Planned By Anthony Shadid and Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, August 31, 2003; Page A01 NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 30 -- Investigators suspect the devastating bomb that tore through a crowded street along Iraq's most sacred Shiite Muslim shrine, killing a prominent religious leader and scores of others, was packed in a car parked for as long as 24 hours along a curbside and probably detonated by remote control, a senior U.S. official said today. In an attempt to forestall another car bombing -- Friday's was the third in less than a month -- U.S. forces will begin patrolling the grounds of the Imam Ali shrine within days, a task they have so far avoided given religious sensitivities and the prospect of another flashpoint in a city already on edge, said Maj. Rick Hall, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. The recent blasts have sent a deep shudder through Iraq and badly undermined faith in officials of the U.S.-led occupation. Investigators have yet to determine how the bombs in the two previous bombings in Baghdad were detonated. The latest strike appeared to have combined a clear objective -- the assassination of Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim -- with the means and precise planning necessary to carry it out. Hall put the toll from the bombing at 125 dead. Safah Hamdi Amidi, the director of the Teaching Hospital, Najaf's largest, said he believed the toll remained 95, but cautioned that the true number may not be known. Many bodies were burned or mutilated beyond recognition by the force of the blast, which sheared off the facades of stores, hurled cars on to the sidewalk and blasted off intricate turquoise tiles on the shrine's portico. In a morgue without refrigeration, he said, corpses were decaying rapidly. Citing information provided at a closed-door, three-hour city council meeting, Hall said the bomb may have been packed in a sport-utility vehicle or a BMW. The military has yet to identify the explosives or gather forensic evidence from the site, he said. But police in Najaf said they believed the bomb was made of the same explosives used in the bombing of the Jordanian Embassy on Aug. 7 and one at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad on Aug. 19. The FBI has said the explosives in the U.N. bombing were Soviet-era munitions that included artillery shells, mortars, grenades and a 500-pound bomb of the kind dropped by an aircraft. Hall said a police officer had spotted the car the day before, already parked along a nearby curb. He said he doubted it was detonated by a suicide bomber, and instead may have been triggered by remote control from a nearby hotel. Hall said such careful plotting, if true, would mark "an increase in sophistication" by the attackers, who are unknown. A day after the bombing, thousands poured into this city to mourn Hakim, the son of one of Iraq's most esteemed religious clerics and the leader of a U.S.-allied group that has served as a crucial interlocutor with Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. In small circles around the gold-domed shrine, impromptu protests erupted, as men beat their chests in grief and shouted in devotion to God. Some carried portraits of Hakim, his aquiline face and long gray beard distinct. At the shrine's varnished doors, still closed to the public, gaggles of mourners sobbed against its brass handles and kissed the tiles next to it for blessings. On the sidewalks, along a street still strewn with debris from the blast, pilgrims prayed on cardboard or tattered carpets. "We'll stay here until we see his funeral," said Alaa Abdel-Emir, 27, who drove an hour this morning from Hilla in a flatbed truck with 25 other mourners, each paying about 50 cents for the ride. In leaflets posted around the city, where roadblocks kept traffic away from the downtown area, Hakim's followers announced that his funeral would begin Sunday at another sacred shrine in Baghdad. Over three days, the procession will make its way to Karbala, another holy city, then nearby Kufa and finally Najaf, where Hakim returned in May after 23 years of exile in Iran. Hakim's body has yet to be recovered, Amidi said. On Friday night, a clerical colleague of Hakim's took the doctor to the blast site in a search for body parts and some identifying relics -- rings or clothing. The search was futile. Hours later, the colleague brought a bag to the hospital containing what he said may have been flesh of the perished ayatollah. Throughout the city, the lack of positive identification gave life to rumors -- some voiced forcefully -- that the 64-year-old cleric had somehow survived, leaving with his driver and two bodyguards in his light blue sport utility vehicle after Friday prayers. Others found the talk distasteful, and offered their own proof. Abu Islam Saghir, Hakim's spokesman in Najaf, said a single stone from his prayer beads was found at the site. Others said his amber ring, his pen or his watch were found in the street and that his papers were strewn in the muck of charred debris and blood that gathered along the shrine's walls of blue and tan brick. By nightfall, two people were in custody, both of them Iraqis, said Hussein Yassim Hamed, the Najaf police chief. Hall, the Marine officer, said the men were questioned by U.S. forces, but he expressed doubt they were involved. They identified themselves as residents of the southern city of Basra and were picked up two hours after the bombing at a restaurant near the shrine. "It seems these guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said. "I don't think anything's going to come of that." Hall said U.S. forces would probably begin patrolling the area around the shrine within days, pending approval of Najaf's senior clerics. Hall said he believed their approval is assured. He acknowledged the sensitivity of the presence of U.S. troops, but said the bombing had reversed reservations expressed for months by city council members and tribal leaders. By Tuesday, he said, a force of 400 newly trained police will also begin patrolling the shrines in Najaf and Karbala and offering protection to the clerics. Hall offered three scenarios for those behind the attack: former Baath Party operatives working with foreigners, rivals of Hakim within the Shiite community and his former allies in Iran seeking "some sort of retribution." "There's some plausibility for each one of those so we're going to look at the evidence we're able to acquire," he said. Inside the shrine, the moment of the attack was frozen in time. Sandals and shoes were tossed on the marble floors, scattered amid pieces of blue and white tile and chunks of concrete. Persian prayer rugs were in various states of disorder -- rolled up, spread out or crumpled and tossed to the side by crowds fleeing in panic. A burned fender sat before the gold-sheathed tomb of Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad who Shiites believe was his heir, and another piece of a car dangled from a second-story marble balcony. From the doors, wails of mourners outside, some beating their chests, echoed off the tiled walls. Every so often, they came together in a protest, some carrying a black flag with the name of Ali's son, Hussein, who was killed in a 7th century battlefield, a death that remains at the heart of the Shiite narrative of suffering and martyrdom. Dozens of pictures of Hakim, flooding vendors' stands next to the shrines, were snapped up for about 30 cents. Along storefronts, most of them shuttered in mourning, owners strung black banners. "Our leader Hakim is gone! We want the blood of the killers of Hakim!" one crowd shouted. In small circles, mourners gathered to debate who was responsible. Some shouted and others whispered theories that ran the gamut of possibilities -- Sunni Muslim militants hostile to Shiites, Iran, Israel, the United States and Hussein loyalists. "We demand the Americans expel all the spies inside Iraq and close the borders," said Sayid Hakim Abu Raghif, 57, a tribal leader from Baghdad. "Today is a warning, tomorrow is vengeance." Like others, he blamed U.S. forces for failing to provide security. Their sentiments coursed through crowds, at once anxious and fearful over what lay ahead in a country many contend is adrift and vulnerable. "I'm nervous, the whole city is nervous," said Abu Essam Bahr Ulum, a 62-year-old Najaf resident standing near the shrine, where workers shoveled debris into tractors and hauled away the charred carcasses of cars. "I swear to God, I expect more disasters." Many refused to accept the possibility that rivalries among Shiites were to blame. However fierce the contest for power, no Shiite could desecrate a shrine so sacred to the faith. More often, they pointed to loyalists of Hussein or Wahhabis, a Sunni Muslim fundamentalist sect dominant in Saudi Arabia with a history of enmity toward Shiites. "The Baath Party is still here," said Mohammed Hassan, 35. "There is chaos here, there is no control." In an intersection in nearby Hilla, a banner blamed Wahhabis. Underneath was written, "Revenge, revenge, revenge." U.S. officials both acknowledge that foreign provocateurs, saboteurs, guerrillas and terrorists have infiltrated Iraq and, given the length of Iraq's frontiers, that there is little American forces can do about it. "It's kind of unrealistic for us to think that we would be able to stop any infiltration coming into this country," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, said in an interview.

UPI 30 Aug 2003 Iraq bombing may trigger sectarian strife NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- There is growing concern that the bombing in Iraq's holy Shiite city of Najaf may touch off sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis. The bombing Friday killed Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and dozens others, wounded some 200 people and damaged the Imam Ali Mosque. "It would be like a major bomb going off outside of St. Peter's [Basilica] in Rome, or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, for Christians," Brookings Institute scholar Ken Pollack told CNN. A U.S. intelligence official said he would "not rule anybody out" as a suspect in the attack, including other Shiite leaders, Baath Party loyalists and Sunni Muslims, CNN said. Pollack said that if the bombing and similar attacks are found to be the work of followers of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, it could touch off a severe round of violence between the majority Shiites -- who were persecuted under Saddam's regime -- and Sunnis.

The Age AU 30 Aug 2003 Tariq Ali's Middle East canards This man deserves to be exposed for what he is: a Saddam apologist. By Jim Nolan Marx famously observed in his 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon that history repeated itself - first as tragedy and then as farce. Tariq Ali's piece of invective masquerading as analysis ("Occupied Iraq will never know peace", on Wednesday) called this instantly to mind. Let's measure a couple of Ali's canards against the facts. The UN, he tells us, is viewed by Iraqis as "one of Washington's more ruthless enforcers" since it supervised the sanctions that were directly responsible for the deaths of half a million Iraqi children. This was the favourite whopper retailed by the Saddam propaganda machine. Of course we now know that the food-for-oil program was diverted into Saddam's oil-for-palaces program. The tragedy was all Saddam's own work. He cynically starved his own people to garner the kind of credulous support he still appears to enjoy from the likes of Ali. But the most bizarre claim by Ali is the casting of the Iraqi dead-enders as a heroic and doughty "resistance" - as if by the mere invocation of the word "resistance", the murderers of UN workers morph into their moral opposites. advertisement advertisement The readers of the popular press are only treated to what might be called Ali lite. The true believers, however, are privy to the full-strength version. Consider the following samples from the May-June edition of the New Left Review. According to Ali, the 2001 assault on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon was "a gift from heaven for the (Bush) Administration". Neither were the recalcitrant Europeans spared the invective. Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is described as "cadaver-green" sincerely hoping for the "rapid collapse" of Saddam's army. Even the sainted Kofi Annan is described as the "African Waldheim" and "the dumb-waiter for American aggression". You get the picture. But the sting turns from absurd to nasty when Ali does a hatchet job on a pre-eminent member of the Iraqi opposition, Kanan Makiya. Makiya's book Republic Of Fear, written pseudonymously for obvious reasons in 1989, did so much to alert the world to the true character of Baathist horror. Ali attacks Makiya, a Kurd, as a "quisling, fraudster and mountebank". It has been a charter position of the Saddam apologists that the mass murder of Kurds needed to take distant second place to the plight of the Palestinians - a plight much worsened by the mischief-making in which common cause was made by Saddam and the Islamists. Saddam's dirty work was also done by the relentless attacks on Makiya. While Ali has been on tour in Australia spooning out Ali lite, the hated Makiya has been engaged in the altogether more worthy project of assembling the records of Baathist genocide - a topic in which Ali appears to show no interest. The many repellent features of the Saddam regime are unpleasantnesses that Ali strives to avoid save for the occasional grudging nod. In Ali's long diatribe in the New Left Review one looks in vain to find a single mention of the genocide, the mass graves, the torture chambers, or the fascist ideology that lies at the heart of Baathism. Ali was also the champion of Milosevic and the opponent of "imperialist" NATO aggression, which he described as "anti-Serbian racism". Apart from conveniently overlooking the concentration camps and genocide, this observation contained a novel anthropological insight. The "racism" apparently mutated into virulent self-loathing by those numerous Serbs who appeared to celebrate the demise of the Serb butcher. Ali is also obviously chuffed by his insight that the much-maligned Tony Blair has been undervilified as merely a US poodle. The poodle after all, calls up an altogether too benign and friendly image. In his Age piece, Ali has Blair pegged as a "petty mastiff snarling at the leash" - a characterisation first used when Ali attacked Blair for championing the NATO incursion in the former Yugoslavia. This was an intervention that could be criticised only for coming too late. Too late to save - among many others - the 10,000 Kosovar Albanians who were executed by the police and paramilitaries of that plucky nationalist Milosevic. Tariq's hyperbole may have the quality of stale, old-fashioned Stalinism, but its confected indignation and moral humbug gives it a faintly amusing tone. May his self-important exaggerations now situate him where he richly deserves to be - the intellectual moral equivalent of that other famous Ali, Comical. Jim Nolan is a Sydney barrister with an interest in human rights.

Israel/Palestinain Authority

NYT 1 Aug 2003 August 1, 2003 New Law Raises Obstacles to Israeli-Palestinian Marriages By JAMES BENNET JERUSALEM, July 31 — The Israeli Parliament voted today to block Palestinians who marry Israelis from becoming Israeli citizens or residents, erecting a new legal barrier as Israel finished the first section of a new physical barrier against West Bank Palestinians. Supporters of the legislation called it a necessary bulwark against infiltration by terrorists. "We are in a state of war — not with the English, or the Americans, or the Dutch, or the Slovaks — we are at war with our neighbors, the Palestinians," Gideon Saar, of the dominant Likud Party, told the Parliament in debate before the vote. "It's a tragic reality." Proponents also called the law a way to preserve Israel's Jewish majority. Opponents called it a racist measure that threatened to divide thousands of families or force them out of Israel. Roughly 1.2 million of Israel's 6.7 million citizens are Arabs, and they are far more likely than Israeli Jews to marry Palestinians. "It cannot be that because of the actions of one, or 10, or 20, that a population of one million will be punished," said Ahmad Tibi, an Israeli-Arab member of Parliament. He called the law "blacker than black." Also today, Israel solicited construction bids to build 22 new homes in a settlement in the Gaza Strip. A new peace plan, the road map, calls on Israel to freeze settlement construction, but Israel says it must keep building to accommodate "natural growth." After occupying the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel began permitting Israelis who married residents of the territories to apply for legal status for their spouses in Israel under a program of family unification. Last year, the Israeli government froze any such requests. Today's parliamentary action, which effectively puts the government's freeze into law, will lapse after a year if it is not renewed. Yuval Steinitz, a parliamentary leader from Likud, accused the governing Palestinian Authority of encouraging Palestinians to marry Israeli Arabs and move into Israel. "It's not a humanitarian case — or not only humanitarian — but a deliberate strategy by the Palestinian Authority to change the demographic balance in Israel in order to destroy us," he said in a telephone interview. He said that if, as envisioned by the peace plan, a Palestinian state was to be created in the West Bank and Gaza, then "Palestinians should be unified there." Orna Kohn, a lawyer for Adalah, a legal organization for Arab minority rights in Israel, said her group would petition the courts to overturn the law as a violation of basic rights. She noted that it did not apply to non-Palestinian foreign spouses of Israelis, and she said that it was aimed at Israel's Arab citizens as well as Palestinians. "You have an Israeli citizen who is an Arab, and you won't allow him to live with his spouse?" she said. "If this is not racism, then perhaps we need to have a new definition." Tensions have been growing between Israel's Jewish and Arab populations over the course of the conflict with the Palestinians, which began in September 2000. Today, the Israeli education authorities shut down an Israeli-Arab day care center in northern Israel that they said was extolling "suicide acts of Palestinians." The government did not disclose precise figures for how many Palestinians had become Israeli citizens or residents, or had submitted applications to do so. Israeli officials said that 49 Israelis had been killed in 20 attacks that to some extent involved Palestinians who had entered Israel through family unification. The vote was 53 in favor and 25 against, with one abstention. The Israeli Defense Ministry announced today that it had finished the first 85 miles of a barrier it says is intended to stymie Palestinian attackers from the West Bank. Roughly 200 people, including Palestinians, Israelis and Western activists staged a protest in Qalqiliya, a West Bank town that is surrounded by the barrier, a network of fencing, concrete walls, guard posts and ditches. The protesters threw paint on a 25-foot-high wall that runs along the western side of Qalqiliya, and spray- painted slogans. A fence brackets the other three sides of the town, with only one exit, a heavily guarded Israeli checkpoint. "We are living in a big prison," said Mahmoud Farahmeh, 46, a Qalqiliya resident. The United States is pressing the Israeli government to divert the planned path of the barrier so that it takes less West Bank territory.

WP Friday, August 1, 2003; Page A16 Israeli Residency Law Angers Arab Citizens JERUSALEM -- Israel's parliament passed a measure yesterday that requires Palestinians who marry Israelis to live separate lives or move out of Israel. The law, to be in effect for one year, will prevent Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who marry Israeli Arabs from obtaining residency permits in Israel. In campaigning for the measure, Israel's government cited instances in which Palestinians from the territories have exploited their residency permits to carry out terrorist attacks. Israeli Arabs were outraged by the measure. "We see this law as the implementation of the 'transfer' policy by the state of Israel," said Jafar Savah of Mossawa, an advocacy center for Israeli Arabs. He was referring to a plan by ultranationalist Jewish groups to persuade or force Israeli Arabs and Palestinians to leave for Arab countries. Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel's population of 6 million. About 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many families were divided by cease-fire lines after wars, and marriage between Israeli Arabs and Palestinians has been common.

