CounterVortex

SUFIS AND NEOCONS

The Global War on Terrorism’s Strangest of Bedfellows

by Sarkis Pogossian, World War 4 Report

It was none other than neocon whiz kid and former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith (along with Justin Polin, a sidekick from the Hudson Institute) who favorably invoked the Sufis in a New York Times op-ed about Pakistan this March 30. The attack on sufism by Pakistan’s neo-Taliban receives practically no coverage in the international media—until war propagandists seize on it for their own cynical purposes.

The piece, entitled “Radio-Free Swat Valley,” noted that earlier that month presumed Taliban forces bombed the shrine of revered Pashtun poet Rahman Baba (born c. 1650). The writers noted: “The bombers took aim at the poet’s shrine because it represented Sufism, the mystical form of Islam that has long been predominant in India and Pakistan. They praised Sufism’s legacy of “tolerance, devotion and love” that the “extremists are determined to destroy.” It closed with a verse of Rahman Baba’s “Sow Flowers”:

Sow flowers to make a garden bloom around you,

The thorns you sow will prick your own feet.

Arrows shot at others

Will return to hit you as they fall.

You yourself will come to teeter on the lip

Of a well dug to undermine another.

The writers called for the US to fund a Pashtun radio network akin to Radio Free Europe, to promote this kind of Islam as an alternative to Taliban orthodoxy.

Of course, the very last thing that Rahman Baba and his contemporary adherents need is for his voice to be co-opted as an instrument of US propaganda. Pakistan’s Sufis are doubtless astute enough to grasp the surreal irony of Feith—a key architect of the Iraq adventure, and advocate of spreading the war to Iran—quoting the pacifistic verse of an 18th century Sufi poet.

Nearly a year earlier, on February 16, 2008, the New York Times ran a guardedly optimistic op-ed, “In Pakistan, Islam Needs Democracy,” by Waleed Ziad of the Truman National Security Project, a think-tank that “unites Americans who believe equally in strong liberal values, and the need for strong national security.” He noted a ceremony commemorating of the death of a Sufi saint at Pakpattan village in the Punjab—”a feast of dance, poetry, music and prayer attended by more than a million people.”

This more indigenous Islam is standing up to the fundamentalist tyranny, we are told. Ziad takes heart that “in the tribal areas, many local village councils, called jirgas, have summoned the Pakistani Army or conducted independent operations against extremists. Virtually all effective negotiations between the army and militants have involved local councils; in 2006, a jirga in the town of Bara expelled two rival clerics who used their town as a battleground.”

Yet in his strategic prescriptions, Ziad finds: “Pakistan’s military will continue to manage the war against the Taliban and its Qaeda allies, while President Pervez Musharraf will remain America’s primary partner.”

And herein lies Ziad’s betrayal of those he invokes. Apologias for Musharraf and US imperialism will not serve the cause of decoupling the jirgas from the Taliban/al-Qaeda. Nothing will discredit the jirgas and Sufis faster than making them collaborators with the US and Musharraf’s brutal military—legitimizing the Wahhabi types as the “resistance.” But more and more neo-conservative are calling for this unlikely alliance.

Pakistan: Laboratory of the Sufi Strategy

Pakistan’s government announced this June that it is establishing a Sufi Advisory Council, with an aim of combating extremism by promoting Sufism and its pacifistic vision of Islam. Reuters’ coverage of the development noted that such stateside establishmentarian voices as RAND and the Heritage Foundation have recently advocated such a strategy.

The 2003 RAND report, Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, Strategies, includes the following policy recommendation: “Encourage the popularity and acceptance of Sufism.” The 2009 Heritage Foundation report, Reviving Pakistan’s Pluralist Traditions to Fight Extremism notes the growing schism between the the more indigenous and Sufi-tolerant Barelvi school with the orthodox Deobandi favored by the Pashtun Taliban.

“What these militants were doing was un-Islamic,” Reuters quoted Sahibzada Fazal Karim, a leader of the moderate Islamist party Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Pakistan, who organized anti-Taliban protests. Beheading innocent people and kidnapping are in no way condoned in Islam,” said

Also quoted was anti-Taliban cleric Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi—who was killed by a suicide bomber at his Lahore mosque earlier in June. In May, he said of the Taliban: “They want people to fight one another, that’s why we have kept silent and endured their oppression. We don’t want civil war… But God forbid, if the government fails to stop them, then we will confront them ourselves.”

Naeemi was ultra-conservative by any standard short of the Taliban’s. He advocated sharia enforcement, and lost a government post and was briefly arrested after protesting Pakistani collaboration in the US War on Terror. He was arrested again for protesting the Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammad.

He was killed five days after the government announced creation of the Sufi council.

Somalia: Imperialism and the Sufi Survival Struggle

Christian Science Monitor blogger David Montero found in June that “as in Pakistan, many are looking to armed tribes in Somalia who adhere to Sufism—a mystical, moderate interpretation of Islam—as the best chance for peace.” The post, entitled “Is promoting Sufi Islam the best chance for peace in Somalia?”, quoted a Somali writer—identifying himself only as Muthuma—who writes on the Bartamaha news portal that a “new axis” of conflict is emerging in Somalia, in which fighters are battling one another along religious lines:

Moderate Sufi scholars, whose tolerant beliefs have come under attack, have decided to fight back against al-Shabaab for destroying their shrines and murdering their imams….

It is an Islamist versus Islamist war, and the Sufi scholars are part of a broader moderate movement that Western nations are counting on to repel Somalia’s increasingly powerful extremists.

Whether Somalia becomes a terrorist haven and a genuine regional threat – which is already beginning to happen, with hundreds of heavily armed foreign jihadists flocking here to fight for Al Shabab – or whether this country steadies itself and ends the years of bloodshed, may hinge on who wins these ideological, sectarian battles.

But caveats are raised by Ali Eteraz, writing in Foreign Policy that month:

The usual response by supporters of the Sufi solution is that thanks to the extremists, Islam has already been politicized, and therefore propagandist measures promoting Sufism are the only way to fight back. But that’s precisely the problem: Propaganda is inherently discrediting. Besides, state-sponsored Sufism … gets everything backward: In an environment where demagogues are using religion to conceal their true political and material ambitions, establishing another official, “preferred” theological ideology won’t roll back their influence. Minimizing the role of all religion in government would be a better idea. Only then could people begin to speak about rights and liberty.

Eteraz again overlooks the most obvious reason an imperialist Sufi strategy could backfire—making Sufis the pawns and proxies of the West will delegitimize them in the eyes of precisely those the strategists would seek to win over.

US-backed Ethiopia began pulling its military forces out of Somalia at the beginning of the year, having pledged to withdraw from the country by the end of 2008. But the Ethiopians left behind chaos. The “official” Transitional Federal Government they were backing up controls little more than a few blocks of downtown Mogadishu. A peace deal that brought into the transitional government many conservative clerics who had been exiled to Eritrea during the Ethiopian occupaiton has failed to win peace. Al-Shabab (youth) militia is the foremost of several jihadi insurgent groups.

Factional violence has been reported between al-Shabab and Ahl A-Sunna wal-Jama’a, a Sufi militia that has armed to resist the jihadis. Heavy fighting erupted in central Somalia in the closing days of 2008. Two religious militias seeking control of the town of Guri El in Galgadud region, local Radio Garowe reported. Sufi gunmen reportedly took control of strategic locations inside Guri El, ousting al-Shabaab guerillas who had seized the town weeks earlier.

Sheikh Abdirahman Abu-Qadi, a spokesman for the sufi militia, told reporters that al-Shabaab was responsible for destroying the graves of revered sheikhs. “The bones of Sheikh Nur Hussein have been sold to Italians and Jews and we do not know why,” Abu-Qadi said. Al-Shabaab fighters last week reportedly destroyed graves in Jilib and Kismayo districts, in the Middle Jubba and Lower Jubba regions respectively.

