<a href=www.oneworld.net>More Yadira Ferrer

BOGOTA, Mar 24 (IPS) - The Colombian government's decision to use a higher concentrate of the defoliant glyphosate in aerial spraying of coca crops has heightened the sense of alarm among environmentalists and local authorities, who complain of the effects that fumigation has had on human health and the environment.

They also point out that spraying merely forces many coca- growers to move to more remote areas in the jungle with little or no coca-planting tradition, where they carve out new fields on which to grow the illicit crop.

Colombian Minister of the Interior and Justice Fernando Londoño and police chief Teodoro Ocampo reported that the Environment Ministry had authorised an increase in the concentration of glyphosate -- a chemical defoliant produced by the U.S.-based Monsanto Corporation -- from eight to 10.4 litres per hectare.

The decision was based on reported findings that in some cases, the herbicide -- also known by its trade name Roundup -- served more as a fertiliser for native plant species than as a weedicide that destroyed coca.

Governors Floro Tunubalá of Cauca and Parmenio Cuéllar of Nariño, two departments or states in southern Colombia, have protested the use of more concentrated glyphosate, pointing out that they had received many complaints of skin and respiratory ailments from people living in areas that had been sprayed with the more diluted version.

The decision to increase the concentration of the herbicide is based on a U.S. State Department report according to which glyphosate does not pose a threat to human health.

But Cuéllar, the governor of Nariño, said ''It is not true that the fumigation is carried out with the chemicals that have been announced. These are much more toxic, and cause great harm to farmers and their subsistence crops.''

Since coca, which is used to produce cocaine, began to be sprayed here in the early 1990s, environmentalists have complained that the herbicide used also destroys subsistence crops, sickens domesticated animals, contaminates water supplies, and harms the flora and fauna of Colombia, a country rich in biodiversity.

In addition, they say, the herbicide, sprayed by the Colombian police and military from planes, often falls directly on indigenous peoples. Offices of the people's defender (ombudsman) around the country have received hundreds of complaints from peasant farmers of eye, respiratory, skin, and digestive problems, and of harm to legal crops, animals and water supplies.

People's Defender Eduardo Cifuentes told IPS that he had asked the constitutional court to annul the Environment Ministry's authorisation to increase the concentration of glyphosate.

Former president Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) did not allow small coca plantations to be targetted by the spraying, in order to avoid antagonising peasant farmers in the midst of the touchy peace talks that his government was carrying out with the main guerrilla group.

But the talks broke off in February 2002, and when right-wing President Alvaro Uribe took office in August 2002, he launched a new phase of Plan Colombia, a largely U.S.-financed anti-drug strategy widely criticised by activists as a counterinsurgency offensive.

The new phase of Plan Colombia entailed much broader aerial spraying with glyphosate, even on coca farms of less than three hectares, which were previously included in the voluntary manual eradication programme in which farmers were given incentives to switch to legal crops.

According to the latest annual coca survey released on Mar. 17 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for Colombia and Ecuador, the land planted in the illicit crop in Colombia shrank from 144,807 hectareas in 2001 to 102,071 in 2002 -- a 30 percent reduction.

The results were partly due to expanded spraying by the Colombian government, especially in the southern departments of Putumayo and Caquetá, UNODC Colombia head Klaus Nyholm said in the report.

U.S. government statistics indicate that Putumayo and Caquetá produce around 60 percent of the coca leaves grown in this civil war-torn South American nation of 42 million, which has made the two departments the chief focus of Plan Colombia.

Nyholm said that another factor that may have contributed to the shrinking of the surface area planted in coca was a drop in prices, especially since the prices of farm products like cocoa beans and sugar rose at the same time, making coca less attractive.

To produce its annual coca survey, UNODC relies on the Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System (SIMCI), a joint venture set up in 1999 by the UN agency and the Colombian government. UNODC uses similar monitoring systems in Bolivia and Peru, which also produce coca, as well as in several opium poppy-growing countries in the Middle East and Asia.

