US eager to help Jakarta despite few reforms

The US is considering $16 million in aid to Indonesia despite a 1999 amendment that links US aid to prosecution of military personnel for human rights abuses.
Map courtesy of CIA World Factbook

By Tim Shorrock

Washington, DC, June 22 (IPS)— As US officials lobby Congress to approve a $16 million package of military aid for Indonesia, they are stressing the need to support political stability in the world’s largest Muslim nation while downplaying Jakarta’s role in the global “war against terrorism.”

“Whether democracy succeeds or fails in Indonesia won’t be a function of our reaction to the events of Sept. 11,” Matthew Daley, the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said in a speech this week. “In dealing with Indonesia on counter-terrorism, if the focus is Sept. 11, you’re missing 90 percent of the story.”

The Bush administration is seeking $8 million to train the Indonesian police in internal counter-terrorism tactics and another $8 million for a “peacekeeping headquarters” for the Indonesian military known as TNI.

Jakarta “has to confront the threat of sectarian violence. We want to provide unequivocal support for the territorial integrity of Indonesia,” Daley said at a forum on Indonesia sponsored by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and the US-Indonesia Society.

The change in rhetoric represents a shift from the Bush administration’s initial response to Sept. 11, when it pressed Jakarta and other US allies to join the war against the al-Qaida network responsible for the hijack attacks on New York City and Washington.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri was the first leader of a Muslim country to visit President Bush after the attacks and the two leaders used their meeting to restart high-level contacts between the Pentagon and the TNI. Bush also lifted a US ban on the sale of non-lethal commercial arms sales to Jakarta.

In the weeks after Sept. 11, US officials warned that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network had infiltrated Indonesia, posing serious danger. “I think they are more dangerous to Indonesia than they are to the United States,” Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense who once served as US American ambassador in Jakarta, told an Indonesian magazine last November.

US military aid and training for Indonesia was suspended in September 1999 in the aftermath of the rampage in East Timor by militia forces backed by the TNI. Later that year, Congress adopted the Leahy amendment linking the resumption of military aid to the prosecution of military personnel involved in the atrocities.

Since Sukarnoputri’s visit to Washington, US-Indonesian military ties have grown closer. In April, US and Indonesian officials held talks on security issues, followed in May by a visit to Jakarta by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said that a quick resumption of military ties between Washington and Jakarta would bolster the “war against terrorism.”

“I think it is unfortunate that the United States does not today have military-to-military relationships with Indonesia,” he told reporters.

But many in Congress continue to believe that Indonesia has not fulfilled its promises to reform the military. And on the issue of East Timor, the State Department itself is unsatisfied with Indonesia’s attempt to prosecute generals responsible for the 1999 violence. “I cannot tell you that we’re encouraged by the progress to date,” said Daley.

One factor in the US decision to stress Indonesian issues over global terrorism is the potential backlash from Indonesian Muslims towards US policy in the Middle East, particularly Washington’s “uncompromising support for Israel,” said Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, the managing editor of the Jakarta Post.

“The perception remains that Muslims are being victimized” by US policy, Suryodiningrat said. He noted that radical Islamic parties will contend for power in the 2004 national elections in Indonesia. If the economic situation doesn’t improve, more young Indonesians could be “attracted to radical ideologies,” he said. “There is a potential for radical Islamic movements to become popular.”

Suryodiningrat said that a resumption of US military ties could lead to reforms within the TNI. “But if it’s focused narrowly on terrorism, it will do more harm than good,” he said.

The aid the Bush administration is seeking will better prepare the TNI to deal with domestic disturbances and civil unrest, argued Daley. “We’re trying to expand the margins of what we can do with the TNI.”

The United States should be “realistic” and recognize that Indonesia must resort to using its military rather than police to deal with internal problems — a situation “not unfamiliar” to US leaders, he said.

The $16 million will allow Indonesian forces to be “trained in ways to deal with problems without recourse to discriminate violence in units under command and control,” he added.