The day before the fighting, Sheikh Abdulkadir Somow, a leader of the Sufi group, held a press conference in Mogadishu to protest the desecration of the graves by al-Shabaab fighters. “It is prohibited to bother a Muslim person, living or dead, in Islam,” Sheikh Somow said, adding that the graves of Sheikh Nur and his two sons were destroyed. He urged restraint on the part of Sufi followers, while appealing to al-Shabaab to “stop destroying graves and mosques.” He also asserted that foreign fighters were involved in the desecrations.

Radio Garowe quoted an unidentified Shabaab fighter who confirmed the report, adding: “We believe people were worshipping the dead…and so we destroyed the graves.” The veneration of the graves of saints is centuries-old local tradition, but is rejected as heresy by the fundamentalist al-Shabaab.

Islamist al-Shabaab insurgents seized two districts in central Somalia without violence Dec. 7, including the stronghold of a Sufi group that traditionally abjures violence. Residents in Galgadud region reported that fighters aboard armed trucks peacefully entered the provincial capital Dhusamareb. “The local clan militias withdrew before they came,” one resident told the independent Radio Garowe. Shabaab fighters also took control of Mataban district to the south, with clan militias similarly offering no resistance. The Shabaab faction already controls key regions in southern Somalia, including the port towns of Kismayo and Marka.

Speaking in Mogadishu, Sheikh Somow appealed for peace: “The fighting in Guri El [in Galgadud] was between brothers, and Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee’a was not involved.” He called on Somalis to “stop fighting each other,” and on feuding warlords to “resolve differences.” He praised Djibouti for supporting the peace process.

Despite Sufi appeals for peace, Somalia is starkly divided between indigenous Islamic traditions and jihadist orthodoxy. This June, sharia court in a Shabab-controlled section of Mogadishu sentenced four teenagers to each have a hand and a leg amputated as punishment for stealing cellphones. Last October, it made at least brief world headlines when a woman was stoned to death for adultery following a sentence by a sharia court in the insurgent-controlled southern town of Kismayo.

In a lesser known case in July 2008, militants loyal to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) assaulted at “cultural boogie” at El-Ghelle village, Balad district, some 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu. The fighters reportedly opened fire on a circle where drummers, singers and musicians were playing for a traditional dance. A man and women were wounded, while other participants fled barefooted to bush. In their six months in power before being ousted by the US-backed Ethiopian intervention of December 2006, the ICU banned music and repeatedly raided wedding parties in Mogadishu.

Iran: Sufis Under the Aytaollahs

The Sufis have, needless to say, fared poorly under the Ayatollah regime that may now face destabilization. Long before Iran exploded into massive protests following the contested June elections, Sufis were—by no choice of their own—often on the frontlines of resisting the orthodox Shi’ite theocracy.

The harshest incident came in November 2007, in the town of Boroujerd, Luristan province, with the destruction of a hosseinieh or monastery belonging to the Gonabadi Sufi order by the police and Basij paramilitary forces. According to Mohsen Yahyavi, the conservative parliamentary representative for Boroujerd, the trouble began when Sufis abducted and beat several youths affiliated with a nearby mosque. The Sufis, however, tell a different story. One young female follower of the order told IPS: “Religious vigilantes had once before tried to bulldoze the hosseinieh and succeeded in destroying parts of its walls. This time on the night before the hosseinieh was completely destroyed, the Basij militia and the vigilantes staged a bogus attack on a nearby mosque where there was a gathering to criticize Sufi beliefs. The attack was then blamed on the Sufis to justify the attack on the hosseinieh.”

The militiamen then turned on the hosseinieh. The Sufis refused to evacuate the building, and called the police. But after midnight the police abandoned the scene and there was a blackout. More clashes followed at the hosseinieh. The Sufis trapped inside were left at the mercy of vigilantes armed with tear gas. They torched and then bulldozed the building. The next day, the remains of the building were razed to the ground by the “official” authorities. No trace was left of the hosseinieh.”

More than 180 followers of the order were arrested, and 80 people were wounded during the incident, the Fars news agency reported the deputy governor of Luristan province as saying.

Some wire reports said the Sufis “traded fire” with police and paramilitary forces. Local journalist Morteza Bourbour told AP the violence began when Sufis attacked a nearby mosque, injuring several Shi’ite clerics who had urged their followers to shut down the Sufi lodge because it was “illegitimate.” Iranian state radio briefly mentioned “clashes between people and Sufis ended in Boroujerd after police intervention.”

The independent AdvarNews said some 100 Sufis were injured and another 500 arrested “after an unidentified group captured the lodge, setting fire to it and flattening it by bulldozer.”

AP identified the Sufi order as “Nematollahi-Gonabadi,” and reported that conservative clerics such as Grand Ayatollahs Safi Golpaigani, Makarem Shirazi, Fazel Lankarani and Nouri Hamadani have issued fatwas against Sufis. The Sufis have been defended by other clerics who uphold their right to free worship—including Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, who issued a statement following the attack on the hosseinieh of the dervishes in Qom in February 2006.

Mehdi Karrubi, former parliament speaker and leader of the Etemad Melli reformist party, a Shiite cleric himself, has written letters to ayatollahs and state officials in defense of the Sufis’ right to free worship. 07

In November 2008, Iran’s judiciary sentenced a Sufi leader to five years in prison, flogging and exile on charges of spreading lies, the moderate Kargozaran newspaper reported. The report identified the man as Amir Ali Mohammad Labaf, of the Nematollahis or Gonabadi Dervishes order based in the northeastern province of Khorassan Razavi. Labaf was convicted by a court in Iran’s clerical center of Qom, finding that his holding of traditional Sufi prayers constituted “a case of spreading lies,” the report said, without elaborating. In addition to the five-year prison term, Labaf was sentenced to 74 lashes and internal exile to the southeastern town of Babak.

Followers of Iran’s indigenous Baha’i faith, which has roots in Shi’ite Sufism, have also faced persecution—and were especially targeted by the regime in the crackdown on dissidents that immediately preceded the contested 2009 elections. Seven Baha’is were arrested on highly dubious charges of spying for Israel in February. Jinous Sobhani, secretary of the independent Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran and a follower of the Baha’i faith, was detained by authorities in January. The Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded by prominent dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, was ordered closed by the authorities in December, and Ebadi’s private office was also raided, with computers and files confiscated.

Ebadi, to her great credit, has spoken out publicly against the exploitation of the issue of human rights in Iran in advance of imperial agendas. On February 8, 2005, she had an op-ed in the New Yor Times, co-authored with Hadi Ghaem of Human Rights Watch, entitled “The Human Rights Case Against Attacking Iran”. Ebadi and Ghaem wrote: “American policy toward the Middle East, and Iran in particular, is often couched in the language of human rights… But for human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for their cause.”

Iraq: Towards a Sufi Insurgency?

In August 2006, the Washington Post invoked an incipient Sufi insurgency in Iraq. British forces were abandoning Camp Abu Naji at Amarah, in southern Iraq, and not only Moktada al-Sadr but also the official Maysan provincial authorites proclaimed it as a victory against the occupier. The British commander Maj. Charlie Burbridge asserted Iraqi army forces maintained “full control” of the base—even as it was being sacked by looters armed with AK-47s! Burbridge crowed about how disciplined the Iraqi army maintaining (precarious) control of the base is—while a local brigade mutinies, apparently well-infiltrated by the Sadr forces! The British forces were evacuating the Amarah base to carry out “guerilla tactics” in the marshlands—an implicit acknowledgement that the insurgents are in control there! Finally, it was noted that even the pacifistic Sufis had declared a jihad against the Anglo-American occupation (and the fundamentalist Shi’ites like al-Sadr who would like to exterminate them):

In other developments, the head of a major Iraqi sect of Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam that had previously rejected violence against U.S.-led coalition forces, declared holy war on American troops. The leader, Sheik Mohammed al-Qadiri, said his sect would form a new group, the Battalions of Shikh Abdul Qadir al-Gaillani, and join the insurgency.

