General Chronology of the Mediterranean - Chronologies - IEMed
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Chronologies
General Chronology
of the Mediterranean
Appendices
The general chronology presented continues to weaken and early elec- on 3rd July, after the scandal provoked
here assembles details of the most tions are announced. by his insinuations about the assassi-
relevant events that have taken place nation of the government labour con-
in each of the states of the Mediter- Spain sultant, Marco Biagi.
ranean region between July 2002 and • On 23rd July, President Carlo
June 2003. The episodes are organ- • On 16th July, in the French depart- Aseglio Ciampi denounces the conflict
Med. 2003
ised according to the months in which ment of Les Landes four people are between Prime Minister Silvio Berlus-
they happened, and each month is arrested and accused of belonging to coni’s political duties and his power
headed by a schematic selection of ETA. In Paris, a court sentences ex- over the media. The President calls for
news items; and accounts are given commander of ETA, Francisco Javier legislation that will assure its pluralism
of the most significant events in the dif- García Gaztelu, alias Txapote, to ten and impartiality.
ferent countries. Furthermore, the es- years in prison for the planning of ter-
tablishment of the African Union is in- rorist acts. Croatia
cluded, as well as the monthly section • On 18th July, the French police, in
that includes a segment about the Eu- collaboration with the Spanish Civil • After a crisis in the coalition gov-
238-239
ropean Union, whose power and ini- Guard, arrest eight alleged members ernment, the reformist Prime Minister
tiatives have a decisive influence on of the urban guerrilla group, the First of Ivica Racan resigns on 5th July, pub-
the Mediterranean area. October Anti-fascist Resistance Group licly expressing his wish to set up a
(Grupo de Resistencia Antifascista new cabinet and continue to move for-
Primero de Octubre or GRAPO), in- ward with key reforms until the general
July 2002 cluding their suspected leader, Fer- elections set for 2004. On 30th July,
nando Hierro Txomon. the Chamber of Representatives (the
In what is believed to be a new act of lower chamber of the bicameral legis-
the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), thir- France lature) approves the formation of a new
ty-eight people die when a bomb ex- government led by Racan.
plodes in Algeria. The neighbouring • A man linked to extreme right-wing • On 12th July, the UN Security Coun-
country of Morocco frees more pris- groups fires shots at President Jacques cil approves resolution 1434 (2002),
oners from the Polisario Front, and Chirac, on 14th July, during the Bastille thereby extending the term of the UN
descends into shaky relations with Day celebrations in Paris. There are no Mission of Observers in Prevlaka, the
Spain due to the occupation by Mo- injuries and the gunman is arrested. disputed peninsula between Croatia
roccan soldiers of the tiny Spanish • Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Yugoslavia until 15th october.
Perejil/Leila Island. In France, the and the Minister of Internal Affairs • On 31st July, Fikret Abdic, a Bos-
Prime Minister and the Minister of In- Nicolas Sarkozy visit Corsica on 26th nian Muslim «warlord» and former con-
ternal Affairs visit Corsica in an at- and 27th July in order to present their tender to the Bosnian presidency, is
tempt to re-launch the island’s process plan for decentralisation to local lead- sentenced to twenty years in prison by
toward autonomy. The EU announces ers, in an attempt to re-launch the a Croatian court after being found
an important revision of the Common process of autonomy for Corsica that guilty of committing crimes against hu-
Agricultural Policy (CAP), which they was initiated by the Jospin administra- manity during the war in Bosnia.
will specify in the coming months, and tion and later immobilised by the Con-
at the same time Bosnia and Herze- stitutional Council in January. Bosnia and Herzegovina
govina serves as the setting for the
United States´ refusal to be submitted Italy • At the beginning of July, the future
to the recently created jurisdiction of of the SFOR and the UN Mission in
the International Criminal Court. In • The Minister of Internal Affairs Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH)
Turkey, Bulent Ecevit´s government Claudio Scajola resigns from his post appears bleak, with the US threaten-ing to abandon peacekeeping opera- eral Republic of Yugoslavia. This will Cyprus
tions in Bosnia due to a disagree- shorten President Milan Milutinovic’s
ment about the recently created In- term so that he may be transferred to • On 10th July, two commanders and
ternational Criminal Court. On 12th the ICTY, where he will be tried for war three officials of the Greek-Cypriot air
July, the US is able to temporaly safe- crimes committed in the Serbian pro- force die in a helicopter crash in which
guard its peacekeeping troops from vince of Kosovo. they were realising defensive exercises.
any investigation or processing by the • On 18th July, Serbian the legisla-
new court. This step allows the UN ture approves a law establishing a new Turkey
Security Council to extend the man- intelligence agency with the purpose
date of the SFOR and the UNMIBH of fighting organised crime. • On 2nd July, a group of armed men
until 31st December. • In Montenegro, Prime Minister Filip assassinate Ahmet Cevat Sevigli, the
• On 2nd July, in Pale, Republic of Vujanovic fails in his attempt to form a Kurdish mayor of the south-eastern
Srpska, SFOR troops raid the home new government, resulting in the dis- city of Kayablagar, at his home.
of Rodovan Karadzic, Serbian-Bosnian solution of the legislature on 19th July, • The deteriorating health of Prime
leader who served during the war and and legislative elections are planned Minister Bulent Ecevit continues to
who stands accused of war crimes by for 6th October. Vujanovic had seen a dominate the political agenda, while
the ICTY. loss of support from two parties in favour the coalition in power keeps losing
• On 8th July, the ICTY confirms that of independence due to his agreement support. On 31st July, the Great Na-
Bosnian Serb Miroslav Deronjic has to replace Yugoslavia with a new dual tional Assembly decides to move the
been transferred to their Detention Unit state: Serbia and Montenegro. elections forward by almost eighteen
in The Hague, after being arrested the • On 22nd July, Miroljub Labus, cur- months, to be held in November.
previous day by SFOR troops in Bra- rently the Deputy Prime Minister, an-
tunac. He is accused of crimes against nounces that he will stand in the presi- Lebanon
humanity and of violations of the laws dential elections.
and customs of war. • On 11th July, three members of the
• On 10th July, Bosnian Serb Radovan Macedonia intelligence service of the Lebanese
Stankovic is transferred to the Hague army are killed near the Ain al-Hilweh
Tribunal, after having been arrested • On 4th July, Stojan Andov, President Palestinian refugee camp, the largest
the day before near Foca by the SFOR. of the Sobranje, the unicameral leg- in the country. They are murdered
He is accused of crimes against hu- islative body, fixes elections for 15th while on a mission to arrest Lebanese
manity and of violations of the laws September. The last elections were national, Badih Hamada (Abu Ubaya-
and customs of war. held in October and November of 1998. da), suspected of being involved with
• On 31st July, Milojica Kos is re- The assembly, in accordance with the Palestinian Islamic activists. The sus-
leased early from the ICTY Detention Ohrid accords of 2001, approves pect is eventually turned in by a dele-
Unit in accordance with an order from the use of the Albanian language in the gation of religious leaders.
