west papua hits U.K media http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1475176,00.html +
In Bed With Killers
by George Monbiot - Tuesday May 3, 2005
The Guardian (UK)
BP has a legal right to get a licence from Indonesia to extract gas in West Papua. Its moral case is less clearcut.
It all seems a very long way away. But what is happening in an obscure island nation in the South Pacific has now become our business. A few weeks ago, BP, the British company which has invested most in "corporate social responsibility", received final approval to start developing a gas field in West Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea.(1) There is nothing unusual about this: oil and gas companies are opening new fields all the time. What makes this operation interesting is the question of whether BP has any right to be there.
Its case seems, at first sight, clear-cut. The licence to operate, BP says, "is granted to us by the Indonesian Government which is internationally recognised as the sovereign government of Papua, including by the UK and the United Nations."(2) That is true. But its truth arises from a grotesque injustice.
At the beginning of 1962, West Papua was being prepared for independence by its colonial ruler, the Netherlands. But in April of that year, JF Kennedy wrote to the Dutch prime minister, warning him that if he did not give the country to Indonesia, "the entire free world position in Asia would be seriously damaged".(3) The Indonesian government would "succumb to communism" if it were not appeased. Robert Komer, Kennedy's CIA adviser, was even more direct. "A pro-bloc, if not communist Indonesia, is an infinitely greater threat ... than Indo possession of a few thousand miles of cannibal land."(4)
But it couldn't be done overtly. Kennedy proposed that the Indonesians be allowed control of West Papua for "a specified period", after which the Papuan people would be "granted the right of self-determination." An agreement was drawn up in New York, stating that the UN would supervise a referendum in which "all adult Papuans have the right to participate".(5)
The problem, as the US ambassador to Indonesia observed, was that "85 to 90 per cent" of the population was "in sympathy with the Free Papua cause."(6) A free vote would produce a clear result in favour of independence. So the US told the UN that the result had to be rigged. As a letter from the US embassy to the State Department in 1968 revealed, the order was obeyed. The UN's representative is "attempting to devise a formula ... which will result in affirmation of Indonesian sovereignty."(7)
So instead of a referendum in which "all adult Papuans" participated, in 1969 the UN oversaw a rather different process. 1,022 men were selected by Indonesian soldiers, taught the words "I want Indonesia", then lined up at gunpoint.(8) One man who refused to say his lines was shot. Others were threatened with being dropped out of helicopters.(9) This rigorous democratic exercise resulted in a unanimous vote for Indonesian rule.
No one who has studied this transfer of sovereignty believes it was fair. Four years ago the former UN Under Secretary-General CV Narasimhan confessed, "It was just a whitewash. The mood at the United Nations was to get rid of this problem as quickly as possible ... Nobody gave a thought to the fact that there were a million people there who had their fundamental human rights trampled."(10) In a parliamentary answer in December last year, the British foreign office minister Baroness Symons agreed that "there were 1,000 handpicked representatives and that they were largely coerced into declaring for inclusion in Indonesia."(11) Like East Timor six years later, West Papua was, in effect, annexed.
BP has a legal right to obtain a licence from Indonesia to operate in West Papua. But it is hard to see how this translates into a moral right.
By working under Indonesian consent, BP is at risk of lending legitimacy to the occupying power's presence. This is dangerous moral ground. A recent report by academics at Yale Law School concludes that there is "a strong indication that the Indonesian government has committed genocide against the West Papuans."(12) Human rights groups suggest that around 100,000 Papuans have been killed by Indonesia.(13) The armed forces have bombed, napalmed and strafed tribal villages and tortured and murdered their people.(14) The government has sought to wipe out Papuan culture through forced assimilation and mass immigration. The purpose of these schemes, according to a former governor of West Papua, was to "give birth to a new generation of people without curly hair, sowing the seeds for greater beauty."(15) Indonesia's genocidal intent is undimmed. Today, villages in the Papuan highlands are still being burnt out by soldiers, and their people killed or forced to flee into the forest.
BP overlooks all this. There is a page on its website labelled "Context: Papua". It tells you about tree kangaroos and birds of paradise, but mentions only that "human rights abuses" took place under President Suharto (who was deposed in 1998). Since then, it suggests, the Indonesian government has started granting autonomy to the Papuan people.(16)
It has done no such thing. It has failed to implement the "special autonomy" laws it passed, and instead has divided the nation into three regions, controlled directly by Jakarta. When the Papuans tried to set up their own assembly - the Papuan presidium council - its chairman, Theys Eluay, was murdered by the army. The Indonesian government is currently flying in an extra 15,000 troops.(17) In the last few weeks the repression has intensified.
