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Thursday, February 27, 2003
It's being reported that Portugal sold missiles and mines to Iraq in 1993, violating the United Nations arms embargo on Hussein's regime. In exchange for providing Iraq with bombs, grenades, torpedoes, and cartridges, the Portuguese state-owned company, Indep, received 50,000 euros. In addition, Portuguese companies received 100,000 euros for electrical equipment likely used in the construction of aircraft.
During the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), half of Portugal's arm sales went to the two belligerents.
2/27/2003
Wednesday, February 26, 2003 Bulgaria's Muslims: Bulgaria's political party, The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (the DPS), plans on suing the Bulgarian state before an international tribunal (it's not exactly clear which one) for the former communist regime's forced assimilation of that country's ethnically Turkish, Muslim minorities. According to Vesselin Dimitrov in this article from the Journal of Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, "between December 1984 and January 1985, nearly one million people, more than a tenth of Bulgaria's population were forced to change their names...Speaking Turkish in public places was banned and fines were imposed on the transgressors. Religious activity was heavily restricted and in many localities the mosques were closed altogether. Circumcision and other Muslim rites were declared criminal."
The authorities who supervised this ethnic conversion campaign have never been held legally responsible.
2/26/2003
"The [Greek] border official asked Mr. Petrevski a question in Greek, and when Mr. Petrevski replied in English that he did not speak Greek, the border official threw the passport at him and demanded that he return to the Republic of Macedonia. A moment later, the border official asked to see Mr. Petrevski’s passport again and actually began speaking to him in Macedonian. The border official again threw the passport back at him and this time yelled 'back' at him in Macedonian."
Detention of Asylum Seeker: The World Organization Against Torture (known by its French acronym OMCT) reports that Hormez Wisam , a 17-year old Iraqi refugee who illegally entered Greece, has been sentenced to 4 months in prison and deportation back to Iraq. Wisam, a Catholic, was seeking political asylum; however Greek authorities were unwilling even to accept his application. He was subsequently arrested for lacking legal papers and tried without a lawyer.
2/26/2003
The Roma: The Humanitarian Law Center is suing the manager of a Serbian sports and recreation complex in the area of Šabac who is accused of banning Roma from his facilities. According to the Law Center, "When the three Roma tried to buy tickets for the [swimming] pool, the employee at the entrance told them they could not go in because they were Roma. The three non-Roma encountered no problems in buying tickets and asked the man to explain his refusal to admit the Roma. He replied that even if he let them in, the Roma would be ejected by security."
2/26/2003
50,000 Albanians protest in support of alleged Albanian war criminals to be tried at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.
2/26/2003
Greek Censorship: Gerhard Haderer's illustrated book, "The Life of Jesus," portrays its protagonist as a drug abuser whose miracles occur by luck. While the book has been published in Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, France, Sweden, Holland and Austria, Greek authorities have confiscated copies from stores after a court ordered an investigation into whether Haderer's book committed the insult of "insulting religion in the press." In addition, the author may be prosecuted for promoting drugs.
2/26/2003
Europe's Drugs:
--"In Europe, there continues to be considerable illicit manufacture of synthetic drugs, particularly MDMA (Ecstasy), which are then smuggled not only within the region, but also into other regions throughout the world, predominantly North America and Oceania and, to a lesser extent, Africa and parts of Asia."
--"In Europe, the problem of drug abuse appears to show no sign of abating...According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, in member States of the European Union, there are between 500,000 and 1 million drug injectors, excluding occasional and former drug injectors."
--"The Board encourages the Holy See, Liechtenstein and Switzerland to become parties to the 1988 Convention, which is the basis for effectively addressing illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and other activities related to illicit drugs."
--"Romania is increasingly being used by international drug traffickers both as a transit country and as a country of destination for illicit drug consignments. The Board is concerned about the relatively low level of heroin seizures in that country in recent years."
--Excerpts from the International Narcotics Control Board's 2002 Annual Report
"For too many Europeans, Arabs are of no moral interest in and of themselves."
--Middle East analyst Stephen P. Cohen in Thomas Friedman's article.
2/26/2003
Belgian Terrorist Released from Prison: Pierre Carette, a member of the Fighting Communist Cells which launched a spate of bombing attacks across Belgium in the 1980s, has been released from prison after serving 17 years. Carette was implicated in the 1985 bombing of the Belgian Business Federation that killed 2 firemen. An unrepentant Carette is quoted as saying, "When I close the prison door behind me the red flag of the proletariat and the communist revolution will be proudly held up high."
2/26/2003
Amnesty International criticizes recent Spanish action against freedom of the press.
2/26/2003
French Immigrants:
(1) An African man fell from a plane to his death as a flight prepared to land at Paris' Roissy airport. The man may have hidden himself in the plane's landing gear before take off from Libreville or Bamako with the hopes of smuggling himself into France.
(2) The February 26th edition of 20 Minutes reports that an 18-year-old Iraqi teenager died in the town of Calais as he tried to leave France for England. The immigrant tried to jump onto the back of a truck but failed and was killed on the spot.
(3) The same edition of 20 Minutes also reports that police moved in on a group of Romas in the area of Achères and detained 15 individuals. 80 Romas were given permission to reside in Achères two years ago; however the community has since grown to over 150 people.