the President of the tribunal, Claude legislative sessions. • On 30th July, the UN Security Coun-
Jorda, given the day before. Despite cil approves Resolution 1428 (2002),
having been found guilty of crimes Albania therefore extending the mandate of the
against humanity, torture and violations UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
of the laws and customs of war, he was • On 24th July, Alfred Moisiu takes until 31st October 2003.
freed due to his «willingness to reinte- over as president, replacing Rexhep
grate into society; his determination Mejdani. On 25th July, Pandeli Majko Jordan
not to re-offend; his good physical and of the Socialist Party of Albania (PSS)
mental health; his exemplary behaviour resigns as Prime Minister and Moisiu • On 3rd July, the Executive Director
during detention; his attachment to his immediately names Fatos Nano as new of the IMF approves a 97.2 million Euro
family; and his probability of finding executive leader. On 31st July, the loan to Jordan in support of its econom-
employment». This is the second such Popular Assembly, the unicameral leg- ic program.
order made by the tribunal. islature, approves the formation of the • The Financial Times issue of 5th July
Nano government. reports that Jordan has prevented a plot
Yugoslavia to attack American and Israeli interests in
Greece the country. The article states that collab-
• On 8th July, the district court of orators in the plan were arrested some-
Prokuplje in Serbia sentences Ivan • Police arrest fourteen members of time between April and June in Amman,
Nikolic to eight years in prison for the 17th November terrorist group, in- and that the group was led by the Jor-
killing two Albanian Kosovar in 1999. cluding its suspected leader, Alexan- danian Palestinian, Wail al-Shalabi.
It is the first war crime case tried by a dros Yotopoulos, and assure that with
Serbian court. this arrest they have dismantled the Egypt
• On 18th July, early elections are group, which was founded after the mil-
announced for 29th September in itary junta´s repression of student dis- • Saadeddin Ibrahim, the leading hu-
Serbia, the largest republic of the Fed- sidence in November 1973. man rights activist who criticised thegovernment for their lack of commit- • The pressure on the Stability and Spain
ment to democracy, is sentenced to Growth Pact of the European Union,
seven years in prison on 29th July, after which controls the single currency, in- • On 4th August, ETA sets off a car
being found guilty of embezzlement, creases due to the plan announced by bomb next to a Civil Guard barracks in
falsification and receiving foreign funds the Italian government of reducing tax- Santa Pola, Alicante, killing two peo-
without authorisation. es at expense of the bridgetans deficit. ple and injuring thirty-four.
• On 26th August, led by the Aznar
Libya African Union administration, the Spanish parliament
reverts to the recently passed Political
• Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi • The African Union (AU) replaces Parties Law in order to demand that
promises to lay out economic aid plans the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) the Supreme Court make Batasuna il-
for the countries he visited after attend- and is officially launched in Durban, legal. On the same day, judge of the
ing the inaugural ceremony of the Afri- South Africa on 9th and 10th July, with National Court Baltasar Garzón orders
Appendices
can Union in Durban, South Africa on ceremonies officiated by the heads of the closing of the party’s offices, cul-
9th July (Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, states and governments from the ma- tural centres, establishments and web
Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland). jority of the fifty-three countries that pages and declares the suspension of
make up this organisation, which has a all their activities.
Algeria structure similar to that of the EU. The • On 27th August, the autonomous
only states of the African continent police corps have to result to using
• On 5th July, during the celebrations that are not represented by the African force in order to clear and seal off the
of forty years of independence, a car Union are Morocco, due to the fact headquarters of Batasuna in the three
Med. 2003
bomb explodes in the market of Larba, that the AU recognises Western Sa- Basque capitals, in accordance with
20 kilometres south of the capital Al- hara as a country, and Madagascar, as Garzón´s decree.
giers, killing at least thirty-eight people it was not recognised by the OAU. Dur-
and injuring more than eighty. The at- ing the last session of the OAU, held France
tack is attributed to the GIA, whose on 8th July, various leaders and the
leader, Rachid Abu Tourab, may have General secretary of the United Na- • On 2nd August, there is a grenade
been killed by the army on 28th July. tions, Kofi Annan, praised the decision attack on the police barracks in Solen-
to create a new organisation with new zara, in the southern part of Corsica.
Morocco principles, which include the promo- The previously unknown National Li-
240-241
tion of democracy and economic de- beration Armada (ALN) claims respon-
• After months of uneasy relations velopment as goals for the region. sibility.
between Morocco and Spain, a territo- • On 4th August, the leader of the
rial dispute occurs and is responsible separatist alliance Corsica Nation, Jean-
for worsening bilateral relations, when August 2002 Guy Talamoni, calls for the French gov-
Moroccan soldiers occupy the Pere- ernment to bring Corsican politicians
jil/Leila Island on 11th July, and the Spain takes a decisive step toward ille- imprisoned in continental France clos-
Spanish army retake it on 17th July. galising the political party Batasuna, er to the island. According to Talamoni,
considered by the government to be this should help to re-establish the
European Union the political wing of the terrorist organi- process toward autonomy. The process
sation ETA. In the meantime, in Silvio experienced its latest setback on 1st
• On 1st July, the rotating presidency Berlusconi’s Italy, political measures August, when the outlawed FLNC re-
is formally shifted from Spain to Den- move forward which could complicate jected the government’s new autono-
mark after the six-month period is end- the judicial processes faced by the mist proposals.
ed. It is hoped that this new mandate Prime Minister. In the Balkans, Yugos- • On 6th August, the Council of Minis-
is prepared for the EU enlargement lavia re-establishes diplomatic relations ters bans the extremist right-wing group
and the development of plans in order with Albania at the same time as terri- Radical Unity, due to its relationship
to reform its institutions. torial disputes worsen their relations with Máxime Brunerie, the assassin who
• On 10th July, the European Com- with Croatia, which is also involved in failed in an attempt to shoot President
missioner of Agriculture and Rural De- disputes with Slovenia. Turkey moves Jacques Chirac on 14th July in Paris.