“If approved by Congress, the money won’t go to tactical units themselves to buy bayonets, stun guns, electronic prods and that kind of thing, but for command and control, mobilization and training. This doesn’t amount, by any stretch of the imagination, to a broad resumption of a long-term military relationship. That requires more progress [in military reform],” Daley said.

But Sidney Jones, the Jakarta representative of the International Crisis Group, said it is far too early to resume direct military aid to the TNI. The $16 million package requested by the Bush administration “sends a very wrong signal about the Indonesian TNI involvement with internal security,” she said.

The Leahy amendment, Jones said, “is our only source of pressure on the Indonesian government.”

A recent ICG paper on Indonesia states: “Better military training will not alter the fact that there is a fundamental lack of political will on the part of Indonesian national civilian and military authorities to exert control over private armies, punish abusive soldiers, end military corruption or proceed with long-promised reforms.”

Cambodia: young trafficking victims treated as criminals

New York, June 22— On June 20, Cambodian police arrested fourteen girls at the offices of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that had been sheltering them. The girls were originally rescued during a police raid on a brothel on May 23 in a red-light district of Phnom Penh, where it is well known that young girls, including virgins, are often forced into prostitution. Police officers from the Minors Protection Section of the Anti-Trafficking Unit at the Ministry of Interior conducted both the rescue operation and the subsequent arrests.

The girls are now being held in Correctional Center 2 (Prey Sar) prison on the outskirts of the capital. A warrant for their arrest, issued by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on June 16, charged the girls with illegal entry into Cambodia under the immigration law. [While three of the girls were released on bail on June 24 until their trial, the judge has refused to drop the charges against any of the girls.]

“These arrests violate every principle regarding the appropriate treatment of apparent trafficking victims,” said Sara Colm, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. “They should be provided with medical and legal services, counseling, secure shelter, and given the opportunity to cooperate in the investigation into the traffickers. It is imperative that these girls get the services they need and deserve.”

The investigating judge on the case told reporters that initial findings revealed that the girls were trafficking victims, but that when the court learned the girls had entered Cambodia without legal documentation, they were no longer considered victims, but violators of Cambodian law for illegal entry into the country.

Cambodian authorities also say that the girls are all more than eighteen years of age, but human rights observers present during yesterday’s arrest as well as workers for the NGO that sheltered them said they are children, aged between twelve and eighteen.

“Although victims of trafficking who are children often need more support and may have been targeted initially because of their vulnerability, their age is ultimately irrelevant. The point is that they are victims, not criminals,” said Colm.

The arrests came as Cambodia’s donors were meeting in Phnom Penh to pledge billions of dollars in assistance for the next few years, based in part on evaluations of Cambodia’s progress in making reforms. A recent report by the US State Department says Cambodia has one of the worst records on human trafficking.

“Cambodia’s donors have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars for programs to fight the sexual exploitation of children and human trafficking. The donors should raise strong concerns about these arrests with the government,” said Colm.

Under Cambodian law, the trafficking of human beings by any means for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a crime, regardless of whether the victim consents. Brothel owning and pimping are also crimes under the law subject to strong penalties, especially if the victims are children or are from a foreign country.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Police in the spotlight for killing students in Lagos

Police have shot a number of students at roadblocks in Lagos. Map courtesy of CIA World Factbook

By Toye Olori

Lagos, Nigeria, June 24 (IPS)— Parents in Nigeria have urged the government to prosecute police officers that deliberately shoot school children at roadblocks in Lagos, the country’s commercial hub.

They also have demanded that the government scrap the special Operation Fire For Fire squad set up by Nigeria’s police chief to curb armed robbery in Nigeria.

The squad has been blamed for much of the killings in Lagos.

“Policemen who kill innocent people should be prosecuted and executed; [these] indiscriminate killings must stop,” said Sam Ibe, a parent. “We pay the police to do the job of protecting us; they are not doing us a favor. The guns given to them are meant to protect us, not to kill us.”