2/26/2003
UK Refugees: A UK High Court has ruled in favor of six asylum seekers (2 Angolans, an Iraqi Kurd, an Ethiopian, a Hutu, and an Iranian) who were denied state-financed food and shelter in accordance with legislation ("Section 55 rules") passed back in January by the Parliament. Section 55 requires asylum seekers to apply for asylum as soon as reasonably practicable upon their arrival in Britain or else face a denial of state-funded support. Justice Collins ruled that the legislation as applied in the six cases brought before the court violated the European Convention on Human Rights. He stated, "Parliament can surely not have intended that genuine refugees should be faced with the bleak alternatives of returning to persecution - itself a breach of the refugee convention - or of destitution."
Home Secretary David Blunkett will seek to overturn the ruling.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 Croatia's Serbs: The Institute for War and Peace Reporting indicates that the Croatian parliament is considering a law that, while allowing compensation to citizens harmed by Croatian military or police personnel during the war in ex-Yugoslavia, would not compensate damaged property. This new law will hit the Serb minority in Croatia particularly hard since around 20,000 houses, most of them belonging to Serbs, were burned and bombed in between 1991 and 1995. In particular, a Croatian military offensive between May and August of 1995 destroyed entire villages.
Croatian lawyer Mario Nobilo is quoted as stating, "The government's decision not to pay damages for deliberately burnt or shelled houses is a continuation of Tudjman's policy of discrimination towards minorities."
2/25/2003
The European Union's Prisons: "Relatively high rates of HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis and other infections associated with drug use are also found among the [356 000 person] prison population. For many prisoners, a return to problem drug use and regular offending on release, is a far too common outcome."
--A recent report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
2/25/2003
Possible IRA & ETA link to Bogota Bombing: The car bombing of a Bogota nightclub that killed over 30 people and wounded around 160 is being linked to IRA and ETA members.
2/25/2003
Belgian Unions out of Control: 48 executives and security personnel are being held hostage by union picketers at Belgium's largest nuclear power plant, the Tihange nuclear plant. Unable to leave the nuclear facility, the hostages are having food and water provided via helicopters. Belgium's Energy Ministe has assured the pubic that all nuclear safety regulations are being complied with in spite of the chaos. The union is protesting proposed job cuts.
2/25/2003
Monday, February 24, 2003 No Americans Served Here: Rob Nichols, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the US Treasury, was on the Eurostar train from London to Paris when he changed his mind about his breakfast order. Nichol's server first mocked the American's indecision and then refused to provide him with cutlery, stating "Give peace a chance." Nichols was obliged to borrow the Secretary of the Treasury's cutlery. When asked whether Eurostar had extended an apology for its employee's behavior, Nichols replied that no apology had been sought.
2/24/2003
(2) According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, "Over 90,000 servicemen have got state awards for courage and heroism displayed during the restoration of constitutional order and conduction of the Chechnya campaign, and 294 people have become Heroes of Russia."
(3) A song against the war in Chechnya is pulled from Russian MTV.
2/24/2003
Essa Marong: On December 2, 2001, a 40-year old Gambian national, Essa Marong, residing in Spain was arrested by police on charges of a drug trafficking offense. Twenty-four hours later, Marong was dead. An autopsy report implicated a massive internal haemorrhage. Spanish police were accused of gagging and beating the immigrant; however the police officers involved in the Marong incident were never put on trial. Over a year later, the Spanish government has changed its mind and announced that the police officers will be prosecuted.
2/24/2003
"As a European country-and future member of the European Union-that signed the Cairo Platform for Action, Poland is committed to addressing the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern. As we are sure you are aware, there are an estimated 80,000 to 200,000 abortions per year in Poland. In the year 2001, only 124 abortions were performed legally."
--A letter from over 146 leaders recently sent to Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
Colored People: "There are people in this state who have worked all of their lives and they don't, in their old-age pension, have the benefits these ladies [the defendants] have. The majority of shopping centres in this district court area will be putting a ban of access to coloured people if this type of behaviour does not stop...We give them dignity and respect, and the first thing they do is engage in criminal activity. All you are asked to do is conduct yourselves as any other citizen in this state."
--Republic of Ireland Judge John Neilan in a case involving two female immigrants--one from the Ivory Coast and the other from Togo--who had been charged with shoplifting.
Meanwhile, another Irish judge, Harvey Kenny, stated during a trial, "I don’t think any Nigerian is obeying the law of the land when it comes to driving." The case involved a Nigerian immigrant who was driving without insurance.
Mafia-Induced Depression: Censis and the BNC Foundation have published a study indicating that Italy's Mafia has significantly contributed to southern Italy's economic lag behind the northern half of the country. Censis and BNC claim that without the Mafia's criminal activity, the North and South would be economically on par with one another. Instead, the Mafia costs southern Italy around $8 billion each year.
2/24/2003
Denmark's Support of Neo-Nazi Radio: It's called Radio Oasen, and it describes itself as "racial conscious radio" that broadcasts White Power music in addition to readings of Mein Kampf. Granted a radio license in 1995 by the Danish broadcasting authorities, Radio Oasen is based in Greven, approximately 12 miles south of Copenhagen. According to Agence France-Presse, the Neo-Nazi radio station has received about 53,400 euros since 1996 from the Dutch government (which subsidizes local radio stations).
--"the denial of citizenship for persons affected by HIV/AIDS"
--"xenophobic tendencies towards Chechen asylum-seekers"
--"hatred against Muslims and Arab nationals" (in addition to a shortage of mosques and Muslim burial places in Denmark).
