Global

AP 20 Jan 2005 U.N. to Hold Holocaust Commemoration By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: January 20, 2005 Filed at 2:29 a.m. ET UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. commemoration of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps 60 years ago is a reminder that the evil that killed six million Jews still threatens the world today and must never be repeated, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. He said Monday's planned special session of the General Assembly should also be seen as an expression of the United Nations' commitment to ensuring that it can respond quickly to future genocide and other human rights violations. Annan and General Assembly President Jean Ping were joined at a news conference by the ambassadors of the countries that sponsored the resolution calling for the special session -- Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Russia, the United States and Luxembourg representing the European Union. ``I want to stress that this is the first time the General Assembly is holding a commemorative special session,'' Ping, the foreign minister of Gabon who heads the 191-member world body, said on Wednesday. ``It is our duty to remember and to say loudly never again.'' Annan stressed that the United Nations was founded in response to the Nazi Holocaust in World War II, and that the U.N. Charter and the world ``untold sorrow'' were written as the world was learning the full horror of the death camps. The secretary-general has called on all countries to give the session their full support and so far 138 have responded positively, including Arab nations. ``It's an important date for all of us,'' said Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Baali, ``and as an Arab group we have no problem whatsoever with the commemoration of this event.'' Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman -- saying he represented not only Israel and the Jewish people but the six million Jews and many others who were slaughtered in the Holocaust -- called the commemoration ``a momentous historic event.'' ``Hopefully this universal initiative ... will do at least two things,'' he said. ``It will make sure that people remember and never forget, and it will make sure that those horrible atrocities never, ever, happen again anywhere in the world.'' Gillerman said Israel has often accused the General Assembly of being anti-Israeli and operating with an ``immoral majority,'' but he said ``we do feel there is a change.'' ``We do feel what we have seen in this process, which will culminate in the meeting on Monday, is the formation of a moral majority which proves that when you do the right thing, you can unite and mobilize the member states of the United Nations,'' he said. ``We feel that on Monday the U.N. will ... also probably open a new page and a new chapter in closer and even better relations between Israel and the United Nations.'' Annan backed Gillerman's hope that the election of a new Palestinian leader will re-energize the Mideast peace process. ``I think what is going to happen on Monday is a little step toward that direction,'' the secretary-general said. In a letter to Annan on Dec. 9, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth requested a commemorative session on Jan. 24, three days before a similar event in the former Auschwitz death camp in Poland to mark its liberation by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945. Between 1 million and 1.5 million prisoners -- most of them Jews -- perished in gas chambers or died of starvation and disease at Auschwitz. Overall, 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. U.S. deputy ambassador Anne Patterson said the United States will be represented at the commemoration by a high-level delegation from Washington. http://www.un.org/ga/28special/

UN News Centre 24 Jan 2005 General Assembly marks 60th anniversary of liberation of Nazi death camps 24 January 2005 – With everlasting regret for the past and "never again" resolve for the future, the United Nations today commemorated the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, symbol of the Holocaust that slaughtered at least 6 million Jews and others in World War II. “It is, above all, a day to remember not only the victims of past horrors, whom the world abandoned, but also the potential victims of present and future ones,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the 191-member General Assembly during its first-ever special commemorative session, noting that the United Nations itself was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust. “Such an evil must never be allowed to happen again. We must be on the watch for any revival of anti-Semitism and ready to act against the new forms of it that are appearing today,” he added, paying homage, too, to other groups slaughtered by Nazi Germany, including the Roma people, Slavs, Soviet prisoners of war, the handicapped, Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals. “But the tragedy of the Jewish people was unique,” he stressed. “An entire civilization, which had contributed far beyond its numbers to the cultural and intellectual riches of Europe and the world, was uprooted, destroyed, laid waste.” Turning to more recent cases of genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Mr. Annan declared: “On occasions such as this, rhetoric comes easily. We rightly say ‘never again.’ But action is much harder. Since the Holocaust the world has, to its shame, failed more than once to prevent or halt genocide.” He noted that even today “terrible things” are happening in Darfur, Sudan, where tens of thousands of people have died and nearly 2 million have been uprooted in fighting between the Government, pro-government militias and rebels. Tomorrow, he expected to receive an international report determining whether this constitutes genocide. The commemoration comes three days before the actual anniversary of the liberation by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp which, with its gas ovens and crematoria, came to epitomize more than any other the horror. Before the day-long session, which began with one minute of silence, Mr. Annan and his wife, Nane, hosted a coffee reception for death camp survivors and other distinguished guests, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Among the host of speakers at the session from all regions of the world were the Foreign Ministers of Israel and Germany, heirs to the two sides of the Holocaust. The General Assembly President, Foreign Minister Jean Ping of Gabon, said the session was symbolic because, through it, the international community could finally, together, "exorcise the tragedy of the Holocaust and, by so doing, express its firm will to condemn to eternal failure tyranny and barbaric behaviour wherever that was displayed." Brian Urquhart, a former UN Under-Secretary-General who was among the first allied troops to reach the Bergen-Belsen death camp, told the session the inhuman conditions of the starving, broken and traumatized prisoners had to be seen to be believed. "The dead and dying were everywhere," he said. "Who could imagine such horrors?" Like many other speakers, he raised the rallying cry of "never again." Mr. Wiesel said Auschwitz was "an executioner's ideal of a kingdom of absolute evil and malediction." But he looked to the present and future, too, calling for the trial and punishment of those who today preach and practice the cult of death and use suicide terrorism. "The past is in the present, but the future is still in our hands," he declared. For his part, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said it was not too late to work for an international community that is uncompromising in combating intolerance against people of all faiths and ethnicities. "Let all of us gathered here pledge never to forget the victims, never to abandon the survivors, and never to allow such an event ever to be repeated," he urged.

Africa

Bostwana

Court case on San rights resumes [ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] © UN Botswana President Festus Mogae has insisted that the San's relocation was for their own benefit GABORONE, 19 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - The right to live and hunt as their forefathers did in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) is the crux of an application by 243 San Bushmen to overturn their relocation outside the game sanctuary by the Botswana government. The landmark case, which goes to the heart of minority rights in Botswana, resumed on Monday after a two-month break at the High Court in Lobatse, 60 km south of the capital, Gaborone. The Bushmen began court action in April 2002, seeking a ruling that the government's termination of basic services to those who had refused to leave the CKGR was illegal. The government had cut water, food and health services in January, arguing that it was too expensive to reach out to the small San communities scattered around the game reserve. It had created the New Xade and Kaudwane settlements outside the CKGR in 1997, when it came up with controversial plans to set aside the game reserve for wildlife and tourism development. Cut off from their traditional lifestyle, those San who have been relocated have joined Botswana's underclass of rural poor, dependent on government handouts. Alcoholism, prostitution, begging, low self-esteem, TB and AIDS have set in. In 1961, the British colonial government set up the CKGR to protect the habitat, the wildlife and the lifestyle of its residents. They comprised the G/wi and the G//ana San and a few hundred Bakgalagadi Bantu people, who, 400 years ago, moved into what is now the reserve and mixed with the San. In 1966 the constitution of newly independent Botswana restricted the entry and residence of non-Bushmen in the CKGR. This, say lawyers for the San, means the San have a right to live and hunt on their ancestral land. But in the late 1980s the government decided to resettle roughly 2,500 CKGR residents outside the reserve. "At no stage during the relocation exercise did government or its public officers involved in the relocation use force, coerce people residing in the game reserve, or threaten anyone of them in any way. The emphasis has always been persuasion and voluntary relocation," a government statement stressed. However, the plan sparked local and international protest. The pressure group, First People of the Kalahari (FPK), formed in the early 1990s, rallied residents to resist. A Negotiating Team comprising representatives of the residents, FPK, the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA), human rights group Ditshwanelo and the Botswana Council of Churches, was set up in 1996. After negotiations failed, the team went forward with legal action, and the case commenced in July 2004 at New Xade. "The government has trampled on our rights, and terminating basic and essential services is tantamount to forced eviction," said Mathambo Ngakaeja, coordinator of the Botswana chapter of WIMSA. "We seek the courts to declare that those who had been effectively forced to move, due to the termination of services, should be returned to the CKGR," Ngakaeja added. "We are determined to remain on our ancestral land." The government has argued that the court case was instigated by the London-based minority rights organisation, Survival International (SI), and the FPK movement. Last year the then assistant minister of labour and home affairs, Moeng Pheto, who had co-ordinated the relocation programme, was quoted in the pro-government Daily News as saying that the two organisations had intimidated the San into resisting relocation. SI has been highly critical of the Bushmen's removal, and has alleged that it was directly linked to diamond exploration in the CKGR, a claim the government has denied. "Stephen Cory [SI's executive director] is not the problem for the Basarwa [the derogatory term for Bushmen in Setswana]," Roy Sesana, the Bushmen's self-appointed spokesperson told IRIN. "The problem for the Basarwa is that they have been pushed out of the fat areas of Botswana, and now they are being pushed out of the places where they had found refuge, and being told to leave and go to places where they will certainly perish, together with their culture." The court case is to determine whether it was unlawful for the government to end essential services to the residents in January 2002; whether the government has an obligation to restore these services; whether the residents were in possession of their land and were deprived of it forcibly; and whether the government's refusal to issue game licenses to the residents and allow them to enter the CKGR is unconstitutional.

survival-international.org 20 Jan 2005 EXPOSED: BOTSWANA USED DYING FATHER TO EVICT SONS SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELEASE 20 January 2005 EXPOSED: BOTSWANA USED DYING FATHER TO EVICT SONS Botswana's high court has heard how government officials evicted a dying man from his home in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and then returned to tell his sons that they would not see their father unless they agreed to be relocated. Mogetse Kaboikanyo died just four months after he was evicted. His widow told Survival in the eviction site New Xade, 'This land killed my husband.' The sick Mogetse Kaboikanyo from the community of Kikao was taken to New Xade in February 2002. His sons stayed behind. His son Losolobe Mogetse told the court how he had argued with an official who came to evict him, but had eventually left Kikao out of concern for his father: 'He said we could not go to see the old man unless we agreed to relocate. We said we could not relocate in his absenceŠ. I finally gave up and agreed and we went with him.' After years of struggling to remain on his land, Mogetse was buried in New Xade, far from the graves of his ancestors, because officials refused to allow Losolobe and his brothers to return his body to Kikao. He had repeatedly said he wished to die on his land. Before the evictions, Mogetse told Survival, 'These things are done to us because we are Bushman peopleŠ The government of Botswana calls itself a democracy. But it isn't so here. We are oppressed until we die, and soon there will be no one left.' His full testimony can be read at http://www.survival-international.org/bushman_statements_mogetse.htm The court case brought by 240 Bushmen against the government of Botswana continues. The Bushmen want to be able to return to their land and live there without fear of further eviction, and to hunt and gather freely.

