Amnesty lacked facts on Bush ‘violations', says Sata
By Chibaula Silwamba
Mon 05 Dec. 2011, 11:00 CAT
PRESIDENT Michael Sata says Amnesty International did not furnish Zambia with facts about human rights violations committed by George Bush for him to be arrested. Speaking to journalists at KK International Airport yesterday, President Sata said Zambia had not received facts from Amnesty International over the former president of the US, Bush to warrant his arrest.
The influential US-based human rights group, Amnesty International, on Thursday called on Zambia, Ethiopia and Tanzania to arrest Bush for human rights violations when he visited the three nations. Asked about that call, President Sata responded:
"To arrest who? To arrest him for what? Well, they Amnesty International haven't given us the facts. When they give us the facts, we will consider it."
As US president between 2001 and 2009, Bush authorised the use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques
[Torture techniques. - MrK]
on suspected terrorism detainees that Amnesty International and other human rights groups consider torture.
"International law requires that there be no safe haven for those responsible for torture; Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia must seize this opportunity to fulfill their obligations and end the impunity George W. Bush has so far enjoyed," Amnesty International senior legal adviser Matt Pollard stated in a media statement.
President Sata said Bush's visit to Zambia showed his government's commitment to interact with the outside world.
"We need to interact with lots of people; we need to interact with the world. We can't develop in isolation," President Sata said.
President Sata said the visit of Bush and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, whom he met in Livingstone for private talks on Saturday, showed he was helping bring back Zambia's lost glory.
"That is just to counteract you because the Zambian Watchdog online publication say ‘Mr. Sata doesn't travel' but I don't travel aimlessly. I travel when there is something to travel for," President Sata.
He said President Mugabe did not come to Zambia to meet him because of Bush's visit.
"No! No! President Mugabe is a neighbour. He is an African neighbour and there is no connection with the Americans. The Americans come; president Bush, it's a coincidence. That shows that Zambia is gaining back the glory which it lost," said President Sata. "We with President Mugabe discussed unity; unity of Africa."
President Sata, first lady Dr Christine Kaseba, ministers Geoffrey Mwamba (defence), Kennedy Sakeni (home affairs), Given Lubinda (information, broadcasting and tourism), secretary to the Cabinet Dr Joshua Kanganja, defence and service chiefs, US Ambassador to Zambia Mark Storella, Zambia's ambassador to the US Sheila Siwela among other dignitaries saw off Bush and his family when they left for Ethiopia.
The Bush family arrived in Zambia on Friday and launched the Pink Ribbon, Red Ribbon campaign meant to combat cervical cancer.
Ambassador Storella untied his necktie and gave it to President Sata, who in turn passed it over to Dr Kaseba, as a sign of gratitude to the head of state for the warm hosting of the Bush family and accompanying delegation.
"President Sata just told me he liked the necktie and I said, ‘in many cultures, when you say you like something, the person gives it to you, so here it is'. But also it was a good way to celebrate wonderful visit and to express in a small way our gratitude for the terrific job the Zambian government and President Sata have done in welcoming our former president," said Ambassador Storella.
Meanwhile, there were altercations between local journalists and US security personnel with the journalists accusing the security officers of being racist because of their mistreatment of the Zambian media personnel.
The US security, which had overrun the local police's roles, wanted to confine local journalists to a truck and block them from moving closer to take photographs or interview Bush.
"You have no option, but to get on the truck," one security officer ordered.
However, the journalists protested and refused to get on the truck.
"You are being racist. You are allowing American journalists to move closer to our President and Mr Bush but you want to block us. We won't accept that," one named journalist protested, forcing the security personnel to ease the restrictions.
After realising that the journalists had defied their orders, one US security personnel said: "We don't want you to be run over by the former president's motorcade."
A female US embassy official asked journalists to get on the truck or they would be chased. However, journalists just jeered at her.
Unsuccessful in their attempts to confine the journalists, the US security personnel turned to the Zambia Police officers, ordering them where to stand but the locals opposed them and went on without minding the orders.
After Bush left, one US security officer went back to where the journalists were standing and issued derogatory words but the scribes booed him, forcing him to leave.
"This is our country, you can't tell us what to do or not to do. You go and do that in Afghanistan or Iraq not here. We won't allow you to bully us, we are not terrorists" said one journalist as Zambian police officers laughed, in solidarity with the media personnel.
"You have done well these people also wanted to bully us the police but we have ignored them. We are now irritated with their ‘misbehaviour' so we are just brushing their orders aside," a police man said to the journalists as the two camps laughed with contempt at the US security personnel who were standing nearby.
Several photojournalists disregarded the cordon line the US security personnel had made for them and proceeded to the aircraft to photograph President Sata and Bush.
"Protect your former president but us we are here to cover our President. You must have respect for your host. You can't block us from covering our president under the pretext that you are protecting Bush," one journalist said.
The local journalists have launched a campaign to petition Ambassador Storella over the mistreatment suffered during the former US president's visit.
Labels: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, GEORGE BUSH, MICHAEL SATA, WAR CRIMES
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Sata defends Bush and Mugabe visit coincidence in Zambia
TIME PUBLISHED - Sunday, December 4, 2011, 5:45 pm
President Michael Sata has said that Zambia cannot afford to exist in isolation therefore the need to interact with other countries. The President said this today during the departure of Former American President, George .W. Bush.
Mr Sata has refuted that the visit by Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe to Zambia had any connection with the visit of Mr Bush. He explained that Mr. Mugabe is an African neighbour and that his visit to Zambia during Mr. Bush’s trip to Africa is a coincidence.
The President told journalists that during Mr. Mugabe’s visit on Saturday the Heads of State discussed issues regarding unity of Africa.
President Sata hosted Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Bush who has been on each others’ throat.
Mr.Bush left at about 06:55 hours on this morning. Mr.Bush was in Zambia on a two- day working visit to promote HIV/AIDS relief efforts and to create awareness on and cervical cancer.
During his visit Mr. Bush launched the HIV and cancer campaign in Zambia.
Local journalists were upset that they had been quarantined in a truck while American journalists had been allowed to move around.
He also visited the cancer hospital at UTH, Peace Corps and Chikumbuso in Ng’ombe among others.
Meanwhile, Zambian journalists got into a big argument with American Embassy security staff who were forcing them to get into a truck and operate from there during Mr. Bush’s departure.
One of the security personnel told journalists that they had no option but to operate from the truck.
Local journalists were upset that they had been quarantined in a truck while American journalists had been allowed to move around.
Photo journalists and camera persons were also upset that they could not get proper pictures of President Sata.
During Mr. Bush’s visit journalists had been subjected to physical and verbal harassment by American Secret service staff.
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, JOURNALISM, MICHAEL SATA, ROBERT MUGABE
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Zambia cannot arrest Bush-Sata
TIME PUBLISHED - Sunday, December 4, 2011, 5:55 pm
Zambia had no sufficient information to arrest Former US President George W. Bush who was visiting the country. President Michael Sata says the Amnesty International had not given government sufficient information regarding Mr. Bush’s arrest.
Mr. Sata was speaking to journalists shortly after he arrived at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport where he had gone to see off Mr. Bush on today. The Amnesty International had made fresh calls on three countries to arrest Mr. Bush during his trip to Africa.
Mr. Bush whose second stop over was Zambia after visiting Tanzania has left for Ethiopia.
He is in Africa to promote HIV/AIDS relief efforts and to raise awareness on cervical cancer.
And yesterday, Zambia has dismissed an international rights group’s call for the arrest on torture charges of former President George W. Bush, who has been touring Africa to raise awareness about cervical and breast cancer.
“On what basis does Amnesty International want us to arrest President Bush?” Foreign Affairs Minister Chishimba Kambwili asked.
Kambwili said Zambia would have considered the request only if it had come from the International Criminal Court acting on behalf of international organizations like the United Nations.
Earlier in the week, Amnesty International said it had asked Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia to arrest Bush, “someone who has admitted to authorizing waterboarding.” As president, Bush authorized the interrogation technique that simulates drowning and is viewed as torture by many.
Bush is warmly remembered across Africa for his U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which since 2003 has provided AIDS treatment to millions on the continent hardest hit by the disease.
Bush started his Africa tour in Tanzania. He launched his Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon project Friday in Zambia.
The project is aimed at expanding the availability of breast care education and cervical cancer screening and treatment.
[ZNBC]
Labels: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, CHISHIMBA KAMBWILI, GEORGE BUSH, HIV/AIDS, MICHAEL SATA, WAR CRIMES
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Analysts hail war crimes verdict against Blair, Bush
Wednesday, 30 November 2011 00:00
Herald Reporters
ANALYSTS have hailed the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission verdict that found George W Bush and Tony Blair guilty of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and genocide as a result of their roles in the Iraq War.
