Raise Awareness - "Come un uomo sulla Terra"

TRATTATO ITALIA-LIBIA

APPELLO AI SENATORI ITALIANI CONTRO LE DEPORTAZIONI E LE VIOLENZE A DANNO DEI MIGRANTI AFRICANI IN LIBIA

Il 3 febbraio si apre al Senato la discussione per l’approvazione del Trattato Italia-Libia.
Con questo appello vogliamo rilanciare la petizione contro le deportazioni dei migranti in Libia, promossa dagli autori del film COME UN UOMO SULLA TERRA e dall’osservatorio FORTRESS EUROPE ed oggi firmata già da oltre 2500 persone.
Nel Trattato Italia-Libia non è previsto per il governo di Gheddafi alcun obbligo concreto e verificabile di accoglienza, di tutela del diritto d’asilo, di rispetto della dignità umana: la Libia semplicemente li deve “fermare”, non importa come. Questa direzione non fa altro che confermare la riduzione dei migranti a “strumento politico” di cui poter liberamente predisporre. Gheddafi potrà continuare ad utilizzare i flussi di migranti come strumento di pressione per accrescere il suo potere contrattuale con l’Italia e l’Europa. I migranti, tra i quali vi sono anche molte donne e minori, continueranno a rischiare la vita, tanto nelle carceri, nei container e nei centri della polizia libica, quanto nel deserto e nel mare, che saranno spinti ancor più ad attraversare proprio a causa delle violenze da parte della polizia libica stessa.
In Libia si compiono continue violazioni dei diritti umani fondamentali: arresti indiscriminati, violenze, deportazioni di massa, torture, connivenze tra polizia e trafficanti. Ai migranti, molti dei quali in fuga da paesi in guerra o dittatoriali come Etiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, non è garantito alcun diritto, a partire proprio da quelli di asilo e di protezione umanitaria, perché la Libia semplicemente non ha mai aderito alla Convenzione di Ginevra. Per questo alla Libia non può essere affidato con tanta noncuranza e superficialità il compito di “fermare i migranti”. Chiediamo pertanto che nella discussione al Senato sul Trattato si tenga presente quanto richiesto nella petizione, dove le centinaia di firmatari chiedono che Parlamento Italiano ed Europeo, insieme a Governo Italiano, CE e a UNHCR promuovano:

1. Una commissione di inchiesta internazionale e indipendente sulle modalità di controllo dei flussi migratori in Libia anche in seguito agli accordi bilaterali con il Governo Italiano.

2. L’avvio rapido, vista l’emergenza della situazione, di una missione internazionale umanitaria in Libia per verificare la condizione delle persone detenute nelle carceri e nei centri di detenzione per stranieri.

Invitiamo tutti gli italiani ed in particolare senatori e deputati, a vedere lunedì 2 febbraio alle 21.00, martedì 3 febbraio alle ore 9.30, 14.30 e 21.00 il film COME UN UOMO SULLA TERRA, che in questa delicata fase autori e produzione hanno deciso di mettere in onda via web sul sito del film:
http://comeunuomosullaterra.blogspot.com/

Firmatari dell’appello:
Dario Fo, Marco Paolini, Ascanio Celestini, Franca Rame, Marco Baliani, Gad Lerner, Emanuele Crialese, Erri De Luca, Felice Laudadio, Fausto Paravidino, Francesco Munzi, Goffredo Fofi, Francesca Comencini, Giuseppe Cederna, Luca Bigazzi, Maddalena Bolognini, Giorgio Gosetti, Gianfranco Pannone, Giovanni Piperno, Giovanna Taviani, Alessandro Rizzo, Andrea Segre, Dagmawi Yimer, Riccardo Biadene, Stefano Liberti, Marco Carsetti, Alessandro Triulzi, Gabriele Del Grande, Igiaba Sciego ed altri 2500 firmatari da Italia, Francia, Germania, Spagna, Inghilterra, Tunisia, Marocco, Senegal, Mali e altri paesi.
Per informazioni e per firmare la petizione: http://comeunuomosullaterra.blogspot.com/

Raise Awareness #3: Afghanistan

I promised a post on Afghanistan, as I was trying to understand the background of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. I decided to make this a 'Raise Awareness' post. This is a brief history of the recent conflicts in Afghanistan or, better said, a history of recent invasions of Afghanistan.