Burundi

Severity of food shortage in two provinces made clearer [ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] © NAIROBI, 19 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed on Wednesday that more than half a million people are in need of food aid in northern Burundi. "WFP will assist at least 520,000 people in the provinces of Kirundo and Muyinga for the next two months," WFP said in a statement issued on Wednesday. Earlier in January, Burundi’s president, Domitien Ndayizeye, issued a decree calling the situation in the two provinces "a famine". However, speaking to IRIN, the WFP spokesman in Burundi, Guillaume Folio, described the situation as "a serious food shortage". The shortages follow poor harvest in 2004, WFP said, adding that "a combination of drought and manioc mosaic virus has seriously reduced crop production". This January, WFP said, it delivered 1,485 mt of food aid to 176,000 people in the communes of Busoni, Bugabira and Kirundo, all in Kirundo Province, that was one of the worst affected by food shortages. In 2004, WFP said its food aid amounted to $4.5 million and that "almost one million people" received 6,900 mt of WFP food. It said half of this was distributed from June onwards, "when the first reports of poor harvest and consequent food shortages started to emerge". WFP said "following suspicions that food aid was not being targeted to the most vulnerable", it was also "working with representatives of the local administration, civil society and churches to obtain the most accurate possible lists of people in need of food assistance". IRIN has not yet been able to contact the NGOs or local authorities for comment. WFP said "a couple of weeks" after food distribution, monitoring teams were being sent "to verify if the right amount of food is reaching families who need it and whether the food is consumed by those families". The agency said, so far, it only had enough money to help drought-affected and other food insecure people in Burundi for the next five months. "An additional $25 million is required to feed these communities between June and December 2005," it said. A government decree issued on Thursday requests workers and businesses in Burundi to make payments of various specified amounts to aid the victims and called on international NGOs and donors to increase their help.

AFP 24 Jan 2005 Burundi rebels deny involvement in governor's assassination BUJUMBURA, Jan 24 (AFP) - A rebel group in Burundi on Monday denied responsibility for the weekend assassination of a provincial governor and blamed a former insurgent movement now in government for the killing. The National Liberation Front (FNL), the lone rebel force holding out in Burundi, said it had nothing to do with Sunday's assassination which it said was carried out instead by the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD). "We are not behind the assassination of governor Isaie Bigirimana," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told AFP by telephone. "We had nothing against him." Army spokesman, Major Adolphe Manirakiza, said Sunday that Bigirimana was killed in an FNL ambush about 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the capital Bujumbura in the first assassination of such a senior official in eight years. Burundi's Interior Minister Simon Nyandwi also put the blame on the FNL. But Habimana insisted that responsibility for the killing of Bigirimana, governor of the western province of Bubanza, and a bodyguard, lay with the FDD, which he accused of trying to crater peace talks with the FNL. "It is actually the Forces for the Defence of Democracy, now part of the transitional government, who are behind this act," Habimana said. "They want to sabotage on-going negotiations with FNL." But a spokesman for the FDD rejected the accusation, saying his organization, which became an official political party earlier this month, "had nothing to do with such a disgraceful act." Burundi, which is struggling to emrge from an 11 year-old civil war that claimed more than 300,000 lives, is currently in a transitional phase of government which is due to end with presidential elections later this year.

DR Congo

Reuters 22 Jan 2005 New massacre threat for Congolese in Burundi Reuters BUJUMBURA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Congolese Tutsis who survived a refugee camp massacre in August said on Friday they feared another attack after leaflets threatening their extermination surfaced again. Similar leaflets preceded the Aug. 13 massacre at Gatumba refugee camp, along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, where attackers hacked, bludgeoned and burned to death more than 160 Congolese Tutsis. "This small group threatens the life of people in the Great Lakes region," a copy of the leaflet reviewed by Reuters says of the Congolese Tutsis refugees, known as Banyamulenge. The Aug. 13 attack drew international condemnation and forced some survivors to migrate to new camps deeper inside Burundi. "Like it happened last year before the Gatumba massacre, we have again received leaflets, threatening to exterminate the Banyamulenge," Samson Rushikama, a spokesman for the refugees, told Reuters. Burundi is struggling to emerge from a decade of civil war pitting rebels from the Hutu majority against the politically dominant Tutsi minority. Similar ethnic conflict in Rwanda and the DRC has often spilled over the borders the two share with Burundi, and vice versa. The refugees called on the United Nations and Burundian authorities to heed the threat. "They must intervene now before another massacre is committed," Rushikama said. Army spokesman Adolphe Manirakiza said Burundi was acting to protect the refugees. "We take this new threat as serious. Security forces will take additional measures to protect Congolese Tutsi refugees leaving in Burundi," he said. Many refugees fearing a repeat attack have stayed away from camps, while others finally returned home after facing violent protests from villagers who did not want them back. A U.N. report on the massacre said contaminated evidence at the scene made it impossible to identify any perpetrators besides a Hutu rebel group, the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), which claimed responsibility. But Burundian authorities said the report failed to recognise evidence showing a coalition of FNL rebels, Congolese traditional Mai Mai fighters and the Rwandan Hutu militia was behind the attack.

Kenya

BBC 24 Jan 2005 Thousands flee Kenyan water clash The two groups have clashed for many years Thousands of people have fled violence in Kenya's Rift Valley which has left at least 15 people dead. More police have been sent to the area north-west of the capital, Nairobi, to control the latest clashes between Kenyan farmers and cattle owners. Youths from Kikuyu and Maasai groups fought over the weekend using machetes, spears, bows and arrows and clubs. Several huts were torched in the violence. The trouble is thought to have started when Maasai herdsmen accused a local Kikuyu politician of diverting a river to irrigate his farm, prompting a water shortage further downstream. With water being denied to their livestock, the Maasai are then thought to have damaged his pipes. 'Talk peace' "The government is doing all it can to control the situation, I urge the combatants to lay down their weapons and talk peace," John Kamau, a senior local official, told Reuters news agency in the trading post of Mai Mahiu, where many Kikuyu have fled. A large number of Maasai are reported to have fled their homes for Narok, further west. The Maasai and Kikuyu communities have fought over access to water and grazing land since the 1960s. Fighting last week involving the Maasai near the Maasai Mara game reserve displaced more than 2,000 villagers. Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki is this week due to visit another area, Mandera, which has been the scene of similar violence, over the control of water, between rival Kenyan Somali communities.

Rwanda

AP 22 Jan 2005 Genocide Film Premieres at Rwanda Stadium By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: January 22, 2005 Filed at 6:05 p.m. ET KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) -- ``Sometimes in April,'' a movie on the 1994 Rwanda genocide, premiered Saturday at a stadium that was one of the scenes of slaughter more than a decade ago. It was filmed mostly in Rwanda, where Hutu extremist militias and soldiers killed more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus between April and July 1994. Advertisement More than 5,000 people -- including government officials, actors, journalists and genocide survivors -- attended Saturday's screening at Kigali's Amahoro stadium, where thousands of Tutsis were killed during the slaughter. On Sunday, the movie will be shown to the general public for free at the 25,000-capacity venue. ``Sometimes in April'' tells the story of a Hutu soldier who gets separated from his family -- including his Tutsi wife -- as he tries to take them to safety with the help of a fellow Hutu soldier. ``The film ... demonstrates the human capacity of cruelty, while illuminating the human capacity for courage,'' said Raoul Peck, the movie's Haitian-born writer and director. Peck spent 18 months researching material for the film in Rwanda and Tanzania, where masterminds of the genocide are still on trial at a U.N. tribunal. The film stars Oris Erhuero and Debra Winger. Peck said he wanted the film to premiere here as a way of thanking the Rwandans -- many of them survivors of the genocide -- who helped make it. They acted and were members of the film's production crew. ``This is a major moment for me,'' Peck told journalists Friday. ``It goes beyond my own personal emotions to have this film screened in Rwanda. It is so important that Rwandans are going to legitimize it.'' The film will be broadcast in the United States on Home Box Office on March 19. ``We have fulfilled the pledge we made to Rwandans of showing them the film before anyone else,'' Sam Martin, HBO's director of development and production, told The Associated Press. ``The story in the film is one of international importance, and it's a great opportunity to retell the world of this atrocity. He said he hoped the story would make people think about the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region, where government-backed Arab militiamen have driven nearly 2 million people from their homes in a campaign of killing, raping and looting. At least 70,000 have died from disease and hunger since March. Many more have been killed. While filming, Peck had a team of psychologists on set to help survivors deal with any trauma that may have been triggered by graphic reminders of their past. He said he expects the film will also bring back painful memories to the Rwandans who see the film Saturday and Sunday. ``The film is very moving and hard,'' Peck said. ``But this is the reality, we have to confront it.'' Many in the audience found the film difficult to watch, but said it had an important message to tell. ``I hope 'Sometimes in April' will help our future generations understand our history and avoid a repeat of the genocide,'' said Martin Semukanya, a radio journalist who lost his father, sister, two brothers and many other relatives and friends during the killings. ``Sometimes in April'' is one of 21 films competing for the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival next month. Its release follows that of ``Hotel Rwanda,'' another film on the genocide, whose star Don Cheadle has been tipped for an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best actor. The killing was orchestrated by the Hutu-extremist government then in power. Government troops, Hutu militia and ordinary villagers spurred on by hate messages broadcast via radio went from village to village, butchering men, women and children. The genocide ended when then-rebels led by President Paul Kagame captured the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and ousted the extremist government on July 4, 1994.

Sudan

washingtonpost.com 18 Jan 2005 Tsunami Wipes Darfur Off Priority List By Jefferson Morley washingtonpost.com Staff Writer Tuesday, January 18, 2005; 10:00 AM The South Asia tsunami not only wiped out more than 150,000 lives but also overwhelmed international media coverage of genocidal conflict in Sudan. "Before the tsunami struck, the U.N. described the conflict in the western Darfur region as the world's greatest humanitarian crisis," noted The Age in Australia yesterday. "Darfur has almost slipped off the world's radar," the Sydney-based daily reported. As the world's generosity turns to victims of a natural cataclysm, the equally innocent victims of equally vicious man-made disaster are at risk of being forgotten yet again. Tens of thousands of people in Darfur have been killed and at least 1.85 million people forced from their homes since early 2003 when rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. The government has backed Arab militiamen, known as Janjaweed, who have been massacring and raping the black African residents of the region. Patrick Webb, chief of nutrition at the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) told Reuters that the "massive response" in south Asia "will make recovering a lot faster than . . . Darfur, for example," he said. Aljazeera.net, the Web site of the Arab news channel, ran the story, as did many other international news sites. Darfur has occasionally captured the world's brief attention. A belated visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell last June did not prevent online commentators from waxing caustic about the slow response of the international community. But there was faint hope that international action might save lives. Since then, geopolitics intertwined with economic interests have confounded optimism. In September, the U.N. Security Council finally considered a resolution to impose sanctions on Sudan for failing to prevent the atrocities. But China threatened to veto the measure and it was watered down. It is no secret that China has a mutually beneficial oil exploration partnership with Sudan, notes journalist Paul Mooney, writing in Monday's International Herald Tribune . "China National Petroleum Corporation won an oil exploitation bid there in 1995, and when Washington cut ties two years later, the Chinese were ready to fill the void left by retreating Western oil companies," he reports. "Sudan, which was an oil importer before the Chinese arrived, now earns $2 billion in oil exports each year, half of which goes to China." The only progress in Sudan has come on another front. Earlier this month, Powell and other diplomats did succeed in pressuring the Sudanese government into signing a peace agreement with the Sudan People's Liberation Army, (SPLA) a black African insurgent group in the south. The Jan. 11 agreement, signed in Nairobi, Kenya, guarantees the SPLA a role in the national government. The pact, designed to bring an end to a 21 year long civil war in Sudan's southern provinces does nothing to address the crisis in Darfur. In West Africa, Le Patriote (in French), credited Powell with imposing the settlement on the two parties. The editors of the Ivory Coast daily praised the "Anglo-Saxon pragmatism" of U.S. policy which they compared favorably with more high-handed French diplomacy during the recent unrest in Ivory Coast. Powell, with "stick in one hand and money in the other, made Khartoum understand that the time had come to make peace," the editors said. In the Arab word, the Sudan peace agreement was hailed as a hopeful sign of Arab unity. In Syria, the state-owned newspaper al-Thawra (in Arabic) said the Sudan peace pact was "extremely important." The agreement "came at a time when some international forces coveting Sudan's resources are trying to take advantage of the Darfur crisis," the paper editorialized. All the while, the plight of the people of Darfur continues to deteriorate. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anna told the BBC earlier this month that both the government and the insurgents had violated a ceasefire agreement. Last week, gunmen attacked two international aid convoys in Darfur, according to a United Nations news service story carried by Allafrica.com. Eric Reeves, a U.S. academic writing for the Sudan Tribune fears the Sudanese government now believes that "it is free to continue its genocide in Darfur. The failure of the international community to disabuse the regime of this conviction threatens additional hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths," he said. But the embattled Sudanese government can take comfort in the indisputable fact that many international forces do covet its natural resources. "The scramble for Sudan" is on, writes Kibisu-Kabatesi in The Standard, a leading daily in Kenya. "Sudan has massive economic potential in minerals, agriculture and service provision. . . . Already, South African companies have clinched exclusive deals in oil exploration on the heels of Malaysian, American, French and Russian firms," he said. The International Herald Tribune reported that the French oil giant Total announced in late December the company had renewed oil agreements with Sudan that were abandoned in 1985 because of the civil war. Marathon Oil, a Houston-based company is also said to be interested in Sudan, according to the IHT. So after two years of suffering, millions of people in Darfur have been left stranded by a perfect storm of civil war, tsunami, money and geopolitics. They remain what they have always been to the governments of the world: a lesser priority.

