A Fierce American in Toronto, Ontario

April 08, 2004

Sudan

Apr. 8 - A few items on Sudan today. In the NY Times, Brutal Conflict in Sudan Brings Warnings by Bush and Annan. The latest civil war has served as an opportunity for Arab militias in Darfur to push over 100,00 black Africans into refugee camps in Sudan, and both the U.N. Secretary-General and the US President hav issued warnings to the government and called on it to allow humanitarian agencies access.

According to CNN, the Sudan government and rebels have reached a cease-fire agreement which is to be signed in Chad on Thursday.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 96 words, total size 1 kb.

April 06, 2004

Rwanda Memorial Conference II

Apr. 6 - Paul salutes Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dalliare (Ret.) who alone has the decency to attend the Rwanda Memorial Conference today.

Apr. 7 - 11:37: Interesting Op-ed in the NY Times by Emmanuel Dongala, who was in Brazzaville during the Rwandan genocide and became a refugee when the ethnic violence flared in Congo Republic. He poses some interesting questions and challenges, especially how the lessons we claim to have learned from Rwanda .

Today, I still think the genocide in Rwanda has not been the electroshock that should have jolted me and other African scholars from our "Africanly" correct way of thinking.
Some of our outdated ideological ideas must be challenged. With the backing of the government, Arabs are carrying out a massacre of genocidal scale against black Africans in Sudan, yet many academics and leaders in Africa are reluctant to speak out because of a misplaced sense of solidarity. We are also reluctant to face other unpleasant realities because we are afraid that would project the wrong picture of Africa to the world.
In 1958, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea was the only leader of all the French African colonies to seek immediate independence. Because of this, we refused for a long time to denounce the crimes Toure was committing against his people. And because Robert Mugabe fought for freedom in Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe), it is not acceptable to criticize his autocratic rule, for doing so would be siding with the white settlers. As for Rwanda, many people dare not speak against the crimes that Rwandan troops are committing in the Democratic Congo Republic because of the moral legitimacy President Paul Kagame gained by stopping genocide in his country.

The solidarity expressed by "Africanly" political correctness is not necessarily a bad thing, but the genocide in Rwanda reflected that this unity reflects words and not sentiments among the peoples of Africa. Like many other Westerners, though, I am reluctant to scold and advise Africans on the best course; yet when I see mounting death tolls from tribal conflicts, I feel we should be doing more to stop it.

I wonder if the hesitation to intervene was due more to concerns about appearing "culturally insensitive" than total indifference. When all recourses are laden with risk it is easier to do nothing, and the US would probably have been reviled and condemned as racist had we intervened militarily.

I don't know. Today, the mindset of 1994 is a vague memory.

Belmont Club makes several observations about the criticism Dalliare received at the memorial, but the key one is this:

First, it is a candid admission that the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission was wholly unprepared to fulfill its mission.

Dallaire was harshly criticized by two Belgiums and didn't respond by asking them why their troops pulled out when it became clear that a genocide was beginning. He's a better man than I am. (End of update)

On the other hand, Paul isn't saluting the decision of unnamed morons to keep the Snowbirds (Canada's aviation aerobatic team) in the same jets until the year 2020 (that is not a misprint.)

Posted by: Debbye at 02:44 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 522 words, total size 4 kb.

April 03, 2004

Sudan: Rwanda or Kosovo (Updated)

Apr. 3 - A short while ago there was a lot of talk - lots and lots of talk - about how badly Kofi Annan felt that he did nothing to stop the massacres in Rwanda (actually, he did "something": he ordered the withdrawal of a large body of UN troops.)

April 7 marks the anniversary of the bloodshed, but naturally the "world leaders" aren't going to attend the memorial service in Rwanda, all too Bloody Typical, as Paul notes.

There have been several danger signs in Sudan with claims that Arab militias are forcing black Africans out of their villages and into refugee camps in neighbouring Chad, and the UNSC is having a meeting about it.

"I have no reason to believe that the government is actively planning it, but I have reason to say that little is done to stop it, and therefore it seems as if it is being condoned," Jan Egeland, the world body's humanitarian affairs chief, said after briefing the Security Council.
"Scorched-earth tactics are being employed throughout Darfur, including the deliberate destruction of schools, wells, seed and food supplies, making whole towns and villages uninhabitable," he said, describing an "organized campaign" that has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes and triggered "one of the world's worst humanitarian crises."
Following his briefing, the 15-nation council issued a statement calling on the Sudan government and rebel groups to protect civilians in the northeast African nation, help aid workers gain access to needy regions, agree on a humanitarian cease-fire and "reach a political settlement to the dispute."
Darfur peace talks opened this week in N'Djamena, the capital of neighboring Chad, where the United Nations says tens of thousands of Darfur refugees have fled.
But the talks have gotten off to a slow start, with the first few days devoted to "talking about talks," Egeland said.

