Nationalia - Latest news

Bamako and Tuareg militia agree on deployment of Malian army in Kidal

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:00:00 +0200

It has taken longer than expected, but finally the Malian government has accepted the deal on Kidal proposed by Burkina Faso and signed last week by two main Azawadi organizations, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA). According to the deal, the Malian army will be redeployed in the Kidal region (now in the hands of MNLA) in the coming weeks. The agreement also provides for the holding of the Malian presidential election of July 28th also in the territory of Kidal.

The MNLA is a mainly Tuareg militia that last year conquered the north of Mali and declared its independence under the name of "Azawad". After they lost control of the territory to several Islamist groups, the French army decided to intervene in the conflict in order to restore control of Mali over Azawad. Subsequently, Islamist guerrillas lost almost all the territory they previously held, and the MNLA managed to again secure control of their stronghold Kidal. Two weeks ago, the Malian army threatened to retake Kidal by force. MNLA is now only asking for an autonomous Azawad within Mali.

According to the Bamako-MNLA-HCUA deal, Malian soldiers will enter Kidal under some conditions. The first one is the fact that the Malian men will be deployed together ("in close co-operation") with a UN peacekeeping force. The Tuareg militia hopes that this will avoid abuses by Malian soldiers against local Tuaregs. The second one is the fact that MNLA men will be garrisoned in the region while keeping their weapons. The agreement says that MNLA disarmament will only be discussed after July election. The Tuareg rebels hope that a broader discussion on the future status of Azawad will then take place.

It is now to be seen if the Malian president to be elected in July will be able to hold a truly inclusive negotiation in order to bring peace and some sort of self-government to Azawad. Bamako is strongly reluctant to accept any kind of autonomy for any Malian territory, and it also opposes the very concept of "Azawad". Still, Bamako has at least accepted to hold "peace talks" with MNLA, HCUA and "northern communities" in order to agree on the "statute of the region of the north".

Tuareg-based movements have been fighting against the Malian army since the independence of the former French colony in 1960.

(Image: MNLA fighters and an Azawadi flag.)

Further information:

Tuiteja

Government report admits languages other than Finnish not enough protected in Finland

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:00:00 +0200

A report by the Finnish Government on the application of language legislation has concluded that linguistic rights of speakers of languages other than Finnish are not sufficiently protected. The report, prepared by the Ministry of Justice, has found "shortcomings" in the rights of Swedish speakers to get services from authorities in their language. This is particularly shocking, since Swedish is one of two official languages of the Republic of Finland.

Sami speakers are also affected by this lack of linguistic rights implementation. According to the report, there has been some small progress, but in general authorities are not ready to deliver a full range of services in Sami in the Sami traditional area. This situation is further complicated by the fact that there are three officially recognized Sami languages: Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami. The report concedes that Finland is not fully respecting Sami linguistic rights, especially in the case of Inari Sami and Skolt Sami speakers.

On the other hand, the text points out that there has been an increase in the number of residents who have Russian and Estonian as their mother tongues. In this regard, the report says there has been an increase in a number of services in Russian, especially in Eastern Finland.

Further information:

YLE: Language rights under scrutiny

Tuiteja

Balad party asks for Israeli Arab autonomy to be included in Basic Laws

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:00:00 +0200

The National Democratic Assembly (Balad, Hebrew acronym) is set to propose new legislation aimed at recognizing Israeli Arabs as a national minority, entitled to cultural and social autonomy. The move has been announced by Balad leader Jamal Zahalka (left picture) to The Jerusalem Post. According to Zahalka, official recognition would help in "protecting the existence" of Israeli Arabs and "preserving their cultural and civic rights, which would guarantee their equality". The proposed bill will also include a provision so that Israel accepts the Israeli Arab's "connection to the Palestinians in the [occupied] territories and the Arab nation at large".

Israeli Arabs make up some 20.5% of the total Israeli population. Their larger concentrations are found in the districts of North (where they are the absolute majority), Jerusalem and Haifa. Their political parties and international NGOs complain about discrimination against Arabs by the Israeli state.