AP 20 Jan 2005 AP: Survey Points to Victims in Darfur By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: January 20, 2005 Filed at 5:32 a.m. ET DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- Although the commonly cited estimates of the death toll in Sudan's Darfur region refer to fatalities from disease and hunger, analysis of a recent U.S.-commissioned survey strongly suggests that many thousands -- at a minimum -- have been killed in violence as well. The conclusion is based on a survey conducted for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in July and August, a month before he declared that Darfur's killing represented genocide. Analysis of that survey continues, officials say, even as the U.N. Security Council awaits results of its separate investigation into the conflict this month. Advertisement The U.S.-commissioned study interviewed 1,136 refugees who had fled Darfur for U.N. tent cities and camps along Chad's eastern border, selecting them through a random method meant to yield a sample representative at least of the 200,000 Darfur refugees in Chad. The key finding: 61 percent said they had seen a family member killed before their eyes in violence blamed on Sudanese forces and government-backed Arab militias accused of a scorched-earth campaign against African villagers. Fritz Scheuren, president of the American Statistical Associations, said the survey methods were correct, and Juan Mendez, the U.N. envoy for the prevention of genocide, called it comprehensive. Smith College professor Eric Reeves, a researcher into the conflict, said if the figure held for all of Darfur's 2 million displaced the implication would be 200,000 killed. However, there is no certainty that the experiences of the displaced in Chad -- the group the sample came from -- are the same as those of other refugees who did not reach Chad, or of all of the 6 million people of Darfur. Furthermore, projecting a precise death toll estimate from the survey is problematic because there is no certainty about the size of the group each refugee would consider to be ``family'' -- a key element in the calculation. Refugees included extended family -- such as uncles and cousins -- in their answers, said Stefanie Frease of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Coalition for International Justice, which conducted the survey with the U.S. State Department. There is, however, widespread consensus that the findings indicate the death toll from violence to be in the many thousands. Until now, the most widely circulated Darfur-related toll has been a World Health Organization estimate that 70,000 had died from its indirect effects -- chiefly disease and hunger -- in an eight-month stretch in 2004. The survey also shows a consistent pattern of coordinated killings by Sudanese forces and allied Arab militia targeting non-Arab villagers, said Frease, whose group has aided war-crimes trials in the former Yugoslavia. Refugees spoke of attacks timed to maximize civilian casualties, of attackers pledging to purge Darfur of its non-Arab black majority, and of mass burials of victims. Refugees questioned for the survey spoke of air- and ground attacks on market days and or to coincide with other events that would draw large numbers of civilians. ``We will kill all the men and rape the women. We want to change the color'' of the people, a male refugee questioned for the survey quoted an attacker saying about a December 2003 government and tribal raid on his village of Refeda. Sudan's Arab-dominated central government has denied targeting Darfur civilians or allying with Arab militias, and officials did not respond to requests about the survey. Sudan has also blocked most outside access to the government-controlled Darfur countryside until last summer, making direct investigation of the carnage impossible. The United States has been a lead proponent of action against Sudan for the near 2-year-old unrest in Darfur, which has emptied more than 400 villages. Some have urged U.N. sanctions or war-crimes trials for Sudanese leaders. The Security Council-commissioned probe -- whose release is expected within days or weeks -- is expected to deliver more authoritative evidence on whether Darfur's killing constitutes genocide. Survey teams gathered the names of thousands of slain. Surveyers asked interview subjects to give the names, ages and other details of every family member they reported they had seen killed, Frease said. ``In some cases, we have lists of 20 people from one witness,'' Frease said. Sudan, meanwhile, has pointed to the fact no mass graves have been found to bolster its case that any death toll is low. But refugee accounts to survey teams suggest the graves are there to be uncovered. At the village of Agurnrd, a village man helped dig the graves of 52 men executed at point-blank range by Arab militia fighters in a mix of civilian and military uniforms in April 2004, he told researchers.

Financial Gazette (Harare) OPINION 20 Jan 2005 Genocide No Different From Tsunami Harare Can a place inhabited by six billion people be regarded as a "global village" where each one of us is somehow his or her brother's keeper? I know it is difficult for most of us mere mortals to even begin to picture the staggering numerical reality of so many human beings. This, however, does not change the fact that the answer to the above question is a resounding, unequivocal yes. Nothing underscores the interdependence of the human race more convincingly than the natural disasters that hit Planet Earth from time to time. This message is driven home most unambiguously if the calamity is of Biblical proportions, such as the tsunami that hit a number of Asian countries about three weeks ago. The tsunami, which killed more than 150,000 people, was triggered by the most powerful earthquake recorded in many years. It measured 9,0 on the Richter Scale. The tsunami flattened entire towns and cities and destroyed infrastructure in eleven countries. Millions of people were rendered homeless. Survivors include thousands of orphaned children who lost both parents and other relatives. In some cases, a bewildered and frightened child was the only survivor in his or her family. These young tsunami victims join millions of other children orphaned by another disaster that knows no geographical bounds - Aids. Those killed in the Asian tidal waves include tourists from different parts of the world who had been holidaying in the different Asian beach resorts often described as "paradise on earth". Far away countries such as Sweden, South Africa, Britain, Canada, the United States and even Zimbabwe, lost citizens in the calamity. A Bulawayo businessman was reported to have been killed and another to have been seriously injured. Some coastal areas of Africa such as Somalia and Tanzania were also affected. It is difficult to imagine that anyone on the face of this earth could watch footage of the utter destruction and human suffering left in the wake of this disaster and remain untouched. I dare say only those with hearts of stone could fail to be filled with compassion and empathy for fellow human beings pitted so hopelessly against Mother Nature's unfathomable fury. It is inconceivable that the people of Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and all other devastated areas could ever hope to recover and rebuild without assistance from the rest of the world. An acknowledgement of the fact that "no man is an Island" has galvanized the entire world to respond to the Asian disaster in a way never seen before. A United Nations official has said the disaster brought out the best in people all over the world and showed humanity at its best! That is indeed a proud moment for homo sapiens. It is gratifying that Zimbabwe is part of this noble out pouring of generosity. It is to be hoped that despite their own economic struggles, Zimbabweans will respond generously to Vice-President Joyce Mujuru's appeal for donations such as clothes and food to be sent to the victims. Mujuru made the appeal about two weeks ago when she announced the formation of a government committee to mobilize resources for the Asian cataclysm. Some commentators have pointed out that while the industrialized and rich nations such as the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia and other western nations responded to the disaster generously, their assistance was equally needed in other parts of the world. They cited situations in the Congo, Sudan, the Middle East and other trouble spots as equally "destructive tsunamis" that need to be attended to urgently. I agree with them one hundred percent. While I do not buy the view in some quarters that the West responded as generously as it did because hundreds of Western tourists perished in the Asian catastrophe, I nevertheless denounce double standards of any kind. Human suffering is human suffering regardless of where it occurs. With that in mind, I have to say, I have been appalled by the international community's "slow motion" response to some situations that have caused untold human anguish. I refer to the genocide in Rwanda a decade ago when the world ignored the SOS of the two million people who perished in this tragic episode. "Never again", declared various officials after it had become clear that the world had let the people of Rwanda down in their hour of need. Regretably, the same dragging of feet has been repeated with regard to the situation in Sudan's Western Darfur region. Thousands have died and close to two million people have been displaced while the international community fiddled over whether to define the ongoing atrocities as genocide or not. What hypocrisy and double-standards! Nevertheless, the people needing to learn the biggest lesson from the Asian tsunami are those ruthless dictators and tyrants who resort to killing their own people in their mad manoeuvres to cow entire populations. These heartless men need to be told that with Mother Nature capable of the destructive fury unleashed across Asia, we do not need man-made disasters such as civil wars and genocide that some strongmen regard as insurance for life-long job security for themselves.

www.mg.co.za 20 Jan 2005 Abuses, yes, but no genocide, says Sudan committee Khartoum, Sudan 20 January 2005 12:54 An official Sudanese committee of inquiry has determined that serious human rights abuses have been committed in the troubled Darfur region but rejected claims of ethnic cleansing and systematic rape. "Serious human rights violations took place in the three states of Darfur, in which all parties to the conflict were involved to varying degrees, thus leading to human suffering of the people of Darfur, causing internal displacement and people taking refuge in neighbouring Chad," the committee said. The international community and human rights groups have long raised concerns about the situation in Darfur, where ethnic rebels have been fighting the government and its allied militias since February 2003. But the committee report, unveiled on Wednesday, added: "What had happened in Darfur despite its graveness did not constitute a genocide crime. "The commission has concluded that incidents of rape and sexual abuses took place in the various states of Darfur but it has not been proven to the commission that there was systematic and widespread abuse that would constitute a crime against humanity," the report said. An uprising begun by ethnic minority rebels in early 2003 prompted the government in Khartoum to launch a bloody crackdown by Arab militias, which Washington has said amounted to genocide. About 70 000 people are estimated to have died in the past several months alone, according to figures from the United Nations and aid agencies. About 1,5-million more have fled their homes, many seeking refuge beyond Sudan's borders. -- Sapa-AFp

BBC 21 Jan 2005 New doubts over Sudan peace force SPLA leader John Garang is expected in Rumbek soon The deployment of an international force to southern Sudan could be delayed by a dispute over which countries send peacekeeping troops. The southern rebel group is unhappy that too many Muslim countries have been asked, a senior UN source says. The UN is hoping to deploy in March some 10,000 troops to monitor the peace deal between the Islamic government and Christian and Animist rebels. The deal ended 21 years of war which left some 1.5m people dead. A key member of the rebel SPLM, Deng Alour Deng, said they had not been consulted over which countries would make up the new peace mission to southern Sudan and that they had reservations about the whole list. First embassy The BBC's Jonah Fisher in the southern capital, Rumbek, says that several countries are thought to have been approached, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia. A Security Council vote on the UN mission is not due until early February but in order to begin arriving in March participating countries need to be planning ahead now, our correspondent says. On Thursday, the first diplomatic mission was opened in Rumbek, 900km south of the capital, Khartoum, to represent Dutch and British interests. Speaking on his first visit to Rumbek, UN envoy Jan Pronk said this week that the challenge to secure peace and develop the south was huge. Rumbek has no paved roads or multi-storey buildings and hardly any running water or electricity.