The tribunal consists of five judges with judicial and academic backgrounds.
The tribunal called for the reform of the International Criminal Court, saying it was pursuing Western interests.
Former United States vice president Dick Cheney in August said he feared being tried by the ICC for crimes against humanity.
Cheney confided in former White House chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson that he feared being tried.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal was founded by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed specifically to try Mr Bush and Mr Blair for the invasion of Iraq.
Though the verdict carries no legal force, analysts said it set good precedence for the two leaders to be tried at an international court.
The verdict was announced last week.
RELATED ARTICLES
* Court finds Bush, Blair guilty of war crimes
University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Dr Charity Manyeruke said the judgment was symbolic and exposed the ICC's bias.
"The problem is international law isn't equal, it is controlled by a few states that are powerful and the court has become subjective and biased against developing countries," she said.
"Ordinarily, the ICC is supposed to show value and practices of the entire world but it's only in favour of the Americans and the European Union.
"However, this verdict shows that Bush and Blair are liable and should be tried in a fair court."
She said Western countries were using the ICC to intimidate developing countries that go against their (western countries) interests.
Dr Manyeruke said it was important for Mr Bush and Mr Blair to be tried for crimes against humanity.
Political Science and International Affairs lecturer at the Midlands State University Dr Mark Chingono said the tribunal's verdict was a major step in bringing the two to book.
"This verdict sets good precedence as it gives moral high ground to the third world countries and it somehow restrains these powerful countries not to invade other countries in future.
"The challenge we have is that in international politics, what matters is power and at the moment those countries hold so much power and the question now is can we be able to bring them before a fair court," Dr Chingono said.
He said it was common knowledge that the British and the Americans invaded Iraq to push for their interests because the invasion was not mandated by the United Nations.
Another political analyst Mr Godwine Mureriwa said the verdict by the tribunal had confirmed that the ICC had been discredited because of its bias towards Western interests.
"Now is the time for developing countries to send a clear message to the Western powers that the ICC has been discredited by its failure to apply the law equally.
"If the ICC was properly set up, Bush and Blair would have been tried for crimes against humanity a long time ago. It appears this court is only there to prosecute Africans and Asians who are victims themselves," he said.
The tribunal has since written to Mr Bush and Mr Blair and is yet to receive a response from the two former leaders.
Two high-profile French lawyers, Jacques Vergès and former Socialist Party minister Roland Dumas have demanded that French president Nicolas Sarkozy be charged with crimes against humanity committed in Libya - "a brutal aggression against a sovereign nation."
Experts have also argued that the NATO alliance that led the unprovoked armed attacks against Libya be declared war criminals against humanity.
"The leaders of the attacking countries, including United States President Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper should be declared war criminals under International Law", the statement said.
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, TONY BLAIR, WAR CRIMES
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(ZIMPAPERS) Continuation of Bush-Obama legacy
Continuation of Bush-Obama legacy
Saturday, 15 January 2011 19:25 Blogs
AFRICAN FOCUS By Tafataona Mahoso
The British Terrorism Act of 2000 defines a terrorist act as “the use or threat of action designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public” and “the use or threat of action made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause”.
On December 22 2010, the US government, through its Department of the Treasury, announced a new escalation of its financial, economic and ideological war upon the people of Zimbabwe by issuing a new decree against the Office of the Attorney-General of Zimbabwe in the form of Executive Order 1369:
“As a result of today’s designation, US persons (individuals, institutions and companies) are prohibited from engaging in (business or any other) transactions with (Zimbabwe’s Attorney-General) Tomana, and any assets he holds under US jurisdiction are frozen. (Attorney-General) Johannes Tomana's targeting of selected political opponents (according to the US government’s view) threatens the rule of law in Zimbabwe, harms the integrity of the Government of National Unity and counters the will of the Zimbabwean people, who have expressed their desire to build a democratic political system.”
This is an escalation of the US Government’s war against Zimbabwe which was started in 2001 by former US president George W. Bush. The enemies of Zimbabwe consider this nation’s struggle to complete its sovereignty and secure its national assets to constitute a state of emergency for them.
US President Barack Obama’s renewal of George W. Bush’s illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe on March 2 2010 was entitled “Continuation of the (US) National Emergency With Respect to Zimbabwe.”
After citing the US’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act and three Presidential Emergency Powers decrees going back to March 2003, Obama concluded his Presidential decree on Zimbabwe thus:
“Therefore in accordance with Section 202 (d) of the National Emergency Act, I am continuing for one year the national emergency with respect to the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons . . .”
Britain, the European Union, Australia and most of the other Anglo-Saxon states have followed US leadership and done the same against little Zimbabwe.
They did not send a committee to Tamandayi or Muzarabani to ventilate the issue and find out if Zimbabweans think their reclamation of white-stolen land and minerals should constitute a national emergency for the US and Europe.
They did not ventilate the issues at all. In fact they created laws barring from entry into those states any Zimbabwean who could ventilate this issue. It had to be decided as an emergency and by decree.
Attorney-General Tomana is both barred and silenced. He cannot travel freely to these white countries and he cannot represent the people and State of Zimbabwe in those global apartheid forums in which the Anglo-Saxon powers pronounce decrees against the interests of the people of Zimbabwe!
This is because what imperialism teaches its enemies through media and NGOs is the opposite of what it teaches its own children through hard-nosed practice.
Imperialist practice in real time and real life teaches that:
“Ventilation is for those who are fainting or faint-hearted; transparency is for those who are empty inside and have no interests or secrets of value.”
Yet the real rule of law which Zimbabwe’s Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku articulated at the opening of Zimbabwe’s judicial year on January 10 2011 includes the following clear provisions:
“The powers of the Attorney-General under Subsection (4) (of Section 76 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe) may be exercised by him in person or through other persons acting in accordance with his general or specific instructions . . .
The powers of the Attorney-General under Subsection (4) (b) and (c) (of Section 76 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe) shall be rested in him to the exclusion of any other person or authority . . .”
(That means powers) “to take over and continue criminal proceedings that have been instituted by any other persons or authority before any court, not being a court established by a disciplinary law, and to prosecute or defend an appeal from any determination in proceedings taken over by him and . . . to discontinue at any stage before judgment is delivered any criminal proceedings he has instituted under paragraph (a) or taken over under paragraph (b) or any appeal prosecuted or defended by him from any determination in such proceedings.”
Moreover, “In the exercise of his powers . . . the Attorney-General shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority (not even the President of the imperial government of the Anglo-Saxon axis!).
“The provisions (quoted) shall apply in relation to any case stated or (any) question of law reserved for the purposes of any criminal proceedings to any other court as they apply in relation to any determination in criminal proceedings.”
Since the US’s terroristic aggression against Zimbabwe’s political, legal, economic and security systems is being carried out at the invitation of the various MDC formations and foreign-sponsored NGOs set up to support them, it is important to ask whether or not all the parties in the current inclusive Government do agree that the independence of the Attorney-General is part and parcel of the independence of the judiciary which the Chief Justice asserted so emphatically on January 10 2011.
The same three parties signed the 2007 Draft Constitution of Zimbabwe called the “Kariba Draft” and this is what that co-signed draft says:
“In the exercise of his or her powers regarding criminal prosecutions, the Attorney-General is not subject to the direction or control of anyone else (including Obama), and he or she must be guided by the public interest, the interest of the administration of justice and the need to prevent abuse of the legal process.”
Readers will have seen the NewsDay story called “Law Society of Zimbabwe hails Chief Justice” on January 13 2010 for asserting the independence of the judiciary.
The LSZ is being cynical. Some of its leaders have been implicated in inviting gross interference with the AG’s Office.
“On May 20 2010, The Herald published a puzzling story called “Parly summons A-G over Zambian debt”.
In itself, even the title is puzzling. The Attorney-General’s Office is part of the judicial system whose “independence” almost everybody was shouting about at that very same time in mid to late May 2010.
Why, then, would a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee just “summon” such a high-ranking official in that judicial system, let alone announce it in the Press before the official had even been invited?
The Herald story suggests that the committee complained about the Attorney-General’s non-attendance on or before May 19, for the story to be published on May 20 2010. The LSZ did not raise a finger.
Lo and behold, the Clerk of Parliament, Cde Austin Zvoma, wrote to the Attorney-General on May 21 2010, two days after the complaint to The Herald about his failure to respond to Parliament’s demands. Was the Attorney-General expected to reply through The Herald? The LSZ did not raise a finger.
