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Must we decolonise #Open_Access? Perspectives from Francophone Africa

A long read featuring the recent work of Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou and Florence Piron, on how a truly open and inclusive ‘Open Access’ movement must include those at the periphery

I recently watched the recording of the fantastic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion session at OpenCon, and I was struck by the general theme of how ‘openness’ isn’t necessarily the force for equality that we perhaps think it is, and how issues of power, exploitation, and hierarchy means that it should be understood differently according to the context in which it is applied. In the session, Denisse Albornoz used the expression of ‘situated openness’ to describe how our Northern conception of openness should not be forced on anyone or any group – it needs to be understood first in individual contexts of historical injustices and post-colonial power structures.

What stood out for me most in this session, however, (because it related most to my work) was Cameroonian Thomas Mboa’s presentation, which talked about the ‘neo-colonial face of open access’. The presentation employed some very striking critical terms such as ‘cognitive injustice’ and ‘epistemic alienation’ to Open Access.

I’ve always known that the Open Access movement was far from perfect, but at least it’s moving global science publishing in the right direction, right? Can working towards free access and sharing of research really be ‘neo-colonial’ and lead to ‘alienation’ for users of research in the Global South? And if this really is the case, how can we ‘decolonise’ open access?

Thomas didn’t get much time to expand on some of the themes he presented, so I got in contact to see if he had covered these ideas elsewhere, and fortunately he has, through his participation in ‘Projet SOHA’ . This is a research-action project that’s been working on open science, empowerment and cognitive justice in French-speaking Africa and Haiti from 2015-17. He provided me with links to four publications written in French by himself and his colleagues from the project – Florence Piron (Université Laval, Quebec, Canada), Antonin Benoît Diouf (Senegal), and Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba (Cameroon), and many others.

These articles are a goldmine of provocative ideas and perspectives on Open Access from the Global South, which should challenge all of us in the English-speaking academic publishing community. Therefore, I decided to share some excerpts and extended quotes from these articles below, in amongst some general comments from my (admittedly limited) experience of working with researchers in the Global South.

The quotes are taken from the following book and articles, which I recommend reading in full (these are easily translatable using the free tool Google Translate Web, which correctly translated around 95% of the text).

Chapter 2 – ‘Les injustices cognitives en Afrique subsaharienne : réflexions sur les causes et les moyens de lutte’ – Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou (2016), in Piron, Dibounje Madiba et Regulus 2016 (below)
Justice cognitive, libre accès et savoirs locaux – Collective book edited by Florence Piron, Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba and Samuel Regulus (2016) (CC-BY) ▻https://scienceetbiencommun.pressbooks.pub/justicecognitive1
Qui sait ? Le libre accès en Afrique et en Haïti – Florence Piron (2017) (CC-BY) (Soon to be published in English in Forthcoming Open Divide. Critical Studies of Open Access (Herb & Schöpfel ed), Litwinbooks
Le libre accès vu d’Afrique francophone subsaharienne – Florence Piron, Antonin Benoît Diouf, Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba, Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou, Zoé Aubierge Ouangré, Djossè Roméo Tessy, Hamissou Rhissa Achaffert, Anderson Pierre and Zakari Lire (2017) (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Une autre science est possible. Récit d’une utopie concrète dans la Francophonie (le projet SOHA) – Revue Possibles, 2016 (CC-BY)

Piron et al’s (2017) article starts with a stinging critique of those of us in our Northern scholarly publishing community cliques, and our never-ending open access debates over technicalities:

“… there are many debates in this community, including on the place of open licenses in open access (is an article really in open access if it is not freely reusable in addition to being freely accessible?), on the legitimacy of the fees charged to authors by certain journals choosing open access, on the quality and evaluation of open access journals, on the very format of the journal as the main vehicle for the dissemination of scientific articles or on the type of documents to be included in institutional or thematic open archives (only peer-reviewed articles or any document related to scientific work?).

Viewed from Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa, these debates may seem very strange, if not incomprehensible. Above all, they appear very localized: they are debates of rich countries, of countries of the North, where basic questions such as the regular payment of a reasonable salary to academics, the existence of public funding for research, access to the web, electricity, well-stocked libraries and comfortable and safe workplaces have long been settled.” Piron et al. (2017)

… and their critique gets more and more scathing from here for the Open Access movement. OA advocates – tighten your seatbelts – you are not going to find this a comfortable ride.

“… a conception of open access that is limited to the legal and technical questions of the accessibility of science without thinking about the relationship between center and periphery can become a source of epistemic alienation and neocolonialism in the South”. Piron et al. (2017)

“Is open access the solution to the documented shortcomings of these African universities and, in doing so, a crucial means of getting scientific research off the ground? I would like to show that this is not the case, and to suggest that open access can instead become a neo-colonial tool by reinforcing the cognitive injustices that prevent African researchers from fully deploying their research capacities in the service of the community and sustainable local development of their country.” Piron (2017)

Ouch. To understand these concepts of ‘cognitive injustice’ and ‘epistemic alienation’, it helps to understand this ‘world system’ and the power relationship between the centre and the periphery. This is based on Wallerstein’s (1996) model, which Thomas featured in his OpenCon slides:

http://journalologik.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/thomas-768x432.png

“… a world-system whose market unit is the scientific publication circulating between many instances of high economic value, including universities, research centers, science policies, journals and an oligopoly of for-profit scientific publishers (Larivière, Haustein, and Mongeon, 2015).” Piron et al. (2017)

“… we believe that science, far from being universal, has been historically globalized. Inspiring us, like Keim (2010) and a few others (Polanco, 1990), from Wallerstein’s (1996) theory, we consider that it constitutes a world-system whose market unit is the scientific publication. Produced mainly in the North, this merchandise obeys standards and practices that are defined by the ‘center’ of the system, namely the main commercial scientific publishers (Larivière, Haustein, & Mongeon, 2015), and their university partners are the US and British universities dominating the so-called world rankings. The semi-periphery is constituted by all the other countries of the North or emerging from the South which revolve around this center, adopting the English language in science and conforming to the model LMD (license, master, doctorate) imposed since the Bologna process to all the universities of the world with the aim of “normalizing” and standardizing the functioning of this world-system. The periphery then refers to all the countries that are excluded from this system, which produce no or very few scientific publications or whose research work is invisible, but to whom the LMD model has also been imposed (Charlier, Croché, & Ndoye 2009, Hountondji 2001)”. Piron et al. (2017)

So, the continuing bias and global focus towards the powerful ‘center’ of the world-system leads to the epistemic alienation of those on the periphery, manifesting in a ‘spiritual colonisation’:

“… this attitude that drives us to want to think about local problems with Western perspective is a colonial legacy to which many African citizens hang like a ball.” Mboa (2016).

So where does Open Access fit in with this world-system?

“… if open access is to facilitate and accelerate the access of scientists from the South to Northern science without looking into the visibility of knowledge of the South, it helps to redouble their alienation epistemic without contributing to their emancipation. Indeed, by making the work of the center of the world-system of science even more accessible, open access maximizes their impact on the periphery and reinforces their use as a theoretical reference or as a normative model, to the detriment of local epistemologies.” Piron et al. (2017)

Rethinking Northern perspectives

This should be an eye-opening analysis for those of us who assumed that access to research knowledge in the North could only be a good thing for the South. Perhaps we need to examine the arrogance behind our narrow worldview, and consider more deeply the power at the heart of such a one-way knowledge exchange. Many of us might find this difficult, as:

“The idea that open access may have the effects of neocolonialism is incomprehensible to people blind to epistemological diversity, who reduce the proclaimed universalism of Western science to the impoverished model of the standards imposed by the Web of Science model. For these people, the invisibility of a publication in their numerical reference space (located in the center of the world-system) is equivalent to its non-existence. The idea that valid and relevant knowledge can exist in another form and independently of the world-system that fascinates them is unthinkable.” Piron et al. (2017)

Having spent a little time at scholarly publishing events in the Global North, I can attest that the mindset described above is common. There are kind thoughts (and a few breadcrumbs thrown in the form of grants and fellowships) towards those on the periphery, but it is very much in the mindset of helping those from the Global South ‘catch up’. Our mindset is very much as Piron describes here:

“If one sticks to the positivist view that “science” is universal – even if its “essence” is symbolized by the American magazine Science – then indeed African science, that is to say in Africa, is late, and we need to help it develop so that it looks more and more like the North”. Piron (2017)

And whilst in the North we may have a lot of respect for different cultural perspectives, genuine reciprocal exchanges of research knowledge are rare. We are supremely confident that our highly-developed scientific publishing model deserves to be at the centre of our system. This can lead to selective blindness about the rigorousness of our science and our indexed journals, in spite of the steady drip drip drip of reports of biased peer review, data fraud and other ethical violations in ‘high-impact’ Northern journals, exposed in places like retraction watch.

North/South research collaborations are rarely equitable – southern partners often complain of being used as data-gatherers rather than intellectual equals and partners in research projects, even when the research is being carried out in their own country.

“These [Northern] partners inevitably guide the problems and the methodological and epistemological choices of African researchers towards the only model they know and value, the one born at the center of the world-system of science – without questioning whether this model is relevant to Africa and its challenges”. Piron et al (2017).

These issues of inequity in collaborative relationships and publication practices seem inextricably linked, which is not surprising when the ultimate end goal of research is publishing papers in Northern journals, rather than actually solving Southern development challenges.

“In this context, open access may appear as a neocolonial tool, as it facilitates access by Southern researchers to Northern science without ensuring reciprocity. In doing so, it redoubles the epistemic alienation of these researchers instead of contributing to the emancipation of the knowledge created in the universities of the South by releasing them from their extraversion. Indeed, by making the work produced in the center of the world-system even more accessible, free access maximizes their impact on the periphery and reinforces their use as a theoretical reference or as a normative model, to the detriment of local epistemologies, which generates situations absurd as, for example, the use of a theoretical framework related to wage labor in the Paris region to analyze the work of women in northern Mali” Piron (2017)

“The resulting consequences are, in particular, the teachers of the Southern countries who quote and read only writers from the North and impose them on their students and the libraries of our universities who do everything to subscribe to Western scholarly journals while they do not deal with our problems. (Mboa Nkoudou, 2016 )”

This is also a striking example:

“It is very sad to note that geographers in Ouagadougou are more familiar with European work on the Sahel than those at the Higher Institute of Sahel in Maroua, Cameroon.” Piron (2017)

The lack of equity in research knowledge exchange and collaboration is also caused by another one-way North to South flow: funding. Research in the South is often dependent on foreign funding. Big Northern donors and funders therefore set the standards and agendas in research, and in how the entire research funding system works. Southern partners rarely get to set the agenda, and researchers rarely get to develop the research questions that guide the research. They have to learn to jump through administrative hoops to become credible in the eyes of the Northern donor (for more information see ‘Who drives research in developing countries?‘).

Southern institutions are also compelled, via league tables such as the World Unviersity Rankings, to play the same game as institutions in the North. Institutions are ranked against each other according to criteria set in the North, one of which is citations (of course, only citations between journals in the Web of Science or Scopus, which is overwhelmingly Northern). And so to stay ‘competitive’, Southern institutions need their researchers to publish in Northern journals with Northern language and agendas.
Northern agendas and local innovation

Whilst it is tempting to think that the issues and criticism described above is mostly a problem for the social sciences and humanities, there are also real issues in the ‘hard’ sciences – perhaps not so much in their epistemological foundations – but in very practical issues of Northern research agendas. For example, Northern research, being based in Europe and the US, is overwhelmingly biased towards white people, in diversity of leadership, diversity of researchers, and most importantly in the whiteness of clinical trial subjects. This is problematic because different ethnic populations have different genetic makeups and differences due to geography, that mean they respond differently to treatments (see here, here and here). Are African and Asian researchers informed of this when they read research from so-called ‘international’ journals?

Furthermore, these Northern agendas can also mean that research focuses on drugs, equipment and treatments that are simply not suitable for developing country contexts. I was reminded of a discussion comment recently made by a Pakistani surgeon on the Northern bias of systematic reviews:

“There is a definite bias in this approach as almost all of the guidelines and systematic reviews are based on the research carried out in high income countries and the findings and the recommendations have little relevance to the patients, health care system and many a time serve no purpose to the millions of patients based in low resourced countries. e.g. I routinely used Phenol blocks for spasticity management for my patients which were abandoned two decades ago in the West. Results are great, and the patients can afford this Rs 200 phenol instead of Rs 15,000 Botox vial. But, unfortunately, I am unable to locate a single systematic review on the efficacy of phenol as all published research in the last decade was only on the use of Botox in the management of spasticity.” Farooq Rathore (HIFA mailing list, 2016).

