The Guardian 13 December, 2006
Global briefs
NIGERIA: A first-ever summit of 53 African and 12 South American countries opened on November 29 in Abuja, Nigeria. Organised by the African Union, the meeting had South-South cooperation as its main theme. It explored "areas of mutual cooperation," developments in international politics and opportunities for expanded trade. The conferees discussed technology exchanges and the prospect of an Africa-South America bank and, according to Allafrica.com, called for reform of the United Nations. The South American Community of Nations, an amalgam of the Mercosur trade network and the Andean Community of Nations, initiated the conference, modelled on November’s China-Africa Summit in Beijing and a 2005 South America-Arab League Summit in Brasilia. Leaders of African nations met on the summit margins under African Union auspices to discuss the Darfur conflict. Among South American leaders attending were Brazilian President "Lula" da Silva and Bolivia’s Evo Morales.
COLOMBIA: A wave of condemnation from independent journalists is sweeping Latin America following the November 19 jailing of Colombian Fredy Muñoz in Bogotá. Police authorities, invoking charges of "rebellion" and terrorism, cite a claim from a jailed prisoner possibly seeking favours that the Telesur journalist took part in a 2002 car bombing. Muñoz has vigorously denied the charges. Since 1987, 121 Colombian journalists have been murdered, 18 since 2002, when President Alvaro Uribe assumed power. The La Jornada newspaper criticised the world’s media for silence on an attack on press freedom. A Telesur spokesperson accused the Uribe Government of criminalising the multinational news service initiated by Venezuela in 2005, and of trying to sow confusion prior to Venezuela’s presidential election. A petition for Muñoz’s freedom is circulating on the Internet.
FRANCE: Meeting for three days at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, representatives of Roma organisations from 40 countries summarised conditions of life for 47 million of their people. The European Roma and Traveler Forum (ERTF), formed a year ago to forge Roma unity and gain political recognition, organised the gathering. According to the French Communist Party’s daily, L’Humanité (also see ertf.org), Roma people throughout Europe, often called Gypsies, regularly experience racist-inspired abuse and persecution. They are excluded from health care, discriminated against in schools and denied employment. Crossing borders is also problematic. In 2003 hundreds of women were unknowingly sterilised in Slovakia maternity hospitals. In October, threats forced 30 Roma from a Slovenian village into a refugee camp. After wartime persecution in Kosovo, their population fell from 200,000 to 35,000. Conditions for the Roma improved slightly as eastern European nations were applying for admission to the European Union. The ERTF strategy apparently is to establish ties with transnational European organisations.