The lack of autonomy causes a particular problem for BP, which has justified its scheme by claiming that "Papua" will benefit by obtaining a share of the revenue.(18) But who is Papua? There is no legitimate government of the Papuan people through which it could be channelled. The "central, provincial and local governments" to which BP will be giving the money all answer to Jakarta.(19) Indonesia sits close to the top of Transparency International's corruption list.(20) In March the Indonesian army was accused by the head of the baptist church of stealing $267,000 of aid destined for West Papua.(21) How confident can we be that the money from the gas project won't go the same way?
BP has sought not to become directly involved with the perpetrators of the genocide. Instead of hiring soldiers to guard its gas plant, it is training local people.(22) But, as the Free West Papua Campaign (www.freewestpapua.org) points out, the Indonesian army has a standard technique for gaining control of extractive industries. It creates an incident, often attacking its own soldiers or burning down a village or two, blames it on the rebels and then insists it must "secure the area", and, of course, any revenue arising from the area. The army is already building up civilian militias close to the gas field. Some of them are controlled by Laskar Jihad, which is affiliated to Al Qaeda.(23)
But all this skirts around the major question: that of consent. BP has conducted consultations and discussions with local people. But there is no representative Papuan assembly with the power to decide whether or not the project should go ahead, and on what terms. BP derives its authority to act from an occupying power in the midst of an attempted genocide. How credible, then, are its claims that its hands are clean?
www.monbiot.com
Geriatric Rebel Activist Network This should be a really funny way of protesting at
DSEI this is coming from the Manchester Partying
possee!!!
http://www.granaction.org.uk
Geriatric Rebel Activist Network
We would value your input in creating a website to
encourage,
* a) trans-generational protest activity.
* b) Granny and grandad cross dressing as a
diversionary protest activity as a tactical response
to over-policing.
If you are interested please email
granaction@yahoo.co.uk and we will keep you in the
loop.
--/Social justice doesn't happen by itself, you know!/--
http://www.ourvideo.org >> community video toolkit
http://www.beyondtv.org > contact 0161 237 1832 > 07950118553 [sms only] post: box29, 22a Beswick St, Manchester, M4 7HS
Postwar Iraq a U.S. failure, report says Postwar Iraq a U.S. failure, report says'Winning the peace' requires as much attention as devoted to ousting HusseinBy PAUL KORING
Thursday, July 28, 2005 Page A10
WASHINGTON -- Gross failures by President George W. Bush's administration to adequately plan for postcombat reconstruction and nation-building in Iraq contributed to the widespread insurgency still gripping that country, according to an independent study released yesterday.
"Prewar inattention to postwar requirements -- or simply misjudgments about them -- left the United States ill-equipped to address public security, governance and economic demands in the immediate aftermath of the conflict, seriously undermining key U.S. foreign policy goals and giving early impetus to the insurgency," the report says.
That conclusion, by a Council on Foreign Relations task force co-chaired by two former national security advisers, paints a stark picture of failure to grasp the magnitude and importance of the tasks beyond war-fighting that has left the United States in danger of losing the peace both in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"War-fighting has two important dimensions: winning the war and winning the peace. The United States excels in the first. But without an equal commitment to stability and reconstruction, combat victories can be lost," says the report by the task force, chaired by Brent Scowcroft, who served in the administration of Mr. Bush's father, and Samuel Berger, who had the same role when Bill Clinton was president.
Mr. Bush, who came to office in 2000 openly scornful of nation-building, has since recognized the serious threat that failed and collapsing states pose to U.S. and global security. But, the report concludes, that recognition has yet to be matched by the commitment of money, effort and strategic policy thinking required.
"A lot of time was lost in the immediate aftermath" of the stunning collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, Mr. Berger said at a news conference unveiling the report that makes a series of recommendations designed to improve U.S. readiness for the postwar challenges.
"Dramatic military victory has been overshadowed by chaos and bloodshed" more than two years later, the report says. "We had a small insurgency that has grown into a large insurgency," Mr. Berger added.
