Just Foreign Policy News
November 9, 2010
Help the Palestinians. Go See This Movie
If many Americans see the movie "Budrus," which tells the story of successful nonviolent Palestinian and Israeli resistance against the confiscation of Palestinian land in the West Bank village of Budrus, it could lead to a change in U.S. media and U.S. policy, that would make such resistance more likely to succeed in the future.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/help-the-palestinians-go_b_780609.html
Alex Main: Certified Right-Wing Extremists Set to Take Control of House Foreign Affairs Panels
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is expected to become chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Connie Mack is expected to chair the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere. Ros-Lehtinen has lobbied for the release of Cuban terrorists. Ros-Lehtinen and Mack pressed for the US to support the coup in Honduras and want the US to list Venezuela as a "state sponsor of terror."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/09-8
Senator-Elect Rand Paul: Congress needs to debate Afghanistan
"We need to have a national debate and say, is our national security still threatened? I don’t think it’s enough to have had the debate ten years ago, and just accept that that’s the same ongoing – the situation hasn’t changed. We’ve been there for ten years, and I think Congress has abdicated its role… So there needs to be a debate within the Senate and the House, over what is in our national security interest and has it changed in Afghanistan? Can we do nation-building? Do we have the money to do nation-building? Is it effective? Those are things that should be discussed and should not be all based on a resolution from ten years ago."
http://www.washingtonstakeout.com/index.php/2010/11/07/rand-paul-calls-for-debate-on-war-and-presidential-power/
South of the Border on DVD
Oliver Stone’s documentary South of the Border is now available on DVD. Why did the center-left cruise to victory in Brazil? You can get the DVD here.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/southoftheborder
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) A survey released Tuesday by the Asia Foundation found that 83 percent of Afghan adults back negotiations with armed, anti-government groups, up from 71 percent last year, AP reports.
2) A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan reported that since 2005, Washington had supplied $6.6 million in salary supplements to employees in President Karzai’s office, the Washington Post reports. "Neither the Afghan government nor international donors can account for the total number of government employees and technical advisers or identify how much recipients are paid in large part due to a general lack of transparency over that support," the report says. The Afghan government has come to rely on the salary support from donors for critical employees, and the higher pay involved cannot be sustained when donor money ends. The report offers support for the charge that the salary support program has fostered corruption, the Post notes.
3) President Obama, in Indonesia, criticized Israel for its decision to advance the approval of 1,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem, the New York Times reports. The plight of Palestinians is a big issue in Indonesia; President Yudhoyono mentioned it in his opening remarks, saying he had told Obama "we need a resolution on Palestine and Israel in a permanent sustainable manner," the Times says.
4) Colombian trade unionists say that over the past 24 years, more than 2,800 trade union members have been killed in Colombia and the government’s highly publicized efforts to bring the killers to justice are just a public relations spin to try and convince the US to ratify the U.S.-Colombia trade agreement, the AFL-CIO reports. The union leaders said nothing has really changed under President Santos. The government has created "associated labor cooperatives" that in reality are low-wage, subcontracting agencies controlled by big employers. Workers in cooperatives are not covered by labor law and are legally ineligible to form or join unions. In Colombia, some 1.5 million workers are in such arrangements.
5) Indonesia’s military, and in particular its Kopassus special forces, have an abysmal rights record in past campaigns against separatists in East Timor, West Papua and Aceh, Reuters reports. A new video showing the torture of Papuan men has brought the issue back under the spotlight as Obama visits Indonesia. In July, Defense Secretary Gates announced that Washington was ending its ban on ties with Kopassus. Human rights organizations reacted with outrage, saying Kopassus still harbors officers guilty of crimes against humanity.
6) Some policy experts are proposing a novel approach to curbing global warming: including greenhouse gases under the Montreal Protocol adopted to eliminate chemicals destroying the ozone layer, the New York Times reports. Negotiators are considering a proposed expansion in the ozone treaty to phase out the production and use of hydrofluorocarbons. The EPA estimates that adopting the HFC proposal could slow global warming by a decade.
