People Before Profit blog

ALBA countries condemn coup, refuse Honduran diplomats

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) issued the following statement by its Presidential Council. ALBA was formed as an alternative trade pact to the 'free trade' agreements like NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) ALBA member states include Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (June 29) -- In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 28, when the Honduran people were ready to exercise their right to vote in a democratic manner in relation to a survey promoted by the President of the Republic Manuel Zelaya Rosales to deepen participatory democracy, a group of uniformed masked men that declared they were following orders of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, waged an assault on the Presidential Residence in order to kidnap President Zelaya, and later violently throw him out of his country.

Immediately, the people of Honduras reacted as faithful heirs to the Legacy of Francisco Morazán, on the streets of several cities and towns in Honduras. In the early morning hours, hundreds of electoral tables were receiving men and women that wished to exercise their right to vote and upon hearing of the kidnapping of their President, turned to protest in the streets against the Military Coup, setting an example of heroism as they faced, unarmed, the tanks and weapons of their aggressors.

Through the transmission of Telesur the national and international media silence was broken. Again a failed attempt by the dictatorship who was trying to hide and justify the Coup d’Etat in front of the Honduran people as well as the International Community by closing the state-owned television channel and cutting power, demonstrating an attitude that reminds us of the worst dictatorships in the 20th Century in our continent.

In unison, the governments and people of the Americas reacted, condemning the Coup d’Etat and leaving it very clear that in Honduras there is only one President and only one Government; that of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Likewise, we salute the declarations that have risen from other governments of the world, which condemn this act as well.

Due to the urgency of this matter, as member States of the Bolivarian Alliance of Our Americas (Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra America or ALBA) we have summoned an urgent meeting of the Presidential Council, with the goal of reaching a consensus on the actions to be taken to defeat the Honduran Coup d’Etat, support the brave people of Morazán, and unconditionally reinstate President Manuel Zelaya Rosales in his legitimate role.

After analyzing the circumstances that have arisen due to this Coup d’Etat, and the serious violations of human rights, the existing multilateral agreements of our countries with the Republic of Honduras, and in view of the total rejection that the International Community has expressed towards the dictatorial government that intends to take power, the member States of ALBA have decided to order our Ambassadors to leave their posts, leaving the minimal diplomatic representation in Tegucigalpa instead, until the legitimate government of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales has been reinstated.

Accordingly, we will recognize only the Honduran diplomatic representation appointed by President Zelaya in our countries, and under no circumstances will we accredit any personnel appointed by usurpers.

Also, as member states of the different integration systems of the continent, we call upon our brother nations of UNASUR, SICA, CARICOM, The Rio Group, The UN and OAS to act against the aggressors of the people of Honduras, as we have.

Likewise, we have decided to declare ourselves to be on permanent alert, to accompany the brave Honduran people in the fight they have called forth, as well as invoking articles 2 and 3 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Honduras:

Art. 2: “Sovereignty corresponds to the People, from which the Powers of the State are executed through representation. The sovereignty of the people is also executed directly, through the right to vote and referendum. The elimination of the citizens’ sovereignty and the appropriation of the constituted powers will be regarded as treason. In this case, the responsibility is expected and allowed and may be deducted from office or through the request of any citizen.”

Art. 3: “No one owes obedience to an usurper government, neither to those that assume public jobs by force. The actions verified by such authorities will be null. The people have the right to disobey in defense of the constitutional order.”

Furthermore, we invoke the principles of International Law to support the efforts of resistance and rebellion of the Honduran citizens. To the teachers, workers, farmers, women, youth, honest businessmen, natives, intellectuals and the rest of the actors of the Honduran society, we assure you that together we will work for victory over the rebels that are trying to impose themselves upon the brave people of Francisco Morazán.

Invoking the spirits and thoughts of Francisco Morazán, beside him we sentence the rebels when proclaiming:

“To the men who have abused the rights of the people for a sordid and vicious interest! It is you who I talk to, enemies of freedom and independence. If your actions, in attempts to obtain a motherland, will bring suffering to those Central Americans that you persecute or have expatriated, I, in their name demand you to present them. The same people you have humiliated, insulted, defeated and betrayed so many times that it makes you today a referee of their destiny and limits our advise, those peoples will be your jury.'

Those who directed the coup should know it will be impossible to impose themselves and evade international justice, which sooner or later they will be subjected to.To the officers and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Honduras, we call upon you to offer your weapons to the service of the Honduran people and of their commander-in-chief, President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

The Republic of Honduras is a full member of ALBA, and a member of other regional integration and multilateral organizations whose membership demands respect for the sovereignty of the People and the Constitution. Once the military rebels violated these fundamental principles, the ALBA States decided to maintain all programs of cooperation with Honduras, which had been initiated through President Zelaya.

Also, we propose that exemplary sanctions should be applied in all multilateral and integration mechanisms and instances, which will contribute to make effective the immediate restitution of Constitutional order in Honduras, and that would validate the principle action of José Martí when he proclaimed: “Each one should do their share of duty, and nothing or nobody will be capable of beating us”.

The ALBA member states declare ourselves in permanent session of consultation, with all governments of the continent, to evaluate other joint measures that will allow us to aid the people of Honduras in the reestablishment of legality and the restitution of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

Two centuries after the historic battle that our people fought throughout our continent, and following the ever present example of the General of the free man, Augusto Cesar Sandino, of Francisco Morazán and faithful to the words of the Libertador Simón Bolívar, we remain confident, with the people of Honduras and the people of the world, of our victory and success, because “...all the people of the world that have fought for their liberty have finally extinguished their tyrants...”

Managua, June 29th, 2009

Presidential Council of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas

(Translation by the Press Unit of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United States/ June 29, 2009)

Honduran people resist military coup

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:47:00 +0000

Armed troops broke into the home of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Sunday June 28th. They beat him and threatened his family, then put them onto an airplane bound for Costa Rica.

Zelaya survived the ordeal and spoke defiantly from exile later in the day. According to some reports, Honduran troops assassinated Cesar Ham, a leading opposition presidential candidate for the November elections. Further, they arrested Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas and other government, labor and mass organization leaders.

Despite the violence by the armed forces and a crackdown on the media, reports of widespread and active popular resistance against the coup leaked out of the country all day Sunday.

