Africa

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Tue Mar 30, 2021 1:38 pm

Libya: A Decade Later
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MARCH 29, 2021
Mauricio Montes

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Benghazi, February 2021

On March 26, a commission of European foreign ministers traveled to Libya to support the establishment of “a new government” in that country. This would be an initiative made by the European Union to try to repair the “great mistake” of the invasion of Libya, perpetrated by NATO a decade ago.

The objective would be to try to propose a “consensus government through free elections”. A very complicated scenario in a country devastated by the bombs of the United States and its European allies, which transformed a prosperous nation into a fragmented territory under the control of hundreds of militias and a Libyan National Army, led by General Khalifa Haftar.

Ten years after one of the greatest crimes promoted by the White House and the warmongering elite of the European Union, it is worth reviewing the facts that justified such invasion and try to extract the hard lessons it leaves us.

The fake bombing that justified the war

The destruction of Libya began on March 19, 2011, with the attack of the Rafale fighters of the French Air Force, who bombed Tripoli, capital of the then Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, with the consent of the United Nations Resolution 1973 that authorized NATO to militarily attack and overthrow the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

U.S. and British naval forces began launching more than 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles that same night. Thus, military forces from Belgium, Canada, Qatar, Denmark, Spain, the United States, France, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom participated in the same military intervention, although for each country it had a different name. The United States named it Operation Odyssey Dawn.



A team from the Latin American TV channel Telesur, present in Tripoli, refuted the information that made the front pages of the newspapers and the announcements of the most important TV channels in the world about an attack on the civilian population, which gave justification and legality to the invasion.

Shortly afterwards, the Russian government also verified that there had been no military activity in Libyan airspace against the civilian population. However, it was too late, the invasion had been consummated.

The dawn of the Arab Spring

The year 2011 began with large protests in Tunisia and Egypt, where thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of the main cities of these countries, while the Western press reported that freedom was about to come to the Arab world. This movement was called the Arab Spring and occurred in the countries bordering Libya. Ben Ali, first in Tunisia, and Hosni Mubarak, in Egypt, would be replaced by new leaders equally compliant with Washington’s interests in the region.

Venezuelan journalist Richard Ezequiel Peñalver, an international analyst, noted that both leaders fell after decades in power and that this characteristic, associated with dictatorial regimes, would soon be applied to Libyan leader Gaddafi.
“A kind of pincer was applied to Libya, with examples on both sides of the border. In the case of Egypt and the case of Tunisia, with supposed overthrows of tyrannies leading to democratic movements. Then the protests in Libya started in that wave, with a major campaign in social networks, a very well orchestrated psychological campaign, pro-imperialist campaign,” he said.
On February 17, 2011, protests broke out in Benghazi, dubbed the Day of Rage.

“They captured government and military sectors, Benghazi was used as a beachhead, liberated territory, something they tried to do in Venezuela on several occasions, with the Altamira square in Caracas, in 2002, they succeeded there”, he said.

He also stated that “in the midst of the alleged protests, they managed to land officials from the United States, Europe, and mercenaries began to enter through different places along the border, via Egypt, to the south also through Tunisia, even by sea”.
Peñalver described the bombing of Tripoli by the Libyan military air force, which was never carried out, as a false positive, the climax of the media campaign against Gaddafi prior to the invasion.

“That manipulation campaign worked while it was spread by the media worldwide, tens of thousands of mercenaries entered and the plan for the destruction of Libya began, then the approval in the United Nations opened the door to NATO to bomb Libya, in coordination with the ground mercenary invasion”, he affirmed.
For his part, Spanish analyst José Egido explained that imperialist wars are preceded by a systematic campaign, in his words, of information intoxication to justify the war and deceive public opinion in their countries and the world. “The war against the Libyan revolution was no exception, there was a preparation for war.”

“Now what we have is the destruction of the State, the division of a country, the fragmentation of tribes, the destruction of sovereignty and the takeover of the country by imperialist, foreign, mercenary and terrorist forces, who have turned the country into a market for African slaves, a kingdom of mafias that traffic migrants to Europe and a plundering of the country’s oil resources, in the framework of a war between two foreign-oriented sides. It is the biggest disaster that an African country has had in the last 200 years, at least”, Egido exclaimed.

Peñalver stressed that the destruction of Libya was orchestrated as part of a larger plan.

“Libya should not be seen as an isolated case, that was in the framework of a political modification planning of the Middle East and North Africa, the case of the so-called Arab Spring that started at the end of 2010 in Egypt, then in Tunisia. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, practically in unison,” he said.

The African currency

The invasion of Libya was executed just after the African Union Summit, held on January 31, 2011, where the creation of the African Monetary Fund, a project sponsored by Gaddafi, was approved.

Some analysts point out that unifying Africa with a currency backed by Libyan gold was what cost the Libyan leader his life. Gaddafi’s leadership in Africa was remarkable and his plans to consolidate the continent as a world economic hub were well known. For Peñalver, the new currency was indeed a decisive factor for removing Gaddafi from the world political game.

According to Peñalver, it is important to remember the proposal:

“It is important to remember this, as well as the proposal of the currency backed by Libyan gold, the Africa and South American peoples summit, ASA summit, which was held twice, the first of them here in Venezuela, which established the possibility of a direct contact between Africa and South America”, Peñalver pointed out.

Muammar Gaddafi visited Latin America for the first time when he participated in the second ASA Summit, held in Margarita Island on September 28, 2009, where he met with the host of the event, former President Hugo Chávez.

Egido added the historical reasons that kept Gaddafi and the Libyan Revolution in the spotlight.

“Since September 11, 1969, the Al Fateh revolution followed an anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist line that aimed at building a revolutionary and peaceful Mediterranean Sea, a united Arab, anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist nation, and a united African continent, besides also having helped the revolutionary forces in Latin America. His close friendship with Comandante Chávez was not to the liking of the murderous imperialists either”, he highlighted.

Divide and conquer

Gaddafi as leader of the Green Revolution managed to unify the provinces that had been divided by centuries of influence of the Ottoman, Roman, Byzantine and Italian empires. Provinces, groups and tribes that were crushed by the invasions of the 19th and 20th centuries sponsored by Europe to keep this rich territory at the service of the Western powers.

With the death of Gaddafi, the unity agreement that gave rise to the Great Libyan Arab Jamahiriya was broken. José Egido emphasized that the strategy of dividing was to defeat an important pole of geopolitical power “The imperialists and their Islamo-fascist and Islamo-terrorist lackeys have contributed to strategically divide the Libyan people so that it would no longer be a revolutionary anti-imperialist pole of unity of the Arab world, of the Muslim world, of the African world, of the world of the revolutionary countries of the third world”, he said.

Gaddafi, captured, tortured and assassinated after the invasion, left a warning and prophecy that Libya would enter into an uncontrollable spiral of violence, as it has been until now. The Spanish analyst explained that in addition to the historical three provinces, tribes and groups, there are the terrorist organizations that traffic in people, natural and energy resources sold to the highest bidder, such as Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, the Muslim Brotherhood, in addition to the intervention of Western powers such as the United States and France and neighboring nations such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

“Qaddafi tried to follow in the footsteps of Nasser, unfortunately his projects of unity with other Arab states such as Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, did not work, and in the end he became isolated, but there is no doubt that he is one of the great anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist Arab leaders of the twentieth century, as is the Moroccan Muhammad Ibn Abd el Karim El Khattabi, as is the Algerian Houari Boumédiène, as is the Egyptian Gamal Abdel Nasser, as is the founder of the Syrian BAAZ party Michel Aflaq, as is the leader of the Syrian revolution Hafez Asad, as are the Iraqi Arab nationalists”.

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Libya and Venezuela, the same risk?

Venezuelan journalist Richard Ezequiel Peñalver considers that although the confrontation with the interests of Western powers keeps Venezuela, currently encircled by a blockade, at risk of attack, the context is different. “The Libyan case is framed within a project elaborated in advance, the change of the political face in the Middle East. Imperialism does not act in isolation”, he pointed out.

The United States had announced its progressive withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 and finally did so after making military incursions into Libyan territory.

“In the case of Venezuela, we could say that it is framed within a project that was executed in what for me was the death, the assassination, of Commander Hugo Chavez, which I do not think happened by chance after the death of Gaddafi, two leaders who tried to deepen the alliance between Libya and Venezuela, between Africa and South America mainly”, he indicated.

Richard Ezequiel Peñalver emphasized that transnational interests continue to make a dent in Venezuela’s relationship with Colombia and Guyana, just as they tried to do with Libya; nevertheless, the raising of parallel governments to divide the Bolivarian nation has not worked, just as the region gradually turns to the Latin American right.

“After the death of Chavez, we saw how Brazil fell, the coup against Dilma Rousseff, how they managed to control Ecuador for a time, with Moreno’s betrayal of Correa, the coup in Bolivia, Macri’s victory in Argentina, and now we see how, 4 years later, the wave returns, Alberto Fernandez won in Argentina, the coup d’état in Bolivia has been reversed with the victory of Arce and the return of Evo to his country, Lula Da Silva after being convicted of corruption was acquitted, the candidate of the alliance of Correa’s party in Ecuador won in the first round, we see how the situation is changing. So, to think that a plan similar to Libya’s could be executed in Venezuela, I see it as really complicated. Now, we should not rule out that other options are being considered by imperialism in Venezuela”.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2021/03/ ... ade-later/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Wed Mar 31, 2021 1:28 pm

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Why West is Changing Narrative on Zimbabwe & South Africa
March 29, 2021
By Rutendo Ben Matinyararire – Mar 12, 2021

Lately, there has been rising positive publicity on Zimbabwe and rising negativity on South Africa by international and white media.

Just recently, the World Bank released unemployment numbers that put Zimbabwe’s unemployment at 5.1 percent, as the bank for the first time categorised self-employed Zimbabweans as gainfully employed. Meanwhile, the bank put South Africa’s unemployment rate at among the highest in Africa, at a whopping 35 percent.

These are the same people that delegitimised Zimbabwe for 20 years by singing about its 90 percent unemployment, and now, all of a sudden, they have changed their negative outlook on the country to positive.

In the past week, both Bloomberg and News24 wrote about the massive economic turnaround taking place in Zimbabwe and the fact that Zimbabwe grew its exports and economy under Covid-19.

Yes, things have been changing in Zimbabwe, but they have been changing for seven years and these media houses never spoke about it, until now, and the question is why?

The reason is because the West is now turning their cross hairs on South Africa, in preparation for the sanctions and isolation that are coming the moment the ANC removes President Cyril Ramaphosa and embarks on Radical Economic Transformation (RET) and land expropriation without compensation.

By creating a good narrative on Zimbabwe, while vilifying South Africa, the West is warning the ANC not to trade places with ZANU PF by removing President Ramaphosa and embarking on their Nasrec resolutions of RET and land expropriation without compensation.

Notwithstanding, the fact is a move to remove President Ramaphosa, to facilitate RET and land expropriation without compensation, is now inevitable because the ANC and some of its leaders’ survival depends on this move.

