September 2012
Vol 12, No.09
A GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS? G
lobal food prices rose 6.2 percent in July, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization reported Thursday. The FAO said it released its Food Price Index ahead of its regular publication schedule as a warning against the impact of such price rises.
By Naomi Spencer cereal index is only 14 points below the all-time high of 274 points in April 2008. The FAO registered a 12 percent rise in sugar prices in July, triggered by unseasonably wet weather in
The index, which calculates the cost of a basket of food commodities, overall averaged 213 points in July, up 12 points from June. In February 2011, the height of the Arab Spring, the overall index peaked at 238. The index has remained above the average 2008 level for more than a year and is now trending toward an all-time high. Grain prices have driven the overall rise. The US corn crop is in a state of disaster, with more than half of all US acreage listed in poor or very poor condition due to a recordbreaking drought. Under a parallel drought, Russia downgraded its wheat crop by several million tons on Wednesday. The FAO cereal index averaged 260 points in July, up 17 percent over the month. Most of the increase is attributable to a 23 percent rise in corn prices over the month and a similar, 19 percent surge in wheat prices. The
Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of cane sugar. Oils rose 2 percent, primarily on tighter supply outlooks and record prices for soybeans. Price indexes for meats and dairy remained relatively unchanged for the month, although the protracted drought in the US rangeland has distressed many ranchers, who will be compelled to liquidate their herds. The US Department of Agriculture projects US consumer price inflation for meat, poultry, and dairy in the next few months as a result. Internationally, the higher cost of animal feed will ripple through livestock producers.
This process may sharply affect Asia, where demand for meat is growing, but nations have smaller domestic stockpiles. International food organization Oxfam warned in response to the FAO report that “millions of the world’s poorest will face devastation” from the increases. “This is not some gentle monthly wake-up call—it’s the same global alarm that’s been screaming at us since 2008,” Oxfam spokesman Colin Roche stated. “These figures prove that the world’s food system cannot cope on crumbling foundations. The combination of rising prices and expected low reserves means the world is facing a double danger.” One billion people suffer from hunger worldwide. Hundreds of millions more who live in poverty are vulnerable to food inflation because they spend half or more of their incomes on staple goods. Food price shocks in 2008—driven by a confluence of weather disasters, protectionist measures, and speculators jumping ship from the financial market into commodities— produced food protests across more than 30 countries. continued next page
ARTICLES .GLASS-STEAGALL CAN CORRECT MALAYSIA’S DANGEROUS
.SOMALIA’S WITHERING SOVEREIGNTY
DEPENDENCE ON FOOD IMPORTS By MOHD PETER DAVIS .........................................P 3
BY NAMA NASSER AL-ABOODI............................P 7
.CUSTODIAN OF THE CUSTODIAN OF THE CUSTODIAN BY CHANDRA MUZAFFAR........................................P 4
.UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREATS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST SACRED SPACES BY CHAIWAT SATHA-ANAND...............................P 9
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“There is a potential for a situation to develop like we had back in 200708,” FAO economist and grain analyst Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters Thursday. “There is an expectation that this time around we will not pursue bad policies and intervene in the market by restrictions, and if that doesn’t happen we will not see such a serious situation as 2007/08. But if those policies get repeated, anything
is possible.” While economists and aid organizations have issued progressively dire warnings over the consequences of another food crisis, the underlying factors—extreme weather, a disjointed food distribution system, the possibility of export bans, and above all, rampant speculation—are more exacerbated than ever. Indeed, commodities investors have rallied on the raft of bad news, making price shocks inevitable. Traders on the Chicago Board of Trade, banking on the USDA to issue a dire outlook on Friday, sent corn prices soaring Thursday morning to $8.265 per bushel, two cents below the all-time record set in July. Major banks and hedge funds in particular have played a role in the rally. As Bloomberg News noted, “crops are the best-performing commodities this year, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Macquarie Group Ltd. and Credit Suisse Group AG say the trend will continue.” One Chicago trader commented to
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Reuters that Goldman Sachs was leading the betting on a USDA corn yield downgrade and predicting $9 corn and $20 soybeans by November. “The Goldman roll started Tuesday, you have that going on and the report is tomorrow. Everyone is expecting the corn number to be pretty friendly.” Jaime Miralles of investment firm Intl FC Stone Europe said that “a firm $9 corn sentiment remains as rationing is and will be required.” Other speculators anticipate $10 per bushel corn prices in the coming months. “I think general price firmness is being seen in ahead of the USDA report because the market is increasingly realising how horrible conditions are for U.S. corn,” Rabobank analyst Erin FitzPatrick commented. “There is pre-positioning ahead of the report as people are expecting more cuts in US harvest forecasts. Despite recent rain in the US, a lot of the damage has already been done to corn.” Farmers and agricultural economists estimate that corn yield in much of the Corn Belt will be far lower than the USDA’s already downgraded estimate of 146 bushels per acre. Some areas may yield 100 bushels per acre or less, knocking the national corn crop back to levels not seen in decades. The US Drought Monitor reported that for the week ending August 7, fully 80 percent of the contiguous US is experiencing drought. “Every day we go without significant rain is tightening the noose,” said meteorologist Mark Svoboda, who
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authored the latest Monitor report. In Iowa, the largest corn producing state, the area suffering from extreme drought more than doubled in size. As of August 7, nearly 70 percent of the state was under the most severe category of drought. Over 81 percent of Illinois and fully 94 percent of Missouri is in “at least extreme drought.” The USDA estimates that inventories of corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice will be reduced to 2008 levels next year. Wheat inventories are projected to contract 7.5 percent. Wheat production in Russia, the fourth largest exporter, is set to fall by 20 percent this year. The Australian wheat crop, stunted by repeated frosts and poor weather, may yield 40 percent less than initial projections.