“On the very same day that Parliament wrote the Attorney-General, May 21 2010, the GMB’s deputy general manager, finance and administration, wrote to the Attorney-General to assure him that the attorney for the Food Reserve Agency of Zambia, the debtor, had assured the GMB that he was going to appeal to the Attorney-General of Zambia to help clear the way for the GMB to be paid.
This raised two questions: Whether the GMB official who appeared before the committee told it the same information and why the committee would still insist on summoning the Attorney-General; and why the committee did not want to deal with Zambian legislators while the Attorney-General, if he found it necessary, could not be left to negotiate with his Zambian counterpart in confidence?
What benefit would the people of Zimbabwe, represented by Parliament, obtain from embarrassing both our Attorney-General and the Zambian government through the Press and before talking to either of them?
Indeed the same story found its way into The Financial Gazette of May 27 2010, where it was expanded and elaborated.
“The plot became a bit clearer when one discovered that on the very same day of the confusing and confused attempt to attack the Office of the Attorney-General though The Herald, the Law Society of Zimbabwe also “summoned” the very same Attorney-General to appear before its disciplinary committee to answer questions about how he became one of the millions of Zimbabwe’s landless people who benefited from the African land reclamation and land tenure revolution!
“If readers of this column go back to the instalment for August 6 2006, they will find that the Law Society was recycling in 2010 stale allegations which it raised against Cde Tomana on December 16 2004, when Cde Tomana was just a legal practitioner at Muzangaza, Mandaza and Tomana. The August 6 2006 instalment included the following passage which is relevant even now:
“The current leaders of the Law Society of Zimbabwe have been harassing legal practitioners with whom they disagree ideologically, especially those who have participated in or who accept and celebrate the achievements of the Second and Third Chimurenga . . .
Using Rhodesian law firms, leaders of the LSZ have been mounting efforts to deregister mostly African lawyers who have benefited from the African land reclamation revolution, accusing them of theft of property and ethnic cleansing.
So, the LSZ’s celebration of judicial independence is not consistent if we consider its relationship with the AG.
Significance of Anglo-Saxon Terror Targeting the Office of the Attorney-General
Barack Obama’s decree does target Attorney-General Johannes Tomana but is not about the person or the individual called Johannes Tomana.
The terror decree is aimed at Tomana’s commitment to the requirements of the job and Office of the Attorney-General.
In other words, the attack is intended to create and maintain the perception long established through Anglo-Saxon and MDC-T propaganda that illegal sanctions are targeted against a few individuals while, in fact, hitting the economic system, the security system and the constitutional order in ways that precipitate real terror and suffering for the very same people who are being deceived into believing that it is only the person of Tomana at risk.
The most significant thing about the terror announcement by the US Treasury Department against Zimbabwe’s Attorney-General is its timing:
Execution of the terror is specifically delegated to a financial and economic agency; it has been delegated to a financial and economic agency at the very same time that the AG’s office is being called upon to consolidate legally the gains of he Third Chimurenga, that is the indigenisation and empowerment programmes of the liberation movement. The public importance of the Attorney-General’s office in that consolidation can be illustrated by referring to a few recent actions and developments:
* Zimbabwe convinced Sadc to suspend the so-called Sadc Tribunal on account of its illegal and vindictive pronouncements against the constitutionality of Zimbabwe’s land redistribution and agrarian revolution. The AG’s office led the way in that successful fight.
* The same AG’s office succeeded in obtaining from the Constitutional Court judgment SC 31 of 2010 on November 26 2010 which brought to an end some of the most retrogressive and unjust acts of litigation against the African land reclamation movement and the resulting land redistribution programme, thereby rectifying 100 years of African impoverishment, dispossession and mass hunger for land.
* The same AG’s office successfully defended the public property of the people of Zimbabwe in South Africa which the former Rhodesian settlers and their European supporters were threatening to attach as compensation for the white-stolen land which the African majority had just reclaimed in Zimbabwe after 100 years of dispossession.
* The same AG’s office had successfully guided Zimbabwe’s delegations to meetings of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) and the International Diamond Council; and that advice resulted in Zimbabwe’s achievement of certification against continuing opposition and manipulation of the KPCS by the US, Canada, Australia and other white racist forces seeking to have Zimbabwe’s diamonds banned from the international market.
* The same AG’s office was about to advise the Government of Zimbabwe how to use the nation’s enormous mineral resources and other assets, how to use the nation's newly enacted indigenisation and empowerment legislation, against companies from those very same powers who continued to place this country under illegal sanctions while benefiting from our investment and trade market.
* In addition, the AG's office had just announced its intention to advice the Government of Zimbabwe on ways to respond to possible breaches of the constitution committed by some members of the current inclusive Government and revealed in secret US State Department cables recently made available by WikiLeaks.
In this context, it is obvious that the decree against Cde Tomana is a blatant act of aggression and intimidation intended to stop the Government of Zimbabwe from responding democratically and constitutionally to the needs and demands of the African majority as expressed, for instance, at the Annual National People’s Conference of Zanu-PF in Mutare in December 2010.
The best way to demonstrate that the latest decree against Cde Tomana represents an escalation of Anglo-Saxon terror is to carry out an objective test using a bipartisan Bill which the US itself turned into law in response to the general national security emergency caused by the September 11 2001 terrorist bombings of New York City and the Pentagon.
The objective test can be conducted by simply establishing how important the office of the Attorney-General is in upholding the US constitutional order as demonstrated through references to actions which the attorney-general of the United States of America was mandated and expected to execute by both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate on behalf of the people in the face of external threats.
The 131-page US Patriot Act was the main instrument and the attorney-general of the United States is an integral feature of that 131-page Act. To enable readers to appreciate the cynicism of the Obama administration and the seriousness of that administration’s attempts to interfere with the office of the Attorney-General of Zimbabwe in the name of democracy and the rule of law, it will be necessary to show by using just one example of a piece of US law, how seriously the North Americans themselves treat their office of the attorney-general.
The general emergency unleashed by events on September 11 2001 precipitated a commercial, financial, economic, military and general security crisis which required the mobilisation of the entire people and the creation of a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security together with hundreds of other agencies. The key instrument for such reorganisation and mobilisation was the US Patriot Act.
The office of the attorney-general of the US is referred to substantially in that Act at least 85 times in 128 substantive pages of text covering 915 sections. There is no room now to illustrate exactly how that office of the attorney-general is employed and empowered in the 85 references.
That has to wait for the next instalment.
Labels: BARACK OBAMA, GEORGE BUSH, JOHANNES TOMANA, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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Waterboarding is torture, Downing Street confirms
No 10 dismisses George Bush's claim in his memoirs that interrogation technique is legal and helped foil attacks on Heathrow and Canary Wharf
* Haroon Siddique and Chris McGreal
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 November 2010 15.04 GMT
George Bush told NBC's Matt Lauer that critics of waterboarding should read his memoirs George Bush told NBC's Matt Lauer that critics of waterboarding should read his memoirs. Photograph: NBCU photobank/Rex Features
Downing Street today dismissed George Bush's claim that waterboarding is not torture after the former president used his memoirs to play down the brutality of the interrogation technique and claimed that it saved British lives.
Waterboarding, which was banned by President Barack Obama, helped foil attacks on Heathrow airport, Canary Wharf and a number of US targets around the world, according to Bush.
In Decision Points, published today, Bush insists the practice – which simulates drowning – is not torture, describing it instead as one of a number of "enhanced interrogation techniques".
But Downing Street confirmed the British government still shared Obama's opinion that waterboarding constitutes torture. "It comes under that definition in our view," a No 10 spokeswoman said.
The former chair of the Commons intelligence and security committee, Kim Howells, cast doubt on Bush's claim that it had helped save British lives. "We are not convinced," said the Labour MP.
In an interview with the Times, Bush said: "Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives."
Asked if he had authorised the use of the technique in the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Bush answered: "Damn right!"
"We capture the guy, the chief operating officer of al-Qaida, who kills 3,000 people. We felt he had the information about another attack.
"He says: 'I'll talk to you when I get my lawyer.' I say: 'What options are available and legal?'"
In his memoir, Bush writes that waterboarding was highly effective, providing "large amounts of information".
"No doubt the procedure was tough, but medical experts assured the CIA that it did no lasting harm," he writes. "I knew an interrogation programme this sensitive and controversial would one day become public. When it did, we would open ourselves up to criticism that America had compromised our moral values. I would have preferred that we get the information another way. But the choice between security and values was real.
"Their interrogations helped break up plots to attack American diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf in London, and multiple targets in the United States."
The technique was first approved for Abu Zubaydah, an al-Qaida figure arrested in Pakistan in 2002 who was suspected of involvement in a plot to attack Los Angeles International airport.
