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Besieged Homs Areas Endure Heavy Bombardment

October 8, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

AJ Correspondents

DOHA, Qatar, Oct 08 (IPS) – Syria’s military has intensified its shelling of rebel-held areas of the city Homs, activists say, amid reports of aerial and ground bombardment elsewhere in the country.Heavy clashes were reported between government forces and opposition fighters in Homs’ al-Khalidiyeh neighbourhood, as videos posted online appeared to show barrels of TNT explosives being dropped on the besieged areas.

Opposition strongholds in Homs have been under siege for at least 120 days, with humanitarian conditions continuing to deteriorate.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Raji Rahmet Rabou, an activist in Homs, said: "The siege is a huge problem for us. We are dying every day but nobody is paying attention to us.

"The last two days have been especially intense as the shelling did not stop whatsoever."

The northern province of Aleppo, eastern Deir Ezzor province and northwestern Idlib province also witnessed clashes between President Bashar al-Assad’s troops and opposition fighters on Monday, activists reported.

In the southern province of Deraa, 20 people were reported killed in Karak al-Sharqi, including at least five rebel fighters, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The observatory reported that some of the deaths came as troops blasted cars ferrying wounded people to field hospitals and clinics for treatment.

"Karak al-Sharqi has suffered repeated military assaults, heavy shelling and attempts to storm it over the past three days," said the observatory, which collates its information from a network of activists and medics on the ground.

It added that the town was facing "a crippling blockade and terrible medical and humanitarian conditions".

Monday’s reported pre-dawn barrages came hours after a bomb exploded late on Sunday in a vehicle in the car park of the police headquarters in central Damascus, killing a policeman and damaging the building, state news agency SANA said.

Witnesses said that the blast was followed by heavy gunfire, while the observatory said "one or two people" were killed in the latest in a string of bombings of high-level security targets in the capital.

The latest reports of the violence in the country came as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned of "dangerous fallout from spiralling violence along the Syrian-Turkish border".

"The escalation of the conflict along the Syrian-Turkish border and the impact of the crisis on Lebanon are extremely dangerous," Ban said at the opening of the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, France.

The armed uprising has increasingly sparked violence on Syria’s border with NATO member Turkey, with the Turkish military returning fire on Sunday after a shell launched from Syria struck the border village of Akcakale.

There were no casualties in Sunday’s incident, but last Wednesday five civilians were killed in the village following shelling from Syria.

‘Abandon use of violence’

Since Wednesday, the Turkish military has responded in kind whenever Syrian ordnance has breached its territory, inflaming tensions between the former allies and leading to fears of a broader conflict.

Turkey’s parliament on Thursday gave the government the green light to use military force against Syria if necessary.

The U.N. Security Council has strongly condemned cross-border attacks by Syria and called for restraint between the two neighbours whose relations have nosedived since the conflict began last year, with Ankara supporting the rebel fighters.

Shelling from Syria into Lebanon and cross-border shootings have become regular occurrences, while residents of Lebanon’s frontier region accuse Syria’s army of carrying out frequent incursions and kidnapping refugees.

The U.N. chief also raised concerns about arms supplies to both Assad’s regime and rebel forces.

"I am deeply concerned by the continued flow of arms to both the Syrian government and opposition forces. I urge again those countries providing arms to stop doing so," he said.

"Militarisation only aggravates the situation. I am calling on all concerned to abandon the use of violence, and move toward a political solution. That is the only way out of the crisis."

*Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Conflict, Mideast, Report Tagged With:

A Migration Story Comes Full Circle

October 8, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

K. S. Harikrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Oct 08 (IPS) – For the first time in over four decades, the number of people migrating out of the southern Indian state of Kerala, home to 33.3 million people, is on the decline.A comprehensive study conducted by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram on international migration from Kerala revealed that growth in migration levels will reach zero by 2015.

The report said that the number of Kerala migrants living abroad in 2008 was 2.19 million and 2.28 million in 2011.

Back in the 1970s, a loss of jobs in agriculture, lack of productive ventures and widespread education among the middle class led to an exodus of residents from Kerala, 90 percent of whom headed straight for the Gulf region in search of better jobs and higher wages.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) quickly became the most popular destination, absorbing 40 percent of Kerala’s job seekers, while Saudi Arabia plays host to 25 percent of the migrants.

But now, higher wages at home have begun to stem the outflow of human capital from Kerala. The average wage for unskilled workers increased from 150 rupees (three dollars) to 450 rupees (nine dollars) per day during the first decade of this century, making Kerala an attractive and competitive labour market.

B. Soman, an engineer in the petroleum sector in Oman, said that even unskilled workers already settled in the Gulf are now opting to go back home in search of better salaries.

John Mathew, a 35-year-old driver working in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, who recently returned from Qatar where he had spent the last seven years driving taxis, told IPS that comparatively low wages in the Gulf made a strong case for coming back home.

“Now I earn at least ten dollars a day. It is a decent wage, and my family is happy,” said Mathew.

In addition, Kerala has achieved a level of human development comparable with many advanced countries, including the highest life expectancy rates in the country – 75 years for men and 78 years for women.

Ironically, it was remittances from the Gulf that first began to improve the quality of life in Kerala and created a consumer culture in the state.

The purchase of land and construction of houses received priority among expatriate Keralites, followed by the purchase of vehicles, jewellery and imported electronic items.

Banks say the state received remittances totalling 500 billion rupees in 2011 compared with 432 billion rupees in 2008.