The UNODC report also noted that between 2001 and 2002, coca- growing expanded slightly in Colombia's Amazon region, while new plantations were discovered in Venezuela and Ecuador, in areas along the Colombian border.

While the UN agency reported an overall drop in illegal crops in the Andean region, from a combined total of 210,000 hectares in 2001 to 172,000 hectares in 2002, the area planted in coca in Bolivia rose from 19,000 to 24,000 hectares, while falling only slightly in Peru, from 46,232 hectares in 2001 to 46,000 last year.

The case of Bolivia indicates the inconsistent way that Washington-dictated counter-drug policy has been implemented in that country, argued Ricardo Vargas, the Colombian representative of Acción Andina, a non-governmental organisation that studies the effects of the fight against drug trafficking on indigenous and peasant people in the Andean region.

Vargas told IPS that what has occurred in Bolivia demonstrated that ''getting one's hopes up over statistics is not recommended, because the numbers only reflect circumstantial effects.''

He pointed out that in 2000, ''the United States proclaimed the success of the forced eradication programme to which the peasants and indigenous people in Bolivia were subjected.''

As a result of forced eradication, coca production in Bolivia shrank from 48,000 to 14,000 hectares in 2000, before climbing again, to 19,900 hectares in 2001 and 24,000 in 2002, said Vargas.

He explained that indigenous people and peasant farmers in Bolivia were forced to take part in a crop substitution programme that replaced coca with seven legal products, such as bananas and pineapples.

But once the harvest was in, the farmers found there was no market for their new crops -- a situation that triggered a wave of protests and social discontent that nearly catapulted the leader of the coca-growers, lawmaker Evo Morales, to the presidency in last year's elections as the candidate for the Movement to Socialism. (END/2003)

South China Morning Post

War casualities: US troops from the 3rd Infantry Division carry a wounded Iraqi prisoner for treatment at a battalion aid centre on a captured airfield in southern Iraq after heavy fighting in Nasiriyah.

Pentagon says 300 Iraqis may be dead after battle

Up to 300 Iraqis may have been killed overnight (HK time) when they attacked the US Seventh Calvary near the town of Najaf, about 160km south of Baghdad, the Pentagon said.

Sandstorms hit Baghdad advance

Blinding sandstorms threaten to achieve what Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard have so far failed to do - hold up the march of coalition forces into Baghdad.

British forces plan to support any Basra uprising

The British military said overnight (HK time) it believed citizens of Basra were rising up against President Saddam Hussein, but an Iraqi minister denied a revolt was underway in Iraq's southern city.

Two British soldiers killed by 'friendly fire'

Two British tank crew members were killed by ''friendly fire'' from another British tank near Iraq's southern city of Basra, officials said overnight (HK time).

US television networks losing the fight against biased coverage

Media-watchers on both sides of the war have declared the Americans the losers. Embedded journalists and hi-tech equipment have so far not been able to deflect accusations that US television networks are presenting biased coverage.

Waiting for refugees in cruellest place on the planet

"This place looks like God roasted it," Raphael Mutiku said as we travelled through Badiyat ash Sham, the great desert that stretches from Jordan and Syria into Iraq.

Americans brace for a longer and bloodier conflict

News of coalition fatalities and troops held prisoner have changed Americans' expectations of the potential scale and tragedy of the Iraq conflict, a poll showed yesterday, as President George W. Bush prepared to ask Congress for a US$74.7 billion (HK$582.2 billion) war chest.

In halls of power and on the streets, opposition is muted

Despite wide public opposition to the war, China is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council that has not seen widespread protests.

America's 'war without suspense'

Alex Liebman was accosted last week in the cafeteria by a usually mild-mannered teacher here at Xiaoshi Middle School in Ningbo, Zhejiang. "Why is the US attacking Iraq? The US is trying to establish a new empire and set up hegemony over the whole world," he said. I struggled to swallow my rice before responding: "I oppose the war too. Please let me finish my food."

<a href=www.globes.co.il>More Zeev Klein   25 Mar 03   14:16

"International Investor's" did not refer to the possible ramifications the Iraq War and Benjamin Netanyahu’s appointment as minister of finance may have on Israel’s economy.

