Just Foreign Policy News
August 10, 2010
Obama vs. Obama on Endless Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
A video produced by Ben Craw of Huffington Post juxtaposes Senator Obama and President Obama on the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/10/obama-vs-obama-on-afghani_n_676836.html
Bacevich: Washington Rules
Andrew Bacevich’s new book, "Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War," is a call for Americans to reject the Washington consensus for permanent war, and to demand instead that America "come home."
Get the book
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/buywashingtonrules
September 24th: JFP "Virtual Brown Bag" with Andrew Bacevich
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/bacevichtalk
Oliver Stone’s "South of the Border," scheduled screenings:
http://southoftheborderdoc.com/in-theatres/
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The UN said the number of civilians wounded and killed had increased by nearly a third in the first six months of the year, as coalition forces raised the level of military action against insurgents, the New York Times reports. In that period, 1,271 civilians were killed and 1,997 wounded, the report said, with more than three-quarters attributable to "antigovernment elements."
2) The deteriorating security situation for aid and development workers has cast a cloud over the Obama Administration’s call for a civilian "surge" in southern Afghanistan, where the insurgency rages fiercest, Time Magazine reports.
3) Defense Secretary Gates said he would close a military command, restrict the use of outside contractors and reduce the number of generals and admirals across the armed forces as part of a broad effort to rein in Pentagon spending, the New York Times reports. The potential savings Gates outlined are likely to be relatively modest in the context of a total Pentagon budget, including war fighting costs, projected to top $700 billion next year, the Times notes. Gates has been arguing that if Congress and the public allow the Pentagon budget to grow by 1 percent a year, he can find 2 percent or 3 percent in savings within the department’s bureaucracy to reinvest in the military. Pentagon spending has averaged a growth rate of 7 percent a year over the last decade, adjusted for inflation, the NYT says [although there appears to be an error in the NYT’s arithmetic, see below – JFP.]
4) Pakistan wants the US to supply immediately dozens more helicopters and significantly more money and supplies to help deal with the widespread flooding that has affected at least 14 million people there, the Washington Post reports. Pakistan’s plea is fueled by concerns the government’s inability to provide relief quickly could boost the appeal of militant groups that have rushed to supply aid. A U.S. official said transfer of additional helicopters from Afghanistan would require a political decision in Washington. "Do they exist in the region? Yes," he said. "Are they available? No." "It’s not like we have a great surplus of helicopters in theater that are not engaging," the official said.
5) The inability of the Pakistani government to provide aid to flood victims is a boon to the Islamist militant groups who have rushed to provide aid, the Los Angeles Times reports. Sayed Saleh Shah Bacha, president of a neighborhood shopkeepers association in Charsadda, said residents have told him they’re ready to come to Falah-e-Insaniat’s aid whenever the need arises. "People here are now saying, ‘Because no one came to help us except Falah-e-Insaniat, from now on we will help the group whenever they need it,’ " Bacha said.
6) A war court judge ruled that all of Omar Khadr’s confessions to U.S. military interrogators can be used at his trial, including one that followed a tawdry tale of rape, the Miami Herald reports. Khadr’s lawyers claimed he was tortured into confessing. Khadr’s lawyer declared the judge’s ruling "a disgrace" that signals "it’s OK to threaten a 15-year-old with rape" to get a confession.
Israel/Palestine
7) Israel threatened to pull out of a U.N. inquiry into the Gaza flotilla raid after U.N. Secretary General Ban said there is no agreement that the panel would refrain from calling Israeli soldiers to testify, AP reports. Israeli officials said their agreement to take part in the U.N. probe was conditional on the panel relying on reports from Israel’s own military inquiry, not testimony from soldiers.
8) U.N. officials said an agreement between Israel and Libya will let Libya underwrite the rebuilding of 1,250 Gaza Strip homes destroyed in Israel’s offensive there last year, Reuters reports. A UN representative said hundreds of Palestinian families would benefit, but Israel should do more. "UNRWA calls on the Israeli authorities to issue the necessary permissions promptly to allow us to use not only these new Libyan funds, but also Saudi, Dutch, Japanese, and other funds which are available to remedy this dreadful situation," the UN representative said.
Afghanistan
9) Aid agencies in Afghanistan have launched urgent reviews of their security in the wake of the killings of 10 medical workers in the north of the country, The Independent reports. "The days when we could place the conflict in the south and not the rest of the country have gone," said one aid worker. Aid workers repeatedly voiced their fears that their agencies are finding it harder than ever to show their independence from the foreign armed forces in the country.
