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Sudan: Who's Next After Al Bashir on the US Hit List?

Amira Al Hussaini · 23:13 · Middle East & North Africa , Sub-Saharan Africa

The International Criminal Court Prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir for his “criminal responsibility in relation to 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.” A Sudanese blogger writing in Arabic wonders who will be next on the United States' hit list which targets Arab leaders.

Writing on Sudanese forum Brbr Net, Abu Al Derdiri [Ar] says that Al Basheer's arrest warrant fulfils Libyan leader Muammar Al Gaddafi's prediction that the US will hunt down Arab rulers to fulfil its expansionist plans in the region. He says:

يبدو أن تحذير الزعيم الليبي معمر القذافي خلال القمة العربية الأخيرة في دمشق من أن أمريكا ستطارد الزعماء العرب واحدا تلو الآخر بعد إعدام الرئيس العراقي الراحل صدام حسين، بدأ يجد آذانا صاغية على أرض الواقع ، حيث فوجيء العرب والعالم في 14 يوليو 2008 باتهام المدعي العام للمحكمة الجنائية الدولية لويس مورينو أوكامبو للرئيس السوداني عمر البشير بارتكاب جرائم حرب وجرائم ضد الإنسانية وإبادة جماعية في دارفور ، مطالبا المحكمة باعتقاله .
هذا القرار اعتبره كثيرون بأنه سياسي مائة بالمائة ويؤكد أن الولايات المتحدة قررت استخدام سلاح المحكمة الجنائية الدولية لإسقاط نظام البشير الذي طالما حال دون تحقيق مخططات المحافظين الجدد وإسرائيل في تقسيم السودان والاستيلاء على ثرواته الهائلة وخاصة المعدنية والغذائية والمائية منها .

It seems that Libyan Leader Muammer Al Gaddafi's warning during the last Arab League Summit in Damascus that the United States will be hunting down Arab leaders one after the other after the hanging of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is ringing true. Arabs and the world were surprised on July 14, 2008, of an accusation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo against Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, and called upon the court to arrest him. A lot considered this ruling as political, stressing that the United States has decided to use the weapon of the ICC to overthrow Al Bashir's rule, which has so far not been achieved despite the plotting of the Neo-cons and Israel, who want to carve up Sudan and steal its extensive resources, especially minerals, food and water.

Al Derdiri goes on to say that the ICC has no jurisdiction on Sudan, which does not recognise the ICC and insists that singling out Al Bashir is a ploy to pave the way for the trial of other Arab leaders. He adds:

ولذا سرعان ما ركزت واشنطن على استخدام صلاحيات المحكمة لتأديب “الحكام المارقين” بعيدا عن الحروب وفيتو مجلس الأمن ، وهو ما ظهر بوضوح في حالة الرئيس السوداني ، وهنا يتساءل البعض : هل يشكل القرار سابقة لمحاكمة مسئولين عرب آخرين ، وماذا يفعل السودان لمواجهته؟ .

Washington is concentrating its efforts on using the powers of the court to discipline ‘rogue rulers' away from wars and the Security Council's Veto. This is evident in the case against the Sudanese president. Some of you may ask: Will this ruling set a precedence for the trial of other Arab officials and what will Sudan do to confront it?

Al Derdiri then draws parallels between Sudan and Iraq, and writes:

ورغم أنه بات من المؤكد أن واشنطن تسير قدما في مخطط تقسيم السودان سواء كان ذلك عبر اتفاقية السلام التي تضمن انفصال الجنوب أو من خلال إشعال أزمة دارفور، إلا أن العرب لم يقوموا حتى الآن بخطوات جدية لإنقاذ السودان من المصير الذي وصل إليه العراق.

It has become evident that Washington is continuing with its plans to divide Sudan, whether this is achieved through a peace agreement which guarantees the separation of the South or through fanning the flames over the Darfur crisis. However, Arabs are yet to take serious steps to save Sudan from Iraq's destiny.

