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Ethiopia. The moment of truth for reformist Abyi.

Tuesday, 1 October 2019 8:00

Abyi Ahmed Ali’s election in April 2018 raised considerable hopes in Ethiopia which he engaged steadfastly on the path of reforms. But as the first free elections are looming in 2020, many challenges need
to be addressed.

When he was elected, the new Prime Minister, Abyi Ahmed whose choice by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democracy Front (EPRDF) in order to defuse the protests in his home Oromia state, sparked a strong wind of change inside Ethiopia and throughout the region. During the first months of his government, thousands of political prisoners were released, the state of siege was lifted and internet access was restored.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed.

The wind of change has continued to blow during the entire year 2018. In October, Abyi promoted the election of the first female President of the country, 68 year old, Sahle-Work Zewde, a former representative of the UN Secretary General in Addis Ababa. He also announced the organisation in 2020 of free parliament elections.
On 24 August 2019, the existing parliament passed a new electoral bill which should allow fair competition between the EPRDF, which currently holds all seats in the parliament, and the opposition. The appointment as new head of the electoral board of another woman, Birtukan Mideksa, who comes from the opposition, provides guarantees about the transparency of the process. International partners including the European Union have expressed trust in the electoral process and pledged financial support.
Yet, the main question is whether elections can take place in the current climate of rising insecurity. Last June, the authorities reported a coup attempt in the Amhara region during which the army chief of staff, Gen. Seare Mekonnen , who comes from Tigray like the late Ethiopian president Meles Zenawi, and the regional President, Ambachew Mekonnen, were killed by Amhara nationalists. During the incidents, the state security boss, the Amhara General Asimenew Tsige was killed by Ethiopian government soldiers.

An Ethiopian man reads a newspaper with the pictures of Amhara state President Ambachew Mekonnen, killed in Bahir Dar, and of Army Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen, who was shot by his bodyguard, on a street in Addis Ababa, June 24, 2019.

Further north, Tigray is close to a state of secession. According to the Paris-based Indian Ocean Newsletter, the regional capital, Mekele, is being ruled as an independent entity.
Ethnic conflicts in various parts of the country are undermining the cohesion of the state. One of the root causes is the frustration amongst members of other ethnic groups seeing that the Tigrayan minority which represents about 6% of the population boasts the best asphalted road and electricity networks.
Since 2018, these conflicts have increased by between one million to three million the number of internal displaced persons, excluding another million refugees, mainly from Eritrea. Within the ruling party, the Oromo who represent the largest ethnic group of the country with approximately 35% of the entire population, and the Amhara who are the second largest with 27%, are competing for influence.

Young men in the traditional attire of southern Ethiopia’s Sidama people.

In the Southern Ethiopia Regional State, members of the Sidama ethnic group which represents 4% of the national population are demanding the creation of a separate state, which would undermine the cohesion of Ethiopia’s ethnic federal state, say political analysts. The demand has led to clashes on 18 July last, between Sidama activists and the police, during which 25 people were killed.
Meanwhile at the border with Somalia, ex-Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels which temporarily gave up the armed struggle, continue to claim the right of self- determination for their region.
In light of these protests, the government still reverts to all its repression tactics. On 22 June 2019, an internet shutdown was imposed by the government, following the alleged attempted coup in the Amhara region. In the aftermath, at least two journalists were detained under the country’s repressive anti-terrorist law and over 200 people were arrested. On the diplomatic front, there is no doubt that under Abyi’s rule, Ethiopia’s relationship with its neighbours has completely changed. In July 2018, the first commercial flight between Addis and Asmara was inaugurated. On 9 July of that year, a peace agreement was signed between both capitals, ending two decades of conflict and the border was reopened on the 11 September.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (L) in Khartoum for talks with the Chief of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council, Lt. Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Ethiopia also played an important role in the Sudanese transition which followed President Omar Al-Bashir’s fall. Abyi Ahmed visited Khartoum and the leaders of the military of the Forces for Freedom and Change and appointed Ambassador Mahmoud Dirir as mediator. He was applauded on the 18 August 2019 at the ceremony of signature of the transition deal between the military junta and the leaders of the protest movement. Meanwhile, relationships with Kenya are casting a shadow on the regional map. Last August, fighting took place in the Somalian port of Kismayo between both armies which represent the pillars of the African Union peacekeeping mission AMISOM. Further tension with Kenya is caused by Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels from Ethiopia who have established a sanctuary in the Northern Kenya Marsabit county. In May 2019, some 500 militias of the Issa ethnic group, backed by Djibouti army officers, also attacked several villages on the Awash-Gawani road and dozens of people died in the incidents. Another threat is posed by attempts from Somali jihadists to exploit ethnic tension in Ethiopia in retaliation for Addis Ababa’s involvement in the war against Al Shabab. In August 2019, Islamic State militants announced in a video that they would release propaganda in Amharic in order to recruit followers in Ethiopia.

There are also huge challenges ahead on the economic and environmental fronts. As observes the French political scientist, Roland Marchal from the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), over the last two decades, Ethiopia has had a vibrant 8-10% GDP growth but unfortunately, inequalities increased during the period which contributed to fuel revolts. Besides, the government has to face the considerable debt burden of seven parastatals in the airline, telecom, power, sugar, railways and shipping sectors amounting to 24 billion dollars including eleven billion owed to foreign countries, especially China. In order to cope with the challenge, the government plans to privatise these companies but such a measure could trigger retrenchments and provoke new waves of protests.

The challenge is probably exacerbated by the projected demographic increase: the current population of 100 million inhabitants is indeed expected to double by 2050. In such a difficult context, Ethiopia has to deal with the management of its water resources. A recent study by professors Meron Teferi Taye from Addis Ababa University and Ellen Dryer from Oxford University warns that the Awash basin which is home to the capital city and 17% of the national population will be hotter, drier and more water stressed. Water availability will continue to decrease progressively until at least the end of the century.
Therefore, both scientists recommend the development of climate resilient policies for allocating water, and planning for reduced water availability. The government has already engaged in a policy to create conditions to bring about increased rainfall and fight erosion. Last July, Ethiopians planted 350 million trees in a single day, as part of a national initiative to fight environmental degradation and climate change, which aims to grow 4 billion trees across the country.

François Misser

Which Kurdish populations?

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

There has never been a Kurdish State. But, there has been and still exists a Kurdish nation. The Kurds have occupied the mountains that extend from western Iran to eastern Turkey through Iraq and Syria for centuries. because political boundaries have worked that way, and there is no Kurdish nation, as such, although they have occupied their mountains for at least a thousand years.

The Kurds were a thorn in the side of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The Kurds have also engaged in a war of independence, to form their own state, for well over forty years. If the American invasion of Iraq has facilitated Kurdish autonomy from Baghdad.
Many oil companies have been dealing exclusively with Erbil, the capital of what was Iraqi Kurdistan, now ever more effectively ruled by Masoud Barzani and his Kurdistan Regional Government.

Indeed, on paper, the Kurds still dream about a united or greater Kurdistan. But, there are many different visions of such a Kurdish entity, depending on the origin (i.e. Iraqi, Syrian, Turkish, Iranian etc.) Doubtless, it will be hard if not impossible for other actors to accept that the Kurdish dream come true. So, there is a real risk that the Kurds and their nationalist aspirations will be crushed by the interests of other actors which are deciding the fates of Syria and Iraq.
That said, there’s no question that part of the merit for releasing areas of northwestern Iraq from the yoke of ISIS and other islamists must go to the Kurdish militias. They will expect compensation for acting as the vanguard and supplying infantry against the self-proclaimed Caliphate. Of course, the Kurds received logistical, financial, military and political support from many powers. But, the United States and the Western countries provided the lion’s share of that aid. Without this backing, the Kurds would not have achieved their victories. Still, the Americans have had to confront the issue of Kurdish nationalism and objections to it when they invaded Iraq.