The Bush administration and senior U.S. military officers insist that the insurgency is waning and that Iraqi forces are increasingly capable of handling the nation's security, indicating that significant reductions in the more than 135,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq can be expected next year. The task force, however, concludes the White House still needs to undertake a major overhaul of how it prepares and delivers postcombat reconstruction and nation-building.
The report recommends:
The State Department, rather than the Pentagon, lead all civilian reconstruction and stabilization efforts;
The National Security Adviser be in charge of the military and civilian postcombat roles;
The United States push for a multilateral reconstruction fund under the auspices of the G8, the group of major industrialized nations that includes Canada;
The creation of an "active response corps" of civilians expert in reconstruction and civil institutions that could be rapidly deployed to fill the postconflict vacuum.
Although top U.S. commanders are belatedly and grudgingly accepting the need for change, peacekeeping and nation-building are still widely regarded in the United States as secondary tasks or roles for second-string militaries, such as Canada's.
The current mess in Iraq is not the first evidence of the mixed U.S. record on nation-building. Since the end of the Cold War, Washington has been involved in efforts to build or rebuild failed states including "Somalia, Cambodia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo, and East Timor, among other places," the report says. "Few of these interventions can be defined as completely successful."
That needs to change, the report says. "The United States can no longer afford to mount costly military actions and then treat peacekeeping with anything less than the same seriousness of purpose," it states.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050728/IRAQ28/TPInternational/TopStories
Civil War In Iraq! Crumbling Iraq
DER SPIEGEL 30/2005 - July 25, 2005
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,366834,00.html
Is the Country Heading for Civil War?
By Georg Mascolo and Bernhard Zand
From the outside, it seems like chaotic violence. But it's worse than that. In Iraq, Sunni Muslim suicide commandos are launching bloodbaths among the Shiites, gradually edging the country toward civil war. Instead of becoming a democratic beacon for the entire region, Iraq is on the verge of disintegrating.
Violence in Iraq seems only to be getting worse. Here, the scene after the devestating tanker blast 10 days ago.
Some 80 suicide bombers, or about one a day, have lost their lives since April. They may believe that they are bound for paradise, but their last path on earth is full of treachery and deceit.
A young man was standing in front of Baghdad's old city airport trying to stir up a group of his unemployed contemporaries. "You're such fools," he said. "The guards are standing over there at the entrance, collecting their bribes -- and you stand around out here in the sun and don't even know that you're being duped."
The man waited quietly until the agitated crowd had pushed its way into a narrow passageway between three-foot concrete barriers at the entrance of an Iraqi police recruiting office. Then he strolled over to the crowd, forced his way through the barriers and detonated his belt of explosives. 25 people died.
A tanker truck stolen from the oil ministry had already been parked directly in front of the local mosque for some time. It was supposed to explode a few days later in the center of the city of Mussayib, half an hour's drive south of Baghdad -- but not until after 8 p.m., after the day's heat finally subsided. By then, shops in the bazaar would be opening for business and the faithful would be gathering for evening prayers. The assassin climbed under the truck and blew himself up. 98 dead.
The man who was loitering, trance-like, in front of a cemetery in New Baghdad, was wearing a vest packed with explosives. His vest pockets were filled with broken ball bearings. Police officers discovered the man and arrested him before he could do any damage. The suicide bomber had been waiting for a funeral procession carrying the coffins of children killed three days earlier in a suicide attack. The man, a Libyan, was pumped full of sedatives and surrendered to police without resistance.
Daily pattern of murder
The daily pattern of murder in Iraq is spinning out of control; the death toll is becoming unbearable. Iraqi cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani ruled that the indiscriminate slaughtering of politicians and religious dignitaries, children and the elderly has assumed the dimensions of "mass extermination," and that Iraq is headed in the direction of what he called "genocide."
The elderly leader of Iraq's Shiites has consistently urged his fellow Shiites to remain calm and is not given to exaggeration. Indeed, he has good reason to issue his dramatic appeal: Thousands of Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police officers have already met violent deaths in the first half of this year. Nevertheless, Iraq's Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr, says that there is no discernible pattern to the omnipresence of death, no grand plan behind the indiscriminate terror.
But his claim ignores the obvious: The victims of the suicide attacks are almost exclusively Shiites, who represent the majority, or about 60 percent, of the Iraqi population.
The masterminds of terror, especially al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, are Sunnis. Their goal is to instigate civil war, which would lead to the complete collapse of this ethnically and religiously divided country.
