dilluns, d’abril 12, 2010

Ratzinger, en la hoguera

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/reportajes/Ratzinger/hoguera/elpepusocdmg/20100411elpdmgrep_1/Tes

REPORTAJE: EN PENUMBRA

Ratzinger, en la hoguera

El papa Benedicto XVI cumple cinco años en el cargo acorralado por los escándalos de pederastia y con acusaciones de inmovilismo y retroceso frente al Concilio Vaticano II. Roma ha cancelado el ecumenismo, con ofensas a judíos, musulmanes, protestantes o anglicanos

JUAN G. BEDOYA 11/04/2010

Los cardenales eligieron Papa en 2005 a un intelectual de postín y esperaban que rindiese como un gran ejecutivo. No ha resultado. A punto de cumplirse los cinco años de mandato como sumo pontífice el próximo día 19, Benedicto XVI, de civil Joseph Alois Ratzinger, es un anciano de 83 años atado a su pasado de teólogo e inquisidor de doctrinas. ¿Qué ha hecho en este lustro? ¿Qué se propone? Sus admiradores cuentan que es un gran trabajador y que ahora mismo está empeñado en culminar antes del verano su ingente biografía de Jesús de Nazaret, cuyo primer tomo fue un éxito de ventas hace dos años. Los detractores lo acusan de atacar a las reformas del Concilio Vaticano II y de despreocupación o impotencia ante los problemas que afronta el catolicismo.

Ratzinger "es criticado por no hacer nada... y por hacer demasiado", opina su biógrafo, el periodista católico italiano Vittorio Messori. Como él, la jerarquía de la Iglesia vela armas para enfrentarse al examen del primer lustro de este pontificado. Lo hace a la defensiva. La efemérides no ha podido llegar en peor momento, con una riada de noticias sobre curas -y hasta obispos- pederastas actuando con impunidad durante décadas ante la pasividad o el silencio cómplice del Vaticano.

Benedicto XVI está en medio de ese quemadero. También ha patinado en otros campos de la gestión. Ha provocado agrias polémicas con musulmanes, judíos o anglicanos; escandalizó cuando quiso acabar con el cisma del ultraconservador arzobispo Marcel Lefebvre, y se enfrentó a la comunidad científica condenando en África el uso del preservativo como método de combate del sida. También sigue enfrentado a la ciencia, negando toda la investigación con células madre.

Ratzinger sabía a lo que se enfrentaba cuando se postuló hace cinco años como sucesor del polaco Juan Pablo II, de civil Karol Wojtyla. Su discurso electoral fue clamoroso, aquel 24 de marzo de 2005, con Juan Pablo II ya moribundo, a punto de superar los 27 años en el cargo. Era el Viernes Santo de ese año y Ratzinger sustituía al enfermo pontífice en el tradicional Via Crucis ante el imponente Coliseo romano. No era una casualidad. En cada rezo de las estaciones del fundador cristiano hacia el monte Calvario, el hoy Papa aprovechó para intercalar comentarios de programa de gobierno. Fue en la novena estación -tercera caída de Jesús bajo el peso de la cruz- cuando clamó: "¡Cuánta suciedad en la Iglesia y entre los que, por su sacerdocio, deberían estar entregados al Redentor! ¡Cuánta soberbia! La traición de los discípulos es el mayor dolor de Jesús. No nos queda más que gritarle: Kyrie, eleison. Señor, sálvanos".

Era un discurso alarmante, elaborado para encoger el corazón de la mayoría de los cardenales, acostumbrados muchos de ellos a una vida regalada en el mejor de los mundos, sobre todo durante sus frecuentes estancias en Roma. Dos semanas más tarde, reunidos en cónclave, los 114 purpurados -con el pomposo título de Príncipes de la Iglesia, aunque cardenal viene de cardo, en italiano bisagra o punto de apoyo- no se demoraron en decidir qué Papa querrían. Era el alemán Ratzinger y se llamaría Benedicto XVI.

La elección causó no poca sorpresa. Hoy se sabe que se inclinaron por Ratzinger por considerarlo el único capaz -por conocimiento y por autoridad- de arreglar los problemas acumulados durante el interminable ocaso del polaco Wojtyla, del que el teólogo alemán había sido sumo ideólogo. La información es poder, y nadie sabía tanto sobre las crisis -y los pecados- del cristianismo romano como el presidente de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, el ex Santo Oficio de la Inquisición que Ratzinger había dirigido desde 1981 con mano de hierro. En el momento de su elección tenía 78 años, tres años más de la edad de jubilación de los obispos. Su salud era quebradiza. Hoy, en el balance de gestión, cinco años más tarde, se olvidan esas circunstancias personales.

Ratzinger ha sido siempre un hombre de ideas fijas, pese a su propia opinión. "A mí ya me han diseccionado varias veces: el profesor de la primera etapa y el de la etapa intermedia, el primer cardenal y el de después. Ahora se añade otro segmento más. Como es natural, las circunstancias, las situaciones y las personas influyen, porque asumen distintas responsabilidades. Digamos que mi personalidad y mi visión fundamental han madurado, pero todo lo que es esencial ha permanecido idéntico", dijo de sí mismo en 2006 cuando su biógrafo le hizo notar una supuesta diferencia entre el panzer kardinal (tanque de combate) que dirigía la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe y el tímido Benedicto XVI al timón de la nave del apóstol Pedro.

Alguna prensa alemana había recibido la elección de Ratzinger con el título equívoco de

panzer kardinal. Era una alusión a su intransigencia por la inmisericorde condena de 130 teólogos y religiosos cuando fue prefecto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe. Tampoco olvidaron en Alemania que el nuevo pontífice, además de teólogo y profesor universitario, militó en las Juventudes Hitlerianas y que fue soldado de la Wehrmacht al final de II Guerra Mundial.

Al margen de tan tormentoso -y brillante- pasado,

Benedicto XVI no ocultó nunca que le aguardaba una tarea inmensa si quería acabar con la "suciedad" y la "soberbia" que anidaba en su Iglesia cuando se propuso como candidato papal. Lo intuyó a las 18.04 del 19 de abril de 2005, nada más anunciarse su elección, y lo dijo en su primera bendición urbi et orbi ("a la ciudad de Roma y al mundo").

Tampoco pudo ignorar que iba a estar solo en la tarea, salvo que realizase radicales cambios en la Curia (gobierno) del Vaticano. Pero no lo hizo. Es un primer retroceso, principio de todos los demás. En la llamada eufemísticamente Ciudad Santa, el poder sigue en manos de los de siempre, con algunos cambios por razones de edad. Es el caso del astuto cardenal Angelo Sodano, número dos de Juan Pablo II y uno de los protectores del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo y notorio pederasta, el sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel. Ha sido sustituido por otro italiano, Tarcisio Bertone, igual de inmovilista, también amigo de lavar en casa la ropa sucia. Tampoco el cambio en la portavocía eclesiástica -el periodista español Joaquín Navarro Vals, miembro del Opus Dei, antes; el jesuita Federico Lombardi, ahora- ha ganado para el pontífice una solidaridad especial. En el Vaticano siguen mandando los ancianos aupados por Wojtyla, en su mayoría "prelados paternalistas desesperadamente aferrados al sillón y que bloquean desde hace años el funcionamiento de la Santa Sede con mediocres disputas internas y personalismos enredadores". Son palabras del canonista y editorialista-analista del diario italiano La Stampa, Filippo di Giacomo.

¿Por qué, en un cónclave formado -salvo una excepción- por cardenales nombrados por Juan Pablo II, los 114 electores escogieron al único que llevaba aún la púrpura concedida por Pablo VI, un Papa del Concilio Vaticano II? Con Juan Pablo II predominó un "wojtylianismo público", de masas y medios de comunicación. En cambio, Ratzinger está centrado en la palabra desnuda: homilías, ángelus, catequesis, discursos y, hasta ahora, tres encíclicas. Su idea era acostumbrar a los católicos a fijarse en lo esencial, no en la persona del Papa, el eterno papanatismo. ¿Por qué ese cambio? Es un misterio; por decirlo desde el punto de vista de la fe: una decisión del Espíritu Santo.

Suele decirse que las promesas electorales están para incumplirse. Ratzinger no las hizo.

El único documento que puede tenerse como tal es la homilía en la misa para elegir nuevo Papa el día del comienzo del cónclave, donde dibujó un panorama teórico sobre los cristianos veletas -que se han dejado llevar por corrientes ideológicas opuestas: del marxismo al liberalismo hasta el libertinaje, del colectivismo al individualismo, del ateísmo a un vago misticismo-. También fijó allí su idea de que el mundo está dominado por la "dictadura del relativismo que no reconoce nada que sea definitivo y que deja como última medida sólo al propio yo y a sus deseos". No dijo cómo luchar contra esa tendencia.

Ideas o palabras al margen, el balance es desolador. En cinco años ha provocado varias veces la indignación de los judíos -13 millones-; por ejemplo, cuando readmitió en la "comunión eclesial" a los seguidores del arzobispo Marcel Lefebvre -la llamada Hermandad Sacerdotal de San Pío X-, entre ellos a Richard Williamson, que niega el Holocausto y al Vaticano II.

"Al levantar la excomunión de los integristas, sin exigirles la aceptación del Concilio Vaticano II, no son ellos quienes se incorporan al cristianismo conciliar. Es más bien el Papa quien se convierte al integrismo y lleva a la Iglesia en esa dirección", sostiene el teólogo Juan José Tamayo. La canciller alemana Angela Merkel exigió entonces al Papa, su compatriota, que pidiera disculpas a los judíos.

El Papa también ha reintroducido en la liturgia una oración por la conversión de los judíos, de carácter preconciliar, y suele irritar a esa comunidad religiosa cuando insiste en elevar a los altares (es decir, en colocar como ejemplo de santidad para todo el mundo) al papa Pío XII, acusado de callar ante los crímenes de los nazis y ante el terrible Holocausto.

Ofendió también Benedicto XVI a los musulmanes -1.300 millones- cuando, en un discurso en la Universidad de Ratisbona (Alemania) en septiembre de 2006, dijo que Mahoma impuso la fe con la espada y proclamó la guerra santa, vinculando al dios del islam con la violencia y la irracionalidad. Tampoco los protestantes -650 millones- y los cristianos ortodoxos -250 millones- tienen motivo de contento con este Papa. En un documento oficial de julio de 2007, el Vaticano identifica la Iglesia de Cristo con la Iglesia católica, a la que considera la única verdadera, y califica en consecuencia a las Iglesias ortodoxas como Iglesia imperfecta y niega que las Iglesias de la reforma sean Iglesia.

El proceso ecuménico (de encuentro entre religiones, en la idea del teólogo Hans Küng de que no habrá paz entre las naciones sin paz entre las religiones) también sufrió un duro revés cuando el Papa les dijo a las comunidades indígenas latinoamericanas -el 10% de la población en ese continente-, durante su viaje a Aparecida (Brasil) en 2007, que una supuesta vuelta a las religiones precolombinas no era un progreso, sino un retroceso. Lo dijo Benedicto XVI en su discurso inaugural de la V Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano, y en el mismo viaje acusó a los nuevos líderes políticos latinoamericanos de estar sometidos a ideologías superadas y de no actuar en concordancia con la visión cristiana del ser humano y de la sociedad.

También atacó allí a los teólogos de la liberación por politización, falso mesianismo, ideas erróneas y dependencia del marxismo, como había hecho, excomulgándolos, cuando estaba al frente de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe.

Aún más criticada ha sido su visión de la planetaria lucha contra el sida, llevada a cabo por las autoridades sanitarias y gran parte de los Gobiernos. Durante un viaje a Camerún y Angola, el Papa execró contra el uso de los preservativos porque, dijo, "no sólo no solucionan el problema del sida, sino que lo agravan todavía más". El Parlamento belga pidió entonces, por mayoría, a su Gobierno que condenase esas declaraciones y expresase una protesta formal al Vaticano, de Estado a Estado. Una iniciativa parecida en España, a instancias de Izquierda Unida, no prosperó en el Congreso de los Diputados.

Todas esas derivas anticonciliares se resumen en una más aparatosa y visible: los cambios en la liturgia, autorizados con regocijo por Ratzinger. No sólo se vuelve a la misa en latín y con el celebrante de espaldas al pueblo creyente, sino que se han aceptado algunas de las ideas del arzobispo Lefebvre, el gran fustigador del Vaticano II. Ratzinger había sido perito en ese concilio, como asesor del episcopado alemán, pero siempre se mostró contrario a su desarrollo "con el entusiasmo de zelotes", acusó una vez a sus colegas, en referencia a una de las sectas más radicales en la época de Jesús, en la Galilea sojuzgada por Roma.

¿Por qué esa deriva antiecuménica o anticonciliar? El papa Ratzinger piensa que el Concilio Vaticano II le ha sentado muy mal a su Iglesia, y que sólo rectificándolo volverán tiempos de esplendor, prestigio e influencia. Los hechos son testarudos, en la dirección contraria. Cada día hay menos vocaciones sacerdotales y más parroquias sin cura. La juventud sigue alejada, salvo los cientos de miles de muchachos que jalean al pontífice desde los movimientos más conservadores; la mujer permanece marginada del santuario, y pocos católicos hacen caso a las doctrinas de sus prelados en materia de sexo u otros comportamientos sociales.

La decisión de acoger a sacerdotes anglicanos, incluso si están casados, no hace más que agravar el veto al celibato opcional entre el clero católico, origen de quebradores de cabeza para el Papa. Pero esas son ahora historias de sexo, un terreno en el que la jerarquía del catolicismo pierde casi siempre la compostura.

dimarts, d’abril 06, 2010

Artículo positivo sobre la experiencia sudafricana

http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2010-03-24-my-south-africa-is-integrating

My South Africa is integrating

David Gemmell

My South Africa is integrating

Hardly a day goes by without an article in the press lamenting the lack of integration in South Africa’s not-so-new democracy. Ironically, the proof the authors of these diatribes offer to substantiate their hypotheses is that they themselves aren't integrating. It is like the deaf bemoaning a lack of music in public places.

It is sad these articles get published at all, as I contend the writers are less representative of SA society than the people who are integrating. The articles simply exacerbate a delicate situation.

I play five-a-side soccer. We play against teams with only blacks, only whites, only Indians or teams with any combination of the above. Our team has three blacks, four whites and sometimes a Chinaman, and ranges in ages from 18 to me, 57. We have been doing this for four years and have yet to have a racial incident. There have been some spectacular altercations, but never one based on the colour of skin - and Thabo, the young gruppenführer, no-nonsense boss who runs the show, is black.

Our goalkeeper, Themba, is good enough for any professional team, but chooses to play with us in a social league. He probably has the finest physique I have ever showered with (and no, I'm not gay). One Sunday lunch I insisted Themba have some greens. "No thanks,” he said, “No veggies, I only eat meat and potatoes.""Do you ever eat fruit?" I asked. He shook his head and laughed.

So now I only eat meat and potatoes. I want to look like Themba and am just waiting for the extra kilos of flab I've put on to turn into muscle. Who says we can't learn from each other's cultures?

A few years ago, when my daughter was at junior school, we arranged for me to collect her and a friend, to go to movies. When confirming our plans I asked which friend she would be bringing.

"Mel," she said. "Remind me, who is Mel?" I asked in typically vague father style. "She's the slightly plump girl with glasses that came to my party - you've met her."

When I picked them up, the most striking thing about Mel was that she was black. My 14-year-old daughter didn't seem to think the colour of someone's skin was useful to describe people. All my friends have similar stories.

On Thursdays I take lessons in ballroom dancing at a studio near Broadacres. My most agreeable companion in this exercise, which I think proves conclusively that white men don't have rhythm, is Pius, who is black. One night at the studio pub, he was asked by a new pupil where he fitted into the scheme of things. Pius said he was the owner's gardener and that for every four days he worked, he could have a free dancing lesson.

Later when Johnny, the owner of the studio, arrived at the bar, he was complimented by his new pupil on his progressive employment policy. "Gardener?" Johnny snarled. "Pius has a doctorate and could buy and sell you and the studio 10 times over without noticing."

Whenever my car goes in for a service, instead of taking the proffered courtesy car, I catch a minibus taxi. It's exhilarating to watch up close, the taxi-drivers chatting on their cellphones, eating, smoking and hooting at pedestrians, as they arrogantly violate every conceivable traffic law. And I love the camaraderie of the passengers as they travel in abject terror and fear for their lives. When I see taxis doing all of the above, I find it helps me to relax knowing I'm not in there with them.

My son joined Pirates in Parkhurst, to play rugby for their Under 18 team. After his first practice, I asked him what the other boys were like. "When they see you are keen, have some skill and work hard, they accept you and include you - they are cool," he replied. "And the black kids?"

"I AM talking about the black kids, dad…"

What is interesting about the belief we are not doing enough to mix is that nowhere else in the world do people generally integrate. I have friends in London who don't know a single black person. My American acquaintances wouldn't dream of consorting with African Americans and in Australia if you even see a black you're an exception.

So why this big hang-up about us mingling? Most people like to be with their own kind, be they black, white, English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Indian or coloured. They just feel more comfortable. But that doesn't mean they are making a negative statement about the people they aren't mixing with.

The other day at a traffic intersection I was asked by Aubrey, a fruit hawker, to buy some strawberries. I said I didn't have any cash on me, while my kids insisted from the back seat that I support him. As the lights changed, Aubrey settled the matter by depositing two punnets of strawberries on my dashboard, saying, "Pay me next time." The white, BMW-driving, Lanseria resident, with two kids at a private school, was being cheerfully and trustingly financed by a black salesman at the traffic lights. Who says we don't get on?

diumenge, d’abril 04, 2010

Escalofriante más allá de lo creíble...

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-04-massacre-in-woods-that-brought-war-to-moscows-metro

Massacre in woods that brought war to Moscow's metro

LUKE HARDING - Apr 04 2010 07:13

When the shooting started Adlan Mutsaev and his friends were in the woods picking garlic. They had arrived in the forest earlier that day, together with a group of neighbours travelling in a battered coach. The plan had been straightforward: stuff their sacks, enjoy the countryside, and then head back home to the Chechen town of Achkoi-Martan.

Without warning, Russian commandos hiding behind a hillock opened fire.Adlan (16) was with his brother Arbi (19) and their friends Shamil Kataev, (19) and Movsar Tataev (19). Shamil and Movsar were both wounded. Adlan was shot in the leg, but managed to hobble into a ditch. He hid. Arbi also attempted to flee, but men in camouflage fatigues caught up with him.

Begging for his life
According to the human rights group Memorial, Arbi was forced to drag his two wounded and bleeding friends across the snow. Shamil begged for his life. But the solders were impervious. They placed a blindfold over Arbi's eyes. And then they opened fire: executing Shamil and Movsar on the spot. At least two other garlic pickers suffered the same fate: Ramzan Susaev (40) and Movsar Dakaev (17). According to his relatives, Dakaev had pleaded to be allowed on the trip with the others. Wearing a bright green fleece, he took a photo of himself in the woods with his cellphone. It shows him proudly posing against a craggy backdrop of cliffs and trees covered in snow. A little over 48 hours later his body was discovered.

The misfortune of the four garlic pickers was to have unwittingly strayed into a "counter-insurgency operation" conducted by Russian forces in the densely wooded border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. The soldiers, apparently looking for militant rebels who are waging their own violent campaign against the Russian state, came across the unarmed group, brutally killing them amid the picturesque massif of low hills.

Revenge
Normally this atrocity on a cold day in February would have raised barely a ripple of attention had it not been for the terrible events in Moscow this week. In a video address on Thursday, Chechnya's chief insurgent leader, Doku Umarov, said Monday's suicide attacks on the Russian capital's metro were in revenge for the killings of the garlic pickers near the Ingush village of Arshaty. He claimed federal security service (FSB) commandos had used knives to mutilate their bodies of the dead boys.

Forty people died and more than 70 were injured when two suicide attackers from the North Caucasus set off their devices at stations outside the headquarters of the FSB and Park Kultury.

Russia's counter-terrorism committee on Friday named the Park Kultury bomber as Dzhanet Abdurakhmanova, saying she was also known as Dzhanet Abdullayeva. Born in 1992, she came from Dagestan. The Kommersant newspaper published a photo of her dressed in a black Muslim headscarf holding a pistol. It named the second bomber as 20-year-old Markha Ustarkhanova from Chechnya, describing her as the widow of a militant leader killed last October.

Linked or not, human rights groups say it is undeniable that the brutal actions of Russia's security forces have fuelled the insurgency raging across the North Caucasus region of Russia and the ethnic republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria. This largely invisible war has now reached the Kremlin's doorstep.

"People are abducted. People are killed. There are no guarantees of security," Magomed Mutsolgov, a human rights activist, told the Guardian yesterday, speaking from Nazran, Ingushetia's chief town. Law enforcement and security agencies have committed dozens of summary and arbitrary detentions, acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as extra-judicial executions, rights groups say.

'Sweep operation'
Typically, armed personnel wearing masks encircle a village or district in a "sweep operation". They force their way into homes, beat residents and damage property. Suspected militants are taken away. Many never return. Others are simply shot, and fake weapons planted on them, rights groups allege, citing interviews with victims and relatives.

According to Mutsolgov, the Kremlin's counterterrorism methods have proved entirely counter-productive: "Violence produces more violence. It drives people to the militant underground."

The nature of the armed conflict in the North Caucasus has also mutated. From 1994 to 1996 Boris Yeltsin fought a war against mainly secular Chechen separatists who wanted -- like the newly independent Georgians over the mountains -- their own Constitution and state. In 1999-2004 president Vladimir Putin fought a second Chechen war. The aim was to crush Chechen separatism.

Suicide squads
Now, however, the Kremlin is battling another kind of enemy. The new generation of insurgents have an explicitly Islamist goal: to create a radical pan-Caucasian emirate with sharia law, a bit like Afghanistan under the Taliban. In February Umarov vowed to "liberate" not only the North Caucasus and Krasnodar Krai but Astrakhan -- on the Caspian Sea -- and the Volga region as well.

The rebels' tactics have also grown more fanatical. Umarov has seemingly revived the suicide squads used by his assassinated predecessor Shamil Basaev. Last summer a suicide truck bomber blew up Nazran's police station. Another bomber succeeded in ramming the car of Ingushetia's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. Monday's attack in Moscow was the first in the capital for six years.

Increasingly, the rebels are also exploiting a new weapon: the web. On March 2 special forces launched a massive operation in Ekashevo, a suburb on the outskirts of Nazran. There they killed Said Buryatsky, a Siberian-born convert whose jihadist messages on YouTube had attracted a following among disaffected Muslims. Under fire from Russian artillery, Buryatksy recorded a final message for his global disciples.

On Saturday Russian forces had sealed off Ekashevo. But video footage obtained by Memorial shows a picture of devastation: pulverised houses, wrecked cars and alleyways strewn with bricks. After the battle Russian forces displayed a haul of weapons seized from the rebels -- together with a blown-off human hand.

Human rights groups are critical of both sides. They accuse the rebels and government of failing to respect human life. Timur Akiev, the head of Memorial's Nazran office, said: "The government's methods have led to a radicalisation of the underground. The rebels now have only one goal: to beat Russia at any price. The rebels and the security forces behave in the same way towards each other. The civilian population is caught in the middle."

Like its imperial tsarist predecessors, who subdued the Caucasus in a sustained and savage campaign of tree-felling and village-burning, today's Russian leadership has little understanding of the region or its habits, Akiev suggested.

He also condemned Monday's bombings. "I don't understand how you can kill Russian civilians in revenge for the killing of Chechen civilians. It's absurd. The people who died in the metro had nothing to do with the conflict."

'Scraped from the sewers'
The Kremlin's response to the metro bombings has been, predictably, vengeful. Vladimir Putin has called for those responsible to be "scraped from the sewers". Dmitry Medvedev, the president, visited Kizlyar on Thursday, a day after twin suicide bombers killed 12 people and injured 28 others.

Security forces should "get more cruel", he recommended. "Quite a lot has been achieved in fighting terrorism lately," Medvedev said. "We have twisted the heads off the most odious bandits. But that, by all accounts, is not enough. We will track them down and punish all of them. We must deal sharp dagger blows to the terrorists, and destroy them and their lairs."

Before Monday's Moscow bombings, Medvedev had taken a few tentatively creative steps in the region, including appointing a new federal envoy. But the key problems remain. There are numerous socioeconomic factors driving the insurgency: poverty, unemployment (running unofficially at around 75% in Ingushetia), police brutality, and corruption.

Back in Achkoi-Martan, it took relatives two days to discover what had happened to their loved ones. After hiding for 48 hours in a hole, fed by a spring, Adlan Mutaev crawled out of the forest. Local people discovered him alive on the edge of the wood. His brother Arbi was released by Russian commandos after two days. Human rights workers from Memorial arrived on 14 February, interviewing dozens of witnesses and taking photographs of corpses heaped up in the snow.

Those of Shamil Kataev revealed that he had been shot in the temple from close range. Someone had stolen his cellphone and passport, as well as a letter from the head of Achkoi-Martin, granting the garlic pickers permission to be in the area. The body of Movsar Tataev was covered in gunshot wounds. In addition there were knife wounds to his spine and groin. Ramzan Susaev had been shot in the chest. His brother eventually found his body lying in the forest.

Unusually, Ingushetia's president Yevkurov quickly acknowledged that several innocent civilians had been killed in February's special operation. He added, however, that security forces had succeeded in killing 18 rebels, and said that the operation had served to increase the stability of the region. Both Chechnya and Ingushetia's rulers have paid the families of the dead teenage boys compensation. - guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2010

dijous, d’abril 01, 2010

Vaya, al menos es un comienzo...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aPKY4_0G.MXo

Serbian Lawmakers Condemn 1995 Srebrenica Killings


By Aleksandra Nenadovic and James M. Gomez

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Serbia’s Parliament condemned the 1995 Srebrenica murder of 8,000 Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first time as Balkan nations try to heal the wounds of the 1990s civil wars and move closer to the European Union.

The resolution was passed by 127 lawmakers in the 250- member Belgrade-based assembly last night, including members of the pro-western Democratic Party, the G17 Plus party and an alliance led by the Socialist Party of Serbia. The opposition opposed the document, saying it should have condemned all war crimes during the Balkan conflicts, including those committed against Serbs.

“Lawmakers delivered a very important message,” said Parliamentary Speaker Slavica Djukic Dejanovic in a phone interview in Belgrade today. “It was difficult for all of us to come to terms and make peace with this decision.”

The former Yugoslav republics, including Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, are trying to reform their justice systems and put the enmity of Europe’s bloodiest fighting since World War II behind them to clinch closer trade ties with the EU and eventually join the 27-nation bloc. Croatia wants to follow Slovenia into the EU by 2012, while Serbia is seeking to win a trade agreement to strengthen an economy shattered by war and hobbled by corruption and the global financial crisis.

‘Condolences and Apologies’

The Liberal Democratic Party, a pro-western opposition party, joined the opposition by arguing the resolution stopped short of describing the Srebrenica killings as genocide.

The Srebrenica resolution denounces the crimes committed against the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica in July 1995, according to the findings of the Netherlands-based International Court of Justice, which said the Serbian state failed to stop the bloodshed, though it didn’t commit genocide.

The resolution offers “condolences and apologies to the families of the victims because Serbia didn’t do enough to stop the tragedy” and “calls on other countries of the former Yugoslavia to condemn in the same way crimes were committed against Serbs during the war.”

“I condemn all crimes committed on the territory of former Yugoslavia, especially the crime in Srebrenica,” said Tomislav Nikolic, leader of Serbia’s Progressive Party, according to state broadcaster Radiotelevizija Srbije’s Web site. “Such a declaration was needed, but the ruling coalition wants us to declare the whole nation guilty. Nations don’t commit crimes, individuals do.”

‘Tragic Chapter’

Serbian legislators also supported the work of all state bodies tasked with the manhunt for war-crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic, who commanded Bosnian Serb troops during the 1992-1995 war. The UN war crimes court in The Hague has issued a warrant for his arrest.

“With the adoption of the declaration, Serbia is closing a tragic chapter and opening a new one of peace and tolerance,” said lawmaker Nada Kolundzija from the ruling Democratic party before the vote, according to the newspaper Politika.

The vote comes as Balkan nations are trying to spark an economic recovery in the region and win the EU’s confidence. Slovenia, the only former Yugoslav republic to be a member of the bloc, and Croatia led a one-day summit on March 20 to coordinate EU-entry efforts in the region.

Still, the way forward is patchy as the region’s bloody recent past hinders progress. Serbia boycotted the summit because it gave the breakaway province of Kosovo the same status as the other states. Serbia considers Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence, which the EU supports, to be invalid.

The Progressive Party’s Nikolic said his country’s slow work to integrate with the EU is about economics, not politics.

“Serbia is having troubles with its EU entry bid not because of failing to adopt such resolutions, but because factories are idle, the government is spending beyond its means and because of corruption,” he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Aleksandra Nenadovic in Belgrade at anenadovic@bloomberg.net. James M. Gomez in Prague at jagomez@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 31, 2010 03:57 EDT