The fact is, if the ANC does not remove President Ramaphosa and undertake RET and land expropriation, they are firstly going to lose a number of municipalities in this year’s municipal elections and that will culminate in a below majority in the national elections in 2024. This in turn will lead to an ANC coalition with the DA that will bolster the right-leaning members of the ANC and see RET supporters being isolated, prosecuted, jailed and losing their livelihoods, in a South Africa that will have returned to political and economic control by whites.

This means, RET and land reform are now a matter of life and death for ANC, many of its senior members and the black middle class, who risk losing their economic prospects and being sent to jail if the DA comes into power via coalition, to restore apartheid in a majority democracy.

With diamonds, gold and iron almost finished in South Africa, as attested to by Anglo-American selling its gold mines and ArcelorMittal downsizing operations. SA mining companies are ready to jump into Zimbabwe where vast amounts of gold, diamond, nickel, natural gas and lithium reserves are being dangled by the former Mimosa CEO, who is now Zimbabwe’s Mines Minister.

Now, as soon as RET and land expropriation begin, they will be accompanied by the West imposing sanctions and launching an aggressive negative campaign to delegitimise the ANC with the hope of isolating South Africa.

The sanctions will be immediate, sharp and painful, in a country where black people produce and control nothing. White farmers will stop producing staples eaten by blacks, Western companies that control South Africa’s GMO seeds will withhold their seeds and investment in agriculture will dry up.

The prices of food will go up; store shelves will go empty. Whites will produce for whites and blacks will scramble to feed themselves.

The black middle class will lose jobs as Western corporations divest, inflation will skyrocket, household debt defaults will grow out of proportion, tax collection will fall, grants will dwindle and the economy will crash. The black middle class will lose their homes, cars and luxuries, and the West hopes this will propel blacks to vote out the ANC or revolt.

Zimbabwe is the destination being eyed by South African capital because Zimbabwe is the only country in the region with the diversity of resources, endowment of skills, stability and hunger for investment to safeguard Western investment in the region.

We must also never forget that the same investment running from South Africa into Africa, is the same investment that raped and pillaged one of the richest countries in the world: South Africa, and left them with nothing today.

Featured image: President Ramaphosa

https://orinocotribune.com/why-west-is- ... on-zim-sa/

"It's the Principle of the thing..." Ask and Colonizing power. But if this goes as the above predicts it will be the last straw, the lost and broken promise of 30 years ago will be revisited and tough shit for the boers.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Sat Apr 10, 2021 2:12 pm

Rwanda and Zaire (DRC) 1990 to 1997, Where the US Blocked Real Humanitarian Intervention
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 07 Apr 2021

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Rwanda and Zaire (DRC) 1990 to 1997, Where the US Blocked Real Humanitarian Intervention

The real story of the Rwandan genocide begins in 1990, when exiled Tutsis from Uganda invaded northern Rwanda, unleashing a deadly campaign that uprooted a million Hutu peasants and set ethnic tensions on fire.

“Kagame’s RPF unleashed the genocide by creating conditions of violence before April 6, 1994, then shooting down the plane that carried the Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana.”

The cases of Bosnia and Rwanda are the most often cited in arguments for humanitarian war, Bosnia as a case in which the US and NATO intervened, Rwanda as a case in which they did not, but the truth of both histories is disputed. I spoke with Judi Rever, author of “In Praise of Blood: Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front ,” a book that upended the received history of the Rwandan war and genocide of 1990 to1994.

ANN GARRISON: Judi, the story that most people know, the one that's in the Wikipedia and more or less told in the movie Hotel Rwanda, is that, in April, 1994, Rwandan Hutus were suddenly consumed by mass psychosis and ethnic bloodlust, and killed half a million to a million Rwandan Tutsis. And that they were egged on by La Radio des Milles Collines in Kigali. Then they were saved by General Paul Kagame, who appeared—in the movie—out of nowhere.

And before going on, I think I should say that our friend Paul Rusesabagina, the real life hero of Hotel Rwanda, is now in prison in Rwanda because for one, he has a much more complex view of what actually happened than that portrayed in the movie.

So tell us what really happened.

JUDI REVER: Well, that story that you described more or less was forged in a climate of terror, violence, and propaganda. It was put together fairly quickly as the dust was settling in July, 1994. And in the months and years after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by General Paul Kagame seized power in Rwanda. My book tells the story of what began in 1990, when the RPF invaded from their base in Uganda, then waged a three and a half year scorched earth campaign against northern rural Rwanda, uprooting about a million Hutus in the north and sending them into displacement camps in terrible conditions, and killing many, many Hutus in the north. And that set the stage for the conflict to come.

And so my book is really a reexamination of the genocide. And by that, by the genocide, most people mean the Tutsi genocide, but I also document Hutu genocide. There are various estimates as to how many ethnic Tutsis were killed in Hutu controlled zones in Rwanda, from April to July. And some of those estimates range from 400,000 to a million people. And the West, when it's being generous, adds that there were something called “moderate Hutus,” Hutus who supposedly resisted the violence that other Hutus waged or who were opponents of the predominantly Hutu government led by President Juvenal Habyarimana.

That’s the official story, but my book tells a different story. And what my book actually says is that Kagame’s RPF unleashed the genocide by creating conditions of violence before April 6, 1994, then shooting down the plane that carried the Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart, and the assassination of those two presidents unleashed a wave of ethnic massacres. So the RPF is responsible for the terrible massacres that ensued as soon as the plane was shot down.

And then the RPF, according to the research I've done for many, many years, started to kill, in a systematic, organized way, Hutus from the north down to the east of the country in every zone that its troops seized. Kagame’s RPF therefore committed its own genocide against Hutus all the while that Tutsis were being targeted for mass extermination in Hutu controlled zones. The other thing I say in my book, and this is backed up by very sound evidence, some of which came from International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR ) confidential documents, is that Tutsi commandos, or rather RPF commandos, infiltrated Hutu militia, and themselves killed Tutsi civilians during the genocide. So the RPF fueled the genocide against Tutsis to justify seizing power. That's basically a summary of what my research reveals.

AG: That story is told in “How Paul Kagame Deliberately Sacrificed the Tutsis ” by former Rwandan diplomat Jean-Marie Ndagijimana.

JR: Yes, that book is an important contribution to understanding what really happened.

AG: Could you tell us about the two UN interventions, which would have been legal, according to international law, but were blocked by the US?

JR: There were two very important international operations or endeavors that were either underway or were proposed. One that was already on the ground was a UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda , before the plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was shot down, and that peacekeeping operation, which was estimated to be about 5,000 UN peacekeepers, could have actually stepped into gear and saved a lot of Rwandans and actually created zones of security for Rwandans once the massacres were unleashed. But the United States did its best to dismantle that UN peacekeeping mission and persuaded the UN to vote to bring those peacekeepers home while that violence was raging. So, in other words, there was ample opportunity to stop the killings, but the US used its influence and pressured the UN to let Kagame’s military campaign proceed. Madeline Albright was at the time Bill Clinton’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

She would not recognize that the killings were intensive and ethnically charged, nor would her colleagues, nor would Bill Clinton at the time. And there was no possibility whatsoever that the US would send its troops in. What was really appalling was that most of the troops who were there already, were actually pulled out. So that was one of the first major UN operations that the US had extraordinary influence over and stopped. And their insistence on inaction destroyed many lives.

At the same time, and this is a subtext, another side of what was going on, the US had access to satellite technology. So Bill Clinton and his advisors absolutely knew what was happening on the ground. They knew that the massacres were going on. I've argued in my book that the RPF was loading thousands of Hutus in waves onto trucks and bringing them to Akagera Park, a big park in the east of the country, then killing them there and burning their bodies. And all of these massacres, whether they were Tutsis or Hutus massacred, could be documented in real time by an extensive network of satellites, which pick up fires and which are so sophisticated that they can pick up the slaughter of civilians. The US has used satellite images at the ICTY, which was set up to prosecute crimes in the Balkans, when it wanted to nail, for example, Ratko Mladic.

“There was ample opportunity to stop the killings, but the US used its influence and pressured the UN to let Kagame’s military campaign proceed.”

But of course the US is not going to provide evidence that would implicate one of its allies, in this case Paul Kagame. The US knew was happening on the ground at the time in 1994 and succeeded in having the UN Peacekeepers pulled out.

You mentioned the radio at the beginning of this interview. The US also had the power to jam those radio broadcasts, but it did not. So clearly, what the US wanted, according to what the evidence shows much later, was for Kagame to seize power. It wanted to let his military campaign proceed and it wanted Tutsi genocide to serve as justification for that regime change. But Hutus were prosecuted for what was deemed hate speech over the radio.

The second possible UN led military intervention that was discussed was two years later when Canada rather naively decided that it would lead a multinational force to protect Rwandan Hutu refugees in what was then Zaire. And that was really an attempt to provide a humanitarian corridor inside Zaire, where Hutus had fled after the genocide. More than a million Hutus had lived inside Zaire’s border in a number of camps for two years by that time. Kagame then decided to attack and bust up those camps and force those Hutus home so they could not attack Rwanda from Zaire. That was the cover story, but in fact, what actually happened on the ground, was that the RPF started attacking those camps and killing a lot of Hutu refugees in October, 1996. The multinational force that Canada had proposed never got off the ground.

AG: Why not?

JR: Because the United Nations political insiders, the big wigs, and Washington in particular, ixnayed the whole idea. They dismantled that force before it even got underway. The US did not want a UN led force to protect Hutu refugees because it was seen as a possible impediment to Kagame’s military sweep across the Congo.

So anything for example, that would have documented what Kagame’s forces had done immediately after they invaded and what they did then from the Kivus across the entire country, anything that might have stopped Kagame’s military campaign, was seen as a very bad idea for Washington. So a lot of politicking and diplomatic work went into canceling that multinational force that Canadians had proposed.

And what happened after that is history, of course. Kagame’s forces pushed more than half of those Hutu refugees further into Zaire. They hunted the refugees down, like prey, probably killing several hundred thousand of them, and many more died of exhaustion or hardship in the Zairean jungle. Kagame’s military campaign went all the way to Kinshasa and toppled Mobutu Sese Sekou by May, 1997. And so there was a restructuring of Central Africa, and that war that began in 1996 has decimated the Congo ever since. Millions of people have died, some directly from violence and others from war related diseases. Zaire became the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and that war rages off and on today, mostly in its eastern provinces bordering Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi.

And the reason I'm insisting on this is because I still hear and read the same propaganda about that period of the counterinsurgency from 1995 to 1998, and I've researched three or four major operations during that time where the RPF staged these major attacks that killed villages. Two major operations were cited in ICTR UN confidential documents. This is extraordinary material, which should interest journalists and academics who are trying to understand the complex dynamics of the genocide and the violence that then flowed into Congo. I just wish that people would look at this more closely.

AG: Okay. Now to summarize the intervention history, there was a real UN peacekeeping force in 1994, while the genocide was going on, and the US intervened at the UN Security Council to have it pulled out. And then there was another real humanitarian intervention proposed at the UN that didn't get very far at all, to protect the Hutu refugees who had fled from Kagame’s Tutsi army into Zaire. The US prevented that as well.