Mary, another parent, noted, “Since police officers have been ordered to stop collecting bribes from motorists, they have resorted to using their guns on innocent civilians.”

“The excuse often cited by police officers that drivers refuse to stop [at roadblocks] is not tenable at all. When you flag down a vehicle and the driver refuses to stop, why not shoot the tires? Why shoot the occupants in the head? This is barbaric,” she said.

The latest killings occurred nine days after the murder of a 15-year-old female student, Oluwatosin, on June 14.

Two undergraduate students were murdered at a police checkpoint at Ikoyi, a posh suburb of Lagos, on Saturday. Ikoyi had been regarded a secure suburb of Lagos not often frequented by armed robbers.

The incident occurred after a student, who was driving the vehicle, dropped off his sister in school some 30 kilometers away. On his way home he gave a lift to four school friends and had gone to drop one of them at Falomo, a suburb of Ikoyi, when the police stopped them at a checkpoint.

“We immediately parked off the road side but to our shock, one of the policemen rushed towards the car and opened fire killing the two boys in front. When I saw blood on my face I realized that the two boys had been shot in the head. Before we could get out the vehicle, the policemen had disappeared,” one of the survivors narrated on a private television station Sunday night.

Commercial bus operators have often complained about police harassment, especially on the eight-kilometer road between Lagos and Ogun states in south-western Nigeria, where Oluwatosin was shot dead after the conductor of a bus on which she was traveling refused to pay the police a two-cent bribe.

Police say the roadblocks are necessary to monitor armed robbers and car-jackers sneaking into neighboring Benin Republic. The checkpoints have, however, turned out to be a nuisance to commuters, motorists and commercial vehicle operators who have to bribe to get free passage.

“It doesn’t matter if the commercial vehicle has particulars or not; once you are stopped, you have to bribe [the police]. If not you will be delayed. Our work doesn’t allow for delays because we have to deliver (the daily take) to the vehicle owner every evening. That is why we pay the bribe,” says Baba Sahid, a bus driver in Lagos.

Segun Jegede of the Lagos-based Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) said, “The killing shows that we are still not out of the woods. It is a further testimony that we have not moved from the despotic past of military rule. It’s a shame we lay claim to democracy while the government is busy putting in place Operation Fire for Fire in the police force, to harass innocent citizens.”

Nigeria, with a population of about 120 million, returned to civil rule in 1999 after years of military rule.

But the return to multiparty democracy has not ended extra-judicial killings in Nigeria. The Lagos-based Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, has documented a number of such murders. They include the May 3, incident in which 46-year-old Mufutau Ajibade Shittu, a senior inspector with the First Bank of Nigeria PLC, was shot and killed by two policemen on the pretext that he was a robber.

Shittu, who had gone to audit books in Kogi State, had retired to a hotel to spend the night when he met his death.

Another victim, Adewale Afolayan, a driver at the University of Lagos, was shot dead while returning to his residence, for refusal to pay a 20-Naira (20 cents) bribe.

Afghan refugees in Nauru kept in limbo

By Sarah Stephen

June 19— Only 40 of the 327 Afghans on the South Pacific island of Nauru who have had their claims processed have been accepted as refugees. “The rest may have perfectly rational fears of famine, lawlessness and postwar devastation, but they don’t count,” declared the June 14 Sydney Morning Herald editorial.

This callous comment reveals that the biggest flaw in the narrow definition of a refugee under the UN convention, and governments’ even narrower application of this definition, is that signatories are compelled to provide sanctuary to those who fear for their lives due to political or religious persecution, yet those who face death from starvation or generalized war are condemned to suffer their fate.

While just 12% of Afghans assessed on Nauru were granted refugee status, all 131 Afghans taken from the MV Tampa, a Norwegian freighter, by New Zealand were accepted as refugees. Few of the successful applicants are likely to reach Australia, the June 13 Melbourne Herald Sun reported. “Possible new homes include Sweden, Switzerland and the tiny African nation of Burkina Faso.”

