Archive for June, 2009

Signatories to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) – an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds – restated their commitment to the scheme at the close of a three-day meeting in Namibia on 26 June, but campaigners warned that more action, not talk, was needed now.

“There were some useful discussions … [but] it is not possible to be more positive unless governments take concrete action,” said Amy Barry, spokesperson for Global Witness (GW), a UK-based NGO that seeks to prevent the use of natural resources to fuel conflict, and a prime mover in setting up the KPCS.

The cooperative effort by government, industry and civil society imposes extensive requirements on its members before allowing them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as “conflict-free”.

But discontent in civil society organizations has grown steadily since the scheme was launched in January 2003, that not enough was being done to stampout the illicit stones, also called ‘blood diamonds’, says All Africa. 

“In theory there are structures in place; it is now a question of political will in implementing them,” commented Elly Harrowell, assistant campaigner at GW.

A significant concern ahead of the meeting was the need for KPCS participant governments “to address cases of serious non-compliance by some members; in particular, campaigners sounded the alarm about the human rights abuses, militarization of mining and diamond smuggling taking place in Zimbabwe’s diamond sector.”

Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog, published a report on 26 June that claimed massive human rights violations were taking place in Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields.

The report documented how the police and army used force “to control access to the diamond fields, and to take over unlicensed diamond mining and trading”. President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party was accused of profiting from the alleged abuses. A KPCS team is visiting the country to probe the alleged illegal diamond trade.

GW’s Annie Dunnebacke said, “We sincerely hope that the upcoming Kimberley Process review mission to Zimbabwe is given unfettered access to the sites and people it needs to see. We urge the government … to fulfil its pledge to guarantee the safety of all individuals and groups.”

The Israel Navy intercepted a boat carrying international activists attempting to break a blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday and forced it to sail to the southern port city of Ashdod, the Israel Defense Forces said. 

Earlier Tuesday, the navy surrounded the vessel, which was also carrying humanitarian aid, and told the activists to turn back because of security risks in the area and the blockade, according to the IDF. 

But the boat later entered Gaza’s coastal waters, the IDF Spokespersons’ Office said in a statement, after which a naval force boarded it. 

No shots were fired during the boarding of the boat, and the crew was to be handed over to the appropriate authorities, the IDF said. 

In the statement, the IDF Spokespersons’ Unit added that it “would like to emphasize that any organization or country that wishes to transfer humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, can legally do so via the established crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip with prior coordination.” 

The army said humanitarian goods found on board the boat would be transferred to the Gaza Strip, subject to authorization. 

An earlier statement by the voyage’s organizers, the Free Gaza Movement, said the vessel, renamed the Spirit of Humanity, left the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Monday bound for Gaza with three tons of medical supplies, says Haaretz. 

Related Story: AL-AKHBAR, ACTIVISTS DEFY ISRAELI BLOCKADE OF GAZA STRIP

 More than 50 worshippers gathered in a sacred grove on a hot June afternoon outside the village of Marisola. The crowd, mostly women dressed in national costumes and colorful headscarves, stood on a glade opposite a spruce where men were busy conducting prayers. 

The congregation kneeled while the men under the spruce, dressed in suits, white felt hats and linen towels cast over their shoulders, said prayers in a low, monotone murmur. 

They prayed to Osh Kughu Yumo — Mari for “Great White God” — who was being revered that day as Agavairem, which means both deity of creative energy and the feast marking the end of spring labor. 

The women lined up in the grass in front of piles of thick homemade pancakes, white cheese, dumplings and brown kvas, the fermented rye drink. Pots and kitchenware were adorned with burning candles, as was a makeshift table in front of the spruce. 

The extraordinary ceremony testified to the little-known fact that an animist faith has survived centuries of Christian and Muslim hegemony in this obscure region 800 kilometers east of Moscow. 

The Mari, a Finnic people of roughly half a million whose language sounds a bit like a strange mixture of Finnish and Turkish, are said to be Europe’s last pagans. Yet their priests, called kart in Mari, reject that notion. 

“We are not pagans. We call our faith the Mari Traditional Religion, and we are registered officially in the republic,” said Vyacheslav Mamayev, who oversaw the ceremony as the chief kart of the local Sernur district. 

He went on to explain that for the Mari, God has nine substances, or hypostases, ranging from the life-giving Ilyan Yumo to the birth goddess Shochinava. 