velopment, Franz Fischler, announces forward with measures such as the
an ambitious revision of the Common abolition of the death penalty, in order Italy
Agriculture Policy (CAP) aimed at pri- to bring them closer to being allowed to
oritising the production of safe and enter the EU. In Jordan, the restriction • On 2nd August, the Senate (the
healthy alimentary products and pro- on the freedom of the press is high- higher chamber of the Italian legisla-
tecting the environment and animal lighted with the closure of the Aljazeera ture) approves a law that will allow de-
welfare; a reorientation that has sparked headquarterq. Libya continues to open fendants to request a new trial if sound
criticism from France and Spain, due itself up internationally, as it plays host indications exist that the judges are
to the fact that it threatens their inter- to the first ministerial visit from the Unit- impartial. According to the opposition,
ests in the sector. ed Kingdom since 1983. this law will contribute to a delay oreven an acquittal in the case of Prime 29th September. Kostunica’s greatest • On 30th August, the pro-European
Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is to ap- rival will be Miroljub Labus, currently General, Hilmi Ozkok, is appointed
pear before a court in Milan at the end serving as Deputy Prime Minister. The Chief of Staff of the Turkish armed
of 2002, in a case involving the bribery office of President of Yugoslavia will be forces, another sign of the country’s
of judges. The opposition continues to dissolved when the federation is re- efforts at connection with the EU.
denounce the incompatibility between modelled and becomes the union of • Prisoners continue their hunger
Berlusconi’s post as Prime Minister and Serbia and Montenegro. strike in protest of the government’s
his commercial interests as a television • On 26th August, after more than a attempts to introduce new penitentiary
media tycoon. month of delays, the trial of former Yu- regimes. The strike began in 2001 and
goslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, by the end of August has claimed fifty-
Croatia reopens in the ICTY. Before the sum- five lives.
mer holiday period, a medical report
• At the beginning of the month, diplo- showed that Milosevic was at risk from Lebanon
matic relations between Croatia and a heart attack.
Yugoslavia worsen when the Croatian • On 29th August, a Hezbollah at-
government demands that Yugoslavia Albania tack injures three Israeli soldiers along
remove their troops from the area a disputed section of the Lebanese-Is-
around the disputed island in the • On 23rd August, it is announced raeli border. The group had been al-
Danube where Yugoslavian soldiers that Albania and the Federal Republic most inactive since April.
recently opened fire on Croatian civil- of Yugoslavia will restore diplomatic re-
ians. It is the most serious border dis- lations with regard to their embassies. Jordan
pute between the two countries since Diplomatic relations became unstuck
the end of the war over Croatian suc- during the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. • On 7th August, the government
cession from Yugoslavia in 1995. Re- shuts down the offices of the Arab tele-
lations between Croatia and Slovenia Cyprus vision station Aljazeera, for having pro-
also deteriorate during August, due to voked «dissidence» with the broadcast-
an incident involving a Croatian patrol • On 8th August, two journalists are ing of voices criticising past monarchs.
boat and Slovenian anglers in the dis- sentenced to six months imprisonment • On 15th August, in a televised an-
puted waters of the Piran Gulf. by a Nicosian court for having insulted nouncement, King Abdullah announ-
the presidential authority in articles that ces that the elections scheduled for
Bosnia and Herzegovina appeared in 1999 in Avrupa, the oppo- the end of 2002 will not take place un-
sition’s newspaper that was later re- til the spring of 2003 due to «difficult
• On 2nd August, the executive of named Afrika. regional circumstances».
the IMF approves an aid loan for the • On 27th August, the sixth round of
governmental economic program. peace talks begins in Nocisia between Egypt
• On 21st August, violence breaks Greek Cypriot President, Glafkos Cle-
out while Bosnia and Yugoslavia play rides, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf • On 4th August, the administration
a friendly football match in the Bosni- Denktash. formally accuses twenty-six people,
an capital of Sarajevo. three of them British subjects, of at-
Turkey tempting to overthrow the government
Yugoslavia in order to establish a new Muslim order.
• On 2nd August, the Great National • On 15th August, the US govern-
• On 11th August, the international Assembly declares the abolition of the ment announces that it will not give
force in Kosovo (KFOR) arrests Rus- death penalty during peacetime, one any additional aid beyond the two bil-
tem Mustafa, a former commander of of the reforms necessary for the coun- lion dollars guaranteed each year by
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), try’s entrance into the EU. the 1978 Camp David accords, as a
suspected of murder, torture and ille- • On 9th August, a labour reform bill form of protest at the recent incarcer-
gal arrests. Thousands of Kosovars is passed that forces workers to give ation of Saadeddin Ibrahim, human
protest against the arrest and there notice of one month before leaving a rights activist who holds both Egypt-
are confrontations with the UN forces. union, and that allows them to demand ian and US citizenship.
• On 22nd August, joint Russian and severance pay for unfair dismissal. The
US forces seize enough uranium to previous day had seen the resignation Libya
make three nuclear bombs at a nuclear of the Labour Minister, Yasar Okuyan,
reactor near Belgrade. who stepped down in protest of the • On 7th August, UK Foreign Office
• As anticipated, on 23rd August, the new legislation. Minister Mike O’Brien travels to Libya
President of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kos- • On 10th August, the Independent in the first ministerial visit since 1983.
tunica, announces that he will run for Minister of Finance Kemal Dervis re- During his stay, Mike O´Brien talks with
President of Serbia (the largest of the signs, another deserter in the deterio- Muammar al-Gaddafi and other Libyan
two republics of the Federal Republic rating government of the battered Bu- authorities. Reports say that Gaddafi
of Yugoslavia). The elections are set for lent Ecevit. made the promise to help in the inter-national fight against al-Qaeda, the in- agents were taking down a banner island. The outlawed FLNC claims re-
ternational terrorist network under the bearing the ETA symbol and anagram sponsibility in several recent terrorist
leadership of Osama bin Laden, and that threatened the Civil Guard. In Bil- attacks, which are added to the vari-
the representatives debated the steps bao, just twelve hours earlier, two sus- ous bombings in September for which
that Libya would be obliged to take in pected members of ETA die while the Resistenza Corsa and National
order for UN sanctions to be lifted. planning a car bomb. Liberation Front claim responsibility.
• On 23rd August, the London news- • On 27th September, the regional • On 18th September, the govern-
paper Al-Hayat reports that Abu Nidal, Prime Minister of the Basque Country, ment approves an adjustment in the
the Palestinian guerrilla leader who Juan José Ibarretxe, launches the pro- statuary thirty-five-hour working week
died on 16th August in Iraq, told col- posal of a popular referendum during by increasing the total number of over-
leagues that he had organised the the present legislative session in order time hours allowed from 130 to be-
Lockerbie attack. to convert the Basque region into a tween 180 and 200 per year.
free associated state to Spain. The • On 19th September, a court in Me-
Appendices
aim is to achieve a new status allowing lun, near Paris, sentences nine French
September 2002 the Basque state to sign international nationals and a German to between
treaties, have a direct presence in Eu- four and fifteen years in prison for
Spain continues to have uneasy re- rope, as well as freedom to associate having been part of one the largest
lations with Morocco. The Basque with other Basque territories, and to paedophile rings to be uncovered in
regional leader, Juan José Ibarretxe, enjoy actual, far-reaching political au- France to date.
