Cyrenaican Nationalists in Libya Form Regional Government, No Longer Even Pretending It’s Not about the Oil

The question of centralism vs. federalism in the new Libya, and in particular the question of whether the oil-rich east of the country, called Cyrenaica (or Barqa, in Arabic), should have its own autonomous government, has returned.  And this time the pro-home-rule Cyrenaicans seem to really mean it.  Separatist militants have even taken over oil-industry facilities, crippling the nation’s power grid.

In March of last year (as reported at the time in this blog), with Libyans still reeling from a quick European-facilitated Arab Spring revolution which eliminated their long-time dictator, Moammar al-Qaddafi, leaders in the Cyrenaica region declared that they were now an autonomous region.  The leader of the autonomists, Prince Ahmed al-Zubair al-Senussi, was a great-nephew of King Idris, a member of the Sufist “House of Senussi” which ruled Cyrenaica during its brief period of British-backed independence after the defeat of the old colonial power, Italy, in the Second World War.

Moammar al-Qaddafi

Idris stayed in power when the United Nations and the United Kingdom folded the Emirate of Cyrenaica into a United Kingdom of Libya in 1951, joining it to the former British colony of Tripolitania to the west and the vast, arid Fezzan region to the south, which had been part of French West Africa.  The 1951 constitution guaranteed strong local powers to the three regions, in a loose federation.  The new Libyan capital was officially Tripoli, capital of Tripolitania, but Idris ruled from the old Senussi family seat in Benghazi, Cyrenaica.  In 1963, King Idris centralized the government, dissolving the three autonomous regions and breaking them into smaller, less powerful provinces.  Tripolitanians regarded this as a Cyrenaican power-grab.  By 1969, Libya was seen as weak and precarious with its aging, childless monarch regarded as a British stooge beholden to European oil interests (as, arguably, he was—otherwise the British would not have installed him).  Plus, the Suez Canal crisis and, more immediately, the 1967 Arab–Israeli War had stoked unprecedented Arab nationalism, which made the Senussis look like some kind of Ottoman-era anachronism.  So an ambitious army colonel named Moammar al-Qaddafi, born in a Bedouin tent in Tripolitania, overthrew the king in 1969, kicked out foreign oil firms, and installed a petroleum-fueled socialist dictatorship which shifted power back to Tripoli.  A failed Senussi-led monarchist coup in 1970 only tightened Qaddafi’s grip on the east.

King Idris—once ruler of Cyrenaica, then of Libya

Thus, when, in 2011, it looked like the Arab Spring revolutions would come to Libya next, Cyrenaica was unsurprisingly the center of rebellion, and for quite a while during the 2011 civil war, the internationally backed transitional rebel government was based in Benghazi.  The June 2012 elections went smoothly, despite threats by Zubair’s Cyrenaica National Council and other regionalists to disrupt them.  Then, near the first anniversary of those elections, came another autonomy declaration from Zubair.  It was largely ignored, but the next developments weren’t.

Ahmed al-Zubayr al-Senussi at this year’s autonomy declaration

In July, a mostly non-political labor strike at Cyrenaican oil fields and refineries provided the occasion for more militant Cyrenaican nationalists, led by Ibraham al-Jadhran, to piggy-back their cause onto that of the oil workers and add autonomy for Cyrenaica to the strike demands.  In October, Jadhran’s Political Bureau of Cyrenaica (P.B.C.) declared the formation of a Cyrenaican government, one with no Senussis in it.  Zubair later clarified at a press conference that his own group, now called the Council of Cyrenaica in Libya (C.C.L.), had failed to find an accommodation with Jadhran and had nothing to do with the new “government”—which, incidentally, the central government in Tripoli also denounces as illegitimate.

The flag of the former Emirate of Cyrenaica

Now that the gentle, Sufist, royally-descended, and for the most part accommodationist autonomists of the C.C.L. have had the banner of Cyrenaican pride snatched from them by a more radical and better-armed militia led by Jadhran, it is not clear what the movement’s new direction will be.  Is there an Islamist component to the new provisional government?  It is not yet clear, but the fact that Benghazi has, in the post-Qaddafi era, become a breeding ground for salafist radicals who are contemptuous of the region’s Sufi heritage makes one wonder.  (This is only one part of the world where Islamists are going head to head with more moderate Sufis—and winning.  It also happened in northern Mali last year and is also the dynamic in the North Caucasus, western Saudi Arabia, and northern Somalia.)  After last year’s killing of the United States ambassador in the city, the very name Benghazi has in the U.S. at least become synonymous with the vulnerability of Western interests, and of Libya’s fragile democracy, to fundamentalist violence.

Nor is eastward the only direction in which Libya is being pulled apart.  The southern region, Fezzan, also declared an autonomous government this summer.  Fezzan is an ethnic mix of mostly non-Arabs—including Toubous who were dismissed by Qaddafi as “black Chadians” and stripped of their citizenship rights, as well as Tuaregs who were traditionally loyal to Qaddafi and who stoked a separatist Tuareg uprising in northern Mali last year which was co-opted by Algerian-based Islamist radicals and then, early this year, toppled by France’s military.  It is very unclear as yet what role Tuareg nationalists—or, even, Islamist radicals—might have in Fezzan’s emerging regionalist movement.

Cyrenaica’s coat-of-arms

The ongoing talks on a new Libyan constitution are now being boycotted not only by the Cyrenaican and Fezzani separatists but, in Tripolitania itself, by the Berber minority.  Berbers, who are in some sense the indigenous people of the North African Maghreb, are linguistically and culturally related to the Tuareg and make up about 5% of Libya’s population but a quarter of Algeria’s and 40% of Morocco’s. The mostly mountain-dwelling Berbers of Libya, who fought bravely against Qaddafi on his home turf, want Berber declared an official language and their cultural rights and autonomy enhanced.  Berber activists from the Amazigh High Council have taken over a harbor in Mellitah—in Tripolitania, along the border with Tunisia—which is crucial to Libya’s oil economy, and in particular to Italy’s energy supply.

Berbers initially celebrated the new post-Qaddafi order in Libya

Libya’s movement toward a constitutional democracy is now stalled, and its very economy is being held hostage.  So far, the ardent nationalism seems mostly to be of the regional kind, but, as we have seen in Mali, purely local regional fights can, in a power vacuum, become something else entirely.  Is this the beginning of the break-up of Libya?

Rebels fly a Berber flag at the captured Mellitah oil harbor in western Tripolitania

[You can read more about these and many other separatist and new-nation movements, both famous and obscure, in my new book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas just published by Litwin Books under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements and Aspirant Nations, from Abkhazia to Zanzibar.  The book, which contains 46 maps and 554 flags (or, more accurately, 554 flag images), is available for order now on Amazon.  Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even if you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook and see this interview for more information on the book.]

On Election Eve, Mali’s Tuaregs Vow: Autonomy or War

Not a single hanging chad in sight

Votes are still being counted from the Republic of Mali’s runoff election yesterday, with huge implications for the unity of the country.  Tuareg rebels, in league for a while with Islamists affiliated with al-Qaeda, controlled the northern three-fifths or so of the country for about a year until February of this year, when invading French troops put the Malian government in control of the region’s cities.  But the Tuareg-led National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (known by its acronym in French, M.N.L.A.) says it will restart the war if any new government does not respect the autonomy of the large, sparsely-populated northern desert region called Azawad.