Therefore, while the Americans will likely agree to demands from Syrian Kurds for international recognition for a self-administered territorial status in northern Syria (Rojava). They will probably object to similar expectations from Iraqi Kurds. The latter will no doubt express their right to self-determination, namely to form a true independent state of Iraqi Kurdistan. The risk is that the war against ISIS could evolve into a new phase of war that could alter the political geography of the region, damaging the ‘peace’ that the West and Russia want to establish.
The Iraqi government has promptly opposed any action by the Kurds in the direction of independence, judged unconstitutional. For their part, Iraqi Kurds held a ‘non-binding’ referendum in September 2017. Over 93% of voters chose secession from Iraq.
Turkey has called the referendum a “fatal mistake” that would help make the region more unstable. In fact, Ankara fears that an independent Kurdish State (as opposed to the current autonomous region) of Kurdistan would urge Kurds within its own borders
to join it. The Saudis have seized the opportunity.

They have expressed support for the Iraqi Kurds’ independence referendum, securing a well-tested military ally in a region where it has had none so far. Such a move would most certainly prompt Tehran to oppose the independence of Kurdistan. This would be a rare case where Tehran and Washington agree, because Trump’s Special Envoy to the International Coalition Against the Islamic State, Brett McGurk, made it clear his government did not approve the referendum. The latter is torn between the Kurds and Iraqi government. The U.S. has made it clear that it much prefers a united and federal and stable Iraq to one that switches from fighting ISIS to Kurds.

ISIS in Iraq

After wreaking havoc from northern Iraq to eastern Syria, taking over the cities of Mosul and Raqqa, ISIS is finally in trouble in both Iraq and Syria. Indeed, it is hard to extricate the fate of ISIS without discussing both Iraq and Syria. But, this analysis shall focus on the Group’s Iraq manifestation, for it marks the final stage of the war that G.W. Bush began. ISIS is an ideological-religious group, rooted in apocalyptic eschatology. Its actions were amplified by the conditions of the Iraq War and its inherent fragility, rooted in its very inception from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire and the Sykes-Picot agreement. The Islamic State’s demise is not on doubt.

The major concern o this latest chapter of the war is the future of Iraq after the Islamic State or the Caliphate that ISIS carved out of the lands that the Assyrians once ruled. ISIS will temporarily disband. Many of its fighters will have died fighting, some will be captured. But, if the Iraqi government fails to radically change the conditions that allowed fueled the ascent of ISIS, there will be new editions and chapters of the war in Iraq. And the Shiites who dominated Iraqi politics today should understand this better than most: the same marginalization that Sunni dominated governments adopted against Shiites, fueled the socio-economic conditions that enabled their radicalization.

Iraq’s Next War Could be Just Around the Corner

The next war in Iraq might take a different name; it might feature different combatants. Yet, its result will still be more war. Baghdad, ever torn by ethnic and religious conflicts, has still not recovered from the instability after the American (and ‘Coalition of the willing’) intervention in 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein. It won’t magically recover after ISIS. The Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds will contend what is left of Mesopotamia. Saddam Hussein was hanged on December 30, 2006, when the country was already in the grip of al-Qaida terror and sectarian vendettas from which ISIS rose, thanks also to the strategic support of former Baathist military officers.

Mosul Showed the Failure of the Iraqi Peace on Live TV

Mosul represents the Islamic State’s blitzkrieg-like advance into northern Iraq in 2014. Mosul offered little resistance, because such were the grievances of local Sunnis with the elected Shiite dominated government and the sectarian political schemes it played, that ISIS was all but welcomed. ISIS even established basic order, from ordering vehicle traffic to restoring basic services.

The City of Mosul

The fact that ISIS’s conquest was televised, turned the takeover of Mosul into the kind of media event that established the Group’s reputation. Mosul, even more than Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State (in Syria) was a symbol of ‘prestige’, which inspired many volunteers from all over the world to join ISIS. It is in Mosul at the Hadbaa mosque that ISIS’ s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the establishment of the Islamic State. It was an actual bona-fide Caliphate, which also distinguished it from al-Qaida, which would from then on be relegated to ISIS’s amateurish cousins. Mosul became the foundation of ISIS’s military and psychological warfare.
Yet, Mosul is mostly a symbol of weakness – the weakness of the Iraqi army and the corruption of the post-Saddam government. In June 2014, as ISIS advanced, the now largely Shiite dominated Iraqi army retreated, leaving the unarmed civilian population to their fate. ISIS killed unarmed civilians, which would deepen sectarian wounds. Now, the problem in Mosul remains largely political. While military forces that fought and defeated ISIS, the government’s political ability to truly establish the kind of control needed for political, social and physical reconstruction may not be as strong – even if Haider al-Abadi replaced the widely criticized Nouri al-Maliki (for excessive Shiite partisanship, ignoring the demands and rights of Sunnis) in 2014. Al-Abadi , in turn, was replaced by Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a former member of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), an Iraqi Shiite Political Party.
As ISIS has subsided, the governments were unable to prevent revenge along sectarian/confessional lines. There are militias, parties or tribes everywhere. Some of these militias are Shiite. In Fallujah for example, Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (The Shiite dominated Popular Mobilization Forces) killed and tortured hundreds of Sunni men – using methods not unlike those of ISIS, just in a smaller scale, exerting violence against Sunni civilians and combatants alike, perpetuating sectarian divisions.
Then there is Iran. Its intentions are ambiguous in Iraq. Iran is not going to back down from its expansionistic tendency in post-Saddam Iraq. Iran sees itself as a protector of Shi’ite interests.
It wants to continue overseeing it. Not surprisingly, the anti-ISIS coalition included thousands of volunteers, who report to Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who took orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself.

Ultimately, the demise of ISIS could match the curse that Bush met after the American invasion. He declared ‘mission accomplished’. He won the war and lost the peace. Iraq over the past 39 years has witnessed the use of all weapons expect for nuclear. Mustard gas, white phosphorus bombs, depleted uranium shells deployed from aircraft and cruise missiles of various generations. But medieval style violence was also in abundance, enough to make Hulagu Khan, the Mongol leader, who laid siege to Baghdad in 1258, blush. The 2003 war was but the preface to over a decade of hundreds of explosions: mortars, car bombs, suicide bombers, beheadings, rape in an orgy of f ethnic and sectarian cleansing. Iraq has been the pinnacle of barbarism and fanaticism. Million Iraqis have become refugees abroad or internally displaced. The irony is that it still has more oil resources than Saudi Arabia.
Alessandro Bruno

Music. Niger. Bombino, the rock in the desert.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

He is considered one of the best living blues guitarists. He has succeeded in combining the nomadic culture with sounds that charm the largest international audiences.

