GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The body of a man who had dissappeared 36 years ago during Argentina’s “dirty wars” was identified, bringing closure to a daughter brought up by military parents.
The man, Roque Orlando Montenegro, who had been buried in an unmarked grave in Uruguay, is suspected of having been on a death flight, where opponents to the military, were thrown from planes. Montenegro and his wife had been members of People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP). Both were kidnapped together with their newborn daughter, Victoria, in February 1976, a month before the military coup, and disappeared.
At the age of 20, Victoria Montenegro learned that the army colonel and his wife who had brought her up were not her biological parents. “I was appropriated”, Montenegro says, referring to the term used for children taken from parents who were killed or disappeared during the military’s pursuit on opponents.
A DNA test, which the human rights organization, Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo had arranged for Montenegro to clarify her identity, then allowed forensic anthropologists to identify a body found in Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay, as her father’s.
Human rights organizations estimate that approximately 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1982.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Eleven people were killed outside the ministry of defense in Cairo Wednesday 2 May, and up to 160 were reportedly wounded. Plainclothes gunmen attacked a group of protesters who were camped outside the ministry. The group, which numbers in the hundreds, has been protesting army rule for a number of days.
Reuters reports that “The violence casts a deep shadow over the presidential election due on May 23 and 24, with a run-off in June, and highlights the fragility of Egypt’s transition to democracy, which has been punctuated by violence and political bickering.”
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Egypt.com, Reuters
Aljazeera news video
New recruits: Swiss army checking more carefully that soldiers are not at risk for abusing use of their arms
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Some 27,000 former soldiers in the Swiss Army, the national militia, were sent letters in March, the army said 2 May, as part of tougher measures to ensure that guns are not used abusively during or after military service. Incidents that have included high-profile suicides and murders using military weapons have been behind a long-running debate over the Swiss militia practice of soldiers keeping their weapons at home.
The Swiss voted in early 2011 to keep weapons at home, but to store live ammunition at army depots. The army had already toughened its stance on weapons in 2009, but after a police officer was murdered in Bern in 2011 it began a two-phase effort to ensure its information about soldiers and weapons is accurate and up to date.
Cantons used to hold information about their soldiers and weapons, these databases were pooled in 2007 to create a single federal database.
The new two-phase programme began checking new recruits more thoroughly and dismissing from the army soldiers involved in “incidents” linked to their weapons.
The second phase, involving the 27,000 letters sent in March, is designed to clear up any discrepancies in the database, which crept in when the information was moved. It called in 415 personal weapons and nearly 6,000 on loan as a result. Weapons are loaned out for target practice. Every citizen-soldier is required to put in a specified number of hours of target practice annually.
Some of the discrepancies have involved the right of Swiss soldiers to buy their weapons for personal use, at the end of their service, but they must obtain a civilian gun permit.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland will be creating an additional 2,000 spaces to welcome asylum seekers while their initial requests for asylum are being processed. The country currently receives about 2,500 new requests a month and the confederation has reached the limits of its space for processing them as they enter the country.
Once the first phase of the process is completed, asylum seekers are assigned to cantons, which then provide them with longer term housing. The federal government says it can speed up processing and reduce costs if it has more initial welcome centres.
The federal Migration Office is supporting Swiss Defense Department efforts to find 2,000 more spaces for asylum seekers that should be ready for use by the end of 2013. The defense department and the federal justice department are drawing up an administrative agreement that will allow the use of “military infrastructures” for the centres, although military training centres have been excluded from the list.
The Defense Department, which includes administration offices for sports in the country, said 2 March it has not yet completed its list of places that can accommodate a large number of people, be used for at least six months at a stretch and that are accessible to heavy vehicles year round.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland’s recently announced decision to buy 22 Saab Gripen fighter planes from Sweden is under review following the publication by Le Matin Dimanche over the weekend of a 2009 report saying the Swedish jets didn’t meet Swiss military standards.