“We will not wait for the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade to enter our houses and kill us,” said Ahmed al-Soffi, a Sufi leader in the western city of Fallujah, referring to the country’s major Shiite militias. “We will fight the Americans and the Shiites who are against us.”

Now, as the US prepares to depart from Iraq’s cities, the sectarian war is escalating horribly—after a still-bloody “lull” of several months. Perhaps the Qadiri Sufis will re-appear in the news. For their sake—hopefully not.

Kosova: Sufis in the West’s “Model Muslim” State

Neocons have frankly pinned their hopes on newly independent Kosova—now recognized by some 60 countries around the world, and still under a thousands-strong US/NATO occupation. The Serb minority and largely Muslim Albanian majority are as divided as ever—with a rebel Serb council refusing to recognize the declaration of independence.

Michael Totten wrote in a March 2008 piece for Commentary: “Kosovo doesn’t belong to the Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah-Hamas axis. On the contrary, Kosovo has thrown in its lot with the West, and especially with the United States. Serbia’s breakaway province is perhaps the most pro-American country in all of Europe. Bill Clinton is lionized there as a liberator—a main boulevard through the capital Prishtina is named after him—just as George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush are hailed as saviors in Iraqi Kurdistan….”

In other words, the Kosovars are domesticated good Muslims, who view the US as protector rather than hegemon. Someone forgot to tell the folks at the pro-Serbian American Council on Kosovo and the GWOT hardliner Jihad Watch websites. Bent on portraying Kosova as al-Qaeda’s new European beachhead, these sites are awash with such lurid titles as “Wahhabism Tightening Grip Over Kosovo” and “The Clinton-Bush-Islamic Axis in Israel and Kosovo.”

The reality may be more complicated—and interesting—than either side will acknowledge. A March 2008 article in the Tehran Times mentions some deep-rooted elements in the region which appear to exist outside the spectacularized jihad-vs-GWOT duality. It notes that the Albania-based Sadi Cultural Foundation is establishing libraries and tekiyas—sufi gathering places— in Kosova and Macedonia “with the assistance of the Bektashi Order and is planning to set up more in the future.”

The story renders tekiya with the less orthodox spelling of tekyeh—and defines it as a “place where ritual Shia Islamic ceremonies are practiced.” But this may be a ploy to get past Tehran’s censors. Tekiyas—especially in the Balkans—are generally associated with sufi orders which, even when Shi’ite, fall well outside the mainstream of Shia Islam. In fact, the Balkans appear to have been a refuge for heretical traditions which were persecuted in Turkey when the Ottoman Empire was shaken by paroxysms of orthodoxy or—with Sultan Mahmud II’s modernization drive in 1826—militant secularism.

Writes historian Anthony Weir on the website of the Bektashi Order of Sufi Dervishes:

Many early leaders of Albanian nationalism were Bektashi, and the Order formed the “left” end of the Islamic spectrum in the Balkans. Following the destruction of the Janissary Corps and the banning of the tariqat [sufi orders] in 1826, many Bektashi babas and dervishes fled to the remote areas of the Balkans far from the reach of the Ottoman government. During this period (especially after the order outlawing of the Bektashis was rescinded in the 1860s), the tariqat had gained a sizeable presence in southern Albania. Their toleration and ability to absorb local custom provided the population with a “folk” Islam that they could easily relate to—and this allowed Bektashism to spread throughout Greece and modern Macedonia

He notes that among those who established colonies in the Balkans at this time (especially Bulgaria) were the Kizilbashi, a sufi military caste from central Anatolia—where they are generally associated with the (nominally Shi’ite) Alevi Order.

The Alevis of central Anatolia are said to harbor indigenous Turkic traditions (including traces of shamanism) purged from the Arabized culture of the Ottoman court. Balkan sufism similarly seems to harbor traces of indigenous pre-Islamic and even pre-Christian traditions. In “A Glimpse at Sufism in the Balkans,” scholar Huseyin Abiva writes on the Alevi-Bektashi website:

In rural areas…the orders that were the widest spread tended to have had heterodox and syncretistic teachings. Here, in order to facilitate an easy transition from Christianity to Islam, the people often kept elements of their old ways (which were often of pre-Christian in origin themselves). For instance, the Hamzevis found considerable appeal along the…Drina River valley [Bosnia] in the 16th century… The 14th century religio-political movement of Shaykh Beddruddin Simavi (if it can be defined as a Sufi tariqat) was confined to the wilds of the Bulgarian backcountry. Both of these movements were crushed by the Ottoman government, but many of their ideas are believed to have filtered into the Bektashi Order…

An April 4, 2006 AFP report picked up by the website Sufi News & World Report noted (in an account not for the squeamish):

At the end of March the 5,000 Dervishes of Prizen in southern Kosovo celebrate the Spring equinox festival of “Sultan Nevruz,” the moment when the sun begins to favor the Northern Hemisphere and day become longer than night… “La-illaha-illallah” (“There is no god but God”) the Dervishes intone in a subdued prayer… “Allah Hu” (he is God), they chant in perfect unison.

That is when the skewers and knives appear.

The Shejh [Adrihusejn, leader of the order] leads the way, coating 15-centimetre (six inch) long needles with his saliva and then piercing his two young sons. He does the same to three other children.

Miraculously, there is no blood, and the children show no sign of fear or pain, swaying silently as they hold the needles pierced through one side of their mouths.

Next come the blades: Shejh slowly eases 40-centimetre ( 1.3-foot) knives with rounded, pearl-coated stems through both cheeks of the Dervishes, one-by-one.

Driven by the rhythm of kettledrums and tambourines, the entranced worshipers sway in a semi-conscious state, repeating their calls to “Allah” over and over.

Next they begin piercing their necks with knives, proudly displaying the wounds. “The knives symbolize the healing of all wounds. This is the blessing of God and the power of the order,” says an elderly, high-ranking Dervish after the ceremony.

This is clearly Nowruz, the Persian new year festival—perhaps brought to the Balkans in the 1820s by the Kizilbashi, or perhaps by Zoroastrian-influenced Gnostics 2,000 years ago.

It is practically axiomatic that these cultures are threatened. In a 2000 study, “Destruction of cultural heritage in Kosovo: a postwar report,” undertaken by Harvard scholars Andrew Herscher and Andras J. Riedlmayer for the prosecution at The Hague tribunal for the ex-Yugoslavia:

Another category of historical architecture in urgent need of protection in Kosovo is Muslim houses of worship. This part of Europe is home to an indigenous Islamic tradition going back more than 600 years, with its own rich architectural heritage—mosques, tekkes (lodges of the Sufi lay brotherhoods), medreses (theological schools), Islamic libraries, hamams (Turkish baths), and bazaars built to support charitable foundations. This heritage suffered massive destruction during the recent conflict… mosques burned out from within… minarets that had been blown up with explosives… visible signs of vandalism (Koran manuscripts…burned or defaced with human excrement…)… [T]his destruction was not the result of military activities. These were not buildings that had been caught in the crossfire as Serbian forces fought Albanian rebels, or hit by NATO’s bombs and missiles.

Of course, if you want to be regaled by the corresponding accounts of Albanian vandalism of Serbian Orthodox churches, monasteries and artifacts, just go to the American Council on Kosovo. The point is that maybe—just maybe—there are autochthonous forces that have not been drawn into the pathological polarization, if only due to their own endemic weirdness.

