Censored 2012 (26 page)

Update by Casey Goonan and a special update by authors of the story “Justice in Nigeria Now”

Since the dawn of Western dominance, Africa has been exploited on a mass scale for its abundant resources and its primitive appearance to the Western world. African state sovereignty has been put on the back burner for numerous exploitations such as slave trades, arms sales, and the stealing of natural resources—and it is only getting worse.

Recently the new trend of exploitation has been “Land Grabs,” which are the purchase of vast tracts of land by wealthier nations and private investors in order to produce crops for export. The recent surge for agricultural biotechnologies and bio fuels compounded with the world’s most powerful nations’ endless (and lawless) search for oil, creates a new form of colonization which is already presenting an enormous burden for the African people.

Original Corporate Source:
Andrew Rice, “Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism?”
New York Times
, November 16, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/magazine/22land-t.html
.

Original Sources:
John Vidal, “Food, Water Driving 21st-century African Land Grab,”
Mail & Guardian
, March 7, 2010,
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-03-07-food-water-driving-21stcentury-african-land-grab
; Paula Crossfield, “Food Security in Africa: Will Obama Let USAID’s Genetically Modified Trojan Horse Ride Again?” Civil Eats, August 6, 2009,
http://civileats.com/2009/08/06/will-obama-let-the-usaid-genetically-modified-trojan-horse-ride-again
; Thalif Deen, “Land Grabs for Food Production Under Fire,” Inter Press Service, October 23, 2009,
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48979
; Stephanie Hanes, “Africa: From Famine to the World’s Next Breadbasket?”
Christian Science Monitor
, December 17, 2009,
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-Issues/2009/1231/Africa-from-famine-to-the-world-s-next-breadbasket
; Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, “Massive Casualties Feared in Nigerian Military Attack on Niger Delta Villages,”
Democracy Now!
, May 21, 2009,
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/21/nigeria
; Justice in Nigeria Now, “Military Attacks Raze Niger Delta Villages Killing Civilians; Civil Society Groups Call for Immediate Ceasefire,” May 21, 2009,
http://uk.oneworld.net/article/view/162969/1
; One World, “Nigeria Oil Violence Forces Thousands from Homes,” One World, May 26, 2009,
http://us.oneworld.net/article/363376-new-outbreak-violence-niger-delta
; John “Ahni-wanika”
Schertow, “Stop Killing and Starvation of Samburu People in Kenya,” Intercontinental Cry, November 20, 2009,
http://intercontinentalcry.org/stop-killing-and-starvation-of-samburu-people-in-kenya
; Paula Palmer and Chris Allan, Kenya Human Rights Research Delegation, “When the Police are the Perpetrators: An Investigation of Human Rights Violations by Police in Samburu East and Isiolo Districts [Kenya],” Cultural Survival, April 20, 2010,
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/files/Samburu%20Report%20Final%205-5-2010.pdf
; Shepard Daniel with Anuradha Mittal, “The Great Land Grab: Rush for World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor,” Oakland Institute,
www.oaklandinstitute.org
.

Update:
There is little to no corporate media coverage on the topic in the United States. Coverage on the topic in 2011 has been provided by United States-based Bloomberg L.P., covering purely economic topics, and British-based newspaper
The Guardian
, which has produced an in-depth discussion on the topic. Other coverage has been provided by local African and Middle Eastern news providers such as an article from the March 2011
Pakistan Observer
and a January 2011 article in the
Tripoli Post
which stated that “Libya plans to provide 60,000 hectares of field for Turkish investors” (sixty thousand hectares is equivalent to 232 square miles, half the size of New York City).

There is also a growing grassroots movement on the issue of “land grabs.” A variety of blogs and independent journalists are giving their take on the surging occupation of these communal lands. One of these grassroots sites is
Farmlandgrab.org
. The site—created by GRAIN, a small international NGO—is an open project that encourages readers to post any articles or media coverage of these massive land grabs, and has posted research from their October 2008 report titled “Seized: The 2008 Land Grab for Food and Financial Security.”