And the one thing I might add is that at that point, Russia and China were not feeling powerful or confident enough on the UN Security Council to oppose the US, and that’s changed. They’ve stood up to the US on Syria, Burundi, and most recently Ethiopia.

JR: That’s a summary. I think you can also say that the US gave Kagame’s troops the green light to invade Zaire and topple Mobutu. There's no question that they were given the green light and that the US actually worked with Kagame to invade Zaire and overthrow Mobutu. In my book, I discussed a number of ways in which the US helped Kagame topple Mobutu.

AG: I read a really good book “Dying to Live: A Rwandan Family's Five-Year Flight Across the Congo” by Pierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga .” He says that, at first, when the refugees saw planes overhead, they thought they were going to protect them, but soon realized that they were instead protecting Kagame’s army.

JR: I met Pierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga in Montreal many years ago. It's a tremendous book. I'm glad you brought it up. He mentioned in that book, the RPF attack on a Hutu refugee camp, Birava Camp, where he and his family were sheltering in 1995. The RPF attacked that camp, killed many people, and injured even more. That's an important example that never gets reported in the Western media of the RPF attacking camps in eastern Zaire even before they launched an all out invasion to overthrow Mobutu and seize power in 1996. And one extraordinary thing that must be mentioned is that NGOs, human rights organizations, and certainly Western governments, seemed to fall into this sort of consensus that the military invasion of Zaire was justified because Hutu insurgents had been attacking Western Rwanda and threatening to bring genocide back to Rwanda by 1996.

But the RPF had already attacked a refugee camp, the one I just mentioned, and that is chronicled in the book, before they invaded. And the RPF commandos had actually staged a number of false flag attacks on Rwanda from Zaire. The crossed over the border into Zaire, then staged attacks on Western Rwanda and blamed it on the refugees. I'm not suggesting that there were no Hutu insurgencies from Zaire against Rwanda, but there were also false flag attacks to justify Rwanda’s invasion of Zaire.

I think much more honest, rigorous and independent research needs to be done on that.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/index ... tervention
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Thu Apr 15, 2021 12:51 pm

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Amílcar Cabral: On Taking Up Arms, Theory, Poetry, and African Liberation
April 14, 2021 Editor2 Africa, African Liberation, Amílcar Cabral, Colonialism, colonization
By Yousef Aljamal – Apr 9, 2021

Despite his short life, Cabral left a remarkable impact on African liberation.

When the African struggle for liberation and the fight to end colonialism is discussed, Frantz Fanon, Chinua Achebe, and the names of a few other intellectuals and figures surface. Though widely known today among the elites and intellectuals, and unfortunately less known by the wider public outside of Africa, Amílcar Cabral is a symbolic name and a leading figure in the Pan-African struggle to self-determination and ending colonialism.

Amílcar Cabral was an agricultural engineer who became a revolutionary and theoretician. He was born to a family from Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde on September 12, 1924. Cabral dedicated his short but productive life to the liberation of African nations from colonialism, be it in his home country of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, Angola, Algeria, or Liberia.

Cabral was one of the figures of a Pan-African movement that called for the independence of Portuguese colonies in Africa. In 1973, as he started preparation for the independence of Guinea-Bissau, Cabral was assassinated by his rival Inocêncio Kani, giving his life to the cause. Despite his short life, Cabral left behind a great legacy of books and writings that inspired generations of Africans to attain their independence from colonial powers.




Starting the struggle in Portugal
In 1956, Cabral was one of the founders of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGS). He headed the PAIGS in his own country against Portuguese colonialism, leading his people to one of the most successful anti-colonialism movements on the African continent and eventually becoming the de facto leader of today’s Guinea-Bissau.

The amount and depth of Cabral’s writings speak volumes to his legacy and impact on other liberation movements in Africa. He is also a major contributor to the national liberation theory through his writings such as Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabral, Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amílcar Cabral, and The Weapon of Theory. In his writings, Cabral provides an understanding of the liberation process, its impact, and the political dynamics of liberation movements in conjunction with their aspirations and objectives.

Taking up arms
Cabral unapologetically defended the use of arms and revolutionary violence against foreign colonial powers to attain independence, noting that speeches, insults, and shouting will not liberate people, but rather what is necessary is taking up arms and engaging in an armed struggle for liberation. “For us, the worst or best we can say about imperialism, whatever its form, is to take up arms and struggle. This is what we are doing and will go on doing until foreign domination has been totally eliminated from our African countries,” he wrote.

Realizing the existence of differences within liberation movements, Cabral called on all Africans to unite under the one Pan-African goal of ending colonialism and to put their differences aside. He stressed that the lack of a liberation ideology and unity is one of the greatest weaknesses of a liberation movement and that all movements should work to overcome it. Cabral also highlighted the importance of education as a bridge to achieve the desired results of the education of the masses, both in and outside of school.

A new man and a new woman
For Cabral, national liberation was only the first step in a long process that should lead to shaping what he dubbed as “a new man and a new woman,” stressing that such a process is a complicated one that goes beyond the symbolic politics of independence and celebrations. Using his own words, national salvation and liberation “must put an end not only to suffering but also to backwardness.” Africans, he added, should “return to the source,” in order to reinvent their culture and heritage and face foreign domination and colonialism.

Cabral understood well that convincing Africans to fight colonialization was a challenge in itself, but he also noted that people are united by the brutality of colonization which increases their awareness of their plight. This was the case when the Portuguese responded with brutal force to the Pidjiguiti strike in Guinea-Bissau, awakening the national sentiments of locals and the need for self-determination just as Cabral envisaged.

But for this to happen, Cabral argued that it is critical to understand history, because it allows people to comprehend how colonial borders were drawn, and thus strengthens their sense of Africanism. This knowledge of history will also help create what Cabral called a “nation-class” that is capable of confronting foreign domination and bringing it to an end. He believed that an educated social class is able to realize this noble goal and that there is no need for all African people to initiate this process.

In the memory of his people and fellow Africans, Amílcar Cabral is known as the founder of the liberation movement that won Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde their long-awaited independence. Despite the rapid and tragic end of his life at a young age, Cabral was able to mobilize the people of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde to put an end to the Portuguese domination of their territories. His legacy, however, besides his country, mostly lives on in the elites outside Africa who study his many writings.

Cabral’s legacy
Being an international figure who participated in conferences across the globe, including in Cuba and Algeria, that called for the liberation and self-determination of the African people, Cabral deserves to have his legacy taught and studied. This is especially true for the nations that still live under a colonial regime in the 21st century such as the Palestinians.

Although tactics could vary from one place to another, including the use of arms, there is no doubt that the legacy of Amílcar Cabral has inspired and continues to inspire generations of Africans, as well as other peoples, to win their sovereignty and intellectual independence back.

Amílcar Cabral is an example of an organic intellectual who was educated as an agriculture engineer but chose to sacrifice his own life for the sake of his people and all Africans. Despite his tragic passing, Cabral left behind a great legacy of books and thoughts that inspire generations of Africans today many of whom are still waiting to realize their full liberation from colonialism and foreign domination.

And as Cabral himself understood it, today, as in the past, the responsibility lies in the elites to educate the masses on the importance of unity and ideology for their liberation to be realized. The ideal can be attained: Africans and all other peoples can live in dignity. And Cabral can truly rest in peace.





Yousef Aljamal is a researcher in Middle Eastern Studies and the author and translator of a number of books. He is assistant to the Editor-in-Chief of Politics Today.

Featured image: A boy brandishes a poster of Malam Bacai Sanha of the former single ruling party founded by independence-era hero Amilcar Cabral (PAIGC), 17 June 2005, in front of Bissau’s Palace of the Republic. Photo by Seyllou, AFP via Getty Images

(Politics Today)

https://orinocotribune.com/amilcar-cabr ... iberation/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Fri May 21, 2021 1:33 pm

Disinformation in Tigray: Manufacturing Consent For a Secessionist War
New African Institute 19 May 2021

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Disinformation in Tigray: Manufacturing Consent For a Secessionist War

Corporate media in the imperial countries have spread disinformation on the real nature of the fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray state.

“Eritrea has served as the primary scapegoat.”



Today, New Africa Institute publishes its Disinformation in Tigray report to provide an evidence-based analysis of the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray Regional State, which is an irredentist, ethnic secessionist war led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) against the multiethnic federal government. Although the conflict officially started on November 4, 2020 after TPLF, by its own admission, attacked the federal government’s Northern Command based in Tigray, this showdown had been brewing for decades.

Since the start of hostilities, there has been an explosion of disinformation in the mainstream and social media. This report carefully analyzes the causes and methods of disinformation propagation. Ultimately, the disinformation serves to manufacture consent for an unpopular irredentist, ethnic secessionist war that could not be justified in the eyes of the international public through honest reporting.

The media, non-governmental organizations and Western governments have forwarded a number of allegations of crimes upon the people of Tigray perpetrated by the Ethiopian and Eritrean militaries. Eritrea has served as the primary scapegoat. Much of the reporting of these crimes, devoid of evidence and context, has proven sensational and racist with savage-like portrayals of Eritreans and Ethiopians that draw on old colonial tropes of Africans. This report looks beyond the gaudy headlines and provides sober, evidence-based analysis of the major allegations. Significant focus is given to social media as most disinformation about Tigray originates there.

Additionally, this report assesses the nature of and problems with Western media’s overall coverage of the Tigray conflict. Lastly, it provides analysis of the actions by Western governments and likely consequences of those actions to encourage better policy decisions in the Horn of Africa moving forward.

Click HERE to scroll down and read the report, or download it.

This article previously appeared in the New African Institute website .
https://www.scribd.com/document/5072241 ... from_embed

https://www.blackagendareport.com/disin ... ionist-war

Extensive, detailed, damning.
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Fri May 28, 2021 2:10 pm

African Financial Independence is a Threat to Imperialism
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 27, 2021
Otobong Inieke

The Plan for Financial Sovereignty

African leaders had come to recognize the various factors that hinder the continent’s development and seriously jeopardize the future of its peoples. The Abuja Treaty was put in place to increase economic self-reliance, promote self-sustained development, and raise the living standard of African peoples. The treaty signifies years of hard work in the socio-economic, political, and diplomatic arenas. Africans are on many levels committed to seeking a solution for the myriad problems that have stifled many African countries since they obtained independence in all its vague forms. In the Abuja Treaty, the establishment of the African Economic Community also serves in the process of economic integration, and according to a report in Africa Today, four stages are involved, and they are the free trade area, a customs union, a common market, and finally an economic union.

Within the African Economic Community, the establishment of the three financial institutions are key aspects of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 program. They are considered the spearheads in the economic integration of Africa, as expressed in the 1991 Abuja Treaty, which was centered on promoting the financial independence of Africa. Prior to the 1991 Abuja Treaty, a major source of pressure for fundamental change was centered on international debt, domestic crisis, and the impact of global change. Donor countries and agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund provide ‘solutions’ to which in essence are designed to recover loans given to African countries. Consequently, the measures taken have the effect of exerting terrible economic pressure on the African masses. The measures such as the infamous Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) usually translate to a political backlash against concerned governments, especially in the short run. Not all analysts agree that economic or any other form of integration is the proper solution to the African economic problem. One can simply observe the operations of international financial institutions, which, as a matter of practice, never encourage any form of integration in Africa; (IMF, Bank of International Settlement, etc.) only promote internal measures like austerity programs and privatization schemes.


