La rue contre la présidente en Corée
Alors que le nord de la péninsule coréenne est sous l'emprise du culte de personnalité du dictateur de Pyongyang, le sud est-il dirigé par une présidente sous influence occulte? Voilà le scandale qui semblerait secouer la maison bleue, siège de la présidente Park Geun-hye, dont la confidente Choi Soon-sil, une amie de longue date, est la fille d'un mystérieux pasteur qui aurait à sa mort hérité de son influence.
Celle-ci, dénommée «Raspoutine» par la presse, a été arrêtée par la justice coréenne et inculpée pour fraude et abus de pouvoir. Soon-sil se serait servie de ses liens avec la présidente pour obtenir des documents secrets et participer à des prises de décision. Sa proximité à Park et son influence lui aurait permise entre autre de forcer des conglomérats à verser des dizaines de millions de dollars à deux fondations dont elle aurait bénéficié par la suite.
Secouée par le scandale et les manifestations qui se sont emparées des rues de Séoul, Park a, les larmes aux yeux, avoué avoir fait preuve de faiblesse, citant son «existence solitaire» et ses insomnies à la tête de l'état. «Rétrospectivement, je me suis permis de baisser la garde alors qu’elle était à mes côtés dans des moments difficiles, dit-elle lors d'une allocution en direct sur les ondes. J’avais confiance, mais j’ai été négligente, pas assez dure envers mes connaissances. […] Ces derniers développements sont tous de ma faute.»
Elle s’est dite «prête à répondre avec sincérité aux enquêtes des procureurs», qui ont également épinglé deux de ses conseillers. Elue première présidente de l'histoire coréenne en 2013, Park est la fille de l’ex-dictateur Park Chung-hee, qui aurait à un jeune âge eu comme mentor Choi Tae-Min, père de Soon-sil et chef religieux proche du pouvoir.
Le scandale a suscité un vif émoi au sein de la société coréenne, craignant que la direction du pays soit sous influence, alors qu'elle doit faire d'une grande vigilance face à la menace qui pèse à quelques kilomètres au nord de Séoul, de l'autre côté de la zone démilitarisée. «Personne ne sait réellement ce qui se passe au sein la présidence Park, explique à Libération Lim Ji-hyun de l'université Sogang à Séoul. Le système présidentiel a dégénéré vers une concentration du pouvoir dans les mains de quelques-uns. La culture extrêmement hiérarchique au sein de la société coréenne rend difficile toute démocratisation des institutions. Et toute la dimension chamanique dans cette affaire-là choque aussi beaucoup les Coréens, y compris parmi les électeurs de Park."
Park nie cependant qu'il y ait eu quelque rite chamanisme à la maison bleue, tel que véhiculé par la presse nationale.
L'histoire peut paraitre familière. A l'époque des premiers liens entre Park et Soon-sil, un autre chef spirituel, le révérend coréen Sun Myung Moon, étendait son influence aux Etats-Unis, ou il avait déménagé, nouant des liens avec plusieurs politiciens, de Nixon à la famille Bush et même Mikhail Gorbatchev.
Le pays est d'autant plus sous tension qu'il craint tout changement potentiel de coopération militaire avec les Etats-Unis, qui ont un rôle central au sein de la zone de démilitarisation séparant le nord du sud. Pendant la campagne Donald Trump avait laissé entendre qu'il chercherait à se désengager de la région, ou plus de 28000 GIs sont déployés.
Mais lors d'un entretien téléphonie avec Park par la suite, ce dernier aurait tenté de rassurer que :« Les Etats-Unis maintiendront des mesures fortes et solides pour défendre la Corée du Sud ».
Une ville canadienne en finale
Une équipe canadienne dans une grande finale de sport Nord américain, Voila longtemps qu'on avait pas vu ça, surtout dans un sport autre que le hockey.
C'est ce que une garantit la finale de l'est de la Major League Soccer entre Toronto et Montreal, première depuis l'intégration des clubs canadiens dans la ligue nord américaine.
Le parcours n'a pas été facile, L'Impact parvenant à se qualifier en série in extremis après une saison plutôt ordinaire (11-12-11) durant laquelle l'étoile Didier Drogba a été blessée. Mais lorsqu'il a fait son retour en match retour à New York, sol ou l'impact ne l'avait jamais remporté, c'était pour enfoncer le clou dans le cercueil après la victoire du match aller.
Avant lui le gardien Bush avait donné le ton au match en arrêtant un penalty, suivi de deux buts du 10 montréalais d'Ignacio Piatti. Pour Toronto le parcours était plus facile, connaissant sa meilleure saison en 2016. Le match retour de la demi-finale de l'est contre un autre club New yorkais a déçu les partisans au Yankee stadium, le FC signant un gain de 5-0 plutôt rare dans le sport.
Voila cinq ans qu'un club canadien n'a pas évolué en finale de grande ligue en Amérique du Nord. L'an dernier le club d'Ottawa s'était bien rendu en finale de la NASL, et plus tôt dans son histoire l'Impact avait bien été sacré champion de la A league, mais la MLS règne aux plus hauts échelons du foot Nord américain, ligue ou ont évolué des stars more nodales en fin de carrière dont Beckham et le 11 de Montreal lui-même.
Trump elected president
After a bitter and divisive campaign reaching new heights of toxicity replete with shocks and scandals, American voters delivered the most stunning outcome on election night, electing an unconventional billionaire and denying the country its first female president.
The Republican candidate's victory defied almost all projections and polls by providing a swing of the pendulum deemed too unlikely due to the controversial nature of the candidate.
Donald Trump however managed to tap into the anger of frustrations of a largely white male electorate, pledging following his election that those who had been ignored by the political elite would be "ignored no more."
The results were catastrophic for Democrats who touted Hillary Clinton as the most experienced and level-headed candidate for the job, but was seen as a typical insider when the mood of the country called for change, eight years after a similar swing ushered in President Obama.
The win also starts a period of serious introspection in the GOP, whose leaders sometimes refused to endorse Trump, who late in the race still threatened to run as a third party candidate. Republicans also controlled the House and Senate at the end of the night, showing to what extent Trump had galvanized supporters.
The election of the businessman ironically sent markets reeling across the world and drove oil prices and currencies down as world leaders rushed to seek to meet with the president elect.
Democrats knew they were in trouble during the evening when Republicans picked up their usual states while races remained tight in key battlegrounds the Democrats were hoping to hold on to.
Major victories in Texas, Florida and Ohio made the path to the presidency more difficult for Hillary Clinton, who counted on few pick ups.
Trump's victory was greeted by shock and groans abroad, and left many to wonder and worry how much he would follow through in his campaign promises, which sometimes turned even his own party against him.
His victory speech did not mention ending Obamacare, building a wall or renegotiating trade deals but Trump said he would put America first in all its foreign dealings and said he would harness the country's potential to create jobs, double growth and rebuild its infrastructure.
Trump took a conciliatory tone, reached out to those who did not vote for him and said he would work to create unity. He also sought to end the animosity with the GOP, which controls both houses.
The stunning victory, against a seasoned candidate that represented beltway politics was the latest win by anti establishment forces after the outcome of the Brexit vote.
House Speaker Paul Ryan sought to dispel notions past differences would impede running government in the years ahead stressing Trump would "lead a unified republican government," noting he had
"Pulled off an enormous political feat."
Making her concession speech on the next day Clinton apologizes for losing the election and said she hoped Trump will be a successful president for all Americans.
"We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead," she said but added Americans had to defend their values. In an emotional speech she evoked the hope the "glass ceiling" would be broken sooner than later, and allow a first woman to serve as president.
President Obama, who had campaigned heavily for Clinton, a former rival he had made Secretary of State, said he and Trump had done pretty significant differences but noted his predecessor had made ensuring the transition smooth, and instructed his team to follow they example.
"We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country"
Trump's demise was predicted many times by pundits and political observers, before the New Hampshire primary, Super Tuesday and convention.
A controversial figure, his election was favorable welcomed in some quarters, in Russia and Israel, two countries that saw US ties deteriorate over the last mandates.
Markets even seemed to adjust after their early scares and following Trump's speech, turning negatives into positives on November 9th.
Les flibustiers d'Islande
Lorsqu'est venu le temps de régler les comptes avec leurs tortionnaires, les Islandais ne sont pas allez de main morte après la crise financière de 2008: ils ont envoyé plusieurs banquiers en prison et presque même le premier ministre de l'époque, qui a du promptement quitter son poste.
Faut-il s'étonner que cet électorat insulaire ait permis au parti de la piraterie de faire une percée lors des dernières élections pour guider le navire fondé par des vikings? Branché, promoteur de la transparence, quelque peu anarchiste et plutôt hors norme, le parti a triplé le nombre de sièges, bien qu'avec ses 14% des résultats il soit tombé bien à court des prédictions. Mais autant dire que l'appel au changement avait pondu un résultat plutôt concret.
Fortement sanctionné, le parti de l'indépendance a obtenu 30% des suffrages, suivi du mouvement des verts et de gauche avec 16%. Le premier, un parti de centre droite qui a dirigé le pays pendant la plus grande partie de son histoire, a durement été sanctionné pour avoir été au pouvoir pendant la crise de 2008. Il reste cependant parmi les favoris et risque de jouer un rôle dans le prochain gouvernement de coalition comme il l'a fait dans le précédent. Mais les pirates refusent de travailler avec cette ancienne garde.
Selon Brigir Armannsson, membre du parti, la solution pour l'Islande à long terme reste d'élire le parti de l'indépendance, notant que les pirates "peuvent vous dire ce qu'ils rejettent mais il est difficile de savoir ce qu'ils veulent vraiment."
Le résultat avait tout de même de quoi surprendre la fondatrice du parti pirate Birgitta Jonsdottir. "Les gens veulent le vrai changement et savent qu'il faut changer le système, il faut moderniser notre manière de faire les lois".
Celle-ci n'a nullement l'intention de devenir premier ministre, mais dit que son parti est prêt à former le pouvoir avec d'autres formations faisant appel "à un changement fondamental du système", donc excluant les partis établis de longue date: "l'Islande en a marre de la corruption et du népotisme," dit-elle.
Les idées du parti à ce sujet son plutôt modernes, privilégiant les référendums par voie électronique pour initier les politiques, formant une petite Suisse au nord du soixantième parallèle. Les fuites des documents de Panama ont davantage enragé une plèbe encore blessée par la crise financière, rappelant les liens douteux entre le pouvoir et les compagnies offshore. Le premier ministre a dû quitter ses fonctions en conséquent.
"Le manque de confiance qui germait a finalement explosé, explique au Washington Post la politologue Ragnheithur Kristjandottir, les pirates sont portés par cette vague".
Le parti pirate est en fait inspiré par un mouvement pan national né du même nom en Suède en 2006, propulsé par le débat sur le changement des droits d'auteurs. Une version à vite suivi aux États-Unis et en Autriche la même année. Il y en existe même un enregistré au Canada depuis 2009.
Le parti avait précédemment obtenu ses meilleurs résultats en Suède avec 7% des intentions de vote. Lors de la dernière élection il a franchi les 5% en Islande. Le pays se porte tout de même beaucoup mieux, une poussée du tourisme lui permettant de croître de l'ordre de 4,3% cette année.
Walking the talk in Manila
After a few months in office, he has launched an anti-crime agenda resulting in the deaths of thousands of suspected drug dealers, made smoking illegal in public spaces and announced a realignment of the country's foreign policy away from the U.S. and closer to China and Russia. Some fear he's just getting warmed up.
Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte has walked the talk, his first 100 days still in full swing, and this has shocked countrymen only too aware of his penchant for lewd comments and foul language. Elected for a get-tough approach on crime which had applied during his time as mayor of the southern city of Davao, Duterte has brought fear to criminals big and small, sometimes targeted by vigilantes only too happy to cash in on his policies, winning him some public praise.
“All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you,” he warned during the campaign. Adding later: “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.” When actions followed the words, few were surprised the Philippines had taken up with a hard line seen before on the continent, where severe punishment for drug-related offences has been served from Thailand and Indonesia to Vietnam and China.
The death toll, over 2,300 people including one city mayor, which grew following cash and reward programs, alarmed international rights groups such as Amnesty International and local politicians who sought to launch an inquiry into the extrajudicial killings. The head of the Senate’s Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Leila de Lima, however faced severe backlash by supporters of a politician enjoying sweeping support for his policies.
In October Duterte announced another controversial policy, the banning of smoking in 100% of public places, to again reflect policies he had instituted in his 22 years as mayor. There again he was expected to face little opposition.
But when Duterte announced he was "separating" from the United States in October, after a state visit to China, government officials scrambled to clarify he didn't mean Manila would sever ties with Washington, but rather realign, or balance a foreign policy heavily invested in U.S. ties.
Manila is after all certainly closer to the U.S. than China on the issue of contested waters in the South China Sea. But both countries seemed to be willing to talk each other out of these tensions, while Duterte focused his animosity towards the U.S.
A month earlier Obama had cancelled a meeting with Duterte after he had reacted harshly to indications the U.S. president would raise the issue of extrajudicial killings: "I am no American puppet," he had told a rally. "Son of a bitch I will swear at you," he added, referring to Obama.
This sort of outburst has left a number of Filipino lawmakers shaking their heads early into the highly popular Duterte presidency. "(He) has a really inflated, if not delusional, view of himself as a strongman at the level of China and Russia's leadership," Senator Lima said in a statement.
Others such as Former Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario expressed concerns about reaching out to other countries who do not necessarily share "our core values of democracy (and) respect for human rights." "Casting aside a longtime reliable ally to hastily embrace an aggressive neighbor that vehemently rejects international law is both unwise and incomprehensible," he said in a statement.
Softening the tone one day did nothing to change Duterte's tune on U.S. relations, saying on the eve of a visit to Japan he refused to let Washington treat his country "like a dog with a leash", and warned he could put an end to the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement "If I stay here long enough."
"I do not want to see any military man of any other nation except the Filipino," he said. "That's the only thing I want."
He later set a timeline of two years for the departure of American soldiers, choosing to announce this during a visit to Japan, a country which has had a permanent U.S. military presence since the Second world war.
"I want them out and if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, I will," he said, to his guest's surprise. Years removed from the large military presence of Subic Bay, the U.S. maintains a small number of Special Forces on the southern island of Mindanao to help fight terrorism still prevalent in the South.
The repeated targeting upset officials at the State Department, but they noted longstanding U.S.-Filipino relations would endure.
"We've seen a lot of this sort of troubling rhetoric recently, and this is not a positive trend," spokesperson Julia Mason said. "This recent string of comments that do not reflect the warmth, breadth and depth of the US-Philippines partnership."
But last week when the U.S. decided to halt plans to sell 26,000 assault rifles to police because of its recent record, the news didn't go down so well in Manila, where Duterte criticized U.S. officials as "monkeys" for denying the sale, saying he may look to China instead.
"Son of a bitch we have many home made guns here," he said. "These American fools".
Haiti, perpetually tested
In a land of believers, the challenges
are perpetual. Worshippers still gather at churches across Port au
Prince destroyed after the terrible 2010 earthquake that killed
thousands and from which the country has yet to recover, scores of its
survivors still living in rescue tents meant to be temporary. Business
shacks and popular tap tap transports regularly carry odes to the
Almighty, or psalms on their sides, imploring perpetually. Faith, so
often tested, as its people, survives, but barely.
Earthquakes,
cholera, pover-ty, Haiti has seen it all, but never does it seem to
find the moment to recover, to rebuild, before the next disaster hits.
When Hurricane Matthew ravaged the west of the country this month, it
found many of its victims without shelter, without cover, without
resources. Days later the overworked rescue teams, supported by
international specialists who had rushed back, were still finding bodies
left in its wake, as the toll climbed over 1000.
President
Jocelerme Privert, the president of the Senate and current caretaker -
as Haiti is to hold much delayed presidential elections - was
overlooking the frantic rescue effort as the country observed days of
mourning for the victims. The election, already rescheduled to Oct. 10
after the results of the long awaited previous call to the polls were
thrown out following evidence of widespread fraud - restaging a vote the
country can ill afford-, are to be held in November despite the
emergency.
Delayed repeatedly, to the point of leaving the
country without an elected head of state, and run by a caretaker already
over his mandated 120 days in office, the election is only the second
since the devastating earthquake of 2010. In April UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-Moon had stated the country should immediately hold the election,
noting Haiti "can ill afford a period of prolonged transitional
governance while facing major socio-economic and humani-tarian
challenges."
Now he was back to assess the damage and those
challenges have only become more acute, with 80% of the buildings in the
town of Jérémie having crumbled and reports of new cases of cholera
rising from amid the debris. In many areas, the debris was never cleared
from the 2010 quake, and the trauma of the experience is far from
removed. The hurricane has added 60,000 people living in temporary
shelters, to the tens of thousands who never found a permanent home
after 2010.
"We are not far from having one million people who
are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance," said UN humanitarian
coordinator Mourad Wahba. The survivors faced shortages of immediate
services, but the country was facing more long term difficulties after
the storm destroyed large areas of crops, adding food insecurity to the
list of ills facing Haiti. The news was particularly devastating for
Jérémie, which had recently received improved road and phone
communications with the rest of the country, and now was once again
looking at the task of rebuilding.
“Instead of going forward, we
have to restart,” said Marie Roselore Auborg, the regional minister for
commerce and industry. “This storm leveled all of the potential we had
to grow and reboot our economy.” The hurricane has affected more than
just Jérémie. Some 300 schools nationwide were said of having been
destroyed, touching 100,000 children. WHO was mobilizing some 1 million
doses of cholera for Haiti while the UNHCR made an appeal for nearly
$120 million in aid, saying about 750,000 people in southwest Haiti
alone will need "life-saving assistance and protection" in the next
three months.
But soon after the UN was deploring a slow
response. Nationwide some 2 million were affected by the storm. "These
numbers and needs are growing as more affected areas are reached," said
Ki-Moon. "Tensions are already mounting as people await help." Indeed
while some areas such as Jérémie were getting much needed assistance,
others complained relief helicopters were buzzing overhead but not
dropping anything off in their equally stricken communities, adding
frustration to suffering as shortages of everything from water and food
to medicine impacted survivors.
This was evident as relief
convoys were often besieged well before their destinations. The scenario
sounds horribly familiar, yet in part to blame are the failures to
learn from emergencies in the past according to some critics. After 2010
some $10 billion were pledged by the international community to
"rebuild better", yet while some 90% of people rendered homeless by the
quake found some form of shelter, it was temporary, and the nature of
the humanitarian relief effort is to blame.
"The humanitarian
industry — and make no mistake, it's an industry — it comes in, it sets
up shop, it will work in different ways until its money runs out," said
Jonathan Katz, author of The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came
to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster. "It doesn't really ever have
to make any effort to ... create institutions that will be there to
outlast it, so that when it leaves it won't need to come back. And
second of all, [the industry doesn't need to] be accountable to the
people it works for."
Underlining the problem, accounts the
American Red Cross built just six permanent homes despite half a billion
dollars pledged. Privert has his hands full, but will have to tackle
the new emergencies by the horn. "What needs to happen is that … there
needs to be a serious effort made to ensure that the help that comes to
help build up the country, and not undercut the country's institutions,'
says Katz
Clashes in Kashmir
Looming state
elections in India are playing no small part in fuelling get tough talk
as Kashmir boils with unrest. The killing of a well known separatist
leader was supposed to quell some of the fighting in the restive
disputed region over the summer, but it only sparked anew an explosive
flash point between two nuclear rivals.
In September India
accused Pakistan of being behind a particularly bloody attack on an army
base which killed 19 soldiers, a charge Islamabad has vehemently
denied.
In response India said it conducted surgical strikes
against militants along the tense border - which has been one of the
world's most dangerous for decades -, but Pakistan blamed the death of
two of its soldiers on cross border shelling.
In early October
Indian soldiers killed seven militants, preventing new attacks on army
bases in the disputed predominately Muslim region claimed by both
countries.
What seems like continuous skirmishing between India
and Pakistan has the potential to draw these neighbours in deeper, a
worry rekindled as recently as last week when two armed militants took
up positions in a government building in Indian Kashmir and traded shots
for days before they were eventually felled by forces.
Hours
later more separatist militants Delhi accuses of being backed by
Pakistan, retaliated by shooting dead a political worker belonging to
Indian controlled Kashmir's ruling coalition, near the line of control.
Since the latest flare up curfews have been imposed in the
area, with internet access and press freedoms also facing constraints by
both sides of the conflict, security services resorting to crackdowns
to cut short popular protests.
Sweeping civilian arrests and
similar acts by Indian security forces are sure to keep the conflict
alive, argues historian Siddiq Wahid. "The quantum of artillery expended
on civilians by the security forces has decreased with October rolling
in, but the fury against the atrocities has not subsided," he says.
These
protests are notable, he adds in a piece in The Wire, in that their
participants, of different areas and stripes "have all united in calling
for a resolution of the dispute" and the government should take heed.
But
it may have other things on its mind at the present time, and this
isn't helping one bit. With state elections ahead and prime minister
Narendra Modi promising to be tough on Pakistan, tensions are sure to
remain high.
Signs along highways in Uttar Pradesh for instance
featured the Indian leader with the heading "We will strike with our
gun, and our bullet, in our own time , but in your territory." Another
historian, AG Noorani, calls the recent troubles the territory's third
major crisis since partition, and deplores that while Kashmiris seek a
new order, Delhi's reluctance to make any concessions means "the worst
is yet to come".
"What the country has witnessed since July 8,
2016, in Kashmir is not one of the periodic 'eruptions' there. It is far
graver than even the grave one of 2010," he wrote in the Indian
magazine Frontline. "This one was a virtual revolt waiting to happen. It
will linger" and may in time pit two camps against each other, an India
backed by the U.S. and Pakistan backed by China.
Un nouveau pays?
Les
cendres brûlent encore au sein du plus jeune pays de la planète, où les
éclats ont commencé l'indépendance aussitôt déclarée. Le continent
est-il prêt à accueillir un nouveau membre, dans la corne d'Afrique, ou
l'idée prend-elle elle-même une tournure disons démentielle?
Pourtant
Voilà bien 25 ans que le Somaliland a déclaré son indépendance, soit
bien avant le Sud Soudan, cependant celle-ci n'a pas été reconnue
internationalement. Ceci n'empêche pas des foules du territoire de se
rassembler sous des bannières vert blanc rouge frappées de l'étoile
noire chaque mai à Hargeisa, capitale de cette nation de 3,5 millions
d'habitants parta-geant la côte du golfe d'Aden avec le Djibouti.
Cette
région autonome de 137000 kilomètres carrés est quelque peu oubliée du
reste du monde et voilà qui n'est pas une si mauvaise chose. Car depuis
sa "déclaration" en 1991, période où le reste de la Somalie sombrait
dans le chaos, Somaliland a su éviter les titres de la misère, parvenant
même à une relative stabilité dans cette région chaotique.
Le
territoire jouit de sa propre monnaie, d'une armée, d'un exercice
électoral et d'un passeport propres à lui également. Évidemment il ne
s'agit pas d'un eldorado régional, ses ressortissants prenant avec
autant d"enthousiasme que les voisins le chemin du large vers le
continent de tous les espoirs, le chômage atteignant les 75% chez les
jeunes.
La paix et la stabilité régnante en fait tout de même
une terre d'espoir à en juger le contraste avec la Somalie et sa
capitale terrifiante de Mogadisco. Voilà qui suffit de nourrir les rêves
de véritable indépendance du président Ahmed Silanyo, qui a déclaré
qu'un million de ses citoyens avaient signé une pétition en faveur de la
reconnaissance mondiale du Somaliland.
Évidemment les exemples
régionaux de nouveaux pays, dont l'Erythrée, ne font rien pour rassurer
les instances internationales, mais le territoire pourrait-il faire
exception à la règle? Puis même en Afrique le phénomène de boule de
neige est à la source de toutes les craintes, surtout s'il engage une
région perçue comme la lueur d'espoir du triste cas somalien.
Puis
la séparation pourrait priver le sud de l'accès à la côte nord, sûr
d'envenimer toute relation avec un futur voisin, ce qui n'a pas manqué
au Soudan. Un projet de développement de port à Berbera nourrit
d'ailleurs tous les espoirs, un projet de la firme de Dubai DP World y
voit "un nouveau point d'accès à la mer Rouge qui complètera l'actuel
port de Djibouti".
En attendant les rêves perdurent, une
délégation du Somaliland s'étant rendue au Sud Soudan après
l'indépendance de 2011 portant des vêtements déclarant: Somaliland next.
Ils attendent toujours.
No señor
L'encre était bien
sèche sur papier, les camps réconciliés, enfin presque, les partis unis
afin de mettre une terme à ce Santana conflit colombien responsable de
milliers de morts.
Restait à obtenir l'aval d'une population
prête à tourner la page, à changer l'image ternie de ce pays trop
souvent associé au narcotrafic. Et c'est la où l'effort de paix qui
devait mettre un terme, pour une rare fois, au dernier conflit de
l'hémisphère, a frappé une embûche de taille. Et de peu.
Les
Colombiens ont rejeté l'entente par une marge que le Quebec reconnaît
bien, 50,2%, renvoyant les camps à la table de négociation. Après tant
d'années que sont quelques semaines de plus?
Enfin rien n'est si
sur. Pas plus de 38% des électeurs inscrits s'étaient présentés aux
urnes, conséquences de la paresse démocratique.
Les partisans de
l'ancien président Uribe, qui s'était opposé à l'entente, se sont servi
du vote pour sanctionner l'actuelle présidence faut-il le croire,
laissant le continent quelque peu abasourdi.
En voulant bien
faire et en demandant l'avis du peuple, le camp de l'entente s'est
retrouvé rejeté, malgré des sondages positifs. Ironie du sort, en même
temps un référendum hongrois donnant gain de cause au gouvernement sur
la politique des réfugiés avec une marge importante était annulé, en
raison du faible taux de participation. Mais pas d'élément sauveur en
Colombie.
"C'est un saut dans l'inconnu " estime Adam Isacson du
Washington Office on Latin America. Ébranlé, le président Juan Santos a
promis d'"écouter ceux qui ont dit non et ceux qui ont dit oui. Tout le
monde sans exception veut la paix".
Après quatre ans de
négociations, la déception était également évidente dans le camp
rebelle. "Le FARC maintient sont désir pour une paix durable," déclara
Rodrigo Londono.
Mais plusieurs colombiens étaient découragés du
manque de sanction des rebelles. "Si nous récompensons les délinquants
et les actes e violence nous ne préparons qu'une nouvelle ronde de
violence", deplorait le sénateur Ivan Duque.
The ongoing Syrian tragedy
Sadly
a number of cities have come to symbolize the devastation and misery of
the now five year old Syrian conflict. Homs, Raqqa, Kobane come to
mind, but Aleppo in particular has encapsulated the savagery of this
modern conflict, and so it was little surprise the city of some two
million remaining souls was at the center of the collapse of recent
efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire. The deadly attack of a
humanitarian convoy head-ing for the city marked the end of the latest
hopes to quiet the guns and engage warring parties toward peace, even
deepening divisions between two major actors, the U.S. and Russia.
In
addition this latest failure to launch peace efforts has led some to
throw in the towel on achieving a political solution to the crisis. "In
Syria hundreds of armed groups are being armed, the territory of the
country is being bombed indiscri-minately and bringing a peace is almost
an impossible task now," Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin told his
counterparts.
Russia, one of the major military players in the
conflict, happens to be one country accused of indiscriminate attacks,
to the point that it has been accused of committing war crimes, and
being responsible for the attack on the convoy. With observers claiming
some 9,000 civilians have been killed since the beginning of Russian air
strikes a year ago, the U.S. this week suspended cooperation with
Moscow and ended current talks on the conflict because Russia didn't
heed calls to halt shelling various parts of the city, where rebels
hostile to the Assad regime have been holed up.
Russia's air
strikes have been bolstering the success of Assad's forces on the
ground, but not enough to end the insurgency that has claimed victims as
far south as the capital itself. Practically defiant, and accusing the
U.S. of backing Islamic insurgents, Moscow sent more war planes to the
country, raising already heightened tensions that threaten to cause
turmoil not only in regional affairs, but in already frayed U.S.-Russia
ties. "We have more and more reasons to believe that from the very
beginning the plan was to spare (insurgent group) Nusra and to keep it
just in case for Plan B or stage two when it would be time to change the
regime," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Russia warned the
U.S. against targeting Assad's forces, stressing that toppling the
regime would create a power vaccum sure to pave the way for the takeover
of insurgents and terrorists but critics say Moscow's pounding of
civilian positions is, if anything, creating new recruits for Islamic
rebels. Tensions between Moscow and Washington have reached new levels
as a result, adding to years of growing hostility ever since the
invasion of Crimea.
This has brought NATO to bolster its forces
in Eastern Europe. “Cooperation over Syria was the Obama
administration’s last and best shot for arresting the downward spiral in
the bilateral relationship with Russia,” Andrew Weiss, a former White
House expert on Russia told the New York Times. “The mistrust and
hostility toward the United States by the Russian leadership is real and
growing. It is going to be the driving force behind Russian external
behavior for many years to come.” Adding fuel to the fire was a recent
report formally tying the downing of a Malaysian Airlines plane to fire
from Russia.
Russia has also sent war planes on Arctic
overflights and more recently said it would bolster defenses at an
outpost 50 miles off Alaska. This week the fighter jets of four European
nations scrambled to intercept Russian bombers over the old continent.
Following Washing-ton's move to suspend talks, Moscow suspended an
agreement with the U.S. on the disposal of surplus weapons-grade
plutonium, while a number of Russian media outlets published alarmist
assessments the growing rift could lead to direct clashes between the
two countries. Russia was also introducting a new powerful air missile
system in the conflict, a worrisome development as the Syrian rebels
have no air force of their own.
By some assessments, Moscow may
seize on the distractions of an electoral year to muscle its way. These
tensions have played no small part creating doubt and scepticism among
the major powers trying to end a conflict which has claimed half a
million lives in Syria, creating the greatest refugee crisis since the
Second World War. From the creation of the state of Israel to the Suez
crisis, the Mideast has had a tendency of upsetting relations between
the world's major powers. As a result of the Syrian carnage, which
continues with new Russian air strikes this week, Aleppo was becoming a
ghost town as thousands fled the city anew, the World Health
Organisation pleading for safe routes to be set up in order to allow the
sick and wounded to seek assistance elsewhere.
Medecins sans
frontieres has echoed the UN Secretary General's assessment of the
tragedy unfolding on the ground as "a bloodbath" while one UN official
voiced concerns there could be little left of the city in a matter of
weeks. The rebels have been holding the eastern part of the city, which
was relentlessly targeted by Russian air strikes, killing as many as 250
recently, the vast majority civilians caught in the crossfire. While
Aleppo has been divided for five years, the success of government forces
backed by Iran and Russia have allowed them to cut important rebel
routes, trapping thousands of civilians running out of food and basic
services.
The city has seen devastation over its existence as it
is thought to be one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on
Earth. Over its existence Aleppo was taken by Alexander the Great and
invaded by waves after waves of insurgents including, Persians, Mongols
and Muslims, which resulted in the slaughter of large portions of its
population. In the 12th century a single earthquake, one of the
deadliest in history, is said to have killed thousands. In the midst of
the latest calamity France was driving new efforts to impose a new
ceasefire through a UN resolution, a solution which has failed in the
past.
Canada triumphs again
With Canada winning the
two last world champs and Olympic hockey golds, could the answer to
defeating Team Canada be creating a second team Canada? Sadly we didn't
have the chance to find out, the youthful Connor McDavid-driven Team
North America falling just short of the semis, leaving Canada to defend
its World Cup. It was the other unusual lineup, one made of European
players, that faced Canada in the best of three final.
The
surprising amalgamation of French, Danish and players more familiar
hockey lands such as Slovakia, had defeated Olympic finalist Sweden in
the semis while Canada disposed of Ovechkin's Russia, again. Heading
into the final Canada had been trailing for less than 3 minutes during
the tournament, racking up 19 goals.
It would have been easy for
them to dismiss their opponent, but captain Sidney Crosby, who sought
to add a World Cup title to his collection of Stanley Cup rings and
Olympic gold medals, having been selected in the entry draft the year
after the last tournament, thought otherwise. After Crosby scored to
give Canada an early lead in game one, it never looked back and won the
opener of the best of three finals 3-1.
Game two started on a
different note however, Europe scoring first and maintaining the lead
until the final three minutes of regulation. The team had been improving
steadily throughout the tournament, after a pre-season opener during
which it seemed ill-suited for the smaller North American ice surface.
1981 was the last time European team won Canada/World Cup, would this
strange hockey concoction break the spell?
It was not to be,
even as Team Canada lamented it could play much better, the men in red
and white were too strong. Canada scored twice in the last minutes, one
goal on the power play the other with a man down, to register a 2-1 win
and claim another perfect tournament.
There were times when the
nation would have erupted in celebration, but it has been spoilt for
over a decade now. Gone are the crowds pouring into the streets as they
did after Canada ended a 50-year gold medal drought in Salt Lake City.
That win in fact started a string of international successes including
three golds in four Olympics, six world junior champs and five world
champs, a tournament which hardly sends the best of the best.
While
not entirely pleased with its play, Canada dominated, the elite of the
ice sheet having, despite the strong NHL rivalries which usually pit
them against each other and short adjustment period, learned to play
together right away, according to Crosby, for whom the wins never get
old.
"It's pretty special. It's not easy to do," he said. "A lot
of us were together there in Russia, and the guys who weren't, everyone
just kind of jelled right away. I think everyone understands playing
for Team Canada, people will do whatever it takes to win. To see the
different challenges you have to overcome to win, the big ice in Russia
was the big challenge; here we were facing different challenges, playing
a really stingy defensive team that seemed to capitalize on every
mistake. They were tough to play against and they tested us big time."
Number
87 joined rare company including Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky being
named most valuable player of the World Cup of Hockey as well as the
Hart Trophy and the Conn Smythe Trophy. Canada's dominance of its
national winter sport has not made the tournament must see TV outside
the great white north, yet the NHL indicated it would seek to make it a
regular occurrence, looking ahead to a 2020 rendez-vous.
Violences au Congo
Des
bâtiments carbonisés, des corps impossible à reconnaître, des appels à
la vengeance, l'année électorale atteint des sommets de violence au
Congo. Seulement aucun scrutin n'est prévu, et voilà la raison
principale des violences au sein du géant au cœur de l'Afrique.
Après
près de 20 ans de Kabilas au pouvoir, le refus de l'actuel président de
mettre fin à son mandat cette année et de lancer des élections a
provoqué une crise sanglante sur un continent où la durée des mandats
est un débat criant d'actualité. Joseph Kabila, qui a pris les rênes
après son père depuis déjà 15 ans, a confirmé cette semaine qu'il n'y
aurait aucune élection en 2016, un sujet qui a déjà enflammé la rue et
provoqué des échanges d'incendies de la part des partisans des divers
camps.
Une manifestation contre le pouvoir a en premier lieu
dégénéré, aboutissant à la destruction de plusieurs commerces et d'un
bâtiment du pouvoir. Le lendemain trois quartiers généraux des partis
d'opposition, dont celui de l'Union pour la démocratie et le progrès
social étaient réduits en cendres. Ce dernier est le parti d'Etienne
Tshisekedi, dirigeant d'une manif qui avait servi de "préavis" à Kabila
trois mois avant la fin de son mandat prévue par constitution.
Selon
des témoins il s'agissait de soldats munis de lance roquettes et
d'armes automatiques. Des victimes carbonisées figuraient parmi les
décombres. Un porte parole du pouvoir niait cette version de faits.
"L'armée n'est pas stupide, déclarait Lambert Mende, que vont-ils faire,
tuer des personnes en uniforme?" Ce genre de violence est
malheureusement souvent retrouvé dans les pages du grand grimoire de
l'histoire congolaise, et les organisations des droits de l'homme ont
souvent documenté des actes violents de la part des soldats.
Le
président français accuse d'ailleurs l'"État congolais lui-même"
d'avoir provoqué des "exactions". Selon Mende le président a bien
l'intention de quitter le pouvoir, mais l'annoncer serait semer le chaos
dans un pays où "il doit y avoir un chef en place" en tout temps.
Alors
que les appels à la médiation se poursuivent, l'opposition se dit
pouvoir accepter un délai si Kabila quitte le pouvoir cette année.
L'église catholique, qui durant l'histoire congolaise a joué plusieurs
rôles déterminants, juge également que tout accord devra confirmer que
"Kabila ne sera pas candidat à la prochaine élection" qui doit être
organisée "le plus tôt possible". Or celle-ci ne semble pas se profiler à
l'horizon, des responsables allant même jusqu'à déclarer que quitter le
pouvoir à la fin de son mandat en fin d'année serait
anticonstitutionnel car Kabila n'a pas encore désigné de successeur.
Il
serait même passible de destitution selon un responsable de son parti.
Barnabé Kikaya soutient que Kabila pourrait même subir un procès pour
trahison s'il quittait le pouvoir avant l'élection d'un successeur. Ces
arguments "sont n'importe quoi," estime Hans Hoebeke de l'International
Crisis Group.
"Ils font tout dans leur pouvoir afin de repousser
l'élection," dit-il. Pour la commission électorale d'ailleurs, c'est
presque assuré. Celle-ci a fait savoir que le pays n'organisera sans
doute pas d'élection avant 2018 puisque les listes électorales devront
être mises à jour. "C'est un système autocratique qui se fait passer
pour une démocratie," ajoute Hoebeke .