Dr. Sreelekha Nair, junior fellow at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies in New Delhi, told IPS, “While migration to the Gulf was dominated by unskilled workers, recent years witnessed a relative increase in the migration of highly skilled personnel to the Gulf.

“Flexible changes in ownership and business rules, at least in some Gulf countries, resulted in a rise in the number of entrepreneurs. This also boosted the flow of remittances to Kerala,” she added.

According to the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India, remittances from non-resident Indians in the current fiscal year are likely to exceed 75 billion dollars, up from 66 billion in the 2011-2012 period.

Dr. S. Irudaya Rajan, professor at CDS and an expert in international migration, told IPS that structural changes in the state’s population – namely a steadily ageing population coupled with low birthrates – also contributed to this decreasing emigration trend.

Due to a contraction in the supply of young labourers, and a higher standard of living enabled by remittances, wages for construction and manual jobs are relatively high in Kerala compared to other Indian states, making the former an attractive destination for internal migrants, Soman told IPS.

Internal migrants come largely from West Bengal, Orissa, and Assam and take jobs as domestic workers, farm labourers, masons, and shop helpers, among others.

They say economic hardships, caste-based exploitation, a crumbling agricultural sector and dwindling investment in rural infrastructure in their home states propel them towards Kerala in search of decent livelihoods.

Kalka Das, a mason from Murshidabad in West Bengal, told IPS that unskilled workers like him barely earned enough to survive.

“The prices of commodities are increasing day by day and people are constantly in search of decent wages. Today, Kerala is the Gulf (of India) for internal migrants,” he added.

Ram Gopal, a domestic worker hailing from Assam, told IPS that even though migrant workers in Kerala do experience some exploitation, “we at least get better work and a little bit more money".

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Economy, Report, Society Tagged With: , ,

Helsinki Boycotts Tax Havens

October 8, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

Linus Atarah

HELSINKI, Oct 06 (IPS) – The City of Helsinki added its voice to a growing global call against corporate tax evasion with the passage of a new responsibility strategy that leaves no room for unethical business practices.Last week, 85 city councillors from Finland’s capital voted to sever business ties with companies operating in, or having links to, tax havens.

The resolution – which passed 78-4 in the City Council, the country’s highest decision-making body in charge of local affairs – acknowledged that tax evasion undermines the capacity of municipalities to provide social services.

The council also recognised that tax havens deprive developing countries of vital tax revenues and denies them the opportunity to benefit fully from world trade.

Tax havens are either territories or countries whose authorities allow businesses or individuals to deposit their wealth at very low tax rates or, in some cases, pay no taxes at all.

The London-based Tax Justice Network has identified 10 of the most attractive tax havens around the world, including Bahrain, the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Singapore and Switzerland.

Tax havens are quickly becoming an election issue here, as the country prepares to head to the polls for municipal elections in three weeks. Minister of Finance, Jutta Urpilainen of the Social Democratic Party, flagged the topic during a parliamentary discussion Thursday by supporting the proposal that municipalities boycott companies operating in tax havens.

Protecting the welfare state

The recent decision means Helsinki will no longer provide procurement contracts to companies whose operations are located in tax havens.

With a budget of about four billion euros, Helsinki is Finland’s biggest consumer of goods and services but it must now be more wary of who it chooses to do business with by demanding that companies reveal where they operate.

Taxes from enterprises are the primary source of income for Finnish municipalities, enabling them to provide public services such as education, health, housing and care for the elderly.

“Companies operating through tax havens pose a lethal threat to the welfare state in Finland and in all countries, especially in developing countries,” according to the resolution’s author, Thomas Wallgren, a Social Democratic councillor who has been leading the charge against tax havens.

“They also distort fair competition between companies, thereby threatening the survival of local and national small and medium-sized companies,” Wallgren told IPS.

He cited the example of Accra Breweries in Ghana, owned by South Africa’s SAB Miller. For five consecutive years, this multi-billion-dollar company paid no taxes at all to the Ghanaian government, while people who sold empty bottles on the streets paid, and continue to pay, value-added tax and municipal tax.

Implementation of the city council’s resolution may still run up against obstacles, according to legal experts here, who say the issue is compounded by the fact that European Union competition laws do not allow companies to be denied public procurement contracts on the basis of their location in tax havens.

Murky estimates

“The amount of money in tax havens is a big question mark,” Matti Kohonen, a researcher with the Tax Justice Network, told IPS. “We live in a world of high financial secrecy, which is a direct cause of the financial crisis. We don’t know where the money is and that is a very serious problem,” Kohonen said.

He estimates that global financial transactions that are either illicit, or involve some element of criminality or tax evasion, are in the order of one trillion dollars annually, about one-tenth of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP).

The lost revenue stemming from these actions is somewhere close to 100 billion dollars, the amount the United Nations says is required to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals.

The Tax Justice Networks also estimates that 21 to 36 trillion dollars, about two to three times the GDP of the U.S., are hidden in tax havens.

Transfer pricing

According to Kohonen, another common method for avoiding taxes is through transfer pricing, a price-setting mechanism for selling goods or services between different departments of the same company or between a parent company and its subsidiary.

An estimate released two years ago by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which sets the tax rules for transfer pricing, says this practice constitutes 70 percent of world trade.

This year the Finnish Tax Administration reported that the government loses 320 million euros of tax revenue annually due to price manipulations in transfer pricing. But Kohonen says that may only be the “tip of the iceberg” because most firms operating in tax havens are shrouded in secrecy.

