As allies accuse Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed of atrocities in Tigray, Canada stands back
Evan Dyer

© Reuters Ethiopian government soldiers and prisoners of war in military uniforms walk through the streets of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia on July 2.

"It was worse than a crime. It was a blunder."

The words used to describe one of Napoleon's excesses could well have been uttered by an Ethiopian general in Addis Ababa as the forces sent into the Tigray region by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed were compelled to abandon their posts and retreat.

While atrocities by Ethiopian forces and their Eritrean allies have wrecked the international reputation of Ethiopia's government, their defeat at the hands of Tigrayan rebel forces could ultimately have even bigger consequences.


Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared a "unilateral ceasefire" as his army retreated, but the Tigray Defence Force said it would accept it only with conditions. There were remarkable scenes as the TDF paraded thousands of captured Ethiopian soldiers through the streets of its recaptured capital Mekelle as crowds jeered.

The immediate cause of the defeat was a successful offensive by Tigrayan forces, though pressure from foreign donors may have contributed.

The United States and European Union have turned increasingly against PM Abiy, the Nobel Peace Prize winner of 2019. Canada has been more forgiving.
Trudeau sought Abiy's support

Since 2016, the first year of the Trudeau government, Ethiopia has been the biggest or second-biggest recipient of Canadian development assistance in the world, and Ottawa has not hinted publicly at any suspension of that aid.

Ethiopia was the first stop when PM Justin Trudeau embarked on a three-continent trip in February 2020. The Liberal government was focused on getting a seat on the UN Security Council and saw Abiy Ahmed as critical to rallying African support for Canada's bid, which ultimately failed.

© AP In this image made from video, an injured victim of an alleged airstrike on a village arrives in an ambulance at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on Wednesday, June 23, 2021.

Trudeau hailed Abiy's "contribution to regional peace and security."

That was before Abiy invited neighbouring Eritrea, a hermetic police state run by Isaias Afwerki since 1993, to invade his own nation.
EU suspends aid

The U.S. and UN have accused Abiy's forces of burning crops, stealing or killing livestock, murdering farmers and blockading roads. The UN says Abiy's Eritrean allies are deliberately "starving Tigrayans."

Washington has announced travel sanctions against all officials involved in crimes in Tigray.

The EU suspended aid to Ethiopia's government at the beginning of the year and foreign policy chief Josep Borell left no doubt it was a message to the Ethiopian government about Tigray — "a way of demonstrating our rejection of what is going on out there," which both the EU and the U.S. have described as "ethnic cleansing".

Canada has not used such language or taken punitive steps against the Abiy government, and says it still "stands ready to support the Government of Ethiopia and its people in pursuing a national, inclusive political process."

"We are concerned about what's happening in Ethiopia," Global Affairs Minister Marc Garneau told CBC this week.

"I've spoken to my counterpart, the PM has spoken to his counterpart, and (International Development Minister Karina) Gould ... has spoken to her counterpart, and we've always carried the message that it was extremely important that Ethiopia allow humanitarian aid to be provided in the Tigray region, and as well we've been calling for the withdrawal for a long time of, in particular, Eritrean and Ahmara (Ethiopian regional) troops.

"We are concerned that progress has been extremely slow."
No sanctions, no rebuke

But Global Affairs' Patricia Skinner told CBC that Canada is not yet ready to follow the lead of other countries that have sanctioned Ethiopia.

"Canada is judicious when it chooses to deploy sanctions and is committed to their effective and coordinated use, when appropriate," she said. "Canada will continue to work closely with like-minded governments in considering a broad range of response options."

However, she added, "Canada has re-directed $18 million from its contribution to Ethiopia's national flagship the Productive Safety Nets Program to target communities affected by food insecurity in Tigray."

That project is described as "led by the Government of Ethiopia, with support from the Government of Canada" on a Global Affairs website.

But the program was scheduled to end this year anyway. Its suspension does not represent a rebuke or sanction, GAC officials told CBC.
'Ethnic cleansing'

Muguleta Tedla, a math professor from Windsor, Ontario who chairs the Association of Tigrayan Communities in Canada, said his community appreciates the $41 million in emergency aid Canada has given to Ethiopia, some of it earmarked for Tigray.

He also notes that Ottawa's statements of concern have been markedly less pointed than the condemnations coming from its European and American counterparts.

"We have the feeling that Canada can do more," he told CBC News. "Indirectly, Canada is really supporting the ethnic cleansing happening in Tigray. How could a country regarded so highly support such an act, such a government, such a leader?"

The Ethiopian Embassy did not respond to calls for comment.
Biden, Trudeau approaches miles apart

There has been a striking contrast between the Trudeau government's approach to the conflict and that of the Biden administration.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken called PM Abiy during a violent February to urge "immediate, full, and unhindered humanitarian access to prevent further loss of life."

Trudeau also called Abiy a little later that month. Already, videos of massacres by Ethiopian troops were circulating in mainstream media, but Tigray was not at the top of the agenda.

Here's how a statement from the Prime Minister's Office described the call: "Prime Minister Trudeau welcomed efforts to expand access for humanitarian assistance and journalists, to restore critical services and infrastructure, and to protect people. Prime Minister Trudeau reaffirmed Canada's support for ongoing reforms intended to consolidate durable, inclusive peace and democracy in Ethiopia."

On March 10, Blinken told Congress the U.S. had seen "ethnic cleansing" in Tigray.

On March 16, Gould and Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Minister Mary Ng met with their Ethiopian counterparts for a "clean growth symposium," where they announced a $133 million dollar donation to the Canada-African Development Bank Climate Fund, "an important follow-up to last year's announcement made by Prime Minister Trudeau in Ethiopia". The donation "aims to enhance women's economic rights", said GAC.

Exactly one week later, Abiy admitted that Eritrean troops were in his country, that "there have been rapes of women and looting of properties" and that "atrocities have been committed."

"Battle is destructive, it hurts many," he said.
'A war pact'

The West was naive to fall for Abiy's reformist posturing in the first place, said Tedla, and the settlement with Eritrea that won Abiy his Nobel prize "was not a peace deal. It was a war pact."

Even before the current war broke out in November 2020, human rights groups were pointing out that Abiy's new Ethiopia retained some of the worst features of the old Ethiopia, with ethnic massacres and forced displacements in which security forces sometimes participated.

Tigrayan forces are accused of committing their own war crimes.

The gravest allegations, though, lie at the door of the Ethiopian Army and its Eritrean allies, including mass rape of local women and girls. Figures in Abiy Ahmed's government, including Ethiopia's female president, have acknowledged and condemned the rapes.

Recently a handful of soldiers have been tried and convicted.
'They are going to destroy the Tigrayans'

Abiy Ahmed himself has felt the pressure and sought to defuse it in an oped in February.

