RIGHTS: Bipartisan U.S. Panel Offers Blueprint to Prevent Genocide

Global Intelligence News / IPS

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (IPS) – A bipartisan task force of former top national security policymakers is calling on the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama to make the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities overseas a top U.S. foreign policy priority.

In a report released here Monday, the group, which was co-chaired by former President Bill Clinton’s Pentagon chief, William Cohen, and secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, argued that mass atrocities threaten core U.S. national interests and that the national security bureaucracy should be reformed to reflect that priority.

Its release came on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the U.N.’s adoption of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the 20th anniversary of its final ratification by the United States.
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Popularity: 89% [?]

Q&A: ‘Religious Institutions and Islamists Oppose Abolition’

Global Intelligence News / IPS

Abderrahim El Ouali interviews BRAHIM AHENSAL of the Moroccan Human Rights Association

CASABLANCA, Dec 1 (IPS) – King Mohamed VI of Morocco could easily abolish the death penalty by royal decree. But by keeping capital punishment on the statute books, the young King is yielding to official religious institutions and Islamists, says Brahim Ahensal.

Ahensal, a member of the Moroccan Human Rights Association, says abolition will depend on the degree of engagement from human rights NGOs and progressive political forces.

Ahensal speaks of the difficulties activists face in their daily battle against capital punishment.

IPS: Once again you marked the World Day against the Death Penalty by holding a sit-in. Is this the only way to express your opposition to the death penalty in Morocco?
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Popularity: 20% [?]

RIGHTS-HUNGARY: Activists Seek to Reverse Draconian Law

Global Intelligence News / IPS

Zoltán Dujisin

BUDAPEST, Dec 1 (IPS) – A Hungarian rights organisation is seeking to return the country to the days when all life prisoners had a right to a review of their sentences, giving hope to eight who have been sentenced to imprisonment until they die.

In 2001, Hungary passed a special law for the gravest of crimes. This removed for these the right of conditional release after 30 years in jail. Judges were allowed to send these convicted killers to prison for the rest of their natural lives.

The prime minister at the time was Viktor Orban, a conservative populist who advocated tougher sentencing policies. In 2002, as outgoing prime minister, he called on Europe to consider the reintroduction of the death penalty following a meeting with relatives of the eight victims who died in a violent bank robbery.
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Popularity: 22% [?]

CAMBODIA: More Khmer Rouge Leaders May Stand Trial

Global Intelligence News / IPS

Andrew Nette

PHNOM PENH, Nov 27 (IPS) – With its first trial delayed until early 2009, the Khmer Rouge tribunal is facing another challenge: how to balance its mandate to try only former leaders deemed most senior against pressure to prove its independence by ordering further arrests.

The question of who to prosecute is a complex matter for all war crimes tribunals but particularly so for Cambodia given its fractured history and also the structure of the tribunal; a special chamber within the Cambodian court system comprising local and international judges.

Although further suspects in addition to the five currently in custody have been identified, international and Cambodia co-prosecutors have been unable to agree on whether to pursue them and, if so, how many to investigate.
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Popularity: 13% [?]

PERU: Army Chief to Appear Before Anti-Corruption Prosecutor

Global Intel Net / IPS

Ángel Páez

LIMA, Nov 18 (IPS) – Peru’s army commander-in-chief, Edwin Donayre, will appear on Nov. 25 before anti-corruption prosecutor Marlene Berrú, who is investigating his alleged responsibility for 80,000 gallons of gasoline that are unaccounted for.

Berrú had already summoned General Donayre six times, but he had not shown up due to ”conflicting appointments,” he said. The prosecutor had to turn to Defence Minister Ántero Flores Aráoz to put pressure on the army chief to appear in her office.

Press reports of the prosecutor’s request unleashed a political scandal, with ministers and judges demanding that the general fulfil his duty to show up.

And on Sunday, the general announced that he would be stepping down on Dec. 5. Both he and Minister Flores Aráoz denied that the announcement had anything to do with the scandal, and argued that his two-year term as army chief was merely coming to an end.
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Popularity: 18% [?]

INDIA: Uneasy About Obama Victory

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Analysis by Praful Bidwai

NEW DELHI, Nov 15 (IPS) – Unlike the rest of the world, which has welcomed the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, Indian policymakers have misgivings, rooted in his campaign statements on Kashmir, nuclear non-proliferation and business process outsourcing from the U.S. to India.