While the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has drastically narrowed its assessment of those Afghans it considers refugees, it has also repeated its warning against forced repatriation. The June 14 Melbourne Age reported comments by UNHCR spokesperson Marissa Bandharangshi that “when people do return, it should not be to situations that [are] so bad they are forced to ... become refugees again.” She was referring to the severe drought, continuing ethnic persecution and war between warlords in different parts of Afghanistan.

Immigration minister Philip Ruddock has continued to try to bribe Afghans with $2000 to leave. He has repeatedly pointed out that this is 10 times the average annual income in Afghanistan, implying that any Afghan who doesn’t accept it must be ungrateful.

The June 14 Sydney Morning Herald reported that 13 Afghans on Nauru had joined another eight in signing consent forms to take the bribe and return to Afghanistan.

The Australian government’s “Pacific solution”, which has so far imprisoned 1500 asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, has not simply been a financial disaster. It has also been a human rights disaster. Asylum seekers have been denied the most basic legal rights. Those Afghans who have had their initial applications rejected are, in theory, entitled to a judicial review of the decisions, but only with the assistance of a lawyer. Yet many lawyers, along with journalists and many human rights advocates, have been refused visas to enter Nauru.

Foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer argues that the government’s hardline policy has been “vindicated” by the UNHCR because it proves the asylum seekers rescued by the Tampa were “illegal immigrants.” Far from being illegal immigrants, they are victims of a deliberate and unjustifiable delay in processing their claims for asylum.

When they were rescued by the Tampa in August, they were refugees. Now, nine months later, the only argument for refugee status that the Australian government is willing to accept — persecution by the Taliban — has gone. Similarly, the Australian government delayed the processing of claims lodged by 1600 East Timorese asylum seekers, in some cases for up to eight years, until East Timor won its independence.

Source: Green Left Weekly

Colombian mayors resign en masse

By María Isabel García

Bogota, Colombia, June 24 (IPS)— Over half of Colombia’s 32 departments, or states, have already been affected by resignations en masse of mayors, town councilors and judges declared “military targets” by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the situation is likely to worsen.

Underlying the problem is “a dispute of legitimacy” and “a demonstration of strength in the regions,” said political analyst Marcos Romero, a professor at the public National University.

The result “could be a setback in the progress made over the past decade towards the decentralization of democracy, with the adoption of direct popular elections of mayors and governors” in 1991, as well as “limitations of individual liberties,” he warned.

The FARC, Colombia’s main insurgency group, controls around half of the territory of this South American country of 42 million, although not the most densely populated areas.

“I wouldn’t abandon the mayor’s office for any reason,” said Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus, one of the officials threatened by the FARC, although he admitted that his fellow mayors in small towns are in more vulnerable positions.

The names of Mockus and 10 other mayors in the department of Cundinamarca, where the capital is located, are on a list of authorities to whom the Eastern Command of the FARC gave until Wednesday to resign.

Those who “fail to comply with that order could be captured or executed...our slogan is to not allow any representative of the state to continue functioning in any of the municipalities,” stated the guerrillas in a communiqué that was made public by authorities.

The FARC ultimatum was addressed to mayors, town councilors, inspectors, judges and prosecutors in the southeastern departments of Amazonas, Arauca, Boyacá, Casanare, Guainía, Guaviare, Meta and Vichada, and to a few officials in other parts of the country.

Other FARC divisions launched an offensive against municipal authorities in the departments of Caldas and Risaralda, in Colombia’s central coffee-producing region, the central department of Santander, and Norte de Santander in the northeast.

On Friday, 100 officials in Arauca, on the border with Venezuela to the east, presented their resignations, including nine mayors as well as lawmakers and town councillors. But the governor of the department of Arauca, Eduardo Bernal, refused to accept the resignations, on orders from the central government.