People poured into the streets to oppose the coup all day Sunday. A military crackdown on all forms of popular resistance took effect as the coup leaders ordered an 48-hour curfew. Some reports stated that soldiers gunned down Cesar Ham, the leftist presidential candidate, for “resisting arrest.” Military forces closed the government’s TV channel and clamped down on other electronic means of communication. Reports tell of the arrest of a number of labor and popular leaders, but resistance continues.

The military attack on the media prompted a sharp response from the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP), based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 'On behalf of the 80,000 members of our organization, we condemn the outrage against our colleagues in Honduras, who are trying to offer truthful information to the peoples of the world in the face of military sedition,' the organization stated.

The army and its allies installed the President of the National Congress Roberto Micheletti as “acting president” until the November elections.

The international community sharply condemned the military coup. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Organization of American States Secretary General Miguel Insulza, and the leaders of almost all the countries of Latin America, including conservative figures such as Mexican President Felipe Calderon, denounced the coup as illegal and demanded that Zelaya be returned to power. Naturally, the countries of the ALBA group, especially Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua whose ambassadors had been beaten up by the troops, were particularly strong in their denunciations.

The Obama administration also condemned the coup and insisted on the return of President Zelaya to power. Early on Sunday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated: “The action taken against Honduran President Mel Zelaya violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and thus should be condemned by all.”

In a conference call with reporters Sunday afternoon, a senior Obama administration added, 'We view President Zelaya as the constitutional president of Honduras, and we’ve called for a full restoration of democratic order in Honduras.' When pressed if the administration supported the return of Zelaya to power, the official said, 'Correct.'

By Monday, June 29th, labor unions, led by the General Workers Union, declared a general strike. Angel Alvarado, a leader of the People's Union Bloc, told reporters that some 20,000 Hondurans gathered at presidential residence to protest the coup. The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras joined the protests.

Background

President Zelaya was elected in 2005 as the candidate of the Liberal Party, a right-of-center political party. During his term in office, however, he adopted a progressive program and aligned his country with other Latin American countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Zelaya denounced the Bush administration's effort to use Honduras as a base for subversion against other Latin American countries, and accepted economic help from Venezuela. Honduras also joined the trade treaty known as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

The Honduran president sought an escape from the US dominated “neo-liberal” system of trade through this re-alignment.

As he moved away from his Liberal Party base, Zelaya clashed repeatedly with the conservative political oligarchy and the US-trained officer corps of the Honduran armed forces. Zelaya wanted to create a new social base for his program by joining forces with Honduras’ labor unions and organizations of poor farmers and others who have been harmed by previous governments’ right-wing economic and social policies.

Presidential elections are scheduled for this November, and the Honduran Constitution prohibits Zelaya from running for a second term. He had been building relationships with the Democratic Unification of Honduras, the only left-wing party registered to participate in Honduran national elections. Most observers expected Zelaya to swing his support to Democratic Unification candidate Cesar Ham, who, according to some reports, was killed by military forces in Sunday's violence.

Zelaya had also sought to break the power of the military-backed oligarchy with a non-binding referendum designed to find out if the Honduran people favor a constitutional convention to write a new constitution. His goal was to open up a bigger role for the popular masses in the political system. The existing constitution has a number of non-amendable clauses, including the one that prohibits reelection. Although Zelaya promised not to run in November, the right-wing opposition accused him of wanting to be re-elected.

The Supreme Court declared the non-binding referendum to be illegal, but Zelaya argued that it was authorized by a 2006 law. Allegedly, they ordered army commander General Romeo Vazquez to refuse to distribute electoral materials such as ballot boxes, which are controlled by the military in Honduras.

In response, President Zelaya fired the general and marched with a crowd of supporters last Thursday (June 25th) to the military base where ballot boxes were held. Zelaya managed to convince the officers in charge to hand over the materials so that the Sunday referendum could proceed. The Supreme Court declared the dismissal of General Vazquez illegal.

Subsequently, the army moved in and arrested Zelaya and his family, as well as members of his cabinet. When army forces arrested Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, they also detained the Venezuelan, Cuban and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras. According to media reports, those foreign diplomats were beaten by Honduran military forces. The foreign ambassadors were released later in the day Sunday.

Honduran Foreign Minister Rodas was released Monday morning, Jun 29th and forced onto a plane to Mexico.

Much of the US media has tried to justify the undemocratic actions of the military by falsely claiming Zelaya sought to defy the country's constitution and stay in power.

Joel Wendland contributed to this story.

Alleged extortionist arrested after giving cops personal bank account number

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:45:00 +0000

A man was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Chongqing municipality in China on Friday, two years after he tried to blackmail police by threatening to plant bombs in public areas.

Surnamed Tan, the man from Santai county, Sichuan province, left three posters on bus stops in Yubei district in September 2007.

He wrote that the police bureau must wire 500,000 yuan ($73,206) into his bank account otherwise he would trigger explosions.

After receiving the report from residents who saw the notices, police sent money to Tan's bank account.

He was arrested when he tried to withdraw the money.

Union to picket petrol station over porn

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:29:00 +0000

A branch of the Syndicalist trade union has threatened strike action at a petrol station in northern Sweden if managers refuses to remove pornographic material from the shelves.

The union's Umeå branch plans to picket the OKQ8 petrol station in Degeränget, Piteå unless its demands are met by 6 am on July 9th.

Union member and petrol station employee Niklas Svenlin said he had long pleaded with his bosses for the removal of pornographic products from the store.

'At most places of work it is perfectly natural not to have to handle porn, and that's the way it should be everywhere,' he said in a statemen

British embassy staff held in Tehran

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:46:00 +0000

Original source:

Authorities have detained eight employees of the British embassy in Tehran on Saturday, alleging that they had played a 'significant role' in post-election unrest.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is in Corfu for a foreign ministers' meeting, hit back by lodging a protest with the Iranian authorities, describing the detentions as 'harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable.'

Mr Miliband claimed that some of the detained have now been released.

On Friday, senior Iranian cleric Ahmed Khatami lashed out at Britain in a national televised sermon, saying: 'In this unrest, Britons have behaved very mischievously and it is fair to add the slogan of 'down with England' to the slogan of 'down with US'.'

And, on Wednesday, Iranian authorities announced that they had arrested several foreign nationals, some with British passports, for allegedly helping to stir up violence following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Mr Miliband insisted today that 'the idea that the British embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran is wholly without foundation

Communist Party statement on Honduras crisis

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:59:00 +0000

The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) joins with the world in denouncing the coup d’etat this morning against the legally elected president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by the Honduran military, in which, according to a statement by the president’s wife, Mr. Zelaya was threatened and beaten before being sent into exile in Costa Rica.