India’s agricultural region suffered a monsoon season providing 22 percent less rainfall than average, resulting in a 7.8 million ton loss in the global rice crop. The FAO also reduced rice production forecasts for Cambodia, Taiwan, North and South Korea, and Nepal. 10 August, 2012 Naomi Spencer is a wsws.org writer. Source: WSWS.org
Dear friends, please visit our facebook “Just Imjw” to view a selection of photos taken during our JUST 20 Celebrations held on 8 September 2012
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GLASS-STEAGALL CAN CORRECT MALAYSIA’S DANGEROUS DEPENDENCE ON FOOD IMPORTS By Mohd Peter Davis The Head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov recently paid Malaysia a kind compliment whilst defining a bold international economic commitment to eradicate illegal drug production worldwide. Instead of poor farmers in developing countries being financially forced to grow crops like poppies for criminal opium and heroine production, what is necessary according to Ivanov is “…a national high-technology industrial sector into which the population can be drawn. An example is Malaysia, which has turned from a backward agrarian country into one of the leading high-technology countries in a few decades.” This achieves “…employment diversification, in order to reduce the portion of families whose welfare directly depends on succeeding in agriculture”. However, unbeknown to Viktor Ivanov, and indeed nearly all Malaysians, high-technology industrialisation also coincided with the abandonment of modern food production. Fifteen years ago Malaysia foolishly followed the arrogant dictate of the world Food and Agriculture Organisation, “Produce microchips and let the poor countries feed you”. Malaysia could easily have achieved both industrial production and advanced food production. Local agricultural research teams in universities and institutions were making good progress but their grants were abruptly terminated and the expert teams dispersed. A golden opportunity to achieve food self-sufficiency was lost.
Today Malaysia is dangerously dependent on imports for almost all of its quality food, including beef, mutton, lamb, milk, butter, cheeses, the corn and soya bean for chicken, egg and pig production, wheat for bread, chapatti and pastries and shamefully 40% of all rice consumed.
Malaysians cannot survive on its abundance of fruit and vegetables or the oceans of palm oil for that matter that swallow most of the good agricultural land. Without food imports the population will surely face mass starvation far crueler than during the Japanese Occupation and the associated American naval blockade including all food ships. Viktor Ivanov’s plan to upgrade peasant food production worldwide applies equally well to Malaysia’s highly underdeveloped agricultural sector. “ …the first level of advanced food production is the creation of the infrastructure needed for organizing advanced agriculture, including the formation of stable markets, a low-interest credit system for peasants, technical and technology support for agriculture (scientific and industrial seed-farming,
fertilizers, and agricultural machine-building), a system of teaching and training for agronomists and other agriculture professionals, as well as tough protectionist measures to defend peasants who are growing legal crops”. Ending hunger in developing countries and starvation in Africa is no longer a utopian dream. A dramatic economic change last week re-opened all doors for the possibility of rapidly rebuilding the world by employing the traditional American Credit System as used so successfully by Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt which dramatically built the entire infrastructure and agriculture of America. A very respectable faction of the British Establishment has suddenly decided to join forces with veteran American economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche and associates, accepting his persistent proposals for a new version of President Roosevelt’s 1933 Glass-Steagall Bill to rescue the world economy from otherwise certain collapse. Europe and America are currently on the brink of 1932-like hyperinflation where a loaf of bread in Germany ended up in just a few months costing a wheelbarrow of money, completely wiping out any savings, jewelry and household goods and creating utter destitution for the entire population. In the nick-of-time the passage of Glass-Steagalls will save Europe and America from the same fate by separating and protecting the genuine commercial banks that society needs continued next page
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for development programs. Meanwhile, speculative banks will be quickly neutralised for recklessly gambling the savings and pension funds of the public, criminally bankrupting the world in the process and expecting Governments to pay the gambling debts of the world’s biggest banks by savaging the jobs, health care, living standards and pension funds of the population. Within days of the new Glass Steagall becoming law, the ordinary commercial banks will get a new lease of life. However, the multinational “too big to fail” speculative banks will be essentially bankrupted, owning only their own gambling debts. You gambled, you lost, you pay. This simple legislative Glass-Steagall
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process which is gaining rapid support at the highest levels in Britain and America will pave the way for the introduction of the American style Credit System where National Banks will supply the huge amounts of funding to commercial banks for competent and socially necessary large scale national infrastructure such as dams, electricity production, flood mitigation, fast trains, highways, mass housing, new industries and advanced agriculture. These projects to lift up the welfare, inventiveness and creativity of the population and will generate far more wealth than they cost to build, revealing the wealth creation secret and intention of the credit system of a productive economy.