The Bektashi do pop up in the Turkish press from time to time. They have weighed in publicly in favor of the lifting of Turkey’s head-scarf ban:

The leader of the Hasandede Turkmen-Bektashi Association, Özdemir Özdemir…claimed that the greater part of society is against the headscarf ban and argued that the ban has nothing to do with secularism. “People with and without veils are living together in peace. We should respect individual preferences. We should always act hand in hand for the development of our country,” said Özdemir.

Secularists might disagree with this position—but it is still a very far cry from Wahhabism. And, despite the dreams of the neocons, the dervish ceremony described above is also (thank goodness) a very far cry from American globalism…

Tellingly both Totten and left-wing Israeli dissident Uri Avnery have noted Israeli reluctance to recognize Kosova lest it give some ideas to the Palestinians (and, worse yet, Israeli Arabs)

With Friends Like These…

Sufis are already in the cross-hairs of the jihadis.

At least two people were killed and nearly 20 injured when a bomb exploded inside the revered Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer in India’s western state of Rajasthan in October 2007. The attack came when the shrine was packed with hundreds of worshipers during evening Eid al-Fitr prayers. A day after the attack, a second explosive device was found in the shrine and defused by police. Six people were detained for interrogation, including two pilgrims of Bangladeshi origin. No group claimed responsibility for the blast.

The bombing was the third in a series of attacks on Muslim religious institutions after the 2006 bombing of a Sufi shrine in Malegaon and this summer’s strike at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad. A revealing commentary was provided by Praveen Swami for The Hindu, entitled “The War Against Popular Islam.” Swami recalls that Chishti wrote that the highest form of worship is “to redress the misery of those in distress, to fulfil the needs of the helpless and to feed the hungry.” Note ironic use of the term “neoconservative” to describe the Salafists:

The bombings…have been characterised as attempts to provoke a pan-India communal war. But the bombings also reflect another less-understood project: the war of Islamist neoconservatives against the syncretic traditions and beliefs that characterise popular Islam in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti is, almost without dispute, the most venerated Sufi saint of South Asia. Born in 1141 CE, Chishti is believed to have studied at the great seminaries of Samarkand and Bukhara before travelling to India. Ajmer emerged as an important centre of pilgrimage during the sixteenth century, after Emperor Akbar undertook a pilgrimage on foot to the saint’s grave…

Islamist critics of Sufism have made no secret of their loathing for shrines like that at Ajmer, which they claim propagate the heresy of “shirk”—an Arabic term commonly translated to mean polytheism, but which is also used to refer to the veneration of saints and even atheism.

South Asian terror groups associated with recent attacks on Muslim shrines—notably the Lashkar-e-Taiba—draw theological inspiration from the Salafi sect, a neoconservative tradition also sometimes referred to as Wahabbism. Salafi theologians are intensely hostile to Sufi orders like that founded by Chishti, characterising them as apostasy.

In The General Precepts of the Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaah, a pamphlet which propounds the Salafi doctrine, theologian Shaykh Naasir al’Aql, sharply criticises religious practices “where the dead are taken as intermediaries between a person and Allah, supplicating them and seeking the fulfilment of one’s needs through them, seeking their assistance and other similar acts.”

This is an obvious reference to the revered tombs of Sufi saints,

It is theoretically possible that Hindu militants rather than Salafists were behind this attack. But in June 2007, assailants tossed a grenade at the house of a holy man in Sopore, in India-controlled Kashmir, killing two of his devotees and injuring 15, even as the saint escaped unhurt.

This was the second attack on the darvaish Abdul Ahad, alias Ahad Bab. The Times of India wrote: “The ascetic lives a simple life and sits in an iron cage, clad in rags, while his devotees, who belong to different faiths, sit around him.”

The Hindu reported witnesses had identified the attacker as local Lashkar-e-Taiba militant. The report also noted widespread attacks on Sufi targets in Kashmir:

Islamists here have long opposed the influence of Ahad Sa’ab Sopore, a one-time policeman who left his job and became a mystic after undergoing what he describes as a spiritual experience three decades ago. As early as 1991, the Hizb ul-Mujahideen carried out a near-successful assassination attempt on the mystic. However, he escaped unhurt.

While mystics like Ahad Sa’ab Sopore have enormous religious and temporal power—their followers include several prominent politicians, bureaucrats and police and military officers—Islamists have repeatedly attacked their authority. Ahad Sa’ab Sopore, notably, has been criticised for appearing naked in public, a practice the mystic defends by asserting that the world, not he, needs to feel ashamed for its behaviour.

As early as June 1994, Lashkar stormed the historic Baba Reshi shrine at Tangmarg and fired on pilgrims. Dozens of similar attacks took place through the Kashmir valley as part of an Islamist campaign to stamp out folk Islam. The most prominent attack was the October 1995 siege of the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar, which houses a relic claimed to be a hair of Prophet Mohammad. The terrorists threatened to blow up the shrine unless besieging troops were withdrawn. A similar siege at Chrar-e-Sharif in May 1996 led to the destruction of the town’s famous 700-year-old shrine.

Attacks continue, if less spectacularly. In 2000, Lashkar terrorists destroyed sacramental tapestries Bafliaz residents had offered at the shrine of Sayyed Noor. In June 2007, a Lashkar operative threw a grenade at a Sufi congregation in Bijbehara, injuring several. Lashkar is also thought responsible for a May 2005 arson that led to the destruction of the 14th century shrine of saint Zainuddin Wali at Ashmuqam. Earlier Ashmuqam was subjected to several grenade attacks, leading to disruption of festive days there for several years.

The neocons face a grave moral responsibility in their Sufi strategy. Making Sufis the pawns and proxies of the West will delegitimize them in the eyes of precisely those the strategists would seek to win over. It will also make them more of a target—or at least give a propaganda boost to those who target them. Even Sufis who feel the need to take allies where they can find them are doubtless worldly enough to realize this.

Besieged Sufis (and other religious and ethnic minorities in the Muslim world) do indeed need solidarity from the West. But only those who oppose the interventions, drone strikes and torture policies of the Global War on Terrorism have got the moral credibility to offer this solidarity. It is necessary to oppose both of the two poles of terrorism assaulting the Muslim world—political Islam and imperialism.

—-

Sarkis Pogossian is an impoverished World War 4 Report researcher.

From our Daily Report:

Pakistan: Sufis make NYT op-ed page
World War 4 Report, Feb. 17, 2008

Neocons exploit Sufis on NYT op-ed page —again!
World War 4 Report, March 30, 2009

Pakistan plays Sufi card against jihadis
World War 4 Report, June 27, 2009

Somalia: West to groom Sufis as proxies?
World War 4 Report, June 24, 2009

Somalia: insurgent sharia court sentences youth to amputation
World War 4 Report, June 24, 2009

Ethiopia begins Somalia withdrawal —chaos or peace next?
World War 4 Report, Jan. 3, 2009

Somalia: Sufis resist al-Shabaab insurgents
World War 4 Report, Dec. 28, 2008

Somalia: insurgency spreads, Sufis appeal for peace
World War 4 Report, Dec. 9, 2008

Somalia: rape victim stoned to death
World War 4 Report, Oct. 30, 2008

Somalia: Islamists attack traditional dance ceremony
World War 4 Report, July 1, 2008

Marabout wars in West Africa?
World War 4 Report, Jan. 5, 2008

Senegal: million pilgrims honor Sufi saint
World War 4 Report, March 9, 2007

Iran condemns Sufi to prison, flogging, exile
World War 4 Report, Nov. 16, 2008

Iran: paramilitaries destroy Sufi monastery after clash
World War 4 Report, Nov. 23, 2007

Iran: Baha’is targeted in espionage trial
World War 4 Report, Feb. 14, 2009

Iran: human rights worker arrested in sweep of Baha’is
World War 4 Report, Jan. 16, 2009

Iran: police shut independent human rights office
World War 4 Report, Dec. 23, 2008

