Boston Globe - Wednesday, January 25, 2012

UN help sought on Syria crisis Arab League shifts tactics amid more violence By Liz Sly | 550 words DAMASCUS - The Arab League sought help yesterday from the United Nations to address the escalating crisis in Syria, amid Syrian defiance of Arab efforts to broker a peace settlement and an upsurge of violence in which dozens of people died. Gulf Arab countries pulled out of an Arab League monitoring mission, saying it was ineffectual, further casting into doubt the fate of an initiative aimed at ending the Syrian government's use of force to suppress a 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. Activist groups reported the deaths of at least 38 people, most of them in the flash-point city of Homs, as the government responded to the growing international pressure by stepping up its attempts to crush the revolt. Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, told a news conference in Damascus that Syria felt justified in escalating the use of force against protesters because a report by the Arab observer team acknowledged that some of them have taken up arms. He signaled that the crackdown would intensify, saying there could be no reforms in Syria until the revolt had been suppressed. ``It is the duty of the Syrian government to take the necessary measures to address the problem of those armed elements who are wreaking havoc throughout Syria,'' Moualem said. ``The Syrian government must quickly take the situation in hand to preserve stability.'' Activists said a renewed crackdown appeared to be already under way. In Homs, at least 25 people were killed in shelling by security forces of two neighborhoods, said Homs activist Omar Shakri, who said at least three buildings collapsed. The Local Coordination Committees said 41 people were killed in Homs and 19 elsewhere in the country, including five defected soldiers. ``They are starting a new offensive, and I think in the coming days we will see a lot of blood,'' Shakri said. Opposition groups said they feared that a fresh assault is also being prepared against the city of Hama, the focus of a brutal crackdown last summer. The Syrian Revolution General Commission said that Internet connections, landlines, and cellphone service in the city had been cut and that tanks had gathered on the edges of the town. The state news agency SANA reported that funerals were held yesterday for 14 members of the security forces and two civilians killed the previous day in attacks by ``armed terrorist groups.'' On Sunday, the Arab League cited Syria's failure to stop the violence in its presentation of a transition plan that called for Assad to step aside, warning that the League would seek UN help if he did not comply. Yesterday, Arab League secretary general Nabil Elaraby and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jasim al-Thani wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requesting a meeting of the Security Council to address ways that it could help implement the plan. Earlier, the six nations comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates - announced the withdrawal of their observers from the Arab League's monitoring mission in Syria and urged the Security Council to take ``all needed measures'' to stop the violence, suggesting that they would be willing to countenance military intervention. US and European efforts to spur Security Council action have been blocked, however, by Russia, which remains staunchly opposed to any UN action that could open the door to international intervention in Syria.

ASIA; Tibet Issue Is Ripe for Solving: [HOME EDITION]

Schell, OrvilleView Profile. Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles, Calif] 27 Oct 2002: M.1.

BERKELEY -- A great opportunity was lost Friday when President Bush met with Chinese President and Communist Party Chairman Jiang Zemin without taking up the situation in Tibet.

China held out a tantalizing hope last month in hosting a delegation from the Dalai Lama's government in exile on a visit to China and Tibet. Now would have been the moment to advance that initiative.

But it is still not too late to take up the challenge of resolving Tibet's status, a problem that has long bedeviled Tibetans and ethnic Chinese alike. In fact, Hu Jintao, who appears slated to assume leadership of China next month when Jiang steps down, was China's party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region from 1988 to 1992. Understanding the complexities of Tibet's difficult relationship with China puts him in an excellent position to distinguish the beginning of his tenure as supreme leader of China by helping to untie this Gordian knot.

If Hu fails to address issues of human rights in Tibet and the region's desire for autonomy, his country will be the worse for his lapse. In the Palestinian territories, in Kashmir, in the former Yugoslavia, we have seen how unattended conflicts with ethnic subtexts can erupt in ways that make them virtually impossible to solve. It's in China's interest not to let that happen in Tibet.

