More blood will be shed if the Afghan Defence Ministry forces that routed a local warlord from the central province of Wardak do not pull back, the brother of the defeated commander said Friday in Paris. Paris is a good place to assess the military situation from. You get a better picture the further you are from the fighting.
Amin Wardak, who lives in the French capital, said his brother Ghulam Rohani Nangialai was still in the region waiting for the response of a mediation team sent by Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai from the capital Kabul. In a dramatic turn-around for the interim government, they beat him up, and then gave him a stern talking-to. This is a new thing, and a good sign.
"There is no doubt that there will be resistance. It is everybody's right to defend themselves," the Paris-based Wardak, who is called after his native province, told AFP. "Yeah. An' they ain't nobody tells me what to do, suckah!"
Nangialai's supporters took control of Wardak region, on the main southwestern highway from the capital to the Pakistani border, after the Taliban regime was driven out of Kabul last November. According to defence ministry sources in Kabul, government troops this week killed 20 fighters and captured most of Nangialai's weaponry. They accuse him of backing the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Our suspicion is that he supports whomever he thinks might advance his interests, or maybe depending on his mood.
Wardak said however that his brother was an elected governor of the central province, chosen by the people after the Taliban's flight to fill the vacuum. Translated, that means he was the one with the most guns at the time.
"There has been no threat from our province to the regime in Kabul; we have supported Karzai's government," he said, while acknowledging that his brother was running his fiefdom without any link to the central authority. If you're gonna be a feudal potentate, you've got to send tribute. That's in the rulebook somewhere.
He accused the government troops of harrassing the locals and looting their property. Y'mean those damned government troops got there first? Damn, I hate when that happens.
Wardak said it was now quiet in the strategic region. "Fahim wants all the power for his party and its allies," he said, referring to the interim Afghan defence minister. Ummm... He's part of the central government. Normally, central governments expect to extend at least some control over the pieces of the country.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Terrorists posing as journalists could try to assassinate former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah, a British military spokesman warned following intelligence reports that al-Qaeda extremists were plotting to kill the ex-monarch. "There has been intelligence that an assassination squad posing as media could threaten the king," Lieutenant Colonel Paul Harradine told a press briefing at this base north of Kabul. That's the way they finally got Masood.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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The chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Maulana Fazlur Rehman termed the referendum totally against the Constitution because all the legal circles of the country and political parties had rejected it. He said proper procedure was laid in the Constitution for electing the president, whereas the referendum would pave the way for Gen Musharraf for a five-year term. The JUI chief said that the JUI along with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal had taken a principled stand and were opposing the referendum in the national interest and would boycott the referendum. The fact that they're boycotting the referendum means they don't think they have the "no" votes.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Pakistan has jailed the leader of a banned pro-Taliban militant group and 29 colleagues for seven years for sending fighters to Afghanistan. Sufi Mohammad, leader of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) was sentenced last month after a trial held in jail in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) town of Dera Ismail Khan. A TNSM worker told Reuters that Mohammad and his colleagues planned to appeal. The TNSM, one of several militant organizations banned by the government in January, sent thousands of fighters from the NWFP, mostly ethnic Pashtun like the Taliban. Sufi was a struttin', beturbanned clone of Qazi, making the usual bloodcurdling threats against the government and sending thousands of jihadis off to fight the infidels. One fellow said 12,000 of them had been captured at Konduz, Kandahar and Kabul - which is probably Pashtun for "a whole bunch," since that's more than are estimated to have gone. Imagine everyone's surprise when Sufi wasn't one of them. He was caught trying to sneak back into Pakland wearing a false nose and glasses and jugged. That was probably as well for him, since the marksrubes faithful who donated their sons and heirs ended up having to donate ransom to get them sprung, too.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Saudi Arabiaâs Prince Nawaf, the countryâs intelligence chief, has been discharged from the American University Medical center, where he had undergone a brain operation, AUMCâs administration said. Nawaf, who is in his 70s, was the deputy leader of the Saudi delegation to the Arab summit held here last month, when he suffered a brain hemorrhage and was rushed to AUMC. The hospital said Nawaf is expected to spend a few days recuperating in Beirut. Nawaf, a brother of King Fahd, was appointed intelligence chief last September. Â Popped a vein, did he? That sometimes happens at Arab summits.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Russia escaped condemnation by the UN's top human rights body, as a resolution highlighting violations in Chechnya was narrowly defeated. The 53-member UN Human Rights Commission rejected the resolution, presented by the European Union, by just one vote, with 16 member-countries voting against, 15 in favour and 22 abstaining.