"His understanding of Islam was that he had to resist interrogation only up to a certain point," Bush writes. "Waterboarding was the technique that allowed him to reach that threshold, fulfil his religious duty, and then co-operate."
Waterboarding is one of a number of controversial practices banned by Obama since he succeeded Bush. The new president has denounced the practice as torture.
Bush refused to accept that definition. "The lawyer said it was legal," the former president told NBC's Today programme. "He said it did not fall within the anti-torture act. I'm not a lawyer. But you gotta trust the judgment of people around you, and I do."
Asked about allegations that lawyers had been pressurised into giving the president the answer he wanted to hear, Bush directed his critics to read the book. He gave an identical response when NBC interviewer Matt Lauer asked him whether it would be legal for another country to waterboard a captured US solider.
While Obama has said the US is no safer as a result of waterboarding and other forms of torture, Bush insisted: "Using those techniques saved lives. My job was to protect America. And I did."
He writes that waterboarding would have been used on more prisoners if the right people had been captured.
"Had we captured more al-Qaida operatives with significant intelligence value, I would have used the programme for them as well."
The claim that waterboarding prevented London attacks was challenged by Howells, . He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there had been and still were "real plots", but added that "we're not convinced" that waterboarding produced information which was "instrumental in preventing these plots coming to fruition and murdering people".
Howells said Bush was trying to "justify what he did to the world", a viewpoint echoed by the former shadow home secretary David Davis.
Davis told Today that although security information provided from abroad would have to be used regardless of how it was obtained, torture did not work and should be discouraged.
"People under torture tell you what you want to hear," he said. "You'll get the wrong information and ... apart from being immoral, apart from destroying our standing in the world, and apart from undermining the way of life we're trying to defend, it actually doesn't deliver."
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, TORTURE, WAR CRIMES
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This is the final proof that the collapse of the Zimbabwean Dollar, the start of hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, occurred in the very same year and time that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery act of 2001 came into effect and put the Zimbabwean government on a credit freeze. To underline the point, it was the Bush Administration that caused the collapse of the Zimbabwean Dollar.
Finally, I have the data for the Zimbabwean currency. Notice what happens in the year 2002, the year that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 put the Zimbabwean government on a credit freeze. I have already demonstrated the collapse of the 2001 trade surplus in the year 2002. Case closed. It were the Bush Administration sanctions.
UPDATE 28/03/2012: Correction - George W. Bush signed ZDERA into law on December 21st, 2001, not December 31st 2001, as mentioned on the chart.
Notice the SUDDEN collapse of the Zimbabwean Dollar against the US Dollar in the year 2002.
UPDATE
The precise nature of this credit freeze, illegally put on the Zimbabwean government (and people) by the Bush Administration, aided by the African diamond interest driven, corporatist Neo Democrat wing of the Democratic Party - Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold and Joe Biden:
****
SEC. 4. SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY.
(c) MULTILATERAL FINANCING RESTRICTION- ... the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against--
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.
****
These are the financial sanctions that put the country of Zimbabwe on a credit freeze in the year 2002, the year the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 came into force.
The banks which are directly mentioned and to which this credit freeze applies:
****
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS- The term `international financial institutions' means the
multilateral development banks and the
International Monetary Fund.
(2) MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS- The term `multilateral development banks' means the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the
International Development Association, the
International Finance Corporation, the
Inter-American Development Bank, the
Asian Development Bank, the
Inter-American Investment Corporation, the
African Development Bank, the
African Development Fund, the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the
Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency.
****
The effects of this 2002 credit freeze on the trade surplus:
****
Table 1: Zimbabwe - Key economic indicators, 2001–2008
Trade Deficit in million USD (negative deficit is a surplus)
2000* 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
-295.6 -323 18 108 305 388 467
****
Notice the collapse of the 2001 trade surplus in the year 2002.
The Zimbabwe Dollar was deliberately sunk by the Bush Administration, with the help of the MDC, in order to prevent the success of the Fast Track land reform program, and to ready Zimbabwe for a neoliberal takeover by the MDC - privatisation of parasdtatals and mines, deregulation of labour and environmental laws, and free markets for corporate capital - unlimited expatriation of profits and no taxes for corporations.
This is the treasonous role played by the MDC, for which, as the cowards they are, tried to blame President Mugabe and the ZANU-PF.
In the words of Chester Crocker: In order to separate the people of Zimbabwe from the ZANU-PF, we have to make their economy scream, and I hope you senators have the stomach for what you have to do.
In contrast, these are the words of then Democratic congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on the introduction of ZDERA in 2001 on December 4th 2001, 3 weeks before the Act was signed into law by President Bush:
SPEECH OF HON. CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY OF GEORGIA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesday, December 4, 2001
* Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, at the international Relations Committee meeting of November 28, 2001, which considered the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, I asked a question of my colleagues who were vociferously supporting this misdirected piece of legislation: ``Can anyone explain how the people in question who now have the land in question in Zimbabwe got title to the land?''
* My query was met with a deafening silence. Those who knew did not want to admit the truth and those who didn't know should have known--that the land was stolen from its indigenous peoples through the British South Africa Company and any ``titles'' to it were illegal and invalid. Whatever the reason for their silence, the answer to this question is the unspoken but real reason for why the United States Congress is now concentrating its time and resources on squeezing an economically-devastated African state under the hypocritical guise of providing a ``transition to democracy.''
* Zimbabwe is Africa's second-longest stable democracy. It is multi-party. It had elections last year where the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change, won over 50 seats in the parliament. It has an opposition press which vigorously criticizes the government and governing party. It has an independent judiciary which issues decisions contrary to the wishes of the governing party. Zimbabwe is not without troubles, but neither is the United States. I have not heard anyone proposing a United States Democracy Act following last year's Presidential electoral debacle. And if a foreign country were to pass legislation calling for a United States Democracy Act which provided funding for United States opposition parties under the fig leaf of ``Voter Education,'' this body and this country would not stand for it.
* There are many de jure and de facto one-party states in the world which are the recipients of support of the United States government. They are not the subject of Congressional legislative sanctions. To any honest observer, Zimbabwe's sin is that it has taken the position to right a wrong, whose resolution has been too long overdue--to return its land to its people. The Zimbabwean government has said that a situation where 2 percent of the population owns 85 percent of the best land is untenable. Those who presently own more than one farm will no longer be able to do so.
* When we get right down to it, this legislation is nothing more than a formal declaration of United States complicity in a program to maintain white-skin privilege. We can call it an ``incentives'' bill, but that does not change its essential ``sanctions'' nature. It is racist and against the interests of the masses of Zimbabweans. In the long-run the Zimbabwe Democracy Act will work against the United States having a mutually beneficial relationship with Africa.
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, NEOCOLONIALISM, SANCTIONS, ZDERA, ZIMBABWE DOLLAR
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Sanctions hit local British pensioners
Tribune-Herald Reporter.
THE Western-imposed economic sanctions have hit pensioners hard, prompting the British government to airlift the first five of its 500 elderly citizens resident in Zimbabwe, whose pensions and investments were wiped out by the ravages of hyperinflation.
Economists say hyperinflation spawned by the illegal sanctions wiped out over 90 percent of working capital for every business and shop in Zimbabwe and was particularly vicious on pensions and individual investments, which were rendered worthless.
In February, Britain offered its citizens living in Zimbabwe a resettlement package to escape the prevailing economic problems.
Britain’s emergency measure to airlift its citizens came as increasing numbers of Britons approached the British embassy in Harare asking for help to leave.
Up to 5 000 elderly and infirm Britons were expected to take advantage of the British government’s "Zimbabwe Resettlement Programme", though only 500 are said to have signed up.
Observers have, however, expressed outrage over the British move saying the sanctions are colour blind as they have affected millions of black families as well, many of whom live on less than US$1 a day.
They said the repatriation showed shocking double standards as it showed that London was acknowledging the ruinous nature of the sanctions, yet it was keen to maintain them against black Zimbabweans.
‘‘Instead of airlifting its white citizens, Britain should spearhead the removal of the sanctions to enable the majority black Zimbabweans to live a better life as well,’’ charged Mr Reketai Chimbiro of Mabvuku.
Mr Cremio Risinamhodzi of the University of Zimbabwe said the British move should be a wake-up call to some black Zimbabweans who saw the British as messiahs.
‘‘When the story first surfaced that the British government wanted to repatriate its senior citizens, I remember reading that Western agencies had cushioned many of the white pensioners from the ravages of hyperinflation, yet they were not similarly inclined where black pensioners are concerned.’’
Those being repatriated, though resident in Zimbabwe, hold United Kingdom passports.
In his testimony to the US Senate in September 2001, ahead of the passing of the US sanctions, the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester Crocker called for the annihilation of the Zimbabwean economy.