Furthermore, WikiLeaks released a cable explaining investments and land purchases made by a handful of African leaders, including investments and plans to develop agricultural projects or tourism resorts in Ethiopia, and an evasion of a 2007 ban on export of cereals. Finally, on May 5, 2011, an article was published in
The Economist
giving a run through of the more recent data about the massive land grabs in Africa which concluded: “Evidence is piling up against acquisitions of farmland in poor countries.”

Sources:
William Davison, “Saudi Billionaire’s Company Will Invest $2.5 Billion in Ethiopia Rice Farm,” Bloomberg, March 22, 2011,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-23/saudi-billionaire-s-company-will-invest-2-5-billion-in-ethiopia-rice-farm.html
;
Madeleine Bunting, “How Land Grabs in Africa Could Herald a New Dystopian Age of Hunger,”
Guardian
, Poverty Matters Blog, January 28, 2010,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/28/africa-land-grabs-food-security
; Madeleine Bunting, “Guardian Focus Podcast: Land Grabs in Africa”
Guardian
, Guardian Focus Podcast, produced by Peter Sale, January 28, 2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2011/jan/28/guardian-focus-podcast-land-grabs
; “Libya could Provide 60,000 Hectares of field for Turkish Investors,”
Tripoli Post
, January 4, 2011,
http://tripoli-post.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=5285
, Staff Reporter; “Australian firms eye investment in food processing sector,”
Pakistan Observer
, March 12, 2011,
http://pakobserver.net/detail-news.asp?id=80667
; “The Surge in Land Deals: When Others Are Grabbing Their Land”
Economist
, May 5, 2011,
http://www.economist.com/node/18648855?story_id=18648855
; “Cable 10ADDISABABA247, FOREIGN INVESTORS GRAB UP MORE LAND IN ETHIOPIA,” WikiLeaks, released January 28, 2011,
http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2010/02/10ADDISABABA247.html
.

The following is a special update by Justice in Nigeria Now, which won a Project Censored Award for this particular story last year
.

The Niger Delta is unfortunately known worldwide as a region where oil production comes first and human rights a distant second. For well over fifty years, oil operations in the Niger Delta have economically marginalized local villagers, while giving them virtually no control over their own livelihood, land, or resources.

In the spring of 2009 in Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State, oil operations were responsible for a series of brutal attacks perpetrated against thousands of innocent civilians by the military’s Joint Task Force (JTF). As Nigerians gathered on May 14th in Oporoza—the region’s major town—to celebrate the Gbaramatu Kingdom’s hereditary ruler, without warning, the JTF commenced attacks on the festive crowd. JTF helicopter gunships indiscriminately opened fire, targeting children, the elderly, the monarch himself, and anyone else in the crowd. These gunships were quickly followed by ground assault troops, carried by naval warships, in what was obviously a substantial military campaign.

College student Peres Popo noted that “most of the students like me who tried to escape during the deadly incident are dead. Some in the streets, forests … they were killed by the bombs. I lost my mother and six of my brothers in the incident. Two of my three sisters are still trapped in the forest. The place is too dangerous for them to come out now. They can’t cross with boat and they can’t risk swimming. The JTF
people have blocked the waterways. One of my sisters has been missing. Nobody seems to know her whereabouts.

“The military people were using their helicopter chopper to destroy everything we have ever had. I saw war with my naked eyes. I saw my mum’s dead body. I saw my brothers lying helpless on the ground. Everyone was running without direction. It is a bitter experience. They are wicked people. They are heartless. I don’t have any family members as militants. We used to survive with fishing. It was through fishing business that my mum pays our school fees. Why will the [federal government] send military men to kill us, to destroy our community? We don’t have anywhere else to go now. No home, no place to go. My OND [school] certificate, my only hope for a better tomorrow has been destroyed.”

