Month: June 2005

Burmese Junta Stalls on Reform
BANGKOK — When 30 Nobel Peace Prize laureates gathered in Norway last December to mark the 100th anniversary of the Prize, there was one notable absentee: Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the pro-democracy movement in Burma (known as Myanmar). By the time her Peace Prize was announced in 1991, she was already under house arrest. Ten years on, the situation hasn’t charged. 

The laureates appealed to the junta to free her and more than 1500 political prisoners, including 19 members of parliament. "In moral stature, she is a giant," South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu said of the diminutive activist. read more

Non-Aligned Movement Loses Summit Site
DHAKA — The next meeting of the 46-year-old Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was supposed to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2002. But a victory by the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) in recent elections derailed that plan. At its first cabinet meeting in October, the new government withdrew the offer to host, citing the troubled international situation and its own financial problems.

Dhaka’s about-face came after three South Asian nations — Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan — offered the US facilities to launch military strikes against Afghanistan. Yet, observers say the reasons for the pullout are mainly financial and ideological: An enormous amount was to be spent on what the new administration and others call a dead movement. read more

 High Tech Toys Fuel Africa’s World War
BRAZZAVILLE — Tantalum – the refined extract of Columbite-tantalite, also known as coltan — is a hot property these days. It’s used in everything from Nokia and Ericsson mobile phones to Intel computer chips. But securing a supply for high-tech toys also fuels war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

According to a recent investigation in the Industry Standard, the Congo supplies seven percent of the world’s tantalum, most from rebel-controlled mines where the local population is under brutal control. The rebels have earned millions from western technology companies, who’ve done little to avoid purchasing "conflict" tantalum. A recent UN report called the companies trading minerals in the Congo "the engines of conflict in the DRC." read more

World Bank Blinks, Then Blames Protesters
BARCELONA — The World Bank has a new tactic to deal with resistance: cancel a meeting and blame its critics. In May, Bank spokeswoman Caroline Antsey explained that the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE), originally slated for Barcelona on June 25-27, wouldn’t be held, except possibly online.

"Despite our efforts to reach out to some of the groups planning demonstrations, and to include them in the conference, the intention of many of the groups … is not to join the debate or to contribute constructively to the discussion, but to disrupt it," she charged. "It is time to take a stand against this kind of threat to free discussion." read more

Plan Colombia Seeks Panama Connection
PANAMA CITY — Officially, both the Panamanian and US governments deny any Panama connection with Plan Colombia, or any significant US military presence in the country. But an ad in the US government’s Commerce Business Daily April 4 edition, unearthed by Panama News Online (www.thepanamanews.com), indicates otherwise. The Pentagon is apparently looking for a civilian contractor to operate from Panama, flying military forces and supplies in and out of Colombia.  read more

Europe Rejects US Push in Colombia
BRUSSELS — In an almost unanimous vote, the European Parliament has rejected the US-backed "Plan Colombia," saying it’s "not the product of a process of dialogue amongst the various partners in society," and "stepping up military involvement in the fight against drugs involves the risk of sparking off an escalation of the conflict in the region." It adds, "Military solutions cannot bring about lasting peace."  read more