International Politics: October 2004 Archives

World News, Kathmandu,Nepalese police have arrested eight people, including a religious teacher from Jammu and Kashmir, on suspicion of aiding anti-India activities from the kingdom.

Officials here said Bashir Ahmad, a maulana or religious teacher from Jammu and Kashmir, was arrested from a madrassa or Islamic seminary in the Swayambhu area in Kathmandu, a popular pilgrimage site famed for the Buddhist shrine of Swayambhunath.

Sunday October 10, 2004 1:46 AM

PROUT Editor's note: There ought to be a law that if a man never reads a newspaper or book, if he cannot hold his own in a debate without getting prompts via a hidden earphone, and if his IQ is established as 91 - below the normal range of 100 - such a man ought not to be allowed to run for the Presidency. There have to be minimal criteria for a man/woman to run for president of a country. In contrast to Bush, President Clinton and also President John Kennedy both read at LEAST ten newspapers daily to keep themselves personally informed as to what was happening in the world. How can you fulfill the responsibilities of the job - of the Presidency - if you have no idea what is happening in the world? The foolish, politically illiterate American public is responsible for allowing themselves to be so easily hoodwinked by "a nice guy" and not to look deeper and behind the scenes at the real character of the man!
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by Adam Wolfe on October 11, 2004

On October 6, 2004, Tony Blair became the first British prime minister to visit
an independent Sudan. His brief trip to Khartoum yielded a promise from
President Omar el-Bashir to comply with a list of five demands to alleviate the
crisis in the western province of Darfur and move toward a comprehensive peace agreement. This will not be the first time el-Bashir disappoints a Western
government seeking a peace treaty, but Khartoum's failure to heed Blair's
warning may lead to a collapse of his country -- regardless of how swiftly the
Darfur crisis is solved.

By Norm Dixon / Green Left Weekly

For at least 18 months now, Western governments have quietly stood by as the non-Arabic-speaking black farmers of the Darfur region in western Sudan have borne the brunt of a vicious ethnic-cleansing campaign carried out by state-sponsored bandits known as the janjaweed.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Republic of Cuba,
at the 59th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. New York,
24 September 2004.

Mr. President:

Every year at the United Nations we go through the same ritual. We attend the general debate knowing beforehand that the clamour for justice and peace by our underdeveloped countries will be ignored once again. However, we persist. We know that we are right. We know that one day we will accomplish social justice and development. We also know that such assets will not be given away to us. We know that the peoples will have to seize them from those who deny us justice today, because they underpin their wealth and arrogance on the disdain for our grief. But it will not be always like this. We say so today with more conviction than ever before.