April 2009
Vol 9, No. 4
THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS : IS THE G20 PLAN THE ANSWER? By Chandra Muzaffar
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s the G20 Plan for Recovery and Reform that emerged from the London Summit on 2 April 2009 the answer to the global economic crisis? Let us respond to that question by examining some of the central features of the Plan. To start with, the Plan pledges regulation of credit agencies and hedge funds, crackdown on tax havens that are out of line, and new rules on pay and bonuses. Since it is now widely acknowledged that these are some of the institutions and practices that are part of the casino capitalism that developed over three or four decades and caused the financial crisis in the United States which has now metamorphosed into a massive global economic crisis, any attempt to regulate hedge funds and check tax havens, for instance, would be most welcome. However, there is very little detailed information in the Plan on how regulation will be carried out or on the sort of sanctions that would be employed against errant tax havens. Perhaps, the mechanisms will be
formulated at the proposed meeting in Scotland later in the year. In this regard, the Plan also does not offer concrete measures on curbing speculative, often volatile, capital flows. Critics point out that the Plan should have endorsed ideas such as the Tobin Tax or encouraged governments to impose capital controls. There is no indication that it wants to eliminate even in the long term short selling of stocks and shares or trade in derivatives. The impression given is that financial wheeling and dealing will continue albeit within a framework of rules, oversight and monitoring. The dominant power of financial markets will remain. They may choose to behave for a while but there is no guarantee that they will not flout the yet to be installed rules and trigger off another mammoth crisis in the future. There is another dimension to the Plan that also raises our concern. The international Monetary Fund (IMF) is given a pivotal role to “kick start the
global economy, meet balance of payments needs and provide social support for countries in crisis.” One trillion dollars will be channeled through the IMF and other international institutions. The people of the Global South have very little faith in the IMF. Its policies have increased the financial vulnerability of nations in the Global South and hurt their domestic agriculture and industry. The IMF continues to insist upon interest hikes and reduction in state expenditure on essential social services as conditions for its loans. By and large, it is perceived as an instrument for the perpetuation Turn to next page
ARTICLES
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WHAT ABOUT ECONOMIC EQUALITY?
US-IRANIAN ENGAGEMENT: WHEN AND HOW?
By Lam Wai Kin...........................................page3
By Ahmad Sadri........................................... page 7
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By Serge Halimi......... ....................................page5
U.S. WAR IN AFGHANISTAN HAUNTED BY BUSH’S WAR CRIMES By Michael Haas ......................................... page 8
JUSTICE FOR RACHEL, JUSTICE THE P ALESTINIANS
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By Cindy and Craig Corrie ......................... page 6
BOGOTA DECLARATION 2009 By Participants of the Peace for Life Second People’s Forum........................................ page 10
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of US helmed global financial and economic hegemony. Unless there is serious reform of the IMF, it should not be given such a critical role in any global economic recovery plan. Of course, the Plan does talk of reforms to the “mandates and governance” of international financial institutions( IFIs) such as the IMF and the World Bank to “ make them more accountable, more representative and more effective including heads of IFIs appointed on merit”. Even if these reforms happen soon, we should realize that the real issue is not about enhancing the accountability of IFIs or making them more representative. The central challenge is to change the entire policy orientation and direction of the IMF, and to a lesser degree, the World Bank. It is only too obvious that there is no commitment towards this goal on the part of the G20, especially the US, Britain and other Western governments. Instead of making the IMF the anchor of the Plan, shouldn’t we consider channeling assistance to people in the Global South and the Global North through the United Nations? Specifically, the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) could play a tangible role in this, with the UN’s General Assembly (UNGA) assuming a sort of supervisory function. If the G20 is sincere about the 50 billion earmarked for the poorest nations of the world in the Plan, it should have no qualms about channeling the assistance through the ECOSOC and the UNGA which have, over the years, articulated the interests of the majority of the human family much more than the IMF or the World Bank. Similarly a UN outfit like the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) would be a better conduit for disbursing the additional 250 billion to support trade finance that the Plan envisages, than the World Bank or the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or the G8. UNCTAD has a clear commitment to fair trade and will not place obstacles in the path of countries in the Global South that are determined to harness
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trade in order to revive their economies. By charting significant roles for the World Bank, the WTO and the G8 in trade financing — institutions that have done so little to protect the trade interests of the Global South — the Plan has revealed its lack of sensitivity to the well-being of the world’s poor. That sincere commitment to the aspirations of the poor is missing from the Plan is even more evident in yet another area that receives hardly any emphasis in the London Summit’s document. As a result of the global economic crisis set into motion by the casino capitalism of the Washington helmed global system, some of the poorest countries of the Global South which are already heavily indebted are now facing even greater difficulties in servicing their debts. The G20 should have issued a clarion call for the total and complete elimination of the debts of all the poor debt ridden states in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. It would have been a tremendous boost for them as they struggle to restore their economies. It is a shame that freeing the poor from the debt trap was not a priority for the G20. There is another act of omission — perhaps even more significant in the context of the present crisis — that the G20 is guilty of. The Plan fails to address the critical question of the position of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The global economic crisis has brought to the fore the fundamental issue of the instability of the dollar and its adverse impact upon the entire international monetary system. It is mainly because of this instability that China which holds some 2 trillion in US debt — as a result of its huge trade surplus vis-a-vis the US — has appealed to the US to ensure the safety of its money. In fact, the governor of China’s Central Bank has gone even further and proposed that the dollar be replaced as the world’s reserve currency by a super sovereign reserve currency in the form of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to be administered by the IMF. Russia supports the proposal. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has also espoused a new