presses the plan to make the region a tonomy, their own judicial power, and • On 25th September, a bar of the
free associated state. In Italy, an immi- so forth. Shortly thereafter, the central explosive pentrite is discovered on a
Med. 2003
gration nightmare is brought to life government demonstrates its com- Royal Air Maroc aeroplane on the Mar-
when a boat capsizes and thirty-six plete rejection of the Ibarretxe plan. rakech-Marseilles-Metz route.
people drown. In the international rela- Business people from the Basque re-
tions field of the Mediterranean region, gion and the European Commission Italy
tensions between Libya and Israel in- also oppose the plan.
crease a notch, while relations seems • On 12th September, before an offi-
to improve between Greece and Turkey France cial trip to Israel, Gianfranco Fini, Deputy
despite the deadlock in the peace talks Prime Minister and leader of the far-
in Cyprus. Turkey bans the most popu- • At least twenty-three people drown right group National Alliance (AN),
242-243
lar candidate, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on 9th and 10th September, during apologises for the promulgation of an-
from running in the upcoming elec- flash floods in the Rodano Valley due ti-Semitic laws in the 1930’s under the
tions. Elections are held in Yugoslavia, to torrential rains and the consequen- dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.
Macedonia and Morocco. tial overflowing of the rivers. • Also on 12th September, the po-
• On 11th September, the French lice accuse fifteen Pakistanis, arrested
Spain government approves an increase in by immigration services in Sicily in Au-
spending on defence strategies, adding gust, of conspiring to commit terrorist
• On 8th September, local authori- a billion euros a year to this section of and subversive acts. They are believed
ties in San Sebastian permit an offi- the budget, which will increase from to form a part of the terrorist network
cially prohibited nationalist demonstra- representing 1.8 percent of the GDP al-Qaeda.
tion, which triggers severe criticism to 2.5 percent. The idea is to reduce • On 15th September, thirty-six peo-
from the central government. the gap with the United Kingdom in ple drown when a boat carrying illegal
• The government receives criticism terms of military capacity, with the aim immigrants from Liberia capsizes. Po-
from the opposition and some veteran of offering higher levels of coopera- lice and the coastguard are able to
leaders of its own party when, mid- tion in terms of European defence and save ninety-two people.
month, it is revealed that an organisa- security. • On 30th September, the govern-
tion dedicated to the memory of the • On 11th September, the Minister of ment approves a budget draft for
dictator Francisco Franco receives Justice Dominique Prevén and his Ital- 2003 that is to be debated in both
eighty-three thousand euros in public ian counterpart, Roberto Castelli, se- houses of the legislature and that rep-
funding. cure progress toward the extradition of resents the quest for balance between
• On 16th September, Juan Antonio former terrorists from the extreme left the two government forces in keeping
Olarra and Ainhoa Múgica, two veter- who were offered asylum in France un- their promise to cut taxes and the
an leaders of the terrorist organisation der the so-called «Mitterrand doctrine». need to demonstrate their fiscal recti-
ETA, are arrested in Bordeaux, France, • On 17th September, the separatist tude to other members of the EU.
after a lengthy police investigation. movements Corsica Nation (CN) and
Olarra is believed to have been the Independence propose the idea of a Croatia
military leader of ETA since 2001. «local citizenship» in Corsica, under
• On 24th September, ETA kills a civ- which those citizens would be given • On 17th September, the ICTY opens
il guard and injures three others near preference in access to employment proceedings against eighty-three year
Pamplona. A booby trap exploded as and the acquisition of property on the old General Janko Bobetko, who wasthe chief of the Croatian army during the Serbia has made «considerable progress sub-commander of the 17th November
war of independence from 1991 to on the path toward democracy and group and one of the most wanted
1995, and who was regarded as a na- political pluralism». men in the country, turns himself in.
tional hero. He is accused of crimes • On 29th September, elections are
against humanity and violations of the held in Serbia, the largest republic of Cyprus
laws and customs of war. the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• On 23rd September, Prime Minis- Vojislav Kostunica, the candidate of • On 6th September, despite the cri-
ter Ivica Racan announces that his the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) sis meeting in Paris backed by the
government will not turn Bobetko over and current Federal President, assures General Secretary of the UN, Kofi An-
to the tribunal in The Hague, despite victory over Miroljub Labus, the can- nan, negotiations between the Greek
the fact that this could result in inter- didate of the Democratic Opposition Cypriot President, Glafkos Clerides,
national isolation for Croatia. of Serbia (DOS) and former Yugoslav and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf
Deputy Prime Minister, and who is Denktash, come to a standstill.
Bosnia and Herzegovina backed by Kostunica’s major rival, the
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Turkey
• On 3rd September, a report from a However, since there is no absolute • In a new blow to Turkey’s EU aspi-
governmental body in the Srpska Re- majority, Kostunica and Labus are set rations, on 18th September, Amnesty
public (the Bosnian-Serbian entity of for a second round on 13th October. International publishes a study stating
the federation) suggests that Bosnian that the Turkish state continues, rou-
Muslims have either imagined or fabri- Macedonia tinely and systematically, to use tor-
cated the 1995 massacre in Srebreni- ture, despite human rights legislation
ca, with the objective of achieving in- • On 15th September, the people go that prohibits it.
ternational implication in their conflict to the polls to elect the representa- • On 20th September, the highest
with the Serbs. tives of the Sobranje, the unicameral Turkish electoral authority rules that
• On 24th September, Zeljko Mar- legislative body, and in the results, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former Mayor
kovic, chief of the Public Security Cen- Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski´s of Istanbul and leader of the Justice
tre (the Bosnian Serb police force) administration (VMRO-DPMNE) is de- and Development Party (AKP), will not
in Serbian Sarajevo, is assassinated in feated. The majority of seats (sixty) go be permitted to stand in the upcoming
Sokalac. to the Together for Macedonia coali- November general elections as a re-
tion led by the main opposition party, sult of having recited a poem consid-
Yugoslavia the Social Democratic Alliance of ered seditious against the secular
Macedonia (SDSM). The Democratic government, and inciting religious ha-
• During the month of September, Union for Integration, which stems from tred. Erdogan, who according to the
the trial of the former President of Yu- the National Liberation Army (NLA), polls heads the most popular party, is
goslavia, Slobodan Milosevic in the wins sixteen seats, emerging as the seen by certain sectors, such as the
ICTY, after Milosevic has answered largest ethnic Albanian party. With the justice system and the military, as a
for the massacres and forced depor- aim of maintaining the peace, the UN potential threat to the secular order of
tations of Albanians in the Serbian deploys 3,500 police and soldiers as the country. However, Turkey will have
province of Kosovo, arrives at its criti- well as nine hundred observers from to reform the penal code that was
cal point: the war crimes in Bosnia and the OSCE. used to convict him in order to gain
Croatia. Milosevic denies having formed entrance to the EU. Erdogan, mean-
part of a «joint criminal enterprise» to Greece while, continues with his campaign.
create a Serbian state in Bosnia and • Prisoners maintain the hunger
Croatia, «destroying or expelling» in- • Bilateral relations between Greece strike in protest of the government’s
habitants who were not Serbs. The and Turkey seem to improve slightly as attempts to impose new penitentiary
former President of Yugoslavia accus- a consequence of several meetings regimes. Two prisoners die during this
es the US, the Vatican, the Croatian between ministers and high-level offi- month, bringing the death toll to fifty-
people and Muslims of «victimising the cials from both countries. seven since the strike began in 2001.
