Justin Podur

Evacuate Gaza, but kill 1000?

Another one that’s tough to verify, this one comes via the News Insider. Apparently Israel’s got a list of 1000 people to kill in Gaza before ‘withdrawal’.

For those who don’t understand ‘withdrawal’, it means Israel seals Gaza off completely, maybe evacuates settlers or maybe doesn’t, continues to slaughter Palestinians in Gaza at will, continues to control all traffic in and out of the area, and therefore that Palestinians continue to starve. It also means that because Israel has ‘withdrawn’, the argument so frequently used by people who don’t find starving children offensive so long as those children are not their own, that Palestinians are starving their own children, can be used. The media will believe it. You can expect headlines that say: ‘Israeli withdrawal prompts starvation in Gaza’, or something. Then maybe Israel can return in a few years.

But I get ahead of myself. So the article (really just a blurb), has this quote:

“An Israeli field officer based in the Gaza Strip was quoted as saying by the British paper the army was changing its tactics. After initially pursuing the leaders of various groups, it was now turning to second and third-ranking figures in the command structure.”

As if Israel wasn’t indiscriminate enough in its killing.

Israel seems to have the same kind of problem with funerals as the US has with weddings. They fired on a funeral procession (for people Israel had killed) in Rafah, shooting one person in the eye.

Still other, related news: Rumsfeld has gone to the root of the problem with the US military — and banned digital cameras.

Thanks to the News Insider for these stories.

Dispensing with the paramilitaries in Colombia

It is official — Colombia is dispensing with its paramilitary units.

From now on, the Colombian Army will do the killing itself.

‘Justice for Colombia’ just sent out a note (included below) that says uniformed men of the 18th Brigade of the Colombian Army perpetrated a massacre in Arauca, Colombia, on May 21. They disappeared 13 people. 11 of whose corpses were found the next day. That’s two days ago — Saturday. The story made Colombia’s national newspaper, El Tiempo, today.

The United Nations said 250,000 Colombians were displaced by violence in 2003, by this kind of paramilitary violence.

It is appalling that the Colombian military and paramilitaries would act in this way, especially when the country’s leaders set such a high standard for civilized behavior.

Take Fernando Londono, the architect of many of Uribe’s policies (including the failed referendum of October 2003). He called anti-free trade protesters ‘barbarians’ in an El Tiempo column. Rings a little hollow when the government is supporting mass slaughter though.

President Uribe himself sort of lost it the other day in Madrid. Looking for military and other aid, Uribe was trying to make a speech when some Spanish activists (from Ecologistas de Accion), pointed out that his presence at a ceremony in ‘solidarity’ with the victims of terrorism in Spain rang a little hollow since his government holds the record for most terrorist in the Americas (doing the bidding of the government that holds the record for most terrorist in the world). They chanted statistics on human rights violations in Colombia. Uribe first said: “The first human right is the right to the liberty of opinion of others.” The activists were apparently unconvinced. At that point various Colombian diplomatic officials started shouting the activists down, chanting: “Down with the ambassadors of of the narcoguerrilla!” Things went downhill from there.

On Friday May 21st a group of 200 heavily armed men entered the communities of Flor Amarillo and Cravo Charo in the Colombian department of Arauca and perpetrated a massacre. According to witnesses the men were a mixed group of paramilitaries and Colombian soldiers from the following army units: 5th Mobile Brigade, 43rd Counter-guerrilla Battalion of the 18th Brigade and the ‘Narvas Pardo’ Battalion also of the 18th Brigade.

Upon arriving the men took away 13 local residents including Julio Vega, a local community leader and regional organiser in the agricultural workers’ trade union. On Saturday May 22nd 11 of the victims were found dead with signs of torture outside the nearby village of Pinalito.

The Colombian NGO Corporacion Reinciar had written to the Colombian Government on May 20th asking that they protect the inhabitants of the above mentioned communities due to reports that a paramilitary unit had entered the area. According to the NGO, the paramilitaries were threatening people and looting shops and homes, accusing residents of sympathising with FARC guerrillas. The Government did not respond and as a consequence 11 people are now dead and a further two, including an important regional trade union activist, are disappeared, presumed dead.

