If I was to say prince Andrew Windsor is something of an oddity, you’d probably look at his family and say “so… like the rest of them then?”. And you wouldn’t exactly be wrong. But what I mean specifically is that unlike most of his military-cosplaying family, he actually did serve in a conflict. In his case, it was the Falklands/Malvinas War as a helicopter pilot.
It was there, he told the BBC (during a now infamous interview meant to offset the impact of abuse allegations), that he suffered an overload of adrenalin which left him allegedly unable to sweat. That unusual claim has since been challenged by his accuser, Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre claims to have been sex trafficked by the now-convicted Ghislaine Maxwell at the direction of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. She claims she was subsequently sexually abused by the prince – charges he denies.
The latest turn in Windsor’s ongoing scandal of alleged sexual abuse shows something important. That is, like the monarchy, we place the military on a pedestal it does not deserve. As if it’s an institution which represents the very highest moral standards.
Stripped
It must have stung the duke to lose his titles by order of the queen this week. The duke’s ‘His Royal Highness’ (HRH) title was also rescinded. As a result, he was told he would have to face the coming civil action as a private citizen.
The move followed an open letter to the queen from a group of 150 ex-military members. It asked that the prince be removed from the various honorary military roles he had occupied. So, no more LARPing as a colonel in the Grenadier Guards for Windsor.
Other roles removed include, according to the Guardian:
honorary air commodore of RAF Lossiemouth; colonel-in-chief of the Royal Irish Regiment; colonel-in-chief of the Small Arms School Corps; commodore-in-chief of the Fleet Air Arm; royal colonel of the Royal Highland Fusiliers; deputy colonel-in-chief of the Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths’ Own); and royal colonel of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Veterans
150 former military personnel published their open letter on 13 January. The letter was formulated with the anti-monarchist campaign group Republic. In it, the veterans say Windsor’s position was “untenable”:
We are therefore asking that you take immediate steps to strip Prince Andrew of all his military ranks and titles and, if necessary, that he be dishonourably discharged.
It is clear for all to see that Prince Andrew has been proven unfit to wear the uniform of any of Britain’s armed forces. That he is able to continue in numerous roles within the military is a disgrace, and an insult to those who continue to serve with distinction.
Martial fantasy
But there’s a problem with these claims. And it isn’t just that it shows how limited and centrist republicanism is in this country. More importantly, there’s no basis whatsoever for the suggestion that the military is adverse to a culture of misogyny, rape, or sexual abuse. If current reports are anything to go by, these issues are endemic.
In 2021, a landmark parliamentary report showed that two-thirds of women service personnel had faced sexual harassment or abuse. As the Guardian had reported, it:
…features evidence of gang rape, sex for career advancement and trophies to ‘bag the woman’
This was the real face of military culture around women.
Under the rug
MP, veteran, and subcommittee chair for women in the armed forces Sarah Atherton said at the time:
The stories we heard paint a difficult picture for women. A woman raped in the military often has to live and work with the accused perpetrator, with fears that speaking out would damage her career.
She added that:
We heard accusations of senior officers sweeping complaints under the rug to protect their own reputations and careers. While many commanding officers want to do the right thing, it is clear that, too often, female service personnel are being let down by the chain of command.
Spike
In October 2021, the Child Rights International Network published figures on sexual violence against young women and girls in the military. These showed a spike in such offences in recent years.
Then in December 2021, measures were proposed as amendments to the Armed Forces Bill 2021. The aim was to make the military a safer place for women. But in the end, key proposals were voted down. And Atherton, who rebelled in the final Commons vote, resigned from her government role.
No moral institution
There’s a problem in the way we look at our major institutions in this country. The truth? Well, neither the monarchy nor the military set a moral example for us. And the notion that the military is too upstanding to have an accused abuser associated with it is wrong. Ultimately, this kind of poorly thought out claim does a disservice to us all.
Via America’s Lawyer: Thousands of military families in Hawaii were endangered by toxic drinking water that was tainted by jet fuel leaking from Pearl Harbor. Mike Papantonio is joined by attorney Joshua Harris to explain how the US Navy is now being forced to play cleanup. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse […]
As the Biden administration considers changes to Trump-era nuclear policy, 60 national and regional organizations released a statement this week calling for the elimination of 400 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that are “now armed and on hair-trigger alert in the United States.”
“Intercontinental ballistic missiles are uniquely dangerous, greatly increasing the chances that a false alarm or miscalculation will result in nuclear war,” the statement reads. “There is no more important step the United States could take to reduce the chances of a global nuclear holocaust than to eliminate its ICBMs.”
Progressives, scientists and some Democrats in Congress are also pushing President Joe Biden, who has pledged to reduce U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons in its defense strategy, to adopt a “no first use” policy and declare that the U.S. will never be the first to launch a nuclear attack. Taking such a stance would strengthen the U.S. position in global nonproliferation talks, advocates say.
The White House is slowly pursuing such talks with other nuclear-armed governments including Russia, the United Kingdom and France, which recently issued a joint statement declaring that “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” Pakistan and India, two regional rivals armed with nuclear weapons, issued statements calling the joint statement a positive development in international arms control.
A “no first use” or “sole purpose” policy, advocates say, would also be consistent with the Democratic Party platform and Biden himself, who has said that nuclear weapons should only be used to deter nuclear attack. The Trump administration went in the opposite direction with its 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, which says that deterring a nuclear attack is not the “sole purpose” of nuclear weapons and nuclear war could be used to deter “non-nuclear” attacks and achieve “U.S. objectives” if deterrence fails.
The Biden administration is working on a new Nuclear Posture Review, which could be completed early this year, according to Politico. The administration would not comment on internal deliberations for the review, but unnamed officials told Politico it is unlikely to include deep cuts to nuclear weapons spending as the U.S. works to overhaul and modernize its vast nuclear arsenal.
Federal spending on nuclear forces is projected to reach $634 billion over the next decade, a 28 percent increase over 2019 projections, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Advocates for arms control said Biden should have — and still could — put the most controversial nuclear weapons projects approved under former President Donald Trump on pause until the new posture review is completed.
Writing for Defense One, Tom Collins, the policy director at the peace group Ploughshares, argues that Biden must act fast to rein in a Pentagon bureaucracy intent on keeping money flowing to the nuclear war machine, or his own policy will end up looking a lot like Trump’s:
The good news is that President Biden knows more about nuclear policy than any commander-in-chief in recent history. If Biden makes this a priority, there is every reason to think that he will approve new policies that will reduce the risk of nuclear war and make the nation and world safer.
Unfortunately, the president has left these crucial issues to officials who are not committed to his vision. A key strategy document — called the Nuclear Posture Review — has been drafted by an entrenched Pentagon bureaucracy that apparently wants to keep core elements of the Trump agenda intact, including new nuclear weapons and more ways to use them.
Biden is under pressure from conservative war hawks in Congress and the Pentagon to avoid cuts to new nuclear weapons programs approved under Trump, as Russia and China are thought to be bolstering their own arsenals. These proposed weapons systems are different than the existing ICBMs, which require billions of tax dollars for upkeep and sit ready to launch in silos located on the U.S. mainland.
The U.S. maintains a vast nuclear arsenal that can strike from the air, sea and land. The statement issued this week reports that 400 ICBM missile silos — relics of the arms race with the Soviet Union that first raised fears that global nuclear war that would lay waste of all of human civilization — are scattered across Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming.
Citing a former Defense Secretary William Perry, the 60 peace and civil society groups issued the “call to eliminate ICBMs” on Wednesday. Perry has explained that the ICBMs are the weapons most likely to spark a catastrophic nuclear war. If enemy missiles were launched at the U.S., the president would only have about 30 minutes to decide whether to retaliate before the ICBMs are destroyed, a terrible decision that could result in “nuclear winter,” according to the statement.
“Rather than being any kind of deterrent, ICBMs are the opposite — a foreseeable catalyst for nuclear attack. ICBMs certainly waste billions of dollars, but what makes them unique is the threat that they pose to all of humanity,” the statement reads.
Even if the ICBMs facilities were closed, the U.S. would still retain a devastating nuclear arsenal that could respond to attacks across the world. Missiles carried on submarines and aircraft could kill millions of people. However, they are not subject to the same “use them or lose them” dilemma as the ICBMs.
“Until now, the public discussion has been almost entirely limited to the narrow question of whether to build a new ICBM system or stick with the existing Minuteman III missiles for decades longer,” said Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction, one of the groups that signed the statement. “That’s like arguing over whether to refurbish the deck chairs on the nuclear Titanic. Both options retain the same unique dangers of nuclear war that ICBMs involve.”
Twenty years ago today, the U.S. military began imprisoning Muslim men at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. We speak with the prison’s former Muslim chaplain, James Yee, who was jailed and held in solitary confinement for 76 days after being falsely accused of espionage. All charges were eventually dropped, and he received an honorable discharge. Yee describes how boys as young as 12 to 15 years old were treated as enemy combatants on the prison complex and the widespread Islamophobia that put even Muslim Americans under heavy surveillance. “During my time I was there, it was clear that these individuals were not in any way associated with terrorism whatsoever,” says Yee.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMYGOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzalez, as we continue to look at this 20th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo. It opened 20 years ago today.
We’re joined now by former Army chaplain Captain James Yee. He was one of the first Muslim chaplains commissioned to the prison in 2002 by the U.S. Army. But less than a year after serving there, he was accused of espionage by the military and faced charges so severe that he was threatened with the death penalty. He was arrested and imprisoned for 76 days in solitary confinement. The military leaked information about the case to the press, and the media went on a feeding frenzy. Chaplain Yee was vilified on the airwaves as a traitor and accused of being a mole inside the Army. Then the military’s case began to unravel. The charges were eventually reduced and, eight months later, dropped altogether. He ultimately received an honorable discharge. Chaplain Yee wrote about his experiences in a book titled For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire. James Yee has long called for the closure of Guantánamo, joins us now from his home in Bloomfield, New Jersey.
James Yee, welcome back to Democracy Now! We covered your case from the beginning. Why don’t you start off by telling your own story, how you came to be at Guantánamo, being a chaplain for the Muslim men who were held there, and then what happened to you?
JAMESYEE: Great, great. Yeah, first of all, Amy, Juan, and also to Mansoor and Moazzam, thanks for having me join you today on the program.
But I converted to Islam back in the early ’90s, and I was already in the military as a graduate of West Point, serving in the Air Defense Artillery as a young lieutenant, and then, after converting to Islam, thought I could fulfill a pretty unique role in becoming a chaplain in the U.S. military, because at that time there were no Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military. And I entered — I reentered active duty in early 2001 as a Muslim chaplain. And in the immediate post-9/11 aftermath, I was someone who the U.S. Army Public Affairs looked to to handle media requests that dealt with anything that had to do with Muslims who were serving in the U.S. military, especially following the tragic attacks on 9/11 where many of these Muslim servicemembers were experiencing backlash.
So, my name was out there not only in U.S. Army Public Affairs but in the Department of Defense, also the State Department. And so, when we started bombarding Afghanistan and opened the prison camp at Guantánamo, I was earmarked for that assignment down in Guantánamo. And I would arrive to the prison camp in early November, almost exactly at the same time that the now-infamous Major General Geoffrey Miller took command of the Joint Task Force. And like you said in your intro, I was there for 10 months. I was supposed to have been there six months, involuntary extended another six months. But at the 10-month mark, then I was secretly arrested.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, James Yee, could you talk about, from your perspective, what Guantánamo represents to the rest of the world and the impact that the treatment of the prisoners there has had in the Muslim world?
JAMESYEE: Yeah. So, Guantánamo, no doubt, is the international symbol of torture and prisoner abuse. And it continues today to damage the reputation of the United States. And I feel it also damages the relationships that the U.S. has even with our closest allies. By and large, I don’t know of any other nations around the world who are accepting of the U.S. continuing to operate this prison camp in Guantánamo.
But in my view, these are very important issues, because this has been around for now 20 years. We’re at the 20th anniversary of this prison camp. And one of the things I always like to point out is something that the late Colin Powell had stated. And he said that he would close Guantánamo not today, not tomorrow, but this afternoon. So, even someone who was part of the Bush administration that opened Guantánamo, from an insider’s perspective, even he saw the urgency of — that’s Colin Powell — of needing to close this prison camp immediately.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about the issue that has not gotten a lot of attention, the question of the youthfulness of some of the detainees — basically children — what you know about that?
JAMESYEE: Yeah. So, during my time in Guantánamo, which was late 2002 through most of 2003, there were actually three young boys from Afghanistan who were brought to Guantánamo during that time. And they were ages 12 to 14 years old. They were termed “juvenile enemy combatants.” There were already juvenile enemy combatants at Guantánamo, according to the international standard, which would be under the age of 18. So, the policy at Guantánamo was that anyone who — any prisoner who was 15 years old or older were held in general population. And there were several. One that I recall very distinctly was Omar Khadr from Canada, and he was only 15 at the time. But these three younger prisoners were brought to Guantánamo during my time, and they were kept in a separate facility known as Camp Iguana. And I actually used to meet with them on a weekly basis. I had set up some basic sessions and courses on Islam that I would teach. And they had their own translator or interpreter, who had an Afghani background, that spoke their dialected language.
But they also went through things which I found disturbing. I wasn’t privy to witness how they were interrogated, but there were often times when the interrogators came during the time my sessions were taking place, and I was pushed aside. And following those sessions with interrogators, I saw that these young boys actually came back very disturbed. They had changed behaviors. They showed signs of anxiety. And they would recall things to me and the other guards that were overseeing their detention, things like how interrogators would come and they would promise them like nice things like ice cream and things like that, but then, for some reason, their punishment was they wouldn’t get that ice cream. Now, you’re talking about very youthful kids. And when you’re treating individuals like this, who are taken away from their home, taken away from their families, it had to have a devastating effect on their psyche.