Similarly, I’ve read research papers from the South that report on innovative approaches to medical treatments and other problems that utilise lower-cost equipment and methodologies (in fact, as is argued here, research in low-resource environments can often be more efficient and innovative, containing many lessons we, in the North, could learn from). This point is also made by Piron et al:

“… the production of technical and social innovations is rich in Sub-Saharan French-speaking Africa, as evidenced by the high number of articles on this subject in the Sci-Dev magazine, specializing in science for development, or in the ecofin site, an economic information agency turned towards Africa. But these are mostly local innovations that mobilize local resources and often recycled materials to, for example, introduce electricity into a village, better irrigate fields or offer lighting after sunset. The aim of these innovations is to contribute to local development and not to the development of international markets, unlike innovations designed in the North which, while targeting the countries of the South, remain highly marketable – just think of milk powder or GMO seeds. The issue of open access to scientific publications is a very secondary issue for local innovators in such a context”. (Piron et al. 2016)

These examples of innovation aside, there are many cases where the ‘epistemic alienation’ described above leads to ‘the exclusion or contempt of local knowledge’ (Mboa, 2016), even amongst researchers in the global South.

“In fact, Western culture abundantly relayed in the media and textbooks is shown to be superior to other cultures. This situation is pushing Africans to multiply their efforts to reach the ideal of life of the “white”. This situation seems to block their ability to think locally, or even to be reactive. Thus, faced with a given situation specific to the African context, many are those who first draw on the resources of Western thinking to propose elements of answers.” Mboa (2016)

Free and open access as ‘showcasing products’

The Research4Life (R4L) programme also comes in for criticism from Piron et al. which will come as a shock to Northern publishing people who often use the ‘… but they’ve got Research4Life’ line when faced with evidence of global research inequalities.

“… while pretending to charitably provide university libraries in the Global South with free access to pre-defined packages of paid journals from the North, this program, set up by for-profit scientific publishers, maintains the dependence of these libraries, limits their understanding of the true network of open access publications and, above all, improves the market for the products sold by these publishers.” Piron et al (2017)

“… this program encourages the continued reliance of these libraries on an external program, designed in the North and showcasing Northern products, while it may disappear as soon as this philanthropic desire is exhausted or as soon as trading partners will not find any more benefits.”

Whilst I still think R4L is a great initiative (I know many researchers in the Global South who are very appreciative of the programme), it’s difficult to disagree with the conclusion that:

‘… this program mainly improves the opportunities of Northern publishers without contributing to the sustainable empowerment of university libraries in the South … this charity seems very hypocritical, let alone arbitrary, since it can stop at any time.” Piron (2017)

Of course, the same could be said of Article Processing Charge (APC) waivers for developing country authors. Waivers are currently offered by the majority of journals from the big publishers (provided according to the same HINARI list of countries provided by Research4Life), although sometimes you have to dig deep into the terms and conditions pages to find them. Waivers are good for publishers to showcase their corporate social responsibility and provide diversity of authorship. However, they are unsustainable – this charity is unlikely to last forever, especially as they rely on the pool of Southern authors being relatively limited. It should also be noted that developing countries with the most active, growing researcher communities such as Nigeria, South Africa and India do not qualify for either R4L access or APC waivers.

Speaking of APCs, something I observe regularly amongst Southern researchers is a confusion over the ‘Gold’ OA author-pays model, and this too is noted:

“In northern countries, many researchers, especially in STEM (Björk and Solomon, 2012) [ 7 ], believe (wrongly) that open access now means “publication fees charged to authors” … this commercial innovation appears to be paying off, as these costs appear to be natural to researchers.” Piron (2017)

This also appears to be paying off in the Global South – authors seem resigned to pay some kind of charge to publish, and it is common to have to point out to authors that over two-thirds of OA journals and 99% of subscription journals do not charge to publish (although, the rise of ‘predatory’ journals may have magnified this misunderstanding that pay-to-publish is the norm).

It may be tempting to think of these inequalities as an unfortunate historical accident, and that our attempts to help the Global South ‘catch up’ are just a little clumsy and patronising. However, Piron argues that this is no mere accident, but the result of colonial exploitation that still resonates in existing power structures today:

“Open access is then easily seen as a means of catching up, at least filling gaps in libraries and often outdated teaching […] Africa is considered as lagging behind the modern world, which would explain its underdevelopment, to summarize this sadly hegemonic conception of north-south relations. By charity, Northern countries then feel obliged to help, which feeds the entire industry surrounding development aid [….] this model of delay, violently imposed by the West on the rest of the world through colonization, has been used to justify the economic and cognitive exploitation (Connell, 2014) of colonized continents without which modernity could not have prospered.” Piron (2017)

To build the path or take the path?

Of course, the authors do admit that access to Northern research has a role to play in the Global South, provided the access is situated in local contexts:

“… African science should be an African knowledge, rooted in African contexts, that uses African epistemologies to answer African questions, while also using other knowledge from all over the world, including Western ones, if they are relevant locally.” Piron (2017)

However, the practical reality of Open Access for Southern researchers is often overstated. There is a crucial distinction between making content ‘open’ and providing the means to access that content. As Piron et al. 2017 say:

“To put a publication in open access: is it, to build the path (technical or legal) that leads to it, or is it to make it possible for people to take this path? This distinction is crucial to understand the difference in meaning of open access between the center and the periphery of the world-system of science, although only an awareness of the conditions of scientific research in the Southern countries makes it possible to visualize it, to perceive it.”

This crucial difference between availability and accessibility has also been explained by Anne Powell on Scholarly Kitchen. There are many complex barriers to ‘free’ and ‘open’ content actually being accessed and used. The most obvious of these barriers is internet connectivity, but librarian training, language and digital literacy also feature significantly:

“Finding relevant open access articles on the web requires digital skills that, as we have seen, are rare among Haitian and African students for whom the web sometimes comes via Facebook … Remember that it is almost always when they arrive at university that these students first touch a computer. The catching up is fast, but many reflexes acquired since the primary school in the countries of the North must be developed before even being able to imagine that there are open access scientific texts on the web to make up for the lack of documents in the libraries. In the words of the Haitian student Anderson Pierre, “a large part of the students do not know the existence of these resources or do not have the digital skills to access and exploit them in order to advance their research project”. Piron (2017)

Barriers to local knowledge exchange

Unfortunately, this is made even more difficult by resistance and misunderstanding of the internet and digital tools from senior leadership in Africa:

“Social representations of the web, science and copyright also come into play, especially among older academics, a phenomenon that undermines the appropriation of digital technologies at the basis of open access in universities.” Piron et al. (2017)

“To this idea that knowledge resides only in printed books is added a representation of the web which also has an impact on the local resistance to open access: our fieldwork has allowed us to understand that, for many African senior academics, the web is incompatible with science because it contains only documents or sites that are of low quality, frivolous or entertaining. These people infer that science in open access on the web is of lower quality than printed science and are very surprised when they learn that most of the journals of the world-system of science exist only in dematerialized format. … Unfortunately, these resistances slow down the digitization and the web dissemination of African scientific works, perpetuating these absurd situations where the researchers of the same field in neighboring universities do not know what each other is doing”. Piron et al. (2017)

This complaint about in-country communication from researchers in the South can be common, but there are signs that open access can make a difference – as an example, in Sri Lanka, I’ve spoken to researchers who say that communicating research findings within the country has always been a problem, but the online portal Sri Lanka Journals Online (currently 77 open access Sri Lankan journals) has started to improve this situation. This project was many years in the making, and has involved training journal editors and librarians in loading online content and improving editorial practices for open access. The same, of course, could be said for African Journals Online, which has potential to facilitate sharing on a larger scale.

Arguably, some forms of institutional resistance to openness in the Global South have a neocolonial influence – universities have largely borrowed and even intensified the Northern ‘publish or perish’ mantra which focuses the academic rewards system almost entirely on journal publications, often in northern-indexed journals, rather than on impact on real world development.

“The system of higher education and research in force in many African countries remains a remnant of colonization, perpetuated by the reproduction, year after year, of the same ideals and principles. This reproduction is assured not by the old colonizers but by our own political leaders who are perpetuating a system structured according to a classical partitioning that slows down any possible communication between researchers within the country or with the outside world, even worse between the university and the immediate environment. For the ruling class, the changes taking place in the world and the society’s needs seem to have no direct link to the university.” Mboa (2016)

Mboa calls this partitioning between researchers and outsiders as “a tight border between society and science”:

“African researchers are so attached to the ideal of neutrality of science and concern of its ‘purity’ that they consider contacts with ordinary citizens as ‘risks’ or threats and that they prefer to evolve in their ‘ivory tower’. On the other hand, ordinary citizens feel so diminished compared to researchers that to talk to them about their eventual involvement in research is a taboo subject …” Mboa (2016)

Uncolonising openness

So what is the answer to all these problems? Is it in building the skills of researchers and institutions or a complete change of philosophy?

“The colonial origin of African science (Mvé-Ondo, 2005) is certainly no stranger to this present subjugation of African science to northern research projects, nor to its tendency to imitate Western science without effort. Contextualization, particularly in the quasi-colonial structuring of sub-Saharan African universities (Fredua-Kwarteng, 2015) and in maintaining the use of a colonial language in university education. Considering this institutionalized epistemic alienation as yet another cognitive injustice, Mvé-Ondo wonders “how to move from a westernization of science to a truly shared science” (p.49) and calls for “epistemological mutation”, “rebirth”, modernizing “African science at the crossroads of local knowledge and northern science – perhaps echoing the call of Fanon (1962/2002) for a “new thinking” in the Third World countries, detached from European model, decolonized.” Piron et al. (2017)

For this to happen, open access must be about more than just access – but something much more holistic and equitable:

“Can decentralized, decolonised open access then contribute to creating more cognitive justice in global scientific production? Our answer is clear: yes, provided that it is not limited to the question of access for scientific and non-scientific readers to scientific publications. It must include the concern for origin, creation, local publishing and the desire to ensure equity between the accessibility of the publications of the center of the world system and that of knowledge from the periphery. It thus proposes to replace the normative universalism of globalized science with an inclusive universalism, open to the ecology of knowledges and capable of building an authentic knowledge commons (Gruson-Daniel, 2015; Le Crosnier, 2015), hospitable for the knowledge of the North and the South”. Piron et al. (2017)

Mboa sees the solution to this multifaceted problem in ‘open science’:

“[Cognitive injustice comes via] … endogenous causes (citizens and African leaders) and by exogenous causes (capitalism, colonization, the West). The knowledge of these causes allowed me to propose ways to prevent our downfall. Among these means, I convened open science as a tool available to our leaders and citizens for advancing cognitive justice. For although the causes are endogenous and exogenous, I believe that a wound heals from the inside outwards.” Mboa (2016).

Mboa explains how open science approaches can overcome some of these problems in this book chapter, but here he provides a short summary of the advantages of open science for African research:

“It’s a science that rejects the ivory tower and the separation between scientists and the rest of the population of the country. In short, it’s a science released from control by a universal capitalist standard, by hierarchical authority and by pre-established scientific classes. From this perspective, open science offers the following advantages:

it brings science closer to society;
it promotes fair and sustainable development;
it allows the expression of minority and / or marginalized groups, as well as their knowledge;
it promotes original, local and useful research in the country;
it facilitates access to a variety of scientific and technical information;
it is abundant, recent and up to date;
it develops digital skills;
it facilitates collaborative work;
it gives a better visibility to research work.

By aiming to benefit from these advantages, researchers and African students fight cognitive injustice. For this, open access science relies on open access, free licenses, free computing, and citizen science.” Mboa (2016).

But in order for open science to succeed, digital literacy must be rapidly improved to empower students and researchers in the South:

“Promoting inclusive access therefore requires engaging at the same time in a decolonial critique of the relationship between the center and the periphery and urging universities in the South to develop the digital literacy of their student or teacher members.” Piron et al. (2017)

It also requires improving production of scientific works (‘grey’ literature, as well as peer-reviewed papers) in the South for a two-way North/South conversation:

“Then, we propose to rethink the usual definition of open access to add the mandate to enhance the visibility of scientific work produced in universities in the South and thus contribute to greater cognitive justice in global scientific production.” Piron (2017)

And providing open access needs to be understood in context:

“… if we integrate the concern for the enhancement of the knowledge produced in the periphery and the awareness of all that hinders the creation of this knowledge, then open access can become a tool of cognitive justice at the service of the construction of an inclusive universalism peculiar to a just open science.” Piron, Diouf, Madiba (2017)

In summary then, we need to rethink the way that the global North seeks to support the South – a realignment of this relationship from mere access to empowerment through sustainable capacity building:

“Africa’s scientific development aid, if it is needed, should therefore be oriented much less towards immediate access to Northern publications and more to local development of tools and the strengthening of the digital skills of academics and librarians. These tools and skills would enable them not only to take advantage of open access databases, but also to digitize and put open access local scientific works in open archives, journals or research centers.” Piron (2017)

So what next?