Russia rejected the draft resolution ahead of voting, calling it "politically motivated" and painting a "false picture". It justified its military operations in Chechnya in the name of the international fight against terrorism. Russia also received the backing of China and India who stressed territorial integrity, non-interference and the fight against terror. The Euros and the UNHRC are on a roll. They've got the US cheezed at them, and now they're getting the Russers, the Indos, and the Heathen Chinee ticked. I wonder if there's a State Department mastermind capable of turning this into an alignment? By my count, that's approximately .80 + .50 + .75 superpowers, for a grand total of 2.05 superpowers whose noses they've tweaked or potentially tweaked, plus the US and Israel. If we're gonna play "my gang's tougher than your gang," I'd rather have all or most of them on my side than the Frenchies and the Swedes and the Syrians.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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The European Union expressed its "profound distress over the situation" in Jenin and demanded an impartial international probe into the recent events in the ruined Palestinian refugee camp. "The EU presidency believes it is absolutely necessary to shed light on the facts and asks that an international and impartial inquiry looks into what has happened in the Jenin refugee camp," said a statement from Spain, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency. While no official investigation has begun, on Thursday, after touring the ruins of the devastated camp, UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen spoke of the situation in Jenin as "morally repugnant" and unlike anything ever seen before, even in war zones and earthquakes. I love that terminology. I get "distressed" when I have to go to the bathroom really, really bad and there's no place available. Larsen's wrinkling his nose and waving the odor away and saying this particular war zone is worse than any other war zone.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Five EU countries -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany and Spain -- called for joint action to stem a growing wave of anti-Jewish attacks over past weeks that has been linked to the violence in the Middle East. "It seems especially important to us, as well as for Europe generally, for common measures to be taken to ensure a zone of freedom, security and justice, and that a joint action plan be established," the five countries said in a statement, according to a copy issued by the French government. "Having witnessed specifically targeted acts in our territories in recent weeks that violate principles of freedom, democracy and human rights, we declare our joint desire to reinforce in our societies vigilance and to forcefully fight against all forms of discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism and violence which uses the pretext of the conflicts and violence tearing apart the people of the Middle East," the statement, in French, said. The statement was written by the five countries' interior ministers. Wonder if they actually intend to do something, or if this is the usual nose-wrinkling and deploring? A round-up and jugging of local mullahs inciting to violence might be a good place to start, but that probably won't happen, so nothing else will. (We've found the "root causes" of violence, y'see?)
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Venezuela's air force chief, appointed this week after a failed military coup, was killed with nine colleagues when their helicopter crashed in bad weather, in a fresh blow to the armed forces. Chavez reshuffled his armed forces this week, promoting loyalists like Acevedo while prosecuting others who took part in the military rebellion against him. Really. It was bad weather. I believe them. Don't you?
Posted by: Murphy the Irishman ||
04/20/2002 ||
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The PLO is still homeless, a week after The Jerusalem Post reported it had been evicted from its office in Washington. Several management companies have rejected its bid for new space. Sometimes that happens when you don't pay your rent on time. Eventually Ramsey Clark will probably give them his basement.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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The IDF pulled out of Jenin and its adjoining refugee camp late Thursday night, taking up positions on the outskirts of both. Troops are also to withdraw from Nablus in the next few days - before Sunday, according to Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who said Operation Defensive Shield has achieved most its potential. Withdrawals from the Ramallah area and Bethlehem are also possible.