B'Tselem 3 Aug 2003 www.btselem.org Adallah submits a petition to the High Court of Justice Challenging Racist Law Adallah and a number of public figures have submitted on August 3rd a petition to the High Court of Justice challenging the Citizenship and Entry Into Israel Law (Temporary Order) that was passed by the Knesset on July 31, 2003. The purpose of the law is to prevent family unification. This will affect tens of thousand of persons, including many children. Since 1967, Israelis who married residents of the Occupied Territories could apply to the Ministry of Interior for family unification to obtain a legal status in Israel for their spouse. After prolonged checks and a substantial wait, most couples received family unification, enabling them to live together lawfully in Israel. In May 2002, the government decided to freeze the handling of all family unification applications submitted on behalf of residents of the Occupied Territories. On 31 July, 2003 The government enshrined this decision in law. The Law will harm every Israeli who wants to marry a resident of the Occupied Territories. The bill also applies retroactively, harming thousands of already-married couples. Because of the Ministry of Interior's slow handling of family unification applications, couples who married years ago and have been living in Israel lawfully waiting for family unification will now also be required to separate or to leave Israel. "The State of Israel…will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex..." Israeli Declaration of Independence The law will impact not only married couples, but also their children. According to the Interior Ministry’s policy, children born in the Occupied Territories to permanent residents of Israel, can only be recognized as Israeli residents after an application for family unification has been submitted and approved. Since all family unification applications have been frozen since May 2002, the Interior Ministry has refused to register such children. The new law changes this situation. According to the law, the Interior Ministry and the Civil Administration can grant special permits to children of Israeli residents who were born in the Occupied Territories and are under age 12 enabling them to live in Israel. Such permits will given “in order to prevent separating children under age 12 from their parents who legally live in Israel.” The law does not specify what type of permits will be given to children who fall into this category. If the permits are granted by the Civil Administration the possibility remains that children will be separated from their parents as Civil Administration permits are valid only for short periods of time, and are cancelled whenever a general closure is imposed on the Occupied Territories. Furthermore, Civil Administration permits do not confer social benefits such as health insurance. It also remains unclear what the status of these children will be once they reach age 12, and whether they can then be deported. If the permits are given by the Interior Ministry, the children will receive temporary resident status without the possibility of getting permanent status as long as this law is in effect. Such permits must be renewed annually.. The law is presented as a "temporary order," which will be in effect for one year only. However, the law empowers the government to extend its provisions indefinitely. The bill's drafters made cynical use of security arguments to justify the bill. However, they presented no data on Palestinians granted family unification who were involved in attacks against Israelis. Enacting a sweeping law in response to rare cases of security offenses will punish an entire community and violate the fundamental rights of a vast number of people who are not guilty of any wrongdoing whatsoever. The new law is racist and contravenes the principle that citizens are to be treated equally. It is thus patently unconstitutional. www.adalah.org

unwatch.org 20 Aug 2003 WEDNESDAY WATCH ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY FROM UN WATCH IN GENEVA Wednesday, 20 August 2003 Issue 107 NEWS: The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is a body of eighteen independent experts that monitors states' compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. It convened on August 14 under its "urgent procedures" provision to consider Israel's controversial decision to deny Israeli residence permits to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza who marry to Israeli citizens. ANALYSIS: Is Israels decision a legitimate and necessary security measure or bad public policy, constitutionally unsound, even racist? Israelis have argued both sides in the Knesset and on the op-ed pages. A ruling on the issue is pending from the Israel Supreme Court. Whichever side prevails in Israel, CERD's action was an inappropriate use of the "urgent procedures" provision. Since its establishment in 1993, this provision has been invoked mostly for cases of ethnic cleansing in the course of armed conflict, e.g. in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo. Yet, CERD considered the complaint against Israel to be of such urgency that it could not wait for it to be treated during its scheduled examination of Israels treaty compliance in December. By comparison, CERD reprimanded Russia during its regular review in March, concluding that "residence registration is used as a means of discriminating against certain ethnic groups, and that the lack of residence registration is used to deny a number of political, economic and social rights." In this case, freedom of movement is restricted on an ethnic basis for Russias own citizens within their own country. Freedom of movement is enumerated as a basic civil right in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. One CERD member even stated that there is no right in the human rights treaties for a foreign national to acquire residence in the country of his or her spouse. Clearly, the Russian restriction is more egregious than the Israeli case. In March, CERD also criticized Saudi Arabia: "The Committee is concerned at allegations that a disproportionate number of foreigners are facing the death penalty. The Committee encourages the State party to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions who has requested information on several cases of migrant workers who have not received legal assistance and have been sentenced to death." What could be more urgent for CERD than the discriminatory application of the death penalty and the execution of foreign workers who had no access to a lawyer? Yet, these complaints were also reviewed under regular procedures. During the special meeting on Israel, the actual discussion of the complaint was rather flippant. Though dozens of Israelis had been killed in suicide attacks by Palestinians who married Israeli Arabs and established residence in Israel, this fact was brushed aside by the CERD. Nor did it matter that Denmark, Finland, and Austria (and probably others) have laws that prevent citizens of hostile states from acquiring citizenship. That the law excludes Palestinian Arabs, but not Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese or other Arabs was not even considered. The Chairman simply said, "We know what we want to say. This is discrimination based on race." Perhaps someone should inform CERD that Egypts Nationality Law of 1975 includes the sentence: "Zionists shall not benefit by any of the provisions of the present article." Egyptian Zionism is admittedly not an urgent issue, but it would be interesting to hear the Egyptian government's explanation to CERD at its next regular review.

BBC 5 Aug 2003 US 'threat' over Israeli fence The US may consider cutting loans to Israel as a penalty for the building of Israel's West Bank "security fence", reports suggest. While no decision has been made, US officials quoted by several sources said the Bush administration was debating whether the construction of the 600km-long barrier is related to Jewish settlements. Congress is authorised to cut US aid to Israel by the amount Israel spends on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. At issue is the $9bn in loan guarantees approved by the US Congress in March, and $1bn in military assistance. Israel says the fence is necessary to stop suicide attacks, but Palestinians consider it a major obstacle to the implementation of the roadmap peace plan and have called for it to be dismantled. ROADMAP MAIN POINTS Phase 1 (to May 2003): End to Palestinian violence; Palestinian political reform; Israeli withdrawal and freeze on settlement expansion; Palestinian elections Phase 2: (June-Dec 2003) Creation of an independent Palestinian state; international conference and international monitoring of compliance with roadmap Phase 3 (2004-2005): Second international conference; permanent status agreement and end of conflict; agreement on final borders, Jerusalem, refugees and settlements; Arab states to agree to peace deals with Israel The hints came as efforts to move forward the peace process suffered more setbacks. Talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, scheduled for Wednesday, have been called off. Reports say differences over the issue of prisoner releases, and Israel's anger over a shooting on Sunday which injured an Israeli woman and her three children, were behind the decision. Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders denounced Israel's plan to release more than 300 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday, saying it does not go far enough. The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, described the move as a fraud, saying the Israelis would free some Palestinians but arrest others. The planned fence reaches deep into the West Bank in some parts, to include Israeli settlements. Last week Israel announced that the first 145-kilometer (90-mile) section had been completed. The rest is still in the planning stages. US and Palestinian officials fear it may serves as a political border that would hinder plans to set up a Palestinian state.

AFP 13 Aug 2003 Palestinian death toll from intifada stands at 2,647: official GAZA CITY, Aug 13 (AFP) - A total of 2,647 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israel in September 2000, a Palestinian Authority (PA) information office said Wednesday. "The number of martyrs killed between the start of the Al-Aqsa intifada (uprising) on September 28, 2000 and July 31, 2003 stands at 2,647: 1,157 in the Gaza Strip and 1,490 in the West Bank," it said in a statement. Of that number, 482 victims were children and 178 women. The figures include Palestinians killed during Israeli army raids and those hit in "targeted killings" carried out by the military. During the 34-month-long conflict, 36,448 people have been wounded, 11,390 in Gaza and 25,058 in the West Bank, the statement said. The report also put the total number of Palestinians in Israeli jails at 7,389 up to the end of July. Since the figures were compiled, Israel has released around 400 Palestinian prisoners. According to an AFP count, a total of 3,399 people have been killed as a result of the intifada, including 2,560 Palestinians and 778 Israelis.

Al-Ahram weekly.ahram.org.eg 14 - 20 August 2003 The politics of denial Both Israel and the US have their reasons for denying the Armenian genocide, writes Jamil Dakwar* Last May an important resolution was passed by the US House Judiciary Committee reaffirming support for the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The convention, which was adopted in 1948 in the wake of the horrors of World War II, defines the crime of genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". The US House of Representatives is expected to vote in November on a resolution marking the 15th anniversary of the enactment of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, one of the rare US laws that incorporated an international human rights convention into binding domestic law. The resolution adopted states that "the enactment of the Genocide Convention Act marked a principled stand by the United States against the crime of genocide and an important step towards ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, among others, will be used to help prevent future genocides." The coming resolution is of particular political significance for two main reasons. First, this resolution comes at time when the US is taking every conceivable step to undermine international law in general, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in particular. As a punitive measure, the Bush administration has suspended all American military assistance to 35 countries, totalling some $47.6 million in aid along with $613,000 in military education programmes, because they have failed to sign an agreement with the US which would provide American citizens with immunity before the International Criminal Court. No members of NATO were included in the list of countries thus sanctioned, and nor were Turkey or a number of other major American allies, including Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Japan and South Korea. It is reported that 50 states among those who have already either signed or ratified the ICC have entered into an impunity agreement with the US. Under this agreement, a government undertakes not to surrender or transfer US nationals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes to the ICC. These agreements are widely considered to be in breach of international law and of the Rome Statute, which governs the functioning of the ICC. The resolution's second kind of political significance stems from the politics of genocide denial. The Bush administration has expressed its opposition to the way in which the resolution refers to the "Armenian Genocide", claiming that these words will hinder rather than help Turkish- Armenian dialogue and reconciliation. There is nothing new about the administration's position: both Presidents Bush and Clinton have in the past declined to use the term "genocide" to describe the mass killings of more than 1.5 million Armenians by the Turkish Empire between 1915 and 1923. While a growing number of democratic institutions, including the European Parliament, and respected research centres around the world, such as the Association of Genocide Scholars, have recognised and reaffirmed the Armenian Genocide as a historical fact, the Turkish government continues to deny that these events did indeed constitute genocide, and persists in accusing the Armenians of distorting the historical record by exaggerating the numbers and the facts. Instead, the Turkish government has argued that many of the casualties were victims of war, not genocide. This priority remains in place today, despite the recent decision by the Turkish parliament to deny American troops access to Turkish airbases prior to the occupation of Iraq. Nor is the US administration alone in its opposition to the use of the term genocide to categorise the crimes against the Armenian people. In 1996 Israel signed a military cooperation agreement with Turkey that gives both countries the right to use each other's airspace for airforce training, and which, indirectly, provides Israel with access to the borders of Iran. Israel has declined to recognise the Armenian Genocide, preferring to keep Turkey as a close military and economic ally in the region. In April 2001, Nobel Peace Prize winner and then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres stated in an interview with the Anatolia news agency that the claims of an Armenian Genocide were "meaningless", adding that, "We reject attempts to create a similarity between the Holocaust and the Armenian allegations. Nothing similar to the Holocaust occurred. It is a tragedy what the Armenians went through, but not a genocide." The Israeli expert on Holocaust and Genocide studies, Israel Charny, condemned Peres in a public letter of protest, stating that by making these shameful remarks he had entered "into the range of actual denial of the Armenian Genocide, comparable to denials of the Holocaust." More recently, Israeli Parliament Speaker Reuven Rivlin provided another episode in this saga, when in response to Turkish diplomatic pressure he requested that any reference to the genocide of the Armenians be removed from Israel's 55th Independence Day ceremony. Naomi Nalbandian, an Armenian Israeli citizen, had already been selected as one of 12 people to light torches at the ceremony, where she was to appear as a representative of the marginalised Armenian minority in Israel. Initially, she was to have presented herself as a "third-generation survivor of the Armenian genocide carried out in 1915", but under pressure reluctantly agreed that the reference to the genocide be dropped. Israel's official denial of the Armenian Genocide for the sake of maintaining strong political and military ties with Turkey exposes the moral bankruptcy and political hypocrisy of the state apparatus. To call upon the international community to remember and learn the lessons of the Holocaust, whilst at the same time expressing only contempt and denial for the first genocide of the 20th century, may be politically expedient, but it is morally unforgivable. What is even more striking is that some Jewish organisations outside Israel have both directly and indirectly joined Israel in its support of Turkey, stating that it should be left to historians to determine whether or not the Armenian Genocide ever took place at all. One example of this is the refusal by the Tolerance Museum in Los Angeles (the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre) to establish a permanent exhibit on the Armenian Genocide, despite a long campaign by the American-Armenian community, including a six-day hunger strike in April. The only concession museum officials were prepared to offer was to promise that they would include the Armenian Genocide in a new timeline on crimes against humanity in the 20th century. Last month, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on the close ties which exist between the Turkish government and a number of important Jewish organisations. According to this article, over the past year Prime Minister Erdogan and Deputy Foreign Minister Ziyal found time for closed meetings with Jewish representatives, in the hope of influencing the US Congress to back off from recognising the Armenian Genocide. Similarly, in a one-hour closed meeting in Ankara, the Turkish prime minister hosted a Jewish- American delegation headed by Chairman of the American-Jewish Committee Harold Tanner and attended by the US ambassador to Turkey. Turkey needs the support of the Jewish lobby in Europe for its bid to join the EU, and it needs the support of the Jewish lobby in the US in order to reinforce its ties with the Bush administration. This is even more true since the occupation of Iraq, now that the Kurdish people are desperately seeking to realise their right to self-determination. The right- wing Jewish lobby in return hopes to build up ties between Turkey and Israel as the "region's only two democracies". This global landscape in which the political ends of selected states and governments are allowed to justify the sidelining of international norms and principles is the greatest threat to peace and stability in the world today. In the recent past, the international community has failed to intervene in many internal conflicts which have led to mass killings and untold devastation, such as those in Rwanda and Bosnia. Now, apparently, it does not even have the nerve to prevent those who would deny the proven fact of genocide from peddling their convenient lies. * The writer is a Palestinian lawyer and Israeli citizen, who is currently research fellow at the Centre for Economic & Social Rights, New York.

Japan

Japan Times 1 Aug 2003 Peru directly petitions Japan for extradition of Fujimori By KANAKO TAKAHARA Staff writer The Peruvian government submitted to Japan on Thursday its request for the extradition of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. The disgraced former leader is wanted in the South American country for his alleged involvement in a number of crimes, including the murder of civilians in the early 1990s. Peruvian Ambassador to Japan Luis Macchiavello submitted the roughly 700-page document in the morning to Ken Shimanouchi, head of the Foreign Ministry's Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Bureau. But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, citing Japanese law, indicated that Japan is unlikely to hand Fujimori over. "Although it depends on the judgment of the justice minister, Japan generally would not hand over a fugitive from justice if the person in question is a Japanese national," the government's top spokesman told a regular news conference. The Peruvian government issued an international arrest warrant for Fujimori via Interpol earlier this year over his alleged involvement in crimes said to have been committed by the country's military. He also stands accused of embezzlement. But Japan has refused to hand Fujimori over, saying that he is a Japanese national and that there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. Fujimori denies the allegations against him. "Mr. Fujimori is using his Japanese nationality only for the purpose of evading justice in his own country," Macchiavello told a news conference later in the day. "The government of Peru has the obligation, legal as well as moral, to request from the government of Japan the extradition of Fujimori." According to the request, Fujimori gave the orders for two massacres in Lima in 1991 and 1992. The first is known as "Barrios Altos" and the second as "La Cantuntuta." They led to the deaths of 25 people. The perpetrators were members of a special intelligence unit of the Peruvian Armed Forces known as "Grupo Colina," which was formed and directed by Vladimiro Montesinos, a close aide to Fujimori, the request says. During the news conference, Macchiavello pointed out that in June 1996, Peru handed over Kazue Yoshimura, a member of the Japanese Red Army who was on the international wanted list, despite the fact that the two nations do not have an extradition treaty. The ambassador said that Lima will continue to hand over criminals wanted in Japan upon request, even if Japan rejects Peru's extradition petition for Fujimori. Denise Ledgard, legal attache of the Peruvian Embassy in Tokyo, said Lima may take the case to the International Court of Justice or file it in another country if Tokyo refuses to extradite Fujimori. But Lima has set no time limit for Japan to reply to Thursday's request. Born in Peru to Japanese immigrant parents, Fujimori fled to Japan in November 2000 in the wake of a corruption scandal at home. His Japanese nationality was confirmed the following month. Meanwhile, in Lima on Wednesday, dozens of human rights activists and relatives of victims murdered during Fujimori's reign staged a protest outside the Japanese Embassy, demanding that Japan extradite the fugitive ex-leader to Peru so he can stand trial. The protesters called for Fujimori to be tried in Peru and submitted to embassy officials a letter addressed to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The letter urges Japan to either cooperate with the prosecution of Fujimori in Peru or conduct an independent investigation into the alleged human rights violations committed under his administration. In 2001, an arrest warrant was issued in Peru for Fujimori, who is charged with murder for his alleged authorization of a death squad responsible for two massacres of suspected rebel collaborators in the early 1990s. Last March, Peruvian lawmakers approved a slew of corruption charges against Fujimori. They include illegally authorizing government purchases and secretly redirecting state money to fund espionage. In addition, Fujimori is accused of making an illegal severance payment of about $15 million to his former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, and is also wanted by the Peruvian government on charges of kidnapping and bribery. Born in Peru to Japanese immigrants, Fujimori, 65, fled to Japan in November 2000 as his decade-long regime crumbled under a corruption scandal and has remained in self-exile ever since. Tokyo has refused to extradite Fujimori, citing the Japanese citizenship he was granted and noting Japan has no extradition treaty with Peru. Information from Kyodo added

english.peopledaily.com.cn 15 Aug 2003 Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 15, 2003 4 Japanese Cabinet Ministers Pay Visit to Yasukuni Shrine Japan's four cabinet ministers Friday visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 notorious Class-A war criminals who were held responsible for the country's aggression war against Asian neighbors. Japan's four cabinet ministers Friday visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 notorious Class-A war criminals who were held responsible for the country's aggression war against Asian neighbors. According to Kyodo News, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the shrine on January 14 and has no plan to do so again this year. He has visited it three times since becoming prime minister in 2001. The four are Yoshitada Konoike, minister in charge of disaster prevention, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma, and National Public Safety Commission Chairman Sadakazu Tanigaki. Seven ministers, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, were quoted by Kyodo as saying that they have no intention to visit the shrine this year. Class-A war criminals from World War II were added to the list of the enshrined at the shrine in 1978. It is regarded as a symbol of Japanese militarism. Visits by Japanese leaders to the shrine have been strongly denounced by many Asian countries, including China and South Korea, which severely suffered from the aggression.

