Just Foreign Policy News
March 1, 2011
*Action: Lee bill for military withdrawal from Afghanistan
"H.R.780 – To provide that funds for operations of the Armed Forces in Afghanistan shall be obligated and expended only for purposes of providing for the safe and orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan of all members of the Armed Forces and Department of Defense contractor personnel who are in Afghanistan."
Check to see if your Rep. has co-sponsored; ask them to co-sponsor if they haven’t. You can reach your Rep. through the Congressional switchboard: 202-225-3121.
You can view the cosponsors here:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h780/show
You can ask your Rep. to co-sponsor here:
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/hr780
Anti-war banner in the Wisconsin protest
Some JFP supporters from Milwaukee took up the suggestion to bring an anti-war theme into the Wisconsin protests on Saturday:
"Support Workers Rights: Bring Our War Dollars Home!"
http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/181715_896029862078_26703675_46389134_7035209_s.jpg
Video: Waiting for Aristide
In this video, Paul Burke talks to Haitians about why they want Aristide to return.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvvDqabqU94
Glenn Greenwald: The military/media attacks on the Hastings article
Greenwald notes that Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings is again being subjected to undocumented attacks in the media from anonymous military sources following his piece accusing the military of using psyops on Congress to maintain support for the war in Afghanistan.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/02/27/hastings/index.html
US Campaign to Ban Landmines: Twelfth Anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty: The U.S. Should Join Now
At the beginning of 2011, the U.S. discontinued all use of so-called "dumb" mines or "persistent" mines everywhere in the world". But this still allows the military to use so-called "smart" mines equipped with a self-destruct or self-deactivation mechanism – weapons that the USCBL and the international community still condemn. "While these mines are active, they cannot distinguish between a soldier and an innocent civilian, and a large number will fail to self-destruct, posing dangers to civilians and requiring costly demining programs. By retaining the right to use them, the U.S. stands completely at odds with the international norm that rejects all use of antipersonnel mines."
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/03/01-1
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Afghan government investigators said Sunday that they were convinced that NATO forces killed 65 civilians in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan this month, the New York Times reports. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the UN are also investigating and have not completed their reports, which typically are the most thorough investigations and are perceived as impartial, the Times says. NATO officials, who are still investigating the claims, have insisted that the people killed were insurgents.
2) Defense Secretary Gates on Tuesday played down the likelihood that the US would enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, citing numerous political obstacles and questioning the wisdom of taking military action against an additional Muslim country, the Washington Post reports. Gates noted that the U.N. Security Council had not authorized military intervention in Libya and that NATO was also divided on the subject.
U.S. military officials have tried to emphasize that such an operation would not be bloodless. Gen. Mattis, head of Central Command, said it would be necessary to preemptively attack Libyan air-defense batteries and installations to ensure that they could not shoot down U.S. planes. "It would be a military operation," he said. "It wouldn’t be just telling people not to fly airplanes." Mullen and Gates said that the Pentagon was aware of news reports that Gaddafi has ordered Libyan military aircraft to attack rebel targets but that they could not confirm whether such attacks have taken place.
Afghanistan
3) Afghan officials said Saturday that more than 200 Afghans were killed in attacks and military operations during the past two weeks, calling it the deadliest period for civilians since the war began, the Washington Post reports. Afghan civilians are increasingly bearing the brunt of the conflict, the Post says.
Egypt
4) A constitutional reform panel on Saturday recommended opening Egypt’s presidential elections to competition, AP reports. A candidate would be allowed to run by doing one of three things: collecting 30,000 signatures from 15 of Egypt’s 29 provinces; receiving the approval of at least 30 members of the elected parliament; or representing a party with at least one lawmaker in parliament. The panel also recommended full judicial supervision of the electoral process. On Egypt’s emergency laws, which grant police sweeping powers of arrest, the panel proposed limiting their use to a six-month period with the approval of an elected parliament.
The recommendations did not directly address the law governing the formation of political parties. A leading youth activist and member of the Muslim Brotherhood called for the military to change the laws to scrap restrictions on forming political parties. The deputy head of Egypt’s Constitutional Court expressed concern that new political players would not be allowed the time to form. "This denies the new forces on the ground the right to organize and form new parties to run in those elections," he said.
Oman
5) Demonstrators blocked roads and held rallies on Monday in Oman, the New York Times reports. In an attempt to ease tensions, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has ruled for four decades, sent delegates to Sohar on Monday to negotiate with the protesters. He also promised to give more powers to the legislative council. Reuters said six people had died Sunday in a confrontation between protesters and the police in Sohar.