The spokesperson for Uele Maurer, Swiss defense minister, said Sunday 12 February that Maurer had never seen the report, raising new questions about the approval process behind the Federal Council’s decision to buy the planes.
Parliament has called on Maurer to immediately clarify the situation.
The 2009 confidential report was signed by Markus Gygax, head of the Swiss Air Force, after candidate fighter jets were submitted to tests; the Gripen did not meet the minimum standards while two other planes did. One was submitted by French company Dassault and information has surfaced in the past few days that the Dassault bid was also lower.
The Federal Council is now reviewing the decision, with the lower house of parliament loudly criticizing the way the choice was handled. The upper house’s security commission announced Monday 13 February that it will wait until its turn comes to review the decision, after the Federal Council makes its recommendation, before it becomes in the debate. But, it underscored firmly, it expects to be provided with all information available, including the minutes of lower house committee debates, in order to determine if the choice was made fairly and honestly.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Organizers of protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in Egypt are calling for a million people to come out on the streets Tuesday 22 November to force military rulers to hand over power no matter what the results of next week’s elections. At least 25 people have died in fighting in the past four days as the protests turned violent. The civilian cabinet of the military rulers resigned late Monday, adding to the confusion. The military have been ruling since overthrowing Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship early in 2011.
Links to other sites: Al Arabiya, Aljazeera, BBC
The expected shakeup in US military leadership appears to be ready, with AP making one of the tersest and shortest news agency reports in some time, with an announcement shortly after noon Swiss time that its sources say Robert Petraeus will become head of the CIA intelligence agency and CIA director Leon Panetta is being named secretary of defense. The news was elaborated slightly an hour later, with the addition of the names of Lt. Gen. John Allen, to oversee the war in Afghanistan that Petraeus has headed and Ryan Crocker, a diplomat, as US ambassador to Afghanistan. ABC News in the US confirms that its sources have provided the same information.
The Pentagon and White House are so far mum on the disclosures. AP says the announcements are expected to be made Thursday 28 April.
The names come as no surprise, having been mentioned by US media for the past three weeks for the posts, but without a clear sense of when the shuffle would occur.
Al Jazeera TV signal cut, told to shut down, while China blocks “Egypt” Twitter searches
President Hos Mubarak, facing what Reuters refers to as “unprecedented pressure” on his regime, is holding closely watched meetings with military officials in the country, as Egypt has its sixth day of protests against Mubarak’s 30-year-old presidency. Saturday 29 January Al Jazeera TV, which operates out of Qatar, was told it could no longer work in the country, cancelling accreditation for journalists and Nilesat, an Egyptian satellite, cut its signal. The shutdown affected the network’s operations in some other countries as well, but Al Jazeera says it is able to offer viewers its new from other signals. It claims to have some 400 reporters worldwide, and its Arab world coverage is some of the most thorough among news agencies.
In Cairo, thousands of people have continued to gather despite curfews and a ban on crowds, with looting reported and gangs reportedly freeing prisoners from jails. Numbers of people reported to have died in protests vary, but it appears that more than 100 have been killed, and the government claims that it has arrested hundreds of looters.
China, according to Reuters, began blocking “Egypt” as a search term on micro-blogs, the Chinese equivalents of Twitter, in what it says appears to be a sign “aimed at preventing events in Egypt from setting an example of political opposition at home.”
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, Reuters, Xinhua
Aerial Photo of Davos, the Alpine Host City of the World Economic Forum, captured before the Annual Meeting 2011 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 17, 2011. Davos is in the middle of Swiss Alps and the city for holidays, sports, congresses, health, development and culture. (photo ©2011 World Economic Forum/swiss-image.ch/Photo by Andy Mettler)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - All eyes switch to Davos, as the offices of the host, the World Economic Forum in Geneva, empty out for the annual meeting of business and political leaders at the Swiss resort in canton Graubuenden.
Newspapers and magazines are filled with Davos “news” which so far consists mainly of journalists’ descriptions of the pretty road or train ride from Zurich airport to the hills of Davos, where it has been snowing.