Map of Mali, showing the formerly de facto independent republic of Azawad in purple

The M.N.L.A. raised the stakes after the July 28th Malian elections it grudgingly recognized and yesterday’s runoff, the results from which are still inconclusive.  The group’s main European spokesman, Moussa Ag Assarid, said August 4th at a conference in Corsica organized by the local separatist Corsa Libera party that the Tuareg rebel group would take up arms against any new government in Bamako that did not guarantee autonomy to Azawad.  A peace deal reached in June stipulates that Bamako will open negotiations with the M.N.L.A. within 60 days of forming a cabinet following these elections.

Moussa Ag Assarid (right) speaking alongside a Berber separatist at a rally in Paris. 

If things do come to that, the M.N.L.A. may not be alone.  On August 9th, in neighboring Mauritania, the M.N.L.A. announced that they had patched things up with two rival Azawadi militias: the High Unity Council of Azawad and the anti-Islamist Arab Movement of the Azawad (M.A.A., formerly known as the National Liberation Front of Azawad, or F.L.N.A.).  This buries the hatchet following remote desert clashes between the groups in April.  Although French and Malian troops control Azawad’s cities, rebels still control areas of northern Mali’s vast deserts—it is not clear entirely how much.  Azawad’s “Arabs”—actually ethnic Berbers who have been speaking Arabic for centuries—are often also called “Moors”—in French Maures, hence the name Mauritania, where they are the largest ethnic group.  These Moors are the main inhabitants of most of Azawad’s territory but are only a small part of the population (perhaps 10-15%, though figures are unreliable), with little presence in the Tuareg-dominated cities of Timbuktu, Kidal, and Gao.  (The Tuareg language is somewhat close to Berber but only very distantly related to Arabic.)

Facing off for the presidency are the Rally for Mali party’s Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, a former prime minister of Mali (1994-2000), who got 40% of the vote in the July 28th round, and a former finance minister, Soumaïla “Sumy” Cissé, current president of the West African Monetary Union, who got 20%.  Cissé, who faces an uphill battle, is a native of Niafunké, the town in the far south of Azawad’s Timbuktu province, which is also the home town of possibly the world’s most famous Malian, the late musician Ali Farka Touré.  Both Keïta and Cissé have campaigned on vows to end the Azawad conflict without partitioning the country.  If they are not prepared to allow the 10% of the Malian population who are Tuareg and Moor a quasi-state in the north, that may be an impossible promise to keep.

If Keïta wins, he will have the perhaps impossible task of keeping Mali together.

[Also, for those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with a forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  Look for it some time in 2013.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.]

Dream of a Tuareg State Fizzles: Is This the End of Azawad? (Mali Update)

The flag of the Independent State of Azawad.  Is it time to fold it up?

[Other blog articles on this topic: “Mali Becomes the Latest African Country to Split along North–South Lines” (Feb. 5, 2012), “A New Country in Africa: Islamic Republic of Azawad” (April 5, 2012), and “Why It Matters What You Call Your Country: Cyprus vs. Northern Cyprus, Azawad vs. THE Azawad” (April 17, 2012).]

Secular Tuaregs Drop Separatist Agenda, Just Want Islamists Ejected.  The secular Tuareg separatist army called the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (M.N.L.A.) announced July 15th that it was dropping its goal of secession from the Republic of Mali.  The group declared independence in early April for the Tuareg-dominated northern two-thirds of Mali, which then became the unrecognized Independent State of Azawad.  But gradually Ansar al-Dine, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militia that aided in the Tuareg conquest of Mali’s northern cities—while the central government was paralyzed by a military coup d’état—took over the governing of Azawad and has been imposing a harsh form of Islamic law (shari’a) on the population.  Ibrahim Ag Assaleh, a senior M.N.L.A. official, told media on the 15th, “We are seeking cultural, political, and economic independence, but not secession.  It would be something like Quebec.”  Another official, Hama Ag Mahmoud, added, “Independence has been our line since the start of the conflict, but we are taking on board the view of the international community to resolve the crisis.”  However, another M.N.L.A. spokesman, Moussa Ag Assarid, says that the group has not abandoned the quest for independence and says any such reports are deliberate misinformation.  Clearly, then, there is not M.N.L.A. unanimity on the issue.  For its part, Ansar al-Dine claims that its goal is to impose shari’a on all of Mali—which is so unlikely that in reality they will only be able to achieve a brief de facto independent Azawad made up of the Islamist-controlled areas—until the international community starts trying to wipe them off the face of the Sahel.

Ansar al-Dine’s flag welcomes arrivals in Azawadi cities

Various international organizations—the United Nations (U.N.), the African Union (A.U.), and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas)—have favored a return to civilian rule in the capital and a reunification of the country.  But the International Crisis Group (I.C.G.), a global non-governmental organization (N.G.O.), said in a report on July 18th that Mali’s crisis of leadership in the capital needs to be resolved before Azawad can be recaptured by military intervention, and the foreign ministers of France and Algeria issued a joint statement July 15th favoring political over military solutions.

Pro-Government “Gandakoy” Militia in Mali’s Mopti State Defects to Islamists.  About 400 fighters from a militia known as the “Gandakoy,” formerly loyal to the Malian government, have switched sides and are now allied with Ansar al-Dine.  The defection seems to have occurred in Douentza, in Mopti province—the southernmost and by far most populous and least nomadic and least ethnically Tuareg portion of Azawad, though only part of Mopti is under Azawadi control.  Douentza, in fact, lies right on the border area between Azawad-controlled and Malian-controlled areas.

To understand what this defection means, we should review a little about Mali’s ethnic geography.  The Tuareg are a nomadic people related to the Berber who inhabit a vast interior desert area that includes, in addition to Azawad, parts of Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso, Algeria, and Libya.  Tuaregs were the personal strike force of Moammar al-Qaddafi, and it was Tuaregs fleeing the anti-Tuareg reprisals of the post-Qaddafi regime in Libya who stoked separatism in northern Mali earlier this year.  The three northern Malian provinces of Gao, Kidal, and Timbuktu—which, with Mopti, make up Azawad’s claimed territory—are overwhelmingly Tuareg (other than an Arab, or “Moorish,” minority along Timbuktu province’s border with Mauritania).  But Mopti is a far more densely populated, less arid area which is home to Dogon, Songhai, Bambara, Bozo, Fulani (a.k.a. Peul, speakers of Fula, a.k.a. Fulfulde), and other ethnic groups.  (Bambaras dominate in southern Mali and in the capital, Bamako.)

A map showing The three main provinces of Azawad to the north—Timbuktu, Kidal, and Gao—plus the semi-Azawadi-controlled Mopti province, with the areas of its Songhai, Dogon, and Fulani (Fulfulde-speaking) inhabitants.