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reserve system linked to the SDR. Whatever the merits or demerits of the proposal, the G20 Summit should have subjected to evaluation the position of the US dollar and examined in depth alternative ideas on a global reserve currency. In fact, in 1944, at Bretton Woods, the British economist, Maynard Keynes, had suggested the creation of an international currency unit to be called ‘Bancor’ which would serve as super sovereign currency. He realized the risks and dangers inherent in projecting a national currency as a global reserve currency. Keynes’ proposal was not accepted. It was the US delegation’s bid to establish a monetary system around the dollar that triumphed. Today, 65 years later, it is obvious that the US is determined as ever to ensure that the dollar remains the world’s dominant currency. The dollar’s dominance is a pre-requisite for US hegemony. This is why whatever adjustments the US Administration was prepared to make to some of the demands of other states at the G20 Summit, it made it clear even before the meeting that it would not allow anyone to question the role of the dollar as the global reserve currency. This then is what the G20 Plan is all about. While it addresses some of the underlying causes of the global economic crisis, it also tries very hard to preserve and perpetuate the existing US helmed global financial and economic order. An act of commission, on the one hand — buttressing the IMF — and an act of omission, on the other — remaining silent on the position of the US dollar — bear testimony to this. But the Plan, as we have shown, fails to respond to the needs of the Global South. It will not ensure global justice. It is not the answer to the global economic crisis that the people of the world are waiting for. 6 April 2009 Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) and Professor of Global Studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
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S T A T E M E N T S
WHAT ABOUT ECONOMIC EQUALITY? An opinion on governments’ interventions thus far…
By Lam Wai Kin We have come a long way since financial markets were put on life support following the demise of Lehman Brothers back in September 2008. We are now fully aware of the fundamental causes of this ongoing economic crisis. We have also witnessed a multitude of government interventions all across the globe in the form of economic stimulus packages and direct capital injections among others. Lately, the major talking point has been whether those interventions, which amount to trillions of dollars, will stop the rot. The answer remains elusive at this point in time. While we anxiously await the outcome, let’s commemorate the World Day of Social Justice this past February 20 th by probing the crisis from another perspective; the perspective of social justice. Whereas the crisis originated from Wall Street, there have been clear indications of late the crisis has worked its way to Main Street. In the United States, 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008 alone. All in all, 11.1 million or 7.2 percent of its workforce are currently unemployed. Latest estimates are not very encouraging either; total unemployment is expected to rise further by 1.9 million to 9.2 percent, a rate not seen since 1982, before it stabilizes. As the world’s foremost economy sinks into a recession, cooling demand for exports means the increase in unemployment is not limited to the States only; analogous circumstances can also be observed in export-oriented economies such as Malaysia. According to the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), the unemployment rate may swell to 4.5 percent in 2009, a full percent increase from 2007. With a total workforce of 11 million, total unemployed would amount to approximately 495,000; and we have not included the prospective job losses suffered by the estimated 2 million immigrant workforce that is unaccounted for. Malaysian exports meanwhile fell 14.9 percent this past
December on a year-on-year basis. Amid such daunting backdrop, it is disappointing that a bulk of government assistance in most places has gone to ground zero i.e. the unscrupulous financial institutions that took financial innovation a few steps too far. Yes, healthy banks are essential for the economy to function but when the banks appear to be headed nowhere while the crisis engulfs the masses, it is high time to recognize that it should not be about the banks and the bankers only. It is time Average Joes be considered by governments seriously in concerted efforts to kick start the global economy. A decent starting point will be to address economic inequality i.e. the ever widening gap in income, wealth and power between the rich and the poor within and beyond the boundaries of a sovereign nation. According to the 2007 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Program, more than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening; and the poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for only 5 percent of global income whereas the richest 20 percent accounts for an enormous 75 percent. This past August, the World Bank estimates 1.4 billion people live at or below the poverty line, with subSaharan African countries home to a large number of those. The situation is not any better in the United States either; although the United States’ Census Bureau records show that the poverty rate has been hovering between 10 to 15 percent since 1965, the number of impoverished has in fact increased from approximately 32 million in 2000 to 37.3 million in 2007 as its population grew. Based on these statistical findings, it is rather apparent that economic development has been literally choosing sides. There are no doubt many possible explanations but one that stands out is the decoupling of economic growth from income levels of the masses. Stagnant income levels
amid strong economic growth then fueled mass borrowings by lowerincome households which indirectly precipitated the ongoing crisis. Having justified the pressing need to tackle economic inequality, the next relevant step will obviously be to impart potential solutions. And there is no better way to start the ball rolling than to keep people under employment so that they are not deprived of their primary source of livelihood. Corporations that took the initiative to not only retain their employees but negotiate pay increment should be commended. These corporations regard employees as assets and are perfect examples for other corporations. Nonetheless, such a bold move during such tough times is no doubt an option only to large corporations with massive cash reserves. It is beyond the reach of many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which are locked in a battle for survival. Hence, help should be extended to SMEs which greatly outnumber large corporations and therefore unsurprisingly hire the majority of the workforce. There are many ways to go about this. First, governments may follow the lead of among others, Singapore in reducing corporate tax. Apart from making respective countries attractive to foreign capital investment, it frees up cash for corporations. However, care will have to be taken to ensure the extra cash goes to maintaining the current payroll or better, creating new jobs. For that reason, governments may consider different brackets of tax relief, providing a larger cut to exemplar corporations. Second, governments should look into further investments in infrastructure and promising sectors such as alternative energy. These will aid job creation while placing the economy on the right track to capitalize on a recovery. However, having said that, it continued next page