AMYGOODMAN: James Yee, you’re a former U.S. Army captain. You graduated from West Point, a Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo. So, if you could finish your story? What happened there? We’re talking about a time when, what, 800 Muslim men, almost, were being held. And then you had the Muslim — you had Arabic interpreters. You had Arabic-language interrogators. Were you chaplain to all of them? And then, what happened to you? How did you end up getting imprisoned?
JAMESYEE: Yeah. So, my role as a chaplain, one, was chaplain to the prisoners who were all being held in Guantánamo. The numbers were upwards towards 660 around the time I was there. One of the things I also make a point of is, during that time in 2003, not one could be definitively connected to any terrorist attack or the attacks on 9/11. That wasn’t a reality, because anyone who was seriously suspected of being involved in terrorism weren’t brought to Guantánamo in 2003. They were put in those secret CIA black sites. And it wasn’t only until later, in 2006, when those 19 or so prisoners were brought to Guantánamo, after Bush closed down those CIA black sites. But during the time I was there, it was clear that these individuals were not in any way associated with terrorism whatsoever.
But my other role as a chaplain was to prisoners. And in that role, it was to ensure free exercise of worship and accommodation of religious practices for the prisoners there, and also fielding the complaints and concerns that prisoners had, and thereby providing them with a secondary channel of communication up the chain of command for those concerns and complaints.
Then I was chaplain to many American Muslims who served on this Joint Task Force, civilian and military. And by and large, most of these individuals were translators or interpreters, linguists. And we actually had a pretty vibrant, what you might call, congregation, in which we had the Friday worship service at the chapel, the Guantánamo chapel on Fridays. And that even raised suspicion amongst the command at Guantánamo, because we were all under surveillance. I recall seeing individuals who were associated with the FBI that were kind of monitoring our activities at the chapel. And I knew that these individuals were from the FBI because many of the translators worked for the intelligence operation and said, “Yeah, these guys who are hanging around the chapel are with the FBI.” So that raised suspicion.
So, there was this widespread Islamophobia or somehow some kind of fear that we, as American Muslims who were working for the Joint Task Force, were somehow being seditious. And that’s how I got targeted as the chaplain, because I was supposedly the ringleader. And after I was arrested, it also came to light that two other American Muslims who were down in Guantánamo working, one a civilian translator and one who was a U.S. Air Force translator, both also — both Arabic linguists, they were also arrested during the time I was. And it was being — and the media frenzy that you spoke about, or you mentioned earlier, was that I was the ringleader of some type of spy ring in Guantánamo working on behalf of who knows.
AMYGOODMAN: And how long you were held, and how you got out?
JAMESYEE: So, I was secretly arrested in September of 2003, for 76 days held in solitary confinement. I also was subjected to this process called sensory deprivation, where I had the goggles put over my eyes and the ear devices put over my ears to prevent me from hearing or seeing, which instilled fear in me, because I had saw how the prisoners at Guantánamo were subjected to sensory deprivation. And for me, this was an indication that I was also being put into this category of enemy combatant, where all of my rights could be stripped away, as they were stripped away from all of the prisoners down at Guantánamo.
And because I was a U.S. citizen, they put me into what you might call the stateside Guantánamo, which was the Consolidated Naval Brig, where President Bush was housing people he categorized as enemy combatants that were either U.S. citizens — and there were two, an individual named José Padilla and another named Yaser Hamdi — or an enemy combatant that had been taken into custody on U.S. soil, like Saleh al-Marri, who was in the United States legally and was put also in this prison. And I was housed alongside these individuals.
But long story short, all of the charges that were brought against me would eventually fade away. They eventually would, after having absolutely no evidence, even try to prosecute me on mishandling classified information, in which there was no evidence for that. And so the charges would be dropped. I was released, reinstated as a chaplain, sent back to Fort Lewis, Washington, after which, at the first opportunity, I resigned of my commission.
AMYGOODMAN: Wow. Well, we’re going to break and then come back to our discussion with James Yee, former U.S. Army captain who served as the Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo before the military falsely accused him of spying and imprisoned him. All the charges were dropped. He received an honorable discharge. His book is called For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire.
When we come back, we’ll speak to Mansoor Adayfi, the former Guantánamo prisoner who was held by the U.S. without charge for 14 years before being released in 2016, not to his own country but to Serbia. He would write a letter from his imprisonment in Guantánamo to the former chaplain, James Yee. Stay with us.
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The violent protests which erupted in major cities across Kazakhstan over the past week, fueled by the people’s fury over high gas prices, has grown into a monumental anti-corruption movement with the hopes of changing the country’s direction.
The Kazakh people are reportedly fed up with the country’s immense wealth, owed to large oil reserves, being held by a small number of corrupt elites.
Last Sunday, the rebellion began in western Kazakhstan, a region known for its natural resources and oil richness, against a significant surge in fuel prices. Despite the Kazakh government’s promise to lower them, the protests spread throughout the country with a broader demand for better social benefits and less governmental corruption.
The Kazakh president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, issued a statement on Wednesday night calling, without offering evidence, protesters “a band of terrorists” who had been “trained abroad” – alluding to possible foreign interference.
Tokayev declared a state of emergency in Kazakhstan and requested the intervention from Russia’s version of NATO, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), to which Kazakhstan and Russia are members. Others include Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The chairman of the CSTO, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, also blames “outside interference” for the mass protests.
Russian-led troops
As promised by the military pact between Russia and Kazakhstan, Russian-led CSTO troops have stormed into Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, and were being met by large groups of demonstrators setting fire to trucks, police cars, and barricading themselves.
Some protesters wielding firearms were caught on camera looting shops and malls and setting government buildings on fire (including Almaty’s City Hall and the president’s former office).
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev … claimed huge crowds of protesters were “a band of terrorists” without offering evidence. Image: Wikidata
Local demonstrators also captured the Almaty airport. Flights in and out of airports in Almaty, Aktau, and Aktobe were suspended until further notice.
Much of the violence and scale of the chaos can be witnessed on social media applications such as Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok. However, with the government’s internet shutdown on the entire country, many current reports are unconfirmed.
Kazakh locals, such as Galym Ageleulov, who has been witnessing the events of the past few days, states that throngs of criminals had co-opted the “movement that was calling for peaceful change”.
Suddenly, the protesters morphed into groups of primarily young men posing with riot shields and helmets captured from police officers.
According to Ageleulov, these groups of men had replaced the Almaty police force and were “highly organised and managed by gang leaders”.
Three police beheaded claim
Further unconfirmed reports sent in by locals on the ground in Almaty have stated that these men have beheaded up to three police officers.
The Kazakh interior ministry stated that at least eight police officers and national guard troops were killed during the protests while 300 were injured and more than 3800 protesters were arrested.
Kazakh Americans have flocked to social media to spread awareness of what is going on in the influential Central Asian nation.
One source on Tik Tok powerfully declared that “the revolution has started” and that the Kazakh people are calling for President Tokayev to “step down”.
In response to the people’s demands for a sincere governmental anti-corruption, Tokayev simply sacked the country’s cabinet — and this did little to ease dissent and infuriated the protesters.
Tokayev’s request for foreign military troops to help quell the protests has only further angered the Kazakh people, who feel deeply betrayed that their government would beckon foreign military groups to gun down Kazakh protestors chanting for their country’s freedom.
The nation’s fury with their authoritarian leader is exacerbated by Tokayev’s recent statement in a televised address that “whoever does not surrender will be destroyed. I have given the order to law enforcement agencies and the army to shoot to kill without warning”.
Locals line up for bread
Almaty’s commercial banks have been ordered to shut down, forcing Kazakhs to withdraw all their cash from ATMs. Stores and markets have been forcibly closed as well, causing locals to line up for rations of bread — a heartbreaking sight that has been unseen in Kazakhstan since the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Almaty’s City Hall, a famous white building that once served as the Communist Party headquarters, is charred black from protestors’ flames set on it.
Kazakhstan has been long been praised as being one of the most successful post-Soviet republics. The country has by far the highest GDP per capita in the Central Asian region and plenty of oil reserves, driven mostly by its western region.
Additionally, Kazakhstan accounted for more than 50 percent of the global uranium exports in 2020.
Kazakhstan is also the second largest country for bitcoin mining. Due to the Kazakh government’s shutdown of the internet, crypto markets have seen a considerable loss.
Despite the country’s abundance of natural resources, most of Kazakhstan’s enormous wealth has not been equally spread among the populace.
Corrupt elites live in style
Since the country’s independence, corrupt elites and officials have been living in luxury while the vast majority of the Kazakh people survive on paltry salaries.
The current dire situation in Kazakhstan can be interpreted as a significant warning for neighbouring Russia. Presidential succession creates unrest in authoritarian countries.
In 2019, former president Nursultan Nazarbayev hand-picked his successor, Tokayev. While this change may have seemed refreshing on the surface, the Kazakh people are well aware of Nazarbayev’s shadow-emperor hold on the country’s political power.
An invaluable lesson must be learned from Kazakhstan’s present state: a raging sea of anger and discontent might be storming beneath a thin veil of regional stability.
A petition posted on Change.org, which 36,000+ people have signed, calls to remove foreign military troops from Kazakhstan.
Ella Kelleher is a Kazakh American at English major graduate at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, US. She is the book review editor-in-chief and a contributing staff writer for Asia Media International.
Labour published a dossier on Tory defence spending this week. It shows the Tories have wasted billions of pounds on military projects over the last ten years. But the report isn’t quite the ‘gotcha’ Labour thinks it is, because the party isn’t much better itself. This is especially true when it comes to its own military plans.
Dossier
There’s no doubt Labour’s Dossier of Waste makes some good points. It lists multiple, terrible examples of massive sums being wasted on defence projects. Some of the most ridiculous include:
£4m for an IT system which ended up being cancelled.
Over £5m for “Useless Ear Defenders”.
Scrapping a whole fleet of Hercules aircraft worth over £2bn.
£64m worth of wastage through “admin errors”.
A £325m overspend on procuring Protector drones (the programme also overran by 28 months).
The MOD being fined £31m by the Treasury for “granting MOD retrospective contract approvals” for 36 different contracts.
A £1bn overspend on Astute submarines.
Another £1bn overspend on a nuclear warhead storage facility.
A projected £333m overspend on what the report terms “Submarine Nuclear core production capability”.
Clearly, Labour has a point. There does look like massive waste. And according to the report:
None of its [the MOD’s] 36 major projects are rated ‘green’ – meaning that the project is on time and in budget – which makes it the worst performing department in Whitehall, with the lowest proportion of projects rated green.
Labour is “completely missing the point”
But there’s more to this debate than Labour = good and Tories = bad. Labour’s alternative vision also has shortcomings. For a start, it leaves out the massive cost of the wars which Labour started in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) general secretary Kate Hudson levelled her own criticisms too, telling the Morning Star:
Labour calling for ‘better management’ of vast and wasteful spending on increasing militarisation is just completely missing the point.
Britain needs to spend on health, on climate change, on infrastructure – meeting the needs of the people, not ratcheting up global tensions and pouring money into military hardware.
Stop the War Coalition convenor Lindsey German also weighed in:
It is a travesty for Labour politicians to complain that we need nuclear warheads developed more quickly and more tanks aimed at killing working people in other countries.
They should be arguing for less money on militarism and weapons, and more on housing, education and healthcare.
She added that it was time to learn the lesson of recent wars:
That would both improve the security of millions of people and show recognition that the 21st-century wars have only made the world much more dangerous.
Not enough
Clearly, Tory overspending on military equipment is a real problem. Yet, according to some, Labour is hardly likely to be better. What’s needed is an entirely different approach to accountability. We also need an entirely new set of spending priorities. Priorities which move away from massive military projects and towards real-life, bread-and-butter security issues like health, transport, and education.
The Levin Papantonio Rafferty (LPR) law firm is pleased to announce an important victory in its ongoing efforts to seek justice for U.S. servicemembers and their families severely injured in terrorist attacks in Iraq. Specifically, on January 4, 2021, in Atchley, et al., v. AstraZeneca et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned and […]
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The US Army ignored agreed-to covid prevention rules for entry into the Marshall Islands this week and the result was the first border cases of covid in the Marshall Islands in more than a year.
Three US Army personnel tested positive for covid soon after arrival at the US Army Garrison — Kwajalein Atoll (USAG-KA) Tuesday while starting a two-week quarantine period for entry into the country.
Despite record-breaking numbers of covid cases in Hawai’i and the US mainland over the past several weeks, driven largely by the omicron variant, the Army brought in the largest group ever to come to Kwajalein in the weekly US Army repatriation groups since it started the process in June 2020.
The group arrived Tuesday this week following a one-week quarantine in Hawai’i to undergo an additional two weeks of quarantine at the Kwajalein base.
Of the 37 base workers and their families now in quarantine, three tested positive for covid. On Wednesday, Army authorities informed Marshall Islands officials of the positive cases in this group.
These are known as “border cases”.
The Marshall Islands is one of the few countries globally that has never had community transmission of covid in the two years since the virus appeared.
‘Clearly broke the protocols’
The 37 people in this weekly Army group were allowed to board the military flight to Kwajalein from Honolulu without waiting for the results from a covid test, “which clearly broke the protocols jointly agreed to by National Disaster Committee (NDC) and USAG-KA,” said Chief Secretary Kino Kabua, who chairs the Marshall Islands National Disaster Committee.