BBC 23 Jan 2005 South Sudanese in unity challenge The peace deal will end more than 20 years of conflict Sudan's former southern rebel leader John Garang has challenged the north to say why the country should stay united. Mr Garang told reporters in his interim capital, Rumbek, that northerners would now have to accept the southern Sudanese as their equals. Southerners have been given a large degree of autonomy as part of the peace deal that ended 21 years of civil war. They are scheduled to hold a referendum in six years to decide whether they want to seek full independence. Mr Garang was speaking a day after returning to his base for the first time since signing the historic peace deal earlier this month. You can't be calling for unity [while] asking me to be your inferior John Garang He led southern rebels against the government in Khartoum in a bloody civil war until the peace agreement was signed in Kenya. His organisation, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), is expected to formally ratify the deal. It will then begin the task of putting together a new southern government. The peace agreement is designed to end two decades of war between the Muslim north and the mainly Christian south of the country that left an estimated 1.5 million people dead. Equality call As part of the deal, Mr Garang will become vice-president in the central government and will lead an autonomous government in the south from Rumbek. Sudan's southern rebels have always maintained that their goal is not the creation of a separate southern state but a united country free from discrimination. Garang returned to Rumbek on Saturday to a hero's welcome But with a government being assembled and a new flag and national anthem in the offing, southern Sudan has begun to look increasingly like a country-in-waiting, says the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Rumbek. Mr Garang stressed that it was not up to him as to whether Sudan would remain united. "The challenge is on the north," he told a news conference. "You can't be calling for unity [while] asking me to be your inferior," he said. Rumbek itself has no paved roads or multi-storey buildings and hardly any running water or electricity. As residents of one of the poorest areas in the world, the southern Sudanese will be looking closely to see whether the long-awaited peace brings opportunity and development, our correspondent says. If after six years things still have not improved, a vote to separate is a near certainty, he says. Peacekeeper dispute Under the terms of the peace deal, the government of southern Sudan will share oil revenue equally with the government in the north. Hundreds of millions and perhaps even billions of dollars will flow to Mr Garang's new administration. The Dutch Development Minister, Agnes van Ardenne, visited Rumbek on Friday, promising $130m in European aid - but made it conditional on an end to the continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur. The UN is hoping to deploy in March some 10,000 international peacekeepers to monitor the agreement, between the Islamic government in the north and Christian and Animist rebels. But UN sources say the deployment could be delayed by a dispute over which countries will provide the troops. The SPLM is reported to believe that too many Muslim countries have been asked to contribute.

Reuters 23 Jan 2005 Sudan army says Darfur rebels burn eight villages KHARTOUM, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Darfur rebels attacked and burned eight villages in western Sudan, killing dozens of civilians and looting their property, an armed forces official said on Sunday. "A group of Darfur rebels attacked al-Malam area, on the borders of North and South Darfur states," an armed forces official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. He did not know which of the Darfur rebel groups was responsible. "They burnt eight villages and killed many people," the official said. Two main rebel groups denied their troops were involved and said they were checking what happened. They said their forces were committed to the ceasefire agreement signed last April. A statement from the office of the armed forces spokesman said dozens of civilians had been killed in the attack on Saturday and their homes looted. There are three recognised rebel groups in Darfur but other groups also operate, making it difficult to determine who carries out attacks in the vast region the size of France. After years of tribal clashes over scarce resources in the arid area, two main rebel groups took up arms in early 2003, accusing the Khartoum government of neglect and of arming Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages. While Khartoum admits arming some tribes to fight the rebels, they deny all links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws. Tens of thousands have died and almost 2 million have fled their homes since the fighting began. "Be sure that these are not our troops," said rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) spokesman Haroun Abdel Hamid from Libya, adding he was checking what had happened in al-Malam. The other main rebel movement, the Sudan Liberation Army, also denied the attacks were by their troops.

IRIN 24 Jan 2005 Darfur villages reportedly burnt in fresh violence [ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] © Jennifer Abrahamson, OCHA Sudan Young SLM/A fighters at Marla, Darfur. NAIROBI, 24 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - Eight villages in the western Sudanese region of Darfur were reportedly burned to the ground on Friday in a fresh outbreak of violence, sources said. An unspecified number of people were killed, the sources added. "The police have reported the attacks and the African Union monitoring team is investigating what exactly happened," a humanitarian worker in the region, told IRIN on Monday. Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the United Nations Advance Mission in Sudan said the incident had not yet been formally reported to the mission. "We have heard about the attacks, but are trying to get confirmation," she said. The official Sudan News Agency reported that the attacks were carried out by Darfur rebels and took place near Malam, about 100 km north of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State. "The rebels have carried out a heinous attack on the areas of Malam, burning down eight villages and killing and injuring a number of civilians and looting properties," the agency quoted a government statement as saying. Other international media reported that the two main rebel groups, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), had denied any involvement in the incidents. The violence came a day after the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said fighting between government troops and rebels in Darfur had decreased over the past month, but that Arab militias were still attacking villagers. "The violence is still perpetrated by pro-government militias and other armed groups that are very difficult to control; they attack villages, abduct people and increasingly use rape as a tool of war," Pronk told reporters. "But between the government and the rebel movements, there is more adherence to the ceasefire than a month ago - and that is a step forward," he added. The war in Darfur pits Sudanese government troops and militias, allegedly allied to the government, against the JEM and SLW/A, which are fighting to end what they call the marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for international prosecutions to deter continuing violence in Darfur. In a report documenting crimes in the region, HRW accused the Sudanese government and its allied militias of committing atrocities. "Regardless of whether there has been genocide, the scale and severity of the ongoing atrocities in Darfur demand an urgent international response," Peter Takirambudde, HRW's Africa Director, said. "Given Sudan's continuing failure to prosecute the perpetrators, the [UN] Security Council needs to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court," he added. The conflict has displaced more than 1.45 million people and sent another 200,000 fleeing across the border into Chad since it began in 2003. The UN has described the Darfur problem as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The HRW report titled: "Targeting the Fur: Mass Killings in Darfur", is available at: http://embargo.hrw.org/

washingtonpost.com 24 Jan 2005 Support War Crimes Trials for Darfur By Jack Goldsmith Monday, January 24, 2005; Page A15 A U.N. commission chaired by the former president of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, Antonio Cassese, is expected to issue its recommendation this week on whether the International Criminal Court should investigate human rights abuses in the Darfur region of Sudan. If the Cassese commission does propose an ICC investigation, a Security Council referral will be necessary for the ICC to proceed, because Sudan has not ratified the ICC treaty. This would place the Bush administration in a bind. The administration has condemned the Darfur abuses as genocide. But at the same time, it strongly opposes the ICC, which it believes is staffed by unaccountable judges and prosecutors who threaten politically motivated actions against U.S. personnel around the globe. These concerns explain why the United States has opposed ratification of the ICC treaty and has sought bilateral assurances that other nations will not send U.S. nationals to the ICC. News reports suggest that the Bush administration would oppose a Security Council referral on Darfur out of fear that it would confer legitimacy on the international court. In fact such a referral would be consistent with U.S. policy on the ICC. The United States has never opposed ICC prosecutions across the board. Rather, it has maintained that ICC prosecutions of non-treaty parties would be politically accountable and thus legitimate if they received the imprimatur of the Security Council. The Darfur case allows the United States to argue that Security Council referrals are the only valid route to ICC prosecutions and that countries that are not parties to the ICC (such as the United States) remain immune from ICC control in the absence of such a referral. This course of action would signal U.S. support not only for the United Nations but for international human rights as well, at a time when Washington is perceived by some as opposing both. And it would give the United States leverage in seeking genuine sanctions against Sudan, especially with France, which for oil-related reasons has quietly resisted U.S. efforts on Darfur. France would have a hard time opposing a package of sanctions that included U.S. support for an ICC referral. Opposition by China and Russia would be harder to overcome but would at least make clear to the world that those two powerful nations are even more opposed to the ICC than the United States. U.S. support for a Security Council referral might also point the way to a compromise with European nations that are anxious to secure U.S. backing for the international court but oppose state-to-state deals that overtly immunize U.S. citizens from ICC jurisdiction. Agreement on the need for Security Council approval for ICC prosecutions would provide a more principled way for Europe to alleviate U.S. concerns about rogue ICC prosecutions. Critics would decry this approach as a double standard for Security Council members, who can protect themselves by vetoing a referral. But this double standard is woven into the fabric of international politics and is the relatively small price the international system pays for the political accountability and support that only the big powers, acting through the Security Council, can provide. The fears of "legitimizing" the ICC are overstated. It's too late to kill the International Criminal Court. The Security Council (including the United States) presupposed the ICC's authority when it voted in 2002 and 2003 to immunize U.N. peacekeepers from ICC prosecutions. And the institution is now up and running, preparing for cases already referred to it. For better or worse, the ICC is not going away anytime soon. Another potential obstacle is a 2001 congressional bar on U.S. cooperation with the ICC. But this statute exempts acts taken pursuant to the president's constitutional authority, and it specifically permits the president to communicate to the ICC U.S. "policy with respect to a matter." The congressional ban would preclude U.S. financial support for the ICC, but all that means is that the United States can, for a change, enjoy the fruits of international justice without having to pay for it. Not that there will necessarily be much fruit. Prosecutions by other international criminal courts have done little to bring reconciliation to Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia, or (as the Darfur tragedy shows) to deter future crimes in other nations. Nonetheless, it is possible that the concrete threat of an ICC prosecution could temper the killings in Darfur without adversely affecting the recent peace deal between Sudan's Islamic government and its southern rebels. If so, the Bush administration should play the difficult hand likely to be dealt it by the Cassese commission to its own political advantage. A more moderate stance toward the ICC could be a more effective one. The writer, a professor at Harvard Law School and a former Bush administration official in the Justice and Defense departments, is the author of "The Limits of International Law."

