Brazil: Truth commission bill passes

Under strong pressure from Dilma Rousseff, on 21 September the Chamber of Deputies passed a bill to create the Commission on Truth (see Brazil Focus, September 2011). The bill must still be approved by the Senate, where its rap­porteur is Aloysio Nunes Ferreira (PSDB-SP), himself a victim of the military repression.

From the rostrum of the UN General Assembly, whose 66th session she opened on 21 Septem­ber, Rousseff paid homage to Brazil's Commission on Truth, saying that she believed the initiative to be important for Brazil and for its position in the world. The terms for approval of the bill by the Chamber of Deputies were negotiated with the president by telephone when she was already in New York, and categorically excluded any revision of the 1979 Amnesty Law.

This makes the government's proposal more acceptable to radical elements, including some of the military. As it stands, the Commission will have no punitive powers, only that of producing relevant information. It will consist of seven members, eminent personalities appointed by the president for a term of two years.

For more news and expert analysis about Brazil, please see Brazil Focus.

© 2011 Menas Associates

Russia remains bitter about military action in Libya

On 17-8th March, the volunteer groups of lightly-armed revolutionaries - which had largely chased the regime out of Cyrenaica during the preceding weeks – suddenly lost their military dominance on the Gulf of Sirte's littoral highway. The regime's much more heavily armed forces, supported by both lethal air-power and hundreds of foreign mercenaries, regrouped and counter-attacked.

The revolutionaries were driven from much of the road junction and its hinterland at Ras Lanuf and, by 18th March, they appeared to have lost control of the access to the southern route behind the Jabel Al-Akhdar to Tobruq. Worse was to come in subsequent days as Colonel Mu'ammar Qadhafi's army marched on towards Ajedabia which fell after bitter fighting.

This then opened up the road to a final drive to the city of Benghazi – headquarters of the Interim Transitional National Council. An initial assault on Benghazi began when a squadron of tanks and support vehicles pushed into the city's outskirts. At that point, Qadhafi ordered a ceasefire which was, however, only the first of a number which were never implemented.

Events overtook the ceasefire proposals because the advances into the city motivated the international acceptance of the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 which was the product of intensive diplomatic efforts at the UN on the part of France and UK with background support from the US and Arab League.

In essence, the resolution provided for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libyan air space but no provision to bring in-ground forces at any stage in what was an agreement to force Colonel Qadhafi's supporters to cease their attacks on un armed civilian populations.

Resolution 1973, which was initially given little chance of being implemented, was passed by ten votes to nil in the UN General Assembly. The role of the Russians was singularly unhelpful. On 20th March, Russia demanded that indiscriminate attacks on Libya be abandoned and claimed that 48 civilians were killed in air strikes by “indiscriminate use of force ”. Ultimately, the Russians abstained from the vote but will remain bitter critics of the military action.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2011 Menas Associates

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says most people believe the US responsible for 9/11 attacks

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said most people believe the US government to be responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York Ahmadinejad claimed that the US government had orchestrated the 9/11 attacks to tighten its loosening grip on the Middle East.

The US and other Western delegations walked out in protest during the speech. However, that did not deter the Iranian leader as he moved on to say that the sanctions against Iran were unjust and ineffective, and added he was ready for the annual public dialogue with the US president.

Reiterating Iran's denial of its nuclear programme Ahmadinejad said some members of the UN Security Council had, "equated nuclear energy with nuclear bombs,” and added that 2011 should be the year of nuclear disarmament.

Addressing the General Assembly, Ahmadinejad said it was mostly US government officials and statesmen who believed that Al-Qa'ida militants carried out the 2001 attacks on the US. He said it was universally believed, "that some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime” and that the “majority of the American people as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view".

Source: BBC News

For more news and expert analysis about Iran, please see Iran Strategic Focus.