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Afghanistan: Malalai Joya Wins Elections and Continues to Blast Warlords
(KABUL) When Malalai Joya, aged 27, was sworn into Afganistan's new Parliament last month she used her platform to call warlords, "blood sucking bats" and demand the United States apologize for supporting them in the past.
"The men and women of my country are like broken-winged pigeons caught in the claws of blood-sucking bats after being released from the Taliban cages," Joya said after the swearing-in ceremony attended by US Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Most of these bats are in the Parliament now," she said.
The majority of the 351 seats in Parliament are taken by former warlords, some of whom still maintain private armies, or their allies, analysts say.
"If I stand up, if you stand up, everyone will stand up. If I knelt, if you knelt, who would stand up? Who then should fight the enemy, the cowardly enemy?" she asked, quoting from a popular Persian poem.
In a message to US President George W Bush that she had hoped, but could not, deliver in the first parliamentary session, she said: "Mr Bush owes us an apology for supporting the extremist warlords."
Ms Joya hit world headlines in 2003 when she dared to criticize the former warlords at a traditional Loya Jirga gathering to debate the post-Taliban constitution, calling them criminals and saying they deserved punishment.
Her outburst earned her death threats, apparently from some of the men with whom she will be sharing Parliament's benches.
-AP
Malalai Joya Profiles
Colombia: Release of Kidnapped Ingrid Betancourt "Could Take Years"
(BOGOTA) A rumour of a possible hostage swap between the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government was squelched this month, according to a recently issued statement by the FARC, which said, "Under Uribe there will be no humanitarian exchange" of prisoners for hostages.
Opinion polls show that a majority of Colombians support a swap of hostages held by FARC — including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a number of other politicians, members of the armed forces, and three U.S. military contractors — for around 500 imprisoned guerrillas.
The longest-held hostages — two members of the military — have been in the jungle for eight years as of December. Betancourt and her former vice presidential running-mate Clara Rojas will have been held captive for four years as of Feb. 23.
A spokesman for the Bolivarian Movement, a civilian organization created by the FARC to represent its supporters, did not leave much room for optimism with respect to the release of Betancourt and her fellow hostages, commenting that "The swap could take four years."
He predicted that over the next year, the proposals of the international commission of mediators will give rise to constant counterproposals, until an agreement between the two sides is finally reached.
In response to the FARC communiqué, President Uribe once again brought up on Monday the possibility of attempting to rescue the hostages by force, an option that is staunchly opposed by all of the hostages' families.
-IPS
Ukraine: Yulia Timoshenko Poised for Political Comeback in March Elections
(KIEV) In Ukraine, where resignation and economic paralysis have replaced the hopes of the Orange Revolution of a year ago, the controversial and flamboyant former prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko, is planning her political comeback during parliamentary elections this March.
Several months after President Viktor Yushchenko sacked her as prime minister, a more subdued but still determined Timoshenko is hoping to establish an alliance of convenience with the co-leader of the Orange Revolution in order, she says, to prevent old rivals from regaining power and to restart the reforms.
"I want to have a coalition with Yushchenko but not with these odious people around him," said Timoshenko, 45, who frequently clashed with Yushchenko during her eight months in office, criticizing him for failing to curb the powers of the oligarchs or stamp out corruption.
"This group of people who used the slogans of the Orange Revolution to come to power but then used it to satisfy their appetite prevented the real unity between me and Yushchenko," said Timoshenko during an interview in the offices of her Motherland Party. "I believe that the president is sincere in his wish to do good for Ukraine."
Essentially, he faces a choice among joining forces with Timoshenko and accepting her again as prime minister; trying to find a strong enough ally in his own camp for the post; or accepting that it go to his rival Viktor Yanukovich, whose rigged victory in presidential elections last year precipitated the Orange Revolution and Yushchenko's eventual triumph in rerun elections.
If elected, Timoshenko says she will be prepared to take on the oligarchs since she will have a freer hand in the strengthened prime minister's seat.
"We gave promises to the Orange Revolution to introduce reforms. My campaign slogan is Move Ahead."
-International Herald Tribune