A negative covid test is required for anyone to fly from Honolulu to the Marshall Islands.
A public statement issued by the Office of the Chief Secretary Wednesday said all three positive cases are showing no symptoms and are in quarantine and isolated from the community at Kwajalein.
There were no border cases in either Kwajalein or Majuro for 14 months preceding this week’s development. This is primarily because a quarantine period in Hawai’i — two weeks for unvaccinated individuals, one week if vaccinated — coupled with three covid tests prior to departure to the Marshall Islands has ensured no border cases in the Marshall Islands for an extended period.
Last week’s Army group saw one person bumped off the flight when they tested positive for covid prior to departure from Honolulu. But this protocol was not followed this week.
“NDC had discussions with the colonel on Wednesday who stated it was a procedural error on their part,” said Kabua.
“He conveyed it was unacceptable that the situation occurred and that he had already brought his entire team to rectify the problem, including pulling back the authority to authorise the flights to his level.”
Monitoring of test results Kabua added: “We reiterated the importance of adhering to the joint protocols and discussed additional measures to enhance collaboration at the technical-working level, especially the monitoring of test results coming out from Honolulu.”
Prior to the discovery of the three border cases, the Ministry of Health earlier this week issued a call to temporarily halt all repatriation for one month in light of the explosion of covid cases in Hawai’i, the US mainland and the world during the past month.
Hawai’i has been reporting between 1500 and 3000 new covid cases daily over the past several weeks after having only 57 cases as recently as December 7. The United States set a new record with more than 500,000 cases a day earlier this week.
The recommendation to “pause” repatriation was the lead point in a “Ministry of Health Emergency Covid-19 Resolution” issued January 3.
There is currently one Marshall Islands repatriation group tentatively scheduled for January and the Army brings in groups of its workers weekly.
The ministry recommended using a one-month pause on repatriation groups to enhance health and community preparation for the possible introduction of covid-19 omicron into the community, including vaccination, boosters and updating National Emergency Operations Centre plans.
The ministry also called on the government to “mandate covid-19 vaccination for healthcare workers, front-liners, civil servants and school aged children, including booster doses”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. Giff Johnson is editor of the Marshall Islands Journal.
Upwards of 100 water protectors rallied outside the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu on Dec. 10. Their greatest fears had just come true. The U.S. Navy had kept decaying fuel storage tanks just 100 feet above a water aquifer that functioned as the main source of drinking water on the island of O’ahu. Those tanks recently leaked jet fuel into the aquifer, poisoning thousands of people and creating irreparable damage to O’ahu’s water supply.
Shelley Muneoka, a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) member of the O’ahu Water Protectors coalition of organizers and community members, has been warning of such a leak since 2014. She spoke about the surge in attention that water protectors have recently received from the larger O’ahu community.
“On the one hand, [we’re] really feeling devastated that it’s come to this and really scared for what this means for the future of life on O’ahu,” Muneoka said. “On the other hand, [we’re] really having to dig deep to activate and motivate. All of a sudden, every day, tons of things are happening.”
Public demonstrations and community outreach throughout Honolulu are being led by the O’ahu Water Protectors. The coalition has been growing support around a demand to “Shut Down Red Hill,” referring to the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, which is the official name of the complex of underground tanks.
So far they have held two high profile actions and are engaging with members of the local community through teach-ins and mutual aid in order to bolster local support for their demand. They have also been active on social media to draw public attention to the issue. Community support and attention from the public is especially necessary because the Navy has resisted demands and dodged accountability at every turn, even fighting a state order to defuel Red Hill issued on Dec. 6.
Concern first started growing over the tanks at Red Hill in 2014 because that is the first known case of a major leak. In January 2014, 27,000 gallons of fuel leaked from a single tank, prompting a 20-year agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Navy, the Defense Logistics Agency, and the Hawaii Department of Health to study and consider improvements to the facility.
Despite this agreement between various governmental organizations, the Environmental Protection Agency and other departments responsible for holding the Navy accountable have not followed through, according to the Sierra Club.
The lack of action from federal and state institutions prompted the Sierra Club to wage a legal campaign that won some major gains in accountability. In 2017 the environmental organization sued the Hawaii Department of Health over a policy that exempted Red Hill from usual underground tank storage regulations. Prior to opposition, the Navy’s permit to operate the tanks was automatically renewed anytime it expired. The Sierra Club’s work forced the state to drop the practice of automatic renewal. The organization has also been using its website to document and clearly convey all available data and studies into the environmental threat posed by Red Hill.
Although the precedent of a major leak was set more than half a decade ago, the demand to shut down Red Hill lacked public support. Much of that hesitancy to question the Navy comes from the military’s large role in the Hawaiian economy and the concentration of service members and veterans who live on the island. The military industry is the second largest economic driver in Hawaii, employing 101,500 people or 16.5 percent of state’s workforce.
In Honolulu Civil Beat, Eric Stinton writes about how the military has been able to avoid significant criticism by portraying any negativity toward it as an institution as condemnation of individual service members.
“Even mild critiques of the military are often met with patriotic outrage, as if a specific institutional criticism is no different than spitting in the face of your uncle who took a bullet for his country,” he explained. “Military culture is particularly effective at subsuming the identities of those who are in it, so it’s easy to understand why criticism of the military is often received as criticism of military members.”
Antiwar veteran and O’ahu resident Ann Wright, who has been active in the Shut Down Red Hill movement, says that the economic role of the military has kept the state government complacent with the Navy’s presence.
“Besides tourism, it’s Department of Defense money that runs the state, so all of our Congress people are the big pork barrel people getting military projects here,” Wright said. “So the state has gone along with it and has not really kept good investigations going and made sure permits are issued.”
While the Navy has long manipulated public sentiment and worked with state officials to skirt responsibility, it was not able to avoid backlash following another major leak from the Red Hill tanks in recent months. That is because this time around the Navy is facing a new type of opposition: its own service members and military families living on the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. After posing a threat to the average O’ahu resident, the tanks have now leaked so much that military families living in Hawaii have been poisoned and outrage is finally growing.
Towards the end of November military spouses living in housing communities around the military base began reporting that they could smell gasoline in their water. Families also reported symptoms including headaches, rashes and diarrhea. Initially Navy spokespeople ensured the families that the water was safe to drink. They were only able to maintain this line for so long.
“If it had been over at the part of town where I live, the Navy wouldn’t have given a rat’s ass about it,” Wright said. “But because it’s military families, and those military families have wives, there’s nothing worse than an angry military spouse. Having been in the military 29 years I know, when things go wrong on a military base and the wives get mad, all hell breaks loose.”
Facing growing outrage from the military families, the Navy held a town hall on Dec. 6 where affected families voiced their sense of betrayal at the Navy’s negligence. “Why have you told us that the water was safe to drink, to bathe in while you waited for results that you already had?” one military spouse asked top local Navy officials. “I’m here to ask why you weren’t a wingman to protect my 13-month-old son … while I was giving him a sippy cup full of water from my faucet when he has been throwing up for days on end.”
Muneoka claimed that in the past, Native Hawaiian activists faced backlash whenever they criticized the military, but lately she has felt that the larger community’s feelings about the military are starting to change. Even elected officials who long failed to hold the Navy accountable are starting to more publicly condemn and question the Navy’s actions.
“I think there’s a reckoning happening,” Muneoka said. “For the military families, their whole lives are premised on the belief in this system. For them I think there’s a lot of feeling of shock and betrayal. For Hawaiians, we are not surprised, sadly.”
Adding to the momentum of the Shut Down Red Hill movement is the experience of Native Hawaiian leaders who spent the last several years leading a struggle in defense of the Mauna Kea mountain. The dormant volcano sacred to Native Hawaiians had been chosen as a construction site for a $1.4 billion observatory. Indigenous leaders launched a movement to resist construction, by blocking roads and occupying the land. At the height of the protests several thousand people were occupying the land to stop construction. These protests managed to halt construction in January 2020 and since then much of the opposition has moved to a legal arena.
Many of the Mauna Kea land defenders are now leading the public demonstrations around shutting down Red Hill. Along with the State Capitol, the O’ahu Water Protectors have made the headquarters of the U.S. Navy Pacific Command a center of demonstration. In the early morning on Dec. 12, about 70 Native Hawaiians held a ceremony at the gate of the command and constructed a stone altar dedicated to the Hawaiian god of water. The purpose of the altar is to draw people, both literally and spiritually, to the issue of contamination. Both Muneoka and Wright explained that, while much of the ongoing activism is challenging the Navy’s desire to leave the fuel tanks in place, the military will likely only shut down Red Hill if they are ordered to do so from President Biden
“When the Secretary of the Navy says to the governor’s order that the tanks should be shut down and drained, ‘I consider it a request,’ that gives you the idea of what’s happening,” Wright said.
“So many people have been to Hawaii for their own recreation or vacation,” Muneoka said. “This is an opportunity for you to do something. We really need pressure on President Biden, which I feel sounds so lofty and far away. But in the U.S., Navy command is everything and people can easily hide behind following orders. We need this order from the top to shut down the Red Hill fuel tanks.”
On Dec. 27 Deputy Attorney General David Day of the Department of Health sided with the governor’s demand that the Navy defuel the tanks. The O’ahu Water Protectors wrote a statement in support of Day’s decision, but added that it is just a first step in what they intend to make a larger movement to demilitarize Hawaii.
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For much of the last 20 or so years, the north of Ireland wasn’t used to being front and centre in international headlines. But thanks to the DUP and other hardline Brexiteers, that’s exactly where it was as 2021 began. And thanks also to a Brexiteer Tory government, the north made headlines for another reason. This time for the conflict that, largely speaking, fell silent in 1998.
As I’ve writtenextensively for The Canary, the peace we’ve had in the north in the last 23 years has been an uneasy one. Part of what makes it so uneasy is the tin ear the British government gives to victims’ families.
The government’s insensitivity and deafness was especially loud and clear in July. Because that was the month secretary of state for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis confirmed plans for an amnesty that could see British forces evade justice for their crimes in Ireland. And not only that, as if to consolidate its vision of the past, in November the British government announced plans to rewrite the history of that conflict. The Telegraph said the government feared “creeping revisionism around the role of the IRA and the atrocities it committed”. Oh the irony!
However, regardless of Britain’s tactic to conceal its dirty past in Ireland, the families of those who died at Britain’s hands have not relented. They continued their pursuit of justice for their loved ones into 2021. And it’s their bravery, not the callousness of the UK government, that will be the lasting memory and message of legacy issues in 2021. This article is another in The Year In Review series. You’ll be able to catch up on the many of the other review articles here.
But it was Labour which was first up
The year actually began with an example of historical revisionism from the Labour Party. This was evident when then shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland Louise Haigh ran an online “education programme” about the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
Haigh invited professor Jon Tonge from the University of Liverpool to address her first seminar. According to Tonge, the conflict began at the collapse of the 1973 Sunningdale agreement. Sunningdale was an attempt at power-sharing in the north which collapsed after five months following British loyalist opposition.
As I wrote at the time, in addition to ignoring the first five years of the conflict, Tonge completely omitted Irish republican concerns and the violent British repression against Irish Catholics and republicans. Republican paramilitaries – as they’d wanted since the war of independence over one hundred years ago – were fighting for a united Ireland. Tonge also ignored that the 30-year conflict was in part born out of the repression, by the British state and its agents, of peaceful protests in 1968.
Blood soaked journey
In March, when Connla Young of the Irish Newsrevealed the “blood-soaked journey” of a British loyalist gun, it revealed a double standard in the mainstream media’s reporting on the north. Loyalists imported that gun, along with many others, to murder Irish republicans and innocent Catholics during the conflict.
Unfortunately, though, Young’s journalism is an exception in the mainstream. Because his colleagues don’t display an ounce of his courage. Instead they portray today’s loyalists who oppose the current post-Brexit arrangements in the north, as an “umbrella group”. Lobbyists, if you will. Yet these loyalist groups are a direct descendant of the gangs, who once acted as the death squads of the British state. But this hasn’t stopped the mainstream media giving them pride of place. What did the Telegraph say about “revisionism”?
As they admit one, another resurfaces
In May, a coroner declared 9 of the 11 Ballymurphy massacre victims, shot by the British army, were innocent. Victims’ families already knew this just as they knew all 11 were innocent. These innocent people died following the invasion of over 600 British soldiers into the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast between the 9 and 11 August 1971. This British invasion marked the beginning of the British policy of imprisoning Irish Catholics and republicans without trial – internment.
Following the coroner’s announcement, we were reminded how Ballymurphy was far from a one off. Thanks to the relentless diligence of legacy researchers at Paper Trail, new evidence indicates “a major British military operation about to begin in the vicinity”, at the time 13-year-old schoolgirl Martha Campbell was murdered in May 1972. But with this proposed amnesty in place, would anybody face trial?
Tories make their crimes official
Never believe anything until it has been officially denied, goes the adage. Well, the Tories weren’t denying anything as such, they just don’t want anyone to talk about British crimes in Ireland.
In July, a series of announcements came that amounted to a denial of any wrong-doing. In early July, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced it would drop the cases against two British soldiers for the murder of three Irish people in Derry in 1972. The PPS claimed there wasn’t a reasonable chance of either soldier being prosecuted.
