The Guardian 6 April, 2005
Global briefs
JAPAN: The Japan Peace Committee (JPC) last month demanded that the government
oppose the planned return to Okinawa of US Marines from Iraq where they were involved in the
massacre of civilians in Fallujah. About 2200 personnel from the Okinawa-based US 31st Marine
Expeditionary Unit are expected to return to Okinawa this month, along with about 20 helicopters
from the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station. During visits to the Foreign Ministry and Defence
Agency, JPC Representative Director Sato Mitsuo and Secretary General Chisaka Jun also
demanded that the Futenma base be returned to Japan immediately and unconditionally, and
that plans for a state-of-the-art sea airport off Nago City be withdrawn.
COLOMBIA: Domingo Tovar Arrieta, director of the Human Rights Department of the
CUT national trade union federation, last week revealed "a macabre plot to assassinate union
leaders" because they have criticised the way talks are being conducted between the
government and the right-wing AUC paramilitaries. Saying he has presented the information to
key government officials, Tovar called for international solidarity with Colombian trade unionists.
"We were informed by a trustworthy source that from Realito [location of the talks] a list has been
organised of people considered to be an obstacle to the talks", Tovar said.
TANZANIA: Low wages, heavy workloads, social disrespect, and HIV/AIDS have
helped to diminish a profession once glorified by Tanzania's first President, Julius Nyerere when
he chose the Kiswahili word, mwalimu (teacher) as his title. Hakielimu, a local NGO specialising
in education, said last month that "Many teachers have minimal material or intellectual support
and their salary is often insufficient to maintain them and their families." Though all children are
expected to be enrolled in school by 2006, Hakielimu said that in many schools, learning is
greatly undermined by difficult working conditions for teachers. The NGO called for government
action to increase educational services as a priority in the country's plan to reduce poverty. Over
140,000 teachers have died of AIDS-related diseases in the last 20 years, resulting in heavier
workloads and soaring class sizes for other teachers.
AFGHANISTAN: Over 1000 children may have died last month in a remote,
mountainous province of western Afghanistan — felled by respiratory diseases made worse by
grave food shortages and extreme cold weather in the Tulak region in Ghor province. "I have
treated 160 patients in just two villages where 14 have died", said Dr. Wahidullah Habibi, an
Afghan doctor with the Catholic Relief Service in the region. "They have no food. Several people
have frozen to death trying to borrow food from other villages." In another community of 75
families near the Janak Pass, villagers said seven children and six adults had died in the past
month. Area leaders and aid workers attributed the tragedy to 25 years of war, seven years of
drought, poverty, and lack of medical facilities.