Please write to the Colombian Government demanding that action be taken to prevent further attacks. Please also write to Bill Rammell MP at the UK Foreign Office and insist that UK military aid to the Colombian army be suspended. Although Justice for Colombia have asked Mr Rammell if any of the above mentioned army units are receiving UK military aid he has refused to say.

E-mail addresses of those to write to, as well as model letters which you can adapt, can be found on our website by clicking here: http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/action.html

Brazil and Haiti

For those of you who will watch the Bush address tonight, I wish you well on the masochistic enterprise. I am capable of reading the texts after the fact, but mental health preservation precludes me spending too much time watching these people on television.

Other things to report. The Brazilian commander of the UN ‘peacekeeping mission’ in Haiti that is to take over the occupation of that country soon was interviewed for Correio Brazilense and the interview was translated into english. It is interesting, and quite sad, to hear a Brazilian answering a question like this:

[Lefcovich] Isn’t Brazil legitimizing US intervention and the ousting of [former Haitian] President Jean-Bertrand Aristide ?

like this:

[De Oliveira] No. That is a biased interpretation. As far as the United Nations and participants in the Minustah [United Nations Multi-Dimensional Stabilization Mission in Haiti] are concerned, Aristide tendered his resignation. I agree that there were some doubts concerning this matter at one point, but an Itamaraty [Brazilian Foreign Ministry] delegation has toured several Caribbean countries and ascertained that they endorse Brazil’s participation in this UN force. Furthermore, the current situation in Haiti is more stable than at the time of Aristide’s resignation. Schools, hotels and banks are operating normally. Life is returning to normal for the Haitian people.

This is a real shame. One might have hoped that Brazil, a country that has suffered a US coup (in 1964) and knows what US intervention is like, a country with a left regime in power, would have done a better job of standing up for the sovereignty and the will of the people of a Latin American country. That Colombia’s regime and the Venezuelan elite are willing to shoot themselves in the head to do the US’s bidding is no surprise; that Brazilian agents of the state are repeating US lies in public fora and sending troops to ratify occupation is tragic. So long as the US can get third world countries to occupy one another, there’s very little hope against imperialism.

The entire interview is below.

BBC Monitoring: Commander of Brazilian peacekeeping contingent views mission challenges in Haiti.

Text of “exclusive” interview with Brig-Gen Americo Salvador de Oliveira, commander of the Brazilian peacekeeping contingent in Haiti, by Sandra Lefcovich at Army General Headquarters : “The challenge will be to disarm Haitians”, published by Brazilian newspaper Correio Braziliense web site on 21 May.

Brigadier General Americo Salvador de Oliveira, 56, has been working very hard to cover every detail of his upcoming mission as commander of the Brazilian peacekeeping contingent in Haiti.

De Oliveira joined the army 37 years ago and this will be his first assignment with a UN peacekeeping force. He has served as commander of the Officers’ Training School in Rio de Janeiro, and as military attache in Germany for two years. “I feel nothing but pride. It is a stimulating challenge and a unique experience,” the general told Correio during an exclusive interview at Army General Headquarters. As part of his preparations for the mission he has had seven vaccinations so far.

[Lefcovich] US military personnel are not exactly welcome abroad. Do you believe that Brazilian military personnel are regarded in a different light, even though they are also foreigners ? [De Oliveira] Our reconnaissance group deployed to Haiti in March this year has ascertained that relations could hardly be better. The Haitian people like Brazilians very much. There was a two-day holiday in Haiti after Brazil won the latest World Cup. They admire our Ronaldinho and other soccer players.

[Lefcovich] How is security nowadays ? [De Oliveira] According to the information we have, the situation is currently stable. The various groups have drawn back and are not resorting to violence.

[Lefcovich] What will be the scope of action of the Brazilian contingent ? [De Oliveira] We will not engage in drug enforcement operations. One of our missions will be to disarm groups that espouse political ideologies and the actions we take will depend on the situation, because in Haiti there are many weapons in the hands of the people and no-one will hand them over willingly. The United Nations is developing a disarmament strategy.