However, the mayor of the city of Arauca, Jorge Cedeño, said Monday that “the mass resignations are still in place,” after he arrived in Bogota to seek a meeting with President Andrés Pastrana.

Meanwhile, right-wing paramilitaries in Arauca issued their own threats, warning the mayors not to resign, which meant local officials have found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place, said the executive secretary of the mayors’ federation, the National Federation of Municipalities, Gilberto Toro.

Today, the mayors “are facing the same situation that Colombia’s peasant farmers have been facing for years,” said Romero at the National University.

Faced with total abandonment by the state, rural residents in war-torn areas have few options: join the war, migrate to the slums surrounding the large cities, or be killed, kidnapped or “disappeared,” said the analyst.

The state “lacks the capacity” to protect the mayors through the military, because no security forces are even present in 180 of the country’s 1,089 municipalities.

The armed forces have been shown to have links to the 8,500-member right-wing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which are held responsible for the majority of the war’s atrocities against civilians.

The G8 in Canada: an African agenda

By Sean Marquis

June 25 (AGR)— This week thousands of people will converge on the Canadian city of Calgary to protest a meeting of G8 leaders being held in the remote town of Kananaskis, Canada, June 26-27. What will get lost in the news accounts of police vs. protesters will be what the protesters had to say and what the G8 was doing to warrant protesting.

The Group of Eight (G8) made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, and Russia, is meeting to discuss issues ranging from terrorism and Israel/Palestine to global economic policies. This summit will have a focus on Africa.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien is a heavy backer of the New African Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The G8 Summit is expected to endorse the NEPAD initiative.

The mandate for NEPAD had its genesis at the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Extraordinary Summit held in Sirte, Libya during September 1999.

After more economic and trade summits several proposals had been envisioned. An integration process of the various initiatives followed, and on July 11 2001, NEPAD (or the New African Initiative (NAI) as it was temporarily known at the time), was adopted as Africa’s principal agenda for development.

What makes NEPAD a very attractive neo-liberal policy to G8 leaders is that it comes from African countries and is an initiative of African leaders, in particular Presidents Tabo Mbeki of South Africa, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, and Abdalaye Wade of Senegal.

According to NEPAD’s own documents, it is “an instrument for advancing a people-centered sustainable development in Africa based on democratic values,” and has continent-wide objectives such as “economic growth and development and increased employment; reduction in poverty and inequality; and enhanced international competitiveness and increased exports.”

President Wade met with US President George W. Bush on June 19, just ahead of this week’s summit.

According to the US State Department the two discussed the “war on terrorism” and NEPAD, with both men in support of “the importance of the private sector’s investing in regional development.”

A detailed NEPAD Program of Action will be presented to the G8 Summit and to the inaugural Summit of the African Union in South Africa in July. The European community, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the United Nations will also participate in the Kananaskis meeting.

Benefit for elites, detriment for poor

A common complaint of civil society groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is that the primary objective of NEPAD is to make Africa investment-friendly for the benefit of African elites and foreign investors at the detriment of already impoverished African populations.

On June 6 the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) issued an assessment of NEPAD in a document, Un-blurring the Vision: An Assessment of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development by South African Churches.

While the SACBC supported NEPAD’s goals on decreasing poverty and promoting peace initiatives among African nations, the report criticized NEPAD’s “blurred vision” of how to achieve its stated goals.

“NEPAD’s vision is blurred by fixing its sights on increased global integration and rapid private sector growth as the answer to overcoming poverty, and by its failure to engage with Africa’s people to transform the continent,” the report said.

The SACBC also said that “[NEPAD]’s economic strategy is discredited by the harsh impact on the poor in African countries that have already adopted similar policies. It pretends to be unaware of the severe negative social impact that rapid privatization of basic and social services has on impoverished communities in Africa.” As to process, “NEPAD has neglected Africa’s people both in the process of its construction and in its primary focus,” said the SACBC report.