He further calls on Arabs and the African Union to move fast - and push the international community to protect the immunity of presidents and the sovereignty of states:

فالرئيس السوداني بات في قبضة المحكمة الجنائية الدولية لأن قراراتها غير قابلة للإلغاء ولا تسقط بالتقادم ، ويبدو أن هذا هو الثمن الذي كان لابد أن يدفعه العرب من وجهة نظر بوش للتغطية على فشله في العراق وأفغانستان ولبنان ولرفع أسهم المرشح الجمهوري جون ماكين في انتخابات الرئاسة الأمريكية المقبلة .
ولذا لا مناص من تكثيف التحرك العربي والإفريقي في الأمم المتحدة لدفع مجلس الأمن لمطالبة المحكمة بتأجيل تنفيذ قرار اعتقال البشير ، بالإضافة إلى ضرورة تحرك الجامعة العربية والاتحاد الإفريقي سريعا لإصدار فتوى من المحكمة الجنائية الدولية حول حصانة الرؤساء لضمان عدم استخدامها كسلاح سياسي لخدمة مخططات واشنطن ، وباعتبار هذا الأمر يضر بمبدأ أساسي في القانون الدولي وهو مبدأ السيادة.

The Sudanese President is now in the clasp of the ICC, whose decisions are irrevocable and this seems to be the price Arabs have to pay, in the opinion of Bush, to cover for his failures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, and improve the fortunes of the Republican nominee John McCain in the upcoming US elections. Arabs and Africans should now intensify their pressure at the United Nations, to force the Security Council to demand from the Court to delay the decision to arrest Al Bashir. The Arab League and the African Union should also move fast and extract an order from the ICC on the immunity of Presidents, in order for this tactic not to be used as a political weapon in the hands of Washington. Such decisions harm a fundamental clause in international law - and that is the issue of sovereignty.

In conclusion, he asks:

وبعد ذلك ، يبقى التساؤل الملح ” أي من الحكام العرب ستستهدفه واشنطن بعد صدام والبشير ؟ ” ، هذا ما ستجيب عنه الأيام المقبلة .

And after all this, there remains a pressing questions: Who of the Arab leaders will be targeted by Washington after Saddam and Al Bashir? We will know the answer to this question in the near future.

Also on Global Voices Online:
Bahrain: Omar Al Bashir and the Cross-Eyed Justice

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Serbia: New Instructions and Law Regulations on Online Privacy

Danica Radovanovic · 21:40, July 26th, 2008 · Eastern & Central Europe

lingua → mk · fr · es · it

On July 21, RATEL, Serbia’s Republican Agency for Telecommunications, posted a Document of Instructions for Technical Requirements for Subsystems, Devices, Hardware and Installation of Internet Networks on their official web site. This news didn’t go unnoticed yesterday in Serbian blogosphere and internet community, as many bloggers expressed various opinions as well as disapproval because of the potential abuse of users’ privacy.

This document of instructions defines technical requirements for authorized monitoring of some specific telecommunications and provides a list of duties for telecommunication operators, which are obligated to act according to the Constitution Law of Republic of Serbia as well as elements of it.

According to element 55 (Law of Telecommunications), subpart 3, these Instructions were issued by RATEL in cooperation with public telecommunication operators and the governmental body responsible for immediate conduct of electronic monitoring.

This means implementation of massive tracking and archiving in all forms of electronic communications for the purposes of the national agency for the security.

Internet Service Providers (ISP) are obligated to enable governmental bodies to access updated databases with personal data on users, contracts, maximum speed of data transfer, identification addresses as well as access to database about email users. ISPs are also obligated to provide hardware and software for passive monitoring in real time, collecting and analysing Internet activities, statistics, interception of email, attachments, web mail, IP video traffic, phone traffic, interception of IM traffic, peer-to-peer networks, service of email and forwarding the email content towards the center of governmental bodies for supervision. Technical requirements (hardware and software) should enable reconstruction of traffic interception up to the level of application and filtering within these criteria: username, user phone number, email address, IP address, MAC address, IM identification.

All those technical requirements are active and they will be used if there is request or need of the governmental bodies or police to monitor in cases of serious security violation or crime act. This Instruction does not define the privacy of the data as violation of the citizens' privacy (in telecommunication terms it is forbidden). The privacy is protected by the Law of Telecommunication, as well as by the Serbian Constitution.