[Lefcovich] Are you saying that drug enforcement will be left in the hands of the police ? [De Oliveira] Yes. The situation in Haiti is similar to that of our country. Drug enforcement will be left to the police. The United Nations has asked for 6,700 military personnel and 1,622 policemen. We must emphasize this point so as to avoid the misconception that armed forces personnel are being sent abroad to fight organized crime and drug trafficking in Haiti instead of Rio de Janeiro, right ? These are two separate issues.

[Lefcovich] Why is the mission in Haiti important for the army ? [De Oliveira] Our mission is to participate, together with other countries, in a multinational UN force that will ensure stability in Haiti, which is what the temporary force deployed there has been doing to date. This stability will help reestablish the democratic process with a view to elections as of 2005. Hence, our status in Haiti will be that of a friendly, impartial, non-hostile force deployed within the framework of the United Nations.

[Lefcovich] Isn’t Brazil legitimizing US intervention and the ousting of [former Haitian] President Jean-Bertrand Aristide ? [De Oliveira] No. That is a biased interpretation. As far as the United Nations and participants in the Minustah [United Nations Multi-Dimensional Stabilization Mission in Haiti] are concerned, Aristide tendered his resignation. I agree that there were some doubts concerning this matter at one point, but an Itamaraty [Brazilian Foreign Ministry] delegation has toured several Caribbean countries and ascertained that they endorse Brazil’s participation in this UN force. Furthermore, the current situation in Haiti is more stable than at the time of Aristide’s resignation. Schools, hotels and banks are operating normally. Life is returning to normal for the Haitian people.

[Lefcovich] Do the armed force have the necessary resources for this mission ? [De Oliveira] Yes. The required materiel must comply with UN standards and we are acquiring whatever was lacking.

[Lefcovich] What about salary cutbacks ? [De Oliveira] Well, that is not a source of concern, our personnel are all volunteers ; they would go no matter what. Military personnel will earn more because whatever they make will be in addition to their domestic salaries.

[Lefcovich] Is the army concerned about the fact that money is being spent on peacekeeping missions despite funding shortages to pay the salaries of military personnel ? [De Oliveira] The army is not concerned because we are doing what the armed forces are supposed to do. We do worry when police forces fail to do their job and we are called upon to carry out missions that are not within the purview of the military. We are not trained to fight organized crime.

[Lefcovich] That would be the case in Rio de Janeiro. [De Oliveira] The army has never refused to help out, but one must go about it the right way. We are tasked with upholding law and order, but all other means must be exhausted for us to step in.

[Lefcovich] You are saying that your job in Haiti would be different from that in Rio de Janeiro ? [De Oliveira] We are going to Haiti not as policemen, but as the Brazilian Armed Forces contingent within the framework of a multinational peacekeeping mission.

[Lefcovich] Are soldiers forbidden from making contact with Haitian women ? [De Oliveira] It is not forbidden, but it is not recommended. Haiti has the highest rate of AIDS cases in the Americas, second only to Africa. Condoms will be distributed.

[Lefcovich] Will the fact that Brazilian soldiers do not speak the language – which was not the case in Angola – be a problem ? [De Oliveira] We are taking steps to deal with it. We are taking with us 10 French interpreters to deal with government officials, but the population speaks Creole. We are compiling a French-Creole-Portuguese dictionary for the troops. Given our people’s ability to adapt themselves, however, I believe our troops will come back speaking Creole.

Source : Correio Braziliense web site, Brasilia, in Portuguese 21 May 04

blogging about blogs

I have linked to Zeynep Toufe’s blog, ‘Under the Same Sun’, which promises to have interesting content (being crazy about the colour scheme is not obligatory). I’ve read pretty much everything Toufe has presented, and she strikes me as brilliant, principled, and very independent.

Was also happy to hear that the UTS blog is being revived after a long hiatus due to time constraints on the intrepid editors of the NewStandard, with a hilarious and highly accurate analysis of the likely effect of recent US efforts to make Iraq a safer place and an expose of more ridiculous claims to cover up the wedding atrocity. Don’t leave us thirsty any more, UTS!

The Nasayuwe of Colombia at the United Nations

First things first. I’ve just published a photo essay on the indigenous movement in Northern Cauca. Please check it out.