Iran
7) President Gul says Turkey can help broker an accord on Iran’s nuclear program as the host of talks between Iran and world powers, Bloomberg reports. Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki said Turkey was "agreed upon" as the location and the talks may start Nov. 15. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said no definite date has been set.
Yemen
8) The Obama administration is debating a plan to begin drone strikes against militants in remote areas of Yemen, the Los Angeles Times reports. The U.S. has been flying unmanned aircraft over Yemen since earlier this year, but the drones have been used for surveillance and not for attacking militants. The use of drone strikes in Yemen carries risks, including the possibility that an escalation of the campaign could worsen unrest within Yemen, the LAT says.
Jordan
9) Voters went to the polls Tuesday in Jordan despite a boycott by the country’s main opposition group, the New York Times reports. The Islamic Action Front boycotted in protest against the government’s failure to reform its gerrymandered voting districts, in which cities – where most Islamist voters live – have less representation in parliament than rural areas inhabited by tribes loyal to King Abdullah. Turnout was 32 percent, the Interior Ministry said. The government has long been reluctant to enact broader democratic reforms, fearing Islamists would gain a majority in Parliament as they did in 1989, the Times says.
Haiti
10) The Haitian government is winning praise for its aggressive response to the threat of Hurricane Tomas, the Miami Herald reports. Officials say 21 died in the storm, which struck Friday, and its aftermath. Tomas dumped 15 inches of rain as it passed over Haiti. In the past, many more have died in storms with far less rain. "In the history of hurricanes in this country, this is the first time that a president took it upon himself to go around and motivate the population in advance of the hurricane’s arrival,” said Ronald Semelfort, Haiti’s chief meteorologist. "This is [how] we were able to limit the number of deaths.” The low death toll has been credited not only to Préval’s personal pleas but also to government action. Haiti was put on red alert five days before Tomas’ arrival. Throughout the storm, disaster experts gave regular updates and warned Haitians not to cross rivers or stand on bridges.
Colombia
11) The Alternative Democratic Pole says the president of an association of displaced people in northeastern Colombia was murdered Friday, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports. More than 40 leaders of displaced people have been murdered in Colombia since 2002. The population of internally displaced people in Colombia has grown from 1 million to more than 4 million since 2004.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Poll: Majority Of Afghans Back Talks With Taliban
Katharine Houreld, Associated Press, Tuesday, November 9, 2010; 11:22 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110900861.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – Nearly all Afghans want their government to make peace with the Taliban despite their growing dislike for the insurgency, according to a survey funded in part by the U.S. government.
The survey released Tuesday by the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation found that 83 percent of Afghan adults back negotiations with armed, anti-government groups, up from 71 percent last year. But it also said 55 percent of Afghans had no sympathy at all for the insurgency this year, up from 36 percent last year. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they had "a little sympathy" for the aims of the insurgency.
Analysts said the survey reflected growing doubt that the government and its NATO allies can defeat the insurgency with military means and that after 30 years of war, some Afghans were willing to sacrifice some freedoms for the sake of peace.
"The prospects for peace here in Afghanistan are very difficult," said Haroun Mir, the director of the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies, a Kabul-based think tank. "People remember the brutality of the time of Taliban rule but they feel they have no other options. They would rather have a government that is part Taliban than all Taliban." He added that "we don’t have a hope for a stable democracy in Afghanistan anymore."
[…]
2) U.S. Report Finds Abuses In Program Paying Extra Money To Afghan Government Workers
Inspector general’s report questions U.S. salary supplements for Afghan government workers
Walter Pincus, Washington Post, Monday, November 8, 2010; 6:44 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110805542.html
Remember the recent story that Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff was carrying a bag from Iran containing packets of $1 million or more in Euro bills severaltimes a year to buy influence in the presidential palace?