"The suffering and deaths that occurred despite our best efforts have caused much distress for me personally, as well as for all peace-loving people here and abroad," he wrote. "We are working, day and night, to deliver necessary supplies to our citizens in Tigray and to those in want in neighbouring provinces, as well as to ensure that human rights are respected and normal lives restored."

The EU's envoy, Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto, travelled to Addis Ababa around the time Abiy was penning his op-ed and said he heard a very different message in private.

"When I met the Ethiopian leadership in February they really used this kind of language, that they are going to destroy the Tigrayans, they are going to wipe out the Tigrayans for 100 years and so forth," he told a committee of the European Parliament last month, making it clear that Abiy Ahmed was part of those discussions.

"It looks for us like ethnic cleansing."

Ethiopia's government has dismissed Haavisto's allegations as a "hallucination of sorts or a lapse in memory of some kind."

But since writing his article, Abiy Ahmed has been forced to admit that the Eritrean Army is operating in the country, after lying about it for several months.

"This must be the most treasonous act of Abiy Ahmed," said Tedla. "Inviting an enemy, a neighbouring country's army, to demolish the infrastructure of Tigray — its own region — and killing all these young men who had nothing to do with politics, raping girls as young as seven."

Tedla said the predictable result is that many Tigrayans, previously willing to live in a federal Ethiopian state, now want nothing less than full independence.

"They must lay a foundation so these atrocities won't happen again."

IF COVID OR BEING ANTI VAX DOESN'T GET 'EM

Diet High in Fat, Fried Foods Linked to Sudden Cardiac Death

 the Southern-style diet was linked to a greater risk of coronary heart disease in the same population.

By Rosalind Stefanac

July 9, 2021 -- A large study shows that eating a diet high in fat, fried foods, processed meats, and sugary drinks is linked to a higher risk of sudden cardiac death, a common cause of death in the U.S.

The research, published June 30 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, examined the dietary patterns of more than 21,000 people 45 years old and older. The research took place over 18 years in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.

In the study, the dietary patterns were named for the groupings of various foods that dominated the pattern. For example, the "Convenience" pattern relied on mixed dishes, pasta, pizza, Mexican, and Chinese food. The "Plant-based" pattern favored vegetables, fruits, fruit juice, cereal, beans, fish, poultry, and yogurt. The "Sweets" pattern loaded up on added sugars, desserts, chocolate, candy, and sweetened breakfast food. The "Southern" pattern included added fats, fried food, eggs and egg dishes, organ meats, processed meats, and sugar-sweetened beverages, reflecting a culinary pattern observed in the Southeastern U.S. Finally, an "Alcohol and Salad" pattern loaded highly on beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, and salad dressing.

These patterns weren’t mutually exclusive; those who had an affinity for the Southern-style diet also ate fewer plants, for instance.

After adjusting for other factors that may impact risk, the study authors found that those who ate a Southern-style diet showed a trend toward a higher risk of sudden cardiac death at 46% compared to those who ate this kind of diet the least. Meanwhile, the study also revealed that eating a traditional Mediterranean diet was associated with a 26% lower risk for sudden cardiac death.

Lead study author James Shikany, DrPH, professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says the results suggest that diet is a factor we have some control over when it comes to reducing the risk of sudden cardiac death.

“I hope this is another piece of the puzzle that will help people make changes,” he says. “So instead of eating meat once or twice a day they’ll cut down to two or three times a week; I like small, incremental changes as those are more likely to last.”

­­­To make lasting changes, however, Stephen Juraschek, MD, PhD, a member of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee of the Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Council, suggests focusing on two areas.

“We should all think about ways we can increase the number of servings of fruit and vegetables we eat each day,” he says. “We [also] need to cut down our salt exposure by eating more meals at home and avoiding high-salt products or meal preparation with a lot of salt.”

Juraschek says the study results also reveal disparities in dietary patterns that may result from supply chains, access to healthy foods, and cultural practices.

“In order to improve diet population-wide, we need to look beyond individual choices and focus on the population drivers of unhealthy eating,” he says. “Access to healthy fruits and vegetables is a major challenge for rural and urban communities, as well as communities with lower socioeconomic status where processed, comfort foods are often less expensive than fruit and vegetables.”

This latest research is the last of a three-part series exploring links between the Southern-style diet and potential health risks.

In 2018, Shikany and his colleagues reported that adults ages 45 and older with heart disease who had an affinity for the Southern-style diet had a higher risk of death from any cause. Opting for a Mediterranean diet, meanwhile, resulted in a lower risk of death from any cause.

In a 2015 study, the Southern-style diet was linked to a greater risk of coronary heart disease in the same population.

US Black And Latino Communities Often Have Low Vaccination Rates – But Blaming Vaccine Hesitancy Misses The Mark

Jul 9, 2021 By The Conversation

By early July 2021, nearly two-thirds of all U.S. residents 12 years and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine; 55% were fully vaccinated. But uptake varies drastically by region – and it is lower on average among non-white people.

Many blame the relatively lower vaccination rates in communities of color on “vaccine hesitancy.” But this label overlooks persistent barriers to access and lumps together the varied reasons people have for refraining from vaccination. It also places all the responsibility for getting vaccinated on individuals. Ultimately, homogenizing peoples’ reasons for not getting vaccinated diverts attention away from social factors that research shows play a critical role in health status and outcomes.

As medical anthropologists, we take a more nuanced view. Working together as lead site investigators for CommuniVax, a national initiative to improve vaccine equity, we and our teams in Alabama, California and Idaho, along with CommuniVax teams elsewhere in the nation, have documented a variety of stances toward vaccination that simply can’t be cast as “hesitant.”

Limited access hampers vaccination rates

People of color have long suffered an array of health inequities. Accordingly, due to a combination of factors, these communities have experienced higher hospitalization due to COVID-19, higher disease severity upon admission, higher chances for being placed on breathing support and progression to the intensive care unit, and higher rates of death.

CommuniVax data, including some 200 in-depth interviews within such communities, confirm that overall, those who have directly experienced this kind of COVID-19-related trauma, are not hesitant. They dearly want vaccinations. For example, in San Diego’s heavily Latino and very hard-hit “South Region,” COVID-19 vaccine uptake is remarkably high – about 84% as of July 6, 2021.

However, vaccine uptake is far from universal in these communities. This is in part due to access issues that go beyond the well documented challenges of transportation, internet access and skills gaps, and a lack of information on how to get vaccinated. For example, some CommuniVax participants had heard of non-resident white people usurping doses that were meant for communities of color. African American participants, in particular, reported feeling that the Johnson & Johnson vaccines promoted in their communities were the least safe and effective.

Our participant testimony shows that many unvaccinated people are not “vaccine hesitant” but rather “vaccine impeded.” And exclusion can happen not just in a physical sense; providers’ attitudes towards vaccines matter too.