Some essential and non-essential Swiss facts about Davos:
- The theme for 2011 is “Shared Norms for the New Reality”. This officially covers four topics: Responding to the New Reality; The Economic Outlook and Defining Policies for Inclusive Growth; Supporting the G20 Agenda; Building a Risk Response Network. Unofficially, it is likely to include anything and everything on people’s minds, from wiki leaks to unemployment and elections and revolutions in Africa.
- Swiss military forces are spending CHF1.5 million and putting 4,000 soldiers on the ground and in the air to protect and help the 2,500 guests at the forum. They’re using 18 km of protective barriers and 1,000 kg of sand to ensure helicopter landing pads and trains no matter what the weather. Media people make up 420 of the foreign visitors, with 80 Swiss journalists.
- Bilateral agreements are likely to be on the agenda at meetings between the Swiss minister for the economy, Johann Schneider-Ammann, and German Minister of Economics and Technology Rainer Brüderle, Austrian Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Josef Pröll, and French Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry Christine Lagarde.
- Those talks might make more headlines in Europe but of greater interest to Swiss business people is the meeting between Schneider-Ammann and Chinese Trade Minister Chen Deming 28 January, which will launch the negotiations on a free trade agreement between Switzerland and China.
The cost? Starting point is a little over CHF50,000 for membership in the forum, a must if you want to be invited to the Davos party, but the real cost is staggeringly higher for most people attending, according to the New York Times, which ends by noting that this is likely to change, as the appeal of Davos begins to fade (Ed. note: I was told the thing 15 years ago by tow people who attended, but the appeal of Davos appears to have held).
Alpine horns greet guests at the new convention centre in Davos (photo ©2011 World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Michael Wuertenberg)
Here is what some international media in English were saying about the mega-meeting in the run-up, before a suicide bomber in Russia and street demonstrations in Egypt made last-minute deadlines: Economist, The Globe & Mail, Guardian, New York Times, Telegraph, Economic Times of India
Geneva's new police assistants, embassy guards
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Seventeen newly trained Geneva police officers are now on duty outside diplomatic missions in the city, part of the group that has replaced some of the Swiss soldiers in training who have had the job in the past. Long-term Swiss soldiers continue to provide some protection to embassies, consulates and missions, but the number dropped to 125 total in Bern and Geneva at the start of 2010, in line with a vote by Parliament to reduce military involvement in favour of city police doing the job.
At the end of June the federal government issued a positive six-month report on the gradual transition to using more city police. The soldiers who remain on duty report to local police departments, which have responsibility for guarding the buildings.
Geneva’s 17 new “police assistants” are part of a growing international security police team. Wednesday 8 September the next batch of graduates from the police academy, including an additional two members of the international security police force, will be part of a graduation ceremony with a parade in the city centre.
Note on Wednesday police parade: the parade this year will feature two antique Saurer police trucks from the police museum, with police dressed in period costumes. The parade starts at 10:20 at the promenade de la Treille. The parade route:
Place Neuve – rue de la Corraterie – rue de la Confédération – rue du Marché – rue de la Croix-d’Or – rue de Rive – cours de Rive – rond-point de Rive – boulevard Jaques-Dalcroze – rue Théodore-de-Bèze – rue des Chaudronniers – place du Bourg-de-Four – rue de l’Hôtel-de-Ville.
Famed Glacier Patrol has good weather
Glacier patrols depart from Zermatt to Vevey
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Glacier Patrol race is on. The PdG, as it is known for its French acronym, is a long-distance endurance race that takes place every two years across the 53km of glaciers, summits and passes between Zermatt and Verbier.
A shorter 26km version covers the peaks between Arolla and Verbier.
The three-person patrols compete in male, female and co-ed categories. Traditionally, race participation was restricted to military personnel, but civilians are now welcome.