What would you think if it turns out that the United States has not only supplied its own millions in salary supplements to employees in Karzai’s office since 2005, but also that those payments will continue through March? Oh, and that some of the money will be going directly to support the office of that same Karzai chief of staff, Omar Dawoodzai?
Just days after Karzai publicly admitted that he was receiving "bags of money" from Iran as well as funds from the United States to cover expenses of his presidential office, a report by the U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR) reported that since 2005, Washington had supplied $6.6 million in salary supplements to employees in Karzai’s office.
Overall, based on data SIGAR gathered in February, its report said U.S. agencies working in Afghanistan "were providing more than $1 million in monthly salary payments to 900 Afghan government employees and technical advisers in 16 ministries and government offices."
The two largest recipients of those U.S. funds at that time were the Afghan Ministry of Education – where 413 people got salary support – and Karzai’s office of the president, where 103 got additional pay. Since 2008, 50 members of the 71 employees at the AfghanGovernment Media Information Center, who handle press affairs for the Karzai government, got salary support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – and more recently, the U.S. Embassy public affairs section. The remaining 21 are paid by other country donors.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides most of these funds, paid about $19 million from January 2007 to January 2010.
Remember also that while those 900 Afghan civilian officials were getting U.S. salary supplements, the Pentagon has been paying billions more in salaries for Afghanistan’s security forces, including the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police.
The SIGAR report, dated Oct. 29, also illustrates the haphazard nature by which the United States, the World Bank and other donors distributed about $45 million in salary support to 6,600 Afghan employees and technical advisers over the past years, with clearly mixed results. http://www.sigar.mil/pdf/audits/SIGAR%20Audit-11-5.pdf
The report carries one cautionary note: "Neither the Afghan government nor international donors can account for the total number of government employees and technical advisers or identify how much recipients are paid in large part due to a general lack of transparency over that support."
[…] In addition, the Afghan government has come to rely on the salary support from donors for critical employees, and the higher pay involved cannot be sustained when donor money ends. The funds have always been outside the Kabul regime’s own planning and budgeting process, and as a result they have undermined the goals of "building [Afghan] government capacity and fiscal sustainability in the long term," according to the SIGAR report.
For example, the United States was paying supplements to the salaries of the top officials in the High Office of Oversight, set up to conduct anti-corruption investigations. When USAID announced that it was ending salary support to that office in March 2010, six of 10 acting department heads receiving the supplements left shortly thereafter, according to the report.
Pay scales for Afghan recipients have varied widely. The United States, for example, gave supplements from $1,500 to $4,300 to people in Karzai’s office whose monthly salaries were $200. A high-ranking official got a monthly USAID supplement of $5,000, although his government salary was $2,000, and he also had a $1,400 hospitality allowance. SIGAR found that a special adviser to the Afghan National Security Council received a $4,000 monthly supplement, and a similar adviser in Karzai’s chief of staff’s office got $800 a month. A spokesman for one government office got $4,600 a month and a spokesman for another ministry got $1,800.
Karzai has even accused the program of encouraging corruption, and the report offers some support for the charge.
Members of the Afghan government, including those in parliament, Karzai’s office and military commanders, have sought to get salary support for positions they control, and in turn they appointed people to those slots "in exchange for money or favors," the report says.
[…]
3) Obama, in Indonesia, Criticizes Israel on Housing
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, November 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/world/asia/10prexy.html
[…] In response to a reporter’s question, the president stepped into an Israeli-Palestinian dispute over Jewish construction, criticizing Israel for its decision to advance the approval of 1,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem during a sensitive time in peace talks. The plight of Palestinians is a big issue in Indonesia, so much so that President Yudhoyono mentioned it in his opening remarks, saying he had told Mr. Obama that "we need a resolution on Palestine and Israel in a permanent sustainable manner."
Of Israel’s settlement announcement, Mr. Obama said, "This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations, and I’m concerned that were not seeing each side make the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough." He added, "Each of these incremental steps end up breaking trust."