For instance, Donna, a health care worker in Idaho, said, “I chose not to get it because if I were to get sick, I think I would recover mostly or more rapidly.” This kind of attitude by health care providers can have downstream effects. For example, Donna may not encourage vaccination when on duty or to people she knows; some, just observing her choices, may follow suit. Here, what appears as a community’s hesitancy to vaccinate is instead a reflection of vaccine hesitancy within its health care system.

More directly impeded are community members who, like Angela in Idaho, skipped vaccination because she couldn’t risk having a negative reaction that might require intervention. Although a trip to the doctor is a highly unlikely outcome after a vaccine, it remains a concern for some. “My insurance doesn’t cover as much as it possibly, you know, should,” she noted. And we have encountered many reports of undocumented individuals who fear deportation although, according to current laws, immigration status should not be questioned in relation to the vaccine.

Christina, in San Diego, illustrates another type of practical barrier. She cannot get vaccinated, she said, because she has no one to care for her babies should she fall ill with side effects. Her husband, similarly, can’t take time off from his job – “It doesn’t work that way.” Likewise, Carlos – who made sure that his centenarian father got vaccinated – says he can’t take the vaccine himself due to his dad’s deep dementia: “If I took my vaccine and I got sick, he’d be screwed.”
Indifference, resilience and ambivalence

Another segment of unvaccinated people obscured by the “hesitant” label are the “vaccine indifferent.” For various reasons, they remain relatively untouched by the pandemic: COVID-19 just isn’t on their radar. This might include people who are self-employed or working under the table, people living in rural and remote places, and those whose children are not in the public school system.

Such people thus are not consistently connected to COVID-19-related information. This is particularly true if they forego social or news media and socialize with others who do the same, and if there are significant language barriers.

We also learned that, among some of our participants, the initial messaging about prioritizing high-risk groups backfired, leaving some under 65 and in relatively good health with the impression it wasn’t necessary for them to get the vaccine. Without incentives – travel plans, being accepted to a college or having an employer that mandates vaccination – inertia carries the day.

The indifferent are not against vaccination. Rather, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and “you do you” tend to typify their views. As Jose from Idaho reported, “I’m not worried because I’ve always taken care of myself.”

We also saw a modified form of indifference in those who believed that the protective steps they already were taking would be enough to keep them COVID-19-free. A janitor said, “I am an essential worker… So from the beginning we took … all the precautions … face masks, taking [social] distance [and using] natural medicines and vitamins for the immune system.” He had, indeed, so far avoided contracting COVID-19.

The view of vaccines as not immediately necessary is magnified among some Latino people by the cultural value placed on the need to endure – “aguantar” in Spanish — to bear up, push through and avoid complaining about daily struggles. This perspective can be seen in many immigrant or impoverished populations, where getting sick or injured can be a precursor to household ruin through job loss and exorbitant, unpayable medical bills.

Yet another dynamic we learned of is what we term “vaccine ambivalence.” Some participants who view COVID-19 as a significant health threat believe the vaccine poses an equivalent risk. We saw this particularly among African Americans in Alabama – not necessarily surprising given that the health care system has not always had these communities’ best interests at heart. The perceived conundrum leaves people stuck on the fence. Given the legacy of unequal treatment in communities of color, when balancing the “known” of COVID-19 against the unknown of vaccination, their inaction may seem reasonable – especially when coupled with mask-wearing and social distancing.
Attending to blind spots

At this point in the pandemic, those with the means and will to get vaccinated have done so. Providing viable counternarratives to misinformation can help bring more people on board. But continuing to focus solely on individual mistrustfulness toward vaccines or so-called hesitancy obscures the other complex reasons people have for being wary of the system and bypassing vaccination.

Moreover, an overly narrow focus on the vaccine leaves a lot outside the frame. A wider view reveals that the problems leading to inequitable vaccination coverage are the same structural problems that have, historically, prevented people of color from having a fair shot at good health and economic outcomes to begin with – problems that even a 100% vaccination rate cannot resolve.

Elisa J. Sobo, Professor and Chair of Anthropology, San Diego State University; Diana Schow, Visiting Assistant Professor of Community and Public Health; Executive Director, Southeast Idaho Area Health Education Center, Institute of Rural Health, Idaho State University, Idaho State University, and Stephanie McClure, Assistant Professor of Biocultural Medical Anthropology, University of Alabama

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Why vaccine competition may now be world's best bet

John Kampfner

0 COMMENTS

Published: 7:00 AM July 10, 2021   

LEFT BEHIND: Health workers bring Covid-19 vaccines to a site in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Africa has received only 2% of the vaccines administered globally - Credit: Getty Images

In a special report, JOHN KAMPFNER explores the failure of the US, Europe, China and Russia to work together on global vaccine provision, and how the developing world can exploit their rivalry

Relations between the major powers are at their worst for decades with cooperation thin on the ground, and Covid-19 having deepened suspicions further. In April, the US Senate passed the Strategic Competition Act with bipartisan support, promising to “counter the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party globally”.

In front of his American counterpart, China’s top foreign policy official denounced the effrontery of those who “smear” Chinese democracy. Joe Biden calls Vladimir Putin “a killer”, while the Kremlin has put the US at the top of its list of unfriendly countries.

Tension between China and India is high, the EU and UK are involved in repeated spats. Competition and mistrust are everywhere.

Far from producing greater collaboration in adversity, Covid has increased rivalries. Given that the tensions long pre-dated the pandemic and are unlikely to improve any time soon, it is hard to see how the major powers can be persuaded to cooperate better to tackle this crisis. Coronavirus is just the first test. Other crises will follow. If the disappointing results of the G7 are anything to go by, expectations should be managed even lower than they are already.

But experts I spoke to for a report commissioned by the international think tank Chatham House suggest there could be another way: the atmosphere of intense competition can actually be exploited to the advantage of developing economies.

A few weeks into the crisis, Ricardo Lagos, former president of Chile and a member of the Elders group of international leaders wrote: “Hopefully the international institutions will rise to the challenge of responding to this pandemic with the force that it demands, because this crisis will not be overcome by defeating the disease in any one country alone, but by guaranteeing an end to the affliction throughout the world.”

The first reaction of nation states was to protect their own, hoard, close borders – and indulge in nationalist points-scoring. The more the US and its allies blamed China, both for the outbreak in Wuhan and for what many considered to be a cover-up, and the more China refused to provide the necessary access or information, the more distrustful and disjointed the global response became.

The final year of Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ presidency was characterised by a Covid policy of denial, denigration of science and, at that point, the world’s highest infection rate. The president launched repeated broadsides against the World Health Organization, denouncing its director general Tedros Ghebreyesus as a “puppet” of China; he announced the termination of the US’s WHO membership and $400m annual payment, putting its finances in peril just at a time when the organisation was most needed. Trump’s approach was borne partly of ideology, partly of a need to create a distraction from his administration’s incompetence.