Troops leaving the cities they occupied in the operation to rout out Palestinian terrorists and destroy their infrastructure will set up new positions on the outskirts of those cities and impose a tight blockade around them. Anticipating future fighting, Ben-Eliezer said he prefers to call the withdrawal a âredeployment. "The Palestinians have not responded to the demands of US Secretary of State Colin Powell to halt the terrorism and, in practice, they are not prepared to enter into the Tenet and Mitchell plans," he said. "We are asking ourselves what will be afterward... therefore I said 'redeployment' and not 'withdrawal.'"
In fact, the IDF has begun to deliver emergency call-up orders to the more than 5,000 reservists it plans to enlist this coming week for the continuation of Operation Defensive Shield. Toldja so. You heard it here first. Well, maybe you read it here first.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Some 5,000 protesters at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp on Friday staged a sit-in calling for the boycott of US products, as Muslim preachers backed the move in their sermons. Demonstrators at the Sidon-area camp held posters with pictures of US products and banners reading: "Our brothers are killed with our money," and "Donât buy your happiness with the blood of your brothers." Yup. Sounds like a "telling blow against American Imperialism," as the Chinese used to describe such things...
Protesters also set fire to a few token US products, including cans and bottles of Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola, cartons of cigarettes, boxes of detergents, and cans of Pringles chips. Oh, Cheeze. Now they're gonna be overrun by antiglobos, oozing solidarity...
The sermons of Muslim preachers in Sidon and the Ain al-Hilweh and Mieh Mieh camps called for a total boycott until the US economy is ruined. Volunteers distributed the printed version of a fatwa, or religious edict, issued by Muslim scholar Youssef Qardawi in the streets and shops outside mosques. Ouch! My economy! It's ruined because Lebanese won't buy any more Pringles!
According to the fatwa, "every riyal, dirham or penny with which we buy their products turns into a bullet in the chests of our brothers and sons in Palestine." Yeah? Well, in return we're gonna boycott Lebanese exports, like... ummmm... well...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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These tactics, combined with the resilience of the Palestinian people Â- Arafatâs greatest asset -Â have enabled him to persevere. However, unfortunately for him, his people and the whole region, he has no strategy behind these tactics. We suspected as much. Yasser's spinning his wheels furiously, expending money and blood, and he has no idea what he's going to do next...
The price now, as in Beirut two decades ago, is very high. But, âthe Palestinians have no other choiceâ Â in the words of poet Mahmoud Darwish Â- but to stand fast. âIn the face of the political genocide being offered by the American-funded Israeli occupation of their land, they offer their steadfast resistance no matter what the cost,â Darwish wrote. âBacks against the wall, their eyes fixed upon hope, they show strength of spirit for which there can be no easy explanation.â Sooner or later, the world will come to their rescue. That's what they're counting on. Personally, I would't count real heavily on the Euros, but maybe they know something I don't...
Sharon may not emerge on top when he finally announces the end of Operation Rampart. His ultimate undoing may be the horrific accounts of atrocities committed by his forces, especially in the Jenin refugee camp. These, together with his role in the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, will continue to hound Sharon until he finally faces the recently instituted International Criminal Court. There are already those pushing for just that very thing. It's doubtful the Euros can bring it about, and the process of trying to makes the International Criminal Court look just like what it wasn't supposed to be: a political bludgeon. And putting it down to personalities isn't going to help. If Sharon drops dead today, Netanyahu's PM tomorrow.
The full picture of what happened in Jenin has yet to emerge. Reports speak of hundreds killed and thousands wounded, of the Israeli Army barring medics and ambulances from evacuating the injured and burying the dead. Even Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres reportedly fretted about the likely international reaction once the world learns the details of what he privately described as a âmassacreâ in Jenin... They're hoping against hope that there's more there than just propaganda. Anything that is there, they'll try and blow up (yeah, bad choice of words!) into something more than it is, but there are already motions toward an "impartial inquiry." I dunno who that'll involve - the Chinese, or Fiji Islanders, maybe.
Even before launching Operation Rampart, Sharon had already made significant progress in his ânonmilitaryâ campaign against the PA. Some of his achievements were illustrated in a recent World Bank report assessing the economic impact of the first 15 months of the Palestinian intifada. Yup. Palestinian inability to make their ministate work is Israel's fault...