Asked about the theological foundation of his faith, Mamayev smiled and said, “Everything works through nature.” 

The full story here.

The member-states of the Venezuelan-led ALBA bloc on Monday ordered their ambassadors to leave Honduras until President Mel Zelaya, who was forced out by the military over the weekend, is reinstated.

“In view of the categorical rejection that the international community has shown in the face of the dictatorial government that is trying to impose itself (in Honduras), we member countries of ALBA have decided to withdraw our ambassadors” from Tegucigalpa, they agreed in the Managua declaration, read by Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Fander Falconi.

ALBA comprises Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela, says the Latin American Herald Tribune.

In the declaration, signed by Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the ALBA nations demanded that “President Zelaya be unconditionally (restored) to his legitimate duties.”

“We recognize as the only diplomatic representatives of Honduras in our countries the personnel designated by President Zelaya,” they said.

The ALBA governments said that under no circumstance will they accredit persons appointed “by the usurpers,” an allusion to the government of Honduran congressional speaker Roberto Micheletti, who was chosen by his colleagues to serve as provisional president.

In addition, the declared themselves to be on “permanent alert to accompany the courageous Honduran people in the activities of struggle they have convened” and they invoked Articles 2 and 3 of the Honduran Constitution, which refer to the crime of treason against the homeland and the right to join an insurrection in defense of the constitutional order.

“Those who are leading the coup d’etat must know that it will be impossible for them to impose themselves and mock international justice, before which they will be brought sooner or later,” they warned.

The ALBA nations issued a call to Honduran military officers and soldiers to correct their stance and “place their weapons at the service of the Honduran people and its commanding general, Manuel Zelaya.”

The BBC reports that with his popularity plummeting in recent months to 30%, President Zelaya’s fate in office was anything but certain.

“We saw this coming around six months ago,” said Miguel, a lawyer as he watched protesters build a barricade of burning tyres in the centre of the capital.

“Zelaya, for some reason, became a radical,” he said.

Recent events in Tegucigalpa, with hundreds of protesters chanting the president’s name have proved that he does have his fanatical supporters. 

“He is the democratically elected president of Honduras. He was kidnapped by criminals,” said Paulina, a primary school teacher, as she hurled insults at the soldiers currently occupying the presidential palace.

Perhaps seeking inspiration from President Chavez in Venezuela, Mr Zelaya, who said Honduran democracy grossly favoured the country’s wealthy elite, began to turn his attention to the constitution.

It currently allows presidents to only sit for one term of four years. Mr Zelaya’s presidency was due to expire next January.

His efforts to alter the situation would appear to have been relatively modest.

Last Sunday, he was attempting to push what was in effect a referendum about whether a future referendum would take place on rewriting the constitution.

But Mr Zelaya’s enemies it seemed, wanted to stop the process in its inception. And they had powerful institutions on their side: the Supreme Court, the Congress, the army.

But, the BBC says that the coup could not have come at a worse time:

 

The removal of President Zelaya was expertly planned and orchestrated.

Yet, for its proponents, it might have been disastrously mistimed.

They are now left in nominal charge of a country. Their nemesis has been turned into a symbol of Central America’s long, unhappy, struggle against military dictatorship.

And questions remain as to whether, assuming it was his intention, he really could have altered the Honduran Constitution in order to prolong his rule.

Even highly popular leaders, such as Hugo Chavez, have discovered that such an undertaking is not always successful.

Might the generals and judges and politicians who decided that Manuel Zelaya had to go, now be wondering whether they would have been better off doing nothing?

 

France’s far-right National Front party was Monday in pole position to take its first town council in more than a decade after winning the first round of voting in Henin-Beaumont, says France24. 
   
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s party list took 39 percent of the vote Sunday in the northern town, far ahead of a left-wing list on 20 percent. The second round of the by-election takes place next Sunday. 
   
The town has had no mayor since April after the incumbent Socialist was charged with embezzling four million euros (5.6 million dollars), nepotism and other offences.
   
Le Pen’s daughter Marine Le Pen was number two on the party’s list in Henin-Beaumont.
   
The National Front has not won control of a town hall in France since local elections in 1995 gave its candidates several councils in the south.
   
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has several past convictions for racism and anti-semitism, shocked Europe in 2002 by coming in second in the French presidential election.