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is of the essence that the investments are made rapidly, cutting through layers of bureaucracy, and that a fair share of contracts is extended to SMEs. Third, with respect to Malaysia, investments in infrastructure rarely result in higher employment for locals as most jobs will be given to immigrant workers who demand less and are willing to work just as hard, or maybe harder. Thus, the Malaysian government should be proactive in providing training to those currently employed to improve their skill set, and retraining to those unemployed to improve their employability. In light of the RM 60 billion mini budget unveiled on March 10th, the government clearly demonstrates its apprehension of the verity. However, a meager allocation of RM 2 billion to create 163,000 training and job placement opportunities over two years will not suffice. Besides, this crisis should also be seen as an opportunity to realign the ratio of workers in the manufacturing sector to the services sector, laying the foundation for Malaysia to emerge from the crisis as a stronger economy that is less reliant on manufacturing. The prospects are indeed bright; for instance, India, which has been dominating the outsourcing sector, is losing its edge following the Satyam fraud case. Many multinational corporations are losing confidence with India and are seeking for alternatives. Malaysia could be one. Aside from having a job, having a shelter we call home is another basic necessity. Stemming foreclosures will also be critical towards achieving a more equitable economy. Although action should have been taken much earlier but President Obama’s $275 billion plan to aid struggling homeowners and curb record foreclosures is praiseworthy nonetheless. It appears as if policy makers have finally realized that the expansionary policies undertaken since the turn of the millennium to increase homeownership and ensure social stability among the masses have in fact contributed to the housing bubble
where proper judgment was replaced by an illusion that property prices would keep escalating. Nevertheless, it is easy to see where the critics of President Obama’s plan are coming from; they reckon the plan is a moral hazard and that it rewards reckless borrowers. As a result, it is imperative that a fair and prudent mechanism is put in place to differentiate those in need from those who took advantage of the housing bubble to make a quick buck. Development aid to poor countries is also vital in the effort to accomplish parity. Over the years when the global economy was on fifth gear, much aid was promised to the destitute but not delivered. In the midst of such turbulent times, aid to the very poor will definitely be the first government expenditure to be placed on the backburner. However, the time has come for us to halt the trend because increasing aid to the poorest of countries will not only benefit them but will also benefit the more developed countries in the long run. It will not take much either; according to Jeffrey Sachs, it will require only 0.7 percent of the total GNP of developed countries per year and an unwavering commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); eight specific, time-bound objectives to improve the conditions of the poorest of the poor by the year 2015 in the areas of income, hunger, disease control, education and environmental sustainability as part of the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration. Extending such assistance allows the poorest nations to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to step out of poverty, and to embrace economic development. It will not be long before we witness several African nations emerge from the
S T A T E M E N T S depths of economic misery with a degree of economic strength. These nations and their populations will then desire further development and at this juncture, they will become prospective markets for goods from more developed nations. The cycle goes on and on as a country ascends the hierarchy of economic development. And as the lack of economic development has been found to be a major factor of social instability, embracing aid as a viable solution will also dramatically reduce social conflicts and promote peace. Similarly, aid should also be extended to the local poor. The provision of micro-credit parallel to the successful model of Professor Muhammad Yunus* has to be given serious consideration. It was indeed encouraging when it was reported prior to March 10th that the Malaysian government is considering micro-credit as a major part of its second stimulus package. The outcome however, left the government found wanting. Likewise, expanding the social safety net to encompass a larger proportion of the masses will be a welcome boost. By intervening to keep people under employment, stem foreclosure rates, and aid the poor, governments’ expenditure is bound to increase. On the other hand, economic inequality will remain prevalent if there are no significant changes in the lifestyles of the very affluent. Considering these circumstances, governments should enact legislations and taxation policies that are the exact opposite of the discredited trickle-down economics. A plausible policy is to increase taxes on the wealthy elite families which will replenish governments’ coffers and encourage the affluent to refrain from unsustainable lifestyles. Once again, President Obama has to be commended for withstanding pressure and leading by example. He recently unveiled a spending plan that would give the poor tax cuts, new college loans and a new health care system by taking nearly $1 trillion from the rich in new taxes. Although detractors argue such a plan continued next page
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will punish success and stifle the very kind of spending that would foster investment and economic growth, they seem to not recognize the spending plan has the benefit of hindsight. Similar tax policies during the Clinton-era not only did little to dampen the enthusiasm for hard work and the thirst for professional achievement but also did not prohibit economic growth. In spite of the many measures governments can initiate to sow the seeds of parity, all will be futile without adequate public awareness of the issue at hand. Free-market capitalism that began in the Reagan era has proved to be as dysfunctional as feudalism and communism. There has been pervasive greed amid a lack of regulation and accountability. Gordon Brown got it spot on when he said that banks, which were supposed to be the servants of economies, have assumed the role of masters. We have got to wake up from our slumber and pioneer change. As voters, we can vote for leaders that are
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in favor of re-enacting comprehensive regulations governing financial institutions and put a stop to the trading of derivatives; leaders who understand the plight of the poor; leaders with resilient moral compass. As shareholders, we can pressure corporations to be more responsible towards their employees, their customers and the environment rather than putting profits first. As citizens, we can be more attentive and proactive towards pressing issues such as poverty and injustices within the prevailing system. We can also choose to usher in a new era of responsibility and live life moderately instead of lavishly. That way, we can be sure there is a place for everyone; we can ensure a sustainable future. All in all, prior attempts to address economic inequality were at best inadequate. We certainly can and have to do more than what we have been able to muster up until now. Critics may argue that the concept of economic equality is simply a process of
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A R T I C L E S redistributing income, wealth and power from the rich to the poor and that it is impossible that every single one of us be equal. No, we are not hoping that everyone will have the same size of home nor are we hoping that everyone be earning the same amount. Such a belief simply undermines the progress that the human race has achieved. Instead, we aspire to have a just playing field whereby there is economic freedom for every individual; an equal opportunity for every single one of us to rise and prosper. The ongoing economic crisis then is not an obstacle but an opportunity to right the course. 14 March 2009 Lam Wai Kin is a volunteer with JUST currently pursuing a Masters in International Business at Monash University, Sunway Campus, Malaysia. * Professor Muhammad Yunus, the founder and CEO of Grameen Bank, is a Nobel Prize Winner and the acknowledged father of micro-credit.
