Catalans, Basques Organize Themselves for Secession; Also Bashkortostan, Oromia, Casamance, Mahalla Republic, Corsica, Kukiland, Kabardino-Balkaria, South California: The Week in Separatist News, 9-15 December 2012

TOP STORY:
CATALONIA PLANS 2014 REFERENDUM WITH NEW COALITION DEAL;
SEPARATISTS LIKELY TO HOLD BALANCE OF POWER IN BASQUE COUNTRY TOO

Catalan Separatist Parties Form Coalition, Plan Referendum for 2014.  Reports emerged this week of a meeting between Artur Mas i Gavarró’s independence-minded ruling party in the Catalonia, Convergència i Unió (CiU, or Convergence and Union), and the autonomous region’s second-place party from last month’s regional election (reported on at the time in this blog), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (E.R.C., or Republican Left of Catalonia) about forming a government.  Part of the agreement is that a referendum on independence from Spain will probably be held in 2014, the same year Scotland decides whether to remain in the United Kingdom.  Mas had only promised to hold a vote by 2017, but the E.R.C. pushed for an earlier date.

Gradualist Named Basque Premier, Will Need Radical Separatists to Rule in Coalition.  In Spain’s Basque Country, Iñigo Urkullu was appointed the autonomous region’s prime minister on December 13th after an election in October in which his Basque Nationalist Party (E.A.J.) came out with a plurality of 21 out of 75 seats (as reported at the time in this blog), but, although the E.A.J. are gradualists on the question of independence, they will need to govern with the help of the more stridently separatist Euskal Herria Bildu (E.H.B.) coalition.

AFRICA

Mali’s Civilian Prime Minister Nabbed, Forced to Resign by Sanogo Coup Plotters.  The interim prime minister of the Republic of Mali, Cheick Modibo Diarra, who took office in a negotiated handover after a military coup d’état in March, was arrested by members of the military as he was trying to flee the country on December 11th and hours later announced his resignation on state television.  The soldiers who apprehended him were loyalists of Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo, who led the original coup and who never really let go of the reins of power.  The new prime minister is Diango Cissoko, who had been minister of justice in the 1980s.  The rough transition calls into question the legitimacy of the civilian government, as well as prospects for an international intervention to root Islamists out of the self-declared Independent State of Azawad that prevails over the northern two-thirds of Mali.

Diango Cissoko, Mali’s new prime minister;
the implications for the retaking of Azawad are as yet unclear.

New Somali President Vows to Retake Puntland and Somaliland Ports.  The newly elected president of a supposedly newly post-transitional Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, vowed this week in a media interview to retake the harbor cities of Berbera and Bosaso, using words that sounded like a threat to undermine or even dismantle the de facto independent governments of Somaliland and Puntland, which have flourished in the northern half of Somalia as islands of stability, economic growth, and democracy during more than two decades of chaos and civil war.  Speaking confidently of the recent ejection of Islamist armies from Kismayo, the main port in southern Somalia, Mohamud said the next step will be Somaliland’s main port, Berbera, and Bosaso, in Puntland.  “The country has four main ports,” Mohamud said, “namely Mogadishu, Kismayo, Berbera, and Bosaso, which we intend to take-over soonest,” adding, “Once we seize full control of all the four ports, the federal government in Mogadishu shall apportion regional governments a minor share of the earnings”—the “regional governments” referring perhaps to Puntland, which is nominally a state within  Somalia, or perhaps to the at-this-point utterly fictional “provinces” of “Somalia” which overlay the political realities in the region.  Mogadishu’s refusal to recognize Somaliland’s independence is not new, but the Mohamud’s threats to Puntland’s autonomous status are.

3 Killed, 7 Injured in Somaliland over Election Results.  Violence accompanied the announcement of results from last month’s violence-plagued elections (reported on at the time in this blog) in the independent but unrecognized Republic of Somaliland.  In Hargeisa, the capital, three people were killed and seven injured during protests on December 6th by supporters of the Haqsoor political coalition.  The protests and unrest continued into the next day.  Later, on December 8th in Erigavo, scene of some of last week’s worst unrest and capital of the disputed Sanaag region, the offices of the electoral commission were raked with machine-gun fire.  No one was injured. ...

Post-election unrest in Hargeisa this week

... Somaliland Troops Retake Sool Town from Khaatumo Loyalists.  Meanwhile, in the nearby Sool region—also administered by Somaliland and claimed by Puntland—Somaliland national troops have retaken the town of Widwidh from loyalists of the officially-dismantled but surprisingly resurgent Khaatumo State, which tried to establish itself earlier this year in the Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn regions in the Puntland–Somaliland border zone.  The town was retaken without a shot being fired, and the Khaatumo loyalists are believed to have fled into Puntland-controlled areas.

Puntland Commandos Raid al-Shabaab Camp in Mountains, Inflict Heavy Casualties.  In the de facto independent Puntland State of Somalia, government commandos raided an Islamist militant camp in the remote Golis Mountains, inflicting heavy casualties, including deaths, though no exact figures were available.  The camp was operated by al-Shabaab, a jihadist army affiliated with al-Qaeda which has recently expanded into Puntland.

4 Homes Hit by Mortars in Somali City Divided between Puntland, Galmudug States.  Civilian homes were hit by mortar shells on December 7th in Galkayo, a city whose northern half is administered by the de facto independent Puntland State of Somalia but whose southern half is capital of the similarly self-governing Galmudug State—both of them nominally parts of the dysfunctional, barely existent Federal Republic of Somalia.  The mortars came from the direction of Galmudug territory and landed on the Puntland side of the border.  Four homes were damaged.

Kenyan Police Kill 3 Mombasa Separatist Militants, Disrupting Attack Plot.  In Kenya on December 9th, police shot and killed three suspected members of the Mombasa Republic Council (M.R.C.) who authorities the next day claimed had been plotting an attack on a police station.  There were also arrested of four other members of the M.R.C., an organization which seeks to form an independent state out of Kenya’s predominantly-Muslim south-coastal region.

Nigerian Military, Police Clash with Boko Haram in Potiskum; 14 Dead.  Suspected members of northern Nigeria’s Islamist militia Boko Haram attacked police in the streets of Potiskum, in Yobe State in the northeast, on December 11th.  The military was called in to repel the attack, and after a shootout one police officer and 13 of the jihadists were dead.  There was also looting and arson in the city blamed on Boko Haram.

Ethiopian Court Hands Long Prison Terms to 9 Oromo Separatist Activists.  A federal court in Ethiopia handed down prison sentences of eight and 13 years to two members of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement on charges of inciting a separatist rebellion, supposedly as members of the banned Oromo Liberation Front (O.L.F.), which seeks independence for the vast, sprawling southern region of Oromia.  Seven other Oromo activists were given long sentences for receiving paramilitary training in Kenya and for skirmishes with Ethiopian troops.

Police Round Up 15 Biafran Separatists in Enugu State.  Police in Nigeria’s Enugu State reported this week that 15 members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) were arrested when authorities busted up a planning meeting in Ogwofia Owa.  Charges have yet to be brought.

Casamance Rebels Release 8 Captured Senegalese Troops in Gambia.  Eight Senegalese soldiers were released this week by rebels from a militia which seeks independence for the region of Casamance, in southern Senegal.  The Movement for the Democratic Forces of Casamance delivered the prisoners to the International Committee of the Red Cross (I.C.R.C.) in a handover in the nearby Republic of the Gambia.

Alexandria, Other Egyptian Towns Declare Semi-Serious “Independence” from Morsi.  Separatism, if only of the tongue-in-cheek sort, has become a feature in the ongoing civil unrest and street politics in the Arab Republic of Egypt, where the new Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, is facing what is increasingly resembling an Arab Spring revolution redux for his latest power grabs.  Alexandria and El-Mahalla El-Kubra, in the Nile Delta, are among the several municipalities across the country where local activists are declaring independence—in the case of Mahalla, one of the birthplaces of last year’s revolution and a major port with nearly a half-million people, a Republic of Mahalla.

