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In Burma, Gaza, Somalia: The Sky Is Falling
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by Polly Mann, W A M M
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“The sky is falling, the sky is falling,” Chicken Little warns the other barnyard animals in the nursery rhyme. In hundreds of places all over the planet, the sky is figuratively falling as people struggle for justice. The following are a few such places:
Burma
Repressive police action: At present, the Nobel peace prize winner and unofficial spokesperson for the Burmese people, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been removed from house detention and taken to jail as thousands of Burmese protesters have met with cruel police repression. Indicative of the tremendous government repression of the past two decades is the size of the Burmese army—between 400,000 to 500,000, in this country of 50 million which is rich in natural resources, including huge forests of teak, oil, gas, copper, and other minerals. Despite international sanctions, Burma does trade with China, India, and Russia. In an Internet article Jack de Groot, CEO of Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, states that China could hold the key to negotiations with Burma. (www.uscampaignforburma.org)
Gaza
A continuing crisis: Since the election last June of Hamas, the Palestinian economy has been almost destroyed, turning 1.4 million residents into “charity cases,” according to a recent report issued by the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement. The director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, on his return from Gaza, said that the humanitarian situation there was particularly “critical,” and that “many facilities, diagnostic machines and other equipment are either out of order or in bad condition.” Seventy-five percent of Gaza’s factories are closed; eighty-five percent of the population is dependent on food aid from international organizations; and the export of agricultural products to Israel, the West Bank, and other countries has been paralyzed. The most recent disaster has been the closing of the Rafah border, the sole crossing point between Egypt and Gaza. This seals the last remaining means of entering or exiting Gaza, which shares a nine-mile border with Egypt. (www.ifamericansknew.org;www.zope.gush-shalom.org; www.electronicintifada.net)
Somalia
Aggression against it by Eritrea & Ethiopia: Because there is a sizable Somali population in Minnesota, aggression against that African nation has become of interest. “The Horn is on fire and is threatening to explode,” warned Saman Zarifi, an analyst with Human Rights Watch. “The Ethiopian government’s military forces have systematically committed atrocities and violated the basic laws of war,” he added, describing Ethiopia as “a key US ally and recipient of seemingly unquestioning US military, political and financial support.” Human Rights Watch has documented “massive crimes by the Ethiopian army” in the Ogaden, Mr Zarifi said.
Human Rights Watch has also accused Ethiopian forces of committing war crimes in neighboring Somalia. Mr. Zarifi further suggested that the Bush administration’s alignment with Mr. Meles “threatens to make the United States complicit in continuing laws of war violations by the Ethiopian government.”
Médecins Sans Frontières, the latest aid agency to sound the alarm, accused the Ethiopian government of mounting a blockade, depriving the region of medicine while the army finishes an offensive against separatists that it started in July. Meanwhile, U.S. policy has stifled human rights in Ethiopia, displaced the Islamist movement in Somalia, and brought the warlords back to Mogadishu. The people of Somalia deserve better. (http://allafrica.com/stories/ 200710090622.html) |
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© 2007 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete November 2007 Index - click here
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