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23. The Plight of Palestinian Child Detainees ccording to Catherine Cook, Adah Kay and Adam Hanieh in Left Turn, approximately 350 Palestinian children, aged 12 to 18, are being held in Israeli prisons. Over 2,000 children have been arrested since the beginning of the second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation. This number corresponds with that given in a 2004 report by the human rights organisation Defense for Children International (DCI), which adds that another 170 children are held in military detention In August 2003, the US committed $28 million to international trade enhancements with Ethiopia. Beginning in July 2003, forces from the Pentagon's Combined Joint Task Force — Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) held a three-month bilateral training exercise with Ethiopian forces at the Hurso Training Camp northwest of Dire Dawa. The US Army's 10th Mountain Division recently completed a three-month program to train an Ethiopian Army division in countert- errorism attacks. Operations are coordinated through the CJTF-HOA regional base in Djibouti, where the Halliburton subsidiary KBR is the prime contractor. In 2000, Texas-based Sicor Inc. signed a $1.4 billion-dollar deal with Ethiopia for the "Gazoil" joint venture to exploit oil and gas in the southeast Ogaden Basin. Hunt Oil Company of Dallas, Texas, is also involved in the Ogaden Basin through the subsidiary Ethiopia Hunt Oil Company. Hunt Oil's chairman and CEO Ray L. Hunt is also a director of Halliburton. (Source: World War 4 Report, issue 97, April 2004, http:/Avww.ww4report.com.97.html) centres. the prime contractor. Looking at the testimonies from hundreds of detained children, In 2000, Texas-based Sicor Inc. signed a $1.4 billion-dollar deal Cook et al. found a pattern in the children's experience of arrest, inter- with Ethiopia for the "Gazoil" joint venture to exploit oil and gas in rogation, sentencing and prison conditions. These patterns of abuse _ the southeast Ogaden Basin. Hunt Oil Company of Dallas, Texas, is are not just the actions of a few bad soldiers, but perhaps reveal a also involved in the Ogaden Basin through the subsidiary Ethiopia broader policy. Virtually every child interviewed describes a deliber- | Hunt Oil Company. Hunt Oil's chairman and CEO Ray L. Hunt is ate pattern of behaviour by Israeli soldiers or police characterised by _ also a director of Halliburton. violence, physical and psychological threats and overwhelming force, (Source: World War 4 Report, issue 97, April 2004, often in the middle of the night. http:/Avww.ww4report.com.97.html) According to the DCI report: "In many areas, Israel does not reach the standards demanded by the minimum rules [of the UN 25. Homeland Security Designed to Fail Convention of the Rights of a Child]... In the territories, the situation t was billed as America's frontline defence against terrorism, is even worse." but badly underfunded, crippled by special interests and ignored (Sources: Left Turn, August 19, 2004, by the White House, the Department of http://www.leftturn.org; Defence for Homeland Security (DHS) has been Children International, http://www. relegated to bureaucratic obscurity. dci-pal.org) Unveiled on March 1, 2003, it had . ao. been touted as the Bush 24. Ethiopian Indigenous Victims Ethiopia Is the latest US ally Administration's bold response to the of Corporate and Government i " " new threats facing America in the Resource Aspirations in the War on Terror post-Cold War world of global ccording to Keith Harmon Snow to turn its back on its terrorism. It is currently composed of (ww4report.com), the US-based indi 22 formerly separate federal agencies organisations Genocide Watch and own indigenous peoples. and boasts 186,200 employees. Its Survivors’ Rights International, after operations are funded by a budget of conducting field observations in nearly US$27 billion. January, released a conclusive report There are 15,000 industrial plants in on February 25, 2004. It provides evi- the US that produce toxic chemicals. dence that Ethiopian People's According to the Environmental Revolutionary Defense Front (EPRDF) soldiers and "Highlander" Protection Agency (EPA), about 100 of these could endanger up to a militias in the Anuak territory of Ethiopia have killed thousands million lives with poisonous clouds of ammonia, chlorine or carbon of native civilians. The Highlanders are predominantly Tigray disulphide that could be released over densely populated areas by a and Amhara peoples who resettled in Anuak territory in 1974 and terrorist attack. are on a quest to force the Anuak from the region. EPRDF sol- Following 9/11, there was a big push to increase security at all diers and Highlander settlers initiated a campaign of massacres, chemical plants in the United States. Democrats put forth a Chemical repressions and mass rapes, deliberately targeting the Anuak Security bill to codify parameters for site security, ensure safe trans- minorit! port of toxic materials and prevent accidents from happening. But Ethiopia is the latest US ally in the "War on Terror" to turn its back ~~ Republicans defeated the bill after oil companies pumped millions of on its own indigenous peoples. The Anuak territory is a zone coveted _ dollars into lobbying campaigns to stop it. by corporate interests for its oil and gold. According to Anuak Matthew Brzezinski, in Mother Jones, asserts that President Bush sources relying on sympathetic oppositionists within the regime, the doesn't put much importance, if any at all, on Homeland Security EPRDF plans to procure the petroleum of Gambella were laid out ata —_ reports. Security spending has risen just four per cent since 9/11, and top-level cabinet meeting in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) in most of that increase was only to cover higher insurance programs. September 2003. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi chaired the meeting, | There are many chemical plants that have no fencing requirements, at which the militant ethnic cleansing of the Anuaks was reportedly no cameras and no guards. He points out the spending needed to openly discussed. ensure the safety of US citizens and compares it (unfavourably) to the The killing of eight UN and Ethiopian Government officials, amount spent in Iraq over the same time period. whose van was ambushed on December 13, 2003, marked the start of Three years after 9/11, almost anybody can still gain entry into a coordinated military operation to systematically eliminate Anuaks. thousands of chemical sites across the US. If a factory spends lots of As of November 4, 2004, at least 1,500 and perhaps as many as 2,500 = money on security spending upgrades, its products can't compete Anuak civilians have died in the fighting. Intellectuals, leaders, stu- _ with other factories that spend nothing. Only legislation can level the dents and other educated classes have been intentionally targeted. playing field. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and many have mysteri- (Source: Mother Jones, September/October 2004, http://www. ously "disappeared". motherjones.com) oo Ethiopia is the latest US ally in the "War on Terror" 22 = NEXUS to turn its back on its own indigenous peoples. www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2005 — JANUARY 2006