Tanzania

IRIN 20 Jan 2005 Rwanda tribunal ready to start 17 new genocide trials, prosecutor says [ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] ARUSHA, 20 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Hassan Jallow, has said that he is ready to start the trials of 17 suspects held in detention for their role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Jallow said that the trials would be held simultaneously with the ongoing 25 cases in progress. There are a total of 57 detainees at the special UN Detention Facility in Arusha, location of the tribunal. Upon closure of the investigations deadline in 2004, as directed by the UN Security Council, Jallow, without mentioning the names, said investigations had been completed on 16 targets. "We are now looking at the files and will decide whether we have enough evidence to proceed," he said. "We have been given up to October [2005] to do that, but our plan is to make sure by June -we will have decided what indictment to file." Trials had been delayed in the past because of too few judges. However, with the appointment of temporary judges the trials are being speeded. Regarding the alleged atrocities committed by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Jallow said investigations had been completed into the allegations that the RPF killed civilians while trying to stop the genocide. "At the moment, we have passed the phase of investigations," he said. "What we are doing is the evaluation of evidence in order to decide what cases we have." Jallow did not say how long the evaluation would take. "I can't state exactly the deadline," he said. He said the tribunal would be more aggressive in tracking down fugitives with the cooperation of governments and international organisations. "We want to be more vigorous this year," he said. "If we can't catch them until the tribunal closes down [2008], then their cases will be transferred to national jurisdictions for a trial." Meanwhile, Jallow said that in an effort to speed up the trials, some of the accused would be tried in national jurisdictions sometime in the first half of this year. Rwanda has requested to try some of them. Jallow said talks are also ongoing with three European countries, which he did not name, but have shown interest in holding trials. The UN tribunal, which was created in 1994 to hear the cases of key perpetrators of the genocide, has so far convicted 20 and acquitted three.

Americas

Argentina

AP 20 Jan 2005 Argentine Witness Gives Grisly Testimony By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: January 20, 2005 Filed at 1:57 p.m. ET MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Spanish judges heard gruesome testimony Thursday about atrocities by the former military regime during Argentina's ``dirty war,'' including theft of babies and clandestine cremation of detainees' bodies. The accounts came in the trial of Adolfo Scilingo, 58, a former Argentine naval officer who served at a naval school that served as a prison and reputed torture center. Advertisement Scilingo stared at the floor and sipped water as the court heard for the second day excerpts from a tape recording made in 1997 in which he described abuses at the school. Since his trial began last week, Scilingo has insisted that he fabricated the taped testimony. He faces charges of war crimes, genocide, torture and terrorism in Spain's first trial of a person for human rights abuses allegedly committed in another country. In excerpts played Thursday, Scilingo tells how pregnant detainees had their newborn babies taken away from them and given away in adoption to officers at the school. ``For humanitarian reasons, the pregnant women could not be moved. I mean, eliminated. We had to wait until they gave birth,'' Scilingo is heard saying. He did not specify how many cases he knew of, saying just ``several.'' Doctors who delivered babies signed birth certificates in which the children were given the names of the people adopting them, he said. The goal of these illegal adoptions, he said, ``was to keep the children from falling into the subversive mentality of their parents,'' Scilingo is heard saying. Scilingo, who was the chief electrician at the school, also speaks in the excerpts of how officials there cremated the bodies of people who died of injuries while under interrogation. He said these cremations were referred to as ``asados'' -- which translates as roastings -- and as chief electrician he was once asked to supply diesel fuel or oil for them to be carried out. ``There were instructions from superiors for all of us at the school to take part. I did not go. It seemed very gruesome to me,'' Scilingo says in the tape. Spanish authorities recorded the tape during an interrogation with National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon when Scilingo first came to Spain voluntarily in 1997 to testify about what he saw at the school, one of the Argentine regime's most notorious torture centers. Garzon ended up jailing Scilingo and indicting him. Since the mid-1990s Garzon has been leading a probe into atrocities committed by military regimes in Argentina and Chile. Scilingo, whose trial started last week, has testified that he invented his previous confessions, including a chilling account of pushing 30 drugged dissidents out of planes flying over the Atlantic, in an effort to provoke an investigation into Argentina's ``dirty war.'' Under Argentina's military dictatorship, some 13,000 perceived political opponents were killed or disappeared during a campaign to stamp out dissent, according to an official government report. Human rights groups put the number closer to 30,000.

Mexico

AP 20 Jan 2005 Mexican archeologists unearth evidence of human sacrifice By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press UPDATED AT 4:28 PM EST Thursday, Jan 20, 2005 Advertisement MEXICO CITY -- It has long been a matter of contention: Was the Aztec and Mayan practice of human sacrifice as widespread and horrifying as history books say? Or did Spanish conquerors overstate it to make the cultures appear primitive? In recent years, archeologists have uncovered mounting evidence that corroborates the Spanish accounts in substance, if not number. Using high-tech forensic tools, archeologists are proving that such sacrifices often involved children and a broad array of intentionally brutal killings. For decades, many researchers believed Spanish accounts from the 16th and 17th centuries were biased, aiming to denigrate Indian cultures; others argued that sacrifices were largely confined to captured warriors, and still others conceded the Aztecs were bloody but believed the Maya were less so. "We now have the physical evidence to corroborate the written and pictorial record," archeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan said. The Spaniards probably did exaggerate the number of victims to justify a supposedly righteous war against idolatry, said David Carrasco, a Harvard Divinity School expert on Mesoamerican religion. But there is no longer much doubt about the nature of the killings. Indian pictorial texts, known as codices, as well as Spanish accounts from the time, quote Indians as describing multiple forms of human sacrifice. Victims had their hearts cut out or were decapitated, shot full of arrows, stoned, crushed, skinned, buried alive and tossed from the tops of temples. Children were said to be frequent victims, in part because they were considered pure and unspoiled. "Many people said, 'We can't trust these codices, because the Spaniards were describing all these horrible things,' which in the long run we are confirming," said Carmen Pijoan, a forensic anthropologist. In December, at an excavation in an Aztec-era community in Ecatepec, just north of Mexico City, archeologist Nadia Velez Saldana described finding evidence of human sacrifice associated with the god of death. "The sacrifice involved burning or partially burning victims. We found a burial pit with the skeletal remains of four children who were partially burned, and the remains of four other children that were completely carbonized." Although the remains do not show whether the victims were burned alive, there are depictions of people, apparently alive, being held down as they were burned. The dig turned up other clues to support descriptions of sacrifices in the Magliabecchi codex, a pictorial account painted between 1600 and 1650 that includes human body parts stuffed into cooking dishes and people eating as the god of death looks on. "We have found cooking dishes just like that," said archeologist Luis Manuel Gamboa. The Maya, whose culture peaked farther east about 400 years before the Aztecs founded Mexico City in 1325, had a similar taste for sacrifice, Harvard University anthropologist David Stuart wrote in a 2003 article. In carvings and mural paintings, he says, "we have now found more and greater similarities between the Aztecs and Mayas," including one that depicts Mayan ceremony in which a grotesquely costumed priest is shown pulling the entrails from a bound and apparently living sacrificial victim. See City of Sacrifice : Violence From the Aztec Empire to the Modern Americas by David Carrasco 304 pages Publisher: Beacon Press (December 8, 2000) f

United States

Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. pressherald.mainetoday.comCOLUMN: Nikki Kallio The 'g' word loses its meaning when no real action follows it Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend It was almost shocking when top government leaders dared to utter the "g" word - "genocide" - when referring to the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, because by all accounts that meant the United States would have to do something to stop it. As a signatory to the United Nations' 1948 Genocide Convention, we're now bound to "undertake to prevent and to punish" the crime. At least, that's the way it's supposed to work. The law started with Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew who studied the Turkish destruction of Christian Armenians during World War I and escaped Poland a week after the Nazis invaded. In her Pulitzer prize-winning book, "A Problem from Hell," Samantha Power describes Lemkin's efforts to set up an international law that was meant to forever eliminate such atrocities. He'd seen in Hitler's writings what the madman had in mind and tried to warn his family and friends, who didn't believe such a heinous plan could be executed. His parents were among those to perish. First, these crimes against humanity needed a name. Lemkin, an attorney and a trained linguist, knew what had happened was worse than mass murder, it was worse than an atrocity and it was worse than a crime against humanity. It needed a name that would transcend all others and compel the world to prevent it from ever happening again, Power wrote. Lemkin's new word, "genocide," finally gained the acceptance of Webster's Dictionary in 1944. The next step then was to establish an international law that would force the world to act to prevent it. If there were no such law, Lemkin knew genocide would continue to be regarded as an "internal" problem and that the world would continue to hesitate to intervene, Power wrote. Lemkin's vision of future genocide compelled him to take on the personal responsibility of preventing the slaughter of millions of people, and it consumed his life. The new international law was all he talked about, and he would talk about it with anyone who would listen and many who didn't, Power wrote. Day and night, he hammered at leaders and journalists, and, after an exhaustive campaign, the United Nations finally adopted the Genocide Convention in 1948. The United States, however, didn't ratify it until 1988. The Convention defines genocide as actions "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." It compels signatories to act when genocide is occurring. For that reason, past leaders have been excruciatingly reluctant to speak the word, avoiding it like poison, believing that its utterance would behold them to action. The painful footage of State Department officials discussing in 1994 why what had occurred in Rwanda wasn't "genocide" - despite the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days - demonstrated how much weight leaders thought the word carried. That's why pundits and editorialists - including me - called on leaders to use the word in discussing the crisis in Sudan. At least 70,000 black Africans have been killed since last year and close to 2 million more have been displaced from their homes by the government-backed Arab Janjaweed militiamen in an apparent attempt to gain control of the resource-rich Darfur region. Surprisingly, Congress, Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Bush responded. They've all taken the extraordinary step of using the powerful word. Much to Darfur's dismay, little has happened. Only weak resolutions that allude to economic sanctions have been passed (barely), and they've been given little teeth, even after Darfur's situation had been officially called "genocide." Scott Straus, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote in the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs that "Darfur has shown that the energy spent fighting over whether to call the events there 'genocide' was misplaced, overshadowing difficult but more important questions about how to craft an effective response to mass violence against civilians in Sudan." Apparently, he's right. So, has the word lost its power? Should we start over? Rewrite the law? Talk about it some more? Wait and see? It took the United States 40 years to ratify the Genocide Convention in the first place, and now we find out that it has about as much strength as a paper towel. "Never again," indeed. Nikki Kallio is an editorial writer at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

Reuters 18 Jan 2005 New Jersey murders prompt Arab group condemnation 19 Jan 2005 NEW YORK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A leading Arab-American group on Tuesday tried to defuse tensions between Egyptian Christians and Muslims in the New York metro area following the murder of a family of four last week in Jersey City, New Jersey. Emotions ran high at Monday's funeral as police and the FBI continued to investigate the massacre of an Egyptian Christian family found on Friday in their home bound, gagged and stabbed in the throats. Robbery was a suspected motive after police found the house was looted, although some members of the Copt community said Hossam Armanious, his wife, Amal Garas, and daughters Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, who immigrated to the United States in 1997, might have been victims of a hate crime by Islamic militants. Hossam Armanious had engaged in heated debate about Islam on a religious Web site, according to some family members. "Any crime against civilians regardless of motive or justification contravene the covenants of all world religions and the civilized world," Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of New Jersey, said in a statement. "Ethnic or sectarian motives must be rejected as a justification for taking human life," he said. "Religious and community leaders must unequivocally condemn the crime and the perpetrators." More than 500 people lined a four-block funeral procession of the four caskets leading to Monday's memorial service in St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church. One person held a sign reading, "American Family Beheaded on American Soil. Welcome Bin Laden." About 1,000 people crammed into the church where some parishioners erupted when they spotted Muslim clerics inside. "Muslim is the killer," shouted one parishioner over and over again, before he was removed from the church. Others shouted threats when they saw an Egyptian Muslim leader from Brooklyn, Sheik Tarek Yousof Saleh, in the church and he was escorted out by police. "We escorted some people out of the church for their own protection and to preserve decorum," Jersey City police Capt. John Tooke said on Tuesday. Outside the church, police broke up a number of skirmishes but no arrests were made. The FBI said on Tuesday it is cooperating with local police and has been helping with crime scene analysis and forensics. If authorities believe the crime was sectarian in nature, the FBI might launch its own investigation, the FBI spokesman said.

