The Largest Minority

August 13th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

As they headed back from the funeral of a tribal sheikh on Saturday, the governor and chief of police of the southern Iraqi province of Qadisiya were killed by a roadside bomb. Hundred of mourners set out from the Shia Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) officers to bury the two bodies yesterday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into their killings, which he called “a seditious act”. Iraq’s president further stoked the flames of division by saying the attack was a “cowardly terrorist act” by Sunnis fighters who had been displaced by the current security crackdown.

Residents of Diwaniya, the provincial capital, said they now fear an all-out war between different Shia factions in the region. SIIC controls the police which are fighting Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s al-Madhi militia.

Also on Sunday, al-Maliki said a much-anticipated summit to try to end political deadlock among the country’s leader could begin in the next two days.

The politicians at the meeting are expected to include al-Maliki; Talabani; Tareq al-Hashemi, the Sunni Arab vice-president; Massoud Barzani the Kurdish regional leader; and Abul Aziz al-Hakim, the SIIC leader.

Al-Maliki, whose national unity government has been in crisis since the main Sunni Arab bloc pulled out, said he would either lure it back or find other Sunni Arabs to replace it.

He said: “The first meeting may happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”

Nearly half of the cabinet is no longer participating in its meetings.

source

June 22nd, 2007 by Calypso

Children with physical and mental deformities in the Nigerian town of Kano are considered the lucky survivors of a controversial 1996 drug trial by Pfizer. The pharmaceutical giant used hospitalized children, sick with meningitis, as guinea pigs for an experimental and unregistered antibiotic called Trovan. While Pfizer claims that the survival rate for the drug trial was at 94 percent, with only 11 out of 200 children dying, Kano officials state that over 50 children actually died.

The Nigerian government started an expert medical panel to review the drug trial after being pressured by families affected and rights groups. The panel concluded that the experiment was “an illegal trial of an unregistered drug”, and a “clear case of exploitation of the ignorant”.

Anas Mohammadu who was 3-years-old at the time of the trial fell ill and was taken to hospital by his parents. His father still burns with anger over the situation. “My son was ill and we took him to the hospital like any other family would. Then the Americans and some local Nigerian doctors injected Anas with this evil drug.” Anas, now 14-years-old, dreams of becoming a soldier but his dream seems unlikely as the trial left him with weak, wobbly legs, and a permanently drooling mouth. He is made fun of in school, and even daily tasks like getting water from a well can be difficult as he gets tired easily and can be pulled by the slightest weight.

Hassan Sani described how his daughter Hajara, now 14-years-old as well (pictured above left), became deaf and mute thanks to Pfizer. Mr Sani said “the American doctors took advantage of our illiteracy and cheated us and our children. We thought they were helping us.”

Many blame Pfizer’s experiment for the mass rejection of polio vaccinations in many northern Nigerian areas. Some Muslim preachers think it was a western plot to sterilize Muslim women. Pfizer denies any wrongdoing, saying that “verbal consent” was given by the parents, and that the trial was medically, scientifically, regulatory, and ethically “sound”. They added that the experiment followed Nigerian regulations and saved many lives. Moreover, they argue that such allegations are “highly inflammatory and not based on all the facts”.

A decade onwards, the Nigerian government is suing Pfizer for $7 billion in damages suffered by the families of the children who passed away and those still suffering from side effects. The Kano state government is filling separate charges against Pfizer. However, money will never be enough to compensate for dead or disabled children. Mr. Sani expressed his anger, saying; “In addition to the compensation, they should be killed like the children they have killed.”

source

June 15th, 2007 by Calypso

In an effort to reduce environmental damage, Kenya and Uganda have followed a Rwandan and Tanzanian ban on thin plastic bags, and introduced a 120% tax on thick bags. In 2005, Rwanda banned plastics less than 100 microns thick and Tanzania announced a total ban on plastic bags in 2006.

According to a reporter, plastic bags litter residential areas around Nairobi and block city drains. The ban in Kenya will start on Friday the 15^th of June. Uganda’s ban will be initiated on the 1^st of July, but traders will be allowed to sell existing stocks until the end of September.

Ugandan Finance Minister Ezra Suruma and Kenyan Finance Minister Amos Kimunya hope this step will encourage the use of environment friendly and recyclable alternatives.

Source

June 14th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

In the wake of the G8 Summit, where the leaders of the world’s richest counties reiterated their promise to cancel all the debt owed by third world countries, Greg Palast talks to Randi Rhodes about vulture funds siphoning aid for Africa. One such vulture fund, Donegal International, is trying to collect $40 million dollars from Zambia after buying one of its debts for $4 million. Congressman John Conyers and Donald Payne have brought up the topic with President Bush, demanding he close the legal loopholes that allow vulture funds to profit from poverty.