When Jiang's government met last month with Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, representatives of the Dalai Lama's government in exile, it seemed to indicate a new flexibility on the part of Beijing -- a flexibility that will be necessary if China wants to resolve its long-standing differences with Tibet. On assuming office, Hu should follow up on this initial olive branch with further initiatives aimed at advancing the situation toward a truly durable solution.

Fortunately, Tibet is not beyond remedy. And one can hardly imagine a better way for a Chinese leader to establish himself in office than to offer a peaceful solution.

The Dalai Lama has proposed a reasonable compromise: In return for a high degree of Tibetan autonomy and permission to return home to Lhasa, his government in exile would yield to the Chinese government's claim of sovereignty and its desire to continue controlling Tibet's foreign affairs and defense.

This is clearly a win-win-win proposition. China gains the Dalai Lama's acknowledgment that Tibet is in fact a part of a multiethnic China, thereby removing the contentious issue of independence from the board. Tibet wins China's agreement to allow the Dalai Lama to return home and help stem the erosion of Tibetan Buddhism and traditional culture that, with the large influx of Han Chinese, has drawn the region ever deeper into the pull of Chinese cultural and political gravity. And the world gains by being relieved of the burden of a major point of global tension.

A solution to the Tibet problem would greatly improve China's global image. The situation in Tibet, which many around the world see as a form of quasi-colonial occupation, has been an ongoing stain on China's international reputation. Working out a solution that would facilitate the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet would not only help remove much of the stigma of the last half-century but would also allow the Dalai Lama to help soothe and manage the tensions that have built up over the years.

While the situation may appear to have been superficially quiet of late, it is no secret that smoldering resentments remain, and that these resentments could easily lead to yet another overt conflict. Should that happen, it might then be too late for the kind of peaceful reconciliation that now offers itself as a real possibility.

I have often, and only half-jokingly, noted to Chinese friends who are wary of the Tibetan government in exile that most non- Chinese world leaders would be only too happy to have the Dalai Lama as an adversary. He is, after all, renowned for his tolerance, his good sense and his compassion. Chinese officials must realize, having recently hosted a Tibetan delegation, that in the Tibetans they have an immensely reasonable partner for negotiation.

Solving the Tibet problem in a peaceful, equitable and magnanimous way would provide an extraordinary beginning to Hu's tenure as China's leader. It would also be an astute way for China to continue cementing better relations with the U.S.

For those of us watching around the world, a creative, new solution to this long-stalemated issue would serve as a very convincing sign that China was changing, maturing and becoming more receptive to assuming a greater role on the global stage as a constructive, reliable and forward-looking power. During this time of deep anxiety over international terrorism and ethnic strife, such an expression of Chinese leadership would go a long way to impressing and reassuring the world. Hu could leave no greater legacy.

Boston Globe -January 26, 2012

Tibetan clashes in China spread 2 reported dead; others injured By Gillian Wong | 325 words BEIJING - Deadly clashes between ethnic Tibetans and Chinese security forces have spread to a second area in southwestern China, the government and an overseas activist group said yesterday. The group Free Tibet said two Tibetans were killed and several more were wounded Tuesday when security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Seda county in politically sensitive Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan Province. It quoted local sources as saying the area was under a curfew. According to the Chinese government, a ``mob'' of people charged a police station in Seda and injured 14 officers, forcing police to open fire on them. The official Xinhua News Agency said police killed one rioter, injured another, and arrested 13. The spread of violence came after some 30 Tibetans found shelter in a monastery after being wounded when Chinese police fired into a crowd of protesters in neighboring Luhuo county, a Tibetan monk said Tuesday. He said military forces had surrounded the building. The monk would not give his name out of fear of government retaliation, and the Draggo monastery could no longer be reached by phone yesterday. The counties have been tense for some time, and at least 16 Buddhist monks, nuns, and other Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest in the past year. Most have chanted for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Many Tibetans resent Beijing's heavy-handed rule and the large-scale migration of China's ethnic Han majority to the Himalayan region. While China says Tibet has been under its rule for centuries, many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for most of that time. ``Chinese forces are responding with lethal force to Tibetans' ever- growing calls for freedom,'' Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said. A man who answered the telephone at the Seda county government office would not confirm or deny the group's account of Tuesday's violence. He would not give his name.