Aides say the speech Mr. Obama will give on Wednesday will build on one he delivered in Cairo last year, in which he called for "a new beginning" with the Muslim world. At Tuesday’s news conference, he was asked to assess progress. "I think it’s an incomplete project," Mr. Obama said. "We’ve got a lot of work to do."
[…]
4) Colombia Workers: Keep Fighting Against Free Trade Agreement
James Parks, AFL-CIO, Nov 9, 2010
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/11/09/colombia-workers-keep-fighting-against-free-trade-agreement/
Over the past 24 years, more than 2,800 trade union members have been killed in Colombia and the government’s highly publicized efforts to bring the killers to justice are just a public relations spin to try and convince the United States to sign the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Colombian workers said today.
International solidarity is "fundamental," said Tarsicio Muñoz, director of education for the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT). Speaking during a brown-bag discussion today at the AFL-CIO here in Washington, D.C., Muñoz said workers in the United States must continue to publicly fight against the agreement and help create the political will necessary to prevent it from being signed.
Four of the Colombian unionists spoke last night at Georgetown University, in an event sponsored by the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
Some 15 Colombian union leaders took part in today’s discussion and will return home this week after spending the past two months in the United States as part of an exchange program sponsored by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.
The union leaders said nothing has really changed under the new Colombian leader, President Juan Manuel Santos. Not only is Santos continuing the anti-worker policies of his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, but he is backing a proposed law that would allow employers to pay young workers between 18 and 28 years of age just 75 percent of the national minimum wage of about $250 a month. "We are not against trade," but trade has to work for everyone, not just the multinationals and the wealthy, Diaz said. Few workers are actually covered by the labor law, he said.
The government has created so-called associated labor cooperatives that in reality are low-wage, subcontracting agencies controlled by big employers, and not by the workers themselves, said Jaime Diaz Ortiz, secretary-general of SINTRAIMAGRA, a trade union representing agricultural workers. Cooperatives are supposed to be voluntary, worker-managed associations that distribute their collective gains to their members.
Cooperatives in Colombia are employer-controlled and serve as labor agents to avoid a direct hiring arrangement and any responsibility for legally mandated benefits such as health care or pension. Workers in cooperatives are not covered by labor law and are legally ineligible to form or join unions. In Colombia, some 1.5 million workers are in such arrangements.
Ortiz said the government and agricultural companies in Colombia are rapidly increasing the acreage devoted to palm oil and corn-not to produce food for the thousands who are hungry, but to satisfy the demand for biofuels to replace gasoline and coal in the United States and other developed nations. The Colombian unions are calling for direct hiring of workers and the right of agricultural workers to join a union, he said.
Lina Malagon Diaz, an attorney who focuses on labor matters, who also spoke today, said a government tribunal set up by Uribe to reduce violence against union members and bring the killers to justice just is not doing its job. The majority of those responsible for these crimes have not been brought to justice. The judges and prosecutors only go after the "hit men" not the persons who ordered the murders, she said.
5) Balancing Act For Obama On Indonesia Security Ties
Olivia Rondonuwu, Reuters, November 9, 2010
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101109/pl_nm/us_indonesia_obama_security_2
Jakarta – The United States and Indonesia have plenty of common security interests, but U.S. President Barack Obama faces a difficult stumbling block when discussing closer military ties during his visit this week – human rights.
Indonesia’s military, and in particular its Kopassus special forces, have an abysmal rights record in past campaigns against separatists in East Timor, West Papua and Aceh. A new video showing the torture of Papuan men has brought the issue back under the spotlight as Obama visits Indonesia.
[…] In July, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced during a visit that Washington was ending its ban on ties with Kopassus. He said this followed steps by Indonesia to remove convicted human rights violators from the ranks of the special forces.
But human rights organizations reacted with outrage, saying Kopassus still harbors officers guilty of crimes against humanity. And the leaking of a video showing the torture of Papuans, where a low-level separatist insurgency has simmered for decades, has made the issue even more sensitive.
The video shows two Papuan men being interrogated and tortured. They are beaten and kicked. One man has a knife held to his throat, and another has a burning stick held to his genitals.
