Just Foreign Policy News
August 18, 2010
Spread the News About the US Death Toll in Afghanistan
This week, the number of US deaths in the war since Obama took office exceeded the death toll under Bush. Spread the news to build pressure for ending the war.
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https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/obamavsbush
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FAIR action alert – Tell NBC: Sunday Morning Needs a Real War Debate
On NBC’s Meet the Press, the opportunity to engage in a robust debate about the war has taken a back seat to promoting the views of the military and supporters of Obama’s Afghanistan policies.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4137
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
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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 Daily Mail of London reports the news that US deaths in the war in Afghanistan under President Obama have caught up with (and subsequently surpassed) US deaths in the war under President Bush. No US newspapers have done so (Democracy Now reported it yesterday.)
2) Villagers blocked a highway in eastern Afghanistan to protest a night raid by NATO and Afghan soldiers that left two people dead, Al Jazeera reports. NATO said two "Taliban insurgents" were killed. But villagers said the men were civilians, and said the US should investigate. The protest mirrored a similar demonstration last week, when NATO and Afghan forces raided a house in Wardak province. Neighbors claimed the night raid killed three civilians. Night raids have been a particular point of friction between NATO and President Karzai. Karzai demanded an end to all night raids in February.
3) The UN said shortages of the most basic supplies – shelter, food and drinking water – presented the biggest challenge for aid workers in Pakistan, the New York Times reports. The WHO said of some 15 million people affected by the floods, only about 1.2 million had access to safe water supplies. Reports of water-borne diseases have been growing, including acute diarrhea and respiratory tract infections. The UN and its partners have so far delivered food to nearly 800,000 people, have enabled at least 1.4 million to have access to clean water, and have provided shelter to nearly one million. "Unfortunately, this is only a fraction of what we need to do," said a UN official. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies began an appeal for more than $16 million on Aug. 2, of which about 60 percent has been donated, but now expects to double the appeal. "People are starting to appreciate the scale, but I don’t know that people are appreciating the urgency," said a spokeswoman for Oxfam.
4) Pakistani officials have begun to acknowledge that the country’s security could be gravely affected if more international aid does not arrive soon, the Washington Post reports. "There are already signs that people are restive," said a Pakistani military spokesman. "If not addressed, it could balloon and will create a security situation in the areas where the government has not taken care of people’s needs." The army has had to reorient itself in recent weeks, shifting its focus from counterinsurgency toward relief and recovery missions. "The so-called war on terror has to be on hold," said a member of Pakistan’s Parliament. "As long as the nation, the government and the army are dealing with this flood situation, the war takes a back seat." That is bad news for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, where commanders seeking to turn around a flagging war effort are relying heavily on Pakistani cooperation, the Post says.
5) Sadrists in Iraq have prepared a cemetery for their martyred fighters in case the U.S. does not withdraw its military forces from Iraq by the end of 2011 as promised, Leila Fadel reports in the Washington Post. If the U.S. reneges, members of the Mahdi Army have promised to rise up and fight to the death.
6) Colombia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that last year’s agreement giving the U.S. military access to more Colombian bases is unconstitutional because it wasn’t approved by the Colombian Congress, AP reports. The justices, ruling in a lawsuit filed by a lawyers group last November, rejected the government’s position, saying the agreement was a new treaty that needs congressional approval.
7) Former commander of the Colombian armed forces General Freddy Padilla said the U.S. Congress will not ratify its military bases agreement with Colombia, according to Colombia reports. "If Colombia sends the agreement to Congress, the U.S. will have to send it to theirs as well and what they told us is that … they wouldn’t be prepared to pass it," Padilla said.
Iran
8) Iran took its case against the US to the UN and strongly condemned US officials for threatening to attack Iran, AP reports. Iran’s acting U.N. ambassador Alehabib said the US was using threatening language that violates international law and the U.N. Charter.
["All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state," the UN Charter says – JFP.] Supreme Leader Khamenei said negotiations would be possible if the U.S. stops making threats against Iran. In late July, President Ahmadinejad said nuclear talks with the six powers would start in September.