It is hard to learn much about the Gandakoy, which appears to be dominated by the Songhai, but a Facebook account active mainly in February and March of this year, named Mouvement Patriotique Malien Gandakoy (Patriotic Malian Movement of Gandakoy), emphasizes multi-ethnic Mopti’s edge in population over the territorial vastness of the thinly populated, nomadic, Tuareg parts of Azawad—writing, in a March 1st status update, “The French media have de facto adopted M.N.L.A.’s definition of Azawad and stubbornly want to instill in the minds of the public that Azawad consists of four major regions, namely Timbuktu, Gao, Kidal, and Mopti”—a territory which, because of Mopti, has “a majority (90%) of sedentary Songhai, Peul, Bozo, Arabs, Bambara, making up a population of 6 to 7 million inhabitants.”  The Tuareg separatist M.N.L.A., which launched the secession, “represents,” the status update goes on, “only a tiny fraction of this population.”  The page’s profile picture includes a map coloring an area that includes all of Mali, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau, most of Sierra Leone, plus western Niger, southern Mauritania and bits of Burkina Faso and Algeria.  This area corresponds to no single ethnic or religious group, leading to the impression that these are ultranationalists nostalgic for the old days of the Malian Empire.  So their switch to join the anti-nationalist, internationalist-jihadist Ansar al-Dine is a case of strange bedfellows—especially since part of, perhaps most of, Ansar al-Dine’s leadership and membership is Tuareg.  More curiously, an apparently pro-M.N.L.A. website, in a December 2011 article, identified the Gandakoy as “nothing but an emanation of the Malian government” (this was before the coup d’état) which practices terrorism against Tamasheq (i.e. Tuareg) and Arab civilians.  I would welcome any further enlightenment from readers on who the Gandakoy are and how they fit into Mali’s rapidly shifting political ethnoscape.

The Gandakoy Facebook page profile picture.

Ansar al-Dine Literally Whips Secularists into Line after Uprising near Timbuktu.  In Goundam, west of Timbuktu, in Azawad, secularists rose up July 13th against their Ansar al-Dine overlords after a young Islamist patrolman whipped a woman carrying a baby because she (the mother) was wearing an inadequately modest veil.  The baby fell as a result of the attack and was critically injured, according to witnesses.  This was too much for the citizenry, about 100 of whom then marched on the Ansar al-Dine local headquarters, vandalized it, and looted food supplies.  The Islamists responded with a crackdown—surrounding the town with checkpoints and going door to door to round up suspected dissidents and, reportedly, whipping 90 of them.  By the next day, most residents were staying inside while heavily armed jihadists patrolled the city.  Goundam originally had a population of 13,000, but since the civil war began in March, about two-thirds of the population has fled.

Ansar al-Dine

Islamist Threats Lead to Cancellation of Moorish Conference in Azawad.  A pro-secession group dominated by Azawad’s Arab (Moorish) minority has had to cancel a conference after threats of violence from radical Islamists.  The Moorish group, the National Liberation Front of Azawad (called N.L.F.A. or, more commonly, F.N.L.A., its French acronym), originally scheduled the July 7th conference, in Boujbeiha, north of Timbuktu, for dignitaries and community leaders from Azawad’s Moorish communities, some of them residents of refugee camps for Malians in neighboring Mauritania.  A Timbuktu journalist said that Ansar al-Dine denied issuing the threats, suggesting that the threats came from the al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (A.Q.I.M.), the regional terrorist network of which Ansar al-Dine is in some ways a local affiliate.  The conference, however, will be rescheduled, and an F.N.L.A. activist, Sidi Ould Abdallah, said, “We will challenge these threats to express Azawad Arabs’ refusal to give in to a theocracy.”

MUJAO Releases 6 Algerian, European Hostages.  The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), another offshoot of A.Q.I.M. which has also been running wild in Azawad, has released three of the seven diplomats from Algeria that it had abducted in Gao, in Azawad, around the time of the territory’s declaration of independence, on April 5th.  The release was announced on July 12th.  A few days later, on July 18th, MUJAO freed two aid workers from Spain and one from Italy who had been kidnapped in October 2011 from a refugee camp in Algeria for refugees from Western Sahara.  The three were flown to safety in Burkina Faso before returning home to Europe.

One last group photo before we have to go home!

[Also, for those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with a forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  Look for it in spring 2013.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.]

The Week in Separatist News, 20-26 May 2012: Azawadis Unite, Scots Launch Campaign, Aborigines Declare Sovereignty, FIFA Team for Kosovo, Rohrabacher Backs SoCal Secession

Photo of the week:  Ukraine’s Rada (parliament) turned into a blood-spattered mosh pit on May 25th as lawmakers debated whether to grant Russian status as an official language in ethnic-Russian-dominated regions such as Crimea, eastern Ukraine, and even Kiev.  The brawl seemed to start after one parliamentarian said to another, “You’re a corpse.  You have two days left to live.  We will crucify you on a birch tree.”  Watch a video of the brawl here.  Also, you can watch a video of last year’s Ukraine Rada brawl, which involved smoke bombs, and the speaker of parliament being pelted with rotten eggs, here.  (See my blog article on a similarly contentious language-policy proposal in Latvia.  Also, see a story below, under “Asia—South Asia,” for a report and photograph of Kashmiri separatists throwing chairs at one another.)

TOP STORY:
UNITING ISLAMISTS, DIVIDED BAMBARAS, A BURKINA FASO BORDER CLASH, AND THE I.C.C. RAISE THE STAKES FOR “INDEPENDENT STATE OF AZAWAD.”

Tuaregs and Islamists Bury Hatchet, Form Government for Azawad.  The largely secular Tuareg separatist militia, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (known by its French acronym M.N.L.A.), made a joint announcement with the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militia Ansar al-Dine on May 20th that the two groups have agreed to share power in a government for the Independent State of Azawad, which declared independence from the Republic of Mali last month.  They named Belal Ag Sharif, head of the M.N.L.A.’s political bureau, as the interim head of state.  A former Malian military officer, Mohamed Ag Nejim, will be Azawad’s “general co-ordinator of army.”  Affairs will be run by a 40-member committee, with 20 seats each for the M.N.L.A. and Ansar al-Dine.  No countries yet recognize Azawad’s independence.  Also this week, Abdelmalek Droukdel, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, the Algerian-born commander of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (A.Q.I.M.), the organization with which Ansar al-Dine is affiliated, announced on the A.Q.I.M. website that its fighters throughout North Africa were at the disposal of Ansar al-Dine as needed, though they would operate under the A.Q.I.M., not Ansar al-Dine, banner when engaging in “global jihad.”  Droukdel added that Islamists in Mali ought to be working with, not against, Azawadi nationalists.  Meanwhile, the Islamists running Timbuktu announced May 23rd that the Islamic law (shari’a) under which Azawad is now governed means that football (soccer) will be banned.  (See my recent blog article on the Azawad declaration of independence, plus an earlier article on the Tuareg rebellion in the context of north–south conflict in the Sahel.)

The Islamists’ version of Azawad’s national flag (at least metaphorically)

Sanogo Loyalists Storm Palace; Mali’s President Beaten; Sanctions Loom.  Meanwhile, in the ethnic-Bambara-dominated southern third of Mali still under the jurisdiction of the central government, a day after the military junta leader, Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo, negotiated a transition to civilian rule with the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), hundreds of rioters stormed the presidential palace in Bamako May 21st and attacked the as-yet-powerless civilian caretaker president, Dioncounda Traoré.  The 70-year-old president was taken to a hospital with head injuries after being beaten to unconsciousness by the mob, then later evacuated to France for further treatment.  Ecowas the next day condemned “this attack, which it considers to be in defiance of its decisions”—implying that it suspects Sanogo and his loyalists orchestrated it.  The body threatened new sanctions, which the earlier decision had proposed lifting.  On May 23rd, a spokesman for the junta announced that Sanogo himself would be made interim president.  Meanwhile, José Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.), has announced that he will personally undertake an investigation of the human-rights situation in Mali.  Sanogo took power in a military coup d’état on March 22nd, creating a power vacuum enabling the northern two-thirds of Mali to secede two weeks later as the Independent State of Azawad.  (See my recent blog article on the Azawad declaration of independence, plus an earlier article on the Tuareg rebellion in the context of north–south conflict in the Sahel.)