• The CPUSA denounces alarming reports of physical attacks by troops against the ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in Tegucigalpa, and calls for protection of all diplomatic personal; and, if the reports of the attacks are confirmed, punishment of all the responsible parties for this gross violation of Honduran and international law.

The CPUSA further:

• Demands that president Zelaya and other members of his government be returned to power immediately, and that the troops return to their barracks.

• Demands the immediate release of all labor, community and student leaders who have reportedly been rounded up by the army, and the restoration of freedom of the press.

• Recognizes that the Obama administration has repudiated the coup, and insists that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton hold firm to this position, refusing diplomatic recognition and any military aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is restored to power.

• Calls upon unions and other people’s organizations in the United States to actively support our brothers and sisters in Honduras in resisting this brutal military coup d’etat.

Communist Party Statement on Honduras Crisis

Declaración del Partido Comunista sobre la crisis de Honduras

Reaction to the Honduran crisis

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:17:00 +0000

Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton The action taken against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and thus should be condemned by all. We call on all parties in Honduras to respect the constitutional order and the rule of law, to reaffirm their democratic vocation and to commit themselves to resolve political disputes peacefully and through dialogue.

European Union Statement The EU strongly condemns the arrest of the constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by the armed forces. This is [an] unacceptable violation of constitutional order in Honduras. The EU calls for the urgent release of President Zelaya and a swift return to constitutional normality.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez I’m deeply worried about the situation in Honduras. It reminds us of the worst years in Latin America’s history. We will demand that the OAS [Organization of American States] fully comply with the democratic charter that requires unconditional respect for democracy and, above all, the restoration of the Honduran president. I do not hesitate to call this a return to barbarity. All countries of the continent and the entire international community should demand the return of the democratically elected president.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez If our embassy were attacked, for example, if our ambassador were kidnapped or beaten, well that military junta of a government that is there, even though it doesn’t show its face, would be entering a state of war, a de facto state of war. We would have to act, even militarily, we are obligated to do so. I couldn’t sit here with my arms crossed, knowing by phone that they are massacring my ambassador or entering the Venezuelan Embassy. No. I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert.

Bolivian President Evo Morales To allow people to participate and decide the future of their country through their vote, it is not possible that some groups ignore this, including the military. This is a discredit to the armed forces, who democratically participate in the decisions that the people of each country take. We no longer live under dictatorships. Those will continue to fail. What is currently happening in Honduras is an adventure of a group of the military who have assaulted democracy. Thus they will fail.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez I’m deeply worried about the situation in Honduras. It reminds us of the worst years in Latin America’s history. We will demand that the OAS [Organization of American States] fully comply with the democratic charter that requires unconditional respect for democracy and, above all, the restoration of the Honduran president. I do not hesitate to call this a return to barbarity. All countries of the continent and the entire international community should demand the return of the democratically elected president.

Ecuadorean Foreign Ministry [Ecuador] will not recognize any government that is not that of President Manuel Zelaya.

Office of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodruigez Zapatero The head of the government expressed his strongest condemnation for the illegal detention and expulsion of the constitutional president of the republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya. The solution to any dispute must always be found through dialogue and respect for democratic rules. There is not, neither can there ever be, a solution to the Honduran crisis outside the country’s constitutional framework.

Zelaya Confirms he is in Costa Rica

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:06:00 +0000

President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya confirmed he is in Costa Rica, as he was kidnapped by Honduran military officers, who dragged him from his residence.

During a telephone contact with TELESUR (), Zelaya made clear he continues in his post, he did not request political asylum and intends to attend a meeting of Central American presidents scheduled for Managua, Nicaragua, to condemn the coup in his nation and demand the restoration of constitutional order.

Zelaya called on the Honduran people, their social organizations and unions to unite and fight peacefully for their rights, without violence, through civil disobedience.

'The leaders of the armed forces have deceived me, they have offended me, they stormed my house early morning, breaking the door,' he explained. 'It is a brutal kidnapping what they have done against me, with no justification but our desire to do good to Honduras and install a participative democratic process.'

He said that today 'we were scheduled to carry out a non binding survey, as any other international pollster usually does.'

The objective was to know the people's opinion about the possibility to vote in November in favor or against convening a Constituent Assembly in the future and reform the Constitution.

'This cannot justify the interruption of democracy or the coup,' considered Zelaya.

'We have no way to communicate with the people because radio and TV broadcast were shut down, and they cut the power,' he denounced.

'The people have the right to uprising if their rights are violated, as established in article three of the Constitution,' he noted.

In Zelaya's opinion, the coup has been perpetrated by a voracious elite with power, influence in the State and in the national economy, a small group that is even far from the stand of many Armed Forces soldiers and officers.

Military Coup in Honduras

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:58:00 +0000

Visit and for articles and updated information.

A military coup has taken place in Honduras this morning (Sunday, June 28), led by “School of Americas” SOA graduate Romeo Vasquez. In the early hours of the day, members of the Honduran military surrounded the presidential palace and forced the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, into custody. He was immediately flown to Costa Rica.

A national vote had been scheduled to take place today in Honduras to consult the electorate on a proposal of holding a Constitutional Assembly in November. General Vasquez had refused to comply with this vote and was deposed by the president, only to later be reinstated by the Congress and Supreme Court.

The Honduran state television was taken off the air. The electricity supply to the capital Tegucigalpa, as well telephone and cell phone lines were cut. Government institutions were taken over by the military. While the traditional political parties, Catholic church and military have not issued any statements, the people of Honduras are going into the streets, in spite of the fact that the streets are militarized. From Costa Rica, President Zelaya has called for a non-violent response from the people of Honduras, and for international solidarity for the Honduran democracy.

While the European Union and several Latin American governments just came out in support of President Zelaya and spoke out against the coup, a statement that was just issued by Barack Obama fell short of calling for the reinstatement of Zelaya as the legitimate president.

Call the State Department and the White House Demand that they call for the immediate reinstatement of Honduran President Zelaya.

State Department: 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339

White House: Comments: 202-456-1111, Switchboard: 202-456-1414

Gay penguins hatch egg

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:03:00 +0000

A gay penguin couple in a German zoo has hatched an egg that was rejected by its biological parents, and is rearing the chick.