US diplomats say that representatives from Pakistan and Algeria "watered down" the resolution, the two countries deny it, and, in short, the UN shows how vital and effective it is when dictatorships control the agenda in the name of multilateralism.

The Sudanese government this week arrested a leader of the Opposition and several others on charges they had tried to overthrow the government, but even so, Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Elfatih Mohamed Ahmed Erwa, says the claims of the UN are exaggerated.

Egeland noted that the situation in the Sudan should not be compared Rwanda as the inhabitants are being forced out of the area but not being killed.

Am I supposed to feel better that the situation is closer to that in Kosovo, another country in which the UN failed to act?

Remind me again why multilateral institutions like the UN are essential to world peace and the advancing of human rights. As talk is cheap, surely the UN is the biggest 'ho house in town.

23:41: Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire (Ret.) will attend the April 7 ceremony.

Apr. 5 - 23:10: This NY Times piece explains the "talks about the talks" comment:

The most important step now, he said, was to get a cease-fire declared. But reports from Ndjamena, the Chadian capital, where talks were under way, indicated that the combatants' representatives would not even enter the same room. The negotiations had descended into "talks about talks" while people continued to die, Mr. Egeland said.

Posted by: Debbye at 09:33 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 561 words, total size 4 kb.

April 02, 2004

Bomb found under Spanish train tracks

Apr. 2 - I guess you can't appease everyone: a bomb was found on the Spanish rail line that runs between Madrid and Seville. 10-24 kg of dynamite were connected to a detonator by a 131 m (430 ft.) cable. The bomb was defused by the Civil Guard. [Note in update that ÃƒÂngel Acebes, the Minister of the Interior, says there was no detonator.]

Media reports have not been confirmed by officials. There may been a telephone call warning of the bomb, and a contractor hired to build new tracks may have found the bomb.

14 people are being held in connection with the Mar. 11 terror attack on Madrid trains. A Spanish judge released two Syrians without charges and a Moroccan was released but ordered to report daily by the judge.

There are international warrants for six others - one Tunisian and five Morrocans. Tunisian Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet is thought to be the leader. Morrocan Jamal Ahmidan rented the premises where the bomb was built and Mohamed Oulad Akcha, his brother Rachid Oulad Akcha, and Abdennabi Kounjaa procured the explosives and made the bombs. Said Berraj is believed to be the link to al Qaeda.

15:11: Paul has information from La Vanguardia account on some of the details, including the fact that the bomb was minus a detonator.

18:15: Iberian Notes reports that the timer wasn't set. Official consensus seems to be that whoever was planting the bomb was interrupted. He says: "La Vangua ran a story saying that they suspect there are 300 Moroccan Islamist Combatent Group affiliates in Spain, which means there are plenty more where Jamal Zougam and Abderraman Balkh came from."

18:30: Tim Blair's update is from Franco AlemÃƒÂ¡n of Hispa Libertas who says that there was no telephone warning and it had been raining all night (which is why the dryness of the bomb was important.)

Apr. 3 - 08:58: AP confirms that the bomb material matches that used Mar. 11. This report says the bomb failed to detonate because it wasn't properly connected, and CNN is confirms that no initiator was found.

The Washingtn Times carries a report from AP which refers to a claim in the Spanish paper El Mundo reporting that the Spanish Embassy in Egypt received a letter from the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri threatening to attack again unless Spain withdraws troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Posted by: Debbye at 10:37 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 394 words, total size 3 kb.

March 31, 2004

Sudan gov't says coup plot thwarted

Mar. 31 - The Sudanese government arrested Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi on charges that he was plotting to overthrow the President, Omar al-Bashir. According to the BBC report:

Those detained are also being linked to the uprising in the Darfur region. On Wednesday talks between the government and the Darfur rebels got under way.
Although the government delegation and a number of rebel representatives failed to appear at the opening ceremony in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, on Tuesday, the opposing sides are now involved in indirect talks.

Ten military officers and seven opposition leaders have also been detained. more...

Posted by: Debbye at 11:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 278 words, total size 2 kb.

March 30, 2004

March 11 Update (s)

Mar. 30 - This Inside Europe: Iberian Notes post has some interesting information about one of the suspects in the March 11 train bombing in Spain and an earlier post here makes some pretty sharp comments about the implications of the attack having Moroccan connections. more...