Across the rich world, governments floundered in their initial response. Tedros himself summed it up as a year of extraordinary scientific success but political failure. The medical and health community rallied early, creating an initiative designed to distribute vaccines, even as they were still in the early stage of development. The aim of Covax, as it was called, was to produce and make available two billion vaccines by the end of 2021. ‘No-one is safe until everyone is safe’ became the mantra of collaboration.

Covax was heralded as the ‘only truly global solution’, but it was a mix of ambition and acknowledgement of the limited commitment of the big powers to collaborate to vaccinate the world. Even when fully rolled out, it will still account for only 20% of global need, what it calls “the priority fifth”. Still, something was better than nothing.

From the start of the pandemic, in the provision of masks or personal protective equipment (PPE), nation states indulged their competitive instincts. Vaccine diplomacy and its alter ego vaccine nationalism followed this trend.

Public relations battles were fought out not just between rivals, but also among supposed allies. The British government juxtaposed its mass purchase of vaccines with the early failures of the European Union as vindication of Brexit. For its part, the EU’s definition of solidarity was largely confined to the bloc.

On taking office in January 2021, Biden proclaimed that “America is back” in the mainstream of global affairs. He reversed the US decision to leave the WHO and turned around the domestic response with an impressively fast vaccination programme.

Yet the US rhetoric rarely matched the reality. Health policy was directed inwards: over-order on an industrial scale and vaccinate until the last person is done. Americans went from near panic to enjoying an oversupply of life-saving medicine, while death rates in poorer countries were growing sharply with vaccines desperately hard to come by. The West failed egregiously in the competition for goodwill, leaving a gaping vacuum for others to fill.

In poorer regions, the vaccines of choice were Sinopharm and Sinovac of China and Sputnik-V of Russia. Choice is perhaps the wrong term; they were the only ones made available, even though the Chinese brands had not yet been certified for use by the WHO. The Russian one has still not been, although a peer-reviewed paper in the Lancet has demonstrated its efficacy and safety.

By the end of May, China had sold or donated 700m doses in 90 countries. Russia was in 80. Each shipment carried national flags and was accompanied by photo-opportunities with grateful local dignitaries at the airport of arrival.

By late May, Latin America had exceeded one million deaths, the highest for any region in the world. It contains 8% of the global population but has 34% of infections. The region was long considered to be the United States’ backyard. Frustrated at the lack of vaccines, several leaders took to social media diplomacy to ‘vaccine shame’ their traditional ally.

In March, president of the Dominican Republic Luis Abinader tweeted: “President @JoeBiden, less-developed countries and traditional allies of the USA, like Dominican Republic, have approved the AstraZeneca vaccine and we need it urgently.” Euclides Acevedo, foreign minister of Paraguay, which was struggling to get Chinese vaccines because of its recognition of Taiwan, asked publicly of the US: “What use is fraternity if now they don’t give us a reply?”

Shortly after delivering 400,000 doses to Bolivia, the Kremlin trumpeted access to its resources. “We are sure that Russian-Bolivian ties will expand, especially in sectors such as energy, mining and the peaceful use of nuclear technologies,” Putin said after meeting president Luis Arce. Bolivia has the world’s largest supply of lithium – an indispensable component in batteries for mobile phones – but has struggled to attract foreign investment to extract it.

Goodwill was thin on the ground in contract negotiations. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism alleged in February that Pfizer had insisted to several Latin American governments that they put up sovereign assets such as embassy buildings and military bases as collateral against the cost of potential future legal cases.

Africa has received 2% of vaccines administered globally. The crisis was worsened by India’s decision to divert vaccines from the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing facility, which had been earmarked for export to deal with the country’s own Covid emergency.

By May 2021, of 36 countries where death rates were rising, all but four were low- or middle-income countries. The cumulative effect has been to eradicate years of development, leading to a further division of wealth between nations and regions.

Africa imports 99 per cent of the vaccines it needs. The African Union has set a goal of 40% of vaccines to be produced on the continent within 20 years. Reforms such as these, vital though they are in the medium-term, will not alleviate the present crisis.

At first glance, the situation suggests a reversion back to the old paradigm of dependency. Yet there is another way of looking at Africa’s predicament. Some of the politics have changed. Three of the major UN institutions are now run by Africans. World Trade Organization (WTO) director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a former Nigerian government minister; UNAIDS’ executive director Winnie Byanyima was a Ugandan MP who then ran Oxfam International. The head of the WHO, Tedros, was an Ethiopian minister. A series of regional summits with Africa are planned for 2022 (several of which had been postponed because of the pandemic), including the EU, China and Turkey. Everyone is piling into Africa – and Africa knows it.

Discussion of big-power winners and losers may actually be missing the point. This narrative assumes that recipient countries have little or no agency and are unable to disaggregate the various motivations and decide for themselves. Therefore, it may not feel like that now, as populations reel, but developing economies have more influence than before.

A recent Chinese White Paper on international development states: “China considers it a mission to contribute more to humanity. Its wish is to offer more public goods to the international community and join forces with other countries to build a better common future.” Humanitarian assistance merges with geo-strategic motives. Is that noticeably different to other countries’ international development policies?

Covid-19 has given China an opportunity to portray itself as a responsible, science-based global leader, a ‘pharma power’, helping to shift the narrative from its role in the cause of the crisis.

“There has been a significant shift in power. The West hasn’t quite learnt how to influence the Global South in these new times. It is relying on its old toolbox of persuasion – through aid for example – or diplomatic pressure or coercion,” says Champa Patel, director of the Asia-Pacific region at Chatham House. “What will not work is trying to instrumentalise emerging powers for Western capitals’ strategic interests. This is as true for China attempting to do as much as for Western capitals.”

In any case, do motives matter that much in a time of crisis, particularly when the other side is absent from the pitch?

Just how committed is the Biden administration? A number of its initiatives seemed designed more to project systemic rivalry, particularly against China, than to embrace multilateralism.

In early May, US trade representative Katherine Tai announced that Washington would support a waiver on intellectual property for vaccines. A number of countries, led by India and South Africa, had long been calling for the removal of restrictions on the transfer of patents in pharmaceuticals, something that had been agreed at the WTO in 1995. It had become an emotive issue.

Tedros hailed it move as “a monumental moment”. The move delighted civil society groups, but startled allies. A number of biotech-strong countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Britain opposed the idea. The White House is likely to have assumed that it would not prevail, but the initiative secured two goals: it put pressure on big pharma to do more to free up licensing and transferring technology, and it made America look good.

In the same week, Biden declared: “Our nation is going to be the arsenal of vaccines for the rest of the world. I literally have, virtually 40% of the world leaders calling and asking, can we help them. We’re going to try.” He promised that the US would deliver 80m vaccines, including from AstraZeneca, which had not been approved by his own country’s regulator, the FDA.

By this point, the US had not exported a single vial. A whole year after the establishment of Covax, a mere 70m vaccines had been sent through the multilateral facility – a tiny proportion of the not-so-ambitious two billion target.