Even if you disagree with many the above ideas, I hope that this has provided many of you with some food for thought. Open Access must surely be about more than just knowledge flow from North to South (or, for that matter the academy to the public, or well-funded researchers to poorly funded researchers). Those on the periphery must also be given a significant voice and a place at the table. For this to happen, many researchers (and their equivalents outside academia) need training and support in digital skills; some institutional barriers also need to be removed or overcome; and of course a few cherished, long-held ideas must be seriously challenged.

“These injustices denote anything that diminishes the capacity of academics in these countries to deploy the full potential of their intellectual talents, their knowledge and their capacity for scientific research to serve their country’s sustainable local development”. Piron et al., (2016).

What do you think…?

▻http://journalologik.uk/?p=149
#édition_scientifique #OA #open_access #Afrique #Afrique_francophone #décolonisation #post-colonialisme

Egyptian navy detains 4 Palestinian fishermen in Gaza
May 13, 2019 12:19 P.M. (
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=783430

http://www.maannews.com/Photos/482447C.jpg

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Egyptian naval forces detained four Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Rafah, south of the besieged Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, on Sunday.

Head of the Palestinian Fishermen Union in Gaza, Zakariya Bakr, told Ma’an that Egyptian naval forces detained four fishermen from two fishing boats off the coast of Rafah.

Bakr added the Egyptian forces confiscated the two fishing boats and sailed them to an unknown location.

Bakr identified the four fishermen as Muhammad Ziyad Sayad, 22, Ahmad Omar al-Bardawil, 30, Ibrahim Muhammad al-Bardawil, 22, and Ibrahim Khalil al-Bardawil, 42.

Egypt upholds an Israeli military blockade on Gaza, keeping borders largely closed and limiting imports, exports, and the freedom of movement of its residents.

The threat from Egyptian forces comes as Palestinian fishermen already face daily risks in order to make a living, including routine harassment from Israeli naval forces, confiscation of boats and materials, detention and potentially death.

Israeli forces open fire towards Palestinian fishing boats on a daily basis.

#GazaEgypte

TRIBUNE. Tous complices des casseurs ?
▻https://www.nouvelobs.com/politique/20190320.OBS2129/tribune-tous-complices-des-casseurs.html

https://media.nouvelobs.com/referentiel/1200x630/16753647.jpg

Une multitude de principes juridiques sont battus en brèche par la loi anticasseurs sans que cela n’émeuve personne, s’indigne l’avocate Laura Heinich.
[…]
Contrairement à ce qui est allégué, de nouvelles réformes apparaissent d’autant moins nécessaires qu’il est demandé aux magistrats de dévoyer les lois existantes. A croire que les lois sont aussi tenues pour complices des violences commises sur l’avenue parisienne. Le nouveau Procureur de Paris ne s’est en effet pas gêné pour adresser une note aux magistrats du Parquet de Paris par laquelle il leur recommande de ne « lever les gardes à vue (…) que le samedi soir ou le dimanche matin afin d’éviter que les intéressés grossissent à nouveau les rangs des fauteurs de troubles » et de privilégier l’inscription de ces gardés à vue au fichier Traitement d’antécédents judiciaires (TAJ) même « lorsque les faits ne sont pas constitués » ou que la procédure est classée sans suite (note du 12 janvier 2019 dévoilée par le "Canard enchaîné").

Une telle pratique, qui demande aux magistrats de détourner les procédures dont ils sont les garants, met au jour le fossé existant entre la loi et son application et rend plus dérisoire encore l’idée que d’autres lois – qui demeurent des textes d’affichage s’effaçant devant les nécessités du terrain – puissent être nécessaires. Nombre de magistrats se sont offusqués de cette note quand elle a été révélée. A défaut, il aurait cette fois bien été question de complicité.

Du Kenya à Lingolsheim, le parcours de Zakaria, professeur polyglotte
▻https://www.rue89strasbourg.com/kenya-lingolsheim-parcours-zakaria-adika-professeur-polyglotte-1471

Gagne à être connu-e. Professeur d’anglais en collège, Zakaria Adika transmet ses compétences pointues en langues vivantes et son caractère de bosseur du coté de Lingolsheim. Arrivé en 2004 du Kenya pour étudier les Lettres, le jeune anglophone est d’abord tombé de haut, avant de trouver sa place à l’Éducation nationale et de fonder sa famille à Strasbourg. (lire l’article complet : Du Kenya à Lingolsheim, le parcours de Zakaria, professeur polyglotte)

Un neurochirurgien lance une pétition contre l’utilisation des LBD qui mobilise déja plus de 70 000 signatures
▻https://www.crashdebug.fr/actualites-france/15569-un-neurochirurgien-lance-une-petition-contre-l-utilisation-des-lbd-

"J’ai vu des photos de personnes blessées par LBD (lanceur de balles de défense) : les lésions sont gravissimes", a affirmé à l’AFP Laurent Thines, créateur de la pétition.

Un policier avec un lanceur de balles de défense (LBD) à Paris, le 26 janvier 2019. (ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI / AFP)

Une nouvelle pétition qui prend de l’ampleur, en plein mouvement des "gilets jaunes". Laurent Thines, neurochirurgien et chef de service au CHRU de Besançon (Doubs), a lancé, il a deux semaines, ce "moratoire sur l’utilisation des armes sublétales" contre l’utilisation des lanceurs de balles de défense (LBD). Jeudi 31 janvier, cette pétition en ligne avait recueilli plus de 70 000 signatures.

"J’ai vu des photos de personnes blessées par LBD : les lésions sont (...)

#En_vedette #Actualités_françaises

▻https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/29/united-nations-guterres-feminist-campaign
▻https://www.youscribe.com/BookReader/Index/3036951/?documentId=3427761
En effet à cette époque de la montée du fascisme et de l’extrémisme et des groupes misogynes ,il est plus que jamais de faire appel à la conscience du secrétaire général des nations unies de pouvoir non seulement de contrer les injustices à l’égard de la femme mais de promouvoir au sens de l’égalité des nombres ,des membres responsables au sein des nations unies.

Il est un fait d’observer l’acharnement des femmes du monde entier et en particulier de la femme arabe , l’égyptienne plus précisément, à s défendre bec et ongles contre le harcèlement sexuel qui est depuis toujours en Égypte comme politique d’État afin que l’égyptienne n’accède jamais à des vrais responsabilités. Je mets en exergue ces femmes égyptiennes coptes comme musulmanes comme athées telle Boutaina Kamel, Ada Ibrahim, Safae Higazi ,Rania Dib ou encore Yasmine Abdelaziz et j’en passe , qui se dressent tous les jours contre le ou les pouvoir(s) en place au Caire ,à la TV et publique et privée ,dans les entreprises d’État,...

Ces femmes exigent et demandent à Guterres de faire valoir cette donne de la femme afin qu’elles puissent l’utiliser dans leur combat quotidien . Car l’ONU est aussi cette instance supérieures où ses résolutions sont importantes ,en sus, de pousser les femmes à des postes de responsabilités .

J’insiste sur le fait qu’une au moins ,de ces égyptiennes choisies pour des responsabilités au sein de l’ONU aiderait énormément à la promotion politique . Par exemple Boutaina Kamel voulait briguer un mandat présidentiel en Égypte avait affronter un mur haut et large des voix des groupes misogynes égyptiens et du monde arabe .

Si Guterres fait un bout de chemin à l’intérieur de l’ONU, le dictateur Sissi ferait deux fois attention avant d’écarter les femmes égyptiennes des responsabilités de l’État. Car de l’Égypte est l’exemple typique, pris en considération dans tous les pays arabes et musulmans.

Il est donc un fait, que le harcèlement sexuel poussé ,engendre des maladies de sida et au lieu que Sissi visite les femmes harcelées il devrait promouvoir le rôle de la femme au sein de l’État et de bannir toute politique de l’État qui encourage le harcèlement sexuel et donc de voir de plus près ce que fait la police politique égyptienne dans les TV et que le général Amara avait osé mettre en accusation la TV privée CBC qui faisait de la désinformation concernant les femmes qui y travaillent et....

Et pour exemple, toujours, de ces femmes de presse qui donnent une certaine image de ce que subit la femme au sein de la société arabe , le pouvoir en place de Sissi met en place une poignée de femme qui sont harcelée tout le temps, à la TV telle Ada Ibrahim , Safae Higazi, Rania Dib...car Sissi fait partie de cette catégorie de genre humain qui ironise sur les autres ,par exemple de promouvoir le général de corps Zaki au grade de général d’armée, Sissi a fait venir des jeunes pour lui faire coller le grade de général d’armée …selon des observateurs Sissi est de mère juive !!

Si l’ONU fait attention de ce genre de petites choses qui s’accumulent tous les jours, les femmes seront mieux considérées . Mais ,il ne faut pas oublier non plus que la responsabilité engendre un compte rendu ,qui est donc passible des sanctions et donc une justice qui dira la loi à l’encontre des femmes qui manquaient à leur devoir pendant la période de leur responsabilité. Et c’est pour cette raison Sissi ne considère pas ses femmes ministres comme mûres et responsable et il ironise tout le temps sur Sahar Nacer …

le droit de la femme à la société politique est non négociable. L’ONU de Guterres devrait manipuler cette donne avec toute attention particulière. Et il faut donner la parole à ces femmes égyptiennes ,par exemple, quand l’ONU fait un sondage d’opinion ou d’analyse...

Une violente cavale | Alain Jocard, Geoffroy Van der Hasselt et Lucas Barioulet
▻https://making-of.afp.com/une-violente-cavale

Paris — « On n’a jamais cavalé autant » raconte Alain Jocard, photographe, en décrivant, avec ses collègues Geoffroy Van der Hasselt et Lucas Barioulet, ce samedi 1er décembre où « ça a pété de tous les côtés ». Avec leurs collègues Zakaria Abdelkafi et Abdulmonam Eassa ils ont documenté une journée de manifestation qui fera date par son ampleur et son degré de violence. Source : Making-of

En Belgique, une #répression de plus en plus brutale contre les collectifs d’accueil des migrants

Perquisitions musclées, détention préventive pendant de longues semaines, poursuites judiciaires... Depuis plusieurs mois, les autorités belges se montrent particulièrement sévères envers les personnes qui viennent en aide aux migrants. Un premier procès en correctionnelle s’est tenu début novembre à Bruxelles. Plusieurs citoyens belges y sont accusés d’avoir participé à un trafic d’êtres humains après avoir aidé et hébergé des migrants, eux-mêmes inculpés et désignés comme étant des passeurs. Face à ces politiques de plus en plus répressives, un collectif s’est créé pour rappeler que la « solidarité n’est pas un crime ».

Onze personnes étaient sur le banc des accusés les 7, 8 et 9 novembre derniers devant le tribunal correctionnel de Bruxelles. Parmi eux, plusieurs jeunes hommes, la plupart d’origine égyptienne ou soudanaise – des migrants venus en Belgique après des séjours plus ou moins longs passés à Calais, qui évoquent tous leur intention de se rendre au Royaume-Uni. A leurs côtés, trois femmes, des citoyennes belges mères de famille, et un Tunisien établi en Belgique depuis longtemps. « Je n’avais jamais vu ces personnes, avant de les rencontrer au tribunal », assure Anouk van Gestel, l’une des prévenues, qui n’avait été en contact qu’avec deux d’entre elles. Pourtant, le groupe a été présenté à la justice comme faisant partie... d’un réseau organisé de passeurs. Huit personnes, dont deux « hébergeurs », ont déjà effectué de deux à dix mois de détention préventive.
Premier procès, d’autres affaires à suivre

Pendant les trois jours de l’audience, les avocats des prévenus ont réussi à faire reconnaître à la procureure du Roi que l’enquête de police, menée par une juridiction flamande à partir d’écoutes téléphoniques, avait été dirigée dans le but de présenter l’affaire comme une organisation criminelle qui, en réalité, n’existait pas. Le Parquet, dans son réquisitoire, a demandé l’acquittement pour deux des quatre « hébergeurs ». Des peines de prison de un à trois ans ont été requises pour les neuf autre personnes. Le verdict, qui sera rendu le 12 décembre prochain, ne sera que le premier d’une série d’affaires où se disputent les notions d’aide « humanitaire » et d’aide à l’immigration illégale.
Plusieurs associations de défense des droits humains et d’aide aux exilés ont dénoncé une volonté de la part des autorités belges de « faire peur » aux personnes apportant leur soutien aux quelques milliers de migrants et « transmigrants » - qui transitent par le pays pour gagner le Royaume-Uni. Jusqu’à présent, aucun citoyen solidaire n’a été puni pour trafic d’êtres humains. Avant la tenue de ce procès – largement médiatisé –, le récit de plusieurs perquisitions policières brutales chez des « hébergeurs » a particulièrement secoué les membres de la plateforme citoyenne de soutien aux réfugiés de Bruxelles.