2/24/2003
Friday, February 21, 2003 The Hague: The first Albanians to have appeared before The Hague Tribunal are facing charges of murder, torture and illegal imprisonment of Serbian civilians as well as of Albanians who opposed their political campaign. The actions are alleged to have occurred in a camp run by the Kosovo Liberation Army (an Albanian guerilla group) during the late 1990's.
2/21/2003
The Belfast Telegraph reports, "Seamus Daly (32), of Kilmurray, Culloville, Castleblayney is charged that between April, 1998 and November, 2000, he was a member of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army." In particular, Daly is suspected of taking part in the 500-pound car bombing in the crowded heart of the Northern Irish town Omagh that killed 29 people and injured 220 back in 1998. The attack murdered Protestants and Catholics alike.
2/21/2003
Thursday, February 20, 2003
More immigrants risk their lives to enter Spain. Agence France-Presse reports 72 immigrants picked up in a period of 24 hours.
2/20/2003
French Mute Protests: Peter Tatchell, a vocal critic of Robert Mugabe's tactics in Zimbabwe, was detained by French police for "verification" purposes for three hours as he was leaving a subway station in Paris yesterday. His detention seems to be part of a heavy-handed police presence at the Franco-African summit.
2/20/2003
No, France and Germany's current stance on Iraq is not motivated primarily by money. On the other hand, these governments and their countries' businesses are not oblivious to money, and no picture is complete without taking into account the financial ties between France, Germany and Iraq.
2/20/2003
Are passengers who request airline meals on Dutch KLM airlines in accordance with Muslim dietary restrictions given plastic utensils whereas other passengers are given metallic utensils?
2/20/2003
No Religious Tolerance Permitted Here: In an act of unparalleled Christian charity, Bishop Panteleimon of the Greek Orthodox Church has sabotaged a planned inter-faith meeting organized by the Greek EU presidency and the Patriarchate Vartholomaios of Constantinople, head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Greek Orthodox bishop simply cancelled the meeting of Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders which was supposed to take place in Salonika, Greece's second largest city. The tensions between Patriarchate Vartholomaios and some Greek Orthodox are running high because of Patriarchate Vartholomaios's efforts to encourage dialogues with members of other faiths. Said Bishop Panteleimon upon announcing his successful torpedoing of a cross-faith meeting: "I have the pleasure to announce to the Christian faithful that my actions led to the definite cancellation of the cross-religious meeting scheduled to take place in Salonika on May 29."
2/20/2003
Wednesday, February 19, 2003 AIDS in Portugal: Portugal has the highest rate of HIV infection among all European Union countries, and the country has watched its AIDS cases grow every single year since 1983. According to 2001 figures, there were an estimated 25,000-40,000 HIV-infected individuals (for UN percentages, go here). According to the AIDS information group, AEGIS, the Portuguese government's campaign against AIDS emphasizes fidelity and sexual abstinence, suggesting that AIDS may be a kind of punishment for those who stray from the straight and narrow path. At other times, the Portuguese government's policy simply seems naive. For example, AEGIS reports that prostitutes are simply advised not to prostitute themselves, rather than being encouraged to use condoms.
2/19/2003
CHECHNYA: "Since 1999, journalists have not had the right to circulate freely in the region. In addition, since July 2001, accredited journalists must be accompanied by an agent from the Ministry of the Interior in order to move about Chechnya. In October 2002, a government directive further reduced the opportunity to cover the war by defining a series of territories, organizations and establishments (including "areas where antiterrorist operations are underway") where access is not permitted to foreigners without special permission. However, this government directive fails to indicate how to obtain this permission to enter the Chechnyan territory and how long this permission, once obtained, is valid for."
A Middle Path: Amos Oz presents a novel take on the world's current obsession. Oz relates his (1) Opposition to a war in Iraq, combined with (2) Disgust at Europe's Behavior.
2/19/2003
Italian Justice:
"Weaknesses in the judicial procedures, which are in dire need of reform, are taken advantage of by the Prime Minister and his associate to delay the processes of their cases...Parliamentary processes are seen as being used for the benefit and advantage of the Prime Minister and his associate in the cases before the courts...By refusing to attend the court sessions on two occasions, the Prime Minister showed not only disrespect for the majesty of the courts but was seen as being above the law."
"Magistrates should be reminded of principle 8 of the United Nations Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, in that they should always conduct themselves in such a manner as to preserve the dignity of their office and the impartiality and independence of the judiciary."
--United Nations Special Rapporteur, Dato Param Cumaraswamy, in a recently released report on the Italian "justice" system.
2/19/2003
CHECHNYA: A deputy in the Russian Duma, Sergei Kovalyov, has accused the government of organizing death squads to murder Chechnyans, refuting the Russian government's claims that attrocities are the result of troops beyond its control. Kovalyov is suggesting that these death squads are operating with the approval of high military authorities and perhaps even Putin.
Meanwhile, two more Chechnyan military outposts that may have contained around 100 individuals were completely destroyed by Russian troops in the past 24 hours.
2/19/2003
Equal Pay for Gurkhas: Gurkhas (Nepalese soldiers recruited to fight for the British crown) are suing the UK Ministry of Defense over discriminatory treatment. According to Cherie Booth, the Gurkhas' basic pay which is used to calculate their pensions is only 5% that of a British soldier. The Daily Telegraph reports that "It would cost an estimated £2 billion to give Gurkhas the same pay and pension rights as other soldiers." Given that the Gurkas have fought for the UK for over 160 years throughout the former British Empire as well in both World Wars and in more recent conflicts such as Kosovo, the inferior treatment, if proven, is shocking.
