The Guardian 10 August, 2005
Global briefs
VENEZUELA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has rejected US charges that he is
supporting Colombian rebels or trying to destabilise other South American countries, accusing the
United States of spreading lies. President Chávez responded to statements by US State
Department officials who accused Venezuela of backing Colombian guerrillas with weapons and
funding. "They accuse us of buying arms to give them to the guerrillas — no, they're for our troops",
he said. "They are a terrorist state, but they accuse us of being terrorists." Venezuela has signed a
deal to buy 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles from Russia. "We don't fear them", President Chávez said
during a ceremony at Fort Tiuna in Caracas. "We left behind our fear a long time ago. We are
determined to be free."
RUSSIA: "Peace Mission 2005", the exercises between the Russia and China will run
from August 18-25 involving around 10,000 troops, as well as Russian fighter planes and
paratroopers and China's submarine fleet. The Chinese defence ministry said last week that the
exercises are designed to "strengthen the capability of the two armed forces in jointly striking
international terrorism, extremism and separatism." Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov
rejected claims by the US that the war games be scaled back to ease the concerns of others in the
region. He noted that Russian troops carry out similar training exercises with US, NATO and Indian
forces. "Why can't we hold military exercises with China?" Moscow and Beijing have endorsed a
"multipolar world" — an implicit challenge to US economic and military dominance.
INDIA: The Council of Indian Trade Unions held a four-day session of its general council
on July 23-26 at Alappuzha, Kerala. The meeting emphasised the need to heighten the united
struggle of the toiling people to halt the aggressive pursuit of the neoliberal economic policies by
the government of India; it called upon the working class to ensure broadest mobilisation in the
campaign for countrywide general strike on September 29. Around 400 members from all over the
country attended the general council.
UZBEKISTAN: The United States has been given six months to close its military base in
the country near the southern town of Khanabad. Known as K2, the base was opened weeks after
the attacks on the US in 2001 and used in the Iraq and Afghan wars.
NIGER: The famine in Niger is the harshest in at least two decades reports Kenya's Daily
Nation, which noted that when the G8 met in Scotland, Niger was given debt relief but there was
not a word about the famine. This despite the UN warning that 1.2 million need food and that the
number is increasing.