The Boston Globe -January 29, 2012

France's fast exit raises concerns in Afghanistan There are worries other nations will follow suit President Nicolas Sarkozy said France will speed its withdrawal and pull 1,000 troops - up from 600 - out this year. By Deb Riechmann and Slobodan Lekic | 654 words KABUL, Afghanistan - France's call for a speedier NATO exit from Afghanistan reflects the depth of war fatigue in the West and raises fears that other countries in the US-led coalition will succumb to rising political pressure and pull their troops home early. French president Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to fast-track its withdrawal - just days after an Afghan soldier gunned down four French troops - is the latest crack in a coalition strained by economic troubles in Europe and the United States, the Afghan government's sluggish battle against corruption, on-again off-again cooperation from neighboring Pakistan, and a bloodied but dogged Taliban. The international coalition is rushing against the clock to meet President Hamid Karzai's goal of having the Afghan police and army in charge of the nation's security by the end of 2014. France's break with that timetable, which was agreed to by NATO members, now raises the question: Can the coalition stay together until then? Resetting the date to end the coalition's combat mission could strengthen arguments for President Obama to accelerate US troop withdrawals beyond the 33,000 he is sending home by the end of this year, and it could reopen a debate over whether setting a withdrawal deadline allows the Taliban to seize more territory once foreign forces are gone. It is unclear whether Sarkozy's call for all foreign forces to hand security over to the Afghan forces in 2013 will have any traction when it is presented next week at a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels. If other nations see France's move as a green light to speed up their withdrawals, it will complicate the current strategy for a coordinated pullout. In a gentle rebuke to France, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said in London yesterday that withdrawals should be dependent on security conditions on the ground. Britain has said it is keeping to plans to withdraw its 9,500 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. ``The rate at which we can reduce our troops will depend on the transition to Afghan control in the different parts of Afghanistan, and that should be the same for all of the members of NATO,'' Cameron said after meeting with Karzai. Other nations facing extreme economic problems, such as Italy and Spain, are not planning early withdrawals. ``We are a responsible country. We are a big country that honors its commitments that it agrees to make,'' said Italy's defense minister, Giampaolo Di Paola. Italy signed a pact this week aimed at supporting Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw in 2014. Germany also said it agrees with the goal to hand over security responsibility by the end of 2014 and withdraw combat troops. Sarkozy said France will speed up its withdrawal and pull 1,000 - up from 600 - out this year and bring all combat forces home at the end of 2013. Sarkozy also said France would hand over authority in Kapisa Province, where the French troops were killed this month, by the end of March. France, which now has about 3,600 soldiers in the coalition force, joins the United States, Britain, Germany, and Italy in the top five largest troop-contributing nations. Talk of an accelerated exit alarmed many Afghans, especially those who have cast their lot with the US-backed government but have little confidence in their country's own security forces. Some said France was reneging on its promises. Afghan lawmaker Tahira Mujadedi, who represents Kapisa, said Afghan forces there are not ready to go it alone in fighting the Taliban insurgency, which is especially strong in several of the province's districts. She warned that if NATO forces pull back from Kapisa, it could destabilize nearby Kabul. Foreign forces should consider staying even longer than 2014, she said. ``When military forces are present in a war zone, anything can happen,'' said Mujadedi, who expressed sadness about the French troops who were killed. But she added: ``They are not here for a holiday.'' Abdul Hadi Khalid, former Afghan interior minister and military analyst, said Sarkozy's decision was clearly political.