Read the rest of this entry »

June 12th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani wrote a major piece for the London Review of Books this year called, “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency.” In his piece, Mamdani explains how terms like “genocide” are used to conveniently demonize our enemies, with Darfur being the main example of this double standard. Mamdani responds to the new sanctions forced on the Sudanese government by President Bush. The Save Darfur Coalition saw the sanctions as a positive step; however, it was opposed by many aid groups working in Sudan as it makes logistics and transportation harder for their workers in the field.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 31st, 2007 by Manila Ryce

An anti-tank mine, set off by remote control in the Somali town of Baladwayne, wounded five Ethiopian soldiers. The attack prompted the occupying troops to unleash gunfire into a crowd of Somali civilians. Osman Adan, a local resident, said; “An Ethiopian truck was blown up … The Ethiopian troops immediately opened fire indiscriminately with heavy machine-guns.” Adan said seven civilians were caught in the crossfire. Four Somali civilians have been confirmed dead.

Journalist Ali Dahir said, “Two seriously injured soldiers were being removed from the truck. There was a lot of blood at the scene. Nobody knows whether the Ethiopian soldiers died or not.” The detonation of this remote control device highlights the fact that more sophisticated weaponry is now being employed by anti-government forces.

Somalia’s transitional government says Ethiopian troops are there to aid its operations against Islamic Court fighters, who were forced from Mogadishu in December with Ethiopian and American assistance. Ethiopia now wants to pull its troops from Somalia as soon as the African Union has at least half of its planned 8,000 troops deployed in the country. Many African nations have refused to send their own soldiers as part of the AU force due to previous attacks on international peacekeepers.

US troops have been working to rid Somalia of the Islamic Courts ever since the campaign began in the oil rich nation. The US claims it’s targeting al-Qaeda cells, though the victims of its airstrikes are most often innocent civilians. Such extrajudicial killings of suspected terrorists, which are accepted tools of American and Israeli government policy, are violations of international law.

source

May 29th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

The US has finally engaged in something resembling diplomacy with a Muslim nation! The US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker held a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi-Qomi in Baghdad’s Green Zone regarding Iraq’s security. The Bush administration’s policy towards Iran has ranged from disregard to outright hostility. Monday’s meeting marks the first public high-level talks in 27 years.

However, the meeting was mostly a ceremonial show of cooperation as the US was still unwilling to compromise in its attitude towards Iran and the Iraq war. Seemingly displacing all responsibility for the bloodiness of the occupation onto Iran, Crocker said “what we need to see is Iranian action on the ground”. The video below further elaborates on these unproved accusations.

Still, the Iranians were optimistic. Kazemi-Qomi said, “Some problems have been raised and studied and I think this was a positive step … In the political field, the two sides agreed to support and strengthen the Iraqi government, which was another positive item achieved in these talks.” Kazemi-Oomi also said Iran was willing to help train and arm Iraq’s military. Oh, I’m sure Washington will just love that idea.

Crocker said that “the Iranians did not go into any great detail” during the meeting at the home of Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. “They made the assertion that the coalition presence was an occupation and the effort to train the Iraqi security forces had been inadequate to the challenges.”

…Al-Maliki told both sides that Iraqis want a stable country free of foreign forces and regional interference.

He also said that the US-led forces in Iraq were only here to help build up the army and police and the country would not be used as a launching ground for a US attack on its neighbors - a clear reference to Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that future meetings with the US would be possible if Washington were to admit its war and regional policies were not successful. “We are hopeful that Washington’s realistic outlook toward the current issues in Iraq, a confession about its failed policy there and the region as well as an indication of determination to change the policy would guarantee the success of the current talks and possible further negotiations.” Good luck with that Mr. Mottaki.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister hailed the talks as positive, yet “just the beginning of the process.” Iran’s nuclear energy program, which the US is adamant about shutting down, was not discussed. Crocker expects Iran to propose a second meeting in Iraq.

As the meeting concluded, a truck bomb exploded outside one of Baghdad’s most revered shrines, killing at least 19 people and damaging a mosque.

source

Michael Pelletier, a tool from the State Department, can’t answer a straightforward question due to the pro-war hardline policy of our government. Instead, he tries to spin the situation to make Iran look like war-hungry villains when we’re the ones who attacked a non-threatening nation for oil. Luckily, Abbas Adalat is there to inject some facts into the debate. He rightly speculates that this latest meeting is merely a facade to create the appearance that the US wants peace, as Elliot Abrams verified earlier this month.

May 19th, 2007 by Calypso

Recently appointed Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi warned activists planning to start a boycott against the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games that their campaign would fail, and that they should not “politicize” the Olympics.

Human rights activists and over 100 politicians have called for a boycott on the Beijing Olympics to show contempt over China’s arm trade with Sudan. They’ve asked the Chinese president to use China’s influence and position to help end the genocide.

The move comes after China appointed an envoy to deal with the Darfur region after they were accused of breaking a UN arms embargo by continuing to sell arms to Sudan - an oil provider.

Source