His real name is Goumar Almoctar, but in the world of music he is called Bombino. A Niger Tuareg, he was born in Agadez, in the heart of the Sahara, on 1 January 1980. His childhood was not an easy one amid tribal tensions and unending coups in the state of Niger that forced him to emigrate with his family to Algeria and later to Libya. Here he worked as a shepherd for some time, passing the time learning to play his old guitar: this self-taught apprenticeship proved invaluable when, in the late nineties, he could finally return home. In the meantime, the ‘Desert Blues’ – a mixtures of ethnic sounds and Anglo-US rock music – had become second nature to him and he based his music on that of Jimi Hendrix and Mark Knopfler, then leader of Dire Straits.

His debut album ‘Group Bombino’, issued in 2009, was followed by another recorded live in Agadez, but it was it was only with the next album, ‘Nomad’ (produced in 2013), that Almoctar succeeded in gaining the attention of serious critics due to his highly individual style and remarkable technique.
Soon afterwards he toured the United States, also arousing the interest of the European scene. His reputation grew with various collaborations, even with such leading figures as Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Stevie Wonder and endless invitations to the most famous festivals in the world. A few months ago, his fifth production was launched on the international market: the album ‘Deran’, recorded in Casablanca and followed by a new world tour.

Now the biggest star of Desert Blues, Bombino has unquestionably succeeded in combining his own nomadic culture with sounds capable of filling the largest western venues: his is a modern style that respects its own traditions and contains original sounds, without reducing them to mere exotic entertainment. It is from here that, besides rock and blues, other sorts of music emerge such as funk and reggae (the so-called Tuareggae, as some critics call it).
Bombino is undoubtedly a virtuoso rock guitarist (The New York Times described him as ‘one of the best living guitarists’, but always used his talent to serve his inspiration, often strengthening it with reference to his own life experience, the history of his people and of a special ethnic group, ‘The Blue People’, as the Tuaregs are called. Further interest is added by his concern for the social problems of the times, especially those concerned with large-scale migrations and the conditions of refugees which he himself experienced.

In this sense, the excellent album ‘Deran’ represents a sort of home-coming, being recorded entirely in his mother tongue, Tamasheq. The title itself, which we may translate as ‘Best Wishes’, is meant to be a small sign of hope for North Africa which is afflicted by socio-political and humanitarian disasters of epic proportions and, at the same time, an act of love towards a culture that is the patrimony of all of humanity
On April 1, 2016 Bombino released “Azel” the album brings Bombino’s guitar playing to the forefront while staying true to his desert blues roots as he sings in his native language of Tamashek. In 2017 he release La Sombra and last year, his sixth studio album, Deran. It was received with wide-spread acclaim for both its musicality and its embracement of culture and heritage.

Franz Coriasco

Hong Kong. To lead the Way.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

Young people are taking to the streets defending democracy. Violence and arrest by the police. Beijing shows its military power. What future has Hong Kong? In this exclusive interview we talk with Martin Lee, founder of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong.

You have founded the Democratic Party of Hong Kong. What is the aim of this party?
The original plan for the integration of Hong Kong with mainland China was engraved in the sentence: one country, two systems. It meant that Hong Kong would be ruled by local people with a high degree of autonomy from the mainland, and that they would keep all freedoms and their democratic way of life for a period of fifty years. Many understood the importance of having political structures that could serve this purpose. So we thought of forming a political party.

By 1984, we had founded the first party, the United Democrats of Hong Kong, which ran for the elections that year. Later on, we joined another party called the Meeting Point, thus forming the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, which is still active today. I was the founding chairman for both. At the time, it was the largest political party in our territory. The first universal suffrage elections in 1991 saw us winning and gaining 18 of the 55 seats available in the Legislative Council. This political activity was to prepare for the handover from British to Chinese rule, it was to prepare for the transition. We thought it was necessary to form a political party, so that is what we did.

Today Hong Kong is engulfed in political tensions and violence. Young people are taking to the streets to defend their rights. What is your position on this?
The youth of Hong Kong are doing what I have been trying to do for the past thirty-five years, albeit with a different style. I always thought that Hong Kong could not survive successfully under Deng Xiaoping principle of one country, two systems, unless two conditions were fulfilled. The first condition is that there must be democracy in Hong Kong so that Hong Kong’s people themselves may elect their own chief executives, as well as all the members of the legislature. In this way, our leaders would find it necessary to defend our Hong Kong core values and our way of life. Whenever there was a conflict of interests between Beijing and Hong Kong, our elected leaders would find it necessarily to stand by us, together with our people, otherwise they would lose the next election. So that is a very important condition.

The second condition is that the central Government should not interfere with Hong Kong internal affairs. One should never forget that mainland China is huge, with a population in excess of one billion people. Hong Kong has a population of only five and half million, some say seven and half million people. There is no comparison at all. I always give the analogy of the seesaw game that we used to play when we were kids. In that game one must find a balance. If you have one grown man seated at one side of the seesaw plunk and a little kid seated on the other, this would always work in favour of the man. There would be no game for the kid. The only way to balance the plank is for the man to move towards the centre until there is equilibrium. I always use this example. The government in Beijing must not interfere and must allow Hong Kong’s people to take their own decisions. These are the two essential elements for the one country two systems policy to succeed. These points are foreseen in the agreement between China and Britain and that treaty is registered with the United Nations. These policies were also written down in our local Constitution. They can work, provided those conditions are complied with.

Do you think the Government of China can afford giving freedom to Hong Kong?
At the time of the British handover to China, I had my doubts. However, the whole idea was Deng Xiaoping’s brainchild. He thought of it not as the answer to Hong Kong or Macau’s needs. He did not even think of Taiwan, which is a far larger place. Deng Xiaoping was thinking of mainland China. He clearly foresaw the abandoning of socialist policies in due time. He realized the importance of departing from socialism and finding a closer cooperation with capitalist countries. He wanted Hong Kong to lead the way. In the early eighties, he had introduced the four modernization programmes for China. He now wanted Hong Kong to lead the way like the engine of the train, leading China forward. That is why he did not want Hong Kong to change. Fifty years, no change. He needed that time to allow mainland China to adjust.

There was an important meeting between Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher on December 19^th, 1984. During that meeting, Deng Xiaoping assured the British Prime Minister she need not worry about the fifty years idea because China needed that period to develop its economy. He told Margaret Thatcher it was China’s wish to have those fifty years for transformation. At the end of that period, China would have joined other nations on an equal footing, integrating into the world economy without prejudice and with a common vision of prosperity for all. All would be depending on one another. I found the minutes of that meeting only in 2014. The British Government kept this secret for thirty years and then released it in December 2014.

Yet we see much violence and strife?
I thought the plan would work because it was in China’s interests to make it work. Unfortunately Deng Xiaoping’s successors did not have the courage, wisdom or the conviction to continue with this plan. When people demanded democracy as promised, and Hong Kong did not wish for interventions from China as promised, the central government in Beijing to control Hong Kong more and more. The reaction was that a quarter of Hong Kong’s population took to the streets. Still the Government did not give in.

Our young people are now marching in the streets for autonomy and no intervention, they want democracy. These were promised, and for thirty five years people have been fighting for them by all means. China ignored us and our peaceful calls. The young people thought they had to use some force to obtain their rights. The spark for this revolt was a proposed bill which would have given the central government a free hand in arresting and prosecuting people with flimsy evidence, transferring any accused person to mainland China. This was a clear way to undermine Hong Kong’s independent justice system. Hong Kong people have woken up, they have seen how damaging this bill was and now we have demonstration after demonstration. (Joseph Caramazza)

Transnational Crimes in the seas

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

The vast expanses of the sea, the complexity of the maritime transportation system, the immense volume of cargo transferred at each port, and the limited capacity for inspections of cargo creates opportunity for criminals.