El Salvador
10) President Funes has has announced he intends to implement a total ban on mining, Mining Weekly reports. [Canadian firm Pacific Rim Mining recently won a preliminary ruling against El Salvador in front of a World Bank arbitration panel, using a provision of the Central America Free Trade Agreement by means of a US subsidiary – JFP.] The government had halted work at the El Dorado gold mine after tensions erupted with surrounding communities. Anti-mining activists were reported to have been killed.
Mexico
11) Former President Fox is joining with those urging Mexico to legalize drugs, saying that could break the power of Mexico’s drug cartels, AP reports. Fox said places that have implemented the legalization strategy have not seen significant increases in drug use. "We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs," wrote Fox, who is a member of the ruling conservative party. "Radical prohibition strategies have never worked." Fox also called for the quick withdrawal of the military from public security work.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) U.N. Reports Rising Afghan Civilian Casualties
Rod Nordland, New York Times, August 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/world/asia/11afghan.html
Kabul – The number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan continued to climb in the first half of 2010, with an increasing number of children in the toll and a spike in the recently troubled northeast, but more than ever, the deaths were caused by insurgents, the United Nations said in a report released Tuesday.
In its midyear report, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said the number of civilians wounded and killed had increased by nearly a third in the first six months of the year, as coalition forces raised the level of military action against insurgents. In that period, 1,271 civilians were killed and 1,997 wounded, the report said, with more than three-quarters attributable to what it called "antigovernment elements."
Death and injury to children were up 55 percent, with 176 killed and 389 injured, the report said, noting that improvised bombs were often placed in areas frequented by the young, like parks and markets.
The single biggest cause of the was insurgent bombings, including both suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices, which together claimed 557 deaths, 61 percent of that total.
[…] Since 2009, when the United States military made it a priority to reduce civilian casualties, the trend has been for far fewer of them to be caused by the military, and far more by the Taliban and other insurgents.
In 2007, less than half of the civilian casualties were caused by the insurgents, according to United Nations statistics. The new figure, an increase of 53 percent over the same period last year, was the most dramatic change to date.
[…] Overall, civilian casualties caused by government or coalition forces declined by 30 percent for the period. Deaths of civilians from NATO aerial bombings, once the leading cause of such casualties, were down 64 percent over the same period in 2009, for a total of 69 civilian deaths, the United Nations said.
The report ascribed the decrease to an order in July, 2009, from the former United States commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, which greatly limited the use of airstrikes where there was a risk of civilian casualties.
The overall 31 percent increase in civilian casualties was attributable to an increase in military operations, particularly in southern and southeastern Afghanistan, the report said, as larger numbers of NATO forces have poured into the country and military operations have increased.
In the northeastern part of the country, until recently relatively quiet, the increase in civilian deaths was dramatic, 136 percent over the same period in 2009.
[…] A statement on Tuesday from NATO’s international force welcomed the report’s findings but added a comment from the new commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, taken from his recent tactical directive to coalition soldiers. "Every Afghan death diminishes our cause," General Petraeus said. "While we have made progress in our efforts to reduce coalition-caused civilian casualties, we know the measure by which our mission will be judged is protecting the population from harm by either side."
2) Will Aid Workers’ Killings End Civilian Surge?
Jason Motlagh, Time Magazine, Monday, Aug. 09, 2010
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2009399,00.html
The brutal killing of 10 aid workers in a relatively tranquil part of northern Afghanistan late last week is a grim reminder that the Taliban-led insurgency’s reach has expanded well beyond the movement’s heartland in the south. The deadliest attack yet against foreign aid workers was also the second-largest loss of American civilians in a single attack in the nearly nine-year war, and comes at a moment when the Obama Administration is pushing for greater civilian involvement to help win over a distrustful public.
[…] The Taliban recently issued a revised code of conduct for its fighters, exhorting them to protect civilians, except for those who cooperate with Afghan security forces or foreign armies. Civilians are nonetheless dying in record numbers, mostly as a result of Taliban operations. And this is hardly the first time the movement has attacked foreign civilian aid workers. In August 2008, four workers with the International Rescue Committee were shot dead in a Taliban ambush outside of Kabul. Last month, gunmen and suicide bombers in the northern province of Kunduz stormed the offices of U.S.-based development organization DAI, killing at least five people. Once allowed to operate with a degree of immunity, aid workers now face a dramatically increased threat of kidnapping and assassination.