NATO FOR?
By Serge Halimi Nicolas Sarkozy wanted his presidency to mark a break with the “French social model”, recently restored to its former glory by the collapse of American-style financial capitalism. So did he determine to do away with another old French tradition, national independence? Although he had never expressed such an intention in his electoral campaign and even though he later made any French reintegration in Nato’s joint military command structure conditional on strengthening European defence, Sarkozy effectively announced that General de Gaulle’s policy decision had had its day. The founder of the Fifth Republic left the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s joint military command 43 years ago, at a time when the Soviet Union held a number of European countries in its iron grip. So why — with what future wars in mind — should France decide to reverse that decision now, when the
Warsaw Pact is history and many former members (Poland, Hungary, Romania and others) have joined Nato and the European Union? Is it to secure billets for 800 French officers at Nato headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia? Or to please Sarkozy’s friends in the arms industry who hope to sell more military equipment now that France is back in line? Or persuade the Americans that
Sarkozy can safely be admitted to the inner circle now that Paris is no longer running its own show? It’s more likely that the Elysée hopes to take advantage of the widespread sympathy for the new US president to finally lay an unforgivable piece of French effrontery to rest. It’s the day when Paris dared take issue with all the Dr Strangeloves and the “clash of civilisations” on the question of war with Iraq; the day when many of Sarkozy’s current supporters, including the foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, disagreed with this independent stance. Most member states of the United Nations are not members of either Nato or the EU, and six EU member states (Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Ireland, Malta, Sweden) do not belong to Nato either. But the roles of the three structures are becoming confused: the military organisation is being assigned a geographical scope and entrusted with continued next page
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“stabilisation” missions for which it has no qualifications or jurisdiction. On 19 February members of the European parliament, claiming that they are slowly forming a worldwide human team (une terre sans frontières), passed a resolution (1) by a small majority (293 to 283), referring to “phenomena such as international terrorism & organised crime, cyber threats, environmental deterioration, natural disasters and other disasters” and calling for “still closer partnership” between the EU and Nato. The explanatory note appended to the resolution sums the situation up in this image: “without a military dimension, the EU is like a barking dog without teeth”. Leaving no stone unturned, the resolution also recalls our “painful
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history”, referring to Hitler and Munich, quotes a few lines by “Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor”, and adds: “Wouldn’t we want someone to come to our rescue when we are crying?” US officers, however, have never had a great reputation for drying civilian tears. Neither during the war in Kosovo, nor in the Iraq war, both conducted in breach of the UN charter. But, regarding many member states at the UN, the European parliament profoundly regrets that “the doctrine of non-alignment, inherited from the cold war era, undermines the alliance of democracies”.
