Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

We are pouring massive amounts of aid into an area we have wanted to control for a long time.

We know the U.S. hopes to have troops fighting in tsunami territory.

The United States is trying for control of the Strait of Malacca. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during a visit to Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon". His comments fuelled speculation that the United States wants to deploy US forces in the Strait of MALACCA, the narrow and busy shipping lane straddled by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is seen as a likely terrorist target. More than one million tonnes of oil a year -- well over 80 percent of China's imports -- are shipped through the narrow strait.
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However, history has proven we will invade a country militarily, as in Iraq, or through the following ways.

Illuminating background is available in a watershed USAID report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest: Promoting Freedom, Security and Opportunity, released in January 2003 but ignored by a press swept up in pre-invasion hysteria. In the report, USAID vows that development programs will no longer be directed primarily toward alleviating human misery, but will be committed to "encouraging democratic [i.e., US-friendly] reforms." This policy shift is explicitly linked to the National Security Strategy of the United States, the 2002 White House blueprint for a new, openly aggressive phase of US imperialism.

Henceforward, the report promises, only friendly regimes will be rewarded with development money, while hostile (or merely independent) states will be punished by NGO-driven "reform" programs that sound suspiciously like old-fashioned destabilization ops.
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John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community, in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies.

AMY GOODMAN: How closely did you work with the World Bank?

JOHN PERKINS: Very, very closely with the World Bank. The World Bank provides most of the money that’s used by economic hit men, it and the I.M.F. But when 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart. I knew the story had to be told because what happened at 9/11 is a direct result of what the economic hit men are doing. And the only way that we're going to feel secure in this country again and that we're going to feel good about ourselves is if we use these systems we’ve put into place to create positive change around the world. I really believe we can do that. I believe the World Bank and other institutions can be turned around and do what they were originally intended to do, which is help reconstruct devastated parts of the world. Help -- genuinely help poor people. There are twenty-four thousand people starving to death every day. We can change that.
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The World Bank said it will consider significantly boosting its aid, perhaps to as much as $1.5 billion. It has already pledged $175 million in assistance, but bank President James Wolfensohn said he was flexible.

"We can go up to even $1 billion to $1.5 billion, depending on the needs ... our immediate focus is to provide relief to the affected people," he said at a news conference.

World governments, led by Australia and Germany, have pledged nearly $4 billion in aid the biggest relief package ever. The United States has pledged $350 million, which President Bush called only an "initial commitment" and essentially a line of credit that can be spent as American relief officials identify needs.

Relief organizations have calculated that as much as 75% of foreign aid is directly tied to trade access or other economic and political strategies. Some comes with so many strings attached, including preferential tendering on contracts and the hiring of consultants, that only 30-40% of dollar value is ever realized.

US policy dictates that much foreign aid be spent on costly imported medicines, weapons, agricultural produce or manufactured goods. Some European nations have a similar approach.
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-Am

Gunfire Underscores Tsunami Relief Dangers

Updated 9:01 AM ET January 9, 2005

Gunfire echoed through the main tsunami-hit city on Indonesia's Sumatra island Sunday, underscoring the threat to the scores of foreigner aid workers, while a tropical downpour lashed the airport in the provincial capital, turning a major hub for relief supplies into a muddy mess.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people protested in Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated north after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed to a government request that he not visit tsunami-stricken areas under Tamil rebel control.

Two weeks after walls of water flattened wide swaths of coastland around the Indian Ocean, people were still emerging from isolated village and bodies were being pulled from the mud and debris as the death toll in 11 countries passed 150,000.

Indonesian authorities blamed separatist rebels for the shooting near the U.N. compound in Banda Aceh, where relief workers have gathered to help survivors of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people in Africa and Asia.

Violence in tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka also raised security concerns. Christians and Hindus clashed in the eastern part of the country where a massive aid effort is under way, killing at least three people and injuring 37, although no relief workers were injured in either incident.

Clashes between Hindus and Christians are rare since both groups belong the Tamil minority and believe they are oppressed by the country's Buddhist Sinhalese majority.

Elsewhere, about 400 Sri Lankans gathered in a peaceful protest Sunday opposite the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office in the predominantly Tamil city of Jaffna, demanding that Annan visit the northern region to inspect damage caused by the tsunami.

Annan said Sunday that he hoped it would not strain relations between the United Nations and the rebel group.

"I'm hoping to come back and be able to visit all areas of the country, not only those repaired, but also to celebrate peace," he said. "The U.N. is not here to take sides."

The Tigers, who have fought a 20-year war for a Tamil homeland, invited Annan to tour the northern province. But government officials said they could not guarantee the U.N. chief's safety.

U.N. officials in Indonesia downplayed the shooting, which took place near the home of a deputy provincial police chief, saying there was no indication the gunfire targeted efforts to feed the disaster's hungry and homeless.

"We don't believe that aid workers are targets," said Joel Boutroue, a U.N. relief official in Aceh. "We were told by guards that it was probably one person shooting a few rounds and that was it."

Indonesian officials regularly blame Free Aceh Movement rebels for shootings and violence in Aceh, even if there is sometimes little evidence of their involvement.

The rebels have waged a separatist war in Aceh for nearly three decades. Thousands have been killed. There was an unofficial truce after last month's disaster, which left more than 100,000 dead in the province, but a series of recent skirmishes have prompted Indonesia's military to step up patrols for the guerrillas.

Adding to security concerns is the appearance of Laskar Mujahidin, an extremist group with alleged links to al-Qaida. The group, which has set up an aid camp, says it is there to help and won't target foreigners, but its reassurances haven't dampened concerns.

The U.S. military, which says it has about 150 service personnel on the ground in Sumatra and 8,000 offshore, said aid workers must remain vigilant while working in restive areas.

"Security is a constant planning factor in all that we do," U.S. Army aid coordinator Maj. Nelson Chang said.

Rain pounded relief workers Sunday, soaking the Banda Aceh airport and the cardboard boxes of aid piled up on the tarmac. Scores of tents where aid workers and soldiers camped had become a quagmire.

It's the middle of the rainy season in Indonesia and the pounding downpours could further complicate a relief effort already hamstrung by damaged infrastructure, including roads and bridges washed away.

Staggered by the scale of the disaster, aid officials said they may have to feed as many as 2 million survivors a day for six months.

World leaders have been streaming into the region in an attempt to better assess the needs of tens of thousands of people.

World governments, led by Australia and Germany, have pledged nearly $4 billion in aid the biggest relief package ever. The United States has pledged $350 million, which President Bush called only an "initial commitment" and essentially a line of credit that can be spent as American relief officials identify needs.

The World Bank said it will consider significantly boosting its aid, perhaps to as much as $1.5 billion. It has already pledged $175 million in assistance, but bank President James Wolfensohn said he was flexible.

"We can go up to even $1 billion to $1.5 billion, depending on the needs ... our immediate focus is to provide relief to the affected people," he said at a news conference


Associated Press reporters Mike Corder, Emma Ross and Ed Harris in Jakarta, Chris Brummitt and Denis Gray in Banda Aceh, Burt Herman in Sumatra and Dilip Ganguly in Sri Lanka contributed to this report.

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=050109&cat=frontpage&st=frontpageap200501....