So what does the Confederations Cup 2009 tell us? First and foremost, that Brazil will be the team to beat at the 2010 World Cup, to be held here in South Africa again.

The Seleçao has such an enormous talent base to pick from, just think, Ronaldinho, Diego, Ronaldo and Adriano were all left out this time. Dunga’s team is also very “European”, meaning it is less exhibitionist and more effective than the normal Brazil squad, which in practice means the ability to win even when they’re having an off night. And the team fielded in Africa, as well as being very talented in attack with 14 goals from 5 games, also proved it had character and was hungry for victory. In other words, a solid, honest-to-goodness squad. As Kakà proved, named best player of the final, in his words at the end of the game: “What did we say to each other at half-time, down 0-2?” Yes, we can”. A bit of an Americanism but basically that “we’re going to win because we’re Brazil.”  

If Brazil can do anything then they are the team to beat at next year’s World Cup. 

Read the full story here.

Twenty-one activists from 11 countries set sail from Cyprus Monday to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade on the impoverished territory, says Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar. 

The US-based Free Gaza movement said it is carrying a “symbolic” cargo of humanitarian aid to pressure governments and international relief groups to do more to rebuild Gaza, which was devastated by an Israeli war on Hamas this year.

“We are sending 20 symbolic kits to families to show the effects of the siege which deprives people of electricity, water, cement and other basic amenities,” Free Gaza organizer Caoimhe Butterly . “The $4 billion pledged by donors for reconstruction is not being translated on the ground and the people of Gaza are living in humiliating conditions and the international community must act.”

“We are hoping the Israeli Army and Navy will realize this is a humanitarian mission and allow us through,” said Butterly.

People living there find themselves unable to rebuild their lives and are sliding ever deeper into despair.

Israel has maintained a strict blockade on the Palestinian territory for the past three years.

Posted by our contributor Moeali

A train transporting liquid gas derailed around midnight Tuesday causing a huge explosion and fireball near the train station of Viareggio, Tuscany, says Corriere della Sera. 

17 have been confirmed dead with 15 people in critical condition. Around one thousand people have been evacuated from the area of the explosion after two buildings collapsed. Among the victims of the explosion were passers-by who happened to be in the road parallel to the station. 

“There are dozens and dozens of cars hit by the shock wave and collapsed houses,” said firefighters’ spokesman Luca Cari.

Some of the victims, including a child, were killed in their homes, said Raffaele Gargiulo, a police spokesman for the nearby city of Lucca, which is in charge of the smaller town of Viareggio. Two drivers on the road alongside the tracks when the train derailed were also killed.

Others suffered severe burns and died at the hospital.

La Repubblica reports that many by-standers were engulfed in flames and that fear of a chain-reaction of explosions induced firefighters to cordon off the area and evacuate any remaining buildings. 

The 14-car train was traveling from the northern city of La Spezia to Pisa when a rear car derailed and crashed into a residential neighborhood beside the train station in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio just before midnight Monday.

A statement by Italy’s state-run railways company said the first rail car was registered with the Polish company PKP, while the other 13 cars were registered with the Deutsche Bahn, the German railways. The cars were driven by a locomotive of the Italian railways Trenitalia.

The statement said the first car appeared to derail and explode, pulling another four cars with it. The cause was not immediately clear.

RAI’s nightly news, Tg1 reports on the inferno below:

Posted by our contributor Alessandro Passanti

A five-year-old child has been found alive, hours after a Yemeni airliner crashed in the Indian Ocean with more than 150 people on board, says the BBC. 

Some bodies have also been recovered from the wreckage of the plane.

The Yemenia Airbus 310 flight IY626 was flying from the Yemeni capital Sanaa, but many passengers on the plane began their journey in France.

The EU voiced concern about Yemenia’s safety and proposed a world blacklist of those carriers deemed unsafe.

The EU already has its own list, and its Transport Commissioner, Antonio Tajani, said such a list would be a “safety guarantee for all”.

Another EU official told Reuters news agency there were concerns about the airline’s “incomplete reporting procedure and incomplete follow-up” following 2007 tests on the aircraft which crashed, but that its record was improving.

A search is under way, with the French military assisting with the operation.

As well as the rescued child, five bodies and some wreckage of the plane have been recovered.

“The weather conditions were rough; strong wind and high seas,” Yemenia official Mohammad al-Sumairi told Reuters news agency.

Posted by our contributor Moeali