Another world is possible / CHRONICLE 2001

.WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON THE MAJORITY WORLD

JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC
Click a month above to read an alternative view of the key events of that month.

ARGENTINA Alfredo Astiz, a former naval captain known as the ‘Blond Angel of Death’, is arrested as the Italian Government launches an attempt to extradite him for the murder of three of its citizens during the ‘Dirty War’ of the 1970s.

Former president Carlos Menem is indicted and ordered to stand trial by a judge investigating illegal arms sales to Croatia and Ecuador.

JAPAN Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi endorses the Kyoto agreement on climate change. To make it legally binding the protocol requires ratification by countries producing at least 55 per cent of the world’s emissions, making Japanese support essential following the rejection of the agreement by the US.

ITALY Prosecutors demand the trial of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for falsifications – valued at $722 million – to the accounts of his Fininvest Group. Three right-wing extremists are sentenced in Milan to life imprisonment for the 1969 bombing of a bank in Piazza Fontana, which killed 16 and injured 88.

PERU Former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos is moved to the high-security prison at the Callao naval base to face 52 charges, including masterminding torture and death-squad killings, money laundering and arms and drugs trafficking.

TURKEY The British Government announces the withdrawal of its support for the controversial Ilisu dam after an official report finds that the project fails to meet international standards.

CHILE The trial of former dictator General Augusto Pinochet is suspended after a court ruling that the 85-year-old is mentally unfit for trial. Investigating magistrate Juan Guzmán draws up a list of questions for Henry Kissinger about his part in the 1973 killing of journalist Charles Horman.

Mardin Adler / Panos Pictures

US Amnesty International accuses the leading gun-producing nations such as the US, China and Russia of attempting to undermine the first UN conference aimed at controlling small-arms distribution.

CROATIA Political turmoil mounts as four ministers resign in protest at the Government’s decision to co-operate with the Hague war-crimes tribunal, arguing that the extradition of army officers for trial would destabilize the country.

CHINA The Government admits that 14 women members of the banned Falun Gong sect died in a labour camp in June, but denies that they were tortured to death, claiming they committed suicide by hanging themselves from bunk beds.

NEPAL Maoist rebels shoot dead 41 police and vow to continue the ‘popular revolt’ against the ‘unpatriotic and repressive’ Prime Minister, Girija Prasad Koirala. The uprising has so far cost at least 1,750 lives.

INDIA A ‘Vision 2020’ development scheme for the southern state of Andhra Pradesh comes under widespread attack after it emerges that it would force 20 million of the world’s poorest people off their land to make way for industrial agriculture and GM crops.

KASHMIR After three days of talks, military dictator General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India fail to come to an agreement over the Kashmir crisis.

CHINA/RUSSIA President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin sign a ‘Good Neighbourly Treaty of Friendship’ comes at a time when both countries are increasingly concerned about Washington’s plans for missile defence.

TURKEY The death-toll in a hunger strike against new isolation cells in prisons reaches 29.

BANGLADESH Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina hands over power to former chief justice Ltifur Rahman, to head a caretaker government until general elections in October.

INDONESIA Legislators vote unanimously to replace President Abdurrahman Wahid with his deputy, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

ITALY Carlo Giuliani is shot dead by police and 500 others are injured in demonstrations by more than 100,000 people from around the world at the G7 Summit in Genoa. Spurred on by Italian Prime Minister Sivlio Berlusconi, police break into the headquarters of the Genoa Social Forum; 35 people are hospitalized as a result. There are accusations of assault on arrested civilians in police stations where fascist propaganda is prominently displayed.

PORTUGAL The use of all previously banned narcotics, from cannabis to crack cocaine, is decriminalized, pushing back the frontiers of European drug liberalization.

COLOMBIA A Miami court hears allegations that Coca-Cola uses right-wing death squads to terrorize workers and prevent the organization of unions in its Colombian bottling plants. The US union United Steelworkers is suing the company on behalf of the Colombian union Sinaltrainal.