BOLIVIA: THOUSANDS MARCH FOR GAS LAW

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

On Oct. 18, thousands of Bolivian campesinos, miners and indigenous people
from Cochabamba, Potosi, Oruro and La Paz departments converged in the
capital to press for a new Hydrocarbons Law which will return oil and gas
resources to state hands. Abolition of the existing Hydrocarbons Law was
mandated by a July 18 referendum. The marchers were also marking the
anniversary of the ouster of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada on Oct.
17, 2004, and paying homage to the dozens of protesters killed by police
and army troops during the uprising against gas exports which forced his
resignation.

When the mobilization was called, a key demand was for a trial of Sanchez
and his ousted cabinet ministers. (Los Tiempos de Cochabamba, Oct. 19) But
early on Oct. 14, after hours of debate, Bolivia’s Congress voted 126-13 to
try Sanchez and his 15 cabinet ministers on charges including genocide,
murder, actions against the Constitution and human rights violations. (AP,
Oct. 14)

Some 5,000 campesinos from Los Yungas region of La Paz department, headed
by campesino leader Felipe Quispe Huanca, were among the first to arrive on
Oct. 18 in La Paz city, pushing a 72-point campesino platform and demanding
that the trial of ex-president Sanchez and his cabinet ministers be held
without delay. Another 5,000 campesinos, led by Movement to Socialism (MAS)
deputy and cocalero leader Evo Morales Ayma, arrived after a week-long
march from Caracollo, in Oruro department, to demand the full
nationalization of hydrocarbons, As many as 30,000 miners led by Moises
Torres marched into the center of La Paz from Senkata, near El Alto, where
government forces shot to death a number of protesters in last year’s
uprising. (Los Tiempos, Oct. 19)

The protesters remained in La Paz on Oct. 19, blocking main roads and
interrupting traffic between La Paz and El Alto. On Oct. 20, after police
prevented thousands of people from massing in Plaza Murillo, in front of
Congress, the protesters began vigils along the adjoining streets,
demanding passage of the Hydrocarbons Law proposed by the legislature’s
economic development commission. (Los Tiempos; El Diario, La Paz, Oct. 21)

Later on Oct. 20, the government signed an agreement with Florencio Coca,
leader of the cooperative mine workers, settling a key demand: reactivation
of the country’s mining sector. The miners agreed to end their blockades
after the government transferred $3 million to the Mining Investment Fund
(FOMIN) and pledged another $4 million in machinery and equipment,
supported by financing from Spain. The two sides are to continue
negotiations over pending issues. (Los Tiempos, Oct. 21)

Just after 10 PM on Oct. 20, the Chamber of Deputies provisionally approved
the Hydrocarbons Law by unanimous vote, after deputies from Quispe’s
Pachakuti Indigenous Movement (MIP) and several from the parliamentary bloc
of the oil-rich southern department of Tarija walked out of the session. In
its current form, the bill would require oil and gas companies to
renegotiate existing contracts under new terms more favorable to Bolivia.
After approving the bill, the deputies exited the Congress building and
sang the national anthem with campesino vigilers.

Congress will begin debating each of the bill’s 142 articles during the
week of Oct. 25; the process is expected to take as long as three weeks,
and the bill could be substantially modified. The administration of
President Carlos Mesa Gisbert, which failed to win approval of an earlier,
more investor-friendly version of the bill, refrained from publicly
criticizing the new version, saying only that "now the responsibility is in
the hands of the Parliament." (Los Tiempos, Oct. 22)

MESA DOES MIAMI

On Sept. 30, Bolivian president Carlos Mesa addressed some 1,000 top US and
Latin American government officials, business figures and academics at the
Biltmore Hotel in Miami on the first day of the two-day Americas
Conference, sponsored by the Miami Herald. Mesa apparently spent most of
his 45-minute speech reassuring the elite audience about the meaning of a
July 18 referendum on the ownership and export of Bolivia’s gas resources.
The vote "showed the world Bolivia can do it without violence," said Mesa.
"We [now] have a degree of peace in a society that is permanently
undergoing a convulsion."

The most important thing about the referendum, Mesa told the Miami crowd,
was that it cleared the way for exporting Bolivian gas: "Question number
five [of the referendum] categorically responded yes to the export of
Bolivian gas," he said.