Seaborne trade in the maritime realm follows a defined set of “sea lines of communication” based on currents and weather. Because of the robustness of shipping and mass amounts of cargo moved, traffickers utilize the same shipping industry routes with great effect. Shipping and sea lanes tend to offer anonymity for criminals, whereas their activities can be hidden behind legitimate industries. Criminal activity, especially illicit trade in narcotics, humans, and weapons, has become so extensive that it is difficult according to various studies to rule out implications of states and corporations in the criminal enterprise.

Individuals from various nationalities, followed by multiple vessels flagged to different states, adds the UN Drug Trade Report 2019, are used in the networks which transit the waters of various states and call at different ports before reaching their final destination. Despite the abundance of laws designed to combat illicit trafficking and an apparent impetus to stop specific types of crime, government’s remains only marginally successful in preventing the global flow of illegal goods due to the overwhelming volume and complexity of the markets for illicit trade. Working in tandem, the maritime forces nevertheless have made successful efforts to disrupt the illicit supply chains as a result of sea-based security operations; cooperation and collaboration between law enforcement organizations.

Nevertheless, legal complexity arises as the high seas “fall outside the jurisdiction of any single state” under the United National Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The ocean space is to be collectively policed by all states governed by principles of Freedom of navigation. Piracy and the illicit trafficking of narcotics, humans, and weapons comprise the main varieties of transnational crime. UNCLOS addresses these matter of concern in the realm of the sea, where various articles provide guidance in order to curb or limit the threats.

Article 110 expounds the customary rule that warships may “approach and visit” on the high seas “any ship that is suspected of piracy, human trafficking, unauthorized broadcasting; and is without nationality”; or, “is flying a foreign flag or refusing to show its flag.” Article 111 addresses the right of “hot pursuit”, allowing warships of one state to follow a vessel through the different maritime zones of the ship if based on “reasonable grounds,” it is suspected of illegal activity.

UNCLOS under Article 108 empowers states to cooperate and offer assistance to suppress drug trafficking by other state-flagged vessels. Traditionally, drug traffickers used overland routes, but since last two decades, they have shifted transportation into the “Indo-Pacific Ocean”. The majority of this trafficking has proliferated in the littoral regions, and often within territorial waters.

In the latter years, advancement in technologies, providing for larger ships have allowed traffickers to move further into the sea to capitalize “blue water” areas, outside the 12-nautical mile mark and at times further than the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of any country. It is a documented fact that U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs, also according to various studies the source and transit zones of drug trafficking between South America and the U.S despite high patrols on the border.

Piracy has been one of the most ancient forms of maritime crime that is treated rigorously under the provisions of UNCLOS. Article 101 defines piracy as “any illegal act of violence or detention, any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or passengers of a private ship or private aircraft on the high seas against another ship or aircraft, outside the jurisdiction of any state.” The latter parts highlights an important aspect that piracy is a type of transnational crime conducted by non-state actors in international waters. Article 105 of UNCLOS grants every state the authority to seize any vessel, associated property and to arrest any persons engaged in piracy. Domestic courts of the state conducting the seizure have the mandate prosecute the pirates under domestic law and determine what to do with the vessels; however, to date the courts remain inadequate or unsupported in many places.

Piracy became a security issue of international concern since the last decade and half, primarily in the Horn of Africa, Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea largely due to weak patrolling and sea blindness by the littoral states of the region. However, to an extent order at sea has been maintained with the presence Combined Task Force-151(CTF-151), focused on counter-piracy, and Combined Task Force-150 (CTF-150) to combat illicit activities at sea. Supported by several U.N. Security Council Resolutions, these task forces have “engaged with regional partners to build capacity and improve capabilities to protect global maritime commerce and secure freedom of navigation.”

Piracy in the Asia-Pacific remains a matter of concern, however most of the incidents are underreported and those reported are of such small scale that they cloud the assessment of major piracy events. In the region, although piracy has been contained in the eastern region of Africa whereas it has proliferated in the western Africa around the Gulf of Guinea. This subject-matter experts conclude is a result of an increased trafficking in narcotics from Latin America, along with the various other illicit elements involving illegal fishing and human trafficking.

The increased in piracy is a reminder for states that piracy remains a persistent and widespread challenge to maritime security. The recent activities in Somalia and Yemen foreshadow a resurgence of piracy in the region, encouraged by trafficking of light weapons and small arms, along with non-state actor’s unprecedented access to ship monitoring, tracking devices, and use of unmanned systems and long range communications.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) identifies only certain types of transnational crime that affect maritime security, but there are many varieties and combinations of criminal activity that affect security and safety from the high seas to internal waters. Domestic laws however need be brought in line with international law, and cooperative partnerships between the states, law enforcement, and militaries to combat illicit activity needs to transcend the morass of politics that are often a hurdle in the way of more comprehensive legal regimes. It is recommended that information and intelligence sharing, along with TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) need to be employed by the maritime forces to ensure freedom of the seas.

UNCLOS provides a strong framework and multilateral efforts to deter criminal activity at sea for a more secure, safer operating environment for all. However, it is the difficulty in effective prosecution and applying of an equitable punishment to the culprits, involved in piracy, human trafficking and illicit drugs that must serve as a reminder to all states that much awaits for an all-inclusive solution.

Zaeem Hassan Mehmood/MD

Emigration and the Young African.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

Advocacy is about politics and change, values and beliefs, consciousness and knowledge. It is about building democratic organizations and expanding citizens’ skills to understand how power operates. It is a sort of good advice empowering people to know the reality, how to make choices and how to behave in modern society.

Pope Francis, during the SFMM (Social Forum on Migrations – Mexico November 2018), sent a clear message: the refugees and the migrants are persons and no one has the right to think for them, or judge their reasons for taking this adventurous risk. Nevertheless, their own family, their own people, their own Church has the right to give them some advice. Some African bishops made their advocacy for youth with these strong words: “Do not believe in false promises leading to slavery” and death “in the Mediterranean or in the Libyan desert.”

Gathered in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 14 to 20 of May, for their Third Plenary Assembly, the bishops of Recowa-Cerao – the national and inter-territorial conferences of West Africa – published a statement and a pastoral message that referred, also, to the scourge of mass emigration.

The Bishops praised the important steps Africa has taken, in recent years, thanks to the Church’s missionary, charitable commitment, and the dedication of her children. However, they point out the “unexpected threats, unprecedented tragedies and new disasters threatening to destroy all these efforts for social development and human progress.” The list is long: epidemics, environmental disasters, sectarian violence, attacks on democracy, difficulty in reaching national reconciliation, new forms of terrorism and poverty. They stressed “the problem of migration that especially affects young Africans” and addressed part of their message directly to them.

“You represent the present and the future of Africa, which must struggle with all its resources for the dignity and happiness of her sons and daughters. In this context, we cannot be silent about the phenomenon of migration of young Africans to Europe. Our hearts as pastors and fathers suffer at the sight of these boats overloaded with young people, women and children, which are destroyed in the waves of the Mediterranean. Certainly, we understand your thirst for the happiness and well-being that your countries do not offer you.

Unemployment, misery, poverty remain evils that humiliate and revolt. However, they are not enough for you to sacrifice yourselves by taking such dangerous paths to destinations where happiness seems to escape those who live in these places you so desire to reach. God did not strip Africa bare. On the contrary, it has provided her with so much human and natural resources that it can offer all her children what they need.”