Scores Dead in Clash at Burkina Faso Border with Azawad-Claimed Region of Mali.  Reports are still coming in on a violent clash between members of the Dogon and Peul ethnic groups in Burkina Faso near the border with the Republic of Mali.  The Peul transhumant herders of Burkina Faso are, through a binational agreement, allowed to use territory of the Dogon people over the border in Mali, but violence erupted on May 22nd over harm to Dogon croplands by Peul cattle, and raged for days.  As of this writing, the death toll was approaching 100.  The Dogon inhabit Mali’s Mopti region and some neighboring areas of Burkina Faso.  Mopti is claimed by the unrecognized Independent State of Azawad, but it is not clear how much of it they actually control.  Lack of central-government administration of the region may have contributed to the escalating violence.  (See my recent blog article on the Azawad declaration of independence, plus an earlier article on the Tuareg rebellion in the context of north–south conflict in the Sahel.)

AFRICA

Sudan Resumes Air Strikes on South Sudan.  In the ongoing war between Sudan and South Sudan, the South Sudanese government said on May 22nd that Sudan had been sending warplanes to attack its territory, again, over the previous two days, the first such attacks since May 9th.  The new aerial bombardments were focused on the Waragat region of the South Sudanese state of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal.  And Sudan claimed that on May 25th it had recaptured parts of Blue Nile state from what it claims are South Sudan–backed rebels, but South Sudan denies this.  The two towns in questions are named—I am not making this up—Soda and Jam.  The African Union’s Sudan point man, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, announced May 22nd that the northern and southern governments would meet again on May 29th in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in another attempt to salvage the peace.  (See my blog article listing the struggle over South Sudan as one of “Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012.”)

Polisario Promises to Liberate Spanish and Italian Hostages of al-Qaeda.  The Polisario Front, the separatist militia which runs part of the disputed territory of Western Sahara as the mostly unrecognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, promised on May 24th to risk the lives of some of its own soldiers by trying to liberate three European aid workers—two Spaniards and an Italian—who were kidnapped from a refugee camp in Algeria late last year.  Polisario is currently negotiating with their captors, a branch of the al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (A.Q.I.M.), according to the Sahrawi prime minister, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, who spoke at a seminar in Madrid, Spain.  The three are believed to be currently under A.Q.I.M. guard in the Independent State of Azawad, which the international community regards as part of the Republic of Mali.

Map showing the current partition of Western Sahara

Envoy to Western Sahara Cancels Trip after Moroccan Complaints.  The United Nations announced May 18th that its envoy to Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, has cancelled indefinitely a planned trip there, after the Kingdom of Morocco announced the day before that it had lost confidence in him because his work was “unbalanced and biased.”  Western Sahara, a former colony of Spain, was conquered in 1975 by Morocco, its northern neighbor, which occupies most of the country still, in defiance of international law.  Ross has been the U.N. envoy to Western Sahara since 2009 but has yet to visit the disputed territory.

Nigeria Rejects U.S. “Favor” of Listing Boko Haram as Terrorist Organization.  The Federal Republic of Nigeria’s national-security advisor and its ambassador to the United States have both requested that the U.S. not put Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgency in the predominantly Muslim north of the country, as a so-called “foreign terrorist organization.”  Although they can hardly deny that it fits the letter of that description, Nigeria is worried that such a designation would complicate efforts to negotiate with Boko Haram and worries that the U.S. may be looking for an excuse to intervene in the increasingly unpredictable spread of Islamism in the wider region in places like northern Mali.  Nigeria’s minister of defense, Bello Mohammed, points out that Boko Haram does not operate outside of Nigeria.  (See my blog article on north–south divides in Africa and another listing northern Nigeria as one of “Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012.”)

Berber Separatist Leader Visits Israel.  The Algerian folk singer Ferhat Mehenni, who is president of the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (M.A.K.), a Paris-based organization which seeks an autonomous region within Algeria for the Kabyle, or Berber, people, visited Tel Aviv, Israel, this week to rally support for his cause.  Algerian politicians across the political spectrum called the visit an irresponsible attack on the country’s unity, and some called for his citizenship to be stripped.  Mehenni is also head of the Provisional Government of Kabylie, which operates in exile.  His son was assassinated in 2001, presumably by the Algerian government or its loyalists.

Ferhat Mehenni, folk singer and autonomy activist, with the Berber national flag

U.N. Urges Probe into Somaliland Land Riot, Death Sentences.  The United Nations’ special envoy to Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, asked May 18th for an investigation into last week’s land dispute in Hargeisa, the capital of the de facto independent Republic of Somaliland, which led to seven riot deaths and swift death sentences for 17 of the participants who squared off against the military in the mêlée.  The 17 are to be killed by firing squad.  (See my blog article on the fragmentation of Somalia.)

Mombasa Republican Council Courting New Regions for Secession from Kenya.  In Tana River County in the Republic of Kenya’s Coast Province, locals are reporting that representatives of the Mombasa Republican Council (M.R.C.), which would like the predominantly-Muslim Coast Province to form an independent state, is setting up a local office in Madogo, in the county, and trying to rally support from local community leaders.  Elders and town councillors are asking for government help in keeping the M.R.C. out of their part of the province.

Cyrenaica Autonomists Put Up Candidates in Libyan Local Elections.  Libyans went to the polls May 19th in Benghazi, the main city in the eastern region of Cyrenaica and the former capital of the formerly independent Emirate of Cyrenaica.  The Cyrenaica Congress—which is supported by descendants of the Cyrenaican emirs and of the former king of Libya, whom Moammar al-Qaddafi deposed—put up candidates for city council, making the election a referendum of sorts on the Congress’s aim to return to the pre-Qaddafi loose federal system under which Cyrenaica had autonomy.  Election results have not yet been announced.  (See my blog article on Cyrenaica’s declaration of independence.)

1 Conviction, 1 Acquittal in Terre’Blanche Murder Trial.  The trial for the murder of the South African white-supremacist militant separatist Eugène Terre’Blanche (reported on earlier in this blog) ended May 22nd with the conviction of one of his farmworkers for bludgeoning him to death and the acquittal of the younger, 18-year-old defendant with only a housebreaking conviction.  Terre’Blanche, founder of the violent, right-wing Afrikaner Resistance Movement, was murdered in the sleep at the age of 69 with a steel pipe at his farm in Ventersdorp, North West Province (formerly Transvaal), in northern South Africa.  One controversial aspect of the trial was the defendants’ accusations that Terre’Blanche had sexually assaulted them, but the judge rejected that defense, concluding that the convicted killer, Chris Mahlangu, who is 29, had invented that claim after apparently finding semen on Terre’Blanche’s genitals after the killing.  The defense lawyers claimed that police or the prosecution had deliberately removed the alleged semen from the crime scene to prevent its analysis, a claim which the judge eventually rejected.