Iraq
6) Iraqi security forces detained about 300 people, including prominent journalists, artists and lawyers who took part in nationwide demonstrations Friday, the Washington Post reports. Four journalists said they were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened with execution by soldiers. One said he was given electric shocks.
Tunisia
7) A Tunisian Islamist party banned for more than 20 years was legalized Tuesday, AP reports. The Ennahdha party was branded an Islamic terrorist group by Tunisia’s deposed leader but is considered moderate by scholars. Ennahdha won 17 percent of the vote in legislative elections in 1989, but was subsequently banned.
Mexico
8) A former PRI governor asserted that previous PRI presidents maintained social peace by collaborating with the drug trade, the Borderland Beat reports. While consumption exists in the U.S., there will be drug trafficking in that direction, he said.
Chile
9) Survivors of the Pinochet dictatorship are demanding that the Obama Administration release more classified U.S. documents that could be critical to prosecuting Chilean agents responsible for torture and killing, AP reports. The U.S. ambassador to Chile told AP that human rights is on Obama’s agenda and "there is every disposition to be helpful."
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Afghan Team Says NATO Killed Civilians in Strikes
Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times, February 27, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/world/asia/28afghan.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – Afghan investigators said Sunday that they were convinced that NATO forces killed 65 civilians in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan this month, a charge that, if true, would be one of the worst civilian casualty episodes of the war.
NATO officials, who are still investigating the claims, have insisted that the people killed were insurgents.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the United Nations are also investigating and have not completed their reports, which typically are the most thorough investigations and are perceived as impartial.
"It’s difficult for us to speak at this stage or verify any fact," said Ahmad Nader Nadery, of the commission. "We have had experiences that civilian casualties were underreported and ISAF," the NATO-led coalition, "was not very quick to report correct numbers, but we also have seen instances in which communities are being threatened by the Taliban so they exaggerate the numbers and sometimes they have false stories. So we need to be careful."
[…] Since the attack on the night of Feb. 17 in the mountain valleys of Ghaziabad district in eastern Kunar Province, an insurgent-held area, there have been conflicting reports of what happened. Most members of the government’s investigating committee did not go to the village where the attack took place because the area is too dangerous.
Based on reports from tribal elders and survivors, the government team concluded that NATO had fired on civilians. "Basically, as soon as the villagers heard the shooting and planes roaring overhead, they all struggled to take refuge in an old trench that was used by the mujahedeen during jihad" against the Russians, said Shahzada Massoud, the Afghan leader of the investigation and special adviser for tribal affairs to President Hamid Karzai.
Mr. Karzai’s office issued a statement saying that the delegation had paid compensation to the families of the bombing victims and requested a further investigation to determine ways to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.
Another member of the investigation team, a former member of Parliament, Shuja ul-Mulk, did go to the village and came back with a slightly different report. Although he also says he believes that the casualties were civilians, he said he counted 27 graves and gave a different breakdown for the numbers of men, women and children. He described frightened villagers who, when they heard the helicopters coming, ran outside for fear they would be bombed in their houses. They went to hide in the Soviet-era trenches and were bombed as they hid, he said.
"Those who succeeded in reaching the trenches were killed when the trench collapsed after it was hit by rockets or bombs being fired from coalition helicopters," he said. "Those who were on their way to the trench were killed by rockets or bullets. I visited the trench. I saw old, dried blood. I saw women and children’s garments. I saw blood-stained walls of the trench. I saw pieces of blankets and cotton from the quilts the villagers wrapped themselves in because of the cold weather."
However, the discrepancy in how many graves Mr. Mulk saw versus the number of people the government reported had been killed points to some of the difficulties in assessing civilian casualties. It can be difficult to tell whether graves are new or old, or recently dug up to appear fresh, human rights organizations said. The same is true of blood stains. Similarly, the number of graves often does not correspond to the number of bodies, since there can be several bodies in a grave.
[…]
2) Pentagon hesitant on no-fly zone over Libya
Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, Tuesday, March 1, 2011; 5:27 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030105317.html
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Tuesday played down the likelihood that the United States would enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, citing numerous political obstacles and questioning the wisdom of taking military action against an additional Muslim country.