BBC 15 Aug 2003 Shrine visit strains China ties Visits to the Yasukuni shrine always cause a storm Four Japanese ministers have marked the 58th anniversary of the country's surrender at the end of World War II with a visit to a controversial war shrine. The Yasukuni shrine honours Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was hanged for war crimes in 1948. Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma and Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei were among those who visited the shrine. Tokyo's nationalist governor, Shintaro Ishihara, was also present. Before and after 15 August every year is always a troublesome time for Sino-Japanese relations Renmin Ribao - China Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who sparked outraged from his Asian neighbours with past visits to the shrine, did not attend. Instead he marked the end of the war at secular ceremonies. Mr Koizumi has visited Yasukuni every year since taking office in April 2001, but has always avoided the sensitive 15 August anniversary. China reacts Despite the prime minister's absence, the visit has still ruffled feathers in China. "Before and after 15 August every year is always a troublesome time for Sino-Japanese relations," says the Communist Party paper Renmin Ribao. "The many senior officials who are still paying respects at the Yasukuni Shrine only shows a weak concept of history and contempt for the feelings of victims from China and other Asian countries." The paper describes the visit as "a typical display of self-centred and narrow nationalism" on the part of the Japanese. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on its web site urges Japan to face up to its past. "Correctly recognising and treating that part of history... is conducive to the healthy and steady development of friendly and neighbourly bilateral relations." Secular option The Japanese press are divided over the visit. An economic daily, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), fears the damage that it might do to relations with China, believing it to be the "principal obstacle" to improving the atmosphere between Beijing and Tokyo. Foreign countries should not meddle in the internal affairs of another country. They should not do so even if Yasukuni shrine honours Class-A war criminals Sankei Shimbun - Japan It notes that good relations are particularly important prior to the forthcoming six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear programme. The paper calls on both sides to make "mutual concessions" to resolve the issue. This view is echoed in the Asahi Shimbun. The paper expresses disappointment at the government's decision on 14 August not to fund a proposed secular alternative to a war shrine. "At such a memorial, visitors would not have to worry about the religious and ideological connotations of visits to the Yasukuni Shrine," it says. The paper says that disputes in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) over the issue led the project to be shelved. "Aides to Koizumi regard the issue as a hot potato knowing it could kindle an unwanted internal feud before the party presidential election in September." But the Sankei Shimbun disagrees. It does not feel that it is necessary to make any changes to the 15 August memorial ceremonies. " It calls on China to stop criticising Japan over the Yasukuni visits. "Foreign countries should not meddle in the internal affairs of another country. They should not do so even if Yasukuni shrine honours Class-A war criminals." BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. See http://www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/

Kurdistan

WP 29 Aug 2003 Passionate Polyglot Gives Kurdish Language a Voice in the World By Nora Boustany Friday, August 29, 2003; Page A18 Call him a choirmaster of endangered dialects from distant lands, or a prophetic polyglot. If Kurmanci, the Kurdish dialect of a people with a heritage but no land of their own, has a messiah, he has arrived. Michael L. Chyet, 46, has studied more than 30 languages, delving into the marvels of cultural and oral histories with the zeal of an explorer marching into uncharted territory. For the past 18 years, he has labored quietly but passionately to produce the most comprehensive Kurdish-English dictionary ever written. In his 847-page volume, words are written in Roman and Arabic scripts but explained in English and illustrated with sentences from literary texts. The work, recently published by Yale University Press, will help diplomats, soldiers, relief workers and businessmen venturing into Iraq, Turkey, Iran and other parts of the world where Kurds have wandered and settled. "My work has nothing to do with politics or governments," he said. "I am worried about the future of this language, and I am hoping to help standardize it. "I had a vision for Kurdish. Kurds are people who have internalized all the hatred against them for years. This is what drew me to the Kurds. As a Jew and a gay man, I identified. I love the language and I don't want it to die. Kurdish is not dead, but it needs to be modernized. For many decades Turks failed to kill the language. Now we are at the point where Kurds will be responsible if it dies out." When Chyet was a child, he complained that school was boring, and his father, the late Stanley F. Chyet, a poet, historian and rabbi, became concerned. A psychologist suggested that the 6-year-old boy attend a private school where classes were taught in English and Hebrew. When he was 12, he spent six weeks on vacation in Israel. When he returned home to Cincinnati, Chyet stumbled across a variety of books written in other languages in his attic. The books had once belonged to his grandfather and great uncles, who had immigrated to Boston from western Ukraine at the turn of the century. Within a year, he was reading German, Spanish, Yiddish and French and figuring out Russian. He then attended an Anglican church school to study Arabic. Chyet returned to Israel and spent time on a kibbutz in 1976. He also visited Palestinian Christian villages. At age 18, he read a description of a Kurdish folk dance, which opened up a new vista for him of a people and culture he had never known existed, he said. In 1980, upon returning home, Chyet received a bachelor's degree in Arabic from UCLA. From 1980 to '82 he lived in a Palestinian area as part of an intercultural project called Buds for Peace in which school principals, teachers and children interacted. During that time, over endless cups of coffee and tea, Chyet learned new Arabic expressions such as "your mother-in-law loves you," a saying used to welcome a guest when fresh bread was just being ripped off the walls of an oven or a pungent stew was ready to serve, or just to point out a lucky coincidence. For recreation, he went to a kibbutz to pursue his other hobby, folk dancing. There, he befriended Kurdish Jews who had emigrated from Iran. They spoke neo-Aramaic, which is neither Arabic nor Hebrew but has borrowings from Turkish and Kurdish. Aramaic is the language Jesus spoke. In 1985, Chyet earned a master's degree in Near Eastern Studies and Folklore from the University of California at Berkeley. His father and a professor encouraged him to pursue his interest in the Kurdish language: "My boy, this is virgin territory. You be the one to discover and explore the Kurdish language," Chyet said he was told by Alan Dundes, a professor of anthropology and folklore at Berkeley. "This has been the result," Chyet said, pointing to his dictionary. That summer he studied Turkish at the University of the Bosporus in Istanbul and spent the 1987-88 academic year at Ataturk University in Erzurum focusing on "Turkish dialects and styles." He chose to study a Kurdish folkloric topic, a beautiful but sad love story, the Kurdish equivalent of "Romeo and Juliet." He made it his dissertation, titled "And a Thorn Bush Sprang Between Them." The thorn bush personifies the inability of the Kurds to unite, he explained. Dundes, responding by e-mail from Berkeley, described his former student as "a brilliant polyglot scholar, unique in my 40 years experiences. . . . He has functioned as a private scholar, outside the formal academy." Sipping chai at a coffee shop near the Library of Congress, Chyet insisted that listening to languages and cultures is a necessary endeavor. "If people spoke more languages there would be less wars. In this country we believe what we understand is the only way to be understood. After September 11, it became clear, knowing one language became a liability." The attacks saddened him but did not surprise him. "We need to look at ourselves and not be up in arms. . . . I have not done anything for political reasons, but it does have political impact," he concluded.

Myanmar

Reuters 8 Aug 2003 Myanmar Activists Protest on Massacre Anniversary Fri August 8, 2003 08:48 AM ET By Darren Schuettler BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar activists, legs clamped in irons and shouting slogans, held a peaceful protest in Bangkok on Friday to demand the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and remember a massacre of her supporters 15 years ago. About 30 protesters, waving placards saying "Bloody 8888 -- Free Burma," marched on the U.N. office in the Thai capital calling for tougher international action against the military junta in neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma. One female protester wore a cardboard mask of Suu Kyi. "We want to show the world how all our leaders... and brothers and students are in jail like this. We are still waiting for our freedom," said one activist, his ankles chained and wearing a mask bearing the numbers 8888. Myanmar opposition supporters use 8888, or "four eights day," to refer to August 8, 1988, when pro-democracy activists rose up against military rule. "This is the time to act for Burma," said the activist, who did not give his name. "Please help our nation and Aung San Suu Kyi." The group said they were members of the Joint Action Committee for Democracy in Burma. Thai security police kept an eye on the 30-minute protest, but did not try to break it up. Fifteen years ago on Friday, soldiers opened fire on a demonstration on the steps of Yangon city hall, killing many civilians. Opposition supporters say thousands of people were killed in the unrest that followed. The military government says the toll was only a few dozen. No public commemorations of the massacre were planned in Myanmar itself, where the junta has clamped down on the opposition since Suu Kyi was detained on May 30 after a clash between her supporters and pro-government youths. "We don't have any plan to mark the day collectively but families of those killed may have their own plans," a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) told Reuters. A Myanmar state-owned newspaper said a time bomb was found and defused on Thursday in Monywa, a northern town close to where Suu Kyi's convoy was attacked in May. Three bomb blasts in Monywa on Monday caused no injury or damage, state media said. Authorities have blamed an exiled student group and communists for the attacks. SUU KYI RELEASE? Myanmar's military, which has ruled since a 1962 coup and rejected a 1990 election won by the NLD, has ignored Western sanctions and an unprecedented public rebuke from its Southeast Asian neighbors for holding Suu Kyi. She has been kept in a secret location -- for her own protection, the government says -- since the end of May. Human rights groups say rights abuses in the former British colony have risen since Suu Kyi's arrest. A senior Thai general denied on Friday a report that the Nobel peace laureate might be freed within the next two weeks. The Bangkok Post newspaper quoted Lieutenant-General Picharnmet Muangmanee as saying he had been told by his Myanmar counterparts that the military junta was ready to free Suu Kyi. Picharnmet said he had talked with his Myanmar counterparts but internal politics had not come up. "We have talked about cooperation between our armies, but nothing about Aung San Suu Kyi," Picharnmet told Reuters. Thailand, fearing an influx of economic migrants from its western neighbor, has proposed key Western and Asian countries meet the junta to hammer out a "road map" for democratic transition in Myanmar.

Nepal

AFP 12 Aug 2003 Nepal, Maoists to hold make-or-break talks after three-month hiatus by Kedar Man Singh KATHMANDU, Aug 12 (AFP) - Nepal's government and Maoist rebels will resume negotiations Sunday after a hiatus of more than three months, officials said, amid fears the peace process could collapse if the talks stalemate. "I am happy to inform you that a final date has been fixed up for the next round of talks on Sunday at 2:00 pm (0845 GMT) in Nepalgunj," government negotiator and information minister Kamal Thapa, told a press conference here on Tuesday. Nepalgunj, on the Indian border about 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, is the closest major town to the areas in the west of the kingdom under Maoist de facto rule. Two previous sessions have been held in the capital Kathmandu, and political observers said the symbolism of negotiating near the Maoists' home turf showed that the rebels wanted this round of talks to lead to concrete action. Thapa said the decision to hold the third round of talks on Sunday came after five hours of informal talks Tuesday with Maoist chief negotiator Baburam Bhattarai in Nepalgung. Military sources have in recent weeks reported a surge in skirmishes around the kingdom. In the latest incident Monday, five rebels were killed and three soldiers injured in the Kailili district near Nepalgunj, according to an army source. More than 7,800 people have died since the Maoists launched their "people's war" in February 1996 to topple the constitutional monarchy. But the guns fell silent January 29 when the rebels entered a ceasefire with the government. Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa met with his cabinet on Monday to draft the government position for the Nepalgunj talks. Although the position paper has not been released, newspaper reports say the government will insist on preserving Nepal's constitutional monarchy alongside parliamentary democracy. The Maoists, in turn, are expected to insist on a "round-table conference" involving all of Nepal's major parties, which would redraft the constitution. In any revised constitution, the Maoists are sure to insist on fewer powers for King Gyanendra, if not the outright abolition of the monarchy. Thapa said the focus of Sunday's talks would be political issues. "The Maoists are going to put forward their resolutions and we will put forward our own and we will discuss them," he said. "We will also discuss the formation of a monitoring committee to observe maintenance of code of conduct and the talks process." The rebels and the Maoists held talks April 27 and May 9, but the third session has stalled partially due to disagreement over what, if anything, was agreed to in the previous sessions. The Maoists last month threatened to suspend participation in the peace process, demanding that troops be restricted from moving more than five kilometers (three miles) outside their barracks -- which the rebels contend the government agreed to at the May 9 talks. The government refused to budge on the troop restrictions, saying that soldiers only moved so far from their stations in exceptional circumstances. It did, however, agree to release four senior Maoists from prison. Rebel supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal -- known by the alias Prachanda, or "The Fierce" -- responded by saying the Maoists would stick to the peace process, although he called for more involvement by Nepal's main political parties opposed to Thapa. The five-party alliance has declined a government invitation to join the talks as it does not want to recognize Thapa. The premier was appointed by the king, who on October 4 dissolved the elected government for alleged "incompetence." Thapa said the issue of restricting the movement of the army would be discussed at the talks and he also appealed to all the political parties to cooperate with the government to help make the talks a success.

AFP 31 Aug 2003 Nepal extends curfews amid new violence after Maoists end truce by Kedar Man Singh KATHMANDU, Aug 31 (AFP) - Nepal's government extended curfews and deployed armed guards for political leaders as Maoist rebels and soldiers fought two deadly clashes, days after the peace process collapsed, officials said Sunday. Rebels ambushed an army patrol Sunday at Melarani village in Surkhet district, 480 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, triggering a daylong gunbattle, an army official said. "Our preliminary reports are that seven Maoists and three soldiers were killed," the official said. He said a similar clash Saturday in the southeastern Udaipur district left two Maoists dead and three soldiers wounded. Fourteen of Nepal's 75 districts are now under dawn-to-dusk curfew after nine more districts were added Saturday, amid fears the isolated Maoist attacks could give way to nationwide fighting. "The number of districts coming under curfew is increasing every day and a curfew could even be imposed in the Kathmandu Valley if the Maoists resume their subversive activities," home ministry spokesman Gopendra Bahadur Pandey said. The Maoists on Wednesday walked out of a seven-month ceasefire and peace talks after the government refused to agree to an assembly to redraft the constitution. Since their withdrawal from the truce, the rebels have been blamed for a series of assassination bids against prominent political figures, both from the current government and previous ones. In response, the government has authorised police protection for leading politicians, a member of Nepal's cabinet said. Armed guards were seen Sunday guarding the Kathmandu offices of Nepal's two largest mainstream political parties, the Nepali Congress and the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist. Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa met at the weekend with top leaders of his National Democratic Party to figure out the government's next move, with some aides urging him to call for a nationwide emergency that would allow security forces more leeway to preempt attacks. The government has already renewed its classification of the Maoists as a terrorist group, which means rebel leaders could be arrested on sight. The Maoists were taken off the terrorist list as a goodwill gesture when the ceasefire was reached in January. Among the assassination bids blamed on the Maoists, an army colonel who was based at the royal palace was shot dead Thursday. One day later, former state minister for home affairs Devendra Raj Kandel was shot five times. Kandel's condition is improving, doctors said. Last week gunmen ambushed the motorcade of former premier Sher Bahadur Deuba, who had led a crackdown on the rebels in late 2001 and 2002 after an earlier truce collapsed, but he was unhurt. The Maoist leadership expressed "sorrow" over the incident in western Nepal, saying "spies and security forces," not Deuba, were the target. Suspected rebels also set fire to the ancestral home of Finance Minister Prakash Chandra Lohani, who led the government team in three rounds of peace talks, the last of which broke down August 19. The Maoists launched a "people's war" in 1996 aimed at overthrowing the constitutional monarchy. The insurgency has claimed more than 7,800 lives.