Similar cyber laws and technical instructions already exist in other countries. Formally, at least, it's good to have such regulation on one side where privacy is protected – formally, but, on the other hand, I am wondering if the Republican Agency for Telecommunications in Serbia, national security and ISP will (or will not) violate and abuse privacy of citizens in the internet community in practice.

***

Here are some of the reactions in the Serbian blogosphere, as well as possible solutions for protecting your privacy on the Web.

Tamburix, in a blog post titled “Big brother is watching, monitoring and recording you” (SRP), contemplates the invasion of privacy and compares it to Big Brother:

The latest technical requirements of the Republican Agency for Telecommunications and installation of the equipment for internet networks in Serbia, brings elements of Big Brother where the state has permission to get and use all the information regarding our online presence.

Milan posts a link to the document, saying (SRP) that there is also some positive aspects in this document:

I don't know what to think about this. It can be a good thing… great thing, to finally put a law in action on Serbian Internet. On the other hand, the possibilities of misuse are there. If someone misuses it, then it's really bad. Censorship, espionage, call it whatever you want.

Rehash blog writes (SRP):

[…] I read a lot of negative comments on this document, with which I fully agree. I can't say that I didn't expect this to come at some point. Regulations in the USA, in some countries of the EU and the UK are restricting their citizens with similar practices. Will our protests solve this problem? I'm almost sure they won't. For quite some time, our citizens have been apathetic, and they'll tolerate whatever repression methods our pseudo-democratic government is using (in the first year of my studies, professors told me that democracy doesn't exist). […] Fine, lots of bloggers, geeks, or users of the Internet will write and protest for some time. After this, silence will come again. And what to do then?

Vesic Tehnology blog comments (SRP) on the new instructions:

Balkan Spy*, the RATEL/BIA way
It is almost impossible how some “agencies” (read: BIA and similar) through their puppet organizations (read: RATEL) try to put in use the most terrifying “technical” documents, which have only one purpose: to get complete control over your e-life.

Constitution? Law? Justice?

We'll get there probably when we make independent agencies from “independent” agencies, and when justice system and police start doing their job, and when politicians […] start thinking of “irrelevant” things, like the well-being of those who have put them where they are now.

You still think that the most important news is the Karadzic's arrest? Think again. He's one person, and we're getting here the whole Balkan spy over all of us.

*Author's note: there is a movie named “Balkan Spy”.

Jazzva, a computer science student, critically comments on this (SRP):

Maybe the instruction defines “random user” in order not to get in the situation where only data on some users is being kept. And the Constitution defines the access to that data, so someone can get them only by the warrant issued by the Court, or in the case of violated security of Republic of Serbia.

Personalmag blog writes (SRP) about Serbia as a country of Big Brother:

What was probably expected in the totalitarian regimes is happening to us today, paradoxically in the time of “democratic” and pro-European government. RATEL, a government body for regulations of telecommunications, […] by issuing some technical document, innocently named “Technical requirements for subsystems, devices, hardware and installation of Internet networks” […] is bringing a totalitarian monitoring of all electronic communications by “responsible government body.

Two interesting comments on this post:

It is totally out of mind, and so expected. I knew something like this would happen, and that it would be put into use, as you said, on the small door. I'll start to crypt my thoughts, not just e-mails. This needs a reaction! It is intolerable and violation of basic human rights.

Another comment:

This is a catastrophe. The commenter who said it's the same as in Western countries - it is, but only when there is a court-issued warrant [to monitor]. Over there, the providers would be the first to react if they had to forward traffic and mails on their own expenses. And how do they think to get VoIP traffic, which is crypted, like Skype? Do they [responsible government body] expect from provider to decrypt it and provide it to them on a silver plate? We also need to protest to international organizations that protect freedom of speech and freedom of the Internet.

Sasa Bodiroza, a student of Computer Science at the University of Belgrade, writes on his blog:

Serbia’s Republic Agency for Telecommunications (RATEL), has passed a new law regulation (text in Serbian) on Internet traffic interception and redirection. Basically, it allows Serbian government to read each and every bit of our communication, including HTTP, VoIP, e-mail and IM protocol. It’s not that I have something to hide; it’s just that it’s a serious violation of my privacy. And I don’t really like that.