Mahalla was one of the cradles of last year’s revolt against Hosni Mubarak.
This week, residents are talking (not seriously?) about independence from Mubarak’s successor regime.

EUROPE

2 Border Crossings Linking Serbia to Serb-Dominated North Kosovo Formally Open.  After protests and political wrangling, two border crossings operated jointly by the de facto independent Republic of Kosovo and the country that still claims it as its territory, the Republic of Serbia, opened on December 10th amid little fanfare.  The two crossings, Jarinje and Medarje, join Serbia proper with the region of North Kosovo, a Serb-dominated area lying out of Kosovo’s de facto control.  Four other crossings are to be in operation by the end of the year.

With Dominica on Board, Now More than Half of U.N. Member States Recognize Kosovo.  Following last month’s establishments of diplomatic relations by the Republic of Fiji (as reported at the time in this blog) and, the following week, the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, another Caribbean island nation, the Commonwealth of Dominica this week became the 97th independent state to recognize the Republic of Kosovo.  This officially tips the balance, so that now just over one-half of the United Nations’ 193 member states now recognize Kosovo.  See this week’s full article on this development.

Separatists Burn 24 French Vacation Homes on Eve of Corsican National Holiday.  The Corsican National Liberation Front (F.L.N.C.) is claiming responsibility for the destruction of 24 vacation homes by arson and explosives on December 7th on Corsica, the large Mediterranean island which was transferred from Italy (the Republic of Genoa, actually) to France in 1769 following a brief period of independence.  No one was injured in the violence, which targeted vacated or partially completed homes.  A few hours before the blasts, a man believed linked to the F.L.N.C. was arrested in possession of explosives.  On the same day, the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is also Corsica’s unofficial independence day, a nightclub owner was gunned down and killed in what is probably an organized-crime hit rather than something related to the wave of arson.

One of 24 vacation homes in Corsica destroyed by separatists this week

Renzo Bossi, Son of Northern League Founder, Probed for Misuse of Public Funds.  The young son of Umberto Bossi, the founder and disgraced former leader of Italy’s now-marginalized separatist Northern League, emerged December 14th as the target of a new corruption investigation focusing on right-wing parties.  The son, Renzo Bossi, who is suspected of misusing public funds, was discussed in this blog earlier this year as no. 10 in a list of “The World’s 21 Sexiest Separatists.”  Ironically, the press this week are referring to his being nicknamed “the Trout,” “because of his looks”—but it’s not clear if that is a compliment or not.  Certainly, the bee-stung lips and just general Mick Jagger look does not prevent another of the dozens of politicians newly under investigation—Nicole Minetti, a former regional councillor for Lombardy for the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Popolo della Libertà (P.d.L., or People of Freedom) party—from being considered a sex symbol.  Minetti, who is being investigated for spending €800 of public money on food and drink at a five-star hotel in Milan, is also still not free of charges that she procured underaged prostitutes for Berlusconi’s orgy-like  parties.  She began her political career as Berlusconi’s—ahem!—oral hygienist.  Yeah, that explains all the spit sinks at those bunga bunga parties.

Renzo Bossi and Nicole Minetti

Russian Troops Fail to Find “Bashkortostan Mujahideen” Training Camp in Urals.  The Caucasus Emirate separatist organization in the Russian Federation’s Muslim regions confirmed this week on their website an earlier report in the media from the Russian military that a militant Islamist training camp had been reported in the Urals region, run by the Bashkortostan Mujahideen, but that the feared Federal Security Service (F.S.B., successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B.) was unable to find it.  The website, the often-unreliable and propagandistic Kavkaz Center, which refers to the area in question, in Russia’s Republic of Bashkortostan, as part of the “Russian invader”–occupied “Idel-Ural,” links the Bashkortostan Mujahideen to a 2010 terrorist attack on traffic police in the city of Perm (which the site calls the “Russian-occupied Finnic country of Permia”).  The Idel-Ural State flourished briefly during the Russian Civil War as a multi-ethnic, predominantly-Muslim Menshevik state centered on modern Tatarstan, until it was crushed by Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks in 1920.  Bashkortostan, where native Bashkirs and Tatars just barely together outnumber ethnic Russians, declared independence briefly in 1992 before being cajoled by President Boris Yeltsin into joining the Russian Federation.

A new trouble spot?
A map showing the location of the Republic of Bashkortostan within the Russian Federation.

Dagestani Police Colonel Assassinated by Masked Housebreakers; 3 Militants Killed.  A police colonel was killed in southwestern Russia’s predominantly-Muslim Republic of Dagestan on December 9th when masked intruders broke into his home in the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala.  The victim, Khizri Dzhabatyrov, was involved in investigations into corruption and white-collar crime.  Later, on December 13th three militants were killed in a shootout with police at a checkpoint in Makhachkala.

2 Militants, Including Suicide Bomber, Die in Police Siege in Ingushetia.  In Nazran, capital of southwestern Russia’s Republic of Ingushetia, in the North Caucasus region, a police siege of militants barricaded in a house ended this week with the two rebels dead in a hail of gunfire.  One of the dead men, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service (F.S.B.), had been commander of a “suicide battalion.”

7 Dead as Russian Forces Clash with Rebels in North Caucasus.  In Tyrnyauz, in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, in the predominantly-Muslim North Caucasus region, Russian Federation forces clashed for two days with militants starting December 11th, in skirmishes that left six rebels and one police officer dead.  Three of the rebels were on terrorism wanted lists.

Suspect Nabbed in Killing of T.V. Anchor in Kabardino-Balkaria.  Russian federal security forces this week arrested a suspect in last week’s assassination (reported last week in this blog) of Kazbek Gekkiyev, a television news anchorman in southwestern Russia’s Kabardino-Balkar Republic, in Circassia.  The suspect is Zeytun Boziyev, age 30.

Plotters in Deadly Dagestani Suicide-Bombing Targeting Sufi Imam Arrested.  Meanwhile, in the Republic of Dagestan to the east, Russian federal security forces arrested three suspects for playing a role in planning a mass killing on August 28th, in which a female break-dancing suicide-bomber (though she was not break-dancing at the time of the bombing) killed seven people, including an 11-year-old boy and a prominent Sufi imam (as reported at the time in this blog).  The three suspects are said to be members of the Caucasus Emirate movement, which aims to create an independent state out of predominantly-Muslim areas along Russia’s southern rim.

Caucasus Emirate Claims Military Atrocities against Civilians in Dagestan, Chechnya.  The often-unreliable Jihadist website Kavkaz Center, run by the separatist Caucasus Emirate movement, reported this week on a series of violent “pogroms” against against civilians in the Russian Federation’s predominantly-Muslim North Caucasus region that were not reported in other media.  In one incident, on December 5th, troops from the Russian ministry of the interior, along with allied paramilitaries, removed two men from their homes in villages in the Chechen Republic on suspicion of being associated with the Mujahideen.  Their fates are unknown.  In the other alleged incident, on December 8th, Russian troops raided the village of Chontaul in the Republic of Dagestan, breaking into homes, smashing furniture, and getting as far as pouring kerosene over two captured young girls and a young man with the intention of immolating them, before villagers intervened.  The website also reported the “abduction” by police of two female terrorism suspects in Chechnya.

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

Russian Chopper Carrying Border Guards Crashes in Abkhazia; 7 Hurt.  A helicopter operated by the Russian Federation’s Federal Security Bureau (F.S.B.), successor to the dreaded K.G.B., crashed in the de facto independent but only partially recognized Republic of Abkhazia on December 10th.  Seven passengers were injured.  The craft was bringing border guards to the line between Abkhazia and the country that still regards it as its territory, Georgia.

ASIA—MIDDLE EAST

Southern Movement Motorcyclists Kill 2 Yemeni Soldiers in Drive-By Shooting.  Two soldiers were killed in a motorcycle drive-by shooting on December 11th in southern Yemen’s Ad-Dali’ province.  The perpetrators are suspected of being members of the Southern Movement, which would like to restore the independence of South Yemen.

