new internationalist
KENYA The British Government is to be sued
by former Mau Mau guerillas who fought a ten-year campaign against colonial
rule. They have recorded thousands of human-rights crimes perpetrated by colonial
authorities during the uprising in the 1950s.
KOSOVO
Moral imperatives and double standards
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There is, of course, a positive way to look at the NATO bombing
campaign in Kosovo and Yugoslavia which began in March and continued
through to June. This is that it showed the West standing up for
an oppressed minority (a Muslim minority at that) against the noxious
weapon of ‘ethnic cleansing’ which President Slobodan
Milosevic had deployed to such terrible effect in Bosnia and was
ruthlessly employing in Kosovo.
Unfortunately the negative ways to look at it continue to multiply
with every passing day:
- Before the bombing campaign began the victimization and murder
of Albanians in Kosovo was terrible but on a relatively small
scale. The tidal wave of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in all its
horror – an estimated 10,000 killed and 200,000 forced to
flee as refugees – was only unleashed by Serb forces when
the NATO bombardment began and they felt they had nothing to lose.
- The war was presented by the West as a moral imperative. Yet
in the five months since the bombing campaign ended, while NATO-led
K-For troops have been ‘keeping the peace’ in Kosovo,
the Albanians have been attacking those Serbs who remain with
relative impunity. Local Serb churches and human-rights groups
report that over 300 Serbs have been murdered and 450 ‘kidnapped’
– not far short of the number of Albanians killed in the
five months before the bombardment. The tally of murders rises
every day. Of the 40,000 Serbs who once lived in Pristina only
400 are now left. None of these killings are being investigated
by the International War Crimes Tribunal in Pristina which is
not mandated to look at any murders which have taken place since
the war.
- NATO planes used depleted-uranium shells with the expressed
intention of attacking Serbian tanks. In the event they managed
to destroy only 13 tanks in the entire bombardment – and
NATO now admits it used depleted-uranium munitions against defence
installations and not just against tanks. It also admits that
depleted uranium has contaminated the soil and has urged aid workers
to stay 50 metres away, despite having previously claimed there
was no threat to the Kosovar population.
- As the year comes to an end the Chechen people are being bombed
into submission by the Russians, who admit to having been inspired
by the example of the NATO campaign in Kosovo (which they deplored).
Aerial bombardment allows for maximum destruction with the minimum
risk to the lives of the attacking troops – the low ‘body-bag
count’ is as much of a help to the Russians in preserving
public support as it was to Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. But it
also, of course, makes for the maximum impact on civilians.
The shock waves of the Kosovo War in 1999 will continue to be felt
for many years. But the moral lessons to be drawn from it are rather
murkier and more uncomfortable than Western leaders like to pretend.
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PANAMA Mireya Moscoso is elected as Panama’s
first female President. Panama takes control of the Canal later this year, ending
the US military presence.
ISRAEL Labour’s Ehud Barak wins a landslide
victory in the elections. He promises to nego-tiate peace with the Palestinians,
renew peace talks with Syria and pull Israeli occupation forces out of south
Lebanon within a year.
KUWAIT Following orders from the emir, the
Government drafts a law granting women the right to vote and to stand for public
office – but it will need Parliament’s approval.
BURMA Burma’s oppressive military junta
tightens its grip on power by stepping up the detention and torture of members
of the opposition National League for Democracy.
WORLD The World Health Organization reports
that AIDS has become the fourth leading cause of death in the world; in Africa,
it is the number-one cause.
INDIA / PAKISTAN Fighting breaks out in the
Indian-controlled zone of Kashmir as hundreds of Muslim militants who have seized
high ground near Kargil take on the Indian army. The world fears all-out war
between two unofficial nuclear powers as India alleges the militants have Pakistani
troops alongside them.
KENYA An infestation of army worms threatens
East Africa’s food supply as 30,000 acres of crops and 70,000 acres of
pasture are destroyed by the plague.
NIGERIA Commonwealth leaders lift the three-and-a-half
year suspension on Nigeria’s membership as the interim military government
hands over power.
BHUTAN The Government lifts its ban on television
and satellite dishes and launches its own internet server.
SYRIA / JORDAN Syria offers to pump 70,000
cubic metres of water into Jordan’s Yarmouk river, reducing its drought
as well as cementing diplomatic ties between the two countries.
HAITI / UNITED STATES The 50,000 Haitians
who fled to the US from the political troubles of the early 1990s are given
nine months to apply for permanent US residency.
CHINA NATO’s bombing of the Chinese
embassy in Belgrade, in which 3 die and 20 are injured, provokes popular outrage
in China. Anti-American feeling flares into violent attacks on the British and
US embassies in Beijing.
BANGLADESH Around 200 drown in a ferry disaster
on the Meghna River just 20 kilometres downstream from the site of the 1997
accident in which 600 drowned.
PERU The health minister announces that 300,000
women have been sterilized in the last five years in an attempt to reduce poverty
by cutting the number of children in poor families. Women’s groups claim
many undergo sterilization unwittingly.