Iraq
9) The failure of the Iraqi political elite that the US helped to choose may serve as a lasting US legacy in Iraq, reports Anthony Shadid in the New York Times. To a remarkable degree, Iraq remains haunted by US decisions in the early days of the occupation in 2003, Shadid writes, including disbanding the Iraqi military, purging "Baathists" from the bureaucracy, and installing exiles in power.
Israel/Palestine
10) A Jerusalem court decided the state was responsible for the death of a Palestinian girl killed by gunfire more than three years ago as she stood some distance from a protest, AP reports. The case gained wide attention because the girl’s father, Bassam Aramin, was a Palestinian militant turned advocate for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, who helped found Combatants for Peace. The girl was hit by a rubber-coated steel bullet [often described inaccurately in U.S. press reports as a "rubber bullet" – JFP.] Israeli forces have frequently used rubber-coated steel pellets for crowd control, AP notes. The court’s decision to blame the state is rare, said the family’s lawyer, Leah Tsemel. Cases involving Israeli forces wounding or killing Palestinians rarely make it beyond an initial investigation.
Mexico
11) Runaway drug violence in Juarez has forced Mexican leaders and their U.S. advisers to try a new strategy to stop the killing, the Washington Post reports. A new rescue package of social spending is paying for schools, hospital renovations, student breakfasts, a youth orchestra, anti-violence training and drug treatment centers. NAFTA brought hundreds of thousands of migrants to Juarez, but the government built few schools, parks or libraries for the new arrivals and their families. Today, in the city’s northwest slums, there is one high school for 400,000 residents. A Mexican cabinet official says years of government neglect allowed organized crime to fill a moral and social vacuum in a place of rootless newcomers and frayed family structures. Many of the city’s gang members and gunmen are the children of factory workers, the city’s mayor said, a "lost generation" that grew up in the streets while their parents were making car batteries and keyboards. A cornerstone for a new high school in the city’s western edge was laid months ago, but no-one from the government has been back since.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Now it’s ‘Obama’s War’: President sees same number of U.S. troops – 575 – die in Afghanistan as during Bush years
David Gardner, Daily Mail (UK), 18th August 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1303963/Obamas-War-Same-number-US-troops-die-Afghanistan-Bush-years.html
Afghanistan was dubbed ‘Obama’s War’ last night after it was revealed that as many American soldiers have died in the conflict during his presidency as during George Bush’s entire time in office.
According to the latest death tally, 575 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Afghanistan in the 20 months since Barack Obama took office in January last year.
That is the same number of fatalities the U.S. military suffered under Mr Bush, who launched the Afghan invasion nine years ago in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
With his White House honeymoon well and truly over, Mr Obama is no longer able to blame his country’s travails on the previous administration.
The latest grim milestone is likely to put him back on the defensive over the Afghan war at a time when he is trying to put a positive spin on his strategy to raise the stakes in an effort to beat back the Taliban.
The revelation comes a day after the deaths of soldiers from Britain, the U.S. and Australia pushed the total number of foreign casualties in Afghanistan past 2,000.
The latest figures show that a total of 331 British military personnel have died in the conflict.
The comparison of the human toll during the two presidencies is based on statistics from icasualties.org, which tracks U.S. soldiers’ deaths using Pentagon reports.
It was highlighted yesterday by Robert Naiman, a columnist for the Huffington Post news website and policy director for the Just Foreign Policy Washington think-tank. ‘When the next U.S. soldier is reported dead, the majority of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan will have occurred under President Obama,’ he said.
[…]
2) Afghan villagers protest night raid
Al Jazeera, Wednesday, August 18, 2010
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010818102118648839.html
Hundreds of villagers have blocked a highway in eastern Afghanistan to protest a night raid by Nato and Afghan soldiers that left two people dead.
A statement from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said two "Taliban insurgents" were killed in the raid in a district near Jalalabad.
But villagers said the men were civilians; their protest temporarily closed the highway connecting Jalalabad to Pakistan on Wednesday. "The Americans who killed these people should come and see whether it is civilians or insurgents they killed," Mohammad Gul, one of the protesters, said. "We need an explanation from them."