Eugène Terre’Blanche at a rally in the 1980s

EUROPE

Scots Officially Launch Independence Campaign amid Splits over Queen, Pound.  The Scottish National Party officially launched on May 25th its campaign for Scotland’s independence from the United Kingdom, which will be decided in a referendum in 2014.  But there are splits within the secessionist camp, with some objecting to plans by Scotland’s pro-independence First Minister, Alex Salmond, to retain the U.K.’s currency and—like Canada or Australia—keep Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.  The Scottish Green Party, the second-largest separatist party in Scotland, proposes an independent republic with its own currency.  A new poll shows 33% of Scots favoring independence, with 57% set against it.

Mladić Genocide Trial to Resume Next Month in Hague.  The trial of Ratko Mladić, accused of war crimes and genocide as commander of the separatist Republika Srpska forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s, is set to resume on June 25th, after a procedural delay (reported in this blog last week) on procedural grounds (related to the availability of evidence to both sides), it was announced May 24th.  Mladić is being tried by the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, an ad hoc international court which convenes in the Hague, in the Netherlands.

New Serbian President Must Balance Kosovo Policy and E.U. Hopes.  A former ultranationalist with ties to the notorious war criminal and dictator Slobodan Milošević defeated a moderate, the incumbent Boris Tadić, to become president of the Republic of Serbia on May 20th, disappointing those looking for reform and integration with Europe.  The new president, Tomislav Nikolić, favors Serbian membership in the European Union, but is also expected to take a somewhat harder line on the secessionist Republic of Kosovo than his predecessor.  (See my blog article on the Kosovo crisis.)

Tomislav Nikolić, Serbia’s new president

FIFA Grants Kosovo Its Own National Football Team.  The International Federation of Association Football (known by its French acronym FIFA) decided this week that the Republic of Kosovo, which is recognized as independent of the Republic of Serbia by only just under half of the world’s sovereign states, will be permitted to compete as a national team in international football (soccer) competition.  The Football Association of Serbia protested what it called “an unjustified decision which could have far-reaching consequences across the region.”  FIFA has 208 member states—more than the number of independent states (193) because some national subdivisions—such as Scotland, Puerto Rico, and Tahiti—have their own teams.  Meanwhile, Kosovar athletes are still awaiting a decision on whether they can compete in this year’s Summer Olympics in London.  (See my blog article on the Kosovo crisis.)

Indonesian Muslim Leader, in Kosovo, Urges Jakarta to Grant Diplomatic Recognition.  The leader of one of Indonesia’s largest Muslim societies, said May 18th during a visit to the Republic of Kosovo that his organization supports Kosovo’s independence and urged the Indonesian government to grant the country diplomatic recognition.  The leader, Din Syamsuddin, who is chairman of the organization Muhammadiyah, cited Indonesia’s 1945 constitution, which guarantees the right of peoples to independence and freedom from colonialism.  However, despite their constitution, Indonesia has repeatedly denied self-determination to people in the South Moluccas, Aceh, Timor-Leste, West Papua, and elsewhere.  But, Syamsuddin noted, Kosovo is predominantly Muslim and should be supported.  Only 91 states recognize Kosovo’s independence from the Republic of Serbia.  (See my blog article on the Kosovo crisis.)

Spain Gives 2 Basques 843-Year Prison Terms for 2002 Bombing.  In Spain, a court sentenced two terrorists from ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, “Basque Homeland and Freedom”), it was announced May 20th, to lengthy prison terms for a bomb attack against a Civil Guard residence compound in Santa Pola, Valencia, in 2002 which killed two civilians, including a 6-year-old girl.  The defendants, Óscar Zelarain and Antoni Otegi, were given 843 years each—the oddly high number being because of 51 charges of attempted murder, one for each of the people present on the city block at the time of the attack.  (See my recent blog article featuring a profile of the Basque separatist Idoia López Riaño, a.k.a. la Tigresa.)

Zelarain and Otegi in the dock.  They’ll be wearing different stripes soon.

Caucasus Emirate Operatives Given Sentences in 2009-10 Bomb Plots.  A court in Russia gave a 10-year prison sentence, a top-secret Russian federal court announced May 18th, to a planner of a foiled New Year’s Eve 2010 suicide-bombing of Moscow’s Red Square.  The defendant, Zeynap Suyunova, fled to Volgograd in 2010 after her accomplice died in an accidental explosion before being able to carry out the attack.  The plot had supposedly been hatched by Ibragimkhalil Daudov, a.k.a. Emir Salikh, a commander in the North Caucasus region’s separatist Caucasus Emirate movement, who was killed in a shootout with police in Chechnya in February.  Then, on May 22nd, it was announced that four plotters in the 2009 bombing of a train between Moscow and St. Petersburg, in which 28 people died, were given life sentences.  Responsibility for that attack was also claimed by the Caucasus Emirate.  The four defendants were all from the Republic of Ingushetia.

Russian Police Still Picking Off Militant Leaders in Dagestan; 5 Dead in Raids.  In a house siege May 18th in Makhachkala, capital of the Russian Federation’s Republic of Dagestan, Russian commandos killed a suspected co-plotter in the May 3rd suicide bombing in the city that killed 13 (reported on in this blog), while another surrendered.  The two men were holding women and children hostage in a private house before police negotiated the hostages’ release and the surrender of one of the men.  The second threw a grenade instead and was killed by the commandos.  On May 20th in Vinsovkhozny, Dagestan, according to Russia’s federal Anti-Terrorism Committee, police had killed the head of the local Khasavyurt gang, Aslan Mamedov (nom de guerre: Muas), who was also reportedly the third-ranking leader in the Dagestani branch of the separatist Caucasus Emirate movement, being “emir” of north Dagestan.  The Committee relished the “elimination of such an odious warlord.”  A second militant was also killed in that raid.  Two militants were also killed by police in the nearby village of Tukhchar.  On May 22nd, a police station in the “Black Stones” neighborhood of Makhachkala was attacked by unknown assailants in a drive-by shooting, killing two police and injuring three.  Meanwhile, a Russian bomb squad defused a powerful homemade bomb found just outside Malgobek, in the nearby Republic of Ingushetia, it was reported May 19th.  No further information was available.

Son of Slain Radical Dagestani Leader Shot in Moscow.  Murtuz Khachilayev, the son of Nadirshakh Khachilayev—a member of parliament for Dagestan and former head of the extremist Russian Muslims’ Union who was jailed for his ties to militant Wahhabism and later murdered in Makhachkala in 2003—has himself been shot in Moscow.  He was shot in the stomach, and his companion, Shamil Ichalov, was killed.  The police have no leads on his assailant.

BITS OF ASIA WHICH LIKE TO PRETEND THEY’RE PART OF EUROPE

Circassians March in Istanbul to Mark Genocide by Russia.  Thousands of Circassians and their supporters marched to the Russian embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 21st to mark the 148th anniversary of what they call Russia’s genocide of Circassians, who were subsequently massacred and dispersed from their homeland on the Black Sea coast between the Crimean peninsula and the North Caucasus.  In particular, they object to Russia’s choice of Sochi, in Circassia, as the site for the 2014 Winter Olympics, “the symbol city of the genocide,” where the Ubykh subgroup of Circassians were essentially exterminated.  The Russian government warned the Turkish government that allowing such demonstrations harmed Russo-Turkish relations.  There are more than a million Circassians living in Turkey.