Rather than have global transfer rules decided by the OECD, Kohonen believes it would be far more democratic for the U.N. to determine these regulations.

“It is a scandal that we have rules that govern world trade but no rules for the world of taxation apart from the rich countries’ lobby group, which is the OECD. We need multilateral rules or some other rules on how to tax multinationals,” he stressed.

Global movement

Helsinki’s initiative is not an isolated case but part of a global campaign to galvanise a groundswell of public support that could in turn create sufficient political will to take action against tax havens.

“The whole point of the campaign is to put additional pressure on national authorities, stock exchange regulators and on the European Union to have more stringent requirements for multinational companies,” Kohonen told IPS.

He says Helsinki’s initiative comes hard on the heels of similar measures taken in two Swedish cities, Malmö and Kalmar, as well as the municipality of Ulstein in Norway, all in an attempt to rein in the activities of tax evading companies.

Eight regions in France, including its wealthiest region, Île-de-France, have recently declared themselves ‘tax haven free zones’.

In spite of the legal obstacles impeding the implementation of Helsinki’s city council decision, Wallgren said many other Finnish municipalities have been encouraged by the momentum and are following suit. The decision is “catching on like wild fire” around cities and municipalities, he said.

“The fight against the tax havens will be a long one but because it is also a fight for the survival of the welfare state it is worth fighting,” he added.

Kohonen likened the current movement in Finland to the Jubilee Debt Campaign of 1990, which forced developed countries to reduce poor countries’ debt.

“Once it becomes the focus of millions of people around the globe, politicians can no longer avoid the problem,” he said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economy, Europe, Report Tagged With: , , ,

Abused Children Face Long Wait for Justice

October 5, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Oct 05 (IPS) – In 2011, 1,463 cases of sexual exploitation of children were reported to the Sri Lankan Police, who found every single complaint to be genuine and opened investigations.By the year’s end, not one case had proceeded to the High Courts, where, according to the country’s judicial system, grave sexual crimes against children are heard.

Judging by this pattern, and similar cases in the past, the wait for justice is likely to be a long one.

In August this year 4,000 cases of child abuse were being heard in the country’s 34 High Courts, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said.

“One third of cases pending in the High Courts are in fact related to children,” according to a UNICEF report.

Child rights activists say that the real figure of cases pending resolution could be higher, if those that are yet to reach the High Court level are accounted for.

When a child abuse case is first reported, police begin by carrying out preliminary investigations and a Magistrate Court decides whether or not to send the cases to High Courts or dismiss the charges.

“If you count all those cases that are still awaiting a conclusion to the investigation, we are talking about a figure as high as 8,000,” Visakha Tillekeratne, an advocate for the local rights group, Justice for Victims, told IPS.

On average, a child abuse case takes as long as six years to reach a conclusion, according to UNICEF officials.

“A 2010 study of 110 cases of child abuse that came to the Forensic Medical Department of the University of Kelaniya for judicial medical examination mentioned that the average time taken to give evidence was 62.5 months (five years) from the day of the examination,” Suzanne Davey, UNICEF spokesperson in Colombo, told IPS.

The delays are not specific to child abuses cases, but plague the whole legal system, which is crippled by a lack of trained personnel in police stations capable of carrying out investigations, as well as a dearth of personnel at the Attorney General (AG)’s Department to handle prosecutions relating to child abuse cases.

“It is a big issue,” Senior Superintendant of Police and Police Spokesperson, Ajitha Rohana, told IPS, referring to the fact that at the end of 2010, 650,000 unresolved cases were being heard in the island’s courts.

Now, “Efforts are being made to give special attention to child abuse cases,” Rohana said.

UNICEF has collaborated with the Justice Ministry, Police Department and the AG’s Department to train judicial officers, police investigators and others in an effort to expedite investigations and child abuse cases.

Over 900 officers have received training since this January and a pilot project is underway in six districts where child abuse cases are treated with priority. Rohana told IPS that the initial results of the pilot projects were positive.

“The plan is to introduce the scheme to all the districts,” Rohana said.

Experts believe this needs to happen sooner rather than later, since the long wait for justice could add to the victims’ trauma.

“It is a brutal wait, especially when year after year nothing gets done,” Tillekeratne said.

“Case delays lead to the further victimisation of those children who have already suffered too much because of abuse and exploitation,” added Caroline Bakker, Chief of Protection at UNICEF, Sri Lanka.

She said that when victims see the offenders out on bail, it heightens their sense of helplessness. “Offenders remain free and continue to commit crimes against children with impunity,” she said.

Rohana told IPS that police are now taking special care not to allow suspects of child abuse to roam free unless granted bail by the court.

“All officers in charge of police stations have been instructed to take immediate action when a child abuse case is referred to them,” he said.

But Tillekeratne told IPS that much more concerted action was needed at the national level, given the enormity of the problem. “What we need is not for the pilot project to be phased into the rest of island, what we need is immediate implementation of the plan without delays.”

Rohana told IPS that, since 2005, when the government inducted special officers dedicated to women and children’s protection into police stations around the country, reporting has increased.

But UNICEF’s Davey said it was difficult to know if the presence of these officers had led to an increase in reporting or simply been accompanied by a rise in the levels of abuse.

The three worst provinces for child abuse in Sri Lanka are currently the densely populated Western Province and the two rural agricultural provinces, Sabaragamuwa and North Central. Police statistics show that most of the abuse in rural areas took place due to children being left unattended for long periods of time.