However, according to independent commentators, these misgivings may be misplaced, not least because Obama is unlikely to translate his campaign remarks into actual policies, and because they underestimate the positive contribution that his presidency is likely to make at the global level.

Yet, some of these misgivings and apprehensions persist despite a long-awaited telephone call from the president-elect to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which materialised Thursday.

Soon after his election, Obama had called the leaders of nine nations, including Pakistan, but did not make contact with Singh. Indian officials say Obama had tried to reach Singh earlier, but no call could be put through because Singh was on a visit to West Asia.
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Popularity: 17% [?]

LABOUR-ARGENTINA: Major Blow to Union Monopoly

Global Intel Net / IPS

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 13 (IPS) – A Supreme Court ruling has thrown a spanner in the works of the monopolistic model of union representation in Argentina that has prevailed for over 60 years, by upholding the right of a workers’ union that lacks legal recognition to elect its own delegates.

”This is a landmark decision that goes to the heart of the absence of union democracy,” lawmaker Claudio Lozano, a member and adviser of the Central Federation of Argentine Workers (CTA), a centre-left union federation that is fighting for Labour Ministry recognition, told IPS.

The only officially recognised union in the country is the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), with ties to the governing Justicialista (Peronist) Party (PJ).

”In Argentine, anyone can be elected president, governor, senator or parliamentary deputy, but you couldn’t be elected as a union delegate,” he said with irony.
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Popularity: 19% [?]

DEVELOPMENT: Two Summits to Focus on Financial Crisis

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10 (IPS) – As the financial meltdown continues to spread to the far corners of the globe, over 30 world leaders are scheduled to participate in two key international conferences aimed at seeking short- and long-term solutions to the economic crisis worldwide.

The first of these meetings will be a two-day G20 summit in Washington DC beginning Nov. 14 followed by a four-day U.N. conference on Financing for Development (FfD) in Qatar, beginning Nov. 29, which is open to all 192 U.N. member states.

Asked if the U.S.-sponsored summit in Washington may upstage FfD in Doha, Oscar de Rojas, executive secretary of FfD, says the United States has underscored that this weekend’s summit is focused on specific measures to be taken to address the financial crisis.

But it should not be seen as attempting to go too far beyond that, in terms of more fundamental systemic reform, he said.

”Therefore, that meeting could be seen as complementary to, and feeding into, the discussions in Doha,” de Rojas told IPS.
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Popularity: 17% [?]

MEXICO-US: Reaching Out to Obama

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Nov 6 (IPS) – Following President-elect Barack Obama’s triumph in the U.S. elections, the Mexican government hopes to enter a new stage in the country’s relations with its northern neighbour.

But it will be no easy task, especially considering that Obama has said he is interested in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which links the United States, Canada and Mexico, in order to improve its labour and environmental standards.

He also voted for the 2006 Secure Fence Act, which authorised the construction of 700 additional miles (1,100 kilometres) of walls and fences along the lengthy U.S.-Mexican border, although since then he has softened his support for the barrier.

As soon as Obama’s victory was confirmed, Mexican President Felipe Calderón invited him to visit the country in the near future. In a letter congratulating the president-elect on behalf of the people and government of Mexico, the conservative Calderón also expressed his desire to begin a ”new phase” of bilateral relations.

The election of the Democratic Party candidate opens up ”new horizons” for Mexico, but a dose of realism is necessary, because any possible change ”will come gradually and will take time,” Graciela Pérez, a professor at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), told IPS.
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Popularity: 11% [?]

RIGHTS-PERU: Pressure to Amnesty Military, Police

Global Geopolitics Net Sites – Global Intel Net / IPS

Ángel Paez

LIMA, Nov 6 (IPS) – The chairman of the congressional committee on defence and internal order in Peru, Edgard Núñez, has introduced a draft law to grant an amnesty to members of the military and police facing trial for human rights violations.

”There are members of the military and the police, especially rank-and-file troops, who have spent more than 36 months in prison and have not yet been sentenced,” Congressman Núñez told IPS.

”Some have been persecuted by the justice system for 20 years. For how long are they going to persecute these people? The only thing they did was to stick out their necks to save us from terrorism and offer us peace and democracy. My draft law is aimed at putting an end to this situation,” he said.

While spokespersons for his party, the ruling APRA, insist that the draft law is the legislator’s personal initiative, he says he has the support of several members of his party and of other political forces.
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Popularity: 13% [?]

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