Business as usual for European arms traders

The European Union (EU) has decided to lift its embargo on military co-operation with the Indonesian military – despite their ongoing role in human-rights abuses against the East Timorese and Indonesians.

The rationale for the lifting of the embargo is that Indonesia’s transition to a democratically elected government is now complete. But the move flies in the face of all prevailing evidence of the military’s role in violence in East Timor last year. Independent findings of both the UN’s inquiry and the investigation of Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commission confirm that the Indonesian military were responsible for the militia violence that all but destroyed East Timor (see NI 318 on Indonesia). And the military killed a EU citizen, Dutch journalist Sander Robert Thoenes, who was reporting from East Timor for the Financial Times, according to Australian coroner Greg Cavanagh. ‘I find that on all of the evidence available thus far, it is probable that a member or members of the 745 battalion of the TNI [Indonesian army] shot the deceased,’ he says.

The military and its militias are terrorizing over 100,000 East Timorese refugees still trapped and living in appalling conditions on the border of West and East Timor. In the border enclave of Oecussi, leader of the peacekeeping force Peter Cosgrove has accused the area’s Indonesian regional commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel Maneral, of having links with local militia leader Moko Soares. Tensions remain high as militias have threatened locals and the peacekeepers. And the situation is set to get worse – 500 Jordanian peacekeepers are to replace the Australians in the area. Jordanians are immensely unpopular in East Timor because of the close relationship between former Indonesian Special Forces chief General Prabowo and the King of Jordan. East Timorese human-rights worker Joaquim Fonseca explains: ‘When the situation in Jakarta was tense and the investigators into corruption were getting close to Prabowo, he went to Jordan. The King is a friend of his; they went to military college together.’ In the early 1990s Prabowo directed a terror campaign against villages supposedly harbouring pro-independence guerrillas. José Ramos Horta describes sending Jordanian troops with links to Prabowo to guard Oecussi as ‘like sending wolves to guard the chickens’.

But it is not just East and West Timor that feels the brunt of a military now bolstered by EU arms. The National Commission on Human Rights claims to have uncovered a plot to provoke violence in Ambon and clashes in other parts of the Maluku province, where thousands have been killed and injured in a year of religious rioting. Forged documents have been found scattered in the streets of Ambon following battles between Muslims and Christians, says commission secretary Asmara Nababan. ‘There is a strong suspicion that the documents were produced by members of the political élite in Jakarta,’ he adds. Police sweeping operations in Maluku have netted French-made assault rifles and grenades, which are only available through the army.

Dollar The Joachimstaler was a silver coin used in the German states from the 1500s - the word meant 'of Joachim's dale or valley', where the silver was mined. Later abbreviated to Thaler in German, the word was anglicized as the dollar we know today. Buck is short for buckskin, once used as a currency.

President Wahid has warned of a small number of provocateurs who he says ‘want to settle the score’ against his Government after they lost power last year. Kholiq Achmad, secretary of Wahid’s parliamentary faction, says the Government had been leaked information that after 28 January violent incidents would be provoked from Lombok to Bali and then across the densely populated island of Java to Jakarta.

Leader of the PAN political party and Speaker of the upper house of parliament, Amien Rais, warned that unless the provocateurs are arrested ‘we will be living in an endless nightmare’. In its ignorance or complicity, the EU is doing little to awaken Indonesia from this nightmare. The US and other countries are still worried about the situation and refuse to lift their arms embargo until the generals are brought to heel. The EU should maintain the bans against the Indonesian military until it allows the East Timorese refugees to return home, ceases fomenting violence for its own political purposes and demonstrates respect for human rights.

Anouk Ride
(All quotes from ASIET Net News).

Coconuts kill mosquitoes
Coconuts could help cure malaria, according to Peruvian microbiologist Palmira Ventosilla of the Cayetano Heredia University in Lima. The treatment for malaria is produced commercially in industrialized countries but its importation is too expensive for poor countries afflicted by the disease. For a long time Ventosilla searched for a simple method to develop naturally a necessary bacillus, known by its scientific name of Bti. She finally found what she was looking for in coconuts. ‘A small quantity of Bti is introduced into the coconut through a hole that is then plugged with cotton and sealed with candle wax. The hard shell of the coconut protects the incubating bacillus, and the milk inside contains amino acids and carbohydrates necessary for its reproduction,’ Ventosilla explains. After two or three days of fermentation, the coconuts are taken to the swamps where the mosquitoes live, the plugs are removed and a few of the coconuts are thrown into the stagnant pools of water. Experiments have demonstrated that this kills all the larvae and keeps working for 45 days.