The report showed that the Palestinian economy was already in severe recession. Per capita real income declined by 12 percent in 2000 and by a further 19 percent in 2001. An estimated 40-50 percent of Palestinians were living below the poverty line ($2 per person per day), and average per capita real income was 30 percent down on 1994 levels. That has nothing to do with the fact that their main industry is making bombs, and their main employer is Hamas.
The report clearly identifies âthe proximate causes of the Palestinian economic crisisâ as Israelâs closure of the Palestinian territories and the drastic reduction of the number of Palestinians allowed to work in Israel Â- leading to the loss of over 130,000 jobs since September 2000. "Why, sure we'll give you jobs. We don't mind if you explode without warning." Perhaps if there was someplace to work within Palestinian territory doing something other than polishing bullets they wouldn't be dependant on being employed by the Israelis.
Israeli military checkpoints on all main and most secondary roads, combined with the periodic prohibition of all traffic from and within the territories, raised the occupationâs economic toll by hugely restricting the flow of goods and people... That's because Palestinians keep exploding. What're they supposed to do? Not notice?
The PA coffers were also empty long before Sharonâs military blitz began on March 28. Tax revenues had dwindled to one-fifth of previous levels, not least because two-thirds of these were collected by Israel on the PAâs behalf and have been withheld since December 2000. Surely they could manage to come up with their own tax collectors? Seems like if you're going to run a ministate that'd be one of the first things you'd do. And if Israel is The Enemy, why the hell would you rely on them to collect your taxes for you, when you know that they know you're going to send the money to Iran to buy heavy weapons to use against them? Is it just me, or is this not making any sense?
The PAâs financial woes were compounded by the rising cost of providing basic services to a population, some 30 percent of whom are unemployed. Alleged corruption within the PA and the absence of accountability has not helped improve the situation... If you build a Fried Chicken joint to give the rubes jobs they're qualified for, some other rubes will blow it up. Because of the alleged spectacular corruption among Yasser's cronies and the extortion rings run by the gunnies, the joint won't make a profit because of the continuous rake-offs. But that's not the Palestinians' fault; it's those damned... Fiji Islanders? Eskimos? No! It's the Jews, dammit!
Arab countries must go beyond the usual rhetoric of support and solidarity  and definitely beyond the limited financial aid they provide, a monthly $45 million to cover the PAâs payroll. The Arab states must give serious consideration to various other options, including the imposition of a 5-10 percent surcharge on Arab oil exports, or a similar levy on arms imports. That could raise between $8 billion-$15 billion annually and make a major contribution to the enormous task of rebuilding the Palestinian infrastructure destroyed during the past 18 months of Sharonâs merciless war of attrition. In other words, put the ministate on welfare. Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Group of Seven policymakers are to release a new list of suspected terrorism financiers after a meeting. The list, a US initiative, was compiled Saturday before the gathering of finance ministers and central governors from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. Following publication of the list of suspected individuals and organizations, the authorities would act immediately to freeze their assets. Wonder how many names on the list are Saudis? In fact, I wonder if any names on the list aren't Saudis.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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A car bomb exploded near the Basque city of Bilbao in northwestern Spain after tip-offs sent on behalf of armed Basque separatist group ETA, police said. They were not immediately able to confirm media reports that one person had to be treated for shock as a result of the blast in Getxo, which damaged nearby houses and broke windows. The police said the explosion happened in the Neguri district of Getxo at around 1 pm (1200 GMT). Neguri is a residential area popular with the Basque bourgeoisie, which has been the target of several ETA attacks over the last two years. Telephone calls made in ETA's name were received by nationalist Basque daily newspaper Gara and road rescue service association DYA about 40 minutes before the blast, warning them of the whereabouts of a booby trapped Ford Fiesta. No doubt the UNHRC would agree that the ETA has every right to set off such bombs, since they regard themselves as being engaged in "armed struggle" rather than being terrorists. Perhaps they could pass a resolution of support?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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Seven Pakistanis suspected of being Al Qaeda men were rounded up in a series of early-morning raids in Paris by the French anti-terrorist police who have been investigating the activities of the accused shoe-bomber Richard Reid. The Frenchies export wine, the Paks export snuffies. Ain't balance of trade grand?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/20/2002 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