Citing a 2005 Judicial Medical Officers’ study, UNICEF said that 89 percent of child abuse was sexual in nature.

The study also showed that 70 percent of incidents involved a perpetrator who was a relative or someone close to the family, while 27 percent of abuse cases happened within a relationship. Only three percent of incidents involved offenders who were strangers or someone unknown to the victim.

A recent spate of high-profile abuse cases involving local politicians, and another of a six-year-old girl being raped and murdered by her 16-year-old relative, have once again increased press coverage of the issue.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Report, Rights, Society Tagged With: , , ,

Small Farmers in West Africa Need Support – Despite Good Rains

October 5, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

Brahima Ouedraogo

OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 05 (IPS) – Despite an abundance of rain, promising good harvests for the current growing season, small-scale farmers and non-governmental organisations are calling for support to smallholders to be maintained with a view to eradicating food insecurity in Africa’s Sahel region.The Permanent Interstate Committee for drought control in the Sahel forecasts that between 57 and 64 million tonnes of grain will be harvested in West Africa in 2012-2013, representing an increase of between five and 17 percent over the previous season.

"According to some studies, around 30 percent of cereal production is lost during and after harvest due to inappropriate harvesting techniques, threshing and storage; so you can understand that we’re only cautiously optimistic (there will be enough food for all)," said Roland Béranger Béréhoudougou, the regional head of disaster response and humanitarian assistance for the NGO Plan International.

But ROPPA, the West African Network of Smallholder Organisations and Producers, and the international charity Oxfam say the region is still facing its third major food crisis in less than a decade.

To avoid the next drought becoming a humanitarian emergency, they say, donors and governments must support investment in the productive capacities of small producers and build up reserve stocks of food. This will enable a swift response to future crises and help communities to manage volatility.

Oxfam noted that even in a year when harvests are good, 20 percent of the population suffers from malnutrition and hunger while 230,000 children across the Sahel die from causes linked to hunger.

In addition, the instability in Mali – where a transitional government is struggling to come to grips with the capture of the northern part of the country by Islamist groups – threatens to provoke a sharp drop in production of rice in the north, by as much as one- third, while half of all livestock could be lost in some regions, the group said.

"We’re in crisis every other year," said Issiaka Ouandaogo, head of humanitarian affairs at Oxfam’s office in Burkina Faso. "So even when we have a good year, 20 percent of the population in the Sahel still faces food insecurity. We need to help small producers boost their resilience. That means access to seeds and agricultural inputs must be the focus."

The successive failed harvests have left some rural households heavily indebted, so part of a good harvest now will go directly to repaying loans, often agreed at punishing rates of interest, Béréhoudougou told IPS.

In some villages in Niger’s western region of Tillaberi, smallholders who owe money to local merchants have pre-sold their millet crop for the equivalent of 14 dollars a bag – sometimes even less – while the real price of a bag of millet in the period immediately following the harvest is between 20 and 30 dollars, according to Béréhoudougou.

"The price of millet can rise to as much as 36,000 CFA (72 dollars) during the lean period (just before the next year’s harvest)," he said.

"We need to put an end to the hellish cycle of debt for rural households with a variety of actions such as cash transfers, cash-for-work programmes, micro-finance and cereal banks," said Béréhoudougou.

"There’s support for farmers in Burkina Faso," said Bassiaka Dao, president of the Burkinabè Peasant Confederation, "but it doesn’t match the needs of producers on the ground. Farmers need to be educated on the management of improved seed and subsidised fertiliser.”

According to Dao, 80 percent of small producers don’t enjoy this type of support from the government. Every year, he told IPS, the distribution of fertiliser and seed is announced, but then nothing is delivered, or farmers get too little – just one or two bags of fertiliser for the whole season.

In the west of Burkina Faso, Oxfam has put 20,000 dollars into a fund for small loans to allow farmers to buy these vital inputs for themselves. Their needs are modest, Dao told IPS: 40-60 dollars for a farmer working one hectare, perhaps

According to Dao, since it was set up in 2010, Oxfam’s rolling fund has helped 120 producers in that part of the country. The rate of repayment has been excellent: this year, 184 farmers will get loans from the fund, which has grown to 46,000 dollars.

"The fund’s beneficiaries are today producing 2,000 tonnes of grain between them. Some have bought livestock and escaped poverty," said Dao, who wants to see a credit system adapted to the revenue of small farmers. "None of the formal banks or micro-finance institutions match up to our needs in terms of credit."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Economy, Report Tagged With: , ,

"How Much to Lift the Sanctions?" Iranians React to MEK De-Listing

October 5, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

Yasaman Baji

TEHRAN, Oct 04 (IPS) – Last week’s decision by the U.S. State Department to remove the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from its terrorism list has, as anticipated, led to charges by the Iranian government that the administration of President Barack Obama is hypocritical and using double standards.While the U.S. government has deemed the MEK’s official disavowal of violence as sufficient for removal from its terrorist list, Tehran insists the MEK has never stopped its terrorist acts inside Iranian territory.

That view is very much echoed by the general public as well.

Although MEK was part of coalition that spearheaded the downfall of the monarchy in 1979, many people continue to blame the violence and radicalism of the early years of the revolution on MEK’s decision to engage in armed resistance against the revolutionary regime.