Iranian Nobel Laureate dissident blasts US intervention
World War 4 Report, Feb. 9, 2005

Brits go “guerilla” in Iraq marshlands; Sufis declare jihad
World War 4 Report, Aug. 26, 2006

Missing on Kosova: the sufi voice?
World War 4 Report, March 25, 2007

India: terror blast at Sufi shrine
World War 4 Report, Oct. 13, 2007

Sufis under attack in Kashmir
World War 4 Report, July 22, 2007

See also:

SUFISM: THE MIDWAY BETWEEN EXTREMISMS
Indigenous North Africa Between Jihad and Imperialism
by Toufik Amayas Mostefaou
World War 4 Report, March 2007

——————-

Special to World War 4 Report, July 1, 2009
Reprinting permissible with attribution

MEGAPROJECTS AND MILITARIZATION

A Perfect Storm in Mexico

by Todd Miller, NACLA News

The 40-day blockade of the Trinidad mine in the Oaxacan community of San José del Progreso came to a sudden and violent halt on May 6. Mine representatives and municipal authorities called in a 700-strong police force that stormed into the community in anti-riot gear along with an arsenal of tear gas, dogs, assault rifles, and a helicopter.

The overwhelming show of force was in response to community residents’ demand that the Canadian company Fortuna Silver Mines immediately pack its bags and leave. The company is in the exploration phase of developing the Trinidad mine. The result was a brutal attack, with over 20 arrests and illegal searches of homes. Police seemed to be going after a heavily armed drug cartel, not a community protest.

This is one of the drug war’s dirty secrets: As Mexican security budgets inflate with US aid—to combat the rising power of drug trafficking and organized crime—rights groups say these funds are increasingly being used to protect the interests of multinational corporations. According to a national network of human rights organizations known as the Red TDT, security forces are engaged in the systematic repression of activists opposed to megaprojects financed by foreign firms such as Fortuna Silver Mines.

In Oaxaca and throughout southern Mexico these types of conflicts seem destined to increase. Defying the logic of the international financial crisis, Mexico remains the top destination in Latin America for foreign direct investment, particularly in extractive industries. In the last three years alone, multinational companies have received over 80 federal mining concessions in just Oaxaca, covering 1.5 million acres of land. Mining is only the tip of the iceberg: Other megaprojects include hydroelectric dam construction, tourism and infrastructure, energy generation projects, water privatization, and oil exploration.

In response to the influx of capital-intensive projects, Marcos Leyva, director of Services for an Alternative Education, a community group, says, “We saw it coming, but we didn’t realize the utter force with which it was coming at us.”

The warning signs were there. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) gave foreign investment free range in the country. NAFTA even forced changes to the constitution so that communal lands could be broken up and sold piecemeal—in a word, privatized. In 2000, Plan Puebla Panamá was unveiled; the Plan sought to link southern Mexico with Central America through a series of networked megaprojects. But a strong wave of community resistance pushed the plan into the corner. Many say the plan is back, moving ahead with all cylinders, under a new name: Plan Mesoamerica.

In April, dozens of grassroots groups came together in Oaxaca to discuss these developments at a forum titled, “Weaving Resistance in Defense of Our Territories.” The forum’s declaration, signed by participating communities and organizations, denounced, “A privatization of our territories and natural resources is clearly being pushed forward, and the majority of this is located in rural and indigenous communities.”

At the meeting, representatives of rural and indigenous communities all share similar experiences to those of their counterparts in San José del Progreso. The common denominator is the everyday struggle of life in Oaxaca where endemic and structural poverty has left 76 percent of the state’s population in desperation. Those affected by the mine described it as a “virus” that was gnawing away at their land, leaving it infertile and taking away their only sources of livelihood—agriculture and cattle.

Residents also complained the mine would pose a health hazard through the poisoning of their clean water sources with chemicals such as cyanide and arsenic, which are used to extract precious metals from the ore. The mine would also drain scarce water sources. “A mine will use more water in one hour than an entire family uses in one year,” says Raymundo Sandoval from the Project for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, a Mexico City-based organization.

“It is not right that foreigners come here and steal our natural wealth,” complains community resident Dominga Rodríguez. And this wealth could be significant. Though the project is still in its exploration phase, Fortuna Silver Mines expects the mine to yield 50 million ounces of silver worth about $700 million.

The community says neither the government nor the company consulted it about the mine—that’s pretty much par for the course for these kind of projects. In March, municipal authorities ignored complaints from residents about dynamite blasts damaging their homes and cattle dying after drinking contaminated water. Rodríguez believes the municipal officials had already “sold out to the mine company.”

After the community took over the mine in March, the army set up camp a mere 100 meters from its entrance. Though the soldiers said they were there to remove explosives from the mine, the foreboding message was clear: When it comes to the $35 million that the company has invested in the project so far, there is little room for dialogue.

The events of May 6 confirmed the army’s implicit threat. Agripina Vásquez, one of the people arrested in the massive police raid, told the Oaxacan daily Noticias: “What we wanted was dialogue, but they didn’t give us the opportunity. The police simply surrounded and arrested us.” The magnitude and brutality of the police raid was an eerie reminder for locals of Oaxaca’s months-long social conflict in 2006; the uprising was met with brute force by police. The government’s response was a human rights disaster by any measure and has yet to be resolved.

In recent visits to Mexico, high-level US officials, including President Barack Obama, have failed to acknowledge the country’s deteriorating human rights situation. Washington has moved ahead with its $700 million military and police aid package—with another $470 million in the pipeline—for Mexico known as the Mérida Initiative. As security forces use this aid to fight the drug cartels, it is at least indirectly supporting repressive police operations such as the one seen in San José del Progreso that are literally shielding private companies from legitimate community grievances.

In an unguarded moment, Thomas Shannon, the Bush administration’s top diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, admitted last year that Washington was in the process of “armoring NAFTA.” Although Shannon was just replaced by the Obama administration, it does not look like the Democratic president is inclined to rollback this “armoring” of the trade agreement.

—-

This story first appeared May 19 on NACLA News.

Resources:

Red TDT
http://www.redtdt.org.mx

See also:

THE RETURN OF PLAN PUEBLA-PANAMA
The New Struggle for Central America
by Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report
World War 4 Report, May 2007

MINING IN MEXICO: VIOLENCE MADE IN CANADA
by Mandeep Dhillon, Upside Down World
World War 4 Report, May 2007

From our Daily Report:

Mexico: peasant ecologist arrested in Chihuahua
World War 4 Report, May 27, 2009

Mexico: indigenous protests in Oaxaca
World War 4 Report, March 24, 2009

——————-

Reprinted by World War 4 Report, June 1, 2009
Reprinting permissible with attribution

MEXICO’S RESURGENT GUERILLAS

Washington’s Drug War and the Ghosts of 1910

from Frontera NorteSur

A new twist with unpredictable political consequences has emerged amid the shifting battle fronts of Mexico’s narco war. Sometime the weekend of May 9-10 and somewhere in the mountains of southern Guerrero state, a group of at least 20 armed men presenting themselves as a column of the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (ERPI) appeared before Mexican reporters.

Uniformed and armed with AK-47 rifles, the group was led by Comandante Ramiro, or Omar Guerrero Solis, one of the most wanted men in Mexico and an almost folkloric figure who escaped from a prison outside Acapulco more than six years ago and wasn’t publicly seen again until the weekend’s secret press conference.

In comments to reporters, Comandante Ramiro accused the Felipe Calderón administration of not only staging the fight against drug trafficking, but of also protecting the interests of alleged drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. The masked guerrilla commander charged Guerrero Governor Zeferino Torreblanca, who was elected with the backing of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and social sectors sympathetic with the guerrilla movement, with also protecting Chapo Guzmán and an alleged associate, Rogaciano Alba.