2/19/2003
Côte d'Ivoire Update: Le Monde reports that President Laurent Gbagbo will not attend the Franco-African summit in Paris, with the president claiming that "They [the French] humiliated me in Paris. I'm not ready to go back there." Meanwhile, Ivorian youth have organized a sit-in around the French military base in Abidjan, a city in which 12000 French nationals still reside. Mistrust of the former colonial power continues to grow in the Côte d'Ivoire, with rumors that the French military forces plan on assassinating Gbagbo and with anger directed at the "occupying army" and "French neocolonialism."
2/19/2003
Tuesday, February 18, 2003 France Puts Eastern Europe in its Place:
"It is not well brought up behavior. They missed a good opportunity to shut up...Romania and Bulgaria were particularly irresponsible to [sign the letter] when their position is really delicate. If they wanted to diminish their chances of joining Europe they could not have found a better way...When you're in the family you have more rights than when you're knocking on the door."
--Chirac's insults/threats to the eastern European counties that have not fallen in line with France's foreign ministry.
2/18/2003
Who is Joschka Fischer?: National Review presents an interesting article by General Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former intelligence officer for the late Soviet Union. Pacepa reports on the 1975 takeover of OPEC's headquarters in Vienna that was masterminded by Qaddafi and Ilich Ramírez Sánchez ("the Jackal"). After being arrested, the Jackal implicated a German terrorist, Hans Joachim Klein, who had killed two people during the attack on OPEC. The Jackal also stated that the weapons for the attack had been kept in Klein's apartment. The connection to Germany's current foreign minister? Joschka Fischer was Klein's roommate at the time of the attack on OPEC. Furthermore, Pacepa states that a photograph from an April 7, 1973 demonstration shows Klein and Fischer demonstrating together in Frankfurt, with Fischer beating a German police officer. According to German journalist Bettina Roehl, Fischer also advocated using petrol bombs against policemen during demonstrations. Finally, Pacepa points to the work of Margrit Schiller who alleged that there were ties between Fischer and the Red Army Faction.
2/18/2003
The Bosnian Roma: A 1991 census counted approximately 8800 self-declared Roms in Bosnia-Herzegovina, although an article from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting suggests that the actual number may be 10 times as high. According to the Roma activist, Alexandra Raykova, 60% of Bosnian Roma are illiterate, 90% lack health insurance and several do not even have citizenship. In addition, many Roma children cannot even attend school because other parents refuse to allow them to sit in the same classrooms as their children.
2/18/2003
Monday, February 17, 2003 What's On Polish Television: Poland's Lux Veritatis Foundation, a Catholic group run by Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, will have the opportunity to increase its audience now that it has been granted a television license. Father Tadeusz Rydzyk has run a popular radio program for several years that attracts between 3 and 5 million regular listeners (or approximately 14% of adult Poles). Father Tadeusz Rydzyk sermons have been condemned as xenophobic, and he has used his influence to attack any efforts to liberalize Poland's abortion laws.
2/17/2003
Spain's Death Penalty: The Chicago Tribune reports on the fate of greyhounds in Spain. According to the paper, "Tens of thousands of greyhounds run hare coursing races in rural Spain each year. At the end of the season many are hanged, slung from trees with a piece of twine. And if their owners think they have run badly they sometimes hang them with their back paws on the ground for a slower death."
The World Society for the Protector of Animals notes the limited government response: "At present, it is not illegal to kill a dog by hanging in Andalucia and Extremadura, where there are no animal protection laws. In Castilla y Leon, a law threatening a fine of 15,000 Euros (£39,540) to anyone hanging a dog has yet to be enforced."
2/17/2003
Violent Pacifists: Hooded Greek protestors threw petrol bombs and stones at police, burned a car, and smashed store windows during peace protests in Athens this past weekend.
2/17/2003
CHECHNYA: Russian forces shelled the Shatoi, Shali and Kurchaloi districts and detained at least 100 suspected rebels on Friday. According to Physicians for Human Rights, "Detained persons are often released only when their families are able to pay whatever bribe is demanded of them by the unit holding the person. Based on the range of prices witnesses provided to PHR, the price of the release of a loved one seemed to be US$175-$525, and as high as $5,000."
Physicians for Human Rights recently released a report based on interviews with 326 Chechnyans that claims to confirm reports of torture.
2/17/2003
French Intolerance:
On Saturday night, a fire broke out in a synagogue in the Val-de-Marne region near Paris, destroying a stairwell and a foyer. The origins of the blaze have not yet been determined.
Meanwhile, Yves Bertrand, the head of a socialist think tank, predicts an increase in French anti-semitism and xenophobia as a result of the conflicts in the Middle East.
A group of young women has been touring France to raise awareness of the male-on-female violence in France's poor neighborhoods.
And disgust grows at France's invitation to Madman Mugabe.
2/17/2003
Friday, February 14, 2003 CHECHNYA: In 1944, Stalin accused the Chechnyans of being sympathetic to the Nazis, and he ordered the deportation of 600,000 of them to Central Asia, with 1/3 of the deportees dying on the way. According to Yuri Maltsev, there were "people crowded into cattle cars without food, water, or sanitary facilities for several days, corpses traveling with children, killings of innocent protesters at the railway stations by KGB guards." Those Chechnyans who had been deported and survived were only allowed to return in 1956, with the permission of Nikita Khrouchtchev.