Kim's big blast
For
years it was hard to take the isolated, ruthless and paranoid hermit
kingdom too seriously, mocking its failed rocket tests and doubting the
veracity of its so-called detonations, especially claims it had set off a
hydrogen bomb. North Korean hackers who broke into Sony's network after
the release of a movie mocking the dictator were the subject of
amusement, even if the horrors of the regime were occasionally reminded
with the rare escape of forced camp survivors or reports of
assassinations of members of the leader's family.
But the
detonation of a nuclear device, its fifth, said of being larger than the
one dropped on Hiroshima, was met with global condemnation and concern
about the regime's ongoing efforts to mount warheads on ballistic
missiles. The nuclear threat seemed a distant one even at a time of
heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow, and more focused on
fears that terror groups would get their hands on enough material to
make a dirty bomb, but this second test this year was enough to shake
the peninsula and rattle much of the civilized world, concerned about
the regime's ongoing obsession with weapons of mass destruction.
"Five
tests in they now have a lot of nuclear test experience," Jeffey Lewis
of the Middlebury institute of international studies told Reuters.
"They aren't a backwards state anymore." Among the stern critics was
one more likely to get Pyongyang's attention, Beijing, saying it
resolutely opposed the tests and would lodge a diplomatic protest. It no
longer mattered the regime didn't always act on its threats, it
represented a "grave" one now to the eyes of the world. But as an irate
US president said he would never recognize North Korea as a nuclear
state there was a realization of the scope of the failures to prevent
the regime from improving its nuclear programme despite the many
sanctions, the latest coming down just earlier this year.
"Sanctions
have already been imposed on almost everything possible," noted Tadashi
Kimiya of the University of Tokyo. "In reality the means by which the
US, South Korea and Japan can put pressure on North Korea have reached
their limits." Not to mention added continuous strains on its suffering
people. Concerned markets tumbled as news of the test took traders
down with them, another sign Pyongyang's latest outburst shouldn't be
taken so lightly.
The UN Security Council concurred, announcing
an emergency session, no doubt giving Kim Jong Un the attention he
craves. It condemned the test and said it would immediately work on a
resolution as members pushed to add new sanctions, following five sets
of earlier sanctions in the last decade, which was immediately ridiculed
by the regime.
"The group of Obamas running around and talking
about meaningless sanctions until today is highly laughable. When their
'strategic patience' policy is completely worn out and they are close
to packing up to move out," the official news agency quoted a North
Korean foreign ministry spokesman as saying. "As we've made clear,
measures to strengthen the national nuclear power in quality and
quantity will continue to protect our dignity and right to live from
augmented threats of nuclear war from the United States," KCNA added.
The
regime said its nuclear card was to prevent US nuclear "blackmail" and
referred to South Korean president Park Geun-Hye as a "dirty whore".
Pyongyang in addition claimed the test showed it had a nuclear warhead
that could be mounted on a missile. The incident ratcheted up tensions
on both sides of the border, the South Korean news agency Yonhap quoting
military sources saying Seoul had a plan to "decimate" areas of
Pyongyang if it felt its neighbour was about to launch a nuclear attack.
Officially the South is at very least calling for more
sanctions, worrying about improvements to the North's nuclear programme.
"It is believed that the North's nuclear capability is becoming more
advanced to a considerable level, and at a faster pace," said Foreign
Minister Yun Byung-Se.
In many respects the country remains
very backwards, choosing to devote its meagre resources not to improve
the lives of its largely famished people, struck by terrible harvests
this year in part due to drought, but to fuel nuclear ambitions.
Ironically days after the test, North Korea’s counsellor at the UN
mission in New York, Jong Kwon, appealed “for an emergency support to
the devastating flood damage area in [North Korea],” which he said
destroyed 17,180 houses and left 44,000 people homeless, killing a dozen
people.
The uncertainty about Jong Un's grip on power may in
addition only be prompting the relatively young leader to multiply
displays of force, shocking world leaders and terrifying its southern
neighbor. An active regional partner, the U.S. sent nuclear capable
bombers over South Korea in a show of force of its own days after the
test. "Today's demonstration provides just one example of the full range
of military capabilities in the deep resources of this strong alliance
to provide and strengthen extended deterrence," said General Vinvent
Brooks.
"North Korea's nuclear test is a dangerous escalation
and poses an unacceptable threat." Over the summer South Korea announced
it was beefing up defences with plans to deploy a US missile defence
system, unnerving China, which feared it also could be targeted. The
deployment is dividing South Koreans, many of whom have family members
in the North, and fear it could simply escalate tensions further.
North
Korea greeted the flyovers with derision, calling the display
"bluffing" and "blustering". "The US imperialists keep letting their
nuclear strategic bombers fly over South Korea in a bid to seek an
opportunity of mounting a preemptive nuclear attack," KCNA said,
warning: "They had better stop their rash actions."
Baby Steps
Nearly
20 years after it was designated a Special Administrative Region in the
bosom of the middle kingdom, Hong Kong has served notice it wants to
maintain its own voice by electing half a dozen members of the umbrella
protest movement, more keen to challenge Chinese rule in the dynamic
city.
They represent a small share of the 70-member legislative
assembly, but their election underlines the current of dissatisfaction
towards Beijing, two years after mass protests sought but predictably
failed to have the former territory's leader directly elected. In all
some thirty pro-democracy candidates were elected, enough to veto major
constitutional changes.
Needless to say the powers that be were
little pleased, warning that separatism would not be tolerated.
Pro-Beijing officials stressed they were "resolutely opposed " to "any
form of Hong Kong independence activities inside or outside" the
legislature, while the Xinhua news agency called the movement a threat
to the country's sovereignty and security.
Combined with
protest movements in Taipei which paralysed the legislature there over
Taiwan's relation with mainland China, this has left Beijing on edge
about regional resistance to Chinese rule. The China Daily even
proposed, in an opinion piece, "lock gates" to keep the separatists out
of the legislature, including the need for nominees to make a
"declaration to the effect that the person will uphold the basic law and
pledge allegiance" to China.
But the victory has been sweet for
Nathan Law, a 23 year old student who led the 2014 protests, the
youngest member in the legislature's history. But even he toned down his
messaging, stressing shortly after the win "I'm not advocating
independence, I'm advocating Hong Kong people should enjoy rights of
self determination", a term which however is not one Beijing wants to
hear either.
Nor is his call for a referendum to "decide Hong
Kong's sovereignty" in the next decades. "The tough battle has just
begun and we have to be prepared and fight against the Communist party."
With the years ticking away until the 50-year limit of the one country
two system guarantees, citizens of the city prize their freedoms,
including a right to protest that is the envy of the rest of China.
Sometimes its citizens even seem to want to make up for the lack of
militancy elsewhere.
This week dozens took to the streets of the
metropolis, not to voice their concerns about Beijing's stance on the
vote but to protest the arrest of popular village chief Lin Zuluan in
nearby Guangdong province. Wukan is where a protest over land grabs
years ago forced authorities to back down and allow for direct local
elections, something sure to catch the ears of Hong Kongers.
"Five
years ago the Communists promised that there would be genuine
elections," said a local lawmaker. "And it happened for a while but
after five years it was torn down." The territory is also fond of its
free press. The Hong Kong Journalists Association condemned Chinese
officials after some of its reporters trying to cover clashes between
the villagers and local police were roughed up by authorities.
The
correspondents said they were beaten and detained trying to do their
jobs, something they called the sad reality of covering news in mainland
China. By some accounts villagers were encouraged by local officials to
denounce reporters working there.
Après Karimov
Dans
l'antre du monde autocratique , kafkaien et quelque peu fantasmagorique
du grand despote de Tashkent on s'était déjà dans le passé adonné au jeu
spéculatif sur l'état de santé d'Islam Karimov. Mais quand la nouvelle
de sa mort a finalement été confirmée, plusieurs jours après les faits,
certains dirigeants étrangers avaient déjà envoyé leurs messages de
sympathies.
Pas étonnant étant donné la nature du régime
Karimov, qui devrait bien se poursuivre sous son successeur; on aurait
mieux fait d'envoyer un message de pitié au peuple souffrant de 30
millions d'habitants après des décennies de gouvernance insoutenable.
Répression, surveillance obsédée et corruption sans bornes ont poursuivi
leur cours après l'éclatement des républiques, formant un club de la
misère avec les pays voisins. Peu étonnant que Poutine ait exprimé sa
douleur durant les jours de deuil, un geste qui se veut à la fois un
souhait du statu quo. A l'heure actuelle il est difficile d'imaginer
quelque change-ment, quelque soulagement en vue pour les Ouzbeks.
La
succession pas encore nette, et Karimov y était un peu pour
quelquechose là dedans, Tashkent exprimait son désir de renforcer les
liens avec une Russie beaucoup plus à son goût que lors des premières
années de la séparation post-communiste. Cette déclaration du premier
ministre Shavkat Mirziyoyev le plaçait en excellente posture pour
poursuivre les excès de son prédécesseur.
Celui-ci, en poste
depuis 2003 et proche du renseignement, deviendrait le premier véritable
nouveau dirigeant ouzbek quand on pense que Karimov était déjà en poste
avant l'écroulement du mur. A preuve sans doute, le fait que celui qui
devait à priori occuper le poste de chef d'état intérimaire, le
président de la chambre haute, a vite fait de laisser sa place à
Mirziyoyev, qui a du coup déclaré sa candidature en vue des élections de
décembre.
Cet exercice électoral est évidemment fidèle au grand
art théâtral des pays de l'Europe de l'est. Proche de Moscou, ce géant
d'Asie centrale est devenu expert en matière de jouer sur différents
fronts à son avantage et équilibrer ses alliances, penchant parfois vers
la Russie, parfois vers Washington en raison de sa position stratégique
dans la région. Résultat, il s'attire à la fois les éloges et les
critiques de divers camps, selon la saison.
"A chaque fois qu'il
avait l'air de s'approcher d'un pays important, il bâtissait des liens
avec d'autres puissances intelligemment, fait remar-quer Gulshan
Sachdeva de l'école des études internationales à Delhi, cela n'a pas
toujours fait de lui un partenaire très fiable, néanmoins il a réussi à
conserver une politique extérieure plutôt indépendante malgré des
circonstances difficiles".
Ainsi Tashkent a aussitôt fait de
tendre la main vers les Etats-Unis, cherchant un maintien de relations
stables. En plus de connaître une importante position straté-gique le
pays d'Asie centrale repose sur des ressources minérales fort
intéressantes. Mais l'agriculture souffre et les revenus d'Ouzbeks
travaillant en Russie fondent, d'où la crainte de tensions futures.
Le désordre au Gabon
Depuis
l'indépendance les Gabonais n'ont connu que deux noms à la présidence,
celui de M'Ba, le premier, vite oublié, et celui de Bongo, perpétué
depuis 1973 à la première élection d'Omar. Mais la dernière ré-élection
de son fils, Ali, n'a pas eu lieu sans éclats, morts, blessés et
arrestations. Cette fois l'opposition a refusé de se plier aux résultats
du vote, donnant Bongo vainqueur par 5000 voix, son chef Jean Ping
promettant de poursuivre le combat tout en se déclarant vainqueur.
Alors
que règne l'incertitude et l'instabilité, la crise a déjà fait une
victime politique, soit le ministre de la justice Seraphin Moundounga,
qui a choisi de rendre sa démission après les éclats et semé du fait le
doute sur la version officielle du gouver-nement. L'ONU a fait appel au
calme dans les deux camps, exigeant plus de retenue et la poursuite des
efforts de médiation engagés par son envoyé spécial.
Le camp
Ping estime que plusieurs incidents de fraude on eu lieu lors du
scrutin, notamment à Haut-Ogooue, province de Bongo, dont les résultats
dévoilaient un appui au président dépassant les 95%. Ping fait appel au
recomptage, ce que refuse le pouvoir. Les deux camps ne s'entendent
également pas sur le compte des victimes de violences, l'opposition
parlant de douzaines de victimes alors que le gouvernement fait état de
trois morts.
Libreville refuse également la version française
des faits concernant la disparition de citoyens de l'Hexagone. Le Gabon
ne reconnaissant pas la double nationalité, les sujets auraient été
gabonais et sans doute écroués pour illégalités lors des troubles qui
ont suivi le scrutin. En attendant Ping lui-même affirme ne pas être
"libre de [ses] mouvements" et ajoute en entrevue sur France24 que "le
pouvoir tue tous les jours. L’ONU, la France, l’Union européenne,
l’Union africaine, m’ont demandé de lancer un appel au calme, dit-il. Je
l’ai fait, et immédiatement, les difficultés que l’on observait ici et
là, se sont arrêtées. […] On a fait le même appel du côté d’Ali, au
pouvoir, et il a continué à tuer nuit et jour."
Le pouvoir
réfute quant à lui les versions du camp Ping, l'accusant de ses propres
manipulations et violences. "M. Ping est dans des affabulations, il est
depuis le départ dans une stratégie de violence visant à plonger le
pays dans le chaos," dénonce le porte-parole Alain Claude Bilie-By-Nze, y
voyant même une "attitude génocidaire".
Pourtant les
organisations internationales connaissent depuis un certain temps la
réputation du pouvoir dans ce pays d'à peine 1,6 millions d'habitants
riche en deséquilibres sociaux. Malgré ses richesses naturelles le pays
figure au 106e rang de l'indice de développement humain établi par les
Nations Unies, un échec du pouvoir perpétuel, l'alternance n'ayant
jamais vu le jour depuis l'indépendance de 1960.
Les
observateurs de l'Union européenne ont quant à eux noté « une évidente
anomalie » des chiffres du scrutin, notamment à Haut-Ogooue, où le taux
de participation a atteint les 99%, alors qu'il est plutôt de moitié
dans les autres régions. Alors que la cour constitutionnelle pesait la
contestation des élections, des centaines de partisans de Ping
participaient à une "marche blanche" la fin de semaine passée pour
honorer les "combattants de la liberté morts pour la patrie", signe que
les tensions ne sont pas près de se dissiper.
Certains redoutent
d'ailleurs une recrudescence des violences au moment du jugement de la
cour, d'autant plus que son impartialité laisserait à désirer au départ,
sa présidente étant nul autre que la belle-mère d'Ali Bongo.
Back wearing the blue
Sixty
years after the Suez crisis which would mark its history with a Nobel
Peace Prize, Canada is announcing it wants back in the blue helmeted
business, not that it ever left. The ninth largest contributor to the
organization's peacekeeping budget is still modestly present in missions
from the Middle East, where the first missions took place, to Cyprus,
where Canada made a notable stand in the 1960s that continues to this
day.
But this summer's announcement sought to mark a return to
the middle man tradition of the middle power, with a focus on Africa
yet to be entirely pinned down. It comes at a time the government has
come under criticism by the opposition for halting air strikes in Syria
and Iraq while it turned its focus to training local troops on the
ground. Some critics say Ottawa is making a desperate attempt to find
its seat back on the Security Council, after being denied under the
previous admini-stration. But to other observers it is simply another
indication that "Canada is back", a line Justin Trudeau has been using
since the early days of his government.
The re-engagement of
sorts may seem more modest at the outset, Canada gearing up to commit
some 600 soldiers and some $450 million, considering as many as 3300
Canadian soldiers held such duties across the world in 1993 alone, but
it's a start considering barely 100 have such a role today. Today
Canada is 66th in the rankings of top troop contributing nations, behind
the likes of Fiji, Djibouti and Yemen. "We need to do our part," said
defence minister Harjit Sajjan, himself a former military man. Canada
has been multiplying deployment announcements this year, after the news
it was sending some 450 soldiers and half a dozen fighter jets in the
Baltics, where a line of sorts has been drawn in the sand with Russia.
A
possible strain on the Forces, the mission would at least come with a
lower price tag than other missions, with the UN footing a part of the
deployment bill, but for some veterans, this creates fears more will be
asked of the Forces while providing less. "You could stand there on
your political platform and explain why you're giving the military less
money because we're going to make sure they're committed to UN
operations where they won't need the full suite of military equipment,"
retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie told CBC. "A blue beret and a
pistol, to exaggerate."
Sparking some concerns, in this year's
budget Ottawa put off billions in procurement spending to take the time
to determine the military's needs, something critics said amounted to a
spending cut. Over the summer the government seemed to be ending the
annual focus on the defence of the Arctic as well, prized under the
Tories. While seeking to build up its reputation at the UN for
peacekeeping, Canada is however coming under fire for billions of
dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Critics say armoured personnel
carriers sold by Ottawa have been used in crackdowns against civilians.
The
incoming government has said it was bound to contracts made by the
previous administration but would apply stricter ethics henceforth in
defence deals. Other countries such as France have also been criticized
for selling weaponry to the Saudis. Its air force, consisting of US
fighter jets, has also mercilessly been pounding positions in Yemen's
ongoing conflict. Amnesty International has come down particularly hard
on the U.S. for selling billions of dollar's worth of military hardware
to the kingdom, which has often caught civilians in the crossfire in the
peninsula.
“One of the unspoken legacies of the Obama
administration is the extraordinary uptake in the amount of U.S. weapons
and military aid that are provided to major U.S. allies like Saudi
Arabia, Israel and Egypt that have terrible records when it comes to
human rights,” Sunjeev Bery told Salon. “The bottom line is that the
U.S. government considers to arm the government of Saudi Arabia with
precisely the kinds of weapons that Saudi Arabia and its coalition have
used to attack civilian communities in Yemen. That’s the fundamental
problem.”
A Canadian manufacturer, the Streit Group, has also
come under fire by the UN for its sale of armored carriers to Libya and
South Sudan. Incidently, that is one of the countries where Canada may
be considering its peacekeeping mission, as well as the Congo and Mali,
where it was announced it was sending a fact finding mission.
This
week jihadist group Ansar Dine attacked Malian army positions in the
center of the country, showing Islamists still ruled unchallenged in
part of the huge arid land mass. Canada is involved in a re-engagement
with Africa overall, announcing it would send regular troops to Niger
to help train soldiers. But Ottawa has come under criticism for staying
mostly silent on the actions of some of its ruthless leaders, most
recently after the crackdown in Ethiopia. But as it gears up for
possible overseas deployment, the Canadian military is also facing an
internal struggle after a report revealed an increase of sexual offense
complaints in the order of 22% this year.
This was a crushing
revelation a year after the launch of Operation Honour to tackle the
longstanding problem last year. A reason for the increase may be
previous under-reporting however, something that is highly suspected in
the U.S. as well, facing similar challenges. The plight of former
soldiers is of course a major concern of the relatively new
administration in Ottawa.
According to federal researchers
anywhere between 2,500 and 10,000 veterans live in homeless shelters,
the minister responsible pledging to tackle the issues "relatively
quickly." But critics say they have heard this in the past. "The
minister has told us that things are going to move quick," said Dave
Gordon, a retired president of Ontario's wing of the Legion. "Guess
what? They're not. They're not moving as quick as they should be." While
Ottawa is not rushing out to commit billions in arms procurement or
defining an immediate mission in Africa, many can agree helping veterans
is somewhat more time sensitivc
Dire pardon
Pardon,
c'était une erreur. Non ce ne sont pas des mots que l'on retrouve
souvent dans le vocabulaire djihadiste, encore moins devant tant de
spectateurs. N'est-il pas trop tard d'ailleurs quand on a prêté serment à
une mouvance qui prône exécutions génocidaires et esclavagisme dans un
caliphat imaginaire?
Pourtant telle était la déclaration choc
d'Ahmed Al-Mahdi en plaidant coupable devant la Cour pénale
internationale de la Haye où il faisait face à des accusations en lien
avec la destruction de monuments historiques, certains datant du 14e
siècle à Tombouctou. Originaire de la ville malienne qui fut prise par
les forces d'Ansar Dine, dans une région envahie par le flot d'armes qui
a suivi la crise libyenne, celui-ci avoue s'être "perdu en chemin" et
avoir commis des actes pour lesquels il ressent "plein de remords et de
regrets".
On ne compte plus les monuments du patrimoine
historique erdus aux mouvements islamistes d'Afghanistan à Palmyre et
ailleurs au long et à l'écart de la mythique route de la soie. Les
spécialistes sont parvenus à rebâtir certains édifices en terre de
Tombouctou mais ne parviennent parfois pas à s'entendre sur la suite des
choses sur les autres sites, pesant toute reconstruction fidèle au
style original, lorsque la voie est libre, au besoin de se souvenir du
cataclysme qui a suivi.
Les dommages restent consi-dérables dans
la ville, et pour la plupart irréparables, mais la blessure historique
est bien plus profonde selon la procureure du CPI Fatou Bensouda, qui
parle de ville "défigurée au point que la population a été meurtrie au
plus profond de son âme" suite à la destruction de ces "reliques d'un
grand chapitre de l'aventure intellectuelle et spirituelle de l'homme
sur le continent africain qui a fait la renommée de cette ville dans le
monde ".
Mais les maçons maliens ont toutefois accomplis
quelques miracles dans ce grand centre intellectuel de l'islam sacré par
l'Unesco à titre de patrimoine de l'humanité. Plus tôt cette année 14
mausolées étaient reconstruits selon l'ancien savoir faire, une
restauration émouvante pour les familles touchées.
"C'est un
symbole fort pour la paix, estimait Sane Chirfi, membre de la famille
responsable du mausolée vandalisé d'Alpha Moya. Les mausolées sont des
symboles de rassemblement, de regroupe-ment, parce que parmi les saints
de Tombouctou, il y a des saints de toutes les ethnies". Le symbole du
genre de tolérance inacceptable au yeux des djihadistes.
"On
avait vu la dureté des images, la brutalité des destructions, et
aujourd'hui, ce mausolée, nous sommes très heureux qu'il soit debout",
confiait quant à lui. Lazare Eloundou, représentant de l'Unesco derrière
le projet.
Ce triomphe contre la barbarie était signé alors
même qu'Al-Mahdi faisait sa première comparution au CPI. A Palmyre, cité
millénaire qui a tant souffert sous l'emprise de l'EI "tout reste à
faire" six mois après sa fuite constate Ardavan Amir-Aslani, avocat
spécialiste des questions de protection de patrimoine.
"Nous
sommes dans une phase d'évaluation des dégâts" explique à L'Express
l'archéologue Jacques Seigne, Ce n'est pas certain que l'on puisse faire
quelque chose. Néanmoins, la France a un rôle important à jouer dans
tout cela"
Off field controversy
Years removed from his
2013 super bowl appearance and struggling to bring back any consistency
in his once brilliant offensive drives, it's understandable quite a few
fans would be upset with 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. But the
online rants and jersey burnings weren't caused by something he did on
the field but rather off it, sitting on the bench, during the national
anthem.
Game 3 of preseason is when anyone noticed and asked him
about not standing for the Star Spangled Banner because the 28 year old
had missed much of the earlier action due to be injury. But the stance
was hard to miss in full uniform, on a day he would fail to recover his
starting quarterback spot with three rather unproductive onfield
presences where he racked up an unimpressive 2 for 6 for 14 yards.
Colin,
it turns out, was standing for a national cause by remaining on the
bench. "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country
that oppresses black people and people of color," he said. Condemning
the many police shooting deaths of African Americans in the last year,
the athlete added he respected "the men and women that have fought for
this country" but condemned "people are dying in vain because this
country isn't holding their end of the bargain up, as far as giving
freedom and justice, liberty to everybody."
"To me this is
bigger than football. There are bodies in the street and people are
getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
Praised by
followers of the Black Lives Matter, which he backs, and supported by
some teammates and the organization, Number 7 however faced a barrage of
criticism by others pointing to the $11.9 million salary he pockets in
the land of opportunity. Some burned their jerseys in protest, others
said quite unpleasant things on Twitter and other media, further fueling
an already firy political season.
Anyone who follows Kaepernick
on Twitter is aware he has been outspoken in the past on racial
inequality and police violence, retweeting a story on a U.S. governor
commenting "you shoot at the enemy and the enemy right now are people of
colour of people of Hispanic origin" the day after the game.
Apart
from the divisiveness of politics has been a racially charged year in
the United States after a series of police shootings killing blacks, the
most recent being the shooting of a 23 year old Milwaukee man, sparking
protests.
Nor has the quarterback been the only celebrity
raising he issue, music superstar Beyoncé bringing the mothers of recent
victims to this year's Video Music Awards. Earlier this year she
incorporated dancers wearing black and berets during her Super Bowl
halftime show performance, a reference to the Black Panther movement,
stirring up controversy.
The 49ers quarterback usually just
retweets messages of others rather than write his own, but does so a
number of times a day. A recent one perhaps captured his predicament,
retweeting a message which stated that black athletes are usually
praised for saying they support the troops but "should they say ANYTHING
that hints towards the horrors that black folks experience in
America... America don't live you no more."
For the NFL, "players
are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the
national anthem," and Kaepernick had the right to express his opinion in
the way of his choosing. But if you think the matter was limited to the
sports realm, think again. The White House didn't mind weighing in on a
matter which involved the latter years of the outgoing administration,
and it was blunt. Spokesman John Earnest made plain it didn't "share the
views that Mr. Kaepernick expressed," adding they were "objectionable."
But
sometimes even rivals, like Seattle's Richard Sherman, lent their
support. “There is some depth and some truth into what he was doing. I
think he could have picked a better platform and a better way to do it,
but every day they say athletes are so robotic and do everything by the
book. Then when somebody takes a stand like that he gets his head
chopped off.”
Kaepernick said that despite the backlash he would
continue sitting "until things change", but things could change for him
well before then if he fails to recover from the current slump which
leaves him struggling to secure the Number 2 spot. A few years ago this
is a position he rose from before replacing the man who then lead the
49ers. But these days seem far removed even after the latest off-season
coaching change.
Après les Jeux, la crainte
Le
fil d'arrivée bien en vue après plus de deux heures de course lors du
marathon des jeux de Rio, Feyisa Lilesa n'avait que deux choses en tête:
croiser le fil d'arrivée avant son rival américain pour remporter la
médaille d'argent, et, une fois rassuré du coup d'oeil derrière, croiser
les bras au-dessus de sa tête devant les caméras du monde entier.
C'était risqué, il en était bien au courant, mais le message devait
passer.
En conférence de presse il s'expliqua: il s'agissait
d'un geste de protestation contre la répression du gouvernement
éthiopien à l'endroit de son groupe ethnique, les Oromos. "C'est un
signe de soutien aux manifestants qui sont tués par le gouvernement de
mon pays, dit-il par la suite, ils font le même signe là-bas. Je voulais
montrer que je n'étais pas d'accord avec ce qui se passe, j'ai des
proches et des amis en prison. Le gouvernement tue mon peuple, les
Oromos, des gens sans ressource".
Après des semaines de
violences, les éclats entre le pouvoir et les manifestants étaient
respon-sables de centaines de morts selon Human Rights Watch, dans ce
pays de la corne d'Afrique aux prises avec une nouvelle crise sur fond
de sécheresse généralisée. Les Oromos manifestaient contre les
politiques de ségrégation du gouvernement à leur égard. Au coeur de la
dispute notamment, une politique des terres à l'avantage de la minorité
au pouvoir, les Tigréens, au désarroi des Oromos et des Amharas.
"L'Ethiopie
a beaucoup d'ethnies, poursuit Lilesa, certains ont été privés de leurs
terres, tués par le gouvernement. On défend nos droits, on veut la
paix, la démocratie." Un tel geste politique est formellement interdit
par les règlements du CIO, mais ne l'avait-il pas été en 1968 alors que
deux athlètes sympathisants des Black Panthers avaient levé le poing sur
le podium?
Il ne s'agissait pas de la seule manifestation du
genre à Rio, où on avait en premier lieu demandé à une manifestante
brandissant une pancarte demandant au gouvernement iranien de "laisser
entrer les femmes dans les arénas", de cesser son geste. Mais après les
éclats des médias sociaux, les responsables semblaient par la suite
avoir décidé de laisser faire, lui permettant de reproduire son geste
lors d'autres compétitions sans intervention.
Lilesa avait-il
noté cette retenue? N'importe sans doute. Ce dernier est encore passible
de sanction de la part du CIO, mais voilà qui ne le préoccupe pas tant
dans l'immédiat. Lilesa prétend plutôt ne plus pouvoir rentrer chez lui,
craignant des représailles, malgré les assurances avancées par son
gouvernement, dans un pays où son exploit sportif a fait de lui un
héros.
"Peut-être que je vais être tué, peut-être que je vais
être mis en prison, retenu à l'aéroport, ou obligé de partir dans un
autre pays," dit-il, ajoutant qu'il pensait peut-être se rendre aux
Etats-Unis.
En attendant de voir si les autorités brésiliennes
lui permettront de rester au pays ou du moins d'y allonger son séjour,
la machine sociale s'est emparée de sa cause, ramassant des dizaines de
milliers de dollars pour lui permettre de financer une demande d'asile.
Après un quart de siècle au pouvoir, les Ethiopiens en ont assez du
parti au pouvoir, estime Ali Mohamed, co-fondateur de la Horn of Africa
Freedom Foundation: "Ils vivent dans un système de peur et de répression
systématiques à travers le pays. Tueries, torture, enlèvement, voilà le
modus operandi du Front de libération Tigréen au pouvoir," dit-il.
A pride under tight security
Along
with the colours, the music and floats came tightened security during
this year's Gay Pride events, and it wasn't just because Canada's prime
minister became the first to take part in parades from Vancouver to
Montreal. The Orlando shooting had marked a sad chapter in the history
of a community at a time it was hoping to achieve new breakthroughs on
transgender rights in one of the world's most progressive countries, a
United States with a solid conservative base digging in during an
electoral year however.
A few hours later a 20-year-old Indiana
man, James Wesley Howell, was arrested on felony counts of possessing
explosives on a highway as well as an assault weapon and high capacity
magazines when the vehicle he was travelling in was found to contain a
small arsenal. He was heading for the Los Angeles pride parade as the
West coast and the rest of the country was in shock following the
Florida shooting. He could face up to nine months in jail if found
guilty but was not connected to the Orlando incident, which wasn't such
a relief in itself.
Recent polls show young Americans
over-whelmingly support gay rights in areas such as employment,
healthcare and even adoption. But LGBT donors lining up to give blood in
the hours and days after the Orlando shooting found out laws still
discriminated against their offerings. This summer neighbouring Canada
lifted some restrictions on gay blood donations, but maintained them for
people who have had sexual encounters less than a year before. HIV
scientists called the move "ridiculous" adding it ignored the science.
"I
would say the window period should match the science," says Paul
MacPherson of the Ottawa Hospital, pointing to a 42-50 day antibody test
period. "I think Canadian Blood Services is just being super extra
cautious in putting it out to a year". In addition the Blood Service was
accused of being discriminatory by saying it will ask trans people
their birth sex and whether they had genital surgery. There are of
course much less tolerant lands where gay aggression is commonplace, and
it isn't only in ISIS-ruled territory, where mere allegations of being
gay have reportedly resulted in a man being thrown off a roof to his
death.
The beheading of a gay refugee in Istanbul, a fairly
progressive city in a largely Muslim country, has shocked its gay
community, causing many to take precautionary measures at a time the
country is still fuming from a failed coup attempt. According to a
person who knew the victim, Muhammed Sankari had been cut so violently
that knives had broken into him. He said Sankari had previously been
victimized but police had done little to look into the matter. Gay
rights activists say homosexual refugees are particularly vulnerable in
Turkey, where millions have fled from neighbouring countries.
In
Uganda, where homosexuality is a crime, police broke up a brave pride
event, arresting about 20 people, a sadly common occurrence in what is
perhaps the least safe continent for homosexuals. This is the country
where a 2009 bill prescribed the death penalty for some homosexual acts,
sparking international condemnation. The bill was watered down and
eventually rejected by a court as unconstitutional, but activists in
Uganda know they are fighting an uphill and often dangerous battle for
their rights.
In Egypt the return of military rule three years
ago has led to the arrests of over 250 gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people in what Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
researcher Dalia Abdel Hameed told the New York Times constituted a
"deliberate campaign of arrest and monitoring." “Now the police are
going out of their way to arrest gay men and trans women,” says Hameed,
calling it a veritable campaign by the morality police observers say is
similar to major anti-gay crackdowns under dictator Hosni Mubarak's
rule, over a decade ago. Police have used social media tools such as the
gay hookup site Grindr to flirt with homosexuals in a campaign of
entrapment which ends with arrest.
The tourist destination has
been decimated by violence over the last years but Muslim countries out
to appeal to foreign visitors for dollars aren't necessarily ready to
spread the welcome mat for gay visitors, even a city seeking to become a
world hub such as Dubai. A Canadian transgender model was reminded of
this after being detained upon arrival by officials who went on to
refuse her entry. Homosexuality is outlawed in the United Arab Emirates
and the model warned other trans people against travel there. "I was
denied entry into Dubai and it absolutely disgusts me that this kind of
discrimination still goes on," Gigi Gorgeous went on to tell fans in a
video afterwards.
Even Brasil, known for its tolerant larger
cities and where a record 49 openly gay athletes competed in the
Olympics this year, rights groups decried deadly violence against
members of the gay community. Trans-gender Europe recorded 845 reported
murders of gay victims in Brasil between 2008 and 2016, the most of all
countries surveyed. Human Rights Campaign logged 326 murders of LGBT
citizens in 2014 alone. But even for progressive countries such as
Canada and the U.S. lessons remained to be learnt. A U.S. study said gay
teens were more likely to suffer from bullying, depression and
violence.
And Trudeau, whose father introduced the Charter of
rights and freedoms in the Constitution and notoriously declared the
state had no business in the bedrooms of the nation, said it was time
Canada made amends for its previous mistakes and apologize to those
persecuted because of their sexuality. Such an announ-cement is
expected early in the fall and will constitute "a long awaited moment
and a very emotional moment," according to Helen Kennedy of Egale, an
advocate group for sexual minorities. "For the government to recognize
the damage that it caused, the harm that it caused, to thousands and
thousands of Canadians is a historic moment for our communities."
La communion des Jeux
Après les drames pré-olympiques, les récits propre à la compétition, des exploits mais aussi de la tragédie.
Comme
Cette première médaille du Kosovo, l'or rien de moins, cette victoire
d'une jeune membre de l'équipe des réfugiés, dont les premiers
entraînements étaient particulièrement terrifiants, mais aussi la chute
d'une cycliste néerlandaise en tête de peloton, puis la mort tragique de
la mère d'un athlète thaïlandais qui venait de remporter une médaille.
Après
les doutes et les critiques du rassemblement, les rappels de ce qui en
fait une communion hors pair du sport avec ce qui nous touche un peu
tous.
Les Russes ont du participer aux compétitions parfois sous
les huées, en raison des accusations de dopage, mais ont tout de mène
récolté dix médailles en trois jours, malgré des effectifs réduits par
les sanctions.
Plus triste, l'équipe masculine brésilienne de
soccer, qui espérait tant arracher l'or pour la première fois, a
également essuyé des huées après deux rencontres sans but, contre
l'Afrique du sud et l'Irak. L'équipe féminine cependant n'a pas tardé à
faire de nouveaux adeptes.
Frustrés du résultat nul contre
l'Irak, les partisans Brésiliens scandaient " marta! Marta!" L'étoile de
l'équipe féminine, Marta Vieira da Silva. Ses deux buts contre la Suède
dans un gain de 5-1 aidèrent à assurer une place en quarts.
De
l'aveu de certains, celle-ci est n'a rien a envier à Neymar, une
remarque pas insignifiante dans un pays qui, de l'aveu du président de
la firme de consultants sportifs Pluri "est un pays très macho". Athlète
de la FIFA de l'année à cinq reprises, celle-ci tente également de
donner une première médaille d'or à son pays, passe défait en finale de
la coupe féminine en 2007.
En fait les femmes se sont vite
imposées aux JOs de Rio, où elles sont plus représentées que jamais,
notamment au sein de la sélection canadienne, assurant les quatre
premières médailles.
Mais la bulle olympique ne peut être
totalement isolée de la vie qui l'entoure, des incidents en bordure de
l'important périmètre de sécurité venant tristement gâter la fête
sportive.
Des balles perdues ont frappé une tente médiatique et
des étables de la compétition équestre. Un bus transportant des
journalistes a perdu deux vitres, sans doute fracassées par des pierres
selon les autorités.
C'est sans parler des incidents violents
en bordure de l'enceinte et surtout des favélas. Un véhicule policier
qui s'était égaré dans une favéla à par ailleurs été arrosé de tirs,
blessant plusieurs de ses occupants.
Une balle perdue a frappé
une tente médiatique et un bus transportant des journalistes a perdu
deux vitres, sans doute fracassées par des pierres selon les autorités.
C'est sans parler des incidents violents en bordure de l'enceinte et
surtout des favélas.
Pas de trêve olympique aux abords des
favélas, ni entre les Corées alors que Kim Jong Il multiplie les
menaces, mais dans les enceintes des stades, un genre de rencontre plus
humaine. Comme l'autoportrait de deux athlètes coréennes, une du sud
l'autre du nord.
Mais les différends étaient parfois trop durs à
surmonter, la délégation libanaise ayant été fort critiquée après avoir
empêché des membres de l'équipe israéliennes de prendre le même autocar
avant la cérémonie d'ouverture. Puis un judoka égyptien a été hué par la
foule pour avoir refusé de serrer la main à un Israélien après avoir
perdu son combat.