Beyond words, we can perceive also the Catholic teaching, stating that risking one own life for a false or inconsistent reason, is not in agreement with God’s will. Hence, the bishops invoke the Lord to make young people “more aware” of the “dangers of irregular emigration. Given these tragedies that are all unfolding before our eyes, we must recognize that Africa is collapsing.” The advocacy call is clear: “With hard work and perseverance you can succeed in Africa and, more importantly, make this continent a prosperous land.”

The bishops’ attention is also directed to “all those who return from an unfortunate experience of emigration,” hoping that they can find in the Church “a pastoral and spiritual welcome allowing them to reintegrate in their own countries and their own ecclesial communities in order to fully live their faith.”

The bishops, at the end of their message, make two requests. The first to the Governments and the Politicians of the immigrants’ countries of origin: “Because of your political functions, you are especially the guardians of your brothers and sisters and of your nations. In their aspirations for development, in their deep desire for betterment, in their struggle for better living conditions, in their aspirations for peace, education and happiness, the eyes of your peoples are turned towards you.” Then, the bishops make a real advocacy call: “Without wishing to take your place, your mission being of a different nature, the Church, however, stands by your side. With you, she wants to work to promote peaceful nations and communities more united around the new values of the kingdom that transcends ethnic and geographical barriers. With governments, she wants to work together to promote good governance, the rule of law, transparent elections, the smooth conduct of elections, and respect for national constitutions and election results.”

The second request is addressed to the host countries. “We call for a more just international order so that, since the goods of the earth belong to all, we achieve a better distribution of the resources of the world and more just remuneration of the efforts of each one, so that the riches of our countries may benefit everyone.”

The bishops are aware that no one can be the sign of hope if they are not credible. Therefore they reach out fraternally to all religious people. “The paradox of our region with the development of new forms of fundamentalism, sources of blind violence, which sow terror and destabilize our nations, call us to into question. Can we still speak of a holy war? In the name of which God and of which religion can one still kill human beings and innocent persons who are only asking to be allowed to live?”

John Paul Pezzi, mccj
VIVAT International NGO
with consultative special status at UN

Radioactive waste in the Pacific Ocean.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

The concrete dome on an island in the Pacific Ocean houses tons of radioactive waste. Now it’s cracking open. The escaping waste could soon seriously affect the environment and the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands.

Enewetak Atoll, and the much better-known Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, were the main sites of the United States Pacific Proving Grounds, the setting for dozens of atomic explosions between 1947 and 1958. In total, 67 nuclear and atmospheric bombs were detonated on Enewetak and Bikini. Numerous islanders were forcibly evacuated from ancestral lands and resettled in another atoll. Thousands more islanders were exposed to radioactive fallout. The dome was built two decades after the blast in the Pacific ocean region.

The US military filled the bomb crater on Runit island with radioactive waste, capped it with concrete, and told displaced residents of the Pacific’s remote Enewetak atoll they could safely return home. So the islanders returned to their lands, only in 1980, and now there are about 800 people living 20 kilometres from Runit island.
But Runit’ s 45-centimetre (18-inch) thick concrete dome has now developed cracks. And because the 115-metre wide crater was never lined, there are fears radioactive contaminants are leaking through the island’s porous coral rock into the ocean. The concerns have intensified amid climate change. Rising seas, encroaching on the low-lying nation, are threatening to undermine the dome’s structural integrity.
Jack Ading, who represents the area in the Marshalls’ parliament, has recently said: “The dome is stuffed with radioactive contaminants that include plutonium-239, one of the most toxic substances known to man and it is leaking its poison into the surrounding environment”.

For decades the problem has been ignored, but the dome has now developed cracks, and the government of the Marshall Islands has launched appeals to the international community, also calling the attention of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who has defined the dome as “a kind of coffin”.
During a meeting with Marshall Islands president, Hilda Heine, Mr. Guterres also said that the Pacific has been ‘victimized’ in the past by nuclear tests carried out by the US and France in the area and observed: “The consequences of these tests have been quite dramatic, in relation to health and in relation to the poisoning of waters in some areas”.
After the US military withdrew, the Marshall Islands government officially accepted a ‘full and final’ settlement to cover the impact of the nuclear tests.But there have long been complaints that the compensation paid by Washington was inadequate, and the United Nations has described ‘a legacy of distrust’ towards the United States.

Marshalls’ Foreign Minister John Silk said he appreciated Guterres bringing the Runit dome to world attention with his comments.
“We are pleased that the Secretary General made these statements, since so often it seems that these ongoing legacy issues that continue to impact our people are forgotten by the international community”, he said.Even Rhea Moss-Christian, head of the National Nuclear Commission, agrees with these statements and said the country “needs the support of the international community to tackle the staggering challenges to health and the environment in the Pacific”.

A 2013 inspection commissioned by the US government suggested radioactive fallout in the Enewetak lagoon sediment was already so high that a catastrophic failure would not necessarily result in locals receiving increased dosages of radiation.John Silk, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Marshall Islands, noting that the US government had committed to ongoing monitoring of the dome, said an independent assessment of the structure’s status “would be helpful”.Jack Ading, who represents the area in the Marshalls’ parliament, said the situation was “a constant source of anxiety for the people of Enewetak. We pray that the Runit dome does not eventually become our coffin”, he said.(M.C.)

Five Ways To Reduce Our Reliance On Plastic.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

Plastic is so prevalent in our lives that we don’t even notice it anymore. It is convenient. It is cheap. It is ubiquitous. The unfortunate truth is that more than 70 percent of the plastic we use does not get recycled, and much of this plastic trash gets swept into our oceans from beaches or gets washed into rivers from our streets. An estimated 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently float in our oceans.

Most plastic is easy enough to see, but there is another kind of plastic infiltrating our ecosystems that can easily go unnoticed. These are microplastics, or small particles and fibres of plastic generally measuring less than 5 millimetres.

Originally, microplastics resulted from the physical breakdown of larger plastics, such as plastic bags, food packaging or ropes. However, more recently, there has been an increase in the manufacturing of microplastics, such as pellets, powders and domestic or industrial abrasives. This phenomenon has expanded the occurrence of plastics in our environments and in our seas.

Microplastics have already been found in various types of human food (e.g. beer, honey and table salt). However, most scientific studies have examined microplastics in seafood. Although fish fillets and big fish are two of the main consumed fishery products, these are not a significant source of microplastics because the gut, where most microplastics are found, is not usually consumed. Small fish species, crustaceans and molluscs, on the other hand, are often eaten whole.

These are potential areas of concern when talking about our dietary exposure to microplastics and associated chemical substances. So far the health implications of microplastics on humans seem negligible. However, more research needs to be done.

Regardless of the findings, we already know that our plastic use is increasing and that it is damaging our sea life. Dolphins and whales are getting caught in discarded plastic netting; turtles are eating plastic bags and dying from blockages within their digestive systems. Marine animals are perishing in our trash. But we can turn the tide on the use of plastic.

Microplastics are small particles or fibres of plastic generally measuring less than 5 millimetres. Originally, microplastics were the result of the breakdown of larger plastics, such as plastic bags or food packaging. More recently, manufacturing of microplastics, such as pellets, powders and domestic or industrial abrasives, has increased.