Later that month, Lewis announced plans to grant an amnesty to British forces, and paramilitary groups, who fought in the 30-year conflict. As I wrote at that time:
And while some in the mainstream media, and Labour party leader Keir Starmer, say Lewis’s proposal means an amnesty “for terrorists”, the reality is quite different. Because given the lack of prosecutions compared to the eventual admission of wrong-doing by the British establishment, it looks as if the British establishment is trying to whitewash its record during that 30-year conflict.
The British state continued to white-wash when it met with a human rights group who represent victims’ of British state violence, soon after Lewis’s announcement. From that meeting it seemed as if the British government was, at best, trying to minimise its role in the conflict in Ireland. It claimed British security forces were only responsible “for around 10% of Troubles-related deaths” and that “the vast majority… were lawful”. A state of complete and deliberate denial.
Human rights groups continued to call out the British establishment’s lies through their research and a day of nation-wide action in Ireland in September.
Tireless campaigning
It is without doubt thanks to the tireless campaigning of a dedicated few that the British cover up campaign will never be normalised. We were reminded of this throughout the year and especially every December when we remember the 15 people murdered as a result of the McGurk’s Bar bombing in Belfast in 1971. Campaigners continue to expose Britain’s role in this bloody act of slaughter, and its role in deliberately and falsely blaming Irish republicans for the carnage.
So it’s somewhat fitting, if not poignant, that the year ended with the UK Supreme Court highlighting a cover up relating to alleged torture in Ireland. The court found the police’s failure to investigate allegations of torture against the “hooded men” was unlawful. In 2014, the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ, showed these men had indeed been tortured by the British state. The British also replicated these torture techniques in Iraq in 2003.
British state traumatising families
Try as they might, the British establishment will not succeed. Because the campaign for justice goes on. And the more the British cover up, the more these campaigners fight. As such, it’s fitting that the final word should be left with them. Ciarán MacAirt of Paper Trail told The Canary that 2021 was “very much a double-edged sword”:
The British state has re-traumatized families across these islands because of its endless threats to dismantle the Stormont House Agreement unilaterally and to enact its pernicious Legacy Bill. The British state’s mask has slipped and it wants to bury its war crimes and protect its killers whilst denying bereaved families equal access to due process of the law. The British media’s mendacity in reporting this assault on basic human rights was similarly damaging to families too.
Nevertheless, the dignity, fortitude and bravery of these ordinary families were beacons throughout the darkness and deceit of 2021. These heroes are my highlight as they have demolished the falsehoods of a powerful state and relentlessly succeed in this state’s own courts. It is their heroism in fighting for truth and justice that has driven the British state to break international and domestic human rights law. The perfidious British state is running scared because it murdered its own citizens and covered up its crimes, but did not account for a basic human emotion – love. That is what is driving each and every family member and that is why Britain is in such trouble.
We at The Canary look forward to highlighting that bravery and heroism in the years to come.
Papua New Guinean church workers working behind the scenes to help the terrorised people of the Nankina valley in Madang’s Rai Coast district are now themselves at risk after they were named in a news report.
The missionaries (names withheld) called on the police to send in more manpower to apprehend the “Het Wara” gang, saying their members who are on the ground would now be targeted by the gangsters.
This plea comes shortly after reports came in from sources on the ground that the house of one of the church members was burnt by the gang.
One of the missionaries told the Post-Courier that they had not wanted to be named or take credit for what they were doing out of concern for the security of their members on the ground.
“Knowing how this gang operates, they will definitely go after our members when the police leave,” said the missionary.
“Over the course of two years, this gang has killed people who stood up to them, who reported them to authorities or who tried to get help.
“So we appeal to the government and the police, please send in more manpower, end their reign of terror.”
35 homes burnt down
Meanwhile, reports from the area indicate that the gang is continuing to terrorise villagers despite a contingent of policemen flying into the area this week. A total of 35 homes have been burnt down so far, with three men killed and several others severely injured.
There are also reports of an unconfirmed number of women and girls being abducted and raped by the gang in the last three weeks.
Madang police were deployed to the area on Sunday and 10 Northern mobile group policemen were deployed yesterday to beef up manpower to hunt down the gang.
The group was flown in yesterday morning to join the team of 11 from Madang.
Team leader Steven Yalamu told the Post-Courier that the team from Lae arrived safely and were all now based at Tibu.
21 policemen on the ground
“Currently, we have 21 men on the ground but we are looking at bringing in more manpower to hunt down these criminals who have been preying on their own people,” Detective Inspector Yalamu said.
“Also the place is so rugged and mountainous that we have to wait for a helicopter to fly us to where the gang is at now.
“The gang is still active and is moving, attacking other villages that are further away from where we are, but I’d like to remind them that the hand of the law is long and we will still catch up with them.”
Peace and normalcy has been restored at Tibu village where police are now based.
Yalamu called on all Tibu villagers who may still be hiding in the bush to return to their homes and village.
“I also call on all villagers in the area to work with us to apprehend this gang.”
The interim President of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) provisional government, Benny Wenda, has condemned Indonesia for the arrest and torture of eight students, and appeals to Melanesian countries to support their plea.
The eight West Papuan students were arrested by Indonesian police for peacefully demonstrating with banners and hand-painted Morning Star flags in Jayapura, capital of the Indonesian-ruled province of Papua, on 1 December 2021.
They have been charged with treason, and may face 25 years in prison.
In an interview with 96.3 Buzz FM, Wenda said that this happened when West Papua celebrated its 60th year anniversary, which is significant for all West Papuans.
“The event is celebrated globally. Official celebrations took place in Netherlands, in United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu,” he said.
“The university students peacefully raised their flags, marched and chanted withdrawal of the military and demanded self-determination.
“Just last month, I asked the Indonesian government to allow my people to express themselves because we always respect their independence on August 17 annually,” Wenda said.
‘Call for respect and release’
“We have called for respect and are not happy with this arrest.
“We are also asking the international community to monitor the situation.”
Amnesty Indonesia has already called for the immediate release of the students. These students have been fed up with the military operations, internal displacements, murders and bombings.
Wenda also said that recently an elderly woman, Paulina Imbumar, who leads prayers, was arrested, and a request had been sent to the police station to release her.
The chair of the Vanuatu West Papua Association, Job Dalesa, said it was very sad to hear such actions taken.
He added that it was an independent human rights flag and the students were portraying their stand.
Dalesa called on the people of Vanuatu to unite in prayer for the people of West Papua.
“We will appeal to Indonesia to stop such actions,” he said.
The Vanuatu Daily Post contacted the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) headquarters in Port Vila for comments on the situation. However, there was no immediate response.
Kizzy Kalsakau and Jason Abel are Vanuatu Daily Post reporters. Republished with permission.
The Paris-based global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned three “dictatorial regimes” — Belarus, China and Myanmar — for their role in a global surge in the jailing of journalists doing their job.
According to the RSF annual round-up, a record number of journalists — 488, including 60 women — are currently detained worldwide, while another 65 are being held hostage.
Meanwhile, the number of journalists killed in 2021 — 46 — is at its lowest in 20 years.
RSF said in a statement that the number of journalists detained in connection with their work had never been this high since the watchdog began publishing its annual round-up in 1995.
RSF logged a total of 488 journalists and media workers in prison in mid-December 2021, or 20 percent more than at the same time last year.
This exceptional surge in arbitrary detention is due, above all, to three countries — Myanmar, where the military retook power in a coup on 1 February 2021; Belarus, which has seen a major crackdown since Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed reelection in August 2020; and Xi Jinping’s China, which is tightening its grip on Hong Kong, the special administrative region once seen as a regional model of respect for press freedom.
RSF has also never previously registered so many female journalists in prison, with a total of 60 currently detained in connection with their work – a third (33 percent) more than at this time last year.
China world’s biggest jailer of journalists
China, the world’s biggest jailer of journalists for the fifth year running, is also the biggest jailer of female journalists, with 19 currently detained. They include Zhang Zhan, a 2021 RSF Press Freedom laureate, who is now critically ill.
Belarus is currently holding more female journalists (17) than male (15). They include two reporters for the Poland-based independent Belarusian TV channel Belsat — Daria Chultsova and Katsiaryna Andreyeva — who were sentenced to two years in a prison camp for providing live coverage of an unauthorised demonstration.
In Myanmar, of the 53 journalists and media workers detained, nine are women.
“The extremely high number of journalists in arbitrary detention is the work of three dictatorial regimes,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.
“It is a reflection of the reinforcement of dictatorial power worldwide, an accumulation of crises, and the lack of any scruples on the part of these regimes. It may also be the result of new geopolitical power relationships in which authoritarian regimes are not being subjected to enough pressure to curb their crackdowns.”
Another striking feature of this year’s round-up is the fall in the number of journalists killed in connection with their work — 46 from 1 January to 1 December 2021. The year 2003 was the last time that fewer than 50 journalists were killed.
This year’s fall is mostly due to a decline in the intensity of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and to campaigning by press freedom organisations, including RSF, for the implementation of international and national mechanisms aimed at protecting journalists.
Journalists deliberately targeted Nonetheless, despite this remarkable fall, an average of nearly one journalist a week is still being killed in connection with their work. And RSF has established that 65 percent of the journalists killed in 2021 were deliberately targeted and eliminated.
Mexico and Afghanistan are again the two deadliest countries, with seven journalists killed in Mexico and six in Afghanistan. Yemen and India share third place, with four journalists killed in each country.
In addition to these figures, the 2021 round-up also mentions some of the year’s most striking cases. This year’s longest prison sentence, 15 years, was handed down to both Ali Aboluhom in Saudi Arabia and Pham Chi Dung in Vietnam.
The longest and most Kafkaesque trials are being inflicted on Amadou Vamoulké in Cameroon and Ali Anouzla in Morocco.
The French journalist Olivier Dubois was the only foreign journalist to be abducted this year. He has been held hostage in Mali since April 8.
Since 1995, RSF has been compiling annual round-ups of violence and abuses against journalists based on precise data gathered from 1 January to 1 December of the year in question.
“The 2021 round-up figures include professional journalists, non-professional journalists and media workers,” RSF explains.
“We gather detailed information that allows us to affirm with certainty or a great deal of confidence that the detention, abduction, disappearance or death of each journalist was a direct result of their journalistic work. Our methodology may explain differences between our figures and those of other organisations.”
Reporters Without Borders and Pacific Media Watch collaborate.
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Armed conflict in West Papua continues to claim lives, displace tens of thousands of people and cause resentment at Indonesian rule.
But despite ongoing calls for help, neighbouring countries in the Pacific Islands region remain largely silent and ineffectual in their response.
This year, Indonesia’s military has increased operations to hunt down and respond to attacks by pro-independence fighters with West Papua National Liberation Army (WPNLA) which considers Indonesia an occupying force in its homeland.
Since late 2018, several regencies in the Indonesian-ruled Papuan provinces have become mired in conflict, notably Nduga, Yahukimo, Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya, Maybrat as well as Pegunungan Bintang regency on the international border with Papua New Guinea.
The ongoing cycle of violence has created a steady trickle of deaths on both sides, and also among the many villages caught in the middle.
Identifying the death toll is difficult, especially because Indonesian authorities restrict outside access to Papua.
However, research by the West Papua Council of Churches points to at least 400 deaths due to the conflict in the aforementioned regencies since December 2018, including people who have fled their villages to escape military operations and then died due to the unavailability of food and medicine.
‘Some cross into PNG’
“We have received reports that at least 60,000 Papuan people from our congregations have currently evacuated to the surrounding districts, including some who have crossed into Papua New Guinea,” says Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman, president of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches of West Papua.
West Papuan villagers flee their homes due to the armed conflict in Maybrat regency, September 2021. Image: RNZ Pacific
The humanitarian crisis which Yoman described has spilled over into Papua New Guinea, bringing its own security and pandemic threats to PNG border communities like Tumolbil village in remote Telefomin district.
Reverend Yoman and others within the West Papua Council of Churches have made repeated calls for the government to pull back its forces.
They seek a circuit-breaker to end to the conflict in Papua which remains based on unresolved grievances over the way Indonesia took control in the 1960s, and the denial of a legitimate self-determination for West Papuans.
But it is not simply the war between Indonesia’s military and the Liberation Army or OPM fighters that has created ongoing upheavals for Papuans.
This year has seen:
more arbitrary arrests and detention of Papuans for peaceful political expression;
treason charges for the same;
harassment of prominent human rights defenders;
more oil palm, mining and environmental degradation that threatens Papuans’ access to their land and forest;
a move by Indonesian lawmakers to extend an unpopular Special Autonomy Law roundly rejected by Papuans; and
a terror plot by alleged Muslim extremists in Merauke Regency in Papua’s south-east corner.
Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman … the Indonesian president and vice-president have “turned a blind eye and heart to the Papua confict”. Image: RNZ Pacific
Not only the churches, but also Papuan customary representatives, civil society and the pro-independence movement have been calling for international help for many years, particularly for an intermediary to facilitate dialogue with Indonesia towards some sort of peaceful settlement.
Groups frustrated with Jakarta
The groups have expressed frustration about the way that Jakarta’s defensiveness over West Papua’s sovereignty leaves little room for solutions to end conflict in the New Guinea territory.
On the other hand, Indonesian government officials point towards various major infrastructure projects in Papua as a sign that President Joko Widodo’s economic development campaign is creating improvements for local communities.
Despite the risks of exacerbating the spread of covid-19 in Papua, Indonesia recently held the National Games in Jayapura, with President Widodo presiding over the opening and closing of the event, presenting it as a showcase of unity and development in the eastern region.
“The president and vice-president of Indonesia while in Papua did not discuss the resolution of the protracted Papua conflict. They turned a blind eye and heart to the Papua confict,” says Reverend Yoman.