In a report published in May, a group of 13 global statesmen and women, led by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, sketched out a credible road map across all areas of Covid-19 policy, providing a midway point between radicalism – what should be achieved – and realism – what, given the disappointing circumstances, could be achieved.

The International Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, as the group is known, called for a UN Pandemic Treaty and an International Pandemic Financing Facility that could mobilise funding of up to $10bn per year. It also proposed a new global surveillance system, in which the WHO would have explicit authority to publish information about outbreaks without the prior approval of national governments and to dispatch experts to investigate pathogens with guaranteed right of access.

Yet in recent months, a series of meetings – from a Global Health Summit of the G20 to the World Health Assembly – have disappointed. On the eve of each of these forums, health experts and activists urged governments to do more. They cited compelling economic arguments. Fully financing Covax for 2021 would cost less than 1% of what governments have spent on stimulus packages for their own citizens. G7 nations could spend just 50p a week per citizen to help supply the poorest nations.

The task is enormous and urgent. The number of doses needed to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population is a staggering 11bn. So far only about 1.7bn have been produced; far, far fewer have been equitably distributed.

On the eve of the G7, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr John Nkengasong, declared: “Our worst nightmare has come to reality.” He added: “When this pandemic started, we cautioned that if we do not work in a cooperative way and express global solidarity we may run into a moral catastrophe.”

The messaging NGOs have used to persuade governments has become ever more desperate and ever more instrumentalist. ‘Self-interest’ became too tame. ‘Return on investment’ – a curious term for saving lives – started to be used.

In spite of all the entreaties, Covax remains low on nations’ priorities. One of the problems is that it deprives donor states of recognition or reward. One example spoke volumes. French president Emmanuel Macron and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen toyed with the idea of circumventing Covax by donating directly – with supplies labelled ‘Team Europe’ alongside colour-coded maps to track the destinations of vaccines from rival producers. In the UK, Boris Johnson was reported to have wanted the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in conjunction with Oxford University, to be labelled with Union Jacks.

Compassion wrapped up in a logo. Why bother with a centralised distribution network when you can earn plaudits for ostentatious generosity?

Considerations such as these formed the backdrop for the G7 summit in mid-June. For the first time since the pandemic started, leaders of the richest nations gathered by a Cornish beach to discuss Covid, climate change – and the rise of China. Their deliberations were not helped by a renewed bout of in-fighting between the UK and the EU. Biden used the meeting to frame geopolitics as a contest between democracies and autocrats and called for a Western infrastructure alternative to China’s Belt and Road.

The final decision – to provide fewer than the 1 billion vaccines that had been trailed beforehand, with no mechanism for delivery and with a vague deadline – was denounced by Gordon Brown as an “unforgivable moral failure”.

He wasn’t alone. Economist and long-time UN adviser, Jeffrey Sachs, described the G7 as an anachronism. “They give the appearance of solving global problems, while really leaving them to fester,” Sachs said. “We need Asia, Africa and Latin America at the table for any true global problem-solving.”

Will the G20 meeting in Rome at the end of October, with its wider representation, do any better? More nations and more political systems will be represented. That is an opportunity to do business face-to-face. It is also opportunity for more grandstanding between systemic rivals.

Even at the height of Cold War tensions, the US and Russia were part of a global coalition to eradicate smallpox. Yet with Covid, big-power collaboration has been virtually non-existent, with little prospect for improvement.

Biden’s instruction to his intelligence to “redouble” their efforts and identify a “definitive conclusion” within 90 days on how the virus was first transmitted in humans has enraged the Chinese government.

Have the US and its allies left it too late? The poorest countries hit hardest in the last few months may well remember the fact that America was planning to inoculate its children while the elderly and frail and key workers in Africa and Latin America were dying. 

Those countries who were helped out at their time of most need may retain a residual sense of affinity, perhaps obligation, towards China and Russia. Perhaps with this in mind, American officials insist that they are not trying to pressurise countries to make a zero-sum choice. As Blinken told a Nato meeting in March: “The US won’t force allies into an ‘us-or-them’ choice with China”.

Perhaps developing countries can make a virtue of this unrelenting soft-power rivalry. Imagine a situation in which production increases and the competing powers vie to entice recipient countries. They would compete against each other on the efficacy and reliability of vaccines, on cost and terms – and on geo-strategic allegiances.

“Is it the end of the world if America, China and the others compete to ensure vaccinations?” asks Jim O’Neill, the economist and former government minister who has been on a number of G7 and G20 working groups. “Who cares where they come from or which political system they belong to if they save lives?”

This is not as it should be. In a perfect world, multilateral and cooperation would be the guiding principles. Where such collaboration exists, it should be promoted and pursued. But this crisis has shown the world at its most imperfect. If rivalry has to prevail, it can be turned to the advantage of those who most need assistance. Vaccine competition may end up being the world’s best bet.

This is an adapted version of a long-read for Chatham House which can be found here 

Haiti on edge as conspiracy theories about President's assassination fill the vacuum

By Caitlin Hu and Etant Dupain, CNN 

The charred shells of three burned-out cars marked the road to the president's house on Friday in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Just up the hill, former leader Jovenel Moise had been murdered in his bedroom two days earlier, in an otherwise quiet neighborhood of big houses and high walls topped with barbed wire and jacaranda flowers.

© Richard Pierrin/Getty Images A soldier patrols the area near the police station of Petion Ville where people protest after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise on July 8 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

What exactly happened during the Wednesday attack is still unknown, along with its motive. But Carl Henri Destin, a local district judge tasked with investigating and documenting the crime scene, described the aftermath in minute detail to CNN.

"The doors were riddled with bullets, the glass was broken, the doors were smashed, even the locks were destroyed and lying on the ground," he said.

Inside, up a wide bloodstained stairway leading to a bedroom, Destin says he peered through another smashed doorway, and saw his President lying on the ground.

"He was wearing a white shirt and a pair of blue jeans. His shirt was ripped and full of blood. I saw 12 visible bullet wounds in the president's body...they smashed his left eye, but both were still open."

© David von Blohn/CNN Burnt out cars line the street near the late President's residence in Haiti.

Dozens of viral images and videos purporting to show the shocking attack are circulating in Haiti and abroad, of which few can be verified as authentic. But hardly any show Moise, the damage left by the attack, or the removal of his body from the house; Destin takes credit for that, explaining that he forbade most other people at the crime scene from snapping photos out of respect for the fallen leader. 

© David von Blohn/CNN Violence broke out after Haiti's President was assassinated on Wednesday.

Yet in perhaps a sign of the intense local hunger for an explanation, even the absence of images is spawning conspiracy theories. And in Port-au-Prince, it's all adding momentum to a wave of speculation and uncertainty in a city already rattled by rampant criminal violence, economic deprivation and political instability.

What we know and don't know

Many questions remain unanswered about what exactly transpired in the Haitian president's house on the night of his death.