Here are 5 ways to cut our dependence on macro- and micro-plastics:

1. Avoid single-use plastics

Ninety percent of the plastic we use in our daily lives is disposable or single-use plastic: grocery bags, plastic wrap, zipper bags, coffee-cup lids. Single-use plastics are particularly damaging considering that a single plastic bag can take 1 000 years to degrade. These plastics can also degrade into microplastics, smaller pieces that are often mistaken as food by mammals, birds or fish. Simply noticing the prevalence of plastic in our lives is the first step to replacing single-use plastics with reusable options: cloth bags, glass storage containers, silverware, and ceramic mugs.

2. Recognize microplastics in disguise

Many cosmetics and beauty products contain “exfoliants” that are in fact little plastic beads. These microplastics might seem harmless, but it is precisely because of their size that they can slip through water-treatment plants and end up in the ocean where fish often mistake them for food. Try natural exfoliats, like oatmeal or salt, instead.

3. Carry a reusable water bottle

Disposable water and soda bottles are some of the biggest culprits of plastic waste. More than 480 billion plastic drinking bottles were sold globally in 2016. If placed end to end, they would extend more than halfway to the sun! Drink from reusable bottles instead. In places where the water is safe to drink, you can easily refill your bottle.

4. Say no to plastic cutlery, straws, take out containers

Sometimes we are given plastic without even asking for it. Turn down the offer for a straw. Ask restaurants to pack your food in fewer containers for take-out. Tell them that you don’t need any plastic cutlery, and use your own reusable cutlery instead.

5. Recycle

This might seem obvious, but the majority of the plastic we use is not recycled. Where the option exists, ensure that the plastic you do use gets recycled, but remember, it is easier to prevent waste than to manage it. (Fao)

South Sudan. Being able to share.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

He could have left, and lived a better and more comfortable life. Instead he preferred to stay and put himself at the service
of the weakest.

Peter Sunduk is no longer a young man, but he has kept a young, courageous and confident heart, by constantly swimming against the tide and making tough choices. Despite the many difficulties, mainly due to isolation, underdevelopment, poverty and the armed conflict in the country that has marked its entire life, he never stopped dreaming of a better future for himself and his people.

Peter was born in a small village in the province of Fangak. He learned from the adults about the hard life of semi-nomad breeders. The desire for education brought him to the town of Phom, where he was able to attend elementary school. But the conflict that broke out in the 80s forced him to move to Khartoum where he took the opportunity to attend high school. He lived at the Comboni missionaries’ parish of Halphaya north of the capital.
He attended school in the morning and in the afternoon he helped with the gardening, and served as a guardian at night. A missionary took a liking to him. He used to give him various catechetical and liturgical texts to translate. “Peter, he used to ask him, what are you going to do at the end of high school? What are your plans?”.

Peter was aware that the missionary’s question referred to a possible vocational intention. The idea of becoming a priest sounded good to Peter, but homesickness did not allow him to take it into consideration. Once in Fangak he would figure out what he would do with his life. But when he returned home he found the province torn by civil war. Phom was in the hands of the militias hired by the Khartoum government. While rural areas were in the hands of SPLA ( Sudan People’s Liberation Army) rebel forces. The population was between the hammer and the anvil. One could only try to survive in such situation. His life seemed to him insignificant and Peter started drinking.
The arrival of an American doctor, Jill Seaman saved him. After a work experience with ‘Doctors Without Borders’ in Leer, Jill had decided to move to this region where there was very high incidence of kala-azar, a disease she specialized in.
She was the only doctor for more than a hundred thousand people scattered throughout that vast region and Peter was the only one who could act as her interpreter. So he volunteered to help her; he also learned to give injections and got to know the medicines available, and soon he also was able to make diagnoses.

After a year of work, everybody called him ‘Dr. Sunduk’. In those years the SPLA often combed the area in search of new recruits and, to their attempts, Peter always answered firmly: “A doctor can only be a civilian. He cannot leave the population in the grip of malaria, typhoid and tuberculosis”. The clinic expanded over the years and competent people were needed. So Peter and James were selected by Jill to attend a course for health officer, which was sponsored by the African medical and research foundation (AMREF). The course included three years of study and one of internship.
The attendance to the course opened up many work opportunities for Peter. Several organizations were interested in hiring him: getting a job at the World Health Organization (WHO) would have represented the prospect of a secure and comfortable life.James enrolled in the health ministry lists for a position in Malakal. He received a government salary and opened a private clinic with an adjacent pharmacy. He got paid handsomely for his competence. “And you Peter – James used to say, challenging his friend – why don’t you do like me?” “I can’t leave Jill alone, Peter answered, I can’t turn my back on my people”.

And so, for more than twenty years, he has worked as health care service provider in Fangak. Jill gives him a fair salary thanks to the donations she receives. Peter lives this commitment as a mission to which he has given himself body and soul. He decided to commit himself to helping those in need. In the meantime he married Nyadiang and they have had three daughters. His home is also home to patients who come from distant villages. Nyadiang takes care of those who knock at their door: she has accepted to share her husband with the sick.

Christian Carlassare

The Shi’a Movement.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

There has been a tendency on the side of the mainstream media to describe this movement as a monolithic entity, and interested in adopting the model of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, the Shi’a movement in Iraq is more complex, having responded almost exclusively to specific indigenous socio-economic Iraqi mechanisms.

While, one of the biggest effects of the U.S. led war has been a full rapprochement between Baghdad and Tehran, should the Islamic republic ever be replaced in the Iranian capital, it would have little effect on the sectarian nature of Iraqi society and politics. Indeed, the politicization of Iraqi Shiites represented a reactionary response to secular policies pursued by the secular parties that dominated Iraqi politics throughout the 1960’s and 70’s: the Ba’athists and the Communist opposition.

Reaction to Secularism

From the mid 60’s to the period immediately preceding the American occupation, Iraq’s policies were distinctly secular. The process of secularization had been from the very outset one that targeted education in a special way. Even as early as the 1950’s, the traditional madrasas and their students saw their funding decline considerably.Consequently, the Shiite clerics, the Ulama, lost their traditional monopoly on the shaping of public opinion, as secular institutions based on ‘Western’ models exercised ever-increasing influence, reaching a peak under al-Bakr and Saddam.

This transformation of society presented the Ulama with what may be expressed as three problems. The number of clerics and religious scholars declined; those who were left had fewer funds and income and lower status and their traditional role in society eroded to the point where the future became uncertain. As Shi’a clerics had typically received little, if any, financial support from the State, their income was almost entirely dependent on their degree of public influence. The higher the community’s perception of a cleric’s status, the higher the income he might receive from public donations. To understand the dramatic nature of the social shift that took place, note that Ulama had traditionally commanded authority in such areas of public concern as justice, education and welfare. Secularism clearly undermined their socio-economic position.

The lower ranks of the clergy and religious students were the most marginalized ones, as they depended on endowments from the high ranking clerics, the ‘mujtahids’, who in turn had fewer donations to dispense. The Shi’a establishment were especially concerned about the Ba’ath party and its Arab Nationalism. While General Qasim, whom Saddam Hussein tried to murder in 1959, was in power, the Communist party also wielded influence. The Ulama were effectively locked in by these two, secular, entities, which advocated policies that were almost entirely antagonistic to their social status.
As rural-migrants increasingly moved to urban centers settling in the shantytowns of the main urban centers (Baghdad, Mosul, Basra) seeped in squalor and poverty they became especially receptive to the egalitarian message of the Communists.
Moreover, just as the Shi’a of Lebanon experienced, the State neglected agriculture prompting many Shi’a peasants to abandon the land and migrate to the cities exacerbating the displacement phenomenon, giving the Communists an ever wider base of potential support.