Now Russian authorities have ordered Chechnyan school teachers to celebrate the anniversary of February 23, 1944 (the date upon which the deportations began) as a "day of defense for our homeland." Chechnyan students are to be told that they should honor the memory of the exploits of the Russian army. Says one inhabitant of Grozny (quoted in Le Monde), "The Russians aren't only killing us physically, they also want to destroy our memory."
2/14/2003
Loyalist Terror-UK Government Link May be Finally Prosecuted in Northern Ireland: The Force Research Unit (FRU), a UK army force linked to MI5, is alleged to have worked with Loyalist paramilitary groups in the assassination of at least 14 Catholics during the late 1980's and early 1990's (including the gunning down of Irish solicitor Pat Finucane in front of his wife and 3 children in 1989. Finucane had defended IRA members in court trials). According to the Scotsman, "It is alleged that FRU handlers gave information to loyalists from the Ulster Defence Association about prominent republicans and assisted them in carrying out the murders by ensuring normal security-force patrols were diverted...It is claimed that the FRU's activities were discussed in detail at meetings of the joint intelligence committee chaired by Margaret Thatcher, the then prime minister."
According to the Guardian, "FRU still exists [today] under a different name, the Joint Services Group. The agents still operate within the unionist paramilitaries. British military intelligence controls the agenda."
For more information on UK-Loyalist paramilitary collusion from a group highly critical of London's involvement in Northern Ireland, visit the Relatives for Justice website.
2/14/2003
Thursday, February 13, 2003 France Cracks Down: France has passed a 150 article crime bill offering sanctions for, among other behavior, the following activities:
(1) Police no longer have to notify a person placed in custody of his or her "right to remain silent."
(2) Insulting a police officer or public servant (viz. politician or fireman) can result in 2 years in prison and a 30,000 euro fine (and the penalty is increased to 5 years for death threats against those individuals).
(3) Insulting the French flag or hymn may result in a 7,500 euro fine and, if done during an assembly, may additionally result in 6 months in prison.
(4) Groups of youth loitering in apartment hallways or staircases are forbidden to do so, and violators are subject to 2 months in prison.
(5) Active or passive (viz. standing by the side of the road without much on) solicitation of clients by prostitutes can be punished by 2 months in prison and a 3,750 euro fine.
(6) Take-out food establishments that disturb the public order can be forced to close for up to 3 months.
(7) The inhabitants of nomadic camps (viz. those of the Roma) can be suject to 6 months in prison, a 3,750 euro fine, and confiscation of any vehicles.
(8) Asking for money in public in an aggressive manner is subject to 6 months in prison and a 3,750 euro fine (hmmm...I don't think that the authorities will be collecting that fine).
2/13/2003
Over 3,500 Serbian inhabitants are living in around 60 camps sprinkled throughout Serbia that are not registered with the UN (there are about 300 official refugee centers in Serbia with around 22,000 inhabitants). The sources of these displaced persons is the Serb exodus from regions such as Kosovo following the retreat of Serbian forces. One of the problems with these camps--in addition to basic sanitary concerns--is that the inhabitants, lacking an official address, cannot obtain an identity card and therefore cannot seek employment.
2/13/2003
For what it's worth: The monk rebellion against Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew's efforts to reach out to the Catholic church (see Archives from February 4, 2003) took a nasty turn on Saturday when a Brother drove a tractor off of a cliff.
2/13/2003
The Double Standard: Since France has taken a lead in banning genetically modified crops and endorsed the European Union's strict regulation of these products whose health risks remain to be proven, it might strike some as bizarre that France is only now considering to make the sale of tobacco to minors (i.e. under 16 years of age) a crime. Similar efforts in 1990 and 1997 failed. Yet according to the World Health Organization, there are 3.5 million deaths annually from tobacco.
France's failure to strictly regulate a known health hazard and its paranoia over a questionable health hazard is reflected Europe-wide. Of the 14 European member states, only 7 have laws related to the sale of tobacco to minors. However the definition of "minor" varies from one country to the next, with Italy restricting the sale of tobacco only to those teenagers under 14 years of age.
2/13/2003
CHECHNYA: The Human Rights Center, Memorial, reports that the Chechnyan government has a list of 1,200 Chechnyans who have disappeared since the beginning of the conflict with Russia. This does not include those civilians who are murdered and later identified. Memorial also reports that between July of 2000 and the end of 2002, there were approximately 2,000 extrajudicial executions (not including bombardments, village massacres, and combats).
For pictures of what a "disappeared" person looks like if he's found, go here and scroll to the middle of the page (warning: pictures are graphic).
2/13/2003
Wednesday, February 12, 2003 Flashback: Post-WW II (around 1946): France's Republican Party of Popular Unity (le Parti Républicain d’Unité Populaire) composed of former Communists and Trotskyists who have been reborn as philo-Nazis advocates a strong and independent Europe free of American, Soviet and Zionist influences. Its founder, René Binet, adopts the slogan "US Go Home." Binet clings to a vision of European racial superiority (Indo-European rather than simply Aryan).