What we do know is that according to the remaining government -- now led by acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph -- Moise's home was attacked around 1 a.m. He was killed, and his wife, First Lady Martine Moise, was wounded. She has since been flown to Miami for treatment.

A group of at least 28 people are suspected in the killing, of which 26 are Colombian and two are US citizens. So far, 20 of those suspects have been detained, five are on the loose and three have been killed.

© David von Blohn/CNN The charred shell of a car following the killing of Haiti's President.

According to a spokesman for the acting Prime Minister's office, those burned-out cars down the street from Moise's house belonged to some of the suspects, whom police later confronted in a shootout. The nearest storefront, decorated with a worn banner quoting Psalm 27:1's "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" testifies to a fearsome battle with mounds of shattered glass, bullet marks and streaks of blood.

Video: What we know about the death of Haiti's president (CNN)

Colombian National Police Chief General Jorge Vargas said Friday that 13 retired members of the Colombian Army had traveled to Haiti over the past months and are believed to have been involved in the assassination. But why a group of foreign nationals would attack Haiti's President is still unknown. No statements have been released from the suspects in detention, and the investigation is far from over.

"There is a mastermind behind this assassination, and that is what we need to find out," Elections Minister Mathias Pierre told CNN.

Also unclear is how the killers were able to penetrate multiple levels of presidential security, including police checkpoints on the road and Moise's personal guard. Despite the apparent scale of the attack, and signs of rampant gunfire in the President's home documented by Destin, none of the President's guards were injured, Haiti's elections minister Mathias Pierre told CNN.

Destin, who collected testimony from witnesses at the scene the next morning, said he has been unable to hear any firsthand accounts of what happened during the attack itself. When he arrived at the President's house, the police security booth was unmanned, and agents without identifying badge or insignia met him at the entrance, he said.

"I was informed that nobody who was there on the night of the killing was present...I did not have a chance to talk to anybody who was on the scene during the attack," Destin said.

The investigation is ongoing, and Haiti's interim government has asked for additional assistance from the US and UN to help dig into the matter.

Senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials are expected to travel to Port-au-Prince "as soon as possible" to provide assistance on both security and the investigation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday. Colombia is also sending its national intelligence chief to aid in the investigation.


What comes next

Further down the line, are myriad more unanswered questions, from when the President's funeral will be held, to who should succeed him, and even whether the country is prepared to move forward with much-anticipated elections this fall. Over it all hangs a sense of foreboding, and many streets in Port-au-Prince have been unusually empty.

The assassination has sharpened fears of other violent outbreaks in the capital city, which saw more than 13,000 people displaced from their homes by arson and battles between police and rival gangs in the month of June alone. Haiti's interim government has now requested that both the US and United Nations supply troops to enforce security at key infrastructural points like the ports, airports and oil terminals.

Elections Minister Pierre, who feared that he and other top officials might be targeted when he first learned of Moise's death, says he still feels that he could now face retribution for continuing the deceased president's political agenda.

"Anyone running for office, including myself, knows that we will face danger, and we are conscious of the danger of trying to make major changes in the country," he said.

Moise, 53, was a divisive figure in Haiti, and many opposition and civil society leaders had been calling for his resignation for more than a year. His signature project, the subject of a referendum planned for this September, was a proposed overhaul of the Haitian constitution that would strengthen the executive branch -- a change that critics feared would erode democracy, but which Moise argued was vital for leading meaningful change in the country.

The question of who should even be running the current government is also overshadowed by discord and doubt. Days before his death, Moise named neurosurgeon Ariel Henry as his new prime minister -- which means that between Henry and acting Prime Minister Joseph there are two potential claims to the premiership. And there is an additional challenger for the top leadership role: Reuters reports that Senate leader Joseph Lambert was nominated on Friday by fellow lawmakers to assume the presidency ad interim.

Meanwhile Destin, the judge, says he is receiving death threats from Haitians who believe it's all a hoax and that Moise is still alive, somewhere. "They are accusing me of being a part of the plot -- they say the president was not killed -- rather he was kidnapped."

In the current atmosphere, he can't afford to take such threats lightly, he said. "I have received anonymous calls from people threatening me. As a judge, there is not really a security plan to protect me... so I've had to go into hiding to protect myself and my family, my wife and my children."

© David von Blohn/CNN Bullet casings on the ground in the wake of President Moise's assassination in Haiti.

ABC News   

Haitian prime minister: President was tortured and killed in his own home

VIDEO Duration: 04:40

Haitian prime minister: President was tortured and killed in his own home (msn.com)

Colombia’s “first line” protesters: folk heroes and terror suspects

by Adriaan Alsema July 6, 2021

Painting florifying the "First Line" protesters by artist Dario Ortiz


While many in Colombia praise the kids who have protected anti-government protesters against police brutality, authorities are desperately trying to criminalize these so called “First Line” groups.

According to Prosecutor General Francisco Barbosa, the collective of local groups are “gangs” and one is guilty of terrorism, though he failed to produce any evidence.

Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor is under increasing pressure to investigate police brutality, which he has tried to avoid like the plague.

One would almost feel sorry for Barbosa who has been at the center of controversy since taking office last year for bungling virtually all his responsibilities due to his mind-boggling incompetence.

The troubled prosecutor hasn’t had the easiest job as hiding the evidence that links President Ivan Duque to drug traffickers is a lot cause, not to mention the evidence indicating that former President Alvaro Uribe is nothing but a mafioso.

Prosecutor General Fransisco Barbosa

The First Line’s popularity

Meanwhile, the First Line groups enjoy broad support in their respective communities, especially those who have suffered most from the extremely violent efforts to crack down on the protests.

These urban communities have gone as far as providing the protesters with food and have praised the “First Liners” for their bravery in the face of almost unprecedented police brutality.

A collective of defense attorneys, the “Judicial First Line,” has additionally gathered hundreds of of volunteers who provide the youthful protester with legal aid against the apparent persecution by the government.

Unaccustomed to voluntary support for anti-government protesters, the prosecution has been trying to find evidence of illegal financing of these groups.

Residents in Yopal preparing a community meal for the local First Line groups.
Increasing evidence of a mafia government

Babosa is clutching at straws as Defense Minister Diego Molano and General Jorge Luis Vargas of the National Police are facing accusations of committing crimes against humanity.

Furthermore, regional police commanders throughout the country have been accused of teaming up with armed civilians to to put an end to the protests.

The commander of the Medellin Police on Saturday announced investigations into local cops for allegedly colluding with armed civilians in an operation to end protests on Saturday.

Cali already lost its police chief after evidence emerged indicating he tried to cover up police collusion with armed civilians in an attack on indigenous protesters.

Two weeks after a court ordered the prosecution to release protesters from the town of Armenia due to a lack of evidence, the prosecution on Monday again arrested alleged First Line protesters based solely on “presumptions”.