Créée il y a trois ans, par des volontaires, cette plateforme est un réseau qui compte près de 50 000 soutiens sur Facebook et 7000 bénévoles actifs. Ils proposent des repas, des trajets en voiture et surtout des hébergements chez l’habitant, aux centaines de migrants venus d’Afrique et du Moyen-Orient, qui se sont établis en campements sommaires dans le Parc Maximilien et aux alentours de la gare du Nord, à Bruxelles. La plateforme a reçu mi-octobre un prix de la fondation Henri Lafontaine (prix Nobel de la paix 2013) en récompense de l’engagement de tous ces volontaires...
Deux mois de prison pour une jeune mère de famille

La répression s’est pourtant vite abattue sur les premiers bénévoles. En octobre 2017, la police a fait irruption à l’aube dans l’appartement de Zakia S., une assistante sociale belgo-marocaine, où dormait son bébé de 2 ans. La jeune femme est ensuite incarcérée deux mois, à Gand en Flandres, une situation particulièrement traumatisante pour la mère de famille, qui ne parle d’ailleurs quasiment pas néerlandais. Elle faisait partie, selon son avocate, des premières bénévoles du parc, où elle s’est très vite impliquée dans l’aide quotidienne aux migrants.

« Elle y venait car les autorités ne faisaient rien, parce qu’elle voulait sauver l’honneur de la Belgique, et parce qu’elle n’est pas indifférente à la souffrance d’autrui », a plaidé sa défense. Grâce à sa connaissance de la langue arabe, elle s’était notamment impliquée dans la recherche d’informations pour retrouver l’identité d’un jeune migrant, décédé en voulant passer Outre-Manche, afin que celui-ci n’ait pas une sépulture anonyme. La police lui reproche d’avoir donné des renseignements à de jeunes hommes qu’elle hébergeait, sur l’emplacement de parkings de poids lourds et leur destination. Ce qui serait, selon l’accusation, une aide active à l’immigration illégale.

Une autre bénévole, Anouk van Gestel, qui a hébergé plusieurs mois un jeune mineur soudanais particulièrement vulnérable, a subi à la même époque une « descente de police affreuse », et un interrogatoire de près de sept heures. Journaliste de profession, elle avait découvert la réalité des conditions de vie des migrants lors d’un reportage à Calais, avec son amie et consœur Myriam Berghe, co-accusée dans le même procès. « Ils ont mobilisé une vingtaine de policiers, une débauche de moyens, tout ça pour faire peur aux gens de la plateforme et pêcher des voix à l’extrême droite. C’est un procès politique ! », a dénoncé à plusieurs reprises celle qui est devenue, malgré elle, porte-parole de la cause. Il lui est reproché d’avoir voulu faire passer la frontière à son protégé. Elle nie toute contrepartie financière et affirme avoir simplement voulu prendre des renseignements avant de renoncer à ce projet.

Actions de solidarité, nouvelles descentes de police

Début septembre, les deux journalistes avait adressé une lettre ouverte au premier ministre Charles Michel, pointant notamment les « agissements du secrétaire d’État à l’Asile et à la Migration » [Theo Francken, du parti nationaliste flamand N-Va, ndr], qui « poussent la justice à poursuivre les personnes aidantes. » C’est aussi l’avis du collectif « Solidarity is not a crime », créée suite à plusieurs affaires. Celui-ci, en plus de défendre les « hébergeurs », dénonce les « rafles » et les arrestations des migrants eux-mêmes, comme celle qui a eu lieu en février dans un centre culturel bruxellois, le Globe aroma, ou les poursuites engagées contre six passagers d’un vol Bruxelles-Douala qui s’étaient opposés à l’expulsion d’un migrant en 2016. « L’État belge cherche à donner une vision négative à la fois des exilés et des personnes qui leur viennent en aide », peut-on lire dans leur manifeste.

Le collectif a organisé, quelques jours avant le procès, une action devant 25 commissariats belges. Des affiches, avec le slogan « Les rafles et les visites domiciliaires ne nous protègent pas », ont été collées à l’attention des forces de l’ordre. Car les actions policières se poursuivent, et de nouveaux citoyens ont été perquisitionnés à leur domicile le mois dernier. La Plateforme citoyenne s’en est alarmée dans un communiqué : « Des ménages belges ont été ciblés comme s’ils étaient devenus les repères de narcotrafiquants. Portes et serrures forcées, plaquages au sol, mandats d’amener, citoyens menottés. Si la lutte contre le trafic d’êtres humains est indéniablement nécessaire, nous ne comprenons pas que des hébergeurs puissent de la sorte être traités comme des criminels pour avoir été solidaires envers un public plus souvent victime de traite d’êtres humains que coupable de trafic d’êtres humains. »

Les nationalistes flamands opposés au pacte mondial sur les migrations

Parmi ces personnes se trouve Dounia D., une comédienne et chanteuse belge qui a pris la parole devant 500 personnes lors d’un rassemblement, le premier jour du procès, pour raconter comment la police est venue chez elle l’arrêter, ainsi que deux migrants qu’elle hébergeait. « Les migrants aussi sont victimes, autant que les citoyens belges », rappelle l’une des membres du collectif. « La différence de traitement qu’ils subissent dans cette affaire est flagrante. Ce sont tous des gens vulnérables. Ils ont peut-être participé à "fermer la porte du camion", contre quelques euros, mais nous, nous les soutenons. »

Les plaidoiries décrivent en effet des parcours de migrations faits de misère et d’errance, où la Libye et Calais reviennent souvent. Pendant de longues heures, le Parquet insiste pour faire avouer à ces hommes, las des mois passés en prison et déboussolés par les menottes et la traduction, qu’ils ont touché ici 800 euros, là 2000 euros. « Vous voyez bien, Madame la Présidente, que nous n’avons pas à faire à de gros poissons », lancent à plusieurs reprises les avocats à une juge pas toujours à l’aise avec un dossier transmis in extremis par ses collègues de Flandre, pour des raisons linguistiques. Les hébergeurs sont en effet francophones, et les migrants arabophones avaient pour la plupart des notions de français.

« C’est une bonne chose pour nous que le procès ait été transféré dans une juridiction francophone, car les pressions politiques sont plus fortes en Flandre », estime Anouk van Gestel, qui craignait la sévérité des juges de Termonde, principale ville de la région qui abrite le tribunal. Pendant le procès, les avocats ont pointé le fait que les policiers flamands avaient un biais anti-migrants dans leur enquête, voir raciste puisque les deux hébergeurs avec un prénom arabe (Walid et Zakia) ont été plus malmenés que deux autres femmes. Par ailleurs, le ministre de l’Intérieur Jan Jambon, et le ministre de l’immigration Theo Franken, tous deux membres du parti nationaliste N-Va tentent actuellement de s’opposer à la signature par le gouvernement du pacte mondial sur les migrations de l’Onu (lire notre article : que propose vraiment le Pacte mondial sur les migrations de l’Onu, qui fait tant peur aux partis xénophobes ?). Face aux questions migratoires, la Belgique reste, comme sur beaucoup de sujets, très divisée.

https://www.bastamag.net/local/adapt-img/740/20x/IMG/arton7034.jpg?1543468944#.jpg

via @isskein

En Grèce, des policiers impliqués dans la mort d’un activiste LGBT

C’est un condensé de la Grèce éreintée par des années de crise et d’austérité. Un cocktail mortel de haine et d’intolérance, face à des passants silencieux. Mais c’est aussi une histoire qui montre les survivances, sous le pouvoir Syriza, des violences policières et d’une justice sélective qui ont longtemps caractérisé ce que l’on appelle en Grèce le parakratos, cet « État profond » qui s’est maintenu au sein de certaines autorités après la chute de la dictature des Colonels, en 1974.

par Amélie Poinssot

C’est un condensé de la Grèce éreintée par des années de crise et d’austérité. Un cocktail mortel de haine et d’intolérance, face à des passants silencieux. Mais c’est aussi une histoire qui montre les survivances, sous le pouvoir Syriza, des violences policières et d’une justice sélective qui ont longtemps caractérisé ce que l’on appelle en Grèce le parakratos, cet « État profond » qui s’est maintenu au sein de certaines autorités après la chute de la dictature des Colonels, en 1974.

Cela se passe le 21 septembre dernier. Sur une vidéo, on voit un jeune homme coincé à l’intérieur d’une bijouterie, qui, pour s’en échapper, tape dans une vitre avec un extincteur. À l’extérieur de la boutique, deux autres hommes l’empêchent de sortir et le frappent violemment. Sur d’autres images, tournées quelque temps plus tard, on retrouve la victime dehors, gisant par terre, rouée de coups par des policiers. Autour de la scène, il y a des dizaines de témoins.

Ce jeune homme, c’est Zak Kostopoulos – Zakie de son nom de scène –, une personne bien connue des milieux LGBTQI athéniens (voir sous l’onglet Prolonger). En quelques instants, tabassé sur la place publique et en plein jour, cet activiste gay et performeur drag queen de 33 ans a perdu la vie. Depuis, ses amis et sa famille se mobilisent pour faire établir la vérité et juger les coupables. Car, pour l’heure, tout indique que l’enquête n’a pas suivi un cours normal et que les auteurs des violences bénéficient d’étranges protections.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smRTYl2ygu8

Plusieurs faits soulèvent en effet des interrogations. Tout d’abord, les huit policiers qui interviennent sur le lieu de l’altercation ne viennent en aucun cas porter secours à Zak. Au contraire : ils frappent à leur tour le jeune homme, puis le menottent alors qu’il est agonisant. La victime est ainsi emmenée, mains attachées, en ambulance à l’hôpital, où elle est déclarée morte à son arrivée. « C’est une pratique habituelle, que vous l’appréciiez ou non », dira, quelque temps plus tard, à propos de ces coups portés par les représentants de l’ordre, le porte-parole du syndicat de la police athénienne, Dimosthenis Pakos.

Autre problème : les forces de police quittent aussitôt les lieux sans les sécuriser et sans faire de prélèvements. Pendant plus d’une heure, la bijouterie et ses alentours sont ouverts au tout-venant, le cordon sanitaire habituel n’est pas installé pour permettre l’enquête préliminaire, et le propriétaire du magasin qui a frappé Zak nettoie tranquillement sa boutique. « Il a eu assez de temps pour retirer les caméras de surveillance qui existent en principe dans toutes les bijouteries », souligne Stavroula Louzi, une amie de Zak, contactée par Mediapart. De fait, lorsque l’enquête commencera enfin, les premiers éléments indiqueront qu’il n’y avait pas de matériel vidéo dans la boutique. Or un enregistrement aurait été crucial pour reconstituer l’enchaînement des faits. Comment et pourquoi Zak s’est-il retrouvé tout seul coincé à l’intérieur du magasin ? La question pour l’instant est sans réponse.

Une autre irrégularité est très vite constatée dans l’enquête : alors que les vidéos tournées à l’extérieur par des témoins de la scène font très rapidement le tour du Web, le procureur n’en tient pas compte dans le premier dossier judiciaire constitué. Circule alors dans les principaux médias grecs la version d’une tentative de vol. Selon ce scénario, la victime serait un toxicomane qui aurait voulu cambrioler la bijouterie et le propriétaire de la boutique aurait réagi en légitime défense. Ce scénario ne tient pas la route face aux vidéos amateurs, où l’on voit l’agresseur harceler une victime effrayée et paniquée. Mais il faudra attendre le 10 octobre – soit plus de deux semaines après le meurtre – pour que le procureur joigne ces éléments à l’enquête.

Par ailleurs, regrette l’avocate de la famille de Zak, Anny Paparousou, les témoignages des très nombreuses personnes ayant assisté à la scène manquent à l’appel : « La police prétend que les personnes que l’on voit sur les vidéos ne sont pas identifiables. Elle n’a pas fait de recherche de témoins. Finalement, il nous manque donc deux matériaux importants : les caméras de surveillance et les témoignages. »

Pourquoi de tels manquements ? D’après l’avocate, tout cela relève d’un « scénario de résistance », dont le but est de faire passer l’intervention de la police pour une simple interpellation et de minorer sa responsabilité dans la mort de Zak. Il faut dire que la Grèce a derrière elle une longue histoire de violences policières qui sont restées impunies ou n’ont été sanctionnées que très légèrement. La plus emblématique d’entre elles a été le meurtre de l’adolescent Alexis Grigoropoulos, tué par une balle de policier reçue dans le dos, il y a bientôt dix ans, le 6 décembre 2008. Ces violences ont par ailleurs émaillé les innombrables manifestations qui ont accompagné les cures d’austérité depuis 2010.