World Vision, Canada, a Christian humanitarian organization, suggests an eight-point plan, which is somewhat critical of national and collective policies of G8 nations in regard to African nations.

Some of the suggested points are: support peace and conflict prevention - stop shipping weapons to Africa; adopt fair trade rules - end resource exploitation; and require accountability to the people - stop propping up dictators.

While echoing World Vision’s sentiments on peace and arms shipments, other groups also point to the furthering economic destruction that is most likely to be carried out under the auspices of NEPAD.

In Apr. 2002, the Heinrich Boell Foundation, together with the Mazingira Institute and the African academy of Sciences, held its African Forum for Envisoning Africa: Focus on NEPAD in Nairobi, Kenya to critically examine NEPAD and its underlying principles.

The Forum concluded that NEPAD follows the same neoliberal principles that are heavily criticized by civil society worldwide. These policies are responsible for increasing gaps between the rich and the poor and result in economic disasters, such as the recent clashes in Argentina.

“In spite of the recognition of the central role of the African people, civil society has not played any role in the conception, design and formulation of NEPAD. Furthermore, NEPAD adopts social and economic measures that contribute to the marginalization of women,” according to a statement by the Forum.

A report by the World March of Women, NEPAD, Gender and the Poverty Trap, questions NEPAD’s ability to achieve it’s stated objective to “promote women’s participation in the political life of African countries.”

In part this is due to the fact that NEPAD is seen as an extension of South-Africa’s own neoliberal macroeconomic policy, known as Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR).

GEAR, according to the report, “has promoted deregulation, which has led to deteriorating conditions of employment, and trade liberalization…This economic restructuring has had a disastrous impact on the two key centers of footwear and leather production in the country [the provinces of the Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal].”

“As the footwear and leather sector is overwhelmingly dominated by women workers, they are the most affected by the disastrous impact [of these policies],” the report states.

The report also questions the ability of NEPAD to be “democratic” and “inclusive” when “the records of the major promoters of the NEPAD – i.e. the Presidents of South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal -- include the repression of dissent, bloodshed, mass popular protests and social unrest.”

Same policies, new name

Many groups contend there is no difference between NEPAD and the structural adjustment programs (SAP) that have been promoted by the IMF and the World Bank.

SAPs are largely responsible for the privatization of the social sector in developing nations leading to the sale of state-owned water, electricity and health services to private, and often foreign, interests.

In a June 17 Canadian Press article, Sarath Fernando, a member of Sri Lanka’s movement for land and agricultural reform, drove home this point.

“Debt, aid, advice, structural adjustments, remodeling of economies — more than the money part, it is a mechanism for having control over our lives, over our resources, over the whole economies in our countries,” said Fernando.

NEPAD is little more than re-colonization of Africa and is just an extension of GEAR, said protesters at a meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the International Convention Center (ICC) in Durban, South Africa on June 6.

The event was reported by The Witness, a Durban daily. “The name NEPAD is a myth -- there is nothing new about it. It is just GEAR for [all of] Africa and, just as GEAR resulted in the loss of one million jobs in South Africa, so too will NEPAD further plunge Africa into poverty,” said Ashwin Desai of the Concerned Citizens’ Group.

According to The Witness, Professor Dennis Brutus of Jubilee South Africa said the WEF is part of the global corporate process which is expected to support NEPAD.

“The essence of the document is that Africa promises to obey all requests from the West and will submit to their demands, particularly in the area of investment. Africa will be enslaved to satisfy the demands of the West,” Brutus said. “NEPAD will lead to privatization of basic services which will then be sold back to Africa at a profit.”

WORLD BRIEFS

US exports suffer from boycott
A boycott of US goods by Saudis angered by Washington’s Middle East policies has led to a sharp fall in US exports to Saudi Arabia, diplomats and economists said on June 20.

Official US figures show exports plunged 33 percent to $2.8 billion between September and March.

