Le Monde diplomatique - English edition

Somalia

Ignacio Ramonet — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

THE United States, heavily engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq in its global war on terror, is now fighting on a third front in Somalia . Washington assembled an anti-terrorist coalition in the Gulf of Aden in 2001 and it is clear from recent air raids and the deployment of US battleships that it regards the Horn of Africa as part of the theatre of operations in its battle against al-Qaida.
It is up against the Union of Islamic Courts, funded by Mogadishu traders who had had enough of (...)

Tsar Putin's Russia

Jean-Marie Chauvier — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

Energy is at the centre of Russia's strategic partnership with the European Union. Oil is the cause of its struggle with the US over the routes of pipelines from the Caspian and Central Asia. Dismantling the Yukos group will complete Russia's renationalisation of energy. President Vladimir Putin, in his second term, has restored state power within a market economy framework.
THE headline news is that Russia's gross domestic product is now back to its 1990 level. After the depression of (...)

The cast of characters

2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

In the Kremlin
Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation
Mikhail Fradkov, prime minister
German Gref *, minister of economic development and trade
Boris Gryzlov*, chairman of the state Duma and the ruling party, United Russia;
Sergei Ivanov*, minister of defence
Alexei Kudrin*, minister of finance
Sergei Lavrov, minister of foreign affairs
Dmitry Medvedev*, first deputy chairman, chairman of the board of the 51% state-owned gas monopoly, Gazprom
Igor Sechin*, chairman (...)

Staticide in Iraq

Toby Dodge — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

A violent civil war now dominates Iraq. If the country is to be stabilised, a central government with a monopoly on coercion must be rebuilt with administrative capacity to give it legitimacy.
THE publication of the Iraq Study Group report in December and President George Bush's major policy speech on 10 January marked a decisive change in attitudes towards Iraq. This acceptance in policy circles of a realistic and necessarily pessimistic assessment is to be welcomed, although it has taken (...)

Pakistan: trying to please everybody

Jean-Luc Racine — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

The United States has condemned the assistance the Taliban receive from across the Pakistan border. President Pervez Musharraf has announced the destruction of three training camps close to the frontier but, as elections approach, he is also trying to reach an accommodation with Islamist groups in Pakistan.
PAKISTAN'S voters will choose a new president, national parliament and provincial assemblies this year. There are doubts about how the three ballots will be conducted, and the process (...) (password requested)

And the winner is . . . Iran

Hicham Ben Abdallah El Alaoui — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

President George Bush is planning to reinforce the United States presence in Iraq and may be contemplating a strike against Iran, undeterred by military reversals, unpopularity among voters at home or the opposition of foreign governments.
UNITED States policymakers were enamoured of the idea, after the 1979 revolution in Iran, that “the Islamic forces could be used against the Soviet Union. The theory was that there was an arc of crisis, and so the arc of Islam could be mobilised to (...) (password requested)

Jerusalem: whose very own and golden city?

Philippe Rekacewicz and Dominique Vidal — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

On 8 February violence broke out at the Al-Aksa mosque, revealing underlying tensions. Jerusalem is the holy city of three religions, but Israeli government policy has always been to preserve its control over the city to prevent its division, so that East Jerusalem can never be the capital of a Palestinian state.
THE main road from Tel Aviv runs fairly straight until past Ben Gurion airport. Then it starts to wind up towards Jerusalem, through hills captured by the Jewish forces in 1948 at (...) (password requested)

Jerusalem's apartheid tramway

Philippe Rekacewicz and Dominique Vidal — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

Two French companies are involved in the construction and operation of a light rail system from the centre of Jerusalem to a northern terminus. It is promoted as a unifying project: in fact, it will be yet another way to isolate the Palestinians.
THE tram will not operate before 2009 but it's already a presence across Jerusalem, and garish ads show it running beside the walls of the Old City. The strangest ad features a pensive Theodor Herzl; in his book Altneuland, published two years (...)

Limits to tolerance

Amnon Kapeliouk — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

A museum of tolerance is a marvellous idea, but there's a catch. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre (named after the famous Nazi hunter who died recently) wants to build it for $250m as a 24-storey block in the middle of the ancient Muslim cemetery of Mamillah in Jerusalem.
The project has permits from the government and municipal authorities. But Muslim religious leaders feel it is a violation of their rights. Under the British Mandate, 1922-1948, it was forbidden to touch this cemetery, and even (...) (password requested)

Marseille: upgrades and degradation

François Ruffin — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

Gentrification has charmed its way into European cities for the past 35 years and more, promising rehabilitation of buildings and cityscapes, new cultural venues, shops and restaurants, and of course big profits for developers. But what happened to the real citizens?
THE dust outside billowed up from behind metal barriers, cranes were busy and pneumatic drills hammered away. Eric Foillard, director of Marseille République , was full of enthusiasm in his sales suite: “See what they're doing (...) (password requested)

Uruguay: visible at last

Edouard Baibly — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

Uruguay has emerged from relative obscurity since President Tabaré Vázquez instituted an emergency welfare programme and began investigations into the fate of the disappeared. The country's economic situation has improved but it is attracting problematic investments.
THE ashes still smoulder 20 years after the demise of Uruguay's dictatorship. The army commander-in-chief, General Carlos Díaz, 57, learned that to his cost last October. Ignoring Uruguay's constitution, he had invited two members (...) (password requested)

Liberty, equality and great apes

Gary L Francione — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

A GROUP of scholars collaborated on a book of essays, The Great Ape Project (GAP), published in 1993 . It was accompanied by a document, A Declaration on Great Apes, to which the book's editors and contributors also subscribed: it stated that the great apes “are the closest relatives of our species”; these non-humans “have mental capacities and an emotional life sufficient to justify inclusion within the community of equals”.
A considerable literature has developed in recent years that (...) (password requested)

Do as you would be done by

Kofi Annan — 2007-01-31T23:00:00Z

CURRENTS along the Bosphorus are notoriously strong, flowing one way on the surface and the opposite way underneath. Yet for centuries the Turkish successfully rode these currents as they navigated the boundary between Europe and Asia, and between the Islamic world and the West; they have prospered as a result. The report on the Alliance of Civilisations rightly stresses that an embrace of differences — in opinion, in culture, in belief, in way of life — has long been a driving force of (...) (password requested)