Update: I think I overreacted a bit in my comment. This legal act is not supposed to talk about violation of privacy. Violation of privacy is forbidden by the Serbian Telecommunication Law, and the Serbian Constitution. The whole purpose of this legal act, as I see it, is to amend article 55. of Telecommunication Law.

And he further on suggests how to protect your privacy:

Since we can’t change the law immediately, the least we can do is to protect our privacy. We can use encryption methods to encrypt our communication. Here are few advices.

Aleksandar Urosevic finishes his blog post (SRP) in a humorous manner, using irony:

From Urke's cookbook: tomorrow, you too, my dear readers, will know which toilet paper I prefer, and which finger I use to pluck my nose. Why should the government be the only privileged to this crucial information about me, I know that “the people should know”!

***

A question to Global Voices readers: What are the regulations in your country and do you feel like being watched/monitored?

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India: Ahmedabad Hit By Bomb Blasts

Neha Viswanathan · 17:07, July 26th, 2008 · South Asia

lingua → fr · it · bn

With barely a gap of 24 hours since the attack in Bangalore, another terrorist attack was witnessed today in the city of Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat with sixteen blasts going off in various parts of the city. While the blasts, much like the ones in Bangalore were of low intensity, early reports suggest that 18 people have been killed. Kishalaya writes

My Fear came true, close to the Bangalore Blasts, serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad on Saturday Evening. As with Bangalore blasts all the blasts were low intensity blasts. More than 100 people are injured and are admitted to the hospital.

Musings from Chennai writes on the lack of security measures.

State Governments should step up their activity to modernise the police force, equip them with CCTV cameras, phone monitoring and above all allow them to work independently to prevent crimes instead of forcing them to perform mundane activities.

I dont see any point in blaming central government - i also dont see any point when central agencies say that they have issues alert to various state - they are routine alerts - no value in them.

On a forum called pagalguy, a user asks who is to blame for the appallingly low levels of security in Indian cities.

But do we all really think that they are to be blamed entirely for these blasts and such savagery? Is it really possible for the security agencies to track the movement of over 1 billion citizens of our country? Do we, as responsible Indians, don't have any duties to perform here? What do we do about such situations? Is it right to just kick-up some mud in the aftermath of the blasts and then get back to our lives again?

At another forum called IndiaMike, a user, living close to the location of the blasts writes

… heard one almighty ‘whoomp' earlier on close to our own house (Maninagar) and asked the wife what that noise was ? Now watching the news on TV. Brother-in-law stays close to where one of the bombs went off.

Luckily all the family are safe. Never gave much thought to bombings til now…

While the television news media in India is covering the news as it unfolds, much like yesterday, some people have been twittering. A user Siyab twitters - “I mean,look at the Ahmedabad blasts: ppl started reporting it long before the news sites published it… “. Meanwhile, Retributions asks why there's an appeal for communal harmony after all bomb blasts.

Indian Raksa writes on the system's failure to address lapses of security, outlining the usual series of events after an attack.

* The Attack
* The Appeal for calm
* The Condemnation
* The Blame Game (which Shantanu somehow missed)
* The suspected “Foreign Hand”
* The Arrests
… the arrested are prosecuted then sentenced to death or put in jail after many years of trail, then mercy petitions are filed with the president, which remains pending like the unattended files in our government offices or the judgment itself leads to outrage which causes more blasts or the convicts are released as ransom for a VIP or his son or daughter or the passengers of a hijacked plane, these escaped terrorists in turn mastermind more attacks.

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China: Unheard of ‘Turkestan Islamic Party' claims recent bombings

John Kennedy · 08:58 · East Asia

Do not confuse the unknown Turkestan Islamic Party with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, writes the New Dominion blogger in their detailed post today on the news today of a Commander Seyfullah reportedly taking responsibility for recent bombing incidents in China and the video accompanying the claims (update: someone mentions that the fact that a threat is made in the video against next month's Olympics is presumably also worth noting):

Yet even with what little information we have, there are a number of eyebrow-raising points to consider…

First, why the delay? Why would such an organization carry out these attacks only wait until now to claim ownership of the violence?