Mais un autre élément intervient dans le tableau. L’endroit où s’est déroulée l’agression, près d’une des places centrales d’Athènes, Omonia, est un quartier depuis longtemps déshérité, où se croisent toxicomanes et petits trafics en tout genre. La crise économique et financière du pays a vu s’ouvrir là de nombreux petits magasins de rachat d’or, où les Grecs pouvaient vendre leurs bijoux de famille en échange d’argent liquide. De nombreux témoignages soulignent que ces « bijouteries » sont en réalité alimentées par des vols, et que tout cela se ferait en toute impunité devant les forces de police, qui sont présentes quotidiennement dans le quartier. On comprend bien, dès lors, pourquoi la police aurait tout intérêt à étouffer son rôle dans l’affaire.

Le meurtre de Zak a donné lieu à des réactions officielles. Le ministre de la protection du citoyen (équivalent du ministre de l’intérieur, le ministère de tutelle de la police grecque) a exprimé ses regrets. « Il semble qu’il y ait une volonté politique, mais c’est comme si les services n’y obéissaient pas ou étaient totalement déconnectés entre eux, explique l’avocate Anny Paparousou à Mediapart. Il y a une distorsion entre les propos exprimés par les responsables politiques et la situation réelle des services chargés de l’enquête. Les deux agissent de façon asymétrique. »

Les huit policiers qui ont participé au tabassage de Zak ont été suspendus jusqu’à nouvel ordre. Mais ils ne sont pas mis en cause dans l’enquête pour l’instant. De son côté, après avoir été placé en détention provisoire pendant 24 heures, le propriétaire du magasin a été remis en liberté. D’après des journalistes grecs, son complice – que l’on voit également frapper Zak sur les vidéos – continue, sous le nom de Snake (serpent), de répandre sur Twitter la thèse d’un cambrioleur drogué. Ils ont par ailleurs établi que cet homme était membre d’un groupuscule ultranationaliste grec, Front patriotique.

Lundi 19 novembre, les examens histologiques (c’est-à-dire des tissus biologiques) et toxicologiques effectués sur le corps de la victime ont établi formellement ce que disaient ses proches depuis le début : Zak n’était aucunement sous l’effet de drogues lorsqu’il s’est retrouvé dans le magasin. Ce n’était pas un toxicomane à la recherche d’argent. « Un pas a été fait vers la vérité », estime Stavroula Luzi. Mais le chemin est encore long. « Je n’ai pas seulement perdu un ami. Et ce n’est pas seulement un meurtre à caractère raciste et homophobe, poursuit la jeune femme. C’est une affaire politique. Car Zak représentait beaucoup de choses. Il avait fait partie des premiers en Grèce, il y a huit ans, à déclarer publiquement sa séropositivité. Pour lui, ce virus ne devait pas être une honte, et il encourageait les autres personnes touchées à faire de même. »

Les associations liées aux communautés gay, lesbienne et trans d’Athènes, ainsi que les proches de Zak, ont organisé de nombreuses manifestations pour que justice soit faite sur le meurtre de leur ami. La prochaine, le 1er décembre, se déroulera sous les fenêtres du commissariat central d’Athènes.

▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/241118/en-grece-des-policiers-impliques-dans-la-mort-d-un-activiste-lgbt

#Grèce #policiers #activiste #LGBT #crise #Syriza #violences_policières #justice #Zak #LGBTQI #gay #drag_queen # #vidéos #Grigoropoulos #lesbienne #trans #Athènes

Israeli navy detains 3 Palestinian fishermen in Gaza
Nov. 23, 2018 12:09 P.M. (Updated: Nov. 23, 2018 1:34 P.M.)
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=781878

http://www.maannews.com/Photos/482448C.jpg

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israeli naval forces detained three Palestinian fishermen, while working less than three nautical miles off the northern besieged Gaza Strip’s coast, on Friday morning.

Head of the Fishermen Committees in the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Zakaria Bakr, said Israeli naval forces detained three Palestinian fishermen, who were identified as Muhammad Ghaleb al-Sultan, 27, Yousef Farid Saedallah, 35, and Fares Ahmad Saedallah, 25.

The reason for their detention remained unknown.

#Gaza

#eos: An Architectural, Performance, and Economic Analysis
▻https://hackernoon.com/eos-an-architectural-performance-and-economic-analysis-43a466064712?sour

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*oXcN1RIDejhhmTDbduIwJQ.png

The following research was conducted by the Whiteblock team. The report was written by Zak Cole, Brent Xu, Dhruv Luthra, and Nate Blakely. Download a PDF of the complete report here.Abstract: The EOS system presents a platform for smart contract development and decentralized storage in attempt to address the common scalability issues found in popular blockchain systems such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. Through its implementation of delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS) consensus and an architectural design focused on parallel processing and full-duplex communication, the EOS system attempts to provide a decentralized application development environment which offers high transactional throughput. Since the public release of the EOS mainnet, multiple parties have speculated and made claims of the (...)

#eos-architecture #blockchain-technology #eos-blockchain #eos-economics-analysis

Un Palestinien tué par des tirs israéliens à la frontière (ministère à Gaza)
AFP / 14 novembre 2018 14h09
▻https://www.romandie.com/news/Un-Palestinien-tu-par-des-tirs-isra-liens-la-fronti-re-minist-re-Gaza/971440.rom

Gaza (Territoires palestiniens) - Un Palestinien a été tué mercredi dans le nord de la bande de Gaza par des tirs israéliens à la frontière, a annoncé le ministère de la Santé de l’enclave.

Nawaf al-Aatar , 20 ans, a été tué alors qu’il pêchait les pieds dans l’eau près de la frontière, ont indiqué des sources de sécurité palestiniennes. Interrogée par l’AFP, l’armée israélienne ne s’est pas prononcée sur les faits dans un premier temps.

#Palestine_assassinée

Comme une prière : à la mémoire de Zak Kostopoulos par Dimitris Alexakis

Le vendredi 21 septembre 2018, Zak Kostopoulos, activiste #LGBTQI+, séropositif et drag queen (Zackie Oh), a été assassiné dans des circonstances atroces et à la vue de tous dans le centre d’#Athènes. Ce lynchage est le fait de « bons citoyens » qui ont agi sous la protection et avec le concours de la #police grecque. Ces faits ont été suivis d’une entreprise sans précédent de désinformation de l’opinion publique et de culpabilisation de la victime, notamment accusée par les assassins puis une grande partie de la presse d’avoir essayé de commettre un cambriolage, avant que cette version ne s’effondre à l’épreuve des témoignages et des vidéos recueillis depuis lors.

« Je suis terrifiée par le fascisme qui monte, écrit C., sa vitesse. » « Je suis terrifiée par la pensée que nous ne saurons peut-être jamais ce qui t’est arrivé. » « Je suis terrifiée à la pensée que nous nous étions promis de nous retrouver bientôt pour que tu me maquilles et que nous avons fini par nous retrouver à tes obsèques. » « Je suis terrifiée à l’idée que tu t’es retrouvé seul, entièrement seul face au démon que tu redoutais tant, la haine. » « Je suis terrifiée quand je pense, je n’arrête pas d’y penser, que tu as laissé échapper ton dernier souffle entouré d’assassins qui voyaient en toi quelqu’un de dangereux ; dangereux, toi !? » « Je suis terrifiée par leur haine mais me souviens que tu arrivais à convertir tout ce qui te terrorisait en motif d’action. Et je te promets que tes assassins seront condamnés. Je t’en donne ma parole, notre parole à tou.te.s. La société que tu voulais, c’est nous qui allons la construire, même si c’est la dernière des choses que nous ferons jamais. »

►https://vacarme.org/article3181.html

#Grèce #fascisme #paraétatique #citoyens #minorités #LGBT #gay #trans #lesbiennes #queer #assassinat #violence #désinformation #résilience #résistances #mouvement

Cher Zak, chère Zackie, hier nous sommes allé.e.s à ton enterrement

— L’AUTRE QUOTIDIEN
►https://www.lautrequotidien.fr/articles/2018/9/29/0514ges4b1leust52qw9dugwo35m1k?rq=zak+kostopoulos

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/50c5786ce4b0e98ba8ac5583/55b9af91e4b05305c86c16e4/5baf55abc8302589be888fce/1538293145221/Zak2.jpeg?format=1000w

[Le vendredi 21 septembre 2018, Zak Kostopoulos, activiste LGBTQI+, séropositif et drag queen (Zackie Oh), a été assassiné dans des circonstances atroces et à la vue de tous dans le centre d’Athènes (voir vidéo, mais attention, images choquantes !). Ce lynchage est le fait de « bons citoyens » qui ont agi sous la protection et avec le concours de la police grecque. Ces faits ont été suivis d’une entreprise sans précédent de désinformation de l’opinion publique et de culpabilisation de la victime, notamment accusée par les assassins puis une grande partie de la presse d’avoir essayé de commettre un cambriolage, avant que cette version ne s’effondre à l’épreuve des témoignages et des vidéos recueillis depuis lors. Ce texte, écrit par FIltIG, est une lettre ouverte à Zak et a été publié en ligne le 26.9.2018.]

#grèce #homophobie #horreur #bons_citoyens #Mais_vous_pouvez_vous_le_garder_votre_pays_de_merde_ordures.

Le martyrologe scientifique irakien : 135 universitaires toutes disciplines confondues assassinés entre 2003 et 2006 à la faveur de l’invasion américaine de l’Irak. Par René Naba
▻https://www.les-crises.fr/le-martyrologe-scientifique-irakien-135-universitaires-toutes-disciplines

Secret Israeli Report Reveals Armed Drone Killed Four Boys Playing on Gaza Beach in 2014
Robert Mackey | August 11 2018, 10:09 a.m.
▻https://theintercept.com/2018/08/11/israel-palestine-drone-strike-operation-protective-edge

https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2018/08/080318_beach-1533300718.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&fit=crop&w=1200&h=800

A confidential report by Israeli military police investigators seen by The Intercept explains how a tragic series of mistakes by air force, naval, and intelligence officers led to an airstrike in which four Palestinian boys playing on a beach in Gaza in 2014 were killed by missiles launched from an armed drone.

Testimony from the officers involved in the attack, which has been concealed from the public until now, confirms for the first time that the children — four cousins ages 10 and 11 — were pursued and killed by drone operators who somehow mistook them, in broad daylight, for Hamas militants. (...)

▻https://seenthis.net/messages/276558

» Israeli Army Kills A Fourth Palestinian In Gaza
IMEMC News - July 20, 2018 8:09 PM
▻http://imemc.org/article/israeli-army-kills-a-fourth-palestinian-in-gaza

Palestinian medical sources have confirmed that Israeli soldiers killed, Friday, a fourth Palestinian, in the Gaza Strip, after it killed three others earlier.

The Health Ministry stated that an Israeli army sharpshooter shot Mohammad Sharif Badwan , 27, with a live round in the chest, east of Gaza City.

http://imemc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MohammadSharifBadwan-e1532106408667.jpg

Badwan is a member of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas; he was killed while unarmed and participating in the Great Return March procession, east of Gaza city, when the soldiers attacked the protesters with live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, high-velocity gas bombs and concussion grenades.

Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesperson of the Health Ministry in Gaza, said the soldiers also injured 120 Palestinians, including 50 who were rushed to hospitals in the coastal region.

One of the wounded Palestinians in a journalist, identified as Zaki Awadallah, who was shot by the army east of Gaza city.

Also on Friday, the soldiers killed three Palestinian fighters, and injured many residents, after the army fired missiles into two sites run by the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in Rafah and Khan Younis, in the southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

#Palestine_assassinée #marcheduretour

» Palestinian Child Dies From Serious Wounds Suffered In Gaza
IMEMC News - June 19, 2018 12:49 AM
▻http://imemc.org/article/palestinian-child-dies-from-serious-wounds-suffered-in-gaza

http://imemc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ZakariyyaBashbash-e1529359171650.jpg

Palestinian medical sources have reported that a child died, Monday, from serious wounds he suffered after Israeli soldiers shot him several days earlier in Gaza.

The child, Zakariya Hussein Bashbash , 13, suffered a very serious injury, several days ago, after an Israeli soldier stationed across the border fence shot him with a live round.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said Zakariya, who was shot east of the al-Boreij refugee camp in central Gaza, was rushed to the Shifa Medical Center.

Zakariya, from the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, was then moved to surgery, and remained at the Intensive Care Unit, until he succumbed to his serious wounds.

#Palestine_assassinée

Trois Belges accusées de trafic d’êtres humains après avoir aidé des migrants - Belgique - LeVif.be
▻http://www.levif.be/actualite/belgique/trois-belges-accusees-de-trafic-d-etres-humains-apres-avoir-aide-des-migrants/article-normal-847207.html

http://www.levif.be/medias/12530/6415741.jpg

Le 20 octobre 2017 dernier, des agents de la police fédérale débarquent chez trois femmes, dont deux journalistes (Myriam Berghe et Anouk Van Gestel) pour une perquisition matinale. Elles apprennent qu’elles sont poursuivies pour « trafic d’êtres humains » sur 95 personnes, dont 12 mineurs, et considérées comme membres d’une « organisation criminelle ».