'Z and Vielpunkt, both males, gladly accepted their 'Easter present' and began straight away with hatching the egg,' said the zoo in Bremerhaven Wednesday.

Joachim Schoene, a zoo vet, said: 'A pair abandoned an egg by pushing it out of their nest and so we placed it in the care of the homosexual penguins.

'They accepted the egg immediately and took turns in incubating it with their body heat. They did this for 35 days and the baby was born on April 25.

'It is in a little cave in the enclosure which is fiercely guarded by one or the other at all times so we don't know yet if we have a little boy penguin or a little girl one.'

The two daddies feed their offspring with fish mash that they chew up and regurgitate into its ever-open beak.

'Homosexuality is nothing unusual among animals,' the zoo said. 'Sex and coupling up in our world do not necessarily have anything to do with reproduction.'

New NGO to aid Middle Eastern LGBT refugees

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:09:00 +0000

Groundbreaking refugee advocacy organization focuses on refugees fleeing sexual & gender based violence.

ORAM – Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration Launches Programs for Middle Eastern Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Refugees and Migrants

San Francisco, CA (June 18, 2009) – ORAM, a groundbreaking international refugee advocacy organization, announced its launch today. The Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration is the first non-governmental organization (NGO) to focus exclusively on refugees and asylum seekers fleeing sexual and gender based violence.

ORAM provides free legal counsel for LGBT refugees in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), who have escaped violence, executions and “honor killings” in their home countries. Additionally, ORAM conducts wide-ranging international advocacy to advance the protection of all LGBT refugees and asylum seekers.

LGBT refugees often become “stuck” in their countries of first asylum, typically neighboring the places they have escaped harassment, violence, torture or death threats. With hostility toward LGBTs rampant in many areas, they are uniquely at risk, both in the countries they’ve escaped and in their “transit” countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted these facts in her statement earlier this month that “gays and lesbians in many parts of the world live under constant threat of arrest, violence, even torture.” According to the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), homosexuality remains illegal in eighty-five countries and carries the death penalty in seven. Often lacking formal refugee protection, LGBT refugees are particularly at risk.

“LGBT refugees often ‘fall through the cracks’ of the international refugee regime,” according to Neil Grungras, executive director of ORAM. “They have escaped systematic hatred and violence at home, and their LGBT identity brings serious new threats to their safety and protection in countries of first asylum. Many live in a toxic mix of destitution and desperation.”

Grungras has more than twenty years experience working on behalf of vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. He founded ORAM in January 2009 after serving as director for Europe & the Middle East at HIAS, a leading refugee and migration organization. Among his postings, he directed the U.S. Department of State Overseas Processing Entity (OPE) for Iranian refugees in Vienna, Austria.

Alongside its work helping individuals, ORAM also passionately advocates and educates on behalf of LGBT refugees as a group. Raising consciousness about their plight to governments, refugee organizations, communities and the media is critical in bringing desperately needed basic protection to this at-risk population.

The NGO hopes its community-based “Adopt a Refugee” program will create a grassroots network of inspired advocates for susceptible LGBT refugees. Supporting institutions can follow migrants and refugees through their trek to freedom, receiving case updates. Adopted refugees are invited to communicate with their sponsors, forming unique bonds of additional support.

ORAM has already assisted dozens of LGBTs who’ve escaped persecution and honor killings in the MENA region. Using communications technology to assist refugees in places where help was previously unavailable, the organization has been able to work with many LGBT refugees who have sought its help in existing project areas.

“The recent surge in homophobic violence in Iraq has shone a spotlight on the painful truths we’re dealing with first-hand in the Middle East,” said Grungras. “LGBT refugees are the most persecuted people in many regions of the world today. For every reported execution, there are likely tens of judicially or family sanctioned murders, often in the name of honor.”

ORAM will co-publish its first report later this month on LGBT asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey. For more information, visit .

Greenland moves toward independence

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:34:00 +0000

While much attention has been lavished on Latin America's move toward socialism and on the special role played by indigenous peoples in these struggles, similar advances have been taking place at the other end of the American continent where Greenland is on the move to independence with a newly elected left government.

The Arctic territory of Greenland, only a few hundred miles from the north pole, moved one step closer to independence. On June 21st Denmark's Queen Margrethe II visited the capital Nuuk to officially hand the law of self-rule over to the Greenlandic parliament.

This historic event followed the June 2nd election where the pro-independence and socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit (Inuit Community) party won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections, doubling the number of seats it holds in the 'Landsting' and routing the social democratic Siumut party which has governed for the last 30 years. _ Last year Greenlanders voted by a 3 to 1 margin to move from a limited status instituted in 1979 to self-rule. Denmark has ruled Greenland since 1721.

Self-rule means that newly elected Prime Minister, Kuupik Kleist, and his government will now control the police and courts. The Greenlandic government now gets to call itself by its Inuit name, Naalakkersuisut, the Inuit language, Kalaallisut, will replace Danish as the official language, and the country will collect a greater share of revenues from its natural resources.

Denmark will remain responsible for defense and foreign policy for the time being. The new government will have to deal with growing unemplyment, alcoholism, and other legacies of colonialism.

Greenland, whose population is over 80% Inuit is an active member of two international organizations: the Arctic Council which includes eight Arctic countries in Asia, Europe and North America; and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference which represents the 150,000 Inuit people in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and Chukotka in eastern Siberia.

Greenland is the planet's largest Island at 840 thousand square miles, 80% of which is covered by a massive ice cap up to three miles thick in places. 57,000 inhabitants, mainly Inuit(Eskimo) subsist off fish, skin and hide exports, heavily subsidized by Denmark. It's believed that rich deposits of oil, natural gas, gold and diamonds lay under the ice cap.

Melting ice brought on by global warming might well be a bonanza for Greenland's people. The new government will need to deal with the international oil and mining corporations salivating at the profits they hope to derive from these resources.

Greenland, which lies just off the northeast coast Canada was settled by Viking colonists led by Erik the Red between 982 and 985 AD. The ancestors of today's Inuit population had moved into northern Greenland at about the same time and were slowly moving down the coast.

Two hundred years later the north Atlantic underwent a cooling 'little ice age' making contact with Europe difficult. The European settlers were not able to contend with the increasing cold. Crops were harder to grow, their cows and sheep suffered, and depletion of the sparse wood supply meant they were unable to build ships, or make iron. When Europeans reached Greenland three hundred years later the only inhabitants they found were Inuits, whose culture was better adapted to the harsh conditions.