ASIA—SOUTH ASIA

Mizoram Chief Minister Backs Creation of Kuki State in Northeast India.  In India’s far northeast, the Kuki State Demand Committee (K.S.D.C.) claimed this week that high-ranking officials in the region, including the chief minister of Mizoram state, support the creation of a State of Kukiland for the Kuki ethnic minority.  Speaking of the Mizoram chief minister, Lalthanhawla (who has only one name), a K.S.D.C. spokesman said, “He had told us that he was not just the Chief Minister of Mizoram but of all the Chin/Kuki/Mizo/Zomi brethren in India and the adjoining Myanmar” (i.e. Burma).  Meanwhile, the K.S.D.C. were carrying out more blockades this week to get their message across.

One proposal for the boundaries of Kukiland

ASIA—EAST ASIA

Dozens of Burmese Troops Dead amid Upsurge in Fighting with Kachin Rebels.  Rebels from eastern Burma’s Kachin ethnic group reported this week that dozens of Burmese soldiers were killed—out of at least 60 casualties—in a recent upsurge in fighting on December 9th and 10th.  “Fighting seems like nothing new now; it occurs everyday,” said a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Organization (K.I.O.).  Skirmishes were reported the morning of December 14th in the Lajayang region of Kachin State.

3 Uyghurs Given Death Sentences in Fishy “Foiled Hijacking” of Chinese Airliner.  A court in the People’s Republic of China—a one-party dictatorship with no independent judiciary—on December 11th sentenced three Uyghur men to death and one to life in prison for supposedly attempting to hijack a domestic airplane flight in late June (as reported in this blog), although it seems just as likely (as also discussed in this blog) that it was a scuffle between passengers over seating arrangements that the authorities are linking to Uyghur separatist terrorism for political purposes.  The court, in western China’s vast Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, said the men were guilty of a hijacking plot that included a plan to blow up the plane.

A cellphone-camera image of the scuffle aboard a Chinese passenger plane in June
which Beijing called an attempted Uyghur terrorist hijacking

3 Self-Immolations Include 17-Year-Old Girl as Grisly Tibetan Protests Show No Let-Up.  The wave of self-immolations by Tibetans protesting the People’s Republic of China’s brutal rule in their country continued this week, with two such burnings in a single day.  Kunchok Phelgye, a 24-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk, died December 8th after setting himself on fire in front of the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti monastery in the Ngaba “Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture” in western China’s Sichuan province.  After his death, monks and other worshippers carried his charred body into the monastery to offer prayers.  Later in the same day, Pema Dorjee, age 23, set himself ablaze in front of a monastery in the Luchu region in the east of China’s “Tibet Autonomous Region,” in full view of worshippers.  He shouted slogans calling for Tibetan independence and the return of the 14th Dalai Lama from exile as he perished.  The following day, a 17-year-old girl named Wangchen Kyi, burned herself to death in a Tibetan region of Qinghai province, making her the eighth minor to take the step in the several-years-long wave of self-immolations.

Pema Dorjee, age 23, immolating himself to protest Chinese rule in Tibet

China Sentences 8 Tibetan Student Demonstrators to Harsh Prison Terms.  Eight Tibetan students were given five-year prison sentences on December 5th (but it was only announced several days later) for their role in a November 26th demonstration in western China’s Qinghai province over language rights.  Many students were injured by police and hospitalized in the course of the unrest, which was centered on the Sirig Lobling Medical School in Chabcha, Qinghai.

NORTH AMERICA

Confederate War College Sets Southern “Secession Clock” Forward 1 Hour.  On analogy with the “Doomsday Clock,” maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to represent how close we as a global community are to nuclear annihilation, there is also, it turns out, a “Secession Clock,” maintained by the Confederate War College (C.W.C.) website, based in Gilmer, Texas, to indicate how close we are to the reestablishment of the Confederate States of America.  This week, the C.W.C. moved it ahead one hour to 7 p.m., citing the wave of online secession petitions after President Barack Obama’s reelection last month (discussed recently in articles on this blog here and here), a Huffington Post poll showing 22% of Americans favoring their respective home states leaving the Union, and other separatist chatter.  Officially, however, the C.W.C. “does not have a position concerning secession at this time, though it does defend the Constitutional right of the sovereign states which formed the United States to divorce as was originally intended when the Constitution was approved by the respective states.”

Garry Trudeau chimed in recently on red-state America’s secession fever.

Maryland Catholic Anti-Gay Hate Groups’ Ties to Racist Dixie Separatists Exposed.  Not only did the Maryland Catholic Conference and the Catholic fraternal order Knights of Columbus fail in their attempt last month to defeat a Maryland state referendum recognizing same-sex marriage.  But now the two groups are trying to contain the damage from revelations from the Human Rights Campaign (H.R.C.), a gay-rights organization, that Michael Peroutka, the third-largest donor to their ad hoc pressure group the Maryland Marriage Alliance is a member of the League of the South.  The Alliance raised nearly a half-million dollars to defeat the ballot measure.  The League of South, which advocates secession of the southern states from the United States, is classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center (S.P.L.C.) as a racist hate-group.  The League opposes interracial marriage, calls slavery “God-ordained,” and believes society should be governed by an “Anglo-Celtic” élite.  Anglo-Celtic?  Oopsie, sounds like that southern European Untermensch Cristóbal Colón himself—you know, as in “Knights of”—wouldn’t clear that bar.  Ah, well, details, details.  It’s inspiring that hate groups are able to set such minor doctrinal differences aside, especially when there are minority groups to gang up on.

Inland Empire Politician Envisions 51st State of “South California” by 2016.  The supervisor of Republican-dominated Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, California, acknowledged to media this week that his “Rebellion 2012” campaign (reported on in detail earlier in this blog) to break 13 counties away to form a separate state of “South California” has slowed, but he still sees 2016 as a target date for the partition.  Though last month’s national elections detracted attention from his cause, the supervisor, Jeff Stone, says that a rally is planned for March or April for Temecula, in Riverside County, while another rally in Kern County will be held later in the year.  He says six attorneys are at work drafting a constitution for the proposed 51st state of the United States.  South California is merely one possible name for the new entity; other suggestions include Southern California, Western Nevada, and Free State.  Also suggested has been an annexation of the region by Arizona.  Ironically, Temecula and nearby Murrieta, in the very southwest of the vast Riverside County, are at the center of a new movement to secede to form California’s 59th county.

CENTRAL AMERICA & CARIBBEAN

Puerto Rico Governor Calls Special Session on Statehood before Giving Reins to Opponent.  The recently defeated, outgoing governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, who helped usher the territory to a referendum win for his pro-statehood initiative last month, said on December 8th that he was calling for a special legislative session on how to advance the cause of becoming the 51st state of the United States.  The new governor, Alejandro García Padilla, of the Popular Democratic Party (P.D.P.), favors an enhanced, more autonomous version of the current commonwealth status, rather than statehood.

Alejandro García Padilla, Puerto Rico’s governor elect, is not a fan of statehood,
but it’s on the legislative agenda anyway.

PRACTICALLY BLOODY ANTARCTICA

Falkland Islands to Hold Referendum on Status in March 2013.  The government of the Falkland Islands has chosen March 10th and 11th, 2013, as the dates for a referendum on the future status of the archipelago, which is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom threatened as of late by the saber-rattling of an expansionist Argentine Republic.  The question is to read, “Do you wish to remain a self-governing British Overseas Territory?”

[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.]

Scotland to Stay in NATO, Zanzibar Abduction Hoax, Rohingya Strife Re-Erupts, Siege in Tatarstan, Telugu Riot over Movie, 5 Tibetan Self-Immolations, Brazilian Indian Mass Suicide, Plus Curaçao, Nuwaubians, etc.: The Week in Separatist News, 21-27 October 2012

Photo of the week: In Quebec, Canada, Montreal police remove a member of the Ukrainian feminist activist group Femen from an Ikea store to protest the global chain’s capitulation to radical-Islamist sensibilities by removing women’s images from catalogues available in Saudi Arabia.  Note the fleurs-de-lis breast-paint.  (Yes, I realize that this is only tangentially related to separatism, but I’m trying to give readers what they want.)