The Challenges to Financial Independence

Another stifling factor to the financial independence of Africa is capital flight, which is generally considered unrecorded and rapid outflow of assets and money from a country or economic region because of intended, or unintended economic consequences. The international mainstream media leads many to believe that the African continent depends on foreign ‘aid’ and functional private investment. The general image depicted is that of advanced economies providing money to poor and developing African countries. On the contrary, research and data prove that Africa is a ‘net creditor to the rest of the world. According to a 2018 Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) report, with a sample of 30 African countries over 46 years(1970-2015), the group of countries lost a combined total of $1.8 trillion to capital flight, including interest earnings. Additionally, the report indicates that the stock of debt owed by the countries as of 2015 amounted to $496.9 billion. The evidence proves that countries on the African continent lose more value through capital flight than is received in foreign aid or investment.

The founding president of Global Financial Integrity (GFI), Raymond Baker, is quoted as saying, “The traditional thinking has been that the West is pouring money into Africa through foreign aid and other private-sector flows, without receiving much in return. Actually, that logic is upside down – Africa has been a net creditor to the rest of the world for decades.”

The GFI and the African Development Bank released a report in 2013, estimating that the most common strategy for transferring capital from developing countries to advanced economies was trade mis-invoicing. The GFI further reports that sustained conditions of capital flight undermine revenue sources and stifle affected countries’ ability to build a domestic tax base.

In similar fanfare afforded to the 2016 Panama Papers Leaks, the FinCEN Files, which details over 200,000 suspicious financial transactions, were leaked and globally publicized on the 20th of September 2020. The investigation was carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and the files were leaked from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It is claimed within original reports that global banks are entirely complicit in or willfully ignorant of the outright stripping of economic value from the majority of the world’s population, favoring multinational elite/criminal interests. The FinCEN files show proof that global banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and Bank of New York Mellon continued moving cash for illicit networks, even after they had been fined by U.S authorities for failing to stem illicit fund transfers, according to key findings by the ICIJ. Furthermore, the ICIJ also reports that in about half of the FinCEN Files, banks did not have information on one or more entities behind transactions, and, after years of concern, banks carried on providing services to criminal interests allegedly leading to cases of actual harm.


As it relates to the geopolitical projections in West Africa, it can be expected that detractors to African economic integration will support an internationally pliable leader for the typical two-year term of a Nigerian administration, and this will run from 2024~2032, which falls squarely within the AU’s timeframe of establishing the African Central Bank. This play means that such a leader will be lean toward economic policies that potentially prop up the rival regional currency – the Eco, and while this will be dressed up as a win for the African Union, it must be noted that the Eco is essentially a rebranded CFA Franc.

In a bid to ground these observations, memory must recall that the downfall of Libya was initiated not long after the Gaddafi administration expressed plans to implement a Pan-African Currency based on gold-backed Libyan Dinars. Through the makings of a color revolution, a country that had free medical care and education for its citizens was eventually reduced to a failed state that has allowed for the criminal sale of African people and the further destabilization of the Sahel region. The status quo makes it unlikely that Libya will be stable enough to host the headquarters of the African Investment Bank by 2025. Additionally, a country like Nigeria with issues of bad governance and weak policies is not impervious to such imperialist designs, and widespread unrest can disrupt development plans indefinitely.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement also exposes systemic challenges that hinder effective implementation of measures meant to foster economic and extension, financial autonomy on the global stage. Firstly, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an illustration of misalignment, seeing that it removes policy freedom from states and weakens the capacity to pursue regional and contextual industrial policies. Furthermore, the high export of agricultural products like cocoa from Ghana and Senegal or coffee from Kenya still promoted through pre-existing colonial relationships means such products are susceptible to degrading production factors. In late 2020, the East African Herald reported on the fact that Kenya’s coffee is losing top global appeal due to high chemical contamination, also overall, production had dropped because local farmers couldn’t keep up with the high-interest loans or compete with cartels.

The deeper issues are usually traced to colonial economic interactions and the introduction of capitalism in developing countries. There were concerted efforts to build and maintain economic relations, in which the colonies were made into permanent producers of raw materials to satisfy the requirements of metropolitan countries. The established links between the producers and the colonial metropoles meant that colonies became dependent on other countries to purchase and dictate the prices of products. Colonies, as a result, were left without the infrastructure to process the raw materials and only purchased ready-made goods from the associated colonial power. The result was that colonies produced what they did not consume and consumed what they did not produce.

Furthermore, writers like Pradip Ghosh have argued that the Bretton Woods Agreement, signed after World War II, directly affected African economies less competitive on the so-called international market. Established trace structures allowed developed countries to increase tariffs on processed African products and African exports to the European Economic Community, subject to quotas and stringent price rules. Policies like the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) served to sustain the domination of developed countries over young economies, particularly in Africa. African economies could not take advantage of tariffs from developed countries because of their small economies, and industrialization was discouraged because African nations could not raise tariffs to protect internal industries, retaliation from larger economies would have devastating effects. The GATT and the International Monetary Fund had the indirect effect of discouraging African economies from diversification, creating a situation where Africa continues exporting primary commodities but keeps borrowing to fund an already sabotaged cycle of development; a lose-lose scenario.

The popular Marxist analyst Samir Amin aptly described outcomes of colonial interaction between Africa and European colonizers that are still apparent. He defined West Africa as the Africa of the colonial trade economy due to the easily accessible coastal regions and the ‘rich’ hinterlands, in terms of resources (labor, palm oil, agro-produce, etc.), the Congo River Basin as the Africa of the concession-owning companies based on the immense mineral resources that have basically powered the development of modern society if one is to go by the work of Walter Rodney; How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Finally, Samir Amin refers to the southern regions of the continent as Africa of the labor reserves. In the southern regions, he states that the region saw widespread colonial imperialism applied based on ‘enclosure acts’ set towards entire peoples.

It is also important to note in what amounts to intellectual compromise, Samir Amin states that current academic programs in the social sciences for many African universities prescribed by the World Bank and related authorities basically stifle the capacity to develop critical thought. Combined with the inability to comprehend the systems that govern the global economic systems, graduates of these universities end up as ‘executives’ that implement policies decided in other parts of the world. Here, he relates African problems to capitalism and describes it as “a regime in which successive states of disequilibrium are products of social and political confrontations situated beyond the market”, further stating that capitalism is synonymous with permanent instability.

Lessons & Next Steps

As stated above, the causes of Africa’s debt crisis are multifaceted. Austerity measures now have the effect of attempting to squeeze water from stone, the socio-political conditions in African debtor nations are quickly becoming intolerable and the political leadership is not demonstrating any conviction. The foundations for the current state of disarray in Africa were laid primarily during colonialism and the status-quo is sustained through neocolonial operations with corrupt African elite leaders as accomplices. Development aid and other forms of Euro-American ‘support’ has been consistently counterproductive. When combined with cronyism and corrupt pluto-gerontocratic leadership, the efforts from the West causes untold hardship for the people of Africa. Neocolonialism has survived and continues to exist because the west had set up a dependent political and economic structure that was not demolished by many African leaders but was inherited even though leaders like Thomas Sankara, Amilcar Cabral, and Samora Machel, among others, gave their lives in the pursuit of African liberation. Research and material realities have shown that within African countries, many leaders promote foreign interests over domestic ones, while supporters are basically reeducated into upholding systems of neocolonialism, all to the detriment and underdevelopment of Africa and Africans[1].

Leaders, research organizations, and academia understand that developing countries have sustained the prosperity of developed countries and will always be exploited by imperialist nations. Milquetoast calls for structural changes to predatory economic systems have lost all steam and have no value. The façade of ‘decency’ only serves those that benefit from a status quo that sees Africa perpetually exploited. If interested in any real measures for ‘aid’, the West should seek to dis-link its extractive industries that carry on the rapacious exploitation of African resources to support extremely consumerist societies. African leadership on the other hand must come to reflect on the role of government in any society and move to reeducate themselves away from foreign dependence and towards African sovereignty and socio-cultural confidence. The African struggle toward true autonomy is multi-faceted and concrete steps to collective financial sovereignty is a necessary phase of that journey.

Notes:

[1] Alemazung, J.A. Post-Colonial Colonialism: An Analysis of International Factors and Actors Marring African Socio-Economic and Political Development (2010)., The Journal of Pan-African Studies, vol.3, no.10.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2021/05/ ... perialism/

Sankara nailed it, debt is neo-colonialism.

*************************

African Liberation Day & Q&A with Kwame Nkrumah’s Son, Gamal
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on 25 MAY 2021
Black Alliance for Peace

Image

African Liberation Day (ALD), celebrated on May 25th, has its origins in the long struggle of African people to liberate themselves from European domination and white supremacy. It is a time in which we emphasize our oneness as a people with a common past, common set of problems, and a common future.

The capturing of millions of African people, who were enslaved and introduced into the western hemisphere as property and commodities, is the backdrop upon which we commemorate ALD. The colonial-capitalist system imposes a divide between the millions of Africans kidnapped to the Americas during the Transatlantic slave trade and those left on the African continent.

ALD is a vehicle to continue to highlight the problems, challenges, and the future of African people everywhere. The challenges facing Africa and African people worldwide require that we remain dedicated to the cause of Africa’s liberation. We can continue to showcase that dedication by actively participating in the ALD activities held throughout the world.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle
Gamal Nkrumah is a Ghanaian journalist, a Pan-Africanist, and an editor of Al Ahram Weekly newspaper. He is the eldest son of the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah.


AWB: Could you speak about the history of African Liberation Day?

Gamal Nkrumah: May 25th is celebrated as African Liberation Day. The day marks the foundation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1963. The formation of the OAU was a key moment in a centuries-long struggle against colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism.

For more than 500 years, African people have been dehumanized and degraded, with their bodies and labor commodified to enrich a ruling elite. From slave labor on cotton and sugar plantations to the extraction of gold and diamonds from the earth, the development of Europe and the Americas happened through the rapid exploitation of African people.

Through the collective experiences of deprivation, African people in the diaspora and continent developed a resistance movement. There were many milestones in this process: the formation of independent, maroon communities by former slaves and Afro-Caribbean people, the first Pan-African congress held in 1900, the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, 1945.

Over the decades, political consciousness grew around the necessity to wage a revolutionary, Pan-African struggle against colonial and imperial rule in the 20th century. The revolutionary anti-colonial movements culminated in the mid-century with the independence of several African nations from European powers and the formation of the Organization of African Unity.

AWB: How does ALD relate to the struggles of African people today?

Gamal Nkrumah: African Liberation Day as it came to be known was born from the fierce fight for a new society. As Kwame Nkrumah said, “The African Revolution, while still concentrating its main effort on the destruction of imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism, aims at the same time to bring about a radical transformation of society.

“The choice has already been made by the workers and peasants of Africa. They have chosen liberation and unification…for the political unification of Africa and socialism are synonymous. One cannot be achieved without the other.”