Posted by: Debbye at 09:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 272 words, total size 2 kb.

March 26, 2004

Rwanda Memorial Conference

Mar. 26 - What happens when UN Sec.-Gen. Kofi Annan and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister share sanctimony and a platform? Absolutely nothing (unless you count me getting a 3-aspirin headache.) The concept of "happens," which presupposes an ability to "act," doesn't exist in their dimension. more...

Posted by: Debbye at 05:06 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 686 words, total size 5 kb.

1 Then Kofi should step down. I don't think he'd consider the Japanese solution to losing face.

Posted by: Sandy P. at March 26, 2004 11:50 PM (HY+aw)

2 From what I've read, and that's admittedly not much, the Rwanda massacre could have been prevented if Bill Clinton and M Albright had decided to act. Because, apparently, the warning signs were all there and General Dallaire forced they key people to see them. If this is true, it has to make you wonder if Holocaust education has had any effect at all, one of the key messages being that the bystanders are also implicated. Am I missing something here? I'd like to know.

Posted by: Canadian Headhunter at March 27, 2004 07:16 AM (10VJV)

3 thanks for pointing out just one more case of sanctimonious canadian blather. as far as i can recall, the UN has NEVER been successful at dealing with any major crisis, anywhere. still, our trained seals in ottawa fall over each other to kiss annan's rear end. pitiful. truly pitiful. the two nations with the greatest historical and political links to rwanda, belgium and france, also failed to impede that genocide. as far as i am aware, no african nations attempted to intervene either. it must be washington's fault. /sarcasm

Posted by: keith at March 27, 2004 07:30 AM (xfdnu)

4 Sandy, the reader sending the link had some very strong words accompanying it. At least your suggestion is printable! Keith pretty much nailed it. Words, words, words. These people are bureaucrats, not statesmen! CH - I started to answer you but it turned into pages of rants. Leave it that I don't accept UN leadership for bake sales, much less military missions. They are more interested in looking good than doing good. The minute the US is blamed it conveniently ends the conversation whereas it should scare the bejesus out of you. If no UN action is possible without US leadership, troops, and blood, then what does that really say about the rest of the world? If we really had imperialist ambitions, how long could Canada stand against us? All the excuses Canada has for not supporting a strong military doesn't hold water when we look at Australia, and they have intervened in places like East Timor and the Solomon Islands with success. They were first on the ground in Iraq. What do they have that Canada doesn't? Leadership? Guts? Will? My challenge to Canada is simple: Was Rwanda an awakening of the recognition that Canada needed to beef up their military capabilities in order to meet challenges like Rwanda, Kosovo, Serbia-Herz., Congo, Haiti, and so on? Can you imagine running a business like that? And I freaking HATE Bill Graham for his feckless handling of the Zahra Kazemi crisis. Canada was in a unique position to help the dissidents in Iran and sided with the mullahs. Increasingly Canada is on the wrong side. What do you want to bet that Chretien's trip to China wasn't merely a social call?

Posted by: Debbye at March 27, 2004 09:18 AM (biC5+)

5 Canadian Headhunter: If you do a search Rawanda genocide the name that comes up most often is that of Samantha Power, who is a lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Some of her publications just look like intelligentsia critique of US administrations (she seems equally critical of both Bushes and Bill Clinton), but there are interesting articles in Atlantic monthly archives. In http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/09/power.htm she states: “Once the killing of thousands of Rwandans a day had begun, the President could have deployed U.S. troops to Rwanda. The United States could have joined Dallaire's beleaguered UNAMIR forces or, if it feared associating with shoddy UN peacekeeping, it could have intervened unilaterally with the Security Council's backing, as France eventually did in late June. The United States could also have acted without the UN's blessing, as it did five years later in Kosovo. Securing congressional support for U.S. intervention would have been extremely difficult, but by the second week of the killing Clinton could have made the case that something approximating genocide was under way, that a supreme American value was imperiled by its occurrence, and that U.S. contingents at relatively low risk could stop the extermination of a people.” I also learned in this article, which is very respectful of Dellaire, that Canada did not deploy 5,000 troops to Rawanda because the US would only pay for the deployment of 2,500. I also learned that, at that time, the US footed the bill for a full 1/3 of UN peacekeeping missions. The article does not state whether the cost of the Canadian deployment was included in that cost. Kofie Annan was the director of the UN Peacekeeping Operations department at that time. I wondered, given Powers’ proposal of unilateral US intervention in Rawanda, how she felt about the Iraq situation. I found this: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2003-12-03.htm where she states: “If we needed a reminder of how dangerous military intervention is, I think we've all gotten that reminder in Iraq. My basic feeling about military intervention is that it should be a last resort, undertaken only to stave off large-scale bloodshed. I think the trigger for it, on the humanitarian side, anyway, has to be something on a mass scale like genocide. Tony Blair said, "Well, I would go to Zimbabwe if I could, but I can't. So let me go to Iraq." That level of trigger-happiness is unwise because of all the risks inherent in military intervention. The visible evidence through history is that the most successful transitions come when they are organic. Neither the African Union nor the West has even begun to exhaust high-level diplomatic options.” I’m sick of the perennial self-flagellation by the US. It just invites other countries to participate in our punishment. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