TOP STORY
SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY VOTES TO KEEP SCOTLAND IN NATO;
PLOY TO GARNER CENTRIST VOTES PROMPTS 2 M.S.P.S TO QUIT PARTY

The Scottish National Party (S.N.P.) narrowly voted in a party conference on October 19th to keep Scotland in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) if a 2014 referendum on independence from the United Kingdom should succeed.  But the party, voting 394-365, agreed that continued membership in NATO is contingent on the withdrawal of any nuclear forces from Scottish territory and waters.  The S.N.P.’s leader, Alex Salmond, had advocated staying in NATO, his argument being that fear of being left militarily vulnerable might be keeping some voters from supporting secession.  Kenny MacAskill, Scotland’s minister of justice, articulated the position, saying, “We’re all against” Trident missiles; “but we have moved on from being a party of protest to being a party of power.  I have marched for C.N.D.”—referring to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament—“and I have protested against Trident and I am tired of marching.  I want a seat for our government in the situations of power.”  The U.K. has promised, however, to block an independent Scotland’s membership in NATO, whose rules would require it to reapply.  After the party’s decision, two members of Scotland’s parliament for Highlands constituencies, John Finnie and Jean Urquhart, quit the party in protest.  A few days later, Salmond was dodging questions about rumors that he received legal advice to the effect that the European Union (E.U.) may make adopting the euro a condition for an independent Scotland’s “re”-admission to the E.U.

Alex Salmond

AFRICA

[For updates from Nigeria and Cameroon , including the Bakassi Peninsula and Boko Haram conflicts, see this week’s Nigeria Separatism Update.]

Kenyan Court Reinstates Ban on Mombasa Separatists; Warrants Issued for Leadership.  In Mombasa, Kenya, a high court has outlawed the popular separatist organization in Kenya’s predominantly-Muslim Coast Province, the Mombasa Republican Council (M.R.C.), which had had its ban lifted by another kcourt mere months ago, in July.  The magistrate, Stephen Riech, was responding to an appeal by the Kesnyan government.  Arrest warrants were immediately issued for those of the M.R.C. leadership that were still at large.  The M.R.C.’s leader, Omar Hamisi Mwamnuadzi, was arrested on October 15th (as reported on at the time in this blog), along with his wife, on weapons charges, but released October 22nd on the equivalent of $35,300 (U.S.) bond.  The weapons in question included (get this—you don’t hear this every day): “four bottles of petrol bombs, three Swahili swords, six knives, four arrows, two bows, two Maasai swords, one spear, and eight machetes.”  I wonder if he’ll tell the judge he was just planning to do a little yardwork?

The Mombasa Republican Council’s flag

Zanzibari Islamists Charged with Faking Leader’s Abduction to Spark Unrest.  Amid a new wave of separatist rioting in Zanzibar, police have issued warrants for leaders of the Islamist movement Uamsho (Islamic Revival Forum) for, police say, causing unrest by staging the phony abduction of a leading separatist cleric.  The story began with rioting by radical Islamists demanding secession from Tanzania (as reported on last week in this blog) dragging into its fourth day in Zanzibar by October 19th.  Young rioters threw stones and coconuts at police and were met with tear-gas attacks in reply.  (They should be careful about the coconuts.  Don’t they watch Gilligan’s Island?  Someone could get amnesia.)  There were also protests in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s mainland capital.  In both places, protesters railed were angry at the disappearance of a Zanzibarian cleric and separatist leader.  Late on the 19th, however, the leader, Sheikh Farid Hadi, who had been missing for days, was “freed,” but it is still unclear by whom or from where.  He heads the main Zanzibarian separatist group, Uamsho.  Then, by the 22nd, police were saying that Sheikh Farid had staged his own disappearance as a hoax—as they ascertained after they discovered him hiding at his private retreat, arrested him, and interrogated him for 10 hours.  Police say they unraveled the mystery after Farid’s driver gave conflicting testimony about his supposed abduction.  Arrest warrants were issued for the rest of Uamsho’s leadership, and by day’s end seven Uamsho leaders, including Farid, were in court facing charges that included incitement and breach of the peace.

Sheikh Farid Hadi’s perp walk

France, U.S. Plan to Send Surveillance Drones to Northern Mali.  An official from the French Republic’s ministry of defense told media in Bamako, Mali’s capital, on October 22nd that there were plans to cooperate with the United States to send unmanned, remote-controlled “drone” aircraft to conduct surveillance in the northern two-thirds of Mali run by Islamist militias as the Independent State of Azawad.  “It is no secret,” the official said, “there is military planning going on.  The European Union is conducting a scoping mission and looking to send a training team to help train the Malian army.  But the French are the nation with the most experience working here, and they see the terrorism threat more acutely than others.”  Meanwhile, credible reports by witnesses and others are telling of hundreds of jihadist fighters from Western Sahara and even as far away as Sudan arriving in Azawad to defend it from a foreign invasion, but the Tuareg nationalist army which was sidelined by the jihadists, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (M.N.L.A.), says those reports are false.

Azawadi Islamists Bulldoze More Sufi Tombs in Northern Mali.  Near Timbuktu, in the part of northern Mali run by Islamist militias as the Independent State of Azawad, militants with bulldozers demolished three Sufi tombs on October 18th.  The Islamists, who were from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar al-Dine group, obliterated the resting places of at least three Sufi saints: Cheick Nouh, Cheick Ousmane el-Kabir, and Cheick Mohamed Foulani Macina.  A resident said, “They arrived aboard six or seven vehicles, heavily armed.  They flattened everything with a bulldozer and pulled up the skeletal remains.”  In Ansar al-Dine’s strict interpretation of Islam, Sufism is heretical and it is forbidden to build structures atop burial sites.  The group’s systematic destruction of Sufi tombs in and around Gao and Timbuktu followed closely upon the United Nations Cultural and Educational Organization (Unesco) declaring them an endangered World Heritage Site earlier this year.

... and in the “You Know You’re an Extremist When ...” Department ...  One of Osama bin Laden’s former senior advisors has spoken out against the Islamists running the de facto independent Azawad republic in northern Mali, saying, “I am against the way in which these groups have gone about establishing an Islamic state in northern Mali.  This undertaking will do far more harm than good to the Muslims and people in the sub-region.  It would be better to seek dialogue and find a solution jointly.”  The advisor, Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, parted ways with bin Laden after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Mahfouz Ould al-Walid.  Even he thinks the folks running northern Mali are bonkers.

Ethiopia Removes Head of Somali Region Accused of Running Paramilitary.  The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has removed the president of one of its constituent ethnically-defined provinces, the Somali Regional State, after numerous allegations and testimonies that he ran brutal militias and abducted and tortured opponents.  The president, Abdi Mohamud Omar, is said to be in charge of the Liyuu Police, a paramilitary that has made deadly forays into the neighboring Republic of Somaliland and elsewhere but operates mostly out of the nearby Afar Regional State, also part of Ethiopia.  Initially, the Liyuu Police were formed to counteract the influence of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (O.N.L.F.).  For the time being, Abdifatah Mohamud Hassan, the former deputy president, is heading the Somali Regional State.

After Kenyan Rout of al-Shabaab, Puntland Supports Autonomous Jubaland.  The president of the de facto independent Puntland State of Somalia spoke at Friday prayers in Garowe, the capital, on October 26th and praised the newly stabilized (but, sadly, still barely existent) Federal Republic of Somalia, while also calling for the reestablishment of an autonomous Jubaland State in the areas of southern Somalia where African Union (A.U.) forces led by Kenya recently took control from the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab militia.  The president, Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, said, “Puntland played an important in the national political process for Somalia and we appeal to the new Somali Federal Government to promote national reconciliation and state-building processes, such as the formation of Jubaland.”

E.U. Brings Somaliland into EUCAP Nestor Anti-Piracy Initiative.  The European Union (E.U.) announced this week that it is officially incorporating the unrecognized but de facto independent Republic of Somaliland into its EUCAP Nestor program for suppressing sea piracy off the Somali coast.  Somaliland’s foreign minister, Dr. Mohamed Abdilahi Omar, called the agreement a milestone, especially given the context: a visit by the E.U.’s envoy to Somalia and Somaliland, Michele Cervone d’Urso, to Hargeisa, the Somaliland capital, to meet with the president, Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo.

Journalist Killed in Somaliland Brings Somalia Total to 16 for 2012.  A 25-year-old television reporter for Universal T.V. of the United Kingdom was shot in the head and killed on October 23rd in a disputed area in the de facto independent Republic of Somaliland.  The journalist, Ahmed Saakin Farah Ilyas, is the 16th to be killed this year in the areas the international community regards as the Federal Republic of Somalia.  The killing occurred in Las’anod, in the Sool region, which is claimed by both Somaliland and the Puntland State of Somalia and is also the site of a recent secessionist movement by the so-called Khaatumo State.

3 Bombs Planted in Disputed Somaliland Region; 4 Injured.  Also in Las’anod, Somaliland, (see above article), authorities announced on October 25th the discovery of three bombs planted at an Islamic school and a public market.  The one at the school detonated and injured three police who were trying to disable it, plus a civilian.

Casamance Rebels among Suspects Rounded Up after Guinea-Bissau Coup Attempt.  In the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, 20 people were arrested this week following an attack on an army facility on October 22nd by military servicemen that is being called an attempted coup d’état.  While the presumed mastermind of the attack, Capt. Pançao N’Tchama, is at large, some of those arrested include fighters from the Democratic Forces of Casamance (M.F.D.C.), a rebel group fighting for the secession of the adjacent southern region of the Republic of Senegal.

Barotse King, Prime Minister Snub Zambian Vice-President on Visit; Prisoners Freed.  Both the prime minister and the litunga (king) of the separatist region of Barotseland, in western Zambia, refused over the October 20-21 weekend to meet with Guy Scott, vice-president of Zambia, who tried to cool the war of words between the Lozi (Barotse) people and the government by making a side trip during a visit to Mongu, capital of Western Province (formerly Barotseland).  Scott is a white African, of mixed Scots and English ancestry.  Meanwhile, 17 Barotse separatists charged last month with malicious damage to government property for publicly tearing up copies of a draft Zambian constitution (as reported on earlier in this blog) were freed on bail on October 16th by a high court in Lusaka, the Zambian capital.

EUROPE
[For updates on Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque Country, see this week’s Spanish Separatism Update.]

Belgian Premier Rejects Separatism, Populism as Way Out of Economic Crisis.  The prime minister of Belgium, Emilio di Rupo, a French-speaking Socialist, urged European leaders in Brussels this week to confront the continent’s economic crisis in a way that does not give quarter to populists and separatists.  He noted that 40 of Belgium’s 150 legislators do not want to preserve the country.  Thirty-nine of those are members of the New Flemish Alliance (N.–V.A.), who effectively put Belgium’s partition into Flemish and Wallonian regions back on the table last week (as reported in this blog) in an election in which the N.–V.A.’s leader became mayor of Antwerp.

Emilio Di Rupo wants Flemings and Walloons to stay together/

Serbian, Kosovar Premiers Meet in Brussels, Prompting Nationalist Rioting in Pristina.  The prime minister of the Republic of Serbia, Ivica Dačić, and the prime minister of the de facto independent state Serbia still claims as its own, the Republic of Kosovo’s Hashim Thaçi, held direct talks for the first time on October 19th at the European Union’s headquarters in Brussels, prompting rioting by the opposition in the streets of Kosovo’s capital.  The meeting was overseen by the Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the E.U.’s highest ranking diplomat.  Lady Ashton, the who holds the title High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said that she and the two leaders “will meet again soon ... to improve the lives of people and help solve problems and, in so doing, bring Serbia and Kosovo closer to the European Union.”  Though the meeting was in fact “talks about talks,” rather than talks themselves, and the two premiers did not shake hands.  Despite the unofficialness of the events, members of the small radical-nationalist opposition party Vetëvendosje! (“Self-Determination!”), which advocates union with Albania, staged violent protests in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, on October 22nd to protest what nationalists describe as capitulation to Serbia.  Banners were raised reading, “Unification with Albania instead of agreement with Serbia!”  Stones and tomatoes were lobbed at police, who responded with tear gas, and parliament was cordoned off after activists attempted to storm it.  Thirty-three people, some of them members of parliament, including Albin Kurti, Vetëvendosje’s leader, were arrested—Kurti only briefly.  More than 20 were hurt in the mêlée. Three days later, the United Kingdom’s foreign minister, William Hague, met with Thaçi in Pristina while on his way to another meeting in Belgrade and declared that, contrary to proposals by Serbia, Kosovo should never be partitioned.  “The map is finished in southeastern Europe,” he said.

Vetëvendosje! activists in Pristina

Vojvodina Police Arrest 5 Hungarian Neo-Nazis for Assault.  Five ethnic Hungarians belonging to extremist right-wing groups were arrested on the night of October 20-21 in Temerin, in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, an historically-ethnically-Hungarian part of the Republic of Serbia.  The men, who were drunk, shouted Nazi slogans, made Nazi-style right-arm salutes, and, after being tossed out of a tavern, assaulted two other men.  Hungarians make up only 15% of Vojvodina’s population today, but the province was once joined with Transylvania, the ethnic-Hungarian-dominated region in neighboring Romania, to form a German-allied Banat Republic after the First World War, before Vojvodina was absorbed into the Serb-dominated Kingdom of Yugoslavia.  Vojvodina is a flashpoint in the rhetoric of increasingly strident neo-fascist Hungarian militias in Romania (as discussed in a recent article in this blog).

Strasbourg Court Sides with Transnistria’s Moldovans over Russia’s Language Policy.  In Strasbourg, France, on October 19th, the European Court of Human Rights (E.C.H.R.) ruled in a 16-1 decision to hold the Russian Federation culpable for depriving children of education in Transnistria by imposing chauvinistic language policies that prompted Moldovan authorities to shut several schools down.  The policy, in place since the early 1990s, requires Moldovan to be written in the Cyrillic alphabet, as it had been when Moldova and Transnistria were part of the Soviet Union.  Transnistria is an eastern sliver of the Republic of Moldova which seceded in 1990 as the still-today-unrecognized Pridnestovian Moldavian Republic (a.k.a. Transnistria) and is propped up and occupied by Russian troops.  In a statement, the E.C.H.R. “found that the separatist regime could not survive without Russia’s continued military, economic, and political support and that the closure of the schools therefore fell within Russia’s jurisdiction.”

3 Militants, 1 Policeman Killed in Gun Battle with Islamists in Tatarstan.  A gun battle broke out on October 24th in Kazan, capital of central Russia’s predominantly-Muslim Republic of Tatarstan, with police and security forces besieging an apartment building in Kazan where Islamist radicals were holed up.  The interior ministry reported that three militants, described as radical Muslims, were killed, as well as one officer killed and one wounded.  Or, as the Islamist radical Caucaus Emirate’s website put it, a little subjectively: “A member of the K.G.B. commandos gang was eliminated.  The Russian terrorist died in hospital of his wounds.  Another Russian terrorist one badly wounded, and later also went to his Master Satan.”  (Watch a video of the siege here.)  Authorities later linked the men in the siege to the coordinated assassination attempts (one successful) on moderate Tatar muftis in Kazan in July (reported at the time in this blog).

The siege in Kazan, Tatarstan

[For updates from the North Caucasus (Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, and Circassia), see this week’s Caucasus Update.]

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

[For updates from the North Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), see this week’s Caucasus Update.]

Pamiri Warlord under House Arrest in Tajikistan Predicts Authorities Will Eliminate Him.  The former Pamiri rebel leader in the Republic of Tajikistan, Tolib Ayombekov, who was placed under house arrest after a government crackdown in July and August (as reported at the time in this blog), told interviewers this week that he doubted he would ever be brought to trial.  He is regarded as having been set up as a fall guy after the beating death of a secret-police chief in July, an incident which he and his militias may or may not have been involved.  Dressed in the trademark post-Soviet gangster regalia of a tracksuit and baseball cap, Ayombekov said from his home in Khorug, the capital of Tajikistan’s vast Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, that he predicted the government could one day, without warning, eliminate him without making it look like a murder.  After a failed ethnic uprising in the 1990s pushed Tajikistan into civil war, Ayombekov and his fighters were absorbed into the Tajikistani military as part of the truce.  For years, Gorno-Badakhshan remained mostly outside government control, ruled by his militias.  Ayombekov claims that the spy chief’s murder was merely an excuse to bring the region back under central control.  He said, “The whole community is scared.  The atmosphere here is worse than during the civil war.  Not even young children or old men are forgiving the central government.”

Tolib Ayombekov

Security Tight, Flags a Flashpoint at Turkish–Greek Cypriot Football Match in Nicosia.  In Nicosia, the capital of the ethnic-Greek-dominated Republic of Cyprus, security was tight as a football (soccer) team from Turkey arrived for a match with a Greek Cypriot team.  500 police were on hand to monitor the crowd—which was separated into ethnic-Greek and ethnic-Turkish sections—for outbreaks of violence.  In negotiations between the football clubs and associations before the match, fans of the Istanbul-based Turkish team, Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü, were permitted to display, during the game, flags of the Cyprus Turkish Republic (formerly known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), an unrecognized Turkish puppet state occupying the northern third of the island of Cyprus.  The Greek Cypriot team is Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou, or, as it is known, A.E.L. Limassol, representing Limassol, a Greek-governed town that is the island’s second-largest city.

Turkish fans waving the Northern Cypriot flag

Turkish Forces Battle Rebels in Kurdistan Region; at Least 49 Dead.  At least 49 people were killed in battles between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish military over this past week.  First, three Turkish police officers and three members of the banned, separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.) died over the night of October 19-20 in a battle along a highway in Hakkari province, in Turkey’s southeastern Kurdistan region.  Meanwhile, in Bitlis province, three pro-government village guards, who were Kurdish, were killed in a battle with P.K.K. rebels.  That incident also wounded three other guards and a Turkish soldier.  Then, on October 20th or 21st (reports differ), a natural-gas pipeline in Turkey’s Ağrı province was damaged by an explosion.  The provincial governor blamed the P.K.K.  Also on October 21st, the Turkish government announced that joint police and military operations over the previous five days in Hakkari province’s Kazan Valley, even using fighter jets and helicopters, had killed at least 40 Kurdish rebels.

400 Kurdish Prisoners on Hunger Strike, Rights Group Reports.  The Turkish Human Rights Association reported on October 22nd that as many as 400 Kurds in Turkey’s prisons are refusing food in a hunger strike over Kurdish rights and for conditions of the imprisoned founder of the armed separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.), Abdullah Öcalan.  About 70 Kurdish prisoners began the hunger strike on September 12th, and the numbers have grown since then.

Abdullah Öcalan’s original perp walk

ASIA—MIDDLE EAST

Palestine Reschedules Try for Upgrade to U.N. “Member State” Status for November.  The chief negotiator for the Palestinian National Authority (P.A.), Saab Erakat, told interviewers in Ramallah, in the West Bank, this week that Palestine would apply next month to upgrade its status at the United Nations (U.N.) from “observer” to “non-member state.”  This plan—originally (as reported in this blog) scheduled for last month—is less ambitious than the failed bid in 2011 to apply for full membership in the U.N. General Assembly (G.A.), which was blocked by the United States’ veto on the Security Council.  The Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.) has had U.N. “observer” status since 1998.  Palestine is diplomatically recognized by most of the world (133 sovereign out of, depending on how you count them, 193 sovereign states) and is treated as a de facto member state by U.N. institutions such as Unesco.  Should the vote succeed, Erakat said, “Palestine will become a nation under occupation.  The moment we get this, every single thing Israel does in East Jerusalem or the West Bank will become null and void.”  The U.S. has no veto in the G.A., which has authority over  upgrades such as the P.A. is planning.

6 Killed as Hamas, Israel Exchange Rocket Attacks, Bombs, Airstrikes.  Six people were killed in a series of retaliations between Israel’s military and rebel fighters inside the Palestinian Territories’ Gaza Strip exclave this week.  Rockets apparently fired from within the Gaza Strip on October 22nd prompted Israeli Defense Forces (I.D.F.) airstrikes—one on a supposed Hamas training camp in Beit Hanoun, and another at nearby Jabalya.  At Beit Hanoun, two Palestinians were killed and wounded two others.  In Jabalya, four were wounded.  An I.D.F. soldier was injured by a bomb planted along the border between Gaza and Israel on October 23rd.  Then, on October 24th, 60 rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel, wounding five people.  Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the bomb and the rockets, though the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (P.F.L.P.) claimed the October 23rd bomb as well.  Israeli airstrikes killed four Hamas fighters in retaliation.

Low Turnout in West Bank Voting; Rival Fatah Faction Gains in Jenin, Ramallah.  There was a disappointing turnout in local-council elections in the West Bank portion of the Palestinian Territories on October 20th, with only 55% voting.  The enclave’s ruling party, Fatah, did well in Hebron, Bethlehem, Kalkiya, Jericho, and Tulkarm, while a dissident Fatah faction came out ahead in Jenin, Nablus, and the Palestinian capital, Ramallah.  Hamas, the Islamist terror group which governs the Gaza Strip, boycotted the elections.

Emir of Qatar Pays First State Visit by Anyone to Hamas-Ruled Gaza Strip.  For the first time since the Islamist terrorist militia Hamas took power there after a 2007 election, a foreign head of state has visited the Gaza Strip portion of the Palestinian Territories.  Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, emir of the State of Qatar, crossed into Gaza via a border crossing with Egypt.  Qatar had already been a supporter of Hamas, but both the government of Israel and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority criticized the visit as lending the party legitimacy.

Palestinian children welcome the Emir of Qatar to Gaza.

ASIA—SOUTH ASIA

Baloch Rebels Claim Bicycle-Bomb Attack That Killed 8 (Officially Only 3) Soldiers.  In Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, three members of the federal paramilitary Frontier Corps (F.C.) were killed and 10 people, including six civilians, were injured when a remote-control bomb on a bicycle took out a patrol convoy on October 19th.  The Baloch Liberation Army (B.L.A.) claimed responsibility.  The B.L.A.’s statement claimed eight dead Corpsmen instead of three.  Meanwhile, an F.C. officer was killed in an armed attack on a checkpoint in Dera Bugti, in Balochistan, on the same day, and five were injured.

Rival Chittagong Hills Factions Clash in Bangladesh, Leaving 1 Dead.  At least one person was killed after a clash between rival factions in southeastern Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hills region.  The battle involved the Parbotto Chôṭṭogram Jônoshônghoti Shomiti (P.C.J.S.S., or United People’s Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts), which signed a peace treaty with the Bangladeshi government in 1997, and the United People’s Democratic Front (U.P.D.F.), which rejects the treaty and desires more autonomy for the Chittagong Hills region, which is home to Buddhist-majority tribal groups within a predominantly Muslim nation.  The army was deployed, and five people were arrested.

The five arrested in the Chittagong Hills

2 Islamists Killed in Kashmir Included 1 Linked to 2011 Delhi High Court Attack.   Two militants were killed on October 21st in Sopore, in the north of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s largest and most strife-torn Muslim-majority state.  They were members of the radical Islamist and separatist militia Lashkar-e-Taiba, and one of the men, named Urfi (his full name), was said to be linked to the attack on a high court in Delhi on September 7, 2011.  The other man, Abdullah Shaheen, was a citizen of Pakistan.  Lashkar-e-Taiba, meanwhile, has claimed responsibility for an attack on a hotel in Srinagar, Kashmir’s capital, on October 19th (reported on at the time in this blog), which killed one person.  Later, on October 27th, tear gas was used to disperse an anti-government riot by separatists in Srinagar, Kashmir’s capital.