Data on the video – which appears to have been filmed with the mobile phone of one of the interrogators – suggests it was taken on May 30 this year. It is not clear what unit of the Indonesian security forces was involved.
[…]
6) A Novel Tactic in Climate Fight Gains Some Traction
John M. Broder, New York Times, November 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/science/earth/09montreal.html
Washington – With energy legislation shelved in the United States and little hope for a global climate change agreement this year, some policy experts are proposing a novel approach to curbing global warming: including greenhouse gases under an existing and highly successful international treaty ratified more than 20 years ago.
The treaty, the Montreal Protocol, was adopted in 1987 for a completely different purpose, to eliminate aerosols and other chemicals that were blowing a hole in the Earth’s protective ozone layer.
But as the signers of the protocol convened the 22nd annual meeting in Bangkok on Monday, negotiators are considering a proposed expansion in the ozone treaty to phase out the production and use of the industrial chemicals known as hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs. The chemicals have thousands of times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas.
HFCs are used as refrigerants in air-conditioners and cooling systems. They are manufactured mostly in China and India, but appliances containing the substance are in use in every corner of the world. HFCs replaced even more dangerous ozone-depleting chemicals known as HCFCs, themselves a substitute for the chlorofluorocarbons that were the first big target of the Montreal process.
"Eliminating HFCs under the Montreal Protocol is the single biggest chunk of climate protection we can get in the next few years," said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, a nongovernment organization based in Washington. He noted that the ozone protection effort had begun under former President Ronald Reagan and continues to enjoy bipartisan support.
The United States has thrown its support behind the proposal and negotiators said there was a strong current of support for the move at the meeting on Monday. All the signatories to the Montreal Protocol would have to agree to the expansion, but no further approval from Congress would be needed. So far, there has been no Congressional or industry opposition to the idea.
But the plan is not expected to be adopted this year. Large developing countries, including China, India and Brazil, object that the timetable is too rapid and that payments for eliminating the refrigerant are not high enough.
[…] The Montreal Protocol has phased out nearly 97 percent of 100 ozone-depleting chemicals, some of which are also potent climate-altering gases. The net effect has been the elimination of the equivalent of more than 200 billion metric tons of global-warming gases, five years’ worth of total global emissions, far more than has been accomplished by the Kyoto process.
[…] The proposal to eliminate HFCs was advanced several years ago by the tiny island nation of Micronesia, one of the places on Earth most vulnerable to sea-level rise and other global warming effects.
The United States quickly signed on. Along with Mexico and Canada, the Obama administration has proposed a rapid series of steps to reduce HFC production, with rich countries meeting a faster timetable than developing nations and helping to pay the poorer countries to find substitutes. But the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that adopting the HFC proposal could eliminate the equivalent of 88 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2050, and slow global warming by a decade.
[…] Mario Molina, the Mexican scientist who shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his groundbreaking work in identifying the role of chlorofluorocarbon gases in the breach of the stratospheric ozone layer, said that it might take two or three years for other countries to see the virtues of the HFC reduction. "My hope is that everybody will agree with this proposal from the United States and Mexico and a few other countries because the Montreal Protocol has been so successful at controlling these industrial chemicals," he said in an interview from his institute in Mexico City.
Dr. Molina said that extending the protocol to include HFCs could reduce the threat of climate change by several times what the Kyoto Protocol proposes. He noted that the climate treaty had fallen far short of its goals, and that there was no agreement on what should replace it when its major provisions expired in 2012.
[…]
Iran
7) Turkey Can Help Broker Nuclear Agreement as Host of Iran Talks, Gul Says Benjamin Harvey and Francine Lacqua, Bloomberg, November 9, 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-09/turkey-prepared-to-host-negotiations-between-iran-world-powers-gul-says.html
Turkey, which has backed diplomacy over sanctions to contain Iran’s nuclear program, can help broker an accord as the host of talks between the Islamic republic and world powers, President Abdullah Gul said.