NYT 19 Jan 2005 TV REVIEW | 'AUSCHWITZ' Another Look at the Nazi Business of Killing By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN Published: January 19, 2005 don't know anything about the Tyrrhenians. I can never remember who McGeorge Bundy was. I don't understand Mongol rule in China, or King Philip's War in America. But I know about Auschwitz. In 10th grade at my public school in New Hampshire in the 1980's, we watched "Night and Fog," Alain Resnais's 1955 documentary, in conjunction with a series of lectures on the Holocaust. We saw severed heads and heaps of emaciated corpses. Our teacher, a veteran of World War II, explained in detail the Nazi hierarchy, the uses of Zyklon B and the crematories; we went over and over how people who thought they were going to take showers were led to their death. We returned to the subject every semester until graduation. Advertisement Why, with so much history to learn, did we spend so long on the particulars of Auschwitz and the practices of the Nazis? I couldn't help thinking that there was something about the Holocaust - or at least about the Nazis' cold efficiency - that we weren't meant to grieve, but to admire. In "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State," a six-part BBC/KCET co-production by Laurence Rees that starts tonight on PBS, Melvin Jules Bukiet, a novelist who is the son of a survivor, says of the Holocaust, "I think we learn nothing from it." He goes on, "It is simultaneously endlessly fascinating - because it does embody extremes of human behavior - but it is also endlessly exhausting, because it provides no reward whatsoever." What if the Holocaust is no longer fascinating, but only exhausting? Though this possibility is raised by Mr. Bukiet at the end of tonight's installment, PBS apparently did not give it much consideration in putting together this new series. "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State" is a glossier production than the clip jobs on the History Channel - which many still call the Hitler Channel for its preoccupation with the Nazis - but it has no more powerful reason for being than they do. Once again, re-enactors button up their sharp SS uniforms and strut their fascist style in elaborate re-creations that are performed in German, with subtitles. Handsome actors play the killers, and scrupulous attention is given to their grooming. A scene of the Auschwitz commandant, Rudolf Höss (played by Horst Günther-Marx), getting a haircut is laboriously staged. An awestruck voice-over describes the Holocaust as "one of the most infamous policies in all of history," noting that the Nazis' "industry of death" was "supremely efficient." In interviews, former inmates and SS officers alike tell us what we already know: that Auschwitz was terrifying; that people were murdered every day; that the people who worked there were anti-Semites who believed that Jews were opponents of the state. As Pavel Stenkin, a Russian prisoner of war who spent time at Auschwitz, puts it: "Death, death, death. Death at night, death in the morning, death in the afternoon. Death. We lived with death." Hans Friedrich, a former German soldier of the First Infantry Brigade, is asked by an interviewer: When you were shooting Jewish men, women and children, did you have any feelings for the people? "Nein," says Mr. Friedrich, now white-haired. And he continues, in the voice of the interpreter, "My hatred toward Jews is too great." The evolution of Nazi killing techniques - from shooting to adult euthanasia programs in Germany to the development of the gas chambers at Auschwitz and Birkenau - is supplied in detail. Each murderous innovator is duly credited. But why belabor these developments, as if giving instructions? The series highlights its own original contributions to the study of Auschwitz, breaking the news that the camp was included in the genocide relatively late in its history; it was first used to imprison Polish political prisoners and Soviet prisoners of war. Architectural plans for the camp, which were discovered in Russian archives in the 1990's, are brandished. A computer model of Auschwitz serves as one of the series' central illustrations. But only one moment stands out as really unusual. It's a re-creation of a 1941 conference in Berlin at which SS officers, before the invasion of the Soviet Union, discussed plans for starving its people. All of the dialogue is reportedly taken from actual meeting minutes. One man argues that the Russians are accustomed to periods of famine: "Hunger and thrift have been the lot of Russians for centuries" he says, adding: "Their stomachs are elastic. Let's have no misplaced pity." No one, of course, has pity of any kind. Much of the drama in this superfluous series revolves around the sang-froid and technological sophistication of the Nazis, and that's bad enough. But the epilogues to each part - during which experts discuss the segment's significance - are unconscionably patronizing. At the end of Part 2, for example, Claudia Koonz, a history professor, and Edward Kissi, a professor of African studies, enlighten the host, Linda Ellerbee, about Nazi propaganda. Ms. Koonz explains that, as children, many Germans were taught to hate Jews. Contemplating this, Ms. Ellerbee asks, "Is it a good idea for kids today to question their education?" Does she really have to ask? 'Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State' PBS, Wednesdays through Feb. 2 at 9 p.m.; check local listings. Written and produced by Laurence Rees; KCET Hollywood and BBC, producers; Mary Mazur, series executive producer; Sir Ian Kershaw, script consultant; David Orenstein, co-producer; Karen Robinson, production executive for KCED; Megan Callaway, writer/producer (epilogues); Catherine Tatge, director (epilogues); Linda Hunt, narrator; epilogues' host, Linda Ellerbee.

BBC 21 Jan 2005 JP Morgan admits US slavery links The US's economic history hides some unpleasant truths Thousands of slaves were accepted as collateral for loans by two banks that later became part of JP Morgan Chase. The admission is part of an apology sent to JP Morgan staff after the bank researched its links to slavery in order to meet legislation in Chicago. Citizens Bank and Canal Bank are the two lenders that were identified. They are now closed, but were linked to Bank One, which JP Morgan bought last year. About 13,000 slaves were used as loan collateral between 1831 and 1865. 'No excuse' Important dates 1831 Canal Bank formed 1833 Citizens Bank formed 1924 Citizens and Canal join to form Canal Commercial Trust & Savings Bank (CCTSB) 1931 Chase Bank takes control of Canal 1933 CCTSB fails during Great Depression and goes into liquidation 1933 National Bank of Commerce in New Orleans (NBCNO) formed with some Canal Bank deposits and loans 1971 NBCNO becomes First National Bank of Commerce 1998 First National Bank of Commerce merged into Bank One Louisiana 2004 Bank One merged with JP Morgan Chase & Co. Because of defaults by plantation owners, Citizens and Canal ended up owning about 1,250 slaves. "We all know slavery existed in our country, but it is quite different to see how our history and the institution of slavery were intertwined," JP Morgan chief executive William Harrison and chief operating officer James Dimon said in the letter. "Slavery was tragically ingrained in American society, but that is no excuse." "We apologise to the African-American community, particularly those who are descendants of slaves, and to the rest of the American public for the role that Citizens Bank and Canal Bank played." "The slavery era was a tragic time in US history and in our company's history." JP Morgan said that it was setting up a $5m scholarship programme for students living in Louisiana, the state where the events took place. The bank said that it is a "very different company than the Citizens and Canal Banks of the 1800s"/

FT.com 21 Jan 2005 'Fear societies' the target of new administration By Guy Dinmore in Washington Published: January 21 2005 02:00 | Last updated: January 21 2005 02:00 Liberty overcoming tyranny was the main theme yesterday of President George W. Bush's inauguration address, one that Condoleezza Rice also stressed in her Senate hearings this week in listing six "outposts of tyranny" where the US "cannot rest" until freedom reigns. This new category follows the 2002 "axis of evil" trio of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the long-standing seven "state sponsors of terrorism", and the flexible but no longer in vogue "rogue nations" tag. Diplomats and analysts - not to mention the tyrants - are wondering what it means. US officials could not or would not explain the genesis of the new list, which lumps together Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe. One said it was "representational, not exclusive". However, the grouping was clearly well thought out, given prominence as it was in Ms Rice's prepared statement to the Senate foreign relations committee, which is considering her nomination as secretary of state. "This doesn't mean we are going to bomb them tomorrow," said Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He stressed Ms Rice's background as a scholar of the former Soviet bloc. The cold war is the frame of reference for the president and Ms Rice, who share a long-term view of what they call the defining "generational" struggle. Being on the list did not exclude the possibility of making "geo-strategic deals" with these governments, and diplomatic relations were not ruled out, Mr Clawson said. But it was not detente, meaning that the US would not confer legitimacy on these regimes and would continue to support their opposition movements. The approach is a mix of national interests and ideology. "The neoconservatives can live with it," Mr Clawson said. Diplomats said it was obvious why Uzbekistan and Pakistan were not included, being important partners in the "war on terror". More striking were the absence of Syria and Sudan, both involved at critical moments of war and peace, with the US juggling threats and inducements. A senior analyst at a government defence institute saw Ms Rice's speech as reflecting a strategic move to take a regional approach in using US leverage. The ultimate focus, he said, was less the six "outposts" than the major powers of Russia, which the administration sees in decline, and China, which is viewed as the main rival of the future to US domination of a unipolar world. "If you can turn these particular countries," the analyst said, referring to Burma and North Korea, "then that would have a ricochet impact on China, to get it moving in the direction of a more democratic, market-oriented player." In a recent interview, Mr Bush said that if people wanted to understand how he thought about foreign policy they should read The Case for Democracy by Natan Sharansky. "It's short and it's good," Mr Bush said. In presenting her list of target tyrannies a few days later, Ms Rice also referred to the former Soviet dissident Mr Sharansky, now an Israeli politician. "The world should really apply what Natan Sharansky called the town square test," she said. "If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment and physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society. And we cannot rest until every person living in a fear society has finally won their freedom."