The deteriorating security situation for aid and development workers has cast a cloud over the Obama Administration’s call for a civilian "surge" in southern Afghanistan, where the insurgency rages fiercest. Most foreign civilians still in the field there are contractors – or government employees – dependent on the military; the security threat has forced all but a few independent aid organizations to pull up stakes. Now, the threat has extended to swathes of territory in the north, where security has largely been taken for granted. Some U.S. military planners have begun to see the area as a second front, and NATO has deployed nearly 10,000 troops in the north this year – a 40 percent increase from 2009.
[…]
3) Pentagon Plans Steps to Reduce Budget and Jobs
Thom Shanker, New York Times, August 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/us/10gates.html
Washington – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that he would close a military command, restrict the use of outside contractors and reduce the number of generals and admirals across the armed forces as part of a broad effort to rein in Pentagon spending.
Mr. Gates did not place a dollar figure on the total savings from the cutbacks, some of which are likely to be challenged by members of Congress intent on retaining jobs in their states and districts. But they appear to be Mr. Gates’s most concrete proposals to cut current spending as he tries to fend off calls from many Democrats for even deeper budget reductions, and they reflect his strategy of first trying to squeeze money out of the vast Pentagon bureaucracy.
[…] The potential savings Mr. Gates outlined are likely to be relatively modest in the context of a total Pentagon budget, including war fighting costs, projected to top $700 billion next year. The most significant step – in symbol and in substance – was his plan to close the military’s Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.
[…] For months, Mr. Gates has been arguing that if Congress and the public allow the Pentagon budget to grow by 1 percent a year, he can find 2 percent or 3 percent in savings within the department’s bureaucracy to reinvest in the military – and that will be sufficient to meet long-term national security needs.
[…] Pentagon spending has averaged a growth rate of 7 percent a year over the last decade, adjusted for inflation (or nearly 12 percent a year without adjusting), including the costs of the wars. Mr. Obama has asked Congress for an increase in total spending next year of 2.2 percent, to $708 billion – 6.1 percent higher than the peak in the Bush administration.
[…] [The difference between 7 percent and 12 percent would imply an annual average inflation rate of about 4.5%, while the general inflation rate was about 2.4% and the military inflation rate was about 3.4%, so both of the NYT numbers cannot be right – JFP.]
4) Fearing unrest, Pakistan seeks more U.S. flood aid
Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, Tuesday, August 10, 2010; A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR2010080905769.html
Pakistan wants the United States to supply immediately dozens more helicopters and significantly more money and supplies to help deal with the widespread flooding that has affected at least 14 million people there, senior Pakistani officials said Monday.
Pakistan’s plea is fueled by concerns that the government’s inability to provide relief quickly could boost the appeal of militant groups that have rushed to supply aid in the country’s northwest. Visible U.S. assistance, the officials said, could help reverse currents of anti-Americanism.
The United States has already diverted six Chinook transport helicopters from the Afghanistan war to Pakistan over the past 10 days for rescue missions and aid delivery. It has also sent hundreds of thousands of prepackaged military meals and a pledge of more than $40 million in disaster assistance, far more than any other country.
A senior U.S. military official said transfer of additional helicopters, which are in short supply in Afghanistan, would require a political decision in Washington. "Do they exist in the region? Yes," he said. "Are they available? No."
"It’s a question of risk mitigation," the official said. "Helicopter lift is critical to the mission" in Afghanistan, where road transport is difficult and dangerous, he said. "It’s not like we have a great surplus of helicopters in theater that are not engaging."
[…] With the monsoon rain showing no sign of abating, the government estimates that 1,600 people have been killed, 650,00 homes have been destroyed, and more than 50,000 square miles are under water in a disaster still in its early stages.
"Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of other people are inaccessible: clinging to rooftops, swept away," Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said. "The rains are continuing," he said, and the Sukkur dam, which holds back the Indus River from the agricultural plains of Sindh province, "is in danger." He added: "If it breaks, the situation will reach an even more catastrophic level."
[…] Pakistani officials, bemoaning the setback to development plans already behind schedule, appear to be overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. Many displaced villagers who have set up makeshift camps on high patches along roadways and hilltops have bitterly criticized their government in remarks to reporters who have managed to reach them.