Many of the protesters chanted anti-American slogans, like "down with Obama" and "down with foreign forces," during the hours-long protest.
Isaf said the men had been involved in roadside bomb attacks, and that Nato and Afghan soldiers were fired upon from "multiple directions" as they entered the compound.
The protest mirrored a similar demonstration last week, when Nato and Afghan forces raided a house in Wardak province. Neighbours claimed the night raid killed three civilians, and hundreds of them took to the streets to protest the following afternoon.
Afghans have staged a number of similar protests in recent months: Villagers near Jalalabad burned tyres in May after a night raid killed at least nine people, and hundreds protested after Nato troops opened fire on a bus in Kandahar in April.
[…] Night raids have been a particular point of friction between Nato and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president. Karzai demanded an end to all night raids in February.
3) U.N. Warns of Supply Shortage in Pakistan
Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, August 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/world/asia/19nations.html
United Nations – Shortages of the most basic supplies – shelter, food and drinking water – presented the biggest challenge for aid workers in Pakistan, the United Nations said Wednesday.
Aid organizations and the United Nations itself have expressed alarm that the plight of millions of Pakistanis flooded from their land has yet to strike a sufficiently sympathetic nerve among donors – neither governments nor the general public – with aid trickling in far more slowly than needed.
The World Health Organization said Wednesday that, of some 15 million people affected by the floods, only about 1.2 million had access to safe water supplies while, in the areas most affected by the flooding, 200 of 1,167 health facilities – including several hospitals – had been damaged. Reports of water-borne diseases have been growing, including acute diarrhea and respiratory tract infections.
The United Nations began an appeal on Aug. 11 for $460 million for food, clean water, shelter and medical care for an estimated six million people, many of whom, it says, have not been reached with aid. As of Wednesday, nations had sent $228 million and pledged $42 million more, according to the United Nations.
Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the United Nations relief effort in Pakistan, said the pace of donations had quickened somewhat.
Still, the number of those in need, estimated at six million, is being reassessed, he said. "There is a high chance that the figure will go up," he said in a telephone interview from Islamabad. New flooding in places such as Sindh Province will push up the number of people needing aid, he said. He said that aid agencies had received only some 935,000 tents, far fewer than needed for the millions of displaced.
The United Nations and its partners have so far delivered food to nearly 800,000 people, have enabled at least 1.4 million to have access to clean water, and have provided shelter to nearly one million. Medical stocks covering the potential health needs of 1.8 million people have also been provided.
"Unfortunately, this is only a fraction of what we need to do," said Martin Mogwanja, Humanitarian Coordinator in the country. "More relief supplies are in the pipeline, and we are reaching more and more women, men and children every day. Tents, food, rater purification tablets, are being procured as we speak."
And the floods are not over.
[…] Aid officials cited a variety of factors for the sluggish international reaction, starting with minimal news coverage globally and a relatively low death toll. Other elements, they said, included the preoccupation with economic problems, donor fatigue with natural disasters and the August vacation season when many people pay less attention to the news. Finally, Pakistan itself suffers from an image problem as a hotbed of Taliban activity and the source of renegade nuclear sales, which can give donors pause.
"What is clear is that we need a lot more and we need it quickly," said John Holmes, the humanitarian coordinator for the United Nations. The- international outpouring after recent disasters like Haiti or the Asian tsunami in 2004 was driven partly by the huge, sudden loss of life and the striking images of rescue efforts, he said.
A slow-moving flood with a death toll of about 1,500 people fails to provoke a similar reaction. "An earthquake is a much more dramatic, emotional, telegenic event because it happens so quickly," Mr. Holmes said.
[…] Many aid groups are increasing their efforts as the scope of the disaster unfolds. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies began an appeal for more than $16 million on Aug. 2, of which about 60 percent has been donated, but now expects to double the appeal, said Elyse Mosquini of the federation’s United Nations office.