Référendum conséquent en Thailande
Dix
ans après un coup d'état qui a depuis divisé la scène politique
thaïlandaise, même s'il ne s'agit même pas du plus récent, la junte au
pouvoir a obtenu gain de cause dans un référendum qui assurera son
emprise sur la politique du royaume. Un projet de nouvelle constitution
qui remplace le mode de sélection des sénateurs a été approuvé par 61%
de la population.
Les membres de la chambre haute seront
dorénavant nommés plutôt qu'élus, ce qui assure une présence continue
des militaires au pouvoir à un an des prochaines législatives. Selon
Nattawut Saikua, un des dirigeants du mouvement des chemises rouges
fidèles au premier ministre exilé Thaksin Shinawatra, le vote n'est que
le résultat de "pression" propre à "toute dictature".
Ce
dernier avait été évincé par la junte en 2006, lançant de violents
éclats entre ses partisans et les chemises jaunes, fidèles aux élites
royalistes et à l'armée. Lorsque de nouvelles élections eurent lieu en
2011 c'est sa soeur, Yinluck, qui fut élue première femme au poste de
premier ministre de l'histoire du pays, mais celle-ci dut faire face à
des accusations d'agir principalement au nom de son frère Thaksin.
Un
nouveau coup d'état en 2014 assura le retour de la junte au pouvoir,
qui s'empressa de s'en prendre aux médias, la principale chaine
d'information de l'opposition ayant été fermée pendant un mois lors de
la campagne référendaire, limitant les débats sur le texte de la
constitution. En fait tout débat sur le texte était interdit pendant la
campagne, durant laquelle plusieurs opposants ont été arrêtés.
Autant
dire que les partis les plus importants se sont tous opposés à la
réforme, qui donne également au Sénat un rôle dans la sélection du
premier ministre. "Tout ce que nous constatons, comme la suppression
des droits d'expression, va se poursuive" estime David Streckfuss de
l'université Khon Kaen. Nouveauté troublante pour plusieurs, l'exigence
que tout candidat soit "apparemment honnête", louable à première vue
mais dont le verdict sera rendu par des bureaucrates proches des
militaires.
Comment mesurer une telle chose? "C'est très vague,
constate Henning Glaser de l'université Thammasat, c'est un concept très
volatile qui pourrait être utilisé contre des politiciens qui ne sont
pas du bon coté." Les militaires ont beau avoir resserré leur emprise
sur la politique, plusieurs secteurs leur échappent encore, notamment le
sud du pays, toujours aux prises avec une insurrection musulmane.
La
semaine dernière des explosions à Hua Hin et Phuket faisaient plusieurs
morts et blessés, parmi eux de nombreux touristes. De peur de semer la
panique, les autorités se gardent bien de parler de "terrorisme"
préférant y voir un "sabotage local" en lien avec la politique. Une
douzaine de bombes en tout ont éclaté lors des derniers jours, un média
local évoquant la piste des chemises rouges des Shinawatra, un bouc
émissaire fort pratique.
De nouveaux attentats cette fin de
semaine frappaient Yala, bastion du séparatisme musulman. Selon certains
experts la série d'explosions viserait l'économie du pays, qui dépend
fortement du tourisme. Plus de 6000 personnes ont été tuées depuis
l'éclatement de la rébellion musulmane, qui perdure depuis une douzaine
d'années, mais atteint principalement les régions du sud du pays.
Stinging rebuke for ANC
In
terms of warning to the ruling and withering African National Congress
it couldn't be clearer than this. South African voters signalled their
dissatisfaction with govern-ment corruption and continued inequality in
local elections by giving Jacob Zuma's party a mere 53% of the vote, but
more symbolically, handing the party that toppled Apartheid a setback
in two black-majority municipalities including one called Nelson Mandela
Bay.
The ANC lost the capital Pretoria but managed to hang on
to Johannesburg, its electors perhaps serving the party a final warning
ahead of the 2019 elections that will mark a quarter century of free
elections. “The 2019 campaign starts now,” said Democratic Alliance
leader Mmusi Maimane, whose party got 26% of the vote and kept control
of Cape Town, but most importantly gained two other major municipalities
as it campaigned under the leadership of its first black leader. “For
far too long, the ANC has governed South Africa with absolute impunity.”
The ANC is the only governing party the country has known since
the end of Apartheid, meaning South Africa is short of having seen the
two peaceful democratic transitions political scientists say make it a
bona fide democracy, but its open rebuttal of the ruling party is in
contrast with other African countries which have been stuck with the
same strongmen for decades thanks to changed constitutions which allow
for unlimited presidential terms.
“Our democracy is maturing,”
said Zuma after the results. “Let us get back to work and build our
country together.” Scandals surrounding him and his party have also
dented the enthusiasm of voters who increasingly see alternatives to
electing the party which ended white rule. “Election after election, the
ANC has hung on to its past glory and kept its place in the hearts of
most South Africans.…This time round, though, it’s not enough,” the Mail
& Guardian newspaper said in an editorial.
But the ANC
retains strong support in areas with large black majorities. Zuma's
leadership may however face leadership trials after the scandals that
have weakened his party, including revelations the state paid over $20
million for work done to his private home and that he had violated the
constitution.
His name has been synonymous with controversy for
the last decade ever since he was acquitted of rape in 2006. According
to a recent poll, a majority of South Africans found the Congress had
"lost its moral compass." Would someone be sitting in the wings to
change the trend? Increasingly worrying trends include instances of
intra ANC violence, some recent clashes in Zuma's KwaZulu Natal leading
to the death of a dozen ANC members.
In addition South Africans
have panned the lack of basic services in some parts of the country,
including poor distribution of water and electricity. Inequality and
high unemployment, especially for youths, are other important issues
that have eroded ANC support, despite the country reclaiming its crown
of top African economy. Still for now however the ANC is refusing to
finger Zuma for the party's woes. After a weekend meeting to discuss the
outcome of the vote officials said the party's problems were
"collective" and blaming Zuma was "a wrong narrative."
Perhaps,
but the new political environment places post Apartheid South Africa
into a new narrative, that of a need to build coalition agreements, the
lack of which could bring in a new round of elections. The need to reach
across the aisle and agree to compromise in order to govern will
constitute a new evolution of the country's rocky and chaotic, yet still
democratic politics.
Et si l'or pouvait tout changer
Ouf,
enfin le coup d'envoi à Rio! Agression d'athlètes, insalubrité des
résidences et de certains sites puis feu dans le village olympique, et
on est encore à quelques semaines du coup d'envoi des JOs.
Règle
générale ces bobos sont ordinairement vite oubliés avec les premières
compétitions, mais rien de Rio ne laisse supposer quelque règle.
Puis
plusieurs athlètes ont simplement refusé de se rendre à Rio, notamment
les stars du tennis, craignant l'infection du Zika. D'autres ont été
exclus, notamment des athlètes russes soupçonnés de dopage.
Que
de tristesse au pays de la Samba. Le pays aurait-il dû se contenter de
la coupe du monde ou espere-t-il faire oublier sa sortie spectaculaire
avec l'or au football?
Car le beautiful game a pris une certaine
laideur au Brésil ces derniers temps avec cette autre sortie rapide à la
Copa America, et le congédiement de l'entraîneur de la Selecao.
Les
pays hôtes font tout dans leur pouvoir pour bien faire, du moins mieux
faire, aux JOs qu'ils accueillent, mais rien ne laisse supposer un
résultat surprenant pour le Brésil, où l'organisation des Jeux n'est
appuyée que par la moitié de la population.
Le pays n'a remporté
que 23 médailles d'or aux jeux et jamais celle du foot, une certaine
motivation étant donné l'absence de Neymar à la Copa, afin de préparer
ses olympiques.
"Je sais que cette médaille d'or nous a échappé
jusqu'à présent et nous allons tout faire pour l'emporter, explique
l'étoile de la Selecao, il est rare qu'un pays comme le Brésil,
considéré comme terre de football, n'ait pas emporté cette médaille
d'or".
Lucky country?
It wasn't just yesterday they
started calling it the lucky country, but the expression takes a brand
new meaning in light of recent terror attacks on all continents but this
one. The country can call itself lucky in many ways. Last month
Australian officials said AIDS was no longer a public health threat in
the country as it had all but vanished. Some 1,000 Australians do get
HIV on average every year but they rarely develop full blown AIDS.
New
plain packaging regulations for cigarettes meanwhile have cut 100,000
smokers across the country, which is now a model to others such as
Canada in the fight against tobacco use. Luck or sound policies? While
the U.S. struggles with gun violence, here in the country that's a
continent all by itself it dropped dramatically after tough new
regulations in recent years. Authorities bought back weapons,
confiscated others and set tougher new laws after its last mass shooting
twenty years ago. Twenty. The economy is relatively robust, growing by
some 3% annually despite impacts of the global slowdown, especially as
China is such a major trade partner.
Of course Australia has had
to deal with terrorism, just recently a man was arrested after
following the advice of jihadists online to pack cars with gas tanks and
explode them, but he was the only one who ended up hurting himself in
the process before his arrest. The 2014 hostage taking of a Sydney cafe
killing three including the gunman is remembered as the most violent
incident of the sort in recent years, paling in comparison with European
attacks, not to mention others in Asia and the Mideast, terrorized by
bloody incidents killing dozens. The inquest into the tragedy is ongoing
today.
It recently criticized Australian tactical police for
not ending the hostage taking sooner by intervening before the cafe
manager was killed. An expert said the country needed to free the hands
of its police during terror attacks, though they have been rare. Last
year a radicalized 15 year old killed one man in Sydney. Major cities
remain under high alert, especially after the recent European attacks,
but despite these measures there seemed to be room for improvement.
An
NPU reporter was able to enter the domestic terminal in Sydney past
security without being asked for an ID or boarding pass and was able to
board a plane without ever being asked an ID, an alarming fact so soon
after the Istanbul airport attack. If anything it seemed much more
restrictions were in place for fruit and vegetables, the subject of
strict quarantine laws entering the country and even travelling within
its borders. In nearby New Zealand arriving passengers even have their
baggages X-rayed in order to prevent these biosecurity risks.
Still
Australia stands on guard, especially after the Nice and Munich
attacks, which prompted the recently re-elected Malcolm Turnbull to put
fighting terrorism at the top of his agenda when parliament resumes in
Canberra in August. New laws would allow the indefinite detention of
convicted terrorists if they are still deemed dangerous after they reach
the end of their sentence.
The laws, first proposed earlier
this year, in the Australian fall, would treat those criminals like
pedophiles likely to reoffend. "The guiding principles of a
post-sentence preventative detention scheme would be that it cover high
risk appropriate procedural protections and safeguards," Turnbull wrote
in a letter to state leaders. The federal government isn't alone
slapping new terror laws, states such as New South Wales, where Sydney
is located, would extent to two weeks the maximum amount of time someone
suspected of trying to commit terrorism, can be detained without
charges. While largely spared so far on its territory Australia is
acting with much urgency as people who have gone abroad to commit terror
have had links to down under, including a key suspect in the bloody
Bangladesh terror attack.
“There is a real threat of terrorist
incidents here in Australia but we do everything we can to ensure
Australians are kept safe,” Turnbull said. But observers in the legal
community are urging caution and sounding alarm bells in light of the
new proposed regulations. "This is an extraordinary measure to take and
can only be justified in the most exceptional cases," opined law
professor George Williams as the bills were being circulated. Turnbull's
government is hardly on solid ground after the election and already
faces internal dissent.
Low approval numbers had forced him to
call an early vote earlier this year. His move to oust predecessor
Abbott constituted part of the criticism. But there seemed to be some
agreement in the press that these measures were necessary. "These are
strong additions to an already tough counter-terrorism regime but they
are necessary given the constantly evolving threat presented by Islamist
extremism," opined The Australian.
The opposition said it was
largely supportive of the measures but would scrutinize them when they
go through parliament. As it is the country is under a constant threat
of terrorism, but it tends to come in the form of crocodiles, sharks and
some of the most lethal jellyfish, spiders and snakes on the planet.
La grogne au Mexique
L'arène
internationale ne fut aucun refuge pour le président mexicain lors de
son passage au Canada afin d'assister au sommet des trois amigos. La
presse nationale cherchait surtout à connaître son analyse de la
situation explosive entourant la mort de manifestants contre une réforme
de l'éducation.
Des manifestants morts lorsque confrontés à des
forces de l'ordre, voilà qui était malheureusement familier après le
massacre de 43 étudiants en 2014, disparus après avoir été arrêtés à un
barrage policier. A celui-là faut-il ajouter celui de Nochixtlan à la
mi-juin lorsque huit manifestants et locaux tombaient face au tir
policier?
Les tragédies dans le genre sont nombreuses dans un
pays où la corruption gagne les rangs policiers. Mais l'incident a
lancé des manifestations à travers le pays contre les réformes de 2013,
qui lient la sécurité de l'emploi à des évaluations, établissant un
nouveau régime qui selon ses critiques est une entrave aux négociations
collectives.
Les manifestants ne sont pas contre les évaluations
mais la corruption qui les entoure, et disent également rejeter la
privatisation du système d'éducation et la précarité de l'emploi. Mais
c'est l'usage de la force pour mettre fin au barrage des protestataires
et les messages contradictoires des autorités, cherchant à expliquer
l'incident, qui ont surtout enragé la rue, notamment dans les secteurs
autochtones, où l'on regrette entre autre que l'Anglais plutôt que les
langues indigènes soit prisée comme seconde langue par la réforme.
Ce
qui est vite devenu un véritable mouvement protestataire national a
pris une direction notamment indienne, les autochtones estimant ne pas
avoir été consultés avant l'annonce de ces changements. La tuerie a
forcé le gouvernement de lancer une ronde de discussions, après avoir à
l'origine suivi les mouvements sans grand intérêt.
Le ministre
des affaires indiennes a notamment perdu son poste au sein de cette
crise. Mais les discussions n'ont jusqu'à présent pas encore été
prometteurses. La semaine dernière encore quelques 200000 militants
syndiqués du système d'éducation envahissaient la capitale. "Nous ne
sommes pas d'accords avec ces réformes, résumait un porte parole,
Gabriela Gutierrez.
Ils veulent de meilleures écoles mais l'état
des classes est pitoyable." C'est le constat notamment dans les régions
les plus pauvres comme le Chiapas, état des grandes manifestations
contre le libre échange nord-américain avant son adoption, et Guerrero,
où le manque de livres d'instruction et même d'électricité est notoire
pour un pays exportateur de pétrole.
Ces employés en éducation
étaient appuyés par leurs collègues du secteur électrique, montrant
encore une fois l'étendue du mouvement. Pour certains analystes, la
situation résume bien le retour à l'ancien régime après les promesses
d'un jeune président qui a repris les malheureuses habitudes de son
parti. "C'est le vieux PRI, estime Federico Estevez de l'institut
technologique de Mexico.
Une fois que vous l'emportez c'est
fini, votre volonté est celle du peuple et les gens obéissent jusqu'à
votre départ". Cette semaine de nouvelles manifestations suivaient le
président en visite à Buenos Aires.
A coup attempt fails in Turkey
With
the Syrian war on its doorstep and its flood of fleeing refugees, and
protest at home amid a string of bloody terror attacks, you would think
the last thing Turkey needed was the instability of a military coup.
Turkish
president Recep Erdogan vowed to clean up the military after a coup by a
faction of the men in brass was thwarted by divisions, lack of support
by foreign powers and domestic parties and the outpouring of citizens
who poured into the streets after news first broke.
While the
coup attempt was over in a matter of hours, analysts feared even some
instability amid the NATO partner and regional giant that is such an
important player in the war against ISIS.
A faction of the
military attempted to seize power Friday, saying it sought to reinstate
democracy and a new constitution, but proceeded to restrict social media
and seize the headquarter of a state broadcaster during its operation.
Popular
protests drawing thousands into the streets of Istanbul and Ankara
played important parts to free these stations as well as Istanbul
airport, where Erdogan had been prevented from landing when he first
sought to return from vacation as news of military activities broke.
Ergodan
has come under criticism for cracking down on popular protest, the
media and social media during his tenure, but his call for such street
demonstrations, aided by social media, played key roles turning the tide
on the night in question.
Amid reports of shots fired and even
blasts near parliament, where lawmakers were barricaded, thousands of
protesters defied the military curfew and took to the streets in
Istanbul and Ankara.
There were early reports of division amid
the military while the opposition, no friend of the president, was
united with world leaders condemning the coup attempt and supporting the
elected government.
Divisions also led to skirmishes between
the military and police, which lately had been filled with Erdogan
supporters. Erdogan, who was mayor of Istanbul before becoming a federal
leader in the 1990s, has had time to make enemies, but even they seemed
to support him in the country's dark hours, weeks after the bloody
terror attack at Istanbul airport.
Before seeking the presidency
Erdogan had been prime minister until the constitution prevented him
from seeking a new mandate. He then ran for the presidency and won,
changing the constitution so it was no longer the ceremonial role it
once was. Last year elections led to a hung parliament until a snap vote
gave his AK party the majority once more.
This is the first coup
attempt since the 1990s and comes after a history of attempted or
successful coups in a country where the military claims to be the
guardian of founder Ataturk's secularism, which often placed it at odds
with the ruling Islamist party which has given religion more prominence
in Turkey.
Turkey is a major regional power, and initial
instability, as both the prime minister and military claimed control,
sparked concerns about its impact in the fight against terror. Turkey is
a major NATO ally, its bases being used for operations in nearby Iraq
and Syria, which were initially halted due to the coup.
Turkey is also home to millions of refugees fleeing the war in the region.
France bloodied again
France
was days away from lifting its nationwide state of emergency, and then
it happened again, on Bastille Day. A truck ploughed into a crowd
celebrating in Nice, killing dozens.
A day before authorities had
stopped a plot to target the country's athletes in Rio. The country had
barely sighed in relief after holding a Euro tournament largely
unscathed by terrorism , but was holding its breath on the day millions
were marking July 14th.
After a particularly deadly period of Ramadan, it seemed there was no letup in the terror-inspired violence.
With
Eid celebrations taking place under tightened security around the
world, the Holy month of Ramadan could not end early enough this year,
and not just because of the daylight fasting suffered by millions of
Muslims worldwide.
In the final days of the period attacks
associated by ISIS calls to strike around the world claimed hundreds of
victims, including some 250 in one Baghdad suicide bombing alone.
This
followed a bloody hostage taking on Bangladesh and coordinated attacks
in Istanbul and Saudi Arabia, countries that have sometimes left
observers at odds over their commitment to the war against the terror
group.
Without official claims of responsibility Turkish
authorities tied the airport attack to the group, one it has been
accused of fighting on the surface but unofficially closing its eyes on
as it focused on the more direct threats posed by Kurdish militants.
Saudi
Arabia has faced the same charge of being officially engaged in the war
on terror yet sympathetic to some aspects of ISIS' ideology, their more
orthodox views of Islamism resembling the kingdoms Wahhabist beliefs
and opposition to the spread of Shia ideology and related Iranian
influences in the region.
Saudi Arabia, which was home to the
majority of the Sept. 11 attackers, has been targeted before, as far
back as two decades ago in the 1996 Khobar towers attack in which 19 US
servicemen were killed and over 400 others injured, but never with this
sort of coordination.
The attack then was meant to protest the
presence of US troops on Saudi soil, and one of the three recent attacks
targeted the US consulate in Jidda.
Another struck a Shiite
mosque while a third more symbolically was aimed at a mosque in Medina,
home to one of the Muslim worlds holiest sites.
This attack,
much like the 2003 al Qaeda attack which led to the kingdom tightening
the squeeze against extremists, could be a turning point some observers
say.
"If there are people on the fence in Saudi this kind of
attack in medina would probably turn them off," Lori Boghardt, a
research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East policy told
the New York Times.
As recently as last year a survey by the
Tabah Foundation found that while a majority of Saudis called al Qaeda
and ISIS a "complete perversion of Islam", just over a quarter still saw
the group's raising issues that resonated with them, with 10% finding
them no perversion at all.
During Ramadan Over 400 people were
killed in eight countries in attacks linked to ISIS observers say may be
an attempt to show the group still has some fight left in it after
suffering a number of battlefield losses.
"ISIS is showcasing its
geographic reach," says Kamran Bokhari of George Washington university.
"It creates the perception ISIS is expanding even though it's under
attack on multiple fronts."
These attacks and raids have provided
key intelligence providing a better understanding of the group's
organization and plans of attack outside of Syria and Iraq, according to
CNN, without however providing the when and where.
"We were aware they were moving this way," says an official quoted by the network. "It's not like we didn't see it coming."
The Syrian Arab Coalition has been collecting key intelligence, according to U.S. Col. Christopher Garver.
"The
SAC forces have ... seized more than 10,000 documents from the outlying
edges, including textbooks, propaganda posters, cell phones, laptops,
maps and digital storage devices," He said. "Exploitation of this
information is ongoing to better understand Daesh (ISIS) networks and
techniques, including the systems to manage the flow of foreign fighters
into Syria and Iraq."
Of course the attacks didn't end with Ramadan, spoiling Eid celebrations in already hit Bangladesh and the days which followed.
But
for many, of all the ISIS operations which took place during Ramadan,
from Egypt to Nigeria and the Philippines, the Saudi attacks resonated
most deeply.
"Nothing is sacred for these cowards," lamented
Hayder al-Khoei, research director at the Center of Academic Shia
Studies. "If they could slaughter Muslims in Mecca in the Grand Mosque
itself, they would."
Horreurs à Juba
Après une naissance
difficile, une jeunesse troublée? C'est le malheur qui envahit le plus
jeune état du monde avec la reprise des hostilités entre les forces du
président et du vice président, une triste façon de marquer le cinquième
anniversaire du Sud Soudan.
Plus de 300 personnes, dans une
capitale qui en compte à peine 300000 , auraient trouvé la mort lors de
la reprise des hostilités au début de juillet entre le camp du président
Salva Kiir et son vice président Riek Machar.
Le duo devait à
l'origine envoyer un message de réconciliation et d'unité, mais en
venaient aux éclats deux ans à peine après l'indépendance. Le cessez le
feu d'automne dernier a volé en éclats, mettant fin aux efforts de
pacification de dirigeants voisins craignant que le conflit n'embrase
la région entière.
La mission de l'ONU du Soudan du Sud, malgré
ses effectifs de 12000 casques bleus, semble coincée par la reprise des
hostilités mène si elle a réussi à établir des zones de protection pour
les civils, qui n'ont pas été épargnés par la crise.
Des milliers
ont d'ailleurs pris le chemin du refuge, des dirigeants régionaux
craignant que la recrudescence de la violence ne donne lieu à un
véritable génocide.
Le conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, saisi par la
reprise, a fait appel à l'envoi de nouvelles troupes en renfort, un
appel qui n'a pas été accueilli avec plus de retenue sur le terrain.
Même
si le conflit peut paraître petit, il implique les voisins ougandais,
éthiopiens et ougandais, ces derniers s'étant rangés dans le camp du
président.
La réaction ailleurs a été celle de l'exil, plusieurs
membres de l'ambassade américaine ayant été évacués alors que des
milliers de civils locaux tentaient de se réfugier dans le camp
principal de l'ONU, qui abrite déjà près de 10% de la population de
Juba.
C'est d'ailleurs là où les nouveaux éclats ont eu lieu,
fragilisant le dernier accord de paix qui avait fait revenir Machar de
son exil, accompagné de plusieurs hommes armes sommes de ranger leur
artillerie afin de préserver le nouveau gouvernement d'union nationale.
Le
secrétaire général de l'ONU Ban Ki-moon a qualifié la reprise des
hostilités de "scandaleuse" estimant qu'elle se moque du processus de
paix. Ki-moon s'est prononcé en faveur de sanctions contre les
responsables et d'un embargo militaire contre le pays.
Cette semaine le président Kiir faisait appel à un nouveau cessez le feu afin de rétablir le calme.
Le direct personnel
Depuis
déjà bien long temps toute manifestation d'ampleur donne lieu à un
drôle de spectacle: des hommes en uniforme et des civils armes de
caméras se ciblant mutuellement, les premiers afin d'identifier tout
fautif passible d'amende ou de chefs d'accusations, les autres voulant
enregistrer tout incident de violence policière.
Des incidents
violents aux Etats-Unis engageant des forces de l'ordre ont répandu
l'usage de certaines caméras portées sur l'uniforme, une variation des
caméras souvent incorporées aux tableau de bord des voitures de
patrouille.
Or leur usage était déjà remis en question récemment
lors d'un incident qui s'est terminé par la mort d'un jeune noir
américain, les autorités rapportant que la caméra avait subi des
dommages au cours de l'incident. Mais la technologie avait déjà fait des
bonds.
Depuis plus d'un an des applications mobiles permettent
de transformer tout téléphone non seulement en caméra, mais en
transmetteur de vidéo en direct sur la toile.
Ces applications
permettent de transmettre des occasions joyeuses, comme un anniversaire
ou un spectacle, mais parfois des incidents macabres, comme un tir
accidentel atteignant le propriétaire du téléphone, ou dans un cas
extrême, le suicide d'une jeune Française.
Ces applications ont
fait la manchette lors de l'interpellation d'un couple noir qui s'est
soldé par la mort de l'homme, capturée en direct par sa compagne, qui
avait sorti son téléphone afin d'enregistrer la rencontre.
Les
prochains échanges entre forces de l'ordre et citoyens seront-ils
dorénavant transmis en direct? Voila un geste encouragé par je mouvement
noir Black Lives Matter mais qui selon les autorités ne fait rien pour
améliorer les relations avec le public.
Le phénomène est encore
jeune mais déjà, selon le directeur du FBI, l'augmentation cette année
de la criminalité violente pourrait en partie être en lien avec
l'hésitation de forces de l'ordre d'intervenir, de peur de paraître sur
une vidéo qui pourrait immédiatement circuler sur internet.
Les
autorités américaines devant répondre à des accusations de violence
commises par des forces de l'ordre capturées sur vidéo ont généralement
déclaré que celles-ci ne montraient pas l'environnement complet dans
lequel opéraient leurs agents, mais ceci a souvent été critiqué par des
groupes civils pour qui l'image, ou la vidéo, étaient plutôt claire.
La
diffusion des vidéos de deux incidents meurtriers entre la police et de
jeunes noirs a immédiatement provoqué des manifestations, celle de
Dallas virant à la fusillade lorsqu'un ancien militaire a voulu s'en
prendre à des policiers blancs.
Mais le retrait temporaire d'une de ces vidéos par Facebook a également crée un tollé, qui l'a replacée avec avertissement.
A
l'opposé des chaînes télévisées, ces services ne sont pas contraints
par des réglementations sur ce qu'elles peuvent transmette, ce qui pour
certains les rend à la fous un outil d'information remarquable et
dangereux.
Puis une telle utilisation peut-être fonctionner
partout? Pas en El Salvador en tout les cas, selon des travailleurs
sociaux, qui expliquent au Global Post que les policiers, dont la
déontologie est plutôt douteuse, auraient tendance à saisir les
portables des utilisateurs et se servir de l'information qu'ils
contiennent à leurs fins.
Au Vermont un sénateur a par ailleurs
présenté un projet de loi qui permettrait aux agents de la paix de
saisir des portables sans mandat. L'idée était de fourbir de nouvelles
armes afin de réduire les accidents liés à l'utilisation de portables au
volant, mais Martin Lalonde a dû avouer qu'il n'était pas encore
certain si son projet parviendrait à conserver le précieux équilibre
entre sécurité publique et droit à la vie privée.
Staying home as protest
Despite
a history of repression against the opposition and political activism
in general, millions observed protest calls to stay at home in
Zimbabwe's day of strike action in July, which left emboldened
organizers calling for government to take action against corruption,
injustice and poverty to avoid future shut downs.
Some public
servants, who are asking to be paid by a government that has all but run
out of cash, did bow to threats they could lose their jobs and showed
up for work, but most teachers and health care workers didn't and
Harare's business district was like a ghost town during a protest the
opposition declared a resounding success.
"Our government
officials are still trying to come to terms with the message we sent
them as citizens," activists said, before asking officials to address
five key demands including paying civil servants in full and addressing
corruption and intimidating police blockades. Officials sought to
downplay the protest, saying it was "business as usual", which some
activists reacted to by noting "people milling around jobless and
dejected, is that a state of business as usual?" One of the leaders of
the protest is Rev. Evan Mawarire, whose Twitter campaign #ThisFlag
provided an online rallying point the government has been accused of
trying to shut down by cracking down on social media.
Government-run
service providers sent messages warning "sharing such abusive and
subversive materials which are tantamount to criminal behaviour " could
result in disconnections and legislative proceedings. Activists noted
the warnings came days after the UN passed a resolution condemning
internet shut downs and promoting "protection and enjoyment of human
rights on the internet."
Some 50 people were arrested in
sporadic violence, which is not the worst the country has seen over the
years of crackdown of opposition rallies and white farmer evictions.
"Our patience has been strained," said Raymond Majongwe of the
Progressive teachers union. "Our members are hungry and angry.
Government cannot say it is broke given its high level of opulence while
our members are suffering."
The decision by a vice president
to stay in a hotel for over a year rather than an assigned house not of
his liking, at the cost of $1 million, has been particularly
galvanizing. In a country that used to be the bread basked of the
region but is now suffering from food shortages, sending people over
borders to restock, the ban on imported goods had also touched a nerve.
Mugabe
blamed a familiar scapegoat for the country's troubles. "We are not yet
a developed nation," he told supporters. "We have sanctions, the
Americans have not all removed them and the Europeans only partially
removed them. We use the dollar and it is not printed here but in
America." Dozens were injured when anti-riot police cracked down on
another protest this week.
Organizers were dropping off a
petition against plans for introducing local bond notes. "Once you
begin to interfere with politics you are courting trouble," Mugabe
warned Mawarire. "Keep to your religious side." But the 92-year-old is
increasingly feeling alone, now losing the support of once staunchly
supportive groups such as war veterans responsible for evicting white
farmers years ago.
After Brexit, the unknown
For
decades Europe's progression has been that of closer integration and
additional members, with nations freed from the chains of Eastern Europe
just as soon applying for NATO and EU membership, anything to move away
from their former captors. Of course some strains had been felt for
years as the euro weakened and the Schengen area felt the pressures of
the migrant crisis. Both tested the EU's southern frontier and Greece
and particular, not so long ago the primary candidate to break the trend
and threaten the entire Eurozone, the price of being its weakest link.
But it is one of its strongest, and already fairly independent
members, off the coast of the continent, that will have had this
dubious distinction, holding its second referendum in recent years. One
with disastrous results, especially for a financial sector that placed
its bets in the corner of Remain, and paid heavily as a consequence.
"Today marks a turning point for Europe," observed Angela Merkel of
Germany, a country that would arguably have greater responsibilities
being the powerhouse of the continent. "It is a turning point for the
European unification process."
For Prime Minister David Cameron
this was one wager too many, announcing he would step down in the months
ahead and starting the period of uncertainty many across the world
dreaded. It had been his decision to hold a referendum, seen as a way to
hold his party together. His rival, Labour leader Jeremy Cobyn, faced
heavy pressure to follow suit after supporting the losing side, losing a
no-confidence vote and dozens of shadow cabinet members who bowed out
in protest. Internal disarray was no sane way to handle the crisis at
hand, and when Britain needed leadership the most it seemed to come in
short supply. Former London Mayor Boris Johnson, who had said it was the
UK's time to "stand tall in this world" but seemed to think business
with the EU would go on as usual, decided he would not enter the coming
Tory leadership race.
Markets and the pound plummeted, the
latter, the rock of the euro crisis, dropping to its lowest level in
three decades. The financial implications were tremendous for the City,
its Canada Square now no longer the center of financial Europe, as the
first financial companies looked to move staff to the continent. Soon
two agencies downgraded the country's credit rating. The UK was
"independent and united" had declared UK Independence Party leader Nigel
Farage, who earlier in the night had practically conceded defeat,
before the tide turned to give Leave a 52% victory, a sign perhaps the
winners were woefully unprepared for victory.
But hardly any
unity could be found. Wales voted to leave and Northern Ireland, came
close to doing so too, but Scotland, fresh from its own referendum,
voted to remain, but now found the outcome "unacceptable" and planned a
new referendum in light of the vote. Its leader also suggested Scotland
may attempt to block Britain's exit from the EU. Fringe parties on the
continent, in France and the Netherlands, called for their own vote,
walking in step with UKIP against immigration and lashing at
bureaucratic Brussels. A far right leader suggested Austria could hold
its own exit referendum as early as next year.
"Nothing will
change" in the immediate period, Cameron said, but EU partners urged
London to make a swift and painless break. London wasn't ready to
formally trigger formal exit proceedings, Cameron explained, at least
not before the UK decided what it wanted its place in Europe to become.
Time was however of the essence, European leaders fretting about the
instability of the unknown. No serious negotiations could begin before
London formally launched exit procedures. The country would then have
two years to complete the break. What would follow then? Access to the
single market in exchange for the free movement of people, like Norway's
model, or something more isolationist?
Again it seemed the
business community had awakened in a panic after a period of
complacency, as it had two years before. Investor George Soros warned
the UK pound could tumble 15% to 20% and "have an immediate and dramatic
impact on financial markets, investment, prices and jobs." ING said in
the lead up to the vote the country's GDP could drop by 1.6% by 2018
with Brexit while unemployment rose to 9%. After the vote the IMF was
hardly reassuring, saying the country could possibly slip into recession
while tycoon Richard Branson declared a third of the value of his
Virgin Group had been lost in a matter of days.
The continental
Union has already been weakened by the euro crisis, the unpopularity of
financial measures in countries such as Greece, and a refugee crisis
which has weakened the Schengen area. The U.K., ironically, is a party
to neither euro nor Schengen. And now could Brexit be contagious? A poll
in France, the fortress of continental projects, revealed citizens held
even more negative views of the EU, by 68%. One reason could be because
the EU has "become less francophone and more anglophone, far more
globalized," according to German Marshall fund fellow Michael Leigh.
This could change however as some leaders hinted English could lose its
status of official EU language with Brexit. Germany had appealed for the
UK to remain, but said the country could not retain preferential trade
tariffs if it chose to vote for Brexit.
"In is in and out is
out," had warned finance minister Wolfgang Schauble. Early on the
aftermath looked troubling, and not only for the economy. Racial
incidents have increased, while a number of Brexiters expressed remorse,
realising a decision often fueled by the desire to punish the elite and
throw the bums out has much more serious consequences. The day after
Brexit one of the most popular searches on Google in Britain was "what
is the EU", and millions signed a petition calling for a do-over. But
Cameron, who during the campaign had said Brexit was irreversible,
reminded the decision was made by the entire population, with some 76%
of registered voters participating, and would stand.
He said he
would not allow efforts to block exit procedures but vowed in his last
meeting with EU counterpart this week to maintain "the closest links"
with the continent. But the idea of reconsidering the non-binding vote,
even if it means ignoring the will of the millions who voted in favor of
Leave, has been making inroads. "It would be wrong to completely
discount the possibility of an inelegant, humiliating and yet welcome,
Breversal," mused The Economist, even if Brexit remains the most likely
outcome.
Une Espagne inquiete?
Le vote britannique a-t-il eu l'effet de calmer les appels au changement et provoqué la peur de l'inconnu en Espagne?
La
théorie a pu prendre son envol dans le premier pays à passer aux urnes
après le référendum. L'élection devait mettre fin à l'impasse
législative après le vote de l'automne dernier, laissant le Parti
populaire avec une minorité. Les sondages laissaient croire à un coup
d'éclat de la gauche de Podemos et son mouvement ya basta, or les
résultats restaient largement inchangés à la fin du deuxième exercice du
genre en six mois.
Puis les sondages n'avaient-ils pas démontré
leur inefficacité en Grande Bretagne ? Il faut dire que le premier
ministre Mariano Rajoy avait plutôt fortement misé sur la peur et les
regrets apparents du Brexit, ces "expérimentations... des extrémistes et
radicaux", ceci a-t-il eu l'effet escompté? Pour le politologue Pablo
Simon, le moment était plutôt bien choisi de "revenir aux politiques
responsables et sensibles afin d'éviter les risques".
Même si
"des temps meilleurs ne sont pas nécessairement à l'horizon" loin de
là. La coalition Unidos Podemos n'est arrivée que troisième avec 71
sièges, derrière le Parti socialiste et le PP, promettant une nouvelle
ronde difficile de pourparlers en vue de former un gouvernement. "Nous
avons remporté l'élection, déclara Rajoy, mais nous devons à présent
servir la population toute entière".
Pour Podemos il fallait
se livrer à l'évidence que "peut être faudra-t-il attendre plus
longtemps que ce que nous voulions," de l'aveu de son chef Pablo
Iglesias. Mais l'électorat est loin d'avoir oublié, bien avant le choc
anglais, les scandales de corruption associés au parti au pouvoir. Les
socialistes sont-ils les grands gagnants de l'exercice?
"Malgré
les prédictions de la perte de notre pertinence, nous avons démontré
notre rôle en tant que parti principal de la gauche," déclara de son
côté Pedro Sanchez du Parti socialiste. L'urgence de former un
gouvernement est d'autant plus forte que le pays ne peut pas se
permettre la bêtise d'un troisième scrutin, lui qui tente de limiter ses
dépenses après les souffrances de la crise qui alimente les plus petits
partis.
Ces derniers cependant, Podemos en tête, ne parvenaient
pas à expliquer leur échec après toutes ces attentes de terminer
seconds lors du dernier vote. Pour un parti qui s'était engagé à "faire
sourire" le peuple, les regards étaient bien tristes après avoir perdu
un million de votes lors du dernier scrutin.