"This can create a tremendous amount of social upheaval in the country," said Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, the head of the Pakistani air force, who arrived here this weekend for Pentagon meetings before heading to Nevada to observe Pakistan’s participation in scheduled joint air exercises. "All these people have are the clothes on their backs," he said, and most have seen no sign of government assistance.
Roads, bridges and entire villages have been destroyed, along with electricity and water supplies, throughout the northern regions and across the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the border, where the Pakistani military has been engaged in offensives against entrenched militant groups since last summer. "It’s the same area where just a few months ago we were bombing," Suleman said in an interview. "The need at this time is helicopters," he said. "That’s the only answer."
Suleman estimated that the government needs 30 to 40 more transport and rescue aircraft. The six American Chinooks, as well as Pakistan’s fleet of six U.S.-leased MI-17 transport helicopters, have been grounded during much of the past week by cloud cover and the torrential rains.
Pakistani officials have been effusive in expressing gratitude for the rapid U.S. response, a senior Pakistani official said, but the need "is enormous." The hope is that the United States can come up with at least another $100 million in disaster funding in addition to more helicopters, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity about the request, which is still being formalized.
"It takes time to organize" sending helicopters from a war zone, another senior Pakistani official said. "We understand that. But that man sitting on the roof of his house for three days without food or water, he doesn’t understand."
The official continued: "The real trick is to reach these people in time. They need everything right now. The militants have money; they will start to distribute supplies. Even if it’s only the most rudimentary things," villagers will conclude that "these people care, and that’s a difficult feeling for the government to dislodge."
5) Pakistani flood disaster gives opening to militants
With 1,500 dead and nearly 14 million affected by the floods, militant-affiliated aid groups have stepped in with relief work where the government has been unable to, earning goodwill and possible recruits.
Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-militants-aid-20100810,0,1442950.story
Charsadda, Pakistan – Hungry, sweat-soaked flood survivors stood ankle-deep in mud, beaming at the sight of bags of cooked rice and clothes being doled out by relief workers from a white van that slowly rumbled through their broken neighborhood.
The help was coming from Falah-e-Insaniat, a wing of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa militant group, but that didn’t matter much to the dirt-poor residents of this stretch of half-destroyed brick huts and flooded wheat fields. No government agency or international relief organization had shown up, and that made Falah-e-Insaniat their lifeline.
"Falah-e-Insaniat is the only group feeding us," said Noor Zada, a 27-year-old rail-thin man clutching a 3-pound bag of rice to share with 11 relatives. "The government hasn’t been here at all. We have no other way of getting food. So if Falah-e-Insaniat is providing it, we’re thankful."
The Pakistani government has struggled to cope with the recent flooding that has killed more than 1,500 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. The United Nations estimates that 13.8 million people have been affected by the floods, a number that eclipses the combined total of people affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 northern Pakistan earthquake and this year’s earthquake in Haiti.
Though aid from the United States and other sources has reached certain areas, scores of flood victims say they have received little if any help. That has created an opening for hard-line Islamist groups to provide a steady stream of relief, particularly in the country’s hardest-hit region, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as North-West Frontier Province.
For Falah-e-Insaniat, the flood crisis has provided an ideal public relations vehicle. It’s a golden opportunity to build bonds with large numbers of impoverished Pakistanis who can later be counted on when the militant side of the organization needs a hand, experts said.
[…] "The ultimate objective is to bring people into their fold," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based security analyst. "They will generate a lot of goodwill in these areas, and that helps these groups spread out and recruit new people."
The last time Pakistan’s Islamist extremist organizations sought a sizable humanitarian role in a major disaster was in 2005, when an earthquake centered in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir killed 79,000 people, left 3 million homeless and destroyed infrastructure across a mountainous tract roughly the size of Connecticut.
The scale of the quake’s destruction overwhelmed then-Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s government. Jamaat-ud-Dawa quickly opened temporary schools and hospitals and provided food and medicine for villages. "The perception is that they won a lot of sympathy for themselves," Rizvi said.
[…] Sayed Saleh Shah Bacha, president of a neighborhood shopkeepers association in Charsadda, said residents have told him they’re ready to come to Falah-e-Insaniat’s aid whenever the need arises. "People here are now saying, ‘Because no one came to help us except Falah-e-Insaniat, from now on we will help the group whenever they need it,’ " Bacha said.