Serb people on a global scale». On • Starting on 3rd September, various
27th September, Milosevic makes a consumer groups organise massive Syria
more concrete accusation: that the boycotts in protest of abrupt price in-
French secret service orchestrated creases since the launch of the Euro in • On 13th September, the newspa-
the massacre of Srebrenica in Bosnia, January. On 18th September, the gov- per Middle East International declares
an event that claimed the lives of over ernment announces a series of meas- the end of the round of political trials
seven thousand Muslims, in order to ures to set fixed prices for basic prod- that began with the arrest of numerous
turn world opinion against the Serbs. ucts and prevent unjustified price figures from the opposition in Septem-
• On 24th September, the Parliamen- increases. ber 2001. The state security court, a
tary Assembly of the Council of Europe • On 6th September in Athens, after military tribunal, has recently dictated
approves Yugoslavia’s entrance into fourteen of his colleagues are arrested, a sentence of ten years imprisonment
the organisation. They consider that Dimitris Koufondinas, the suspected against economist Arif Dalila, and oth-ers of five years for engineer Fawaz Egypt lations, which are also strained with
Tillu, five years for human rights ac- regard to immigration and the rights to
tivists Walid al-Bunni and Habib Isa, • On 9th September, the trial of nine- fishing territories. The Spanish Minis-
three years for physicist Kamal Lab- ty-four members of the Islamist group ter of Foreign Affairs, Ana Palacio, as-
wani, and three years for professor al-Wa’d comes to an end. The tribunal sures that the helicopter never actually
Hasan Sa’dun. accuses them of planning assassina- landed, but simply flew close to the is-
tions and attacks against public build- land in order to investigate Moroccan
Lebanon ings, and the court sentence fifty-one military operations.
of the defendants to more than fifteen • On 25th September, Mohammed
• A confrontation between Lebanon years in prison and acquits the remain- Benaissa accuses Spain of repeatedly
and Israel over access to water in the ing forty-three. violating Moroccan airspace, as many
former occupied territory in southern • Between 15th and 17th Septem- as sixty-one times, according to the
Lebanon increases tension between ber, the eighth convention of the Na- Minister, and their waters some twen-
Appendices
the two countries during the month tional Democratic Party (NDP) is held ty-six times, since July.
of September. The dispute has to do in Cairo. Highlights include the ap- • On 27th September, elections are
with Lebanon’s programme of pump- pointment of Egyptian President, Mo- held for the lower chamber of the bi-
ing water to border populations by hammed Hosni Mubarak´s son, Gamal cameral legislative, the Assembly of
rerouting it from a river that flows in- Mubarak, to the recently created post Representatives (Majlis al-Nuwab).
to the Jordan and Lake Tiberias, the of policy secretary. Gamal Mubarak There are newly drawn electoral dis-
main source of Israel’s water supply. could carry on to succeed his father as tricts with two to five representatives
Israel threatens, «to take measures» president. assigned to each one, and the parties
Med. 2003
if the water level is affected. In at- present up to five candidates per dis-
tempt to calm the situation, the US Libya trict. Twenty-two of the twenty-six par-
sends two hydrologists to supervise ties that run win seats. The new As-
the project. • On 12th September it is announced sembly includes thirty-five women
• The edition of 2nd September of that the man found guilty in the Locker- (10.8 percent of the total members of
the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, reports bie bombing, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the house), which is basically due, to a
that Syria condemns the entrance of appeals against the received life sen- quota assuring women a minimum of
between 150 and 200 Al-Qaeda op- tence in the European Court of Human thirty seats. The main opposition group,
eratives into the largest Palestinian Rights. the illegal and Islamist Adl Wal Ihsan
244-245
refugee camp in Lebanon, the Ain al- • In mid-September, news spreads (Justice and Charity), had called for a
Hilweh, near Sidon. The newspaper that Libya has renovated its 360 mil- boycott of the elections. Voter partici-
also refers to the armed struggle that lion dollar contract in order to supply pation was fifty-two percent, six points
took place during August between Is- oil to Zimbabwe in exchange for the below the 1997 elections.
lamist factors and members of Fatah, use of the country’s main resources.
and which was initiated by al-Qaeda´s Furthermore, there are reports that European Union
attempt to take over the camp. Libya has taken part in the oil infra-
• On 3rd September, US envoy Da- structure in Mozambique, invested in • On 13th September, a meeting is
vid Satterfield calls for Syria to take Namibia and Malawi and acceded to held between Ministers of Justice and
control of Hezbollah in order to avoid the pay the debts and dues that are Internal Affairs, in which they decide to
an increase of the tension felt along owed to the African Union (AU) by support the European Commission’s
the Lebanese-Israeli border. In addi- more than ten African countries. proposal to establish a common defi-
tion, on 5th September, Deputy Sec- nition for the refugee situation. This
retary of State Richard Armitage ta- Tunisia agreement helps to pave the way for
kes a firm stance by putting Hezbollah the EU to adopt a controversial plan to
at the top of the list of terrorist organ- • On 4th September, President Zine repatriate several thousand Afghani
isations. el-Abidine Ben Ali publicly announces refugees.
• On 4th September, Lebanese army the restructuring of his administration. • The first EU military mission (for the
units enter the Palestinian refugee control of the peacekeeping opera-
camp of Jalil in Baalbek, a small and Morocco tions in Macedonia, set to start in Oc-
generally peaceful camp located in the tober) suffers significant setbacks in
Syrian-controlled area. Three Pales- • On 22nd September, the Moroc- the middle of the month when they are
tinians and a Lebanese soldier die in can Minister Of Foreign Affairs and unable to settle a dispute with Turkey
the raid, and weapons and ammunition Cooperation, Mohammed Benaissa, over EU military access to NATO re-
are confiscated. cancels his visit to Spain that was sources in the country.