La glissade de la Russie
Deux
ans après ces Jeux de Sochi qui devaient faire l'exposé de la puissance
de la grande Russie, et deux ans avant la Coupe du monde, les relations
sont plus crispées que jamais entre Moscou et l'Occident, des tensions
ressenties dans l'arène sportive, après la suspension des athlètes des
Jeux de Rio, mais plus sérieusement en bordure de l'ancien rideau de
fer.
Sochi s'étant voulu une démonstration de la puissance
russe, en parallèle avec l'invasion presque simultanée de la Crimée,
autant dire que la suspension de l'équipe d'athlétisme pour dopage a été
mal accueillie à Moscou, où elle a été condamnée à titre de complot
américain destiné à castrer l'équipe nationale. Cette semaine encore des
rameurs russes étaient pris pour dopage, victimes de la surveillance
accrue de tous les participants russes.
L'affaire a vite pris
une dimension géopolitique et se déroule sur fond de tensions qui
perdurent toujours après l'invasion de la Crimée, qui a été à l'origine
de sanctions européennes. A la fin juin l'Union européenne a rallongé à
janvier ses sanctions énergétiques, financières et militaires contre la
Russie. Les sanctions, de concert avec l'écroulement du prix du pétrole,
ont bien lourdement pénalisé les finances nationales.
Les
tensions ukrainiennes se sont depuis un certain temps étendues dans la
région alors que l'OTAN y multiplie ses exercices militaires et se
penche sur ses effectifs en Europe de l'Est, craignant y voir un déficit
trop important pour empêcher toute autre incursion de l'armée rouge.
Alors que le lieutenant-général américain Ben Hodges faisait part de ces
préoccupations, le ministre des affaires étrangères allemand Frank
Walter Steinmeier jouait les diplomates, craignant le "bruit de sabre"
provenant du camp occidental, préoccupé par les pays frontaliers
vulnérables, comme les pays baltes.
Cette semaine l'OTAN
confirmait le déploiement de bataillons pour surveiller la région, dans
les pays baltes et en Pologne. Poutine se disait préparer sa réplique.
Mais les coffres vides, les athlètes sans invitation, même le tsar du
Kremlin dut se rendre à l'évidence que "les Etats-Unis sont une grande
puissance, peut-être même la seule super puissance" avant d'ajouter
qu'il était prêt à travailler avec eux.
Cependant "nous ne
voulons pas qu'ils viennent se mêler à nos affaires et nous dire comment
vivre et nous empêcher de bâtir une relation avec l'Europe." Mais ceci
Moscou parvient très bien à le faire tout seul. Alors que la Russie
soviétique faisait de l'athlétisme et du sport un véritable arsenal de
la guerre froide, comment percevoir la sortie rapide de l'euro, où ses
hooligans menaient le combat patriotique dans les rues, autrement qu'à
la manière d'une "honte", terme employé par la presse nationale.
La
table est plutôt mal préparée pour le mondial de 2018 dans un pays,
selon un ancien athlète russe, "sans entraîneur, sans joueur étoile,
sans même le squelette d'en équipe future" mais plutôt vivant "la
confusion la plus totale". Pourtant tout n'est pas perdu à long terme
selon l'investisseur George Soros, qui voit la Russie éventuellement
sortir de son marasme afin de devenir "une puissance globale".
Et
Moscou a sans doute pu esquisser un sourire suite au vote britannique
qui a semé la zizanie sur le continent, notamment à l'Ouest. "Brexit est
une victoire pour Poutine, estimait un ancien diplomate américain dans
le Washington Post, Poutine n'a bien évidemment pas causé le Brexit mais
il peut y voir un gain de cause pour ses objectifs en matière de
politique extérieure."
Sans Londres, par ailleurs, l'Union
européenne perd une voix active en faveur du maintien des sanctions
contre Moscou, selon le maire de la capitale. Mais le vote n'a pas que
des bonnes nouvelles pour la Russie, si l'on prend en considération les
ententes commerciales importantes du continent avec l'ancienne
puissance. "Si l'UE s'écroule, ceci va toucher nos relations
commerciales," estime Kons-tantin Kosachev, à la tête du comité des
relations étrangères
Tough being a champion
The
lesson is constantly taught but bears remembering: it's not how you
start the season, it's how you finish it, and this winter provided the
best example of how much of an equalizer the second season can really
be.
Of course you needn't say that to the Montreal Canadiens,
which were barely hanging on by their finger nails at the midway point
of the season when concern grew after the injury to their star goalie
suffered following that 9-0 start.
But consider Carolinas' 14-0
start and Golden States 73 win NBA season, and how the season ended with
bad boy antics by their frustrated stars, and sometimes even their
girlfriends too.
As she felt the seasons glory slipping away
after game 5 forced the series back to Cleveland, Golden State star
Stephen Curry's partner accused the NBA of seeking to rig the finals to
deny the team its second title in a row. At the end of game 6 it was the
stars time to make headlines for the wrong reasons when he tossed his
mouth guard against a taunting fan, a decision that cost him a $25.000
fine by the league.
GAme 7 came down to a miraculous play by MVP
LeBron James who flew into the air to prevent a basket that would have
narrowed Cleveland's lead in the final seconds. The team had completed a
historic comeback from being down 3-1 in the finals to capture the
city's first NBA title.
Upset, joy, bitterness, the outcome of
all finals in pro sports, but one we were starting to recognize. Wind up
the click to the Super Bowl four months before and a matchup that left
the season champs struggling to score and ultimately losing to Denver.
The
nights performance left star QB Cam Newton fuming, and storming out of
the post game press conference. The question posed hadn't been
particularly sensitive, at least on the surface: was he disappointed for
his teammates they had come so close and yet short. That was enough to
make him shake his head and walk off stage.
But sports at this
level are no picnic and Ward could have walked off for all those who
started off so well and fell short. It's hard playing at his level, but
ever harder to win, especially when facing established MVPs and talents,
a King James already seen as one of the sports greatest, and Peyton
Manning , a two time Super Bowl winner with his place well secured in
NFL lore.
The worst ever
There was a rare wariness
and tone of resignation in the U.S. president's initial address as he
went to the airwaves to mourn the death of dozens of patrons killed in
the country's latest mass shooting. "In the face of hate and violence,
we will love another. We will not give in to fear, we will not turn
against each other," he vowed, but also deplored a country in which it
is too easy to procure guns, leaving Americans to "decide if this is the
kind of country we want to be."
While it can seem as if
America's is a history riddled with incidents of mass shootings, never
had one felled so many before. The mass shooting of an Orlando gay
nightclub killed 49 and injured over 50 people. Officials could not
immediately confirm whether the incident was related to radical
Islamists but labelled the shooting as terrorism and a hate crime.
Law
enforcement said the suspect pledged allegiance to ISIS during a 911
call made from the club, but could establish no direct link to the
group. Islamic radicals around the world celebrated the attack as a gift
for Ramadan, a period during which ISIS encouraged lone wolf attacks
against infidels. The day after the attack an ISIS-related group called
for more attacks against the U.S.
The suspect, killed in the
shooting, was security guard Omar Saddiqui Mateen, who had been
questioned by the FBI in the past for possible terror ties but let go
for lack of evidence. The FBI said it would review its policies in light
of the incident, showing that experience dealing with these shootings
has hardly led to effective protocols to connect the dots and prevent
future attacks. Despite suspicions about him Mateen at least once worked
under contract for the U.S. government, and had no trouble purchasing
an AR-15 assault rifle, the one he would use to carry out the killing.
The
day after the attack, the weapon maker's stock rose 7%. U.S. officials,
such as Alan Grayson, said the death count would have been much lower
had he not been able to obtain this military-grade weapon. For the U.S.
president the combination of self-radicalization and easy access to guns
made for a deadly combination and created threats hard to defend
against. He added that the country had to do some serious soul searching
about the risks associated to such lax regulations on firearms, and
consider whether someone under watch purchasing such a weapon should set
off alarm bells, regulations the U.S. lacks.
But there was a
sense America had repeatedly been there before, after Newton, Virginia
Tech, and more recently, San Bernardino, among the nearly 1,000 mass
shootings since what had until then been America's deadliest shooting,
over 130 this year alone. The last decade saw the three bloodiest
shootings in U.S. history, the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting killing 32
and the 2012 Sandy Hook attack felling 27 victims.
While U.S.
politicians offered their condolences to the families, Donald Trump once
again went against the grain, and quite against the usual post shooting
script. He took credit for "being right about Islamic radicals" and
criticized the president for failing to "finally mention the words
radical Islamic terrorism", adding "he should immediately resign in
disgrace."
"What has happened in Orlando is just the beginning,"
he warned, before reiterating his calls for Muslims to be banned from
travelling to the U.S. Trump later specified the ban should apply to
citizens of countries with a history of terror against the West, but
failed to name them. When he took to the airwaves again, Obama was no
longer resigned but angry at the presumptive nominee's utterances, which
he said endangered the country and threatened its very constitution.
"Where
does it end?" he asked. There was little of the usual unity after this
national tragedy, only more division. Shooting post morterms had led to
different interpretations of the events and different debates in the
past, but this time reached new levels of anger, enough to make you
wonder if this time America will find time to heal.
Tackling drones' small image problem
They
used to be used mainly for delivering lethal payload in distant
attacks, like remote controlled cruise missiles, or to patrol borders.
Now their commercial development has crowded the skies with drones of
all sizes and budgets, more often than not presenting them as nuisances
and hazards to commercial aviation.
As the Fort McMurray
blaze raged, fire crews complained drones operated by individuals were
hampering efforts to battle the flames. Not a week goes by without news a
drone has come too close to restricted airspace, especially airports,
though one recent report of a drone hitting a commercial airliner was
quickly disproved. It is perhaps just a matter of time.
Canadian
Air Force officials did confirm however two jet fighters were
dispatched to Ottawa airport in May to investigate a drone buzzing near
the tarmac, which was however never found. It's not all negative, but
with the convenience, such as rapid pizza delivery or Amazon shipping
comes the inconvenience of crowded skies close to the ground. This week
the Canadian government promoted "no drone zone" designations for
sensitive areas and said it was drafting regulations to tighten drone
usage rules.
But the buzzing plastic machines are
increasingly doing more than providing overhead shots and delivering
cheap Chinese goods, they are becoming a growing strategy for
intervention by first responders and emergency services in different
parts of the world. And this sometimes includes less fortunate countries
with poor infrastructures, tough terrain and tougher budgets.
In
Malawi UNICEF is experimenting with a drone delivery service it hopes
will assist in the country's struggle against the AIDS epidemic.
Approximately 10% of the population is HIV positive, and this includes
young children and infrants, who were born with the transmission. “In
2014, nearly 40,000 children in Malawi were born to HIV positive
mothers," says Mahimbo Mdoe of UNICEF. "Quality care of these children
depends on early diagnosis, which requires taking dried blood samples
from the health centre to the central laboratory for testing. We hope
that UAVs can be part of the solution to reduce transportation time and
ensure that children who need it, start their treatment early”.
The
devices are used to transport kits over the poorly roaded sometimes
inac-cessible territory, to assist families fighting the disease. If it
sounds like the continent is skipping some stages of development this
isn't new. It made other technological leaps with the widespread use of
cellphones, in areas where proper landlines had never been installed.
"We have also pioneered the delivery of results from the central
laboratory to the health facilities through text messages," says health
minister Dr. Peter Kumpalume. "We believe our partnering with UNICEF to
test UAVs is another innovation and will help in our drive to achieve
the country’s goals in HIV prevention and treatment.”
In
Rwanda, health services are going further by integrating a drone
delivery system, Zipline, directly into public health nationwide,
according to France24 programme Element Terre. The drones are propulsed
into the air by sling shot and deliver packages, from blood samples to
medical supplies, by parachuting them in hard to reach locations. The
country is even looking into building an airport-like hub for mass drone
operations nationwide.
Their use is hardly just
recreational in the West, where they are increasingly considered by
emergency services. In some fire departments in Denmark and Wales, drone
units support firefighters on the scene of blazes and act as precious
eyes in the sky to help locate persons in need of immediate assistance.
Drones have steadily established themselves as responder assistants.
Three
years ago the RCMP credited the use of a machine when trying to track
down someone who had crashed their car in the snow but could not be
found. An infrared-camera equiped quadcopter helped locate the
individual after his phone signal was used to narrow the search area in
rural Saskatchewan.
More recently, in Ottawa a drone was
sent over the site of a sinkhole which had expanded and swallowed a
parked van, helping authorities closely survey the damage without
getting too close physically. Alec Momont is aware drones have had a
small image problem, and his Drones for Good project seeks to assist
medical services with "the Ambulance-Drone, a high speed drone network
that delivers emergency supplies to any location within minutes", to get
to patients in need sooner, delivering defibrillators and other key
tools for use in medical emergencies. With time being of the essence in
emergency situations "a decrease in response time of just one minute
leads to an increase of 10% in the survival rates," he writes.
In
Chile, a country with hundreds of kilometres of coastline, drones are
being used by lifeguards to quickly deliver life savers to swimmers in
need. It's a wonder a tool initially delivered for military and
offensive purposes can be converted into a life saver. NASA and NOAA are
also using drones to study the evolution of storms and tornadoes, life
saving applications themselves. Sometimes the lives aren't even human.
Wildlife
and conservation officials around the world have turned to drones to
monitor wildlife and prevent poaching. To prevent accidents and save
lives, companies such as Shell and various airlines have also been
turning to the aerial tools to survey facilities and conduct inspections
that would be humanly difficult to conduct. By some estimates the
agriculture industry will be a major user of the devices this year,
enabling farmers to inspect and treat crops in record time and collect
data that would enable them to target specific sections of their crops
the most in need, limiting fertilizer and pesticide use. So it would
seem that when it comes to using drones for good, sky's the limit after
all.
Le défi de Paris
Mais qui donc sont ces énergumènes
cagoulés que l'on découvre lorsque se lève le nuage de gaz lacrymogène,
des manifestants, des terroristes ou des hooligans? Inondations
dévastatrices, grèves et manifs monstre sur la loi du travail et état
d'alerte terroriste avec la tenue de l'euro, autant de sujets pour
mettre l'hexagone en état d'ébullition en ce début d'été.
Heureusement
pour divertir des Français en quête d'un peu de distraction, du pain et
des jeux: une fête du football, l'équipe hôte se qualifiant après deux
victoires. Mais l'euro est accompagné par son bagage de tracas et
d'inconvénients, du resserrement de la sécurité des lieux publics aux
tristes incidents associés au hooliganisme.
Certains incidents
avaient d'ailleurs lieu entre partisans français et britanniques avant
même le coup d'envoi. En moins d'une semaine on écrouait déjà plus de
300 hooligans britanniques et russes, en menaçant d'expulser leurs clubs
s'ils ne changeaient pas leurs habitudes. Le tournoi sous haute
surveillance se préparait à être ciblé par de nouveaux attentats.
Quelques
mois après ceux de Paris et quelques jours avant le coup d'envoi on
précédait à l'arrestation d'un individu en Ukraine qui, dit-on,
préparait de nouvelles attaques. Selon la police ukrainienne l'individu
était un Français d'extrême droite contre les politiques d'immigration
de Paris et se serait procuré des lance-roquettes, des explosifs et
plusieurs armes pour commettre des attentats.
Suivi par les
autorités, il a été épinglé en tentant de traverser la frontière. La
menace qui pèse sur le continent était telle que les États-Unis ont
averti leurs concitoyens de rester sur leurs gardes s'ils voyagent sur
le vieux continent cet été. Moins d'une semaine après le coup d'envoi un
premier drame: l'assassinat de deux policiers par un soi-disant
djihadiste près de Paris. L'Etat islamique a revendiqué l'attentat.
Le
lendemain le risque d'attentats demeurait imminent en France et en
Belgique, pourtant si récemment ciblés. Puis, comme pour rappeler que
l'état d'urgence est encore en vigueur, cette semaine les autorités en
France et en Belgique procédaient à l'arrestation d'une douzaine
d'individus qui, dit-on, complotaient de commettre des actes
terroristes.
Au cœur de ce capharnaüm sécuritaire, un sondage
étonnant et épeurant qui, à un an du vote présidentiel, place la
candidate d'extrême droite Marine Le Pen en bonne posture dans les
sondages. Nouveau cauchemar à saveur 2002 alors que les États Unis se
préparent à une élection alarmante? Il ne manque plus que la crise du
Zika, elle qui a déjà baissé les attentes d'affluence aux Jeux
Olympiques au Brésil, et qui pourrait se répandre en Europe cet été,
selon l'Organisation mondiale de la santé.
Certainement la fête
du foot procure un nécessaire échappatoire, mais rien ne semble pouvoir
échapper aux troubles sociaux alors que le pays tente de réformer sa loi
du travail. Après la grève des éboueurs celle des cheminots, puis des
pilotes d'Air France. Cette semaine un autre important rassemblement
paralysait la capitale, entrainant des éclats parfois violents avec les
autorités et menant à plusieurs manifestations.
A la veille de
la nouvelle saison l'été s'annonce déjà chaud, et le spectacle est
désolant dans un pays qui espérait profiter d'une vague de tourisme et
peut-être d'un titre de football européen pour oublier ses tracas. Fort
heureusement, ce rêve là persiste.
Encore non, madame
Quelques
mois après le rejet du Kirchnerismo en Argentine, l'autre côte
d'Amérique du sud a dit non au retour du Fujimorismo au Pérou, un
dénouement étonnant tellement on se préparait à l'élection de Keiko
Fujimori, la fille de l'ex-président pour le moins controversé, dans
cette lutte opposant deux candidats de centre droite.
Alberto
Fujimori, qui a dirigé le pays lors des années 90 , purge actuellement
une peine de 25 ans en prison, notamment pour détournement de fonds et
violation des droits de l'homme. Mais plusieurs auront retenu sa
victoire contre les rebelles du Sentier lumineux, malgré les dérapages
de la lutte du point de vue des droits de l'homme.
Keiko était
de loin la favorie, après avoir remporté le premier tour avec 39% des
votes, mais a abouti seconde malgré avoir promis de "respecter la
démocratie" et de "ne pas recourir à la corruption". Les scandales
associés à ses proches avaient cependant davantage entaché son image
peu avant le vote, mettant fin à sa nouvelle candidature présidentielle.
Le vainqueur, l'économiste Pablo Kuczynski, a fait l'école de
Wall Street avant de se prononcer candidat, à l'âge de 77 ans, et promet
de "diriger le pays vers un avenir brillant". L'ancien ministre des
finances prend les rênes alors que le pays connaît une croissance
étonnante (4,7% depuis la crise) mais souffre de l'augmentation des
inégalités et de l'insécurité. Il s'est notamment engagé à augmenter les
services publics pour les plus démunis.
L'ancien économiste de
la Banque mondiale promet également un allègement fiscal afin de
relancer l'investissement mais prévoit une ronde d'investissements en
infrastructure avant tout qui pourrait au départ causer un léger
déficit. Il s'agit d'une seconde défaite de suite pour Fujimori, qui
avait également perdu au finish l'élection de 2011.
Le pays a dû
attendre les résultats du vote à l'étranger et celui des régions
isolées et éloignées avant d'avoir la confirmation du nouveau chef
d'état. Ironie du sort, la région hébergeant les derniers guerriers
maoistes du Sentier lumineux figurait parmi elles. Cela a-t-il eu
quelque impact? Fujimori s'est avouée vaincue après des résultats
montrant un déficit de quelques milliers de votes.
De l'aveu du
vainqueur lui-même, qui n'avait obtenu que 17% au premier tour, le
scrutin était un plebiscite sur les années Fujimori. N'avait-il pas
lui-même parlé du possible retour "de la dictature, la corruption et des
mensonges"? "Kuczynski n'aurait jamais triomphé sans vote anti-Keiko,
ça c'est clair, tranche Jo-Marie Burt du Washington Office sur
l'Amérique latine, une bonne partie de la population est très au courant
des abus et de la corruption qui ont caractérisé le régime du père de
Keiko et s'est mobilisée afin d'empêcher le retour du Fujimorismo". Ceci
dit, la fronde unie afin d'assurer le rejet de Fujimori risque d'être
éphémère selon plusieurs observateurs.
L'alliance en place "va
s'écrouler dès qu'il sera au pouvoir," prédit Steven Levitsky de
Harvard. Et ces alliances sont nécessaires pour faire le poids au
Congrès, où le parti de Fujimori conserve une majorité absolue. Selon le
politologue Martin Tanaka, Kuczynski était "un très mauvais candidat"
mais "très chanceux".
Quite the Rush
Not many teams can boast repeating championships in another city, but the National Lacrosse League is not your ordinary league.
It
may not have been the first to league to switch attention to during the
Canadian city-less NHL playoffs, but the city of Saskatoon certainly
embraced its champions of the official national sport as they defeated
Buffalo 11-10 to win the title for the second year in a row.
Saskatchewan's
gain was Edmonton's loss as the team moved between seasons after a
decade in the city of champions. The move was rather unorthodox
considering the recently acquired title and ongoing rivalry with
Calgary.
But by then rumours of a move had been circulating for months, notably from the horse's mouth, owner Bruce Urban.
"We
agonized over this decision for months," he said over the summer. "But
without the ability to secure a long term arena and no contact from the
city for any other options, the only choice remaining was to relocate."
And
the 15,000 fans who showed up for the decisive game in early June are
glad they did, team members bringing their talent across provincial
boundaries and a championship with it.
It was nearly enough to
make fans forget their beloved Riders were kept out of the playoffs last
year. But it was a game Rush defender Jeff Corwall will certainly never
forget.
The 25-year-old BC native scored a breakaway goal with 12 seconds left to give his team the win over the Buffalo Bandits.
“I’ve never felt like that,” said Cornwall. “It was huge.”
For
the second time in a row the team had rallied from a fourth quarter
deficit, and goalie Aaron Bold credited the hard working never give up
mentality for the win.
“Rock, chisel hammer is definitely our
motto,” said Bold after the game. “Keep on wearing opponents down. Our
transition game and defensive game starts it and that fuels the offence.
They know we are there and are going to be solid day in and day out.”
Head coach Derek Keenan added Bold's goaltending certainly went a long way keeping his team in the game.
“We
just kind of hung with it, like we have done the entire playoffs,”
Keenan said. “We focus on the process, be patient and in the end (Rush
goalie Aaron Bold) was incredible. He made huge saves throughout and
then Jeff with just a beautiful transition goal.”
Bold, who
stopped 47 shots in game 2 and 43 in game one (beating the Bandits 11-9)
was later named the MVP of the best of three final series.
Arming Libya
Years
after conducting air strikes to oust dictator Muammar Gadhafi, leading
to his downfall but also great chaos in its wake, Western powers said
they were gearing up to arm Libya's weak unity government as it
struggles in the latest front in the war against ISIS. This would only
add to the military support already being provided.
While
retreating elsewhere, the Islamic terror group represents "a new threat"
in the country, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, adding it was
"imperative" it be stopped. Western powers are seeking an exemption from
the country's UN arms embargo with the looming threat. Parts of Libya
have been largely out of the reach of authorities for years, a fact
which has allowed weapons from the country's armories to flood other
parts of Africa after the Libyan revolution which deposited the dictator
of Tripoli.
A UN-backed unity government has been struggling to
keep the country from falling into total chaos, a volatility underlined
by the storming of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in 2012, which felled
its top diplomat. The country remains in the grips of a civil conflict
which is fostering instability and allowing ISIS to grow, with threats
the Islamic State and its proxies could score major victories that would
add a new battle ground to its already important presence in Syria and
Iraq. "We urge the international community to assist us," said Fayez
Sarraj, the prime minister of a unity government that has not garnered
the approval of all the country's rival factions. At least Libya has
ended a period of being torn by rival governments, which was a major
concern to outside powers.
The weak government has made securing
the country's borders difficult, both allowing external influences to
seep in and making it hard to control the thousands fleeing Libya
towards Europe by way of the Mediterranean. In anticipa-tion of the
new migrant season EU navies were training Libyan coast guards to stop
coastline departures for Europe, and on this there has been some
progress. In late May the Libyan coast guard said it had intercepted
over 850 migrants on 7 ships. But this is also underlining the
importance of the Libya-Italy route for those seeking to reach European
shotes.
By one estimate some 800,000 migrants are waiting to
cross the Mediterranean in Libya, and Tripoli has admitted it lacks the
resources to handle migrant departures. Libya has been a growing base
not only for ISIS activity but training as well, its fighters regularly
sneaking into neighbouring states such as Tunisia to carry out attacks.
In February the death of a jihadist commander by U.S. strikes in western
Libya prompted a flurry of infiltrations of fighters into Tunisia to
conduct revenge attacks. "We are sitting right next to a nation that has
no peace," said the brother of a Tunisian anti-terrorism chief killed
in the attacks. A number of Tunisians have gone to Libya to train and,
fearing their return, the government has reinforced as it could the
border with a 200 kilometre trench. Is the U.S. hoping to regroup the
coalition it gathered in the country five years ago?
U.S., and
by some accounts, French and British special ops, have been stationed at
various outposts of the country since last year, and other allies have
been commenting on the likelihood of joining ground action. While the
British defence secretary said combat roles were not being planned in
the country, Canada's top general said that he was advising the
government on possible options in case the need to intervene arises. In
the meantime London has announced it was ready to take some "active
role" at least to assist the country on the migrant crisis. For this
purpose the Royal Navy was getting ready to send a ship to join five
other EU vessels off the coast of Libya. The intention is also to target
arms smuggling which could benefit ISIS. There's no doubt ISIS'
foothold in the port city of Sirte was a major concern the country could
become another major front in the war against Daesh.
Libya is
"a danger to all of us," David Cameron said at the recent G7 summit. The
UK effort would "help stabilise Libya, secure its coast and tackle the
migration crisis," he added. And the country needs help on all fronts as
the migrant season goes into full steam, with its tales of tragedies.
Last week some 700 drowned making the perilous journey, one drowned
infant in particular becoming the poster child of tragedy, among over
100 migrants who drowned when a ship carrying as many as 500 people
tipped over in plain sight of the coast guard. This week another 100
perished off the coast of Libya when their boat capsized. Some 2,500
have either died or gone missing attempting the trip this year alone. On
the ISIS front there have been some successes, after a Libyan force
established to defend the country’s oil ports captured the coastal town
of Ben Jawad from Daesh.
“We launched today’s attack to purge
and liberate the central region from Daesh, and secure this area,”
spokesman Ali Al-Hassi said. But the battle against the group continues
and its extension into Libya has in fact been a distinguishing feature
separating it from rival al-Qaida. Indeed while the latter sought to
target faraway threats such as the U.S., ISIS has been more likely to
target locally notes author Wassim Nasr. "ISIS has a different
approach," he tells France24, "fighting regional regimes at first,
seeking to establish its califate 'street by street'."
The U.S.
president conceded this week, the week a UN report listed setbacks for
IS in Iraq and Syria but gains in Libya, that the post-Gadhafi situation
resulted in "kind of a mess". “We decided to go in as part of a broader
coalition, into Libya, to make sure that this guy Gadhafi, who had been
state-sponsoring terrorism, did not go in and start slaughtering his
own people. We succeeded and saved tens of thousands of lives, but all
too much counting on other countries to then stabilize and support the
government formation [in Libya] and now it is a kind of a mess.”
Trying dictators
Is
the age of impunity and judicial parody over in Africa? As longtime
African leaders seek to extend their stay at the helm by changing
constitutions, they may be casting a nervous look at a landmark court
decision in Senegal at the end of May. For the first time an African
court tried and sentenced a former dictator for human rights abuses,
sentencing ex- Chadian leader Hissene Habre for life for rape, sexual
slavery and commissioning killings, possibly as many as 40,000.
"This
is a historic day for Chad and for Africa," said Yamasoum Konar, who
represents victims groups. "It is the first time that an African head of
state has been found guilty in another African country. This will be a
lesson to other dictators in Africa." Habre, who committed atrocities
between 1982 and 1990 and was often referred to as Africa's Pinochet,
remained defiant as he pondered an appeal, shouting: "Down with France
Afrique", the region of Africa Chad and Senegal were once referred to
belonging to. Other African leaders such as Charles Taylor, the former
president of Liberia, were tried and convicted, but by outside
authorities such as UN special courts.
Dakar's verdict was
embraced by those seeking to establish a permanent African court of
justice to try these individuals rather than institutions such as the
International Criminal Court. "Today will be carved into justice as the
day that a brand of unrelenting survivors brought their dictator to
justice," declared Reed Brody of Human Rights watch. It was also the
first time a national court used the principle of universal jurisdiction
against a former head of state for human rights abuses. The list of
former African leaders who have been sentenced for their crimes is
however relatively short, with ex Malian leader Moussa Traore first
sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life in jail before he
was pardoned in 2002.
Jean Bedel Bokassa of the Central African
Republic was sentenced to death for ordering a massacre before that
sentence was commuted to solitary confinement. He was later freed and
died soon after, in 1996. Others have been convicted in abstentia, and
while Sudan's Omar Bashir became the first sitting leader to be indicted
by the International Criminal Court, the Arab League and African Union
undermined the decision, making a mockery of the charges brought forward
of criminal respon-sibility for genocide, crimes against humanity and
war crimes committed in Darfur.
Awaiting his own fate is former
Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo, facing charges of abuse at The
Hague. Meantime his wife Simone has gone on trial this week in the Ivory
Coast for crimes against humanity, but already rights groups were
complaining the proceedings would be flawed.
“Our lawyers have
not had access to all stages of the procedures. How can they defend
their case?” the head of one of the groups said. The ICC also wanted to
try Simone in Europe but has faced resistance by the country's
leadership and general allergy to the court. Human Rights Watch still
expressed hope the trial could prove a "pivotal moment" for the Ivory
Coast's justice system.
La crise après Chavez
On savait
que la transition n'allait pas être facile après le départ du défunt
Hugo Chavez, mais le Venezuela est-il à la veille d'une prise de pouvoir
par les militaires? La révolution chaviste semble se mourir sans son
architecte, et les militaires font l'objet de toutes les convoitises.
Faut-il blâmer le président Maduro suite à cette descente aux enfers?
L'écroulement du prix du pétrole , hors du contrôle de Caracas, a
certainement été catastrophique, mais plusieurs pointent du doigt les
politiques du président face à la crise, même ceux qui portaient
fièrement le flambeau de la révolution.
"On a l'impression,
même chez ses supporters, que Maduro va entraîner le projet
révolutionnaire au fond du précipice, estime David Smilde de
l'université Tulane, ses politiques ont déchiré le pays tout entier."
On estime à pas moins de 70% l'appui populaire en faveur du départ de
Maduro, et dans un pays qui a souvent connu la violence, le rôle des
militaires soulève les plus grandes craintes et interrogations, d'où les
tentatives de dialogue de chaque part avec les hommes de kaki.
"Je
tiens à dire aux forces armées que l'heure de vérité approche,
déclarait récemment Henrique Capriles, candidat à la dernière
présidentielle, vous devez décider si vous êtes du côté de la
constitution ou de Maduro". Le gouvernement de son côté a multiplié
les gestes envers les militaires, même si chaque côté préfère qu'ils
restent dans leurs casernes. L'opposition a regroupé 1,8 million de
signatures afin d'organiser un référendum pour le renvoi de Maduro et
poursuit ses manifestations dans les rues du Venezuela sans relâche.
Ce
dernier est plongé dans le noir par des pannes de courant, triste
ironie quant on pense aux richesses énergétiques du pays avec les plus
importantes réserves de pétrole dans le monde, et fait face à multes
pénuries alimentaires et autres alors que l'inflation prend un envol
catastrophique.
Alors que 85% des compagnies ont été touchées
par la crise et ont réduit leur production en conséquent "il y a des
pénuries à tous les niveaux," fait remarquer Ricardo Cusanno de la
Chambre de commerce du Venezuela. Papier hygiénique, nourriture,
médicaments, tout manque sur les étalages dont l'état ont provoqué
multes manifestations. Récemment deux compagnies aériennes, Lufthansa et
LATAM, le géant régional, annonçaient qu'elles cessaient de desservir
Caracas en raison des pénuries de biens et de services.
"Il y a
une liste longue de problèmes, mais ce qu'on n'avait pas vu jusqu'à
maintenant c'était des manifs pour manque de nourriture'" ajoute Smilde.
"Nous voulons de la nourriture!" criaient justement des manifestants
prenant la rue cette semaine. Maduro n'est pas seulement de plus en plus
isolé chez lui mais dans la région également, s'en prenant à
l'Organisation des Etats d'Amérique pour avoir critiqué son approche.
Le
secrétaire général de l'OEA a à son tour fait appel à l'organisation du
référendum que cherche à mettre en place l'opposition, faute de quoi
Maduro risque de passer à l'histoire à titre d'"un autre minable
dictateur". Cette semaine l'opposition réitérait ses menaces de passer
aux actes si un référendum n'avait pas lieu d'ici la fin de l'année, sur
fond de nouveaux éclats dans les rues du pays.
"Il leur faut
aller dans le sens de l'histoire, déclara Enrique Marquez, le vice
président de la législature, avec le peuple souffrant du Venezuela et
retirer les barrières à la tenue d'un référendum". Mais Maduro compte
sans doute repousser tout rendez-vous référendaire en espérant que la
remontée progressive des prix de l'or noir pourra changer la donne
économique.
Toujours champion
Pas d'équipe canadienne
dans les séries? Pas de panique, Equipe Canada était là pour adoucir le
coup et remporter son deuxième titre consécutif aux championnats du
monde, son 26ème en tout.
Si la revanche finale de l'édition 2015
n'a pas eu lieu, le Canada n'affrontant jamais l'hôte lors de ce
tournoi en Russie, celle opposant les unifoliés à la seule sélection qui
avait infligé une défaite était au rendez-vous.
La Finlande
avait en effet empêché au Canada de terminé la ronde préliminaire avec
une fiche parfaite, comme l'an dernier, et blanchissant Connor McDavid
et son équipe 4-0, une sérieux retour sur terre.
En finale
cependant Equipe Canada imposait le ton dès les premiers instants, en
mitraillant Mikko Koskinen 32 fois, soit le double de ce que devait
connaitre Cam Talbot, qui n'avait cependant rien à se reprocher.
Etape
nécessaire de toute étoile en progression, McDavid connut un bon
tournoi mondial, marquant le but gagnant à 11:24, tandis que les Suomen
Poikka n'arrivaient pas à s'imposer dans la zone canadienne.
"Nous
ne leur avons pas laissé la chance de s'organiser ou de s'échapper dans
notre zone, dira McDavid par la suite, lorsque nous avons laissé filer
une chance (Talbot) a été éclatant".
L'écart demeura le même
jusqu'aux derniers instants lorsque les Finlandais tentèrent le tout
pour le tout et retirèrent Koskinen, spectateur attristé par le deuxième
but canadien dans un filet désert.
"On a fait un bon travail
défensivement en tant que groupe, dira l'entraineur Bill Peters par la
suite, nos gardiens ont été excellents chaque soir. Je pense que
l'équipe était beaucoup meilleure ce soir que (lors de la défaite)."
En
remportant ce 26e titre le Canada était à un championnat de joindre le
combiné CCCP-Russie au palmarès historique des champions du monde. Mais
des marques personnelles ont été enregistrées en Russie.
Le
capitale Corey Perry a notamment rejoint le prestigieux club des
champions, ajoutant son championnat du monde à sa bague de la Coupe
Stanley et ses médailles olympiques.
Le Canada brisait le coeur
des voisins finlandais en empêchant au club de devenir le premier à
remporter à la fois un championnat du monde et le titre junior et des
moins de 18 ans, mais autant dire que le hockey finlandais promet pour
l'avenir.
Pour le Canada il s'agissait d'un genre de revanche
après la défaite à domicile à Québec en 2008, lorsque Ovechkin et les
siens avaient remporté le tournoi au Canada. Avait cette année la Russie
avait été la dernière à enfiler deux championnats consécutifs, doit en
2008 et 2009.
Pour les Russes il s'agit d'un nouveau pavé dans la
mare après un tournoi olympique, également en Russie, ou les aigles
avaient également manqué de se présenter en finale.
Rien de mieux
pour remonter le moral des Canadiens sans équipe à suivre pendant les
séries, et qui ont goûté à un amuse-gueule international avant la Coupe
du monde de hockey à l'automne.
Adieu Roussef, pour l'instant
La
lutte a été féroce, la présidente y engageant tout son arsenal, faisant
appel à tous ses contacts. Mais peine perdue après tant de mois.
Pourtant la sortie de Dilma Roussef, en attendant son procès en
destitution, laisse le pays loin d'être au bout de ses peines alors que
le chef d'état est remplacé de manière intérimaire. D'ailleurs ses
tortionnaires, dont le rem-plaçant, s'en tirent à peine puisque
plusieurs sont soupçonnés de corruption.
Puis le pays fait
encore face à la crise du Zika, et un écroulement économique inconnu
depuis les années trente, lui qui voulait tout faire pour célébrer son
arrivée dans la cour des grands avec le Mondial et les JOs. Plus tôt en
mai le procureur général avait demandé une enquête de corruption sur
l'ex-président Lula.
Un juge avait d'ailleurs suspendu la
décision de Roussef de nommer son prédécesseur chef de cabinet, afin de
l'héberger des enquêtes. Rien pour enlever le spectre de la corruption.
Le moment est bien mal choisi à quelques mois du coup d'envoi de JOs,
dont les billets tardent à se vendre, certains athlètes nationaux
suggérant même aux touristes d'éviter le voyage.