This civil war, which has in fact been underway for some time, isn't just frightening the citizens of Baghdad, whose lives have become a living hell as a result. It's also alarming the American president, who sees it as a threat to his legacy. The disintegration of Iraq after a long, bloody civil war would be precisely the opposite of the peaceful, democratic and prosperous development US President George W. Bush had planned to bestow upon Iraq and the rest of the region with his military intervention.
Quarreling Muslim factions
For this reason the US government, whose 139,000-strong occupation force is far too small to be able to guarantee security and order, is avoiding any reference to a religious war or even a clash between quarreling Muslim factions.
The open street fighting that dragged the Lebanese capital of Beirut to the brink of disaster 30 years ago hasn't erupted in Baghdad yet. But the writing on the wall is unmistakable: the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, which claims new lives every day, is beginning to erupt in sections of this city of five million where the two groups have coexisted peacefully -- until now.
Five times in the last four weeks, for example, ordinary people, who had nothing at all to do with building a new Iraq, were killed as they walked along the road to the airport in Baghdad's Amariya neighborhood. They were killed for revenge, escalating animosities between the two religious groups. First, a Sunni fruit vendor was kidnapped. Then a Shiite pharmacist was shot, followed by the shooting of a Sunni who managed an ice cream parlor. Finally, two Shiite street vendors disappeared; their bodies were found days later, dumped onto a pile of garbage.
"Never before have I ended the school year feeling so discouraged," says elementary school teacher Mohammed Salih, 30. "Even my pupils are starting to curse one another for being Sunnis or Shiites. The seeds of evil have been sown, and they are germinating with each passing day."
"It looks like a civil war," says Ayham al-Samarrai, who arrived in Washington for talks last week. Al-Samarrai, who had been Minister of Electricity in the transitional government that was replaced in April, has many friends in the Bush administration. He is considered to be one of the few Iraqis with reliable connections to individual groups of insurgents. Their main goal, says Samarrai, is to force the Shiite government legitimated by the elections to relinquish some of its influence.
In a formal letter, the key Islamic Jihad groups nominated Samarrai to be their middleman for conveying their demands to the occupation forces. The Zarqawi-led group, "al-Qaida in Iraq," is excluded explicitly.
The declared objective of the governments in Baghdad and Washington is to detach Zarqawi from his support infrastructure of former Saddam sympathizers, unemployed soldiers, Arab nationalists, frustrated tribal leaders and common criminals. Washington's terrorism experts believe that if disappointed Iraqis (Americans call them POI, or "pissed-off Iraqis") can be placated, the chances of achieving some measure of peace in the country would be far less dismal than they are now. Until now, Zarqawi's fighters have shown little interest in capturing the hearts and minds of Iraqis. Indeed, the terrorists, many of whom come from other countries, are perceived as invaders. Is it possible to split the insurgency? Perhaps, but time seems to be on the side of the terrorists and their plan to plunge the country into utter chaos.
Utilities disruptions
Last week, when the temperature in Baghdad soared over 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), the city experienced something that was even a rarity in the months following the war: the simultaneous collapse of its three most important supply systems.
An attack on the central oil pipeline north of Baghdad interrupted the power supply and caused gasoline and diesel fuel shortages. The extreme heat aggravated a water shortage that had already lasted for weeks -- the brackish liquid now dripping from Baghdad's faucets has become undrinkable. To make matters worse, the power supply to the Iraqi capital was reduced to four hours of electricity, portioned out to customers in small installments throughout the day.
The administration of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari is bearing the brunt of Iraqis' frustrations. Since it came into power in April, Jaafari's government has been unable to improve basic services or improve the catastrophic security situation in the country.
US military officials have been complaining for months that the Iraqi police force and military are not even remotely capable of establishing peace in the country. And now the opinion is official. In a report released on Thursday, July 21, the Pentagon conceded that half of Iraq's 93,800 police officers have barely mastered basic training and are completely unqualified for regular duty.
The other half, as well as two-thirds of the 78,800 new troops in the Iraqi armed forces, are only "partially deployable" -- only in conjunction with US troops, according to the Pentagon brief. That leaves the country with about 26,000 of its own troops to conduct an independent fight against terror -- a force that exceeds Washington's current estimate of 20,000 insurgents in Iraq by just 6,000 men. Only three out of a total of 107 army and police battalions, the report continues, are truly capable of "planning, executing and maintaining independent operations."