Beyond the gloss of the Games, Papuans were still being taken in by authorities as treason suspects if they bore the colours of the banned Papuan Morning Star flag.
Regional response At their last in-person summit before the pandemic, in 2019, Pacific Islands Forum leaders agreed to press Indonesia to allow the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into Papua region in order for it to present them with an independent assessment of the rights situation in West Papua.
Advocating for the UN visit, as a group in the Forum, appears to be as far out on a limb that regional countries — including Australia and New Zealand — are prepared to go on West Papua.
However even before 2019, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office had already been trying for years to send a team to Papua, and found it difficult securing Indonesia’s approval.
That the visit has still not happened since the Forum push indicates that West Papua remains off limits to the international community as far as Jakarta is concerned, no matter how much it points to the pandemic as being an obstacle.
Indonesian military forces conduct operations in Intan Jaya, Papua province. Image: RNZ Pacific
The question of how the Pacific can address the problem of West Papua is also re-emerging at the sub-regional level within the Melanesian Spearhead Group whose full members are PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s Kanaks.
The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is looking to unlock the voice of its people at the regional level by applying again for full membership in the MSG, after its previous application had “disappeared”.
The ULMWP’s representative in Vanuatu, Freddy Waromi, this month submitted the application at the MSG headquarters in Port Vila.
No voice at the table
The organisation already has observer status in the MSG, but as Waromi said, as observers they do not have a voice at the table.
“When we are with observer status, we always just observe in the MSG meeting, we cannot voice our voice out.
“But with the hope that we become a full member we can have a voice in MSG and even in Pacific Islands Forum and even other important international organisations.”
ULMWP representative in Vanuatu Freddie Waromi … “with the hope that we become a full member we can have a voice in MSG.” Image: RNZ Pacific
Indonesia, which is an associate member of the MSG, opposes the ULMWP’s claim to represent West Papuans.
“They’re still encouraging them (the MSG) not to accept us,” Waromi said of Jakarta.
He said the conflict had not abated since he fled from his homeland into PNG in 1979, but only worsened.
“Fighting is escalating now in the highlands region of West Papua – in Nduga, in Intan Jaya, in Wamena, in Paniai – all those places, fighting between Indonesian military and the National Liberation Army of West Papua has been escalating, it’s very bad now.”
Vanuatu consistently strong
Vanuatu is the only country in the Pacific Islands region whose government has consistently voiced strong support for the basic rights of West Papuans over the years. Other Melanesian countries have at times raised their voice, but the key neighbouring country of PNG has been largely silent.
The governor of PNG’s National Capital District, Powes Parkop, this month in Parliament lambasted successive PNG governments for failing to develop a strong policy on West Papua.
Governor Powes Parkop of Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District … “We have adopted a policy that is shameful and unethical.” Image: Johnny Blades/RNZ Pacific
He claimed that PNG’s long silence on the conflict had been based on fear, and a “total capitulation to Indonesian aggression and illegal occupation”.
“We have adopted a policy that is shameful and unethical,” he said of PNG’s “friends to all, enemies to none” stance.
“How do we sleep at night when the people on the other side are subject to so much violence, racism, deaths and destruction?
“When are we going to summon the courage to talk and speak? Why are we afraid of Indonesia?”
Parkop’s questions also apply to the Pacific region, where Indonesia’s diplomatic influence has grown in recent years, effectively quelling some of the support that the West Papua independence movement had enjoyed.
Time is running out for West Papuans who may soon be a minority in their own land if Indonesian transmigration is left unchecked.
Yet that doesn’t mean the conflict will fade. Until core grievances are adequately addressed, conflict can be expected to deepen in West Papua.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Papuan people have rejected the investigation team formed by the Indonesian state through the Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) to investigate alleged gross human rights violations in Paniai on 8 December 2014.
“To this day Indonesia has never solved any cases of gross human rights violations in the land of Papua, especially not the bloody Paniai case,” said Papuan activist Andi Yeimo about the massacre when Indonesian troops killed five teenagers and wounded 17.
“So, we the people of Paniai and the families of the victims are [instead] hoping for a visit by the United Nations High Commissioner [on Human Rights] to see for themselves the evidence and facts on the ground in Karel Gobai, the location of the shootings.”
Yeimo believes that the Indonesian government is incapable of resolving cases of gross human rights violations and the Papuan people are asking for the United Nations to visit Papua.
“We already know that the government talks nonsense. Indonesia once offered four billion [rupiah] (NZ$419,000) in money as compensation. But we, the families of the victims, rejected this evil attempt outright,” he said.
In relation to a UN visit to Papua, Yeimo said that 85 countries had already urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Papua.
But Indonesia had used the covid-19 pandemic situation as grounds to prevent the visit.
Indonesian ‘distractions’
“Domestically, Indonesia [tries] to distract the Papuan people’s focus with the agenda of Otsus (the extension of special autonomy), the creation of new autonomous regions, the National Sports Week and military operations in West Papua,” said Yeimo.
“All students, youth, religious figures, state civil servants and all OAP (indigenous Papuans) unite now, take part in rejecting the [investigation] team formed by the state. We Papuans all know that Indonesia has never taken responsibility for its actions.”
Earlier, Amiruddin, the head of the investigation team into gross human rights violations, said he hoped that the newly formed team of investigators would be able to work transparently.
“The Attorney-General’s move to form the Paniai incident investigation team is a good move”, said Amiruddin in a press release.
Notes from Indo Left News: On 8 December 2014, barely two months after President Joko Widodo was sworn in as president, five high-school students were killed and 17 others seriously wounded when police and military opened fire on a group of protesters and local residents in the town of Enarotali, Paniai regency. Shortly after the incident, while attending Christmas celebrations in Jayapura on December 28, Widodo personally pledged to resolve the case but seven years into his presidency no one has been held accountable for the shootings.
The US Senate has passed its National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) military spending bill for the fiscal year of 2022, setting the budget at an astronomical $778 billion by a vote of 89 to 10. The bill has already been passed by the House, now requiring only the president’s signature. An amendment to cease facilitating Saudi Arabia’s atrocities in Yemen was stripped from the bill.
“The most controversial parts of the 2,100-page military spending bill were negotiated behind closed doors and passed the House mere hours after it was made public, meaning members of Congress couldn’t possibly have read the whole thing before casting their votes,” reads a Politico article on the bill’s passage by Lindsay Koshgarian, William Barber II and Liz Theoharis.
The US military had a budget of $14 billion for its scaled-down Afghanistan operations in the fiscal year of 2021, down from $17 billion in 2020. If the US military budget behaved normally, you’d expect it to come down by at least $14 billion in 2022 following the withdrawal of US troops and official end of the war in Afghanistan. Instead, this new $778 billion total budget is a five percent increase from the previous year.
“Months after US President Joe Biden’s administration pulled the last American troops out of Afghanistan as part of his promise to end the country’s ‘forever wars’, the United States Congress approved a $777.7bn defence budget, a five percent increase from last year,” Al Jazeera reports.
“For the last 20 years, we heard that the terrorist threat justified an ever-expanding budget for the Pentagon,” Win Without War executive director Stephen Miles told Al Jazeera. “As the war in Afghanistan has ended and attention has shifted towards China, we’re now hearing that that threat justifies it.”
"For the last 20 years, we heard that the terrorist threat justified an ever-expanding budget for the Pentagon. As the war in Afghanistan has ended and attention has shifted towards China, we’re now hearing that that threat justifies it." https://t.co/GtBFUTRWmR via @AJEnglish
Upon the removal of US troops from Afghanistan, President Biden said the following in August:
“After more than $2 trillion spent in Afghanistan — a cost that researchers at Brown University estimated would be over $300 million a day for 20 years in Afghanistan — for two decades — yes, the American people should hear this: $300 million a day for two decades. If you take the number of $1 trillion, as many say, that’s still $150 million a day for two decades. And what have we lost as a consequence in terms of opportunities? I refused to continue in a war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interest of our people.”
You would think a government so grieved over the loss of “opportunities” for the American people due to Afghanistan war spending would be eager to begin allocating that wealth toward providing opportunities to Americans at the end of that war. Instead, more wealth has been diverted to the US war machine.
The NDAA passage comes amid heightened tensions between the US and Russia, and the bill includes $300 million for military aid to Ukraine, $50 million more than what the Pentagon requested. According to The Wall Street Journal, at least $75 million of the Ukraine aid will be “lethal,” meaning it will be spent on offensive weapons, such as Javelin anti-tank missiles the US has already provided to Kyiv.
A sane military (if there is such a thing) would be bolstered in times when a nation needs to defend itself and scaled down during peacetime. With the US military it’s completely backwards: it’s taken as a given that the budget must keep expanding, and then reasons are made up to justify doing so by making “peacetime” nonexistent. The military budget isn’t set to serve existing conditions, conditions are set to serve the military budget.
Before it was the Russians and the Chinese it was terrorists, and before it was terrorists it was the Soviets. After the fall of the USSR, there emerged a popular notion of a “peace dividend” in which defense spending could be reduced in the absence of America’s sole rival and the abundant excess funds used to take care of the American people instead. The only problem was that a lot of people had gotten very rich and powerful as a result of that cold war defense spending, and that money and power was used at some key points of influence. Less than three months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union we learned of the Wolfowitz Doctrine from The New York Times saying the US had resolved to prevent the rise of another superpower at all cost, and a few years later the neocons found their way into the George W Bush administration to usher in an unprecedented new era of military expansionism and wars of aggression.
The military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned about in his farewell address as president became inevitable as soon as the US government espoused imperialist ambitions. War profiteering is what you get when you mix capitalism with a globe-spanning power structure that must labor continuously to maintain unipolar planetary domination, which can only be done with ceaseless violence and the threat thereof. It was inevitable that an industry would not only arise to meet that demand, but begin using the wealth it generates to push for more warmongering. The war industry surfs on the war-fueled empire like dolphins on the wake of a freight ship, except in this case the dolphins are also able to help propel and steer the ship.
One of the many disgusting things about the bloated $778 billion defense budget is next year anything less than that will be labeled "a cut to military spending" and the bi-partisan war hawks will end up increasing it again & again. Enough is never enough for the death merchants.
And meanwhile that insane, mindless juggernaut is hurtling toward a direct confrontation with Russia and China, who are growing increasingly intimate and unified against their common enemy. These are forming the head of a rapidly coalescing group of powers who have refused to be absorbed into the folds of the US-centralized power alliance, and you don’t have to be a historian to understand that world powers splitting into two increasingly hostile alliance groups can lead some very ugly places. Especially now in the age of nuclear weapons.
The human species has some very daunting tests ahead of it. I hope we pass.
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More deployments, a more aggressive approach, and more intense state vs state conflict. This is the dystopian vision laid out by the new head of the British military admiral Tony Radakin. He’s the man who just replaced general Nick Carter as chief of the defence staff.
In a speech at the Royal United Service Institute, Radakin said “British national interest” should become a guiding principle once again. He added that preparing for state-on-state conflict and competition were the order of the day.
More deployments
One of his top priorities, Radakin said, is more military deployments:
It is about having formations, units, platforms, systems and people that are both more deployable and deployed more, whether at home or abroad. This follows from our conclusions about constant strategic competition. We need to be more active and engaged to achieve the deterrence, stability and prosperity at the heart of our national strategy.
He added that he didn’t want troops frustrated in barracks but out in the world acting as ambassadors:
Our forces need to be out in the world supporting British interests, deterring and shaping on a continuous basis. This is what our politicians demand, and it gets after the frustrations felt by our people when they find themselves stuck in barracks or delayed by training or equipment when they should be deployed as ambassadors for Global Britain – shaping, training and influencing.
Industry
Military forces were a key part of British life, he said. Referring to the military as central to communities around the UK.
Our air stations and garrisons, our dockyards and training schools, are the life blood of so many communities. We invest billions into aviation, shipbuilding and other high-tech industries, in every region and every community across all of these islands. We’re the experts at levelling up. We’ve been doing it for centuries and we’ll be doing it long into the future.
And it must be recognised that our interests at home and abroad are linked. Global Britain. Levelling Up. Strengthening the Union. These aren’t campaign slogans or catch phrases. They are the policy of the Government and are bound up with our defence and security.
Powerful?
Radakin also veered into a rather fantastic vision of Britain as a serious global power. He hyped the country’s alliances and lauded it’s supposed values:
The rest of the world see us for who we are. A permanent member of the UN Security Council. A nuclear power. A trading power. The world’s fifth largest economy. A strong, powerful country but outward looking, cooperative and generous too.
The speech overlooked the increased aggression of the UK and her allies in, for example, the Indo-Pacific region. It also overlooked the role of the UK media in the project. For example, this BBC report uncritically hyping the UK foreign policy position which was spotted by investigative journalist John Pilger:
I post this as a striking example of the kind of 'journalism' the BBC dispense as unabashed PR. This monstrous, dated warship has been sent to provoke China, which is not our enemy but is nuclear armed. Not a single challenge to the 'commodore' as he rattles off his nonsense. https://t.co/Ejv7Nfxzg0
Radakin’s vision is meant to be optimistic. In truth, it looks rather dystopian. It seems to spell more overseas operations despite failure in recent ones like Afghanistan. The arms trade is presented as a point of national pride. A deeper integration of the military into our communities is proposed as a bid to hold a creaking union together. And, above all, it forwards a plan for interacting with the world that’s based on a fantasy vision of British global power.