North Korea

Korean Central News Agency (KCNA North Korea) 13 Aug 2003 GIs' Massacre during Korean War Brought to Light Pyongyang, August 13 (KCNA) -- A hearing took place in the building of the Secretariat of the United Nations in Geneva on Aug. 5 to disclose the crimes committed by the United States during the Korean war. It was co-sponsored by the Nationwide Special Committee for Probing the Truth behind the GIs' Massacres and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. On display there were photos and materials on the GIs' war crimes. Present there were a delegation of the Nationwide Special Committee for Probing the Truth behind the GIs' Massacres and delegates from more than 10 non-governmental and international organizations including the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the resident representative of the DPRK at the UN Secretariat and an international organization and figures related to the issue of human rights. At the hearing victims of GIs' atrocities from south Korea testified to GIs' crimes and damage done by them. Then followed a speech made by Jo Hyon Gi, member of the Executive Committee of the National Bereaved Families Society of Civilian Victims before and after and during the Korean War, on behalf of the families. They laid bare the U.S. crimes including the massacre of innocent civilians, the bacteriological and bio-chemical warfare perpetrated in the northern half of Korea and experiments conducted on POWs of the People's Army, etc. If the criminal war is to be prevented and durable peace guaranteed on the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world the U.S., which has committed barbarities, fancying itself an "apostol of peace," should admit its crimes and make an official apology and compensation to the victims, first of all. Its participants watched a video tape on which U.S. crimes before and during the Korean war are recorded.

Papua New Guinea

The National, Papua New Guinea 21 Aug 2003 www.thenational.com.pg PNG: The massacre of the innocents? WHILE the Government quibbles over AusAID and assistance from Australia in general, our citizens continue to be attacked, raped, mutilated and killed. The current Port Moresby conflict between the people of Tari and those from Goilala shows no signs of abating. On Tuesday morning a 12 years old schoolboy was bludgeoned to death allegedly by Tari settlers in the Bomana area near the capital. Earlier that morning, a Tari man was killed, allegedly by Goilala settlers. The school boy lived at the Bomana Turf Club, and was on his way to Bomana primary school. Can you imaging the terror of that 12 years old child, chased by a yelling horde for some 200 metres, cornered, then bludgeoned to death with axes? Those politicians who still criticise the media for reporting the on-going massacres in our midst would do well to hold their peace, at least until the media ceases to be deluged daily with similar grisly reports. Hold their peace - and make some effort to stop the madness before it engulfs the nation. The people of this country, and particularly of the capital, are reaching boiling point. They will not accept living with terror as their daily companion much longer, and the situation is only worsened by politicians and others claiming that the image of PNG is distorted and falsified by the local media. The ordinary people of this country know how much truth there is in that claim. The side effects of this epidemic of violence and death are many and varied. One of the worst is indefinable - the feeling among ordinary residents that even in their own homes they are not safe from attack. PNG can wait no longer. As a people and as a nation we must address this tsunami of violence that threatens to drown us all. Let Parliament resume in emergency session. Let the elected members - our elected members - debate ways to at least lessen the terrible fear felt by many in our cities and towns. Let them come up with the toughest solutions possible to this problem, and pass the necessary legislation to implement those laws. Nobody likes to see armed officers on street corners protecting the citizenry, nor do people welcome the idea of identity cards, nor security checks at retail stores, nor a heightened level of public protection at the expense of guaranteed rights and privileges. Nobody wants to see PNG turn into a police state, with our every move monitored and controlled by authorities. But we can say with equal certainty that practically everybody wants to be able to live at peace with their neighbours, enjoy the facilities offered by councils and authorities, and reap the benefits of the goods and services city life can provide. If there is not a sharp reduction in crime levels soon, it will be too late for PNG. We will be condemned to a way of life that has been completely rejected by the bulk of the people. Worse, we will return to that painful era when our crime rates led to us being regarded with contempt and even derision by overseas countries. We cannot accept further sticking plaster solutions. The PNG governments and people of the near future will not thank us if we bequeath them a blood-soaked nation riddled with crime. Stop the rhetoric and give us some action. In our opinion, Parliament should meet, and debate and approve legislation that outlaws all squatter settlements in PNG. The Vagrancy Act should be immediately re-drafted and passed by Parliament, and consideration should be given to issuing identification passes to everyone living in this country. These horrific murders, rapes and destruction of property are a feature of our squalid cities and towns. There were few violent incidents in the much-criticised colonial era, because there was only a trickle of people coming from rural areas to settle in the cities. Now it is an uncontrollable flood that will only worsen the longer we fail to address the problem. Torture, sorcery, pre-meditated murder, opportunistic rape and mass lawlessness are some of the hallmarks of a failed state. Now is the time to prove that description of PNG false. Sir Michael - it's time to get tough on crime.

Solomon Islands

AFP 3 Aug 2003 - Most dangerous part of Solomons mission yet to come: Australian FM SYDNEY, Aug 3 (AFP) - Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer Sunday warned that depsite the early success of the Australian-led mission to restore order in the Solomon Islands, the most dangerous task was yet to be done. While hailing the success of negotiations that have led to a number of rebel leaders agreeing to disarm, Downer said the real test would come when a gun amnesty ended later this month. "I think there's a bit of excessive exuberance at this stage because the meetings between Nick Warner, our special coordinator, and some of the rebel elements have been so successful," Downer told Network Ten television. "This mission has got off to a better start than anyone could have imagined but remember that after August 21 the gun amnesty comes to an end. Many guns may be handed in between now and then but it's hard to believe they'll all be handed in. "There will still be a number of guns out there and that will be the difficult part, when the operation has to go after the weapons in the community -- not only will it be difficult it will be dangerous." Warner said on Saturday that he hoped to hold talks this week with militant leader Harold Keke, whose cooperation is seen as the key to restoring order to the troubled area. The 2,200-strong Australian-led intervention force, which also includes police and troops from New Zealand and several Pacific states, began arriving on July 24 and so far has encountered no armed resistance.

People First Network 13 Aug 2003 Surrender of weapons well over a thousand HONIARA, Solomon Islands (PFnet News) - The gun amnesty poses a positive impact to the handing over of weapons. Deputy Police Commissioner, Ben McDevitt told journalists at a news conference in Honiara that the RAMSI team is "... up over the 1,000 weapons handed in". McDevitt pointed out that these surrendered weapons dates back to the 24th of July and in a period of 19 days, there has been over 1,000 weapons being surrendered. He revealed that with a break-up between home-made, manufactured and high-powered weapons, "... the military ones would be approaching 100 mark..." while there are "... quite a few commercial ones ... " and "... quite a few home-made ones..." He however stressed that "... to have over 1000 of those out of the community in a little over 19 days is an outstanding achievement".

Reuters 13 Aug 2003 Solomons warlord Keke surrenders to peacekeepers By Johnson Honimae HONIARA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A notorious Solomon Islands warlord surrendered to Australian-led forces on Wednesday, a breakthrough in efforts to restore order in the lawless South Pacific nation once known as the Happy Isles. An Australian diplomat leading a multi-national intervention force said Harold Keke had surrendered during talks at the village of Mbiti in his Weathercoast stronghold south of the capital Honiara and was later arrested on theft charges. Keke and an entourage of nine, including two top lieutenants, were flown to the Australian navy troop ship and operation command centre, HMAS Manoora, which later left for the capital. "Keke, two of his commanders, his secretary and members of his immediate family, including his wife and child, were flown to the Manoora for security reasons," intervention force leader Nick Warner told reporters. Officials said no deals had been made with Keke, who was arrested on a warrant relating to 1998 robbery charges. He was to appear on those charges in Honiara on Thursday and was likely to be detained while other charges were investigated. "The surrender by Harold Keke sends a very clear message to other militants in the Solomon Islands that there remains no excuse whatsoever now to not hand in guns before the end of the current gun amnesty, which ends on August 21," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters in Canberra. Australia is leading a 2,225-strong force of police, troops and civilian administrators to restore law and order in the Solomons, the largest military deployment in the South Pacific since World War Two, and to restore shattered institutions. ANARCHY Hundreds have been killed since rival militias from Guadalcanal and Malaita islands began fighting five years ago. The former British protectorate has spiralled towards anarchy and bankruptcy since a police-backed coup in June 2000. With the country in chaos, Keke and his followers have ruled their Weathercoast stronghold in the south of the main island of Guadalcanal, defying previous attempts to bring them to justice. They have been accused of killing dozens of people, including a government minister last year, besides engaging in rape and torture and razing several villages, which forced hundreds of refugees to trek overland to camps outside Honiara. Downer said there would be a full investigation of other suspected crimes by Keke and his followers, including murder. Keke, a mysterious former policeman, had told Warner last Friday that six Anglican missionaries he had taken hostage four months ago were all dead. Solomons sources have said the missionaries were killed by one of Keke's lieutenants. Ben McDevitt, head of the force's police component, said the bodies of the missionaries would probably be exhumed and examined. Warner said up to 50 members of Keke's Guadalcanal Liberation Front had surrendered their weapons, including 28 high-powered rifles, after Keke gave himself up. The intervention force has declared a 21-day amnesty for the return of up to 1,300 illegal guns, many stolen from a police armoury in 2000. Up to 1,000 weapons have already been handed in, officials said.

BBC 14 Aug 2003 Solomons warlord in court Mr Keke (left) and his militia have been blamed for a string of killings One of the main rebel leaders in the Solomon Islands, Harold Keke, has appeared in court, a day after he surrendered to the Australian-led peacekeeping force. Mr Keke, a former policeman, was charged on Thursday with attempted murder, firearms possession and running an unlawful society. He denied the charges, and requested the assistance of a foreign lawyer. The hearing was held in a makeshift courtroom in the capital, Honiara. Two of Mr Keke's lieutenants, who were arrested with him, also face murder charges. The rebel leader surrendered near his base in the Weathercoast area of Guadalcanal island after talks with the head of the international mission, Nick Warner. Profile: Harold Keke Mr Keke and his associates are blamed for a string of killings, and are alleged to be responsible for a four-year reign of terror in their local stronghold. The chief magistrate remanded the defendant into the custody of Australian police and adjourned the trial. The Australian-led force of 2,000 troops and 300 police arrived in the Solomon Islands in late July to help end widespread lawlessness and corruption. Kidnapped priests Mr Keke is suspected of murdering six Anglican priests he took hostage in April, after he admitted to Mr Warner last week that they were dead. The six hostages were members of an indigenous Anglican order called the Melanesian Brotherhood. They had been held by Mr Keke for several months in his hideout in Weathercoast. At one stage they were shown on Australian television smiling and sharing a meal with the rebel leader. Mr Keke is alleged to have personally killed the government minister. Hundreds of people have fled their villages in Weathercoast in recent weeks to escape the rebel leader and his followers. The BBC's Phil Mercer says Mr Keke began fighting for indigenous rights on Guadalcanal in the late 1990s. A brutal ethnic war with settlers from the neighbouring island of Malaita followed. The militant leader later split with his colleagues and refused to sign an Australian-brokered peace deal three years ago.

ICRC 25 Aug 2003 Press Release 03/59 Solomon Islands: ICRC visits detainees Geneva (ICRC) – In accordance with its mandate under international humanitarian law, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has started visiting people detained by the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands. In addition, discussions between the ICRC, the Solomon Islands authorities, and the Regional Assistance Mission resulted in agreement that the ICRC would continue its visits to other detainees, which have been under way since the unrest and tensions of 1999. Among those recently visited was Harold Keke, whom ICRC delegates saw on 22 August. The ICRC is monitoring the cases of all registered detainees and will make periodic follow-up visits. A significant part of the ICRC's international mandate concerns the visiting of persons held in detention, during which the organization assesses conditions and offers detainees the possibility of exchanging news with their families by means of Red Cross messages. In accordance with standard ICRC procedures, all information gathered during these visits is treated confidentially, including information on the conditions of detention. The organization conveys its findings and recommendations only to the authorities concerned.

Turkmenistan

IRIN 21 Aug 2003 Abolition of dual citizenship widely condemned ANKARA, 21 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - A new Turkmen constitutional clause that prohibits dual citizenship has been widely condemned by Russian community leaders and rights groups. The clause, announced on Wednesday, effectively enshrines in the constitution a semi-official policy that has prompted thousands of Russians to leave the former Soviet republic and sparked a dispute with Moscow. Anatoliy Fuming, the head of the Russian community of Turkmenistan, told IRIN from Moscow that the move was illegal. "They don't have the right to do it," he said, adding that dual citizenship could only be abolished by Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We conduct the policy that nobody [of the Russian minority] gives it up under any circumstances, [because] depriving them of Russian citizenship means to make them slaves in the country," Fomin claimed. The new clause, published in the state-run newspaper Neutralnii Turkmenistan, says that no other citizenship held by a citizen of Turkmenistan will be recognised by Ashgabat. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in April to do away with their 1993 dual-citizenship treaty. But Niyazov shocked Russian officials by giving residents with passports identifying them as citizens of both countries just two months before a 22 June deadline to decide which one they would keep. "It [ending dual citizenship] is a continuation of the policy, which was openly announced by the decree of Niyazov in April of this year," Vitaliy Ponomarev, head of the Central Asia Programme for the Russian Memorial human rights centre, a group closely following events in Turkmenistan, told IRIN from Moscow. He added that the main goal of the decision was to further isolate the country from the world. Other observers put the decision down to Niyazov's fear of the Turkmen opposition in exile in Russia and his desire to sever links between it and Russians living in Turkmenistan. The situation has sparked claims in Russia that Putin sold out citizens for energy, because he also signed a 25-year natural gas deal with Turkmenistan at the April meeting with Niyazov. Around 100,000 Russian citizens live in Turkmenistan. The elimination of dual citizenship coupled with the reintroduction of Soviet-style exit visas, part of a crackdown after an alleged November assassination attempt against the authoritarian Niyazov, has prompted many Russians to decide to leave the country.

Europe

Roma Daily News 5 August 2003 SECOND GENOCIDE FEAR AS ROMA RECALL HOLOCAUST * * * * Proposal for worldwide event on Sunday, 1 August, 2004 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz Zigeunerlager, liquidated on 2-3 August 1944. * * * * As thousands this week remember the Holocaust, the centuries-old harassment and persecution of the Romani people shows no sign of abating. There is even a perception that since 1990 another unplanned but nevertheless insidiuous genocide or "Second Holocaust" has commenced. Full-blown in Kosovo, where 100,000 Roma have been ethnically-cleansed, this genocide continues in racial attacks and murders across Europe. It is also manifest in every form of discrimination and prejudice which denies a place to live, schooling, welfare and jobs to 10 million Roma across the continent. When with the end of communsim in 1989 the lid came off long-surpressed anti-Roma racism, large-scale pogroms began. Many have occurred in Romania, where over 400 homes have been torched. Among survivors Florina Zoltan, now a refugees in London, has yet to obtain justice through the European Court of Human Rights and effective prosecution of those responsible. Killings and assaults have continued, in Bulgaria and Hungary, often involving the participation of police officers. Organized, neo-fascist groups are targeting Roma in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The crime of sterilization, the round-up of the poor for begging, and forced separation of children from parents, have to varying degrees become part of official policy in Slovakia, the Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Police and paramiltary units are being used to destroy 'illegal' camps and shanty-settlements in Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Macedonia. Security contractors have been employed to bulldoze Roma-owned caravan parks in Britain. Charles Smith, chairman of the Gypsy Council is currently in Geneva giving evidence on the lack of a positive policy by the British Government in face of racism and anti-Gypsy violence. Last month in England a l4-year-old was murdered in a racially motivated gang attack. Ever more repressive policies of detention and mass-deportation are being employed against thousands of Roma refugees in the UK and western Europe, fleeing human rights abuses in EU accession states. The pretence is maintained that destinations such as Kosovo, Romania and Slovakia are "safe" for the forced returnees. On the Macedonian Greek border at Medzitlija more than 700 Kosovo Roma refugees have been attacked and beaten by Special Forces to prevent them exercising their right to cross the border and seek asylum in an EU country. AUSCHITZ ZINGEUNERLAGER On the night of 2 and 3 August, 1944, some 3 000 Roma - all the remaining old men, women and children in the notorious Zigeunerlager at Auschwitz - were driven from their barracks and forced into lorries destined for the gas-chambers. Accounts note how they fought to the last, even with their bare hands, against the SS guards. This was part of Hitler's final solution which cost the lives of upwards of 500,000 Roma. Today, there may be no single, co-ordinated plan of extermination led by such a man as Hitler. But a monster is still at large called racism, an active anti-Gypsy virus which motivates many to act with intolerance, others to drive out their Roma neighbours, burn and kill. ROMA HOLOCAUST MUSEUM On 3 August, the Roma Holocaust Museum was opened in Moscow, backed by the Sakharov International Human Rights Centre. Its opening has been hailed by the Romani newspaper DEFACTO as a major step-forward in the recognition of the Roma genocide perpetuated by the Nazis - for which no block reparations have ever been paid. Toma Nikolaev, editor of DEFACTO, would like to see next year a worldwide event to mark the 60th anniversary of the "liquidation" of the Auschitz Zigeunerlager - both to mourn all Roma Holocaust victims and to recognize the bravery of those who fought back in the camps or joined partizans in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and in France, Italy, and elsewhere. Their fight has been documented in the journal ROMA by Valdemar Kalinin. Publications and Roma radio brodcasts in Serbia have told part of these heroes' story. But their struggle has never been the focus of a global event. DEFACTO can be read at: www.Defacto-bg.net CALL FOR WORLDWIDE EVENTS The Trans-European Roma Federation will meet in London on 16 September with the following proposals on its agenda: * Roma Nation Day "8 April" 2004 to include demonstrations aimed to STOP THE SECOND GENOCIDE * Worldwide events on Sunday, 1 August, 2004 to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Zigeunerlager massacre (02.08.l944) and the Roma Holocaust. Meanwhile,TERF calls for a venue to be decided upon as soon as possible for the assembling of VI WORLD ROMANI CONGRESS scheduled to take place next year. This Congress, we believe, should include a commemoration of the Holocaust together with a powerful demonstration against all the manifestations of the threatened "second genocide" - whether by destruction of homes, deportation or denial of our collective national rights. In preparation for this, TERF has started to document all the Roma victims of racial murder since 1989. This list already contains over hundred names. Please help in this data collection DETAILS OF SUCH CASES CAN BE SENT DIRECT TO: romanokongreso@lafn.org or ustiben.5@ntlworld.com