Today, capitalism continues to brutally ravage and exploit Africa and its people. The West, through their militaries as well as the IMF and World Bank, have consistently imposed a neocolonial agenda on the continent, and the Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union, is a puppet of capital and elite interests.

African people on May 25 celebrate the victories of revolutionary Pan-Africanism. African Liberation Day recalls the long history of struggles against class exploitation, colonialism, and imperialism.

Revolutionary Africans know that attaining full emancipation demands a revolution from below, in the interests of people over profit. The only antidote to this colonial-capitalist system that continues to impoverish African people is an organized force in Africa ready to pursue Pan-Africanism under scientific socialism.

https://revolutionarystrategicstudies.w ... son-gamal/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:36 pm

What did Muammar Gaddafi do for Libya?

Image
Muammar Gaddafi carried out the social, political and economic transformation of Libya. | Photo: EFE
Published June 7, 2021 (2 hours 23 minutes ago)

Muammar Gaddafi unified Libya and promoted the social and economic development of the African nation.

This Monday marks the 79th anniversary of the birth of Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011), the African leader who unified Libya and promoted the social and economic development of his nation.

Libya, during the government of Gaddafi, was an example for the African and Arab nations, as expressed by the international analyst Basem Taljedine in an interview for TeleSUR.

Taljedine commented that during the more than 40 years of Gaddafi's rule, Libya showed significant progress in social, political and economic matters, which after his assassination in 2011 was lost.


Libya before Gaddafi
The international analyst argued that before Gaddafi, Libya was a country mired in backwardness in education , health , housing , social security , among others.

After World War II, Libya was ceded to France and the United Kingdom; In 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution promoting Libya's independence before 1952.

London favored the emergence of a Saudi-controlled monarchy, the Senussis dynasty, which ruled the country since "independence" in 1951. The foreign regime promoted Anglo-Saxon economic and military interests.

Around 1963 the oil and gas excavations began, however, the wealth from oil did not translate into benefits for the people.

According to the article "Libya according to the UN and the harsh reality" by Thierry Meyssan, in the African nation there were no schools and there were barely 16 university graduates. There were just 2 lawyers and not a single doctor, engineer, surveyor or pharmacist of origin. Libyan in the kingdom. Only 250,000 inhabitants of the total 4 million could read and write.

Libya's situation with Gaddafi

According to the analyst, Muammar Gaddafi led Libya to be an example country for Africa and the Arab world, since the Libyan leader unified the nation, created institutions and ministries to strengthen the country's institutional framework .

Muammar Gaddafi led Libya since 1969 when he overthrew the monarchy of King Idris, who was in Turkey. A Council of the Revolution was established that declared the country Muslim, Nasserist (revolutionary movement in Egypt that proclaimed the end of the monarchy) and socialist.

The Green Revolution, as the movement was known, undertook an agrarian reform, promoted a social security system, free medical assistance, and workers' participation in the profits of state-owned companies.

Image
Representatives of the Libyan people listen to Muammar Gaddafi's speech. | Source: EFE

Gaddafi advanced a social agenda to advance Libya's human development, guaranteed access to water, free education and health.

The Libyan leader nationalized the oil industry to distribute the profits from the sale of crude oil, build communication routes and prop up the social agenda.

According to the Irish-Palestinian activist against the war, Kenneth Nichols O'Keefe, during the 42 years of Gaddafi's rule, electricity began to reach the population free of charge, as well as medical services and literacy, which increased from 5 to 83 percent.

If a Libyan owned land and used it for agricultural work, the Government gave him credit and support in machinery, seeds and advice from the State.

Housing was considered a human right, so the newlyweds received a bonus equal to $ 50,000 to buy a house.

Loans of any kind had a zero percent interest rate, the Central Bank of Libya was a sovereign institution at the service of Libyan citizens.

Taljedine recalled that Gaddafi promoted the cooperation of African countries through the African Union founded in May 2001. The analyst indicated that Gaddafi had planned the creation of a single currency supported by Libya's gold reserves.

Libya became with Gaddafi the African country with the highest per capita income.

Image

Libya after Gaddafi

Taljedine commented that after the invasion by the North Atlantic Organization (NATO) in February 2011 and the assassination of Muammar Gaddafi in October of that same year, the country is in worse conditions than before the leader came to power. Libyan.

The armed conflict that has started since 2011 has claimed the lives of more than five thousand people, almost a million have fled their homes, its crude oil exports have fallen by 90 percent, and its GDP losses are estimated at approximately 200 billion euros. euros for the last eight years, according to figures collected by the Middle East Monitor.

Hydrocarbon exports, which account for more than 70 percent of Libya's GDP and 95 percent of total exports, have plummeted.

Libya has been used by mafias for the transit and trade of refugees from Africa to the European continent.

Libya is a failed state, a victim of chaos and civil war, since in 2011 NATO led by the United States and France overthrew former President Muammar al-Gaddafi.

The Government of National Accord (GNA) was installed in Tripoli in 2016 with UN support, while Marshal Khalifa Hafter, military leader and guardian of the former unrecognized government in the east of the country, added thousands of Sudanese mercenaries to his ranks, Chadians and Arabs.

Since March 2021, power has been in the hands of the National Government of Unity (GNU), elected by the Forum for Political Dialogue of Libya (FDPL), an unelected body created by the UN on the margins of the governments hitherto opposed and that it must unify the country, maintain the ceasefire and lead it until the legislative elections.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/libia-mu ... -0014.html

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:05 pm

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African Financial Independence is a Threat to Imperialism
by Otobong Inieke

Published Thursday - May 27, 2021

The Plan for Financial Sovereignty
African leaders had come to recognize the various factors that hinder the continent’s development and seriously jeopardize the future of its peoples. The Abuja Treaty was put in place to increase economic self-reliance, promote self-sustained development, and raise the living standard of African peoples. The treaty signifies years of hard work in the socio-economic, political, and diplomatic arenas. Africans are on many levels committed to seeking a solution for the myriad problems that have stifled many African countries since they obtained independence in all its vague forms. In the Abuja Treaty, the establishment of the African Economic Community also serves in the process of economic integration, and according to a report in Africa Today, four stages are involved, and they are the free trade area, a customs union, a common market, and finally an economic union.

Within the African Economic Community, the establishment of the three financial institutions are key aspects of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 program. They are considered the spearheads in the economic integration of Africa, as expressed in the 1991 Abuja Treaty, which was centered on promoting the financial independence of Africa. Prior to the 1991 Abuja Treaty, a major source of pressure for fundamental change was centered on international debt, domestic crisis, and the impact of global change. Donor countries and agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund provide ‘solutions’ to which in essence are designed to recover loans given to African countries. Consequently, the measures taken have the effect of exerting terrible economic pressure on the African masses. The measures such as the infamous Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) usually translate to a political backlash against concerned governments, especially in the short run. Not all analysts agree that economic or any other form of integration is the proper solution to the African economic problem. One can simply observe the operations of international financial institutions, which, as a matter of practice, never encourage any form of integration in Africa; (IMF, Bank of International Settlement, etc.) only promote internal measures like austerity programs and privatization schemes.

The Challenges to Financial Independence
Another stifling factor to the financial independence of Africa is capital flight, which is generally considered unrecorded and rapid outflow of assets and money from a country or economic region because of intended, or unintended economic consequences. The international mainstream media leads many to believe that the African continent depends on foreign ‘aid’ and functional private investment. The general image depicted is that of advanced economies providing money to poor and developing African countries. On the contrary, research and data prove that Africa is a ‘net creditor to the rest of the world. According to a 2018 Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) report, with a sample of 30 African countries over 46 years(1970-2015), the group of countries lost a combined total of $1.8 trillion to capital flight, including interest earnings. Additionally, the report indicates that the stock of debt owed by the countries as of 2015 amounted to $496.9 billion. The evidence proves that countries on the African continent lose more value through capital flight than is received in foreign aid or investment.

The founding president of Global Financial Integrity (GFI), Raymond Baker, is quoted as saying, “The traditional thinking has been that the West is pouring money into Africa through foreign aid and other private-sector flows, without receiving much in return. Actually, that logic is upside down – Africa has been a net creditor to the rest of the world for decades.”

The GFI and the African Development Bank released a report in 2013, estimating that the most common strategy for transferring capital from developing countries to advanced economies was trade mis-invoicing. The GFI further reports that sustained conditions of capital flight undermine revenue sources and stifle affected countries’ ability to build a domestic tax base.

In similar fanfare afforded to the 2016 Panama Papers Leaks, the FinCEN Files, which details over 200,000 suspicious financial transactions, were leaked and globally publicized on the 20th of September 2020. The investigation was carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and the files were leaked from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It is claimed within original reports that global banks are entirely complicit in or willfully ignorant of the outright stripping of economic value from the majority of the world’s population, favoring multinational elite/criminal interests. The FinCEN files show proof that global banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and Bank of New York Mellon continued moving cash for illicit networks, even after they had been fined by U.S authorities for failing to stem illicit fund transfers, according to key findings by the ICIJ. Furthermore, the ICIJ also reports that in about half of the FinCEN Files, banks did not have information on one or more entities behind transactions, and, after years of concern, banks carried on providing services to criminal interests allegedly leading to cases of actual harm.

As it relates to the geopolitical projections in West Africa, it can be expected that detractors to African economic integration will support an internationally pliable leader for the typical two-year term of a Nigerian administration, and this will run from 2024~2032, which falls squarely within the AU’s timeframe of establishing the African Central Bank. This play means that such a leader will be lean toward economic policies that potentially prop up the rival regional currency – the Eco, and while this will be dressed up as a win for the African Union, it must be noted that the Eco is essentially a rebranded CFA Franc.

In a bid to ground these observations, memory must recall that the downfall of Libya was initiated not long after the Gaddafi administration expressed plans to implement a Pan-African Currency based on gold-backed Libyan Dinars. Through the makings of a color revolution, a country that had free medical care and education for its citizens was eventually reduced to a failed state that has allowed for the criminal sale of African people and the further destabilization of the Sahel region. The status quo makes it unlikely that Libya will be stable enough to host the headquarters of the African Investment Bank by 2025. Additionally, a country like Nigeria with issues of bad governance and weak policies is not impervious to such imperialist designs, and widespread unrest can disrupt development plans indefinitely.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement also exposes systemic challenges that hinder effective implementation of measures meant to foster economic and extension, financial autonomy on the global stage. Firstly, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an illustration of misalignment, seeing that it removes policy freedom from states and weakens the capacity to pursue regional and contextual industrial policies. Furthermore, the high export of agricultural products like cocoa from Ghana and Senegal or coffee from Kenya still promoted through pre-existing colonial relationships means such products are susceptible to degrading production factors. In late 2020, the East African Herald reported on the fact that Kenya’s coffee is losing top global appeal due to high chemical contamination, also overall, production had dropped because local farmers couldn’t keep up with the high-interest loans or compete with cartels.

The deeper issues are usually traced to colonial economic interactions and the introduction of capitalism in developing countries. There were concerted efforts to build and maintain economic relations, in which the colonies were made into permanent producers of raw materials to satisfy the requirements of metropolitan countries. The established links between the producers and the colonial metropoles meant that colonies became dependent on other countries to purchase and dictate the prices of products. Colonies, as a result, were left without the infrastructure to process the raw materials and only purchased ready-made goods from the associated colonial power. The result was that colonies produced what they did not consume and consumed what they did not produce.