A former head of the Guerrero Regional Cattlemen’s Association, Alba also served as the mayor of the Guerrero town of Petatlan for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Gunmen associated with Alba are responsible for about 60 murders in the conflictive Tierra Caliente and Costa Grande regions of Guerrero, Comandante Ramiro said.

“The strategy of combating the narco is phony,” Comandante Ramiro charged. “Here in Guerrero, for example, the narcos participate in meetings that the army and state government hold to strike at one cartel and protect another, but essentially they are the same, because they murder, kidnap and torture,” he asserted. “Here the cartel of Chapo Guzmán is serving the army, and vice-versa..”

The fugitive rebel leader likewise accused Erit Montúfar, director of the Guerrero state ministerial police, of involvement in criminal activities in the Tierra Caliente region of the state.

Comandante Ramiro said narco-fueled violence was inspiring young people to join the ERPI’s ranks, which had successfully expelled Alba’s men from some mountain zones. The ERPI, he said, is engaged in active armed self-defense, “striking” and “dismantling” paramilitary groups connected to Alba and the state government.

The guerrilla leader said his troops try to avoid confrontations with Mexican soldiers, whom he called “sons of the people” welcome to join the revolutionary movement.

The ERPI first emerged in 1998 as a splinter faction of the leftist Popular Democratic Revolutionary Party/Popular Revolutionary Army (PDPR-EPR). Two top ERPI leaders, Jacobo Silva and Gloria Arenas, were captured by the Mexican army in 1999, but the guerrilla group survived and reorganized.

The EPR, as well as other spin-offs, remains active. As the 15th anniversary of the founding of the organization’s armed wing neared this month, the PDPR-EPR issued a new communique.

In its message, the underground organization addressed the recent flu epidemic, deficiencies in the Mexican healthcare system, human rights, political scandals, labor movements, the suffering of the mothers of Ciudad Juarez femicide victims, and more.

The group also said its members were reviewing the next step to take in its campaign to force a clarification of the fate of two high-ranking leaders, Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez, who were allegedly disappeared by the Mexican government in May 2007.

Subsequently, the EPR waged a sabotage campaign against gas pipelines to force the appearance of its two leaders. The guerrillas later declared a truce, and a mediation commission was established between the EPR and Calderón administration. The commission, however, recently broke down, with no word on the fates of Cruz and Amaya.

Now 33 years old, the ERPI’s Comandante Ramiro told Mexican media he first joined the Poor People’s Party, a predecessor group of the PDPR-EPR which was founded by the late legendary rebel leader Lucio Cabañas in the late 1960s, when he was fourteen years of age.

According to Comandante Ramiro, the ERPI is organized like Cabañas’ old Campesino Justice Brigade, with units going up and down in size. Claiming his organization enjoys broad popular support in the Guerrero countryside, Comandante Ramiro said he spent the last four years year in the mountains, adding with a half-smile, “without a vacation.” Addressing reporters, he personally challenged President Calderón and Defense Secretary Guillermo Galván to come fight against him if they had a beef and stop sending “innocents” to die.

Replies to Comandante Ramiro
Reaction to the rebel leader’s bravado was slow in coming from Calderón administration officials and Governor Torreblanca, but other state officials and well-known political figures in Guerrero had quick words of response.

Dismissing Comandante Ramiro’s allegations, State Ministerial Police Director Montufar contended the fugitive was using the name of the ERPI to cover for crimes including cattle rustling, robbery and rape.

“How is it possible that someone who escaped from the Acapulco penitentiary, a delinquent of that level, assumes the mantle of defender of social causes?” Montúfar responded.

Armando Chavarría, coordinator of the PRD group in the Guerrero State Congress and a former state interior minister under Torreblanca, urged the governor to initiate a dialogue with the ERPI.

“Personally, I don’t justify the armed struggle,” Chavarria said, “but I understand it.” The veteran politician said the ERPI’s public reemergence, arising from a grinding poverty trapping hundreds of thousands of people in the state, “makes the situation graver in Guerrero.”

After news of the EPRI’s reappearance hit the press, residents reported stepped-up Mexican military movements, especially in the Tierra Caliente.

While Mexican guerrillas engaged the media this past week, presumed narcos mounted their own publicity campaign by hanging more so-called “narco-banners” in Guerrero, Morelos, Tabasco, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua. Directed at President Felipe Calderón, Federal Public Safety Secretary
Genaro García Luna and other top law enforcement officials, the latest messages were strikingly frank, with the banner signers acknowledging they were not members of a Boy Scout troop but nevertheless protesting alleged Calderón administration retaliations against family members of accused narcos. According the anonymous authors, the global code of conduct mandates that the family “should be respected.”

A New Game for Washington?
Locally, the EPRI column led by Comandante Ramiro adds another explosive element to a multi-faceted conflict underway in Guerrero involving several rival drug cartels, the Mexican armed forces and different police agencies, which often back different crime groups and battle one another. Last month, a fierce battle in the mountains between the army and suspected gunmen from the Beltran-Leyva cartel left at least 15 gunmen and one soldier dead. Along with large-caliber weapons and grenades, 13 suspects were seized by the army.

Politically, the persistence and even growth of the ERPI further signals the collapse of the broad-based political movement spearheaded by Zeferino Torreblanca that swept into power in early 2005 based on promises of change and end to decades of corruption and misrule by the PRI party.

The ERPI’s ability to attract young recruits shows how the guerrilla in Guerrero, like the narco, has become part of the trans-generational landscape. Comandante Ramiro’s column represents at least the third generation of Mexicans to take up arms since the late 1960s.

The existence of a guerrilla group in the heart of the narco conflict zone has national and international ramifications, especially at a time when the Democratic Party-controlled US Congress is considering a $470 million security funding request for the Mexican government, including money for more helicopters, advanced technology and training for the Mexican armed forces. The modern military equipment could used to fight guerrillas as well as narcos.

On May 7, the House Appropriations Committee approved the military assistance package and sent it on for further action. In an action bearing perhaps more than just passing political symbolism, the Mexico aid was approved as part of a larger security outlay for Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, even as the new Obama administration retunes its military strategy in Central Asia, Washington could be poised to become more deeply involved in a Mexican civil conflict that has centuries of deep political, social and historical roots.

On the eve of the House committee vote, scores of prominent Mexican human rights organizations wrote the US Congress opposing new military aid. The signatories of a May 6 letter noted that allegations of human rights abuses against Mexican soldiers mainly deployed in anti-drug operations soared 600% from 2006 to 2008, reaching 1,230 cases filed with the official National Human Rights Commission last year. In both Guerrero and neighboring Michoacán, complaints against soldiers are on the upswing in 2009.

Juan Alarcón, longtime president of the official Guerrero State Human Rights Commission, said his agency saw an unprecedented 85 complaints against soldiers from last December to the first three weeks of April. The majority of accusations, encompassing alleged violations of search and seizure, arrest and other laws, “have nothing to do with drug trafficking or organized crime,” Alarcón insisted.

Ghosts of 1910
In some respects, the situation in Guerrero and other parts of the Mexican countryside, both south and north, resembles the era before the 1910 Mexican Revolution when armed bands, heavy-handed government forces and insurgent political forces all rose to the occasion. Then, as now, foreign companies commanded key sectors of the economy.

Ironically, the huge copper mine in Cananea, Sonora, which witnessed one of the historic, runner-up battles to the 1910 revolt, has been the scene of a mounting conflict during the last two years between the mineworkers union led by exiled leader Napoleon Gómez on one side and the Calderón administration and owners Grupo Mexico on the other. Internationally, Gómez’s group has received important backing from the United Steel Workers and other labor organizations.

The Cananea strike almost erupted into a bloody showdown just as US President Barack Obama was preparing to visit Mexico last month. Attempting to break the strike, Grupo Mexico announced the firing of more than 1,000 workers. Hundreds of federal police then began saturating the area around the mine defended by miners and a women’s defense force.