Israel’s position on international financial markets is deteriorating. Israel’s ranking fell to 45th place in " International Investor's" Country Credit Ratings for 2002, with 56.1 points out a possible 100. The new score is a 2.5-point drop in Israel’s rating for its economic performance in the past six months.

The rankings appear in the bi-annual journal’s March issue.

Israel’s ranking has slipped seven places in the past 30 months since the outbreak of the intifada and high-tech crisis in late 2000.

"International Investor's" did not refer to the possible ramifications the Iraq War and Benjamin Netanyahu’s appointment as minister of finance may have on Israel’s economy. Nor is there any specific reference to the government’s new economic plan.

The main losers from global economic crises in 2002 were Uruguay, Argentine, Venezuela, Brazil, and Japan, which lost between 17.4 and 3.9 points.

The main winners last year were Russia, South Korea, Afghanistan and Lithuania, which gained between 9.5 and 4.5 points.

Switzerland, Luxembourg, the US, the Netherlands, and Norway led the 2002 Country Credit Ratings with between 95.3 and 92.8 points.

The lowest ranked countries were Afghanistan, Congo, Iraq, and North Korea, with between 6.7 and 8.9 points.

Israel fell from fifth to sixth place among the Middle Eastern countries in the ratings table. Israel is behind Kuwait, Cyprus, Qatar, and Oman, and ahead of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on March 25, 2003

<a href=www.sfgate.com>OIL: Prices rise as war outlook darkens Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Oil prices surged Monday for the first time in eight trading sessions as fears increased over a prolonged Iraqi war and turmoil in petroleum-rich Nigeria.

Traders were reacting to news over the weekend that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was encountering stiff resistance. If it continues, Iraq's oil industry may take longer to return to normal production than expected, analysts said.

In addition, pumping in Nigeria has been significantly cut because of sporadic battles between ethnic militants and the Nigerian government. A handful of companies, including ChevronTexaco of San Ramon, have curtailed production in that West African nation and evacuated employees.

"The odds of a very quick resolution in Iraq fell over the weekend, or at least perception," said George Beranek, manager of market analysis for PFC Energy, a consulting and research firm in Washington. "Nigeria is also part of it."

Crude prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange for May delivery jumped Monday to $28.66, up $1.70. They had declined nearly 25 percent over the past couple of weeks from near a 12-year high of $37, as traders anticipated a quick finish to the Iraqi war.

The volatile oil market has affected consumers, as increases in oil prices naturally lead to higher gasoline prices. On Monday, a gallon of unleaded fuel in San Francisco sold for an average of $2.27, just a penny shy of the all- time record set last week, according to AAA of Northern California.

Traders are worried about how much control U.S.-led forces have over the oil fields of southern Iraq. Officials previously said they had captured the fields. Now they are indicating that Iraqis are still a threat there.

Several oil wells in southern Iraq are still burning. A major oil field in northern Iraq has yet to be captured.

Before the war, Iraq exported an average of about 2 million barrels of crude a day. Those exports essentially stopped after the departure of the United Nations workers who oversaw Iraq's oil-for-food humanitarian program.

Also contributing to higher oil prices, analysts said, is unrest in Nigeria.

ChevronTexaco's Nigerian subsidiary said Sunday that it has evacuated 1,600 employees and cut production by 440,000 barrels a day in the West Niger Delta. ChevronTexaco has a 40 percent stake in the subsidiary.

Royal Dutch/Shell's Nigerian subsidiary also has cut production. Nigeria is the fifth-largest source of oil imports in the United States, supplying 5.9 percent of total imports.

Nigeria's oil woes come on top of a strike in Venezuela that damaged the petroleum industry there and caused world crude prices to jump. Venezuelan production has recovered somewhat since the strike began in December, but it is still short of normal levels.

John Kingston, global director for oil at Platt's, an energy information service in New York, said world oil inventories are tight and will probably remain that way in the near future. He added that the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries may actually cut production after the Iraq war is over because they fear a glut in the market.