In fact, only 47.4% of voters who participated in the referendum responded
"yes" to question five, compared to 25.2% who voted "no"–even though the
question was carefully phrased to imply that gas exports would bring
increased revenue for social programs. By contrast, 72% of voters approved
question two, which proposed nationalization of the gas, compared to 6.2%
who voted "no." Mesa bragged in Miami that the referendum had one of the
highest voter participation rates in Bolivia’s history. Voting was
mandatory, and overall abstention on the referendum was 40%.

Mesa admitted in Miami that World Bank and International Monetary Fund
(IMF) experts helped him write a proposal for a new hydrocarbons law.
Congress rejected that proposal in August and is now considering a very
different version. (Miami Herald, Sept. 30; Econoticiasbolivia.com, Oct. 1)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Oct. 24

See also WW3 REPORT #102

——————-

Forwarded by WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, Nov. 6, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW3Report.com

Continue ReadingBOLIVIA: THOUSANDS MARCH FOR GAS LAW 

AFGHAN ELECTIONS MARRED BY WAR, FRAUD AND TERROR

The Oct. 10 presidential elections in Afghanistan provided George Bush with potent campaign trail propaganda. He repeatedly invoked the 10 million newly registered voters there, and the icing on the cake was the apparent victory by the US favorite, incumbent interim president Hamid Karzai. But the elections actually revealed how precariously Afghanistan is poised on the brink of ethnic war.

The vote came just days after a modicum of peace had been restored in the western city of Herat, where Karzai removed the local governor, Ismail Khan, a veteran Tajik warlord whose forces had been fighting with those of rival Pashtun warlord Amanullah Khan in recent weeks. Over 4,000 Pashtun families are said to have fled Herat since Ismail Khan took power there after the fall of the Taliban.

The presidential candidates largely came from ethnic-based parties which double as warlord militias with their roots in the Mujahedeen war of the 1980s. Karzai’s major rival was Yunus Qanooni, a former member of Karzai’s interim cabinet and a civilian leader of Jamiat-i-Islami, the main Tajik party/militia of the Mujahedeen and later the Northern Alliance. Other major candidates in the field of 16 included Abdul Rashid Dostum, former interim deputy defense minister and military/political boss of Junbish-i-Milli, the major Uzbek party/militia (who is accused of grave rights abuses in his northern fiefdom); and Muhammad Mohaqeq, interim planning minister and a mainstay of the Hazara party/militia, Hezb-i-Wahdat.

The more pluralist and secular candidates not linked to Mujahedeen parties received considerably fewer votes and less attention in the western media. These included the only woman candidate, Masooda Jalal, described by the New York Times as an "urban Tajik" and a "technocratic candidate like Karzai." Women’s rights were actually far more emphasized by Latif Pedram, a leftist writer and philosopher who returned from exile in France to run as an independent–and received even less international attention.

The US was open in its support for Karzai, a member of the traditional Pashtun elite whose father had served in the Afghan Parliament under King Mohammad Zahir Shah. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad met with many of the candidates privately, and was accused of pressuring Karzai’s rivals to drop from the race (a charge he denied).

Guerilla harassment by the Taliban and allied ultra-Islamist groups attempted to disrupt the elections. So-called "night letters" warning women not to vote appeared, especially in the Pashtun-dominated south. "Your blood is on your own hands if you leave your houses," read one typical message. Women made up 41% of the registered voters nation-wide, but under 10% in much of the Pashtun region, which had been the Taliban’s heartland.

On Oct. 6, Karzai’s running mate Ahmed Zia Massoud (brother of the legendary late Northern Alliance leader and Tajik warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud) narrowly escaped death in a remote-controlled bomb attack on his convoy in Badakshan province. On election eve, Afghanistan’s major roads were shut down by the army and police, and tight security measures imposed where-ever the government has a modicum of control. Nonetheless, overnight rocket attacks were reported in several cities–one even hit close to the US military base in Kabul.

In the wake of the vote, Karzai’s 15 rival candidates threatened not to recognize the election, citing numerous accounts of irregularities–such as indelible ink used to mark voter’s thumbs after polling proving not to be indelible, allowing multiple votes. On Oct. 13, UN officials agreed to review 43 complaints of irregularities, prompting the candidates to back down from their threats and allowing counting to proceed.