Charges Dropped against Sikh Nationalists Arrested in 2005 for Advocating “Khalistan.”  A court in Amritsar, India, on October 22nd dropped all charges against 21 members of Dal Khalsa International, a Sikh separatist organization, who were first arrested in 2005 for “provocative speeches” arguing for an independent Khalistan.  They had been demonstrating to mark the 19th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, the Indian government’s deadly attack on Amritsar’s Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest site.  The charged included Dal Khalsa’s president, H. S. Dhami.

Flag of Khalistan

3 ULFA Fighters Busted with Weapons Cache in Assam.  In India’s strife-torn northeast, three fighters from the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) were arrested on October 27th in Assam’s Goalpara district.  Large amounts of weapons were seized from them.

Telugu Nationalists Riot over Film Said to Parody Telangana Statehood Movement.  If you thought the movie Borat got people’s knickers in a twist ... activists throughout the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, in India, vandalized movie theaters in Hyderabad and other cities on October 19th and also attacked a film director’s office, burning posters and film reels. The film in question, Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu, which is in the Telugu language and had been released the day before, was perceived to mock the political movement to create a separate federal state for the Telangana region.  Members of the Telangana Joint Action Committee and the Telugu Desam Party claim that two characters in the film are parodies of Telangana separatist leaders.  Some dialogue offended Telugu nationalists as well.  The filmmakers promised to release an edited version to placate the protesters, but the groups demanded the entire film be banned.  The film has been pulled from theaters throughout the region to avoid unrest.

The offending film

Karnataka Cabinet Minister Urged to Resign after Calling for Separate State.  A cabinet minister in Karnataka state, in southern India, is being asked to resign after calling for a separate state within India for his home region in the north.  Umesh Vishwanath Katti, who is the state’s minister of agriculture, said that northern Karnataka should be its own state by 2020, mainly for administrative reasons.  He envisioned a better-run India with 50 or more states, instead of the current 31.  Karnataka’s population is about two-thirds Kannada, an ethnic group that speaks a Dravidian language related to Tamil and Telugu.  Katti said later that he stood by his comments, adding, “I am not worried even if I lose my ministership.”

Accessory to Suicide Attack on Sri Lankan Army Commander Given 35 Years in Prison.  In Sri Lanka, a Tamil man named S. Suriyakumar was given 35 years in prison on October 23rd for aiding and abetting a female—and pregnant—Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.T.E.) suicide bomber the attempted assassination of the Army commander (and later presidential candidate) Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka in 2006.  Nine people were killed in the eventual attack, but without harming Fonseka.

Sarath Fonseka: his would-be assassin finally receives justice.

ASIA—EAST ASIA

5 More Self-Immolations in Tibet, amid Reports Beijing Killed Man Planning Another.  Tibetan exile information networks are reporting that a 57-year-old Tibetan man who had been planning to immolate himself to protest Chinese rule over the region has disappeared and may even have been killed by Chinese authorities.  The man had arrived in Siling, in the north of the People’s Republic of China’s misnamed Tibet Autonomous Region, and, according to a well-connected Tibetan exile who spoke to Voice of America, “Chinese security personnel murdered Dorjee Rabten in Siling’s ‘Pachen’ guest house” on August 23rd.  The source, Gyaltsen Choedak, went on, “The Chinese security official called Dorjee Rabten’s elder son, Drukjham Gyal, and told him that he should come at once to pick up the body,” but the son received only ashes, and a warning to keep silent.  If true, the events would confirm an escalation in China’s crackdown on Tibetan activists and on self-immolators in particular.  Meanwhile, there were five more self-immolations in Chinese-occupied Tibet, all in Tibetan areas of Gansu province.  A man in his fifties named Dhondup (his full name) set himself on fire on October 22nd at the Labrang Monastery, two days after another self-immolation near the same monastery.  The next day, also near Labrang, Dorje Rinchen, age 58, immolated himself along a roadside near the police station.  These three Gansu self-immolations are among seven in Tibet in the past month alone.  There were two self-immolations on October 26th in Amuquhu, in Gansu’s Xiahe County: a 24-year-old farmer, Lhamo Tseten, who burned himself at a military base, and a Tibetan in his early 20s named Tsepag Kyab who did the same at a bus station.

Dorje Rinchen’s last minutes

2 Dead, 3 Wounded in Uyghur Axe Attack on Police, Prompting Chinese Crackdown.  The World Uyghur Congress, an exile group based in Munich, Germany, reported this week that house raids and attacks on protesters in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China on October 19th had involved an unknown number of deaths and injuries.  The clashes and crackdown occurred in Korla, in central Xinjiang (known to Uyghur separatists as East Turkestan), where, according to media, three Uyghurs attacked a group of policemen, who then opened fire on their attackers.  One attacker was killed, another was injured, and two policemen are in critical condition, one nearly losing his arm—bolstering rumors that it was an axe attack.  The incident followed other unrest in Korla and Kashgar, including the distribution of anti-Chinese leaflets.  Dilxat Raxit, the W.U.C.’s spokesman, said, “The local authorities have enforced a news blackout since the clashes took place, and have been conducting raids.”

112 Dead in New Eruption of Buddhist–Muslim Violence in Burma.  In western Burma, where a cycle of violence between disenfranchised Rohingyas, who are Muslim, and members of the country’s Buddhist majority left scores or hundreds dead and tens of thousands homeless in May and June, 112 people have been killed in a new round of violence which began on October 21st, with scores wounded and almost 2,000 (mostly wooden) homes burned to the ground.  The violence first flared in Minbyar and Mrauk-U, two remote townships in Rakhine (a.k.a. Arakan) State, by the border with Bangladesh, but then spread.  The first three killed in this cycle of violence were one Buddhist man and two Muslim women.  Muslims have borne the great brunt of the unrest.

The unofficial flag of the Rohingya people

Burmese Troops Invade Kachin Village, Round Up Men, Expel Villagers.  Reports filtered out of Burma’s war-torn Kachin State this week that an entire village’s population had been forced to flee violence and threats by government troops.  The battles began on October 19th when 60 soldiers arrived in the village, Nam Si, and began rounding up and tying up the village’s men to interrogate them about ties to the Kachin Independence Organization (K.I.O.).  Some village leaders remain in custody, and the rest of the village fled for fear of more violence from the troops.

3 Malay Insurgents Surrender in Southern Thailand.  Three fighters from the rebel group Runda Kumpalan Kecil (R.K.K.), which aims to establish a separate state for ethnic Malays in what is now southern Thailand, surrendered to police this week.  The governor of Narathiwat province, in the far south, accepted their surrender and promised safety for them and their families.  Later, on October 27th, two Thai soldiers were injured in a drive-by shooting in another insurgency-plagued southern province, Pattani.  The same morning, a landmine on a rubber plantation in Narathiwat injured one man.

OCEANIA

Indonesian Cops Injure Break Up Independence Rally in West Papua, Injure 8.  In Indonesia’s far-eastern West Papua province, hundreds of police broke up a pro-independence rally with rubber bullets, injuring at least eight demonstrators.  Media report that the rally, at the University of Papua in Manokwari, became violent when students, who were among the 300 or so protesters, began throwing stones at police.  Four were hurt by rubber bullets, and another four in ensuing scuffles with police.  One journalist who was there said, “They punched me twice in the face and tried to strangle me.  They hit other journalists and I saw at least two people get shot.”  The rally was organized by the West Papua National Committee (K.N.P.B.), which advocates a referendum on independence for the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

The rally in Manokwari, West Papua

French Court Rejects Appeal by Polynesian Separatist Senator Who Cited Persecution.  The French Republic’s highest court rejected this week an appeal by a Socialist senator and Polynesian separatist who claimed that his two-year-long disbarment from legal practice in his native French Polynesia was politically motivated and sought redress.  The senator, Richard Tuheiava, was disbarred in March for criminal charges dating to 2008 that included forgery.  He maintained his innocence, claiming that the charges were an attempt to sideline him so as not to embarrass France.  He specifically cited the recently defeated president, Nicolas Sarkozy, as responsible for his persecution.  Tuheiava has since been reinstated to the bar in French Polynesia.