Gates said the Pentagon was preparing "a lot of options and contingencies" for President Obama to consider in response to the fighting in Libya and general instability in the region. Although Gates did not rule out establishing a no-fly zone to prevent Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi from carrying out airstrikes against rebel forces, he said such measures would have indirect consequences that "need to be considered very carefully."
For starters, Gates noted that the U.N. Security Council had not authorized military intervention in Libya and that NATO was also divided on the subject. He also suggested that such a military campaign could drain U.S. forces away from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"We also have to think about frankly the use of the U.S. military in another country in the Middle East," he told reporters at a news conference. "So we are sensitive about all these things."
Although U.S. and European diplomats have openly discussed the possibility of enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya in recent days, U.S. military officials have tried to emphasize that such an operation would not be bloodless.
On Capitol Hill, Gen. James N. Mattis, the head of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate panel that it would be necessary to preemptively attack Libyan air-defense batteries and installations to ensure that they could not shoot down U.S. or NATO planes. "It would be a military operation," he said. "It wouldn’t be just telling people not to fly airplanes."
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed Mattis’s warning about preemptive strikes on Libyan targets. "We’d have to work out way through it, do it in a safe manner and not put ourselves in jeopardy," he said in a joint appearance with Gates.
Mullen and Gates said that the Pentagon was aware of news reports that Gaddafi has ordered Libyan military aircraft to attack rebel targets but that they could not confirm whether such attacks have taken place.
[…]
Afghanistan
3) Afghan Officials Reports Spike In Civilian Deaths
Ernesto Londono and Javed Hamdard, Washington Post, Saturday, February 26, 2011; 6:28 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022603342.html
Kabul – More than 200 Afghans were killed in attacks and military operations during the past two weeks, Afghan officials said Saturday, calling it the deadliest period for civilians since the war began.
Two attacks on Saturday added to that toll and fueled fears that violence will climb as winter, typically a slow fighting season in Afghanistan, gives way to spring.
The latest violence comes as U.S. commanders are under heavy pressure to show signs of progress in the nine-year-old war. Insurgent groups, meanwhile, have shown resilience this winter and appear determined to keep the fight raging until foreign troops withdraw.
Afghan civilians are increasingly bearing the brunt of the conflict, once more turning the issue of civilian casualties into a propaganda tool for both sides.
[…]
Egypt
4) Egypt proposes competitive presidential elections
Sarah el Deeb, Associated Press, Saturday, February 26, 2011; 8:04 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022600516.html
Cairo – A constitutional reform panel on Saturday recommended opening Egypt’s presidential elections to competition and imposing a two-term limit on future presidents – a dramatic shift from a system that allowed the ousted Hosni Mubarak to rule for three decades.
The changes are among 10 proposed constitutional amendments that are to be put to a popular referendum later this year. The proposals appeared to address many of the demands of the reform movement that help lead the 18-day popular uprising that forced Mubarak to step down on Feb. 11.
But some Egyptians worry that the proposed changes don’t go far enough to ensure a transition to democratic rule, and could allow the entrenched old guard to maintain its grip on power.
The most important of the eight-member panel’s proposals would greatly loosen restrictions on who could run for president, opening the field to independents and candidates from small opposition parties. That marks a drastic change from the previous system that gave Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party a stranglehold on who could run. "We were denied the right to have candidates before. Now they opened the door for whoever wants to run," said pro-reform Judge Ahmed Mekky. "This is a step forward."
A candidate would be allowed to run by doing one of three things: collecting 30,000 signatures from 15 of Egypt’s 29 provinces; receiving the approval of at least 30 members of the elected parliament; or representing a party with at least one lawmaker in parliament.
The panel also recommended full judicial supervision of the electoral process, which would address regular criticism that the government routinely rigged past elections to ensure Mubarak’s party retained its hold on power.
On Egypt’s widely criticized emergency laws, which have been in place for 30 years and grant police sweeping powers of arrest, the panel proposed limiting their use to a six-month period with the approval of an elected parliament. Extending their use beyond that should be put to a public referendum, it said.
The recommendations did not directly address the law governing the formation of political parties – a process that previously was controlled by Mubarak’s ruling party. Nor did they meet the demand of some protesters that the current constitution be simply scrapped and a new one created from scratch.
But the panel’s chief, Tareq el-Bishri – considered one of Egypt’s top legal minds – said the proposals "constitute a temporary constitution, after which a new constitution for the country can be drafted."