Mais le
remplacement de Roussef met à peine fin à une saga de plusieurs mois au
courant de laquelle elle a fait appel à toutes les mesures
parlementaires en son pouvoir, et plus récemment à la Cour suprême,
avant que le Sénat ne tranche et vote , par 55-22, en faveur de son
procès en destitution. Plus tôt la chambre basse avait voté 367-147 dans
le même sens. Roussef avait alors déjà perdu de nombreux alliés
précieux dans sa lutte, qu'elle se promettait de poursuivre avec
acharnement , et force du désespoir. Parmi eux, le vice président Michel
Tremer, chef d'état provisoire et ancien allié , qu'elle accuse d'avoir
monté un coup d'état constitutionnel.
Elle a répété ces
accusations en quittant le palais présidentiel, caractérisant le
processus engagé contre elle de "farce", avant de prendre un bain de
foule avec ses partisans. "Mon gouvernement a fait l'objet d'un
sabotage, dit-elle, j'ai commis des erreurs mais pas de crimes". Mais
d'autres foules ont été moins tendres envers elle, faisant appel à sa
démission.
La décision du Sénat la place sur la ligne de touche
pendant six mois, lui permettant de préparer sa défense contre les
accusations d'avoir joué avec les comptes publics, une habitude du
pouvoir qui n'avait auparavant jamais apporté de sanction si
draconienne. Mais d'autres noms pourraient suivre, dont celui... de
Tremer lui-même, déjà menacé par des mesures disciplinaires pour ne pas
avoir suivi la réglementation sur le financement des campagnes.
Par
ailleurs un parlementaire de longue date, Eduardo Cunha, qui a
également mené les efforts de destitution de Roussef, fait lui-même face
à des accusations de corruption. C'est donc la politique elle-même qui
subit son procès, ce qui n'a rien pour rassurer un public furieux de
l'état de la nation, alors qu'elle devait fêter ses succès dans l'arène
internationale.
Taking the fight to Manila
The
potty-mouthed populist presidential front-runner shocked observers
making sexist comments, insulting the disabled and vowing he would make
criminals pay with their lives, and yet his ratings only increased with
every new controversial statement. And that was just the beginning,
before he entered territory even Donald Trump would shy away from. This
wasn't America's primary season but days before the Philippines went to
the polls and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte kept the worst
for late into the campaign when he cracked a scandalous rape joke at
one of his rallies.
Referring to the fate of an Australia
minister who was held hostage, raped, and executed in 1989, he said: “I
was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing. But she was so
beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste.” Meet the
Philippines' new president. When foreign diplomats panned him for joking
about rape, he barely flinched, telling them they could “go ahead and
sever” diplomatic ties with the country, which is strategically
important in the region and at the centre of America's Asia pivot as
countries stare down China in the South China Sea. It wasn't long before
the twittersphere erupted, in comments that made the GOP contender look
like a boy scout in comparison.
“Wow, Trump wouldn’t even say
something like that,” one commenter tweeted. “And I thought Trump was a
sleeze,” wrote another. Yet, like in the case of Trump, who promised
to tone down his act in the lead up to the presidency but still kept
referring to his rivals as Lying Ted and Corrupt Hillary, the
condemnation seems to have done little to make his hard core supporters
reconsider, in a country where politics and political coverage can be
deadly. The Philippines are still struggling with a decades long
insurgency in its southern islands, a fact reminded days before the May 9
vote when a Canadian hostage was killed by his captors.
Duterte,
the mayor of the country's fourth largest city, located in the south,
won the election with about 39% of the vote. The president-elect
“connects easily with the common people because he talks like an
ordinary individual,” political science professor Edmund S. Tayao told
Business World, adding: “Either he draws people more to him or away from
him because his personality is not moderate.”
The comparisons
with Trump are numerous. His macho appeal may certainly draw support
from male audiences, referring to himself without shame as a
“womanizer,” and openly boasting to have three girlfriends. There's no
law against that, but for those found guilty of crimes Duterte promises
the return of capital punishment, claiming he would have 100,000
criminals executed, including his own children, if they should be caught
ever using drugs. After years of growing crime and violence in the
Philippines, the 71-year-old has been credited with cleaning up his
town, but using vigilante death squads in the process. “They say I am a
killer. Maybe I am,” he said.
The mayor has "become a rallying
symbol for all classes—poor, middle and rich—long fed up with ‘trapos’
(corrupt politicians) messing up our country,” spokesman Peter Tiu
Lavina explained. His outbursts have cost him in the past, notably when
he cursed the Pope for getting caught in a traffic jam during the
pontiff's visit in 2015. He later apologized, by fear of offending the
faithful in this highly Catholic country.
Also in the running
was Senator and vice presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos
Jr., son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, another candidate, who
raised eyebrows, perhaps eclipsed only by the extreme vernacular of his
opponent. "It tells you how frustrated people are with the corruption
and inefficiency of the political system," noted Leonora Angeles of the
University of BC. "It really echoes I think the nostalgia for a strong
leader and authoritarian leader." And that's what the Philippines have
got for the next few years, but critics wonder how cracking down on
crime will help without addressing the cause of rising crime: notably
high levels of poverty.
Le réchauffement en question
Fort
McMurray et les îles Salomon. Il s'agit de deux désastres naturels aux
deux extrémités de la planète. L'eau et le feu. Et ils occupent une
place bien différente dans le débat des changements climatiques,
quelques mois après le sommet mondial de Paris et quelques jours après
la signature des 175 participants du plan d'action. Alors qu'une étude,
la première du genre, liait la disparition sous l'eau de cinq îles de
Salomon aux changements climatiques causant la montée des océans, le
désastre albertain a été traité avec beaucoup plus de retenue, malgré
l'accumu-lation des records de chaleur mondiaux. En effet 2015 à battu
le record de l'année ayant connu les températures les plus élevées
globalement.
Il s'agissait d'un record datant de 2014, et, avec
le phénomène el Nino, les sept derniers mois ont déjà vu de nouveaux
records fracasser le thermomètre. Les dirigeants canadiens faisant le
lien ont cependant vite été critiqués, se trouvant parfois obligés de
faire leurs excuses. La localité touchée, le cœur des sables bitumineux -
condam-nés de "producteur de pétrole sale" a parfois décerné le prix du
fossile au Canada - y est-elle pour quelquechose? Il n'est pas question
de blâmer les victimes, s'insurge un chroniqueur au Canada. Ce n'est
pas le temps de parler de réchauffement terrestre, clame un autre.
Mais
certains académiciens hésitent moins à placer Fort McMurray dans le
contexte des changements clima-tiques.Ils constatent qu'il y a eu des
feux extrêmes dans divers coins du monde, de la Tasmanie à l'Oklahoma,
et que les Etats-Unis ont vu un espace record gobbé par les flammes l'an
dernier, soit 10 millions d'acres. Sibérie, Mongolie, Chine, Brésil...
peu de pays à grandes surfaces n'ont pas été épargnés par le phénomère
de l'expansion de la saison des feux lors des dernières années. Au point
même où l'Australie a développé la notion de feux "catastrophiques" en
2009, un terme repris en Alberta cette année. "Les feux en Alberta sont
un excellent exemple de ce que nous observons de plus en plus, note
Jonathan Overpeck, spécialiste de l'Université d'Arizona. Le
réchauffement signifie une fonte des glaces plus tôt dans l'année, le
sol et la végétation séchent plus vite et la saison des feux commence
plus tôt. C'est une catastrophe."
D'autant plus que la
disparition de tous ces arbres emportés par les flammes prive la nature
d'un aspirateur de dioxyde de carbone. La saison des feux s'est
rallongée considéra-blement ces dernières années globalement, par
presque un cinquième depuis 1973, et il s'agit de plus en plus de feux
qu'on ne contrôle plus, rajoute un autre spécialiste, Mark Cochrane de
l'université du Dakota du sud. Il ne s'agit donc pas juste du Canada,
qui est à lui seul responsable de moins de 2% des émissions de carbone
mondiales, si l'on compare à la Chine (20%) , dont les villes sont si
souvent perdues dans des nuages de pollution, et aux Etats-Unis (17%).
L'entente
de Paris limitant les émissions serait en vigueur une fois qu'au moins
55 pays représentant au moins 55% des émission l'auront ratifiée. Rares
sont ceux qui vont plus loin que dire que, de manière générale, le
nombre d'incidents météorologiques extrêmes, comme les feux de
l'Alberta, vont croître avec les changements climatiques, sans effectuer
de lien direct. Mais pour ce qui est des îles Salomon, une étude plus
directe d'Environmental Research Letters établit, sur la base d'images
satellite, que l'érosion et la submersion qui menace les habitants des
îles est le fait de l'augmentation du niveaux des mers lié aux
changements climatiques.
Les conséquences pourraient même
entrainer le déménagement des habitants de la capitale régionale Taro,
une première dans le genre. Six autres îles sont également menacées par
l'érosion, responsable de la destruction de deux villages. L'érosion
menace d'ailleurs plusieurs côtes non seulement dans cette région peu
peuplée mais partout dans le monde, y compris au Canada, des dunes des
îles de la Madeleine à la côte de la Colombie britannique, dans une
région où les tremblements de terre peuvent donner lieu aux raz de
marée. "La montée de niveaux d'eau causée par les changements
climatiques sera un des défis les plus importants pour l'humanité au
courant du siècle prochain," note l'étude sur les îles, qui souligne
l'impact d'un nombre de facteurs, dont la force des vents et la hauteur
des vagues.
Un des auteurs, Simon Albert, regrette un peu que
les médias se soient concentrés sur le phénomène des changements
climatiques dans cette étude plutôt que la montée des niveaux des mers,
mais l'étude elle-même souligne qu'elle est le fait des changements de
climat. Les experts qui se rencontraient en Allemagne cette semaine pour
établir les régles de mise en pratique des accords de Paris, qui
espèrent limiter l'augmentation des températures à 2 degrés Celsius,
semblaient à la fois perturbés par le phénomène des feux en Alberta et
celui de la sécheresse en Inde, où certaines régions fracassaient de
nouveaux records cette semaine: 51 degrés Celsius!
Ils devront
par ailleurs se pencher sur l'aide financière aux pays du tiers monde en
difficulté. Selon Oxfam d'ailleurs, l'entente de Paris ne faisait rien
pour mettre en place des mécanismes afin d'aider ces pays à faire face
aux conséquences des change-mens climatiques. L'agence estime qu'environ
16% des 100 milliards de dollars par année promis aux pays pauvres
d'ici 2020 pour les aider à se défendre, contre les innondations, par
exemple, ou pour lutter contre la sécheresse et son impact sur
l'agriculture, ont été déversés. Par ailleurs l'organisation de charité
Christian Aid estimait qu'un milliard de personnes seraient menacées par
les innondations liées aux changements climatiques aux courant des
prochaines décennies. De nombreuses villes d'Asie seraient notamment
ciblées, mais également certaines métropoles de pays d'Occident,
notamment Miami. Selon cet autre rapport, encore une fois "les plus
pauvres auraient le plus à perdre."
Hail unlikely champs
Everybody
loves an underdog story, but when you're talking about narrowly
avoiding relegation to go on and take the title of the most important
league of the worlds most popular sport it reaches epic proportions.
Little-know
Leicester City beat the odds, 5000 to 1 odds, to take the Football
Association championship away from the likes of soccer behemoths
Manchester United and Liverpool after their nearest rivals , Tottenham,
tied Chelsea 2-2 and confirmed the unlikely climb from last to first
over the season.
The Foxes narrowly avoided being sent to a
lower division last year after posting great results in their nine last
games, a momentum carried into the 2015-16 campaign.
"It's
probably the biggest sporting story ever and the biggest sporting
achievement ever," boasted league head Richard Scudamore. The fans
certainly got their money's worth, the team spending something like 57
million pounds on player transfers over the last three years, which
pales in comparison with United's 350 million.
Stunning for a
bleary eyed captain after a night of celebration "it is safe to say I
never thought I would be in this position now," said Wes Morgan, "the
journey we've been on is fantastic. It's an achievement that may not be
achieved again."
The gamble paid off for Thai business owner
Vichai Raksriaksorn, who bought the team in 2010 when it had just
climbed out of a third tier league. It's only been back in the Premier
league since 2014 and nearly slipped out of it as quickly as it got in.
But don't expect them to be favorites to repeat, that isn't in the
expectation, but neither is selling any of the teams now valuable
players.
"Of course you can't compare it with other stories,"
goes on Scudamore, "but in terms of an overall story achievement it is
absolutely the best."
After oil
After months of
low oil prices, are we seeing the bottom of the barrel? Close to a
trillion dollars, that will be the cost of cheaper oil to exporting
nations in the Mideast alone for 2015 and 2016, a staggering figure hard
to fathom which put into perspective the impact of these changes on the
global economy. And while Mideast countries are most harshly affected,
they aren't alone, with nations from Russia to Venezuela and Canada
feeling the pinch of lower petroleum revenues. In the South American
country, home to the world's largest oil reserves, the collapse of
prices has brought on layoffs, a recession and triple figure inflation.
Adding
insult to injury a drought has affected hydro electric output, forcing
the energy power to impose rolling blackouts. This will also affect
energy production. Now unable to pay its bills, the country has seen
political turmoil, with the opposition scoring a majority for the first
time in 17 years late last year. As the government imposed a two-day
work week on civil servants, calls for the removal of president Maduro
gathered steam. Russia and Venezuela have been among a number of
producing countries seeking an agreement with OPEC to freeze production
to raise oil prices, but none was reached.
Half of Russia's
revenue comes from the energy sector and the economy has already been
slammed by the western sanctions that followed the invasion of Ukraine.
The military mission in Syria, although frugal, has also taxed the
country's finances. Like Nigeria, Saudi Arabia largely depends on oil
revenues and short term Saudi development plans would expand one major
oilfield, doing nothing to lessen the global oil glut. But the kingdom,
which has for decades used its riches to buy social peace, is slowly
looking beyond oil to develop its resource dependent economy.
This
isn't new to the Gulf, with countries such as the United Arab Emirates
and Qatar looking to develop tourism, shopping and transport hub
capacities to draw revenues. But the newly unveiled blue print for the
next 15 years will seek to lessen considerably the kingdom's dependence
on the black gold. To achieve this Saudi Arabia would sell a small stake
in Saudi Aramco, the giant oil company valued at $2 trillion, create
the world's largest sovereign wealth fund - forming a public investment
fund nearing $3 trillion - making the kingdom an investment powerhouse,
and develop non-oil industries, from mining to the military.
"Saudi
Arabia wants to become one of the 15 largest economies in the world by
2030," Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said. "We don't expect it
in the early years because they are years of reform, but (later) we
will expect very high growth." There is even room for social reform in
this blueprint, looking to increase the participation of women in the
work force from 22% to 30%, a start, but no licence to drive. Tourism,
religious and not, would also be an area of focus. Critics point out the
kingdom has promised such transition from oil in the past, and wonder
how realistic making the country into a financial and investment hub
could be while it borders a nation at war such as Yemen.
Meanwhile
last month Saudi Arabia borrowed money internationally for the first
time since 1999, taking out $10 billion in bank loans. Other Gulf
countries report varying degrees of success attempting to move away from
oil. Bahrain says its diversification efforts have paid off, owing only
19.7 percent of its GDP to oil. In contrast its non-oil growth is
increasingly vibrant, reaching 3.9 percent last year, with construction
(6.4 percent) and hotels and restaurants (7.3 percent) leading the way.
Sustained production levels in countries such as the U.S., Russia and
Canada, and dropping demand as economies cool have been driving down the
prices, as is the return to production and export of another Mideast
player: Iran, seeking to make up for lost times after years of
sanctions.
The last few months however have seen a rise in oil
prices since February, when prices bottomed out at $27 a barrel,
reaching $45 this week, but it may be months before levels are anywhere
near where they were before, in the $100 range. Of course rising
production in certain Gulf countries could cut short this recent rise.
In the mean time major U.S. producers have been feeling the pinch, with
Exxon posting its smallest profit for any quarter since 1999 and Chevron
reporting a first-quarter loss of $725 million. The U.S. has seen 62
oil and gas company bankruptcies since oil prices collapsed, causing
over 120,000 to lose their jobs.
Eventually experts do expect a
return to higher prices as production is curtailed in Venezuela as well
as other producers including Kazakh-stan, China, Mexico and Colombia,
lessening the glut. It may even be cause for a shotrtage in a not too
distant future, according to one expert. “By the end of the year, we
could see a rebalancing of the market,” opined Patrick Pouyanne of
Total, noting a drop in investments in the industry. “The consequence in
three or four years will be a lack of supply,” he added. It could be
awhile before we get there however, though this week Alberta's raging
fires in the oilsands region and Libya's instability were contributing
to some production shortfalls that boosted the price of the barrel. Some
analysts say these market reactions to immediate events is a sign of
eventual oil price recovery.
"The difference today compared with
a year ago is the market is starting to price in supply disruptions,
whereas in a market that is totally oversupplied, you don't care about
losing half a million barrels a day," said Olivier Jakob of PetroMatrix.
But for the mid-term, production rises from OPEC members, the rise in
the dollar and slowing Chinese economy, threatening to keep Asia and
much of Europe at a less than impressive economic pace, were all working
to keep prices down from previous levels, and that's bad news for the
kingdom in the months ahead, the Saudis needing a $98 barrel to break
even.
Fleeing an inferno
With glowing embers falling on
the hood of cars as flames practically licked fleeing vehicles lost in
ash clouds, the evacuation had every-thing to conjure images of flight
from the jaws of hell. A city which has seen its share of ups and downs
tied to the energy industry was facing its greatest crisis yet as
wildfires devastated entire neighbour-hoods and forced 80,000 people
from their homes in Fort McMurray and other communities of burning
Alberta. Some were even forced out from shelters where they had first
sought refuge from the shifting flames.
Luckily there were few
incidents during the evacuations despite smoke covered highways packed
with cars whose occupants feared the little they had had time to take
with them would be everything that remained of their belongings. Fire
season started early in the region, which has seen temperatures in the
high 20s and little rain for weeks, ultimately setting off the tinder
dry landscape better known for being at the centre of the country's
petroleum industry.
"It's a setback, we have been a community
facing an uphill battle for a long time with the latest change in
growth," said Mayor Melissa Blake, adding she hoped citizens could
maintain their upbeat spirit to deal with the latest challenge. "This is
still a place of strength , resiliency and vibrancy".
Oil sands
facilities, already battered by cancelled pipeline deals and low
petroleum prices, reduced production to allow the workers to take care
of their families, many residents finding temporary shelter in oil
company work camps. Ottawa mobilized the armed forces to support
operations as fire crews raced from across the country to assist teams
overwhelmed by the inferno forming a ring around the city.
Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau said the country was united in support of
Alberta, Canada being "a country where we look out for our neighbours".
In a tragic twist of irony, the city at the heart of the oil industry
sitting on the third greatest reserves on earth was out of petroleum,
one gas station on the fringes being among the 1,600 structures
destroyed by the quickly invading wall of fire.
Most of the oil
operations being north of the city, the industry wasn't directly hit by
the fires, and companies trucked in fuel to assist fleeing residents
looking to fill their tanks. But production was cut by up to 40% as
manpower suffered from repeated evacuations. Some of the evacuees knew
immediately the worst had happened to their homes. "I'm in a state of
shock, at one point I couldn't cry if I wanted to, and the next minute
I'm bawling my eyes out," said Tamara Wolfe after fleeing a home in an
area where 80% were decimated. "I had 40 years of stuff on that house...
Things are replaceable, but not everything is replaceable."
The
experience rattled countless fleeing residents. "It was absolutely
horrifying when we were sitting there in traffic. You're thinking 'oh my
God, we got out just in time," said Carol Christian, another resident.
Luckily everybody did, but officials feared damage would be in the
billions, with some estimates finding insurance companies could face $9
billion in claims, while the economy suffers from a similar impact if
conditions remain the same.
The dive in the price of oil prices
and cancelled contracts and projects drove unemployment up 40% in the
region between January 2015 and February of this year, causing many out
of province workers to return home. In April alone Alberta lost another
21,000 jobs, more than all other provinces combined. The province will
need help rebuilding, a fact made clear when convoys of hundreds of
vehicles passed through Fort McMurray on their way south during a new
wave of evacuations, revealing parts of town had been decimated.
Les longs mandats
Les
ré-élections en Afrique ne le rappellent que trop bien, le continent
remporte le palmarès des dirigeants en place depuis longue date.
Reconfirmant leur poste récemment, le tchadien Idriss Deby, le guerrier
devenu président, lui qui poursuit une lutte acharnée contre le
djihahisme, Teodoro Nguema de Guinée équiatoriale et Omar Guelleh du
Djibouti, pays stratégique à la pointe de la corne d'Afrique.
Malgré
tout ces derniers ne sont pas tout au sommet de la liste des champions
de la longévité, occupé par un autre ennemi de Boko Haram, le
camerounais Paul Biya, qui siège soit à la présidence soit au poste de
premier ministre depuis 40 ans. Nguema, ré-élu avec 93,7% des votes, et
au pouvoir depuis un coup d'état en 1979, n'est pas bien loin du compte.
Mais progressivement, la grogne s'installe dans certains de ces pays,
d'où les accusations de "hold-up électoral" par l'opposition tchadienne
après la victoire du "gendarme du Sahel" au premier tour, avec 61% des
votes, conservant un poste initialement acquis lors d'un coup d'état,
lui aussi, en 1990.
Rendu au cinquième, Déby enfile dorénavant
les mandats après avoir fait modifier la constitution en 2004, se
présentant comme le candidat de la sécurité contre la menace du
terrorisme qui touche la région. Le geste consti-tutionnel a été le même
au Djibouti, où Guelleh, comme Bouteflika en Algérie, atteint les 17
ans au pouvoir.
Confirmant le retour du président sortant avec
86% des votes, le scrutin a été dénoncé par une opposition critiquant
plusieurs irrégularités. Selon l'opposant Omar Elmi Khaireh des
électeurs avaient été expulsés de certains bureaux de vote. Selon lui: «
Cela fait partie de la stratégie visant à nous déstabiliser ». La
mission d'observation de l'Union Africaine notait également que « dans
certains bureaux de vote visités, les agents électoraux violaient
systématiquement les procédures de dépouil-lement telles que prévues par
la Loi. Le procès verbal n’a pas été rédigé ni signé par les membres
des bureaux de vote».
Mais l'UA a en fin de compte tout de même
trouvé le vote "crédible". En Guinée on a noté plusieurs anomalies,
plus d'électeurs que d'inscrits se présentant parfois aux urnes. Un
vétéran du circuit, Bonaventura Asumu, vaincu pour une quatrième fois,
considérait cette élection "la pire des élections organisées dans ce
pays, avec des fraudes montées de toutes pièce."
Plus tôt en
mars c'était au congolais Denis Sassou Nguesso de poursuivre sa
présidence, lors d'un vote rendu possible après un referendum l'an
dernier mettant fin aux limites de mandat présidentiel. Voilà ce qui
devient plutôt la norme malgré les manifestations contre un tel geste au
Burkina Faso qui avaient précipité le départ de Blaise Compaoré.
Rare
exception cette année, un Sénégal qui a, alors que la République
Démocratique du Congo allait aux urnes, passé un référendum réduisant
les années de mandat présidentiel de sept ans au quinquennat. Il faut le
rappeler, en 2011 des violences avaient suivi la décision du président
sénégalais Abdoulaye Wade de revenir sur une promesse de ne pas briguer
un troisième mandat. Résultat, celui-ci a été évincé par Macky Sall par
une marge plutôt large. Or ce dernier aurait pourtant préféré
poursuivre sous l'ancien ordre, comme le semble le vouloir la tradition
dans plusieurs pays d'Afrique.
La marche vers le nord
Historiquement
c'est le signe du passage d'une génération. Il y a un quart de siècle,
les murs tombaient en Europe, permettant au continent de s'unir sans
invasion, les frontières nationales s'effritant peu à peu. Maintenant,
on les construit, pour tenter de mettre fin à la marche des réfugiés au
long de la frontière grecque. Bloqués à la frontière macédonienne, des
milliers de Syriens attendent, donnant parfois lieu à quelques éclats,
ou tentent de contourner.
La Bulgarie, vers l'est, érige son
mur, tandis qu'à l'ouest, l'Albanie tente de renforcer sa frontière.
Pourtant, les citoyens de ces pays à présent si inhospitaliers étaient
jadis ceux qui cherchaient l'eldorado occidental, notamment les milliers
d'Albanais qui, comme les Syriens à présent, prenaient le large afin de
retrouver la côte italienne, assaillie semble-t-il depuis toujours.
En
août 1991, en plein écroulement soviétique, 20,000 tentaient de se
rendre à Brindisi sur un seul paquebot. L'Albanie a bien servi de refuge
dans son passé, notamment lors du conflit au Kosovo, mais n'a aucune
intention d'ouvrir ses portes à la masse migrante, qui redoute
d'ailleurs les sales coups des bandes criminelles sillonnant la région,
notamment en Bulgarie, où elles sont dans la mire des groupes de droits
de l'homme, scandalisés par les reportages de gestes criminels envers
les immigrants.Pourtant les Albanais n'ont pas fini de fuir leur propre
pays, que de toutes façons ne feraient que traverser des immigrants ne
cherchant qu'à se rendre plus au nord.
Certains Albanais ont
d'ailleurs tenté de se joindre aux masses en mouvement à leurs propres
fins de migration économique. Fait étonnant, en fin mars le ministre de
justice néerlandais mettait d'ailleurs les Albanais au premier rang des
demandeurs d'asile dans son pays, bien avant les Syriens ou autres
ressortissants de la région. Près de 500 Albanais avaient fait une telle
demande, même si leurs chances d'être admis étaient quasiment nulles,
car le pays est considéré "sûr".
C'est évidemment en Allemagne
que la plupart des Albanais vont tenter leur chances, un peu moins de
8000 arrivées y ayant été enregistrées l'an dernier. Il en est résulté
une campagne allemande à Tirana servant cet avertissement: "Pas d'asile
économique en Allemagne", où guère plus de 0,5% des demandes albanaises
ont été acceptées cette année.
Dirigeant le flot, ces mêmes
bandes criminelles qui organisent le passage vers l'ouest, dans ce qui
demeure un des plus pauvres pays du continent, rongé par la corruption,
et croulant sous un chômage vers les 18%. Voilà d'ailleurs des facteurs
qui, malgré une population majoritairement musulmane, n'en font pas un
bon candidat pour accueillir des réfugiés syriens. Entre temps environ
10,000 réfugiés restent bloqués à la frontière macédonienne, espérant un
jour reprendre leur marche.
Cries from the North
A
school shooting, a health emergency and more terrible suicide attempts.
These have been the tales of the last few months in Canada's great, and
troubled north, plagued by poor housing and sanitation, lacklustre
services and overpriced consumer items. A life of hardship and
survival. The new government in Ottawa has pledged billions to relieve
the strains of Canada's struggling native communities, and this month
came a shocking reminder of the urgency of the national crisis on the
second land mass on earth. A suicide emergency was declared when no
less than 16 people tried to take their lives in the struggling reserve
of Attawapiskat, a small community of less than 2,000 souls in northern
Ontario which has made the headlines for years for all the wrong
reasons.
Earlier this decade the community faced another state
of emergency when it was revealed only a few dozen of the community's
316 housing units were considered adequate to live in, scrutiny falling
to the community's leadership and shoddy bookkeeping. Atta-wapiskat is a
microcosm of everything that can prove a challenge in the sparsely
populated north, such as the high costs of many items that have to be
flown in, including food, gas and building material. The tragic tally
brought to over 100 the number of people who tried to take their own
lives in the last six months, according to Chief Bruce Shisheesh. One
person died, triggering the wave, people as young as 11 and as old as 71
seeing noting but despair in their small commu-nity. After one single
weekend saw 11 attempted suicides, authorities had to intervene to
prevent a dozen other children, some as young as nine, from emulating
them.
The crisis forced an emergency session of Parliament
thousands of miles away in Ottawa, where the crisis is largely
misunderstood. Local medial services have struggled to keep up with such
incidents, which numbered some 28 in March alone. "These four workers,
crisis workers, are burned out. They can't continue working daily
because of the amount of suicides [that] have happened. They're
back-logged," said the council's Deputy Grand Chief Rebecca. "There are
no services at the moment, no counsellors in the community." A state of
emergency sends emergency resources to a community, and is becoming
increasingly com-mon in the north.
Drug abuse and overcrowding
are among the most likely factors, notes Shisheesh, who says sometimes
over a dozen people have to share a small home. "We have people that are
on prescriptions. We have people that are selling pills. And I believe
that's how some of them have withdrawals and they feel unwanted, or they
don't know how to express their feelings and they have to use a drug to
drown their problems or their pains," Shisheesh said. It seems not a
week goes by without one emergency or another in the great North. In
March a number of children with acute cases of skin infection had to be
airlifted from northern Ontario's Kashe-chewan First Nation community,
its members blaming poor water quality.
The government however
said the source of the outbreak wasn't linked to water. Weeks before
First Nations leaders from northern Ontario declared a public-health
emergency citing shortage of basic medical supplies and an epidemic of
suicides among young people. “We are in a state of shock,” Grand Chief
Jonathan Solomon of the Mushkegowuk Council said wiping away tears.
“When is enough? It is sad. Waiting is not an option any more. We have
to do something.”
Ontario regional chief Isadore Day accused
both provincial and federal governments of "discrimination” and
"institutional racism in Canada’s and Ontario’s health-care system," and
said he hoped the new leadership in Ottawa would stay true to its word
of assisting northern communities. “We have recently come out of a
decade of darkness under the previous Harper government,” he said. “As
Canada and the provinces and territories look at a new health accord,
they must understand… the cost of doing nothing over the last decade has
had a drastic impact on the people of the North.”
And it's not
only Ontario. In Northern Quebec the community of Kuujuaq has seen five
youngsters between the ages of 15 and 20 take their lives since
mid-December. Mental health issues are often cited as being important
factors, as well as the lack of specialists to help address them. "It
is not easy to manage a crisis of this size," admitted health services
director Georges Berthes. "Our mental health resources aren't
sufficient." In that community, police say they receive daily calls
about people attempting suicide. In March the Pimicikamak Cree Nation
community in northern Manitoba also declared a state of emergency after a
string of six suicides in just a few months. "We don't have access to
what everyone else has in the rest of the country," decried Manitoba
Keewa-tinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson. "Whether it be
access to jobs, access to good education, access to ... the nicer things
in life. We feel left out."
A 1994 study on British Columbia
communities found that some indigenous groups saw youth suicide rates
that were among the highest of any culturally identifiable group in the
world. Nor is the phenomenon limited to Canada, one report from the
Alaskan Department of Health and Social Services found that the suicide
rate got higher the further north a community was located. In January a
northern Saskatchewan community's tragedy heralded a year of crises in
the Native community. High suicide and crime rates have also taken their
toll on the Dene community of about 3,000 in Laloche, site of multiple
shootings which left four dead. Residents also cite poverty and high
unemployment, estimated to average 22%, for the community's troubles.
As
in many communities, transitions from more traditional ways of living
have had terrible societal impacts. Métis National Council president
Clément Chartier said the community never properly adjusted from this
transition from hunting and fishing to wage labour in the 1960s and
early '70s. "People were caught up in a situation where there were no
jobs," he told the CBC. "I don't think people have fully adjusted in
terms of employment." Former prime minister Jean Chretien, who once
served as Indian affairs minister, caused a stir suggesting that in some
cases people may need to move in order to improve their lives.
Officials promised immediate relief, the Ontario government providing $2
million in immediate help, sending specialists to the community as
Ottawa promised to act urgently. But longtime observers hoped that with
these tragic events Canada had turned a page and its government,
committed to national reconciliation with its native communities and
recognizing non-reserve native and Metis citizens as "Indians", would
provide the necessary commitments to end crises decades in the making.
But the urgency remained as, after this latest call to action, five more
youngsters tried to end their young lives in Attawapiskat, a word
synonymous with tragedy.
Modern child soldiers
They do
not have the right to vote, yet they are enlisted. Children have in
recent years increasingly been targeted in various countries when their
schools have been attacked for trying to teach so-called Western-type
education, from Pakistan to Nigeria, but they have also sometimes been
the ones pulling the trigger. The phenomenon of child soldiers is sadly
a familiar one in Africa, where it has remained a reality from the
Central African Republic to Darfur, and Sierra Leone.
Now UNICEF
says Boko Haram, notorious for its kidnapping of 200 Chibok girls two
years ago who were never recovered, has resorted to using child bombers
with devastating regularly, about one in five suicide attacks being
carried out by them. The year of the Chibok kidnappings only four such
attacks were reported, but this quickly exploded to 44 last year, an
11-fold increase, mostly by girls, and not only in Nigeria, but
neighbouring Cameroon, Niger and Chad as well.
In fact Cameroon
is where the highest rate of child attacks has been recorded, involving
children as young as eight, often drugged with explosives strapped to
their tiny bodies. Beyond sprea-ding fear of terror, the attacks have
spread fear of children. "As 'suicide' attacks involving children become
commonplace, some commu-nities are starting to see children as threats
to their safety," Unicef's Manuel Fontaine said. Thousands of children
have been kidnapped since the events in Chibok, and the agency fears the
worst if they are used by the terror group in its bloody campaign.
"Boys
are forced to attack their own families to demonstrate their loyalty to
Boko Haram," the report states, "while girls are exposed to severe
abuse including sexual violence and forced marriage to fighters." While
Nigerian and other armies have been winning battles and recapturing
some areas, the nightmare doesn't necessarily end there for the victims.
"The research suggests that many women who return to their families are
viewed with deep suspicion either because they are carrying the
children of Boko Haram fighters or because of the fear they may turn
against their own communities," it goes on. "Such distrust is creating
an atmosphere of terror and suspicion in many communities across the
region.
Children born as a result of sexual violence risk being
rejected and even killed for fear that they could turn against their
families and communities when they grow up." In all some 1.3 million
children have been uprooted by the region's violence, sadly, that does
not include all of Africa. Up to 6,000 children may have been involved
in the violence in the recent unrest in the Central African Republic,
according to earlier UNICEF reports. The staggering number is chillingly
similar to what the UN said represented the estimate of child soldiers
in the earlier Darfur conflict, where two million children were affected
by the violence.
"Since 2010, child soldier use by 20 states
has been reported either directly in government armed forces or
indirectly in armed groups which they support or are allied to," reports
Child Soldiers International, another group combatting the phenomenon.
"In addition, around 40 states still have a minimum voluntary
recruitment age below 18 years." And the phenomenon isn't just present
in Africa, with countries such as the Philippines, Colombia and Israel
using child soldiers for "intelligence purposes."
Les documents maudits
Le
drakkar islandais poursuit sa route contre vents et marées, mais qu'en
est-il du capitaine? L'ile-nation au large de l'Europe traverse une
nouvelle période de turbulence, comme si un de ses volcans avait encore
frappé. Au coeur de la coquette capitale, le son des cuillères contre
les chaudrons a à nouveau rebondit sur les murs de pierre de l'Althing,
la maisonnette qui sert de parlement national; un nouvel appel à la
démission du premier ministre.
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson a ensuite
cédé sa place en attendant des élections à l'automne, la première
victime du flot de documents jadis confidentiels d'une firme du Panama
qui braque les projecteurs sur l'ampleur des paradis d'évasion fiscale
et les magouilles financières. Egalement pointés du doigt, des
dirigeants du Golfe, des proches des dirigeants chinois et africains, du
président Poutine et Assad, ainsi que l'actuel président ukrainien
lui-même, le tsar de la friandise. Une enquête a également été lancée
sur ses avoirs à l'étranger. En revanche la démission du premier
ministre à Kiev était sans lien avec l'affaire.
En Europe les
accusations font déjà mal paraitre le premier ministre David Cameron
alors qu'il prépare son pays à faire face à un autre référendum crucial,
celui qui décidera de la place de la Grande-Bretagne en Europe. Plus
récemment, c'est un ministre espagnol qui perdait son poste. Autant dire
que la liste des personnes mentionnées dans ces millions de pages est
longue, les premières révélations ne constituant que la pointe de
l'iceberg, plutôt judicieux dans le cas de l'Islande. Cent quarante
politiciens répartis dans 50 pays en tout.
Le monde politique
n'était pas le seul à être ébranlé par cette fuite du cabinet d'avocat
panaméen Mossack Fonseca, spécialisé dans la dissimulation fiscale,
causant du fait la démission d'un responsable de la FIFA, une
organisation déjà secouée par les scandales liés aux candidatures de la
Russie et du Qatar. Le successeur de Sepp Blatter faisait d'ailleurs
déjà l'objet d'interrogations. Somme toute des personnalités de
pratiquement tous les pays y sont représentées.
Il s'agit d'une
avalanche de juteux documents confidentiels qui éclipse même les trésors
confidentiels d'Edward Snowden, et dans un pays qui a gardé les
séquelles de l'écroulement financier de 2008, il en fallait bien peu
pour causer un scandale insulaire, d'autant plus que les ministres de la
finance et de l'intérieur étaient également pointés du doigt.
Alors
que ces derniers ont nié tout lien, l'aveu du premier ministre a forcé
son départ, et des élections anticipées voulues par une majorité
d'Islandais. Impatiente après ce retour en arrière pénible, la
population souhaiterait (à 51%) des élections dans les semaines
prochaines plutôt qu'à l'automne. « Les gens dehors ne veulent pas
attendre jusqu’à cet automne », insiste la dirigeante du populaire Parti
pirate, qui détiendrait 43% de l'appui du public. L’opposition de
gauche et centriste a cependant perdu sa motion de censure au Parlement.
