Global briefs
CHILE: The US is hiring mercenaries in Chile to replace its soldiers on security duty in Iraq. A Pentagon contractor has begun recruiting former commandos, other soldiers and seamen, paying them up to US$4000 a month to guard oil wells. Last month Blackwater USA flew about 60 former commandos from Santiago to a training camp in North Carolina. Many of them had trained under the military government of Augusto Pinochet.* * * BRITAIN: War on Want reports that Britain's aid to some of the world's poorest countries is conditional on governments privatising services, such as water and electricity, and giving multinational companies the option of buying them. The result, says the report, is "poor quality work and lack of input by the local community". Colombia, Indonesia and Mozambique are amongst the countries suffering the cruel effects of these policies. The evidence is irrefutable, the private sector has consistently failed to deliver good quality, affordable services to the world's poorest people.* * * JAMAICA: The Jamaican authorities have announced that they do not recognise the new interim government in Haiti — still in the process of being assembled. It was installed following the departure of elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Through a communiqui the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade stated that the question of whether to recognise the new Haitian authorities should be put on hold until the CARICOM summit of heads of government, which takes place in St. Kitts and Nevis this month.* * * VENEZUELA: Likewise, President Hugo Chavez has stated in Caracas that Venezuela does not recognise the new Haitian government. Chavez emphasised that the doors of his country are open to Jean Bertrand Aristide, the constitutional president of Haiti. He underlined the fact that Aristide was elected by his people and kidnapped by US troops under orders from the US ambassador in Port-au-Prince.* * * ISRAEL: Five young Israeli citizens were sentenced on January 4, to one year's imprisonment, in addition to approximately 14 months spent in detention and in military prison. The five refused to enlist in the occupation army. Army authorities are openly threatening that at the end of their sentence, the five would be called again once more to the induction centre to be drafted. Noam Bahat, Matan Kaminer, Adam Maor, Haggai Matar and Shimri Zameret belong to a group of young men and women, who in September 2002, wrote to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stating that they would not take part in the oppression of the Palestinian people by serving in the Israeli army. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that the repeated penalties imposed on the five are arbitrary and called for the immediate release of the conscientious objectors.