But for the Iranian public, the group’s unsavoury, if not sinister reputation was sealed with its cooperation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88).

MEK leader Massoud Rajavi’s flight from Iran to Iraq and the organisation’s military operations against Iran in the latter part of the war have created deep antipathy among the Iranian population, leading even many of those who supported the organisation in the early days of the revolution to hide or deny their previous links.

Fifty-year old Azar, who spent four years in prison in the 1980s for her support of the MEK, says that even her family shunned her after her release from prison despite her efforts to completely disassociate herself from the group.

“I was not taken to family gatherings because another family member was killed in a Mojahedin attack, and even my parents were worried that I had not given up on my ideas,” she told IPS.

The distaste for the Mojahedin is reinforced today by the widespread belief, confirmed by reports in the Western press, that it has been an instrument of the Israeli government in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. In the view of Ali, who is a merchant, “they have sold themselves and are ready to even sell their mothers to gain power.”

Government-owned media contribute to this negative image by never mentioning the name of the organisation and simply identifying its membership as monafeqin, which means hypocrites. But even without government propaganda, the iconic photo of Rajavi shaking hands with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War is sufficiently effective in sustaining MEK’s highly negative image.

Given this negative image and lack of support inside Iran, MEK’s removal from the terrorist list has puzzled many Iranians. Reza, a leftist activist in the 1980s who enlisted in the ranks of the Green Movement after the contested 2009 presidential election, thinks that the move by the United Stated is intended to further pressure Iran but worries about the impact it will have on the opposition movement.

“The reason people protested against Ahmadinejad’s election was because they were worried about their country,” he told IPS. “But if protests pave the way for a more dangerous path for the country and society involving the Mojahedin, then we prefer the current conditions.”

In addition, questions are raised for some Iranians who have always seen the United States as a progressive and democratic country. The news that many U.S. politicians have become advocates of the organisation after receiving large sums of money from MEK has shocked them. This is particularly so since most Iranians are aware of the MEK’s cult-like and undemocratic internal organisation.

“When in the U.S. you can buy a senator with money,” Maryam said during a recent debate among university students here, “then the claimed support for democracy and freedom is as much of a lie as Ahmadinejad’s utterances, and can always be changed with money.”

To this, Alireza, an economics student, added wryly, “If money is the issue, then perhaps members of the U.S. Congress can publicly announce their price to us, and we Iranians are ready to collect money and give it to them so that they would lift the economic sanctions they have imposed on us.”

A university professor, however, took a more serious tone, suggesting MEK’s removal from the list has led many activists and intellectuals to wonder why the United States, a country which prides itself on its support for democracy and human rights, has taken a step that so clearly weakens the democratic movement in Iran. To him, the removal has given the Islamic Republic “a useful enemy".

As a mutual threat, MEK’s removal, he said, “facilitates the bringing together of a society and government that have in recent years moved apart.”

This sentiment was expressed in a different way by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who in his press conference this week said that the MEK removal from the terrorist list “is a cause for our happiness".

He said, “If we had to tell the world that the United States is the main supporter of terrorism and uses double standards in dealing with the issue, we would have to spend 500 million dollars – but now they have themselves done it for free.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Geopolitics, Mideast, Report Tagged With: , ,

Hour Grows Late to Act on Climate Change, Caribbean Warns

October 5, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

Peter Richards

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 04 (IPS) – Their speeches did not grab international headlines like that delivered by U.S. President Barack Obama, nor did other delegates walk out as they spoke, as was the case for Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.But Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders are nonetheless hoping that their united front on the environment at the just concluded United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will spur the international community to take them and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) much more seriously.

“The islands of our planet are at war against climate change, warming temperatures and rising seas," St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves told delegates. "This war is not a future event, it is a present-day and ongoing battle… the survival of our islands is at stake."

Caribbean countries are hoping that by the time the international community gathers in the Pacific in 2014 for the Third International Conference for the Sustainable Development of SIDS, there will be progress on a number of recommendations that, for instance, emerged from the Rio+20 conference held in Brazil earlier this year.

"The failure to date to reach a legally binding outcome on climate change is cause of grave concern," said Dominica’s U.N. Ambassador Vince Henderson. "While the debate continues, the challenges to our islands are becoming greater."

Figures released by the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) show that over the last decade, damage from intense climatic conditions has cost the region in excess of half a trillion dollars.

"In real terms, the threats posed to the Caribbean region’s development prospects are severe and it is now accepted that adaptation will require a sizeable and sustained investment of resources," Jamaica’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Roberts Pickersgill told a community-based climate change workshop in Kingston on Tuesday.

Barbados-based environmental resource management specialist Sandra Prescod Dalrymple agrees that while the international community should feel an obligation to support the Caribbean, it also a fact that the developed countries “are growing less willing to do so".

“The region needs to draw on its own resourcefulness and pursue innovative financing in climate change efforts. It is clear that we are being impacted by climate change and that our economic earning sectors are suffering as a result this would only worsen,” she told IPS.

Antigua and Barbuda recently joined other small island states at the Summit of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), to send the message that they cannot wait “for our lands to disappear before we act".

“We must act now to respond to the climate crisis, and ensure that not a single country is sacrificed, no matter how small,” said the island’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer.

“There is coral bleaching beyond the depths of our shores, and hurricanes are becoming more recurrent and severe,” he said, adding “it is my government’s hope that the selfish act of inaction will dissipate in Doha (Round of Negotiations) and that a positive outcome in climate change negotiations will usher in new hopes for humanity and compassion for our planet.”