La plèbe a été sans pitié après le scandale financier de 2008,
ayant évincé le premier ministre d'alors et condamné plusieurs
banquiers au centre de la crise qui a coûté aux masses leurs précieuses
économies. Gunnlaugsson avait jadis été accueilli comme un dirigeant
susceptible de nettoyer les institutions, notamment les banques, tout en
veillant à l'honneur national, notamment en se dressant contre la
signature d'un accord remboursant les créanciers étrangers des banques
du pays. Mais l'aveu d'avoir possédé une société dans les îles Vierges
britanniques qui est devenue créancière des trois principales banques
islandaises a causé la consternation. En opposant ces remboursements
Gunnlaugsson servait une cause nationale… et personnelle, puisque ladite
compagnie, Wintris, y trouvait gain de cause.
A hockey-less spring?
Amid
the good-natured ribbing of the Obama-Trudeau bromance, during the
prime minister's visit to Washington, a shot right to the heart:
"Where's the Stanley Cup right now?" quipped Obama. Ouch.
Well
it's still not north of the 49th, 23 years later, and seems further than
even away from any of the seven Canadian cities that started off the
season, some of them rather well. But after a spectacular Montreal
flame-out, disappointing Oilers immobilism - both clubs having been
riddled with key injuries - and usual Maple Leafs hopelessness, the
league will see no Canadian club participate in the post-season, a first
in 45 years, and for only the second time in history.
Back in
1970, there were just two Canadian teams, and the Canadiens missed the
playoffs by little despite a 5th overall ranking. Perhaps this is the
price of repeat Olympic gold glory, as the pressure returns to a
national team preparing the defense of its World Cup title at home this
fall. But it's an awfully long stretch in between.
"Last year
five Canadian teams made (the playoffs)," notes former great Mahovlich.
"It shows you how fragile some of those teams can be when you have that
many teams miss the playoffs after making the playoffs. Injuries play a
part, there are so many factors that can set an organization back. It
doesn't take much."
Tell that to the storied Habs, who despite
their 100-plus years history had their best start ever cut short by
injuries to they a key player, Carey Price. Out West this was the year
Edmonton was surely going to cash in from that draft lottery and leave
the cellar, but McDavid's torrid start was cut short by injury as well.
You
needn't point out such pain to Mahovlich. "I was devastated," he said
of missing the playoffs in 1970. "Really, really devastated. I'll tell
you why I cried. I had been with the Detroit Red Wings for three years,
and they had not made the playoffs in those three years. So I got traded
to Montreal, and in the very first year I got traded there that was the
first time they'd missed the playoffs in 20 years."
So what are
Canadians to do for fun this spring? Well for starters most of the
dispirited cities can count on junior teams, from the Edmonton Oil Kings
to the Ottawa 67s and Toronto Marlies, to raise that post-season cheer.
And some will see their favourite stars lace up for Team Canada at the
world champs, though not necessarily wearing the red Maple Leaf.
Crying
in their beers are thousands of bar owners across the land, who will
have to do without the Sens Mile or other incarnations of outdoor
playoff fun, and sports networks that will see a viewership dive from
the fiercest fan base on this side of the 49th.
Struggling to find peace
Five
years after the beginning of a conflict which has killed thousands and
displaced millions there seemed to be a glimmer of hope at the end of
the long dark tunnel of Syria's atrocities. Government troops recaptured
a much diminished historical Palmyra and the regime hinted it could
join the coalition to fight ISIS.
Meanwhile talks on the future
of Syria have finally hit their stride after a series of meetings in
Geneva, but early proposals by Kurds of seeking a federal solution for
the north of the country are complicating efforts and have upset
neighbor and regional giant Turkey, dealing with a series of deadly
terror attacks.
Ankara's focus on targeting Kurds near its
borders, rather than solely hitting ISIS positions, have left some
members of the coalition perplexed, but were justified in March after
the first of two major terror blasts, one in Ankara, was attributed to
Kurd militants being directed from beyond the tense border.
Days
later Turkey's middleman position was again highlighted after a terror
blast in Istanbul killed dozens, this one attributed to ISIS, the other
foe in the region, and no friend of the Kurds, who have been battling
Islamic militants and providing key boots on the ground well before the
beginning of the air strikes campaign.
The strikes have been
continuing from all coalition partners, despite the ongoing talks, which
do not involve ISIS, and Russia's recent drawdown on forces in Syria,
where it maintains bases and missiles, and continues targeting the
Islamic state. Earlier Moscow announced it was withdrawing some of its
forces as the Geneva talks got underway, after months of reinforcing
government positions to the point of making the opposition, also
involved in the talks, initially reluctant to do so.
The UN has
been pressuring Damascus to make concrete proposals on a political
transition, raising the issue which has divided countries trying to make
the peace process work: the future of the Assad presidency. The
opposition is insistent Assad's eventual departure be part of any peace
deal, something Damascus has predictably vehemently opposed.
While
roadblocks remain on the troubled road to peace observers have
applauded small steps, such as the relative observance of a ceasefire,
at least between government and opposition, in the last month or so,
which has allowed aid to reach desperate areas decimated by warfare.
But
all is not well between the partners for peace, Russia accusing
Washington of foot dragging in the instances where there have been
recorded ceasefire allegations, a charge the US has denied. Observers
have credited Russia's withdrawal for pressuring Assad to up its game in
the negotiations, a move done said showed Moscow was ready to look
beyond his presidency to bring peace.
Adding to difficulties in
finding a solution for a parties were calls for the main Kurdish party,
the PYD, to join the talks, something opposed by both the Syrian
opposition and Turkey, after recent calls by Kurds for an autonomous
self-administered region in the country.
Militants based in
the troubled north of Syria have struck Turkey's major cities despite
repeated Turkish air strikes, promoting Ankara to declare it would not
hesitate to take all measure necessary outside its borders to defend the
homeland and leaving little sympathy for Kurdish militants.
Turkey
has faced five major attacks since October, killing over 200, including
bombings tied to the PKK Kurdish insurgency in the country's volatile
southeast, often met with disproportionate military retaliation. This
week seven were killed in a car bomb in the southeast of the country.
Erdogan has said however he was in favor of the establishment of a safe
zone in northern Syria.
In interviews with Russian media,
president Bashar Assad dismissed the Kurdish suggestion, saying the
country wasn't ready for federalism but needed a strong central
government. While the Kurds aren't being invited to the negotiating
table Assad, whose regime just held the first indirect meetings with the
opposition, said he welcomed a national unity government, including
members of the opposition.
"A solution would be a national unity
government that would prepare a new constitution," he said. The
opposition rejected this, insisting "Assad can't stay for more than an
hour" after the establishment of any transition government.
Assad
has estimated the damage suffered due to conflict across his country at
$200 bil., and said allies Russia, China and Iran would have first dibs
in the country's reconstruction efforts.
Historique, et entaché
Le
Tribunal international pénal pour l'ex-Yougoslavie a du attendre dix
ans après le génocide et dix après la mort du président serbe, dans sa
cellule de la Haye, pour condamner un chef d'état, une décision
historique certes, qui montrait les limites de l'immunité exécutive et
redorait quelque peu le blason de la cour, mais quelque peu entachée par
l'arrestation d'une ancienne porte-parole du TPIY alors qu'elle
assistait au jugement attendu.
Emportée par des gardes de la
cour alors que l'ancien chef politique des Serbes de Bosnie Radovan
Karadzic recevait une peine de 40 ans, Florence Hartmann, ancienne
journaliste, tombait du coup dans le filet d'une justice qui la
recherchait depuis sept ans pour avoir publié des décisions
confidentielles dans un livre qui aurait mis à la lumière du jour
l'implication de l'Etat serbe dans le génocide de Srebrenica.
Condamnée
pour outrage à la Cour, celle-ci avait refusé de payer une amende de
7000 euros, Paris quant à elle refusant de procéder à son arrestation et
de la livrer au tribunal de la Haye. Celui-ci a cependant sévi lors de
sa visite, procédant à son arrestation puis à une incarcération dans
"des conditions de surveillance pour risque de suicide" selon ses
avocats, qui protestent que "Cette contrainte par corps est une
institution totalement archaïque, elle n'avait pas sa place dans une
juridiction supposée respecter les meilleurs standards internationaux".
Car
alors que celle-ci est isolée des autres prisonniers, elle demeure en
permanence dans sa cellule d'ou elle serait capable de voir un autre
détenu de renom, l'ancien chef militaire des Serbes de Bosnie accusé de
génocide, Ratko Mladić, libre de se promener dans la cour alors que
selon les avocats elle est elle-même "enfermée dans une cage".
Karadzic
quant à lui a été reconnu coupable de 10 des 11 chefs d'accusation
auxquels il faisait face mais fera appel de ce verdict. Le général
Mladic attend toujours de faire face au tribunal, lui dont les forces
ont capturé et tué 8000 musulmans lors de cette page d'histoire,
toujours source de divisions entre les pays voisins, que l'on a décrit à
titre de pire massacre depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
L'auteur
montréalais Adis Simidzija, qui avait trois ans lorsqu'il a quitté la
Bosnie-Herzegovine en 1998, voit en la condamnation de Karadzic une
décision historique malgré tout. « C'est un mélange d'émotions mitigées
par rapport au fait que c'est quelque chose de très symbolique [...]
Considérant son âge avancé [...] il va crever en prison », dit-il.
L'écrivaine montréalaise Maya Ombasic, également satisfaite du verdict,
note cependant qu'il en restent encore à l'écart de la justice. « Je
déplore surtout que tous les criminels des tous les côtés ne soient pas
condamnés et que Karadizc est certes coupable, mais que c'est aussi un
bouc émissaire ».
Belgrade et Moscou n'y ont évidemment vu que
du feu, la première dénonçant l'application d'une «justice sélective»:
«Toute justice qui débouche sur la condamnation d'un seul peuple pour
des crimes qui ont été commis par tous est sélective», a déclaré un
communiqué du gouvernement. Pour sa part le vice-ministre russe des
Affaires étrangères, Guennadi Gatilov estime que «les activités du TPIY
sont politiquement motivées».
L'accueil n'a pas été plus
chaleureux chez les familles des victimes, qui considèrent la peine
prononcée «inadéquate». Il l'a été encore moins cette semaine lorsque ce
même tribubal a acquitté l'ultranationaliste serbe Vojislav Seselj de
toutes les accusations, faute de preuve.
"L'accusation n'a pas
présenté de preuves suffisantes pour établir que les crimes ont été
commis", a déclaré le juge Jean-Claude Antonetti. La Croatie a notamment
dénoncé la décision, Seselj ayant été accusé de progager "une politique
visant à réunir tous 'les territoires serbes' dans un État serbe
homogène, qu'il appelait la 'Grande Serbie'", des crimes en Serbie,
Bosnie et Croatie.
25 ans plus tard, le morcellement
Avec
l'éclatement il y a un quart de siècle, le morcellement, et les
tiraillements également, qui perdurent de nos jours. Les frontières des
états qui constituaient l'ancienne union des républiques soviétiques
restent parfois matière à confusion, une confusion qui passe près de
dégénérer vers l'échange des tirs.
La crise de la Crimée est
sans doute la mieux connue dans le genre, sans en être la seule. Puis en
mars les visions Kyrgyzes et Ouzbeks sont passés à quelques heures de
l'escalade quand les premiers ont tenté de mettre la main sur un
réservoir d'eau dans une zone contestée, en l'occurrence une
installation à 10 kilomètres de la frontière.
Les deux pays
ayant été membres d'une même union, et d'un même empire pendant des
décennies, la tracé reste flou entre deux pays dont les régimes
remportent la palme des plus corrompus de la planète, d'autant plus
qu'il a changé à plusieurs reprises aux jours de l'URSS. Les deux pays
ont dépêché des troupes et quelques véhicules blindés au long du tracé
actuel, avant de retourner dans leurs casernes, insatisfaits.
"Il
y a des parties contestées de la frontière Kyrgyze-ouzbéke qui
devraient appartenir au Kyrgyzstan mais sont utilisées par
l'Ouzbékistan," soutient quant à lui Kurbanbay Iskanderov, l'envoyé
spécial kyrgyze en matière de frontière.
La crise a commencé
lorsque des travailleurs ouzbeks ont vu leur accès au site bloqué par le
Kyrgyzstan, provoquant un déploiement d'effectifs militaires ouzbek.
La
question des minorité a de longue date créé des tensions entre les deux
voisins, le Kyrgyzstan ayant une minorité ouzbek importantes. Des
éclats à Osh en 2010 avaient fait 400 victimes et quelques milliers de
blessés.
A part l'Ukraine, une crise frontalière faite de
toutes pièces afin de justifier l'occupation russe, d'autres crises
frontalières ont marqué l'après-URSS. Parmi elles la ligne entre
l'Estonie et la Lettonie, deux frères baltes déchirés par une occupation
dont les séquelles sont encore source de complications.
En
fait lors des 25 dernières années on ne recense pas moins de 170
disputes ethno-territoriales dans l'ancien ensemble soviétique dont plus
de 70 touchent la Russie à elle seule, qui demeure le pays le plus
étendu du globe. Celle-ci connait également un différend avec la
Lettonie d'autant plus sensible que le pays abrite une importante
minorité russe.
"What we feared has happened "
The
arrest of Europe's most wanted man, tied to the terrible November
attacks in Paris, was a rare moment to celebrate for law enfor-cement
authorities on the continent. It would help fill some of the missing
pieces of the puzzle of last year's atrocities and bring some measure of
closure to the families. In a news conferen-ce the French and Belgian
leaders praised the work of authorities who were looking to get rare
insight into terror networks in Europe by capturing a live operative.
Early elements of the investigation even showed Salah Abdeslam may in
fact have been planning new attacks. But it was a race against time
authorities were losing and may have precipitated terror projects
already in the works.
The celebration didn't last very long.
Abdeslam was arrested with two accomplices but others were also being
sought as authorities attempted to net suspects possibly part of a much
broader network of jihadists in Europe. Mere days after the arrest,
coordinated attacks in Brussels at the airport and in the subway killed
dozens, bringing terror once more to the streets of Europe, in a capital
which had increasingly been designated as a preparation ground for
further bloodshed, and this despite previous raids and tightened
security measures which over the holidays had cancelled new year
celebrations. Now officials are coming under criticism for missed
opportunities as another manhunt and race against time begins.
"What
we feared has happened," regretted Belgian prime minister Charles
Michel. "We are at war," said French President Francois Hollande as
rescue operations were still being carried out, adding that Europe
itself, not just Belgium, had been targeted. Transport networks were
shut down and authorities asked people to stay indoors and text rather
than burden an already overloaded telephone network. Volunteers were
also asked to donate blood as the death toll rose over 30.
Abdeslam
had been arrested in Brussel's Molenbeek neigh-bourhood, which had
garnered attention well before the Paris attacks. This is where an
earlier plot had been disrupted, where someone tied to a terror attempt
on a train was from and where many jihadists gone abroad had returned.
On the eve of the bombings, perhaps seeming desperate, IS had called for
attacks anywhere by its operatives or those drawn to the organization's
hateful ideology. Belgium is home to NATO's headquarters, the
organization leading the coalition against IS in the Middle East, which
includes France.
Paris quickly increased already elevated
levels of security and planned to implement new transport security
procedures. Security measures were also heightened elsewhere, including
the U.S., where police increased vigilance at transport hubs. Some of
the Brussels blasts had occurred at an airport ticket counter, before
security screening, leaving passengers vulnerable to attack. Security
officials are increasingly looking to improve screening procedures for
passengers before these checks. In Israel passengers face roadblocks on
the way to Ben Gurion airport before a first X-Ray screening in the
terminal, all preceding the usual full security screening of passengers.
In India subway riders must pass through metal detectors. But experts
were looking into whether a failure by Belgian intelligence had allowed
the attack to take place despite heightened security and live
investigations.
Abdeslam's arrest had unveiled a stash of
weapons explosives experts say pointed to attacks in the works. By some
accounts Belgian intelligence was aware attacks were planned but lacked
the details to prevent them. "Despite being anticipated by intelligence
agencies these attacks are difficult to prevent, but terror can't be
allowed to win," Canadian foreign minister Stephane Dion said. According
to the French prime minister there was no doubt risks had been even
higher recently than they were last fall. "We must be united" the U.S.
president said in comments from Cuba echoing that of other world
leaders.
IS soon claimed responsibility for the attacks, citing
the country's participation in the coalition to defeat it and threatened
other coalition members. The group claimed a number of militants
opened fire in the airport hall before setting off explosives.
Uncertainty on the number of attackers was further fuelled by this
message as authorities bore in mind Abdeslam had changed his mind about
setting off his explosive vest in France and fled instead, possibly to
plan more attacks. Belgian authorities said one bomb which had failed to
detonate at the airport was neutralized, preventing further casualties,
and were now looking for suspects seen on security cameras.
According
to President Recep Erdogan, the leader of a country which has faced
repeated IS and Kurdish terror attacks, one of the attackers was caught
in Turkey in June and deported to the Netherlands after being flagged to
Brussels. Officials there said there was no reason to suspect him of
terrorism at the time but now admit they "missed a chance", two cabinet
ministers offering to step down.
Officials also said the bomb
maker in a number of attacks may have been killed at the airport and
discovered more explosives at the home of one of the attackers, sending
chills down the spine of intelligence services. Two suspects in the
attacks, one in the subway the other in the airport, were identified as
two brothers with extensive criminal records. One in fact , Khalid
El-Bakraoui, was on an Interpol red notice for terrorism since last
summer. The brothers were found to have rented an apartment which was
used by Abdeslam, tying the Paris and Brussels attacks.
Although
the bombings have rattled the old continent they were but the latest
after decades of bloody acts by various organizations in Europe. In the
1990s France was regularly targeted by Algerian militants, often hitting
the country's transport system. Britain, Spain and Greece were rattled
by various groups in the 70s and 80s and airports were targeted by
Palestinian terrorists well before 9-11. In time these attacks have
built up the resiliency of many citizens. This was on display as
passengers injured and shaken by the subway bombing calmly left the
stricken car in a darkened and smoky tunnel, a scene of eerie calm and
silence only punctuated by the cries of small children.
Doutes sur l'Iran
L'entente
sur le nucléaire a beau avoir mis fin à l'embargo commercial, et les
élections récentes ont beau avoir permis à plusieurs modérés de prendre
leur siège à Téhéran, il n'empêche que les relations irano-occidentales
sont à peine au point du dégel. Comme tant d'autres moments d'espoir
dans le passé, celui-ci a vite été suivi par un dur retour à la réalité,
cruelle et froide.
Les essais de missiles récents ont
rapide-ment ravivé les tensions, faisant fi des menaces de nouvelles
sanctions améri-caines. Participant actif du conflit syrien, Téhéran ne
reste pas moins un partenaire qui laisse les membres de la coalition
nerveux, malgré les gestes d'ouverture de pays comme la France,
nouvellement réengagée avec la république islamique sur le plan
militaire. Cette initiative parisienne ne plait d'ailleurs pas à tout le
monde en Occident.
Non seulement Téhéran a-t-elle procédé à de
nouveaux essais de missiles, ceux-ci auraient été marqués de
l'inscription Khomeinienne "Israël doit être annihilé". L'encre était
pourtant toute fraîche sur la mise en application de l'entente sur le
nucléaire, mais le geste a néanmoins trainé l'épineuse question
iranienne devant le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU. Alors que les test y
furent condamnés à titre de "provocants et destabilisants", la Russie a
menacé d'apposer son véto contre toute condamnation du régime, estimant
que les tests ne constituaient pas une violation de résolution de la
part de Téhéran.
"Nous ne pouvons pas nous plonger la tête dans
le sable en espérant que les ayatollahs agissent d'une façon
responsable," déclara pour sa part l'ambassadeur israélien Danny Danon,
en quête de "mesures punitives". Le langage employé par un dirigeant des
Gardes révolutionnaires soulignait d'ailleurs l'immobilisme politique
malgré l'entente récente.
"Plus nos ennemis élèvent des
sanctions, plus notre réaction sera intense," déclara le général Hossein
Salami, une des têtes des Gardes. Selon le régime les missiles ont des
fins purement défensives. Mais les Iraniens ne nient pas que la cible
est bien israélienne même si, selon le général Amir Hajizadeh "il n'y a
aucun besoin de détruire le régime sioniste car il va s'écrouler tout
seul à la longue", ajoutant: "notre principal ennemi est les
Etats-Unis".
Il n'y avait nul doute que l'entente nucléaire
avait été conclue non pas par amitié mais par nécessité, un état des
faits qui continue d'expliquer les tensions actuelles et sou-ligne du
fait les divisions iraniennes; selon que les gestes, comme l'entente sur
le nucléaire, engagent le président Hassan Rouhani, ou les Gardes, qui
rendent des comptes au chefs spirituels. Cette semaine Washington
écrouait une demi douzaine de cyber terroristes iraniens agissant,
dit-on, au compte de Téhéran.
Même si Washington et Téhéran ont
des positions très divergentes sur bien des fronts, les quelques gestes
d'ouverture de l'administration Obama ont été suffisants pour attirer la
foudre à la fois du pays hébreu et des monarchies du Golfe. Sans être
un porte-parole officiel du royaume, l'ancien chef du renseignement, le
prince Turki al-Faisal, pouvait faire écho des positions de Riyadh:
"Vous nous accusez de provoquer une crise sectaire en Syrie, au Yémen et
en Irak et en plus vous nous insultez en nous demandant de bien vouloir
partager le monde avec l'Iran, un pays que vous décrivez en tant que
supporter du terrorisme." Les monarchies du Golfe wahabites et la
capitale du monde chiite sont également divisées sur la question
libanaise et celle du pétrole.
Rien pour régler la question saharienne
Il
est plutôt rare que le chef de la diplomatie mondiale par excellence
soit lui-même à la source de bisbille entre nations - en l'occurrence
sur la délicate question du Sahara occidental, vieille de 40 ans - mais
la visite de Ban Ki-moon en Algérie plus tôt cet hiver semble avoir
plutôt enragé son voisin chérifien et davantage compliqué la recherche
d'une solution entre les dunes.
Le royaume a en effet qualifié
de "dérapages verbaux" les déclarations de Ban Ki-moon sur
l'"occuptation" du Sahara lors de sa visite d'un camp de réfugiés. Le
chef de l'ONU avait demandé à son émissaire régional de reprendre les
tournées après une période où les partis "n'ont fait aucun progrès réel
dans les négociations devant aboutir à une solution juste et acceptable
par tous fondée sur l'auto-détermination du peuple du Sahara
occidental".
Mais alors que son organisation se disait prête à
mettre en place un référendum sur la question en cas d'accord avec le
Front Polisario indépendantiste, Rabat n'y a vu que du feu, les
déclarations risquant même de "compromettre" les négociations. Voilà 25
ans que la force régionale MINURSO a été mise en place afin de
préparer une telle consultation, sans l'ombre d'un rapprochement, ce
qui dans le désert n'étonne personne.
Les propriétés espagnoles
anciennes ou actuelles au Maroc ne cessent pas de taquiner le régime,
qui n'a jamais mis la main sur les enclaves de Ceuta et Melilla, très
connues des migrants qui y voient une porte d'entrée de l'Europe. Pour
des grands diplomates avec la langue de bois, les secrétaires généraux
de l'ONU, actuel et antérieurs, semblent avoir la langue bien pendante
ces derniers temps. Quelques jours plus tôt l'ancien secrétaire général
Kofi Annan laissait entendre que la guerre contre les drogues a été
perdue et celle-ci devaient être légitimées. Annan avait visité le
Sahara occidental en 1998, première tentative de relancer les
pourparlers.
La situation est de longue date, rappelait son
successeur, qui a parlé de camps réfugiés "parmi les plus anciens dans
le monde". Ki-moon achève son mandat et aurait voulu à sa façon
"apporter sa contribution à la recherche d'un règlement" mais celui
reste pour l'heure loin d'être atteint. Selon Rabat "le Sahara demeurera
dans son Maroc jusqu'à la fin des temps" un thème repris par des
milliers de manifestants qui ont pris la rue à Rabat en criant « Le
Maroc est dans son Sahara et le Sahara est marocain » et « Non au
favoritisme pour l’Algérie au détriment de l’unité nationale marocaine
!»
Une visite marocaine du secrétaire général, prévue à
l'origine pour "plus tard cette année" semble avoir disparu du
calendrier, Ki-moon étant revenu à la charge après avoir exprimé "sa
profonde déception et sa colère", estimant que ses propos avaient été
manipulés afin de donner un air de partialité, accusant le régime de
"manque de respect" envers lui. Il a notamment regretté la manifestation
"qui l'avait pris pour cible personnellement". "De telles attaques
témoignent d'un manque de respect pour sa personne et pour les Nations
unies", affirmait-il dans un communiqué, notant que "plusieurs membres
du gouvernement marocain" y participaient.
Le secrétaire
général a par ailleurs "pris note du malentendu" autour de son usage du
terme "occupation" employé lors de son voyage, soulignant l'avoir
utilisé pour décrire sa "réaction personnelle" au sort des réfugiés
sahraouis. L'affaire prit un sérieux tel cette semaine que le Maroc a
demandé et obtenu le départ des membres de l'ONU stationnés dans la
région, alors que le "malentendu" faisait l'objet d'une réunion spéciale
du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU. Cette semaine alors que le début du
retrait des membres de la MINURSO avait lieu après le manque de position
commune au Conseil, un porte-parole de l'ONU déclarait: "Nous espérons
toujours pouvoir sauver la mission et restaurer nos relations avec le
Maroc".
Under their own banner
Only those from Syria
number some 4 million, add those from Iraq (1.5 million) and the eternal
all Palestinian diaspora (6 million) and you are talking about the size
of a decent sized country. So why wouldn't they have their own
athletics team?
This year for the first time Refugee athletes
will be making their way to Rio, walking into Maracana stadium under the
IOC flag. This has happened before for athletes whose countries ceased
to exist, but IOC president Thomas Bach said this year refugees would
field a team for the first time, and some 40 have so far been
identified.
They will however have to make the cut as fewer than
a dozen are expected to walk out of the tunnel during the opening
ceremonies this summer.
The conservative organization is usually
nervous about making statements during its ceremonies, such as in Sochi
where a single Ukrainian athlete marched to protest the Russian
invasion, but there is no denying the signal sent here.
"It
sends a clear message to the world," commented Congolese born wrestler
Popole Mysenga, "if you're a refugee you can keep hope in your heart."
The athlete training in Brasil, where he would not qualify to make the
national team, hopes to be among the few trailblazers.
Another
Olympic hopeful has her own story of survival and hope. Just last year
Yusra Mardini and her sister Sarah fled their home in Damascus for
Beirut, Istanbul and finally Izmir in Turkey, where they counted
themselves lucky after securing a spot on one of those highly unstable
crafts attempting the crossing into European waters daily.
They
were just about the only people on the boat, overflowing with 20
refugees, who could swim, and therefore salvage the situation when the
craft's tiny motor stopped working and the rocky seas threatened to send
most of the group to their death. Instead they joined another woman in
the water helping to stabilize the craft to the shore.
“I thought
it would be a real shame if I drowned in the sea, because I am a
swimmer,” she told reporters last week. And now she hopes to become an
Olympian by using the same water skills should have already earned her a
medal in any case.
So far she, Misenga, and Iranian taekwondo
fighter Raheleh Asemani, currently in Belgium, are the only ones named.
Others, aged between 17 and 30, include a sizeable contingent from
Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp near South Sudan.
IOC Olympic
Solidarity programme director Pere Miro said after a recent visit to the
camp he was “more convinced than ever that pulling together a refugee
team could work”.
The IOC has since held professional trials,
identifying nearly two dozen athletes can will compete to make the cut,
most of them including middle- and long-distance runners from South
Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda as well as others from Uganda and Mali to
Iraq.
“I was touched in seeing how the people live in this camp,”
Miro has said. “It’s in the middle of nowhere. They have nothing to do.
The main activity that keeps them motivated and alive is sport.”
Now these athletes are hoping to get their big break, and when given a chance, give something back.
“Maybe
I will build my life here in Germany," Mardini said, "and when I am an
old lady I will go back to Syria and teach people about my experience.”
The very real risks of Brexit
A
little over forty years after Britons said yes to closer ties with
Europe in a referendum, they will be asked whether to pursue a
relationship which has torn the island ever since the fall of the Second
World War, when bleeding European powers sought closer ties to prevent a
future conflict from ever devastating the old continent again. Conflict
did come again, in the ever explosive Balkans and then further east in
the Ukraine, which still smoulders, but conflict between the original
architects of the Union involved traded barbs rather than gunfire.
This
cross-Channel division delayed the 1975 referendum in which Britons
were called to decide whether they should join the growing and thriving
EEC. Until then London had hesitated, still pulled by trans-Atlantic
ties which had helped it survive during its darkest hours. When it
decided to make the leap it was rebuffed by its old continental rival,
France, until the general's retirement. Hadn't de Gaulle declared, in
1963, that England's very "nature and structure... differ from that of
continental states"? Then as now a Conservative government led efforts
in favor of ties with the continent, which were welcome by two thirds of
Britons.
Forty years later this enthusiasm has waned to the
point of making this year's June 23rd vote necessary, the U.K. having
forged closer ties but never joining in the euro, one less appealing now
than it has perhaps ever been. Originally the question asked whether
"the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union" until
it was amended for clarity to add "or leave the European Union". Polling
suggested a tight race, with 38% seeking to leave the EU while 37%
sought to remain and, more importantly, 25% undecided. London Mayor
Boris Johnson has become the charismatic face of the pro-Brexit
movement, usually backed by fringe parties such as UKIP but now
supported by a number of cabinet members as well, causing divisions in
the ruling conservatives.
Prime Minister David Cameron is
however backing EU membership with a "two-tier" approach that, as in
1975, would allow the fiercely independent island to opt out of certain
elements of membership by delaying Eurozone regulations and giving the
UK "special status" that avoids "ever closer union". But this could
give other member states some ideas of their own, threatening the union,
observers warned. As in the lead up to the Scottish referendum
businesses came out in force against Brexit. Some 60% of 40,000
companies polled said they preferred staying in the EU. Britain's
influential Economist warned about the risks of leaving the EU, both to
Britain and other countries.
"Brexit would deal a heavy blow to
Europe, a continent already on the ropes. It would uncouple the world’s
fifth-largest economy from its biggest market, and unmoor the
fifth-largest defence spender from its allies. Poorer, less secure and
disunited, the new EU would be weaker; the West, reliant on the
balancing forces of America and Europe, would be enfeebled, too."
A
Brexit could upset the isles as well the magazine noted, giving
Scotland's indepen-dence movement its second wind and even threatening
the peace in Northern Ireland, as Dublin pleaded for Britain to remain
in the EU. But author Conrad Black said he could see the advantages of
ideas proposed by Johnson, finding the mayor would negotiate "a better
deal" for the UK, and otherwise pointing out it could gain a much larger
market by teaming with its former Commonwealth powers. European Council
President Donald Tusk meanwhile warned the Union, already shakened by
the eurocrisis and a migrant crisis which has undermined the Schengen
agreement, could crumble from Brexit.
Last weekend finance
ministers from the world's top economies warned Brexit could have far
deeper implications and "shock" the global economy, at a time its
markets are shaky from dropping oil prices. UK Chancellor George Osborne
told the BBC "the financial leaders of the world's biggest countries
have given their unanimous verdict and they say that a British exit from
the EU would be a shock to the world's economy - imagine what it would
do to Britain." As expected UKIP's Nigel Farange downplayed the
announcement, at a meeting of G20 countries, was "no surprise... This is
big banks, big business, big government all scratching each other's
backs."
The warnings didn't stop there, and in fact spoke of
years of uncertainty if Britain left the EU. “This would be a long
period of uncertainty, which would have consequences for U.K.
businesses, trade and inward investment,” said one 28-page report from
London's bureaucrats. “The U.K.’s relationship with the EU has built up
over 40 years of membership and affects many aspects of life in the
U.K., and of U.K. citizens living across the EU; the terms of exit would
have to cover the full extent of that relationship,” it said, adding
leaving “would begin a period of uncertainty, of unknown length, and an
unpredictable outcome.” The report said everything from car
manufacturing to financial services and the lives of Britons abroad
would feel the impact, as the pound slipped.
Hogwash, retorted
the eurosceptics, only seeing a "campaign of fear" being waged by
London. "There is an attempt going on to scare people into staying with
the status quo, when I think the real risk is that we will simply remain
in a system that is less and less suitable to our needs and it's time
for the UK to have the courage to strike a new series of views," said
Johnson. In a meeting with Cameron this week, French president François
Hollande was diplomatic but firm: “I don’t want to scare you, but I just
want to say the truth. There will be consequences in many areas: on the
single market, on financial trade, on economic development between our
two countries. Now that doesn’t mean that everything will be destroyed, I
don’t want to give you a catastrophic scenario. But there will be
consequences especially in terms of people as well”, especially on the
hot button issue of migrants.
Dernier mandat pour Evo?
Au
pouvoir depuis plus d'une décennie, l'architecte de la révolution
bolivarienne a su garder son poste grâce à un appui partisan solide
soutenu par un recours au référendum régulier, une économie en
croissance aidant. Mais les premiers remous populaires se sont fait
sentir lorsque son référendum sur un quatrième mandat a connu l'échec,
mettant fin à son règne en 2020. Saura-t-il honorer ce résultat? C'est
ce qu'il compte faire.
"Nous respectons les résultats, cela fait
partie de la démocratie, dit-il, ayant essuyé l'échec, un "non" au
projet de poursuivre un nouveau mandat qui l'aura emporté par la mince
avance de 51,3%. "A l'exception de ce référendum", ajoute-t-il, il aura
"remporté chaque victoire", puis son parti conserve l'appui de la moitié
de la population.
Evo Morales est déjà le premier chef d'état
de son pays à avoir enligné trois mandats consécutifs, le dernier avec
pas moins de 59% des votes, mais les conditions ont nettement changé
avec l'effritement économique lié à la baisse du prix des ressources
naturelles et l'impatience populaire rattachée aux cas de corruption.
Parmi eux l'affaire à saveur de telenovela impliquant l'ancienne petite
amie du président.
Gabriela Zapata, avec qui il aurait eu un
enfant, occupe un poste important à la tête d'une compagnie chinoise qui
a reçu bon nombre de contrats de l'état. Ses opposants reprochent
également à Evo d'avoir favorisé les siens, les indiens Amayas, au long
de son règne, et d'avoir pris un goût à l'autoritarisme. "Peu de gens
vont nier que la Bolivie a vécu une croissance économique et sociale
impressionnante avec Morales, note l'analyste Michael Shifter à
Washington, plusieurs électeurs sont de l'opinion que ce n'est pas
assez. Ils exigent un gouvernement propre, qui rend des comptes et une
politique plus compétitive".
Le camp Morales s'avouait déçu du
résultat, un membre haut-placé du parti, Gabriela Montano remettant en
question "la tradition libérale de la rotation des dirigeants" en
ajoutant que celle-ci n'avait pas toujours bien servi son pays. A
l'extérieur des bureaux de scrutins où le décompte avait lieu des
manifestants, craignant une manipulation du pouvoir, ont protesté en
scandant "fraude! fraude!"
Certains supporters de Morales se
sont quant à eux livrés à des éclats dans les quartiers plus pauvres de
La Paz. Selon l'ancien rival présidentiel Samuel Doria Medina "Nous
avons retrouvé notre démocratie et le droit de choisir". De son côté
l'ancien président Carlos Mesa note: "ce que le vote des Boliviens a
indiqué est qu'il n'y existe personne d'indispensable, seulement des
causes le sont."
La Bolivie n'est que le dernier gouvernement
latino-américain à être entaché par des affaires de corruption, qui ont
été coûteuses en Argentine et au Venezuela. Dans les trois pays il
s'agit d'une gifle à la gauche après des années au pouvoir. En décembre
le parti de Nicolas Maduro subissait un important revers lors des
élections du congrès au Venezuela, alors qu'en novembre l'ère Kirchner
prenait fin en Argentine avec l'élection d'un homme de droite, Mauricio
Macri.
China's latest sea maneuvers
First there were
tense ship interceptions in the disputed waters, which include busy
shipping lanes, abundant energy resources and rich fishing grounds.
Then China built artificial islands long enough to land planes and set
up controversial outposts. On some contested islands the installation
of surface to air missiles has further upped the ante. Now the Middle
Kingdom is accused of installing a high frequency radar on a contested
island to further the divide between Beijing and other capitals
disputing the territorial claims.
According to one think-tank,
this may be even more alarming than the missiles. The stakes are getting
higher as China and the U.S., not to mention the half dozen or so
countries involved in disputes over territorial waters in the East and
South China seas, continue to move their pieces on the increasingly
complex maritime chess board.
The installation of high
altitude surface to air missiles on Woody Island, part of the disputed
Paracels, already increased tensions, coming after a few shows of
defiance by China's rivals, especially the U.S., which sent a warship in
the contested sealanes and jet fighters overhead at a time Beijing
would rather be told about overflights.
Washington said it was
gearing up for “very serious" conversations with the regime, even if
other countries involved in the South China Sea dispute, Taiwan, the
Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, have stationed military hardware and
troops in the area for years. But the radar may be going as far as
posing a big threat to the tenuous balance of power in the tense region,
according to an analysis by the Center of Strategic and International
studies.