Zahalka's proposal is to inscribe Israeli Arab rights into the Basic Laws of Israel, which act as a de facto Constitution in the Middle Eastern country. Balad leader concedes "there is no chance" that the bill can be passed, since the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, has a "right-wing and extremist" majority.

Interestingly enough, The Jerusalem Post itself has published an editorial attacking the Balad proposal. According to the newspaper, it is a "separatist formulation" proposed by a politician, Zahalka, who "exploits Israeli democracy to undermine Israel".

An old idea renewed

Having Israeli Arab rights recognized is by no means a new idea. Balad has been proposing this since its establishment in 1995. The party is against a Jewish-based identity for the State of Israel, which according to Balad should be defined as the country of all its citizens and should recognize that there are two big national identities there: Israeli and Arab.

Tuiteja

Opinion poll casts doubts on Jura reunification in Switzerland

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:00:00 +0200

With five months remaining until the referendum on the Jura reunification, partisans of the "yes" have been given a blow by an opinion poll jointly released last week by several Swiss media. The survey shows that 49% of Bernese Jura voters would reject unification with neighbouring Jura canton, while only 24% would vote in favour. Another 19% say they do not know what to do. Rejection of a unified Jura canton is stronger among younger voters.

The Jura has been divided since 1979 between the Canton of Jura (northern half of Jura) and the Canton of Bern (southern half, click left map to enlarge). Both halves are French-speaking, but the north has a Roman Catholic majority while the south is largely Protestant. The Jurassic movement has since 1979 mobilized for the separation of the Bernese Jura from the German-speaking Bern and its reunification with the north of Jura.

A referendum was agreed in 2012 by both cantons so that the citizens of the Canton of Jura and the Bernese Jura could decide if they want a merger or not. The vote is to be held on November 24th. A "yes" vote by both a majority of Jura citizens and Bernese Jura citizens would trigger a process leading to the establishment of a new, reunified Canton of Jura within the Swiss Confederation.

"Yes" campaign admits the need to put forward more arguments

Construire Ensemble -the official "yes" campaign, made up of Jurassic and Bernese Jurassic political parties who favour reunification- admits that a greater effort must be done in order to convince Bernese Jura citizens with solid arguments. The campaign says that the poll results are not dramatic since the referendum battle is still starting, although it acknowledges that the survey shows "a trend" against reunification.

Proponents of a reunified Jura argue that the Bernese Jura will be better represented than it is now in Bern. They underline the fact that there is an agreement by which the present-day Canton of Jura and the Bernese Jura will be equal partners in the new, merged Jurassic canton. The Bernese Jura has since 2006 its own elected assembly within the Canton of Bern and holds the right to have a representative in the government of Bern. Both German and French are official languages of Bern.

If the "no" vote wins in the Bernese Jura, each one of its municipalities can still hold an individual referendum in order to separately join the Canton of Jura. This would result in redrawing the border between both cantons without fully reunifying Jura's north and south.

Further information:

Tuiteja

Chunta Aragonesista sets sovereign Aragon within a "federal or confederal" Spain as its horizon

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:00:00 +0200

Aragonese nationalist party Chunta Aragonesista (CHA) has introduced a new framework document that should guide the party's political activity in the coming years. The document, known as +ARA, proposes to "recognize the full political decision-making capacity of Aragon". In other words, a sovereign Aragon -but not a fully independent one- that fits into a new "multinational, multi-unit, secular and republican" Spanish state that can be "federal or confederal" and that accepts "the right to self-determination".

The text has resulted from a process led by a drafting committee. Contributions from both inside the party and key people in the Aragonese society have been included into the proposal, that CHA wants now to disseminate, according to CHA President José Luis Soro.

Which are the key points of +ARA? To answer this question, Nationalia has spoken to CHA Secretary-General Juan Martín and to drafting committee member Miguel Martínez Tomey. Martín emphasizes the fact that the proposal has a "constituent character". Two main lines are to be understood from the text, Martín says: the institutional one and the social one. In this second aspect, the Secretary-General says that the will of CHA is to start to disseminate sectorally specific parts of the document in order to achieve "wide agreements", mainly on social and labor issues, citizen participation and democracy. Possibly these are the issues that CHA can start working in a more immediate way, Martín considers.