For some reason, Afghanistan has always been conquered by other people, but not without resistance from the Afghans. Alexander The Great (IV century B.C.) and Jenghis Khan (XIII century) were some conquerors of the distant past, but there were many more.
Afghanistan was under British influence during the 19th century (remember that British India is just around the corner) and it gained full independence from the United Kingdom in 1919. After that, there was a period of relative stability (1933-1973) under the King Zahir Shah. When British India was partitioned in 1947, Afghanistan wanted the Pashtuns (the most important and powerful ethnicity of Afghan people) of the North-West Frontier Province of British India to be able to choose their fate. Britain only offered the choice of joining Pakistan or joining India, and they chose the former. In 1955, Afghanistan urged the creation of an autonomous Pashtunistan, but the issue was dropped (it was revived by Afghanistan in 1972 when Pakistan was weakened by the loss of East Pakistan - now Bangladesh - and the war with India). Tensions with Pakistan over the border and other issues are frequent since then.
1973 – coup led by Zahir Shah’s brother-in-law and then revolution led by the democratic party. Afghanistan becomes a republic and Taraki is president. Freedom of religion, land reform and women rights were introduced. Religiously conservative Afghans were against the reforms.
1979 – The USA saw the situation in Afghanistan as a possibility to weaken the Soviet Union. As part of a Cold War strategy, the US began to fund anti-government forces (mujaheddin) through the Pakistani intelligence. Hafizullah Amin took over as Prime Minister and Taraki was killed. Soviet occupation, which resulted in the killings of at least 600,000 to 2 millions Afghan civilians. Over 5 million fled the country to Pakistan, Iran and the rest of the world.
The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. The USA lost interest in Afghanistan and did little to help to rebuild the war-ravaged country. Warlords gained power and the Taliban (a militia of Pashtun Islamic fundamentalists students supported by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia) developed as a politico-religious force, first seizing the capital Kabul in 1996 and eventually the rest of the country. Restrictions of freedom and violation of human rights occurred during the Taliban’s seven-year rule.
In 1998, as the Taliban appeared on the verge of taking over the whole country, U.S. missiles destroyed what was described by the Pentagon as an extensive terrorist training complex near Kabul run by Osama bin Laden, accused of masterminding the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The US then imposed economic sanctions on Afghanistan allegedly because the country refused to turn over Bin Laden. In early 2001 the Taliban destroyed all statues in the nation, including two ancient Buddhas in Bamian, because they regarded them as idolatrous and un-Islamic.
In late 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, the USA invaded Afghanistan to destroy the Al-Qaeda terrorist training camps inside the country. Hamid Karzai was chosen as the interim president of Afghansitan and free elections were held in 2005. The Taliban where largely defeated, but the country itself reverted to the control of the regional warlords who held power before the Taliban. In 2006 NATO took command of all peacekeeping forces in the country. In May 2007 NATO forces killed the top Taliban field commander, Mullah Dadullah, but Taliban forces mounted some guerrilla attacks on the outskirts of the capital Kabul. Also, there has been fighting between rival factions in various parts of the country, for instance Uzbek and Tajik militia groups in the north.
The country continues to struggle with poverty, Taliban insurgency, threats from the Al-Qaeda, large concentration of land mines and a huge illegal poppy cultivation and opium trade. Reconstruction is proceeding slowly and the country is in urgent need of international aid. There's still much to do!

For some recent dramatic events in Afghanistan see Clauds' s post answering to her good-for-nothing reporter based in the country.

PS: I coundn't resist uploading the picture of this Afghan refugee taken by Steve McCurry in 1985. The picture became one of the most famous covers of National Geographic and one of the most famous portraits in the world.

Raise Awareness #2: Somalia

Somalia currently suffers from the absence of all forms of law and order: Somalia has had no permanent government since 1991. The crisis in Somalia features political insecurity, constant fighting among factions involving the death of many civilians, frequent droughts and at least 600,ooo displaced people in refugee camps in poor or desperate conditions, with little international assistance. Additionally, there were thousands of deaths at sea of people trying to reach Yemen. In Italy we sometimes hear of Somali people reaching our country as illegal immigrants and asking for political asylum. Not everyone in Italy is aware that Somalia was an Italian colony; the memory of it has been removed and the history of the Italian colonization in Africa isn't in our school books. Most Italians are not aware that some of the problems and crisis of countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea or Libya may be the consequences of our misdeeds in Africa. Read a good article on the "memory of colonization" (in Italian) here. When you learned that Iolanda Occhipinti and Giuliano Paganini were freed did you ask yourself what the hell is happening in Somalia? So here's a brief history of a tormented country:

A Little Bit of History Won't Kill You, Believe Me!

The interest of Italy in Somalia dates back to the late 19th century (and not to Mussolini's time as Italian people erroneously think). While the British only established a protectorate in the north of what is now called Somalia, Italy gave life to a real colony, involving the emigration of many civilians. In 1936, Italian Somaliland was combined with Somali-speaking districts of Ethiopia (Ogaden) to form a province of the newly formed Italian East Africa. During World War II, Italian forces invaded British Somaliland; but the British, operating from Kenya, retook the region in 1941 and went on to conquer Italian Somaliland. Britain ruled the combined regions until 1950, when Italian Somaliland became a UN trust territory under Italian control.

Somalia reached its indipendence in 1960, when British Somaliland and former Italian Somalia united to form the Somali republic. The government supported the idea of a Greater Somalia, re-uniting all Somali people living in Ogaden (eastern Ethiopia), French Somaliland (now Djibouti) and north-eastern Kenya. Hostilities with Ethiopia regarding the region of Ogaden erupted in the 1960s.

