Archive - Aug 3, 2009

• Guantanamo detainees could be taken to US prisons
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares Africa trip
• Aid agencies bury more than 700 people in northern Nigeria following sectarian violence
• Pakistan recruits women police officers
• Senate investigates Iraq contractor KBR for exposing servicemen to hazardous chemical

• Clashes in South Sudan kill 180, largely civilians
• Protestors injured by police in Jerusalem during anti-eviction demonstration
• Mass trials in Iran for opposition demonstrators
• Honduras teachers on strike after weekend developments
• Venezuela silences 13 radio stations – more to follow
• Kenya cancels death penalty

Back in January, President Obama vowed he would close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay within a year. The administration has since then faced several challenges to its plans, and many questions over what it would do with more than 220 suspects who are currently at the detention center. The Associated Press reported Sunday that officials are considering moving detainees to US prisons, over the objections of many members of Congress. Tanya Snyder reports.

Senate investigates Iraq contractor KBR for exposing servicemen to hazardous chemical
On Capitol Hill today, lawmakers heard from US troops who were exposed to a chemical that causes respiratory problems. The chemical, sodium dichromate was used by government contractor Kellogg Brown and Root at a water treatment plant in Qarmat Ali, Iraq.

The hearing was convened by the Democratic Policy Committee, Chair Senator Byron Dorgan explained the reasons the reasons for continuing this investigation six years after the events in Qarmat Ali.

“At our previous hearing the person at this site for the contractor for Kellogg Brown and Root who was responsible for safety said he went to the company and said we´ve got a problem this site is not safe. The reaction of this contractor, to put him on a plane and send him out of the country. That was the reaction of Kellogg Brown and Root.”

Soldiers who worked at that plant say they came back home with respiratory infections and breathing problems, allegedly from exposure to sodium dichromate, which is used to prevent pipes from corroding. One of the Qarmat Ali veterans was David Moore, a member of the Indiana National Guard who died of lung cancer last year.

Some of the soldiers who served at Qarmat Ali have filed a lawsuit against KBR, where they argue the contractor failed to acknowledge the threat sodium dichromate posed to people´s health and ignored respiratory symptoms shown by soldiers working at the plant.

Russell Powell is a former member of the West Virginia National Guard who worked at the plant. Powell testified at today´s hearing.

“While I was at Qarmat Ali, I began suffering from severe nose bleeds.  Within three days at arriving at the plant in April 2003, I developed rashes on my knuckles, hands and forearms. I never had any problems before working at Qarmat Ali and I was very healthy beforehand.”

The hearing is raising questions about the Pentagon´s response to service members, like Powell, who had presented their complaints to army doctors and personnel.

KBR has been the subject of previous congressional hearings. And the company is currently facing a criminal investigation for its role in the death of a soldier who was electrocuted at an Iraq base, because of flawed wiring at his barrack´s showers.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is arriving in Africa on Tuesday. The stops on her official tour include Kenya,  South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.

Clinton´s trip comes just three weeks after President Obama made his first presidential visit to Africa, saying that the continent will be a priority for his administration.  Clinton will discuss trade, development and gender violence with African leaders but critics say that the militarization of Africa and the exploitation of its resources should take center stage.  FSRN´s Karen Miller has more.

In the northern Nigerian city of Maidiguru, aid workers say they´ve buried nearly 800 people in several mass graves. The latest violence began last week after an Islamic fundamentalist group known as Boko Haram attacked police facilities in the northern state of Borno.

Nigerian security forces say most of those killed have been militants but local human rights groups are skeptical of those claims, saying the Nigerian military and police have targeted civilians and used force excessively.

To learn more about this situation, FSRN contacted Eric Guttschuss, a Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. Gutchuss recently returned from Nigeria and he is closely monitoring the current situation.

Click here for HRW Report on arbitrary killings by Nigeria security forces.

Christian leaders in Pakistan closed schools in the mostly Muslim country, in protest of violence against members of the local Christian community.

Eight Christians were killed over the weekend when a mob of Islamic radicals attacked a Christian neighborhood near the eastern city of   Gojra. The Pakistani government says they´ve arrested some 200 involved in the attacks and will rebuild homes that were burned in the violence.
Meanwhile, the ongoing violence across the country is posing a problem in the government´s efforts to recruit police officers.  Taliban militants often target police headquarters and training facilities and last week a police officer was found decapitated in Mingora, the main city in the Swat valley.

To increase the number of officers, the Pakistani government has started to recruit women.
This new cadre of women cops are starting as traffic officers. They will brave suicide attacks and social prejudice as they try to restore order on Pakistan´s unruly roads.   
Catherine Komp reads for FSRN's reporter in Islamabad, Gabe Matthews.