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas said he was troubled that the main contributors of greenhouse gases were still not taking responsibility for the coastal degradation, coral reef bleaching and decimation, infrastructure damage and loss of lives that their actions have wrought.

“The physical, mental and financial burden that other countries’ energy usage has inflicted on countries like mine has been enormous – plunging us deeper into debt, and severely frustrating our efforts to meet our Millennium Development Goals," he told the UNGA.

“While a shift to renewable energy will not instantly solve the myriad problems caused by a significantly fossil-fuel based global economy, the embrace of green energy will, indeed, help to halt the intense downward spiral into which our fossil-fuel based economies have thrust our planet,” Douglas said.

Guyana, which has entered into a multi-million-dollar agreement with Norway to implement an "avoided deforestation" plan, said that despite “strong scientific and economic case for action, the global response to the climate crisis falls far short of what is required both in terms of scale and in urgency”.

President Donald Ramotar said that the projected level of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is much too low and that scientists have warned of catastrophic consequences if the rise in greenhouse emissions is not halted.

“Already some states are facing imminent extinction. To add insult to injury, the promise of fast-start financing made at Copenhagen (Denmark), a few years ago, has not materialised," he noted. “The result is that those most at risk are effectively deprived of the means to adapt to this existential threat."

But Prescod Dalrymple believes the Caribbean should continue to focus on building resilience and find novel ways of accessing the resources to do so.

“The onus should not only be on governments but the private sector needs to step up and be fully engaged. We need to engage technology, train and re-train our workforce and make use of our large population of youth that are looking for career opportunities and decent work," she told IPS.

“I support public private partnerships and would wish that the region would move towards mandating standards and operating procedures to build climate resilience in new and existing ventures,” she added.

Caribbean countries have also stressed the importance of extending and amending the Kyoto Protocol before it lapses at the end of this year.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the accord is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialised countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five percent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.

Barbadian Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Maxine McClean said her island welcomes the decision taken in Durban to launch negotiations on a new legally-binding agreement that would take effect after 2020.

But, she said, a post-2020 agreement is meaningless “if ambitious actions are not taken now to reduce global emissions and provide finance and technology to vulnerable developing countries.

“This is essential if we are to adapt to the ever worsening impacts of climate change. The upcoming Climate Change Conference in Doha must, therefore, prioritise the pre-2020 actions necessary to ensure that the world is on track in 2020 to meet the below two degree or 1.5 degree globally agreed goals."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Americas, Environment, Report Tagged With: ,

Media Pluralism at Risk of Extinction in Chile

October 5, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

Marianela Jarroud

SANTIAGO, Oct 04 (IPS) – The announcement that the La Nación newspaper of Chile is closing down has drawn the attention of journalists, analysts and opposition lawmakers to the heavy concentration of press ownership, now in the hands of only two business groups, and to the lack of regulations to ensure media pluralism."The state must create public media in areas (press, radio or television) where there is a high concentration of ownership," said Marcelo Castillo, head of the Chilean Association of Journalists.

Furthermore, "public communication policies are needed that go beyond the mere existence of media," he said.

At present, the only state electronic media outlet is National Television of Chile, an autonomous company with a seven-member board nominated by the president and ratified by the Senate.

Castillo told IPS that "the creation of media outlets linked to civil society must be encouraged, or the example of Argentina should be followed, where an agency to manage state advertising ensures that it is widely distributed among a large number of outlets."

The closure of the century-old La Nación, in which the state owned a 69 percent share, was decided by board members representing the right-wing government of President Sebastián Piñera, who had announced he would make this decision if he were elected president.

Late last year, La Nación’s print version was cancelled, and on Sept. 24 it was agreed that the online version, which receives one million hits, will be terminated. In addition to its impact on communications, the decision means 600 workers will left without a job.

"For 20 years, since the return to democracy, La Nación has always been subordinated to the government of the day, and we believe this is not advisable and that the authorities do not need their own media," said government spokesman Andrés Chadwick.

Carlos Larraín, president of the National Renewal party, a member of the governing coalition, called the closure "very good news" and said that for the sake of journalism, it was good to end state competition against the free press.

"A subsidised press is worthless," he said.

In Castillo’s view, however, "the state must guarantee the citizens’ right to information, and ensure media pluralism, and if this does not exist, create it and find a formula for making it effective."

Figures from the National Press Association, the print media owners’ group, indicate that two companies concentrate 90 percent of Chilean readers. They are El Mercurio and the Consorcio Periodístico de Chile SA, which controls the newspapers La Tercera and La Cuarta and the magazine Qué Pasa, among other print and online media.

Both firms are in the hands of the richest and most influential families in the country, who keep the right-wing ideology alive in the press.

But Castillo pointed out that although Piñera had decreed the closing of La Nación, the previous governments of the centre-left Coalition for Democracy had failed to promote a public policy for the media.

"During the last three years of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) there was more pluralism in the press than there is now," he said.

"For instance, there is not a single opposition daily newspaper in Chile at present. Having a public policy for communications is not only the responsibility of the Piñera government, but of administrations from the end of the dictatorship onwards," he said.

Examples of newspapers that have fallen by the wayside include Fortín Mapocho, a daily that played a key role in the fight against the dictatorship, which went under in 1991, and the progressive newspaper La Época, which was published from 1987 to 1998.

And weeklies like Análisis and Apsi, which closed in 1994 and 1995 respectively, were emblematic opponents of the dictatorship, but did not survive the return to democracy.