Armed pre-schoolers
This lack of experience has become all too apparent to US military trainers at the country's three main training camps, where recruits are given to shouting "Iraq! Iraq! Iraq!" with the same enthusiasm as they once shouted "Saddam! Saddam! Saddam!" Even after completing the training, Iraqi security forces don't come close to meeting US standards. Indeed, American GIs derisively refer to their new brothers-in-arms as "armed pre-schoolers."
Ever since an Iraqi unit forgot to take away a prisoner after a raid near Baghdad, and after it was discovered that guards at road blocks are fond of taking naps, American minders have been deployed everywhere. For the Americans, some of the Iraqis' most annoying habits include doing their shopping while on patrol and consuming psychotropic drugs to calm their nerves before reporting to duty.
Civilian foreign investors, for whose support the Iraqi government campaigned at conferences in Munich and Amman, Jordan, last week, have generally avoided Iraq. Many of the businessmen who attended the events complained that the precarious security situation is making orderly reconstruction an impossibility.
Egyptian telephone magnate Naguib Sawiris has experienced first-hand what can happen to foreign entrepreneurs serious about investing in post-war Iraq. In 2003, the US civilian administration awarded his company the license for the first wireless network in central Iraq. Iraqna ("Our Iraq"), which covers Baghdad and the Sunni triangle, already boasts a million customers and has managed to earn $63 million in revenues in the first quarter of this year alone.
But many Iraqna customers complain about quality problems in the network caused by American forces' frequent use of jamming transmitters during military operations. The insurgents revile the company as being pro-American while simultaneously accusing the Iraqi government of facilitating communications for terrorists.
"Working in Iraq is extremely difficult," says Sawiris. "There are no foreign experts who'll go to Iraq voluntarily, and reliable local subcontractors are nonexistent." The company currently employs only 400 technicians and administrators in Iraq, with another 1,200 employees working as bodyguards and equipment security guards.
The conviction that they are fighting a weak government, a helpless police force and an overextended occupation army serves as constant motivation for the insurgents. But the "tree of Iraqi freedom" is being watered with blood, warned Prime Minister Jaafari, in an effort to prepare Iraqis for the cycles of violence that are expected to continue in the coming months, partly in response the parliament's plan to adopt a new constitution in August, as well as plans to hold a referendum in October and elect a new government in December.
The tactics of violent insurgents in Iraq now are focused entirely on the war of religious divisons, says political scientist Nabil Mohammed of the University of Baghdad. And their strategy seems to be bearing fruit. In addition to suicide bombings, Basra, Baghdad and the areas with mixed populations south and northeast of the capital are now plagued by targeted attacks on Sunni and Shiite clerics and politicians, with retaliation often occurring within hours.
On Haifa Street in Baghdad in early July, a gang of killers shot and killed Sheikh Kamal al-Din al-Ghureifi, one of the highest-ranking representatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. That same afternoon, assailants forced their way into a Sunni mosque in the same district and kidnapped Sunni cleric Amr al-Tikriti.
"The war between religious divisions has begun"
In his sermon on the following Friday, Imam Jalal al-Din al-Saghir called for restraint, saying that "the war between religious divisions has begun. Their goal is to force the Shiites into a civil war. If this catastrophe occurs, everything will be lost."
On the other hand, Chudeir al-Chusai, a member of parliament from the largest Shiite party, has already called for vigilantism: "We are on the edge of a precipice that could swallow us all. We have the right to defend ourselves."
Meanwhile, even Sunnis are complaining about the targeted attacks on members of their own faith. They charge that the Shiite militia's Badr Brigades, which should have been disbanded long ago, in fact form the core of the government's own security apparatus.
According to Britain's Observer, there is evidence that government security forces have committed "gruesome acts of violence." The mutilated corpses of Sunnis arrested on charges of terrorism have been returned to their families bearing the characteristic wounds of extreme torture. The newspaper reported that units of the so-called Wolf Brigade, an elite force controlled by the Interior Ministry, maintain secret torture centers where prisoners are subjected to slave-like conditions reminiscent of the practices of Saddam's sadistic commandos. "Yes, these things happen," government spokesman Leith Kubba frankly admits. British and American officials also have found evidence of the torture practices of Iraqi units.
Independent Kurdish state
However, Major General Mohammed Qureishi, the legendary commander of the Wolf Brigade, maintains close personal ties to Prime Minister Jaafari, who praises Qureishi as a "true hero in the fight against terror."