country to a high-technology country in a few decades. By adopting Glass Steagall and linking up with a Credit System initially between America, and the giant Asian economies, a long period of unparalleled peace and development can occur. Malaysia, for the first time in its history, can become self-sufficient in food, and indeed a major food exporter. This can overcome the serious mistake Malaysia made in 1997 in abandoning advanced food production, a mistake Japan and South Korea were determined not to make during their industrialization. 12 July, 2012 Mohd Peter Davis is a retired agricultural scientist with Universiti Putra Malaysia.
As Russia has noted, Malaysia managed to progress from a backward
OF THE C USTODIAN OF THE By Chandra Muzaffar
out of 200 rebels captured in Aleppo recently, 70 were foreign fighters.
Muslims and Muslim governments are angry with Bashar al-Assad. They hold him responsible for the massacre of thousands of people, many of them innocent civilians, in Syria. They want him to go. It is true that Bashar’s army has killed a lot of people. It has used excessive force — as I have pointed out in a number of articles before this. Anyone with a conscience would condemn the mindless violence that has bloodied Syria in the last 17 months. But Bashar’s violence is only one side of the story. The armed rebels opposed to him have also massacred thousands. How else can one explain the fact that almost one-third of the 17,000 people killed so far in the conflict are from the army and related security agencies? The rebels are not only well equipped with a range of weapons and
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communication apparatus but are also supported by logistical routes developed by the CIA and intelligence provided by Mossad. Their weapons are delivered through “a shadowy network of intermediaries, including the Muslim Brotherhood,” and “are paid for by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.” Since April 2012, hundreds, perhaps even a few thousand, militants, some linked to Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, from Iraq, Libya, Tunisia and Jordan have crossed over into Syria to fight the Bashar government in what they perceive as a “jihad.” It is reported that
The mainstream media in most Muslim majority states have not highlighted these aspects of the Syrian conflict. Neither have they subjected to scrutiny the authenticity of the news they carry on the conflict and the sources of the news items. As a case in point, the Houla massacre of 25 May 2012 was widely publicised all over the world as an example of the brutal, barbaric character of the Bashar government. Scores of children were allegedly butchered by his militia. A picture of a large number of dead children “wrapped in white shrouds with a child jumping over one of them” was offered as proof of the heinous crime. The picture was actually from the war in Iraq in 2003. The photographer himself, Marco Di Lauro of Getty Images, came out in the open continued next page
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to expose the fabrication. In fact, the Houla massacre itself was “committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were members of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of the Assad”, according to the leading German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Houla is not the only case. A Christian nun, Mother Agnes-Mariam de la Croix of the St. James Monastery has published on the monastery’s website, an account of armed rebels gathering Christian and Alawi hostages in a building in the Khalidiya neighbourhood in Homs, and blowing it up with dynamite. The rebels then put the blame for the crime upon the Syrian army. There is also the story of Zainab al-Hosni, allegedly abducted by government forces and burnt to death. A few weeks later, Zainab appeared on Syrian television to nail the lie about her. The most widely quoted source for the alleged atrocities committed by the Syrian government is of course the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) which is a one man operation run by a Rami Abdul Rahman from Coventry, England. His statistics have been challenged on a number of occasions by Syrian analysts who have shown why his reporting is unreliable. It is disappointing that most Muslim governments and NGOs are oblivious to all this and focus only upon Bashar’s wrongdoings. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at its emergency summit held in Mecca on 14 August 2012 reflected this biased approach to the Syrian conflict by condemning only the government while exonerating the armed rebels. A few states such as Algeria, Kazakhstan and Pakistan called for a balanced statement from the summit that would also apportion blame upon the armed
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opposition but their plea was ignored. Worse, Syria which was suspended from the OIC at the summit was not even invited to the meeting and given a chance to defend itself. It was denied the most elementary principle of natural justice. It is a right that is fundamental to Islamic jurisprudence. Why has the Muslim world as a whole, especially its elites and its intelligentsia, adopted such a blatantly biased and starkly unjust position on Syria? Is it because many are ignorant of what is really happening in that country, given the orientation of the mainstream media? Or is it because Muslims revere the Saudi monarch so much — he is after all the custodian of the two holy mosques— that they are convinced that in seeking the elimination of Bashar al-Assad he is doing what is morally right? Or is it because many Muslim elites are beholden to Saudi wealth — and Qatari largesse — that they are prepared to acquiesce in their wishes? Or is it also because of certain sectarian sentiments that Muslims appear to be incensed with the Bashar government?