not hesitate to deploy its forces in combined civil and military missions extending far beyond the old iron curtain to the borders of Pakistan. Even within Sarkozy’s own party, two former prime ministers, Alain Juppé and Dominique de Villepin, are already worried about this change of direction — evidence enough of the risks involved in taking such a course. 1 March 2009 Serge Halimi is editorial director of Le Monde Diplomatique Translated by Barbara Wilson (1)
So it is understood that “the future collective defence of the European Union” to which the French head of state is committed will be organised exclusively within the framework of the Atlantic Alliance. The Alliance will
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European parliament resolution of 19 February 2009 on the role of NATO in the security architecture of the EU. Source: http://mondediplo.com/2009/ 03/01nato
FOR THE
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By Cindy and Craig Corrie We thank all who continue to remember Rachel and who, on this sixth anniversary of her stand in Gaza, renew their own commitments to human rights, justice and peace in the Middle East. The tributes and actions in her memory are a source of inspiration to us and to others. Friday, 13 March, we learned of the tragic injury to American activist Tristan Anderson. Tristan was shot in the head with a tear gas canister in Nilin village in the West Bank when Israeli forces attacked a demonstration opposing the construction of the annexation wall through the village’s land. On the same day, a Nilin resident was shot in the leg with live ammunition. Four residents of Nilin have been killed in the past eight months as villagers and their supporters have courageously demonstrated against the Apartheid Wall deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice — a wall that will ultimately absorb onequarter of the village’s remaining land. Those who have died are 10-year-old child Ahmed Mousa, shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29
July 2008; Yousef Amira (17), shot with rubber-coated steel bullets on 30 July 2008; Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) and Mohammed Khawaje (20), both shot and killed with live ammunition on 8 December 2008. On this anniversary, Rachel would want us all to hold Tristan Anderson and his family and these Palestinians and their families in our thoughts and prayers, and we ask everyone to do so. We are writing this message from Cairo where we returned after a visit to Gaza with the Code Pink delegation from the United States. Fifty-eight women and men successfully passed through Rafah crossing on Saturday, 7 March to challenge the border closures and siege and to celebrate International Women’s Day with the strong and courageous women of Gaza. Rachel would be very happy that our spirited delegation made this journey. North to south throughout the Strip, we witnessed the sweeping destruction of neighbourhoods, municipal buildings, police stations, mosques and schools — casualties of the Israeli military
assaults in December and January. When we asked about the personal impact of the attacks on those we met, we heard repeatedly of the loss of mothers, fathers, children, cousins and friends. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reports 1,434 Palestinian dead and more than 5,000 injured, among them 288 children and 121 women. We walked through the farming village of Khoza in the south where 50 homes were destroyed during the land invasion. A young boy scrambled through a hole in the rubble to show us the basement he and his family crouched in as a bulldozer crushed their house upon them. We heard of Rafiya, who lead the frightened women and children of this neighbourhood away from threatening Israeli military bulldozers, only to be struck down and killed by an Israeli soldier’s sniper fire as she walked in the street carrying her white flag. Repeatedly, we were told by Palestinians, and by the internationals continued next page
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on the ground supporting them, that there is no ceasefire. Indeed, bomb blasts from the border area punctuated our conversations as we arrived and departed Gaza. On our last night, we sat by a fire in the moonlight in the remains of a friend’s farmyard and listened to him tell of how the Israeli military destroyed his home in 2004, and of how this second home was shattered on 6 February. This time, it was Israeli rockets from Apache helicopters that struck the house. A stand of wheat remained and rustled soothingly in the breeze as we talked, but our attention shifted quickly when F-16s streaked high across the night sky and our friend explained that if the planes tipped to the side, they would strike. Everywhere, the psychological costs of the recent and ongoing attacks for all Gazans, but especially for the children, were sadly apparent. It is not only those who suffer the greatest losses that carry the scars of all that has happened. It is those, too, who witnessed from their school, bodies flying in the air when police cadets were bombed across the street and those who felt and heard the terrifying blasts of missiles falling near their own homes. It is the children who each day must walk past the unexplainable and inhumane destruction that has occurred.
A R T I C L E S Congress to act with fortitude and courage to ensure that the atrocities that have occurred are addressed by the Israeli government and through relevant international and US law. We ask them to act immediately and persistently to stop the impunity enjoyed by the Israeli military, not to encourage it.
In Rachel’s case, though a thorough, credible and transparent investigation was promised by the Israeli government, after six years, the position of the US government remains that such an investigation has not taken place. In March 2008, Michele BernierToff, Managing Director of the Office of Overseas Citizen Services at the Department of State, wrote, “We have consistently requested that the Government of Israel conduct a full and transparent investigation into Rachel’s death. Our requests have gone unanswered or ignored.” Now, the attacks on all the people of Gaza and the recent one on Tristan Anderson in Nilin cry out for investigation and accountability. We call on President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and members of
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Despite the pain, we have once again felt privileged to enter briefly into the lives of Rachel’s Palestinian friends in Gaza. We are moved by their resilience and heartened by their song, dance and laughter amidst the tears. Rachel wrote in 2003, “I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity — laughter, generosity, family time — against the incredible horror occurring in their lives ... I am also discovering a degree of strength and the basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances ... I think the word is dignity.” On this sixth anniversary of Rachel’s killing, we echo her sentiments. 16 March 2009 Cindy and Craig Corrie are the parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed by the Israeli army while protecting a Palestinian doctor’s home from being demolished on 16 March 2003. Source: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/ article10399.shtml
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By Ahmad Sadri On Nowruz, the day when Iranians celebrate the coming of spring and the new Iranian calendar year, US President Barack Obama took the helm of American foreign policy towards Iran and dramatically communicated his will to chart a new course away from the failed policies of the past. "My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us", Obama said in a video message to Iranians. But given the upcoming Iranian
presidential elections in June, the real challenge for the United States is when and how to further engage Iran.
Afghanistan. This meeting, scheduled for next week, could be the launching point for shared action.
Obama understands that there are vast areas of convergence between the United States and Iran when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan, and many more areas where constructive engagement could produce tangible results for both sides. Earlier this month Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, announced the administration's plan to invite Iran to a conference on
For instance, the United States and Iran could cooperate to prevent the trafficking of drugs from Afghanistan into Iran, and from there to the rest of the world. The international community would applaud such an undertaking, as it would help to choke the bottleneck of the worldwide opium trade. Stopping drug runners could also help continued next page
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address the immediate political concerns of Iran and the United States by financially starving some of the groups within the Taliban that benefit from such sales. Bringing law and order to Iran's western frontier, where the Iranian army and police are outgunned, outmanned and outwitted by increasingly aggressive smugglers, would weaken or eliminate drug running outfits. Some of these local operators are in alliance with Al Qaeda, which is waging a two-pronged terrorist campaign against both the United States and Iran, as well as the Shi'a populations of Pakistan and Iraq. The announcement of American interest in the shipment of appropriate transportation, reconnaissance and communications hardware to the areas of Iran bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the "war on drugs" is more than a metaphor, would be enormously popular amongst Iranian civil society as well. Successive bumper crops of opium and the virtually free flow of drugs into Iran have dropped the price of heroin in Iran's western provinces lower than that of cigarettes, unleashing an ugly and deeply disheartening epidemic of heroin addiction among Iranians. Many Iranians, including me, have witnessed the wasting away and death of young members of their families due to the
A R T I C L E S the democratically elected parliament and president. And approaching the hardliner President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would compound this risk by opening negotiations with a less powerful leader who could be in the lame duck twilight of his presidency. Such an early move could also strengthen his bid for another term.