Ces personnes hébergeaient depuis quelques mois des migrants chez elles dans le cadre de l’appel de solidarité lancé par les différentes plateformes citoyennes. Zakia, la troisième femme poursuivie n’a pas de lien avec les deux journalistes selon le magazine Politis. Elle a aidé, elle aussi, à plusieurs reprises des migrants du parc Maximilien à Bruxelles.

#solidarité #criminalisation_de_la_solidarité #migration #violence_d'état

Belgian authorities admit two-year-old girl was shot after police chase

Prosecutors confirm child found dead after police opened fire on van carrying refugees was killed by a gunshot wound.

The authorities in Belgium have admitted that a two-year-old girl who died after police opened fire on a van carrying migrants near #Mons on Thursday was shot in the face.

Prosecutors had initially denied the account given to the Guardian by relatives of the girl, called #Mawda, suggesting instead that she had been taken ill or died as a result of erratic driving.

The child was killed after a police patrol followed and intercepted a van containing 26 adults and four children, including Mawda, on a highway near the city of Mons in the early hours of Thursday morning.

She was travelling with her Kurdish-Iraqi parents and three-year-old brother. A source told the Guardian that police opened fire in an effort to stop the vehicle, which was being driven by alleged people smugglers to a lorry park on the coast. From there, the refugees were to be smuggled onboard lorries destined for the UK.

However, a source had told the Guardian that police opened fire on the van in an effort to force it to stop. A bullet is alleged to have penetrated the vehicle and hit the girl in the cheek.

Following the gunfire, it is understood that officers surrounded the vehicle in a 45-minute standoff as they assessed the situation. Upon opening the doors of the van, the child’s mother screamed for help. An ambulance was called and took the child to a Mons hospital, where she was pronounced dead. It is believed, however, that Mawda died at the scene.

Frédéric Bariseau, a spokesman for the Tournai prosecutor’s office, confirmed on Friday afternoon that Mawda died as a result of a gunshot injury, but said he could not confirm the provenance of the bullet.

“The autopsy determined that the cause of death was a bullet that entered the cheek,” said Bariseau.

“I want to be careful about saying that the bullet could be of police origin. We have to assess the evidence.

“Police have opened an internal investigation to determine the circumstances of the girl’s death.

In a statement released on Thursday, Bariseau had denied reports that the girl had been shot. “The little girl did not die as a result of police gunfire,” he said, suggesting several possible causes including illness, an accident inside the van caused by the driver’s behaviour, or a blow to the head.

Jan Jambon, Belgium’s interior minister, wrote on Twitter: “[a] tragic event with dramatic consequences. The investigation is ongoing.”

A source close to the family told the Guardian: “The family are worried that their daughter’s death will be covered up with no one being held to account. They have been told by the authorities that Mawda will be buried on Tuesday.

“Her family have been placed in accommodation in Belgium. However, they have been told that they have to decide whether they are seeking asylum in Belgium. They have until tomorrow to make up their minds, failing which they have to leave and might possibly be deported back to Germany, but this is unclear.

“Either way, authorities have stated that once they have ‘legally settled in a country’ they can claim Mawda’s body and have it transferred.”

The source alleged that the family had previously been smuggled to the UK but was deported to Germany last year by UK authorities since Mawda was born there, and is therefore a German national.

Zakia Khattabi, co-leader of the Belgian Green party, Mawda’s death was the result of an “increasingly repressive” migration policy. “I want to extend our sympathy to the victim and the victim’s family,” she said. “But after emotion comes anger. We demand that the spotlight is put on this case and that political responsibilities are taken.”

Belgium’s federal government has been criticised for its increasingly tough stance on migrants. Theo Francken, the country’s immigration minister, said last year that Europe must turn back boats carrying would-be migrants across the Mediterranean.

“Taking a ticket on a smuggler boat does not give you free entrance into the European continent,” said Francken, a member of the Flemish separatist N-VA, the largest party in the governing coalition.

Earlier this year, Francken drew criticism for deporting Sudanese migrants, several of whom later said they were tortured after being returned home.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/96d4936864c3c923e24a7e8f823d68e97d742b94/0_233_720_432/master/720.jpg?w=620&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=632d26a4b2935b0e9e07cbff52e95fc2#.jpg

#mourir_aux_frontières #frontières #asile #migrations #réfugiés #mourir_dans_la_forteresse_Europe #Belgique #violences_policières #police #Borders_kill

The source alleged that the family had previously been smuggled to the UK but was deported to Germany last year by UK authorities since Mawda was born there, and is therefore a German national.

–-> #migrerrance

Evolving beyond empowerment narratives
▻https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-05-09-evolving-beyond-empowerment-narratives

Life is Strange: Before the Storm narrative director Zak Garriss says developers are exploring more complex, human spaces, and finding support from big publishers in doing so

#Publishing #Development #GDC_2018

Gregory Klimov. The Terror Machine. Chapter 06
▻http://g-klimov.info/klimov-pp-e/ETM06.htm

Occupation Authorities at Work

“Go and wait for me in the auto,” the general told me when I reported to him one day. He had a habit of not revealing where we were going. We might be visiting the Control Commission, or we might be going to the flying-ground to fly to Moscow or Paris. Either he considered that his subordinates should guess his thoughts, or he kept the route secret, in the manner of prominent personages, to prevent attempts on his life.

His secrecy did not prevent his grumbling at his fellow travelers for not making preparations for the journey and arming themselves with the requisite materials, or even for traveling with him at all. Before the war he had been the first secretary of the Party District Committee in Sverdlovsk. During the war he was a member of the War Council and commander of the rear behind the Volkhov front-line army group; he was the Party’s eyes and ears in the army organization. These Party generals never directly intervened in the planning or execution of military operations, but no order was valid until they had countersigned it.

I found Major Kuznetsov sitting in the auto. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“Somewhere or other,” the adjutant replied unconcernedly. He was used to the general’s ways and did not worry his head about the object of the journey.

We took the autobahn and drove to Dresden, where we drew up outside the Luisenhof. Innumerable red-pennoned automobiles surrounded it. On the steps of the hotel a group of generals was standing among them the double hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel-General of the Tank Army and military governor of Saxony, Bogdanov. These generals were the various military commanders of Saxony, and they had been summoned to Dresden to report to the high command of the S. M. A. Dresden and Berlin. The S. M. A. had received a mass of complaints and accusations concerning the activities of the local commandaturas. The various military commanders had received no instructions whatever after the capitulation and each was pursuing whatever policy he thought fit. The majority of them were half-educated men who had come to the forefront during the war, and they were completely unfitted for the tasks arising from peacetime occupation.

Before General Shabalin went off with General Bogdanov to have a consultation prior to the conference he whispered something into his adjutant’s ear. Major Kuznetsov turned away and took me with him. “Come and help me look for an automobile,” he said.

“What sort of automobile?” I asked in surprise.

“One for the general,” he said briefly. “You’ll see how it’s done.”

With the air of people objectively interested in car models we walked along the row of cars in which the commandants of the Saxony towns had come to the conference. As soon as a commander took over a city after the capitulation, thus becoming its absolute ruler, his first concern had been to requisition the finest car available. So now we were attending an exhibition of the finest models of the German automobile industry, from the rather conservative Maybach to the most modern creations of Mercedes-Benz. The new owners were already gone to the hotel, leaving the drivers, ordinary soldiers, in the cars.

Major Kuznetsov made a leisurely examination of the various cars, kicking the tires with his toe, testing the springs, and even looking at the speedometers to see what mileage had been covered. Finally his choice fell on a Horch cabriolet.

“Whose car is this?” he asked the soldier lolling comfortably behind the wheel.

“Lieutenant-Colonel Zakharov’s,” the soldier answered in a tone suggesting that the name was world-famous.

“Not a bad little bus,” Kuznetsov decided. He ran his fingers over the buttons of the instrument panel, took another look at the car, and said: “Tell your lieutenant-colonel he’s to send this car to Karlshorst, for General Shabalin.”

The man gave the major a sidelong glance, but only asked distrustfully: “And who is General Shabalin?”

“After the conference your lieutenant-colonel will know exactly who he is,” Kuznetsov answered. “And report to him that he’s to punish you for not saluting General Shabalin’s adjutant.”

Looting activities were organized strictly in relation to rank and merit. The ordinary soldiers acquired watches and other small items. Junior officers picked up accordions; senior officers... The classification was complicated, but it was closely observed. If fate put a lieutenant in the way of acquiring a double-barreled sporting gun of the Derringer mark, it was no use his hoping to keep it. It was better for him to relinquish it voluntarily rather than have it taken from him. Sooner or later it would find its way into a major’s possession. But it would not remain with him long, unless it was well concealed. This general principle was applied with particular severity to cars. You couldn’t hide a car.

The Saxony commandants had lost their sense of proportion through their exercise of local plenipotentiary powers and had committed a tactical error in bringing such a large number of attractive cars to their superiors’ notice. They paid for this by losing half the cars that were parked outside the hotel. When a second conference was held some months later many of the commandants arrived almost in carts. Of course they had got hold of quite good cars again by then, but they had left them behind.

Some three hundred officers, ranking from major upward, were assembled for the conference. They included several generals, the commandants of Dresden, Leipzig and other large cities, who also were to take part in the exchange of experiences. The heads of the Dresden S. M. A. were seated at the presidium table, which was covered with red cloth. General Shabalin sat with them as the representative of the S. M. A. supreme authorities at Karlshorst.

General Bogdanov opened the conference by stating that certain things had come to the ears of the S. M. A. which suggested that the commandaturas had a warped idea of their tasks. He called on the officers present to ’exchange their experiences’ and to submit the defects in the commandaturas’ work to pitiless criticism. He gave it to be understood that the S. M. A. was much better informed than they realized. So it would be better to discuss these defects themselves rather than wait for the S. M. A. to attack. In other words, if any one of them felt guilty he should expose as many of his neighbors’ sins as possible in order to obscure his own.

A lieutenant-colonel was the first to speak: “Of course there are certain defects in the work of the commandaturas, but they’re chiefly due to the lack of control from above. The military commandaturas are left to their own devices, and that leads to....” The officer who had undertaken the task of self-castigation began very uncertainly and looked round at his comrades as though seeking their support. But they all had their eyes fixed attentively on their toecaps. General Bogdanov tapped his pencil expectantly on the table. The lieutenant-colonel went on: “Many commandants are losing sight of their duty; some of them have been demoralized and bourgeoisified. So far as they’re concerned the moral cleanliness of the Soviet officers is... er... er...” He felt that he had flown too high, and resolved to bring the question down to earth. “Take Major So-and-so, head of the commandatura in the town of X, for example....”

“No pseudonyms, please,” General Bogdanov interrupted. “We’re all friends here.”

“Well then, take Major Astafiev, for example,” the lieutenant-colonel corrected himself. “Since his appointment as commandant of the town of X it’s notorious that he’s gone to pieces. A little way outside the town there’s a castle, formerly belonging to a prince, which he’s made his residence. And there he lives in a style that not even the tsarist courtiers and boyars knew. He keeps more servants in the castle today than its former owners had. Every morning, when Major Astafiev deigns to open his eyes, he hasn’t got the least idea where he is until lie’s drunk half a bucket of pickled-cucumber liquor to clear his head after the previous night’s drinking bout. And then, as befits a real gentleman, the major sticks out his dainty feet and one German woman draws the stocking on to his left foot and another German woman draws on the right. A third stands ready with his silk dressing gown. And he can’t even put on his trousers without help from abroad.”

There was a ripple of laughter in the hall. The gallant major’s style of living obviously impressed the conference.

“But these are only the flowers; the fruits are still to come,” the lieutenant-colonel exclaimed. "Major Astafiev has reduced cohabitation with German women to a system. He has a special commando squad whose one task is to scour the district to get hold of women for him. They’re locked up for days in the commandatura cellars before they arrive at the major’s bed.

“Recently, after one of his regular orgies, the major felt quite a longing for some fish soup. Without thinking twice about it he ordered the sluices of the castle lake to be opened so that the fish could be caught for him. He had a few small fishes for his supper, but many hundredweight of fish perished. Surely, comrades and officers, such behavior must arouse your indignation?”

His words provoked amusement rather than indignation. Each of the officers recalled similar incidents within his own experience, and shared his impressions with his neighbors.

“Major Astafiev’s case,” the speaker ended, “is of interest simply because it is typical. The situation is fundamentally the same in commandatura after commandatura. It is our duty to show up and brand such shameful activities, to call the fools to order and make them realize the existence of proletarian legality.”

The look of amusement vanished from the other officers’ faces; their eyes again studied their boots. With the mention of responsibility and legality the affair had taken an unpleasant turn. The Soviet officers were well acquainted with Soviet law. It is based on the principle of the psychological education of the collective, and so it often resorts to the use of ’scapegoats’ who have to atone for the collective sins. In such cases the law is applied with unusual severity, as a deterrent.