50 years of Cuban Agrarian Reform: overcoming challenges to feed the people

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:02:00 +0000

BOYEROS CUBA – Pulling up to the Granma Producers Cooperative Elena Mora and I were warmly greeted by a group of farmers eager to make friends and share the fruits of their hard work. On this blazing hot day, we were ushered into a space sheltered by a traditional thatched roof built by the farmers. They seated us at a long table and proudly piled it with baskets of fruits they had grown – mangos, plantains, guayaba, kimchi, mamei and papaya.

Our visit coincided with national celebrations for the 50th Anniversary of the First Agrarian Reform on May 17, 1959, one of the first acts of the Cuban Revolution. Before the Revolution, 73% of the land was owned by just 9% of landowners, mainly wealthy US investors. Eighteen percent of the best agricultural lands were in the hands of just 15 people. Cuban agriculture produced for export sugar and tobacco and little else. Farmers couldn’t feed their families and starvation was rampant in the countryside.

The reform immediately handed over 1 million hectors of land to 100,000 farmers. Soon the countryside was electrified, everyone learned to read and write, schools, housing and medical clinics were built.

Feeding the people

As we snacked on fruit and sipped coconut juice, the farmers regaled us with stories of the history of the cooperative and how they were tackling difficult challenges today. Our meal was topped off with the savoriest coffee one could imagine grown by cooperative.

“We have 82 farmers here,” explained Imeluis Dominguez Del Rosario, President of the local chapter of the National Association of Small Farmers. “They were individual farmers who teamed up to form a Credit and Service Cooperative (CCS) in 2005. We produce a variety of products like milk, pork meat, fruit, and ornamental plants including the Jose Marti lily. “Our first duty is to feed the Cuban people,” said Del Rosario. She noted that every Cuban receives an adequate amount of nutrition although rationing of basic foods still exists because the restructuring of agriculture is not complete.

The CCS, where farmers own their own land but pool resources with other farmers, is the oldest of three types of producer-based cooperatives that now dominate Cuban agricultural. The Cooperatives of Small Producers (CPA) hold all land and equipment in common. A 3rd Agrarian Reform in 1993 began breaking up many big state farms into small cooperatives called Basic Units of Production and Service (UBPC).

The Granma Cooperative sits on 56 hectors of land once owned by three wealthy families. The cooperative’s oldest farmer and resident historian, Elisio Ramon Mendoza Camejo, recounted how Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista’s brother had a farm nearby. He held “lavish parties with naked dancers. The farm was surrounded by big fences to keep us out.” Needless to say Batista fled with his brother after the Revolution and the land was taken over during the 1st Agrarian Reform.

“Following the Revolution, the peasants learned to read and write,” said Del Rosario. “They learned history and as a result will never go back to the way things were. We’ll never give up our free health care, education, housing and jobs.” The cooperative signs production contracts with the Ministry of Trade, which in addition to supplying kindergartens, pre-schools and medical clinics sells products to food markets. Farmers get 77% of what is paid to the cooperative. The remainder goes into a common account to improve facilities and machinery. The cooperative meets monthly to make decisions including how to allocate the money.

The 3rd Agrarian Reform in 1993 launched immense changes and occurred in the wake of the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They centered on decentralization of production, expansion of arable land, crop diversification and greater use of incentives.

The US imposed blockade had made Cuba dependent on the Soviet Union and the socialist economic community. In exchange for sugar, Cuba received favorable deals for petroleum, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, tractors, other farm implements and spare parts. Cuba also adopted the highly centralized Soviet agricultural model with its large state farms.

When socialism collapsed Cuba lost 85% of its imports overnight. The so-called “Special Period” meant among other things severe food shortages and extreme hardships. Far from being demoralized, the entire country mobilized in response.

Decentralization and organic farming Without the imports Cuban farmers were forced to adopt organic and low-tech methods of production. Farmers drew on a thriving organic farming culture that had existed for years. They eventually replaced tractors with 400,000 oxen and horses and recycled cattle and pig manure into compost that substituted for chemical fertilizer. They instituted crop rotation and natural methods to deal with destructive pests. Everything on the Granma Cooperative is organically grown without a trace of chemicals and part of Cuba’s world-renowned sustainable agriculture system. An international conference examining Cuba’s sustainable agriculture system was being held in Varadero during our visit. Participants included sixteen Americans organized by Global Exchange.

“Our cooperative is part of the nationwide ecological movement. Organic farming minimizes the damages of intensive agriculture. We only produce healthy products and use agricultural technology in balance with the environment,” explained Cooperative President Andres Izquierdo. Each cooperative has an environmental and technical specialist who helps the farmers implement sustainable practices. Scientific and technical forums are held on local, regional and national levels to share the latest developments. A coffee grower at the Granma cooperative developed a method for protecting coffee beans from the destructive Broca pest by simply soaking them in water for a couple of days. He saved 100% of his crop and his technique spread across the country.

Even before the Special Period the Cubans had concluded large-scale centralized production was highly inefficient. The Reform was an opportunity to break up many of the large state farms into cooperatives where decision-making was decentralized and incentives boosted. Crop production was also diversified from a sugar monoculture.

The changes have been immensely effective and production of some crops has begun to return to pre-Special Period levels. Everyone we spoke with told us there will be no going back to the old ways even when the US blockade ends. Earlier that day we met Orlando Lugo Fonte, national president of ANAP. He explained how the agrarian reform was continuing today. The Cuban government has made an urgent priority of overcoming food shortages while they simultaneously become more self-sufficient in response to rapidly rising prices on the global food market.

“Every available plot of land is sought out for cultivation. Over one million hectors of fallow state owned land have been opened for cultivation in the last few years and over 150,000 people have decided to try life on the farm,” said Fonte.

Since the start of the Special Period urban agriculture has become a huge source of fruits and vegetables. By 2006 urban farms were producing 4.2 million tons of food and employing 354,000 people. Over 5,000 once polluted sites have been turned into gardens.

Incentives and socialism

Fonte said more incentives are being employed to boost production. Once some of the nation’s lowest paid workers, farmers are now considered a strategic sector and prices they are paid for agricultural products have been raised to bolster incomes.

We asked our Granma friends if they ever had a problem with a lazy farmer. They laughed and said such a farmer would be kicked out of the cooperative. But then they turned serious and replied everyone had an incentive to produce for their families and themselves and working hard wasn’t a problem. They have an individual and collective incentive to profit.