Posted by: Sammie at March 27, 2004 10:50 AM (ZDCse)

6 Hi Sammie, thanks for all of the research. I am familiar with Samantha Power having seen her interviewed by Evan Solomon on CBC Newsworld. I thought she was pretty good looking.

Posted by: Canadian Headhunter at March 27, 2004 09:55 PM (10VJV)

7 Besides, under HRW? no one's supposed to interfere in another country's killing of its own people until it's 1m or over. There's rules about this now, you know. And the rules are set by the people who "care." We're damned if we do, damned if we don't. The US could have stopped it, but we don't want the US to stop it! China's got a big army, call on them.

Posted by: Sandy P. at March 28, 2004 12:12 AM (HY+aw)

8 Rantburg's always chockful of bloggy goodness: ...Linda MelvernÂ’s book .... reveals, for instance, that in 1993 the government of Rwanda imported, from China, three quarters of a million dollars worth of machetes. This was enough for one new machete for every third male. Machetes were used for many of the murders committed during the genocide. The details of pre-genocide arms imports from Egypt and France are also given, as is the extent of French military cooperation with the parts of the Rwandan army most responsible for the genocide...."

Posted by: Sandy P. at March 28, 2004 01:12 AM (HY+aw)

9 It also bears noting that while everyone is talking about Rwanda ten years after the fact, there is currently an ethinic cleansing program in Sudan. And the UN is prepared to do what? Absolutely nothing. But we can count on lamentations and bewailing after the fact.

Posted by: Debbye at March 28, 2004 09:02 AM (++lJd)

10 Debbye, you're right about Sudan. I often wonder if it's a big issue in the Muslim community that goes unreported or if it's a non-issue and therefore goes unreported. It strikes me that this would be an ideal terrain for Muslims to demonstrate the virtues and rigour of their moral culture. I don't read the Arab press online. Is it ever mentioned?

Posted by: Canadian Headhunter at March 29, 2004 10:45 AM (10VJV)

11 Hi CH! I haven't seen anything in the translated Arab media or seen references from other bloggers to Sudan in them, but I don't read them as regularly as others, and that's not the same as knowing absolutely that the warfare, child slavery, etc., isn't discussed. But I would have no knowledge about what may be in untranslated reports in Arabic either. I hope it's a concern for some Muslims (and logic tells me it probably is, but how public is the concern?)

Posted by: Debbye at March 29, 2004 03:51 PM (cowNW)

12 I saw an interview with Annan in which he suggested that the UN and Canada had learned from their errors ... implying rather offensively that Canada had been party to the UN decision to abandon Rwanda. In fact, after the UN ordered Dallaire out of Rwanda, Dallaire was able to remain there and defy UN directives only because of unilateral Canadian military support. It's hypocritical now to lot Canada in with a UN position that was largely determined by the French, the Belgians, and the Americans, particularly when Canadians in theatre and Canada's military was forced by moral obligations to 'go it alone' (along with small contingents from Ghana and Tunisia). The UN not only ordered Dallaire out, they cut off his supplies and reinforcements, and even stopped responding to his communications. Dallaire got all the support that his own country could give him, and no support from the UN. Annan's revisionist view of that well-documented history is shocking and political, and needs to be challenged. Things that have now become impolite to mention include the Americans' kafka-esque refusal to allow the use of the word 'genocide' by the UN (as the US tried to avoid getting involved), French logistical support to the 'genocidaires', and the fact that Belgium in its colonial period in Rwanda from the 1940s to the 1980s created the very situation that led to the genocide. With regards to Canada's failure to build up its military, I wonder why Canada should be under any international military obligation. Canada's current military needs more funding, but that funding should be focused first and foremost on the protection of Canadian interests, such as fishing territories and Arctic sovereignty. Canada's military expertise in peacekeeping should not obligate it to become involved in every peacekeeping operation that arises. Canada has never been a colonial power and - with the exception of a gold mine here and there - has few 'strategic interests' in the rest of the world. Canada's only credible enemies are those formed from its association with the US. So why is Canada on the hook to spend money and lives in conflicts with which Canada has no connection - particularly when other colonial countries like Belgium, France and the US get involved only when it is politically or strategically advantageous? Why should Canada be footing the bill for defence measures made necessary by European or American colonial and corporate misbehaviour throughout the world?