scourge of cheap and abundant drugs. One would be hard pressed to imagine a more auspicious opening in IranianAmerican relations than scenes of cooperation between the experts of both countries to address a concern common. But before shared action can occur, diplomatic relations must be reinstated. There is no doubt that a great gesture would speak louder than mere promises of a grand bargain. Any diplomatic approach must be combined with some sort of concrete action. After three decades of missed opportunities, Iranians of all political walks are distrustful of furtive missives delivered by cloaked emissaries. Besides, there is always the vexing question of choosing the right interlocutor for negotiations. Following Obama's video message, extending a hand directly to the powerful Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would appear to circumvent
Nor can Obama afford to wait for the results of the June elections because it might radically diminish the goodwill necessary for negotiations in case of a conservative win. The best option is to dispatch the message with an American congressional delegation in an attempt at a dialogue between elective bodies. Regardless of to whom he might convey his words, Obama's goodwill must be readily translatable to dramatic deeds with immediate benefits to both Iran and the United States. Only then can Obama effectively push at the 30year-old logjam of distrust between the two countries. 24 March 2009 Ahmad Sadri is the Iranian-born James P. Gorter chair of Islamic world studies at Lake Forest College and a columnist for the Iranian newspaper, Etemade Melli. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews). Source: Common Ground News Service www.commongroundnews.org
U.S. WAR IN AFGHANISTAN HAUNTED BY BUSH’S WAR CRIMES By Michael Haas While additional American troops are being deployed to Afghanistan, George W. Bush's misdeeds continue to handicap combat effectiveness there. Past disrespect to the country must be reversed by an immediate apology to the Afghan people and new orders to field commanders to follow the Geneva Conventions on the battlefield. The U.S. war in Afghanistan began in 2001 as a war of aggression similar to the attack on Iraq. Prior to the start of
that war on Oct. 7, 2001, the Taliban government in Kabul offered to hand over Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, if the U.S. provided proof he was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Bush deemed Kabul's response insufficient and he attacked without adequately seeking an alternative or peaceful way to resolve differences...and the UN was not given a proper role. This attack violated Article 2 of the UN Charter that states
"All members shall refrain...from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity&of any state..." Neither Afghanistan nor Iraq attacked the United States, so neither war was based on self-defense. Preemptive war is not an accepted form of self-defense under international law. The list of U.S. war crimes committed continued next page
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in Afghanistan alone documented in my book include the following: # The U.S. bombed the children's hospital in Kabul and a hospital in Herat, resulting in 100 deaths. This violated the Red Cross Convention of 1864 that established even military hospitals as "neutral" and that must be "respected by belligerents." # Clearly marked Red Cross warehouses were bombed on three occasions in the Afghan War during
It is not only the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq whose rights have been trampled, for today the globe is being transformed into an unchecked superpower playpen where might appears to make right. October 2001, a violation of the Geneva Convention of 1929 that protects "the personnel of Voluntary Aid Societies." # During its 2001 offensive in Afghanistan, at least 1,000 civilians were killed by U.S. carpet bombing. This violates Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions prohibiting "indiscriminate attacks" against civilians. # While the Hague Convention of 1899 requires that prisoners be "humanely treated," this was often not the case in Afghanistan where the conditions in the prisons were so shocking that Canadian forces stopped sending prisoners to the American-run prisons at the end of 2005, preferring to send them to facilities run by the Afghan government. # Although the Geneva Convention of 1949 forbids "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds," captives were murdered in Afghanistan's prisons. Some were chained naked to the ceiling, cell doors, and the floor. One man, Ait Idr, had his face forced into a toilet that was
repeatedly flushed. Another, Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel, was hit with his arms tied behind his back until his head began to bleed. Another, Ahmed Darabi, was hung by his arms and repeatedly beaten, though he survived---unlike (a) taxicab driver (named) Dilawar, who died from the same treatment.
have been trampled, for today the globe is being transformed into an unchecked superpower playpen where might appears to make right. Hundreds of years of human rights progress are in serious jeopardy as long as governmental war criminals live blissfully in the knowledge that they will never be accountable for their crimes.
# Prisoners of war "shall be lodged in buildings or in barracks," says the POW Convention of 1929 but many cells at American-run prisons in Afghanistan lack windows and adequate ventilation. Some prisons lacked heat during cold weather so that prisoners died of exposure. What's more, some prisoners have been held in solitary confinement for years.
The more the public observes reference in the news to possible war crimes violations, the more decision makers will be accountable. Otherwise, the impunity of high Bush administration officials for the immense violations documented....threatens to turn back the clock on human progress by shredding the Magna Carta, the American Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, and similar agreements that have advanced humanity from barbarism toward civilized behavior.