Receiving far less international media play were widespread reports of warlord factions intimidating voters. On the eve of the election, Human Rights Watch issues a 52-page report, "The Rule of the Gun: Human Rights Abuses and Political Repression in the Run-Up to Afghanistan’s Presidential Election," documenting the atmosphere of repression and fear in many areas of the country. The report contends voters had little faith in ballot secrecy, and faced threats and bribes from militia factions.

Although it failed to make headlines, the New York Times reported Oct. 1 that the 10 million-voters-figure repeatedly boasted by Bush actually exceeds the estimated eligible population–indicating that the supposed of evidence of democracy on the march is actually evidence of large-scale electoral fraud.

Violence again escalated in the election’s aftermath. On Oct 19, an election commission jeep was blown up in a roadside blast in Paktika province, killing five. On Oct. 29, three foreign election workers were kidnapped right in heavily-policed Kabul. They are still being held, apparently by an extremist Taliban faction called the Jaish-i-Muslimin.

On Nov. 1, presumed Taliban guerillas attacked US troops patrolling in Paktika near the Pakistan border, killing one and injuring two more with gunfire and rockets. That same day, in another sign of the central government’s fragility, Afghan National Army troops clashed with police in a gun-battle in Zabul province, leaving several casualties and prompting US forces to step in to restore order. The incident was apparently sparked when the soldiers stopped the police at a checkpoint in the provincial capital of Qalat and ordered them to disarm. US troops and helicopters are still patrolling the city. Also that day, Afghan army soldiers opened fire on provincial militiamen in the southern city of Kandahar, killing two and injuring one.

On Oct. 30, when Karzai’s victory seemed clear, US Gen. James Jones, NATO’s top commander for Europe, arrived in Afghanistan to meet with the president-elect. On the table were plans to merge the US-led security force in Afghanistan with the UN-mandated peacekeeping force into a single NATO-led force–and expanding the mandate for the peacekeepers beyond Kabul to the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden, who shocked the world with a new video communique days before the US presidential elections, is believed to be hiding just across the border in the mountains of Pakistan, where Taliban-inspired groups have regional control.

Religious-political violence is rapidly spreading throughout Pakistan. A grim dialectic of Sunni-Shi’ite bloodshed has claimed several lives there in recent weeks. On Oct. 3, a suicide bombing at a Shi’ite mosque in Sialkot killed 31. On Oct. 8, a car bomb attack on a Sunni gathering in Multan killed 40 and wounded over 100. On Oct. 10, pro-Taliban Sunni cleric Mufti Muhammad Jamil Ahmed and his aide were killed by a gunman in Karachi. On Oct. 11, a suicide bombing at a Shi’ite mosque in Lahore killed three (not counting the bomber). The destabilization of this key regional US ally could make the apparent US victory in Afghanistan an horrifically Phyrric one. (Bill Weinberg)

RESOURCES: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan on the Human Rights Watch report

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Compiled by WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, Nov. 6, 2004

Reprinting permissible with attribution WW3Report.com

Continue ReadingAFGHAN ELECTIONS MARRED BY WAR, FRAUD AND TERROR 

DARFUR: POWER POLITICS TRUMP GENOCIDE CONVENTION

by Wynde Priddy

It appears that the emotional “Never Again” of the United Nations on the ongoing specter of genocide in Sudan’s western Darfur region has been trumped by the oil interests and military contracts represented among the Security Council members. Despite threats of action if Sudan failed to meet an Aug. 30 deadline to disarm the mounted militias terrorizing Darfur, China especially threatened to use its veto power to block sanctions. The China National Petroleum Company is the biggest foreign investor in Sudan’s oil industry, and China is also Sudan’s top trading partner and major weapons supplier. On Sept. 18, the Security Council passed a watered-down resolution imposing no sanctions against the Sudan regime. The resolution “Demands all armed groups, including rebel forces, cease all violence.”

The problem, say human rights organizations and columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, is that the cease-and-desist demand has been made before, and nothing has changed. The UN estimated in mid-October that the death toll had reached 70,000–up from 50,000 before the Aug. 30 deadline. The government in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, has allowed 3,500 African Union troops into Darfur, up from 300, to provide what security is possible to displaced people in the refugee camps. But as recently as Nov. 2, Sudanese troops began forcibly relocating two refugee camps in Southern Darfur, and used tear gas against those who resisted. Rights groups raised fears that the refugees would be forcibly repatriated by the government, in violation of international law. The refugees say they would have no security at their home villages from the so-called “Janjaweed” militias, which launched their campaign of terror in the region last year in response to the emergence of guerilla movements seeking independence or autonomy for Darfur.