Soviet law turns a blind eye to peccadilloes. A man is not run in for simply knocking out someone’s tooth or breaking a window. There are more important matters to be attended to; for instance, a man can be given ten years for gleaning socialist ears of corn from the fields, or five years for stealing a piece of socialist sugar in a factory. Teeth and windowpanes are still private property, and so do not merit the protection of socialistic law. The result is that all feeling for legality is lost, and if this process goes too far, steps are taken to find a ’scapegoat’. It is highly unpleasant to be a scapegoat. One can get away with a great deal, only to find one is in danger of death for some really trifling offense. If the higher authorities of the S. M. A. had decided to put salutary measures into force under the pretext of harmless self-criticism, the situation must be pretty bad. And then some of the town commandants would be going before a military tribunal. Who would be the scapegoat? There was a distinct feeling of strain and nervousness in the hall.

General Bogdanov’s calculation was sound. The lieutenant-colonel’s opening speech, which quite possibly had been arranged in the S. M. A., was followed by a succession of recriminations. The commandants devotedly flung muck at one another, while the secretaries took down every word in shorthand. Finally it came to the generals’ turn; the commandants of Dresden and Leipzig added their say. It was a rare sight to see a general standing like a schoolchild in the center of the hall and making confession of his sins. And if he referred to his general’s epaulettes and tried to justify his conduct a voice shot at him derisively from the presidium: “No mock modesty, General. We’re all friends here.”

It revealed the mentality of a mass trained in absolute obedience. If the order comes from above to confess their sins, they all confess. Those who cannot boast of past sins confess their future ones. The commandants expose their ’deficiencies’ and swear to be good children in future, and pay attention to papa. For the papa in the Kremlin is always right.

Someone in the hall rose and addressed the presidium: “May I ask a question, Comrade General? It isn’t quite to the point, but I’d like to have advice.”

“Well, out with it. What’s troubling you?” Bogdanov said in a friendly tone.

“My commandatura is right on the Czech frontier,” the speaker began. “Every day a horde of naked people are driven over the frontier into my area. I’ve put them all into cellars for the time being, we can’t have them running about the streets like that, and I’ve nothing I can dress them in.”

“How do you mean, ’naked’?” General Bogdanov asked.

“Just naked,” the commandant replied. “Like newborn babes. It’s shameful to see them.”

“I don’t understand. Where do these naked people come from?”

“They’re Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia. The Czechs first strip them, and then send them across the frontier to me. They tell them: ’You came here naked, and you can go back naked.’ They’re being transferred to Germany under the Potsdam Agreement. It’s a joke for the Czechs, but it’s a headache for me. What am I to dress them in, when my own men are going about in rags?”

“There’s a bank in my town,” another commandant added his bit. “The bank director and I have inspected the private safes in the strongroom. They contain a large quantity of gold and diamonds, a real mountain of valuables. I’ve ordered it all to be sealed up. But what am I to do with it?”

It was characteristic that not one of the commandants complained of difficulties with the German population. They had no diversionist activities to report, or unrest. Their own men gave them much more trouble.

“The occupation machinery must be in control of the tasks set by our occupation policy,” General Bogdanov told the assembly. “We must maintain the prestige of our army and our country in the eyes of the people of the occupied country. The commandaturas are the lowest link in our contacts with the German population.”

After the conference there was a banquet for all who had been present. Major Kuznetsov, an officer of the S. M. A. Dresden, and I had a table in a window niche. The commandants had recovered a little from the unpleasant experiences of the conference and were trying to restore their lost self-confidence by relating their heroic deeds of wartime. In this they had much assistance from the unlimited amount of drink available. The officer of the Dresden S. M. A. looked round the hall and remarked to me:

“This reminds me of the Moscow Underground. The Under-ground’s wonderful, but the people using it don’t match it. Marble all round you, and hunger clothed in rags.”

I asked Major Kuznetsov, whom because of his position, as adjutant was familiar with the general procedure: “What do you think will happen to Major Astafiev and the others who have been censured?”

“Nothing!” he answered with a smile. “In the worst case, they’ll be transferred to other commandaturas. Even professional rogues are needed. Besides, these dolts are genuinely devoted to the Party, and to such men much is forgiven.”

I was surprised to hear the major and the other officer expressing their opinions so frankly. But the frankness was due to the remark-able atmosphere that prevailed in the Party and all over the Soviet Union after the war. Everybody had the feeling that they had won their freedom, they had come out victorious. The feeling was general, but it was strengthened in those who had contacts with the west and could observe the striking contrasts between the two worlds.

During our stay in Dresden General Shabalin was a guest of General Dubrovsky, head of the Administration for Economy of S. M. A. Saxony. Dubrovsky’s villa had formerly been the residence of some big German businessman. It had a beautiful garden, and after the conference Major Kuznetsov and I walked about the garden for a time. While we were out there Misha, the general’s chauffeur, brought us an order that we were to go at once to General Dubrovsky’s room.

There we found a rather different kind of meeting in progress. The two Soviet generals were sitting on one side of the desk, and opposite them were the German city fathers, the head of the German administration for Saxony, and the burgomaster of Dresden. The burgomaster spoke perfect Russian, and until recently he had been a lieutenant-colonel in the Red Army. They were discussing Saxony’s economic tasks under the occupation regime. This subject was disposed of with amazing ease. The burgomaster was not only an obedient executive, but also a valuable adviser as to local conditions. We made no orders or demands; the burgomaster recommended efficacious measures, and we confirmed them.

Only once did the burgomaster clearly reveal any consciousness of his German origin. When the great shortage of pitprops came up for discussion General Shabalin proposed:

“There’s plenty of forest around here, cut it down.”

The burgomaster, the former lieutenant-colonel in the Red Army, clapped his hands in horror. “If we cut down the forests, in five years our nourishing land of Saxony will be a desert!” he exclaimed. A compromise decision was come to, to look for other resources, and meanwhile to exploit the local forests.

The head of the German Saxony administration was only a figurehead; a member of some democratic party, he was a feeble creature, ready to sign any document without looking at it. At his back was our man, a German who yesterday had been wearing Soviet uniform, but today a hundred per cent German, a burgomaster. He shrank from no effort to extract as large an amount of reparations as possible. The ’class-enemy’ had been displaced overnight, the other members of the population were paralyzed with terror, and our people worked under the guise of a ’new democracy’.

Next day we drove to Halle, the capital of the province of Saxony. Here Shabalin met his old friend General Kotikov, head of the S. M. A. Administration for Economy at Halle. Later, General Kotikov acquired wider fame as the Soviet commandant of Berlin. He was a very pleasant man, and a hospitable host.

At Halle there were similar conferences to those at Dresden. First an intermezzo with the town commandants, and then General Shabalin checked up on the work of the new democracy. The local German leader had lived for fifteen years in Pokrovsky Street, in Moscow, so he and I were almost neighbors. He was even more assiduous in his task than his colleague at Dresden. General Shabalin had to dampen his ardor as he presented a long list of measures to be taken in the direction of socialization.

“Not so fast!” Shabalin said. “You must take the special features of the German economy and the transition stage into account. Put your proposals before General Kotikov for consideration.”

On our way back to Berlin there was an unforeseen delay: one of our rear tires burst. Our driver had neither a spare cover nor a spare inner tube, and not even repair materials. The general raged. Whatever happened he wanted to be in Berlin before nightfall. Apparently he had no great trust in the efficiency of the city commandatura.

Kuznetsov and I exchanged glances: we would have to do some-thing to get hold of a tier, for in his fear Misha had lost all the powers of invention for which Soviet drivers are renowned. There was only one possibility: we would have to ’organize’ a tier from a passing auto. Nowadays that was an everyday incident on the German country roads. We blocked the road according to all the rules of the military art, held up cars and submitted them to a thorough inspection. We found not one tier to fit our ’Admiral’s’ wheel. To the amazement of the people we held up, they were allowed to continue their journey. Our control post must have been an imposing sight: the general himself stood at our side, displaying his badges of rank.

After some time a remarkable procession of automobiles came slowly along: several covered lorries, painted in rainbow colors, and plastered with garish playbills. A traveling circus. Only a blackhaired Carmen was lacking to complete the scene. A jeep closed the picturesque column with an American captain at the wheel.

I tried to discover who was in charge of this show. But while I was wondering what language I would need to use in order to make myself understood, a modern Carmen jumped out of the jeep and addressed us in the genuine washerwoman’s lingo of the Berlin district of Wedding. For a moment Major Kuznetsov and I forgot what we had halted all these lorries for. That flower from Wedding was devilishly beautiful! No wonder the American captain was risking the dangerous journey along the roads of the Soviet zone. For such a woman one would forget all Eisenhower’s and Zhukov’s regulations taken together. We tore ourselves with difficulty from the enchanting view and began to examine the tiers. Finally we came to the jeep.

“What about the jeep? Will its wheels fit?” Kuznetsov asked Misha.

“The holes fit. We’ll limp a bit, but they’ll get us home.”

So the problem was solved. Soon we would have a supplementary delivery on lend-lease account. In any case the jeep had a spare wheel: an unnecessary luxury.

I told Carmen what we wanted, and pointed to the jeep’s spare wheel. The general mentally recalled the Potsdam agreement and the technique of intimidation. “Ask the American if he has a pass for the Soviet zone. And what he’s driving in these parts for?”

But both the artist and her patron were glad to get away so cheaply without any psychological pressure: a car wheel in exchange for violating the Potsdam Agreement and a journey through the Soviet zone! I made a note of the captain’s Berlin address, so that we could return the expropriated wheel to its owner. Later I told Misha more than once to do so, but I fear the wheel got transformed into a bottle of vodka and found its way into his stomach. If the American captain should ever chance to read these lines, I express my thanks to him again and my apologies for the incident.

Night was falling as we approached Berlin. The general grew fidgety and told Misha he was not to drive through the American sector on any account. He was to find a road through Rudow.

That was easier said than done. Whichever way we turned, we found ourselves on roads running through the American sector, and so in the end we had to pass through it. The general flatly refused to take the normal route along the Potsdamerstrasse, and ordered Misha to wind his way through the southern suburbs until we reached the Soviet sector. Misha only shook his head. To have to travel through Berlin at night in the summer of 1945, and through unknown suburbs, was a difficult task.

The general was pulling the wool over our eyes. He could not have been seriously afraid of an attempt on our lives or some under-hand design. There was no ban on Allies traveling through one anther’s Berlin sectors at that time. We had no secret documents with us. So, obviously, even on this occasion he was putting across some ideological bluff. Our auto crept slowly through the back streets. From time to time our headlamp picked out the figure of an American sentry. Or rather, figures, for they were always in pairs!

The gallant soldier blinked angrily in the powerful beam, but his lady-friend quickly got over her alarm and smiled. Needless to say, they had no suspicion that a Soviet general was gazing at them from the darkness of the car. Shabalin snorted; it was all further evidence of the moral degeneration of the American army.

After long wanderings among the ruins and allotments of the Berlin suburbs, in the light of our headlamp we saw a yellow arrow with the inscription: Karlshorst.

The first post-war conference of the Big Three was held in Potsdam from 17 July to 2 August; it has gone down in history as the Potsdam Conference.

In thinking of the Big Three at the Potsdam Conference one is inevitably struck by a gap: the familiar name of President Roosevelt was missing. He had died only a few days before the victory to which he had devoted so much strength and energy. One may find some consolation in the circumstance that he did not have to witness the crumbling of his illusions, on which he had based all his plans for a new ordering of the post-war world.

During the conference Stalin went with the supreme representatives of the Western Allies on a car-tour of Berlin. One consequence of this trip was an order to the experts of the S. M. A. Air Administration to make a report to Stalin himself on the details of the Allied attacks on the city. The ruins of Berlin spoke more clearly than the newspaper reports and the statistics of bomb tonnage. As one drove through Berlin and saw the endless ruins, one might have thought that someone had shattered the enormous city with an equally enormous hammer. A comparison of the effects of the German air attacks on Moscow with the state of Berlin after the Allied attacks was provocative of thought. It was no casual interest that prompted Stalin to call for a special report.

While the Big Three were negotiating, the S. M. A. was going on with its work. One of the first Soviet measures to have a radical influence on the internal structure of German economy was Marshal Zhukov’s Order No. 124. In this he decreed the confiscation of the vast wealth of former National Socialists and further, apparently quite incidentally, issued directions that preparations were to be made for the State to take over basic industries and for a plan of land reform to be drawn up. The German authorities were not yet used to Soviet methods, and could not read between the lines.

Order No. 124 contained no precise figures. It was packed with demagogic phrases and it conferred comprehensive powers on the German authorities. The German ’people’, in the persons of their ’finest representatives’, were themselves to draft the plan and present it to the S. M. A. for consideration and confirmation. Simultaneously with the issue of Order No. 124, General Shabalin was given secret instructions on how it was to be put into force. These instructions laid down the precise nature of the reforms whose formulation was ostensibly to be left to the German autonomous authorities.