President Biden may soon approve the largest military spending bill since World War II, which ramps up spending to counter China and Russia. Separately, the Senate voted down a bipartisan bid by Senators Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Mike Lee to halt $650 million in U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid the devastating ongoing war in Yemen. “The last thing we need to do is be throwing more money at the Pentagon,” says William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. “This whole idea that China and Russia are military threats to the United States has primarily been manufactured to jump up the military budget.”
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMYGOODMAN: President Biden may soon vote to approve the largest military spending bill since World War II, with a 5% increase over last year’s military spending bill. The $768 billion military budget is $24 billion higher than what Biden requested despite the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The package includes funds aimed at countering China’s power and to build Ukraine’s military strength. It also includes nearly $28 billion in nuclear weapons funding.
The bill is headed to the Senate, then to President Biden, after the House approved the bill late Tuesday night with more Republicans than Democrats voting for it. Among those who voted no was progressive New York Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, who tweeted, quote, “It is astounding how quickly Congress moves weapons but we can’t ensure housing, care, and justice for our veterans, nor invest in robust jobs programs for districts like mine.” Bowman also criticized how the compromise bill strips funding that would have established an office for countering extremism in the Pentagon, saying the bill, quote, “must also protect the Black men and women who are disproportionately the target of extremism and a biased military justice system,” unquote.
Also absent from the bill is a provision to require women to register for the draft.
Separately, the Senate voted down a bipartisan bid by Senators Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Mike Lee to halt $650 million in U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia amidst the devastating ongoing war on Yemen.
For more, we’re joined by Bill Hartung, director of Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, author of a new report, “Arming Repression: U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia, from Trump to Biden,” his latest book, Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.
Bill Hartung, welcome back to Democracy Now! First of all, if you can just respond to the House passage of the largest weapons spending bill in U.S. history since World War II?
WILLIAMHARTUNG: Well, I think it’s an outrage, if you look at what we really need. You know, in the roundup, you talked about the need to spend on pandemic preparedness. The world is on fire with the impacts of climate change. We’ve got deep problems of racial and economic injustice in this country. We’ve got an insurrection and violence trying to undermine our democracy. So the last thing we need to do is be throwing more money at the Pentagon. And it’s a huge amount. It’s more than we spent in Vietnam, the Korean War, the Reagan buildup of the ’80s, all throughout the Cold War. And as you said, even at the time as Biden has pulled out U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the Pentagon budget keeps going up and up.
NERMEENSHAIKH: And, Bill Hartung, could respond specifically to the fact that the budget is $24 billion more than what was requested? Is it common to have such a huge difference in terms of the amount requested and the amount granted, $24 billion?
WILLIAMHARTUNG: Well, Congress often adds money for pet projects — Boeing aircraft in Missouri, attack submarines in Connecticut and Virginia — but nothing at this level. You know, $24 billion is the biggest congressional add-on that I can think of in recent memory. So it’s kind of extraordinary, especially, as we said, when the endless wars should be winding down.
NERMEENSHAIKH: And can you talk about some of the key figures in Congress who have been pushing for an increase?
WILLIAMHARTUNG: Well, you’ve got people like James Inhofe, who’s the Republican lead on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who’s basically said we need to spend 3 to 5% more per year in perpetuity, which would push the budget over a trillion dollars within five to six years. He is always touting a report called the National Defense Strategy Commission report, which was put together primarily by people who were from the arms industry, from think tanks funded by the arms industry. Basically, it was a kind of a special interest collection that were pushing this.
And then you have Mike Rogers from Alabama, who’s the key player on House Armed Services. He’s got Huntsville in his state, and Huntsville is sort of the missile capital of America — Army missiles, missile defense systems. He also gets hundreds of thousands of dollars from the weapons industry for his reelection. So, there’s a strong kind of pork barrel special interest push by the military-industrial complex that help bring about this result.
AMYGOODMAN: The Senate voted down a bipartisan bid by Senators Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Mike Lee to halt the $650 million in U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, this amidst the devastating ongoing war on Yemen. I want to play a clip of Senators Paul and Sanders addressing the Senate Tuesday.
SEN. RANDPAUL: The U.S. should end all arms sales to the Saudis until they end their blockade of Yemen. President Biden said he would change the Trump policy of supporting Saudi’s war in Yemen, but it’s not all that apparent that policy has changed. … We commission these weapons, and we should not give them to countries who are starving children and are committing, essentially, genocide in Yemen.
SEN. BERNIESANDERS: President, I find myself in the somewhat uncomfortable and unusual position of agreeing with Senator Paul.
AMYGOODMAN: So, that was Senator Sanders and Paul. Bill Hartung, you’re the author of the new report headlined “Arming Repression: U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia, from Trump to Biden.” Can you talk about the significance of this, what was voted down?
WILLIAMHARTUNG: Well, these missiles are air-to-air missiles, which can be used to enforce the air blockade that’s been put over Yemen. So, the Saudis have bombed the Sana’a airport runways. They’ve tried to keep ships from coming in with fuel. And as a result, costs of medical supplies now are out of the reach of the average person of Yemen. People haven’t been able to leave the country for medical treatment. Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE say 32,000 people have probably died just for lack of being able to leave the country for that specialized care. Four hundred thousand children are at risk, according to the World Food Programme, of starvation because of the blockade. Millions of Yemenis need humanitarian aid just to survive, and the Saudi blockade is making it increasingly difficult to get that aid or to get commercial goods that they need.
So, basically, this is a criminal enterprise run by Mohammed bin Salman. And Joe Biden said, when he was a candidate, Saudi Arabia, we’d treat it like an pariah; he wouldn’t arm them. In his first foreign policy speech, he said the U.S. should stop support for offensive operations in Yemen. And yet he’s approved a contract for maintenance of Saudi planes and attack helicopters, and now this deal for the missiles. So he’s basically gone back on his pledge to forge a new relationship with Saudi Arabia and to use U.S. leverage to end the blockade and the war itself.
NERMEENSHAIKH: Bill, before we conclude, just to go back to the military budget, could you comment specifically on the $28 billion earmarked for nuclear weapons?
WILLIAMHARTUNG: Well, unfortunately, this bill doubles down on the Pentagon’s buildup of a new generation of nuclear weapons, a new generation of nuclear warheads, which is, of course, the last thing we need at a time of global tensions. You know, in particular, there was even a provision that said it’s not allowed to reduce the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are the most dangerous weapons in the world because they could easily be used by accident if there were a false alarm of attack, because the president has only minutes to decide whether to use these things. So, I think that’s one of the biggest stains on this bill, is basically continuing to stoke the nuclear arms race, not only at great cost but at great risk to the future of the planet.
AMYGOODMAN: And finally, the China and Russia being used as justification for weapons sales and increased military budget, can you compare the U.S. military budget to theirs?
WILLIAMHARTUNG: Well, the U.S. spends about 10 times what Russia spends, about three times what China spends. It has 13 times as many active nuclear warheads in its stockpile as China does. We’ve got 11 aircraft carriers of a type that China doesn’t have. We’ve got 800 U.S. military bases around the globe, while China has three. So this whole idea that China and Russia are military threats to the United States has primarily been manufactured to jump up the military budget. And so far, unfortunately, at least in the halls of Congress and the Biden administration, that’s been successful.
AMYGOODMAN: Bill Hartung, we want to thank you for being with us, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. We’ll link to your new report, “Arming Repression: U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia, from Trump to Biden.” Hartung’s latest book, Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.
Next up, calls are growing for President Biden to extend the moratorium on student debt payments as millions face a debt crisis during the pandemic. We’ll speak with the Debt Collective’s Astra Taylor about her new animated film, Your Debt Is Someone Else’s Asset. Stay with us.
After three decades of frustratingly slow progress but with a measure of quiet optimism over the decolonisation process unfolding under the Noumea Accord, Kanaky New Caledonia is again poised on the edge of a precipice.
Two out of three pledged referendums from 2018 produced higher than expected – and growing — votes for independence. But then the delta variant of the global covid-19 pandemic hit New Caledonia with a vengeance.
Like much of the rest of the Pacific, New Caledonia with a population of 270,000 was largely spared during the first wave of covid infections. However, in September a delta outbreak infected 12,343 people with 280 deaths – almost 70 percent of them indigenous Kanaks.
With the majority of the Kanak population in traditional mourning – declared for 12 months by the customary Senate, the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) and its allies pleaded for the referendum due this Sunday, December 12, to be deferred until next year after the French presidential elections.
In fact, there is no reason for France to be in such a rush to hold this last referendum on Kanak independence in the middle of a state of emergency and a pandemic. It is not due until October 2022.
It is clear that the Paris authorities have changed tack and want to stack the cards heavily in favour of a negative vote to maintain the French status quo.
When the delay pleas fell on deaf political ears and appeals failed in the courts, the pro-independence coalition opted instead to not contest the referendum and refuse to recognise its legitimacy.
Vote threatens to be farce
This Sunday’s vote threatens to be a farce following such a one-sided campaign. It could trigger violence as happened with a similar farcical and discredited independence referendum in 1987, which led to the infamous Ouvea cave hostage-taking and massacre the following year as retold in the devastating Mathieu Kassovitz feature film Rebellion [l’Ordre at la morale] — banned in New Caledonia for many years.
On 13 September 1987, a sham vote on New Caledonian independence was held. It was boycotted by the FLNKS when France refused to allow independent United Nations observers. Unsurprisingly, only 1.7 percent of participants voted for independence. Only 59 percent of registered voters took part.
After the bloody ending of the Ouvea cave crisis, the 1988 Matignon/Oudinot Accord signed by Kanak leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou and anti-independence leader Jacques Lafleur, paved the way for possible decolonisation with a staggered process of increasing local government powers.
A decade later, the 1998 Noumea Accord set in place a two-decade pathway to increased local powers – although Paris retained control of military and foreign policy, immigration, police and currency — and the referendums.
The New Caledonian independence referendum 2020 result. Image: Caledonian TV
In the first referendum on 4 November 2018, 43.33 percent voted for independence with 81 percent of the eligible voters taking part (recent arrivals had no right to vote in the referendum).
In the second referendum on 4 October 2020, the vote for independence rose to 46.7 percent with the turnout higher too at almost 86 percent. Only 10,000 votes separated the yes and no votes.
Kanak jubilation in the wake of the 2020 referendum with an increase in the pro-independence vote. Image: APR file
Expectations back then were that the “yes” vote would grow again by the third referendum with the demographics and a growing progressive vote, but by how much was uncertain.
Arrogant and insensitive
However, now with the post-covid tensions, the goodwill and rebuilding of trust for Paris that had been happening over many years could end in ashes again thanks to an arrogant and insensitive abandoning of the “decolonisation” mission by Emmanuel Macron’s administration in what is seen as a cynical ploy by a president positioning himself as a “law and order” leader ahead of the April elections.
Another pro-independence party, Palika, said Macron’s failure to listen to the pleas for a delay was a “declaration of war” against the Kanaks and progressive citizens.
Many academics writing about the implications of the “non” vote this Sunday are warning that persisting with this referendum in such unfavourable conditions could seriously rebound on France at a time when it is trying to project its “Indo-Pacific” relevance as a counterweight to China’s influence in the region.
China is already the largest buyer of New Caledonia’s metal exports, mainly nickel.
“The dangerous political game being played by Macron in relation to New Caledonia recalls decisions made by French leaders in the 1980s which disregarded pro-independence opposition, instrumentalised New Caledonia’s future in the national political arena, and resulted in some of the bloodiest exchanges of that time,” they wrote.
The theme of the webinar asks: “Has the search for a consensus solution to the antagonisms that have plagued New Caledonia finally ended? Is [the final] referendum likely to draw a line under the conflicts of the past or to reopen old wounds.”
Today’s New Caledonia webinar at Victoria University of Wellington. Image: VUW
One of the webinar panellists, Denise Fisher, criticised in The Conversation the lack of “scrupulously observed impartiality” by France for this third referendum compared to the two previous votes.
“In the first two campaigns, France scrupulously observed impartiality and invited international observers. For this final vote, it has been less neutral,” she argued.
“For starters, the discussions on preparing for the final vote did not include all major independence party leaders. The paper required by French law explaining the consequences of the referendum to voters favoured the no side this time, to the point where loyalists used it as a campaign brochure.”
‘Delay’ say Pacific civil society groups
A coalition of Pacific civil society organisations and movement leaders is among the latest groups to call on the French government to postpone the third referendum, which they described as “hastily announced”.
While French Minister for Overseas Territories Sebastien Lecornu had told French journalists this vote would definitely go ahead as soon as possible to “serve the common good”, critics see him as pandering to the “non” vote.
The Union Calédoniènne, Union Nationale pour l’independence Party (UNI), FLNKS and other pro-independence groups in the New Caledonia Congress had already written to Lecornu expressing their grave concerns and requesting a postponement because of the pandemic.
“We argue that the decision by France to go ahead with the referendum on December 12 ignores the impact that the current health crisis has on the ability of Kanaks to participate in the referendum and exercise their basic human right to self-determination,” said the Pacific coalition.
“We understand the Noumea Accord provides a timeframe that could accommodate holding the last referendum at any time up to November 2022.
“Therefore, we see no need to hastily set the final referendum for 12 December 2021, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic that is currently ravaging Kanaky/New Caledonia, and disproportionately impacting [on] the Kanak population.”
The coalition also called on the Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to “disengage” the PIF observer delegation led by Ratu Inoke Kubuabola. Forum engagement in referendum vote as observers, said the coalition, “ignores the concerns of the Kanak people”.
‘Act as mediators’
The coalition argued that the delegation should “act as mediators to bring about a more just and peaceful resolution to the question and timing of a referendum”.