Crocker said, ‘‘to separate the Zimbabwean people from Robert Mugabe, we are going to have to make the economy scream. And I hope you, Senators, have the stomach for it.’’
One of the senior citizens hard-hit by the screaming economy, Anne Budden (80) is leaving the land of her birth because she can no longer bear to be "a burden on my daughters in Zimbabwe".
"Their husbands are nearing retirement age. They keep on saying I should change my mind, but I must go.
"My hip operation took my last money. Our three pensions, on which we lived well, disappeared about five years ago. When Zimbabwe changed to US dollars in February, Caltex (her late husband’s former employer) cancelled my medical aid."
Budden, widowed two years ago, lives in a rented flat paid for by her daughter in the UK.
"I have had a lovely life, shielded from what is going on outside, with space, nice people and my own garden, and I will miss that, and especially my two daughters in Zimbabwe.
"I am leaving the country of my birth, but going to the land of my ancestors; I love the Queen and have a daughter in the UK."
Budden, daughter of the military commander of British forces in the old Southern Rhodesia, has chosen to live west of London, far from her daughter, to be next door to a friend from Harare, who was also due to be repatriated on Sunday.
"I feel so very, very sorry about the suffering of black people in Zimbabwe," she quipped.
Trained in nursing at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital, when pioneering heart transplant surgeon Chris Barnaard and his brother Marius were becoming doctors, she and her husband had a straightforward life in Harare until the hyperinflation wiped out their pensions and savings.
"In February, after Zimbabwe went to US dollars, I got a bank statement and there was one dollar in it — not an American dollar, a Zimbabwe dollar."
As each elderly, penniless Briton leaves Zimbabwe, money raised by various charities will be freed for more than 1 500 destitute elderly Zimbabweans with no other citizenship, no family and no escape.
"I have done more good than wrong, I helped more people than helped me and I deserve a Christian burial. I don’t want to get ill in Zimbabwe," said Scotsman Fred Noble (78), a widower.
He returns to Fife, 51 years after he and his wife left for Rhodesia with £100. He worked for the railways, retiring on pension 13 years ago.
Noble’s investments disappeared overnight when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe chopped 12 zeros off the currency as hyperinflation hit more than 230 million percent.
Overnight his quadrillions of Zimbabwean dollars were worth less than a penny.
"We didn’t do anything wrong — we paid taxes, invested for our old age. My pension and medical aid from the railways stopped five years ago."
The European Union, the United States and their allies imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe in response to the Government’s decision to repossess land from white commercial farmers for distribution to landless black Zimbabweans.
The sanctions have been condemned by progressive people the world over, though the EU and the US still refuse to scrap them. – Tribune-Herald Reporter.
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, SANCTIONS
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Bush — A president Zim, world won’t miss
Assistant News Editor Isdore Guvamombe
UNITED States President George W. Bush leaves office a few days from now with blood dripping from his hands and it is a trite but true observation that the dead and the living but downtrodden people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Zimbabwe and all over the world will not miss him. Bush leaves as the cruelest of modern-day world leaders.
One simply has to look at the state of Iraq today, or the evil he has perpetuated in the DRC, Palestine and Lebanon with the Rwandese and Israelis fronting for him.
There is also the case of Afghanistan, which he has robbed of an opportunity of conducting its affairs in a normal manner any time soon.
Zimbabweans, too, will remember Bush as the man who instigated widespread economic ruin in their country through the promulgation of a malevolent sanctions regime.
Today, all Zimbabweans — men, women and children — are reeling from agonising and dehumanising sanctions, tailor-made by the British and reinforced by Bush to punish President Mugabe for his steadfast refusal to sub-contract the advancement of the people to the evil whims of Bush, Blair, Brown and other heartless Western imperialists.
Bush leaves office after making monumental political killings that epitomise him as a bloody war criminal deserving a berth at the International Criminal Court.
But, of course, the US will not allow the world to drag their warmonger to The Hague like was done with Charles Taylor.
If the world had an iota of fairness and justice, Bush would certainly be a good candidate for the ICC where he would face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But this world is disgustingly unfair.
Just who committed more crimes, Bush or Taylor?
Just who killed many Iraqis, Bush or Saddam Hussein?
Which modern-day President hanged another president besides Bush?
Just when can the world start telling the truth?
Just when can the world see that most, if not all, major problems it faces today have a lot to do with British and US attitudes, especially their unquenchable thirst for the world’s natural resources?
Whoever has tried to control the natural resources of his country against British and American interests has been quickly labeled undemocratic and a dictator.
President Mugabe is a case in point, so is Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and many others in the time of Bush’s occupancy of the White House.
Picture this: Zimbabwe has a cholera outbreak and the British and Americans moot military intervention.
Hardly two weeks after America and Britain are blocked by sane Russia, China, South Africa and other progressive countries from pushing for military intervention in Zimbabwe, Israel pounds Palestinians like one pounding fodder.
America and Britain say nothing about military intervention to stop Israel and only raise mere concern at the level of violence employed.
This is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Today the ordinary Zimbabwean is suffering because of the illegal sanctions which stemmed from an attempt to internationalise a purely bilateral conflict between a shameless colonial master, Britain, and Zimbabwe.
It is, however, not a new fact as generation after generation of Americans and Britons never respected black Zimbabweans as did Russia and China who supported the country’s liberation movements and have stood for justice up to today.
Russia has asked for the Western-supported opposition MDC-T to be more flexible and reasonable in its approach if it wants to be respected as a truly Zimbabwean political party.
China has made it clear that they will not interfere in our domestic affairs and that it is up to Zimbabweans to determine their destiny.
South Africa has played a sterling role in bringing the main political parties to talk while at the same time ensuring Westerners do not unduly meddle in our internal matters.
It is the support given by these countries that has weakened American and British attempts to bring Zimbabwe to its knees.
Zimbabwe has had a great relationship with Russia and China from the days of the liberation struggle and they understand that Zimbabwe is still waging a battle to be completely free to determine its own destiny as it sees best.
Zimbabwe should not rest on its laurels, though, and much should be done to ensure that the support of these countries remains guaranteed going into an unknown future with a man called Barack Obama in the White House.
It was, therefore, pleasing to note that the ruling Zanu-PF’s National People’s Conference in Bindura late last year instructed Government to recognise the statehood of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
That move will certainly bring Zimbabwe and Russia closer because Moscow is the prime backer of the independence of these two territories. Just last week, the Arab League described Western involvement in Zimbabwe as "demonic imperialism" and blamed America and Britain for the economic and political situation prevailing in the country.
The Middle East bloc is decidedly against America and Britain, and the unfolding events in that region and hardening positions against any pro-West political formations should be used by Harare to maximum effect.
Across Africa, the West’s continued meddling in Zimbabwe’s domestic affairs has irked revolutionary parties and radicalised Sadc so much and Zimbabwe should take full advantage of the blunders of the West to press on to their goal of total independence.
Bush leaves office a thoroughly beaten man.
The rest of the world is left with the challenge of unraveling the mess that he created in his eight years in office.
Hopefully, the world will not let Bush retreat to his ranch in Texas but will demand that justice be done for all the atrocities he has sanctioned all over the world.
Labels: GEORGE BUSH
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The Reckoning - White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire
By JO BECKER, SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and STEPHEN LABATON
Published: December 20, 2008
“We can put light where there’s darkness, and hope where there’s despondency in this country. And part of it is working together as a nation to encourage folks to own their own home.” — President Bush, Oct. 15, 2002
Larry Downing/Reuters
HANDS-OFF REGULATORS President Bush and his economic team, Ben S. Bernanke, left, Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Christopher Cox, right, in September.
WASHINGTON — The global financial system was teetering on the edge of collapse when President Bush and his economics team huddled in the Roosevelt Room of the White House for a briefing that, in the words of one participant, “scared the hell out of everybody.”
It was Sept. 18. Lehman Brothers had just gone belly-up, overwhelmed by toxic mortgages. Bank of America had swallowed Merrill Lynch in a hastily arranged sale. Two days earlier, Mr. Bush had agreed to pump $85 billion into the failing insurance giant American International Group.
The president listened as Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, laid out the latest terrifying news: The credit markets, gripped by panic, had frozen overnight, and banks were refusing to lend money.
Then his Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., told him that to stave off disaster, he would have to sign off on the biggest government bailout in history.
Mr. Bush, according to several people in the room, paused for a single, stunned moment to take it all in.
“How,” he wondered aloud, “did we get here?”
Eight years after arriving in Washington vowing to spread the dream of homeownership, Mr. Bush is leaving office, as he himself said recently, “faced with the prospect of a global meltdown” with roots in the housing sector he so ardently championed.