The African Union is brokering talks in Nigeria between the Khartoum regime and the Darfur guerillas. But the two main rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice & Equality Movement (JEM), threatened to pull out of the talks Oct. 31, accusing the government of ongoing air raids against civilian villages. Further complicating matters is the emergence of a new rebel group, the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD), which attacked a government convoy on Oct. 6. Ongoing violence has made much of Darfur a no-go zone for aid groups, augmenting suffering from hunger and disease.

Discussions about Darfur and the genocide question have gained volume, and predictably, the violence is being exploited by everyone from George W Bush to the Sudanese government. President Bush has now joined the US Congress in calling the Darfur violence “genocide”–while not pledging to actually do anything about it, as the international community would be mandated to by the Genocide Convention once a determination is made that genocide is actually under way.

The Sudan regime, meanwhile, portrayed the genocide accusation as a part of the Bush design to both re-shape the Islamic world and hold on to the White House. Najib el-Kheir Abdelwahab, Sudan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told the New York Times Sept. 28: “They would like to use the suffering of the people of Darfur as a smoke screen to conduct certain partisan operations. One of them is the overthrow of the government in Khartoum.” He added that Bush’s brief remarks on the Darfur crisis in his Sept. 21 address to the UN General Assembly were crafted to garner the African-American and Jewish votes, saying these constituencies are “duty bound to support black Africans in Sudan against Arab hegemony.”

Most say that Sudan’s Islamist regime is not willing to disarm the Janjaweed militias. But some say Khartoum is not even able to. At a recent UN-hosted discussion on the issue at New York’s Columbia University, speaker Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of anthropology at Columbia, said: “The militias are not monolithic and they are not centrally controlled… The Sudan government can and should be held accountable for providing resources to the Janjaweed militias, but the Sudan government cannot be expected to demobilize the militias with the ease with which it has resourced them.”

He also asserted that the conflict could not yet be defined as genocide and that the western resistance movements of Darfur were born out of the rebel movements of Sudan’s south.

John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group, a rights advocacy organization, had a different opinion. At the same panel discussion, he asserted that this supposed disconnect between the regime and the militias has been an historical hall pass for government-sponsored ethnic cleansing–and, as in the case of Rwanda, genocide. He portrayed the harsh words at the UN as empty and propagandistic: “The most recent United Nations Secretary General report does not clearly assign culpability for the actions of these killer Janjaweed militias to their government sponsors, providing a degree of comforting separation between the militias and the Khartoum regime. It reinforces impunity.”

RESOURCES:

Sudan Tribune (France-based opposition publication) on the “Politics of
Slaughter” in Darfur, from Middle East Report

Mahmood Mamdani on the Darfur Crisis and the “genocide” question, from the
Black Commentator 

See also WW3 REPORT #101

——————-

Compiled by WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, Nov. 5, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW3Report.com

Continue ReadingDARFUR: POWER POLITICS TRUMP GENOCIDE CONVENTION 

ETHNIC CLEANSING IN ETHIOPIA: TIP OF THE “GOLDEN SPEAR”?

State Terror Against Anuak People Invisible to Outside World–as US
Military Involvement, Oil Operations Escalate

by keith harmon snow

GAMBELLA, ETHIOPIA –
Talk privately to any Anuak people in the Ethiopian state of Gambella and
it won’t be long before they speak about "the problem." Others are
terrified into silence. To Anuak and other indigenous minorities of
southwestern Ethiopia, the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is a
ruthless military dictatorship. And almost everyone links "the problem" to
Gambella’s oil.

"Since the problem, we are not able to farm or to fish," said one Anuak
survivor who was shot three times. He is shy, but he will show you where
one bullet entered and exited his wrist. He was shot December 13, 2003–the
day the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Defense Forces (EPRDF) and local
"highlander" militias launched their genocidal war on the Anuaks.
"Highlanders" are Ethiopians who are neither Anuak nor Nuer–the indigenous
peoples of the region–but predominantly Tigray and Amhara people resettled
into Anuak territory from their lands in the central highlands since 1974.