Most of the patrols take 12 hours on average to complete the race, although top athletes finish in almost half the time.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A group of researchers based at Chuv (University Hospitals) in Lausanne have published the results of a 23-year study of Swiss homicide-suicides in The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology (28 January 2010 issue). Their conclusion: a stricter weapons law would help reduce the number of such deaths. The study was undertaken in the context of an ongoing national debate over military laws that require soldiers to keep guns at home. Switzerland has a national militia.
Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators Tuesday 2 February that the US should end its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that obliges gay soldiers to keep their sexual preferences to themselves. “”No matter how I look at the issue I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.” The policy began in 1993 but the Pentagon says it will now review it.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, NPR, MSNBC
Davos during the World Economic Forum, 2009 (image: WEF)
Update 11:37 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Army has begun preparations for the World Economic Forum in Davos, from 27-31 January 2010, with 200 soldiers dispatched to canton Graubuenden to begin making security arrangements. The army will supply 5,000 soldiers this year, the same as last, and the government will spend CHF1.5 million providing military security for the event. The cost is down slightly thanks to technical improvements, according to Bern.
The army provides security on the ground, including clearances for people attending the event, which pulls in top-level business and political leaders. The Swiss and Austrian air forces provide air surveillance.
Swiss military flights are flying over the Alps frequently this week, noticeable to skiers, but these are regular training flights, the military department confirmed to GenevaLunch. Military training linked to WEF begins closer to the event.
Airolo, Ticino, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 19-year-old soldier died while on a break during a football game at the Airolo boot camp for sanitary workers, the federal Department of Defense announced 26 November. His colleagues gave him first aid and CPR almost immediately, but were unable to revive him. He was in his fifth week of boot camp. The cause of death remains unknown.
An extradition treaty between the US and Britain makes the legal case cut and dried: Gary McKinnon of North London in the UK hacked his way into US military and space agency computers in the days after 11 September 2001 and he must be tried in the US. McKinnon, 43, has admitted to the actions, but says he was simply looking for information on UFOs. Beyond the legal issue is a human rights debate over whether or not McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome (the high-functioning end of the autism range) should be extradited and tried for a crime that could put him in prison for the rest of his life. The man’s family has pleaded with the British home secretary, Alan Johnson, to intervene but Thursday the family received a letter from him saying he is powerless. Legal advice differs on his ability to stop the extradition.
UUKLinks to other sites: boing boing, freegary, Guardian, UK, Times, UK and 2005 interview with McKinnon in the Guardian
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The two guides who worked with a military team scaling the Jungfrau when an avalanche hit and killed six in the group now face the possibility of a new trial. The prosecutor in the case Wednesday 25 November filed an appeal against the judgement last Thursday that acquitted the two guides, who were awarded damages.
Background: Guides acquitted in Jungfrau military accident, 20 November 2009, GenevaLunch
Update 2 25 November Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and Russian officials have been meeting in Geneva since Sunday according to Michael Parmly, spokesperson for the US Mission in Geneva. The Russian Permament Mission would not comment on the talks but confirmed that they had taken place. Mullen’s office says he met Tuesday with Russian armed forces chief of staff General Nikolai Makarov, AP reports.
Geneva is the site of negotiations between the US and Russia to replace the 1990s-era Start treaty on cuts to both countries’ nuclear arsenals, which expires 5 December. A major obstacle has been the verification process. The Start talks have been the subject of high-level meetings between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over the course of 2009.
Mullen also met with the head of the Swiss army, André Blattmann, for a working lunch in Geneva Tuesday.
Background: “Start treaty talks may take longer, Obama says“, 16 November 2009, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Adm Mike Mullen on Facebook, US Mission in Geneva, Permanent Russian Mission in Geneva and ABC News, AP/WGN-TV, Chicago
Bern / Chur, Graubuenden, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two guides who have been on trial for their part in the deaths of six soldiers during a military mountain training expedition on the Jungfrau have been acquitted. They were on trial in a Swiss military court for involuntary manslaughter and for not observing military regulations.