There are plenty of culprits, like lenders who peddled easy credit, consumers who took on mortgages they could not afford and Wall Street chieftains who loaded up on mortgage-backed securities without regard to the risk.
But the story of how we got here is partly one of Mr. Bush’s own making, according to a review of his tenure that included interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials.
From his earliest days in office, Mr. Bush paired his belief that Americans do best when they own their own home with his conviction that markets do best when let alone.
He pushed hard to expand homeownership, especially among minorities, an initiative that dovetailed with his ambition to expand the Republican tent — and with the business interests of some of his biggest donors. But his housing policies and hands-off approach to regulation encouraged lax lending standards.
Mr. Bush did foresee the danger posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage finance giants. The president spent years pushing a recalcitrant Congress to toughen regulation of the companies, but was unwilling to compromise when his former Treasury secretary wanted to cut a deal. And the regulator Mr. Bush chose to oversee them — an old prep school buddy — pronounced the companies sound even as they headed toward insolvency.
As early as 2006, top advisers to Mr. Bush dismissed warnings from people inside and outside the White House that housing prices were inflated and that a foreclosure crisis was looming. And when the economy deteriorated, Mr. Bush and his team misdiagnosed the reasons and scope of the downturn; as recently as February, for example, Mr. Bush was still calling it a “rough patch.”
The result was a series of piecemeal policy prescriptions that lagged behind the escalating crisis.
“There is no question we did not recognize the severity of the problems,” said Al Hubbard, Mr. Bush’s former chief economics adviser, who left the White House in December 2007. “Had we, we would have attacked them.”
Looking back, Keith B. Hennessey, Mr. Bush’s current chief economics adviser, says he and his colleagues did the best they could “with the information we had at the time.” But Mr. Hennessey did say he regretted that the administration did not pay more heed to the dangers of easy lending practices. And both Mr. Paulson and his predecessor, John W. Snow, say the housing push went too far.
“The Bush administration took a lot of pride that homeownership had reached historic highs,” Mr. Snow said in an interview. “But what we forgot in the process was that it has to be done in the context of people being able to afford their house. We now realize there was a high cost.”
For much of the Bush presidency, the White House was preoccupied by terrorism and war; on the economic front, its pressing concerns were cutting taxes and privatizing Social Security. The housing market was a bright spot: ever-rising home values kept the economy humming, as owners drew down on their equity to buy consumer goods and pack their children off to college.
Lawrence B. Lindsey, Mr. Bush’s first chief economics adviser, said there was little impetus to raise alarms about the proliferation of easy credit that was helping Mr. Bush meet housing goals.
“No one wanted to stop that bubble,” Mr. Lindsey said. “It would have conflicted with the president’s own policies.”
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Labels: DEREGULATION, GEORGE BUSH, NEOLIBERALISM
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Bush’s comments on illegal regime change are stupid, foolish – Mugabe
Written by George Chellah in Harare, Zimbabwe
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 2:30:46 PM
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday said US President George Bush and his administration's comments on illegal regime change are stupid and foolish and that Zimbabwe will not pay attention to a 'sunset' administration.
And President Mugabe accused some western countries of enlisting dissidents from the ruling ZANU-PF to plot the party's demise.
Addressing mourners at the burial of a national hero, retired Major Gordon Sibanda at the national shrine in Harare, President Mugabe wondered why the US government was commenting on the power-sharing agreement between ZANU-PF and the two MDC formations.
He said only two days ago, the US administration declared that it was no longer accepting the process of an inclusive government in Zimbabwe.
“The inclusive government does not include Mr Bush and his administration," President Mugabe said. "It does not even know him. It has no relationship with him. Let him keep his comments to himself. They are undeserved, irrelevant, quite stupid and foolish."
President Mugabe's comments come barely two days after the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said President Bush's administration had lost confidence in the power-sharing agreement between ZANU-PF and MDC.
President Mugabe further said the recent comments from the Bush administration were nothing but the last kicks of a dying horse.
“We obviously are not going to pay attention to a sunset administration. Zimbabwe's fate lies in the hands of Zimbabweans. They are the ones therefore who should shape and champion their own destiny," he said.
He accused some western countries of enlisting dissidents from the ruling ZANU-PF to plot the party's demise.
“The emergence of dissident voices claiming to revive ZAPU (late Joshua Nkomo's party, which later merged with President Mugabe's party to form ZANU-PF after independence) must be dismissed with the contempt they deserve. They are being used to undermine the country's sovereignty and independence,” President Mugabe said. "They are becoming willing tools of the west being used to undermine the country's sovereignty and independence through the creation of bogus political parties meant to weaken the constituency base of the ruling party and engineer its political demise."
And earlier, President Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba dismissed Jendayi Frazer's utterances on state media, saying they were nothing new.
"We have no time for US President George W Bush's diplomatic flute. We are talking about an administration whose sun has set. Why bother?" he asked.
He said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's administration was also on its way out in Britain.
Charamba said Prime Minister Brown was ill advisedly trying to gain relevance back home through posturing on Zimbabwe.
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, MUGABE, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Mugabe hits out at 'irrelevant' and 'stupid' Bush
Posted to the web: 23/12/2008 14:43:53
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday dismissed US calls for him to quit as "stupid," saying they represented "the last kicks of dying horse" as George W. Bush prepares to leave the White House.
"Only two days ago, the American administration declared that they are no longer accepting the process of an inclusive government. The inclusive government does not include Mr Bush and his administration," Mugabe told supporters at the burial of national hero Retired Major Gordon Sibanda.
"Let him keep his comments to himself. They are undeserved, irrelevant, quite stupid and foolish," he said.
Mugabe's comments came two days after the US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, said the Bush administration had lost confidence in the power-sharing pact between Mugabe and the opposition.
"These are the last kicks of a dying horse. We obviously are not going to pay attention to a sunset administration. Zimbabwe's fate lies in the hands of Zimbabweans."
"Warmongers, African leaders are not foolish" and "Respect Zimbabwe's right to self-determination" were among banners displayed at the burial.
Earlier Tuesday, Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba criticised the Bush government's declaration of a loss of confidence in Mugabe as a "diplomatic flute."
The top United States envoy for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said on Sunday in Pretoria that Zimbabwe's September power-sharing deal could not work with Mugabe as president.
"We have lost confidence in the power-sharing deal being a success with Mugabe in power. He has lost touch with reality," she said.
Frazer was in the South African capital to consult with regional leaders about the deteriorating political and economic crises in Zimbabwe, now also in the grip of a cholera epidemic that has already claimed more than 1,120 lives, according to the United Nations.
Mugabe is "completely discredited" and southern African leaders want to know "how do they facilitate a return to democracy without creating a backlash like a military coup or some sort of civil war," she said.
Last week, Mugabe described Frazer as a "little girl" who was out of touch with reality in Zimbabwe and the rest of the world.
"She thinks that Africans are idiots, litle kids who cannot think for themselves," Mugabe, 84, said in Bindura while opening the ruling Zanu PF's national conference.
Harare also threw verbal rocks at the British government which has called on Mugabe to go.
Charamba said that Gordon Brown's administration was also on its way out in Britain and that the prime minister was trying to gain relevance back home through "posturing" on Zimbabwe.
France has also called for Mugabe to quit the office he has occupied since 1980 when Zimbabwe attained independence from Britain.
And this week, while former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser called on neighbouring South Africa to cut off Zimbabwe's electricity supply to force Mugabe to relinquish power, the US said it would consult its allies on the imposition of international asset freezes and other sanctions against his government.
But analysts warn that the hardening US and British stance could be interpreted as neo-colonial posturing by African leaders whose support is vital in finding a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis.
"The only likelihood is that they (African leaders) will harden in their stand against so-called Western imperialism," said John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe. - AFP
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, JENDAYI FRASER, MUGABE, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Chavez says "Comrade Bush" turns left in crisis
Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:35pm EDT
2007 CARACAS (Reuters) - Socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez mocked George W. Bush as a "comrade" on Wednesday, saying the U.S. president was a hard-line leftist for his government's intervention of major private banks in the U.S. financial crisis.
Chavez, who calls capitalism an evil and ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, ridiculed Bush for his plan for the federal government to take equity in American banks despite the U.S. right-wing's criticism of Venezuelan nationalizations.
"Bush is to the left of me now," Chavez told an audience of international intellectuals debating the benefits of socialism. "Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks."
Chavez, who has insulted Bush in the past as a drunkard or the devil, called him clueless on Wednesday. He accused him of simply parroting the words of his aides without understanding the new policies that rely on heavy state intervention.
"I am convinced he has got no idea what's going on," said Chavez, who has nationalized swaths of the OPEC nation's economy in recent years and is in negotiations to take over a Spanish bank in Venezuela.