Circassians demonstrate in Istanbul

Deposed South Ossetian President Appointed Deputy Prime Minister.  Alla Dzhioyeva—who appeared to win the presidency in the de facto independent Russian puppet state of the Republic of South Ossetia last year in a disputed election and began serving her term, only to be deposed by thugs who raided her office beat her unconscious in February (as reported in this blog)—has been appointed deputy prime minister by her replacement, President Leonid Tibilov, Russia’s preferred candidate.  Dzhioyeva will be responsible for social affairs.  The announcement was made May 24th.  She accepted the post as part of aim of helping South Ossetia return to political normalcy.  Other opposition posts were also given posts in Tibilov’s new government.  Tibilov’s aim is to unite South Ossetia with the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, currently part of the Russian Federation.  (See my blog article on the disputed South Ossetian election.)

First 50 from Russian Troop Buildup Arrive in Abkhazia.  The first 50 recruits trained at a special military training camp in the Russian Federation’s nominally Circassian but ethnic-Russian-dominated Republic of Adygea have arrived in the de facto independent Republic of Abkhazia to augment the Russian-manned military base there.  Over 1,000 new troops are to arrive by mid-summer.  Aside from Russia and a handful of other countries, the international community regards Abkhazia as part of the Republic of Georgia.

Abkhaz Police Find More Caucasus Emirate Arms Caches.  One of the suspects arrested May 4th in the alleged foiled Olympic terrorist plot against Russia (reported in this blog), Rustan Girsba, has led police in the Republic of Abkhazia to six more arms caches on May 22nd.  The caches included anti-tank grenade launchers, a flame-thrower, and lots of ammunition.  Girsba is the supposed leader of a militia called Abkhaz Jamaat, associated with the region’s Islamist separatist Caucasus Emirate movement.

Armenia Boycotts NATO Summit; No One Notices.  The Republic of Armenia refused to attend the summit meeting in Chicago, Illinois, this week of the 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (of which it is not a member) over wording that it objected to on the question of territorial disputes.  The NATO joint declaration draft released before the summit said, “We remain committed in our support of the territorial integrity, independence, and sovereignty of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Republic of Moldova and will also continue to support efforts towards a peaceful settlement of these regional conflicts.”  (NATO also condemned Russia’s support for the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.)  Armenia, which does not recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, felt the statement should have referred to the right to self-determination for regions such as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which seceded from Azerbaijan as an Armenian puppet state in 1992.  Armenia also boycotting this week’s Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan, over the same conflict, and no one noticed that either.  (See my recent blog article on Armenian–Azerbaijani relations.)

The Dictator, Banned in Tajikistan, Now Edited for Uzbekistan.  After being effectively banned last week in the Republic of Tajikistan (as reported in this blog), the English film comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s new political satire, The Dictator, will now be shown in the Republic of Uzbekistan, but with twelve minutes edited out.  The film—in which Baron Cohen portrays Admiral General Aladeen, despot of the fictional Republic of Wadiya, in the Horn of Africa—is also banned in the Republic of Belarus.  His 2006 film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, evoked angry reactions in Central Asia for its portrayal of Kazakhstan as a dirt-poor, nuclear-contaminated wasteland full of bigots and perverts.  (See my recent blog article on the Republic of Wadiya.)

Israel Denies Planning to Send 20,000 Commandos to Cyprus.  In the wake of the Israeli air force’s May 14th violation of the airspace of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (as reported in this blog), Israel’s government was compelled this week to deny rumors circulated in a Turkish newspaper that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had asked the Republic of Cyprus for permission to send 20,000 commandos to the island to protect a natural-gas terminal.  Turkey, which established Northern Cyprus as a puppet state in a 1974 invasion, is the only country in the world which does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus as the legitimate government of the entire island.  (See my recent blog article on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.)

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (in pink)

Kurdish Strife in Southeast Turkey Kills 15 as Police Search for Kidnapped Mayor.  One Turkish police officer, a civilian, and four fighters from Turkey’s banned separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.) were killed on May 18th in what was only the beginning of an unusually violent week in the Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey, with 13 killed and 10 kidnapped.  On May 18th, P.K.K. fighters attacked a military outpost in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq, killing a civilian construction worker and wounding three.  The same day, P.K.K. fighters set up a roadblock in Bitlis province and kidnapped six members of an anti-Kurdish village militia.  On May 20th, masked terrorists set a city bus afire in Istanbul, using Molotov cocktails, but the bus was evacuated and there were no injuries.  On May 21st, a Turkish police officer and four P.K.K. fighters were killed and four police injured in a skirmish with P.K.K. fighters in Diyarbakir province, where security forces were trying to track down a district chairman (mayor), Veysel Çelik, kidnapped by the P.K.K. on May 13th (as reported in this blog).  Also this week in Diyarbakir province, the P.K.K. kidnapped nine men and one woman and told residents of their village that the hostages would be killed if the snatching was reported to police.  On May 22nd, fighting between the P.K.K. and the Turkish military killed three P.K.K. fighters in Tunceli province.  Then, on May 23rd, the killing of a Turkish officer prompted a counterattack in Mus province in which one P.K.K. fighter was killed.  On May 25th, what at first appeared to be a bold suicide attack on a police station in Kayseri but later was being described as the culmination of a high-speed chase left one police officer and three militants dead and 19 injured, including children, after militants drove a vehicle into a police station, opened fire, and set off a bomb strapped to the chest of one of the militants.  (See my blog article on this spring’s Kurdish uprisings, plus another article on shifting alliances in the Kurdish struggle and a third featuring a profile of Dashni Murad, “the Kurdish Shakira.”)

Turkish Court Gives Legislator, Former Nobel Nominee 10 Years in Prison for Her Opinions.  A court in Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of the Republic of Turkey’s region of Kurdistan, sentenced Leyla Zana, a Kurdish member of the Turkish parliament who was once a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize to ten years in prison on May 24th for what the court called spreading propaganda.  The charges stem from speeches she made in 2007 and 2008 which the court considered in support of the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.).  As a member of parliament, Zana will not need to begin serving her sentence until she leaves parliament.  Her term ends in 2015.)  (See my blog article on this spring’s Kurdish uprisings, plus another article on shifting alliances in the Kurdish struggle and a third listing Kurdistan as one of “Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012.”)

ASIA—MIDDLE EAST

Ankara Interior Minister Accuses Syria of Hosting P.K.K. Bases.  The embattled dictatorship of the Republic of Syria is allowing its territory to be used by fighters from Turkey’s banned separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.) launching attacks in Turkey, according to the Turkish minister for the interior, Idris Naim Sahin, who cited Turkish intelligence in making the accusations on May 23rd.  Sahin even said that Bashar al-Assad’s regime is allowing the P.K.K. to virtually run some Kurdish towns on the Syrian side of the border.  In 1998, Turkey and Syria nearly went to war over alleged Syrian support of the P.K.K.  The Turkish government has over the past few months moved to the forefront of international opposition to Assad, at the same time that it has been building economic and political ties with northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (K.R.G.) (see next story, below).  (See my blog article on this spring’s Kurdish uprisings, plus another article on shifting alliances in the Kurdish struggle and articles on border conflicts between Turkey and Syria and on prospects for the partition of Syria.)