(information courtesy of research by Roger Griffin and Nicolas Lebourg)
2/12/2003
The European Court of Human Rights rules against Norway in the cases of O v. Norway, Hammern v. Norway and Y v. Norway. The Court found that Norway violated the European Convention on Human Rights Article 6 § 2, which states that "Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to the law." In all cases, the defendant was accused of a sexual crime, eventually acquitted, yet nonetheless forced to pay damages or denied compensation for the suspicions raised against him.
2/12/2003
Spain's Bulls: A dispute is brewing in San Sebastian de los Reyes between the left-wing mayor and the Green Party. The source of the dispute? The mayor's support for the 500-year-old bull runs in the town, which the Greens want to abolish. According to PETA's description of bull runs, "Bruises, cuts, and broken bones are sustained by bulls who are forced to run through the streets by the use of electric shocks and sharp sticks - and what awaits the animals that evening in the bullring is even more gut-wrenching. Bulls are repeatedly stabbed and bled to weaken them, and bullfighters sever the animals' spines while they are fully conscious."
For the not so pleasant details of bull fighting (again from PETA), go here.
2/12/2003
CHECHNYA: Le Monde reports that the three-year old Russian military presence in Chechnya is far from winding down. Methods of torture include strapping explosives to a Chechnyan prisoner and then detonating him as well as placing Chechnyan prisoners in freezing water for sustained periods of time. The Russian security agency, the FSB, has an extensive network of informants that keeps the Chechnyans quiet. One man who had been abducted by security forces is quoted as saying: "There were two of them. One beat me on the back and the waist with an iron bar. The other attached wires to my fingers and passed an electrical current through them. Then one of them tried to tear my eye out by sticking his fingers into my eyesocket...He also said: 'I'm going to expose your nerves,' and he began to file my bottom row of teeth. When they released me [after his relatives paid a ransom to the FSB], they said, 'If you talk, we'll come after your family.'"
2/12/2003
Tuesday, February 11, 2003 Can We Build a Mosque Please?: Construction began a year and a half ago on a mosque in Zdena in Bosnia for the city's 350 Muslim households. However eight months ago, work on the mosque was halted as the result of a petition submitted by the Association of Citizens Returning to Sanski Most (Sanski Most is the district to which Zdena belongs). Prior to the war, Zdena had a Serb majority, most of whom left during the turmoil. The Association argues that the construction of the mosque will deter Serbs from returning to the village. The decision on whether to continue the mosque's construction currently rests with the Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo.
2/11/2003
Europe's First Genocide of the New Century: 20,000 displaced persons living in refugee camps. Arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions.
Action Directe was a Marxist French terrorist organization active in the 70's and 80's whose targets consisted of NATO, Jews, international corporations, American citizens and government offices. The group gained particular notoriety for the murder of Georges Barse, the president of Renault Company, in 1986, as well as for attacks against Interpol.
2/11/2003
French Immigrants: After an 1850 person protest in Paris on Saturday in support of the legalization of the status of thousands of immigrants in France, about 150 protestors occupied a gymnasium in the 11th arrondissment. The protestors demanded a halt to the deportation of illegal immigrants and the reinstitution of free medical aid. Police moved in and evacuated all protestors Sunday night.
2/11/2003
Monday, February 10, 2003 Flashback: Germany's Invasion of Southwest Africa at the turn of the 20th century led to conflict with the Herero people. Edmund Morel in The Black Man's Burden: The White Man in Africa from the Fifteenth Century to World War I writes, "It is reputed that from one-third to one-fourth of the Hereros -- who, at the time of the German occupation were estimated to number 80,000 -- perished in, or as the result of, the sanguinary fighting with [the German General] von Trotha...The land of the Hereros was confiscated; their herds were partly seized, partly destroyed; the remnant of the people reduced to pauperism and subjected to the brutalities of forced labour."
2/10/2003
Ireland's Mental Health: "Chronic under-funding has contributed to the widespread neglect for many years of people with mental illness within the Irish healthcare system. Together with the stigmatisation of anyone who has been affected by psychiatric problems, this potentially prejudices the basic right to physical and mental integrity guaranteed under international law. It is time that this issue is placed firmly on the government's agenda."
Amnesty notes that "The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading treatment or Punishment (CPT) reported three years ago that an 89 year- old man has been held in one of our custodial institutions, without trial, since 1937. He has never been convicted of any wrong doing. He is not deemed a danger to himself or to others. The man was in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Co Dublin." Go here for more horror stories.
2/10/2003
2 hour, 200 people riot in Northern Ireland with 18 police officers injured. According to the BBC, "It is believed the trouble began as a drunken brawl." 200 people? One hell of a brawl.
2/10/2003
The number of lives lost between 1914 and 1918 in Europe's not so Great War
(Source: Dictionnaire encyclopédique d'histoire [Mourre])
2/10/2003
Sweden's 26,000 Aristocrats will be less important next month when the Parliament will likely sever the link between the nobility and government. Currently, the Swedish government arranges "summits of nobility" where blue bloods hobnob, and it finances the House of Nobility with an 18 dollar tax on every male. The proposed legislation will strip the House of Nobility of its current legal status and annul a Swedish law dating back to the 18th century that grants nobleman such worthwhile privileges as royal assistance if they are POWs.