# Where the Geneva Convention decrees sick or wounded prisoners "shall not be transferred as long as their recovery may be endangered by the journey," some prisoners transferred in Afghanistan were thrown to the ground from helicopters and badly injured. Still others were kicked or beaten en route and others died while stuffed into sealed cargo containers. Not surprisingly, the deaths of some Afghan prisoners have never been recorded, another war crimes violation. Aggressive war was first declared to be illegal when the U.S. and France coauthored and later ratified the multilateral Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, thus incorporating that document into what the U.S. Constitution calls "the law of the land." Furthermore, the U.S. is a signatory to both the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Charter of 1945, and the Tokyo Charter of 1946. The Nuremberg Charter, for example, defines crimes against peace as "planning, preparation, initiation or the waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties...," a definition that fits U.S. actions in Afghanistan during 2001. It is not only the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq whose rights
Bush has accomplished what Osama Bin Laden never thought possible---a transformed United States where leaders have abandoned democratic principles and loyal citizens are profoundly ashamed of how the ideals of the country they love so much have been abandoned. Something must be done or Americans will believe that whatever Bush has done was right. Bringing George W. Bush and his administration to justice for war crimes is the most compelling way in which to dispel the fiction that what has been done was necessary and proper. Otherwise, the specter of war crimes will continue to haunt the world, and civilization itself will unravel helplessly. 2 March 2009 Professor Haas, a distinguished authority on international law and human rights, is the author or editor of 33 books on government and world politics. Haas has taught political science at Northwestern, Purdue, and the University of London. Haas may be reached at: mikehaas@aol.com Further Information: Sherwood Ross Associates, Suite 403, 102 S.W. 6th Ave., Miami, FL 33130
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With the powers of dance, music, testimonies and prayers, and enriched by multiple analyses, we Colombian peoples’ movements, and international delegates in solidarity, issue this joint call to the international community. In March 2009 at Bogotá, Colombians through Proyecto Justicia y Vida, joined with the Second People’s Forum of Peace for Life to focus Colombia’s armed conflict and struggle within a larger global context, under the theme, “Without Fear of Empire: Global People’s Resistance.” Peace for Life defines its peace and justice objectives in relation to the core issues of empire, state terrorism and militarized neoliberal globalization, especially as forged by the imperial power of the U.S. The international delegation brought solidarity and support, with over 50 political activists, scholars, laity, pastors, priests, and peoples attending from every continent. Hundreds of Colombians met in common purpose with international guests coming from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Fiji, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Norway, Palestine, Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Africa, South Korea, Tonga, United Kingdom, and the United States. RESISTANCE’S PAIN
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Together, we Colombians and international delegates, weave the strength of our resistance with our faith for a common struggle. Our struggle grows strong amid the destruction of peoples and lands that the U.S global empire—with its transnational corporations and Neoliberal policies— inflicts upon the peoples of Colombia and so many others. Colombia today is burdened by the nightmare of more than 50 years of armed conflict, as guerrilla groups have waged an ongoing struggle against unjust Colombian governments. The present government exploits this long-
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standing conflict to advance the special interests of its elite, the 3 percent of the population who owns over half of Colombia’s arable land. The conflicts inside the country are many and complex, but we lift our cry especially against the U.S. global empire, which, often with Europe’s complicity, endlessly multiplies the people’s pain. There is some hope, because today the power of the U.S. global empire is in decline, due to its own internal economic crisis, and the unyielding resistance of people’s movements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. Moreover, there are the rival powers of a stronger China, Russia, and especially the new governments brought to power by peoples’ movements across Latin America (in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, for example). Nevertheless, the empire remains a threat. It has divided the entire globe into strategic command regions, and maintains over 800 military bases worldwide. The U.S. is now making a desperate and brutal assault on the people of Colombia, in order to secure empire’s traditional hold over all the Americas and, by extension, over the globe. Empire is hungry for the resources of Colombia, Latin America’s fifth largest economy. It has a particular hunger for narcotrafficking, exploiting it and so destroying humanity. It now seeks to strengthen its strategic position in Colombia, located between Central and South America, and bordering Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. Empire especially covets the oil of Colombia, the third largest Latin American supplier of oil to the U.S. (after Venezuela and Mexico). To feed its domestic demand for oil, the U.S. imports more oil from Latin America than even from the Middle East. And with gains and investments from these resources, the empire plays a ruthless game, a “casino capitalism,” a speculation of high finance that brings the people low. And so, Colombia’s peoples are