The Boston Globe- January 29, 2012

3 officers injured during clashes with Occupy Oakland 424 words OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland police used tear gas and ``flash'' grenades yesterday to break up hundreds of Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing rocks and flares at officers and tearing down fencing. Three officers were hurt and 19 people were arrested, the Oakland Police Department said. No details on the officers' injuries were released. The protest continued into the evening yesterday; a large police contingent monitored the situation, but there were no additional clashes. Police said the group started assembling at a downtown plaza yesterday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic. The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 people. The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some people started tearing down perimeter fencing and ``destroying construction equipment'' shortly before 3 p.m., police said. Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares, and other objects. Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, police said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown. The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport, and take over City Hall. In a statement Friday, Oakland's city administrator, Deanna Santana, said the city would not be ``bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity.'' Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions. Oakland officials said Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people. The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately. Oakland, New York, and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out demonstrators who had set up tent cities. In Oakland, police officials received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was Mayor Jean Quan, who said she was not briefed on the department's plans. Earlier this month, a court- appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included ``serious concerns'' about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.

The Boston Globe - January 31, 2012

Violence in Oakland divides Occupy movement D.C. protesters are told to leave two park sites Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press Demonstrators raised a tent over the statue in McPherson Square in Washington yesterday to protest no-camping regulations. By Terry Collins | 708 words OAKLAND, Calif. - Many in the crowd outside Oakland City Hall shouted ``Burn it! Burn it!'' as masked protesters prepared to set fire to an American flag. That's when a woman emerged from the scrum, screaming for them to stop, that it would hurt the cause. Moments later, the flames began, and suddenly a movement that seemingly vanished weeks ago was back in the spotlight, this time for an act of protest that has long divided the nation and now the movement itself. The images of the flag-burning went viral in the hours after Saturday's demonstrations on Oakland's streets, with Occupy supporters denouncing the act as unpatriotic and a black mark on the movement. Others called it justified. The flag-burning, however, has raised questions about whether the act will tarnish a movement of largely peaceful protests and alienate people who agree with its message against corporate excess and economic inequality. Violent clashes between police and Occupy demonstrators in Oakland and the potential for confrontations in other cities have divided supporters of the movement. Saturday's protest in Oakland culminated in rock- and bottle-throwing and volleys of tear gas from the police, as well as the City Hall break-in that left glass cases smashed, graffiti spray-painted on the walls and, finally, the flag-burning. In Washington yesterday, the US Park Police began enforcing a no-camping ban at the two Washington park sites where Occupy protesters have been demonstrating for four months. Sergeant David Schlosser, a Park Police spokesman, said officers would first ask demonstrators to obey the regulation. He said some demonstrators had already complied, although he did not know how many. The National Park Service warned protesters at McPherson Square and at Freedom Plaza that those who violate the camping rule will be subject to arrest. No arrests were made by yesterday evening, and Schlosser declined to discuss a timetable for forced eviction of the demonstrators. Schlosser said the camping ban pertained not only to sleeping on national park grounds but also to possessing bedding materials such as blankets. Protesters hung a blue tarpaulin over a statue in McPherson Square. Some of the Washington protesters said they would not leave and were preparing for a confrontation with police. Police said more than 400 people were arrested; at least three officers and one protester were injured in Saturday's clashes in Oakland. In New York on Sunday, police arrested 12 people who participated in a march in support of Occupy Oakland. About 300 people marched through Lower Manhattan on Sunday night. At least twice, marchers threw bottles apparently aimed at police. Police charged three people with assault and one with criminal weapons possession. The rest were charged with disorderly conduct. ``I'm quite confident that the general view is that violence of this sort - whether it's symbolic or otherwise - is contrary to the spirit of the movement and should be renounced,'' Columbia University sociologist Todd Gitlin said of the Oakland confrontations. Gitlin, who is writing a book about the movement, noted that flags have had a prominent place at the Occupy Wall Street encampments that sprang up last fall. They are typically pinned to tents or waving from wooden flagpoles. Troy Johnson, an Occupy Oakland member, said he arrived just in time Saturday to watch his friend, whom he would not name, emerge from City Hall with an American flag in tow. ``He asked the crowd: `What do want us to do with the flag?' '' Johnson recalled. ``They said, `Burn it! Burn it! Burn it!' '' The fire-starter is not an anarchist, but a typical member of Occupy Oakland who feels the system has failed them, said Johnson, who pulled out his cellphone to show his recording of the flag-burning. ``I would describe him as someone who loves his country, but also disappointed in the system that's running this country,'' said Johnson, who goes by the nickname ``Uncle Boom'' and was a sergeant in the Army. ``To the veterans who fought for this country, I wholeheartedly apologize,'' he said. ``Because when they took the oath to join the military, they fought for the flag. But they also fought for the right to express ourselves.'' Another Occupy member, Sean Palmer, who served in the Marines, said he opposed flag-burning. ``I think they should've hung it upside down, because that's the international call for distress and that's what we are, in distress,'' Palmer said.

