articles-july 13

Secret Papers Show Papuan Self-Determination Sacrificed to U.S. Courtship of Suharto
Jim Lobe
OneWorld US
Mon., Jul. 12, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jul 12 (OneWorld) - On the 35th anniversary of the so-called "Act of Free Choice" (AFC) that resulted in West Papua's annexation by Indonesia, newly declassified documents depict the administration of President Richard Nixon as unwilling to raise any objections to the process despite its assessment that the move was overwhelmingly opposed by the Papuan people.

The memos were released by the independent National Security Archive (NSA) Friday.

Washington's Cold-War courtship of Gen. Suharto, who had come to power in a military coup d'etat in 1966 and ruled Indonesia with an iron fist until his ouster in 1998, was considered a much higher priority than a plebiscite on independence "which would be meaningless among the stone age cultures of New Guinea," according to a memo by then-national security adviser Henry Kissinger to Nixon on the eve of a meeting with the Indonesian strongman in Jakarta in June, 1969. full article

Suits claim Indian school abuses
By Chet Brokaw, Associated Press Writer

PIERRE - Former students who allege they were abused at Indian boarding schools in South Dakota are suing the Roman Catholic Church and the religious organizations that ran the schools.

The lawsuits, which seek damages for students allegedly hurt at St. Paul's School in Marty and St. Francis Mission School on Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, will be filed in state circuit courts today in Sioux Falls and Rapid City, according to Gary Frischer, a legal consultant in the cases.

Many of the same former students are plaintiffs in a similar lawsuit filed last year against the federal government. That lawsuit contends that the federal government failed in its duty under treaties to protect the Indian students who were sent to boarding schools nationwide. full article

Tribes don't compete for dollars

By: M.B. 'Sonny' Magante - Commentary

Rincon Tribal Chairman John Currier should stop complaining about the five tribes signing new compacts with the state and be thankful for his own tribe's casino near the main highway. The joint venture with Harrah's of Las Vega has made the Rincon tribe successful in the casino business.

The Pauma Band of Mission Indians was very happy to see Rincon grow from a temporary, midsize casino to a permanent structure with 1,700 to 2,000 slot machines and a large hotel. Several years ago, the Paumas contemplated building a larger casino and hotel, but the tribe decided to hold off until the Pala and Rincon bands finished their projects.

When the Rincons expanded their business, Currier wasn't concerned about the Pauma casino and how much business the Rincons may take away from our tribe. full article

Fallon tribe concerned over sacred sites

ASSOCIATED PRESS
7/12/2004 11:48 pm

FALLON (AP) — Leaders of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe are asking for more protection of area sites sacred to them that are being desecrated as more people move to Churchill County.

The tribe is urging creation of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern on 22,477 acres surrounding the Grimes Point Archaeological Area off U.S. 50, about 11 miles east of Fallon, and on nearly all of the Stillwater Mountain range northeast of there.

Their proposals, submitted to the Bureau of Land Management in April, contend that mining activity, off-roading, vandalism and looting have disturbed sacred places in these areas. Although the tribe submitted the proposals on April 29, the BLM did not release them until last week. Important Indian sites are spread out over the Grimes Point area, said BLM official Teresa Knutson, and several of them have been sacked by looters over the past few years.

“It’s been pretty pathetic,” Knutson said. full article

Scientists Mobilize To Conduct Nutrition Research Among American Indians
By Rosalie Marion Bliss
July 13, 2004
Agricultural Research Service scientists have identified several nutritional and physical activity factors that affect chronic health diseases among American Indians.

Jacqueline S. Gray, a postdoctorate researcher with the ARS Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center (GFHNRC) in Grand Forks, N.D., used a mobile nutrition research laboratory to access powwows and reservations to collect data. This month, she returns to the tribes to present research findings.

American Indian tribes, considered sovereign domestic nations, are among the most impoverished of minority groups in America. They experience a disproportionately high incidence of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Native Americans also have the highest per-capita suicide rate, nearly two-and-a-half times the national average and more than four times the national average among 15- to 24-year-olds. full article

Uighur Militant Reported Executed by China
Jim Lobe
OneWorld US
Tue., Jul. 13, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jul 13 (OneWorld) - The reported execution of an alleged Uighur "separatist" in China's Xinjiang province is adding to concern by human rights groups that Beijing is taking advantage of the ongoing "war on terrorism" to crack down on the predominantly Muslim indigenous population in its westernmost territory.

Kuerban Tudaji was reportedly sentenced to death on June 30 after his conviction for "manufacturing explosives, firearms and ammunition" as part of an effort to "split the country" and "organize terrorist training" between 1998 and 2000.

Amnesty charged in its report released last Wednesday that tens of thousands of people in XUAR have been detained since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York and the Pentagon. After the attacks, Beijing swiftly pledged its cooperation in the "war on terror" and intensified its crackdown against the Uighur population of about seven million.

"China has repackaged its repression of Uighurs as a fight against 'terrorism,'" Amnesty said in its latest report. "Since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the USA, the Chinese government has been using 'anti-terrorism' as a pretext to increase its crackdown on all forms of political or religious dissent in the region." It noted that the crackdown has continued despite the fact that the head of XUAR's government admitted last April that "not one incident of explosion or assassination took place (there) in the last few years." full article

A colourful mix of cultures seek justice
July 14, 2004

A landmark case is being played out in the Kalahari Desert to determine the fate of the San Bushmen. David Blair reports from New Xade, Botswana.

Bushmen wearing antelope horns mingled with lawyers in flowing robes yesterday when Botswana's High Court assembled in a remote desert outpost to hear a landmark case that will decide the future of the Kalahari's oldest residents.

Three judges began hearing an appeal against the Government's policy of evicting Bushmen from their desert homes and to allow those who have left the right of return.

The case opened with all the ceremony of the British colonial era in the Kalahari settlement of New Xade.

It follows Botswana's removal of 1550 San Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in the past seven years and represents their last chance to salvage something of their way of life. full article

The CIA and Iraq
An Intelligence Debacle...and Worse
By RAY McGOVERN
Former CIA analyst

In our various oral and written presentations on Iraq my veteran intelligence officer colleagues and I took no delight in sharply criticizing what we perceived to be the corruption of intelligence analysis at CIA. Nothing would have pleased us more than to have been proven wrong. It turns out we did not know the half of it.

Several of us have just spent a painful weekend digesting the report of the Senate Intelligence Committee on prewar intelligence assessments on Iraq. The corruption is far deeper than we suspected. The only silver lining is that the corrupter-in-chief, George Tenet, is now gone.

When the former CIA Director departed Sunday, he left behind an agency on life support-an institution staffed by sycophant managers and thoroughly demoralized analysts. The analysts are embarrassed at their own naiveté in believing that the passage carved into the marble at the entrance to CIA Headquarters-"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free"-held real meaning for their work. full article

Whitewash!

by Paul Craig Roberts
The real purpose of a government report is to place the blame where it does the least damage to the political party in office.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq" carefully follows this time-honored rule. At the July 9 press conference heralding the release of the committee's report, Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kans.) blamed the misinformation used to start a war on a "flawed process" that would be fixed with "reforms."

The Republicans hope to shift the media's focus away from those responsible for launching a war to a debate over how a "flawed intelligence process" should be reformed. Fox "News" and other Republican propaganda organs will fall in with the program. full article