Posted by: DDD at July 25, 2004 11:19 AM (zL7kp)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

March 19, 2004

Important stories from Wednesday

Mar. 19 - These are some important stories I missed Wednesday:

There was an ugly incident of anti-Semitism here: T.O. police probing anti-Semitic hate crimes in north Toronto.

Part of the rise in anti-Semitism last year is being blamed on the war in Iraq, which produced a spike in hate crimes. The ongoing tensions and violence in Israel is apparently giving licence to hate mongers.

The Canadian media, always ready to Blame America.

More news from Syria about Syria uprisings and Syrian officials blame US for the Kurdiah uprising because US flags were spotted in crowd. I'll own up to such that ~~blame~~ inspiration gladly and gratefully.

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda yesterday accused France of direct responsibility for the 1994 genocide of at least 800,000 people in the central African country. more...

Posted by: Debbye at 10:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 372 words, total size 3 kb.

January 25, 2004

Hutton Inquiry Findings, Mugabe, Cheney on Iran, EU coruption

Jan. 25 - Hutton will clear Blair over Kelly death which is to say Blair will not be personally criticized, but Alistair Campbell and Andrew Gilligan are among those who will be. So a BBC reporter can misrepresent Dr. Kelly's statements (who should never have been speaking to the BBC to begin with) and thus violate every ethical standard of journalism to put forward his own point of view and Blair was put on the defensive? And Campbell did wrong . . . how? By standing up for the truth. No chastisement can be harsh enough for that crime.

And journalists complain that people don't watch the news or read the papers. Maybe because they don't trust big media? Hmm?

Mugabe flown to South Africa because he collapsed. Money quote:

"We were ordered not to give any details of the president's illness in case it brought people out on to the streets," a senior member of the 'Green Bombers', the notorious youth brigade created by Mr Mugabe, told The Telegraph.

Paul claims he's trying to resolve issues with his video card (or something like that) but I say he's been sacrificing chickens again. Good work! Today Mugabe, tomorrow . . . oh, kind of a big field there. I vote for Arafat, but I'll let Paul decide.

Dick Cheney is taking a hard line on Iran's Council of Guardians.

"Democracies do not breed the anger and the radicalism that drag down whole societies or export violence," he said. "Terrorists do not find fertile recruiting grounds in societies where young people have the right to guide their own destinies and to choose their own leaders."

Ineptitude in the EU?:

The report, by the parliament's budgetary control committee, notes that "no Commissioner has so far accepted political responsibility" for the fiasco at Eurostat, from which at least ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â£3.5 million disappeared in slush funds and fictitious contracts, although some have admitted mistakes. Much of the fraud took place before the current commission took office in late 1999, but MEPs are furious that dubious contracts ran on, unchecked, until at least 2002.

Ever wonder where the UN learned its bookkeeping methodology? And these poor commissioners might receive a vote of censure! Oh, the humanity!

Posted by: Debbye at 12:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 382 words, total size 3 kb.

January 20, 2004

Dallaire testifies

Jan. 20 - The testimony of Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire at the trials of 4 officers accused of orchestrating genocide during the Rwandan massacres of 1994 for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is grim and horrifying in its starkness.

Read both articles.

Posted by: Debbye at 12:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 47 words, total size 1 kb.

January 14, 2004

Euro-terror news

Jan. 14 - Instapundit has a partial round-up of "Euro-terror news" and some links to terror activity in Thailand which seems to be of an Islamist nature.