The People’s Republic of China turns 60 Thursday 1 October, the country’s national day. This year’s festivities are larger and more colourful than ever, although the details are not being made public and security is tight for the military show, with reports that balloons and kites are even banned. Boston.com carries a large collection of photos, with military troops, theatre troupes, special lighting and more. Forty commemorative films are being shown around China and are expected to draw good cinema crowds. The party isn’t limited to Beijing or even China: New York’s Empire State building will be bathed in red and yellow light, China’s official colours. Other sites featuring the preparations: China Radio International (Eng), CS Monitor, Xinhua
Commandos on Swiss Raid. © 2009 Swiss Raid Commando
Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Elite commandos from 19 countries and Switzerland will test their military skills against each other and against the elements in the 2009 edition of Swiss Raid Commando, starting today 24 September in the Chablais region of Valais, Vaud and Haute Savoie, neigbouring France. In all, 80 four-person troops (there is one all-woman troop), each led by an officer or non-commissioned officer, compete in tests of physical prowess, technical abilities and mastery of tactics.
General David Petraeus of the US, military regional commander for the area that includes Afghanistan, said 11 June that the level of Taliban attacks is the highest since 2001. The BBC reports that in the first week of June 2009 there were 400 attacks, more than eight times the rate in January 2004. US General Stanley McChrystal said, when asked in an interview with the BBC if Afghanistan will be a long-term operation, “It won’t be short.”
Robert Dreyfuss writes for Mother Jones in the US, which carries a series of articles on US involvement in Afghanistan, that President Obama’s gamble to win the war there is a “daunting” challenge.
The air strikes by US forces in Afghanistan 4 May 2009 that caused civilian casualties and provoked local outrage may have involved “significant errors” on the part of US military personnel, an investigation suggested 2 June. “The report represents the clearest American acknowledgment of fault in connection with the attacks,” notes the New York Times.
US military commanders plan to cut off the Taliban’s economic source, their multi-million dollar opium business in Afghanistan, by sending 20,000 Marines to the southern part of the country where the Taliban have poppy fields. The new effort to end the seven-year war in Afghanistan will double the number of troops already deployed. International Herald Tribune
Pakistan’s military launched a major assault on Taliban fighters in the lower Dir region, causing civilians to flee the area. Military officials say that they have killed at least 46 suspected Taliban fighters through a combination of air and ground attacks. The attack is in retaliation for Taliban violations of the recent agreement concerning the Swat Valley, according to Al Jazeera.
French officials denied claims of a relationship between nuclear weapons tests and health problems among the testers for decades. Defense Minister Hervé Morin told Le Figaro, Tuesday 23 March, that they will compensate those suffering from illnesses linked to radiation exposure from the test. French authorities carried out more than 200 nuclear tests between 1960 and 1996 that theoretically affected approximately 150,000 civilian and military personnel, according to Morin. International Herald Tribune
President Ravalomanana dissolved the government of Madagascar and handed over ruling power to the military under pressure from the army which then put Mayor Andry Rajoelina in the presidential seat. Rajoelina promises to hold elections within the next two years.
“If the military hands over power to the mayor, it is not constitutional,” Jean Ping, the African Union Commission Chairman. Ping says ti will be considered a coup d’etat by the African Union.
Madagascar army troops took over presidential offices in Antananarivo, the capital, at 18:00 local time 16 March, under orders from the country’s opposition leader Andry Rajoelina. President Marc Ravalomanana offered to test support for the government through a referendum, but he was refused. The president was not in the palace at the time of the attack. According to the UK’s Guardian, he is reported to be in another palace on the island. CNN, AllAfrica
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Army has handed its first batch of new Swiss Army knives to recruits who begin training this week in Thoune.
Photo, ©2008 Swiss military aviation museum, Payerne
Payerne, Vaud (GenevaLunch) – A gynecologist from Lausanne became the first non-military person to fly in a Mirage, a Swiss fighter plane that was retired five years ago.