Turkey expects to host the "very important" negotiations and "has the capacity to contribute," Gul said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in London.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said today that Turkey was "agreed upon" as the location and the talks may start Nov. 15, state-run Mehr news agency reported. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said no definite date has been set, according to the Anatolia news agency.
[…]
Yemen
8) White House considers Yemen drone strikes, officials say
Two weeks after an attempt to bomb U.S.-bound cargo jets, the Obama administration is said to be debating a plan to attack militants directly. Winning Yemeni support may prove difficult.
David S. Cloud, Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-na-yemen-drones-20101107,0,4457600.story
Washington – The Obama administration is debating a plan to begin drone strikes against militants in remote areas of Yemen, a move that would represent a major escalation of U.S. involvement there, according to two U.S. officials.
Use of missile strikes by unmanned drones is one of several options that administration officials have been discussing in recent days in response to an attempt by militants in Yemen to place explosives on cargo jets bound for the U.S. two weeks ago, the officials said.
The U.S. has been flying unmanned aircraft over Yemen since earlier this year, but the drones have been used for surveillance and not for attacking militants who have taken refuge in the country’s rugged hinterlands.
The option under consideration by the White House would escalate the effort, enlisting Yemeni government support for drone strikes and developing more intelligence sources about where militants are hiding, the officials said.
The plan, along with other options, is expected to be debated by senior officials in coming weeks.
[…] The prospect that the strikes would go forward remains unclear. Winning Yemeni approval for airstrikes carried out exclusively by the U.S. could prove difficult.
[…] But the use of drone strikes in Yemen carries risks, including the possibility that an escalation of the campaign could worsen unrest within Yemen, especially among tribes that are giving sanctuary to militants. Such a move could also weaken Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose grip on power is showing signs of slippage.
If a campaign of drone strikes begins, the U.S. also would have to be careful not to be maneuvered by Saleh into going after his opponents among Yemen’s powerful tribes.
Enlisting the support of Saleh is considered vital before deciding whether to proceed, the two U.S. officials said, because he has shown a willingness to break off cooperation if the U.S. undertakes operations on Yemeni territory without his approval.
[…]
Jordan
9) Despite Boycott, Voting Goes Ahead in Jordan
Robert F. Worth, New York Times, November 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/world/middleeast/10jordan.html
Beirut, Lebanon – Voters went to the polls Tuesday in Jordan despite a boycott by the country’s main opposition group, in a parliamentary election that is likely to bolster allies of the country’s monarchy but could also deepen a popular alienation from the political process.
The election follows a campaign dominated by widespread anger at the stalled Middle East peace talks and concerns about rising poverty in Jordan. The pro-American kingdom has struggled for years to balance a measure of democracy with the need to check a powerful Islamist movement and a large, restive Palestinian population.
The Islamic Action Front, Jordan’s main opposition group, boycotted in protest against the government’s failure to reform its gerrymandered voting districts, in which cities – where most Islamist voters live – have less representation in parliament than rural areas inhabited by tribes that are loyal to Jordan’s King, Abdullah II.
Reflecting that imbalance, voting was light in Amman, Jordan’s capital, many observers said. But by midday it appeared to have picked up somewhat, and the Interior Ministry reported that turnout across Jordan was 32 percent.
[…] Jordan’s last election, in 2007, took place in the shadow of the takeover of Gaza by Hamas, which left the government deeply worried about Islamist influence. The election was marred by widespread accusations of fraud and manipulation by the Jordanian authorities. This time the government was keen to ease those resentments, and allowed international monitors to observe the election for the first time.
[…] King Abdullah dissolved the Chamber of Deputies late last year, and many thought he would reform the imbalances in Jordan’s voting districts, said Renda Habib, a political commentator in Amman. Instead, he left it intact, leading the Islamic Action Front, which is the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, to shun the election.
"The number of Islamists has grown, but their representation in Parliament has shrunk," said Ms. Habib. The government has long been reluctant to enact broader democratic reforms, fearing that Islamists would gain a majority in Parliament as they did in 1989.