The JTF stated that they had commenced the ghastly named “Operation Restore Hope” to “root out militants,” with the main target being the infamous rebel political leader, Tompolo. Sadly, the devastation in Oporoza turned out to be only the opening salvo in a relentless two-month military campaign by the JTF. On May 18, the Kurutie community was aerially bombed and almost completely destroyed. On May 19, Okerenkoko was bombarded and burnt. On May 20, Oporoza was attacked again, this time with aerial bombing that destroyed the King’s palace. On May 23, Benikurukuru was the target of the JTF’s illegal aircraft attacks. Bombings, murders, and other depredations were also perpetrated in Kunukunuma, Kokodiagbene, Azama, Ubefan, and many other surrounding communities. Nigerians of all ages and health were chased into the bush and swampy waterways as the JTF became an occupying military force in their homes.

By June 2009, the JTF had moved to neighboring Rivers State, where the destruction continued unabated (and unnoticed) by the world. By the end of June 2009, up to twenty thousand Niger Delta residents had been “internally displaced,”—an inadequate term for losing everything in a single day—forced to flee without their animals or their possessions, losing in that moment their homes and livelihoods. These residents of the Niger Delta were trapped in an unwinnable war between the militants, the JTF, and the international oil companies—who demand keeping the oil and gas flowing, no matter the cost. It was not until August 2009 that the people of
the Gbaramatu Kingdom were able to safely return to their ruined homes.

The lack of discrimination by the JTF between innocent civilians and armed militants and the JTF’s regular use of disproportionate force is a clear violation of human rights law. President Goodluck Jonathan, who comes from neighboring Baylesa State, took some internal and external actions against the JTF. Yet similar attacks by the JTF against Niger Delta civilian communities have continued in 2010 and 2011, with atrocities in Awakormo and elsewhere, leading Niger Delta civil society and traditional leaders to call for the complete disbandment of the JTF.

For a complete account of the JTF attacks in the Niger Delta and links to Delta State eyewitness statements and videos, please visit
http://justiceinnigerianow.org/jinn/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/GB-update-final.pdf
.

Update by Salma Habib

The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) has released a study indicating that Israel is practicing both colonialism and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories. The HSRC commissioned an international team of scholars and practitioners of international public law from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the West Bank to conduct the study.

Original Sources:
Virginia Tilley, Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid,” HSRC website, May 2009,
http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Media_Release-378.phtml
; Jonathan Cook, “Israel Brings Gaza Entry Restrictions to West Bank,”
Electronic Intifada
, August 18, 2009,
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10718.shtml
; “Israel Rations Palestinians to Trickle of Water,” Amnesty International, October 27, 2009,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/israel-rations-palestinians-trickle-water-20091027
; Rory McCarthy, “Non-Violent Protests Against West Bank Barrier Turn Increasingly Dangerous,”
Guardian
, April 27, 2009,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/27/israel-security-barrier-protests
; “Harvard Fellow Calls for Genocidal Measures to Curb Palestinian Births,”
Electronic Intifada
, February 22, 2010,
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11091.shtml
.

Update:
Story #9 from Censored 2011 helps further illuminate the growing number of human rights atrocities occurring in the Palestinian region. As many Palestinians are further subjugated by colonial and imperial rule, they continue to be treated like second-class citizens as prejudicial attitudes further relegate them into a subservient role, giving the Israelis larger domain to throw their might around. Instead of shedding light upon the Palestinian struggle, many individuals throughout the community have been seen as the ones antagonizing, rather than being seen as autonomous (and whose plight has been largely overlooked by the international community). The community continues to persist in their fight for communal recognition as they’ve endured a series of resource redistribution tactics that have rendered this community dependent upon outside aid. To restore a diminished sense of Palestinian self-determination, efforts, though seemingly few, are being made in an act of solidarity to restore the community of their own cultural integrity.

In an attempt to protest Israeli aggression, and as part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement, students have fired back and responded with their own protest of Sabra, a hummus brand available to most university students at their schools. This Middle Eastern chickpea dip is connected to the Strauss group, an organization that has knowingly funded the Israeli Defense fund. Much of the protest is done in a way to demonstrate that knowingly supporting an organization connected to human rights’ abuses is not something that can be done in good conscience. These students have worked in order to draw attention to the international community that disregarding the Palestinian struggle serves to further promote a mentality of apartheid.