Furthermore, writers like Pradip Ghosh have argued that the Bretton Woods Agreement, signed after World War II, directly affected African economies less competitive on the so-called international market. Established trace structures allowed developed countries to increase tariffs on processed African products and African exports to the European Economic Community, subject to quotas and stringent price rules. Policies like the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) served to sustain the domination of developed countries over young economies, particularly in Africa. African economies could not take advantage of tariffs from developed countries because of their small economies, and industrialization was discouraged because African nations could not raise tariffs to protect internal industries, retaliation from larger economies would have devastating effects. The GATT and the International Monetary Fund had the indirect effect of discouraging African economies from diversification, creating a situation where Africa continues exporting primary commodities but keeps borrowing to fund an already sabotaged cycle of development; a lose-lose scenario.

The popular Marxist analyst Samir Amin aptly described outcomes of colonial interaction between Africa and European colonizers that are still apparent. He defined West Africa as the Africa of the colonial trade economy due to the easily accessible coastal regions and the ‘rich’ hinterlands, in terms of resources (labor, palm oil, agro-produce, etc.), the Congo River Basin as the Africa of the concession-owning companies based on the immense mineral resources that have basically powered the development of modern society if one is to go by the work of Walter Rodney; How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Finally, Samir Amin refers to the southern regions of the continent as Africa of the labor reserves. In the southern regions, he states that the region saw widespread colonial imperialism applied based on ‘enclosure acts’ set towards entire peoples.

It is also important to note in what amounts to intellectual compromise, Samir Amin states that current academic programs in the social sciences for many African universities prescribed by the World Bank and related authorities basically stifle the capacity to develop critical thought. Combined with the inability to comprehend the systems that govern the global economic systems, graduates of these universities end up as ‘executives’ that implement policies decided in other parts of the world. Here, he relates African problems to capitalism and describes it as “a regime in which successive states of disequilibrium are products of social and political confrontations situated beyond the market”, further stating that capitalism is synonymous with permanent instability.

Lessons & Next Steps
As stated above, the causes of Africa’s debt crisis are multifaceted. Austerity measures now have the effect of attempting to squeeze water from stone, the socio-political conditions in African debtor nations are quickly becoming intolerable and the political leadership is not demonstrating any conviction. The foundations for the current state of disarray in Africa were laid primarily during colonialism and the status-quo is sustained through neocolonial operations with corrupt African elite leaders as accomplices. Development aid and other forms of Euro-American ‘support’ has been consistently counterproductive. When combined with cronyism and corrupt pluto-gerontocratic leadership, the efforts from the West causes untold hardship for the people of Africa. Neocolonialism has survived and continues to exist because the west had set up a dependent political and economic structure that was not demolished by many African leaders but was inherited even though leaders like Thomas Sankara, Amilcar Cabral, and Samora Machel, among others, gave their lives in the pursuit of African liberation. Research and material realities have shown that within African countries, many leaders promote foreign interests over domestic ones, while supporters are basically reeducated into upholding systems of neocolonialism, all to the detriment and underdevelopment of Africa and Africans[1].

Leaders, research organizations, and academia understand that developing countries have sustained the prosperity of developed countries and will always be exploited by imperialist nations. Milquetoast calls for structural changes to predatory economic systems have lost all steam and have no value. The façade of ‘decency’ only serves those that benefit from a status quo that sees Africa perpetually exploited. If interested in any real measures for ‘aid’, the West should seek to dis-link its extractive industries that carry on the rapacious exploitation of African resources to support extremely consumerist societies. African leadership on the other hand must come to reflect on the role of government in any society and move to reeducate themselves away from foreign dependence and towards African sovereignty and socio-cultural confidence. The African struggle toward true autonomy is multi-faceted and concrete steps to collective financial sovereignty is a necessary phase of that journey.

[1] Alemazung, J.A. Post-Colonial Colonialism: An Analysis of International Factors and Actors Marring African Socio-Economic and Political Development (2010)., The Journal of Pan-African Studies, vol.3, no.10.

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:15 pm

Prelude to War? US/NATO, Egypt, and Ethiopian Sovereignty
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 9, 2021
Ann Garrison
Prelude to War? The US/NATO, Egypt, and Ethiopian Sovereignty


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Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Ethiopian American activist and community organizer Benyam Kitaw tells Ann Garrison that US hostility toward Ethiopia could lead to further sanctions, economic pressure, and perhaps even war.

“The primary issue is Ethiopian sovereignty vs. US/NATO military hegemony.”

Ethiopia is a nation of more than 112 million people, the second most populous in Africa, at the center of the geostrategically critical Horn of Africa. It has fallen out of favor with the U S foreign policy establishment since the 2018 uprising that overthrew the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) junta and put Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in power. In 2019, Prime Minister Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating peace to end the longtime border conflict with Eritrea.

I spoke to Los Angeles based Ethiopian American activist Benyam Kitaw about increasing US hostility to the Abiy government and to Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor, former foe, and now ally.

Like other Ethiopians and Eritreans I have spoken to, he seems convinced that the U.S. foreign policy establishment’s primary issue is not so much control of Ethiopia’s markets and natural resources, but Ethiopian sovereignty vs. US/NATO military hegemony.

Ethiopia recently raised $850 million by holding an open auction for a national telecommunications contract and it was awarded to a primarily Western consortium including the UK’s Vodafone, Kenya’s Safaricom, the British finance development agency CDC, and Japan’s Sumitomo. However, China is investing and loaning heavily in Ethiopia, and its investments include a $1.2 billion investment in the transmission lines of the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Much of the dam, however, was financed by bonds purchased by Ethiopians, particularly Ethiopians in diaspora.

Ann Garrison: What’s the significance of the peace that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed negotiated to end the decades-long border conflict with Eritrea. And why has it been so upsetting to the US foreign policy establishment?

Benyam Kitaw: Well, Is a ias Afwerki is the President of Eritrea . And one good thing that he’s done for Eritrea is to make it so that outside countries, namely the United States, the UK, and the EU block have virtually no influence.

So peace is good, right? Like if the United States was at war with Canada or Mexico, that would make it very difficult for the country to progress. So peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea—and Somalia—is always a good thing.

I think really the issue for the United States, the UK, and the rest of the NATO countries is that they didn’t really have a hand in it, it wasn’t something that they controlled. And they don’t like that. It means that the United States government can’t control what the peace entails. One being AFRICOM, the US Africa Command . Eritrea has refused to participate in AFRICOM or allow Western powers to put boots on the ground in Eritrea. The AFRICOM command base is in the Horn of Africa, in Djibouti, and pretty much any Western power can operate out of that base, but not in Eritrea, which neighbors both Ethiopia and Djibouti and has a geostrategically important port, Massawa , on the Red Sea. That upsets some of the previous colonial powers, as well as the United States.

But Ethiopia needs peace. It’s been a long time since Ethiopia has had peace, probably not since the so-called Workers’ Party headed by Mengistu Haile Mariam seized power in 1977.

AG: Eritrea is the only African nation that refuses to collaborate with AFRICOM, right?

BK: Yes, so far as I know.

AG: And Ethiopia has been a partner of AFRICOM and a troop contributor to AMISOM, the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia, which has been under US command. Do you think that will continue?

BK: I’m not sure. And I think the United States government is probably nervous about that. But whether Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is in power or not, what the common Ethiopian wants is sovereignty, so that Ethiopia can pursue peace and other goals as a sovereign nation.

I think the TPLF was allowed to rule with the blessing of the Western powers for so long because it subjected itself to US foreign policy.

So we don’t know whether Abiy, if he stays in power, or the next prime minister, whoever that may be, will allow the United States to keep military boots on the ground in Ethiopia. I don’t know.

It would be nice if there were some kind of peaceful agreement, but I think what’s most important, first, is the sovereignty of the African countries involved—Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia—and the peaceful agreements between them.

AG: You’ve named three powers involved, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. Aren’t there two other countries in the Horn, Djibouti and Kenya?

BK: Yes, Kenya. Kenya has historically been a friend to Ethiopia. The only time that I’ve seen any type of potentially hostile behaviour between Kenya and Ethiopia happened recently, when Kenya signed a military agreement with Egypt, which is of course hostile to Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River. But Kenya has been peaceful. Djibouti has been peaceful. There hasn’t been a lot of recent conflict in comparison to the other three countries, especially Somalia and Ethiopia.

And so this agreement between Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia is a good thing, whether you like their current leaders or not. They’re trying to figure out how to have some kind of collective agreement to peace and to shared economies. It’s a very good thing.

AG: It most likely upsets the US foreign policy establishment to see three African nations in the Horn coming together to chart an independent path.

BK: I fully agree with that. And I think the behavior of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and probably this guy, Jeffrey Feltman, the new US Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa, confirms that. They’re kind of like the voices of an old voice on US foreign policy, namely Susan Rice. She’s not even supposed to be involved in foreign policy now—she’s supposed to be Biden’s domestic policy advisor—but it seems like everything she believes is leaking back into current US foreign policy.

What I mean by that, for example, is that during the Meles regime, and then after him, all kinds of ethnic atrocities were committed. Actually, one of the people involved was Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the current Director-General of the World Health Organization . If Secretary Blinken and Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman were so concerned about atrocities and ethnic cleansing, then they should be talking about how this was the historical record of the TPLF regime headed by Meles Zenawi, but they’re not. They’re focusing on what’s happening in Tigray because they want their puppet government back. They want a government that they can control. They’re not really concerned about the innocent people.

Now what’s scary about that is this seems to be a pattern everywhere. The US talks about helping with democracy. Usually it ends up being a complete mess. I mean, we have a couple of really good examples in Syria and Iraq.

AG: President Trump cut a hundred million dollars in aid to Ethiopia and warned that Egypt, a key US ally, might blow up the Grand Renaissance Dam, which is Ethiopia’s project. And then the US Congress recently censured the Ethiopian government over alleged atrocities in Tigray and imposed sanctions. How much is this hurting Ethiopia?

BK: Well, the sanctions themselves, at the moment, aren’t going to significantly hurt the common Ethiopian people. The current sanctions target members of the Ethiopian government. The sanctions could be ratcheted up to hurt the whole population—that’s the usual pattern—but right now the cuts in aid are more of a problem.

And the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is another linchpin of US foreign policy. It could take 5 to 15 years to fill the dam, depending on rainfall, but if the GERD is completed, that means Ethiopia will have greater access to electricity. It has the potential to provide electricity to roughly 100 million people, many of them peasant farmers. And that means that Ethiopia will become more economically self-sufficient and become a serious economic competitor to Egypt. And that’s what Egypt is really angry about. They don’t want another economic power in the region, and it appears that the US is trying to help Egypt keep Ethiopia weak and aid dependent, instead of allowing it to become economically self-sufficient.

AG: I looked this up: Egypt seems to be Africa’s third largest economy after Nigeria and South Africa. Nigeria’s GDP is US$448 billion; South Africa US$351 billion/year, and Egypt US$300 billion/year.