The flag of Kurdistan

Kurd-on-Kurd Violence on Rise in Syrian Civil War.  Kurdish activists in the diaspora are reporting fighting between opposing Kurdish factions in Syria’s ongoing civil war.  Most of the violence is between the Kurdish National Council (K.N.C.) and the Democratic Union Party (P.Y.D.).  The P.Y.D. is affiliated with Turkey’s banned militant separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.) and accuses the K.N.C. of being mainstream and conciliatory.  KurdWatch, an online news source, reports that some of the violence has been prompted by P.Y.D. supporters in Qamishli and elsewhere burning Kurdish flags and displaying portraits of Abdullah Öcalan, the P.K.K.’s imprisoned founder.  At least one activist has accused the Arab Shiite dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad of being behind the P.Y.D.’s provocations in order to divide Kurds.  The Turkish government opposes Assad and supports the mainstream opposition to the regime but has been waging a brutal war for decades against its own Kurdish population.  (See my blog article on this spring’s Kurdish uprisings, plus another article on shifting alliances in the Kurdish struggle and a third on prospects for the partition of Syria.)

Baghdad Warns Kurds over Turkey Oil Pipeline Deal.  Iraq’s central government on May 21st warned the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (K.R.G.) in the country’s north not to go ahead with a plan announced the day before, under which the K.R.G. would bring its oil to the international market via Turkey instead of via the rest of Iraq.  A pipeline is to be built over the next 12 months to carry the oil.  Baghdad claims any such deals undertaken by the K.R.G. without Iraqi approval are unconstitutional.  (See my blog article on this spring’s Kurdish uprisings, plus another article on shifting alliances in the Kurdish struggle and a third on prospects for the partition of Iraq.)

Iran to Review Death Sentence of 2 Kurdish Brothers Arrested for “Fighting God.”  Under apparent pressure from international human-rights organizations, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be reviewing the case of two Kurdish brothers who were sentenced to death after their 2009 arrest for “anti-Islamic activities” and “fighting against God.”  One of the two brothers was a members of a Kurdish political party but neither was very politically active, though the father of one of them was a peshmerga (Kurdish rebel).  The men’s father, Iqbal Moradi, told media that the decision came after meetings between Kurdish lawyers, human-rights groups, and Iran’s deputy minister of justice, Ayatollah Amoli Larijani.  (See my blog article on this spring’s Kurdish uprisings, plus another article on shifting alliances in the Kurdish struggle.)

On Video: Israeli Troops Standing By as West Bank Settlers Shoot at Palestinians.  Outrage flared in Israel and abroad after an Israeli human-rights group, B’Tselem, released a video clip showing Israeli Defense Forces standing by idly while Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank open fire on young Palestinian protesters throwing stones.  One protester was shot on the side of the head but was not killed.  (Watch the video here.)  (See my blog article listing Palestine as one of “Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012.”)

South Yemen Separatists and Opponents Brawl on Reunification Anniversary.  In Aden, capital of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, a.k.a. South Yemen, supporters and opponents of a Southern re-secession collided violently on May 22nd on the anniversary of both the unification of north and south Yemen in 1990 and a failed secession bid on that date in 1994.  The two mobs were led by, respectively, Hirak, also known as the Southern Movement, and al-Islah, also known as the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, the current Republic of Yemen’s main opposition party.  Witnesses reported what appeared to be injuries as the two sides scuffled.  (See my blog article listing South Yemen as one of “Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012.”)

The former split

ASIA—SOUTH ASIA

Sindhi Separatists Ambush Bus in Pakistan; 9 Passengers Killed.  The Sindhu Desh Liberation Army (S.D.L.A.) has taken responsibility for an ambush of a passenger bus in southern Pakistan May 25th which killed nine people and injured 12.  The attack occurred in the Kazi Ahmed district in the state of Sindh, which the S.D.L.A. would like to form a state independent of Pakistan.  The S.D.L.A. stopped the bus, boarded, and opened fire.  The attack came on the eve of a high-profile conference in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, in the north, on how to address the separatist insurgency in Sindh’s neighboring southern state, Balochistan.  Typically, Sindhi nationalists are less violent and organized than separatists in the neighboring state of Balochistan.  (See my blog article listing Balochistan as one of “Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012.”)

General Strike, Army Dragnet Shut Down Kashmir Capital; Rival Factions Brawl.  Srinagar, the capital of India’s state of Jammu and Kashmir, was virtually shut down May 21st as Kashmiris closed up shops and businesses to mark the 22nd anniversary of the assassination of the Muslim cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Mohammed Farooq, whose killing is still assumed by many to have been orchestrated by the Indian government.  Indian troops set up roadblocks, curfews, and razor wire to prevent rallies and parades associated with the anniversary.  It also marks the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Abdul Gani Lone, another Kashmiri separatist leader killed during the same anniversary in 2002.  The following day, during an All Parties Hurriyat Conference seminar in the city on the Kashmiri independence movement, members of rival factions turned to fisticuffs and chair-throwing over the question of whether a United Nations resolution on Kashmir was applicable or not.

Rival Kashmiri separatist factions resort to throwing furniture

Golden Temple Memorial Construction Begins, Honoring Sikh “Martyrs.”  Construction began May 20th in Amritsar, the capital of India’s state of Punjab, for “martyrs” in the Sikh independence movement which convulsed India in the 1980s.  The memorial will be housed within the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest site, which was stormed by Indian troops in a notorious massacre in 1984.  Sikhs were struggling to establish a separate state to be called Khalistan.  Meanwhile, an Indian newspaper carried an article accusing Pakistan’s intelligence agency of attempting to foment a resurgence of Sikh separatism.

Assamese Separatists Call Strike to Protest Gandhi Visit.  The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which seeks independence for India’s far-eastern state of Assam, called for a May 26th shutdown of the state to protest the impending visit of Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of the assassinated Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who heads the Indian National Congress party.  ULFA said in a statement, “The shutdown is being called to protest against the Indian colonial occupation in Assam, and the government’s bid to set up nuclear warheads in Assam, for converting Assam to a thriving ground of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, setting up of mega-hydropower projects in collusion with big companies to exploit the water resources of the state, and the recent move to set up the National Counter-Terrorism Centre.”

Former Sri Lanka Army Chief Freed on Pardon, Vows Revenge for “Vendetta.”  The former commander of Sri Lanka’s army, Gen. Sarath Fonseka, left prison May 21st following a pardon from President Mahinda Rajapakse.  Fonseka was a key figure in the victory over the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in the decades-long civil war that ended in 2009.  In 2010, he ran against Rajapkse for president, criticizing him for not giving him enough credit for the victory and threatening to have him arrested if elected.  Fonseka is still presumed by many to have won the most votes, but Rajapakse was declared winner and promptly had Fonseka arrested on arbitrary charges related to offenses committed during the war.  “I will save the country,” Fonseka said upon his release.  “The people will correct the injustice caused to me.  I was a victim of a vendetta.”  (See my recent blog article featuring a profile of the Tamil activist Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, a.k.a. “M.I.A.”)