It is these sentiments that I shall now explore. For many months now a segment of Sunni ulama (religious elites) in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and certain other states have been attacking Bashar as an Alawite leader who is oppressing the Sunni majority. Since Alawites are a branch of Shia Islam, the target has been Shia teachings and the Shia sect. Given the standing of these ulama, their vitriolic
A R T I C L E S utterances have succeeded in inflaming the passions of some Sunni youth who view Bashar and his circle as infidels who should be fought and defeated at all costs. Even the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf AlQaradawi, has now joined the bandwagon and accuses Shias of theological deviance and malpractices. It is important to observe in this regard that in the context of Syria there is no rigid Shia-Sunni dichotomy. The Sunnis given their numerical strength dominate the army, the public services and the private sector. Some of the most critical positions in Syrian society are held by Sunnis. The Grand Mufti of Syria for instance is a Sunni of the Shafie doctrinal school. Indeed, sectarian, or for that matter, religious affiliation has very little weight in society. In many ways, Syria is a society that has sought to de-emphasise religious and sectarian loyalties and nurture a notion of common citizenship. Since the beginning of the conflict, it is the Western media that have been preoccupied with the socalled Sunni-Shia divide and appear to be deliberately stoking sectarian sentiments. The Arab media has followed suit. The way in which Sunni-Shia sentiments are now being manipulated convinces me that geopolitics rather than sectarian loyalties is the motivating force. If sectarian loyalties are really that important, how does one explain the close ties that the Sunni Saudi elite enjoyed with the Shia Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, in the sixties and much of the seventies? Was it because the Shah was the gendarme of the US and the West in the Persian Gulf and an ally of Israel? Was this the reason why the Saudis could get along so well with the Iranian elite? Isn’t it revealing that it was only when the Shah was ousted in a popular revolution in 1979 and the continued next page
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continued from page 5 new Islamic leaders of Iran rejected American hegemony over the region and challenged the legitimacy of the Israeli entity, that Saudi relations with Iran took a turn for the worse?
Saudi animosity towards the new independent minded Iran was so great that it bankrolled the Iraqi instigated war against Iran from 1980 to 1988. The primary goal of that war was to strangulate Iran’s Islamic Revolution at its birth. The war brought together a number of pro-US Arab states with the notable exception of Syria. Needless to say the US and other Western powers aided and abetted this anti-Iran coalition. It was during this time that anti-Shia propaganda was exported from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and other parts of South and Southeast Asia. Groups within the Shia community
also began to respond to these attacks by churning out their own anti-Sunni literature. In spite of the relentless opposition to it, Iran, much to the chagrin of its adversaries in the region and in the West, has continued to grow from strength to strength, especially in the diplomatic and military spheres. One of its major achievements is the solid link it has forged with Syria, on the one hand, and the Hezbollah in Lebanon, on the other. It is the most significant resistance link that has emerged — resistance to Israel and US hegemony— in West Asia and North Africa (WANA) in recent decades.