"You've got to assume that the market is going to remain tight," Kingston said.

Also on Monday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced a bill that would require the Federal Trade Commission to investigate any time gasoline prices increase by more than 20 percent in a three-month period. She has already asked the FTC to look into the current jump in prices for evidence of illegal manipulation.

A state probe into high gasoline, diesel and natural gas prices called for by Gov. Gray Davis is under way. The results are due this week.

E-mail Verne Kopytoff at vkopytoff@sfchronicle.com.

URL

Despite the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), Mr. Jackson Gaius Obaseki’s promise that the fuel scarcity currently being experienced all over the country would abate by penultimate weekend, the contrary appeared to be the case as the expected 200,000 metric tonnes of premium motor spirit (petrol) has done little to mitigate the anguish of motorists and commuters.

FOR commuters and motorists alike, most of whom have almost forgotten the hassles associated with fuel scarcity, these past four weeks have indeed been trying. For just when Nigerians having enjoyed considerable stability in product supply in the past three and half years, were beginning to heave a sigh of relief that fuel scarcity and its attendant problems were now a thing of the past, long queues suddenly re-emerged at filling stations across the land. Often these fuel queues stretched for kilometres.

In Lagos, the latest fuel crisis as usual brought out the worst in motorists and filling stations attendants as most motorists in trying to procure fuel blocked the roads with their vehicles, thus resulting in traffic gridlocks while the attendants on their part, adopted several means of shortchanging customers. Street urchins also cashed in on the chaos at most filling stations to make brisk business.

At the Total Filling Station, Alakuko in Alagbado on Abeokuta Expressway, at the instance of the station’s management perhaps, pump attendants made brisk business. Motorcyclists were only allowed into the premises after paying a toll of N50 at the gate. This was aside the mandatory token of N50 to the attendant who sold the fuel. But as the motorcyclists (Okada riders) pointed out to the DAILY TIMES, “ it is better to part with this sum of money than to spend four to five hours at the station.

Motorists on their part, had to part with N200 and more to refuel their vehicles while noncompliant buyers were not obliged with fuel.

Moreover, a group of young men armed with jerry-cans of fuel were seen milling around the station, obviously looking for desperate motorists on the queue, who ended up parting with as much as N3000 for 25 litres. According to a motorist, Mr. Akinwale Gboyega, rather than stay endlessly on the queue and probably have his car dented in the process , he preferred to buy from the black market.

Strikingly, while many fuel stations lacked fuel for sale, hundreds of street urchins, otherwise known as ‘area boys’ were seen in different parts of the city peddling the scarce product though at exorbitant prices. For example, 50 litres of petrol which official price was N1300 was sold for N3500 while 25 litres, sold at N1,600 instead of N650.

As one of the ubiquitous fuel hawkers, Saheed, disclosed, their prohibitive price was determined by the extra charges collected by the fuel stations before it could be sold to them in jerry cans. For instance, the total cost of purchasing a 50-litre jerry can of petrol came to N2200, though the pump cost was N1600, thus, settling amounted to N800. Saying that they often operated from morning till late in the night, especially at filling stations with very long queues, Saheed said their customers were often affluent persons or those who were too busy to queue for fuel. He also claimed that some stations had adjusted their metres to reduce the quantity being sold to unsuspecting motorists.

But the area boys had the Police to worry about. Sometimes, the security men came round to seize their fuel while at other times, they (street urchins) bribed them to forestall seizure of their priced product, Saheed said.

Princess, a business woman, lamented that the current fuel crises was affecting her business hence she had to resort to the black market in order to be mobile. “ Last Monday, I was forced to buy 20 litres of petrol at the black market for N2000 due to the fact that I had an urgent supply to make to my client,” she said. When she spoke to the DAILY TIMES, she claimed to have been on the fuel queue at the station since 6.30 a.m., thereby, foregoing the day’s activities.