Little Green Footballs links to a piece in The Observer Terror cells regroup - and now their target is Europe which has a summary of some key arrests in Europe, the emergence of groups in Eastern Europe, and provides a useful table:

The targets, the death toll and the suspects
Istanbul November 2003, 62 dead
Target: British consulate and bank, synagogues
Suspect: Local Islamic group thought to be linked to al-Qaeda or Abu Musab Zarqawi
Baghdad August-October 2003, 50 dead
Target: Al-Rasheed hotel, UN and Red Cross headquarters.
Suspect: European suicide bombers believed to have been recruited by Mullah Fouad in Syria.
Casablanca May 2003, 41 dead
Target: Jewish community centre and Spanish social club
Suspect: Local Islamic group. The authorities want to interview a Moroccan cleric, Mohammed al-Garbuzi, who is believed to be in Britain.
Riyadh May 2003, 34 dead
Target: Luxury compounds in Saudi capital
Suspect: Swiss arrest an eight-strong 'logistics cell'.
Mombasa November 2002, 16 dead
Target: Israeli tourists at Paradise hotel
Suspect: Kenyan Islamic cell. Some funds allegedly provided by a Somali-born militant living in London, arrested in Milan and 'a part of Zarqawi's cell'.

Little Green Footballs also has information about the Cleveland arrest of Imam Fawaz Mohammed Damrah.

Posted by: Debbye at 01:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 233 words, total size 2 kb.

January 08, 2004

AIDS in Africa

Jan. 8 - This is odd: Aids in Africa 'overestimated'.

The preliminary report of the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey suggested that HIV has infected about one million adults in the country. Previous estimates put the number at up to three million.
Earlier surveys in Mali, Zambia and South Africa hinted that Aids might not be as widespread as believed, but scientists said the new data provided conclusive evidence. It will allow them to extrapolate the findings across the continent, which would reduce infection estimates by at least a quarter.
A leading western expert on Aids said: "We have the same thing coming from the south of Africa, from the west, from the centre and now from the east."

Smaller numbers don't change the need for immediate efforts to combat the spread of the virus, of course, but I am perplexed that the numbers seem to be so far off.

Posted by: Debbye at 09:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 154 words, total size 1 kb.

January 04, 2004

Red Sea crash

Jan. 4 - These days it is hard to convince people that accidents can happen, especially when a passenger plane goes down as happened yesterday during a state of high alert. (Red Sea jetliner crash kills 148)

France's deputy transportation minister, Dominique Bussereau, said in Paris that the pilot of flight FSH604 detected problems shortly after takeoff and tried to turn back.

The article states there was no distress call. Would a pilot turn back without notifying the traffic controllers?

Expat Yank remembers the Egypt Air Crash in 1999 and, after quoting from divers who claim the black box is in water too deep in the Red Sea to be recovered, makes the key point:

Given that they don't have the flight recorders, it is curious how quickly they have claimed "technical" problems were the reason. Remember, experts can get intact black boxes from just about anywhere -- just as they've previously fished them out of the North Atlantic.

That's been at the root of my skepticism too, that they were just too quick to deny anything untoward happened.

Even after seven years, there's still a lot of questions about what really happened to TWA Flight 800 which came down over Long Island in 1996. Maybe it's just that once the public's suspicions have been aroused, restoring credibility becomes nearly impossible.

It's a hmm moment, not a full-blown aha although there may be more information forthcoming. I'd just feel more confident if they had given the usual "We are vigorously pursuing the investigation" line.

UPDATE: Aaron Klein isn't happy with the French rush to judgement either. In another story, the crash is now being blamed on a catastrophic power failure although the black box has not yet been recovered.

(World Net Daily and Daily Telegraph links via Jack's Newswatch.)

Posted by: Debbye at 08:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 301 words, total size 3 kb.

December 29, 2003

Burundi papal nuncio killed

Dec. 29 - Burundi papal nuncio shot dead

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The pope's ambassador in Burundi was shot and killed by gunmen who opened fire at his car in the Central African nation, the Vatican and a missionary news agency said Monday.
Monsignor Michael Courtney was shot in the head, shoulder and a limb, according to the Misna missionary news agency. He died from a major hemorrhage during surgery.
A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the death of the papal nuncio but would offer no details until his relatives had been informed.

CNN has some information about the intermittent civil war there.

The report from Fox is from the same AP feed, but they do offer a bit more information about Monsignor Courtney:

Courtney was born in 1945 in Nenagh, 85 miles southwest of Dublin. He was ordained in 1968, and worked as a parish priest around Ireland until 1976, it said. He then moved to Rome and entered the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy.
Beginning in 1980, he was a papal representative in South Africa, then in Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Egypt, the 2000 announcement said. Prior to going to Burundi, he worked for five years as special envoy in Strasbourg, France, monitoring the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.

Given the rumours about a terrorist threat against the Vatican, I thought it worthwhile to find out what I could about religion in Burundi. According to this, 67% are Christians (62% are Roman Catholics and 5% are Protestants,) 23% retain indigenous beliefs, and 10% are Muslims.