The suggestions were welcomed by some. Others dismissed them as patchwork changes to a faulty constitution that among other things gives unlimited powers to the president.
Islam Lotfi, a leading youth activist and a member of Egypt’s most organized political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, said the promise to rewrite the constitution responds to a major demand of the protesters.
But he called for the military to change the laws to scrap restrictions on forming political parties. "Otherwise the military will fall prey one more time to the grip of the businessmen and the corrupt," he said.
Tahany el-Gibali, the deputy head of Egypt’s Constitutional Court, said the amendments show a "serious shortcoming" in managing the transitional period by rushing toward elections without allowing new political players the time to form.
"This denies the new forces on the ground the right to organize and form new parties to run in those elections," el-Gibali said. "This will make the elections exclusive to the old powers," such as the Muslim Brotherhood and remnants of the old regime, particularly the businessmen.
[…]
Oman
5) Protests in Oman Spread From Port City to Capital
Nada Bakri, New York Times, February 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/world/middleeast/01oman.html
Beirut – Demonstrators blocked roads and held rallies on Monday in Oman, a normally quiet oil-rich country along the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, as three-day protests calling for political reforms and better living conditions spread to Muscat, the capital.
The protests in Oman, the latest country to join the wave in the Arab world, highlight the depth of discontent against long-serving dictators and monarchs. It also suggests that demonstrations could spread to other Persian Gulf countries.
In the northeastern port city of Sohar, where the protests originated, demonstrators blocked roads to the port, Oman’s second biggest, and to an industrial area that includes a refinery and an aluminum factory, two witnesses in Sohar and news agencies said. They also set a supermarket on fire and clashed with the police.
Protesters have also been camped out for three days in the city’s main square, called Kurra Ardiyah Roundabout, despite efforts by the police and army to push them out, a resident in Sohar said by e-mail.
Television images showed a small number of protesters gathered in Muscat. The demonstrations there appeared peaceful.
In an attempt to ease tensions, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has ruled for four decades since seizing power from his father, sent delegates to Sohar on Monday to negotiate with the protesters, but the outcome of those meetings remained unclear. He also promised to give more powers to the legislative council, according to ONA, the state news agency.
Oman’s ruling council issued a statement on Monday condemning "sabotage" while saying peaceful demonstrations were within "the legal rights of citizens."
[…] The clashes on Monday came a day after a deadly confrontation between protesters and the police in Sohar. There were conflicting accounts about the toll. Reuters, citing a local doctor, said six people had died Sunday. The state news agency said Sunday that two protesters had died but revised that to one on Monday.
[…]
Iraq
6) After ‘Day Of Rage’ In Iraq, A Crackdown On Intellectuals
Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post, Sunday, February 27, 2011; 5:53 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022603345.html
Baghdad – Iraqi security forces detained about 300 people, including prominent journalists, artists and lawyers who took part in nationwide demonstrations Friday, in what some of them described as an operation to intimidate Baghdad intellectuals who hold sway over popular opinion.
On Saturday, four journalists who had been released described being rounded up well after they had left a protest of thousands at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. They said they were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened with execution by soldiers from an army intelligence unit.
"It was like they were dealing with a bunch of al-Qaeda operatives, not a group of journalists," said Hussan al-Ssairi, a journalist and poet who described seeing hundreds of protesters in black hoods at the detention facility. "Yesterday was like a test, like a picture of the new democracy in Iraq."
The Iraq protests were different from many of the revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa in that demonstrators were calling for reform, not for getting rid of the government. Their demands ranged from more electricity and jobs to ending corruption, reflecting a dissatisfaction with government that cuts across sectarian and class lines.
Yet the protests were similar to others in that they were organized, at least in part, by middle-class, secular intellectuals, many of whom started Facebook groups, wrote and gave interviews supporting the planned demonstrations.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who only recently formed a fragile governing coalition that is supported by the United States, was apparently concerned about the protest billed as Iraq’s "Day of Rage." Leading up to Friday, he ordered a curfew on cars and urged Iraqis to stay home, as a government spokesman warned of "terrorists" who might use "sniping and silencer pistols" to target crowds. Security forces raided a prominent journalist watchdog group involved in organizing the protest.
Despite that, tens of thousands of Iraqis turned out for the protests, which began peacefully but degenerated as forces fired water cannons, sound bombs and live bullets to disperse crowds.
The death toll rose to at least 29 Saturday, as officials reported that six more protesters, including a 14-year-old boy, died from bullet wounds. The deaths were recorded in at least eight places, including Fallujah, Mosul and Tikrit.