6) Teen Captive’s Confessions Can Air At Guantanamo Trial
Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald, Tue, Aug. 10, 2010
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/10/1768734/teen-captives-confessions-can.html
Guantanamo Bay Navy Base, Cuba – All of Canadian captive Omar Khadr’s confessions to U.S. military interrogators can be used at the accused teen terrorist’s trial, including one that followed a tawdry tale of rape, a war court judge ruled Monday to set the stage for the first full war crimes tribunal of the Obama administration.
Khadr’s lawyers claimed that Guantánamo’s youngest and last Western prisoner was tortured into confessing soon after his capture at age 15 following a firefight in Afghanistan when he was shot twice through the chest.
Army Col. Patrick Parrish, the judge, disagreed.
[…] Khadr’s lawyer sought out Canadian reporters to declare the judge’s ruling "a disgrace" that signals "it’s OK to threaten a 15-year-old with rape" to get a confession.
At the heart of the issue was pretrial testimony May 6 by Khadr’s first interrogator, former Army Sgt. Joshua Claus, that he had scared the Canadian into confessing by conjuring up a rape tale of an Afghan kid who didn’t cooperate, was sent to an American prison to be raped and killed. Claus has been convicted at a court martial of abusing detainees in Afghanistan but Khadr wasn’t among them.
[…]
Israel/Palestine
7) Israel threatening to quit UN probe into flotilla
Mark Lavie, Associated Press, Monday, August 9, 2010; 5:39 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR2010080904475.html
Jerusalem – Israel threatened Monday to pull out of a U.N. inquiry into a deadly raid on a Turkish flotilla heading for Gaza, after the U.N. chief said there is no agreement that the panel would refrain from calling Israeli soldiers to testify.
Last week Israel agreed to participate in the U.N. probe into the May 31 raid, when nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed after Israeli naval commandos boarded a Turkish vessel aiming to break Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza.
The surprise development came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testified before his country’s own inquiry into the raid. He charged that Turkey had an interest in the violent confrontation, refusing to exert its influence to stop the flotilla. A Turkish official rejected that as "ridiculous."
Israeli officials said the agreement to take part in the U.N. probe was conditional on the panel relying on reports from Israel’s own military inquiry, not testimony from soldiers.
But at a Monday news conference at U.N. headquarters, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was asked whether he had agreed not to summon Israeli soldiers before the panel.
"No, there was no such agreement behind the scenes," Ban said, adding that the panel is supposed to work with the Israeli and Turkish inquiries. "And whatever is needed beyond that, they will have to discuss among themselves, in close coordination with the national government authorities, that they can take their own future steps," he said.
In response, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office issued a harsh statement. "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes it absolutely clear that Israel will not cooperate with and will not take part in any panel that seeks to interrogate Israeli soldiers," it said.
[…]
8) Libya to Fund Gaza Homes After Israel Approves Aid
Reuters, August 10, 2010, 11:45 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/08/10/world/international-uk-palestinians-israel-libya.html
Gaza – A rare agreement between foes Israel and Libya will let Libya underwrite the rebuilding of 1,250 Gaza Strip homes destroyed in Israel’s offensive there last year, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.
But Libyan officials denied there was any link between the aid agreement and the release this week of an Israeli photographer who had been arrested five months ago during a visit to the north African country.
[…] The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which looks after Palestinian refugees, said under a deal between the two countries Israel would allow Libya’s Gaddafi Foundation charity to provide $50 million to rebuild Gaza homes.
[…] Last month a Libyan-charted ship carrying cargo for Palestinians in Gaza, which is under an Israeli blockade, diverted instead to a nearby Egyptian port. [At the time, the Libyans claimed that they agreed to be diverted to Egypt as part of a deal in which Israel would allow Libya to fund UNRWA construction in Gaza – apparently the deal now being announced – JFP.] […] Peter Ford, a representative of UNRWA’s commissioner general, said at the signing of the agreement with the Gaddafi Foundation that hundreds of Palestinian families would benefit significantly from the deal, but Israel should do more.
"UNRWA calls on the Israeli authorities to issue the necessary permissions promptly to allow us to use not only these new Libyan funds, but also Saudi, Dutch, Japanese, and other funds which are available to remedy this dreadful situation," said Ford in a statement released by UNRWA.