Belgium

BBC 1 Aug 2003 Belgium amends war crimes law The amended law was easily passed by the Belgian parliament The Belgian Senate has given final approval to a new version of a war crimes law which had led to cases being filed against several world leaders. The bill was passed by 39 votes in favour to four against and 20 abstentions. The revised law drops a controversial "universal competence" clause which led to complaints being filed against US President George W Bush, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The lower house of parliament approved the bill amending the controversial law earlier this week. It now only needs the signature of King Albert II - a formality - to become law. "Unhappily, the noble cause that prompted the parliament to adopt this law was hit with abuse and manipulated for political ends," Foreign Minister Louis Michel told the Senate before the vote. Previously, Belgian courts could try anyone for war crimes, regardless of their nationality and of where the alleged crimes were committed. The new bill will limit the jurisdiction of the courts to cases only involving Belgian citizens and residents. The US had threatened to block further funding for Nato's new headquarters in Belgium until the law was withdrawn. After his re-election in May, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt promised the law would be scrapped.

www.expatica.com 14 Aug 2003 Jiang Zemin faces genocide law suit 14 August 2003 BRUSSELS – Former chinese president Jiang Zemin is to be cited for crimes against humanity under Belgium's controversial new genocide law, it was revealed Thursday. The suit is being brought by two Belgian members of the Falun Gong movement which China has outlawed as an illegal sect since 1999; leading to the arrest and imprisonment of many of its supporters. Falun Gong members claim they are a non-political association promoting meditation and yoga as a basis for a healthy lifestyle. The suit claims that the actions of the Chinese authorities has also deprived the rights of Falun Gong members in Belgium. Suits filed under the so-called genocide law are now restricted to Belgian nationals, or residents based in the country for at least three years, after the law was heavily re-drafted earlier this year following strong pressure from the United States. Its original text gave Belgian courts the power to try cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity regardless of the complainant's country of origin or where the alleged crimes were committed. [Copyright Expatica News and RVI 2003]

WP 10 Aug 2003 Perfect Specimen Of Colonial Mythmaking By Craig Winneker Sunday, August 10, 2003; Page B04 TERVUREN, Belgium I recently revisited Belgium's Royal Museum for Central Africa for the first time since I went there on a class trip more than 25 years ago, when my family lived here for a time. Turns out I hadn't missed much. Housed in a splendid Louis XIV-style palace on the outskirts of Brussels, the museum has proclaimed the glories of Belgian rule in the Congo for more than a century. And during that time, its impressive collection has remained largely unchanged. Imposing gilded statues depict Belgium's influence in Central Africa. "Belgium brings civilization to the Congo," reads the inscription on one, showing a priest ministering to an adoring Pygmy tribesman. Others illustrate the "security" and "well-being" that were brought to the natives by their colonial masters. I did notice one new feature, though: a small posterboard sign that appeared earlier this year, with no fanfare, in one of the more controversial exhibits. The "Gallery of Remembrance" is a shrine to Belgians who died while serving in Central Africa. Its walls are painted with the names of some 1,500 fallen military officers, bureaucrats, traders and pioneers. A bronze plaque salutes the martyred leaders of an anti-slavery campaign. But now, the new sign offers a one-paragraph addendum in French, Dutch and English: "The attentive visitor," it reads, "will not fail to notice that, at the time, no need was felt to question the Belgian presence in Central Africa. There was no mention of the Congolese victims, for instance. The viewpoint is exclusively European and concentrates on a few historical episodes. The underlying reality of colonial events was completely ignored. The memorial to the campaigns against slavery, unveiled in 1959, is a rather late example of mythmaking." For the first time since it was founded in 1897 by King Leopold II, the museum is finally getting ready to recognize that "underlying reality" and "mythmaking." It may take an unusually "attentive visitor" to find it, but the temporary plaque is a small step in a two-year project aimed at transforming the institution to acknowledge the brutal realities of Belgium's colonial history that have come to light in recent years. It is the first public measure the country is taking to make its citizens aware of the atrocities committed a century ago. These long overdue plans have stirred controversy. Some Belgians argue that changing the museum too much will obliterate what they see as their country's honorable role in improving life in Central Africa. Others say the institution, considered one of the foremost of its kind in the world, should be preserved as it is -- as the embodiment of a particular kind of worldview during an important period of history. I have a more postmodern view: The best thing to do with this museum might be to display it inside another museum. Once you know the history behind the collection -- as I do now but didn't as a grade-schooler -- there would seem to be no choice but to change it. In 1998, writer Adam Hochschild published the best-selling "King Leopold's Ghost," a book that vividly described what the museum does not: how Leopold, a first cousin of Britain's Queen Victoria, persuaded the world to let him take personal control over a domain nearly one-fourth the size of the United States; how he duped America and Britain into thinking he would establish a free-trade zone in Central Africa, "civilize" the natives and fight the scourge of Arab slave-trading; and how, instead, he established a brutal regime that exploited the territory's population and natural resources for his personal benefit. Hochschild's book revealed how mercenary soldiers forced Congolese men into the jungle to gather wild rubber for the bicycle and automobile industries. Those who refused or failed to meet their quotas were liable to have their hands chopped off or to be whipped nearly to death; some were simply shot dead. Others went into hiding, leaving their farms to fail and their families to starve. There never was any anti-slavery campaign. In fact, Hochschild estimates that Leopold's quarter-century reign of terror caused the deaths of 10 million Africans. Suddenly an inconspicuous cardboard sign doesn't seem adequate. Especially since the rest of the museum today looks much the same as it did when it was built -- even if it no longer features reconstructed Congolese villages with real tribesmen on display. Director Guido Gryseels has already launched the effort to overhaul the museum with several exhibits running through the summer entitled "The Africans Have Their Say," featuring the work of contemporary African artists and photographers. Gryseels calls the museum's current design "paternalistic" and says the campaign he's started will give the collection a modern, "multidisciplinary theme." Out will go the bland, detailed presentations on export crops (installed decades ago to convince Belgians their colony was worth having), and in will come a more holistic "historical journey," synthesizing social and natural sciences with art, culture and such contemporary notions as "sustainable development." "The big controversy," Gryseels conceded to me recently, "comes with how do we deal with our colonial past? A lot of people who worked in the colonies are sensitive." In fact, when translated editions of his book were published in Belgium, Hochschild was met with anger from many quarters, especially from associations of people who had worked in the colonial administration, or their descendants. These same people are not likely to be pleased that their government, which owns the museum, will soon be accusing them or their relatives of having taken part in genocide. They "get emotional," Gryseels acknowledged, and argue that Belgium had a civilizing influence on the Congo, helping provide infrastructure, schools and medicine. Somehow they overlook that when Belgium pulled up stakes and left the Congo in 1960, it left behind only 14 African university graduates and a continuing legacy of political mayhem. What the museum hopes to do, Gryseels said of the colonial atrocities, is "recognize that [they] happened and . . . provide the context. Some people will walk out and say that Leopold was a murderer -- other people may recognize the vision he had." Belgium is not the first nation to have to confront a dark part of its past. To be fair, few other European countries have come completely clean on their colonial records. France and Britain have long accepted their responsibility to help former colonies, but they do little to highlight atrocities. Germany only recently acknowledged and apologized for its massacre of Herero tribes in 1904-08 in what is now Namibia. Belgium has come later than most to its face-off with history, even though this history was never a complete secret. It was a matter of public record, though that record was sometimes hard to find. Over the years, any atrocities were erased from official history, not taught in schools, not acknowledged as part of the national memory. So a full reckoning now is bound to be painful. And not everyone sees the need for contrition. At a press conference Gryseels held to announce the museum's makeover, I overheard two Belgian journalists complaining about the changes, deriding them as "politically correct" leftist revisionism. A comment written by a Belgian in the museum guest book pleads, "Don't change it too much! It is a magnificent museum of which Belgians can be proud." Perhaps there's something to the notion that the museum in its current state provides its own unique lessons. As offensive as it appears when viewed in the light of modern knowledge and sensibilities, it's fair to ask whether, from a historical perspective, overhauling it is the right approach. It's one thing to revisit the record and make it a more accurate reflection of reality, but it's another to ignore different versions of what happened. Like it or not, the museum is a kind of time capsule that perfectly illustrates the evil of colonialism and the paternalism and racism that allowed it to exist. Gryseels' planned "historical journey," on the other hand, sounds suspiciously like so many modern "interactive" museums that overdo the computer animation and the Disney-fied dinosaur bones, where the largest exhibits always seem to be the gift shops. The dilemma posed by the project is summed up in a painting, specially commissioned for the museum, by Congolese artist Chéri Samba, whose works combine a playful, cartoonish visual style with often gruesome political and social commentary. Entitled "Reorganisation," it shows Gryseels watching a group of Africans drag a particularly patronizing sculpture out of the museum while a clutch of Belgians tugs desperately in the opposite direction. "We cannot accept that this work should leave the museum," the Belgians are protesting. "It is what has made us what we are today." To which the painted Gryseels responds: "It's true that it's sad, but in fact the museum must be completely reorganized." Maybe so. As I walked through the museum's dusty and dated galleries, I couldn't help agreeing that a makeover is necessary. It's a travesty that there is no mention of the millions of Africans who died so that the treasures visitors ooh and aah over -- the stuffed animals, the rocks and minerals -- could be brought to Belgium. I watched groups of museum-goers who hadn't read "King Leopold's Ghost" touring the exhibits and listening to guides who never mentioned the horrific truth that lies behind the display cases, and I felt they urgently needed some context. Still, part of me wants to keep this bizarre, offensive time capsule just as it is, to preserve it as an example of the kind of imperial hubris that reigned in turn-of-the-20th-century Europe -- not as a tribute, but as an artifact. Author's e-mail: cwinneker@techcentralstation.be Craig Winneker is the editor of TechCentralStation-Europe, a Web site based in Brussels.

Expatica 21 August 2003 Falun Gong sues under genocide law BRUSSELS – Six members of the Falun Gong movement filed a human rights abuse case against former Chinese president Jiang Zemin under Belgium's law of universal competence Wednesday. The six are accusing Zemin of commanding the torture and genocide of Falun Gong members in an attempt to dissolve the movement, outlawed as a cult and banned since 1999 in China. The spiritual movement combines elements of Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese breathing exercises. Although Belgium’s law of universal competence was scrapped and reinstated under very strict conditions following American political pressure, one of the plaintiffs, Matthias Slaats, is Belgian, and so technically eligible to lodge a case. Other members of the Falun Gong movement have already lodged cases in the US and Australia against Chinese authorities. The lawyer representing the case, Georges-Henri Beauthier, said he was confident the case would be accepted despite the strict conditions for the use of the law currently in place. An answer over whether the case will be allowed to proceed is expected to be received in September.

www.expatica.com 22 August 2003 War crimes law amendment 'illegal' BRUSSELS – Belgian lawyer Jan Fermon has appealed to a Brussels court to reinstate a war crimes case filed under the law of universal competence against US military commander General Tommy Franks, branding the amendment of Belgium's controversial genocide law illegal. The case against General Franks was dropped and sent to the States after stark US criticism regarding the targeting of figures such as US Secretary of State Colin Powell and US President George W Bush under the war crimes legislation. Last June, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld threatened Brussels with the loss of Nato headquarters unless the law was quashed. “Once a country accords certain rights on the basis of an international convention, it can't go back on that,” said Fermon, who hopes to resurrect his case at a hearing on 9 September. Although the law was amended twice and finally scrapped by the Belgian government with the aim of appeasing growing US irritation, Fermon believes the changes in the law to be illegal. “By modifying then repealing the 1993 law, Belgium has broken a general principle of international law,” Fermon told Agence France Presse. Fermon’s initial case, filed under the 1993 legislation, had been brought forward on behalf of two Jordanian and 17 Iraqi plaintiffs, including the widow of an Al Jazeera journalist, killed during a US bombing raid. Accusations against General Franks include the bombing of a civilian marketplace and the firing by US soldiers on ambulances. The law of universal competence once allowed for cases to be heard regardless of the country in which the crime had been committed, the nationality of the plaintiff or accused. The change in the legislation meant that only cases occurring in Belgium or directly affecting a Belgian could be heard, a repeal which brought with it criticism from many human rights organisations.

Bosnia

AP 4 Aug 2003 Clinton to Open Memorial Center in Bosnia By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 9:39 p.m. ET SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Former President Clinton will preside at the opening of a memorial center for victims of the worst massacre in the Bosnian war, his spokeswoman and Bosnian officials said Monday. The memorial ceremony will take place Sept. 20 at the site near Srebrenica, where Serb forces in 1995 overran a besieged Muslim enclave and executed up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Clinton was chose to open the center, officials said, because of his role in helping end the war. ``I'm happy to announce today that President Clinton has agreed to perform the opening ceremony,'' said Paddy Ashdown, Bosnia's top international administrator. ``It is fitting that the man who did so much to end the war should open the memorial that will ensure that the victims of this massacre -- indeed all the victims of this terrible war -- are not forgotten,'' Ashdown added. Tammy Sun, a spokeswoman for Clinton, confirmed he would be opening the ceremony. The massacre marked a turning point in the three-year, Bosnian war and prompted the international community -- led by the United States -- to end the conflict by ordering NATO airstrikes against Bosnian Serbs. Soon after, the U.S. under Clinton brokered the final peace accord in Dayton, Ohio, and joined other nations in deploying peacekeepers to Bosnia. Mustafa Ceric, the head of the Muslim Community in Bosnia, said Muslims requested Clinton preside at the ceremony, reflecting their gratitude ``for his role in stopping the aggression in Bosnia-Herzegovina.'' The construction of the $US 5 million memorial cemetery began in October. The victims are being gradually exhumed from mass graves in the area, identified through DNA analysis and reburied at the cemetery. So far the suspected masterminds of the massacre -- the former Bosnian Serb president, Radovan Karadzic, and his general, Ratko Mladic -- are still at large. The two have been indicted for genocide by the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

AP 14 Aug 2003 NATO - Led Troops Hunt War Crimes Suspect SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- NATO-led peacekeepers looking for war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic searched a home where his relatives had gathered to mourn the death of the fugitive's mother. The troops left empty-handed after searching the home for about an hour on Wednesday, the Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry said. Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb army during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, is wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has been at large since he was indicted in 1995, and is believed hiding in neighboring Serbia and Montenegro. Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, the wartime political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, are the two fugitives most wanted by the U.N. court. NATO has waged numerous unsuccessful attempts to find the men. Mladic's mother, Stana Mladic, 84, died of natural causes Tuesday at the family home in the Sarajevo suburb of Kasindol, located in the Bosnian Serb half of the country. Family members, friends and neighbors were preparing for her funeral Wednesday when the peacekeepers arrived and inspected the house and property, said the spokesman for the Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry, Zoran Glusac. ``At least 10 vehicles and two helicopters were at the inspection that began at 1:20 p.m. and lasted for a little over an hour,'' Glusac said. The NATO-led peacekeepers, known as SFOR, confirmed the operation. ``This operation did not result in the detention of Ratko Mladic,'' they said in a statement. About 250,000 people died during the war which pitted Bosnia's Muslims, Serbs and Croats against each other. Around 12,000 peacekeepers from 30 countries are serving here. Part of their mandate is to arrest the war crimes suspects still at large.

AFP 14 Aug 2003 NATO Raid Fails to Capture Bosnian-Serb War Crimes Suspect By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Aug. 13 — NATO peacekeeping troops tried today to arrest Gen. Ratko Mladic, one of the most-wanted war crimes suspects in Bosnia, but failed to find him during a raid on his mother's house a few hours after she died. The raid took place in Kasindo, in the Serbian part of Sarajevo, at the home of Mr. Mladic's mother, Stana Mladic, 84, who died on Tuesday, according to a statement by the NATO-led Stabilization Force, known as SFOR. "This operation did not result in the detention of Ratko Mladic," the statement said. It offered condolences to the family members who were said to have cooperated during the search. The spokesman for SFOR, Dale MacEachern, said the raid had been prompted by a tip that Mr. Mladic was at the house. Mr. Mladic, 60, was the Bosnian Serb army commander during the 1992-95 conflict in the country. He and the Bosnian Serb leader during the war, Radovan Karadzic, are still at large and have been sought by the United Nations war crimes tribunal to stand trial on charges of genocide and war crimes. According to people who saw the raid, Italian SFOR troops backed by four helicopters entered Ms. Mladic's house in the early afternoon. Her body and about 30 mourners were in the house during the search. SFOR helicopters started monitoring the house during the night shortly after she died, the witnesses said. Mr. Mladic is considered the mastermind of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys are believed to have been summarily executed when Serb rebel forces overran the enclave while it was under the protection of United Nations peacekeepers. He also was involved in the three-and-a-half-year siege of Sarajevo, in which 10,000 people were killed. For the past several years, Mr. Mladic has been thought to be living in neighboring Serbia. War crimes prosecutors claim he is under the protection of the army there. But Serbian officials have recently said that he left the republic a year ago after losing support from his protectors in the former Yugoslav army. SFOR troops, deployed here since the end of the 1992-1995 war, are policing a cease-fire by Bosnian Serbs, Muslims and Croats but they have also been assigned the task of arresting war crimes suspects. The force has so far arrested more than 20 Bosnian war crimes suspects, although it twice failed to arrest Mr. Karadzic in large-scale operations in February and March of 2002. The former president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, is on trial at The Hague on more than 60 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo during the 1990's. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mladic was buried in Miljevici, near Sarajevo, with 700 people attending the funeral. A wreath of flowers was laid on her grave with a message "From Ratko and family." "Stana had a hard life, but she had something to be proud of," a family member said in remarks at the funeral. "She was a great patriot, and she had proved that by raising her son properly."