[…] Around 4 p.m., Aldiyar TV manager Fiysal Alyassiry, who had broadcast the demonstrations, reported that security forces had attacked the station, beat a worker, arrested seven people including a director and an anchorman, and closed the station.
About the same time, Ssairi and his colleages were sitting at an open-air restaurant two miles from the square. According to interviews with him and several others, two Humvees pulled up and about a dozen camoflauge-clad soldiers stormed inside. They paused for about five minutes, looking at the faces.
They descended upon the table where Hadi al-Mahdi, a journalist and theater director, was sitting with three friends and began beating them as others looked on. "We said, ‘What are you doing – we’re journalists!’ " Mahdi said. "And they said [expletive] journalism.’ "
They loaded them into the Humvees, drove them to a side street, where they beat them again. Then, blindfolded, they were driven to a place Mahdi later recognized as the former Defense Ministry building, which houses an intelligence unit of the army’s 11th Division.
Inside, they heard soldiers laughing and chanting "Maliki liar!" – mocking a slogan some protesters had shouted. Mahdi said he was taken to a room alone, and soon, he was being beaten with sticks, boots and fists. One soldier threatened to rape him, he said. They threatened to kill him. They took his shoes off, wet his feet and administered electric shocks to them.
In between, the soldiers interrogated him, he said. They accused him of being a tool of outsiders wishing to topple Maliki’s government and demanded that he confess to being a member of the Sadaam Hussein’s Baath party. Hadi explained that he blamed Baathists for killing two of his brothers. He told them that he’d been a member of Maliki’s Dawa party until he recently became disillusioned. "They said, ‘You’re Dawa?’ " Hadi said. "Then I realized they were totally stupid."
A soldier accused him of being a traitor and beat him some more. And then Hadi, who comes from a prominent family, was told he and his colleagues would be released, the result of friends who made some well-placed phone calls.
Just before they were freed, however, Hadi was held in a room where about 300 people sat on the floor. They had black hoods over their heads. Many were groaning, their shirts bloodied. Some wore suits and ties. An elderly man had passed out. Hadi recognized a friend, a TV broadcaster, among them. "This government is sending a message to us – to everybody," Hadi said Saturday, his forehead bruised, his left leg swollen.
[…]
Tunisia
7) Tunisia ends 20-year ban for Islamist party
Bouazza ben Bouazza, Associated Press, Tuesday, March 1, 2011; 1:58 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030102391.html
Tunis, Tunisia – A Tunisian Islamist party banned for more than 20 years was legalized Tuesday, while the country’s most prominent opposition figure quit the unity government amid renewed uncertainty about where Tunisia is headed.
The Ennahdha party – branded an Islamic terrorist group by Tunisia’s deposed leader but considered moderate by scholars – has rebounded onto the political scene since a popular uprising forced out autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January.
Ennahdha members want a role for Islam in their country’s politics, but have not called explicitly for any specific laws enforcing Islamic practices.
[…] The party requested legalization a month ago and received it Tuesday, party spokesman Abdallah Zouari told The Associated Press, calling it a "step in favor of the Tunisian revolution." He said the party will focus on rebuilding and electing a new leader to prepare for upcoming elections.
Tunisia’s caretaker government is trying to restore stability after weeks of deadly clashes between police and protesters that led to Ben Ali’s ouster – and sparked revolts across the Arab world.
Tunisia also is struggling with a gathering exodus of refugees fleeing violence and chaos in neighboring Libya. Aid workers at the Libya-Tunisian border, where authorities say up to 75,000 people have fled Libya in just the past nine days, warned on Tuesday that the situation is reaching a crisis point.
The state news agency, TAP, reported Tuesday that 100,000 people overall are stuck in the border areas – including many Egyptians who have had trouble getting home because their own country’s government has been in flux. The agency added that "Tunisia can’t host them much longer because of the instability in the country."
Tunisia had enjoyed relative calm until recent days, when new clashes left six dead and the prime minister resigned after 11 years as the head of government.
[…] Ennahdha won 17 percent of the vote in legislative elections in 1989, but was subsequently banned and thousands of its members convicted of trying to overthrow the government. Several of its leaders fled. Some 20,000 supporters turned out to greet party leader Rached Ghannouchi when he returned from exile in London after Ben Ali fled Jan. 14.