Ten months after the massacres of December, 2003, the EPRDF government of
Ethiopia continues to downplay the violence in southwestern Ethiopia. At
the same time, the government has been rewarded with new loans, debt
restructuring and debt forgiveness by the international development
community. The EPRDF continues to benefit from its tight military
relationship with the United States.

The region is home to guerillas of the Gambella People’s Liberation Front
(GPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and other forces hostile to the
Meles Zenawi regime. However, the EPRDF government has used the pretext of
"terrorism" and "national security" to punish rural populations, and it
continues to wage low-intensity warfare against innocent civilians.

Today, Gambella state is under total military occupation. Estimates place
between 30,000 and 80,000 EPRDF troops deployed here, carrying out
scorched-earth campaigns under the cover of "counter-terrorism." One recent
attack occurred in early September, when EPRDF soldiers reportedly pillaged
the rural village of Powatalam. Some 43 people were killed, and the village
was burned.

At least 1,500 and perhaps as many as 2,500 Anuak civilians have died in
the fighting–most of these being intellectuals, leaders, and members of
the educated and student classes, who have been intentionally targeted.
Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and many are believed to have
been "disappeared."

Numerous rural villages where Anuaks and other ethnic minorities generally
hover in the margins of existence at the best of times have been similarly
attacked, looted, and torched. Thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of
Anuak homes have reportedly been burned.

Anuak women and girls are routinely raped, gang-raped and kept as sexual
slaves by EPRDF forces. Girls have been shot for resisting rape, and
summary executions of girls held captive for prolonged periods as sexual
slaves have been reported. In the absence of Anuak men–killed, jailed or
driven into exile–Anuak women and girls have been left vulnerable to such
sexual atrocities. Due to the isolation of women and girls in rural areas,
rapes remain substantially under-reported.

Some 6,000 to 8,000 Anuak remain at refugee camps in Pochalla, Sudan; and
there are an estimated 1,000 Anuak refugees in Kenya. The Disaster
Preparedness and Prevention Bureau (DPPB), a regional body that works
closely with international aid groups, estimated in August 2004 that
approximately 25% (roughly 50,000 people) of Gambella’s population had been
displaced.

"Many, many men have been killed since the problem began," says one
witness. "Many men ran away into the bush and have been hunted by the
soldiers. Women and girls are left undefended in their homes. They are
raping many girls. They keep some women by force."

The violence has almost completely disrupted this year’s planting season,
and people see famine in the coming winter months
(October-March)–exacerbated by the destruction of milling machines and
food stores.

According to Anuak sources relying on sympathetic oppositionists within the
regime, the EPRDF plans to access the petroleum of Gambella were laid out
at a top-level cabinet meeting in Addis Ababa in September 2003. Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi chaired the meeting, at which the military cleansing
of the Anuaks was reportedly openly discussed. Also present were Gen.
Abdullah Gamada, head of the EPRDF military, Vice-Prime Minister Adisu
Lagesse, and Omot Obang Olom, security chief for the Gambella region, an
ethnic Anuak. Petroleum operations–heavily guarded by EPRDF troops–are
rapidly moving forward.

THE "RWANDA MODEL" IN GAMBELLA

While there is a history of communal violence between indigenous minorities
in the Gambella region, evidence attests to patterns of EPRDF government
provocation, pitting tribe against tribe and neighbor against neighbor.
There is no evidence to support claims of communal violence between Anuaks
and the local Nuer ethic group, as has been reported by the New York Times
and other media, and by the EPRDF government.

Ethnic cleansing appears to be sanctioned at the highest levels of the
EPRDF government, and there is evidence that the violence initiated by last
December’s massacres in Gambella may have been deliberately instrumented to
justify a campaign against the Anuaks.

December 13, 2003 marked the start of a coordinated military operation to
systematically eliminate Anuaks. Sources from inside the military
government’s police and intelligence network say that the code name of the
military operation was: "OPERATION SUNNY MOUNTAIN."

In a pattern reminiscent of the Interahamwe civilian militia involved in
the 1994 Rwanda genocide, operations by government troops were apparently
coordinated with local Highlanders, who set upon Anuak civilians with
rocks, sticks, hoes, machetes, knives, axes and pangas (clubs). Witnesses
described Highlanders chanting slogans as they hunted down and killed
Anuaks.