Given the threat of more rain and the potential spread of disease, time is not an ally. "People are starting to appreciate the scale, but I don’t know that people are appreciating the urgency," said Rebecca Barber of Oxfam, speaking by telephone from Pakistan.
There were limited signs on Tuesday that change might be in the offing. At the London premiere of the movie "Salt," Angelina Jolie lent glamour to the cause, saying on the red carpet that donating to Pakistan was an urgent matter. "It is millions and millions of people who will be uprooted for a very long time," she said.
[…] The United Nations was planning a special session of the General Assembly on Thursday to focus on Pakistan, with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon scheduled to speak about his weekend visit to the flooded areas. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Pakistani counterpart are among those expected to attend.
4) Pakistani floods could further hurt unstable nation as military focuses on aid
Griff Witte, Washington Post, Wednesday, August 18, 2010; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081702660.html
Islamabad, Pakistan – Staggered by the scale of destruction from this summer’s catastrophic floods, Pakistani officials have begun to acknowledge that the country’s security could be gravely affected if more international aid does not arrive soon.
The floods have submerged an area roughly the size of Italy, displaced 12 percent of the population and destroyed billions of dollars worth of infrastructure and crops.
But with the government admittedly overwhelmed and foreign aid trickling in, the worst may be still to come, as Pakistan struggles to deal with food shortages, disease outbreaks and a mass migration of homeless families. All those factors have the potential to further destabilize a nation undermined by weak governance and a vicious insurgency even before the crisis.
"There are already signs that people are restive," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, a Pakistani military spokesman. "If not addressed, it could balloon and will create a security situation in the areas where the government has not taken care of people’s needs."
The army has had to reorient itself in recent weeks, shifting its focus from counterinsurgency toward relief and recovery missions. A potential offensive in the militant haven of North Waziristan has been placed on indefinite hold, as has the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of refugees from last fall’s battle in South Waziristan. Meanwhile, efforts to rebuild the Swat Valley, the scene of intense fighting last year, are back to square one after flooding from monsoon rains knocked out every bridge and many schools, health clinics and communication towers.
"The so-called war on terror has to be on hold," said Ayaz Amir, a security analyst and a member of Pakistan’s Parliament. "As long as the nation, the government and the army are dealing with this flood situation, the war takes a back seat."
That is bad news for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, where commanders seeking to turn around a flagging war effort are relying heavily on Pakistani cooperation. It could particularly affect plans in eastern Afghanistan, where the United States had been contemplating a fall offensive in areas across the border from North and South Waziristan.
[…]
5) In Iraq, cemetery is symbol of militia’s vow to fight if U.S. forces delay exit
Leila Fadel, Washington Post, Wednesday, August 18, 2010; A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081702704.html
Najaf, Iraq – The followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr call this plot of land on the edge of this holy Shiite city the Freedom Cemetery.
It is barren, nondescript desert ground, a two-acre section within the Sadrist Martyrs’ cemetery. The graves have not been excavated. But it is reserved for a purpose: the possibility that U.S. forces might stay beyond the Dec. 31, 2011, departure deadline mandated by a security agreement between the United States and Iraq.
If that happens, members of the Mahdi Army, a militant Shiite group that bills itself as a resistance force against the U.S. occupation, have promised to rise up and fight to the death. Their bodies would be buried in the cemetery.
"If the Americans leave, which we don’t think they will, we’ll make it a burial site for our parents," said Abu Mohammed, who oversees the Sadrist cemetery, where 4,250 fighters and Sadr supporters are buried. "If their exit is delayed, we will fight and give our blood.
"This will be our solution," he said as he waved toward the reserved plot.
The cemetery is a reminder that even as the United States is about to declare the end of its combat mission in Iraq, armed groups still see U.S. troops as combatants. Shiite militias, including the Mahdi Army, remain armed and continue to attack U.S. troops. Assassinations are on the rise, and rocket attacks targeting the Green Zone and U.S. military facilities have spiked.