• On 5th September, the Lebanese scheduled for 23rd September in • On 24th September, the European
authorities shut down Murr Television protest over the supposed landing of Commission abandons the deadline of
and Radio Mount Lebanon with the al- a Spanish helicopter on the disputed 2004 for the balancing of budgets, as
legation of illicit broadcasting of prop- Perejil/Leila island. The visit was in- established in the Stability and Growth
aganda during the elections in Metn. tended to help in the improving of re- Pact, which governs the workings ofthe Euro as the common currency. The tions with the al-Qaeda networks that ment, so that once there it will be read
decision, which has roused criticism have recently been uncovered in Ger- for the second time without the expec-
from countries such as Holland, Aus- many, France and Italy. tation of a great deal of opposition.
tria and Spain, allows France, Italy • On the basis of the governmental • On 17th October, the Chamber of
Germany and Portugal two more years, decree made public on 20th October, Deputies approves certain modifica-
until 2006, to balance their budgets. the Islamic organisation, Global Relief tions to the Constitution, thereby re-
Foundation, is placed on France’s offi- moving the last obstacle for the return
cial list of «entities whose financing re- of the royal family. This marks the end of
October 2002 lations are strictly controlled as part of exile for the Prince, Victor Manuel and
the fight against terrorism». his son, Manuel Filberto. The exile was
In October, there are strikes in Portu- • On 25th and 26th October, the imposed due to the family’s collabora-
gal and Italy, action against interna- Minister of Internal Affairs, Nicolas tion with the previous dictator, Benito
tional terrorism in Lebanon, Morocco Sarkozy, visits the island of Corsica in Mussolini.
and France. Also in France, plans to order to launch the official government • On 18th October, the General Con-
decentralise the government continue, plan for decentralisation of power in federation of Italian Workers (CGIL)
as do the Corsican separatist attacks. the twenty-six French regions, which calls a strike in protest of the econom-
In the Balkans, international war crime will then obtain autonomous control of ic policies set by the Berlusconi ad-
tribunals advance, and elections are transport, housing, health and educa- ministration. More than a million peo-
held in Bosnia and Herzegovina and tion as well as some revenue services. ple take part in the demonstration,
Yugoslavia. There are also local elec- A reform of the first article of the Con- which affects the running of the coun-
tions in Algeria, where the problems in stitution as well as citizen approval try, but does not succeed in bringing
Cabilia intensify. The EU reaches an through a national referendum are it to a standstill. Unlike the previous
agreement on the Common Agricultur- needed in order to implement the plan. strike held in April, which was backed
al Policy (CAP), announces its largest • In the period drawing up to Minis- unanimously by the unions, this time
expansion since the creation of the ter Sarkozy´s visit, there are as many the protest lacks the support of all
European Economic Community in as fifteen bombings on the island, in of them.
1957, and offers specific details on fi- which one person is injured. During • On 31st October, Fiat, Italy’s
nancing the enlargement. Libya leaves the course of his visit another attack largest industrial company, officially af-
the Arab League. occurs, similar to the previous inci- firms that its automobile manufac-
dents, for which no group claims re- turing firm is in crisis, and facing enor-
Portugal sponsibility. Furthermore, prior to the mous financial losses, they will be
ministerial visit, the French govern- forced to lay off more than five thou-
• On 16th October, Lusa, a Portuguese ment announces that in response to sand workers. Once they have made
news agency, reports that the twenty- local demand for mainland prisoners this announcement, the company is el-
four hour strike called by the General to be moved closer to the island, a igible to apply for government aid.
Confederation of Portuguese Workers penitentiary for those prisoners serv- • An earthquake measuring 5.4 on
/ National Intersyndical (CGTP/IN), ing less than ten years will be built in the Richter scale shakes the south of
has brought work in the public sector 2007 on the island itself. However, the Italy on 31st October. In the village
to a stop and forced hundreds of hos- announcement of this measure does of San Giuliano di Puglia, the roof of a
pitals and schools to close. nothing to appease the local Anti-re- school collapses, killing an entire class
pression Committee. of twenty-six children, none more than
France • On 30th October, a Paris court six years of age, as well as three
sentences Algerian nationals Smain adults. As a consequence, on 1st No-
• On 6th October, the Mayor of Paris Ali Belkacem and Boualem Bensaid to vember the government declares a
Bertrand Delanoë suffers serious in- life imprisonment for the 1995 assas- state of emergency in the region.
juries when he is stabbed during a sination campaign carried out in Paris
social event at the city hall. The attack- in the name of the Algerian GIA. Croatia
er is a thirty-nine year old unemployed
computer engineer with a criminal Italy • On 11th October, the UN Securi-
and psychiatric record, who declares ty Council passes Resolution 1437
that he acted impulsively and dislikes • On 10th October, the Chamber of (2002), extending the mandate of the
politicians and homosexuals such as Deputies approves a judicial bill of law UN Mission of Observers in Prevlaka
Delanoë. backed by Silvio Berlusconi. The op- (UNMOP) until 15th December. Croa-
• On 14th October, police arrest Tu- position sees this as a manoeuvre on tia and Yugoslavia are disputing the
nisian national Lazahr ben Mohammed the part of Berlusconi to avoid having province.
Tlilli in Marseilles. He is in possession to appear in court on charges of the • On 23rd October during her visit to
of false identification documents and bribery of judges. On 29th October, a Croatia, Carla Del Ponte, Chief Prose-
the telephone numbers of suspected special commission examines the bill cutor of the ICTY, once again requests
Islamic terrorists in several European and approves that it be passed to the that the Croatian government extradite
countries. Tilli is suspected of connec- Senate without any sort of amend- former army chief of staff Janko Bo-betko to the tribunal in The Hague. Del arms embargo on Iraq by selling mili- Macedonia
Ponte states that Croatia’s behaviour tary equipment to them. The scandal
has «not reached [the] stage of non- also makes its impact in Yugoslavia • On 14th October, NATO members
cooperation». However, she adds, where the government removes the decide to extend Operation Amber
«Justice must be carried out equally in Deputy Defence Minister and the head Fox until 15th December, following the
the cases of all the accused». of the state-run import-export compa- confirmation that the Netherlands will
ny Jugoimport-SDPR. continue to lead the mission. The EU
Bosnia and Herzegovina would have liked to control the opera-
Yugoslavia tions themselves, but the continual
• On 2nd October, the former Presi- state of negotiations between Turkey
dent of the Srpska Republic, Biljana • On 1st October, the Croatian Pres- and Greece render this impossible.
Plavsic, who faces eight charges of ident, Stipe Mesic, appears before • On 15th October, the General
war crimes in the ICTY for which she the ICTY to testify in the case of the Council of the World Trade Organi-
Appendices
accepted responsibility in January war crimes committed by former pres- sation (WTO) approves Macedonia’s
2001, pleads guilty to crimes against ident of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Mi- admittance into the organisation. The
humanity. The prosecutor withdraws losevic. protocol signed by General Secretary
the other seven charges. • On 10th October, international for- of the WTO, Supachai Panitchpakdi,
• On 5th October, general elections ces are forced to employ tear gas to and the Macedonian Secretary of Econ-
are held, in which the nationalists gain disperse violent Kosovar Albanian pro- omy, Besnik Fetai, must be ratified by
greater power in the executive branch tests against the return of Serbs to the the Macedonian legislature (Sobranje)
in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These elec- province. before 31st March 2003.