The government has transferred the vast distributive network responsible for buying 90% of agricultural products from cooperatives and farms from the Agricultural Ministry to the domestic Ministry of Trade. The number of state produce markets where farmers can sell their products is being doubled.

The food needs of Cuba are vast and present a ready market for US farmers and agri-business corporations. Surprisingly, Cuba’s largest supplier of food and agricultural products is the US where it gets 70% of its corn and 40% of its wheat. When the restrictive blockade falls, Cuban imports should rise dramatically. For example Cuba gets the bulk of its rice all the way from Vietnam instead of nearby Arkansas.

One can’t help but be inspired with how the Cuban people have faced every adversity and turned negatives into positives along the way. With their collective can-do spirit it seems there’s no problem they can’t conquer and no dream they can’t harvest.

WORLDNOTES, Lithuania, China, Uganda, Global, Iraq, and Cuba

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:41:00 +0000

Lithuania: Anti-gay legislation protested

Parliament last week banned discussion of homosexuality in schools and in literature available to children. Viewing the legislation as discriminatory, gay rights and human rights groups including Amnesty International launched a campaign mediated through the European Parliament and EU leaders to urge the government to revise the new policies.

That effort is stymied in part over the possibility that the European Convention on Human Rights only covers discrimination in employment.

Local gay rights groups cited by Inter Press Service attribute passage of the law to the influence of a “homophobic society strongly influenced by [the] Catholic Church.” Experts say economic dislocation has fueled animus against gays, which is rife throughout Eastern Europe, as well as attacks against immigrants and Roma people.

China: News service overhauled

The Communist Party this month authorized a restructuring of the People’s Daily newspaper. Reporters worldwide will work in new branch offices. Expansion from 16 to 20 pages will enhance coverage of “international news, social construction news and theories, literature and art reviews.”

According to its web site, the news service intends “to show the characteristics of the era” to party members and a “vast number of readers.” Guiding the change will be the “three closeness[es]: close to reality, close to life and close to the masses.”

Last year, People’s Daily introduced an internet platform to further citizen communication with local government officials. The purpose, reported the Global Times, is to make government “more transparent, efficient, and democratic.”

Uganda: Desertification advances

The 2008 State of Environment Report, released June 17 and reported on the New Vision web site, indicates that “The entire forest eco-system has disappeared in 23 districts,” also that 3 million acres — 30 percent of the country’s forest cover — were lost between 1990 and 2005.

The National Environment Management Authority predicts deforestation and near-desertification will be almost total by 2050. Contributing factors include a growing population’s use of wood and charcoal, bush burning, and diversion of land to agricultural, construction and industrial uses.

Overgrazing, the melting of ice on Mount Ruwenzori, and agricultural and housing encroachment on wetlands have led to decreased availability of water, manifested by declining biodiversity of wetland species and rivers that disappear.

Global: UN documents hunger

One billion people, including 642 million living in the Asia-Pacific region, are hungry, according to a report released June 19 by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The record high includes 100 million people added last year through rising unemployment and falling income attributed to the world financial crisis.

Food prices rose 24 percent from 2006 through 2008.

FAO spokesman Kostas Stamoulis highlighted as a contradiction that “a lot of the world is very rich despite the economic crisis.” The BBC also quoted FAO Director General Jacques Diouf who warned that hunger affecting one-sixth of the world population “poses a serious risk for world peace and security.” He urged governments to provide agricultural support, particularly for small farmers.

Iraq: A plague of serpents

Snakes have descended upon southern Iraq. A medical administrator in Dhi Qar Province reported six deaths. “People are terrified and are leaving their homes,” he noted. Snakes “are attacking buffalo and cattle.”

Experts see heat and dryness as causes. Severe drought has prevailed for four years, and Tigris and Euphrates River flow has dropped 75 percent over 10 years. Dams in Turkey and Syria permit diversion of water for irrigation. Almost half the agricultural land that once made Iraq a cereal exporter has been lost to desertification.

The UK Independent last week foresaw the possibility, little noted outside Iraq, of “one of the world’s greatest natural disasters, akin to the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest.” Iraq has appealed to Turkey to release impounded water.

Cuba: Cuban Five prisoner responds

Protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal recently to consider the case of the Cuban Five, Rene Gonzalez, one of them, declared, “Once more the judicial death mask … falls away, revealing the true face of North American imperialism and insulting the world’s conscience.” U.S. law does little to rein in terrorist impunity, he noted on rebelion.org.

Cuba’s National Union of Writers and Artists last week called upon “U.S. colleagues” to back the Five. Citing support from Nobel Prize Winners, parliamentarians, lawyers’ groups, religious bodies and human rights activists “throughout the planet,” the Union demanded that President Obama free them, as “an act of elemental justice.”

Gonzalez, however, has less faith in “ethical considerations or universal clamor” than in the “price imposed by resistance.”

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@roadrunner.com)

Venezuela and US to restore diplomats

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:51:00 +0000

Original source:

Venezuela and the United States have agreed to restore their ambassadors more than nine months after President Hugo Chavez expelled the US envoy from Caracas.

Mr Chavez signalled that he still had major differences with Washington, accusing the US of having a hand in recent protests in Iran and saying that he hoped President Barack Obama will lead the US on a new path.

'I hope that Obama takes charge of dismantling the empire,' he said.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said that the governments have agreed to overturn the 'persona non grata' status given to each other's ambassadors in September, when Mr Chavez expelled US ambassador Patrick Duddy and recalled his envoy to Washington.

Mr Chavez said at the time that he had kicked out the ambassador to show solidarity with Bolivia after Bolivian President Evo Morales had ordered out the top US diplomat in his country, accusing him of 'seeking the division of Bolivia.'

Mr Maduro said that he had spoken with top US diplomat for the Americas Thomas Shannon and that they had 'effectively reached an agreement on the proposal.'

'The two ambassadors will re-establish their positions immediately,' Mr Maduro said.

However, US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that the time frame for restoring the ambassadors remained unclear.

President Hugo Chavez has ushered three new countries into a bloc of leftist-led south American allies and said that their voices will be heard at the UN world financial summit.

The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas grew to nine countries on Wednesday with the addition of new members Ecuador, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda.

Other members are Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Dominica, Honduras and Nicaragua.