[…]
6) Court rules against Colombia-US base accord
Libardo Cardona, Associated Press, Tuesday, August 17, 2010; 10:19 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081706317.html
Bogota, Colombia – The Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that last year’s agreement giving the U.S. military access to more Colombian bases is unconstitutional because it wasn’t approved by legislators.
The court’s 6-3 decision said, however, that the ruling does not affect U.S. military personnel and contractors working from Colombian bases covered by earlier accords.
This means any U.S. personnel at the seven bases included in the 2009 pact could shift to bases permitted by previous agreements while the government decides whether to put the latest accord before Congress, where new President Juan Manuel Santos has a big majority.
Last year’s agreement with Washington intensified frictions with neighboring Venezuela, with President Hugo Chavez, a strong critic of U.S. influence in Latin America, calling it a threat to his country. Brazil and Bolivia also criticized the deal, saying it would unsettle the balance of forces in the region.
Santos, who was defense minister from 2006 to early 2009 before running for president, has consistently defended the agreement on the grounds it "improve our ability to combat drug trafficking and terrorism."
But since taking office Aug. 7, Santos has been working to improve relations with Chavez and there was no immediate comment from the government on whether it would ask Congress to ratify the base deal.
[…] The court ruled in a lawsuit filed last November by a lawyers group that argued the agreement signed the previous month should have been approved by Congress. The government of previous President Alvaro Uribe argued that wasn’t necessary, saying it was just an extension and revision of earlier bases accords.
The justices rejected the government’s position, saying the agreement was a new treaty that needs congressional approval.
7) Padilla: US Congress will block military pact
Kirsten Begg, Colombia Reports, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 10:24
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11394-padilla-us-congress-will-block-bases-treaty.html
Former commander of the Colombian armed forces General Freddy Padilla said Wednesday that U.S. Congress will not ratify its military bases agreement with Colombia.
"If Colombia sends the agreement to Congress, the U.S. will have to send it to theirs as well and what they told us is that … due to their foreign policy circumstances, they wouldn’t be prepared to pass it," Padilla said.
The general’s comments followed the Colombian Constitutional Court’s ruling that the pact is unconstitutional until ratified by Colombian Congress. By law, if it is ratified by the Andean nation’s Congress, then it must also be ratified by U.S. Congress.
[…]
Iran
8) Iran condemns possible US military action
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, Wednesday, August 18, 2010; 3:58 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081803436.html
United Nations – Iran took its case against the United States to the United Nations on Wednesday and strongly condemned the top U.S. military chief for saying military action remains a possibility if the country develops nuclear weapons.
Iran’s acting U.N. ambassador Eshagh Alehabib claimed in letters circulated to the secretary-general and presidents of the Security Council and General Assembly that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other U.S. officials and lawmakers "threatened" to use military action under the "totally false" pretense that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.
Mullen said earlier this month that the U.S. military has a plan to attack Iran, although he thinks a military strike is probably a bad idea. Still, he said the risk of Iran developing a nuclear weapon is unacceptable and he reiterated that "the military option" remains on the table.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Wednesday that Iran’s response to an attack would not be limited to the region, suggesting Iran would target U.S. interests beyond the Persian Gulf.
"It’s unlikely that they (U.S.) will make such a stupidity (to attack Iran) but all must know that if this threat is carried out, the field of the Iranian nation’s confrontation will not be only our region," Khamenei told state TV. "The area of confrontation will be much wider."
He also said there will be no talks with the U.S. under the shadow of threats.
[…] Alehabib said the United States was using threatening language that violates international law and the U.N. Charter and goes against "global efforts to strengthen regional and international peace and security." He reiterated that Iran "would not hesitate to act in self-defense to respond to any attack."
Khamenei said negotiations would be possible if the U.S. stops making threats against Iran, and he set conditions for it. "If the U.S. puts aside threats, sanctions and its superpower display and refuses to set goals for the talks, then there will be a possibility of talks. But under the present conditions and given the threats and pressures, no talks with be held at all," Khamenei was quoted as saying.
