East is East

Musharraf picks a successor, Burma bleeds on camera, Zimbabwe runs out of bread, and more
Musharraf Picks Pakistani Army Successor (Associated Press, 10/2/07)

Lawyers and politicians tried a last ditch effort to block Musharraf from being allowed to be re-elected, but failed (The Washington Post, 10/2/07). The president (who is now allowed to run for a third term) is planning to give up his authority as general of the armed forces, as per the conditions of his re-election bid, to a trusted ally and former intelligence chief, General Ashfaq Kayani. Members of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s party have resigned in protest from the National Assembly. Even his granting amnesty to exiled former PM Benazir Bhutto was accepted only with cautious suspicion.

Glimpses of Myanmar
The monk-led protest was peaceful. The government at first seemed to do little, as if shocked by their sheer audacity. More likely, they might have merely waiting for the right signs (Times Online 9/28/07), because they soon banned assembly and then opened fire. Thousands died, their bodies dumped in the jungles (The Daily Mail, 10/1/07). World leaders reacted with practised shock and prepared sanctions (The Economist, 9/27/07). The story within this is of the government’s attempts to shut down news sources; they days ago cut all local internet access (The Daily Telegraph, 9/30/07), fearing the amount of images being uploaded by outraged citizens to the rest of the world. Photos of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai being killed by security forces (9/28/07) have already been released – the photos can be found (warning: these images are highly graphic) here (Times Online 9/28/07). The Democratic Voice of Burma has also continually released (warning: graphic photographs) images of the crackdown (9/27/07). More photos can be found at Cryptome. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has even released high resolution satellite images that corroborate accounts of human rights abuses in the country(Eurekalert 9/28/07). The Burmese government has responded by blaming the protests on opportunists (BBC, 10/2/07) and saying that the monks will be sent to prisons in the north (BBC, 10/1/07). The junta may not be as united as the world perceives, however, given the greying relationship between Than Shwe and his second in command General Maung Aye, the latter of whom was reluctant to deal violently with the monks.

Iraqi Parties Denounce Splitting Country (Breitbart, 9/30/07)
Tribal and religious leaders have been able to put aside their difference to address a recent senate proposal to give minimal power to the central Iraqi government and more to regional ones. The Kurds have been running almost autonomously within Iraq without too much pain; but the political parties in the central government believe that extending this scenario to other countries would cause a catastrophe, to borrow Prime Minister al-Maliki’s phrase.

Zimbabwe in the Red
Lawmakers may have been excited when they passed the law that gave black Zimbabweans increasing control of farms and company shares, but they have little to show for it. Amid inflation and widespread poverty, Zimbabwe has now run out of bread (The Guardian, 10/1/07). President Mugabe is more concerned at the moment with making sure that his ZANU-PF-led parliament has the power to appoint a successor should he step down or die (9/27/07). The government is planning to introduce a new currency to remedy the situation – an initiative that some say will just add fuel to the fire (10/1/07).

Floods Spread to Kiboga (Daily Monitor, 10/2/07)
Forecasts say that floods that have been localized to the northeastern part of Uganda will soon make their way down to the central region. With scarce food supplies, the Danish government has promised Uganda 1.35 million Euros to help buy necessities before the flood hits.

An Archive of Murders Past (The Economist, 9/27/07)
Hirut Abebe-Jiri is doing her best to make sure that records kept by former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam are preserved. Her Ethiopian Red Terror Documentation and Research Centre wants to keep these prosecutions files and death warrants as testimony to the the terror forced upon herself as well as others in thousands of Ethiopians. The effort is partnered with the University of North Dakota.