2/10/2003
Friday, February 07, 2003 More Western European Venom: The Guardian portrays Eastern Europeans as servants of the Powers that Be. A choice quote:
"[E]astern Europe's elites had spent 40 years accommodating themselves to superior power. Neither the reform movement in Czechoslovakia in 1968 nor Solidarity in Poland in 1981 challenged their countries' links with Moscow. It was only when Mikhail Gorbachev told them in 1987 that they need not follow the Soviet lead that they began to break loose. It was therefore inevitable that after the USSR collapsed these countries would sense the new reality that Europe belongs to the US."
2/07/2003
Côte d'Ivoire Update: With the blessing of UN Security Council Resolution 1464, France has sent an additional 450 soliders to the African country. This brings the total number of French military personnel in the Côte d'Ivoire to over 3,000 men and women.
2/07/2003
"Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled,
Are healed with the healing that night has shed."
Macedonia Peace Under Attack: The Democratic Union for Integration party in Macedonia, which has been willing to make compromises with ethnic Macedonians, is being criticized for betraying Albanian "national" interests. A guerilla group calling itself the Albanian National Army has threatened a violent offensive in the spring unless the Democratic Union changes its tactics. According to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, "Last weekend, DUI offices in Gostivar and Skopje were raked by gunfire and hit by a rocket launcher respectively."
2/07/2003
Human Trafficking: This is a disturbing report on the sex trading of women in Romania, including one woman who "passed New Years Eve chained and freezing in a dog cage." The article notes that around 200,000 women are traded on the Balkan sex exchange each year.
2/07/2003
Italy Moves Against its Sex Workers: In an effort to sanitize its streets, Italy is considering a law (expected to pass by late 2003) that will prohibit streetwalking by that nation's 50,000-70,000 prostitutes (an estimated one third of whom are foreigners, particularly from Nigeria). While the law would push prostitutes off the streets and into buildings in an effort to beautify the Italian countryside, the law does not address the underlying economic and professional needs of those who choose or are forced into the sex trade.
The proposed law would also slap those who solicit prostitutes with a fine (although prostitutes with repeated violations can be thrown in prison).
2/07/2003
More EU Traitors: The Paris-Berlin axis continues to pour vitriol on those who do not tow its foreign policy line. In reaction to the recent declaration of 10 former Communist bloc countries in support of the US position on Iraq, Le Monde writes: "The Iraq crisis continues to create divisions in Europe and shows that Eastern Europe is more attached to America than to the European Union." What it is worrisome is the Paris-Berlin message that you are either with them or against them. This kind of bullying is not exactly the best way to encourage a sophisticated foreign policy debate.
2/07/2003
Thursday, February 06, 2003 France's Abortion Laws are not as liberal as one might think. A woman may have an abortion before the end of the tenth week of pregnancy provided that she claims to be in a "distressed situation," (Article L. 162-2) meets with a counselor "with a view to enabling her to keep her child," (Article L. 162-4), and then re-requests the abortion. There is a mandatory 1 week waiting period (Article L. 162-5) which, according to a Christian Science Monitor article from 2000, annually leads 5000 French women to seek abortions in neighboring countries.
Those who are found to "have incited others to pregnancy terminations, even if the latter are legal and even if no actual abortions are performed" (Article L. 647) are subject to prison and fines. This seems to target any advertising by abortion clinics.
Abortions after 10 weeks are only allowed if the pregnancy poses a grave risk to the woman's health or if the child will suffer from a serious, incurable illness.
2/06/2003
One of the more amazing things about France is that, despite the obsession with the United States, it is remarkably difficult for your average French adult to get his or her hands on a basic history of the US. If you type “histoire états-unis” into amazon.fr, you come up with Jean-Francois Revel’s book on anti-Americanism, Philippe Roger’s book on the “American enemy,” “Le Livre Noir des Etats-Unis” which is a violent diatribe against all things American, and Howard Zinn’s "A People’s History of the United States." Bookstores, like the FNAC, present equally slim findings. Where can a French person get a simple rundown of major events in the history of the Great Satan? I eventually found Les Etats-Unis de l'Indépendance à la 1ère Guerre Mondiale, a book of a little over 160 pages by Jacques Portes, a professor of American History at the university of Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint Denis. While the book provided a decent run-down of events, the following passages struck me (translations are mine):
(1) In speaking of the early European settlers, Portes writes “There was no aristocrat among them, in spite of the American taste for uncovering prestigious ancestors…” (p.9)
(2) When trying to explain why the American colonies did not trade more with France… “France did not manage to rival Great Britain: its refined products did not appeal to the still crude Americans.” (p.23)
(3) With regards to the Irish immigrants in the 19th century: “They were destitute peasants…quickly violent, and with a legendary penchant for alcohol.” (p.55)
In Portes’ sequel, Les Etats-Unis de 1900 à nos jours, he writes :
(1) of the Cold War: “This period’s danger arose from Americans’ poor perception of Soviet actions and an equivalent myopia on the part of the Soviets’. ” (p.167) Note that there is no distinction made between the two sides: American opposition to the Soviet Union has nothing to do with that nation’s ideology: It’s just a case of bad vision. Portes later notes, "Americans did not, in any way, directly cause these extraordinary events [i.e. the tumbling of the Iron Wall]...The only things that Americans can claim is that they aggravated the Soviet Union's economic situation by forcing them to direct money, beyond their means, to the military." (p.226)
(2) several references to the influence of the “Jewish lobby” in America (pp. 173, 192, 227) and an argument that the Jews hampered Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy (yes, I see the contradiction there, too) during the 1973 war involving Egypt and Israel.