Signatories to the statement include the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, Fiji Council of Social Services, Melanesian Indigenous Land Defence Alliance, Pacific Conference of Churches, Pacific Network on Globalisation, Peace Movement Aotearoa, Pasifika and Youngsolwara Pacific.
Melanesian Spearhead Group team … backing indigenous Kanak self-determination, but a delay in the vote. Image: MSG
Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, which along with the FLNKS are full MSG members, have been informed by the secretariat of its concerns.
In a media release, the MSG’s Director-General, George Hoa’au, said the situation in New Caledonia was “not conducive for a free and fair referendum”.
Ongoing customary mourning over covid-19 related deaths in New Caledonia meant that Melanesian communities were unable to campaign for the vote.
Kanak delegation at the United Nations. Image: Les Nouvelles Calédoniènnes
Hopes now on United Nations
“Major hopes are now being pinned on a Kanak delegation of territorial Congress President Roch Wamytan, Mickaël Forrest and Charles Wéa who travelled to New York this week to lobby the United Nations for support.
One again, France has demonstrated a lack of cultural and political understanding and respect that erodes the basis of the Noumea Accord – recognition of Kanak identity and kastom.
Expressing her disappointment to me, Northern provincial councillor and former journalist Magalie Tingal Lémé says: What happens in Kanaky is what France always does here. The Macron government didn’t respect us. They still don’t understand us as Kanak people.”
Dr David Robie covered “Les Événements” in New Caledonia in the 1980s and penned the book Blood on their Banner about the turmoil. He also covered the 2018 independence referendum.
Barely one week before top military brass, veterans and Hawaii government officials were to mark the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, families living in military housing around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Oahu noticed something was wrong with their tap water. They smelled gasoline and saw a sheen on the surface.
Complaints and questions were soon followed by sickness. Infants developed bright red rashes, people and pets vomited, and children and adults were rushed to emergency rooms with sores in their mouths, headaches, stomach cramps, nausea and bloody stool.
Initially, U.S. Navy officials dismissed concerns and said they had been drinking the water themselves without problem. On November 29, the base commander said in a statement, “[T]here are no immediate indications that the water is not safe.” But three days later, Navy officials reported that tests found that Navy drinking water lines had been contaminated with volatile hydrocarbons like those present in JP-5 jet fuel used for aircraft carriers.
At the center of the crisis is the U.S. military’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility which includes 20 steel-lined tanks built between 1940-43 underground into the Kapukaki Ridge just east of Ke Awa Lau O Puuloa (known as Pearl Harbor) near U.S. Indo-Pacific Command headquarters.
Each tank holds 12.5 million gallons of fuel which is used for the endless stream of naval vessels and military aircraft that operate from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and nearby military installations at the heart of the U.S. military presence in the Pacific.
The Red Hill facility has a history of spills and leaks, dating back as far as 1948. Since its construction, the nearly 80-year-old tanks have leaked more than 180,000 gallons of fuel, according to Sierra Club of Hawaii estimates.
Built vertically in porous volcanic rock, the tanks sit roughly 100 feet above a key aquifer that provides water to more than 90,000 military service members and their families, as well as the greater Honolulu metropolitan area, home to some 400,000 people.
Speaking at a town hall meeting on December 2, Rear Admiral Blake Converse, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said a test found petroleum products just above the waterline in a Red Hill well. Wells in other parts of central Oahu, Converse said, did not show signs of contamination. He said that the problem would be resolved with “significant additional flushing … with a good water source.”
However, that same day, Hawaii Congressman Kaialii (Kai) Kahele called the situation a “crisis of astronomical proportions.” Kahele, an Iraq and Afghanistan war combat veteran and Hawaii Air National Guard pilot, described visiting the home of one impacted Navy family who took their daughter to the emergency room for a headache and throat irritation where she was diagnosed with “chemical burns in her mouth.”
Holding up a plastic bottle filled at the family’s home, Kahele said, “If you smell this water, you would know that there is something wrong with this water.”
At a subsequent public meeting, Captain Michael McGinnis, a surgeon with U.S. Pacific Fleet, advised, “There are no long-term consequences from a short-term exposure” but added, “should we discover [this] was a long-term issue … it’s important for us to register who’s been in this area should long-term consequences develop.”
According to a Honolulu Star-Advertiserreport, petroleum contamination in the Navy’s water supply was present as early as last July.
Meanwhile, some schools in the affected area have stopped using tap water and the military has established medical walk-in facilities, medical and counseling services, a hotline, portable showers and bottled water distribution sites to serve impacted residents.
Contamination Goes Back Decades
The current crisis follows a November 20 leak due to operator error in which 14,000 gallons of fuel spilled from a drain line near the Red Hill facility, but contamination concerns and accidents go back decades.
Wayne Chung Tanaka, executive director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, told Truthout that his organization has been monitoring Red Hill for years. A 27,000-gallon leak in 2014 should have caused alarm, but Tanaka said Hawaii’s political leaders have continued to defer to the Navy for years.
“Concerns have been raised for decades. I think the 2014 was just another wake-up call,” Tanaka said. “For many people, it’s a worry that this is a harbinger for the future for a much broader segment of the population.”
In 2017, the Sierra Club of Hawaii successfully sued Hawaii’s Department of Health to ensure underground storage tank regulations were applied to Red Hill. An additional lawsuit was filed in 2019 to stop permit applications from being automatically approved. Additional litigation is ongoing in relation to the Navy’s permit application itself, which may not be extended after whistleblower allegations of failure to disclose an active leak into Pearl Harbor.
According to Tanaka, eight of the fuel-filled tanks haven’t been inspected in between 20 and 60 years. The construction and location of the tanks makes direct manual inspection difficult or impossible. Tanaka pointed out one tank damage analysis with a 40 percent error rate.
Calling the Red Hill storage tanks “museum pieces” that have outlived their usefulness, Tanaka said the Navy should close the facility permanently and store fuel in a more secure location. “Just get [the fuel] away from the aquifer immediately before something even worse happens.”
“This last week’s events have illustrated [that if] the local Navy leadership simply cannot guarantee the safety [and] protection of their own service members and their families, we cannot trust them with the safety of our groundwater and drinking water supply,” Tanaka said.
In Hawaii, Water Is Wealth
Kawenaulaokala Kapahua, a Native Hawaiian land activist with the group Hawaii Peace and Justice, noted that Red Hill facility was built on land taken by executive action during World War II. He pointed out that while “Hawaiians have lived on these islands for thousands of years and existed without polluting our natural resources, the military has been here for less than 150 years and already our water is seeing the detrimental effects of their presence.”
Kapahua notes that the word for “wealth” in Hawaiian is the repetition of the Hawaiian word for water twice (waiwai). “In Hawaiian culture, wealth is not an idea of dollar signs and stocks. Having a lot of water means you are wealthy — it means you are resource-rich … it means that the land is healthy.”
Kapahua told Truthout that he sees Red Hill as part of a larger pattern of U.S. military environmental destruction throughout the Pacific, from Okinawa and Japan to Guam, the Marshall Islands and across the Hawaiian Islands. He points to the Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe, which the U.S. military bombed so hard it cracked the water table and where unexploded ordnance remain in Oahu’s Makua and Waikane Valleys.
“The military has a long history of land mismanagement in Hawaii — pollution and the mismanagement of public resources that end up damaging and threatening the health of the public, so this is no surprise,” Kapahua said. He wants the military to take money from what he called its “massively over-inflated budget” to pay reparations and help restore water purity and cleanliness while also vacating the Red Hill facility permanently and paying for environmental remediation, health impacts and repairs associated with Red Hill.
Trust Has Been Broken
While some military service members and their families have been reluctant to criticize, many are speaking out. One of those is Mai Hall, the wife of an active-duty Air Force enlisted airman who lives in privatized off-base Navy housing. On November 28, Hall noticed her tap water smelled strange — “like a gasoline station when you pump gas.” Her neighbors also reported their water smelled like fuel.
That evening, Hall and other residents received an email from the housing management company which read, “The Navy is investigating reports of a chemical smell in drinking water at several homes in some military housing areas.… There is no immediate indication that the water is not safe.”
By November 30, Hall received a third email which said, “Navy and Department of Health test results on water samples from various locations on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, including military housing, have not detected petroleum constituents in initial testing.” But by then Hall, her husband and their 9-year-old son, along with thousands of others had cooked, bathed and consumed contaminated water.
Hall told Truthout that soon after they noticed the gasoline smell, she, her husband and their 9-year-old son began to suffer headaches, nausea, diarrhea and stomach pain. Some of her neighbors, she said, had it far worse, describing an infant covered in a painful-looking bright red rash. Others developed blisters in their mouth caused by chemical burns, vomiting and headaches.
“Why did [the Navy] wait so long to tell us not to drink [the water]? The Department of Health told us not to drink it before the Navy did,” Hall said. She feels that trust has been broken. “We don’t know who to believe.”
Hall wants the Navy to apologize for what she called “mistreatment and miscommunication of this whole ordeal,” and she wants the Red Hill facility shut down permanently. Her message to the military is: “Make it right. Take care of your people.”
Unlike the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines, which were taking care of the impacted families of those enlisted with direct reimbursement checks, Hall, a Native Hawaiian, said she was told to apply for a grant through the Air Force to cover costs incurred due to the disruption of running water (dining out, paper goods, laundry). “It’s not equitable access to resources compared to other branches.”
Unlike some Hawaiians who want the military completely removed from Hawaii, Hall said she believes there is a place for the military in Hawaii. “We can’t totally be independent from the military because they do provide some support for us… I know that. I’ve learned to live with it,” she said. But she hastened to add: “The military has to realize, this is not their land. They’re on stolen land … so you have to respect it, clean up after yourselves, and make reparations, or at least pay your fair share to sustain the environment in which you live. That has never happened.”
Drinking From the Same Glass
This week, Hawaii’s Gov. David Ige and the state’s four-person congressional delegation called for an immediate suspension of operations and the removal of fuel from the tanks at Red Hill, but stopped short of demanding permanent closure.
Prior to that announcement, on December 3, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply announced that as a precaution, it shut down the Halawa shaft, which represents approximately 20 percent of the water supply for urban Honolulu, including downtown, and Hawaii’s primary tourism district, Waikiki.
Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s chief engineer, Ernie Lau, explained that the military and the city draw from the same aquifer. “We basically take water from the same glass of water,” Lau said.
With the Navy’s water source confirmed to be contaminated with petroleum, Lau said, “What we don’t want to do is keep on pumping from our side of that glass and suck the fuel across the valley through the underground aquifer which exists in the porous lava rock into our wells and send it to our homes, to our customers. We do not want to do that.”
After a day of political showdown that at times involved shouting battles and personal clashes, the much anticipated motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was defeated by 32 votes to 15 with two abstentions.
With the capital city Honiara virtually closed for business yesterday, attention turned to Vavaya Ridge where Parliament was debating the motion.
The motion came on the back of social unrest that saw the looting and burning of some 56 buildings across the city and the re-engagement of foreign forces in Honiara to arrest the situation two weeks ago and restore law and order.
In moving the motion, opposition leader Matthew Wale admitted that he had been conflicted by the need for this motion at this hour in “our history”.
“On the one hand we are dealing with it today because there is need for a political solution to the causes of the tragic events of two weeks ago,” he said.
“On the other, I am conscious that what we say in ventilating this motion may further add to what are already high levels of anger in certain quarters of our society.”
Wale said that as a result of the tragic events that caused so much loss and destruction and even cost lives he had called on the Prime Minister to resign.
‘Eruption of anger’
“I did not make that call out of malice toward him personally. I made that call in recognition of the fact that the tragic events were not isolated events, nor were they purely criminal, but were the eruption of anger based on political issues and decisions for which the PM must bear the primary responsibility,” he said.
“It is democratic for a Prime Minister to be called upon to resign, there is nothing undemocratic about the call. And if he chose to resign that too would be democratic.
Opposition leader Matthew Wale speaking to the no-confidence motion … “The tragic events were not isolated events, nor were they purely criminal, but were the eruption of anger based on political issues and decisions for which the PM must bear the primary responsibility.” Image: APR screenshot
“As is the case, the Prime Minister refused to resign, and therefore has necessitated this motion,” he said while moving the motion.
“Although [the people] are resource rich, yet they are cash poor. They have hopes that their children will have access to better opportunities than they did.”
— Opposition leader Matthew Wale
In arguing his case, Wale stated several issues.
On the economy, the MP for Aoke/Langalana said the vast majority of “our people live on the margins of our economy”.
“Although they are resource rich, yet they are cash poor. They have hopes that their children will have access to better opportunities than they did.
“They work hard to afford the high cost of education, though many children leave school because of lack of school fees. Our people are angry that education is so expensive, and that only those that can afford it are able to educate all their kids to a high level of education,” Wale said.
Access to healthcare challenging
“On health, Wale said the vast majority of our people lived where access to healthcare was challenging at best.
He said basic medicines and supplies are often not adequate to meet their health care needs adding that the state of the hospitals are perpetually in crisis management.
The opposition leader pointed out that at the National Referral Hospital Emergency Department patients were sleeping on the floor.
“Why is this the case? Who is responsible? Our people are angry about this,” he asked in Parliament.
Wale also highlighted logging companies disregard of tribal and community concerns, that drive conflict and disputes within tribes and communities. He said the government stood with the logging companies.
He also accused Sogavare of the use of the People’s Republic of China’s National Development Fund (NDF) money to prop up the Prime Minister as another of those issues that was undermining and compromising the sovereignty of the country.
He said the PM was dependent on that money to maintain his political strength.