Faced with the pressure of presenting a new constitution by mid-August, politicians of all stripes are doing their utmost to avert civil war. But in doing so they place their own lives in danger. Mijbil Issa and Dhamin Hussein al-Obeidi, two of the 25 Sunni leaders who agreed to join the constitutional convention, were murdered last Tuesday.
Despite lawmakers' efforts, the former realm of Saddam, who disgraced himself in a televised court hearing last week with his shrill complaints, threatens to break into pieces. Politicians in the comparatively peaceful provinces in the north and south of the country are increasingly pushing for secession, and even some Sunnis in central Iraq -- once staunch opponents of a breakup of Iraq -- are beginning to take to the idea.
Jalal Talabani believes the simple fact that he, as a Kurd, was elected president, speaks for Iraq's indivisibility. But Saedi Barsandji, one of the closest advisors to Talabani's rival, Masud Barzani, disagrees: "Whatever the official Kurdish position may be, our historic goal is an independent, sovereign Kurdish state."
Barzani is currently a member of the Iraqi National Congress and heads the Kurdish delegation to the constitutional convention. Last Wednesday, he presented the group with a map that can only further aggravate ethnic conflict in Iraq. The map documents territorial claims extending hundreds of kilometers south of the current Kurdish Autonomous Region, all the way to the city of Jassan, about 100 kilometers southeast of Baghdad.
The leaders of Kurdish northern Iraq have repressed virtually everything Arabic, as well as any other indications of the region's Iraqi identity. And now, say the non-Kurdish inhabitants of northern Iraqi oil center Kirkuk, they are also trying to drive out the city's Arab population. Their claims are not unfounded: Kurdish leaders are insisting on the repatriation of 300,000 Kurds that Saddam had expelled from the Kirkuk region.
"No more centralist system"
The Kurdish representatives in Iraq's government managed to insert strong provisions into Iraq's interim constitution to guarantee the autonomy the region gained in 1991. Under Article 61, a two-thirds majority in only 3 of Iraq's 18 provinces would be sufficient to reject a final constitution. But this clause, originally included as a concession to the Kurdish provinces of Arbil, Suleimaniya and Dahuk, is now being used as a political weapon in predominantly Shiite southern Iraq and in the Sunni triangle.
"We want to do away with the centralist system that ties the entire country to the capital," says Bakr al-Yassin, chairman of the governing council in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Using Iraqi Kurdistan as his model, Yassin wants to establish a southern Iraqi autonomous region that would consist of the provinces of Basra, Dhi Qar and Maysan -- an area that includes most of Iraq's oil reserves. His most important ally is Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, the Pentagon's former protégé, whose family hails from Nasiriyah.
Both Yassin and Chalabi are considered secular Shiites. The principal beneficiaries of their plan for an autonomous region, however, would be the religious Shiite parties and their militias, which already control southern Iraq and maintain excellent relations with neighboring, Shiite-dominated Iran. Until now, the leaders of these parties have vehemently supported a uniform, centralized state extending "from the Turkish to the Kuwaiti border." But they are beginning to soften on their position. Both Grand Ayatollah Sistani and his younger rival, Muqtada al-Sadr, have declared that it should be up to the people to decide whether the south should become autonomous.
But Article 61 doesn't just pave the way to autonomy for the Kurds and Shiites. Fassal al-Ka'oud, governor of the volatile al-Anbar Province, believes that the constitutional loophole also applies to other groups. Last May, he and his counterparts from Mossul and Tikrit, Saddam's home town, came together in a largely unnoticed meeting to discuss their options. Although their three provinces are ethnically and religiously less homogeneous than the country's north and south, they could probably muster a qualified Sunni majority that would satisfy the requirements of Article 61.
Kurdistan, Shiistan, Sunnistan? In a fracturing Iraq, what would happen to Baghdad, with its five million inhabitants, where none of the three groups constitutes a clear majority?
Wayne White, a former leading expert on Iraq at the US State Department who now works for a Washington think tank, points out that Baghdad follow the miserable precedent set by Beirut. If authorities aren't able to improve life for Iraqis and isolate terror soon, a battle for control of the capital could result -- possibly with mass expulsions.
And who will ultimately gain the upper hand? "There's no winner at this point," says White.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
UK : After 7/7, now the backlash starts doesn't surprise me one bit...
worst part of it is that the militant muslim groups are just as much up for a fight and the right-wing groups also know how to make and deploy bombs
its becoming another macho fantasy for the angry young men of this world, which could really get bad if the community as a whole doesn't stop it...