Chavez lauds his nationalizations for allowing the state to refocus companies' activities on helping the poor rather than creating value for their shareholders.
The Bush administration, which has promoted free-market policies throughout Latin America, resisted taking equity in banks for weeks. But, faced with a spiraling financial crisis, it reversed course this week with a $250 billion plan.
Chavez, who the United States labels an autocrat, is popular among his supporters at home for criticizing Bush and sometimes wins praise abroad for voicing anti-U.S. opinions.
Despite the ideological differences between the two governments and the diplomatic sparring that led weeks ago to the countries expelling each other's ambassador, Venezuela remains a major oil supplier to the United States.
(Reporting by Patricia Rondon; Writing by Saul Hudson; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
Labels: CHAVEZ, GEORGE BUSH, NEOLIBERALISM
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No diplomatic representation in Washington until Bush is out - Chavez
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Tuesday September 16, 2008 [13:15]
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez has vowed not to have diplomatic representation in Washington until US President George W Bush is out of office. President Chavez, who expelled US envoy to Caracas Patrick Duddy on Thursday, placed responsibility for the tense diplomatic situation squarely on the US government.
He said Washington was behind the political destablisation ongoing in Latin American particularly in Bolivia and Venezuela. "As long as President Bush is in power Caracas will have no diplomatic representation in that country," said President Chavez, according to Venezuela's ABI news agency. "We have been recently informed that the US government expelled the Bolivian Ambassador.
We start in this very moment evaluating our diplomatic relationships with the United States and to show our solidarity to Bolivia from now on the Yankee US Ambassador in Venezuela has 72 hours to leave the country." He likewise recalled Venezuelan Ambassador to the US Bernardo Alvarez. "Before they expel him, I sent Alvarez a message to say that he has to come back," President Chavez said. "When there will be a new government in the United States that is respectful of Latin American governments we will send our Ambassador to Washington." He accused the US of fanning the coup and assassination plots against him.
Venezuelans authorities on Wednesday announced that retired and active officers involved in the assassination plot are being arrested or interrogated, after disclosures of recorded talks among several conspirators. "I denounce to the world the US Empire's intention to prompt violence in our country," President Chavez said from the Miraflores Presidential Palace on Thursday night. "Here we have a people ready to defend peace. Some people have been arrested and others are trying to escape.
They will not control Venezuela." President Chavez thanked the Venezuelans who gathered at Miraflores Presidential Palace for their patriotic attitude. "I want to thank you for coming here to show your support to ourselves, to our people," he said. President Chavez asked his followers to organise a revolutionary counterattack in case of a coup.
'My insurance policy, after God, is the people," President Chavez said. "It means that you are my life and my life is yours." He said on Wednesday night he received several phone calls from commanders and officers confirming they were all alert. "That is why I suggest the Yankee lovers to not do something mad because if they carry out a coup, I am not the same Hugo Chavez of the year 2002," he warned.
President Chavez said the revolutionary counterattack must be a norm to guide the Venezuelan people and its government. "Every aggression of the imperialist and its lackeys must be answered decidedly and therefore, the strengthening of the Bolivarian Revolution must continue to clear even more the way," he said. And President Chavez expressed his support for President Evo Morales whose government was experiencing a crisis. He said reactionary forces incited the political crisis in Bolivia.
President Morales has also expelled Washington's representative in La Paz accusing him of being behind the opposition's manoeuvres. President Chavez's announcement came just hours after the Venezuelan administration presented taped recordings of conversations of an alleged attempted coup d'Žtat against his administration. President Chavez said the coup was being planned by active and retired military officers with the full support of the US administration. He warned he would cut oil sales to the United States if the Venezuela became the target of an attack by the White House.
So far the US has rejected the allegations by President Chavez and Morales although Washington has also expelled Bolivian envoy to the US in retaliation. President Chavez was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup that was initially welcomed by Washington.
Labels: CHAVEZ, GEORGE BUSH, VENEZUELA
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Raul askes US to stop meddling in Bolivia and respect Andean nation's
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Tuesday September 16, 2008 [13:16]
CUBAN President Raul Castro has asked the US to stop meddling in Bolivia and respect the Andean nation's independence and right to self-determination. Commenting on political crisis in rightwing controlled eastern provinces of Bolivia that have left as many as 28 government and opposition supporters dead, President Raul said the constitutional order and territorial integrity of Bolivia must be respected. He reaffirmed Cuba's firmest backing of the legitimate government of President Evo Morales.
"The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba follows with utmost worry the events taking place in the sister Republic of Bolivia and the political, economic and media pressures to which President Evo Morales' government has been subjected which threaten the integrity of the country," President Raul said in declaration issued on Saturday. "Cuba condemns the interference of the United States government and reiterates that the situation created in Bolivia must be resolved by the very Bolivians in strict compliance with the principles of sovereignty independence and self-determination."President Raul called for continental solidarity with Bolivia.
He said the acts of violence that Bolivia had been exposed also threatened the peace and security of South America which served the interests of the enemies of regional integration. "The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba reiterates its firmest backing of the legitimate government of colleague Evo Morales, elected and ratified by vast majority, and its solidarity with the Bolivian people," President Raul said.
He said currently Cuban Collaborators worked in the nine Bolivian provinces exclusively dedicated to propel health and education programmes. President Raul said by last Friday September 12, the Cuban Medical Brigade had offered 17 million consultations in Bolivia. He said under the education programme, 225 of the 327 municipalities in Bolivia had reached the category of free from illiteracy. President Raul said 664,000 Bolivians have been made literate and by end of this year the goal was to cover all the 327 municipalities. The read and write literacy programme in Bolivia is sponsored by Cuba andvenezuela.
"Cuba reiterates its disposition to continue cooperating in an indifferent way with full respect for the principle of not meddling in the internal affairs of Bolivia until the government and people of Bolivia so decide," said President Raul. At the peak of the tension President Morales expelled US envoy to La Paz and his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave the American diplomat 72 hours to leave Caracas after accusing Washington to plotting to oust the Bolivian leftist government.
The US retaliated by expelling Bolivia and Venezuelan envoys from Washington and also freezing assets of three aides to President Chavez.
Labels: BOLIVIA, GEORGE BUSH, NEOCOLONIALISM, RAUL CASTRO
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(CNN) Bush urges world to unite on Zimbabwe sanctions
Bush urges world to unite on Zimbabwe sanctions
Bush: "Extremely disappointed" in Zimbabwe violence-marred runoff vote
(CNN) -- President George W. Bush has urged the international community to punish the Zimbabwe government for suppressing its political opponents and using violence at the ballot box
(President George W. Bush and Ghana President John Kufuor during the G-8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit)
"I care deeply about the people of Zimbabwe," Bush told the G-8 annual summit in Hokkaido Toyako, Japan. "I am extremely disappointed in the elections, which I labeled a sham election."Incumbent Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe maintained power as the only candidate in last month's election. His only challenger, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew from the race.
Tsvangirai said his Movement For Democratic Change party decided not to participate because of an ongoing campaign of political intimidation and violence at the hands of Mugabe supporters.
Tsvangirai won the most votes in the March 29 election, but not enough -- according to official figures -- to avoid a runoff.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, also at the G-8 summit, said Monday that he believes "there is growing support for sanctions against the Mugabe regime" because very few countries recognize his government.
The British prime minister added that there is growing support for a U.N. envoy to be dispatched to "to make sure that the parties in Zimbabwe know that we've got to work for a transition so that there is a legitimate government, one that we can support, and one, when it does exist, we will want to help with the reconstruction (of Zimbabwe)."
Jakaya Kikwete, president of Tanzania and current head of the African Union, is one of seven African leaders at the summit. AP reported him as saying on the issue of Zimbabwe "that the only area that we may differ is on the way forward.
"We are saying no party can govern alone in Zimbabwe, and therefore the parties have to work together in a government and look at the future of their country together."
Meanwhile UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband Monday called on South Africa to support a "way out" for neighboring Zimbabwe that includes a transitional, opposition-led government.
"I believe this is an agenda that is not a British agenda or a Western agenda but a humanitarian agenda around which the world can unite," said Miliband in a speech at the University of South Africa in Pretoria.
The UK has been a harsh critic of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who Miliband blamed for turning "the weapons of the state against his own people" in order to retain his grip on power.
Mugabe has been Zimbabwe's only leader since independence in 1980, before which it was called Rhodesia and ruled by the UK. Britain is one of many countries that do not recognize Mugabe's reelection.
Miliband has called for the current Mugabe government to be replaced by a transitional government to be led by Tsvangirai. He is visiting South Africa, a member of the U.N. Security Council which is expected to consider a sanctions resolution against Zimbabwe.