Some 425 Anuak people were reported killed in the initial outburst of
violence, with over 200 more wounded and some 85 people unaccounted for.
Since December 2003, sporadic murders and widespread rapes have continued
in Gambella town, but the rural countryside is awash in blood.

In February 2004, Genocide Watch and Survivors’ Rights International called
for an independent inquiry into the Gambella situation. That call was
ignored.

Ten months after the pivotal massacres, there is no indication that the
United Nations or any other formal body has undertaken an official
investigation of the killings of eight UN personnel on the morning of
December 13, 2003. The attack was blamed on Anuak guerillas, and
precipitated the wave of violence.

The killings reportedly occurred on the road from Gambella to Itang town.
Sources report that Anuak policeman Ojo Akway was amongst the first group
of responders to the site of the ambush on the morning. Akway reportedly
found tracks that he wanted to immediately pursue to attempt to discover
those responsible for the UN killings – it was winter and the ground was
amenable to tracking. The Police Commander in Gambella, Tadese Haile
Selassie, is said to have ordered Akway’s execution in order to remove the
problem of identifying the actual killers. Sources report that Akway was
detained later that day, driven out of Gambella town, tied to a tree along
the road to Abueal village, and shot in the head seven times. An informant
sympathetic to Anuaks provided the information to relatives, noting that
Akway’s body was disappeared, his gun was brought back to town, and no
report was filed.

A federal police investigator from Addis Ababa dispatched to Gambella in
July was also reportedly shot and killed. Charged with determining the
extent and nature of involvement of Gambella police in the December
massacres, the investigator was said to have identified many Highlander
police who were "fully involved" in the killing.

International and Ethiopian human rights organizations say that the
killings in Gambella constituted acts of genocide, as defined by the
Genocide Convention. Arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions and torture are
occurring throughout Ethiopia. Arbitrary arrests and detentions of Anuak
people have occurred for years prior to the recent massacres. Reports
coming out of the Gambella region indicate that hundreds of people have
been arbitrary arrested and illegally detained, and that these people
remain under detention, subject to torture.

"GOLDEN SPEAR"

Ethiopia remains a pivotal ally in the US "war against terror" in the Horn
of Africa, maintaining both covert and overt military operations and
programs.

Beginning July 2003, forces from Pentagon’s Combined Joint Task Force-Horn
of Africa (CJTF-HOA) held a three-month bilateral training exercise with
Ethiopian forces at the Hurso Training Camp, northwest of Dire Dawa. The US
Army’s 10th Mountain Division recently completed a three-month program to
train an Ethiopian army division in counter-terrorism tactics. Operations
are coordinated through the CJTF-HOA regional base in Djibouti, where the
Halliburton subsidiary KBR is the prime contractor.

The CJTF-HOA region includes the total airspace and land areas of Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and Kenya, and the coastal waters of the
Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. In May 2004, US Brigadier General
Samuel T. Helland assumed command of the CJTF-HOA region.

On January 21, 2004 special operations soldiers from the 3rd US Infantry
Regiment–"The Old Guard," Bravo Company–replaced the 10th Mountain
Division forces at a new base established at Hurso, Ethiopia, to be used
for launching local joint missions with the Ethiopian military. A new
forward base named "Camp United" has also been established in the area–a
"temporary training facility in rural Ethiopia" used "as a launching ground
for local missions, predominately training with the Ethiopian military."

From 1995-2000, the US provided some $1,835,000 in International Military
and Education Training (IMET) deliveries to Ethiopia. Some 115 Ethiopian
officers were trained under the IMET program from 1991-2001. Approximately
4,000 Ethiopian soldiers have participated in IMET since 1950.

For 2002 and 2003, Ethiopia received some $2,817,000 through the IMET and
Foreign Military Sales and Deliveries programs. The US also equipped,
trained and supported Ethiopian troops under the Africa Regional
Peacekeeping Program. Ethiopia has remained a participant of the IMET
program in 2000-2004.

In August 2003, the U.S. committed $28 million for international trade
enhancements with Ethiopia.

In 2003, US AID, working with Africare and Catholic Relief Services, was
providing disaster relief to "combat famine in the drought-stricken
Gambella region of Ethiopia." The US State Department was informed about
unfolding violence in the Gambella region as early as December 16, 2003,
through communications to Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Overseas
Citizens Division, and the US Embassy in Ethiopia.