Chinese funding influence
“How is he then supposed to make decisions that are wholly only in the interests of Solomon Islands untainted or undiluted by considerations for the PRC funds,” he asked.
“You see public anger has been built up over many years by all this bad governance. No serious efforts have been taken to address these serious issues. Provincial governments have increasingly over the past several years repeated their desire that they be given the constitutional mandate to manage their own affairs. Honiara has been consuming almost all the wealth that has been generated from resources exploited from the provinces,” Wale said.
He stated that the provinces had lost trust in Honiara.
“Erratic, poor, mercenary, and politically expedient decision making makes what is already a bad situation worse.
Wale said this was the situation specifically with Malaita.
“Malaita has stood on principle that a PM that lies to the country and Parliament does not have moral authority and legitimacy. Malaita would not accept it.
“Because of that principled position, this PM has not ceased to scheme and plot the consistent and persistent persecution of Malaita.
Malaita sought peaceful protest
“Malaitans have sought to petition the PM, twice, but were ignored and brushed aside in a rather juvenile manner. Malaita asked to stage peaceful protests, but these were denied.
“Malaitans sought an audience with the PM, but they were summarily dismissed. So what are they then supposed to do to get the PM’s attention? The PM consistently refused to visit Auki,” Wale said.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare speaking in Parliament yesterday … “We never received any formal log of issues from [Malaita].” Image: APR screenshotIn his response, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare strongly rejected the claims stating that he had never received any issues of concerns from Malaita province.
“We never received any formal log of issues from them so that the government sits with them and dialogue over it,” he said.
He stressed that the government runs on rules and protocols on how they deal with each other.
Regarding the motion, Sogavare said it should never be brought to the floor of Parliament.
He accused Wale and his cohorts for driving the interests of a few people.
Willing to face justice
Sogavare said the majority of peace loving Malaitans condemned with utter disgust what had happened.
On corruption allegations, that the foreign forces were helping to protect his government, Sogavare said he was willing to face justice.
“I am very willing and if the leader of opposition can prove the allegations he has against me. This is the easiest way to remove the Prime Minister—that is to send him to jail,” he said.
On the lack of government support in terms of development on Malaita, Sogavare argued that despite the current economic environment his government had performed very well.
In that regard, he said the government did not fail the people of the country, including Malaita province, in the implementation of the twin objective of his government’s policy re-direction.
He said that the government had done so much for Malaita — as a matter of fact more than what some provinces that contributed so much to the country’s economy were getting.
Eight MPs including the PM spoke on the motion.
Robert Iroga is editor of SBM Online. Republished with permission.
The Solomon Islands prime minister came in for searing criticism when he faced a confidence vote in Parliament today.
A motion of no confidence against Manasseh Sogavare was debated amid tight security in the capital Honiara, where hundreds of regional security forces have deployed following major political unrest less than two weeks ago.
About 250 defence force and police personnel from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand were on high alert in anticipation of potential unrest around the outcome of the vote.
Local media reported that numerous local families departed from Honiara aboard interisland ferries to return to home villages to avoid potential unrest in the capital, where many shops and schools had also closed.
The motion was tabled by opposition leader Matthew Wale, who has accused Sogavare of allowing corruption to fester, and of treating the people of Malaita province with contempt.
Malaitans played a central role in the late November protest that sparked the unrest, which left extensive destruction in Honiara, prompting Sogavare’s request for regional security help.
Suidani denies instigation claims
Malaita’s provincial Premier Daniel Suidani, whose administration has fallen out with the national government, especially over the country’s move to switch diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China, has denied claims by the coalition that he instigated the unrest.
Wale told Parliament that the actions of the rioters should not obscure the real issue behind the unrest.
“We must condemn all the criminality in the strongest terms, but it pales, Mr Speaker, in comparison to the looting happening at the top,” he said.
Speaking in favour of the motion, former prime minister Rick Hounipwela described Sogavare as the ultimate opportunist whose accession to prime minister over four stints “has always been under abnormal circumstances”.
Blaming the prime minister for negligent management of the country’s finances, Hounipwela said the country’s corruption problem had deepened under Sogavare’s rule.
“We’ve experienced huge tax exemptions worth millions of dollars given to the people who least needed it, usually the loggers and mining operators.”
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare speaking in Parliament today … “When we are under attack from forces of evil, we must stand up for what is right.” Image: APR screenshot
In today’s debate on the motion, Sogavare said the motion had been filed against the backdrop of an illegal attempted coup.
‘Stand up to tyranny’
“When we are under attack from forces of evil, we must stand up for what is right, we must stand up to this tyranny. We cannot entertain violence being used to tear down a democratically elected government.”
Sogavare rejected the opposition’s accusation of corruption against him.
Hounipwela, the MP for Small Malaita, accused the prime minister of using the pandemic State of Emergency to give himself authoritarian powers.
He also claimed Sogavare had used police to repress public criticism of his leadership, and of directing foreign embassies and high commissions in the country to notify the government of their moves around the provinces.
“To vote against [the motion], members would be aiding and abetting his zeal for power and to rule this country with an iron fist. That’s what we see as a track record,” Hounipwela said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Shocking footage has been circulating on social media showing National Armed Forces (TNI) Indonesian military helicopters firing indiscriminately at civilian villages in Suru-Suru District, Yahukimo Regency, Papua.Video: via Café Pacific
SPECIAL REPORT:By Yamin Kogoya
This past week marked 60 years since West Papua declared independence on 1 December 1961.
Around the world, Papuans and solidarity groups commemorated this national day in melancholic spirits — the weight of that fateful day carries courage and pride, but also great suffering and betrayal.
Outraged by 60 years of silence and ignorance, Powes Parkop, the Governor of Papua New Guinea’s capital, strongly condemned the PNG government in Port Moresby last week. He said the government shouldn’t ignore the crisis in the Indonesian-controlled region of New Guinea.
Parkop accused the government of doing little to hold Indonesia accountable for decades of human rights violations in West Papua in a series of questions in Parliament directed at Foreign Minister Soroi Eoe.
Port Moresby’s Governor Powes Parkop with the West Papuan Morning Star flag … criticised PNG policy of “seeing no evil, speaking no evil and to say no evil against the evils of Indonesia”. Image: Filbert Simeon
“Hiding under a policy of ‘Friends to All, Enemy to None’ might be okay for the rest of the world, but it is total capitulation to Indonesian aggression and illegal occupation,” Parkop said.
“It is more a policy of seeing no evil, speaking no evil and to say no evil against the evils of Indonesia.”
A similar voice also echoed from staff members of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre during their West Papua flagraising event at their office in Suva on Wednesday.
Ignorance ‘needs to stop’
Shamima Ali, coordinator and human rights activist from the crisis centre, said Pacific leaders — including Fiji — have been too silent on the issue of West Papua and the ignorance needed to stop.
Ali said that since Indonesia’s occupation of West Papua, gross human rights violations — including enforced disappearances, bombings, rocket attacks, torture, arbitrary detention, beatings, killings, sexual torture, rape, forced birth control, forced abortions, displacement, starvation, and burnings– had sadly become an enforced “way of life” for West Papuans.
Staff members of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre show solidarity for West Papua at their office in Suva last Wednesday – December 1. Image: FWCC
As a mark of remembrance, flags were raised all across the globe from Oxford — the refugee home of Benny Wenda, the West Papua independence icon — to Holland, homeland of many descendants of exiled Papuan independence leaders who left the island in protest against Indonesia’s illegal annexation in 1960.
Celebrating Papuans’ national day in West Papua or anywhere in Indonesia is not safe.
Amnesty International Indonesia reported last Friday that police arrested and charged eight Papuan students for peacefully expressing their political opinions on December 1 — Papuans’ Independence Day.
The report also stated that Papuans frequently face detention and charges for peacefully expressing their political views. But counter-protesters often assault Papuans under police watch with no repercussions.
Eight arrested in Jayapura
At least eight people were arrested in Jayapura, Papua, and 19 were arrested in Merauke, Papua, for displaying the Morning Star flag.
In Ambon and Bali, 19 people were injured by police beatings, and 13 people were injured when protesters were physically attacked by counter-protesters who used racist language, reports Amnesty International Indonesia.
In West Papua, the Indonesian police are also reported to have investigated eight young Papuans involved in raising the Morning Star flag in front of the Cenderawasih Sport Stadium, known as GOR in Jayapura Papua, according to the public relations Chief of Papua Police, Ahmad Musthofa Kamal.
Across West Papua, the Morning Star flag has been raised in six districts: Star Mountains, Intan Jaya, Puncak, Central Mamberamo, Paniai, and Jayapura City.
Unfortunately, Papuans are hunted like wild animals on this day as Jakarta continues to force them to become a part of Indonesia’s national narrative. The stories of which, for the past 60 years, have been nothing but nightmares filled with mass torture, death, and total erasure.
Amid all the celebrations, protests, and arrests happening across the globe on this national day, shocking footage emerged of yet another aerial attack in the Star Mountain region.
In the last few days, shocking footage has been circulating on social media showing National Armed Forces (TNI) Indonesian military helicopters firing indiscriminately at civilian villages in Suru-Suru District, Yahukimo Regency, Papua.
According to reports, this is the result of a shooting incident between the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) and the TNI in which a TNI member was killed, and another was wounded.
Soldier flown to Aceh
Serda Putra Rahaldi was one of those killed in the incident. He was flown to Aceh via Jakarta.
Praka Suheri, another TNI soldier wounded in the incident, has also been evacuated to Timika Regional General Hospital for treatment.
It is difficult to know the exact circumstances leading to the death of a soldier, but Brigadier General TNI Izak Pangemanan, Commander of Military Resort 172/PWY, says two soldiers were drinking water in a shelter located only 15 meters from the post when the shooting took place, Antara reported on Saturday, December 4, 2021.
Since November 20, five TNI soldiers have been wounded, including Sergeant Ari Baskoro and Serda Putra Rahaldi, who died in Suru-suru, Antara reported on Saturday, December 4, 2021.
The armed conflicts remain tense between the TPNPB and the TNI in seven regencies in the territory of West Papua, namely: Yahukimo District, Intan Jaya Regency, Star Mountains Regency, Nduga District, Peak District, and Maybrat-Sorong Regency.
This seemingly low-level, yet hidden conflict between the Indonesian state security forces and the TPNPB continues, if not worsens, and the world has largely turned a blind eye to it.
The Papuan church leaders stated in local media, Jubi, on Thursday November 25, that a massive military build-up and conflict between Indonesian security forces and TPNPB had resulted in displacing more than 60,000 Papuan civilians.
‘More than 60,000 displaced’
“More than 60,000 people have been displaced. Many children and mothers have been victims and died while in the evacuation camps,” said the chair of the Synod of West Papua Baptist Churches Reverend Socrates Sofyan Yoman.
Jakarta seems to have lost its ability to see the value of noble words inscribed in its constitution for the betterment of humanity and the nation. In essence, what is written, what they say, and what they practise all contradict one another – and therein lies the essence of the human tragedy.
On December 1, 1961, the sacred Papuan state was seized with guns, lies and propaganda.
On May 1, 1963, Indonesia came to West Papua with guns.
In 1969, Jakarta forced Papuan elders to accept Indonesia during a fraud referendum at gunpoint. In the 1970s, Indonesia used guns and bombs to massacre Papuan highland villagers.
And after 60 years, Jakarta is still choosing guns and bombs as their preferred means to eradicate Papuans.
Sixty years on, the making of the current state of West Papua with guns and bombs is difficult to forget. Although West Papua lacks one key characteristic that East Timor had that brought international attention to their ardent independence war.
Morning Star flag – always flying
Nevertheless, as demonstrated around the world last week on December 1, their banned Morning Star flag seemed to always be flying in some corner of the world.
As long as Papuans fly the Morning Star flag, their plight will challenge the human heart that cries out for freedom that binds us all together, despite our differences.
As Indonesia’s state violence intensifies, Indonesians are likely to sympathise more with Papuans’ plight for justice and freedom.
At some point, the government of Indonesia must choose whether to continue to ignore Papuans and use guns and bombs to crush them or to recognise them with a new perspective.
Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) has appealed to opposition leader Matthew Wale to “stop interfering” with police investigations in the wake of the rioting in Honiara last month.
“It is unfortunate that the leader of opposition, Mr Mathew Wale, attempted to question an ongoing investigation by police in the media,” said Police Commissioner Mostyn Mangau.
“Issues raised by Honourable Wale are legal issues that are best dealt with by the court.”
Commissioner Mangau said in a statement that the police reassured Solomon Islanders that the police were an independent body and did not pursue political agendas.
“RSIPF will not engage in legal arguments in the media,” he said.
“Police will not further comment on matters that are subject to ongoing investigations. A leader should not interfere with police investigations.”
Mangau said an accused would be provided with legal counsel and it was the duty of the lawyer to advocate for the rights of the accused in court.
He added that Solomon Islands was currently under a state public emergency and the rules were set out under the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) (No.3) regulation 2021.
Praise for AFP officers
Meanwhile, the RSIPF Facebook page praised the help from the Australian Federal Police as part of their peacekeeping role.
“Officers from the @AustFedPolice are supporting the RSIPF on the streets of Honiara,” sid the Facebook page along with a gallery of photos of Australian police on duty in Honiara.
“Highly-skilled personnel have deployed from Australia, including the Specialist Operations Tactical Response team. Their mission is to support the RSIPF to protect the community and key infrastructure, and to peacefully restore order in Honiara.”
The AFP officers had helped the RSIPF “peacefully restore calm in the community”.