Deep institutional reform proposed

Practical implementation of the document will actually be "based on political context", so it is no secret that institutional issues will have to wait until a time when the Spanish nationalist PP does not have a majority in the Aragonese Corts or the Spanish Parliament (Chunta has now 4 out 67 seats in the Aragonese legislature). CHA proposal implies a deep change in this regard. In the words of Martínez Tomey, it proposes a paradigm shift in which "the Aragonese have the powers and transfer to the hands of the Spanish state only what they want. Sovereignty resides in the people of Aragon, not the other way round".

How would all this take shape? +ARA proposes the establishment of bilateral relations between Spain and Aragon, an Aragonese tax agency "within a framework of economic sovereignty" and the elimination of the Spanish provinces. The paper also wants to the repeal the Act on Languages -that was recently amended by the PP and its ally PAR- and to ensure "the official status, dignity and normalization" of the Aragonese and Catalan languages. Very symbolically, the +ARA closing paragraph advocates "the formal repeal of the Nueva Planta decrees." These decrees were signed between 1707 and 1716 by the Spanish king Philip V. By virtue of them, Aragonese, Catalan, Valencian and Majorcan institutions and charters were abolished in order to create a centralized Spanish state.

According to Martínez Tomey, this reformulation of the role of Aragon in Spain has to do with the fact that, "as a national community", the Aragonese "cannot remain idle, because the partial devolution of powers" granted to them by the Spanish system of autonomous communities "is being eroded".

Tuiteja

Kosovo marks 100th recognition, Abkhazia struggles to keep a handful of them

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:00:00 +0200

Little by little, diplomatic efforts are bearing fruit for Kosovo in the international arena. The Albanian-majority republic's Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj yesterday announced on Twitter that Yemen was recognizing Kosovo independence. This means that Europe's youngest republic marks 100 states acknowledging it as a sovereign state, after earlier this year Guyana also took the same decision. On the other hand, it is still unclear if Tanzania also recognizes Kosovo: last month, Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Behgjet Pacolli said Dodoma was also recognizing the country, but no official confirmation has been made by any official source from the ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Before the declaration of independence in 2008, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi had said that 100 countries were ready to recognize the republic as an independent state. It has taken five years before the prediction by Thaçi has been accomplished. The majority of those states are European, North American and Northwestern African countries. Besides, Kosovo is also considered an independent state by other regional powers such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Japan.

Other major powers such as Russia or China deem Kosovo independence as illegal, as it does Serbia. Such countries point out that Kosovo's unilateral secession was against the law since it did not have Belgrade's agreement.

But the International Court of Justice delivered in 2010 an advisory opinion on Kosovo declaration of independence at the request of Serbia. The Court said there was nothing illegal about declaring independence in the framework if international law.

Abkhazia could lose one of six recognitions

And while Kosovo enjoys the support of key world powers such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, Abkhazia is now the flip side of the coin. Having declared independence from Georgia in 1991, it was only recognized by regional master Russia in 2008, after a brief war against Georgia. Only Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua followed suit the same year. In 2009, the same move was taken by Hugo Chávez's Venezuela and by the tiny island nation of Nauru. In 2011 two other countries joined this brief list, also in the Pacific region: Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Other countries that had been named as eventual recognizers (Syria, Ecuador, Bolivia or Belarus) have not made the move.

And it is precisely Vanuatu who is in the middle of a struggle between the Abkhaz, the Russians and the Georgians. There is an enormous confusion on whether the Pacific country recognizes Abkhazia -last year some Vanuatuan leaders said it did, while others said it did not.

Last May, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced that the new Vanuatuan Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil has told him the Pacific nation was no longer recognizing Abkhazia. "A very serious defeat" for Russia, Saakashvili then said.

But again confusion lingers over the issue, after Abkhazian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that the withdrawal of the recognition by Vanuatu is a "fantasy" created by Saakashvili. The Abkhazian side admits that within the Vanuatuan government there are "different opinions", but that no final decision about severing ties with Abkhazia has been taken.

And in the middle of this, an Australian Senate committee has expressed its "concern" about the fact that Russia is buying support from tiny Pacific states to Abkhazia. These actions are "a worry", according to the Australians.

Tuiteja