Seven people who were captured were allegedly part of the self-styled Primera Línea in Armenia. It is presumed that they participated in acts of terrorism and vandalism in municipalities of Quindío.

Prosecutor General’s Office

The collapse of the “Mafia puppet president”

President Ivan Duque (Image: President’s Office)

US lawmakers last week approved a resolution that blocked one third of the National Police’s counternarcotics budget until Barbosa effectively prosecutes police who allegedly murdered 40 protesters.

The chief prosecutor has been trying to avoid doing exactly that as these prosecutions could lead to evidence of the high-level involvement in crimes against humanity as claimed by the opposition.

Barbosa doesn’t seem to have either the capacity or the ability to protect the police or Duque, the chief prosecutor’s friend of more than 25 years.

Meanwhile, there is no indication that First Line protest will end before the president leaves office in August next year to go down as the “worst president in history”.

Colombia recycles terrorist conspiracy theory ahead of new protests

by Adriaan Alsema July 8, 2021

Defense Minister Diego Molano (Image: Colprensa)

Without a shred of evidence, Colombia´s controversial defense minister on Wednesday claimed that illegal armed groups are behind anti-government protests called for July 20.

Following a meeting in Cali, Defense Minister Diego Molano recycled the conspiracy theory that guerrillas would be involved in protests announced by social organizations.

Some intelligence indicates that FARC dissidents and the ELN continue with the intention of financing violent actions, so all Police and Army devices will continue in Cali to guarantee free movement and avoid blockades.

Defense Minister Diego Molano

Molano coined the same conspiracy during previous protests that started on April 28 after which armed civilians and the security forces subjected Colombia’s third largest city to multiple terror campaigns.

We will not allow what happened on April 28 to happen again. The security forces will maintain the active presence they have had in the last two months to guarantee tranquility and security.

Defense Minister Diego Molano

Molano was never able to provide any evidence to support his initial conspiracy theory.

The police involvement in the terror did force the resignation of Cali’s former police chief in May.

Colombia using terrorism to quell anti-government protests

Cali mayor not playing ball

Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina, who has stepped up efforts to recover the peace after Molano plunged his city in crisis, refused to confirm the defense minister’s latest conspiracy theory.

Instead, Ospina offered rewards for information on anyone trying to sabotage peaceful protests on the upcoming strike day.

\
The right to mobilization and protest cannot be confused with vandalism or harm to life. What we have developed this afternoon is a set of actions to promote the right to mobilization while respecting the right to life. We maintain this fund of 500 million pesos to be able to pay any person who provides information on events of vandalism.
Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina

Defense minister ignores court and OAS

The defense minister ignored a 2020 Supreme Court order that prohibited the stigmatization of protests.

The stigmatization and violence spurred the human rights commission of the Organization of American States to put the government of President Ivan Duque on a special watch list on Wednesday.
Colombia’s far-right regime put on despot watch list

The government’s efforts to violently crack down on the protests have left more than 80 people dead, Human Rights Watch Americas (HRW) director Jose Miguel Vivanco said last week.

According to the regional HRW chief, 40 of these murders were committed by police.

The defense minister has been charged with crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court over the brutal repression of protests that have continued since April.

Colombia’s far-right regime put on despot watch list
by Adriaan Alsema July 8, 202

The human rights commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) put Colombia’s increasingly authoritarian President Ivan Duque on its list of suspected despots on Wednesday.

Until Wednesday, the “Special Monitoring Mechanism for Human Rights Issues” of the OAS’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) only applied to Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The government of Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro was put on the monitoring list in 2019 after winning elections that were widely considered fraudulent.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, whose government arrested six presidential candidates this week, has been monitored by the IACHR since 2018 already.

The far-right regime of Colombia’s President Ivan Duque will now also be monitored whether it likes it or not.

Colombia clashes with OAS over damning human rights report

Welcome to the list of depots

Colombia’s addition to the special monitoring list all but ends credibility to Duque’s claims his government respects basic democratic and human rights.

The increasingly despotic president had already lost much of his legitimacy after independent media reported early last year that Duque was elected with the help of a drug trafficking organization in 2018.

The IACHR decision means that the OAS body will create a full-time commission to monitor the far-right government’s self-proclaimed commitment to democracy and human rights.

Colombia’s far-right president has long tried to deny his dictatorial tendencies that spurred the IACHR to issue a warning in over Duque’s moves to concentrate power in 2020.

The return of narcoterrorism in Colombia

Oversight whether you like it or not

The special OAS commission will “contribute to the consolidation of peace” in Colombia after government efforts to frustrate an ongoing peace process with demobilized guerrilla group FARC, violent efforts to quell protests and trumped up investigations against opposition politicians.

According to the IACHR, its special monitoring commissions seek to “facilitate an analysis of the decisions and recommendations, allow for public exposure of the case or situation, and provide for a regular and systematic follow-up of the issue, resulting in a more in-depth and focused follow-up” in relation to the government’s respect to human rights.

In the specific case of Colombia, the special monitoring commission will particularly keep an eye on the National Police and the National Army that are facing accusations of widespread human rights abuses.

Like the governments of Nicaragua and Venezuela, Colombia’s regime rejected the decision and has yet to confirm whether it will allow the OAS commission to operate inside the South American country.

The commission monitoring Ortega’s regime wasn’t allowed in the country until early this year while Maduro has refused any cooperation with the special monitoring commission on Venezuela.

Colombia state terror campaign broadcast live on Twitter

The end of a three-year charade

The addition to the IACHR’s list of human rights violators is by far the biggest humiliation for the government of Duque and his informal boss, former Medellin Cartel associate and far-right former President Alvaro Uribe.

The informal superior of Colombia’s president was never put on any special monitoring list while in office between 2002 and 2010 despite being tied to the Medellin Cartel and far-right death squads.

Duque’s allegedly criminal misrule has been such that Uribe’s puppet became Colombia’s first suspected threat to democracy in the country’s history and in less than three years.

“Colombia’s worst president ever” is supposed to leave office in August next year but has pulled all kinds of stunts that have severely weakened the possibility of free and fair elections.

Many of Duque’s political and financial patrons are being investigated for their alleged involvement in organized crime and would face serious legal trouble if the president’s far-right Democratic Center party loses power in next year’s elections.

Mercenaries: the sinister export from Colombia's conflict
AFP 

Some fight in Yemen or Afghanistan, others guard oil pipelines in the United Arab Emirates; and yet more turned up in Haiti this week, where they are accused of assassinating the president.

© STR Colombia's conflict has fed a sinister market of mercenaries around the world

Hardened by more than half a century of conflict back home, retired Colombian soldiers and illegal combatants feed the sinister market of mercenaries around the world.

Some 26 Colombians have been accused of taking part in the pre-dawn murder of president Jovenel Moise on Wednesday that also left his wife Martine wounded.