Immediately following the February 16, 2004, release of a report by
Genocide Watch and Survivor’s Rights International ("Today is the Day of
Killing Anuaks") the United States issued a formal call for "an independent
investigation" into the events in Gambella. The State Department and the UN
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) condemned the ongoing
violence in Gambella. Each agency called for "[f]ully transparent and
independent investigations by the government" that would "encourage
restoration of peace in the troubled region," and called on the Ethiopian
government to investigate allegations of EPRDF involvement in atrocities.

In the spring, the EPRDF government launched an "independent inquiry" into
the Gambella violence. The Independent Inquiry Commission, established by
the Ethiopian House of Peoples’ Representatives, reported that few members
of the Ethiopian armed forces were involved in the Gambella killings.

In April 1, 2004, testimony before a House of Representatives
appropriations panel, US AID representatives asked Congress to approve
some $80 million in funding for Ethiopia programs in FY 2005. Ethiopia was
described as a "top priority" of the Bush administration. US AID boasted of
programs "that lay the groundwork to establish a market-based economy
hospitable to investment…"

In a letter of August 6, twelve members of the US Congress called on Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi to protect citizens from harm and ensure humanitarian
access to the Gambella region. Asking the Meles government to hold
officials accountable for any involvement in the violence, the letter also
asked for an English version of the Independent Inquiry Commission findings
on situation in Gambella.

On September 16, US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced a bill to the
House Committee on Appropriations calling for substantive attention to the
Anuak problem.

The US Department of Defense Central Command (CENTCOM) and European Command
(EUCOM) are the pivotal forces behind the "Golden Spear" anti-terrorism
program initiated in 2000 to "address issues of terrorism, humanitarian
crises, natural disasters, drugs trafficking and refugees in the greater
horn of Africa."

"Golden Spear" members include Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, Djibouti,
Seychelles and Egypt. Ethiopia sponsored the July 28-30, 2003 "Golden
Spear" symposium (held at Addis Ababa), designed by the DoD "to provide a
forum for strategic-level dialogue on current security issues" in the
region.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said "the consensus reached at the
meeting was a major achievement towards the enhancement of national
capacities as well as collaborative efforts to deal with disasters, thus
protecting development gains the region has attained over the years."

Meetings of the Golden Spear military group occurred in June in the
Seychelles, and July in Tampa, FLA. Participants in July included Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Tanzania and Seychelles.

GAMBELLA OIL RUSH

Sources report ten military camps in the immediate vicinity of Gambella
town, with an estimated 60 to 100 troops at each. The three major camps are
Terfshalaka, about seven kilometers from Gambella town on the Addis Ababa
road; Mekod, at the Gambella airport; and a base in the middle of Gambella
town. An estimated 60 to 75 troops can be seen at the Gambella airport.
Troops are everywhere in the town.

Witnesses report trucks of soldiers perpetually coming and going from
Gambella along the roads into rural areas. Soldiers were seen to openly
extort money and goods from civilians. Vehicles traveling along the roads
are expected to stop and pick up any soldiers waiting for rides. Rights
workers reportedly witnessed a church building that had been expropriated
by soldiers and turned into a semi-permanent barracks. A nearby school was
also expropriated and occupied.

On June 13, 2003, Malaysia’s state-owned petroleum corporation, PETRONAS,
announced the signing of an exclusive 25-year oil exploration and
production sharing agreement with the EPRDF government to exploit the
Ogaden Basin and the "Gambella Block" or "Block G" concession. On February
17, 2004, the Ethiopian Minister of Mines announced that Malaysia’s
PETRONAS will launch a natural gas exploration project in the Gambella
region. Block G covers an area of 15,356 square kilometers within the
Gambella Basin.

According to Anuak sources, the Ethiopian government held a public meeting
in Gambella in February, even as violence against Anuak in rural areas was
continuing to rise. One witness testified:

"They told people about the oil and how it would benefit everyone. But the
Anuak said: ‘How can you talk to us about oil when people are still being
killed? We don’t want to talk about the oil.’ But the government said, ‘No,
we want to talk about the oil now.’"

The Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), a powerful subsidiary of
China’s second largest national petroleum consortium, the China
Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC), appears to be the principal oil firm
operating in Gambella at present, under subcontract to Malaysia’s national
oil company PETRONAS.