Reuters 26 Aug 2003 Nearly 230 victims found so far in Bosnia grave By Nedim Dervisbegovic NEAR ZVORNIK, Bosnia, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Forensic experts said on Tuesday they had exhumed remains of nearly 230 Muslims killed early in Bosnia's 1992-5 war from one of the largest mass graves, but adding that hundreds more bodies might be found. Documents retrieved in the Crni Vrh (Black Peak) grave showed the victims were Muslims who went missing when Bosnian Serb forces, the former Yugoslav army and Serbian irregulars swiftly captured several eastern Bosnian towns, they said. About 200,000 people died in the Bosnian war, in which well-armed Serb forces fought against initially allied Croats and Muslims, who later also fought each other. Thousands died in "ethnic cleansing" after the capture of towns and villages. "We are in the fifth week and we have so far found 177 complete and 50 incomplete bodies," said Murat Hurtic, head of an expert team of the Muslim Commission for Missing Persons. Hurtic said tests showed more bodies were buried, below the three metre (yard) depth currently excavated in the grave, located in a hilly and wooded area off a road. It is in postwar Bosnia's Serb Republic, near the eastern town of Zvornik. "At this point we don't know how many bodies are beneath and whether they were buried together with those found so far. It could be hundreds but I can quite safely say it will be at least 100," Hurtic told Reuters at the site. Polish-born forensic expert Eva Klonowski said Crni Vrh was a "secondary" mass grave: "The bodies were moved here from one or more 'primary' graves." The biggest primary, or original, mass grave, was Glumina with 274 victims in former Yugoslav army plastic bags. The largest "secondary" grave was Kamenica, to which 500 bodily remains were moved from a primary grave to hide the crime. The commission had said that based on evidence from witnesses and other sources it expected to find remains of people killed in the area in 1992 and those killed in the 1995 Serb massacre of thousands of Muslims from Srebrenica. "So far, we have documents from people who disappeared in Zvornik, Bratunac and Vlasenica in 1992," Hurtic said. Members of Hurtic's team accompanied by U.N. war crimes investigators worked inside the 35 by four metre grave, patiently removing earth from piles of clothes, bones and shoes. "Many bones and skulls were damaged with bullets which means that the victims were most probably executed," Klonowski said. Sinan Hrustic, a 24-year-old Muslim who recently returned to live in the nearby village of Klise which his family fled in summer 1992, watched the exhumation work hoping the remains of his father and brother would be found in the grave. "They were among 150 people from our village and about 750 from the area that disappeared then," Hrustic said while his mother-in-law Ajka Hasanovic, in a traditional Muslim long dress and headscarf, stood by the mass grave and wept. "She lost 18 male family members and relatives. It is really hard for her," he said. Of 28,500 people missing from the Bosnian war, mostly Muslims, the remains of around 16,500 have been found and 11,500 identified.

AP 21 Aug 2003 '700 bodies' in Bosnian mass grave AP in Sarajevo Thursday August 21, 2003 The Guardian Experts have found the remains of 150 victims of the Bosnian war in the country's largest mass grave uncovered so far, and the total is expected to climb to 700, officials said yesterday. The site, the size of a tennis court, was opened last month on Crni Vrh hill, close to the border with Serbia, some 50 miles north-east of Sarajevo. Judging by documents and clothing found in the grave, the remains are those of Muslims killed by Bosnian Serb soldiers in and around the eastern town of Zvornik between April and June 1992. Most were civilians. Murat Hurtic, the head of a local branch of the Muslim Commission for Missing Persons, said some of the victims had been reburied after being unearthed from elsewhere, including three mass graves in Zvornik. Also at the site are representatives from the Hague tribunal prosecuting war crimes committed in the Balkan wars, and from the International Commission for Missing Persons. During the country's 1992-95 war between Serbs, Muslims and Croats about 250,000 people were killed. Around 20,000 people remain missing, presumed dead. Forensic experts have exhumed 16,500 bodies from more than 300 mass graves found since the end of the war. Crni Vrh is the 14th mass grave found this year.

Croatia

AFP 29 Aug 2003 Croatia ratchets up pressure on fugitive general wanted for war crimes Croatia urged wartime General Ante Gotovina to give himself up to the UN war crimes tribunal, with officials saying Friday that the fugitive was hurting the former Yugoslav republic's prospects for joining the European Union and NATO. "The Croatian government is publicly calling on General Gotovina to show up before The Hague tribunal because we are convinced that it is the only place where he can prove his innocence," Prime Minister Ivica Racan said in a letter to the Security Council on Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. Gotovina, 47, has been on the run since July 2001 after being indicted by the UN court on war crimes charges over the killing of at least 150 ethnic Serbs during a 1995 operation that was key in ending the four-year conflict in Croatia. The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Thursday which effectively took responsibility for investigating war crimes in Rwanda away from chief UN prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, limiting her role to the former Yugoslavia. The resolution also said all former Yugoslav republics should "intensify" cooperation by seeking to bring Gotovina to justice as well as fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic. Full cooperation with the UN tribunal is one of the key conditions Croatia has to meet in order to qualify for membership of the European Union, which it hopes to join in 2007. "This issue has to be solved and we are slowly running out of time," Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said Friday. Gotovina's case cannot harm Croatia's achievements overnight "but in long term it certainly does not do us any good," Picula said. The view was echoed by Picula's visiting Czech counterpart Cyril Svoboda who voiced his country's support to Croatia's EU aspirations stressing that full cooperation with the UN war crimes court was crucial to achieve that goal. "For membership in both the EU and NATO it is necessary to meet all conditions including those which currently seem politically problematic," said Svoboda, whose country is among 10 that are to join the EU in 2004. "I am referring also to cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague," he added. However, the Zagreb government, while pledging its "full support" to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), voiced regret in the UN letter that Gotovina was mentioned alongside Karadzic and Mladic. "The government rejects the ... equating of Gotovina's responsibilities with those of Karadzic and Mladic," the letter said. Karadzic and Mladic are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, notably during the siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II. According to the indictment against Gotovina, at least 150 ethnic Serbs were killed during "Operation Storm" against rebel Serb-held territory in the south of Croatia in 1995, hundreds went missing, and up to 200,000 fled the region. Zagreb has said Gotovina, a former French legionnaire, has almost certainly fled the country, with suggestions he could be hiding in Austria or Croat-dominated parts of neighbouring Bosnia. The indictment of Gotovina and other Croatian generals provoked outrage in the country as many see them as symbols of Zagreb's fight for independence from the former Yugoslavia.

France

French heatwave deaths a 'massacre' 11/08/2003 - 15:09:43 The deaths of about 50 people from heat-related illnesses in the Paris region in the last four days is a “veritable massacre,” the head of France’s emergency physicians’ association said. Patrick Pelloux criticised France’s surgeon general for characterising the deaths as natural. They dare to say that these are natural deaths,” he said. “I absolutely do not agree with that. This August 2003 we are faced with a veritable massacre.” The government was expected to respond today to criticism about its handling of the heatwave. Experts warned that elderly people were particularly at risk and said authorities were not reacting appropriately. “We are facing a human drama, carnage the like of which doubtless has never been seen in France. Yet the impression given is of radio silence. It makes me want to scream,” said Jean-Louis San Marco, president of the National Health Prevention and Education Institute. “Elderly people are dying of heat but indifference is the order of the day because theirs are clandestine, invisible deaths. Yet I assure you these are not natural deaths, as is said, and in many cases are avoidable,” he told Le Parisien newspaper. The leader of the opposition Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, joined the chorus of criticism, accusing the government of being “passive and inert.”

Germany

Reuters 16 Aug 2003 Germany Erects First Pillars of Holocaust Memorial By Emma Thomasson BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany erected on Saturday the first of a planned 2,700 concrete pillars for a long-delayed memorial to the six million Jews killed by the Nazis after years of agonizing over how to express its remorse for the Holocaust. Designed by U.S. architect Peter Eisenman, the memorial will consist of a maze of pillars standing on a site the size of several soccer pitches, a stone's throw from the landmark Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag parliament building at Berlin's heart. Due for completion in 2005 at a cost of more than 26 million euros ($29.3 million), the monument will be a grid of gray slabs of varying heights designed to leave visitors unsettled and disorientated. From a distance it will look like a sea of waves. As Eisenman examined the first 10 pillars erected on the site to check the quality of the slate gray concrete before contractors begin mass production of the slabs, the architect said the memorial should help Germans face up to their past. "You'll feel like what it is to be alone," he told reporters beneath the pillars. "You will feel what it is like to be lost in space. I talked to people who walked alone at Auschwitz, who saw their parents taken away, who felt lost to the world." Lobbying for the memorial started in 1988, but the project was repeatedly held up by disputes over its location, design, cost, building materials and a demand by the German parliament for an information center to be incorporated at the site. RENEWAL Lea Rosh, head of the Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which campaigned for the monument, said it was not surprising Germany had taken so long. "It is the first and only time in the history of the world as far as I know that a nation has stood to its own greatest crime and wanted to erect a memorial," she said. Both Rosh and Eisenman said the site of the memorial, at the heart of reunited Berlin, not far from the bunker where Adolf Hitler committed suicide in 1945 and incorporating the bunker of his chief of propaganda Joseph Goebbels, was perfect. "This isn't about guilt. It is about renewal. It's not about repression. It's about opening up," Eisenman said. Germans looking at the site from a viewing platform said they supported the project. "It is good and right that they are doing this. It is a part of German history," said Frank Kasparek, 33, a visitor from the southwestern city of Stuttgart. After deliberations over what material to use, Eisenman said he had chosen concrete because using marble or granite would have made the memorial look like a cemetery. Concrete's imperfections and how it aged were part of its charm, he said. "It is not about a thousand years," he said, referring to Hitler's dream for a Thousand Year Reich. Eisenman said he hoped that as in the case of other great monuments such as the Brandenburg Gate and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris the architect of this project would be forgotten: "This project is not about the people who are here. It's about the people who are not here and we shouldn't forget that."

AP 16 Aug 2003 Berlin Holocaust memorial takes shape The memorial will consist of 2,700 concrete slabs. BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Germany's national Holocaust memorial took shape Saturday after years of delay as its U.S. architect presented the first of 2,700 stark charcoal-gray concrete slabs that will make up the monument near the Brandenburg Gate. Backers expressed relief that the memorial was finally getting under way in earnest on a sandy site in the capital's revived center where the Berlin Wall ran before Germany reunited in 1990. "It's been a long road," writer Lea Rosh, who first proposed the project in 1988, said as red-and-white tape marking off sections of the construction site fluttered in the wind. German politicians rallied behind the project in the late 1990s after decades of debate over how Germany should remember Holocaust victims, but wrangling over details and the contract for making the slabs persisted even after the final design by American architect Peter Eisenman was approved in 1999. The planned monument -- 2,700 concrete slabs on a plot the size of two football fields -- commemorates the more than 6 million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis. After the backers resolved the final details, a German company began producing the slabs to Eisenman's specifications. On Saturday, he inspected the first 13-foot high block that passed muster and praised Germany's commitment to the project. "I feel great because I think it's going to be a fabulous project," he said. "It's a tribute to this country, this city, its government." Eisenman said the monument -- undulating rows of closely spaced slabs set slightly below street level -- would evoke the feeling of being trapped that Jews felt when they were sent to Nazi death camps. "You'll feel like what it's to be alone when all of these 2,700 are here," he said. "I talked to people who walked alone at Auschwitz, who saw their parents taken away, who felt lost to the world, felt lost to reality, lost to any kind of explanation," he said. "When you walk in this, it is not an abstraction. It will be just as real as walking alone there." Eisenman said he hoped the monument's starkness would free visitors to reflect on the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jews, making younger generations of Germans "speak about what they feel and what they think today" about the Holocaust. Backers once penciled in a January 27, 2004 completion date to coincide with the 59th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Latest plans call for completion by May 8, 2005 -- 60 years after Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II. Eisenman: The monument "will mean different things to different people." The planned monument's site resonates heavily with German history: Near the former site of Adolf Hitler's Fuehrer bunker, the area was part of the Berlin Wall's no man's land during the Cold War. Now the revived Reichstag parliament building and vibrant Potsdamer Platz square draw visitors to the neighborhood, and the new U.S. Embassy is slated to be built across the street. At the German parliament's insistence, the memorial will include an explanatory documentation center in an effort to prevent the site from becoming a place where Germans could simply unload responsibility for their past. The slabs will have a graffiti-resistant coating, reflecting officials' worries about neo-Nazi vandalism. Eisenman took a more sanguine view, saying he wouldn't even mind if the site were used for picnics or skateboarding. "It will mean different things to different people," he said. "That's fine."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 22 Aug 2003 'It's exactly there, where the silence starts, that it's difficult' Architect Peter Eisenmann speaks about his Jewishness and its relevance to Berlin's planned Holocaust Memorial Several of the 2,751 concrete steles that will be the focus of Berlin's planned Holocaust Memorial were presented to the public on the weekend by the initiator of the project, Lea Rosh, and its architect, Peter Eisenmann. Eisenmann, an American, spoke to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung about the project. American Jews are playing a decisive role in Germany's dealing with the Holocaust. Daniel Libeskind built the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and Michael Blumenthal is its first director. You developed the memorial for murdered Jews. A coincidence? Pure coincidence. I have never seen myself as a Jewish-American architect. I was always an American architect who just happened to be Jewish. Being Jewish was never a part of my public appearance. I don't have any Jewish clients. I wasn't bar mitzvahed. I am a very worldly Jew. Did you have a Christmas tree at home? We had a Christmas tree since I was three. I definitely didn't take the commission for the murdered Jews in Berlin because I am Jewish. Did the work on the Holocaust Memorial make the secular Jew Peter Eisenmann 'Jewish' again? Without question, the work caused a part of my character to emerge. Did you have the same experience as so many Jews, whose collective vision since the fading of religious feeling has become the Shoah? Certainly. You see, it's not only that I never went to the synagogue. I never married a Jewish woman, and my youngest son won't be bar mitzvahed. We have a Christmas tree every year, but that's as far as it goes: I draw the line at Easter... At first glance, the work on the Holocaust Memorial has not changed a lot of things: Rabbinical Judaism is still foreign to me. But one thing is different: I am now much closer to my psychological Jewishness. During the months of work my shrink helped me to free the repressed Jew inside me. The memorial as a therapeutic aid? I had to discuss things that until then I had never wanted to touch. And if the memorial succeeds, with its unanswered questions, in bringing Germans in the same way to discussion, then it will have succeeded in doing what I wanted it to. My therapist always says to me, ‘Tell me what is hot. Tell me what you don't want to tell me,' and then he goes quiet. But it's exactly there, where the silence starts, that it is difficult. One ultimately spends an incredible amount of strength to say what now must be said. This memorial achieves something very similar with people viewing it. It stands there, silent, and the one who has to talk is you. The people in Germany are like me: They have something on their minds and they must say it. That's also why I am not worried about the memorial - not about graffiti, and not about vandalism. If the memorial causes some smoldering fires in people's souls to really catch fire, then it will have served its purpose. For you the smoldering fire was your neglected Jewish heritage? That's right. And when I discovered this aspect during my work, I came back to the heart of my identity ... I was always aware that Jews are outsiders who live in the Diaspora. Even in New York, which I love intensely, I have always felt like an outsider. In Germany, on the other hand, I have a feeling of belonging. I can go into the Paris Bar at any time and get a table. That wouldn't work anywhere else. If you asked me where I would have liked to live in the 20th century, I would say in Berlin, between 1923 and 1933. So working on the most German-critical of all monuments has made you feel at home in Germany? I really believe that more Jews should return to Germany. If there is one place for which I would leave New York, it's Berlin. I have more roots here than over there. The interview was conducted by Niklas Maak and Konrad Schuller.