“This month’s deployment of HQ-9 surface-to-air
missiles on Woody Island in the Paracels, while notable, does not alter
the military balance in the South China Sea,” said CSIS' Gregory Poling.
“New radar facilities being developed in the Spratlys, on the other
hand, could significantly change the operational landscape.”
The
facilities in fact “speak to a long-term anti-access strategy by China
-- one that would see it establish effective control over the sea and
airspace throughout the South China Sea,” he adds. U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry said “there is evidence every day that there has been
an increase of militarization of one kind or another.”
Observers
say this sort of jingoism may be a measure to distract from a slowing
economy. Recently China fired a top market regulator in order to boost
confidence in its economy, which has seen growth slip under 7 percent.
While China compares its installation, on a reef where it has reclaimed
thousands of square lies from the sea, to similar work being done in
the U.S. state of Hawaii, Washington was quick to respond there was no
dispute over the U.S.' possession of the state.
The disputes are
at the heart of America's Asia pivot, and even sent Australia, already
engaged in the Syria air campaign, on sort of a shopping spree, in the
great militarization of the sealanes. Indeed Canberra announced it
planned to spend A$50 billion on a fleet of a dozen new submarines in
what is being billed as one of the world's biggest defence contracts,
part of a 20-year blueprint that has everything to do about containing
China's influence in the region.
A defense white paper lays out
plans for four times as much spending over the next decade. “Territorial
disputes between claimants in the East China and South China Seas have
created uncertainty and tension in our region,” the paper said. This
week Southeast Asian foreign ministers reiterated the importance of
unrestricted access to the South China Sea and "remained seriously
concerned over the recent and ongoing developments" including "land
reclamations and escalation of activities."
After New Hampshire
By
the time Americans honoured the political tradition that is late night
voting in Dixville Notch, the freak show would surely end, leaving the
choices unhin-dered by the reality TV spectacle leading to the first
state-sanctioned vote of the U.S. electoral year. After all hadn't the
Iowa caucuses set an air of reality by delivering the boisterous
Republican front runner a first setback? Reality would come, safe,
predictable and unspec-tacular. Except that it didn't.
Donald
Trump would, a day after being bleeped by the networks for uttering foul
language on the stump - only repeating a supporter's words he said -,
handily take the Granite state, and move his campaign onwards, winning
South Carolina, his GOP opponents scrambling to mount an establishment
sanctioned opposition, a field of over a dozen chipped down to five.
The
Trump show had stopped being funny a long time ago, slipping into the
realm of terrifying. "It's so fun to watch that it's easy to lose sight
of how terrifying it really is," opined columnist Ezra Klein. "Trump is
the most dangerous major candidate for president in memory. He pairs
terrible ideas with an alarming temperament, he's a racist, a sexist,
and a demagogue, but he's also a narcissist, a bully and dilettante."
And a front runner. And this is scaring observers not only across the
U.S. but in other countries.
Just north of the border 70 percent
of Canadians polled held a harsh view of the U.S. billionaire and saw
Hillary Clinton most likely to be elected in November. But the former
First Lady faced a tough battle against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders,
losing New Hampshire by a mile and shaking up her campaign team early
out of the gate as questions continued to dog her on her use of personal
email when she was Secretary of State. This weekend she narrowly took
Nevada with 52% of the vote after a week polls showed here neck and neck
with Sanders nationally.
Long considered America's first female
president in waiting, Clinton struggled to maintain her grip on women's
vote and seemed to be blown away by the young electorate's appetite for
change, away from the establishment; which made both her Democratic and
Republican rivals so appealing. And divided. In a country where
political division had been a concern for years, the New Hampshire
winners upped the ante, a left-wing populist that would hike taxes on
the rich and businesses and allow for a greater government role in
health and education going up against a business mogul - often compared
to that Buffone Silvio Berlusconi - who "fights like hell" not to pay
taxes.
Oddly both candidates agree on one thing, for different
reasons: Nafta would have to go, of certain interest to their neighbors.
Now well into primary season, the GOP struggled with what to do with a
front-runner who still toyed with the idea of running as a third-party
candidate, at least for leverage. "For the establishment wing of the
Republican party the picture just keeps getting bleaker," wrote
Politico. "Far from winnowing the crowded field of GOP contenders and
allowing it to unify around a standard bearer New Hampshire thrust it
further into chaos."
The developing narrative "is the perfect
storm for Trump," told the website strategist Matt Dowd. While Chris
Christie suspended his bid, the remaining field was divided enough to
leave Trump firmly in a front runner's role. "The bunching up in low
digits of the mainstream candidates is a dream come true from Trump,"
added former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "His opposition
divides, he conquers."
The appeal of change remained strong in
America eight years after it was carried under the banner of the man who
would become America's first black president, but for the Democrats
this didn't involve the person who would be America's first female
president, rather her older male opponent, whose campaign - from its
success among youths to fundraising - harkened back to what had made the
Obama campaign so successful.
Sanders in fact outraised his
opponent by $5 million in January, placing him in a position few thought
possible months ago. He raised practically as much in the 18 hours
after his New Hampshire win alone. But Sanders will need to chip away at
Clinton's support among minorities the same way he did among women, to
hope to remain a threat to get the nomination down the stretch, and
while Nevada gave the former Senator a run for her money, the women's
vote helped her secure the win after weeks of increasingly tight
polling. Sanders had at least made Al Sharpton hesitate about endorsing
his rival.
In Nevada there was the same hesitation by usually
supportive unions to endorse Clinton while Sanders' message resonated in
South Carolina towns which usually backed the former First Lady. But
the congressional black caucus eventually endorsed Clinton. While the
president withheld any endorsement of his own before the winner is
ultimately selected, his spokesman made clear his preference for his
former rival. Clinton meanwhile slammed Sanders for his criticism of the
Obama presidency as something one would "expect from Republicans",
remarks Sanders panned as "a low blow", but that's as bad as it got, and
rather sweet when compared to the increasingly nasty GOP mudslinging
and name-calling.
Trump led the way, of course, promising to
tone down the foul language, especially as he got closer to the
presidency, but said he could sue rival Calgary-born Ted Cruz "for not
being a natural born citizen." This week the site tedcruzforAmerica.com
in fact linked to Canada's immigration department. Analysts feared the
ugly contest only deprived Republicans of a serious debate on issues. A
GOP nightmare, Trump went further, attacking the George W. Bush years,
stressing Sept. 11 had happened under his watch, and the establishment
along with it, before threatening to reconsider his pledge as a
Republican, accusing the party of being unfair to him.
A divided
opposition would be a Democratic candidate's dream come true. This as
the death of a conservative Supreme Court judge promised to have an
impact on major court decisions in the U.S., on matters ranging from
immigration to voting rights, as well as the election. While Obama said
he would use his constitutional right to recommend a replacement judge,
some wondered whether a staunchly opposed GOP base wouldn't erupt as a
result. If a third party candidate did enter the ring however, things
could only get even more out of control. And things aren't all looking
up for the Donald.
One poll had him trailing a contender for the
first time, Ted Cruz, who slightly trailed Marco Rubio in South
Carolina, while the businessman was wrestling with a higher power. In
comments to reporters the Pope questioned Trump's Christianity for
looking to raise more walls on the Mexican border. Pope Francis held a
prayer there which was enjoyed by worshippers on both sides of the
border instead.
Crainte de vide en Haiti
Encore une
élection reportée, encore des manifestations violentes dans les rues, et
puis, comme si ce n'était pas assez, un vide exécutif qui ne fait rien
pour corriger l'instabilité à Hispaniola. Le tout sur un fond de crise
économique aggravée par des années de sécheresse. Les peines se
poursuivent sur l'ile de tous les maux, où la transition politique se
fait dans le désordre après la fin d'une présidence symbolique -suite au
désastre du séisme- sans pour autant avoir été très appréciée.
Le
président Martelly a bien quitté son palais à Port-au-Prince, mais le
report du second tour de la présidentielle plus tôt cette année a plongé
la Perle des Caraïbes dans la crainte de nouvelles instabilités. Ce
second tour, opposant le candidat choyé par Martelly, Jovenel Moise, et
Jude Celestin, a été reporté en fin avril. Afin d'éviter un vide
catastrophique les dirigeants nationaux, avec l'aval de l'Organisation
des Etats d'Amérique, sont arrivés à une entente mettant en place un
gouvernement et un président provisoires, mais celle-ci n'a pas rassuré
tout le monde pour autant.
Ce dimanche le président du sénat,
Jocelerme Privert a été élu par le parlement pour un mandat pouvant
aller jusqu'à 120 jours, et les défis ne manquent pas même dans
l'attente de celui qui occupera véritablement le poste de chef d'état.
Les dernières déclarations du président sortant en étaient un certain
résumé, celui-ci faisant appel au calme dans une rue surexcitée.
«Je
demande aux différents protagonistes, ceux qui utilisent la violence
particulièrement, de comprendre qu’à chaque fois qu’il y a de la
violence en Haïti, Haïti fait un pas en arrière, déclara Martelly en
veille du départ. La démocratie, c’est ça, se positionner, se faire
entendre. Mais évitons les casses, évitons l’incertitude, évitons de
repousser les investisseurs parce que Haïti a besoin d’investissements.
Il faut que la stabilité règne au pays. »
Havre de stabilité
dans les premiers mois, dans une nation blessée par la séisme de 2010,
celui-ci n'a pas été épargné par les critiques à la fin de son mandat
rallongé. « Il y a eu des choses positives au départ,» résume Laënnec
Hurbon de l'université d'Etat de Port-au-Prince, comme la cons-truction
de routes et la relocalisation des sans-logis du séisme.
«En
revanche la population pense que la misère s'est approfondie, il y a une
inflation qui est toujours galopante, la monnaie est en pleine
dévaluation et la corruption est généralisée. » Les urgences qui
attendent Privert sont nombreuses, alors que la rue reste nerveuse et
l'économie souffre des séquelles de trois années de suite de sécheresse.
«Une troisième année consécutive de sécheresse, aggravée en
2015 par le phénomène météorologique mondial El Niño, a doublé le nombre
de personnes souffrant d'insécurité alimentaire sévère», déclarait le
Programme alimentaire mondial des Nations Unies (PAM). Alors que l'aide
internationale continue de soutenir cette terre souffrante, les
investisseurs restent rares.
«Avec tous les troubles politiques
que nous avons, les investissements publics vont continuer à subir une
contraction. Les investisseurs privés locaux? Ne leur demandez pas de
mettre leurs fonds dans cette économie alors ne parlons pas des
investisseurs internationaux», résume l'économiste haïtien Kesner
Pharel.
Réformes importantes en Algérie
Ces derniers
temps la tendance semblait aller dans l'autre sens, celle de
l'élimination de la limite de mandat, comme il en a été le cas plus au
sud du continent africain, où Museveni commence son cinquième. Mais
Alger, qui avait déjà supprimé cette limite, a choisi de la réimposer,
bien que le président Abdelaziz Bouteflika, jeune de ses 78 ans et
songeant sans doute à la retraite, pourra briguer un nouveau et
cinquième quinquennat.
Ce projet prési-dentiel approuvé
par 499 parlementaires comptait d'autres réformes impor-tantes, dont la
reconnaissance de la langue berbère, mais interdit également aux
Algériens ayant une double nationalité l'accès aux hauts postes dans la
fonction publique, des postes particulièrement choyés. "Vous avez
répondu à l'appel de l'architecte de la nouvelle république algérienne,"
a déclaré le premier ministre Abdelmalek Sellal peu après le vote. Ces
réformes avaient notamment été proposées après les révolutions de 2011.
On
s'engage par ailleurs à protéger "l'alternance démo-cratique par le
moyen d'élections libres" et d'éviter des gestes tels l'annulation de
l'élection de 1992, remportée par le Front islamique, décision qui avait
déclenché une guerre civile responsable de 200000 morts. La réforme
sur la langue permettra au berbère d'être représenté dans les documents
officiels. Des réformes en 2002 lui avaient donné un statut lui
permettant d'être enseigné à l'école, mais uniquement dans certaines
régions.
"La nouvelle Constitution apporte des avancées
démocratiques indiscutables comme la consécration de la langue amazighe
[berbère] et le soutien aux entreprises privées, qui représente une
certaine ouverture écono-mique, sans parler de la suppression du délit
de presse, note Hassan Moali, directeur de la rédaction du quotidien Le
temps d'Algérie, mais on pouvait mieux faire. On avait l’opportunité de
projeter l’Algérie vers un modèle démocratique et de faire aboutir 20
ans de lutte politique, mais c’est une occasion ratée."
Quelques
jours plus tard l'état de cette démocratie était dénoncé au grand jour
lorsque l'organisation des droits de l'homme EuroMed a condamné le
comportement répressif des forces de l'ordre envers des participants à
un colloque organisé par un syndicat, dénonçant une "violation manifeste
de la loi sur la liberté de réunion".
Autant dire que
l'opposition n'y a vu qu'une initiative du pouvoir à caratère superflu,
estimant qu'elle ne changera en rien l'emprise de Bouteflika et de sa
clique sur le pays. Le principal intéressé était d'ailleurs, comme
toujours, absent de l'arène publique, où il est rarement vu depuis
l'aggravation de son état de santé.
Pour plusieurs
observateurs de la scène, les gestes constituaient des préparatives de
départ; pour certains, un départ de ce monde plutôt que l'abandon de son
poste présidentiel. Le "scénario d'un Bouteflika partant n'est pas
envisageable maintenant, estime le politologue Abed Charef.
Bouteflika
aurait pu partir en 2008, à la fin de son second mandat, mais
maintenant, il ne partira jamais. Ce qui l'intéresse est de mourir au
pouvoir." Un scénario qui fait craindre l'avenir de ce pays qui a, comme
d'autres dans la région, souffert en raison de l'écroulement du prix de
l'or noir, et dont la pauvreté s'étend à des millions de ses
concitoyens.
Le président a par ailleurs également
réformé son agence de renseignement, la plaçant plus directement sous
son autorité plutôt que celle des militaires. Cette fin de semaine des
soldats étaient confrontés à l'Etat islamique, un nouveau rendez-vous
avec la terreur après le choc d'il y a trois ans lors de la prise de
l'installation d'In Amenas, où l'intervention des forces de l'ordre a
donné lieu à un bain de sang causant la mort d'une vingtaine de
personnes, dont de nombreux otages.
Sweden rules the European champs
It's
been a few years since Sweden collected a world championship, in the
pros or juniors, but the Scandinavian country is keeping the monopoly in
Europe's 48-team champions league after Frolunda avenged its loss, in
last year's final against Swedish rival Lulea, and defeated Finland's
Oulu 2-1 to cap the continental league's second season.
As
multinational leagues go, this one is competing for European supremacy
with Russia's 28-team KHL. The latter is however going through some hard
times with Moscow facing international sanctions and slipping oil
prices. Last year it had to scrap crowning one of its champions for lack
of funds.
The two leagues however compete for good non-NHL talent and have been drawing scouts of the mighty North American league.
Spencer
Abbott, the only Canadisn on the team, scored what would become the
game winner shortly after his team took the lead 1-0 late in the first.
In its 78 year old history the Gothenburg team has collected just three
Swedish titles, but the two of them in the last 15 years. There was no
denying the satisfaction of spoiling the locals' fun on Finn ice.
This
newfound Swedish supremacy in Europe is a bit of a return to the past
however, the land of vikings having dominated an early European
championship in the 30s. The Swedish Elitserien has also been considered
one of the top European hockey leagues for decades.
On the day
of a blockbuster trade deal between the Senators and Leafs the final may
however been grossly overlooked in North America.
Frolunda sits
second in the Swedish rankings this year but the league's top player,
American Ryan Lasch, plays for Goteborg, scored the other goal in the
European final and finished tournament MVP. "It's awesome, it's a great
feeling to win with these guys," said the Californian, who had stints in
Pembroke and Toronto (Marlies) but mostly played in Europe. We've
worked together all season. Everyone put in a maximum effort and this is
the result".
Abbott of Hamilton is one of three Canadians in
the leagues top 15. The tourney may however have distracted the Indians
on the home front, losing three in a row while league leading Skelleftia
AIK, which was perfect and closed its grip on a fourth title in a row
with under 10 games left to play in the Swedish regular season.
Une lutte brésilienne devenue mondiale
Le
compte à rebours des six mois a commencé au Brésil et l'année olympique
prend assez vite l'allure d'un parcours d'obstacle alors que le pays
traverse une crise organisationnelle, institu-tionnelle, et même
sanitaire. Cette dernière devient même une affaire mondiale. Déjà, comme
à la veille de la Coupe du monde, le pays compte plusieurs ratés en
prévision de cette autre grande fête sportive, des coûts astronomiques
aux craintes liées à la qualité de l'eau des sites de disciplines
aquatiques. Le tout se joue sur fond de crise politique, la présidente
Dilma Rousseff étant confrontée à une tentative de destitution pour
avoir, dit-on, falsifié les comptes de l'État afin de faciliter sa
réélection il y a deux ans.
Une commission spéciale se
penche actuel-lement sur ces accusations alors que Rousseff a fait
annuler les vacances parlementaires en janvier afin de favoriser un vote
rapide, estimant avoir la faveur de la plupart des parlementaires pour
faire bloquer la procédure. Une autre commission se penche sur les
nombreuses accusations de corruption qui entourent l'élite brésilienne,
le parti au pouvoir y compris. Opération lave-auto a d'ailleurs déjà
épinglé des douzaines de politiciens et d'hommes d'affaires, y compris
des haut placés du Congrès, pris dans une affaire de contrats frauduleux
avec la pétrolière Petrobas.
Des membres de l'entourage
de la présidente sont notamment du compte. Par ailleurs celle-ci a fait
son mea culpa sur les erreurs commises par son gouvernement, qui n'a
pas été en mesure de percevoir correctement l'ampleur de la crise
économique qui frappe le pays depuis des années: "la plus grande erreur
avait été de ne pas avoir vu que la crise était si grande en 2014, de ne
pas avoir mesuré l'ampleur du ralentissement économique en raison de
problèmes internes et externes", dit-elle en entrevue. En décembre
déjà le vice-président du CIO Craig Reedie disait du pays: "Ils connait
des difficultés politiques et économiques.
Inévitablement
ceci aura un impact sur les Jeux. Il y a des défis, il va falloir les
surmonter." Triste portrait de la terre du samba qui ne s'est qu'empiré
avec l'éclatement de la propagation du virus Zika, cette maladie
transmise par le moustique tigre qui se répand depuis quelques semaines à
travers les Amériques, possiblement responsable de malformations chez
les nouveau-nés.
Plusieurs cas ont notamment été
rapportés au Brésil, où le combat contre le virus date de plusieurs
années, mais également à travers l'Amérique centrale et jusqu'au
Mexique. L'OMS craint d'ailleurs que le virus ne se propage partout sur
le continent, à l'exception du Chili et du Canada, où les moustiques
coupables ne sont pas encore présents. Une vingtaine de pays sont
touchés en tout par ce virus qui complète son tour du monde. Jusqu'à
quatre millions de cas pourraient voir le jour, selon l'organisation.
La situation est devenue telle que dans plusieurs pays d'Amérique
centrale le gouvernement est allé jusqu'à déconseiller les projets de
natalité.
Raison de cette propagation rapide: l'absence
jusqu'ici du virus dans plusieurs régions, où l'on n'a pas eu le temps
de développer une immunité. Cette propagation est le signe d'une guerre
perdue par les autorités sanitaires brésili-ennes, qui depuis des
années combattent le moustique Aedes aegypti «Cela fait près de trente
ans que le moustique transmet des maladies à notre population et, depuis
lors, nous le combattons, mais nous sommes en train de perdre la
guerre, avouait le ministre de la santé Marcelo Castro. Nous sommes en
train de faire face à une véritable épidémie, nous avons besoin d'une
société brésilienne mobilisée pour prévenir ces maladies».
Alors
que des nouveaux cas se développent ailleurs en Amérique, plus de 3000
cas de microcéphalie ont été déclarés chez des nourrissons au Brésil
l'an dernier. Ces malformations de la tête qui altèrent le développement
intellectuel sont sans doute liées à la propagation du virus. Entre
temps, à la veille du carnaval et quelques mois avant le coup d'envoi
des JOs, Washington déconseille le voyage aux femmes enceintes, ce qui a
de quoi attrister le pays hôte, qui promet de remporter le combat.
Pourtant le virus n'est pas soudainement apparu de nulle part pour
terroriser la planète et remonte bien presque 70 ans lorsqu'il fut
identifié dans une forêt Ougandaise du nom de Zika et s'est répandu en
Asie avant de traverser les océans vers l'Amérique.
Alors
que le Brésil lançait 220,000 soldats sur la trace du moustique la
crise s'étendait ailleurs, rapportant son premier cas en Europe, tandis
que le président américain lançait un appel à la mobilisation contre cet
agent pathogène. «Le président a souligné le besoin d'accélérer les
efforts de recherche pour mettre au point de meilleurs diagnostics, des
vaccins et des traitements et s'assurer que tous les Américains soient
informés sur le virus zika», a indiqué la Maison-Blanche dans un
communiqué. Des scientifiques américains prévienent d'ailleurs que
puisqu'un vaccin n'existe pas contre le virus, sa propagation pourrait
prendre des allures de "pandémie explosive".
Quelques
jours plus tard l'OMS décrétait l'urgence en vue de mobiliser les
efforts internationaux contre le virus. Alors que son expansion est
limitée aux voyageurs, dans le nord du continent, des mesures sont déjà
en place pour interdire les personnes ayant visité les régions atteintes
de donner de leur sang pendant 21 jours. Un cas a transmission sanguine
a déjà été recensé. Autre moyen de transmettre le virus: les relations
sexuelles, responsables d'une transmis-sion au Texas. Plus au sud la
crise a plongé les pays concernés dans un débat houleux sur le droit à
la contraception et à l'avort-ement, sujet tabou dans ces contrées très
catholiques où il est souvent proscrit.
Au Brésil
l'avortement est permis dans certains cas, mais 80% de la population le
juge illégal. "Comment peuvent-ils demander à ces femmes de ne pas
tomber enceintes, mais ne pas leur offrir la possibilité d'empêcher la
grossesse", a déclaré Cécile Pouilly, porte parole du Haut commissariat
aux droits de l'homme de l'ONU, dont l'organisation demande d'autoriser
l'accès à la contraception et à l'avortement.
Turkey's always tense border
It
was the first time since Korea a NATO member shot down a Russian
fighter jet, despite the often alarming levels of tension between East
and West during the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis. And it only
occurred last November when Turkish planes claimed multiple warnings
went unheeded and downed a Sukhoi in the border area. Accusations and
threats were traded but eventually both giant nations backed away from
the precipice of war in an already tense region. But these tensions
remain as Ankara has uttered new warnings Moscow would "face
consequences" if it failed to rein in its fighter jets, near a highly
volatile airspace where both nation's air forces continue their
operations.
Over the week-end Turkey's foreign ministry
accused the Russian air force of new air space violations, a charge
downplayed as "baseless propaganda" as Turkey summoned the Russian
ambassador to "strongly protest at and condemn" the incident.
Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, emboldened by a new majority
after last year's elections, warned "Such irresponsible steps do not
benefit either the Russian Federation, or Russian- NATO relations, or
regional and global peace."
Russia is one active participant in
the air mission over Syria which was notably absent from this week's
summit of 23 participating coalition coun-tries, including host Italy,
the U.S., Turkey, France and Australia. Erdogan has sought meetings with
Putin over the air war but no such meeting has been scheduled.
NATO
meanwhile warned Russia it should "act responsibility and to fully
respect NATO airspace" as well as "take all necessary measures to ensure
that such violations do not happen again". The Su-24 all-weather attack
plane spotted recently was of the same type which was downed by
US-built Turkish F-16s in the Fall.
Turkish officials said two
Russian planes had entered their territory and were warned 10 times to
alter their course. One of the planes left Turkish airspace but the
other was shot over Turkey before crashing in Syria near the border.
Between the Syrian war next door and ongoing Kurdish related fighting,
Turkey's borders have been tense for decades leading up to the current
escalation, as the country also deals with millions of refugees fleeing
the fighting.
Adding to the tensions is the new Cold-war like
environment between Moscow and NATO, last fall's shooting down causing
Russia to move anti-aircraft missiles into the region as well, this
week, as bringing in its most sophisticated fighter jets, the Su-35. By
some accounts this fifth-generation fighter more than holds its own when
confronted with NATO's F-15s and F-18s.
But as in the last
century, observers doubt Russia can keep putting billions into its war
effort, as revenues continue to tumble from sanctions and crashing oil
prices in the 30$ range. Though Washington has noted the Kremlin has
been quite efficient keeping costs down. "While appearing strong
militarily has proven to be an effective strategy for Vladimir Putin in
the short term, it comes at a price tag higher than many observers
realize," wrote Lt. Col. John Barnett in an anaysis of the Washington
Institute. "Russia is well aware that extending the operation will incur
greater costs."
This burden could give the West some leverage
as countries struggle to settle the crisis politically. But meanwhile
tensions remain high as Russia accused Ankara of violating open skies in
the region by banning a Russian overflight, and even of preparing a
ground invasion of Syria.
Eclats familiers en Tunisie
Cette
semaine le couvre-feu était enfin levé, mais les tensions demeurent. Un
peu plus de cinq ans après la révolution de jasmin, encore des
manifes-tations, des éclats, et un martyr mort après un geste désespéré
en Tunisie. Des jours de tourmente et des périodes de couvre-feu après
une année particulièrement meurtrière marquée par plusieurs attentats.
Ceux-ci,
notamment l'attaque du Bardo et les attentats visant le tourisme, ont
davantage troublé une économie à la dérive, avec un chômage pouvant
atteindre un jeune sur trois. L'un d'eux, chômeur, est mort électrocuté
après avoir grimpé une tour de transmission en guise de protestation, un
geste désespéré qui n'était pas sans rappeler l'immolation de Bouazizi
qui avait tout déclenché en 2011. Ce symbolisme a galvanisé les foules.
L'heure est grave, et pourtant le pays reste celui qui a le
mieux survécu à la tourmente du printemps arabe, dont le bilan reste
plutôt mitigé. Il y a quelques mois à peine le comité du prix Nobel
honorait des groupes de la société civile tunisienne pour leur travail
démocratique acharné au coeur d'une région troublée. Mais à partir de
novembre c'était l'état d'urgence après une attaque au kamikaze qui a
fait une douzaine de morts dans les rangs de la garde présidentielle.
Plus récemment c'est à la police que s'en prenaient des manifestants,
notamment des jeunes désoeuvrés, armés de bâtons et de cocktail
molotovs.
"Les embrasements se sont déroulés dans ces zones
déshéritées de l'intérieur du pays, à fort chômage et dans lesquelles
les jeunes diplômés n'ont ni avenir ni perspective d'émigration, note le
spécialiste du Moyen-orient Pierre Vermeren, malgré la révolution qui
s'est déroulée il y a cinq ans il n'y a pas eu de rattrapage.... Que
cela débouche sur les émeutes n'est pas surprenant".
La région
est également celle qui a souffert le plus de décès lors de la
révolution de jasmin. Mais le mécontentement ne semble pas aller jusqu'à
faire appel à la chute du pouvoir, et le président restait confiant que
le pays n'allait pas sombrer dans la violence malgré les tensions
actuelles, exacerbées par les menaces islamistes qui planent toujours
sur la région.
"La Tunisie a complètement changé depuis la
dictature pour devenir une jeune démocratie, affirme le premier ministre
Habib Essid, lors de cette jeunesse il y a des périodes d'adolescence
qu'il faut traverser. Nous sommes conscients des difficultés auxquelles
nous devons faire face".
Pourtant ne laissait-on pas entendre
qu'il y avait risque de nouvelle révolution au plus fort des tensions en
décembre? Ces difficultés, notamment économiques, étaient rappelées
récemment lorsque Thomas Cook a annoncé l'annulation de tous ses vols
vers la Tunisie jusqu'en novembre. Cette décision, un autre coup dur
porté contre le tourisme, accompagnait celle du rival Thomson, deux
compagnies parmi d'autres qui notent que les avertissements, qui
déconseillent tout voyage non essentiel vers la Tunisie, sont inchangés
au Foreign Office.
Trente Britanniques ont trouvé la mort lors
de l'attaque d'un hotel en juin dernier revendiqué par l'Etat islamique,
qui selon plusieurs experts fait une guerre écono-mique aux pays arabes
qui ne suivent pas sa ligne dure. Autre victime de cette guerre
économique contre le tourisme: l'Egypte, terre des Pharaons qui a
enregistré ses pires recettes touristiques depuis une décennie lors des
deux derniers mois de l'année. Ceux-ci suivaient l'écrasement d'un
aéronef russe causé par une bombe installée par un mécanicien lié au
djihad.
Living dangerously again
The West
was bracing for a difficult new year of ISIS threats and attacks,
Brussels cancelling New Year cele-brations altogether, but it was the
Muslim world which saw the first salvoes of 2016, with suicide bombers
causing death and mayhem in Istanbul and Jakarta.
The targets
were notably Western, the tourist quarter of the Turkish metropolis
being the scene of a bombing attack which killed 10 tourists while half a
dozen were felled in the targeting of a Starbucks in a trendy part of
Jakarta, the worst attack there since the 2009 hotel bombings. Both
countries had faced other terror demons in the past, PKK attacks in
Turkey and islamist blasts in Bali, but ISIS was singled out as the
culprit hours after the bloody incidents, even if it did not claim
responsibility for the Istanbul blast.
Turkish authorities
blamed the attack on someone who had entered the country as a refugee,
among the millions who have done so, and failed to raise any alarm
bells. He had registered with immigration officials just a week
earlier. While a single man was suspected behind the Istanbul attack,
five gunmen exchanged fire with police and set off blasts around the
Starbucks before they were killed. A Canadian was among the two
bystanders killed.
The gunmen all fell in a hail of bullets.
Despite the incident police were statisfied they had foiled the group's
bloody plans "We think... their plan was to attack people and follow it
up with a larger explosion when more people gathered," said police
spokesman Anton Charilyan, "but thank god it didn't happen."
The
country has been on high alert since police arrested nine militants
last month who had planned attacks "to attract international attention
new coverage". With these attacks, including the first in the world's
largest Muslim country, ISIS is seeking to shake perceptions it is on
the defensive on the home front and shape perceptions it is everywhere,
says George-town University fellow Kamron Bokhari, calling the attacks
"sophisticated psycho-logical operations". "They want to be recognized
as a force to be reckoned with" particularly by hitting Muslim nations
they perceive as being led by unIslamic regimes where they seek to "use
the disaffection of locals to their advantage".
In addition
ISIS is waging "economic warfare" by targeting the tourist industries of
a number of developing countries, from Egypt and Tunisia to Indonesia,
says Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics. Targeting Muslim
populations however amounts to "committing suicide" for the group, he
adds. Turkey promptly retaliated for the attack by hitting ISIS targets
in Iraq and Syria it says killed 200 militants.
IS' repeated
attacks across the world may only have upped the competition among
jihadists for terror supremacy however. Days later Al Qaida in the
Islamic Maghreb claimed respon-sibility for the death of 30 people after
gunmen attacked a hotel in Ouagadougou, using methods similar to those
used in Bamako last year. In a weekend address terrorist leader Al
Zawahiri urged militants to join the ranks of AQIM rather than ISIS.
"AQIM
wants to show its might in the face of a rising ISIS", says analyst
Wassim Nasr. ISIS responded in kind, using social media to appeal for
AQIM-aligned fighters in northwest Africa to join their ranks. Meanwhile
the group was scoring more horrifying victories in Syria, abducting and
killing as many as 400 after capturing Deir Ezzor despite an
intensified Russian air campaign. The new battlefields away from Syria
and Iraq are prompting officials to take action. "We're not going to
just sit on our hands. We will act and respond," said Benin's president
Thomas Boni Yayi. "The question is: Whose turn is it next?"
Un accueil plus dur
L'accueil
des réfugiés syriens n'a pas été égal d'un pays européen à un autre,
mais même chez ceux qui ont le plus généreusement ouvert leurs portes,
une réflexion est engagée sur l'ampleur du problème, qui après
l'accueil, s'oriente sur la gestion. Et le moment est plutôt critique si
l'on pense que le flot va se poursuivre lors des mois et des années à
venir. Malgré les scènes spectaculaires et les efforts généreux, 2015 ne
risque que d'avoir été le début du déluge. Récemment un ministre
allemand estimait à 10% seulement le nombre de migrants qui avaient
atteint le vieux continent, prédisant 5 à 10 millions de déplacements
vers l'union européenne d'ici 2020.
"La situation est
irréversible, déclarait le ministre du développement Gerd Müller, les
personnes qui sont ici à l'heure actuelle notre société a le défi de les
intégrer". Ses commentaires suivaient des jours d'affron-tement entre
policiers et groupes de droite qui protestaient contre les nombreux cas
d'agression sexuelle associés à des migrants lors des fêtes du nouvel an
à Cologne. Ses politiques mises sous les projecteurs à nouveau, la
chancelière Angela Merkel déclara que les migrants trouvés responsables
de tels actes seraient déportés. L'opinion publique a déjà changé depuis
les gestes de bienvenue de l'été dernier lorsque les colonnes
d'immigrés chassés des pays de l'est trouvaient refuge en Allemagne, où
un million de Syriens seraient entrés lors de la dernière année.
Récemment
des centaines de réfugiés auraient été renvoyés en Autriche à la
frontière allemande. Coincé par la marche des migrants, le petit pays
est lui-même à la recherche de solutions, songeant entre autre à refuser
les migrants "économiques". Selon son chancelier Werner Faymann "ce qui
est certains est que bientôt nous allons être plus actifs à nos
frontières". Même repli en Suède où les autorités ont fermé les
frontières lors des fêtes. Un débat à éclaté lorsqu'un journal a accusé
la police de fermer les yeux à propos de cas d'agression commises par
des migrants. A-t-on atteint un seuil de tolérance dans cet autre pays à
l'accueil généreux?
Outre-mer entre temps des gestes
regrettables faisaient l'actualité aux Etats-Unis et au Canada, où un
événement de bienvenue de réfugiés syriens a été visé par une attaque au
poivre de cayenne, un geste "contraire à ce que nous sommes," selon le
premier ministre Trudeau, qui ne reflète pas "l'accueil chaleureux des
canadiens". Des mosquées ont également été vandalisées et des musulmans
agressés depuis l'annonce que le gouvernement allait accueillir 25000
réfugiés syriens d'ici fin février. En France les actes antimusulmans
auraient triplé en 2015 et des incidents ont ciblé une mosquée et des
églises alors que le pays commémorait le premier anniversaire de
l'attaque du Charlie Hebdo.
Entre temps les contrôles se sont
resserrés à la frontière grecque, porte d'entrée de centaines de
milliers de migrants. Plus au nord le Danemark est de ces pays qui ont
radicalement changé de ton, notamment depuis l'élection du parti libéral
l'an dernier, sans majorité, laissant le premier ministre Lars
Rasmussen à la merci du parti du peuple anti-immigration. Copenhague a
créé un véritable tollé en proposant un projet de loi qui permettrait
aux autorités de saisir l'argent et les biens d'une valeur supérieure à
1500$ appartenant aux migrants. Cette semaine la Suisse semblait vouloir
imiter le geste. Les mesures danoises rendraient par ailleurs la
réunification des familles plus difficile.
Les parents
pour-raient ainsi se voir séparés de leurs enfants pendant trois ans.
Les mesures sont jugées nécessaires par le gouver-nement qui invoque les
finances publiques, mais sont condam-nées par plusieurs organismes dont
le HCR, y voyant des mesures sûres de répandre "la peur et la
xénophobie". Les saisies sont d'ailleurs comparées aux gestes des Nazis
pendant la guerre. Le pays avait déjà semé la consternation l'an
dernier en fermant ses frontières aux masses migrantes et a rallongé des
restrictions plus récentes pendant 20 jours. "Nous voulons limiter le
flux," explique Rasmussen, dont le pays aurait accueilli 21000 migrants
l'an dernier, contre 15000 l'an précédent, y voyant une masse
"impossible à gérer" sûre de "changer notre société".
Alors que
l'accueil s'envenime en Europe la situation ne dérougit pas à la source,
la crise syrienne mettant de nouvelles atrocités sous les projecteurs
régulièrement. Ainsi l'entrée de convois humanitaires dans la ville
syrienne de Madaya a révélé une population menacée par la famine après
des mois de bombardements gouvernemen-taux. Selon Amnistie les
survivants subsistaient grâce à une diète à base d'eau bouillie et de
feuilles, enregistrant 40000 cas sévères de malnutrition. Selon son
porte parole Philip Luther, cinq ans après le début de la crise, il ne
s'agit sans doute que de la pointe de l'iceberg en Syrie: "Les Syriens
meurent et souffrent à travers le pays car la famine est une arme de
guerre à la fois du gouvernement et des groupes armés".
L'implication
d'un réfugié syrien dans l'attentat d'Istanboul pourrait avoir
davantage terni l'image des migrants et diminué l'enthou-siasme des pays
d'accueil, mais même à Cologne, où une personne était arrêtée cette
semaine en relation avec les gestes fâcheux, l'assistance aux plus
démunis survit aux incidents. "Nous enregistrons une forte demande pour
faire du bénévolat de la part des habitants des quartiers alentour en
prévision de l’ouverture du camp en février, fait remarquer Aische
Westermann, gestion-naire d'un camp d'urgence dans la ville. Donc la
volonté d’aider et d’accueillir des demandeurs d’asile est toujours
aussi forte."