washingtonpost.com 23 Jan 2005 Hitler's Inferno Reviewed by David Von Drehle Sunday, January 23, 2005; Page BW05 AUSCHWITZ: A New History By Laurence Rees PublicAffairs. 327 pp. $30 Most of us would rather not think about Auschwitz, but that is how the next Auschwitz will happen. Laurence Rees's compact, devastating new history of the infamous death factory distills a crucial lesson -- perhaps the crucial lesson -- of the 20th century: that the human capacity for mass murder is grotesquely widespread and must be faced squarely if we hope to resist it. The systematized, industrialized, conveyor-belt murder of six million Jews and other despised minorities is hard to fathom. I recently visited a community center in Florida where two enormous jars, each as tall as a basketball player and as fat as a sumo wrestler, were being filled with pennies in hopes of collecting six million. But as Rees unfolds the singular atrocity of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million died, the recurring theme is just how easily it happened. From the monstrous planners to the demoralized bystanders, Europe was full of people willing to countenance the genocide. The ideals of Western civilization were like tissue paper across the tracks of human hatred. Auschwitz devolved smoothly from a slave-labor camp to a death camp as Hitler's war in the East bogged down. In village after village, city after city, people watched wordlessly, even jeered triumphantly, as their neighbors were herded toward the transports -- not just the Germans of Berlin and Munich and Leipzig, but Poles in Warsaw, Frenchmen in Paris, Hungarians in Budapest, Slovakians in Bratislava, even, in a few cases, British authorities in the Channel Islands. Some of the perpetrators were monsters, like the camp's commandant, Rudolph Höss, and the master of the human roundups, Adolf Eichmann. Some were ordinary people who could have saved a life or two but just . . . didn't. Most fell in between: They did not plan the genocide, but it did not seem to bother them much. Take the stupidly cruel French police who, without much prodding from the Nazis, organized a large shipment of Jewish women and children: Far from being moved by the suffering they supervised, they heedlessly compounded it, herding the mothers onto transports many days before the children were to be shipped. As Rees recounts in spare, heartbreaking prose, the French authorities made no provision for the orphaned children, leaving them to wander -- terrified and barely fed -- around the French holding camp until trains finally came for them. But the killers were not without tender feelings. Rees notes that it upset them very much when the people they were preparing for slaughter began screaming or struggling or fainting. It wore them out when they tried shooting their victims one by one beside mass graves. That is why they built efficient gas chambers, with soundproof walls and nearby crematoria. And it is why they took elaborate steps to mask what they were doing. So we find workers at Auschwitz, on Oct. 7, 1944, coaxing the shivering, hungry children from Barrack 8 in the Birkenau annex with a promise of warm winter clothes. Alice Lok Cahana, 15, hoped to scrounge a few garments for her sickly sister, Edith. The children were led to a brick building in a corner of the compound and told to strip off their rags. Alice did not panic, and the reason is quite horrible. She noticed "flowers in a window" of the building she was about to enter -- which was, of course, a gas chamber. Flowers made her think of her mother, who loved violets, and so she felt calm. Her murder was interrupted by a revolt of the crematoria workers, quickly quelled. Cahana survived to add this arresting and revolting detail to Rees's picture of the camp. Rees, a distinguished journalist and historian at the BBC, layers these details with little fanfare but great craftsmanship. His book, and a companion TV documentary, mark the 60th anniversary this month of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. Ultimately he does at the gut level what Hannah Arendt achieved some 40 years ago at the level of philosophy: He forces the reader to shift the Holocaust out of the realm of nightmare or Gothic horror and acknowledge it as something all too human. He reminds us that building Auschwitz required the services not just of sadists but of architects and engineers, that staffing it required the efforts of physicians and bookkeepers. We see again that an impetus for the first gassings came not from Berlin but from Slovakia, whose pro-Nazi government was happy to round up able-bodied Jews to be pressed into slavery in the IG Farben synthetic-rubber works at Auschwitz. Then the Slovaks realized they would be stuck with a Jewish remnant unable to provide for itself, so they paid the Nazis to take the elderly, the frail, the children to Auschwitz as well. Killing them seemed the expedient thing to do. Reading this book is an ordeal -- not through any failure of the author's but because of his success. Rees's research is impeccable and intrepid; among other feats, he has tracked down and interviewed former SS members who actually worked at Auschwitz, most of whom express no remorse. Rees also makes good use of the records that became available only after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites. These details add up to a precise picture of the death camp -- not only the sadistic kapos, the merciless selections, the industrial-scale killing, but also the perverse love stories, doomed uprisings, weird strokes of luck. Rees tells the bizarre story of the Auschwitz brothel, and details the one successful escape from the camp. He explains why the only hope of survival was a job indoors, and reports that the best jobs were in the warehouses where Jews were compelled to sort and catalogue the stolen possessions of their murdered brethren. Scrupulous and honest, this book is utterly without illusions. The nearest thing it has to an uplifting story is the successful effort by Danes to save their country's Jews. Even this ends on a sad note in Rees's hands. Why, he wonders, could similar feats not have been accomplished all across Europe? The answer emerges in the final pages, as Rees recounts stories of Auschwitz survivors returning to their homes months and years and even decades later, only to be greeted with fresh bigotry and new violence. More lives were not saved because human beings found it more convenient to hate. The potted bigotry and ludicrous rantings of tyrants spoke more deeply to them than the exhortations of saints. It is folly to believe that hatred could be so widespread and so easily activated in 1945 yet be toothless today. Neighbors hacked neighbors to death in Rwanda; mountains of skulls rose in Cambodia; entire classes of people were worked and starved to death in China; even Hitler's brand of bigotry is common currency in much of the world. Indeed, hate seems to be thriving. As long as it does, Auschwitz is with us. • David Von Drehle is a Washington Post staff writer and the author, most recently, of "Triangle: The Fire That Changed America."

AP 23 Jan 2005 'The Aviator' Wins Producers Guild Honor [ Excerpt] CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) -- The Howard Hughes biopic ``The Aviator,'' claimed another top prize at the Producers Guild of America awards. . . The Stanley Kramer award, named for the producer who often tackled social issues, went to two productions: ``Hotel Rwanda'' the real-life tale of an innkeeper sheltering refugees from genocide, and ``Innocent Voices,'' a fictionalized version of one boy's experience during the Salvadoran civil war. www.producersguild.org

AP 23 Jan 2005 U.S., Europe split on Darfur trials The United States is rejecting European proposals urging that the International Criminal Court prosecute Sudanese responsible for war crimes in the Darfur region of that country. Instead, the administration is pushing for a tribunal run by Africans, perhaps making use of the facility in Tanzania where trials growing out of the Rwanda genocide are taking place, a senior official said. The official, asking not to be identified, also said a U.N. commission examining the Darfur situation is not expected to classify the humanitarian crisis there as genocide. The commission likely will use language such as "grievous war crimes" or similar wording to describe the nearly two-year campaign by government-backed Arab militias against black African farmers in Darfur. In September, Secretary of State Colin Powell concluded that the abuses in Darfur constituted genocide. His finding was based on interviews by U.S. diplomats with hundreds of Darfur residents who have been uprooted from their homes. The Bush administration is eager for perpetrators of the abuses to be tried by a war crimes tribunal but strongly opposes the ICC as the venue. "I think our position on the International Criminal Court is well-known, so I won't bother to go into it any further here," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday. "We do believe that there needs to be accountability and that we will work with others to find the best possible solution to ensuring accountability," he said. The dispute with Europe over the ICC constitutes a point of friction between the U.S. and Europe as U.S. President George W. Bush seeks to mend relations with the continent early in his second term. The administration argues that the ICC could be used for frivolous or politically motivated prosecution of American troops. It has systemically opposed any proposal that would enhance the international standing of the ICC. The European proposal for the ICC to try the Darfur perpetrators has the backing of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

www.usnewswire.com 23 Jan 2005 The Day George McGovern Bombed Auschwitz: Event on Capitol Hill to Mark 60th Anniversary of Liberation 1/23/2005 1:34:00 PM To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Rafael Medoff of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, 215-635-5622 or rafaelmedoff@aol.com News Advisory: Former presidential candidate George McGovern will speak for the first time in public about his experiences as a bomber pilot who flew over Auschwitz in 1944, when he appears in an exclusive film interview to be shown on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, January 25. In the film interview, which was conducted last month at his home in South Dakota, McGovern speaks about why he should have been instructed to bomb the death camps; the Roosevelt administration's knowledge of the Nazi genocide and failure to intervene; and his perspective on the moral obligation of the U.S. to take action against genocide abroad. The event will take place on Tuesday, January 25, in Room 2200 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Independence Ave. and S. Capitol St.SW, Washington, D.C. It is co-sponsored by the Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism (which was established by the House International Relations Committee) and The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. The event is being held in conjunction with other international events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, including a special session of the United Nations on January 24 and a gathering of world leaders at Auschwitz on January 26. In addition to the McGovern film, the Capitol Hill event will include a discussion of the issue of the Allies' refusal to bomb Auschwitz, with Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff, former U.S. Congressman Stephen J. Solarz, and Stuart Erdheim, director of a film about the bombing issue. For more information, please call Kay King of the House International Relations Committee, at 202-225-6735, or the Wyman Institute at 215-635-5622. --- ABOUT THE WYMAN INSTITUTE: The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, located on the campus of Gratz College (near Philadelphia), is a research and education institute focusing on America's response to the Holocaust.

washingtonpost.com Study: Many Blacks Cite AIDS Conspiracy Prevention Efforts Hurt, Activists Say By Darryl Fears Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A02 More than 20 years after the AIDS epidemic arrived in the United States, a significant proportion of African Americans embrace the theory that government scientists created the disease to control or wipe out their communities, according to a study released today by Rand Corp. and Oregon State University. That belief markedly hurts efforts to prevent the spread of the disease among black Americans, the study's authors and activists said. African Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, according to Census Bureau figures, yet they account for 50 percent of new HIV infections in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly half of the 500 African Americans surveyed said that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is man-made. The study, which was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, appears in the Feb. 1 edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. More than one-quarter said they believed that AIDS was produced in a government laboratory, and 12 percent believed it was created and spread by the CIA. A slight majority said they believe that a cure for AIDS is being withheld from the poor. Forty-four percent said people who take the new medicines for HIV are government guinea pigs, and 15 percent said AIDS is a form of genocide against black people. At the same time, 75 percent said they believe medical and public health agencies are working to stop the spread of AIDS in black communities. But the responses, which varied only slightly by age, gender, education and income level, alarmed the researchers. "As a researcher knowing that these beliefs were out there, I wasn't as surprised as people I share the study with," said Laura Bogart, a behavioral scientist for the Rand Corp., who co-authored the study with Sheryl Thorburn, associate professor in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State. "But the findings are striking, and a wake-up call to the prevention community," Bogart said. "The prevention community has not addressed conspiracy beliefs in the context of prevention. I think that a lot of people involved in prevention may not be from the community where they are trying to prevent HIV." The findings were also no surprise to Na'im Akbar, a professor of psychology at Florida State University who specializes in African American behavior. "This is not a bunch of crazy people running around saying they're out to get us," Akbar said. The belief "comes from the reality of 300 years of slavery and 100 years of post-slavery exploitation." Akbar cited the Tuskegee experiment conducted by the federal government between 1932 and 1972. In it, scientists told black men they were being treated for syphilis but actually withheld treatment so they could study the course of the disease. Today, he said, African Americans are more likely to live in communities near pollution sources, such as freeways and oil refineries, and far from health care centers. "There are a lot of indicators that our lives are not valued," Akbar said. Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, said past discrimination is no longer an excuse for embracing conspiracies that allow HIV to fester. "It's a huge barrier to HIV prevention in black communities," Wilson said. "There's an issue around conspiracy theory and urban myths. Thus we have an epidemic raging out of control, and African Americans are being disproportionately impacted in every single sense." Black women made up 73 percent of new HIV cases among women in 2003, and black men represented 40 percent of new cases, according to the most recent federal figures available. Among gay men, blacks represented 30 percent of new infections, and adolescents ages 18 to 24 accounted for nearly 80 percent of new HIV cases. "The whole notion of conspiracy theories and misinformation . . . removes personal responsibility," Wilson said. "If there is this boogeyman, people say, 'Why should I use condoms? Why should I use clean needles?' And if I'm an organization, 'Why should I bother with educating my folks?' The syphilis study was real, but it happened 40 years ago, and holding on to it is killing us."