[…]
Haiti
10) For Tomas, Préval picked up his game
Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, November 8, 2010
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/08/v-print/1916088/for-tomas-preval-picked-up-his.html
Fifteen hours after his arrival at an emergency operations center and just as a menacing Hurricane Tomas took aim at the capital and the flood-prone northwest coast, a sleep-deprived President René Préval peered into the TV cameras and in a stern voice pleaded with the Haitian people. "Everyone living near the ocean. Cité Eternal. Cité Soleil. Evacuate,” he said live from the emergency command post next to the presidential palace, which had collapsed in the January earthquake. "In order for us to no longer count dead bodies, please, evacuate.”
A media-dodging president who has been criticized for poor communication, Préval – and his disaster-weary, often overwhelmed government – had undergone a transformation.
"In the history of hurricanes in this country, this is the first time that a president took it upon himself to go around and motivate the population in advance of the hurricane’s arrival,” said Ronald Semelfort, Haiti’s chief meteorologist. "This is [how] we were able to limit the number of deaths.”
Officials say 21 died in the storm, which struck Friday, and its aftermath. Tomas dumped 15 inches of rain as it passed over Haiti. In the past, many more have died in storms with far less rain.
The low death toll has been credited not only to Préval’s personal pleas but also to government action. For months the government has been warning Haitians to seek friends and family they could stay with in the event of a weather crisis. Haiti was put on red alert five days before Tomas’ arrival.
Throughout the storm, disaster experts gave regular updates and warned Haitians not to cross rivers or stand on bridges. In one community, the police even set up barricades to keep people off a bridge.
[…] The government’s presence also is being felt when it comes to the cholera outbreak.
The health ministry was the first to diagnose the outbreak and has taken the lead, telling nongovernmental organizations that the Haitian government — not the international community – will confirm casualty numbers and dictate where treatment centers are set up. And NGOs have been warned that should they go where they are not authorized, they will be shut down.
The health ministry also has been much more proactive about getting information out, updating its websites every six hours and holding almost-daily 10 a.m. press conferences to inform the public on the disease. "We realized that [the lack of communication] was at the base of all our problems and we have to communicate directly with the population,” Health Minister Alex Larsen said.
Larsen downplays his ministry’s battle with the international community but did acknowledge that it has begun to flex its muscle. "They always have the pretext that the government is weak,” he said of the international community.
[…]
Colombia
11) Leader of Displaced People Killed in Colombia
Latin American Herald Tribune. November 7, 2010
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=376355&CategoryId=12393
Bogota – The president of an association of displaced people in northeastern Colombia was murdered inside her house in the city of Bucaramanga, the Alternative Democratic Pole, or PDA, party’s committee in Santander province said Sunday. Elizabeth Silva Aguilar was murdered by some hooded men who "entered her humble dwelling" on Friday in Bucaramanga, the capital of Santander, the PDA said.
Silva Aguilar, a member of the leftist party, was the head of the Association of Homeless and Displaced People in the city, the PDA said. The non-governmental organization is made up of people affected by the internal armed conflict who settled in Bucaramanga’s Villas de Girardot section.
"This is another murder in the long chain of crimes and intimidation against this community," the PDA said, adding that neighborhood residents resorted to the courts to prevent their eviction and got a ruling in their favor.
Three members of the association were murdered June 22, while unidentified assailants threw a grenade last month at dwellings in the settlement, the PDA said. The attacks are apparently being carried out by "recycled paramilitaries who supposedly demobilized," the PDA said.
More than 40 leaders of displaced people have been murdered in Colombia since 2002.
The population of internally displaced people in Colombia has grown from 1 million to more than 4 million since 2004, Constitutional Court Judge Luis Ernesto Vargas said in September. Some 2.4 million Colombians were driven from their homes between 2002 and 2009, bringing the total number of displaced people to 4.9 million, non-governmental organizations say.
[…]
–
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans.