Six In The Morning

ROBERT FISK

Algeria, Mali, and why this week has looked like an obscene remake of earlier Western interventions

We are outraged not by the massacre of the innocents, but because the hostages killed were largely white, blue-eyed chaps rather than darker, brown-eyed chaps

Odd, isn’t it, how our “collateral damage” is different from their “collateral damage”. Speaking yesterday to an old Algerian friend in the aviation business, I asked him what he thought of his country’s raid on the In Amenas gas plant.“Brilliant operation, Robert,” he shouted down the phone. “We destroyed the terrorists!” But the innocent hostages? What about their deaths, I asked? “Poor guys,” he replied. “We had thousands of women and children killed in our war [in the 1990s] – terrible tragedy – but we are fighting terrorism.”

And there you have it. Our dead men didn’t matter in the slightest to him. And he had a point, didn’t he? For we are outraged today, not by the massacre of the innocents, but because the hostages killed by the Algerian army – along with some of their captors – were largely white, blue-eyed chaps rather than darker, brown-eyed chaps. Had all the “Western” hostages – I am including the Japanese in this ridiculous, all-purpose definition – been rescued and had the innocent dead all been Algerian, there would have been no talk yesterday of a “botched raid”.

The Irish Times - Saturday, January 19, 2013

Inquiry into Greek 'austerity architect'

HELENA SMITH in Athens

Greek politicians launched an inquiry yesterday into allegations of misconduct by George Papaconstantinou, the former finance minister and architect of the country’s first austerity programme.

Greek MPs voted overwhelmingly to investigate Mr Papaconstantinou after claims that he not only failed to crack down on tax evasion but erased relatives’ names from a list of people with holdings in the Geneva branch of HSBC. The economist faces prosecution – and jail – if, on the basis of their findings, investigators decide by the end of February to try him.

The politician vehemently denied the charges. “I did not tamper with the data. It is inconceivable that I would have acted in such a way that would so blatantly involve me,” he said in a speech to the house.

SYRIA

UN's Pillay demands war crimes investigation in Syria

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes allegations in Syria. Meanwhile, two journalists have been killed by sniper fire in the country.

On Friday, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, asked the UN Security Council in New York to refer records on human rights abuses in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

"I firmly believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed, are being committed and should be investigated," Pillay told reporters on Friday. 

"I have urged the Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court for investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity on the part of all parties engaged in this conflict," she said.

Suu Kyi calls for Kachin ceasefire as tensions rise on border

January 19, 2013

Tania Branigan

THE Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for an immediate end to fighting in Kachin state, amid growing concern about the conflict. China has rebuked its neighbour and called for a ceasefire between government troops and ethnic minority rebels after a second artillery shell landed on the Chinese side of the border.

An estimated 100,000 people have been displaced since fighting broke out in June 2011, ending a longstanding ceasefire between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army.

The conflict intensified in late December, with the Burmese army stepping up attacks around the KIA headquarters in the town of Laiza, and the government has acknowledged using aircraft to attack rebels in a development the US has described as extremely troubling. 

Vice president reassures Venezuelans on leadership

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who visited Hugo Chavez in Cuba, says an election could be held within 30 days if the ailing president is forced to resign.

By Mery Mogollon and Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times

CARACAS, Venezuela — Vice President Nicolas Maduro assured fellow Venezuelans that the government was prepared to hold a presidential election within 30 days if ailing President Hugo Chavez is forced to resign, and that a Chavista candidate backed by "revolutionary force" would win overwhelmingly.

Maduro, who is leading the government while Chavez recuperates from cancer surgery in Cuba, made his remarks in an interview with a Spanish news service, the transcript of which was released Friday by the Venezuelan government press office.

"We have sufficiently overwhelming political strength in Venezuela [and] accumulated revolutionary force to confront whatever scenario presents itself," said Maduro, who met with Chavez in Cuba on Monday to "update him on the various situations in the country."

New Violence in Belfast May Be About More Than the Flag

By JOHN F. BURNS

Published: January 18, 2013

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — For more than six weeks, it has been a dismal case of back-to-the-future, a crudely sectarian upheaval that has defied all attempts at peacemaking.

The scenes recall the sectarian bitterness that infused the 30 years of virtual civil war known as the Troubles: night after night of street protests marshaled by balaclava-wearing militants, who have updated their tactics by using social media to rally mobs; death threats to prominent politicians, some of whom have fled their homes and hidden under police guard; firebombs, flagstones and rocks hurled at churches, police cars and lawmakers’ offices; protesters joined by rock-throwing boys of 8 and 9; neighborhoods sealed off for hours by the police or protesters’ barricades.