On the subject, representatives from the Nasa indigenous communities of Northern Cauca, Colombia, were at the United Nations last week. Everyone should have their day at the UN, and the Nasa got five minutes, because they won the UNDP’s Equatorial Initiative Award for Sustainable Development back in February 2004.

Now, it’s true that the UN has a flawless record: from preventing aggression in Vietnam, to stopping genocide in Rwanda, to stopping sanctions in Cuba and Iraq, to stopping the invasion of Iraq, to stopping the US/Israel’s murderous campaign against the Palestinians, to reversing the coup in Haiti, the UN has proven itself singularly effective and principled at every turn.

But seriously, all sarcasm aside, the reason for the above examples is because the UN is an arena, not a government with forces or resources; that’s why what the US says goes in the world. In a context like this, what matters isn’t what the UN said to the Nasa, but what the Nasa said to the UN: what the Nasa are asking from the rest of the world.

What are they asking?

In the photo essay , I touch on the Nasa’s ‘guardia indigena’, unarmed members of the community who carry sticks to symbolize their authority. These ‘guardia indigena’ have actually been very effective in limiting the paramilitary attacks on their communities (and, unfortunate that they have had to, but also in limiting the guerrillas’ attacks on their communities’ autonomy).

Because the Nasa are under siege and under attack by the elite and by the military forces that want to displace them, they are asking for international peacekeeping — but they want it under the command of the guardia indigena. It is actually a very sensible proposition.

El Tiempo, Colombia’s national newspaper, ran an editorial expressing pride in the Nasa for winning the UNDP prize. It didn’t discuss their proposal, however. Don’t expect Bush or Uribe (Colombia’s President) to jump to implement it either.

Still, the idea of an international peacekeeping force under the command of a well-organized, popular, autonomous social movement as an inspiring one, and an interesting one to take to the UN.

Some Canadian Content

Canadians will be heading to the polls well before US citizens in 2004, it turns out. As the federal elections approach, Canadians are once again faced with a truly abysmal choice. The Liberals are an appalling gang of crooks, from the Prime Minister (who owned a steamship line that uses flags of convenience, hurried off to occupy Haiti with the US and has Canadian troops overseeing the ongoing massacre in that country, and is now apparently telling audiences at speaking events that Saddam had WMD and now they’re in the hands of terrorists — when not even the Bush Administration is trying to use that old lie) on down, and the Conservative Alliance has a wide range of debate, from the open and unapologetic racism of Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day to… okay it’s actually not really a very wide range at all. The NDP is more interesting: they might be able to pick up some seats from the Liberals, which would be a good thing.

For just a slight taste of a long-standing trend in Canadian politics that whatever gang wins this election is unlikely to change, check this recent article on Kanehsatake that I did, on a Mohawk community near Montreal. OCAP works with folks in Kanehsatake.

More below.

In Ontario, the media and elite are up in arms over a levy that the Liberals have proposed. A ‘levy’ is not to be confused with a ‘tax’. This ‘levy’ will go to health care, and it is graduated — apparently in the low income bracket people will pay $400/yr, and the most you’d pay is $900. I am also quite appalled by this ‘levy’, though not for the same reasons. If the highest income in Ontario were twice the lowest, such a levy would be appropriate. But since the highest income in Ontario is probably 200 times the lowest, that would make more sense as a ‘levy’ to save health care. Or we could restore corporate taxes, or something crazy like that. Rick Salutin in the Globe and Mail , a decent Canadian progressive, makes a case for raising taxes in Ontario. The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, another very decent progressive outfit, publishes an alternative budget every year.

US and Quentin Tarantino

I realized yesterday after writing my previous post on the US vs. Holy Matrimony that the inspiration for the wedding party massacres might have come from Hollywood. How many readers have seen Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’? The premise of the movie is that an assassin who has given up the assassin’s life to get married and live peacefully in Texas (Beatrix Kiddo) gets hunted down and killed at her wedding rehearsal by her old boss (Bill) and her assassination squadmates, who kill everyone present with automatic weapons. But she doesn’t actually die — she recovers 4 years later and stalks and kills all of her former teammates and Bill. The opening scene of Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2 is the same gruesome, gory scene of Bill delivering the coup de grace to Beatrix. It is horrific to watch, actually. Maybe ‘Kill Bill’ is providing the doctrine for US military action in Iraq. The whole thing does look like a mafia hit, as the more detailed story in the Guardian shows.