Telegraph UK 31 Aug 2003 Anger over tribute to Germany's 'war victims' By Tony Paterson in Berlin (Filed: 31/08/2003) Germany is embroiled in a bitter row with its future European Union neighbours to the east over plans for a lavish Berlin memorial to the 15 million Germans expelled from central Europe at the end of the Second World War. The project has been championed by Germany's two million-strong Expellees' Association, which says the suffering of Germans driven out of Nazi Reich territory in Poland, Czechoslovakia and former East Prussia by the advancing Red Army has been ignored. During the clearances, thousands of women were raped by Soviet soldiers and many people sent to labour camps. To mark their plight, the Expellees' Association plans a €100 million (£69 million) Centre against Expulsion containing a permanent exhibition and library. Controversially, it aims to build the centre next to the city's Holocaust memorial which is now under construction. The project has been condemned by Polish and Czech critics who see it as an attempt to portray the Germans as war victims. Last week, Czech officials protested to Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, who was visiting Prague to discuss the Czech Republic's forthcoming EU membership. An embarrassed Mr Fischer was asked by hostile Czech journalists whether the memorial centre was intended "as Germany's welcome to the EU's new member states". The issue is likely to overshadow a visit by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to the Czech capital this week. In Poland, Marek Edelman, one of the last survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis, said the centre risked "casting the executioner in the role of a victim". He added: "It will give the impression to future generations of Germans that only Jews and Germans suffered during the war." Walter Stratmann, a spokesman for the Expellees' Association, defended the project. "For decades, Germans have been brought up to think of themselves merely as perpetrators of Nazi war crimes. We want to show that the German people also suffered terribly as a result of being expelled." The centre has the backing of three German states and 400 towns and cities, which have levied a €5 cent tax on each person to fund it. Although Mr Schröder opposes the project, the Expellees' Association says he has no authority to halt it. Leading Polish and Czech politicians, including the former Polish foreign ministers Wladyslaw Bartoszewksi and Bronislaw Geremek, have signed a joint appeal stating: "Setting up such a centre as a national German project creates mistrust among neighbours and cannot be in the interest of our countries." They said that proposals to build the centre next to Berlin's Holocaust memorial showed that the project aimed to "weigh up the suffering of one group against the other". Millions of ethnic Germans were expelled from central Europe in 1945. Most were driven from territories such as East Prussia, Pomerania and Sudetenland - areas now belonging to Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic. Others were expelled during the late 1940s and 1950s, under the terms of the 1945 Potsdam treaty. Most of them resettled in western Germany, where they became - and remain - a significant force in regional and national politics. Erika Steinbach, the Expellees' Association president, dismissed her Polish and Czech critics, saying Germany should be allowed to mourn the plight of its people. She added: "Millions of those expelled were children. How can they be held responsible for the Nazis?"

Holy See

NYT 31 Aug 2003 New Look at Pius XII's Views of Nazis By LAURIE GOODSTEIN Pope Pius XII has been branded by some authors and Jewish leaders as "Hitler's Pope" for his silence during the Holocaust. Now, diplomatic documents recently brought to light by a Jesuit historian indicate that while serving as a Vatican diplomat, the future pope expressed strong antipathy to the Nazi regime in private communication with American officials. One document is a confidential memorandum written in April 1938 from Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who the next year became Pope Pius XII, in which he says that compromise with the Nazis should be "out of question." The other is a report by an American consul general relating that in a long conversation in 1937, Cardinal Pacelli called Hitler "a fundamentally wicked person" and "an untrustworthy scoundrel." Historians who have seen the documents say they bolster the view that the man who became Pope Pius XII was not a Nazi sympathizer, and was in fact convinced that the Nazis were a threat to the church and the stability of Europe. But the historians also agreed that the documents in no way explained or exonerated Pius XII's inaction in the face of the Holocaust. Indeed, in neither document does the cardinal even mention the persecution of the Jews that was well under way when they were written. The documents were described by Charles R. Gallagher, a Jesuit historian at St. Louis University, in an article in the Sept. 1 issue of America, the Jesuit weekly. Mr. Gallagher, 38, a former police officer who is a nonordained Jesuit studying to be a priest, said he came across them while researching a biography about another more obscure papal diplomat. Pope Pius XII's record has been under scrutiny in recent years while the Vatican considers whether he should be beatified, the final step before sainthood. Church officials in Rome and in the United States have expressed concern that the case for Pius XII's canonization suffered a setback with the popularity of books like "Hitler's Pope," by John Cornwell, and "Constantine's Sword," by James Carroll, that argue that Pius XII was complicit in the genocide of the Jews. Some historians cautioned that Catholic officials were now eager to employ any evidence to rehabilitate Pius XII's image. Mr. Gallagher said in an interview that he merely hoped the documents would illustrate that as a diplomat, Cardinal Pacelli made his case against the Nazis in private, to other diplomats. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that these documents exonerate him," Mr. Gallagher said. "What I think these findings might help to dispel is the impression that this pope was, as others have called him, `Hitler's Pope.' " Mr. Gallagher found the Pacelli memorandum among the diplomatic papers of Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, which are housed at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. Joseph Kennedy, whose son later became president, served as ambassador to England from 1938 to 1940. Ambassador Kennedy received the memorandum in April 1938 when he met in Rome with Cardinal Pacelli, who was then the Vatican's secretary of state. Cardinal Pacelli wrote that the memorandum reflected his "personal views" and that the ambassador had permission to share them with "your friend at home," which Mr. Gallagher said he believed was a reference to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Most of the memorandum is devoted to denouncing the stand taken by the Austrian bishops, who had recently made a statement in support of the occupying Nazi forces. Cardinal Pacelli suggests in the memorandum that the Austrian bishops had been coerced. The cardinal also wrote that the church "at times felt powerless and isolated in its daily struggle against all sorts of political excesses from the Bolsheviks to the new pagans arising among the young Aryan generations." He wrote that "evidence of good faith" by the Nazi regime was "completely lacking" and that "the possibility of an agreement" with the Nazis was "out of question for the time being." Mr. Gallagher found the second document among diplomatic papers at Harvard University. It was filed in 1939 by Alfred W. Klieforth, a former United States consul general, soon after Cardinal Pacelli was made pope. "His views, while they are well known, surprised me by their extremeness," Mr. Klieforth wrote, relating a conversation two years earlier with Cardinal Pacelli. "He said that he opposed unalterably every compromise with National Socialism. He regarded Hitler not only as an untrustworthy scoundrel, but as a fundamentally wicked person. He did not believe Hitler capable of moderation." The Rev. Gerald P. Fogarty, a professor of religious studies and history at the University of Virginia and an expert in Vatican diplomacy, said, "The documents make clear that from the 30's, Pacelli was opposed to National Socialism," primarily because the Nazis violated the rights of the church. Father Fogarty said that the memorandum to Mr. Kennedy had been in the public domain for nearly 50 years, but that Mr. Gallagher was the first to find a copy that proved it had been sent to the White House. Michael R. Marrus, dean of the graduate school at the University of Toronto, who holds a chair in Holocaust studies, said of the documents, "If there are people out there who still believe, and doubtless there are, that the Vatican was in cahoots with Nazi Germany, then this is a useful finding. "On the other hand," he said, "do I think this addresses the issue of the Vatican and the Holocaust? Absolutely not. And these are not trivial matters."

Netherlands

AFP 13 Aug 2003 War crimes court names three candidates for key prosecutor role, THE HAGUE, Aug 13 The International Criminal Court (ICC) Wednesday nominated three candidates for the critical role of deputy prosecutor, leaving it to governments to make the final decision. Whoever gets the job will have the key task of coordinating the investigation of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, according to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. The court became a legal reality in July last year and can only hear cases that have occurred since then. Governments were scheduled to choose the deputy prosecutor at a meeting between September 8 and 12. The candidates were Serge Brammertz, Belgium's federal prosecutor; Hassan Bubacarr Jallow, former Gambian justice minster, attorney general and supreme court judge; and Vladimir Tochilovsky, a Ukrainian trial attorney in the proesecutor's office in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). They were chosen from among 130 applicants, mostly men, from 43 countries following a campaign to attract "the best women and men representing all regions and legal systems of the world," Moreno-Ocampo said. The short list of candidates was selected with the help of the present and former prosecutors of the ICTY, Carla Del Ponte, Louise Arbour and Richard Goldstone. The United States has sought to limit the role of the ICC by signing bilateral agreements with a number of states to prevent the court acting against American citizens, and cutting off military aid to countries that refused to sign such agreements. Last month the United States proposed a resolution in the UN Security Council that would exclude ICC jurisdiction over any members of an international peacekeeping force for Liberia. The court has received scores of complaints from more than 60 countries, including one made recently by the Athens Bar Association against Prime Minister Tony Blair over what it alleges were 22 military attacks on civilian targets during the Iraq war. The court recently said the Democratic Republic of the Congo's northeastern Ituri region, where wide-scale massacres have been reported, was "the most urgent situation" under its jurisdiction.

AP 13 Aug 2003 Prosecutor proposes a Belgian, a Gambian and a Ukrainian for his deputy, THE HAGUE, Netherlands The chief prosecutor of the world's first permanent war crimes court proposed Wednesday a shortlist of eminent attorneys and former prosecutors from Belgium, Gambia and Ukraine for the job as his deputy. The selection would be another significant step in launching the International Criminal Court, which came into existence 13 months ago but which still lacks the infrastructure and personnel to investigate allegations of war crimes and to begin prosecutions. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said one of the three should be chosen next month at a conference in New York of the 91 member countries which signed the treaty creating the court. If none of the candidates is found suitable, the conference may ask the prosecutor for a new list. Moreno-Ocampo named the candidates as Serge Brammertz, 41, a veteran federal prosecutor from Belgium; Hassan Bubacarr Jallow, 51, a former supreme court justice, attorney general and justice minister from Gambia; and Vladimir Tochilovsky, 57, a former Ukrainian district attorney who worked for nine years as an investigator and trial lawyer for the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal based in The Hague. "I have no preference for one or the other," Moreno-Ocampo told journalists at the court's temporary headquarters. "Each would be perfect." The Argentine chief prosecutor, who took up his post in June, said he consulted the current chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, and two of her predecessors in narrowing the final list of candidates from the 130 applicants. Although it has not yet begun to function, Moreno-Ocampo announced last month he was following events in the Ituri province of Congo for a possible war crimes investigation, but said the court's mandate gave it no jurisdiction to prosecute alleged war crimes in Iraq or the Middle East.

Serbia

WP 5 Aug 2003 U.N. Officer Killed in Ambush In Kosovo By Nicholas Wood Special to The Washington Post Tuesday, August 5, 2003; Page A09 MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro, Aug. 4 -- An Indian policeman was gunned down in an ambush late Sunday in the first killing of a U.N. police officer on duty in Kosovo since the United Nations assumed control of the Serbian province in 1999. Today, U.N. police backed by helicopters and sniffer dogs were searching for evidence in villages just north of this city that could help locate the killers of Satish Menon, 43, who died when his car was hit by a hail of bullets from a semi-automatic rifle in northern Kosovo. The acting head of the U.N. mission, U.S. diplomat Charles Brayshaw, called the ambush "repugnant" and "a direct attack on international forces of law and order." A police spokesman said the attackers had placed boulders on the road to the north of Mitrovica to slow down the police car, which had U.N. markings. He said about eight rounds struck the car, in which Menon was a passenger. The driver, a British policeman, managed to jump from the vehicle and escaped unscathed. Investigators said the killers had clearly targeted a foreign police officer. Members of Kosovo's international police force, which numbers more than 4,400, can be clearly identified by the red and white Toyotas they drive. U.N.-led forces took over the administration of Kosovo in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign that sought to end Serbian military abuses against the majority ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo when Serbia was still part of Yugoslavia. Kosovo's Albanians now want independence from Serbia and Montenegro, a loosely configured entity that this year became the successor state to Yugoslavia. Police are paying particular attention to an almost identical incident on the same stretch of road in May in which a U.N. police car was shot at. No one was injured in that episode. The death of the Indian officer comes as anti-U.N. sentiment has increased among Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, following the trial and conviction in a U.N.-administered court last month of four former ethnic Albanian guerrillas on war crimes charges. The four, all former senior members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel militia that conducted a guerrilla war against Serb-led Yugoslav forces in 1998-99, were sentenced to between five and 17 years in prison. A rocket-propelled grenade was fired into a local courthouse shortly after the trial and numerous U.N. vehicles were vandalized. However, senior U.N. officials said the exact motive for Sunday's attack was still unclear. "It would be wrong to see any connection between this and any anti-U.N. sentiment," said Simon Haselock, the head of the mission's press and information department.

AP 13 Aug 2003 Serbia wants Kosovo back, promises broad autonomy By Misha Savic ASSOCIATED PRESS BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- Claiming U.N. officials failed to establish democracy in Kosovo, the Serbian government said Tuesday it wants to retake control of the province but pledged to give it "substantial autonomy." The government laid out its hopes of regaining authority in the south Serbian province in a document that is Belgrade's first comprehensive statement on its policy on Kosovo since former President Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power in 2000. Belgrade lost authority over Kosovo in 1999, when NATO launched 78 days of airstrikes against Serb troops to force them out of the province. The troops, under Milosevic's command, had waged a brutal campaign from 1998-1999 against the province's independence-seeking ethnic Albanian rebels. Since then, the United Nations, along with NATO peacekeepers, have been running the province. "Efforts by U.N. officials to establish a democratic and multiethnic society in Kosovo are unsatisfactory," the government said in the document, referring to ethnically motivated discrimination and attacks against Serbs. Up to 240,000 Serbs and other minorities fled Kosovo during and after the war, many fearing retaliation from ethnic Albanians who make up 90 percent of the population. About 100,000 Serbs remain in the province. The security situation remains "exceptionally bad, marked by frequent terrorist acts . . . murders and a drastic expansion of organized crime," the document said. The government said that only after the rule of law and ethnic tolerance are established in Kosovo should talks begin on "substantial autonomy for Kosovo within Serbia and Montenegro," the successor state to Yugoslavia. Belgrade's blueprint, however, will find no support from Kosovo's Albanians, who demand complete independence. The U.N. mission in Kosovo says the final political status of the province will be determined by the U.N. Security Council -- not Belgrade or Kosovo's Albanians. In the document, Belgrade also called on UNESCO to help protect Serbia's cultural heritage in Kosovo. Dozens of Serb medieval churches and monasteries have been destroyed in revenge attacks carried out by ethnic Albanians. The government also demanded that U.N. investigators bring indictments against ethnic Albanian militants who allegedly committed war crimes in the Kosovo war. More than 1,000 Serbs remain missing since the conflict. Milosevic is on trial in The Hague, Netherlands for 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide, for his alleged role in the wars in the 1990s in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Date: 13 Aug 2003 Serbia: Defense Minister says conflict escalating in south Belgrade, 13 August 2003 (RFE/RL) -- The defense minister of Serbia and Montenegro is warning that violence is rising between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in and around Kosovo. Boris Tadic said two attacks over the past two days represent what he called an "escalation of conflicts." He described the two incidents the "synchronized activity of ethnic Albanian extremists." On 11 August, militants of a group called the Albanian National Army fired mortar shells on an army base in southern Serbia. Yesterday, a group of about 15 people -- identified by Serbs as "Albanian extremists" -- fired on an army patrol near Kosovo's provincial border. No one was hurt in the attacks. United Nations police spokesman Derek Chappell said the gunmen in the second clash were possibly not extremists, but ethnic Albanians who had crossed out of Kosovo to illegally cut wood.