Aboriginal Boxer Apologizes to Tasmanians but Not to Opponent He Trash-Talked.  The famed Australian aboriginal boxer Anthony Mundine had to back-pedal from trash-talking of a fellow Aboriginal boxer he is to face in the ring in January, after suggesting that Tasmanian Aborigines were extinct.  In his comments, he had questioned his opponent Daniel Geale’s claims to indigenous ancestry, saying, “He’s got a white woman.  He’s got white kids.  I keep it real, all day every day.”  He said Geale should not wear the Aboriginal flag on his shorts and said, “I thought they wiped all the Aborigines from Tasmania out.”  Indeed, the last full-blooded indigenous Tasmanian died more than a century ago.  By the 1830s, all the Aboriginal Tasmanians that had not been exterminated in an overt genocide had been removed from their communities.  Surviving people of aboriginal Tasmanian descent are of mixed ancestry and have benefited from almost no cultural transmission.  The languages of the island are extinct.  Mundine has apologized to the Tasmanian people, but he refuses to apologize to Geale, saying, “I know there are a lot of Aborigines in Tasmania that are proud of their heritage, just like me,” but “There are people who get jobs, and are claiming benefits, who claim to be Aboriginal, because they have a great-great-great-great-grandmother or grandfather; that, I think, is wrong.”  He also called Australia a racist country and demanded a new flag that honors Aboriginal people instead of “the Union Jack, something that symbolises the invasion, the murder, the pillaging, and on and on.”

Anthony Mundine and Daniel Geale go to the mat over who’s more indigenous.

SOUTH AMERICA

Brazil Indian Tribe Vows Mass Suicide after Judge Upholds Eviction from Sacred Land.  An entire Indian tribe of 170 people in Brazil has vowed to commit mass suicide following a court ruling which orders them to abandon what they call their sacred land.  The land in question is a graveyard inside a privately owned ranch in Mato Grosso do Sul state in southwestern Brazil, bordering Paraguay.  A judge this week upheld the rancher’s eviction notice on the so-called “squatters.”  A letter to Brazilian authorities from the tribe, the Guarani-Kaiowá, read,  We are already going to and want to be killed and buried along with our ancestors here where we are today, therefore, we ask the Government and the Federal Justice not to decree our eviction, but instead we request them to decree our mass death and to bury us all here.  We ask them, once and for all, to decree our total decimation and extinction, besides sending many tractors to dig a large hole to drop and bury our bodies.  This is our request to the federal judges.  We already await this decision of the Federal Justice.  Decree our mass death Guarani and Kaiowá of Pyelito Kus/Mbarakay and bury us here.  Given that we fully decided it and won't leave this place dead or alive.”  Others denied the interpretation of the letter as a literal threat of mass suicide.

A Guarani-Kaiowá activist tends to graves on “privately owned” land his people refuse to vacate.

Chilean Riot Police Attack Crowd of Mapuche Demonstrators on Columbus Day.  In the Republic of Chile, riot police used tear gas and water cannons to break up a rally by several thousand protesters who took over downtown Santiago on October 15th to mark Columbus Day by demonstrating for the rights of indigenous people.  Media report that police intervened after about 100 hooded young people joined the march and started vandalizing banks.  The march was sponsored by the Meli Wixan Mapu Organization, the Wente Winkul Mapu community, and the Temukuikui Autonomous Mapuche Community, among others, to urge the release of four indigenous Mapuche political prisoners who had been hunger-striking for 50 days.

CENTRAL AMERICA & CARIBBEAN

Curaçao Independence Party Tops Vote, but Barely; Must Form Coalition.  Election results in Curaçao, in the southern Caribbean, released on October 20th put the Sovereign People Party, which calls for independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, ahead, but with a plurality that still requires a coalition deal in order to form a government.  Sovereign People received 23% of the island colony’s 87,000-or-so votes and will thus still hold only five out of the colonial parliament’s 21 seats.  The far more mainstream Movement for the Future of Curaçao, headed by a former Curaçaoan prime minister, Gerrit Schotte, won 21% of votes, with an equal number of parliamentary seats.  Curaçao, which is just off Venezuela’s coast, won separation in 2010 from the Netherlands Antilles, and the two are now separate “constituent countries” of the kingdom.  The two other Dutch “constituent countries” are Aruba and Sint Maarten; all are in the Caribbean.

The flag of Curaçao

NORTH AMERICA

Nuwaupian Scare Letters to Georgia Officials Were in Fact from Splinter Group.  Investigations are revealing this week that the loopy scare letters sent to various law-enforcement and other officials in central Georgia, in the United States, were not from the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, the Black nationalist sect (classified as a racist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (S.P.L.C.)) whose cause they took up, but from a hitherto unknown splinter group.  Claiming to be from the embassy of the United Nuwaupian Nation (sic: with a p, not a b), the letters were addressed October 1st to officials and citizens involved in the law-enforcement take-down, in 2004 and 2005, of the Nuwaubians, their 500-acre compound in Putnam County, Georgia, called Tama Re, and the sentencing of their leader, Dwight Malachi York, to 135 years in prison on racketeering, tax-evasion, and child-molestation charges.  Previously well known members of the Nuwaubian movement have hastened to distance themselves from this month’s mailings.  Journalists, however, have identified the first signature on the letters—which nominally signed “for the Ministers of Justice” by one Ari Hatep sanan en mut (sic, including idiosyncratic lowercase)—as that of one Doosua York, a.k.a. Damon Pryor, linked to the Celebrity Status hair salon and tattoo parlor in Atlanta.  Another signature is that of Joe Hibner, one of seven officers from the Macon Police Department who quit the force in 2004 out of loyalty to York.  A more mainstream Nuwaupian named Kermit B. “Damur” Nowlin said, “There are a lot of law-abiding Nuwaupians that do not agree with the actions of this ‘Sovereign Citizens’ group called the United Nation of Nuwaupia,” whom he called “paper terrorists” and “bullies.”

Flag of the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors.
Crescent, Star of David, ankh—see? they love everybody!

Manitoba Ojibwe Occupy Tribal Office to Oust Self-Proclaimed “Chief for Life.”  In southeastern Manitoba, in Canada, dissident members of the Buffalo Point First Nation, an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe and Saulteaux) community, occupied their reserve’s band office over the October 20-21 weekend to protest the heavy-handed rule of their elected chief councillor, whom they accuse of nepotism and corruption, especially with respect to a land deal.  The chief, John Thunder, claims legitimacy through an hereditary title from his father, Jim Thunder, and asserts that he is Chief for life.  This runs counter to the Indian Act, which regulates elections to Band Council, including the position of Chief Councillor in First Nations communities.  The sit-in was prompted by the removal of Thunder’s opponents from voter rolls and the stuffing of them with relatives, which was discovered when voting began over the weekend on a referendum on a land deal.  Thunder’s opponents are asking the federal government to free Buffalo Point from the Indian Act so that proper elections can be held, even though it is Thunder’s authoritarianism which runs afoul of the Act.

3,000 First Nations Rally at B.C. Parliament against Tar-Sands Project.  In Canada, more than 3,000 protesters, including First Nations leaders and elders, filled the square in front of British Columbia’s parliament on October 22nd to protest plans by Enbridge, Inc., to run an oil pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to Kitimat, on the northern B.C. coast.  Scores of First Nations communities have organized in opposition to the project and its environmental risks.  Art Sterritt, who is from the Tsimshian community of Hartley Bay and is executive director of Coastal First Nations, spoke and asked the crowd if they were willing to lie down in front of bulldozers if necessary to stop the project and the crowd replied loudly, “Yes!”  The B.C. parliament has yet to rule on the proposed project.

Haida protesters in Victoria

Russell Means, Leading American Indian Activist, Dies at 72.  See the full obituary in this blog.

[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.]