[…] In late July, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said nuclear talks with the six powers would start in early September, regardless of conditions he set in June, but Khamenei’s comments raise questions about the timetable. Iran has also said it wants to revive separate talks involving Tehran, Washington, Paris and Moscow on a fuel swap for Tehran’s research nuclear reactor.
Iraq
9) Iraqi Leaders Fear For Future After Their Past Missteps
Anthony Shadid, New York Times, August 17, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/world/middleeast/18baghdad.html
Baghdad – Iraq’s political elite, empowered by the American invasion and entrusted with the country’s future, has begun to deliver a damning critique of itself, a grim harbinger for a country rife with fears of more crises, conflicts and even coups as the American military withdraws. "We should be ashamed of the way we led the country," said Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, a former exile and one of the country’s most prominent politicians.
The verdict by Mr. Abdul Mahdi, echoed often by his peers among the exiled opposition that followed American troops into Baghdad in 2003 and has led Iraq since, is a remarkable window on the apprehension that has seized the country today, still without leadership five months after Iraqis voted in an election meant to enshrine a new government.
[…] In the end, many officials expect an eventual agreement on some sort of consensus government so inclusive as to be woefully weak, unable to assert itself and beset by stalemate over the laws necessary to shape post-American Iraq. But the failure of the elite that the United States helped to choose may serve as a lasting American legacy here, raising fundamental questions about the body politic it leaves behind as the American military departs by 2012.
[…] To a remarkable degree, Iraq remains haunted by the decisions of the earliest days of the occupation in 2003, when expediency trumped foresight.
Debates still rage in Iraq over the choices the United States made: disbanding the Iraqi military, the purge of members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party and the decision to occupy Iraq rather than create a transitional Iraqi government. But perhaps the most far-reaching bequest was the power the exiled opposition and Kurdish parties have held in Iraq since 2003, filling a vacuum left by Mr. Hussein’s withering assault on any dissent.
Despite expectations that a more grass-roots leadership might emerge, only the followers of Moktada al-Sadr, a populist cleric, have done so. Otherwise the names in 2003, with the exception of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, remain much the same: two former prime ministers, Ayad Allawi and Ibrahim al-Jaafari; Ahmad Chalabi, an American ally turned critic; Mr. Abdul Mahdi; the Kurdish leaders; and two generations of Hakims, a prominent Shiite religious family.
[…] A leading politician related a recent conversation he had with a top Iraqi general. The politician asked about the possibility of a coup. The general, he said, deeming the talk serious, pulled out a map of the capital and provided a disconcertingly elaborate plan to execute one: overturning trucks to block the route from the main American base to the Green Zone, seizing television stations, besieging Parliament, and so on. "When you’re president," he quoted the general as asking, in utter seriousness, "can you make me minister of defense?"
Israel/Palestine
10) Jerusalem Court Rules Israel Was Responsible for Death of a Palestinian Girl
Associated Press, August 17, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/world/middleeast/18israel.html
Jerusalem – A Jerusalem court decided in a ruling made public Tuesday that the state was responsible for the death of a 10-year-old Palestinian girl killed by gunfire more than three years ago as she stood some distance from a protest.
The case gained wide attention because the girl’s father, Bassam Aramin, was a Palestinian militant turned advocate for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. Mr. Aramin helped found Combatants for Peace, a group of former Israeli and Palestinian fighters who work for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
The girl, Abir Aramin, was critically wounded in January 2007 as Israeli border police officers were dispersing a demonstration of rock-throwing youths in the village of Anata, north of Jerusalem. The girl was standing some distance away and was hit by a rubber-coated bullet. She died two days later in a Jerusalem hospital.
The police initially said that she was killed by a stray rock thrown by a Palestinian.
[…] During the decades of Palestinian protests against Israeli occupation, Israeli forces have frequently used rubber-coated steel pellets for crowd control. They usually cause painful but nonlethal wounds, but can also be fatal.
[…] The court’s decision to blame the state is rare, said the family’s lawyer, Leah Tsemel. Cases involving Israeli forces wounding or killing Palestinians rarely make it beyond an initial investigation.