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bleeding. Women, children, the aged— especially those from Indigenous, AfroColombian, and peasant/campesino communities—are now being displaced and dispossessed from their lands. Indigenous peoples’ struggle for their land and culture is met by the Colombian state’s continued repression and threats of “extinction.” Middle classes have been exploited by their banks and lending agencies. Millions of displaced persons and refugees have been created by strategic maneuvers of elites who expropriate land for economic gain and power. These displacements are not just a simple transfer of peoples from one place to another; they are the brutal, forced loss of home and housing, being coerced to live without dignity, seeing loved-ones killed, tortured, poisoned by defoliating spraying of coca fields, denuding and polluting mother earth. Moreover, when leaders for peace and justice have come forward to work in peaceful and political ways, they routinely have been assassinated by military and paramilitary agents. We have seen this bleeding before. We recognize the bleeding of Colombian peoples as U.S. Empire’s work elsewhere. It is, for example, the same bleeding we see when the empire of America and Israel work together to dispossess Palestinian peoples of their lands, enforcing more than 60 years of colonization, apartheid discrimination, and illegal occupation of Palestine. In Colombia today, Israel works as a full partner with the United States in the funding and training of military and paramilitary forces to enact illegal dispossession of lands and peoples, as they do in Palestine. It is the same bleeding from empire that, historically, we have seen in the invasions and occupations of the Philippines for its resources and strategic position, in the partition and brutal militarization of the divided Koreas, in the more than a million lives lost in the U.S. war in Vietnam, in the militarized colonization of Puerto Rico, continued next page
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We, nevertheless, are not just bleeding. in the economic isolation and invasion We are also breathing life, and of Haiti, in the brutal interventions into celebrating life’s emergence, even in the democratic struggles in Nepal, in the throes of U.S. imperial power. We invasions of Grenada breathe in our rage and and Panama, and in the mourning, and live out We call all peoples a new culture of embargos and attacks on the people’s revolution in of faith and m e m o r y , Cuba. Today we see the conscience to this remembering to be led bleeding continue, in the toward justice and revolution— peace by our many war and occupation of Iraq (a million of its whether they be departed ancestors and civilians sacrificed to from any religion martyrs. We breathe empire), in the suffering and calmly discern in or no religion—to empire the structural of young women and men in the sweat participate in the demons of greed and factories of empire’s spiritualities of violence that we must “free trade export name and resist many faiths everywhere. We zones,” in the uninvestigated resisting empire breathe within a fragile feminicides (murders of today in their own ecosystem of air and women) in Guatemala, water, and are thus settings. united and empowered in the networks of human trafficking (in with all peoples of this women, especially), in the empire’s one earth, which births and nurtures torture cells of Abu-Ghraib and us all. In Bogotá, we Indigenous, Guantánamo Bay, in the empire’s Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and other feeding on the callous neglect and peoples of conscience, celebrate exploitation of Dalit people, in the together this new spirituality of breath imperial actions and inactions in and life. This spirituality breaks down Rwanda, the Congo and Sudan, and in the politics and religions of selfthe empire’s current spiraling into centeredness, egoism, individualism, greater militarization and war in and greed, and brings peace and life Afghanistan. Even as we meet in with justice. Bogotá, we also hear the cries from Sri Lanka, where civilians are dying from Thus our shared pain and lamentation attacks by a government supported by have arisen in faith, with a new counterthe US in the name of a “struggle against imperial spirituality, nurtured by many terrorism.” faiths that guide our concrete popular movements and organizing. We are Empire has its own religion, often especially led by and have as our believing that this bleeding is a necessary exemplars the women and mothers of sacrifice for globalization, for the dispossessed in Colombia and civilization, for the future of all peoples. among the dispossessed of every land. Too many Christian churches preach This spirituality is part of a revolution this theology, condoning the sacrifice of spiritual values and practices the of the poor, or becoming complicit by world over. We call all peoples of faith their silence with this sacrifice of the and conscience to this revolution— earth and her poor. We reject this whether they be from any religion or theology of sacrifice for imperial no religion—to participate in the globalization. We refuse to be the spiritualities of many faiths resisting sacrificial lambs for the empire’s empire today in their own settings. pretexts and projects, whether called “war on terrorism,” “war on drugs,” We join our Colombian brothers and or “development.” sisters to call for prosecution of the Colombian state’s and financial sectors’ THE CALL AND PLEDGE OF A COUNTER- crimes against humanity, especially as IMPERIAL FAITH transnational corporations have ravaged
A R T I C L E S the country. War and dispossession against all, especially farmers, must be ended. Colonization and racism against Colombia’s indigenous peoples must be dismantled, especially for the Raizal peoples of Colombia’s Caribbean region. We bring the same urgency to prosecuting crimes against international law in Colombia as we do to those in Palestine. We call also to our brothers and sisters under repression or in crisis inside the U.S. imperium. We celebrate your faith and spirituality of resistance against your government’s imperial power. Your economic crisis is part of the multiple chaos being visited upon us throughout the world, driven by the imperial adventures and interventions of U.S. global power. Your bleeding within the U.S. is one of the many rivulets of blood flowing from the open wounds of empire around the world. As all who hear our call join with us, we pledge our resolve to resist the many strategies of empire today. Here at this People’s Forum, we have analyzed and mourned our planet in peril, but in hope and joy we are building new structures to hasten the time of a liberation from empire for all the oppressed of the earth. 23 March 2009 Adopted by the participants of the Peace for Life Second People’s Forum held on 20-23 March 2009 in Bogotá, Colombia The Second People’s Forum of Peace for Life was organized in partnership with Proyecto Justicia y Vida and a consortium of Colombian NGOs and social movements: Sociedad Latinoamericana de Economia Politica y Pensamiento Critico (SEPLA); Colombianas y colombianos por La Paz; Movimiento de Cristianos y Cristianas por la Paz; Comisión Interfranciscana de Justicia, Paz y Reverencia con la Creación; Movimiento de Maestros y Maestras; Movimiento Campesino Colombiano; Movimiento Indígena Colombiano; and Movimiento de Víctimas de Crímenes del Sector Financiero. Other local organizations, including progressive Christian groups like Red Ecumenica, were also represented at the Forum. Dr Chandra Muzaffar was one of the speakers at the Forum. He was also a member of the group that drafted the Bogota Declaration 2009
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