In 1969, a coup headed by Siad Barre took over the country and Somalia became a socialist republic with strong ties with the Soviet Union. In the late 1970s, however, after Somalia began supporting ethnic Somali rebels seeking independence for the disputed Ogaden region of Ethiopia, the Soviet Union sided with Ethiopia, and Somalia won backing from the United States and Saudi Arabia. Somalia invaded the disputed territory in 1977 but was driven out by Ethiopian forces in 1978. Guerrilla warfare in the Ogaden continued until 1988, when Ethiopia and Somalia reached a peace accord.

In 1991 Barre was ousted from power by nationalist guerrillas and an insurgent group in Northern Somalia (former British Somaliland) announced the secession of the Somaliland Republic. In the capital, Mogadishu, two different rival factions tried to seize power. A devastating drought and civil war led to the loss of some 300,000 lives in 1992. UN peacekeepers and troops from both the US and other countries attempted to restore political stability and offer some food-aid, but they were forced to withdraw in 1994 due to the hostility of the militant factions. While Mogadishu and most of the south (former Italian Somalia) were ruled by violence, the breakaway Somaliland, although internationally unrecognized, mantained a stable existence. Both Puntland (north-east Somalia) and Jubaland (in the south) declared their independence in 1998.

Since the conflict is not seen as based on ideological or religious differences but rather on the 'thirst for power', a conference held in 2000 in Djibouti elected a new transitional government led by Abdikassim Salad Hassan. The militias, nonetheless, refused to recognize the new governement, which anyway had little if no power outside Mogadishu. In the meantime Southwestern Somaliland declared itself independent. In 2004 a new government led by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was convened in Kenya and the warlords battled for the control of Baidoa, the city that was supposed to become the new capital.

At the beginning of 2006 new conflicts broke out between militia forces alligned with the Islamic Courts (which attempt to establish shari'a law in the country) and militias loyal to several warlords. The Islamic militias seized Mogadishu and much of the south, except for Baidoa, the temporary capital. There were increased tensions between the Islamic Courts and Ethiopia over the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia in support of the interim government. Eritrea was accussed of supplying arms to the Islamic Courts, raising the specter of a wider war involving Ethiopia and Eritrea. Government forces reconquered Mogadishu and Kismayo, calling for the surrender of warlords. This was only partially achieved. In 2007 the United States launched airstrikes against suspected Al Qaeda allies of the Islamic Courts, and also conducted some operations in the south of the country. Ethiopian and government forces soon found themselves fighting militias opposed to disarmament and motivated also by interclan distrust and anti-Ethiopian sentiment and Islamist guerrillas. Fierce battles in March and April in the capital caused hundreds of thousands to flee, and hundreds died.

The situation in Somalia continues to be extremely complicated and unstable, but the media seldom speak about it, only mentioning Somalia if an Italian national is kidnapped or missing, and often without speaking properly about the conflict.

Read more on Somalia here and here. You might also enjoy Cristina Ali Farah's Madre Piccola (in Italian), or any book by Nuruddin Farah, the most important Somali writer, who's rumoured to be a possible Nobel Prize winner.

Coming soon: - More on Somalia after I'll have read Links, a book by Somali author Nuruddin Farah;

- Raise Awareness #3: Zimbabwe;

- Brief History of the (Many) Invasions of Afghanistan, as I'm trying to understand the background of Hosseini's The Kite Runner.

Raise Awareness #1: DARFUR

This is the first of a few posts on an issue that really matters to me: AWARENESS.

"Silence helps the killer, never his victims" - Elie Wiesel, Survivor of the Nazi Holocaust

From http://www.livingdarfur.com/

"The humanitarian crisis in Darfur and eastern Chad is one of the largest in the world. Since violence between the government and rebels in Darfur started in 2003 two million people have fled their homes. Many will have seen family killed, abducted or sexually assaulted and their villages burned. Ongoing violence continues to cause people to flee. Many survivors are now living in crowded camps, or on the edges of towns, in Darfur and neighbouring Chad. Some of the camps are the size of small cities. People live in constant fear of further violence. Most arrive with nothing. More people arrive each day, in search of shelter, food, water and safety. [...] More than 2 million people – nearly 1 in 3 of Darfur’s population – have been forced to leave their homes and take sanctuary in one of the many camps. People continue to be attacked and forced to flee their homes – at least another 150,000 have arrived in camps in the first half of 2007. Despite managing to stabilise threats of epidemics in the camps and significantly improve living conditions, these achievements are under threat as aid agencies are facing unprecedented difficulties in reaching those in need. [...] The conflict has become increasingly complex over the last year. The rebel movement has splintered into too many factions to count and the region has become increasingly lawless. While militias continue to attach civilians and villages and military groups continue to clash, there is also increasing fighting along tribal lines and between rival communities.Some 375,000 people have sought shelter from armed conflict."

"If you think you're too small to make a difference, you haven't been in bed with a mosquito," - Anita Roddick, environmental and social activist

Listen to the song 'Living Darfur' by Mattafix (there are also version with intros by Desmond Tutu and Matt Damon) on youtube, it's a wonderful song! Read a summary of the book Not on Our Watch by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast and participate in a 'give away contest' hosted by Natasha here.

Please, show me that you also care about Darfur!