In the view of sociologist Manuel Antonio Garretón, winner of the National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences in 2007, the closure of La Nación shows "an ideological intent to dismantle public spaces like education, social security and now communication.

"In the case of La Nación, the state has given up a potential public space which, since the market is not plural, it should guarantee," he told IPS.

"My understanding is that when the market cannot offer, as in this case, press pluralism, the state itself ought to offer it, to offset the ideologically right-wing private media," he said.

"The state should promote and permit the creation of media outlets with views different to those of the predominant media," he said.

In Garretón’s view, the dismantling began when the Chilean National Radio station was privatised in 1993, representing the loss of a major public awareness-raising instrument.

"All forms of state provision that are participative in character, as they should be, are being eliminated," he said.

"The clearest example is education, but there are other fields like public television,” he said.

Meanwhile, socialist Senator Juan Pablo Letelier told IPS that "economic groups in Chile, in contrast to Brazil and other countries, are too closely allied to the political right, resulting in the media being in too few hands and having a strong ideological bias."

He said the concentration of ownership "generates ideas and visions of a nation derived from a lack of real press freedom.

"The problem is that the structure of advertising in our country has not been democratised. It is not that legislation has not been tried, but that the right does not want to democratise advertising in the media," said the lawmaker.

The state’s role is "not to subsidise, but to ensure a regulatory framework so that companies must place their advertising in a diversity of media outlets," he said.

"Democracy is not only about voting and electing, but also about economic democracy and circulating a diversity of opinions," he argued.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Americas, Politics, Report, Rights Tagged With: , ,

Venezuela Votes…and Latin America Catches a Cold

October 5, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

Estrella Gutiérrez

CARACAS, Oct 04 (IPS) – Sunday’s elections in Venezuela will determine whether the era of President Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian revolution will continue or come to an end. The result will have an impact not only on this country but on the rest of Latin America.In the first decade of this century, Latin America saw "a nontraumatic epochal change, sometimes manifested as constituent assemblies (to rewrite a constitution), which sought to respond to the demands of the majority and bring about political change. Chávez is its most radical expression," said Manuel Felipe Sierra, an analyst from the traditional left and a critic of the Venezuelan president.

"This trend, which Chávez claims to have authored although it has roots and leadership in each country, has already passed, and most governments have taken a more conventional democratic route with left-wing overtones," he told IPS.

Bolivia and Ecuador are other examples of this current, which has as its political integration mechanism the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), led by Venezuela and made up of eight Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Cuba and Nicaragua.

But the regional reform movement has another major reference point, less ideological and radical: the process led by former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011), whose programme was based on economic growth with social inclusion and a strengthening of democracy.

Both self-described left-wing and right-wing governments have expressed their support for the Brazilian model, including Venezuela’s opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, who declares himself an "admirer and imitator" of Lula.

Capriles, supported by a variegated mix of 29 groups ranging from right to left, points as proof to the Zero Hunger plan he implemented as governor of the northwestern state of Miranda, modelled on Brazil’s anti-hunger strategy.

Most of the latest polls tip Chávez as the favourite to be re-elected for a third time. But growing support for his rival has made the election result uncertain.

Chávez’s style of diplomacy in Latin America has been one of confrontation with right-wing presidents, which polarised countries, governments and summits ever since he took power in February 1999, said experts consulted by IPS, including several close to the president.

"The export of the Bolivarian model, supported by the abusive use of Venezuela’s oil wealth, as well as Chávez´s style, are in decline, whatever happens on Sunday," said Sierra.

"Furthermore, there is ‘Chávez fatigue’ in the region because of the behaviours and manners that stress even his allies, and that ceased to be useful for the collective interest," he said.

But Roy Chaderton, Venezuela’s ambassador to the Organisation of American States (OAS), said that if Chávez exits the stage, "it would threaten Latin American independence," especially from the United States, which Chávez refers to as "the empire."

Chaderton said Venezuela had created in the region "a diversity of dependences, that make us more independent of others and more interdependent among ourselves."

"In Latin America we created oxygen valves that help us breathe more freely, and that would close off" if Chávez loses, he said.

"These are not just any elections, for Venezuela or for the continent, because of the ideological primacy and polarisation promoted by Chávez, and because if he loses the elections it would confirm the demise of the left-wing neo-populist experiment he was trying to export," said Teresa Romero, an expert in international relations.

In Romero’s view, even if Chávez is re-elected, "the regional climate has shifted towards the centre," and within it "Brazil has won the leadership role, with progressive positions that are less strident and more efficient."

Michael Shifter, the head of the Inter-American Dialogue, a U.S. think tank, said if Chávez left the government it would have "an enormous effect on the regional political scenario, because he has been the most aggressive and polarising voice in the hemisphere over the last decade."

If change comes to Venezuela, "ideological conflicts will not disappear, but they will be less acute and better channeled," he told IPS. In his view, Capriles would maintain normal relations with left-wing governments like those of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua, "but not, as the phrase went in the 1990s, such carnal relationships."

In addition to ALBA, the Chávez government promoted the foundation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), made up of the region’s 12 countries, and the oil aid organisation Petrocaribe. It also helped create the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as an alternative to the OAS, which it considers to be dominated by Washington.

In August the government began a process of withdrawal from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which hands down binding rulings on human rights violations committed by states. The only precedent for withdrawal from the OAS human rights court was that of Peru, 20 years ago, during the regime of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).