Why would China remain silent on such issues even if they had the slightest inkling that East Turkestan terrorists were responsible for the acts? There’s a trend among the government to exploit every opportunity to justify increased Olympics security and crackdowns in restive minority areas, as evidenced by the glowing report released recently on “busting up terrorist cells”, as well as the intense domestic press coverage of incidents with really spurious, if not entirely fabricated links to religious terrorism.

Here's the video in which the threat to the Olympic Games is made, found via CyberHawk on the LibertyTimes blog:

Update:
YouTube user serindia posts in the comments what appears to be a translation of what's said in the video that also appears on the IntelCenter website:

恐怖份子Turkistan Islamic Party Commander Seyfullah: “Our damullah, Abdul Heq, made his final order to the [person] responsible for the military regarding the issue of severely attacking all central cities in inner China, particularly focusing on eight cities that are going to hold Olympic games. … ask our merciful Allah to allow these brothers and sisters [suicide bombers] to deal a fatal blow in this jihad against Chinese & we ask our merciful Allah to completely stop Olympic Games. … Bomb Chinese government buildings, military barracks, airplanes, airports, railways, hotels, entertainment venues, tourist spots and similar places…You're even permitted to use biological weapons this time.”

Update 2:
Kenneth Tan at Shanghaiist and Kai Pan at CNReviews have also posted on this.

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Morocco: Another perspective on Faiza Silmi

Jillian York · 07:31 · Middle East & North Africa , Western Europe

lingua → it · es

Last week, Global Voices covered the story of Faiza Silmi, the Moroccan woman denied French citizenship for her beliefs and actions (which included, among other things, wearing the niqaab or full facial veil). Today, Moroccan blogger …xoussef [FR] chimes in with another perspective on the issue:

Pour moi c'est limpide, la société française est majoritairement contre le Niqaab, le voile, la barbe et les convictions religieuses et politiques dont ce sont les signes extérieurs (qu'importe qu'ils aient tort ou raison c'est un autre débat). La société Française estime que ces convictions religieuses et politiques sont incompatibles avec les valeurs de leur république. Bref, si les français étaient consultés par référendum sur l'octroi de la nationalité française à cette Lalla Faiza et ses semblables, je parie ce que vous voulez que le non l'emporterait…

To me it is clear, the majority of French society is against the Niqaab, the veil, the beard and other external symbols representing religious beliefs and the politics associated with them (whether this is wrong or right is another debate). French society believes that these religious beliefs are incompatible with the values of their republic. In short, if the French were consulted by referendum on granting French citizenship to Lalla Faiza and her compatriots, I bet what the “no” would prevail…

The blogger then explains:

…Dans le cas de cette dame,qui n'est pas née en France et dont les parents ne sont pas français, l'octroi de la nationalité est un privilège et non un droit. D'ailleurs, qu'elle veuille devenir française tout en niant le droit de vote aux femmes par exemple me dépasse, et qu'elle ait espéré une réponse positive avec de telles réponses et un tel comportement encore plus.

…In the case of this lady, who was not born in France, and whose parents aren't French, the granting of nationality is a privilege and not a right. By the way, why she wants to become French while denying the vote to women, for instance, is beyond me, and why she had hoped for a positive response with such actions and such behavior is even more beyond me.

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Taiwan: Bloggers Discuss Marketing Post

Pipper Lee · 05:01 · East Asia

lingua → zht · zhs

Taiwan blogosphere recently resumed the hot discussion about bloggers' advertising / marketing post — but the topic goes hotter this time.

richyli[zh] started the debate with a blog post “How to insert product ads more effectively via bloggers / journalists : using Junket“[zh]. He highlights Weblogs Inc.'s rejection of “junket” practice. (Junkets are free trips that PR firms and the companies they represent provide to journalists in the hopes of getting favorable reviews for their products.) However, he wonders if such “noble” stand really works as junket is really attractive and effective:

其次，拿人手短乃人之常情，人家招待你去外地旅遊，現在很多招待部落客的 Junket 甚至還有「車馬費」，你能不寫嗎？通常答應參加的同時就已經默認稿子會被處理了。如果參加了 Junket 之後不乖乖寫稿，除非真的夠屌，夠大牌，媒體夠響亮，否則下次絕對不讓你參加。這對於旅遊線的記者沒什麼，但一般線的記者，或者部落客，「損失」就很大了。還有，人家的好意，你再怎麼「平衡」，老實說都是騙自己的。