[…]
Afghanistan
9) Charities say war has crept up to ‘safer’ north
Tom Rowley and Kunal Dutta, The Independent, Monday, 9 August 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/charities-say-war-has-crept-up-to-safer-north-2047369.html
Aid agencies in Afghanistan have launched urgent reviews of their security in the wake of the killings of 10 medical workers in the north of the country.
Many had until now assumed that the north of Afghanistan was a comparatively safe area to work in. Aid workers spoke yesterday of their worries that the attack signalled increased hostility towards foreign charities and relief agencies.
"It’s very insecure now," said an aid worker based in Afghanistan for a large international charity. "The days when we could place the conflict in the south and not the rest of the country have gone."
Jennifer Rowell, who works for Care International in Afghanistan, agreed that the conflict has spread to the northern regions. "Now there are districts within Kabul that we can’t get to. There is an encroachment of the conflict into the north and central regions that were quite stable for a number of years. I’ve witnessed this happening; the rate has been noticeable over the last year."
Aid workers repeatedly voiced their fears that their agencies are finding it harder than ever to show their independence from the foreign armed forces in the country, a crucial step in bringing the local population on board and ensuring their security.
"It’s much harder for aid workers … to demonstrate that they’re truly independent," said one worker. Ms Rowell added: "Religious activists and social activists of all kinds are targeting aid workers because of the difficult times we’re working in at present. There’s no question that it’s becoming harder to demonstrate our independence and neutrality. It’s a turning point in the international military efforts in the country, so the presence of NGOs has been pulled into the broader political process.
"Life for NGOs is getting more complicated. The presence of NGOs is getting politicised; this is a change. We’re entering a very tenuous political and military time in which anything is possible."
[…]
El Salvador
10) El Salvador intends total ban on mining – report
Matthew Hill, Mining Weekly, 6th August 2010
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/el-salvador-intends-total-ban-on-mining–report-2010-08-06
Barrie, Ontario – Canadian firm Pacific Rim Mining this week claimed a small victory in its arbitration against the El Salvadorian government, but President Mauricio Funes has been quoted as saying that he plans to stop mining in the country altogether. "Funes has announced he intends to implement a total ban on mining," London-based publication Latin America Monitor said in its August newsletter.
Funes, a former television reporter, took office in June last year, in the country’s first departure from right-wing politics.
Latin America Monitor said the intended ban on mining "undermines the generally pro-business policy stance that places El Salvador sixth in Latin America in the market orientation component of our business environment ratings".
"Added to his refusal last year to recognise mining permits offered by previous administrations – which led Pacific Rim to seek international arbitration to recover $77-million of investment – we caution that the operating environment is likely to remain distinctly hostile for the industry over the medium term," the newsletter said.
The tribunal at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ruled in Pacific Rim’s favour this week, regarding a preliminary objection filed by the government in relation to the action brought by Pacific Rim.
The government had halted work at the El Dorado gold mine after tensions erupted with surrounding communities. Anti-mining activists were reported to have been killed.
Mining contributes less than 5% to the smallest Central American country’s gross domestic product.
[…]
Mexico
11) Ex-Mexico president calls for legalizing drugs.
E. Eduardo Castillo, AP, August 9, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gMi5B2USfJStXxfqgWWr2xjRYpOgD9HFMD5O0
Mexico City – Former President Vicente Fox is joining with those urging his successor to legalize drugs in Mexico, saying that could break the economic power of the country’s brutal drug cartels.
Fox’s comments, posted Sunday on his blog, came less than a week after President Felipe Calderon agreed to open the door to discussions about the legalization of drugs, even though he stressed that he remained opposed to the idea.
Fox said places that have implemented the legalization strategy have not seen significant increases in drug use. "We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs," wrote Fox, who was president from 2000 to 2006 and is a member of Calderon’s conservative National Action Party. "Radical prohibition strategies have never worked."
"Legalizing in this sense does not mean drugs are good and don’t harm those who consume them," he wrote. "Rather we should look at it as a strategy to strike at and break the economic structure that allows gangs to generate huge profits in their trade, which feeds corruption and increases their areas of power."
He said the government could tax the sale of legalized drugs to finance programs for reducing addiction and rehabilitating users.
Fox also called for the quick withdrawal of the military from public security work, a measure Calderon ordered when he succeeded Fox in December 2006 and stepped up a crackdown on the cartels.
[…]
–
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
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