Capriles announced that, if he were elected, one of his first steps would be to reverse the process of withdrawal from the Inter-American Court. He also said Venezuela would rejoin the Andean Community, the regional bloc that this country belonged to since the 1960s, which the Chávez administration pulled out of in 2011. It is currently made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Chávez’s efforts in the past six years were directed towards Venezuela becoming a full member of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc, which he finally achieved in June, after Paraguay’s temporary suspension from the group, made up also of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

"These are changes of alliances based on political and ideological foundations, not on economic reasoning or geographical location," Sierra said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Americas, Politics, Report Tagged With:

Major Extractives Firms No Longer Ignoring Community Consent

September 27, 2012 by

Global Analyst Online / IPS

Carey L. Biron

WASHINGTON, Sep 27 (IPS) – New research from Oxfam, an international aid agency, finds that some of the largest multinational oil and mining companies are increasingly incorporating principles of community consent into their day-to-day operations.Oxfam’s researchers looked at 28 of the world’s largest extractives companies and combed through their publicly available commitments to addressing the issue of community rights. They used the information to come up with a ranking – the Community Consent Index – that, coupled with a similar report from 2009, can now be used as baseline data.

The report does not rate the implementation of these policies, however, and its selection does not include any companies that have not specifically and publicly set out policies or positions on community engagement. Rather, Oxfam says that the index is supposed to incite and inform dialogue going forward.

“Community consent has been a very slippery concept over the years, and having a (preliminary) framework … is a really important start,” Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, said in unveiling the new paper here in Washington on Wednesday.

“In order for oil and mining companies to survive in the coming decades, they need to transform themselves from primarily resource extractors to development partners. Companies that fail to implement the policies will be at a competitive disadvantage.”

Over the past three decades, the turnaround in the industry’s view on community engagement – at least insofar as the top players are concerned – has indeed been striking.

It was only in the early 1980s that the World Bank began discussing environmental impact, assessment of which is now required on virtually all foreign- or donor-funded projects in the world. Recent years have also seen international covenants on the rights of indigenous peoples over their traditional lands.

“Where are we today?” Offenheiser asks. “Admittedly, controversies still exist. But now we talk about ‘host communities’ rather than ‘drilling sites’, about a ‘shared-value approach’ that assumes that there is a connection between communities and companies. These would not have been on the agenda 30 years ago.”

In that time, local communities and civil society activists have become increasingly vocal and empowered in asserting their rights. In turn, this has both led to and been backed up by a raft of new international conventions as well as policies within international financial institutions, most notably the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank.

In recent weeks, both the United States and the European Union have also moved forward on legislation that will vastly increase transparency regulations in the extractive industries, specifically with an eye to how those industries affect communities on the ground.

“That said, it’s important to recognise that advancing this discussion is more critical than ever – I think we’re living in a moment of urgency,” Offenheiser cautions. “Due to the current explosion in the demand for natural resources … companies are extending their reach into remote and sensitive areas. This issue has to be raised by civil society organisations, business and government in ways that it hasn’t been in the past.”

How dopey?

“Why are companies doing this, and why are investors interested in us doing this?” Chris Anderson, with the mining giant Rio Tinto, one of the companies included in the new report, asked at a panel discussion on Wednesday.

“The simple answer is we’re not going to have any business otherwise. If you don’t adequately consult with a community and they don’t want an aspect of your project, you just don’t have a project and therefore you may not have a business.”

Among upper-level management in the sector, Anderson says that the realisation that communities “can become full, proper partners in the development of these projects” has set in only within the past decade. Now, however, he says “We’ll think back in five or 10 years, on the company side, and think, ‘How dopey could we be?’”

While lauding the new report, he also warns that Oxfam’s selection of companies has “skewed” its findings.

“You’re not looking at the worst actors, and there are plenty still around,” Anderson says. “We need to raise the bar … we’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go to operationalise the notion of consent.”

Indeed, while Oxfam’s findings highlight optimistic trends overall, even such “skewed” results show that the discussion is still in its early phase.

Of the 28 companies, Oxfam’s researchers found that two-thirds have incorporated provisions of community consent, social license or broad community support into their development activities. Thirteen have either directly or indirectly (by agreeing to comply with various international agreements) said they would operate under the directives of free and prior informed consent (commonly referred to as FPIC).

All but two of the 28 companies reference the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in their public websites and annual reports, and all but five publicly commit to the rights of indigenous people. While about half of the companies commit to minimising involuntary resettlement, fewer have actual policies on resettlement and just two have made those policies publicly available.

“It’s clear that companies are now paying attention to the impact on communities – it’s standard practice now for the vast majority to have a human rights policy,” one of the report’s authors, Marianne Voss, said at the discussion on Wednesday.

Still, she reports, some companies are using “qualifiers that weaken the weight of their commitments”. Others say they will apply the principles of free and informed consent only where local law requires it or where governments have implemented it.

Nonetheless, she and others suggest, the direction of the discussion seems to be moving in one direction.

“Raised marks indicate that international investment can play a vital role in poverty reduction and development and, if done correctly, can be a good partnership between communities and business,” she says.

“While few extractive companies currently go as far as explicitly committing to FPIC, they’re going to be under increasing pressure to adopt them in the future. The growth of the minerals sector in developing countries and the fact that they’re going into more sensitive areas is going to broaden the demand moving forward.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economy, Environment, Politics, Report Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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