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Israel, the US and other Western powers such as Britain and France, and actors in WANA like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, are worried. The Iran helmed resistance has increased their apprehension in light of five other related developments. One, Iran’s nuclear capability. Though Iranian leaders have declared on a number of occasions that they regard the manufacture and use of a nuclear bomb as haram (prohibited), there is no doubt that the country’s nuclear capability has been enhanced considerably in recent years. Two, the inability of Israel to defeat Hezbollah and gain control over Lebanon which it regards as its frontline defence. This was proven again in 2006 and today Hezbollah is in a more decisive position in Lebanese politics than it was six years ago. Three, the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 and the introduction of electoral democracy which has led to the rise of Shia political power. Shia political elites in Iraq are by and large inclined towards Iran, which the US sees as a huge setback for its hegemonic ambitions in the region. Four, the Arab uprisings, especially those that are mass based, like in Tunisia and Egypt, have raised questions about the shape of democratic politics in the region in the coming years. Will it give rise to the emergence of Islamic movements that challenge the legitimacy of Israel, US hegemony and the role of feudal monarchies in WANA? Or, would it be possible to co-opt the new Islamic actors into the status quo? Five, how will all these changes unfold in a situation where US hegemony is declining? How will Israel and the other
A R T I C L E S states in WANA that are dependent upon US power for the perpetuation of their interests fare when the US is no longer able to protect them as it did in the past?
For Israel in particular all these developments in WANA portend a less secure neighbourhood. Total control and predictability are crucial elements in Israel’s notion of security. It is because of its obsession with security that guarantees control over its neighbourhood that it is determined to break the link between Iran, Syria and the Hezbollah. It reckons that if Bashar is ousted that link would be broken. This was obvious in the conversation between Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as reported by the respected Jewish journalist, Israel Shamir. Netanyahu made it clear that Israel preferred “the Somalisation of Syria, its break-up and the elimination of its army.” Bashar’s successor —— after his ouster— he stressed “must break with Iran.” Netanyahu gave the impression that Israel was in a position to “influence the rebels.” Since this is Israel’s agenda for Syria, all the moves and manoeuvres of states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to eliminate Bashar would be very much in line with what Israel wants. Any wonder then that both Israeli leaders and its media welcomed the suspension of Syria from the OIC. continued next page
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In this regard, Israel would have been thrilled to read a pronouncement by Al-Qaradawi in May 2012, widely reported in the WANA media that “If the Prophet Muhammad was alive today, he would lend his support to NATO.” More than endorsement from within the region, what Israel has always been confident about is the patronage and protection of the US and most of Europe. On Syria, and in the ultimate analysis, on Iran, the Israeli
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political and military elites know that the centres of power in the West share its diabolical agenda. Indeed, it is Israel that determines the US’s position on critical issues pertaining to WANA. It is the tail that wags the dog. Israel’s relationship with a major Arab state like Saudi Arabia, (with whom it has no formal diplomatic ties) on the one hand, and the US, on the other, tells us a great deal about who is in charge of who. The KenyanAmerican scholar, Professor Ali Mazrui, once described the Saudi-US
A R T I C L E S nexus this way: the problem with the custodian of the Holy Mosques is that there is a custodian of the custodian. If I may add, since it is Israel that decides US foreign policy in WANA, it may not be inaccurate to say that there is a custodian of the custodian of the custodian. 21 August, 2012 Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).
SOMALIA’S WITHERING SOVEREIGNTY By Nama Nasser Al-Aboodi
“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.” This quote by Albert Einstein adequately describes the behavior of the international community of nation states. For example, the theory behind the Responsibility to Protect is that states must respond to the needs of people who are exposed to atrocities such as ethnic cleansing, genocide, and crimes against humanity. In other words, countries have a responsibility towards each other to intervene in the name of humanity when their governments have failed to protect them. Somalia is a classic example where the international community has failed to intervene to protect civilians. Somalia has been politically unstable since 1986 when Mohammed Siad Barre tightened his grip on power by unleashing a reign of terror. Its civil war is considered to start in 1991 when
his dictatorship collapsed. By using humanitarian protection as rhetoric, the United States along with Belgium, France, and Italy sent their militaries to Somalia in 1992 and sought to carry out “Operation Restore Hope.” But when the situation looked like it would take more than the three months President Bush expected, and due to their unwillingness to accept casualties, the allies withdrew. Somalia is not only an example of a conflicted state as a result of colonization, but is also an example of how factional politics and clan-based rivalries are undermining the structure of the state as we know it in international relations. The solution to Somalia’s economic, political, and social instability does not rest with one actor. International and regional forces should provide the environment in which Somalia’s warlords and political factions can engage in dialogue. Moreover, Somali political divisions themselves must be willing to compromise with one another for their country to reach stability.