[…] After the case was closed by the police, an Israeli human rights organization pressed for an autopsy, which ended up showing the girl was hit by a stray rubber bullet, rather than a rock.
[…]
Mexico
11) Mexico hopes $270 million in social spending will help end Juarez drug violence.
Nick Miroff, Washington Post, Thursday, August 12, 2010; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/11/AR2010081106253.html
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico – At night in this border city, radio newscasts give a rundown of the day’s homicides – 15 one day, 12 the next – a segment as regular as weather or sports. At least 291 people were killed last month, and more than 1,786 so far this year.
The runaway drug violence has brought 10,000 soldiers and federal police officers to Juarez, but the influx has not resulted in security or a decline in the death toll. That has forced Mexican leaders and their U.S. advisers to try a new strategy to stop the killing in a city that once seemed like a model for U.S.-Mexico economic integration.
"We have to repair the social fabric here," said Abelardo Escobar, a cabinet member sent by Mexican President Felipe Calderón with a new rescue package for Juarez, a $270 million surge in social spending.
The money is paying for schools, hospital renovations, student breakfasts, a youth orchestra, anti-violence training and drug treatment centers. There are funds to promote physical fitness, build eco-friendly houses and support free concerts – 160 projects in all.
The government calls the campaign "Todos Somos Juárez" – "We are all Juarez."
[…] The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement brought hundreds of thousands of migrants to Juarez, touted as a place where American industry and Mexican workers could meet halfway. Jobs were so plentiful that assembly plants sent buses to the poorest parts of southern Mexico to find recruits, promising a cash bonus to anyone willing to get on board.
The Mexican government laid tracts of inexpensive housing in the desert, but built few schools, parks or libraries for the new arrivals and their families. Today, in the city’s northwest slums, there is one high school for 400,000 residents.
Escobar and others here say years of government neglect have produced a civic experiment gone awry, allowing organized crime to fill a moral and social vacuum in a place of rootless newcomers and frayed family structures.
Parts of Juarez, a city of 1.3 million, still convey the sense of almost-America it once promised. But just off the wide boulevards lined with Starbucks, Applebee’s and strip malls, masked soldiers and federal police patrol the city’s dusty, treeless streets, riding in the backs of Ford Lobo pickup trucks with automatic weapons and body armor.
[…] From his office, Juarez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz has a sweeping view of El Paso and the border crossings that feed into it. The two cities are split by tall fences and the cement-lined channel of the Rio Grande.
In El Paso, there has been one homicide this year. In Juarez, someone is slain every three hours.
"Juarez is a tremendous city of opportunity," said Reyes Ferriz, ticking off the city’s industrial output: auto parts, dishwashers, televisions, computers. "We have more manufacturing jobs than Detroit and Atlanta combined." The violence hasn’t soured investors on Juarez, the mayor insisted.
Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer that makes iPhones, Sony PlayStations, Dell computers and other Best Buy merchandise, has hired 10,000 people in the city and plans to take on 70,000 more, he said.
When the global recession pushed Juarez’s unemployment rate to 20 percent in 2008, the murder rate soared, the mayor said.
Many of the city’s gang members and gunmen are the children of factory workers, he and others said, a "lost generation" that grew up in the streets while their parents were making car batteries and keyboards. A cartel foot soldier can make $160 a week carrying out assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings.
Assembly plant workers make about $60 a week, so Todos Somos Juárez will give them better child care, recreation opportunities and job training. More than 120,000 have signed up for the city’s new health-care plan.
[…] Todos Somos Juárez has pledged to build a high school in the trash-strewn hills on the city’s western edge, among the scrap-wood shacks and creosote bush. It would be the neighborhood’s first. Local officials laid the cornerstone several months ago and paved the street right up to the empty lot. But no one from the government has been back since, said José Luis Contreras, 26, who lives across the street and would like to go to school, if it’s not too late for him. Contreras and his 80-year-old grandmother run a small store. Three months ago, thieves put a gun to her head and stole everything off the shelves.
"Maybe it was just lies," Contreras said of the government’s plan, watching dust swirl over the empty school site.
[…]
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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
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