Sarath Fonseka

ASIA—EAST ASIA

World Uyghur Congress Reelects Kadeer in Tokyo While Beijing Pouts.  The World Uyghur Congress reelected Rebiya Kadeer as its president last week during its fourth triennial meeting in Tokyo, Japan.  The Japanese government’s granting of a visa for Kadeer—a former political prisoner who defected from China to the United States—had caused an outcry from the government of the People’s Republic of China, which brands her a dangerous separatist (as reported last week in this blog).

OCEANIA

Papuans Arrested in Vanuatu Protesting Ties to Indonesian Military.  “About two dozen” supporters of independence for the Indonesian-administered western half of the island of New Guinea were arrested in the Republic of Vanuatu last week for demonstrating against the Vanuatuan government’s military ties with Indonesia.  The group Solomon Islands for West Papua is now urging the Melanesian Spearhead Group (M.S.G.)—a regional body consisting of Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu—to take a stronger position against Indonesia, by admitting a West Papuan separatists group as an M.S.G. member.  The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, a militant pro-independence group in the French colony of New Caledonia, is already an M.S.G. member.  (See my blog article listing West Papua as one of “Ten Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012.”)

Aboriginal Conclave Issues Declaration of Sovereignty from Australian “Invader State.”  A May 25th press release from the Kuradji Aboriginal Embassy at Sandon Point, a northern suburb of Wollongong, New South Wales, announced the intention of Aboriginal leaders from across Australia, solemnized in the signing of a formal Act, to form what is to be called the National Unity Government of the Sovereign Union of First Nations Peoples in Australia.  The statement refers to the government of Australia as “the invader State” and called for the building of sovereign institutions by Aboriginal communities across the continent.  Among its resolutions is that “It is our inherent sovereign right to declare and advance our interests in all lands, waters, natural resources, subsurface and airspace as decreed by our DREAMINGS and songlines, through our obligation to Mother Earth and Creation.”

Amnesty International Wades into Debate on Australia’s Northern Territory.  Some Aboriginal leaders in Australia are taking umbrage with the 50th annual report on global human rights published this week by the London-based human-rights organization Amnesty International, which condemned the Australian government’s controversial proposal to extend paternalistic management of Aboriginal communities in the country’s Northern Territory for another 10 years.  Bess Price, an Aboriginal politician, said, “When Amnesty came to central Australia they were managed and guided around by the protesters,” adding, “Amnesty wants to keep us in ghettoes in the bush without individual rights, choices, and options.”  Amnesty’s position, however, is supported by the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and the Yolngu Nations Assembly.  (Elsewhere in its report, Amnesty, while also praising recent developments such as the bringing to trial of the Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladić (as reported last week in this blog), tallied ongoing human-rights abuses such as war crimes against the Republic of South Sudan by its former parent state, the Republic of Sudan; Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and other Israeli–Palestinian conflicts; and an escalation of repression of ethnic minorities in Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar) despite recent reforms and cease-fires.)

Bess Price

Aborigines Granted Title to Australia’s Largest Lake.  Australia’s largest (though usually mostly dry) lake, and the 18th-largest lake in the world, Lake Eyre, is now officially the territory of the Arabunna aboriginal people, according to a Federal Court decision announced May 22nd, which grants aboriginal title to 27,000 square miles around the salt lake in the state of South Australia, including a national park and the continent’s lowest point.  Aaron Stuart, chairman of the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation, told the media that visitors and tourists were welcome but boaters were not—an exception which is expected to lead to confrontations with indignant non-aboriginals.  Under the deal, which concludes a 14-year legal battle, the Arabunna are relinquishing their claim on the town of Marree, population 70.

NORTH AMERICA

Mexico Sets Aside Disputed Sacred Lands for Huichols after Anti-Mining Protests.  The government of Mexico announced this week that it would set aside a half-million acres of land in the State of San Luis Potosí for the Huichol Indians.  The area, known as Wirikuta, is sacred land whose imminent plunder by a Canadian mining firm, First Majestic Silver Corporation has led to nationwide protests.  First Majestic has withdrawn its concessions, and Mexico City says no new ones will be granted.

Crackdown on Protests in Quebec Boosts Separatist Prospects.  As protests over tuition increases in Quebec drag on, with increasingly violent confrontations with police and ever larger rallies bringing in other groups such as First Nations and environmentalist leaders, the pro-independence Parti Québécois (P.Q.) is also supporting the students and using the protests as a forum for its own message of secession from Canada.  A new law introduced this week which curtails the right to protest, introduced by the formerly separatist provincial premier, Jean Charest, who now leads the unionist Liberal Party, is only increasing public support for the students, and for the P.Q.

Canadian First Nations Leaders Ask Prince of Wales for Audience with Queen.  Representatives of Canada’s First Nations met on May 22nd in Ottawa with Charles, Prince of Wales, and indicated a desire to meet with Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, next year to discuss treaties.  One Cree member of the delegation, Ovide Mercredi, former chief of the Assembly of First Nations, told media afterward that he had suggested to Charles the date October 7, 2013, the 150th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, a landmark document in Canadian aboriginal law which decrees that no territory is ceded to the Crown—or, by extension, to Canada—without treaty.  By that definition, many areas, for example nearly all of British Columbia, are not legally part of Canada.

The Great White Father steps down from his palanquin for a parley

Johnny Depp Adopted into Comanche Tribe.  While Elizabeth Warren’s run for Edward Kennedy’s seat representing Massachusetts seat in the United States Senate is being complicated by her dubious claims of American Indian ancestry, things got simpler for the actor Johnny Depp, whose claims of Cherokee and Creek ancestry were bolstered by his ceremonial adoption earlier this month by the Comanche Indian Tribe in New Mexico as an honorary member.  Depp will be co-starring as Tonto in the upcoming (2013) Jerry Bruckheimer film adaptation of the popular radio and television series The Lone Ranger.  The Oklahoma-born Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity, hosted the adoption in a traditional ceremony at her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 16th.  “Welcoming Johnny into the family in the traditional way was so fitting,” said Harris.  “He’s a very thoughtful human being, and throughout his life and career he has exhibited traits that are aligned with the values and worldview that indigenous peoples share.”  Johnny Wauqua, chairman of the Comanche Nation, was also in attendance.  In the original 1930s radio series, Tonto was Potawatomi, even though that tribe lives mostly in Wisconsin, far from the stories’ American Southwest setting.  In the television series, Tonto was portrayed by Jay Silverheels, who was of Mohawk (Iroquois) heritage from Canada.

LaDonna Harris and Johnny Depp

Republican Lawmaker Tweets in Favor of Southern California’s Secession—from U.S.  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican who represents part of the United States’ most politically right-wing jurisdiction—Orange County, California—in the U.S. Congress, has attracted attention by announcing on his Twitter feed, in the context of a discussion of Balochistan’s struggle for independence from Pakistan, “If citizens of So. Cal want to leave US, then there should be a vote, & if majority agrees: bye bye,” adding, “If majority of citizens living on outer edge of any country vote separation they should get it,” and, “Specifically if citizens of SoCal vote independence or to become party [sic] of Mexico, then that is what should happen to So Cal.”  Various proposals have surfaced over the years to divide California into predominantly-Democratic and predominantly-Republican states, along north-vs.-south or coast-vs.-interior lines—including, last summer, a proposal by the Riverside County supervisor for a Republican-dominated State of South California.

One proposal for a separate State of South California

[Also, for those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with a forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  Look for it in spring 2013.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.]