five colonial territories: French Somaliland, British Somaliland, the Northern Frontier District which belonged to the British, Italian Somaliland, and Ogaden which was controlled by Ethiopia. Somalia gained its independence in July 1960 and an elected government that was “underdeveloped in terms of both sociopolitical and economic infrastructure” replaced colonial rule (Fatah, p.1, 2002). In 1969, Mohammed Siad Barre led a military coup, destroyed Somalia’s cultural heritage, and set up a dictatorship that was alien to the people. Siad Barre was successful in turning clans against each other and making them dependent on
The roots of the conflict in Somalia can be dated to its colonial period. In the 1880s, during the climax of the scramble for Africa under the Berlin Conference, Somalia was divided into
the regime. One cannot discuss Somalia’s political atmosphere during Siad Barre’s dictatorship without mentioning the Cold War. The United continued next page
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States and the Soviet Union were competing to expand their empires. Considered to be a communist dictatorship by the Soviet Union, Barre enjoyed Soviet support and military assistance. Nevertheless, Soviet support halted when Ethiopia in 1977 underwent a military coup that brought Mengistu Haile Mariam to power. The
Soviets rushed to Ethiopia, and naturally, Somalia turned toward the United States for assistance. In 1991 Siad Barre’s military dictatorship collapsed and the accumulating tension gave rise to armed hostilities between clans and political movements. Somalia is not only a victim of the Cold War and a victim of colonization, but also suffers from the effects of colonization. Before colonization, clans and ethnic minorities in the Horn of Africa were autonomous and abided by their customary law, known as the xeer system. Decolonization, however, resulted in arbitrary borders that did not consider the population’s interests but the interests of the colonizers. The effects that colonization had can be seen after Siad Barre’s regime collapsed in 1991. Rivalry between different interest groups escalated starting with the warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed competing for control over Mogadishu. Since then, different clans and political factions have clashed in different parts of Somalia for territorial control. The different political groups and Islamic political parties are complex due to the divisions within themselves. The
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Somali Democratic Salvation Front supported mainly by the Majerteen clan and the Somali National Front supported by the Isaaq clan rose in opposition to Barre’s regime and fought to control parts of Somalia after Barre’s collapsed. The Western Somali Liberation Front supported by the Ogaden has another agenda: selfdetermination of the Ogaden region in southeast Ethiopia. On the other hand, Islamic political groups such as AlIttihad Al-Islamiyya (AIAI) became prominent after 1978 when Somalia fought Ethiopia for control over the Ogaden region. AIAI provided a solid political agenda: to overcome clannish politics, to form an Islamic Somali Republic as they saw Islam as the only unifying force, and to use military force to pursue its goals. AIAI also played a part in organizing Islamic courts, but not all the courts were within their control. Unlike other political movements, the Islamic Courts Unions provided a source of stability for communities. Led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, they were formed to bring back the rule of law and were accepted by several communities because they were pragmatic and provided much needed security. Somalia, however, is still in a state of anarchy. If one looks at the situation from a counterfactual perspective, Somalia’s civil war can be said to date back to colonization when arbitrary borders were formed by colonizers. With numerous political rivalries and hostility toward foreign intervention, the Somali crisis cannot be easily resolved. I will try to highlight some of the possible solutions. Many scholars argue that instead of trying to unify the country through the Transitional Federal Government that was set up in 2004 and supported by the United Nations and the United States, external actors in Somalia should try and develop “building blocks.” “Building blocks allow for the
A R T I C L E S creation of at least five or six political units” and creates a kind of federation (Gilkes, 1999, p.571). Instead of
unifying all the parties under one central government, sovereign republics would unify under a weak central government. This would seem effective since Somalia is already divided into Somaliland in the north, Puntland in the east, and Somalia in the south. But the concept of building blocks as a resolution does not consider how the country would deal with transnational issues of globalization and regional issues such as Somalia’s borders and neighbors. If Somalia’s political units were to be autonomous republics, they would not be unified in matters of transnational issues such as climate change, globalization, and trafficking which are essential for stability. In addition to “building blocks,” external influences are concerned with Somalia’s political future. The United States would like to see Somalia run by a pro-Western government and not by Islamic politics. From their point of view, if Somalia were to be run by fundamentalists, it could be the base for Al-Qaeda and other “terrorist” operations. Moreover, Islamic politics is a threat to the United States, other Western governments, and Ethiopia because of Somalia’s proximity to Yemen and the trading route in the Gulf of Aden. They fear that because Yemen is already a base for terrorist activities, Somalia will become an arena for similar activities. Nevertheless, Islam is an important part of Somali ethnic identity and if it were continued next page
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to resort to Islamic politics, it should be viewed in a positive light. What is crucial is that Islamic states should not isolate themselves and should not wage war on non-Muslims. The Muslim Brotherhood’s recent victory in Egypt has shown that secularism is not the only way. The Egyptian public is in favor of a state that integrates, to an extent, religion into politics. Egypt offers hope that Western governments will accept Islamic politics rather than fight to prevent its emergence. Another view point is that since clans are the only functioning institutions in Somalia, Somalia should return to its traditional xeer system. The “building block” concept and the idea that Somalia should return to its traditional political system raises questions about the nation state. Somalia has proved that the state with its power in the centre is not the only functioning political system. When people are led down by the structure of the state, they shift their allegiance to their tribes
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where they can “regain autonomy through anarchy” (Simons, 1994, p.821). For this reason, the traditional definition of the state must be revised in order to accommodate challenges to the structure of the state. Somalia’s withering sovereignty already undermines the essence of the state. Through dialogue and commitment, Somalia needs to reach political stability in order to develop its capacity to provide security for its citizens, engage in political decision-making, integrate into the world economy, and deal with the challenges facing the country. Commitment and cooperation are needed from all angles to save Somalia’s sovereignty.