The civil war there is the most likely connection, but I haven't found any theories as to which faction could be behind it or how it would advance anyone's cause.

UPDATE: This report from the Daily Telegraph (UK) says that Courtney was well-known to the rebels of the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), the prime suspects, because last year he had negotiated the release of a fellow priest held hostage by the FNL.

Posted by: Debbye at 03:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 342 words, total size 2 kb.

December 22, 2003

Next step: human rights in Libya

Dec. 22 - I like Peter Worthington (not the least because he spells the name of Libya's ruler almost the same way I do!) and he delivers his judgement on the unilateral move by Libya to break with the Axis of Evil with a suggestion for a Canadian application in today's column Khadaffy's new stance break in war on terror.

When Libya (Khadaffy) was elected to chair the UN Human Rights Commission (members included such repressive regimes as Zimbabwe, Vietnam, China, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria) it was a low-water mark for the UN -- and typical of the flaccid values of that increasingly impotent body.
Only three of 33 countries voted against Libya's chairmanship (the U.S., Canada and Guatemala), while 17 ideologically craven countries (mostly European) abstained.
Is it too much to hope that Khadaffy will now take human rights seriously? His is a brutal regime that dabbles in torture and slavery, but if he benefits from abandoning his WMD program and terrorism, perhaps the next phase will be easing intolerance inside Libya.
[...]
Iraqis, too, want normality, and already have more freedom than they ever had under Saddam.
Arab countries aren't brainless.
The gesture of Moammar Khadaffy, who is as "Arab" as any, will not be lost on other tyrants and quasi-despots.
That Libya will now benefit should be a guide for our own foreign aid policy: Help countries that behave decently, give nothing to tyrannies that use our aid to entrench their repression.

The Cold War is over. It's past time to adjust policies and use foreign aid to encourage better, higher goals such as the pillars articulated by Pres. Bush in his Whitehall Speech and principles of international human rights the Canadian federal government claims to respect.

Posted by: Debbye at 09:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 299 words, total size 2 kb.

December 20, 2003

Libyan Surprise

Dec. 20 - I was caught off guard (in a good way) when I saw Libya's surprise announcement late last night, and however much spin Gadhafi's son may put on it, anyone who doubts that the declaration of the war on terror and US presence in Iraq isn't having predictable results is either living on another planet or never studied history.

Did anyone bookmark an article that appeared a few months ago in which Italian President Berlusconi said he received a phone call from Gadafi asking for help in repairing relations with the US? It was shortly thereafter that a settlement for the Lockerbie victims was reached (until France got greedier).

I hate posting information based on my own memory, but if I posted the article I can't find it.

CNN remembered last weekend whose side they were on when they reported the news of Saddam's capture, and today they remembered how much they despise the French when they reported on the international reactions to the news from Libya:

However, French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin urged Libya to "implement without delay" its commitment to compensating families of victims of the bombing of a French airliner in 1989.
[...]
De Villepin said France wanted more compensation for the families of 170 victims of a UTA plane bombed over Niger in line with the $2.7 billion Libya paid to families of 270 people killed in the 1988 bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The French, having settled that claim already, wanted to re-negotiate. Remember why we don't trust the French? They themselves make it hard to forget the reasons.

A giggle note: a CNN poll on this page asks Will it be possible to trust Libya again and welcome the country back to the international community?

CNN notes the 1986 attack ordered by President Reagan, but Fox has a timeline of US relations with Libya which notes (unlike the CNN report) the Berlin discotheque bombing and the 1979 ransacking of the US embassy in Tripoli.

CNN has "C" and "L" but still needs to buy two vowels: "U" and "E."

Okay, I'm a bitca today. I have to leave for work shortly so I'm just anticipating.

UPDATE: The Daily Telegraph (UK) calls it a case of good cop, bad cop of US-British dealings with Libya. The Sun calls it a massive coup for Blair and Bush and notes

Colonel Gaddafi's move also further undermines the anti-war stance of French President Jacques Chirac and many Labour MPs. They claimed liberating Iraq would make the world more dangerous. But Libya's decision hugely vindicates the invasion.
It is also a blow to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida terror network as it shows the West and previously hostile Muslim nations can work together to find peace.

It's too soon to do the Dance of Victory, but this will be interesting. I've no doubt Howard Dean has his own spin, but is anyone listening?

Colby Cosh says "Bush lied, people died, Colonel Gadaffi came onside" makes a nice couplet.

Posted by: Debbye at 12:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 502 words, total size 4 kb.