Med. 2003
tions decide the president of Bosnia, • On 13th October, Serbia holds the • On 18th October, the formerly
the Bosnian Chamber of Representa- second round of the presidential elec- communist Social Democratic Alliance
tives (the lower legislative chamber) tions, which are declared invalid due for Macedonia (SDSM) and the ethnic
the Chamber of Representatives of the to the scarce participation of forty-five Albanian Democratic Union for Inte-
Muslim Croatian Federation, the Pop- percent, below the required fifty per- gration (BDI), the political reincarna-
ular Assembly of the Srpska Republic, cent participation. Even though Vo- tion of the guerrilla group, the National
the Presidency and Vice-Presidenal jislav Kostunica obtained the majority Liberation Army (NLA), announce the
of the Srpska Republic and the can- of votes (sixty-seven percent), the formation of a coalition government
tonal assemblies. These elections are elections will have to be repeated. This and the repartition of the fourteen min-
246-247
the first to be organised locally without means another chance for Vojislav istries. Branco Crevenkovski, leader of
international supervision since the end Seselj of the ultra-nationalist Radical the SDSM and former Prime Minister,
of the civil war in 1995. The OSCE Serbian Party (SRS), who came out as will head the cabinet, which will not in-
acts as an observer and assures that the third most voted candidate in the clude former NLA guerrillas, of whom
the voting is undertaken according to first round. many occupy positions of leadership
international regulations. • On 20th October, Montenegro within the BDI.
• On 11th October, the indictment holds legislative elections, which were
of wartime Bosnian Serb leader, Ra- planned in July when Filip Vujanovic´s Cyprus
dovan Karadzic, is declared open. He cabinet lost the support it needed to
faces charges of genocide, crimes continue in government. Milo Dju- • On 3rd and 4th October, the at-
against humanity, the violation of the kanovic’s pro-independence Demo- tempts by Kofi Annan, General Secre-
laws and customs of war, and violation cratic List for a European Montenegro tary of the UN, fail to renew peace ne-
of the Geneva Conventions. secures the victory and wins the sup- gotiations between Greek Cypriot
• On 17th October, Milan Simic, a port needed to continue in govern- President, Glafkos Clerides, and the
forty-two-year-old Bosnian Serb who ment with the obtainment of thirty- Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash.
voluntarily turned himself in to the au- nine out of the seventy-five seats. The Furthermore, the talks are suspended
thorities and pled guilty to two ac- party in favour of the preservation of when Denktash is admitted to a US
counts of torture, is sentenced to five the federal union with Serbia achieves hospital for emergency open-heart
years in prison. On 21st October, the thirty seats. surgery.
indictment is opened for the cases • The majority party in the Assembly
against Bosnian Serbs Drago Nikolic, of Kosovo, President Ibrahim Rugo- Turkey
Vujadin Popovic and Ljubisa Beara, ac- va´s Democratic League of Kosovo
cused of war crimes against Bosnian (LDK), win the local elections on 26th • On 1st October, the Great Nation-
Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995. October in the disputed Serbian prov- al Assembly confirms that the general
• On 29th October, the Minister of ince of Kosovo. The turnout reaches elections will be held on 3rd Novem-
Defence of the Srpska Republic, Slo- fifty-seven percent among Alban- ber, despite the fact that some parties
bodan Bilic, and the army chief of staff, ian Kosovars, and twenty percent had requested that they be postponed
Novica Simic, resign from office due to among Kosovars of Serbian decent, in order to recuperate votes.
a scandal involving the state aviation whose parties obtain power in four • On 3rd October, the State Security
company Orao, which violated the UN municipalities. Tribunal formally invalidates the deathsentence given to Abdullah Öcalan, withdrawn from the Arab League for Forces (USFP) party was that which
leader of the Kurdish Workers´ Party no apparent reason. However, the obtained the highest number of votes in
(PKK). Öcalan´s death sentence, and 25th October edition of The Indepen- the legislative elections of September.
those of twenty other activists, is re- dent reports that several high-ranking • On 28th October, the Court of Ap-
placed with life imprisonment. civil servants have cited the League’s peal postpones the trial of suspected
• On 16th October an Istanbul court inefficiency with the crisis in Iraq and al-Qaeda members until 25th De-
sentences ten police agents to be- Palestine. cember. The defendants are accused
tween five and ten years imprisonment of planning an attack on Western
for acts of torture against juveniles in Tunisia warships stationed in the Strait of
custody. The agents have already Gibraltar.
been given four sentences against • On 8th October, the television
which they plan to appeal. The case is channel Aljazeera broadcasts a record- European Union
taken over by the European Commis- ed message in which Ayman al-Za-
sion as an example of the slowness wahiri, member of al-Qaeda, claims • On 9th October, the European
and inefficiency of the Turkish legal responsibility for the April bombing of a Commission announces that ten of
system. synagogue on the Tunisian island of the thirteen members who applied for
• On 23rd October, Sabih Kana- Djerba. Several German tourists were membership have been accepted.
doglu, Chief Prosecutor in Turkey, turns killed in the attack. He also claims They will be admitted into the Union
to the constitutional courts with the that al-Qaeda was responsible for the from 2004 onward in the organisa-
aim of banning the Justice and Devel- suicide bombing in the Pakistani city tion’s largest expansion since the cre-
opment Party (AKP), whose leader, of Karachi last May, which resulted in ation of the European Economic
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was not per- the deaths of eleven French naval Community in 1957. The ten coun-
mitted to participate in the September engineers. tries to be awarded entry are Cyprus,
elections. Malta, Hungry, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia,
Algeria Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech Repub-
Lebanon lic and Slovenia. The European Com-
• At local elections held on 10th Oc- mission does not, however, clarify
• At the beginning of the month, three tober, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Turkey’s status and for the moment no
supposed al-Qaeda members are ar- and Prime Minister Ali Benflis’ National date is given for the initiation of nego-
rested. They are suspected of trying to Liberation Front (FLN) obtains political tiations, though the Commission does
establish a refuge camp for members supremacy. In these elections of a see fit to double the current 172 mil-
of Osama bin Laden´s network who low-turnout, the FLN gains control of lion euros in financial aid destined for
have escaped from Afghanistan. 668 local assemblies out of 1,541 and this purpose.