Et il en faudra davantage si l'on pense que la
période ordinai-rement creuse des traversées est particulièrement
occupée cette année. On prévoit en effet plus de 20000 arrivées rien que
sur l'ile de Lesbos en janvier, contre 750 en janvier 2015. "Il s'agit
déjà d'une année record, note Boris Cheshirkov de l'ONU, nous n'avons
pas de boule de cystal, mais la guerre en Syrie ne sera pas finie
demain, elle ne semble que s'empirer". Puis après l'accueil il faut
prévoir de sérieux efforts d'intégration. Alors qu'en Grande Bretagne le
premier ministre exige l'appren-tissage de l'Anglais aux nouveaux
arrivés, notamment les femmes, en Norvège des cours d'intégration
tentent de combattre ces cas de violence contre les femmes avec des
cours pour hommes seulement.
Cette intégration est primordiale
en Allemagne, où l'on prévoit de sérieux ajustements de budget en
conséquent, notamment pour faire face à des dépenses supplémentaires en
matière de police, éducation et santé.
North Korea threatens again
Just
a year ago the tone of the year end address had been different, not
that it changed anything on a peninsula still technically at war over
half a century later. But Kim Jong-Un's personal appeal for a better
understanding between the two Koreas allowed some to momentarily dream
about reunification. If only for a bit.
Of course this brief
interlude came and went with the seasons and much remains as it once
was, the two sides staring at each other through binoculars, an itchy
finger on the trigger, on the volatile DMZ. Or has it gotten worse? The
year end message was more provocative this year, the fearless leader of
the hermit kingdom threatening the US and those who would prevent the
democratic republic from flourishing, something it clearly isn't doing.
This
was in fact setting up a major announcement, the Jan. 5 declaration the
isolated regime had detonated a hydrogen bomb, as Richter scales
rocketed in the region, marking a possible rise in already dangerous
stakes. Foreign capitals and the UN condemned the move while nervous
neighbor South Korea said it would be resuming broadcasting propaganda
messages at the DMZ. But officials have yet to determine whether
Pyongyang did detonate a hydrogen bomb, and many are skeptical this was
truly achieved, seeing it as yet another attempt to grab international
headlines and intimidate its neighbor.
Specialists hinted the
blast may in fact have been too small to be an actual H-bomb. But the
detonation was that of a fourth underground nuclear tests nevertheless,
sending the region is high alert and prompting the U.S. to make a clear
show of force in the days following. Washington sent a nuclear-capable
B-52 bomber out of Guam over South Korea, the sort of flyover that
bitterly angers the regime in Pyongyang.
"This was a
demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies in South
Korea, in Japan and to the defense of the American homeland," later
stated Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.
"North Korea's nuclear test is a blatant violation of its international
obligations"" World nations are meeting at the end of March for a
Nuclear Security Summit in the U.S. where they will try to rid the world
of key ingredients required to make nuclear weapons.
A key
player at the meeting could be a nation which has renounced nuclear
weapons, Canada, which will seek to spearhead the creation of the
Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, which is facing added urgency in view
of the current Korean crisis. The North further ratcheted up tensions
this week when it flew a drone over southern territory, causing its
nervous neighbour to fire shots over the tense border area.
The
South responded by dropping millions of propaganda leaflets over the
North, as the divided peninsula resumed its unneighborly ways. This week
the U.S. and its allies served notice they would up sanctions against
North Korea if China failed to rein in its unruly neighbor. China
wouldn't be targeted, but would not appreciate them, a U.S. official
warned.
Vers un second tour en Centrafrique
Après trois
ans de guerre civile la trêve électorale en république Centrafricaine
pouvait laisser rêver à un retour à la normalité. Voilà qui est sans
doute encore prématuré, les tensions restant vives dans ce pays déchiré
par des atrocités. Mais le nombre d'affron-tements entre les différentes
milices a nettement chuté alors que le pays organisait la tenue des
législatives et du premier tour de la présidentielle en fin d'année.
Ce
dernier a fait la lumière sur la chaude lutte que se livreront deux
anciens premiers ministres au second tour, dont l'ancien chef de
gouvernement sous l'ex-président François Bozizé, dont le renversement
en 2013 a plongé le pays dans la crise et les violences. Faustin
Touadéra est, avec 19% des votes, arrivé second derrière Anicet-Georges
Dologuélé (24%) , premier ministre sous la présidence de Félix Patassé,
un des favoris pour l'emporter.
"Je reste satisfait. La
répartition des votes crée une situation qui pousse à former des
alliances, dit-il. Cela permet d'avancer vers une logique de
rassemblement, positive pour le pays." Car la nation reste de toute
évidence divisée après des années de déchirements entre musul-mans et
chrétiens, responsables de violences qui ont forcé plus d'un million de
personnes à fuir dans un pays qui en compte à peine 4,5 millions.
Cinq
mille personnes ont connu la mort lors des éclats entre les milices
musulmanes Séléka et factions anti-Balaka chrétiennes, mais la situation
semble s'être calmée quelque peu depuis le passage du pape François en
novembre. "Ceci a défini-tivement joué un rôle afin de calmer la
situation à la veille des élections," estime Alex Fielding, un analyste
de Max Security Solutions.
Résultat, le vote a généralement eu
lieu sans heurts, et attiré 79% des électeurs inscrits, un taux inespéré
alors que les grandes religions se croisent encore dans la méfiance.
Mais en attendant le second tour à la fin du mois, la situation pourrait
s'envenimer, plusieurs autres candidats présidentiels dénonçant fraude
et "mascarade électorale".
Dologuélé, ce banquier mondialisé,
pourrait rassem-bler une nation qui en a plutôt besoin, estime François
Soudan, directeur de rédaction de Jeune Afrique: "il a été le seul
pendant cette campagne à réellement tenir un discours de rassemblement,
alors que les partisans de son adversaire pour le second tour
développent un discours clivant sur fond de tensions entre chrétiens et
musulmans. À l’évidence, Dologuélé est une chance pour les
Centrafricains. Sauront-ils la saisir ?"
Au coeur des
préoccupations, selon lui, la sécurité alimentaire, dans un des pays
parmi les plus pauvres du monde, mais aussi le pluralisme, l'alternance
démocratique et les libertés.
En plus des déchirements
nationaux, le pays doit composer avec la présence de forces étrangères,
des milices ougandaises étant accusées d'attaques et d'enlèvements en
Centrafrique. L'ONU y a également vécu une page noire de son histoire,
ses casques bleus ayant été trouvés coupables de viols, des incidents
qui se sont en premier lieu butés à l'inaction de l'organisation.
Saudi Arabia's crisis
A
few weeks before year's end, Saudi Arabia made a few timid but
undeniable steps toward social progress by allowing women to cast their
first vote in the country's municipal council elections. But before the
clock turned to midnight on the 31st the kingdom had also seen another,
less admirable, landmark achieved, as it registered over 150 executions
in 2015, usually carried out in the form of beheadings, the most in 20
years.
Anything from adultery to apostasy can land you the
sentence of no return in Saudi Arabia, and the new year began with a
marathon of death which saw 47 people executed in a single day. One in
particular inflamed not only the country, but a region already divided
by the Yemeni war: the execution of Shia Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, convicted
of "terrorism". The cleric was an outspoken critic of the regime and
representative of the Shia minority, ultimately convicted on trumped up
charges according to supporters.
Soon Shia regions in the East
of the country, which is mainly Sunni, erupted in protest, as did other
areas of an already tense region. In Tehran, a country which had seen
such horrible scenes in the past, protesters attacked the Saudi embassy
and set it aflame, the kind of direct version of the Sunni-Shia clash
seen from Syria to Yemen. Iran's Revolutionary Guards promised to exact
"harsh revenge" for the execution, while Riyadh summoned its Iranian
envoy.
The next day the kingdom was ending diplomatic relations
and giving Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country. Soon other
Gulf nations were cutting ties with Tehran further dividing the Muslim
world. "Iran's history is full of negative interference and hostility in
Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction," declared
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. Saudi Arabia and Iran had seen
relations steadily degrade, fighting proxy battles in Yemen where Tehran
supports the Houthi factions being targeted by a Saudi air campaign.
Hopes of a peaceful resolution to the crisis were recently dashed when a
ceasefire ended.
This week Tehran accused Saudi planes of
targeting its embassy there. "This case also has the potential of
enflaming further the sectarian tensions that already bring so much
damage to the entire region, with dangerous consequences," stated
Federica Mogherini, EU high repre-sentative for foreign affairs.
The
crisis is erupting as the regime is dealing with falling oil prices,
which it has refused to shore up, seeing currency reserves depleted. It
usually uses these reserves to buy social peace in a country of
continuing sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shias. The executed
cleric had been particularly active in Shia protests five years ago,
leading to his arrest in a country where dissent isn't tolerated.
Protests flared across the Muslim world since his death from Bahrain,
which had erupted after the Arab Spring, to Pakistan. In Saudi Arabia
the same slogans used in the wake of the Arab Spring echoed: "The people
want the fall of the regime", and "Down with the al-Saud family".
But
Saudi ally Bahrain defended the kingdom, saying its "actions, to
confront whoever seeks to undermine the Nation's security and stability
and wreak havoc on Earth through misguided ideology and actions that are
rejected by religion and the Islamic Sharia are widely appreciated".
Amnesty Interna-tional, echoing a number of capitals, decried the 47
executions, the most for a single day in decades, saying they showed the
regime's "utter disregard for human rights and life", and calling
Nimr's trial "political and grossly unfair". In the height of the 2011
protests Nimr told the BBC he favored "the roar of the word against
authorities rather than weapons," adding "The weapon of the word is
stronger than bullets, because authorities will profit from a battle of
weapons."
Renewed Saudi-Iran tensions sparked concerns recent
efforts to settle the Syrian crisis would crumble, Tehran playing key
roles in the crisis. All in all the last year was a difficult one in the
kingdom, which lost its king. Saudi Arabia has seen oil revenues drop
so drastically it was considering putting company Aramco on the open
market. The country has also come under criticism for not doing enough
to succour Syrian refugees, as millions of them fled war to the safety
of soon overwhelmed neighbors.
Letting them pass
Amid the
hustle and bustle of the busy border crossing of Penas Blancas between
Costa Rica and Nicaragua, they shake old plastic jugs pleading for help
to continue their journey north to the promised land. The Cuban migrants
stranded there started their mainland journey in Ecuador, braving
dangerous Colombia and moving up through Panama. But here they hit a
snag, as many others making similar journeys. Some Central American
countries are blocking their passage to America, wary of the thousands
of Cubans who, a year after the latest promises of change from the
island nation, are unconvinced.
This wasn't how it was supposed
to be. At the end on 2014 Cuba and the U.S. started warming up to each
other and just weeks ago announced commercial flights would resume to
the once pariahed island of the Caribbean, so you would think the flood
to the island would only intensify with cruise ship passengers and plane
loads eager to see what they had been denied for decades, while the
masses leaving Cuba would wind down to a trickle, desperate islanders
less willing to risk their lives to cross the dangerous waters Westwards
in highly unstable crafts hardly made for such perilous journeys.
But
onwards they carry on, with added urgency in fact, as Cubans eager to
start a new life on the mainland or reunite with estranged family
members continue to land on the shores of the Americas. Many fear the
thawed relations will only make it harder to enter the U.S., not easier,
if "wet land dry land" policies granting Cubans asylum the moment they
land on U.S. shores are reviewed. Some don't imme-diately make it to
safe shores and are lost along the way to foul weather or sharks.
Others
make it, but still have ways to go before reaching America, drying
their wares on Central American soil before resuming their journey
north. And for many of the small countries from Panama to Mexico, this
flood is becoming a challenge, though not quite at the scale Europe has
experienced. These nations include the only Latin American country
listed among the world's 22 oldest democracies, consistently ranked
among the top Latin countries in the Human Development Index:
eco-friendly Costa Rica, now dealing with thousands of migrants refused
at the northern border.
There migrants are seeing the welcome
mat pulled from under their feet, masses who have already endured much
making it there safe after an at times abusive journey. You just have to
walk 100 yards from the Penas Blancas Costa Rican side to see the
welcome Nicaragua has in store: a line of police in full riot gear
backed by a line soldiers in uniform standing by a sign which says
"Welcome to Nicaragua", armed to the teeth as if anticipating the latest
golpe, or coup. The country used to allow safe journey to the U.S., but
this changed following incidents such as last fall's protest at the
Nicaragua-Costa Rica border, where Managua said the migrants "stormed"
the border, leading it to close the crossing point citing security
fears.
Both countries have clashed on the issue, Managua
accusing its neighbor of provoking a humanitarian crisis by allowing the
Cubans to move on. Now tougher border policies, in countries where
violent gangs have been preying on struggling migrants, are prompting
the Red Cross in the region to warn that these sort of travel
restrictions have spun "out of control". At the end of the year Latin
states and the U.S. held a meeting on the increasingly pressing issue,
immigration already being a hot button topic this election year from
Managua to Washington, but at first failed to make any headway.
Countries
such as Guatemala complained about the increasing transits, Vice
President Alfonso Fuentes saying "They are not politically perse-cuted
people, just people who want to join their families in the U.S. or who
are looking for a better economic life." But many island observers beg
to differ, stressing democracy has hardly come to Cuba in the last year,
and economic progress has been slow, despite dreams of income-pouring
cruise ship arrivals dancing in their heads. In fact some argue the
Castros are perhaps only cementing their grip on power by allowing for
the little liberalizations that have been made so far. U.S. Deputy
National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes says the opening of relations
between the two has become "irreversible" but adds "nobody expects Cuba
in the next year to become a multi-party democracy". All food for
thought as, in his final full year in office, the U.S. president is
considering a historic first visit to the island nation since the
embargo.
Critics regret such plans, fearing little respite for
the Cuban masses. "Fidel Castro's personal tyranny was recycled and the
result was his brother Raul's more oligarchial dictatorship," notes Jose
Azel, a senior scholar at the University of Miami. "General Castro has
begun a process that is changing the facts on the ground with one aim in
mind:that our diplomatic and commercial initiatives only serve to
legitimize the regime's continuation. A totalitarian single-party system
will become a hegemonic party structure." The closed borders meanwhile
have trapped 8000 Cubans in Costa Rica and Panama, not the worst place
in the world to be in the cold of Winter, but in limbo nonetheless, as
the region struggles to make sense of its migrant crisis.
"We
must find ways for these people to continue their journey in a safe,
legal, dignified human manner," said the Costa Rican Minister of
Communications Mauricio Herrera. A few days into the new year a deal
was in fact reached to airlift migrants from Costa Rica to El Salvador.
Surrounded by all their worldly possessions, a few bags on a collection
of matresses where they have settled by the men's room, clothes drying
on a mesh fence nearby, the Cubans say a flight may finally help resolve
their problems, four months after leaving home, two of them where they
now stand.
"We have no family in the U.S. but life is difficult
in Cuba. In Nicaragua the government is Communist, just like at home, so
they don't like us very much". And in an election year Daniel Ortega,
the longtime leader of the Sandinistas, whose face smiles at passers on a
giant billboard just 100 yards away, has dug in his heels.
Kagame briguera un nouveau mandat
A
première vue il n'est pas difficile de reconnaître l'affection du
peuple rwandais pour celui qui a mis fin au terrible génocide de 1994.
Commandant des forces rebelles il y a plus de vingt ans Paul Kagame a
été vice-président et ministre de la défense avant de prendre
officiellement les rênes du pouvoir en 2003, même si son influence était
indubitable jusque là.
Indélogeable depuis, il a néanmoins
appelé le peuple aux urnes en fin 2015 afin de donner son aval à la
réforme constitutionnelle lui permettant d'annuler la limitation du
mandat présidentiel, le genre de suggestion qui a mal été accueillie
ailleurs sur ce continent où trop de dirigeants connaissent des règnes
sans fin. Au Rwanda cependant le référendum, comme les candidatures de
Kagame en 2003 et 2010 (élu avec plus de 93%), a plutôt bien été
accueilli, de longues lignes s'installant devant les bureaux de vote
bien avant l'ouverture.
Au final le taux d'approbation était
dans les normes: 94% en faveur de modifications qui pourraient garder
Kagame au pouvoir jusqu'en 2034. Mais le plébiscite n'a pas été aussi
bien accueilli par tous les observateurs, dont l'allié américain, des
reproches balayées à titre de "manœuvre" par la présidence.
Après
tout le référendum survient à la demande générale, souligne le pouvoir,
suite à une initiative populaire engageant 3,7 millions de Rwandais.
"Ce qui se passe est le choix du peuple, déclare ainsi le principal
intéressé, je n'ai rien demandé". Pour plusieurs, le retour de la paix
n'a pas de prix. "Paul Kagame a amené la paix," soutient Eridigaride
Newemukobwa en allant voter. Mais d'autres sont moins enthousiastes, des
organisations des droits de l'homme regrettant que Kagame dirige
désormais le pays avec une poigne de fer, muselant les médias au besoin.
"Peu étonnant qu'il n'y ait pas de suspense à l'issue de ce référendum,
fait remarquer Kenneth Roth de Human Rights Watch, étant donné le
silence imposé aux voix discordantes et l'étouffement de la société
civile".
L'opposition a largement décidé de ne pas faire
campagne pour le non, des efforts jugés inutiles à cause de l'échéancier
trop court prévu par le référendum. "Kagame jouit clairement d'un
soutien considérable à travers le pays," souligne HRW, ajoutant
cependant qu'"au Rwanda les organisations indépendantes de la société
civile sont faibles suite à des années d'inti-midation, de menaces et
d'obstacles administratifs de la part du gouvernement".
Selon un
électeur interviewé par ce groupe des droits de l'homme "ce serait bête
de voter non puisque de toute façon ça ne changera rien". En veille de
nouvel an Kagame annonçait lors d'un discours à la nation qu'il
briguerait un troisième mandat à la tête du pays, en 2017, une décision
sans surprise liée au vote précédent
Quel nom pour la Macédoine?
Après
un quart de siècle de rapports plutôt glaciaux entre les deux voisins
du sud du continent européen les signes d'un dégel se pointent à
l'horizon entre la Grèce et la Macédoine, dont le nom à lui seul est à
l'origine de la bisbille, mais le principal intéressé ne sera pas au
pouvoir même si la question est réglée dans les plus brefs délais.
Depuis
l'éclatement de l'ancienne Yougoslavie et l'indépendance du petit pays
dépourvu d'un accès à la côte Skopje et Athènes limitaient les rapports
au minimum, jusqu'à la levée de l'embargo des visites officielles en
2015, lorsque les ministres des affaires étrangères des deux pays ont
brisé la glace en traversant la frontière, parfois avec des mots
encoura-geants: La Macédoine serait prête à entrevoir un changement de
nom, l'éponyme de la province grecque voisine.
La mésentente
de longue date n'a été que temporairement mise de côté lorsque les
Nations unies ont proposé le nom provisoire d'Ancienne république
yougoslave de Macédoine. En pleine crise des migrants les circonstances
ont-elles force les deux à l'entente? Voilà qui n'est pas encore fait,
la Grèce accusant le petit pays de 2 millions d'habitants, soit moins
de la population d'Athènes, de vouloir s'approprier toute une panoplie
de symboles grecs, du soleil qui brille sur son drapeau (presque
identique à celui de la bannière de la province grecque) à l'image même
d'Alexandre le Grand, né grec mais devenu le souverain le mieux connu de
ces terres contestées. Et quelles terres, à une époque la Grande
Macédoine englobait non seulement les frontières actuelles et la
province grecque voisine mais également une partie du territoire bulgare
et albanais.
La Macédoine a déjà changé de drapeau,
légèrement, et pourrait ainsi légèrement changer son nom selon le
dignitaire en visite Nikolas Poposki, ministre des affaires étrangères,
jugeant les conditions "plus que réunies". "Nous aimerions le plus vite
possible partir le dialogue avec la Grèce afin de trouver une solution,
dira par la suite au Guardian le premier ministre Nikola Gruevski, si
nous trouvons une solution elle sera soumise au peuple par référendum".
Résolution de nouvel an?
Les gestes se multiplient depuis la
visite en juin du ministre des affaires étrangères grec Nikos Kotzias
qui avait déclaré haut et fort "nous voulons que tous nos voisins soient
membres de l'Union européenne, car notre pays dépend de ce qui se passe
dans l'ensemble des Balkans." Une déclaration qui indiquerait la fin
de la politique de blocage grecque contre la Macédoine, sans ignorer les
implications encore plus étonnantes vis à vis le voisin turc. Mais
Gruevski n'aura pas fait de ce possible changement de nom sa grande
contribution à l'histoire nationale, qui semble plutôt négative à la
lumière des faits actuels.
Ce dernier, entaché par multes
scandales de corruption et de violations des droits de l'homme, devrait
rendre sa démission à la mi-janvier après une décennie au pouvoir. Ses
opposants le poursuivent au criminel pour écoute illégale et l'accusent
de fraude électorale et d'abus de pouvoir durant son long règne.
America's crisis
As
the gendarmes were in the early stages of the investigation into the
Paris terror attacks, U.S. autho- rities were beefing up security across
their nation, guarding public and sensitive areas in anticipation of a
similar terrorist act or perhaps copycat attacks. In the frenzy that
followed, amplified by a fierce early U.S. election campaign, officials
vowed to do everything using every means in their power to defend the
homeland, with more than two dozen states vowing to push back on
Washington plans to welcome Syrian refugees after the French
investigation found some suspects had entered Europe as refugees.
None
of the measures prevented the mass shootings that continued to riddle
the U.S. in the days following, causing dozens of victims. After
hesitating to call the San Bernardino mass shooting a terror act,
authorities finally disclosed the suspects, both Muslims, had been
radicalized and had been in touch with someone under investigation for
terrorism, but added mixed motives may have been at play, including
work-related issues. This is a fairly new but growing concept after a
previous incident where a work-related dispute in the U.S. ended when a
man, an IS sympathizer, decapitated his victim, using the group's now
well established trade-mark method to terrorize.
The California
suspects, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, were IS sympathizers. While
the group did not claim responsibility, it had threatened to carry out
attacks in the U.S. and praised its "supporters" slain by police. In
only the third Oval Office address of his presidency Barack Obama said
"Freedom is more powerful than fear" and called on Americans not to let
the event divide them, but divided they already are. In a gun-crazy and
fairly split land which saw two mass shootings the day of the San
Bernardino attack which felled 14, the debate launched differed whether
you found the terrorism or gun-control narrative more compelling. It was
both the worst mass shooting since the Sandy Hook school tragedy in
2012 and the worst terror attack in the U.S. since 9-11. And it left
America more divided, going through a frightening period of uncertainty
as to the motives, which had not been present following the Paris and
Colorado attacks.
This was an extra angle to the sort of terror
to which Americans had grown so accustomed to it was a mere sidebar that
these types of bloody acts had occurred more than once a day in 2015.
In fact this was the 355th shooting to have involved four or more people
this year, the second that day as another shooting in Savannah, Ga.,
killed one and injured others. More information about this now
omnipresent phenomenon would be available, critics argue, if scientists
were funded to research it. In a cruel irony, the day of the shootings, a
group of doctors was in Washington to plead for a congressional ban on
funding gun-related violence to be lifted. According to
Shootingtacker.com, a crowd-sourced website, the mass shooting was the
1055th in 1066 days in the U.S. and quickly followed another massacre in
Colorado Springs, the work of a sole gunman who felled three at an
abortion clinic.
With gun homicides in the U.S. an astronomical 3
per 100,000 people, versus well under 0.7 for most advanced nations,
the statistics provide a strong rebuke to attorney general Loretta
Lynch's assertion such violence doesn't have its place in the U.S.,
where it can seem to mimic that of countries at war. Oddly the event
followed a Black Friday shopping spree during which the highest gun
sales were registered, the FBI finding itself overwhelmed by 185,000
background check requests in a single day. A previous high had followed
the Newtown school massacre of 26 three years before, one following
which advocates had called for guns in school to defend the defenceless.
Ironically all these types of mass shootings have a double effect,
observers say: raising insecurity and sparking fears a new gun control
debate will restrict access to weapons, prompting a rush to buy guns
under the current regime. But even these figures could be under
reporting gun sales, which aren't tracked nationally.
According
to one study 40% of gun sales are done on the fringes by vendors who
ignore criminal priors. "The main motivation behind the sale of arms is
the fear of daily violence, including mass shootings" says Jon Vernick
of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. Higher gun
sales don't necessarily mean more people buy them, some observe, rather
that gun owners seek to stock up. Months away from the first primaries,
U.S. politicians offered prayers on the Republican side and pleas for
more gun control on the Democratic side, as the U.S. president decried
yet another carnage during his tenure. While he said there may have been
a "mixed motive" behind the attack he added: "We see a prevalence of
these shootings and Americans feel there's nothing we can do about it,"
but stressed the U.S. had to ultimately make it harder for people who
sought to do harm, to do so: "right now it's too easy". "We're going to
have to search ourselves as a society to ... make it harder - not
impossible but harder - to let individuals get access to weapons". The
gun debate was not limited to America, the northern neighbor looking on
with its painful memories of mass shootings past.
Days before
the anniversary of the Polytechnique attack which killed 14 young female
students in Montreal, the province of Quebec tabled a gun registry bill
to fill the void after the federal long gun registry was abolished in
2012. The consequences of such violence is tremendous, observers note.
"It just affects the basic things we care about in public health - the
mortality, the life expectancy, morbidity, mental health." It affects
all these things in pretty profound ways," says Daniel Webster, also of
the Johns Hopkins Center. "If we had a disease that was killing as many
people (30,000 last year) we would devote a lot more resources to make
sure we had the best research to know what is most affected."
While
the country reels from the attack, a California duo was gearing up for
the launch of GunTV next month, America's first 24-hour firearms
shopping channel. Another media was making history in print, the New
York Times running an editorial on page 1, for the first time since the
1920s, calling "a moral outrage and national disgrace" the availability
on the market of the types of weapons, "tools of macho vigilance", used
in the attack. Most of the weapons in the California attack had been
purchased legally, and the combination of lax laws and under the radar
method used by the IS-inspired attackers, is a recipe for more low-level
attacks by people who did not give authorities reason to suspect them.
"It'll gradually dawn on people that we'll be living for a long time
with a possibility of low level attacks that can never be predicted and
can rarely be prevented," told the New York Times former UN official
Bruce Jones.
Days later a terror attack on the London tube
injured three passengers before the assailant, who screamed "this is for
Syria" was arrested. He wasn't armed with the latest military-grade
weaponry, but a knife. Both he and the victims got to survive the
ordeal, and authorities get a rare chance to quiz the attacker about his
motives. "The terrorist threat has evolved to a new phase," Obama said,
adding attackers are using simpler methods to cause harm.
Alliance ou compétition?
Depuis
le septembre 2001 et avec l'émergence des mouvances islamistes du nord
du Nigéria au Pakistan en passant par le Proche Orient, c'est la notion
d'alliances de la mort qui donnait des sueurs froides aux renseignements
occidentaux, mais depuis les attentats de Paris c'est la compétition
morbide que se livrent ces groupes, de Daech à Boko Haram, qui fait
craindre le pire. Al-Qaida au Maghreb islamique et deux autres groupes
ont revendiqué l'attaque de l'hôtel à Bamako qui a fait des douzaines de
victimes.
Selon plusieurs analystes les groupes terroristes
s'adonnent à un violent concours afin d'attirer des fidèles radicaux,
une campagne que semble remporter l'EI, qui, après Paris, a aussi
revendiqué l'attentat-suicide de Tunis, faisant une douzaine de morts.
Il s'agissait du plus récent bilan sanglant du petit pays, frappé par
deux autres attaques d'envergure en 2015 revendiqués par l'EI, celui
d'un hôtel de Sousse faisant 38 morts et celui du musée Bardo, tuant 21
autres personnes.
Mais parfois c'est un véritable mélange de
compétition et de coopération qui met les autorités sur un pied
d'alerte, les Shebabs de Somalie, responsables de l'attaque d'un centre
d'achat au Kenya, approuvant les gestes à Paris et au Mali et
encourageant les islamistes à s'en prendre aux cibles juives et
occidentales.
Puis la semaine dernière Al-Qaida au Maghreb
annonçait une nouvelle alliance avec al-Mourabitoune, qui avait
également revendiqué l'attaque de Bamako. "L'état islamique et al-Qaida
se font la compétition dans le monde musulman (et surtout arabe), fait
remarquer Gwynn Dyer, auteur de Pas de panique: L'état islamique, le
terrorisme et le moyen orient d'aujourd'hui, les actes de terrorisme
sont un bon moyen de recrutement".
Et à travers le prisme des
attentats de Paris ces actes ou leur menace semblent se multiplier, du
nord du Mali et du Nigeria à Bruxelles, où un couvre feu a paralysé la
capitale belge alors que les arrestations liées aux attentats de Paris
se multipliaient. Mais selon Dyer il est un peu fort de parler de
véritable guerre, pour reprendre les paroles de plusieurs dirigeants
internationaux, la menace et le nombre de victimes étant plutôt faibles
par rapport aux carnages des conflits armés traditionnels, du moins en
Occident.
"Si les attaques terroristes comme celles de Paris
représentent les menaces les plus importantes en Occident on peut dire
que ces pays s'en tirent plutôt bien," dit-il.
Mais la menace
est bien réelle, le dirigeant d'al-Qaida Zawahiri prédisant de nouvelles
attaques contre la Grande-Bretagne après l'annonce de frappes
militaires contre la Syrie. Même son de cloche contre la Russie, vue sa
participation active au Moyen orient également, qui se poursuit malgré
l'écrasement d'un avion par tir turc.
Rocky disputes
With
Beijing building up islands in the South China Sea and commissioning
ships to defend them and Japan planning to deploy troops to protect
another set of islands in the East China Sea, could the solution to such
insular shouting matches be found halfway around the world in bitterly
cold Arctic waters?One would hope any suggestion could help ease
tensions between the half dozen or so countries involved in the Asian
disputes over largely uninhabited collections of rocks in resources-rich
heavily travelled areas of the seas.
A recent East Asia Summit
did little to bring together China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam, all
staking various claims, from the Paracel islands to the Scarborough
Schoal, as well as waters near the Natuna and Spratly islands. No sooner
was the gathering over that Beijing was announcing its commissioning of
new supply vessels for troops in the contested zone, as it pursued its
policy of building up "man-made islands" to "maintain military
facilities".
In response other countries have been building
"strategic partnerships", more recently Indonesia and Vietnam, while
welcoming the concern and involvement of the more distant U.S., a member
of APEC which hasn't been shy of condemning China's development of
artificial islands, recently sending a naval destroyer in a "freedom of
navigation operation".
The skies overhead have also been caught
up in the territorial dispute, the U.S. and other countries refusing to
obey Chinese requests that they detail their flight plans over areas
where it claims airspace. This week the U.S. announced it agreed with
Singapore on a first deployment of spy planes, adding to previous
deployments in the Philippines and Japan, a move Beijing said was the
"kind of increase in military deployment" against the long term interest
of countries in the region. There's more than enough action amid the
waves fuelling tensions in Asia.
Further north Tokyo is slowly
moving away from its usual defence-shy postwar posture to stake its
claim in contested islands of the East China Sea. Hundreds of troops
could be deployed in the next few years to be in a better position to
respond to eventual foreign interventions in contested islands. The
prime minister's corresponding new security laws this fall have faced
critics there saying they violate the country's constitution. Japan has
already been busy developing defences in its southwestern islands as
Chinese ships have entered territorial waters claimed by Japan dozens of
times since it nationalized some of the disputed islands three years
ago.
But the tensions have not prevented the countries from
holding security talks on the issue. Perhaps they should consider what
Arctic experts from two countries clashing on territorial claims have
recommended to settle the long running dispute between Canada and
Denmark over tiny uninhabited Hans island, hardly the most alarming
territorial dispute in a region rich with them. University of British
Columbia professor Michael Byers and a Danish colleague are suggesting
that, for what it's worth, both countries share the icebound 1.3 sq
kilometre barren knoll instead of keeping up the long standing flag
dispute in the Nares Strait off Greenland.
“It would resolve a
long-standing dispute that, although insignificant, has some small
potential to cause friction in the future,” says Byers, calling for the
creation of a co-managed rocky condominium. Observers point to
precedents, including Pheasant island, shared between France and Spain
since the 17th century. “There have been tensions in the Arctic in some
issues,” Byers added. “The new federal government might see this as a
way to signal a change in approach.”
Not that the dispute is
anywhere near as tense as what has been seen in Asia, both countries
limiting their insular incursions to dropping off bottles or schnapps or
whisky… only after informing each other of such flagrant visits. The
region has seen a resurgence of more serious tensions between Canada,
the U.S. and Russia in the Arctic since the warming up of the
Northwestern Passage and Moscow's increasing Arctic overflights.
Belle progression à Ottawa malgré la défaite
Voilà
des années que les quelques équipes de la capitale qui ont pu se rendre
en finale se contentent du second rang, et les RedBlacks, à leur
deuxième année seulement dans la ligue canadienne, sont bien passés à
quelques minutes de changer ce triste portrait sportif.
Il y a
huit ans, les Sénateurs tombaient 3-1 en série finale contre les Ducks.
Plus tôt cet automne c'était au Fury, également à sa seconde saison, de
tomber lors de la finale de la NASL, à New York.
En fin de compte
ce sont les Eskimos d'Edmonton qui l'ont emporté 26-20, lors d'une
rencontre qui réunissait deux clubs qui ont connu une amélioration
notable. En 2013 Edmonton était tombé dans la cave de la division Ouest
avec une fiche de 4-14. L'an dernier Ottawa occupait celle de l'Est avec
une fiche de 2-16. Mais faut-il rappeler que le club m'existait pas en
2013?
Il faut donc conclure que l'apprentissage a été plutôt
efficace au sein du plus jeune club de la ligue canadienne de football.
Cherchant surtout à éviter le sort des Renegades avant eux, qui n'ont
pas connu de saison victorieuse et encore moins de participation dans
l'après-saison, les Redblacks de la capitale ne se sont pas seulement
qualifiés, ils ont mérité deux semaines de repos avant de servir d'hôte à
la finale de la division est, qu'ils ont remporté 35-28 contre Hamilton
lors des derniers instants.
Il s'agissait de leur troisième gain
consécutif contre les finalistes de l'an dernier, et du cinquième de
suite. Et que des éloges pour ce quart dans la quarantaine qui ne
semble, comme un bon vin, que s'améliorer avec l'âge.
Henry
Burris bat des records à la fois sportifs et de popularité, tente bien
de ramener le premier trophée professionnel en ville depuis près de
quarante ans. Le joueur le plus exceptionnel de la saison a l'habitude
de prendre un bain de foule sur le terrain en fin de match, posant pour
des photos avec des partisans qui ont goûté à une saison de rêve.
Burris,
tombé sous le charme du pays de façon à y rechercher la nationalité, a
en effet terminé la meilleure saison de sa carrière avec le plus de
passes complétées (481, un record de ligue) et plus de verges récoltées
par la passe (5703), et avec 26 touchés, second à ce chapitre dans la
ligue. Six d'entre eux ont été récoltés lors du dernier match de la
saison, contre le finaliste de l'an dernier, qui s'était imposé avec une
fiche initialement parfaite dans son nouveau domicile.
Non
seulement Burris s'est-il imposé dans les airs durant la saison, il
était le deuxième marqueur de touchés au sol de la ligue (7), soit deux
de moins que son coéquipier Jeremiah Johnson. Autant dire que la récolte
a été réussie cette année. Il a également établi un record de passes
complétées durant une saison avec les 28 du dernier match de la saison.
Dans la quarantaine, il semble néanmoins avoir le vent dans les voiles.
"J'ai
toujours senti dans mon coeur qu'il m'en restait un peu, commentait le
n.1 du club après le dernier match de la saison régulière. Je ne fais
rien de différent que ce que je pouvais faire l'an dernier (le club
avait une fiche de 2-16), mais je pense que dans mon cas ce qui compte
c'est que je n'ai jamais cessé de croire en mes capacités. Je savais
qu'il me restait mes capacités physiques et la force d'esprit d'obtenir
des résultats".
Les exploits du club sont tout un effort en
équipe, non moins de neuf joueurs étant candidats de l'équipe d'étoile
de la saison 2015. Cet exploit a étonné le quart légendaire Russ
Jackson.
“Remonter d'une saison de 2-16 l'an dernier c'est une
expérience enrichissante pour l'équipe entière, dit-il. Remporter 12
parties cette saison et terminer au premier rang, vous ne pouvez
imaginer un tel dénouement".
En fin de compte Ottawa a terminé à
un pas du triomphe, lors d'un match ou on donnait son opposant gagnant
par au moins un touché, mais le n.1 a promis de retenir les leçons de la
rencontre pour revenir en force l'année suivante.
"C'est dur de
ne pas compléter le travail en fin de compte mais il y existe plusieurs
raisons d'être excités de faire partie de l'équipe dans l'avenir,"
commenta l'entraineur Rick Campbell. Et malgré la sécheresse de presque
quatre décennies, parler d'avenir à Ottawa reste prometteur alors que la
ville espère obtenir la Coupe Grey pour fêter le 150e anniversaire du
Canada dans deux ans.
En attendant la ville peut être fier de son
jeune fils O'Connor, le quart qui a sa première saison a guidé son club
de UBC à la Coupe Vanier contre les Carabins de l'Université de
Montréal.