Fatah, A. A. (2002). Somalia’s Traditional Clan-Based System Holds Key to the Country’s Future Stability. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Retrieved July 3, 2012, from http:// www.wrmea.com/component/ content/article/237/4054-somaliastraditional-clan-based-system-holdskey-to-the-countrys-futurestability.html Gilkes, P. (1999). Briefing: Somalia. African Affairs 98(393), 571-577. Retrieved July 3, 2012, from Jstor database. Simons, A. (1994). Somalia and the Dissolution of the Nation-State. American Anthropologist Association 96(4), 818-824. Retrieved July 3, 2012, from Jstor database. 28 July, 2012 Nama Nasser Al- Aboodi was an intern with JUST from 19 June to 28 July 2012.
UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL T HREATS A GAINST S ACRED SPACES
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By Chaiwat Satha-Anand
On August 6, 2012, the neo-Nazi Wade Michael Page walked into the gurudwara (Sikh temple) of Wisconsin in Oak Creek and murdered 6 people including the temple president. He was killed by the police in the incident. While the Sikhs in the US had suffered from
discrimination since they started coming to the United States in the early 20th century: they were driven out of Bellingham, Washington, in 1907; and out of St. John, Oregon in 1910, this most recent Oak Creek killing sparked global outcries from Washington DC to New Delhi. In India, members of Sikh communities staged protest demonstrations in several places including New Delhi and Jammu, Kashmir. There are many ways to understand this abominable incident. Page’s personal history of his association with the far-right group and psychological profile would be one way. Bringing in
the American history of violence with its reverence for the gun culture, including the most recent killing at the screening of The Dark Knight Rises at a Denver cineplex on July 20, 2012 which claimed 12 lives, would be another. Situating this case in a larger context of growing hate-groups in the US would be yet another way. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are now 1,018 hate groups which is a 69 per cent increase since the beginning of the twenty-first century. There is also a resurgence of the anti-government “Patriot” continued next page
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movement, some groups with their armed militias. It grew by 775% during the first three years of the Obama administration, from 149 in 2008 to 1,274 in 2011. In Wisconsin alone, there are 8 hate groups including the neo-Nazi “New Order” in Milwaukee, “Crusaders for Yahweh” in Eau Claire, and “Aryan Nations 88” in Green Lake, among others. Situating the Wisconsin killing in the American context is certainly important, but I would argue that the case is much more dangerous if viewed in the global context of a heinous trend conducive to deadly religio-ethnic conflicts: that of violence against sacred spaces which includes killing worshippers in their houses of worship. This article attempts to show that there is indeed such a trend of violence against sacred spaces and that to cope with such phenomenon, it is important to understand why violence against sacred spaces is dangerous. Violence against sacred spaces: a global trend? In southern Thailand, there have been cases of violence against sacred
spaces and religious personnel since the new round of violence re-exploded in 2004. But recently, two of the most significant cases include: the killing of 10 Malay Muslims, including the Imam, while they were praying in the Al-Furqan mosque in Narathiwat on
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June 8, 2009; and the bomb attack that killed two Buddhist monks from Suan Kaew temple while they were making their daily rounds of alms begging under military protection on a road in Yala on May 16, 2011, one day prior to the most important date in the Buddhist calendar – the Visakha Puja day. Incidents such as these prompt me to ask if they are but isolated cases or symptomatic of a global trend. In 2010, I conducted a study on the issue of violence against sacred spaces covering the period of 20092010 and found that there have been 104 incidents related to sacred spaces and religious personnel around the world, 49 took place in 2009 and it rose to 55 incidents in 2010. In 2010, the number of people killed in relation to sacred spaces increased 19.8% and those wounded increased 29.1%. These incidents combined have killed 1,730 people and wounded 3,671. Most of these incidents took place in Iraq and Pakistan which accounted for 77.2% of casualties in 2009 and 71.2% in 2010. If one considers the fact that Iraq is in a state of war and that Pakistan is not, it is important to point out that the number of people killed and wounded in Pakistan is 33.8% more than the number of casualties in Iraq in relation to sacred spaces and personnel. In addition, the year 2010 saw a dramatic increase of 147% in number of casualties in Pakistan resulting from violence against sacred spaces and personnel compared to 2009. (Peace & Policy 17 – forthcoming 2012) In addition, a cursory glance at what has happened to sacred spaces in the first six months of 2012 yields the following results: • January/ People’s Republic of China: More than a thousand of Northwest Muslims fought against the
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Chinese police who demolished their mosque in the Ningxia region. (Bangkok Post, January 3, 2012) • February/ Thailand: suspected insurgents threw two M 79 grenades into a Buddhist temple in Southern Thailand to avenge the earlier killings of four Malay Muslims by the Thai rangers. (Bangkok Post, February 2, 2012) • March/ Australia: the Nazi symbol “KKK” and “white power” were scrawled across a wall, and several headstones were vandalized at the Fingal Head Cemetery, a burial ground for the Aboriginal people in New South Wales. (Bangkok Post, March 9, 2012) • April/ Sri Lanka: Buddhist monks led an angry protest calling for the government to demolish or move a mosque in Dambala, North of Colombo.