Rural-Urban Displacement

It is not that the Shi’a rural migrants – peasants – lacked faith; rather, they were not deeply committed to Shi’ism as a political ideology. Most Shi’a expressed their faith in a way that bordered on superstition. They participated in the annual festival of ‘Ashura (recent occurrences of which in the holy City of Karbala have been marred by terror), recited prayers and went about their affairs, without considering that their faith could be used as a political tool. By comparison, similar processes in Iran (with the Shah playing the secularizing role of the Ba’ath Party and the Communist ‘Tudeh’ Party as the opposition), the commitment to Shi’ism was deeper as the Clergy there had enjoyed a far higher status under the Qajar Dynasty. The Sunni Ottomans in Iraq, on the other hand, had been very reluctant to empower Iraq’s Shiite establishment. Therefore, even prior to the secularist policies of the post war period, the proportion of mullahs to population was relatively low and there were very few that could be sent to rural areas, many villages did not even have a mullah.
This meant that a large number of the Shiite migrants to the cities had neither political nor the religious indoctrination to hamper the recruitment efforts of the communists.

Shiite indoctrination, at a more political level, occurred largely among the higher ranks of the higher level of the Shiite Ulama, such as the scholarly establishments of the large and historically important urban centres such as Baghdad, and the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. This was where opposition to secular policies and ideology was coming from. This was the social group, which had most to lose from the secular policies of the Qasim and, later, the Ba’ath governments. General Qasim initiated a program of land reforms in 1958 that hurt many landlords-the traditional financial backers of the Shi’a clergy. Further reforms, such as the provision of equal inheritance rights for women and the abolition of polygamy countered the clergy’s ideological positions. Ironically, the party inspired by Ayatollah Baqr al-Hakim, Al-Dawa Al-Islamiya, appealed to more educated and prosperous strata of the Shiite community, including some professionals. (A.B.)

North Africa. Recognition of Amazigh Culture.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

Indigenous to North Africa, the Amazigh people, sometimes known as Berbers, have spent decades fighting for cultural recognition in the predominantly Arab region.

For years, Amazigh activists have been engaged in a battle against oppressive policies while also trying to promote measures that would help preserve Amazigh identity. Despite recent successes, however, it may be some time before Amazigh activists are able to overturn the outcomes of centuries-long marginalization.

Central to past and present Amazigh revival movements are the concepts of Awal (language), Akkal (land), and Ddam (blood). Accordingly, one of the significant outcomes of Amazigh activism was the designation of the Amazigh language Tamazight as an official language in both Algerian and Moroccan constitutions. Regarding Akkal, Amazigh take land conservation very seriously, balancing the fine line between communal with private ownership. The third pillar of Amazigh identity, Ddam, represents a sense of belonging through the cohesiveness of family and culture, while also signifying sacrifice. Indeed, the Amazigh believe that an issue is resolved only once sacrificial blood is spilled.

The Amazigh movement
The 1970s ushered in the first attempts at open advocacy for Amazigh rights and acknowledgment of Amazigh heritage. These efforts originated in Algeria in response to the aggressive Arabization efforts of the FLN regime, which banned the use of Tamazight and its variants as well as activities by Amazigh militants.
After years of repression, Amazigh activists began promoting open expressions of Amazigh identity.
This cultural rejuvenation paved the way for Algeria’s Tafsut Imazighen, or the Amazigh Spring: on March 10, 1980, authorities suppressed a conference featuring Amazigh activist Mouloud Mammeri at Hasnaoua University in Tizi-Ouzou.

The cancellation of the event sparked a wave of protests that resulted in mass arrests of dissenting Amazigh activists. These arrests became a critical rallying point for the formation of civil society organizations such as the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) and the Berber Cultural Movement (MCB), which both advocated for greater recognition and acceptance of a distinct Amazigh cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of Amazigh human and legal rights. Though Tamazight was only officially recognized in the Algerian constitution in 2016, activists consider this period critical to the development of an open movement advocating for Amazigh rights.
In 1994, the Amazigh movement was finally able to make headway in Morocco after demonstrators marching with a banner written in an Amazigh language were arrested and taken in by police. Such an act ignited outrage across Morocco. In the aftermath of the arrest, Moroccan media followed the trials of the activists closely, thus enabling the movement to rally support for Amazigh rights. On August 20, 1994, King Hassan II became the first Alouite king to acknowledge the Imazighen’s importance to Morocco and its development after he responded to the newfound support for Amazigh causes by publicly speaking about the need to teach Tamazigh in schools.

Nonetheless, the battle for rights and recognition continued well into the new century. In 2001 King Mohammed VI issued a royal decree mandating the formation of the Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe (IRCAM). Established to raise awareness and support for the Amazigh around the country, ICRAM has standardized the Amazigh language and worked to slowly integrate it into schools and the media, while also successfully introducing the Moroccan public to Amazigh identity and its contribution to the general culture.
Despite these achievements, however, ICRAM’s overall effectivity has been debated and some have even argued that the organization pigeonholes and simplifies Amazigh identity. That being said, the main Amazigh movements supported the creation of IRCAM and its push for more recognition of Amazigh identity within Morocco.
As Amazigh cultural activism increased, Amazigh presence in political life increased as well. While many of the Amazigh political parties that emerged during the first decade of the 21st century were shut down because the Moroccan Constitution prohibits political parties from forming based on ethnicity, some have found a way around the ethnic ban. For example, although its platform does not cater solely to the Amazigh, the Mouvement Populaire (MP) party, one of the largest parties in the Parliament of Morocco is largely associated with the Amazigh community. Indeed, the MP, which was founded in 1957, works closely with Amazigh activists and has mobilized support for the Amazigh movement across the country, advocating for recognition of Amazigh cultural practices and the protection of Imazighen’s rights.

In 2011, the events of the Arab Spring strengthened the social, political and cultural institutions created by the first Tafsut Imazighen and enabled the Amazigh to gain political momentum. On February of that year, an unlikely coalition calling for the expansion of freedom in Morroco was formed between Amazigh trade union and Islamist protesters. Widespread support for the demands of this coalition eventually prompted the introduction of a new constitution that recognized Tamazigh as an official language in Morocco and according to which Amazigh identity is congruent with Moroccan national identity.

Current Challenges
Starting as a grassroots movement, the Amazigh cultural revival movement has been gradually gaining more political influence over the years. As it continues to draw national and international attention, North African governments are finding it increasingly difficult to ignore its calls.The Amazigh people have duly achieved a significant degree of recognition, particularly in Morocco and Algeria. Likewise, their situation is noticeably improving in Tunisia and Libya, bearing in mind that a few decades ago those dominant political narratives presented the Maghreb as totally Arab in language and culture.

Today, the official IRCAM is in full decline. Over the years the Moroccan establishment has used it extensively to subdue the Amazigh and keep at bay the vociferous voices who call for full recognition of Tamazight cultural rights. It is mostly staffed by people from the Association Marocaine de Recherches et d’Echanges Culturels (AMREC) who have from the very beginning been used as the Amazigh arm of the Moroccan establishment to further its own vision of Amazigh culture: obsequious and subservient.And regarding the political implications, the current situation is bittersweet. If states of North Africa want to achieve peace with their Amazigh populations, they need to not only accept the Amazigh culture as Amazigh but part of the countries’ culture as well. This overlapping identity is still a new idea that is just starting to take seed, and if the gap can be filled between government rhetoric and individual activism, acceptance and fair treatment can be achieved.
Amazigh militants and activists are now focusing on greater overt recognition of Amazigh cultural presence by politicians, putting pressure on the governments to adopt the geographical name ‘Great Maghreb’ instead of ‘Arab Maghreb’ for the North Africa region.