2/06/2003
Wednesday, February 05, 2003 French Suicide Bomber: A Catholic Frenchman has been arrested for planning a suicide attack on Paris's largest mosque. Police found explosives and bomb manuals in his apartment. Apparently the attacker was plotting to blow himself up during the crowded prayers of Friday.
2/05/2003
Tuesday, February 04, 2003 Europe’s Never Ending Religious Feuds:
(1) Monks in the monastery of Esphigmenou on the Greek isle of Mt Athos are resisting police efforts to evacuate them. Patriarch Vartholomaios has excommunicated the monks because they have refused to recognize the Patriarch’s authority after his efforts at reconciliation with the Catholic Church. One the monk’s banners reads “The Pope is the Antichrist.”
(2) Interesting article on the Serb Orthodox Church’s ties to nationalism. The journalists Zoran Majdin and Mirko Djordjevic note that the nationalists in the Church call themselves the “svetosavci” and align themselves with the military. The svetosavci are particularly influential in the Theological University of Belgrade, whose students recently greeted the Catholic Cardinal Kasper (president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity) with insults during his visit to Belgrade. Not surprisingly, this part of the Serb Orthodox Church had close ties to Milosevic and portrayed Radovan Karadzic as a Christian warrior, with pictures of him used as decorations in churches.
2/04/2003
"Europe's cynicism and insecurity, masquerading as moral superiority, is insufferable...[T]here are serious arguments against the war in Iraq, but they have weight only if they are made out of conviction, not out of expedience or petulance — and if they are made by people with real beliefs, not identity crises."
Monday, February 03, 2003
A German sticks a knife in an American during a bar fight after arguing that the US's policy in Iraq is too violent.
2/03/2003
Greek Terror: In an effort to clean its streets prior to the 2004 Olympics, Greek police have arrested 3 alleged members of the Popular Revolutionary Struggle, which has launched over 100 bomb attacks in the past 20 years. One of the arrested individuals was a mayor of the Aegean Sea island of Kimolos.
2/03/2003
More Irish Blood Spilled: Two Protestants, 33 and 45 years of age, were gunned down on Saturday night in continued Loyalist turf wars. One of the victims had attempted to assassinate Gerry Adams back in 1984 and was a leader of the United Defense Association, which violently militates against links to Northern (Catholic) Ireland.
2/03/2003
Two Germans have been convicted of violating UN weapons sanctions against Iraq. Bernd Schompeter and Willi Heinz Ribbeck were sentenced to prison for selling equipment to Iraq that may have enabled Hussein to construct long-range guns.
2/03/2003
Free Speech: In its July-August 2002 edition, the French magazine, Lyon Mag, published an interview with a food critic. The latter criticized Beaujolais wine as "lightly fermented and alcoholic fruit juice" and "shitty wine." The French wine industry's unions became infuriated, sued...and have won! The court of first instance ruled that "In misrepresenting Beaujolais wine to the point of scatology and in ultimately comparing the wine directly to excrement, François Mauss |the critic] and the journalist who interviewed him have surpassed the admissible exercise of their jobs." The fine of over 250,000 euros threatens to close the magazine.
Sunday, February 02, 2003 French Revenge: The French reaction against the declaration, by 8 European governments ("the Eight"), of solidarity with the United States has come fast and furious. A front page cover, last week, of the paper, Liberation, referred to the Eight as "mercenaries." Meanwhile, Laurent Zecchini, in Le Monde, launches a blistering attack on the Eight that is filled with calumny and lies. Laurent Zecchini writes that the Eight's "detestable" declaration indicated that "Europe's cohesion takes second place" to trans-Atlantic solidarity in their minds. Bush has successfully practiced a "divide and conquer" strategy. The Eight are little more than "vassals" to the "Occident's emperor," and the rationale for the Eight's declaration is (1) a reaction to the Paris-Berlin axis, or (2) an effort to kiss up to the US. The possibility that the Eight might consider Washington's position valid on its own merits is never even suggested as possible. Finally, Zecchini claims that the Eight have isolated themselves not only from Paris and Berlin, but from all of Europe. To support this claim, Zecchini cites a statistic that 82% of the population of the 15 current EU members and 72% of the population of the 13 candidate-members oppose a war against Iraq without UN support. Yet the Eight's declaration does not support unilateral US action nor military action against Iraq outside of the UN. On the contrary, it frequently emphasizes a UN-led solution. Zecchini's numbers simply do not support his claim that the Eight are traitors to Europe's public opinion.
Regardless of one's views on US policy towards Iraq, the French intolerance of dissent is striking. Neither France nor Germany have hidden their position on Iraq between diplomatic curtains, and it is sheer hypocrisy to expect other European countries to accord the Paris-Berlin axis more deference than the latter is willing to give the rest of Europe. While Chirac and Schroeder are entitled to their viewpoints, so, too, are Aznar, Durão Barroso, Berlusconi, Blair, Medgyessy, Miller, Havel and Fogh Rasmussen. Furthermore, for the French to claim that the Eight should muzzle themselves for the sake of presenting a united front is simply amazing given that it is the French who scoffed at the united front argument when the US used it. And to attack dissenters as "mercenaries" and "vassals" while refusing to recognize any possible merits of a contrary position provides cause for other European countries to worry about an expanded Franco-German role in the EU.
2/02/2003