"The world community needs to unite at the U.N. this week not just to condemn violence but to initiate sanctions on the regime and send a human rights envoy to Zimbabwe," Miliband said.
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, HYPOCRISY, SANCTIONS
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Bush and Kikwete fail to agree on Zimbabwe
Our reporter and sources
Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:16:00 +0000
President Bush and Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete toast at the social dinner held at the State House in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
UNITED States President George W. Bush and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the current head of the African Union Monday failed to agree on the imposition of sanctions against Zimbabwe as they met on the sidelines of the ongoing G8 Summit in the lakeside resort of Toyako on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.
President Bush has said he supports the idea of United Nations wide sanctions against Zimbabwe to ‘restore democracy’.
Bush said he was ‘deeply concerned’ by the way the June 27 elections had been conducted but failed short of calling President Robert Mugabe illegitimate.
"You know I care deeply about the people of Zimbabwe," Bush said. "I'm extremely disappointed in the elections."
“And we, of course, listened very carefully. And President Kikwete, as the head of the AU, has been very involved in this issue. I'm not going to put words in his mouth, he can express his own self, but it was -- this issue of Zimbabwe took a fair amount of time,” said Bush.
Bush was meeting leaders from seven African countries who are attending the summit as observers. High on the agenda was the structure of the Aid Package promised to African countries.
Zimbabwe was also discussed.
Reports coming from Japan indicated that there were discussions on Zimbabwe, but no consensus was reached on the way forward. African countries, including South Africa, indicated that they were against the imposition of sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Britain and the United States were hoping to convince the African countries that sanctions were the ways forward.
Standing next to Bush, President Kikwete, was reported as saying that while some African leaders share U.S. concerns, You see differently but for us in Africa we see differently, but I think again there is still room for us for discussions."
Kikwete added: “So this is the way we see it. I don't think there is much, the divergence there. You would have liked to see us do a bit -- some things, we would have liked to see you do some things. But we'll continue to discuss all these issues, and as friends at the end of the day we'll come to an understanding.”
According to Reuters news agency, Kikwete said: "We are saying no party can govern alone in Zimbabwe, and therefore the parties have to work together in a government and look at the future of their country together," he said.
Bush international economics aide Dan Price, speaking after the briefing said, “There were differences. Not all leaders are in a position to support sanctions at this time.''
Japan also seemed not too enthusiastic to send a ‘strong statement’ as had been requested by British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
Japan said they were concerned about the situation in the country.
The G8 comprises the United States, Japan, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia.
Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, GEORGE BUSH, JAKAYA KIKWETE, NEOCOLONIALISM, ZIMBABWE
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Bush's call for sanctions against Zimbabwe
Linda Edwards—Opinion
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000
UNITED States President George W. Bush, having failed at so much else—Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, Tibet, and the political prisoner in Burma/Myanmar, having failed at relations in Latin America, wants to save Zimbabwe for the poor opposition.
Mr. Bush wishes to burnish his tarnished crown of office — huge gas prices, mortgage meltdown and so on, by discovering and saving Africa, of which Zimbabwe seems to be the crown jewel.
Boo to Mr. Bush and European leaders who want to roll Zimbabwe back to the dark ages of Ian Smith.
Meanwhile, the two largest African American areas of the USA, ever to be struck by natural disasters, the area of the airbase in south Florida, struck by Hurricane Andrew in 1994, and New Orleans ― victim of Katrina in 2005, remain disaster zones, only slightly better than the situation on a Navajo reservation.
Seems that he could burnish his image at home, by helping poor American people.
I live here in the US. I know.
Linda Edwards
elainedatter2@yahoo.com
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, SANCTIONS, ZIMBABWE
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United States’ double standards nauseating
EDITOR — It is saddening to note that the US is not relenting in causing chaos and anarchy in the world while at the same time pretending to be advancing human rights and the rule of law, which it does not practise. On May 10, 2008 about 300 mainly African-Americans were arrested for demonstrating against the acquittal of three white police officers who had shot down a black man in cold blood.
This wanton killing of blacks is rampant in the US and UK with the complicity of the respective governments doing nothing about it but these two racist states would want the world to believe that they care about all corners of the earth yet they can’t protect their own citizens.
What sheer hypocrisy?
Clear testimony of the US’ violent nature is epitomised by the fact that all major conflicts in the world have a US presence. In the DRC, the US arms militias to fight the government daily but there is no media blitz there because of mining concessions that were given to the US and Belgium. Because the US has access to diamonds it will turn a blind eye showing that the real issue for US and the West are diamonds.
The US is arming Ethiopia to fight Somalia, in Iraq the war was started by the US as well as in Afghanistan, under the pretext of fighting Islamic extremism.
In Palestine and Israel the US is shoring up the war despite saying it wants Bush to end the Arab/Israeli conflict before he leaves office in seven months’ time.
This shows the US insincerity because how can Bush want to solve in seven months what he could not deal with in nine years?
In Lebanon’s war you can also see the US hand in that the US chose who should lead the Lebanese. The Lebanese are sovereign people who should choose their own leadership without the West’s interference.
In Sudan the US is arming rebels because it feels the oil in Sudan is benefiting the Chinese. It is all about resources.
The defining moment in the US culture of violence was when they chased the original inhabitants of America deep into the forests.
The Amerindians of Arawaki descent have no say in their own country. They are sidelined into oblivion.
The racist US’s disregard has a long history from the time of Christopher Columbus, who said he discovered America yet there were Arawaki-Indians living there already. Sickening superiority complex. But God is for the weak because despite the US military night it has not won any conventional war.
The US was battered in Vietnam, repelled in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, is losing in Iraq and Afghanistan and is terribly battered in Somalia.
Whatever perceived supremacy the US may have, does not prevail in unjust wars.
Viktor Mukanya.
Harare.
Labels: GEORGE BUSH, USA
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Bush has made my mandate more difficult, charges Morales
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Friday May 09, 2008 [04:00]
THE Bush administration has made my mandate more difficult, Bolivian President Evo Morales has charged. And Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said Latin Americans have an obligation to join forces with President Morales' administration to fight against attempts to divide Bolivia.
Addressing Nicaraguans at the Revolution Square in Managua on Tuesday on the eve of the Latin America and the Caribbean leaders’ emergency summit on food crisis, President Morales, led by his counterpart Ortega, said a lot had taken place in Bolivia in the first two years of his reign.
He said following the nationalisation of the oil industry, his country wiped out the fiscal deficit that had characterised the Bolivian economy since the 1940s.
President Morales said after he took office, Bolivia's international reserves increased from around US $1.7 billion to more than US $6 billion in just two years.
"In spite of these advances, it has been impossible to meet social demands that date back 500 years," said President Morales as quoted by Prensa Latina. "The (US President George W.) Bush administration has made my mandate more difficult. It has been conspiring against my government since the beginning. The oligarchy and the US government are always speaking about the need to topple the Indian (himself).”
President Morales is the first indigenous Bolivian to ascend to the presidency.
And President Ortega said Nicaragua fully supported President Morales in his effort to curtail separatist efforts promoted by the Bolivian oligarchy and the United States.
President Ortega called the attempts to divide Bolivia an open conspiracy.
"We have the obligation to unite in fighting this battle," said President Ortega. "The people have the strength of conscience to succeed."
Last Sunday, Bolivia's wealthiest province of Santa Cruz staged a referendum seeking greater autonomy from the central government in La Paz. However, Bolivia's Supreme Court ruled the referendum invalid. And President Morales called on all the prefects (governors) to work with his government to establish an authentic autonomy within the strictures of the new constitution.
Wealthy landowners, together with businesses and multinational corporations are banking on the referendum outcome to shelter themselves from the deep social and economic changes President Morales is pursuing to resolve high poverty and inequality.
Santa Cruz landowners are fearful of a far-reaching revolutionary process in Bolivia which includes President Morales' plan to redistribute land to the poor. He calls for spreading national wealth to the rest of Bolivia.
Bolivia has nine provinces with the four "gas reserves and oil-rich" eastern provinces of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando calling for autonomy.
Santa Cruz is the wealthiest province and the stronghold of the right-wing opposition. President Morales has dismissed the Santa Cruz referendum as illegal and an action by the oligarchy that was refusing to accept an indigenous president.
Under President Morales, Bolivia is reforming the constitution to eliminate marginalisation. However, the four eastern lowlands provinces home to some 35 per cent of Bolivia's more than 8.5 million people and contribute about two-thirds to the country's gross domestic product have opposed the new constitution.
Labels: DANIEL ORTEGA, EVO MORALES, GEORGE BUSH
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