The base camp for ZPEB equipment and petroleum explorations is located
approximately 1.5 kilometers from the center of Gambella town on the
Abobo-Gambella road. The Ethiopian site manager, Mr. Degefe, is a
highlander who tersely describes himself as "responsible for making all
operations and security." The base camp is under tight security and heavily
guarded by EPRDF troops.

PETRONAS and the China National Petroleum Corporation currently operate in
Sudan. A recent report by Human Rights Watch raises charges that the Asian
oil giants have provided cover for their respective governments to ship
arms and military equipment to Sudan in exchange for oil concessions
granted by Khartoum.

While not cited in the above Human Rights Watch report, ZPEB operates a
concession for oil and gas exploration in Block 6 in the Republic of Sudan.
ZPEB also operates in petroleum extraction in the Yli Basin of China’s
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an area noted for egregious human rights
violations and systematic state terror against the indigenous Uighur
people. According to Human Rights Watch: "Much like Tibetans, the Uighurs
in Xinjiang (western China) have struggled for cultural survival in the
face of a government- supported influx by Chinese migrants, as well as
harsh repression of political dissent and any expression, however lawful or
peaceful, of their distinct identity."

On September 18, 2004, a notice was posted around Gambella town indicating
that the Southwest Development Company (a new Highlander-owned venture)
would be accepting applications for new hires to fill some 117 positions in
support of "construction and petroleum related operations in Gambella
region." On September 19, 2004 another notice seeking an additional 70
workers was posted around Gambella town. The posters were stamped with the
official seal of the office of the Gambella People’s National Regional
State.

Anuak sources in Gambella state: "The Anuak people have not been involved
in the discussions about the oil, our leaders have not agreed to these
projects, and they will not hire any Anuaks for these jobs. If any Anuak
says anything about the oil he will be arrested."

CROCODILES AND RATS

The few reports about the situation that have appeared in the international
press have misrepresented and distorted the nature of the violence.
Reporters traveling to the region have relied upon the EPRDF for security
and information, and attempts by Anuaks to make the truth known have
largely been ignored. National Public Radio last spring described Anuaks as
primitives "once went naked and ate rats."

Marc Lacey reported from Gambella for the New York Times (June 15, 2004)
simultaneous to the Ethiopian military’s ongoing scorched earth campaign
against rural villages. Lacey, who arrived with a government
escort–including an Ethiopian intelligence and security team comprised of
perpetrators of "the problem"–related no first-hand accounts from Anuaks
of the summary executions, massacres and mass rape by EPRDF soldiers.
Instead, the Times opted for a picturesque story of pastoral harmony,
mentioning the violence almost in passing and even noting the threat to
local bathers from crocodiles.

"Bath time here is a communal affair," read Lacey’s lead. "Everyone grabs a
bar of soap and heads down to the river. As they stand naked in the water a
few feet from one another, lathering and rinsing in unison, people from
Gambella’s various ethnic groups appear at ease. The Anuak, the Nuer and
the highlanders all use the Baro River as their tub."

Just across the Baro River are Anuak villages with scars attesting to the
huts that were torched–some with people inside. But these went unmentioned
by the New York Times. The EPRDF military has been said to routinely dump
the bodies of the disappeared in Gambella’s rivers.

PHOTOGRAPHS:

1. Soldiers in truck:

Truckloads of heavily armed EPRDF soldiers leave Gambella town. Trucks believed to be carrying weapons and open trucks full of EPRDF soldiers are routinely seen coming and going from the town and along Gambella’s rural roads.

2. Petrol company

The base for ZPEB /Petronas petroleum operations, just one kilometer from Gambella town, is heavily guarded by EPRDF soldiers around the clock. Some twenty large drilling, construction and transport vehicles sit in perfect order, all of them brand new — in stark comparision to the economic decay and absence of basic infrastructural development that can be seen in Gambella town.

3. Huts

Remains of Anuak homes destroyed by the EPRDF military and highlanders militias can be seen through the Anuak sub-sectors and villages of Gambella state and town. Thousands of homes have been burned to the ground in state orchestrated violence that has occurred since December 2003, when some homes were also bombed with hand grenades.

RESOURCES:

International Resources Group page on development and military aid projects
in Africa

See also WW3REPORT #97

——————-

Special to WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, Nov. 4, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW3Report.com

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