• On 16th October, President Emile wins half the seats in 323 others. They • On 17th October, Romano Prodi,
Lahoud officially opens a controver- also gain control of forty-three out of the President of the European Com-
sial water pumping station in the forty-eight regional assemblies. During mission, deals a tough blow to the
Wazzami River near the border with the voting the country saw confronta- Stability and Growth Pact, the mechan-
Israel, which responds by threatening tions between Berber activists and ism that regulates fiscal policy and
to destroy the station and to increase government forces in the Kabylia re- the common currency, by describing
its number of military flights over gion. The Arches, a coordinating or- EU budget rules as «stupid». He adds
Lebanon. ganisation that brings together repre- that the rules regulating the Euro
sentatives from the towns and tribes of should be applied with more flexibility,
Jordan the Berber region of Algeria, and and that more power should be given
which has led the revolt since April to the Commission in order to adjust
• On 28th October, Laurence Foley, 2001, called for a boycott of the elec- the Pact.
a US diplomat, is killed in Amman by tions, which appears to have been • On 24th and 25th October, at the
an unidentified assassin. Sixty-two successful in view of the extremely summit in Brussels, the EU heads of
year old Foley had worked as an ad- poor voter participation throughout the state set the budget for the enlarge-
ministrator in the US Agency of Inter- region. ment process. Regardless of future
national Development. His murder co- occurrences, during the period 2004
incides with a rising tide of hostility Morocco to 2006 the budget will not exceed the
toward the US in the region, due to maximum spending amount that was
the country’s supposed inclination in • On 9th October, it is announced agreed at the 1999 European Council
favour of Israel and their plans to that King Mohammed VI has named in Berlin, a total of 42.59 billion euros.
invade Iraq. Driss Jettou, who until now has occu- The EU will award future members a
pied the position of State Minister of total of 23 billion euros, to be divided
Libya Internal Affairs, Prime Minister. Jettou, between structural and cohesion
who is not affiliated with any party, funds. Furthermore, at the same meet-
• On 24th October, the official news takes over from Aberraman Yussufi, ing, France and Germany reach an un-
agency Jana reports that Libya has whose Socialist Union of Popular expected agreement to contain agri-cultural spending from 2006, a topic aimed at satisfying EU demands for occasions the hijackers threatened to
that had been deadlocked and that urgent action to reduce the budget set off a bomb, which was later re-
had previously proposed a threat to deficit. vealed to be a sham as no bombs ex-
the enlargement process. In virtue isted. One man was of Moroccan de-
of the agreement, the EU promises to Spain scent and the other was a former
maintain the Common Agricultural Pol- Italian police agent with a psychiatric
icy (CAP), something that the UK and • The government faces harsh criti- record, who had previously hijacked
the Netherlands question during the cism for its response to the ecological an Air France flight in March 2001,
summit, although the agricultural sub- disaster caused by ten thousand tons and had also taken control of an Italian
sidies will be frozen and even slightly of fuel released from the Prestige, the train in 1998.
reduced from 2006. oil tanker which sank on 19th Novem- • On 24th and 25th November, in
• On 28th October, Valéry Giscard ber in the north-western waters of the the Paris area, police arrest nineteen
d’Estaing, the former President of peninsula. suspected al-Qaeda members. The
Appendices
France and the current President of the antiterrorist operation, organised on
Convention responsible for proposing France the basis of information provided by
the future forms of EU institutions, authorities in the UK, Germany and the
made up of 105 members, makes • On 11th November, around a hun- Netherlands, is the largest to be imple-
public a draft of what is to be the Eu- dred immigrants board themselves up mented in France since the 11th Sep-
ropean Constitution. Certain contro- inside a church in Calais, on the north tember 2001 attacks in the US.
versial aspects are shelved so that coast, and threaten to commit mass • On 25th November, air traffic and
member states can take them up dur- suicide if they are not granted shelter motorway travel is disrupted when lor-
Med. 2003
ing the final stages of the negotiations at the nearby refugee centre in San- ry drivers and air traffic controllers
to finalise to Constitution, set for June gatte. Access to the centre has been hold a protest in demand of higher
2003. Despite the document’s lack of closed to immigrants since 5th Novem- salaries.
specificity, the draft represents a step ber. The lock-in ends on 14th November • On 26th November, civil servants
forward, since it represents a growing with the eviction of the immigrants, the demonstrate in Paris and other cities
consensus concerning the proposal of majority of whom have applied for po- against the privatisation plans of the
adopting a Constitution. litical asylum in France. government.
• On 17th November, the Union for
Presidential Majority (UMP), the al- Italy
248-249
November 2002 liance of centre-right parties that won
the presidential and parliamentary • In mid-November a crisis in the
The UN presents a peace plan for elections in the first semester of 2002, RAI, the Italian state media group,
Cyprus that will be the basis for the officially unites to from a single party, threatens to damage the reputation of
difficult negotiations between the two the Union for the Popular Movement, Prime Minister Berlusconi when con-
sides. Trouble brews in Spain with which keeps the initials of the alliance: flicts between his duties as Prime Min-
the sinking of an oil tanker. Portugal UMP. Alain Juppé, currently in the post ister and his position as a media
deals with another strike, and Italy of Mayor of Bordeaux, and Prime Min- tycoon are made patent. On 20th
faces difficult times with the disinte- ister from 1995 to 1997, is elected as November, two of the five directors on
gration of an important company, the the leader of the new party. the administrative council of the televi-
continuation of the economic crisis, • On 19th November, the French sion agency resign, declaring that
and the citizens’ loss of faith in insti- Supreme Court, the highest court Berlusconi wields so much influence
tutions. In Algeria, Islamist violence of appeal, denies anti-globalisation over RAI that it threatens freedom of
tarnishes the month of Ramadan. leader José Bové´s appeal against a expression in Italy. The rapidly-ap-
France takes action against interna- six-month prison sentence for his at- pointed replacements are closely con-
tional terrorism and holds a donor tack on a field of genetically modified nected to the government, and their
conference in Paris that produces crops in 1999. Furthermore, Bové is appointment does nothing but exacer-
considerable economic aid for Leba- condemned to serve a further eight bate the situation.
non. Controversial elections are held months in prison for a more recent at- • On 17th November, the court of
in Turkey, and elections also take tack on another field of genetically appeal of Perugia shakes up the coun-
place in Slovenia. modified crops. try’s political sector by sentencing for-
• An apparent hijack attempt on an mer Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to
Portugal Air-France flight from Canada to Paris twenty-four years imprisonment for or-
on 22nd November is followed, on dering the killing, in March 1979, of in-
• Civil servants hold a strike on 14th 27th November, by a similar incident vestigative reporter Mino Pecorelli.
November, causing schools, hospi- on an Alitalia flight on route from The tribune also sentences Mafia boss
tals, courts and other public services Bologna to Paris. The pilot is forced to Gaetano Badalamenti to twenty-four
to shut down throughout the country. execute an emergency landing in Lyon. years for his role in the murder. An-
The strike is called in protest against The alleged hijackers were arrested, dreotti, who served seven terms as
measures imposed by the government and there were no victims. On both Prime Minister and was cleared of theYou can also read