Zoraida Portillo/Third World Network Features/IP

Battered men
Controversy surrounds claims that men are increasingly falling victim to spousal abuse in Malawi. Village heads and church leaders confirm that cases of men seeking redress after suffering domestic violence from their wives are becoming more common. ‘Let’s not pretend things are not happening in our society,’ says Phiri, head of a village on the eastern side of Lake Malawi. But others feel that the cases of male abuse are too few to raise any major concern. Association of Progressive Women (APW) director Reen Kachere admits there is domestic violence against men. However she argues the problem is more pronounced among women. ‘Malawian women are more victimized because of culture. It is unfortunate that men choose to make minor cases appear like harassment against them,’ she says. Director of the Civil Liberties Committee Emmie Chanika says that in 95 per cent of spousal-abuse cases the victim is the women and that this is why domestic violence against women needs the more urgent attention.

Kimi Mamtora and Hobbs Gama / Newslink Africa Vol 17 No 47

Stealthy hazard
Heat stress kills more people worldwide than any other weather phenomenon, including cyclones and floods, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Deaths rise by over 50 per cent on average during heat waves, and are expected to climb even higher over the coming decades as a result of global warming. And the cities hardest hit by heat stress are not the hottest. Instead, very variable summer weather in certain cities – such as Melbourne and New York – causes the greatest loss of life, mainly because some people cannot physically adjust to the changes quickly enough.

But the public is largely unaware of the dangers. ‘It’s not a catastrophic natural disaster that comes out of the blue and wipes people out,’ says Richard de Dear of Macquarie University in Sydney. ‘It’s a stealthy hazard that builds up over a couple of days.’

Leigh Dayton / New Scientist Vol 164 No 2212

Indians come out in force against foreign economics

Betrayed by the military and ousted from parliament, Ecuador’s indigenous insurgents may be in worse shape than before their short-lived coup on 21 January. On that day Antonio Vargas, President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), led hundreds of indigenous people who took over the national Congress. The leaders of the civil-military uprising disavowed the Congress, courts and bureaucracy, which they accused of corruption.

But it was the country’s worst economic crisis that sparked the coup attempt. Earlier that week about 5,000 Indian protesters had arrived in Quito to demand the resignation of President Mahuad, Congress and the Courts. The protesters claim that a plan by Mahuad to adopt the US dollar as the country’s currency will impoverish them further. Last year, inflation was over 60 per cent – the highest in Latin America. Unemployment soared even higher and now only one in three workers has a job.

Just before midnight on 21 January, the insurgents announced the formation of a triumvirate joined by General Carlos Mendoza, chief of the armed forces joint command. But three hours later, Mendoza resigned from the struggle, asked to be released from military service, and called for Vice-President Noboa to assume the presidency. Congress opted for this constitutional end to the crisis, nearly unanimously agreeing that Mahuad – who refused to resign – had abandoned his post, and that the Vice-President could replace him.

Some political analysts attribute Mendoza’s resignation to international pressure. Every country in Latin America with the exception of Venezuela publicly condemned the coup and called for a return to constitutional order. The United States went so far as to threaten that Ecuador would be cut off internationally in the way that Cuba has been.

Before this whole episode, indigenous groups had five representatives in the National Congress who had been elected on the Pachakutik ticket, which is a political movement with strong connections to CONAIE. In the midst of the uprising, three of the Pachakutik elected representatives resigned from Congress in order to support the new popular government. Two leaders of the Democratic Left Party did likewise. The small amount of representation that these movements had in the national Congress has now been substantially diminished.

Antonio Vargas says that the indigenous and social movement completely disagrees with the resolution of their uprising. ‘We do not accept that they have placed Noboa in the presidency. We are closely watching the measures that he will take,’ he says. Meanwhile, Noboa claims that the programme to ‘dollarize’ the economy will continue, accompanied by further tough economic measures.

Latin America Press Vol 32 No 3

Breath of fresh air
HB Fuller, the glue manufacturer which has profited for decades from Central American children inhaling its toxic and addictive Resistol glue products, has finally stopped selling its over-the-counter products that contain solvents. But the controversy surrounding the company is not over. HB Fuller currently faces charges regarding the sale of its toxic glue in Costa Rica. And the company’s shareholders are keeping a keen watch after US Senator Richard G Polanco urged the California Public Employees Retirement System, Fuller’s twelfth-largest shareholder, to pressure HB Fuller to convert to non-toxic water-based glues. Senator Polanco explained that the continued sale of highly addictive and toxic glues abused by millions of street children in Central and South America would do shareholders more harm than good as it would ‘soon lead to legislative action and a likely consumer boycott of HB Fuller products’.

Casa Alianza: www.casa-alianza.org