Thus, the political movement of the Tafsut Imazighen has both propelled forward and given birth to important cultural vestiges of the assertion of Amazigh identity, leading to the positive developments of the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) in Morocco, the creation of Amazigh radio and television networks, news, and fine arts outlets in theater, literature, and dance and the full recognition of language and civilization in Algeria, as well. Incorporating Tamazight and other aspects of Amazigh identity has occurred since the first recorded colonization attempts by the Phoenicians, and it has survived in this way to the present day, and so it is important to celebrate the appreciation for Amazigh arts in popular culture today in tandem with positive political developments, because their interaction is dynamic.

Mohamed Chtatou

Togo. Anti-regime music.

Sunday, 1 September 2019 8:00

The MAET is the movement of singers and musicians who support the change in Togo. These artists often suffer retaliation. MAET is one of the voices of the opposition to President Faure Gnassingbé, ahead of the 2020 vote.

The busy city road, which takes to the border with Benin, passes through cement plants, refineries, a few strips of cultivated land and many stalls. As the road reaches the sea one can see the coconut palms and the thatched roofs of the beach bars of Avepozo, an elegant neighbourhood of Lomé, Togo, where Don Stash lives. Don is 49, he was a student first, then for some time a worker in France, later he became an activist and he is currently the leader of the MAET (the Mouvement des artistes engagé du Togo), a movement of singers and musicians committed to the change in Togo.

Don Stash, the leader of the MAET (Mouvement des artistes engagé du Togo)

Don Stash is a well-built man with a deep voice and his guitar almost always hanging by the neck. Entire generations of Togolese fell in love thanks to his pop-blues songs.
“We demand rights not only for us the artists but for all the Togolese people, starting from the right to have a democratic government”, he stresses.
Togo gained its independence from France in 1960. A year later, it became a republic with Sylvanus Olympio as its president. Olympio was assassinated by military officers in the 1963 coup . One of the coup leaders was Étienne Eyadéma (later Gnassingbé Eyadéma ) who would become President of Togo in 1967. Since then there has been no government alternation in Togo. In fact, Gnassingbé Eyadéma stayed in power until his death in 2005 when Faure Gnassingbé took over from his father with the support from the army. Doubts regarding the constitutional legitimacy of the succession led to protests and clashes with the army. “I also, like many Togolese, took to the streets and during the clashes with the army a bullet hit me in the head: it’s a miracle, I’m alive”, Don Stash recalls.

In 2010, Faure Gnassingbé won re-election in a disputed vote. The win extended the Gnassingbé family’s rule of Togo to nearly half a century; this is also due to the lack of a cohesive opposition. In 2009 the current President of Togo initiated a project geared towards national reconciliation. His government set up a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (CVJR) to ‘shed light on political violence between 1958 and 2005’. Later Togo’s High Commission for Reconciliation and Reinforcement of National Unity (HCRRUN) opened an office in Atakpame. Several victims of violence received compensation, but many human rights organisations and some opposition political parties object that compensation is not enough and that peace can only come after a proper judicial process. To this day, no-one linked to the 2005 violence has been prosecuted.

Relentless protests

On 19 August, 2017, security forces opened fire to break up demonstrations against the ruling Gnassingbé family dynasty in Sokodé, the second city of Togo and a stronghold of the opposition Pan-African National Party (PNP). Protests then spread throughout the country. Don Stash narrates: “We also protested here in Lomé, we set up a stage and we the musicians tried to mobilize people through our songs. During a demonstration in November, one of our artists, Ras Sankara, was wounded by a bullet: a small gift from the military”.

Eric MC, the “founding father” of the Togolese Rap.

Since those days many things have occurred: the 14 opposition parties have decided to form a coalition, called the C14; several activists had to leave the country, others have been imprisoned or threatened. “We constantly receive criticism from politicians, from the military and also from those common people who are in favour of the government. When we perform concerts we receive anonymous threatening phone calls and insults. I was imprisoned myself after giving a TV interview. I spent six months in the civil prison of Lomé where there are currently more than two thousand detainees, and which was built to host just six hundred prisoners”, Don Stash adds.
Guitarist Yao Jah, who some years ago emigrated to Burkina Faso where he works as an English teacher, said, “My father received threatening phone calls because he and some other people gathered to talk about politics and I also received intimidation only for having issued some public statements. We suspect that some opponents have been silenced through road accidents which by no means occurred by chance… ”.

Government alternation

According to Don Stash, who is also a painter and exhibits his works in Lomé, the government does not guarantee any right to Togolese artists, unless they choose to support Gnassingbé’s policies. “Local televisions or radios often organize debates over politics, economics, education, health between anti- and pro-government artists. So everybody knows our opinions”.

Toofan. They are the young musical generation of Togo. Their musical style, which they call “the Ogbragada”, is a combination of Rap and urban music.

Don Stash’s calm voice shows his love for his country, but also resentment towards those who perform oppression and iniquity. “I would like to leave a better Togo to my son”, he says and picks up his guitar and starts playing his last song (‘Togolese patriots’) under the great mango tree where his child is sleeping peacefully: “We must fight because the country is calling us / things have become very difficult this time, but I know that victory is near”, says the text of the song that calls on the main ethnic groups of Togo: “Come ewe, come kabyé, come kotokoli “. The song is the first of the Togo debout, a collection of 18 songs that the Maet artists released in the summer of 2018. Simply through reading the titles such as ‘Like father, like son’ by the young Ali Cissé or ‘No to the 4^th mandate’ by Eric MC, one can understand the clear criticism of Gnassingbé’s presidency. Don Stash said: “Our songs are punctually censored and our concerts declared illegal, but this does not stop us. We will continue to ask government alternation”.

Stormy months

The parliamentary elections held in Togo in December 2018 were marked by the opposition boycott. A key issue of contention was the need for peaceful transfer of power and term limits. The opposition had called for term limits, which were removed from the Togolese constitution in 2002, to be restored.
The government expressed willingness to re-introduce term limits, but insisted that they not be applied retroactively, which would allow Gnassingbé to run again in 2020 and 2025.

The opposition insisted that they should be retroactive, which would force Gnassingbé to step down in 2020. As a matter of fact the opposition tactic weakened the position of the C14 coalition, while the ruling party won 59 out of 91 seats. Many of the seats that had been held by the opposition were claimed by independents and/or small parties that may be even less able than the C14 to constrain the government. Relinquishing parliamentary seats only made it easier for the government to pass legislation, since they have the seats to pass without support from other parties, while lacking the required majority to change the constitution. Recently, some countries of the Economic Community of West African states (CEDEAO) allegedly suggested that Gnassingbé renounce to run for president in the 2020 election, and choose a confidence man to run in his place, in order to show people at least the facade of a government alternation. Several observers believe that the role of the army will once again be decisive, the army is likely to support Faure: so nothing new will happen.
One thing is for sure, over the next hot months, Don Stash and the Maet movement will make their voice heard, like they did on 12 January of this year, when, once again, they took to the streets to protest: “We are a community of artists who work for the liberation of the Togolese people, our music will heal Togo which is suffering from injustice”.

Antonio Oleari – Giulio Di Meo

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