Hearing about my mystification at the Chalabi house raid, a reader was kind enough to point out Andrew Cockburn’s Counterpunch article on the topic.

Did the US Marines watch the Haitian police open fire on a crowd?

The Haiti Information Project reports that Haitian police opened fire on a Lavalas demonstration, killing 9 people, while US Marines, supposedly there to guarantee the ‘security’ of the population of Haiti, watched. Can’t verify the story but it certainly fits with everything else reported to be going on in Haiti, particularly with the attacks on Lavalas members. This is not long after the Marines blew up the gates of a grandmother’s house, handcuffed her and her 5-year old granddaughter and others, and arrested her.

The US versus Holy Matrimony

With all the sanctimony about marriage being a sacred thing, one would be justified in wondering why the US is so insistent on massacring wedding parties in the countries it occupies. For example, the latest massacre of over 40 people at a wedding party in Iraq, by way of an AC-130 Gunship.

The little detail about the AC-130 in the story is actually key to understanding that it was a cold-blooded slaughter of innocents and not a mistake. I just learned about all this from reading Stan Goff’s ‘Full Spectrum Disorder’ (on which more later), where he describes the weapon. He describes it (I’m paraphrasing) as a gigantic cannon that fires huge depleted uranium rounds that can cut through anything, that essentially flies in a circular arc while maintaining the gun pointed at a target and vaporizing it. That is what was done to this wedding party. The US makes ‘no apologies’. Why? There were two dozen military-age males at the party! And they were close to the border with Syria. And they were in a rural area. Well, that’s enough for death by uranium rain. And no apology.

Remember that about two years ago, the US did another wedding party massacre, in Afghanistan (mentioned in this Fisk article).

The message: don’t get married if your country is occupied by the US. And if you are going to get married, don’t invite military aged males (MAMs, not to be confused with marriage-age males, unfortunately abbreviated the same way).

The US also raided Ahmed Chalabi’s home. Can’t say I understand that one. Chalabi was supposed to be one of their favourites. Perhaps someone in his family was planning to get married.

In related news, Israel has convicted Marwan Barghouti, in a court system famous for its fairness to Palestinians, of terrorism.

India – the fight against fascism has only just begun…

Readers have probably heard that Sonia Gandhi will not be the Prime Minister of India. In some ways this is a good thing: she was going to be the leader of India because of her last name. But she is being replaced by Manmohan Singh, the man most associated with neoliberalism in India (again it is worth remembering that Sonia Gandhi got her last name by marriage to Rajiv Gandhi, and the neoliberal opening of India begun under Rajiv Gandhi). Less important,, it would have been kind of nice that India could have a Prime Minister who was born in another country and have it be no big deal.

But of course, the BJP, now in opposition, made it a big deal. Arundhati Roy, in an interview with Amy Goodman, describes what happened:

“What has happened is that as soon as the election results were announced, the BJP, the hard-right wing members of the BJP and its goon squads started saying we’ll shave our heads. We’ll eat green gram and make a revolution in this country against this foreign woman on the one hand, and on the other hand, equally hard core corporate groups were acting — they were out on the streets. They were yelling like fundamentalists would, and all of these corporate television channels had split screens where on the one hand, you saw what is happening in Sonia Gandhi’s house and on the other half, you just had what the stockbrokers are saying. And the whole of the one billion people who had voted had just been forgotten. They had been given their photo opportunity, their journeys on elephant back and camel and whatever it was to the election booth. Now they were just forgotten. The only comments you get are what the industrialists think… and what the centrists think about Sonia Gandhi. It is an absolutely absurd kind of blackmail by fascists on the one hand and corporate fascists on the other.”

The day after the election, Sudhanva Deshpande published a ZNet Commentary analyzing the election results, the growth of the left, and the fall of the BJP. To Deshpande, it is the Indian left, of which he is a part, that is the key: If “the Left fails to grow, the historic verdict of this election will become a mere hiccup in the rise of Indian fascism.”

I think that is right. I was very happy to see the BJP gone. But the real battle for India is only just starting…