(Bangkok Post, April 24, 2012) • May/ Jerusalem: Vandals, believed to be ultra-orthodox Jews, armed with hammers caused serious damages to continued next page
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a 4th century synagogue in the town of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. ( Bangkok Post, May 31, 2012) • June/ Iraq: Coordinated bombings and shootings took place during a major Shi’ite religious commemoration killing at least 59 people and wounding more than 200 in and near Baghdad. (Bangkok Post, June 14, 2012) Though each case needs to be construed in the context of its own local conflict dynamic, taken together what these incidents mean is that: violence against sacred space could happen anywhere; the targets could belong to any religion/belief; the perpetrators could be organized or spontaneous; and violence that took place could be either provocative or reactive. Moreover, some of these cases engender deadlier violence. For example, recent explosions at three churches in Northern Kaduna, Nigeria, killed at least 16 people. Very soon this incident led furious Christians to retaliate against Muslims in a subsequent riot that killed at least 45 and wounded more than a hundred. (Bangkok Post, June 19, 2012) The use of violence against sacred spaces that has occurred around the world was possible precisely because of the uncertainty of the cultural line separating the sacred from the profane spaces. Moreover, when these sacred spaces are attacked, it is their sanctity that generates cultural power producing
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collective identity, often times through moral outrage. Because of this complex conditionality, Muslims, Christians or Buddhists, among others, who witness their places of worship attacked, would react with outrage, and at times with vengeful violence. One of the reasons why attacking these targets endowed with religious symbolic meanings can be extremely dangerous with the curse of making conflicts deadlier is because they are not individuals but communal. The site that hurts is not the body or physical entity but the self – at times collective. Through anger of those communities of faith attacked, a kind of moral outrage as evident in Nigeria and elsewhere, violence against sacred spaces oftentimes engender conflicts deadlier and intractable. As a result, this kind of conflict becomes increasingly difficult to resolve. Anticipating such incidents which seem to occur with increasing frequency, the TODA Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, together with the Center for Global Nonkilling in Honolulu, Berghof Foundation, and Peace Information Center in Bangkok, organized an international conference on “Protecting Sacred Spaces and Peoples of Cloths: Academic Basis, Policy Promises” in Bangkok on May 28-29, 2011 to explore a specific class of ethnoreligious conflict when perpetrators target sacred symbols and peoples, especially religious, which usually render existing conflicts deadlier and/
or much more difficult to cope with. At the conclusion of the conference, international scholars and policy makers in attendance, including the eminent secretary general of ASEANDr.Surin Pitsuwan who was there for the whole conference, seem to agree that this issue is indeed a dangerous global problem rarely touched by researchers, and that some appropriate regional and/or global policy needs to be formulated to prevent existing conflicts from sliding further into the realm of deadlier violence. Perhaps the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century is the right time for a country such as Thailand or a region such as ASEAN to do something globally significant initiating a cultural code of conducting conflicts that would render violence against sacred spaces internationally and formally unacceptable, for example. By overcoming its local or regional shortcomings, this country and/or ASEAN could help re-imagine a world where ethno-religious conflicts would be contained by locating sacred spaces and lives of religious personnel outside the curse of violence. 17 August, 2012 Dr. Chaiwat Satha-Anand is the Chairperson of Strategic Nonviolence Commission, Thailand Research Fund and Senior Research Fellow at TODA Institute of Global Peace. and Policy Reseach. He is also a member of the JUST International Advisory Panel ( IAP)
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