Ethiopia already has one of the larger economies in Africa with a GDP of $95 billion/year, roughly the same as Kenya’s, but that’s only about one third the size of Egypt’s.

BK: Yeah, but Egypt doesn’t want that to change, and the US wants to keep Egypt happy.

AG: Hostilities to both Ethiopia and Eritrea have been undeniably similar to those preceding the US NATO wars in Libya and Syria. And some people have told me that Ethiopians in Eritrea are preparing for the possibility of direct US military aggression or aggression by a US regional proxy, most likely Egypt or a multinational force led by Egypt. Do you think those preparations are warranted?

BK: Warranted by the Ethiopian and Eritrean people? Absolutely. My guess is that the US is going to keep tightening the noose with sanctions and economically.

They’ve already granted Egypt more military aid. I think that was just about a month ago. And it would be easier for the US foreign policy establishment to use some kind of Egypt-led force to impose what it wants than to put US boots on the ground. But in any case, it seems very clear that the US just doesn’t want the Ethiopian or Eritrean people, or any of the peoples in the Horn, to have true sovereignty. Besides and beneath the turmoil about the GERD, sovereignty is the main point of contention.

And I don’t understand why. It would actually be much easier for the US government to try to work with the existing powers in the Horn instead of trying to undermine or overthrow them. Because what Ethiopia will do is move closer to Russia and China. Ethiopia has been developing deeper relationships with China, and there’ve been diplomatic relations between Russia and Ethiopia for about 140 years. And Russia and China are going to continue to be big powers, and that’ll just push Ethiopia closer to them instead of the US and other Western powers.

AG: If the US is aggressive, the aggression will push Ethiopia and its allies in the Horn closer to Russia and China?

BK: Absolutely. And Ethiopia is not a pushover. Ethiopia may not be militarily as strong as the UK or the United States, but it has a very well-established history of defending its sovereignty very effectively. So if the United States invades in some form or fashion, whether it’s through Egypt or through a NATO force or whatever, it’s not going to go the way they think it’s going to go. It’s going to be messy and ugly. And the Ethiopians are going to dig in because the Ethiopians enjoy a proud history of sovereignty and independence.

I wish the US and the rest of the Western block would just accept Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Somali sovereignty, even if it’s just temporarily until the next guy’s in power. There could be temporary solutions. But those countries are not going to take military aggression lightly. And the historical pattern is that it doesn’t go in favor of the invading power.

AG: Well, this new US Special Envoy to the Horn, Jeffrey Feltman, said that Ethiopia would make Syria look like a picnic.

BK: Yeah, he’s right, and I think he’s a smart guy, but he’s just not going to get what he’s trying to push for. It seems as though he specifically, maybe more than anyone else, really wants the TPLF’s US puppet regime back in power. And that’s just not happening. The Ethiopian people will not allow that.

Benyam Kitaw is a Los Angeles-based, Ethiopian American activist and community organizer. He can be reached on Twitter @Benyam_Kitaw .

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2021/06/ ... vereignty/

**************************************

BRAHIM BASIRI AND EL UALI, ETERNAL HEROES OF THE SAHARAWI PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE
Sergio Rodriguez Gelfenstein

10 Jun 2021 , 9:58 am .

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Uali Mustafa Sayed was the first president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Photo: ACAPS)

In this month of June two crucial dates are commemorated in the long struggle - which has lasted for more than 50 years - by the Saharawi people for their independence and self-determination, first against Spanish colonialism and then against Moroccan expansionism.

This epic struggle is part of the national liberation struggles of the African peoples for their emancipation. The second half of the 20th century was characterized by the height of the battles for independence on the African continent. In 1960 twelve countries accessed it. It should also be noted that three new states (those that border the territory of Western Sahara) emerged from colonialism around this year: Morocco in 1956, Mauritania in 1960 and Algeria - after a long and bloody struggle in which more than a million and a half people lost their lives - in 1962. To this day, Western Sahara is the only colonial territory on the African continent.

The international scene of popular struggles against the scourge of colonialism found receptive ears in the so-called "Spanish Province of the Sahara" in which, at the end of the 1960s, the first nationalist and anti-colonial movement was founded, which after its creation advocated the peaceful struggle as a means to achieve national independence.

The new structure called the "Movement for the Liberation of the Sahara" (MLS) set out to peacefully claim independence. In a very short time, the organization incorporated hundreds of militants among workers and employees of the industry, officials of the colonial administration, students, non-commissioned officers and soldiers. Led by Mohamed Sid Brahim Basiri, father of Saharawi nationalism, it was literally dismembered by Franco's military forces on June 17, 1970, as a result of the historic demonstration in Zemla (popular neighborhood of the Saharawi capital), when militants of the independence movement and the general population took to the streets to peacefully reject the Spanish colonial presence and demand the implementation of UN resolutions, especially 1514 (XV) of 1960,

This historical feat, which cost countless human lives of defenseless civilians, dozens of wounded, imprisoned and the disappearance of the maximum Sahrawi leader at the hands of the Spanish army without his fate being known until today --51 years later - marked the first step in long road of the Saharawi people towards freedom.

A short time later, this process led to the emergence of an authentic national liberation movement with a politically consolidated program and the choice of armed struggle as the only possible way to eradicate Spanish colonialism from Western Sahara.

The foundation, on May 10, 1973, by a group of young Sahrawis led by El Uali Mustafa Sayed, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Río de Oro (Polisario Front), recognized by the international community as the only one The legitimate representative of the Saharawi people, undoubtedly constitutes a turning point in the recent history of this people, to the extent that it opens a new and superior stage in their struggle towards definitive emancipation.

The Uali was born in 1948 somewhere in the Mauritanian desert. His Saharawi family was nomadic and was dedicated to raising goats and camels. His childhood was spent in conditions of extreme poverty, but he managed in the midst of difficult circumstances to access primary school that he was able to finish thanks to great will and effort, which earned him a scholarship to study in Morocco. However, he was expelled from the high school where he was attending high school, for which he was forced to return to the community where his family was, beginning to work as a laborer for a very short time, after being fired.

Under these conditions, he moved to the city of Taroudant, where he had his first contacts with the ideas of independence of his people. He was able to continue his high school studies and enter university in 1970 to study law.

In college he became an activist for the cause of the Saharawi people. Following the events in Zemla, the brutal repression and disappearance of Brahim Basiri in 1971 assumed a full-time dedication to the liberation of Western Sahara. He traveled to Europe and made contact with popular and democratic organizations of that continent and Morocco to seek support for the anti-colonialist struggle, however, when he did not obtain greater success, he became convinced that the Saharawi people should obtain their independence from their own efforts. He was detained and tortured twice for his long-standing participation in the struggle of his people.

Thus, it turns to the creation of a political organization that would bring together all the Saharawi people. For this reason, it traveled through Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania, as well as a good part of the Sahara territory, until that May 10, 1973, the Polisario Front was born, which in its first manifesto indicates that the organization "... was born as the unique expression the masses, who opt for revolutionary violence and armed struggle as a means, so that the Saharawi, Arab and African people can enjoy their total freedom and face the maneuvers of Spanish colonialism. "

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A Sahrawi woman holds a Polisario Front flag during a ceremony to commemorate 40 years after the Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 2016 (Photo: Farouk Batiche / AFP)

As leader of the Polisario Front, El Uali led the first military actions against the Spanish army. These were years of advancement and growth in organizational activity while the war was developing in an incipient manner at the same time that it was ending in much of Africa, while a large number of new independent states emerged on the continent. Similarly, the Sahrawi people began to identify with the Polisario Front as an organization that defended their right to self-determination. In this context, El Uali consolidated itself as the undisputed leader not only of the Polisario Front, but also of the entire Saharawi people.

The weakness of the colonial system in Africa was directly related to the unstoppable advance of the struggle of the national liberation movements. In the case of the Sahara, the fragility of the Franco dictatorship associated with the illness of his mentor also intervened. In this context, Spain, faithful to the historic cowardly and ambiguous mood of its monarchy and political class, reached an agreement with Morocco and Mauritania to allow the two African countries to appropriate the Saharawi territory. Morocco invaded the Sahara by forcibly occupying an important part of the country, while Mauritania did the same from the south.

A good proportion of the population had to emigrate and take refuge in neighboring countries, especially in Algeria, which has assumed since then and until now a solidarity of great proportions with the Saharawi people and with the Polisario Front.

On February 27, 1976, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was proclaimed and El Uali was appointed as its first president. With this, a new stage began on the road to independence, in which the armed struggle against the new aggressors was increased.

In one of these actions, carried out in Mauritanian territory, on June 9, 1976, El Uali gave his life when, leading a group of combatants, he withdrew from a direct operation in the capital of that country that had been defined as the weakest link in the colonial alliance, and where most of the military efforts were directed. His imperishable example would mark the imprint of the Sahrawi freedom fighters. In his tribute, every June 9 the Martyrs' Day is commemorated as a memory and memory of who is considered the greatest hero of the Saharawi people.

His death did not stop the fight. In 1979 Mauritania withdrew from the Sahara in defeat, unable to resist the constant offensive of the Saharawi Liberation Army. In 1982, SADR was recognized as a full member of the Organization for African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU).

The war continued until in 1991 a ceasefire agreement was reached with Morocco under the auspices of the UN that was to organize a referendum on self-determination for the Saharawi people. However, 30 years later, the situation is the same: Morocco keeps a good part of the Sahara territory occupied while its people in very difficult conditions continue to resist in search of their independence.

The UN, wrapped in a cloak of complicity with Morocco as well as Europe, especially France and Spain, has been subjected to the blackmail of the medieval and rotten Moroccan monarchy to, finally, in collusion with it, maintain an anachronistic colonial status inexplicable in the century XXI.

Meanwhile, the Saharawi people and the Polisario Front as its sole representative, without any hesitation, maintain their unwavering sentiment and desire for independence. In this event, the indelible memory and the examples of life and dedication of Mohamed Sid Brahim Basiri and El Uali Mustafa Sayed will continue to point the way that will lead to victory and independence.

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Fri Jun 18, 2021 1:07 pm

Ethiopia: Tribalism versus National Consciousness
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 16 Jun 2021

Ethiopia: Tribalism versus National Consciousness

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The UN Human Rights Council meets in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ethiopians struggle to forge a national consciousness that supersedes ethnic tribalism, while international human rights NGOs discuss their "responsibility to protect" them, writes Ann Garrison.

“Fierce new ethnic nationalisms were born as a result of the TPLF’s brutal 30-year rule and its divide-and-conquer ethnic strategy, and this is very dangerous.”

Nearly 554,000 people are sleeping on the streets in the US -- 40% of them are Black. Of 2.3 million US prisoners, 34% are Black. However, the 06/01 quarterly report of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GlobalR2P) says that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the only human rights crisis in the Western hemisphere that warrants the attention of international law established by the United Nations. Those are just a few reasons to take its alarms about the ongoing human rights crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia, with a grain of salt or a hot pepper salad of skepticism.

A coalition of twelve NGOs, including GlobalR2P, has submitted a Joint NGO Call for a UN Human Rights Council resolution on the ongoing human rights crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia , for consideration at the 47th Session of the UN Human Rights Council , which will take place in Geneva between June 21 and July 15. The coalition includes Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and nine lesser known international human rights organizations, three of which appear to be African.