Asia-Pacific

China

WP 19 Jan 2005 China Resolute on Tiananmen Officials Defend 1989 Assault, Play Down Death of Dissenter Zhao By Philip P. Pan Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, January 19, 2005; Page A12 BEIJING, Jan. 18 -- The Chinese government on Tuesday firmly defended its decision 15 years ago to order a military assault on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and oust the Communist Party leader who objected, turning down appeals to reassess the crackdown and rehabilitate Zhao Ziyang a day after his death. "The political disturbance and the problem of Zhao himself has already passed. What happened in 1989 has reached its conclusion," Kong Quan, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a regular briefing. Citing the rapid growth of the Chinese economy since the Tiananmen massacre, he added: "The past 15 years have shown China's decision was correct." Pro-democracy activists march to China's representative office in Hong Kong with portraits of Zhao Ziyang, who died Monday. (Bobby Yip -- Reuters) _____Free E-mail Newsletters_____ • Today's Headlines & Columnists See a Sample | Sign Up Now • Breaking News Alerts See a Sample | Sign Up Now Zhao, who was placed under house arrest after refusing to endorse the crackdown, died Monday at age 85 following several strokes. His death has presented the Chinese government with a dilemma, forcing it to balance the need to show respect to a man who once served as the party's top leader against the desire to avoid opening a debate about the assault on Tiananmen, in which hundreds and perhaps thousands of people were killed. The ruling Communist Party usually marks the death of senior leaders with elaborate, widely publicized memorial services, as well as official obituaries that evaluate their contributions to party and nation. But such public honors for Zhao could stir painful memories of the massacre, and the leadership appears to have decided to deny them to him. Kong said he had no information about whether the government was planning a state funeral. State television and radio refrained from reporting his death for a second day, and the capital's newspapers carried only one-sentence news items that neglected even to note Zhao's service as China's premier and party general secretary in the 1980s. "Mr. Zhao made some meaningful contributions for the country, but he made a big mistake during the incident in the spring of 1989," Chen Zuoer, an official involved in Hong Kong affairs, told reporters in Beijing. "The relevant departments of the central government will handle the arrangement of commemorative activities or a funeral with Mr. Zhao's family and relatives." Wading into a dispute brewing in Hong Kong, Chen also said it would be unconstitutional for legislators there to pass resolutions mourning Zhao. Rita Fan, the pro-Beijing legislative president, denied requests by lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung that the council observe a minute of silence in Zhao's memory and hold a debate on his contributions to Hong Kong. "Nowhere else in China can events to commemorate Mr. Zhao be held," Leung said. "Hong Kong people should not give up that right so easily." In Beijing, Zhao's family said through friends that they had not yet heard from the government about funeral arrangements and were beginning to plan a private service. The family also set up a memorial hall inside their home and opened it to the public. Security around the house was tight during the day, but by evening the atmosphere was more relaxed, and a steady stream of mourners made their way through the traditional courtyard compound where Zhao had spent the last 15 years of his life under house arrest. Beyond large red doors, elaborate wreaths of white and yellow chrysanthemums graced with black and white ribbons carrying messages of condolence lined two inner courtyards. Plainclothes officers watched as visitors pinned on white flowers and signed a guest book in one courtyard, then entered a small study brimming with memorial wreaths. One by one, the mourners stepped forward and bowed before a portrait of Zhao on the wall. Then they visited quietly with family members dressed in black. Others were prevented from paying their respects, including Bao Tong, a former aide who was the highest-ranking official jailed in the 1989 crackdown. When he, his wife and his daughter attempted to leave their apartment building, more than 20 plainclothes security agents shoved them back inside and into the elevator, family members said. Bao's 73-year-old wife, Jiang Zongcao, was pushed to the ground during the scuffle and suffered a fracture in a vertebra, relatives said. Her daughter took her to a hospital, and doctors said she would need to stay in bed at least eight weeks to recuperate. Relatives said Bao was hurt, too, spraining a wrist and a finger, but security agents would not let him see a doctor unless he removed a white flower pinned to his shirt and a black armband, traditional Chinese symbols of mourning. He refused. Researcher Zhang Jing in Beijing and special correspondent K.C. Ng in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

EU Brushes Tiananmen Aside, Gets Ready to Sell Arms Antoaneta Bezlova BEIJING, Jan 21 (IPS) - The new Chinese leadership is set to get a major boost to its legitimacy and military ambitions as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw confirms in Beijing that the European Union is ready to lift its 15-year-old ban on arms sales to China. Straw arrived in China Thursday as Chinese leaders were making plans, under the shroud of secrecy, for the funeral of deposed Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang who was purged for opposing the military assault on unarmed students during the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests. European countries imposed the arms embargo against China as part of their horrified reaction to the Tiananmen crackdown. Straw is scheduled to hold meetings with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing. The meetings are taking place as Beijing is preparing a tightly scripted funeral for the deposed leader in order to prevent a public show of support for his democratic cause. Zhao died in a Beijing hospital on Monday at the age of 85. Beijing fears that Zhao's funeral could trigger anti-government protests and revive demands for the rehabilitation of student democracy leaders. State television and radio have kept mum over Zhao's death while Chinese newspapers ran a 50-word report on inside pages. A massive show of public grief for a deceased leader who opposed the Tiananmen massacre could become an embarrassing event for Chinese leaders. The Chinese government claims the arms embargo imposed after the military crackdown is a ''product of the Cold War'' but displays of public dissent could indicate the opposite. Britain is the latest European country to join the efforts of France and Germany to persuade other EU members to lift the arms sanctions. Straw said last week that he expected the arms ban to be lifted, ''more likely than not'' in the next six months while Luxembourg holds the EU presidency. Britain will take over the presidency from Luxembourg in the second half of the year. In the meantime, the United States has waged an intense behind-the-scenes battle to dissuade the EU from lifting the ban. The White House has warned Britain that it would not tolerate the prospect of European military technology being used to threaten U.S. soldiers in their missions in the Far East. Washington remains unconvinced that Beijing has made enough progress on human rights issues and cites widespread imprisonment and torture of political and religious dissidents. In a report released this month, Human Rights Watch said that despite some progress in recent years China remains a ''highly repressive state''. More significantly, Washington is worried about the possibility of China fulfilling its potential to become a military superpower by purchasing state-of-the-art equipment and technology, which could be used in its forceful campaign to reunify Taiwan with the mainland. Because of Beijing's hostility with Taipei, the Taiwan Strait remains one of the world's flashpoints. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States is obliged to defend the island if China attacks it. In March, China's legislators are going to debate a new ''anti-secession law'' that would legitimise the use of military force against the democratically ruled island. Beijing claims the arms embargo imposed after the 1989 military crackdown is anachronistic and does not tally with the blossoming relations between China and the European Union. Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan dismissed concerns that dropping the embargo would lead to sharp increase in arms purchases by China. ''Lifting the embargo will certainly not lead to massive imports of weapons because China adheres to a defensive principle in national defence,'' Kong told a regular press briefing in Beijing Thursday. However, data released last month indicated the European Union almost doubled its arms sales to China between 2002 and 2003. According to information in the EU's official journal in December, France granted 171 million euros (221 million U.S. dollars) of licenses for arms sales to China in 2003, Italy 127 million euros (164 million U.S. dollars) and Britain 112 million euros (145 million U.S. dollars) -figures well above the previous year's tallies. In statements made before his trip to China, Straw tried to allay fears by announcing that Britain will be pushing for a revised EU code of conduct on arms exports coupled with a set of measures to exchange information on weapons sales. This, he said, would mean that arms controls on China would remain as tight as it was under the embargo. ''The replacement regime would be stronger than the embargo because it has the force of law and we are going to strengthen it by ensuring that there is transparency among EU partners ... not just on denials but also approvals,'' Straw was quoted as saying last week. But the United States is deeply sceptical of such assurances. Earlier this month the Bush administration imposed penalties against some of China's largest companies for aiding Iran's efforts to improve its ballistic missiles. U.S. officials found Chinese companies guilty despite repeated vows by Beijing to curb its sales of missile technology. The U.S. is not the only country with strategic concerns about the lifting of the embargo. Japan, too, is nervous. Before Straw arrived in Beijing, his counterpart in Tokyo, Nobutaka Machimira, told him Japan was firmly opposed to the controversial move. Apart from watching nervously Beijing's military ambitions, Tokyo is worried that a confrontation between the United States and China over Taiwan would certainly draw Japan into the conflict.

Asia Times 21 Jan 2005 atimes.com Political hero Zhao's 'burial' of disgrace By Feng Liang HONG KONG - The death of a political figure, particularly an acknowledged hero, often provides propagandists enormous opportunities. Not so in the case of disgraced former premier and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Zhao Ziyang, who had initiated political and economic reforms - but supported the pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square - and was revered by many. Because of Tiananmen he was taboo in life and remains so in death. In his home country his passing has been accorded but a few lines, empty words. The propaganda authorities in strict control of domestic news media in China were all a-dither when Zhao, the ousted CCP chief who was venerated by a great number of democratic sympathizers and mavericks, breathed his last in Beijing on Monday at age 85. He was ousted, reviled and made a non-person under house arrest because of his support for the peaceful Tiananmen pro-democracy protesters, later labeled "counterrevolutionary rioters". Hundreds, or maybe thousands, were killed or jailed in the bloody crackdown against them on June 4, 1989. After Zhao's death, several key dissidents were detained and prevented from paying tribute to him at his residence, where he had been under house arrest since the Tiananmen protests. Further, Chinese police have accelerated patrols in Tiananmen Square to prevent any gatherings of dissidents. However, it is unlikely the death of Zhao will trigger another massive movement like the Tiananmen protests. Many young people are not old enough to remember the demonstrations and killings shown on global television; many believe that China's current leader, Hu Jintao, is a mild reformer who "puts people first", and hence they are unlikely to create urban disturbances in a China that is advancing at a breakneck pace. Dreading that the death of Him Who Should Not Be Reported might be a political bombshell, and even trigger a backlash among democrats, Beijing is playing down the mournful news. Zhao was CCP general secretary and the nation's supreme leader until he was censured and then deposed when he voiced support for the mass student-led democracy demonstration on June 4, 1989, and deplored the bloody military suppression, infamously known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The decision to open fire on peaceful protesters was made by the Communist Party Central Caucus, including commander-in-chief Deng Xiaoping. During the peaceful protest parade, thousands of unarmed people, largely college students, rallied in Tiananmen Square before the central government buildings and cried out for democracy and freedom and against official corruption. Ever since, Zhao Ziyang had been divested of all power and condemned to house arrest. Two hours after his death, the official Xinhua News Agency broke the news tersely on its website: "Zhao suffered a variety of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. His health condition kept going downhill in spite of long-term hospitalization. He died after rescue efforts failed." Chinese Central Television (CCTV), the state-sponsored national channel network, even skipped all mention in its routine 7pm news program on Monday. In the couple of days that followed, a few regional news media in southern China's Guangdong province reprinted the barest mention from Xinhua but not in a prominent position in the newspapers. While some CCTV anchors wore black, as if to pay symbolic condolences to the departed leader, ot