The Boston Globe - Tuesday, January 31, 2012

UN pressured to act in Syria; Russia seeks talks Assad forces, rebels battle near capital The secretary of state said attacks on Syrians are raising fears that `instability will escalate and spill over.' By Kareem Fahim | 715 words BEIRUT - Syrian rebel fighters continued clashing with government forces in neighborhoods on the doorstep of Damascus yesterday in an escalation of the war there, while a new diplomatic effort by Russia to broker talks between the antagonists faltered and pressure for United Nations action intensified. Despite deployments by Syrian forces into the eastern suburbs of Damascus on Sunday, where soldiers, tanks, and armed vehicles were sent to crush pockets of armed rebellion, there was no clear sign that the heavily outgunned rebels had been vanquished. Amateur video posted on the Internet bolstered other credible reports of new fighting in Homs, the combustible central Syrian city that has been the venue of repeated battles between rebel fighters and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. Syria's official news agency, SANA, said nothing about the Homs fighting but said a gas pipeline in the area was blown up by what it called an unidentified terrorist group. Activists reported more than 40 civilians killed across the country yesterday, but the figure could not be confirmed, the Associated Press reported. In a sign of the growing pressure on the UN Security Council to take action despite Russia's position, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the foreign ministers of both France and Britain were heading to New York to participate in the council's deliberations, which were scheduled for today. Clinton condemned the ``the escalation of the Syrian regime's violent and brutal attacks on its own people.'' She said that the Security Council must act ``so that a new period of democratic transition can begin.'' ``The Arab League is backing a resolution that calls on the international community to support its ongoing efforts, because the status quo is not acceptable,'' she said. ``The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region.'' A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic efforts, said the United States and other council members would force a veto if the Russians and Chinese resist. ``They can't continue to defend an unsustainable status quo,'' the official said. The draft resolution demands that Assad halt the crackdown and implement an Arab peace plan that calls for him to hand over power to his vice president and allow creation of a unity government to pave the way for elections. If Assad fails to comply within 15 days, the council would consider ``further measures,'' a reference to a possible move to impose economic or other sanctions. David Cameron, Britain's prime minister, called the situation in Syria appalling and appealed yesterday to Russia to back the resolution. ``It is time for all the members of UN Security Council to live up to their responsibilities instead of shielding those who have blood on their hands,'' he said. Moscow, which in October vetoed the first council attempt to condemn Syria's crackdown, has shown little sign of budging in its opposition. It warns that the new measure could open the door to eventual military intervention, the way an Arab- backed UN resolution led to NATO airstrikes in Libya. The escalation in Syria, where Assad has vowed to end a 10-month-old uprising that he has characterized as the work of foreign-backed terrorists, came within a few miles of the capital on Sunday. That was just a day after Arab League observers said they were suspending their work in the country because of the intractable fighting and threats to their safety. The fighting has grown more intense as an anti-Assad group known as the Free Syrian Army, composed partly of army defectors, has attacked and violently resisted loyalist forces. The United Nations, which has said more than 5,400 people have been killed in the uprising, said last week it could no longer reliably document the death toll. Russia, Assad's most important ally among his dwindling list of international supporters, said yesterday that it had persuaded his government to participate in informal mediation talks to be hosted by the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. The ministry, which made the announcement, said it had not received an answer from the opposition. The Syrian National Council, a large Syrian opposition group, was reported by Agence France-Presse to have rejected the offer outright unless Assad stepped down first, a condition that both Assad and Russia have said is unacceptable.