Expectedly, commuters are the ones who bore the brunt of the hassles being experienced by commercial bus drivers to procure premium spirit. A driver on the Iyana-Ipaja/Ikeja route, Babajide, bluntly stated that , “this is our time to make money; we queue for fuel for several hours, yet we have to pay the Police, the touts and also deliver to the owner of the bus. Commuters must face the reality.”

Similarly, a commercial bus driver, Mr. Oludare Adekunle, said he had been on the queue since the early hours of the day having exhausted the fuel he bought three days ago. If eventually, he got fuel, commuters would have to pay for the wasted time on the queue since he had to deliver a certain amount of money to his boss. It was such situation that made most commercial drivers to hike transportation fares, Adekunle explained.

A commuter, who resided in Gowon Estate, Egbeda, a sprawling suburb on the outskirts of Lagos and worked in Victoria Island, lamented that ever since the resurgence of fuel queues, he now spent between N400 and N600 daily on transport. Previously, a bus ride from Egbeda o Obalende, CMS cost either N80 or N100, but given the current fuel crisis, commercial bus operators now charged between N150 and N200 depending on the crowd. Worse still, there was a Monday when commuters on that route had to cough out as much as N250 to Obalande.”

Parents also complained of having to spend more on their children’s transport fare to their various schools. One Mr. Omotunde, complained that, one of his children fell ill last week due to the long distance he trekked from Egbeda to Ikotun, where his school was located because he was unable to struggle with fellow commuters for the few available buses on the routes.

It does not appear that Nigerians are comfortable with the excuses being thrown up by the Federal Government and the relevant officials in the sector on the actual causes of the crises. As Mr. Ojo asserted, this was what he considered the most frustrating aspect of the crisis. “How can one suffer for what he did not know and for how long, he cannot say,” he asked. Initially, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Jerry Gana, had linked the current crises to detractors who wanted to sink the ship of the state.

However, after several weeks of speculation on the causes of the shortage, President Olusegun Obasanjo in far away Damaturu, Yobe State, traced the crisis to the war between America and Iraq, which made oil prices go up. He also said that the strike of oil workers in Venezuela contributed to the increase in the price on the international market. The Presidentc further stated that they thought the problem had been resolved, apparently in reference to the temporary abatement of the scarcity.

Investigations by the DAILY TIMES revealed that the officials of the petroleum ministry did not react promptly to the dynamics of international oil price. The surge in oil prices last month brought the price to an all time peak of about $40 per barrel. This increase sparked off a disagreement between the major marketers and the NNPC. International media reports indicate that oil prices are usually agreed upon two months ahead of its supply. For instance, in anticipation of a surge in oil prices in the event of war, Saudi Arabia the largest oil producer said it had secured 14 extra tankers to ship an additional 29.9 million barrels to the US, which was expected to be delivered in May. During the last OPEC meeting, it also said it was pumping more oil to meet the world’s demand, by 1.5 million barrels per day. The same cushioning was also made by the International Energy Agency ( IEA). These explained why oil prices slumped to as low as 31.16 dollars per barrel according to its Director, Claude Mandel.

Reacting to this development, the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. John Odeyemi, asked the government to increase the price of fuel. As he argued, given that most of the fuel used in the country was imported, then , the difference in local pump price and the cost of importation constituted a huge deficit on the government. As such, it had become imperative to adjust the price.

Arguing that a lasting solution to this problem can be engineered by the relevant authorities ,Odeyemi canvassed for more commitment in the repair of the refineries to check the perennial crisis associated with price increase, while suggesting that the time had come for the government to enter into a barter arrangement with oil firms in Nigeria. Such arrangement will see these functions as a liaison with their relevant branches overseas that could receive and refine fuel for the country at a lower price and shipped in on a special import duty basis.

“The Federal Government can ask Agip, Mobil or others to take oil abroad to refine and bring it back under a special arrangement,” he argued.

But such responsibility may not be convenient to the government considering the impasse that had dogged the current fuel crises. For instance, while the major marketers are insisting that only a hike in the price to N37 would determine their future participation in importing refined products, NNPC, the organisation in charge of importing the fuel into the country, has maintained it would not succumb to any price increase.