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Far right and football gangs plot 'revenge'[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Anti-Muslim websites monitored[/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif] Hugh Muir
Friday July 15, 2005
The Guardian
[/font] [font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Plans by an alliance of rightwing extremists and football hooligans to exact "revenge" on Muslims after last week's bomb attacks are being monitored by police. [/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Guardian has learned that extremists are keen to cause widespread fear and injury with attacks on mosques and high-profile "anti-Muslim" events in the capital. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Football hooligans communicating over the internet have spoken of the need to put aside partisan support for teams and unite against Muslims. Hooligans from West Ham, Millwall, Crystal Palace and Arsenal are among those seeking to establish common cause. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]As part of wider plans to generate a backlash, rightwing groups such as the Nationalist Alliance and the National Front are said to be planning marches. Extremists hope to hold a march along Victoria Embankment in London tomorrow. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]It is also known that many mosques have received bomb threats since the attacks. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Attempts by the right to make capital out of the tragedy have created a powderkeg. Already extremist Islamist websites have told Muslims to be ready to retaliate. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The BNP sought to capitalise on last week's atrocities in its byelection literature in Barking, Essex, by reproducing a picture of the bombed No 30 bus with the headline Maybe Now it's Time to Listen to the BNP. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]But the tactic backfired last night when Labour trounced the BNP, winning the Becontree byelection with 1,171 votes. The BNP received 378. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The BNP's tactic prompted cross-party condemnation. Though it was designed to increase support for the far-right, many believe the message may have been too crass and too badly timed to work. The party does, however, enjoy some support in the area. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Gerry Gable, of the anti- fascist organisation Searchlight, said: "There is no doubt that the far-right are playing this for all they think it is worth. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]"If you look at the BNP website there's Nick Griffin saying 'be calm' and other material saying 'don't get angry, get even!'" [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]He added: "These things should be taken seriously. One site, Blood and Honour, had a posting about a mosque in the Wirral and soon after the mosque was hit. Soon after, the posting was taken down." [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The police have pledged to crack down on any attempts to provoke division in the aftermath of the bombs. Members of Scotland Yard's independent advisory group have been asked to liaise with borough commanders in the capital to reassure the public and make sure the police carry out their pledges. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Met has said from the outset that the bombs were an attack on all communities and that none should be scapegoated. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The synergy between rightwing extremists and football hooligans is not new. Throughout the 1980s, some of the biggest clubs in Britain were plagued by notoriously violent and racist followers. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Though virtually all clubs have since challenged the behaviour of extremist fans, and almost all now belong to the Kick Racism Out of Football initiative, violent followers continue to communicate with each other and supporters from other clubs to engineer confrontations. [/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The prospect of the opening day Championship fixture between Leeds and Millwall in August is already causing concern.[/font] [font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif] [/font]
URE OWN OPINION !!!! WOT DO U THINK Everyone should speak there mind
after all if u dont beleive in life after death then u must beleive in life b4 death
nd if do b leave in life after death then wot have u got 2 loose
YEH OK U MITE THINK IM OF MY HEAD U HAV A RITE 2 URE OWN OPINION
DONT FIGHT 4 PEACE
HAV U EVER HEARD THIS SAYIN I THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT
FIGHTIN 4 PEACE IS LIKE FUCKING 4 VIRGINITY
SOMEONE REPLY SO I NO WETHER IM STILL SAIN OR WAS I EVER ? UMM DONT NO PLEASE SAY WOT U THINK COZ EVERY1 IS INTITLED 2 THERE OWN OPINION!!!!!!!!! PEACE+LUV EL XXX:)
The UK General Election – Who to vote for? I have voted lib dem in the past. I haven't seen any of the parties policies this time so i'm unsure who to vote for. I want to vote but not vote the wrong party. What parties are you voting for? and does anyone know the policies at all?12
Video and stuff from G8 hi i guess we're not on the news agenda anymore
but check this out
Video from Monday of police brutality, 'Not Riots But
Orchestrated Police Training'
http://www0.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316698.html
Crazy Bob Geldof Interview. Rather than comment on
Bill Gates, he licked the camera.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316430.html
Locals retaliate after Police overreact. Edinburgh
residents clear the streets of drafted in Police.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316236.html
Faslane Blocade - Real Nice short of Monday's blocade.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316232.html
Make Borders History - 3rd July Glasgow - A walking
tour of Migration Control
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316240.html
Peacefull protest at faslane
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316184.html
Clowns to the rescue? What happened on Sat 2nd when
CIRCA found out a Black Block had been penned in by
Police.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316234.html
Protesters face huge Police overreaction but keep a
good Vibe. Bystanders are also shut in by Police.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316097.html
http://media.beyondtv.org/g8/eileensrushes_quick_edit2.mpg
Carnival of Full Enjoyment penned in at Canning Street
by police - 5 clips
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316166.html
Video Clowns chase away Police - very funny!