Transitions Online 25 Aug 2003 Undermining Kosovo's future Albanians are excluded from a UN Security Council meeting, while Serbs are dissatisfied with its outcome. PRISTINA, Kosovo - At the request of authorities from Serbia and Montenegro, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met on 18 August to discuss the rising tensions in Kosovo following the brutal murder of two Kosovo Serb teenagers in the enclave of Gorazdevac. The UNSC condemned the 13 August attack that left two Kosovo Serb teenagers dead and four others wounded but stopped short of labeling the incident a terrorist attack. The UNSC expressed concern that the continued violence in the province will undermine proposals to start talks between Belgrade and Pristina, as well as the future of Kosovo. Belgrade has said it is willing to grant autonomy to Kosovo--but not full independence as demanded by ethnic Albanians in the UN-administered province. "The brutal matters that have taken place in Gorazdevac should be a wake-up call," a UN press release quoted Munir Akram, who represents Pakistan on the Security Council, as saying. "By killing children, you are killing the future of Kosovo. The United Nations and the entire international community condemn this. The police are already on the job and no efforts will be spared to bring the perpetrators to justice. We will increase the security for Serbs in Kosovo," an UN press release quoted UNMIK deputy head Jean-Christian Caddy as saying. Speaking at the outset of the Council's open meeting, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic said the "hideous attack on innocent children swimming in the river near their homes in Kosovo and Metohija" had taken place only because they were Serbs, the UN news center reported. "Crimes like this are not really unique," Covic said. "They belong to a pattern of activity … that seeks to drive all Serbs out of Kosovo-Metohija and, of course, discourage any refugees and internally displaced persons from returning in order to bring the ethnic cleansing of the province to completion." Though Kosovo Serb representatives welcomed the UNSC's condemnation of the Gorazdevac attack, they expressed regret that the Security Council refused to proclaim the incident an act of terrorism, Beta news agency reported. According to Milan Ivanovic, head of the Serb National Council of Northern Kosovo, the senior UN body has once again managed to avoid clear condemnation of the situation. "Condemnation of the attack, but not as a terrorist act, is insufficient," Ivanovic said. Representatives of the Kosovo Provisional Institutions of Self-government (PISG) were also critical of the UNSC, protesting the fact that they were not invited to participate in the 18 August discussion. On the day of the meeting, Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi referred to Belgrade's request for the UNSC meeting as "a new wave of diplomatic incursion by Serbia in respect to Kosovo." Rexhepi sent an open letter of protest to all UNSC members. "Belgrade has become particularly enthusiastic and loud in trying to include Kosovo in its new constitution, and in spite of the terrible effects that may have [on the province]…The last in this series of actions is Belgrade's call for a meeting of the respectable Security Council in order to present only its distorted side of the story," Rexhepi wrote. Covic blamed the outlawed Albanian National Army (AKSh) for the recent incidents, going as far as to suggest that the Kosovo Protection Corps (TMK) was behind the attack in connection with the AKSh. The TMK had been banned from international training in May when some of its members were said to have been involved in the bombing of a railway bridge near Zvecani. UNMIK lifted the ban in June, though it said it was planning further investigations into possible links between the TMK and the AKSh. Former UNMIK chief Michael Steiner proclaimed the AKSh a terrorist organization. TMK commander General Agim Ceku denied Belgrade's accusations, calling them "libelous." Rexhepi's political advisor, Ramadan Avdiu, said that Belgrade is trying to discredit the TMK without any basis of evidence. "There is no way to compare the TMK's activities with the subversive activities of Belgrade through its people and its secret services," Avdiu said. According to Arben Xhaferi, the chair of the Democratic Party of Albanians in Macedonia, Belgrade is the source of the return of ethnic tensions to the Balkans. "All wars in the Balkans start when Serbs change their constitution. The current efforts of Belgrade to include Kosovo in the new constitution may have the same consequences," Xhaferi warned. Following the UNSC meeting, Serbia Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic said, "We have a completely clear picture of the situation and of what the intentions of the extremists are, and we are ready to respond to any operation they might launch," the Serbian government website reported last week. Zivkovic also said that he expects authorities in Belgrade to "have a picture of the full network [of terrorists] within about 10 days," after which international authorities will be informed about their findings. The prevailing attitude in Pristina is that the murder of the teenagers was organized by Serbian secret services in an attempt to undermine Kosovo's independence aspirations. "We all know how miserable the Serb intelligence service is. The Gorazdevac killing paved Covic's way to the UN Security Council," a young waiter in Pristina told TOL. Though the international community still has no suspects in the Gorazdevac killings, media in Belgrade and Kosovo have been rife with speculation. During a recent press conference held by the Kosovo Force (KFOR) and UNMIK, international officials qualified the media reports as "speculation that goes over every limit." "All those who say that incident in Gorazdevac was committed by Albanians or Serbs, while investigations are not over, confirm only one thing: that they are real speculators," KFOR spokesperson Sigfrid Hauben said. In Belgrade, several thousand people gathered on 24 August to pay final respects to the two teenagers killed on 13 August. Aleksandar Milovanovic, executive director of the Democratic Youth Association of Kosovo, said that the death of the teenagers "proves that Kosovo Serbs live and die in fear," Radio B92 reported. In other news, UNMIK police have arrested a 21-year-old Serb from a village in Mitrovica suspected of murdering UN police officer Satish Menon. Menon was murdered in an ambush on the Mitrovica-Leposavic main highway on 3 August. --by Bekim Greicevci

Russia

WP 1 Aug 2003 VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia -- The Russian military killed 25 separatist rebels in a string of operations in southern Chechnya, a military spokesman said. The rebels were killed during reconnaissance and search operations in Chechnya's Itum-Kale and Shatoi districts and the Argun Gorge, Col. Ilya Shabalkin told the Interfax news agency. About 10 Russian servicemen were killed in the same 24-hour period in clashes with the separatists and in mine explosions, an official in the Moscow-backed administration said on condition of anonymity.

Prague Watchdog 2 Aug 2003 Only few Chechens who disappeared during mop up operations return home Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus - Only a small part of those who disappeared during Russian mop up operations have re-joined their families, said participants in a session of the Council for Assisting in Securing Human and Citizens´ Rights and Freedoms on July 30 in Grozny. "As of April 24 this year, the council, which has to assist in searching for those who are missing, forcibly detained or kidnapped by uniformed men, found and returned home only 10 people," said the council´ s chairman and Grozny´ s vice-mayor Said Mokhchayev. The whereabouts of 16 other missing had been identified and criminal charges launched in connection with their disappearance, Mokhchayev added. The Council pointed out that 181 people have turned to the local administration in Grozny only in connection with disappearances and mop up operations since April 2000. Mokhchayev said that the period during which the citizens can turn to the administration would be prolonged. The inquiries will be accepted particularly in four district administrations of Grozny. According to Human Rights Watch, some 60 Chechens are abducted each month.

AFP 14 Aug 2003 Last Chechen refugee camp in Ingushetia to close by October 1 MOSCOW, Aug 14 (AFP) - Russia will shut down the last Chechen refugee camp in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia by October 1, four years to the day after Russian forces began a military offensive in restive Chechnya, a top official said Thursday. Anatoly Popov, the acting head of the pro-Russian administration in Chechnya, told Interfax news agency all of the estimated 9,500 refugees living in the makeshift tent camps would be relocated to Chechnya's capital Grozny. Tens of thousands of refugees fled the republic to Ingushetia after Russian troops moved in in 1999 to quash what they said was a separatist insurgency. Most of the refugees found accommodation with families who offered to take them in. The decision to send them back to Chechnya is part of a Kremlin effort to assure the public that the military phase of its Chechen operation is over and that Russian troops are now stationed in the Caucasian republic in a policing capacity. But human rights groups have condemned Russia's decision to force refugees to return to Chechnya, where guerrilla warfare causes casualties on an almost daily basis, saying that conditions there are not yet safe for civilians. A presidential election in Chechnya has been scheduled for October 5, with at least 14 candidates already officially registered in the race.

Serbia

AP 14 Aug 2003 Serbs Retaliate for Shooting in Kosovo PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) -- Serbs blocked a key road and hurled a grenade at an ethnic Albanian's house in apparent retaliation for a machine-gun attack that killed two Serb youths and wounded four others in the worst violence against Kosovo's beleaguered minority this year. At least one gunman opened fire on teenagers swimming in the Bistrica River in western Kosovo on Wednesday near the ethnic Albanian village of Zahac, which neighbors the Serb village of Gorazdevac. The area is located about 50 miles west of the provincial capital, Pristina. Police said they had no suspects and could not say if the attack was ethnically motivated. In response to the shooting, local Serbs in the western Kosovo village of Osojane blocked a key road on Thursday, U.N. police spokesman Dan Laird said. Also in an apparent act of retaliation, unknown suspects late Wednesday hurled a grenade at the house of an ethnic Albanian in the predominantly Serb side of the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica, said Andrea Angeli, a U.N. spokesman. No one was injured. Leaders in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, also condemned the attack and called for more security for Kosovo's Serb minority. ``Kosovo is descending into a catastrophe,'' said Nebojsa Covic, a Serbian deputy prime minister, calling the attack ``a continuation of ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo.'' The southern Serbian province has been administered by the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers since June 1999, after the alliance's 78-day bombing campaign halted a crackdown by Serb forces on separatist ethnic Albanians. Since the war, Kosovo's Serb minority has been targeted by ethnic Albanian extremists in revenge attacks for atrocities committed during the conflict. One of the victims described from his hospital bed how bullets began raining down on the youths. ``About 50 of us were taking a swim when we heard one, two, three machine gun bursts. I saw the children falling around me, and then a felt strong pain in my arm and knee,'' Djordje Ugrinovic, 20, told the newspaper Vecernje Novosti. Police had no suspects and did not say whether they believed the attack was ethnically motivated. Maj. Gen. Yves de Kermabon, the deputy head of NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, called the attack ``barbarism'' and said such violence would not be tolerated and security was being tightened in the area. Kosovo remains ethnically tense despite international officials' struggle to promote ethnic harmony after the ouster of former President Slobodan Milosevic, who is being tried for genocide at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

World News Connection, August 14, 2003, 947 words, SURVEY REVEALS SERBIA'S CITIZENS MOSTLY TRUST CHURCH, ARMY, Report by A.R. Popovic: "They Trust the Church and the Army" Belgrade --- Serbia's citizens still place most of their trust in the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) and the army, as was the case during the turbulent 1990s. This is one of the rare survey findings that, according to all indicators, has not changed much in the last decade and a half, not even after the fall of (former Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic. The survey that the "Medium Index Gallup International" Agency -- which is led by Doctor Srbobran Brankovic -- conducted exclusively for Novosti shows that as many as 68 percent of Serbia's citizens trust the SPC, while 61 percent of respondents trust the Serbia-Montenegro Army. The survey was conducted on a sample of 1,100 adult citizens of Serbia (not including Kosovo and Metohija) in 37 districts (55 villages and cities). The survey showed that 22 percent of the respondents have no trust in the SPC and 36 percent have no trust in the army. Citizens' views on the police are divided; the number of citizens who trust the police and the number of those who do not have any trust in the police are the same: 48 percent of respondents trust the police and 48 percent of the citizens surveyed said that they have no trust in this institution. "We discovered an interesting thing in this survey: the citizens of Serbia have the least trust in the media. Only 33 percent of citizens surveyed have trust in the state media," Dr. Brankovic said. The citizens of Serbia also do not have a lot of trust in the Serbian Assembly. Only 36 percent of respondents said that they trust this institution, while 60 percent of citizens surveyed said that they do not trust the assembly. A negative opinion also prevails with regard to the judiciary and the Serbian Government. A total of 38 percent of respondents trust the judiciary and 39 percent trust the government. For the first time since the change of government, more people mistrust the National Bank than trust this institution: 47 percent of respondents have no trust in this institution, while 44 percent of the citizens trust the National Bank. This is probably related to the change of the National Bank governor. In this public opinion survey on current topical political issues, the "Medium Gallup" team led by Dr. Brankovic also asked the following question: What is the most important problem that our country is facing at the moment and that should be resolved first? Almost three-fourths of the citizens surveyed (70.9 percent) believe that the most important problem is the citizens' living standards. One out of every ten respondents believes that crime and corruption are the most important problems in the country, while everything else is pushed to the background. In response to the question "What is the second most important problem in the country," most citizens said crime and corruption. Every fifth respondent said that political disputes in the country are the second most important problem. "It seems that the problem regarding relations with Montenegro no longer interests the citizens of Serbia," Dr. Brankovic concluded. "Perhaps they believe that this problem is more or less resolved now that the Charter has been ratified. Or perhaps they have gotten used to seeing the country in which they live change. As a character on one of the old TV series noted, people here have changed countries three times without even leaving their homes. It would not be a big shock if they live through one more change." The survey showed one more interesting thing: it is easy to note a change in citizens' priorities. In the early and mid-1990s people were preoccupied with national issues and they responded to the demagogic politicians' calls for sacrifice for the so-called historical aims?! Today the citizens of Serbia are much more interested in the integrative processes and our integration into Europe and the world. In response to the question, "Should our country pay more attention to integration into the EU, the Partnership for Peace, or NATO," Serbia's citizens gave Europe the priority. "If Serbia had to choose between the United States and the EU as the priority in its foreign policy, as many as 74 percent of the citizens surveyed believe that Serbia should adopt a course toward the EU. Only 8 percent of the respondents believe that the United States should be Serbia's priority," Dr. Brankovic said. A total of 59 percent of citizens believe that our country's priority should be integration into the Partnership for Peace, while 43 percent of the citizens surveyed prefer integration into NATO. (Box) For Europe Approximately 71.8 percent of citizens surveyed believe that Serbia should follow the EU in its foreign policy. Only 8.1 percent of the respondents believe that Serbia should follow the US's lead, while 20.1 percent of the respondents cannot assess which of the two is better. (Box) No Agreement With the United States As many as 62.8 percent of Serbia's citizens are against signing the agreement on non-extradition of US citizens to the International Criminal Court. One out of every ten citizens of Serbia (10.5 percent) supports signing of this agreement with the United States, while a bit more than one-fourth of respondents (26.8 percent) "cannot assess" the question. (Description of Source: Belgrade Vecernje Novosti in Serbian -- high-circulation tabloid owned by the federal government)

Spain

Ap 27 Aug 2003 Argentine Victims Testify Against Cavallo By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 6:36 p.m. ET MADRID, Spain (AP) -- A Spanish judge seeking to put a former Argentine military officer on trial for rights abuses wrapped up his investigation Wednesday after hearing from seven alleged torture victims -- including one who said he was subjected to electric shocks with his newborn son lying on his chest. Carlos Lordkipanidse, 51, told The Associated Press he met the suspect, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, the first night he was tortured in Buenos Aires in 1978 and saw and heard how Cavallo took part in many torture sessions. Lordkipanidse was one of four witnesses to testify Tuesday before Judge Baltasar Garzon, and three others did so Wednesday. Garzon has been gathering testimony into possible abuses by the Argentinian officers since the mid 1990s in preparation for possible trial. He is acting under a Spanish law that says crimes against humanity can be tried in Spain even if they did not occur here. Still, Cavallo may be sent home now that Argentina's Congress has repealed laws that halted trials of people accused of abuses during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Argentina's Supreme Court must now rule on the repeal, and if it is upheld, it seems likely that Cavallo would be returned to Argentina for trial. Lordkipanidse said several nights later his 20-day-old son Rodolfo was placed on his chest as an electric current was applied and that the baby felt it, too, but survived. His son now lives in Sweden and is in good health, he said. Five of the seven witnesses to go before Garzon this week were held at Argentina's Navy Mechanical School, or ESMA, the most feared torture center run by the dictatorship. An estimated 5,000 people are believed to have died there, and Cavallo is alleged to have been a key figure at the center. Cavallo was extradited in June to Spain from Mexico, where he was living under another name, after torture victims living in Mexico saw him on television and reported him to the police. Lordkipanidse said many of his friends, who also were kept at the navy school with hoods over their heads night and day, vanished never to be heard from again. ``They (military officers) have tried to cover the affair up, but they forgot how committed we are. It's a commitment to our companions in the struggle, who were hooded and later disappeared,'' Lordkipanidse told reporters. An official Argentine report concluded that at least 9,000 people were killed by the military junta as it sought to snuff out dissent, both real and perceived. Human rights group put the figure at 30,000. Garzon has charged Cavallo with genocide and terrorism. Victims also accuse Cavallo of stealing money from them and using it to set up a network of businesses across Latin America.

Turkey (see Iraq)

ANCA anca.org REP. PALLONE PROTESTS TURKISH DECREE MANDATING TEACHING OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL IN ALL TURKISH SCHOOLS ------------------------------------------------------------ -- Turkish Embassy Defends Decision; Responds with Standard Denial WASHINGTON, DC - Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) urged the Turkish Government last week to rescind an April, 2003 decree forcing teachers and students alike to participate in a centrally organized campaign of Genocide denial, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). In a July 28th letter to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, Rep. Pallone expressed his "deep concern of your government's recent decision to mandate the teaching of denial of the Armenian Genocide to students of all ages. This act is a disturbing development and contrary to recent overtures by the your government that Turkey seeks to improve relations with Armenia." The Congressman's letter went on to cite the strong criticism registered by the European Parliament and various human rights associations against the mandate. On June 5th, a resolution adopted by the European Parliament discussing the status of Turkey's accession to the European Union expressed concern "about recent instructions set up by the Turkish Ministry of Education forcing primary and secondary schools to participate into a denial campaign of the minorities oppression during the history of Turkey, especially against the Armenian community." Rep. Pallone also expressed dismay about the detention and subsequent arrest of a Turkish teacher who had questioned the decree at a May 30th government sponsored seminar on "teaching genocide denial" in the town of Elbaly in the Kilis region. Upon asking a question regarding international recognition of the Genocide, Mrs. Julia Akpinar and five additional teachers were detained. Akpinar was later arrested and only allowed out on about $1,000 bail. Judicial proceedings are pending against Akpinar, who has been removed from her teaching position. Turkish Embassy Responds with Denialist Rhetoric - Turkish Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Naci Saribas fired off a quick reply to Rep. Pallone's letter defending his Government's decision to teach Genocide denial, calling it a "belated effort to enable students to inform themselves about their own history." The letter continues this line or argumentation, stating that "the allegation of genocide in this case has not, to date, been historically or legally substantiated." In a further indication that Turkey seeks to normalize relations with Armenia only on the basis of its continued denial of the Armenian Genocide, Saribas pointed out that, "with this understanding, Turkey has been actively pursuing reconciliation through dialogue with Armenians both in Armenia and in the Diaspora with a view to finally putting this issue to rest in a mutually acceptable manner." According to an April 14th decree by Education Minister Huseyin Celik, the Ministry "must include the subject of the claims of an alleged genocide as part of the history and social studies education." To that end, Minister Celik called on all primary and secondary school teachers to participate in local conferences organized to "instruct that the claims of the Armenian Genocide are groundless." The decree also mandates that all high school students must participate in a centrally organized essay contest refuting the Armenian Genocide, with the best essay to be published in an Education Ministry Journal. The Education Minister's decision has been roundly criticized by a variety of human and civil rights organizations. This week, a coalition of 170 European organizations urged the European Union to suspend all education assistance to Turkey. The EU has projected a $100 million aid package for education programs in Turkey from fiscal year 2003-2009. Speaking on behalf of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (formerly ANC of Europe), Chairwoman Hilda Tchoboian argued that "European aid must not finance the Turkish education system, as long as it disseminates in its schools values that oppose the principles upheld by Europe, just as we would not finance teaching the denial of the Jewish Holocaust or justification of apartheid in South Africa."