Jorge Huenchullan, a Mapuche leader detained Feb. 17 in a violent police operation in Temucuicui, Chile, was transfered to Algol prison after a court in Collipulli declared him a fugitive from justice. The court cited an outstanding arrest order against Huenchullan for an alleged attack on Jaime Andrade, former director of the National Indigenous Development Corporation. He was also accused theft of property from local landowner Rene Urban, whose lands are protected by police forces. Another two activists were detained with Huenchullan—Cristian Calhueque Millanao, 25, and Alex San Martin Huaiquillan, 19, both accused of illegal possession of firearms. They remain free, but are barred from leaving the region and must register with the police every 30 days. (Prensa Latina, Feb. 19. via GALDU)

Ecuador's Economy Minister Ricardo Patiño announced Feb. 28 that the previous day's congressional vote to reduce debt service assignments in the $9.8 billion national budget by $283.4 million has spurred the government's debt restructuring plans. Patiño said an auditing commission will be named to identify "illegitimate debt" that the government will not pay. "Congress has put at my disposal the option of a debt restructuring to reduce debt payments, and we will certainly consider it," Patiño told reporters in Quito. Said Lisa Schineller of Standard and Poor's in New York: "This is an example of the contentious nature in which external debt is viewed in Ecuador, where there is a weak credit culture." The foreign debt of Ecuador, South America's fifth-largest oil producer, totaled $10.21 billion in December. (Reuters, Feb. 28)

Our February issue featured the story "Presidents in the Dock: An End to Africa's Reign of Impunity?" by Michael Fleshman, a reprint from the UN publication Africa Journal. Our February Exit Poll was: "Why are Africa's ex-dictators Charles Taylor (Liberia) and Hissène Habré (Chad) facing the dock, while Guatemala's equally genocidal ex-tyrant José Efraín Rios Montt is free to run for that country's congress? Extra Credit: How is it possible that Taylor and Habré face the dock, while the Darfur genocide continues and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir remains in power, raking in petro-dollars and aspiring to lead the African Union? Extra Extra Credit: Would it merely be juvenile to even bring up George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George H.W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara, etc.? And, oh yeah, Vladimir Putin?" We received two responses:

As the Darfur genocide enters its fifth year, and nearly two years after UN Security Council Resolution 1593 of March 2005 referred violations of international law in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Feb. 27 ICC prosecutors formally identified two of those responsible for slaughter—Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman (nom de guerre Ali Kushayb) and Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Harun. Under Article 58 of the Rome Statute that created the ICC, evidence of crimes against humanity will now be submitted to the Pre-Trial Chamber, which will, in the words of the official summary of the Prosecutor's Application, “review the evidence submitted and decide how to proceed.”

Israeli forces re-occupied Nablus Feb. 28 less than a day after withdrawing from the West Bank city. From the afternoon of Feb. 25 to the morning of Feb. 27, Israeli forces imposed a curfew, destroyed ancient structures in the Old City, and killed a man, while searching houses, holding scores of families at gunpoint in single rooms in their own homes. On the morning of the 28th, Israeli forces returned to the heart of Nablus in a convoy of some 100 military vehicles, announcing through loudspeakers that the curfew was again imposed. Israeli forces occupied Rafidiya Hospital, conducting searches of the patients, as they did in the first two days of the operation dubbed “Winter Heat.” They then continued going house-to-house, searching for men on a "wanted" list accused of collaborating with Islamic Jihad. Dozens of Palestinian residents are being held at a makeshift prison in a school outside the Old City. (Palestine News Network, Press TV, Iran, Feb. 28).

Anti-Semitic acts continue to increase in France, according to a new report by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF). The annual document reports that violence and threats against French Jews increased dramatically in 2006 over a year earlier, with a 45% rise in physical attacks (112) and a 24% increase in alll registered anti-Semitic acts (371). (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 27) Anti-Semitic attacks also reached record levels in the UK last year, according to a study Britain's Community Security Trust. "These are the worst figures we have had in the 23 years since we have been monitoring it," said the Trust's Mark Gardner. (Reuters, Feb. 1) 2006 saw a rise in anti-Semitism around the world, according to the Jewish Agency's Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism. According to the figures, 2006 saw a 66% rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Austria, a 60% rise in Germany, and a 20% rise in Russia. As an explicitly Zionist organization, the Jewish Agency may have an interest in overstating the problem, but the statistics were based on law enforcement records. The report especially noted two murders—that of Ilan Halimi, beaten to death in France last January, and Pamela Wechter, shot dead in the Jewish Federation Building in Seattle in July. Images of a bullet-ridden Oslo synagogue, and worshippers at a Moscow synagogue coming under attack were included in the report. (YNet, Jan. 28) All the reports noted that anti-Semitic violence peaked during the Lebanon crisis.

Police are seeking 10 men, including several tribal elders, accused of pressuring a Pakistani woman to hand over her teenage daughter as payment for a 16-year-old poker debt. Nooran Umrani of Hyderabad says that, despite paying off her late husband's debt of $165, she was threatened with harm if she failed to hand over her daughter, Rasheeda, 17. (AP, Feb. 27)

The US and Italian ambassadors to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake and Pio Mariani, were slightly injured in an artillery attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on an air force base at Batticaloa, in the island's east Feb. 27. The LTTE expressed "shock and sadness" at the wounding of the diplomats, but said the government was to blame for not informing the rebels the envoys would be in the area. Sri Lankan military aircraft bombed "identified LTTE bases" in the Batticaloa district after the attack. The LTTE said a civilian teacher was killed and another wounded in the raids. (Bloomberg, Feb. 27) Meanwhile in Afghanistan, Vice President Dick Cheney was reportedly unhurt when Bagram air base came under attack during his visit to the base, also early Feb. 27. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the apparent suicide blast at the base's front gate, which killed two US soldiers and over 20 Afghans. Cheney is in the region to discuss resurgent Taliban/al-Qaeda activity with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Bloomberg, AP, Feb. 27)