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316045.html
Video: police collect in princess st - real media
http://media.beyondtv.org/g8/police_collect_princess_st_4thjuly_ebrg.rm
video: arrest outside the forrest cafe Edinburgh
2nd/3rd.07.05
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315977.html
Clown Army press conference
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/115.shtml
G8 in Edinburg. Watch how the autonmous groups migrate
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/113.shtml
Infernal Noise Brigade - Full song - Forest Cafe
Edinburg
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/112.shtml
//Good Background Stuff, issues etc.
A clip from Rob Newman supporting the cause at the
Caber8 on the 1st July 05
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/114.shtml
Rob Newman at the Caber8 - Live support from Rob
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/119.shtml
Auchtapalava -voxpops of local residents
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/111.shtml
Trapese Road show and the G8 2005
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/114.shtml
Demonstrations in Sheffield at the G8 Justice
ministers meeting June 2005
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/109.shtml
Random short bits - 2nd July ///
Strange Fence:
http://media.beyondtv.org/g8/strange_fence_xvid.avi
G8 Leaders Cakes:
Cakes with the faces of the leaders of all the
countries that didn't get invited to the G8.
http://media.beyondtv.org/g8/g8cakes.avi
G8 heads of state:
The best kids game ever.
http://media.beyondtv.org/g8/g8cakes.avig8_head_of_state_xvid.avi
Make Consumerism History block:
http://media.beyondtv.org/g8/make_consumerism_history_xvid.avi
Having trouble viewing?
To download open source codec xvid for the avi's:
http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/
Media players:
To view .mov files download quicktime media player:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html
For a good open source media player, VLC:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
An open source audio compressor, LAME mp3 compressor:
http://www.mp3-converter.com/mp3_converter_freeware.htm
For more info on current threats to open source
software:
http://petition.eurolinux.org/index_html?LANG=en
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.fsf.org/
/another day of social change/
Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary
opportunity for the light to burn brighter. - Bono
He's not the messiah. He's a very naughty boy - Bono's Mum
http://www.beyondtv.org >>contact 0161 237 1832
/another day of social change/
Oppose ID Cards Our World Our Say, the campaigning organisation set up to give people a voice and enable true democracy, has launched a campaign to declare Britain an ID Card Free Zone.
www.owos.info
"How do you feel about an ID card scheme being foisted on the British people that even George Bush described as too ‘illiberal’ when a similar scheme was proposed in the US?
If you’re not sure where you stand on ID cards please still take a minute to read on because there’s a lot we’re not being told by the Government.
The fact is this is not just about a simple identity card: it is actually more about a national surveillance infrastructure - called the National Identity Register - based on the most comprehensive database of personal information ever devised in any country. It could even include the police DNA database, GCHQ electronic surveillance database and phone & internet surfing records.
This database lies behind the ID card scheme. It is nothing like the ID card this country had in the war and is wider in scope than any other European ID card - it is more like schemes adopted in very authoritarian countries, where the police have access to the personal details of every citizen."
Go to http://www.owos.info/idcardfreezone/action.php.
"In Australia, in New Zealand and in Canada voters have rejected such a scheme. We must do the same here in Britain.
It will enable all state bodies and even commercial organisations to access a whole raft of information about who we are and what we do. Right through our life every action through officialdom will be recorded. You and I will have little control over the use of this data.
It may be too illiberal for the US but Home Secretary Charles Clarke and Tony Blair clearly think it’s not too illiberal for Britain. You and I must prove them wrong.
In the early stages the scheme will be voluntary - but you won’t be able to work, you won’t be able to access the health service and you won’t be able to get a passport without becoming part of the scheme. And the government has admitted that the scheme will become compulsory."
get the b******ds on the back foot by laughing at them http://www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/circavids/circa-leedshi.mov
entertaining and inspiring way to make a point from the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army
making war with love
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