© DANIEL MUNOZ People lie on painted silhouettes simulating dead bodies, protesting for thousands of extrajudicial executions known as "false positives" and perpetrated by Colombian military forces, in Bogota on June 4, 2021

Colombia said on Friday that at least 17 ex-soldiers are believed to have been involved in the attack at Moise's home. Some were killed by Haitian police and the majority were captured.

But the participation of Colombian mercenaries highlights the lucrative transnational mercenary market.

"There is great experience in terms of irregular war... the Colombian soldier is trained, has combat experience and on top of that is cheap labor," Jorge Mantilla, a criminal phenomenon researcher at the University of Illinois in Chicago, told AFP.

© Juan Pablo Pino General Commander of the Military Forces of Colombia, Luis Fernando Navarro Jimenez, speaks during a press conference in Bogota, on July 9, 2021

It's not just retired soldiers that leave Colombia's borders -- already so porous to the export of cocaine -- as guns for hire.

In 2004, Venezuelan authorities detained "153 Colombian paramilitaries" they accused of taking part in a plan to assassinate then-president Hugo Chavez.

- 'Prey to opportunities' -

Colombia has a seemingly inexhaustible pool of soldiers. The armed forces are made up of 220,000 personnel and thousands retire over a lack of promotion opportunities, misconduct or after reaching 20 years of service

Every year "between 15,000 and 10,000 soldiers leave the army rank and file... it's a human universe that is very difficult to control," Colonel John Marulanda, president of a Colombian association for former military personnel, told W Radio.

They retire relatively young with low pensions and that makes them "prey to better economic opportunities," said the retired officer.

He says that what happened in Haiti was a "typical case of recruitment" of Colombian ex-soldiers by private companies to carry out operations in other countries.

Colombian authorities say four companies were involved in the assassination.

A woman who claimed to be the wife of Francisco Eladio Uribe, one of the captured Colombians, said a company offered her husband $2,700 to join the unit.

Uribe retired from the army in 2019 and was embroiled in the "false positives" scandal investigated by authorities, in which soldiers executed 6,000 civilians between 2002 and 2008 to pass them off as enemy combatants in order to gain bonuses.

- Mercenary industry 'boom' -

In May 2011, the New York Times newspaper revealed that an airplane carrying dozens of Colombian ex-soldiers arrived in Abu Dhabi to join an army of mercenaries hired by the US firm Blackwater to guard important Emirati assets.

The Times then claimed in 2015 that hundreds of Colombians were fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, now hired directly by the UAE.

For the last decade "there's been a boom in this industry," said Mantilla.

At that time, the United States began substituting its troops in the Middle East for "private security firms because it implies a lower political cost in terms of casualties and a grey area in international law."

When it comes to potential human rights violations "the legal responsibility falls on the material perpetrators" rather than the State or company that contracted them, said Mantilla.

Today there is a global market in which US, British, French, Belgian or Danish companies recruit mercenaries mostly from Latin America or countries like Zimbabwe or Nepal that have had armed conflicts.

"The companies are legal, but that doesn't mean that all the activities carried out by these people are strictly legal," added Mantilla.

jss/vel/lv/yow/bc/st

Colombia clashes with OAS over damning human rights report
by Adriaan Alsema July 8, 2021


President Ivan Duque
News

Colombia’s increasingly authoritarian President Ivan Duque rejected a damning human rights report by the Organization of American States (OAS).

In its report, the OAS’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) blasted the government’s excessive use of force to quell anti-government protests that kicked off on April 28.

The violent repression has left dozens dead and an unknown number of people missing.

The IACHR additionally recommended Colombia’s far-right government to adopt more than 40 measures to guarantee its citizens human rights and prevent abuses of power.
Read the full IACHR report (Spanish)

In his response, Duque said that “no one can recommend a country to be tolerant of criminal acts,” ignoring the OAS commission’s claim that the security forces and groups that had nothing to do with the largely peaceful protests were behind the violence.

The Inter-American Commission expresses its firm condemnation and rejection of the high levels of violence registered in the context of social protest, caused both by the excessive use of force by the public security forces and that provoked by groups outside the protest itself.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

According to the government, the police cracked down on more than 1,700 protests in response to “acts of vandalism, low intensity urban terrorism” and “blockades that threaten the rights of citizens,” while allowing 89% of the more than 14,000 protests that started on April 28 to proceed in peace.


This shows that the government of President Ivan Duque respects and guarantees peaceful public protest, which cannot, under any circumstances, be subject to vandalism, chaos and the destruction of Colombians’ property.

Foreign Ministry

The foreign ministry ignored police collusion with armed anti-protest groups and rejected a decision by the IACHR to form a permanent commission to monitor the Duque administration’s respect for human rights.

The OAS´ human rights commission previously created such a “Special Monitoring Mechanism on Human Rights Issues” for the increasingly authoritarian regimes of Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Read the Colombian government’s rebuttal (Spanish)
IACHR’s main issues

Duque’s false claim that the police had been acting against a “low intensity terrorism” campaign confirmed the IACHR’s concern about “the impact that polarization and stigmatization have on the human rights of protesters.”

This OAS commission urged the government to abide by a 2020 Supreme Court order that banned the stigmatization of protests.

THE IACHR additionally reminded the Colombian government it is supposed to provide security to citizens, instead of using force as if they were enemies.


Citizen security cannot be based on a use of force paradigm that aims to treat the civilian population as the enemy, but must consist of the protection and control of civilians.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

In order to protect instead of posing a threat to citizens, the iACHR recommended to transfer the National Police from the Defense Ministry to the Interior Ministry.

Duque rejected this, claiming that the current structure had provided stability after a civil war between 1948 and 1958 when the military and the police found themselves fighting each other.


Colombia has maintained this structure in a stable manner, correcting what for many years was highly questioned, and that is that during the years in which the Police was in the Ministry of Government it became politicized, and this politicization led to large outbreaks of violence.
President Ivan Duque

The president ignored the fact that Colombia suffered an armed conflict since 1964 that killed at least 265,000 people and left between 80,000 and 200,000 people missing.

Duque’s far-right Democratic Center party has categorically denied Colombia’s armed conflict, claiming that the deadly violence was due to a “terrorist threat.”

According to the IACHR, the current protests are not due to the government´s fictitious “low intensity terrorism” campaign, but “structural and historical demands of Colombian society” that “are enshrined in the 1991 Political Constitution and the 2016 Peace Accords.”

The Foreign Ministry’s perhaps most absurd insinuation was that the OAS commission’s recommendations could further fuel instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s broadly rejected response to the crisis.

Duque all but completely isolated Colombia’s government due to the president’s increasingly dictatorial tendencies and the his government’s increasingly evident ties to organized crime.


Trending


ICE embroiled in major fraud scandal in Colombia

Did Facebook CEO try to murder Colombia’s president?

Colombia recycles terrorist conspiracy theory ahead of new protests


Colombia’s far-right regime put on despot watch list


Colombia’s “first line” protesters: folk heroes and terror suspects