No peace, no silence in Colombia

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:39:00 +0000

New documentation is available on the precariousness of life and pall of terror weighing upon Colombia. Why has deadly conflict persisted for decades? Why have rich nations turned a blind eye, or lent a hand?

Britain’s Colombia Solidarity Campaign joined a multinational delegation in February to Arauca department in solidarity with oil workers there. A report appearing on the group’s web site provides background for a wave of murders there.

Arauca, located along the Venezuelan border, came under military control last September as a “zone of consolidation and rehabilitation.” Colombia’s interior minister characterized the oil-producing state as a “laboratory of war.”

Disappearances, killing, and displacement are routine. Paramilitaries and the army have joined in massacres. Roadblocks cause food shortages. Displacement aggravates malnutrition and sickness. Social services are nearly absent due to government neglect. Members of teacher, oil worker, health worker, peasant, and public employee unions are punished.

A tally of recent deaths provided by colombiaindymedia.org includes these victims: Hector Parra Suarez, cattle ranch worker, June 15, Fortul; Ramiro Castellanos Mantilla, June 12, Saravena; Alexis Moreno Merchan, June 12, Barrio Las Flores; Jorge Humberto Echeverri, teacher, unionist, community leader, June 11, Arauquita; Pablo Rodriguez Garavito, teacher, unionist, June 9, Puerto Rondo; Jairo Pinto, farm worker, June 9, Puerto Rondo; Linderman German Farias, indigenous, June 8, Tame.

Others, all killed in Arauquita, were: Luis Eduardo Leon Moreno, June 6; Wilman Navarro, June 5; Ana Leon Morena, May 16; and Milton Blanco, teacher and unionist April 24. For some, occupations were unspecified.

In a just-released report, the International Trade Union Confederation listed 76 unionists killed worldwide last year, 49 of them Colombian ― a 25 percent hike in one year.

Philip Alston, special UN rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, conducted a 10-day investigation in Colombia in June. He focused on killings of thousands of civilians by the military over six years, carried out to provide bodies that, dressed in guerrilla uniforms, could be presented as insurgent casualties. The military wanted to advertise victories. Murderers gained extra pay.

In a preliminary report available on the reliefweb.int web site, Alston noted that the killings “disproportionately affect rural and poor populations, indigenous people, Afro-Colombians, trade unionists, human rights defenders and community leaders.” The known victims represent “the tip of the iceberg.” He implicated ostensibly demobilized paramilitaries.

Data on divisions within Colombian society suggest class conflict as central to out-of- bounds warfare directed at the many.

Poverty is variously estimated at 50 to 60 percent, with a 60 percent-40 percent rural- urban differential. Extreme poverty afflicts almost one-fourth of rural Colombians. Some 13 percent of young children suffer from acute malnutrition and almost 30 percent from chronic malnutrition. The probability of Colombians dying under age 40 approaches 10 percent.

Wealth is concentrated: 1.4 per cent of landowners hold 65 per cent of Colombian land and 0.4 per cent of them own 61 per cent of the farm land. Peasants fleeing conflict have abandoned 15 million acres, mostly to agribusiness and extractive industries. The internally displaced exceed 4 million, almost half living in households headed by women.

Based on its Gini coefficient ― a measure of wealth distribution ― Colombia is Latin America’s second-most unequal country, after Brazil. Ten percent of the country’s wealthy earn 30 times more than the poorest 10 percent. Overall, 5 percent of the population controls over 90 percent of Colombian property.

Class division long ago induced the poor to join in defending themselves for the sake of survival. The rich and powerful took fright, magnifying the fears of others and exploiting divisions. Their tool was and is the bogeyman of a communist menace. Guerrilla insurgencies, continuing over decades, have served as foil. Peaceful conflict resolution remains a distant dream. War and militarization continue.

The United States, bloated on anti-communism and anti-terrorism, brought Colombia into the cold war. Since 2000 the country has received over $5 billion in U.S. military aid, spent largely on fomenting terror. Now the U.S. and Canadian governments, alert to business profits, move toward free trade agreements with Colombia. In May, the Pentagon asked Congress for $46 million to develop a new military base in Palanquero, Colombia, condemned by the Fellowship of Reconciliation as “giv[ing] the United States military increased capacity for intervention throughout most of Latin America.”

Angry wife puts hubby to sleep, cuts off testicles

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:01:00 +0000

BEIJING, June 19 -- To protect her marriage, a gynecologist in Xiaoxian, Jiangxi province, sliced off of her hubby's testicles.

Li, a hardworking doctor, takes good care of her two children. But her husband surnamed Huang had an 18-year-old mistress two years ago. Li asked for a divorce but Huang turned her down.

When he suffered from diarrhea last month, Li gave him sleeping pills rather than medicine. When Huang was sleeping, Li used a fruit knife to remove his testicles.

After Li was arrested, Huang asked police to give her leniency because he felt responsible for the tragedy.

Hunger drives man to jail

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:31:00 +0000

BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A jobless Taiwanese national stole a box of cotton swabs to get arrested again and have free lunch in jail.

Tsou Hao-lan from Taipei first stole a pair of shoes Sunday. He was detained and released, according to local media. But, because he was unable to forget the police department boxed lunches, the man then resorted to stealing again the next day just to get back inside and be fed for free.

'If someone's not doing well and comes in around meal time, we'll definitely prepare food,' said an officer, surnamed Wang, at the Hsinyi District police station, which handled the case but again released the suspect, Tsou Hao-lan.

In another case recently, a man who had been unemployed for four months stole a motor scooter and drove directly to the police station so that he could be easily arrested.

Iraq violence seen as effort to derail pullout

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:24:00 +0000

A string of deadly bombings has hit Baghdad and other areas as the U.S. prepares to pull out of Iraqi cities and towns next week.

A car bomb at a bus station in a Shiite neighborhood in southwest Baghdad on Thursday killed at least seven people and wounded 31 others, police said. A massive motorbike bomb explosion late Wednesday killed 78 people and wounded more than 100 in an open-air market in Baghdad's densely populated Shiite Sadr City.

Most of the attacks so far have targeted Shiites or communities with predominantly Shiite populations, according to Associated Press reporter Patrick Quinn.

The killing spree began June 20 with a series of car bombings and other attacks in several cities, including a massive suicide truck bombing that killed 82 people in a mainly Shiite town near the northern city of Kirkuk, a scene of ongoing ethnic strife. It was the deadliest bombing so far this year.