In solidarity with the Sonora strikers, mine and metal industry workers blockaded shipments of containers scheduled for export from the Pacific Coast port of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, near the border with Guerrero.

Back in Sonora, miners took over a highway toll booth. At one demonstration, the Cananea strikers cried out: “If there is no solution, there will be revolution!”

As the Cananea strike approached its second anniversary, Sonora Governor Eduardo Bours appealed on the federal government to find a solution amicable to all parties.

—-

This story first appeared May 14 on Frontera NorteSur.

See also:

MEXICO’S SOUTHWESTERN FRONT
Low-Intensity War in Michoacán and Guerrero
from Frontera NorteSur
World War 4 Report, March 2009

From our Daily Report:

Mexican miners take action to protest mass firing at Cananea
World War 4 Report, April 30, 2009

Mexico: feds probe “forced disappearance” of leftist militants
World War 4 Report, Aug. 17, 2008

Mexico: guerilla convicts’ sentences reduced
World War 4 Report, March 10, 2008

——————-

Reprinted by World War 4 Report, June 1, 2009
Reprinting permissible with attribution
 

THE “COLOMBIANIZATION” OF CHIHUAHUA

from Frontera NorteSur

A high-ranking delegation of political, business and legal leaders from Ciudad Juárez and the state of Chihuahua returned to Mexico late last month after completing a May 21 trip to Colombia. The visit netted commitments by the Colombian government to train Chihuahua police and help implement new social welfare programs.

The accords cover Colombian training of a planned Chihuahua state police group of 50 rapid response, anti-kidnapping personnel, assistance in improving police investigative and surveillance techniques and help in establishing four social welfare programs in Ciudad Juárez modeled after similar ones developed in Medellín, Colombia. Colombian trainers for the new Chihuahua anti-kidnapping squad could be in Ciudad Juárez as early as next month.

“It will be a very interesting experience to talk with President Alvaro Uribe to find out his experiences over the course of the years,” said Chihuahua Governor José Reyes Baeza in the run-up to the trip.

A major Colombian product—cocaine—has played a tremendous role in shaping the history of Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua during the last 30 years.

Led by Reyes Baeza, the 31-person Mexican delegation included State Attorney General Patricia González, federal Congressman Octavio Fuentes, Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez rector Jorge Quintana Silveyra, state lawmaker and Mexican Green Party (PVEM) regional leader Maria Avila Serna, businessman Luis Carlos Baeza, Ciudad Juárez Chamber of Commerce president Daniel Murguia Lardizabal, and the mayors of Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua City, among numerous others. The invited list read almost like a Who’s Who of Chihuahua society and politics.

Oddly enough, Antonia González Acosta, the coordinator for the state anti-kidnapping unit in Ciudad Juárez, allegedly shot herself to death on the eve of the state delegation’s visit to Colombia. González was reportedly pregnant.

In Colombia, the Mexican visitors met with President Alvaro Uribe, National Police Chief Oscar Naranjo Trujillo, Interior Minister Fabio Valencia, and Attorney General Mario Iguaran. The Chihuahua delegation also met with judges and prosecutors to discuss Colombia’s experience with oral trials, a new legal model that is now in place in Chihuahua.

According to Ciudad Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, Medellín-style social programs will be launched in his city with the twin goal of reducing delinquency and creating social opportunities.

“We are going to apply the programs the Colombians have in Ciudad Juárez,” Reyes said, “since the conditions in the city of Medellín are similar to this border.”

Split among the municipal, state and federal governments, the programs will cost about $4.5 million, Reyes said, but did not immediately offer other details. The border mayor said he invited his counterpart from Medellin to visit Ciudad Juárez.

Coming at a time of economic depression and an immediate budget deficit ofnearly $7 million for Ciudad Juárez alone, the costs of the Colombia trip were questioned by local reporters and some members of the public.

Writing for the Lapolaka news website, Eduardo Salmerón warned of corruption tainting the new training program.

“It scares me to think they continue importing models that correspond to other realities and try to implement them in our contexts,” Salmerón wrote. “What guarantee are we going to have that this group won’t contaminate a structure which is full of vice?”

Earlier taking exception to the cost issue, Governor Reyes Baeza said the expenses, which were paid by trip participants or their employers, will reap many benefits in greater security. The Colombians, he said, are offering their services for “practically free,” with the Mexicans expected to pay nominal transportation and lodging costs. According to the Chihuahua governor, local members of the new anti-kidnapping group will be carefully selected.

An important issue not raised by the Chihuahua press was the relationship between human rights and security training. The Colombian government’s human rights record has been repeatedly criticized by international rights organizations like Amnesty International.

The Chihuahua-Colombia agreements fit in with a growing synchronicity between the conservative Calderón and Uribe administrations on important economic, political and security issues in a hemisphere that is titling to the left. Together with the Peruvian government of Alan García, the Calderón and Uribe administrations are vocal defenders of a free trade model that has fallen into disrepute in much of Latin America.

On a geo-political scale, the Chihuahua-Colombia accords complement the anti-drug, US-Mexico Mérida Initiative that will provide hundreds of millions of US dollars in security and military aid to the Calderon administration

Politically, the Mexico City-Bogotá connection was evident last month when the Mexican government expelled a Colombian sociologist, Miguel Angel Beltran, who was accused by Bogotá of being an important member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)

The growing Mexico-Colombia cooperation is viewed with suspicion by the Mexican left. Among the sore points is the Colombian army’s sneak attack on a FARC encampment in Ecuador last year that killed guerrilla leader Raul Reyes and 24 others, including four young Mexican visitors who were ostensibly researching the FARC for academic purposes.

A fifth Mexican national, National Autonomous University of Mexico student Lucia Moret, survived the attack and was given temporary asylum in Nicaragua before returning to Mexico. Moret currently faces prosecution in an Ecuadoran court for infringing on the country’s national security.

The March 2008 attack on the FARC encampment led Ecuador and Venezuela to break diplomatic relations with Colombia, and even threatened to erupt into a regional war.

The Chihuahua-Colombia alliance unfolds amid a rise in kidnappings in Ciudad Juárez and other parts of Chihuahua. Kidnappings have sparked multiple political crises for the state government in recent weeks. Earlier last month, hundreds of members of the Mormon and Mennonite communities of northwestern Chihuahua camped out for days in front of the Governor’s office in Chihuahua City to protest the kidnapping-for-ransom of 16-year-old Eric LeBaron, who was later freed unharmed.

On May 19, hundreds of residents of Ascensión, an agricultural municipality located south of the New Mexico border, occupied the town hall to demand the deployment of the army and other actions directed against kidnappers and violent criminals.

“There are not three or five or 20 kidnappings,” said Alfredo Frias Reyes, municipal government secretary. “We are more than 20,000 people who have been sequestered and we cannot continue like this.”

As in Ciudad Juárez, shop owners in Ascensión are putting up their businesses for sale or trying to rent out storefronts. Residents are reportedly fleeing to the United States and other parts of Chihuahua. Following the Ascensión protest, the Mexican army and Chihuahua state police increased patrols in the zone.

—-

This story first appeared May 27 on Frontera NorteSur.

RESOURCES

LaPolaka.com—Periodismo en Caliente!

From our Daily Report:

Mexico: more army troops to Juárez in wake of prison massacre
World War 4 Report, March 7, 2009

Mexico: bomb threats shut Ciudad Juárez airport
World War 4 Report, Feb. 26, 2009

Colombian “farcpolítica” scandal hits Nicaragua
World War 4 Report, May 23, 2008

——————-

Reprinted by World War 4 Report, June 1, 2009
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WINTER FUND DRIVE EXTENDS INTO SPRING

Are We Really That Irrelevant?