It is quite normal that you would say something good about a person if that person is good to you. When they offer you an opportunity to go traveling for free, or even give you subsidy in the junket package, it is highly unlikely that you won't blog about it. Let alone if you promise to go for the trip they treat, you also tacitly promise to write something. Suppose if you join a junket and don't blog for them, they will not let you join again unless you are a A-list blogger or famous enough. This may be not so attractive for travel journalists. But for other journalists or bloggers, it is too good an opportunity to be missed. Besides, when people treat you nicely, even though you keep reminding yourself to be “balanced”, eventually you are just cheating yourself.

DearJohn[zh] holds a different opinion. In a post entitled “Other bloggers' articles are advertorials, is it your business at all?“, he argues that the ethical regulations of bloggers should not be the same as that of journalists. Moreover, readers do not pay for reading blog posts. In this sense, bloggers have the right to select what they want to say and write. It does not matter whether the posts are PR ads as long as the contents are compelling:

我的結論就是，有沒有利用部落格來寫廣告文章、部落客有沒有做置入性行銷，根本就一點也不是重點！重點是那個人的文章寫的夠不夠精采，具不具可讀性？如果一個人的文章寫的很爛、照片拍的很醜，就算勉強想做行銷，大概也根本沒人想上來看吧？換句話說，有人就算是接受了招待、拿了稿酬寫了某篇產品試用推薦文，如果寫的很棒，大家都很愛看，那又如何？根本就沒什麼騙不騙的事，一個願打、一個願挨，不曉得旁邊的人在不爽什麼？

My conclusion is that it is not the point at all whether bloggers take advantage of the blog to write advertisement or whether blogs insert product promotion! What really matters is whether these blog posts are well written and compelling. If the articles are poorly written or the photos are poorly taken, no one will be interested in reading them, even though the blogger tries hard to promote the product, right? In other words, even if some bloggers accept the treat or the remuneration for writing a product ads, as long as the article is well written and received, what's wrong with that? There is no fraud at all. If the writer and reader are fine with it, why others should be mad at it?

For the debates regarding sharing / marketing and disclosure / conceal, Portnoy used a two-dimensional diagram[zh] to “disclose” his position, with one axis from “complete disclosure” to “complete conceal”, and another one from “personal sharing” to “pure marketing”. Then, wenli writes a similar post entitled “Dear friends of blogger, I am here“[zh] to mark his position.

Apart from the discussions about the issue, some debates are directing to individuals. In the post “So many coincidences in the world[zh],” SpinalCord mentions that Tina[zh] is not just a blogger who “shares good things with her good friends,” but also a Yahoo! auction seller with more than 1,000 ratings[zh]. In response[zh], Tina and her supporters emphasize the point is, “the blogger shares good things and orders them for us.”

SpinalCord also talks about another famous blogger in Taiwan in another post[zh]. He questions it's really unusual that amarylliss[zh] has so many bottles of yoghourt drink[zh] in her fridge. He assumes the post is advertising, not sharing. TSUBASA[zh], her husband, writes a post[zh] with a list of grocery stock at home, including 15 kgs of flour, two boxes of coffee, and dozens of red wine.

In the end，Fred shares the article, why I am not good at writing advertising posts?[zh]:

也許是同樣的事情、同樣的邀請和「利用」，但這樣的重視讓我覺得自己能以專業評論者的身分寫文章，而不是背負著人情或利益壓力寫宣傳文的部落客；對於這家公關公司和他們的客戶而言，我相信多少也得到了一些金錢買不到的東西。

It may be the same situation, same invitation and the same ”utilization”, but the respect they showed made me feel that I can write articles as a professional commentator, not as a blogger who writes advertising articles under the pressure of returning a favor or making a profit. As for this PR firm and its clients, I think they got something that money cannot buy.

This post is co-translated from Chinese by GV chinese team, the author would like to thank the help from Leonard, H. Y., and abstract.

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