More than 160 people have died in bombings over the past five days.

Under the security agreement signed by the U.S. and Iraq last December, all U.S. combat troops must leave Iraqi cities and towns on June 30. They must pull out of Iraq completely by the end of 2011.

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni from the Iraqi Islamic Party, said Thursday that the attacks aim to delay or hamper the U.S. withdrawal from Iraqi cities by the end of June, according to a statement posted on his website, the Aswat al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq) news agency reported.

The Iraqi Communist Party said the attacks serve to disrupt the withdrawal timetable and prolong the U.S. occupation.

The “new wave of violence and terrorism is aiming, among other things, to drag the country once again to the brink of sectarian strife, spread a climate of fear and terror in the hearts of citizens, destroy the signs of security improvement that the country had started to experience during recent months and destabilize the relative political stability,” the Iraqi Communists said in a .

“Contrary to what the planners and perpetrators of these acts have claimed, the recent wave of bombings serve, ultimately, to obstruct the restoration of Iraq's full sovereignty and independence, and the implementation of the timetable for withdrawing foreign forces, thus prolonging the presence of occupation forces.”

The party said the wave of violence also seeks to influence the referendum on the Iraq-U.S. agreement that is currently set for late July.

suewebb @ pww.org

The writing is on the settlement walls

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:51:00 +0000

JERUSALEM, Jun 24 (IPS) - A paralyzing equation has long bedevilled would-be Middle East peacemakers: either, go directly to negotiating the kernel issues of the Israel-Palestine conflict - borders, security, refugees, Jerusalem - and leave, in the context of a full peace, the thorny question of Israeli settlements in the West Bank to fall naturally into place. Or, tackle the settlements head-on, thereby opening the way for a peace drive.

Under U.S. prodding, during the past decade the first side of the equation has been tried over and over again. Fruitlessly. The result has been a zero-sum game.

Now, U.S. President Barack Obama is plumping for the second approach: the dismantling of Israel's settlement policy. An absolute freeze on all settlement activity is a must, the White House says.

Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, speaking on Israeli Public Television, noted that the President's pursuit of peace is contingent not only on Israel responding, but also on the Arab world responding (in terms of gradual normalising of relations in the spirit of the Arab peace initiative). But, stressed Indyk, the U.S. believes it impossible to convince the Arab and Muslim world to start moving without tangible action from Israel first: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must demonstrate that he is serious about peace.

Netanyahu, though, still believes he can subvert the Obama challenge. Sidestepping a meeting with U.S. presidential envoy to the region Senator George Mitchell, planned for Friday in Paris, the Israeli leader is instead dispatching his Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, to Washington for talks at the beginning of next week. The Israeli purpose is to turn around what is being labelled by some Israeli officials as a U.S. fixation with the 'settlements first' strategy.

Barak believes that if there is real progress on both the Palestinian peace track and that with the whole Arab world, that would minimise the settlement issue considerably, an Israeli government official told IPS. A source close to Barak added: 'If there's progress on the peace talks, the status of the big settlement blocs close to the 1967 border (which Israel hopes to keep in any final peace agreement) will become clearer, and the gaps on the core issues will be easier to bridge.' Israel and the United States have already agreed that all 'unauthorised settlement outposts' will be removed 'within weeks or months', no new settlements built, and no Palestinian land confiscated. Serious disagreement remains, however, over settlement construction projects already under way.

Israel is reportedly considering a temporary (few months) freeze on all building - excluding those projects already under way - provided the U.S. agrees that, once the freeze ends, Israel will be permitted to go on building inside existing settlements to cater for 'natural growth' of the settler population.

To buttress the Israeli argument that settlements are a secondary issue, Barak is already moving on a parallel track. According to the reliable daily Ha'aretz, there has been a dramatic change over recent weeks in Israel's roadblock policy within the West Bank. The Israeli army has lifted some of the permanent roadblocks which for years have sorely impeded free movement by Palestinians in their territory.

Excluding the checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel itself which remain in place, the report says the army is now manning only ten checkpoints within the West Bank. Eighteen months ago, no fewer than 35 such roadblocks were fully operational.

This move amounts to a first Israeli acknowledgment that the security situation in the West Bank has improved as a result of a U.S.-led effort to build up the security forces of the Palestinian Authority under Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Since these new Israeli security steps are implemented by the defence establishment, Netanyahu has not needed to seek cabinet endorsement, and has thus been able to sidestep his right-wing coalition.

But the partial easing of the easily removable symbol of occupation - the checkpoints - is most unlikely to get him off the Obama hook. The President's decisiveness on settlements demonstrates that what the U.S. is after are the permanent symbols of occupation, and that he will not be deflected from his purpose.

During 20 years of failed peacemaking, Israel's modus operandi - and also the U.S. modus operandi - has been problematic. Even when successive Israeli governments demonstrated a genuine commitment to move peace forward, it was invariably accompanied by the creation of new realities in the West Bank. The U.S. invariably gave continued settlement expansion a nod and a wink. Inevitably, real progress towards peace was impeded. Arab confidence in the U.S. was eroded.

Under Obama, the U.S. is less intent on challenging Arab peace intentions. Rather, by challenging the Israeli leader's unwillingness to deconstruct Israel's settlement policy, he is testing Netanyahu's recently declared acceptance of a two-state solution.

The high-profile argument has become a test of Obama's credibility. Beyond the President's overtures to the Muslim and Arab values as enunciated in his Cairo speech earlier this month, what is really changing negative Muslim and Arab attitudes towards the U.S. is the relentless insistence that a settlement freeze is a U.S. 'national interest', not just in the interests of the states in the region.

Benjamin Netanyahu is sorely misjudging this shift in the overall thrust of U.S. policy.

For four decades, Israel was posited as the fulcrum of any broad U.S. Middle East strategy. That could all change if Netanyahu doesn't accept the U.S. settlement demand. It would mean not the abandoning of Israel, nor the jeopardising of Israel's security, but it could very well mean the downsizing of Israel to the role of 'just one of key U.S. allies in the region.'

By accepting, even unwillingly, the need for a future Palestinian state, Netanyahu may have begun the deconstruction of Israeli right-wing ideology. Obama wants more from him - the dismantling of his settlement ideology. If the Prime Minister refuses to accept what the U.S. has defined as a 'national interest', Israel could well land up being labelled not 'just one key ally' in the Middle East, but 'a problematic ally'.