December 16, 2003

Archbishop Tutu

Dec. 16 - Despite my sarcasms, I have sympathy for those who, on the one hand are distressed by policies and actions in their own countries, organizations and even families yet, on the other, do not wish to appear disunited in public. They aren't entirely wrong to fear that others might see and exploit differences to make the country or organization weaker.

On that level I can comprehend why some African nations defend Robert Mugabe, but this man has decided that principles outweigh dubious solidarity: Tutu hits out at Mugabe's African supporters:

The archbishop hit out at those who have called for the Mugabe regime to be readmitted to the Commonwealth in the face of continuing human rights violations and abuse of the rule of law.
Archbishop Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner, said the struggle against apartheid would not have been won if Mr Mbeki's logic had been applied in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Had the international community invoked the rubric of non-interference then we would have been in dire straits in our anti-apartheid struggle," the former archbishop of Cape Town said in a statement released yesterday by his office.
"We appealed for the world to intervene and interfere in South Africa's internal affairs. We could not have defeated apartheid on our own. What is sauce for the goose must be sauce for the gander too."
The former head of the Anglican Church in South Africa also said he was "baffled" by the behaviour of Mr Mbeki and other apologists for the Mugabe regime.
[...]
"Human rights are human rights and they are of universal validity or they are nothing.
"There are no peculiarly African human rights, what has been reported as happening in Zimbabwe is totally unacceptable and reprehensible and we ought to say so regretting that it should have been necessary to condemn erstwhile comrades. The credibility of our democracy demands this.
"If we are seemingly indifferent to human rights violations happening in a neighbouring country what is to stop us one day being indifferent to that in our own?" (Emphasis added)

What indeed?

Like so many Telegraph articles, this one ties Archbishop Tutu's comments to other issues in South Africa, notably Nelson Mandela's position on AIDS which is markedly different from that of Mbecki's as well as a seeming generational divide in the African National Congress, so RTWT and follow some of the links.

Posted by: Debbye at 04:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 399 words, total size 3 kb.

December 05, 2003

Chretien on Africa

Dec. 5 - Doesn't it just figure that in his final days as Canada's Prime Minister, Jean Chretien would not only make sense but fail to blame the West for all the ills of the world?

The PM, attending his last Commonwealth leaders meeting [in Nigeria], said African nations have to help themselves.
He said nervousness would disappear when they can assure business they have "an honest system of justice, that the decisions of the courts will be implemented, that human rights will be protected, and that elections will be fair."
He also told his audience they must "stop this bloody conflict that you have too often in some parts of Africa" and restore political stability.
"There's nothing more nervous than a million dollars," the outgoing PM lectured. "It does not speak French, it does not speak English, it does not speak German and it moves very fast."

Normally I would point that that Chretien's personal fortune is several million dollars, he too doesn't speak any of those languages and his speed is subject to personal whimsy, but my mind is boggled at this truly frightening prospect: Is it possible that he's always been lucid?

Posted by: Debbye at 01:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 198 words, total size 1 kb.

September 25, 2003

Ivory Coast

Sept. 25 - New problems in the Ivory Coast. Following unilateral military intervention, the French had imposed a coalition government last April (Ivory Coast is a former French colony) on both the rebels and the ruling elite, but the rebels have withdrawn from that government, and the President, Laurent Gbagbo is responding by ridiculing rebels.

Good ole BBC. They say the French brokered an agreement, without mentioning that it was French troops that did the brokering and that when the coaliton government was imposed, the rebels warned it was unlikely that Gbagbo would honour the agreement.

Posted by: Debbye at 11:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 100 words, total size 1 kb.

August 16, 2003

Amin's son plotting rebellion

Aug. 16 (Au) -- more from Australia:Amin's son plotting rebellion

File this under un-freaking-believable:

A UGANDAN army officer says a son of former Ugandan dictator IDI AMIN, based in Congo, is plotting a rebellion in his late father's home region.
Brigadier Kale Kayihura, a military adviser to President Yoweri Museveni, says Taban Amin is recruiting fighters near the junction of the borders of Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He says the overthrow of the Kampala government is a dream they keep dreaming.
His statement follows the announcement today of Idi Main's death in a Saudi hospital.

Posted by: Debbye at 10:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 106 words, total size 1 kb.

Hide Comments | Add Comment

79kb generated in CPU 0.0171, elapsed 0.0784 seconds.
64 queries taking 0.0669 seconds, 183 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.

Search Thingy

Monthly Traffic

Pages: 6364
Files: 10
Bytes: 82.2M
CPU Time: 5:14
Queries: 393592

Content

Posts: 3544
Comments: 4125

Feeds