Afghans protest UN sanctions

Tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan have demonstrated against the imposition of economic sanctions by the United Nations. On November 14, at Washington's insistence, the UN Security Council voted to freeze overseas assets of the Afghan government and to bar the national airline, Ariana, from overseas routes. Washington is demanding that the Taliban government in Kabul turn over Osama bin Laden a Saudi-born businessmen accused by the U.S. government of involvement in the bombings of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last year. After the bombings U.S. forces fired cruise missiles into living quarters in Afghanistan and a chemical factory in Sudan, claiming that bin Laden was the target.  
 

Washington pressures Baghdad

The United Nations Security Council is debating the terms it will impose on Iraq for extending the program under which Bagdhad is permitted limited oil exports. The Russian, Chinese, French, British, and U.S. representatives are divided over their proposals for establishing a new weapons inspection commission in Iraq, and over the grounds on which the almost-decade-long sanctions might be lifted.

London and Washington advocate the harshest terms for the lifting the sanctions. They also collaborate in near-daily bombings of Iraqi territory. U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright declared November 24, "It would...be better to have monitors on the ground, but...I believe through our continued patrolling of the northern and southern no-fly zones, we are able to keep Saddam Hussein in his box." Baghdad opposes demands for a new weapons inspection commission.

London and Washington are also pressing for the dismissal of Hans Von Sponeck, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Baghdad and a German national, following his criticism of the sanctions.  
 

Social ferment spreads in Nigeria

Protest and social ferment are spreading in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. The oil-producing Niger Delta region has been particularly unstable. In early November the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo sent troops to the state of Bayelsa after clashes in which 12 policemen were killed. Bayelsa produces more than 20 percent of Nigeria's oil. "Impoverished Ijaw villagers [demand] a greater share of the region's oil wealth, which accounts for 95 percent of Nigeria's export earnings," according to a Reuters report. They also demand that oil companies clean up their pollution or leave. The Coalition for Justice in Niger Delta has demanded the withdrawal of all soldiers and tanks from the region. The government also used soldiers against protesting workers in September. Washington has cultivated Obasanjo as an ally since his election in February. The president previously enjoyed a spell as military ruler of the country in the 1970s.  
 

Haitian workers scapegoated

The Dominican Republic's government of president Leonel Fernández began stepped-up deportations of Haitian workers in November. Many Haitians cross the border to the Dominican side of the island to work in the sugar industry, living in rough shacks—with no running water, medical facilities, or power—that are part of work camps or bateys. Among those facing deportation are Haitians who have lived and worked in the Dominican Republic for years, and some Dominican citizens of Haitian descent. Bourgeois politicians have frequently scapegoated these migrant workers for unemployment and inflation.  
 

Ukraine gov't restarts Chernobyl after Europe bank loan is stalled

On November 26 authorities in the Ukraine started up the last functional reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Although the reactor is slated to be closed permanently, the Ukrainian government is using the facility to meet winter power demands. Ukrainian officials say they need the payment of a promised $1.2 billion to complete two nuclear power stations now under construction before decommissioning Chernobyl. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is holding off approving the loan, taking advice from "Western experts" who assert that the country's power needs have slumped along with the decline in economic activity, and that new stations are not necessary.

In 1986 a meltdown at Chernobyl sent radioactive contamination over much of Europe in the worst nuclear power disaster ever. The official death toll was 8,000, according to Ukrainian authorities. The actual effects, including long-term radioactive contamination, are far worse. Workers are now repairing the concrete-and-steel sarcophagus that encases the destroyed reactor.  
 

Farmers protests in Pakistan...

Farmers in Pakistan's cotton-growing areas organized days of protests in mid-November, drawing attention to the dropping prices of their major cash-earning product. In one action, farmers heaped cotton on a funeral bed as a symbol of the death of the crop. "There will be virtually no profits this year," said one cotton farmer. Raw cotton prices have fallen by one-fifth over the last year, affected by weak prices for the almost 20 percent of the harvest that is exported, and by the withdrawal of subsidies to the farmers by the newly-installed military government.

Farmers also say that they will find it difficult to plant wheat, their second crop, because payments for the cotton will be delayed.  
 

...and the Ivory Coast

Farmers in the Ivory Coast threatened to burn their cocoa crops as part of a series of protests in late November. Faced with prices that have fallen to their lowest level in seven years, the farmers organized a week of strikes, paralyzing the country's marketing network. They have aimed their anger at measures taken in August to privatize the marketing of the crop in this West African country, the world's largest producer of cocoa. Most farmers have no access to effective storage facilities, and so depend on rapid transport and sale of the beans. The prices they receive have been halved between last season and this one, and now fall well short of their costs of production.  
 

Okinawans oppose U.S. bases

Protests have greeted the attempt by the governor of Okinawa, an island seized by Japan a century ago, to broker a compromise between residents and the U.S. military forces stationed there. Governor Keiichi Inamine is trying to revive a plan to relocate Washington's Futenma air base to another part of Okinawa.

There are a dozen U.S. bases on the small island, occupying nearly one-fifth of its area. Two-thirds of the 50,000- plus U.S. troops in Japan are stationed there.

The Japanese government supports the maintenance of the bases, and has promised an aid package if the base is relocated. Fishermen and environmentalists are among those who call for the bases' removal. "The Okinawa people have asserted they wanted all the bases withdrawn from the island," said one participant in a protest of 150 people outside the local government building.

—PATRICK O'NEILL  
 

Students in Malaysia demand democratic rights