This is the text of this NGO coalition statement:
Joint NGO Call for a UN Human Rights Council resolution on the ongoing human rights crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia

11 June 2021

OPEN LETTER

To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council (Geneva, Switzerland)

Your Excellency,

We, the undersigned human rights non-governmental organizations, strongly urge the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to adopt a resolution at its upcoming 47th session (HRC47) on the ongoing human rights crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia .

Over the last seven months an overwhelming number of reports have emerged of abuses and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law (IHL/IHRL) during the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Reports by civil society organizations have detailed widespread massacres, violence against civilians and indiscriminate attacks across Tigray while preliminary analysis by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) indicates that all warring parties have committed abuses that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. There is now ample evidence[1] that atrocities continue to be committed, notably by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Eritrean Defense Forces, and Amhara regional special police and affiliated Fano militias. These include indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, widespread and mass extrajudicial executions , rape and other sexual violence , forced displacement , arbitrary detentions, including of displaced persons , widespread destruction and pillage of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals , schools , factories and businesses, and the destruction of refugee camps , crops and livestock.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict has repeatedly expressed alarm over the widespread and systematic commission of rape and sexual violence in Tigray. On 21 April she stated that women and girls in Tigray are being subjected to sexual violence “with a cruelty that is beyond comprehension,” including gang rape by men in uniform, targeted sexual attacks on young girls and pregnant women, and family members forced to witness these horrific abuses. The SRSG also stated that these reports, coupled with assessments by healthcare providers in the region, indicate that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war.

Thousands of civilians are estimated to have been killed, while the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes at least 1.7 million people remain displaced. On top of ethnic targeting and massacres within Tigray, there have been reports of government discrimination , demonization and hate speech directed at Tigrayans in other parts of Ethiopia. A number of UN officials, from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to UNICEF’s Executive Director and the UN Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect , have publicly called for urgent action to end the abuses in Tigray and alleviate the conflict’s devastating impact on the region’s civilian population.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator has also warned that famine is imminent in Tigray and that without a drastic upscaling of funding and access, hundreds of thousands of people could starve. Despite this looming risk, humanitarian workers have also been targeted throughout the conflict, with nine aid workers killed since November, the most recent on 29 May.

On 25 March, OHCHR and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission announced the launch of a joint investigation into the ongoing reports of atrocity crimes in Tigray. On 12 May, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) adopted an important resolution establishing a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to investigate violations of IHL [international humanitarian law] and IHRL [international human rights law] and identify perpetrators. Unfortunately, the HRC has so far remained largely silent on Tigray, aside from a welcome joint statement delivered by Germany on behalf of 42 states on 26 February 2021.

A robust, dedicated and coordinated approach to this human rights crisis by the international community is both critical and urgent, given the gravity of ongoing crimes, the complex nature of the situation, and the involvement of various parties. After seven months of serious violations and abuses, the HRC can no longer stay silent. It should take urgent action to address the crisis and fulfill its mandate to address and prevent violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations and abuses, and to respond promptly to emergencies. We therefore respectfully urge your Mission to work towards the adoption of a resolution at HRC47 that:

Recognizes the serious concerns expressed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect, and other senior UN officials regarding possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Tigray;
Requests the High Commissioner to report on her investigations, findings and recommendations to date regarding the human rights situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, and possible violations of IHL and IHRL at the HRC’s 48th session in the context of an enhanced interactive dialogue;
Also invites the ACHPR’s CoI to brief the HRC on its investigation at the enhanced interactive dialogue at the 48th session;
Emphasizes the important role of the HRC’s prevention mandate, as outlined in Resolution 45/31, and requests the High Commissioner to brief UN member states intersessionally and on an ad-hoc basis to update the HRC on the situation in Tigray.
The adoption of such a resolution would provide a concrete foundation for the HRC to decide on the action needed to prevent further human rights violations and abuses in Tigray and ensure accountability.

Excellencies, please accept the assurances of our highest consideration,

AfricanDefenders (Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network)
Amnesty International
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project)
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Global Justice Center
Human Rights Watch
International Service for Human Rights
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
Unitarian Universalist Association Office at the United Nations
World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy
[1] Amnesty International, Ethiopia: The Massacre in Axum , 26 February 2021; Human Rights Watch, Ethiopia: Eritrean Forces Massacre Tigray Civilians , 5 March 2021.
Ann Garrison:
I asked Ethiopian American human rights lawyer and activist Fitsum Alemu what he thinks of the resolution.

Fitsum Alemu: I fully agree with you. I'm in court every day and see who are the majority of people charged and imprisoned. Overall, the call for this resolution is one-sided. it could be quoted by all pro-Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) media, including the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, and Associated Press.

But one good thing about it is that it does not spare the TPLF, who are included in the list of perpetrators of human rights crimes.

Ann Garrison: I noted that one thing that distinguishes it from much of the press you mentioned.

FA: As to discrimination against Tigrayans within Ethiopia, I have no information. Millions of Tigrayans live outside of Tigray, but I do not have any evidence that the government or any other group has engaged in demonization and hate speech against Tigrayans, as is alleged in this document. There might be some groups doing that, but I do not see any evidence of a government discrimination campaign. In fact, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his government want the Tigrayan people to help them root out TPLF fighters in Tigray.

I know that the government has for some months closed some bank accounts opened in Tigray Province to prevent the TPLF from taking out money. But that has stopped. In fact, the government and prominent Ethiopians have been campaigning to raise money and collect food and other essentials for the people of Tigray Province. It was the TPLF activists who campaigned against it.

As to rape and sexual violence, there could be evidence of that becoming part of the war in Tigray, but when the TPLF dominated the federal government, there was widespread rape and sexual violence, and women protested that the TPLF was not protecting them.

“The government and prominent Ethiopians have been campaigning to raise money and collect food and other essentials for the people of Tigray Province.”

Also, we need to consider the fact that the TPLF freed thousands of convicted felons from prison, leaving the Tigrayan people defenseless against them, when it left the provincial government to go to war with the federal government.

In the end, this call for a resolution completely ignores the three thousand Amharas killed and one million Amharas deported from Be nis h a ngul-Gumuz , Oromia , and Southern Region , and the destruction of their churches, the confiscation of their properties, and the brutalities they have suffered in the past year. The Amhara provincial government says that there are now 800,00 internally displaced Amharas in its region who were expelled from these other regions because of their ethnicity.

AG: So Ethiopians had been suffering inter-ethnic violence in other regions before and after the war in Tigray Province began in November 2020, but none of these groups have attacked any federal military bases as the TPLF did in Tigray. Is that right?

FA: Yes.

AG: You yourself are an Ethiopian American of the Amhara ethnicity, correct?
FA: Yes.

AG: So I imagine you’re particularly concerned with this inter-ethnic violence against the Amhara, but is there other inter-ethnic violence occurring in other regions?

FA: Yes. Ethnic violence and crimes against humanity are also being committed against the Southern ethnicities including the Gedeo, Amaro and Kore.

AG: What does the so-called multinational federalist constitution adopted in 1995, after the TPLF came to power, have to do with this?

FA: The root cause of these ethnically targeted attacks and the instability of Ethiopia are the ethnic-based federal and regional constitutions instituted by the TPLF in 1995. I believe that the current constitutional system set up then has created regional apartheid systems. It gave regional governors all but absolute power and impunity from prosecution for human rights crimes. These governors, like the governors of Oromia, Benishangul, Somali, and the Southern Region, believe that their region is only for them, their ethnic majority. They ordered the deportation of other ethnic groups. The Somali governor deported Oromos, and the Oromo regional governor did vice versa. The Southern Regional governors deported 20,000 Amharas in 2012. People lost their lands and their livelihood simply because of their ethnicity.

“The current constitutional system set up then has created regional apartheid systems.”

The Constitution creates no federal protection against deportation from one ethnic state to another. This ethnic-based government system is not based on historical facts or tradition. For instance, the constitutions of the Oromia and Benishangul-Regional states consider “indigenous” people of the region as only Oromos and Gumuz, Berta, and Shinasha, respectively. Thus, the “non-indigenous” people within those regions have no political, economic or cultural rights in their own country. As a result, neither the regional nor the federal government provides protection for people of one ethnicity in a province allocated to another.

AG: Some of the Ethiopians I’ve spoken to have described the challenge that Ethiopia is facing is that of national consciousness versus tribalism, which Frantz Fanon wrote about in the third chapter of the Wretched of the Earth, The Pitfalls of National Consciousness . Would you agree with them?

FA: I agree. Ethiopia has been a guinea pig first for Soviet-style socialism and then this ethnic federalism. Both experiments have failed. If Ethiopians cannot change the current Constitution, create a new national consciousness, and prosecute human rights crimes, they will face more civil war and even disintegration into ethnolinguistic states. Now there is massive displacement, civil war, flagrant human rights abuse, ethnic massacres, and one-party rule. Fierce new ethnic nationalisms were born as a result of the TPLF’s brutal 30-year rule and its divide-and-conquer ethnic strategy, and this is very dangerous. Overcoming them is the greatest challenge that Ethiopians face.

AG: Supporters of Prime Minister Abiy seem to believe that he is trying to replace tribalism with Ethiopian citizenship, and that that is what is at stake in the national election coming up on June 21 . Do you agree with them, and if not, what do you think should be done, and by whom?

FA: No. Abiy speaks of forming national consciousness, but he is a person who joined an ethnic Oromo party at age 14. He is still not a democrat, but an ethnic party member and leader. During the daytime, he talks about Ethiopian nationalism and in the evening he talks with Oromo nationalists about how to bring Oromos to power. That is likely to lead to the disintegration of Ethiopia. Until the three largest ethnic groups, the Amharas, Oromos, and Tigrayans, learn to live in harmony, there won't be peace in Ethiopia.

AG: OK, but I feel I need to say here that we at Black Agenda Report have spoken to a number of people who feel that Prime Minister Abiy is a promising or even great leader, and we see the US and its human rights NGO satellites trying to undermine him. I myself haven’t come to any conclusions about Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and, like Black Agenda Report, I’m committed to opposing imperial aggression in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. I’m just trying to figure out what that might mean in the current Ethiopian context.

FA: Personally, I do not trust Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Some analysts considered him as “the Gorbachev of Ethiopia.” He was the leader of the reformers. The reformers agreed to release political prisoners, allow dissidents to openly participate in the political process, invited armed political groups to enter the country and continue their activism, and promised free media. As a part of the reform, the Abiy-team named a new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Director of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, and new Chairman of the National Electoral Board.

However, he failed to initiate constitutional reform. He failed to hold an election in a timely manner as mandated by the Constitution, and filled the judiciary and the executive branch with supporters and sympathizers. He jailed opposition leaders, like Eskinder Nega , banned anti-government rallies, and allowed ethno-nationalist regional violence.

AG: OK, and once again, I feel compelled to say that this is not my viewpoint or that of Black Agenda Report. We have not taken a position for or against the Abiy government, but against US aggression in Ethiopia and the region.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/ethio ... sciousness
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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