In the first quarter of 2002, exports fell 43 percent to $986 million from $1.74 billion a year earlier.

Many Saudi consumers have shifted to European and Japanese products, encouraged by campaigners wearing Palestinian head scarves who have distributed leaflets at mosques, schools and shopping malls, residents said.

They urge Saudis to boycott US household items, vehicles, food and beverages, fast-food restaurants and tobacco in protest at Washington’s pro-Israel bias and anti-Saudi campaigns by some US senators and media following the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The reason (for the drop in exports) is definitely political. The boycott of made in USA products is a major contributor to this sharp drop,” said Bisher Bakheet, managing director of Bakheet Financial Advisors.

Oil power Saudi Arabia is the biggest energy supplier to the United States, with two-way trade estimated at $20 billion.

Diplomats said although US exports accounted for only a fraction of its global trade, the steep decline appeared to show the depth of anti-US sentiment in the conservative Muslim kingdom, which is a staunch supporter of the Palestinians. (Reuters)

Italian police ‘framed G8 protesters’
Italian police have been accused of fabricating evidence against anti-corporate globalization protesters at last year’s G8 summit in Genoa, Italy by planting petrol bombs at their headquarters and falsely accusing them of stabbing a police officer.

According to a magistrates’ investigation, the police improvised lies to justify a blood-soaked raid at the Diaz school, which was being used by protesters and media organizations as a headquarters. The raid, which left dozens injured after being kicked, punched and beaten with batons, prompted an international outcry.

It emerged this week that senior police officers have been placed under investigation for allegedly making false statements as part of a cover-up.

At a press conference the day after the July 21 raid the police presented an array of weapons, including two Molotov cocktails, which they said were seized at the school.

Genoa magistrates investigating the raid now suspect the Molotov cocktails had in fact been found by police in the center of the city, seven hours before the midnight raid.

It also emerged this week that investigators no longer believe a police officer who said a protester tried to stab him -- a claim which was used last July to suggest the occupants were violent and resisted arrest. The officer may be charged with false testimony, according to investigators.

The Rome daily La Repubblica said a “fragile mountain of lies” against the protesters was crumbling. (The Guardian, UK)

US increasing its military dominance, reports show
Led by sharp increases in the United States defense budget, particularly since last Sept. 11, the world appears to be on a course toward growing militarization, according to recent reports on global military trends.

While still significantly below global highs reached in the mid-1980s, according to the report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), there is little question that the total will rise substantially this year and in 2003 as the US presses other countries, especially among its NATO allies, to increase their own defense budgets as part of the war against terrorism.

Washington, which accounted for 36 percent of total military spending last year—six times greater than Russia and equal to more than twice as much as the combined defense budgets of Russia, France, Japan, and Britain, the next four biggest spenders—is planning to increase its defense budget by some $45 billion next year, to a total of $396 billion, according to the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation (CACNP).

That means the United States will be spending more on its military capabilities than much of the rest of the world combined.

“Our military budget is greater than the [combined] gross domestic product (GDP) of Austria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Norway, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Venezuela,” said CACNP. (One World.US)

Protesters descend on World Bank
About 10,000 anti-globalization demonstrators protested in Oslo, Norway on June 24 on the sidelines of a World Bank conference aimed ostensibly at developing better ways of eradicating poverty.

Carrying banners reading “The World is Not For Sale” and “No to Globalization,” the protesters marched through the center of Oslo in a festive atmosphere, responding to a call from about 50 organizations for a peaceful demonstration.

Nine Danish citizens suspected of planning to disturb the peace were arrested before the demonstration, seven of whom were expelled from Norway and two of whom were released.

Over the weekend, 10 others were detained at the Swedish-Norwegian border, one of whom was barred from entering the country.

Norwegian authorities reinstated border controls for the first time since the Scandinavian country joined the Schengen accords that ensure free movement of residents within the European Economic Area. (AFP)