Mexico
8) Sócrates Rizzo: PRI Presidents oversaw drug trafficking
Borderland Beat, Sunday, February 27, 2011
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/02/socrates-rizzo-pri-presidents-oversaw.html
In a conference with students held on Wednesday, February 23, at the Law School of the Autonomous University of Coauhuila in Saltillo, Socrates Rizzo delivered a bombshell that has rocked Mexico as the campaign for the 2012 presidential election approaches.
During an interview session the former PRI Governor admitted that previous PRI presidents held strong control over drug trafficking routes that prevented the attacks on civilians and the violence that Mexico is undergoing today.
Although an open secret in Mexican society and a charge occasionally leveled publicly by the country’s two other major political parties, the National Action Party (PAN) and the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), this is the first time in recent history that a former or current PRI politician has admitted publicly that this arrangement existed.
"Somehow the problems with drug trafficking were avoided, there was a strong State control and a strong President and a strong Attorney General and a tight control of the Army."
"Somehow they (drug traffickers) were told: ‘You go through here, you here, you there’, but do not touch these other places," he said in his speech.
The former Governor added that this strategy allowed the State to ensure the social peace that has been lost in the war on drugs launched by the PAN administration of Felipe Calderon.
"What the old guard says is that we had control by the Government and the Army. The big problem is consumption, and while consumption exists in the U.S. there will be drug trafficking in that direction."
"What control by the PRI governments guaranteed was that drug trafficking did not disturb the social peace."
[…]
Chile
9) Investigators: Secret CIA files could help Chile
Michael Warren and Eva Vergara, Associated Press, Sunday, February 27, 2011; 12:01 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022601991.html
Santiago, Chile – Survivors of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship are hoping Barack Obama’s visit next month will lead to the release of more classified U.S. documents that could be critical to prosecuting the Chilean agents responsible for torturing and killing leftists decades ago.
They say the U.S. president’s visit should also encourage their own government to make good on its promises to deal more forcefully with the darkest period in Chile’s political history.
Of all the Latin American countries that have shaken off dictatorships, none has made greater strides than Chile in convicting those responsible for torturing and killing political opponents. The U.S. has helped by declassifying huge troves of documents revealing what it knew about the Sept. 11, 1973 coup – Chile’s own 9/11 – and the bloody crackdown that lasted through the 1980s.
But more documents remain classified, and in the files made public, names were redacted, so hundreds of investigations remain stymied.
Authorities are under particular pressure from the daughters of two presidents whose deaths remain shrouded in mystery – Salvador Allende, who was said to have committed suicide as Pinochet’s troops seized the presidential palace in 1973, and his predecessor Eduardo Frei Montalva, allegedly poisoned during routine hernia surgery in 1982, when he was a leading critic of the dictatorship.
"Precisely because there has been such a radical change in the politics of the United States that we believe in the human rights (policies) of President Obama, this is the moment – if he’s coming to Chile he can receive the official requests and petitions," Carmen Frei, daughter of Frei Montalva, told Chile’s Radio Cooperativa.
Allende’s daughter, Sen. Isabel Allende, said the coup "represents an unpaid debt for the justice system, to acknowledge the numerous crimes committed that day, identify those who participated, establishing their criminal responsibilities and knowing the entire truth of that day."
Chile’s Supreme Court recently ordered investigative judge Mario Carroza to probe Allende’s death along with 725 others whose cases were never prosecuted. Another judge, Alejandro Madrid began probing Frei Montalva’s death in 2002, and has charged six people, including doctors and former Pinochet spies, with poisoning him and covering up his death by removing his bodily fluids and organs.
While American experts did some tests on his remains, the U.S. government turned down several other requests for evidence because they lacked formal support from the executive branches of both countries, according to a Dec. 11, 2009 U.S. Embassy review recently made public through WikiLeaks.
[…] The U.S. ambassador to Chile, Alejandro Wolff, told the AP that human rights is on Obama’s agenda and "there is every disposition to be helpful."
[…] Juan Pablo Hermosilla, the Frei family’s lawyer, told the AP that Madrid’s still-secret case summary has concluded that Chile’s secret police obtained a deadly botulism toxin through a circuitous route from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and used it to kill two other political prisoners whose deaths are now part of the Frei Montalva case.
"The help of the U.S. government could be very important," Hermosilla said. "It doesn’t seem credible, this argument that there’s no evidence in the U.S. that can help this investigation."
–
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