We’ve been trying to reach our winter fund-drive goal of $2,000 since the beginning of December. The total now stands at $1,390. That means $610 to go.

We really don’t get it, even given the current financial crisis. All the other left-wing websites out there—both the ones we have fraternal relations with like Toward Freedom and those we frankly view as rivals due to their bad politics, such as CounterPunch—can routinely raise twice that in a fraction of the time. This isn’t exactly encouraging.

If you are reading these words, please pitch in so we can concentrate on bringing you news instead of asking for funds for the rest of the year. Or, if you chose not to support, us please tell us why! Use the Paypal link to the left, or click here. Or write us at feedback (at) ww4report.com (remove spaces, obviously).

COUNTER-TERRORISM THREATENS SPANISH DEMOCRACY

An Interview with Martin Scheinin, UN Human Rights Rapporteur

by Xan Harriague, Berria, Bilbao

Last spring, Martin Scheinin, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism, spent a whole week in Spain and the Basque Country. He analysed Spain’s legislation, its justice system and its tribunals. On March 9, 2009 the results of his analysis were made public before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He showed concern about several issues, including Spain’s definition of “terrorism,” freedom of speech, the practice of holding detainees incommunicado and the methods of the country’s highest court, the Audiencia Nacional. He recommended to the Spanish government changes and specifications to improve laws.

The Bilbao Basque-language newspaper Berria spoke with Scheinin on March 18. This English translation was provided to World War 4 Report.

The Spanish government says that your definition of terrorism is too limited. What do you think about that?

I believe that the definition of terrorism is well defined in Spanish legislation, but then there are many other derivative crimes. The definition extends itself more and more, and in the end engulfs crimes that have nothing to do with terrorism. I believe that the use of the anti-terrorist legislation is too broad in Spain. Some of the issues treated in the Audiencia Nacional should not be there, such as for example, the kale borroka [violent street protests].

Then, should the government better define the legislation?

Yes, I propose the use of anti-terrorist legislation against the real terrorism. The criminal court is enough to take care of the other crimes, without having to mention terrorism. Kale borroka is a violent act, but not terrorism. They are not the same.

What is your opinion of the politicians imprisoned for being members or collaborators in a “terrorist group”?

It is very difficult for me to know if there is [sufficient] evidence. It is very difficult to know if someone receives orders from ETA, or, as the government says, is part of ETA. I have received more information in the case of political parties and electoral platforms. I believe that the point of view of the government is too broad. It acts against groups that have nothing to do with violence. To have the same political objectives as ETA should not be considered a crime, not a reason to have a political party made illegal, as long as there is no relation with violence.

The Spanish government has answered your report by stating that the terrorism is in the objective, not in the behavior. What is your opinion of this logic?

I am in complete disagreement with that definition… In my opinion the definition of terrorism is always in the behavior. It is a strategy defined by the use of violence against innocent people… If we start defining violence by its political objectives, then any organization opposing the government could be defined as terrorist.

Do you believe that there is freedom of speech in Spain and in the Basque Country?

It is a confusing picture. Spain is an insecure democracy, that does accept many criticisms and points of view. At the same time it is true that the banning of political parties and the closing of newspapers limit freedom of speech. Then it is the judges who decide if these limitations are acceptable or constitute a violation. As far as I’m concerned, the Spanish government has gone too far in some cases.

In your opinion, is the Law of Parties [electoral law] a guarantee of freedom of speech?

It is too broad. It is too open to interpretation and in the end, it is confusing. The Law of Parties can be used against freedom of speech, but I would not say that this is specifically its objective. That would be going too far. Although in my opinion as it is too broad, it causes problems.

What would the Spanish government need to change to guarantee freedom of speech?

I proposed an examination by an expert on Penal Code, in order to improve and clarify the Law of Parties. This expert would analyze how to make it not so weak and to leave less open to interpretation.

The Spanish government has made it clear that they will continue to hold detainees incommunicado, ignoring your recommendations. What do you think of this?

I am not the first one who asks for such a measure. Many experts on human rights have said similar things before me. Most countries don’t have similar measures. Spain is hanging itself with this practice. As long as it is being used, it is debilitating itself in order to defend against complaints and false accusations of torture. I asked for it to be discontinued and, as long as it is being maintained, to improve measures to guarantee the rights of the detainees.

In its defense, Spain has mentioned the legislatures of England and France…

There is a huge difference. Other countries limit the choice of a lawyer, but they can still choose one of confidence… They have some special measures for the first days of detention, but not a system of incommunicado detention. Here lies the biggest difference in respect to Spain. The majority of countries allow for the choosing of a trusted lawyer from the very beginning of the detention, which is one of the most useful measures to avoid police mishandling. That is why Spain’s attitude is much more dangerous than the majority of European countries.

What is your opinion on the return to incommunicado detention by the Ertzaintza [Basque police]?

As I have said before I am against the practice, which should be replaced with other measures. Therefore the news is not good in my opinion.

What do you think about the many torture complaints that are not investigated?

I believe that when there is a torture complaint, the criminal case should be postponed until the complaint gets clarified. I don’t think it is good, the way Spain deals with this issue, investigating the crime in one court and the torture complaint in another. Besides, there are very few cases of torture complaints that are actually investigated.

Is that why you say the Audiencia Nacional can be a problem?

Yes, among other reasons, but there are many more reasons. First of all, only one tribunal deals with too many offenses. They should be better distributed. Second, it has too much power from the very beginning of the investigation, and finally, too much control… The appeal process is limited, as the higher court is the one in charge from the beginning of the investigation… Therefore, the Spanish government should think again about dealing with terrorist crimes through the ordinary judicial means.

How do you reply to the Spanish government’s statement that when you mention the Audiencia Nacional you are entering territory that does not concern you?

What can I say…? The Spanish Government says it is its concern to establish its institutions and legislations, that this is part of its sovereignty. In my opinion, it is mistaken. Speaking as a UN Special Rapporteur, I can give recommendations to any country to modify any law or to install a new institution or to depose another one. I am an expert in international legislation, above all concerning those human rights, and therefore I am in full capacity to do so. I do it in many countries, and Spain is not the exception. In any case, yes, it is clear that Spain is sovereign and I am not reforming the law. I am simply giving some recommendations.

Do you think the Spanish government’s position goes far enough in the improvement of human rights?

It is a position with a double facet: Spain is a reference on many levels, above all, on an international level, in the promoting of dialogue among civilizations. In this field it is doing a good job. But I find problems in regard to the anti-terrorist legislation; it utilizes too many restrictive measures and besides, Spain has institutions that have no place in a democracy.

What is your response to the Spanish government claim that your report is a personal opinion and that it is based on unproved facts?

It is not true. I am an independent expert dedicated to analyze the bases of human rights international legislations. I analyze the current law. In regards to method, I am completely free to obtain information from any source. I should point out that in my report there is nothing that the Spanish government has not previously seen. I have presented my report to them and they have had months to comment on it. Consequently, I am the one who decides what to include or not in the final report.

Is it common that the governments act this way?

Yes, I always receive criticism. From there, it is a question of intensity and style…

In the future, do you believe that Spain will move towards an improvement of human rights?

In general, I perceive a good attitude. Especially since the change in the Government of the USA, many countries have admitted to making mistakes. I hope Spain will move in that direction, too.

What will the UN do after the answer that Spain has given to your report?

I don’t think that the Human Rights Commission will take special measures. In regards to me personally, I will keep a vigilant eye on the case.

—-

This story first appeared March 18 in Berria. It is archived in Spanish translation at www.escuela.net.

RESOURCES

UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/terrorism/rapporteur/srchr.htm

From our Daily Report:

UN blasts Spain’s repression of Basque political parties
World War 4 Report, Feb. 9, 2009

——————-

Reprinted by World War 4 Report, May 1, 2009
Reprinting permissible with attribution