I had more than one opportunity to see how the process of creating a land reform was carried through in General Shabalin’s private office. A solid-looking Maybach auto drove up to the entrance of the Administration, and a colorless individual in civilian clothes got out irresolutely. He was the Landrat, by favor of the S. M. A. the head of a district administration, and one of the ’finest representatives’ of the German people. In the general’s waiting room he stood in a cringing attitude, his coat over his arm, a shabby document-case gripped under his elbow, his hat pressed against his belly as though to defend him against a blow. With an ingratiating smile he cautiously lowered himself into a chair and waited patiently for an audience.

At last he was summoned into the general’s room. An interpreter explained to Shabalin the Germans’ plan for land reform in the federal State of Saxony.

“What do they propose as the upper limits of land-holdings this time?” the general asked.

“One hundred to two hundred morgens, according to the individual case, Comrade General,” the interpreter answered after a glance at the land-reform draft in his hand.

“Idiots! The third draft and still no good whatever! Tell him we can’t agree to it.”

The interpreter translated. The Landrat kneaded his document-case helplessly between his hands, and began to explain that the proposed draft had been drawn up to secure the greatest possible economic advantages from the land, in view of the conditions of the State. He tried to explain the specific conditions of Saxony’s agriculture, and said that under the hard conditions imposed by nature it was absolutely vital to observe a close constructive relationship between cattle-breeding, forestry, and agriculture. Then he dealt with the peculiar features of the thorough mechanization of German agriculture; mechanization based on small farm conditions. He expressed a genuine desire to find the best solution to the problem raised by Order No. 124.

Even when it was not absolutely necessary that I should attend, I always tried to be present at discussions of this kind. On closer inspection, Germany’s apparently planless economy proved to be organically so interlocked that it afforded a very interesting study for a Soviet expert. It was an exceptionally precise and complicated piece of mechanism, in which there was very restricted scope for experiment. Frequently I saw the German experts throw up their hands in despair when the general gave them advice or submitted demands which would have perfectly fitted Soviet conditions in new planning or reconstruction. They exclaimed with one voice: “That’s equal to suicide.”

And so it happened this time. The general played with his pencil, puffed thoughtfully at his cigarette, blew out the smoke in rings. He did not even ask for the German’s arguments to be translated to him. He regarded it all as empty noise. When he considered he had given enough time to the matter he knitted his brows and turned to the interpreter:

“Tell him the plan has got to be revised. We must look after the interests of the German peasantry, not those of the large landlords.”

The general was a classic example of the Soviet official, who, being only an automatic executive organ, is incapable of considering argument put forward by the other side or of subjecting an issue to independent criticism. Yet he was deciding the whole economic future of the Soviet zone.

The German rose to his feet in consternation. All his arguments had been useless. The draft of the land reform would be subjected to many further revisions, until the ’independent’ German proposal corresponded in every detail with the secret instructions, which the general kept in his safe.

The land reform was not so much an economic as a political measure. Its object was the destruction of one of the strongest groups in German society, above all economically, and to create a new group in sympathy with the new regime. In the next phase, i. e., after the consolidation of the new regime, the first group would be physically destroyed, while the second would make acquaintance with the formula so well known in the Soviet Union: ’The land to you, the fruits to us.’

I often felt sympathy for the Germans I met in General Shabalin’s office. The majority was communists. In one way or another they had fought the Hitler regime, and many of them had suffered for their convictions. After the German collapse they welcomed us joyfully, some regarding us as their liberators, others as their ideological allies. Many came to see us because they wanted to work for the benefit of a future Germany. It goes without saying that among them were the inevitable opportunists.

Before any German was entrusted with any responsible position the S. M. A. subjected him to a thorough test of his political reliability. As they regarded us as their ideological allies, they did not hesitate to express their views frankly. And then one saw all too clearly what a great conflict there was between the convictions and desires many of them possessed and the instructions they received from the S. M. A. The S. M. A. wanted silent executives, not equal partners. The time was bound to come when these men would be faced with a choice: either to carry out orders without protest and become obedient tools, or clear out and make room for others.

We had other visitors to the administration besides the German official authorities. The Scientific and Technical Department had some particularly interesting callers. Before the war the head of the department, Colonel Kondakov, had been head of the Department for Higher Military-Educational Institutions, a sub-section of the All-Union Committee for Higher School Affairs. He was an elderly and very cultivated man who knew his job and had much human understanding.

One day Kondakov came up to me in the corridor. He had a look of despair on his face. “Gregory Petrovich,” he said to me, “be a good sort and give me a hand.”

“Why, what’s wrong, Comrade Colonel?” I asked.

“Some German in my room’s reducing me to despair. He’s invented some devilish device and is offering it to us. He won’t tell us the details, and we can’t make any sense of what he’s saying.”

In the colonel’s room I found a fair-haired German; he introduced first himself then his young, doll-like wife to me.

“Well, what is it you’ve got?” I asked.

“First of all, Major, I must draw your attention to the fact that I am greatly interested in offering my invention to the great Soviet Union, where it will be used for the benefit of the toilers...”

“Good, but what is it?” I interrupted as he paused for breath.

“I don’t want my invention to fall into the hands of the Americans, though I know they’d pay me more. I don’t like the imperialists. I’m a convinced communist and...”

“All right! We’ll take that for granted,” I interrupted again. “What exactly is your invention?”

After an hour I was still no more able to make any sense of his remarks than the colonel had been. He had invented some very mysterious motor with an incredible performance and many other attractive features. He gave us to understand that it would bring about a revolution in warfare, and assured us he had kept it secret for years at the risk of his life, because he didn’t want the ’fascists’ to use it to the detriment of humanity. He asked to be given the opportunity to carry on his work and prepare models. The trouble was that all his calculations; plans and models had been destroyed during the American bombing attacks. In exchange for our assistance he bound himself to place the patent at the service of the Soviet government.

I asked him to supply me with a list of the things he needed for his work. As though that was all he had been waiting for, he opened his case and handed me a statement which included all the desires of the heart: money, means of existence, even cigarettes, but none of the things which were necessary to an inventor of such a machine. He asked for a period of six months in which to carry it all through.

I felt a strong desire to kick him out, and was sure he was trying the same trick on all the four occupation authorities. The colonel decided to give him a chance to justify his claims. But he muttered to himself: “You wait! If you’re trying to make a fool of me you’ll find yourself in a cell.”

Such characters were regular visitors to all our departments. But it goes without saying that the Scientific and Technical Department was chiefly occupied with more important work. The people it was interested in did not come to the S. M. A. of their own accord. Usually they had to be sought for and brought in.

The Scientific and Technical Department was really only a collecting and clearing point for the similarly named department attached to the Narcomvnudel. Colonel Kondakov sifted the incoming material, assessed its value, and passed it on to the cognate department of the Narcomvnudel in Potsdam, where highly qualified Soviet experts in all branches of science and technique were installed. From which one can assume that Moscow had more faith in the Narcomvnudel than in the S. M. A.

The chief task of the S. M. A. Department was to search for brains. Moscow had a high estimation of German brains. So, for that matter, had the Western Allies, and consequently from the very first day of the occupation bitter struggle went on between the western and eastern allies. At the capitulation, Thuringia and a large part of Saxony were in the hands of the Americans. Two months later, in accordance with agreements, this area was handed over to the Soviet occupying authorities.

During his inspection tours General Shabalin asked the military governors how far the S. M. A. order to seek out and register German experts had been carried through. He was astonished and indignant at the rapid and thorough work, which the ’damned Allies’ had put in. During their brief stay in Thuringia and Saxony the Americans had mopped up all the cream of the German scientific and technical spheres. Outstanding scientists, valuable research laboratories, technical archives, were all carried off.

Scientists who received instructions to be evacuated could take with them not only all the material they needed for their work, but whole establishments together with their scientific collaborators, as they thought fit. In this province the Soviet authorities found only comparatively unimportant lecturers and assistants. The Zeiss works at Jena were regarded as particularly valuable booty. But from Jena, too, the Americans had been able to withdraw all the leading technical staff. Zeiss could manage to carry on with the staff that remained, but it could not advance. The same applied to the research institutes in Dresden and Leipzig.

Another circumstance of great importance was the fact that the majority of the leading German scientists had fled westward while the Red Army was advancing. And so the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, one of the greatest scientific institutions in the world, and of especial interest to Moscow, proved to be as useful to us as the ruins of the Coliseum.

To put up a good show to Moscow, the S. M. A. did its best to represent that the third-rate scientists who fell into their hands were men of the utmost importance. Assistants in Messerschmitt’s laboratory were declared to be his closest collaborators. The usual methods of Soviet leadership: the plan descended from above, and sand was flung up from below.

On the plea that it was a necessary step to secure the peace, the S. M. A. sought all over Germany for military experts. Its representatives hunted assiduously for constructors of V2’s, jet-planes, and heavy tanks. And swarms of petty swindlers haunted the S. M. A. offices, offering their services in the perfection of deadly weapons.

Colonel Kondakov’s assistant in the Scientific and Technical Department was a Major Popov. One day he and I were discussing the latest technical achievements of the air-arm, with particular reference to the Luftwaffe and the American Flying Fortresses, the B-29’s. “We’ve got them now,” he said casually. “You remember the papers reporting in 1943 that several Flying Fortresses went off their course after a bombing attack on Japan, and were interned in the Soviet Union?”

“Yes, I remember,” I answered.

“That was a really delicate affair,” he commented. “And rather different from how the papers reported it. When the Forts were discovered over our territory a squadron of especially fast Soviet fighters was sent up after them. They overtook the Americans and signaled to them to land. The Americans had been ordered that they were not to land in any unknown area with Flying Fortresses. The Forts were the latest achievement of American aviation technique, and they were a dead secret. In the event of a forced landing being necessary, the crews had orders to take to their parachutes and blow up their machines in mid-air.

So the Forts continued to fly over the Siberian taiga without taking notice of our pursuit. The Soviet fighters fired a warning salvo with their rocket-guns, broke up the bomber formation and forced one to land on the landing ground at Khabarovsk. The crew was given a right hearty reception. But despite all attempts to persuade them, the Americans refused to leave their machine until an American consul had arrived.

A consul wasn’t to be found all that easily, but in the presence of the crew the whole machine was sealed up, from nose to tail. Our people solemnly stuck the seal in the American commander’s pocket, and assured them that everything was in order, they could spend a couple of hours quietly in the Intourist hotel until the consul arrived. But while Intourist was entertaining the crew with all the pleasures of earth the cables between Moscow and Khabarovsk hummed with secret requests and answering secret orders. Planes loaded with the finest Soviet experts were hurriedly dispatched from Moscow.

The Americans were persuaded, and where necessary forced, to spend the night in the hotel and meanwhile a feverish activity set in on the landing ground. The seals were removed, and the Soviet engineers, technicians, and constructors swarmed over the machine by the light of searchlights. I was one of the technicians sent to carry out the Kremlin’s order ’to commit everything to paper’. We spent several days studying the bomber, while the American crew were kept interned.”

The fact that a B-29 had landed in the Far East of Soviet Russia was reported at the time by Tass, and one could take it for granted that everything went as Major Popov declared. But, after discussing the difficulties of the job and the services he personally had rendered, he gave the story a more romantic ending:

"One of the members of the crew, who suspected that there was something wrong somewhere, managed to get out of the hotel at night and make his way to the landing ground. There he saw what was happening to the ’sealed’ machine. He returned and told his comrades. They had a short-wave transmitter which was to be used in emergencies, and they at once sent a code message to American headquarters. Meanwhile Washington and Moscow were engaged in a lively exchange of notes over the interned aircraft.

By the time the crew’s report reached Washington the Soviet technical brigade had done its job. The crew was escorted to the landing ground, and the commander was solemnly invited to convince himself that the seals had not been broken. Stalin sent an extremely cordial cable to President Roosevelt, informing him personally of the machine’s release. A few minutes before the B-29 was due to leave, Stalin received a cable from the President: ’Accept the B-29 as a present from me.’

"When the Soviet pilots took over the gift in order to fly it to Moscow, they came up against unexpected difficulties. It was far from easy to get the gigantic craft airborne. So one of our best test pilots for heavy machines was specially sent from Moscow. After studying it for two weeks he managed to get it up and flew it safely to Moscow. For which he was awarded the title of ’???? of the Soviet Union’.

“Several of the Central Construction Bureaus attached to the People’s Commissariat for Aviation In Industry were assigned the task of preparing the manufacture of this type of machine. The first test machines were ready by the last year of the war. A little later a number of aviation works in the Urals began serial production. Tupolev and the gifted designer Petliakov were entrusted with the creation of the Soviet ’Flying Fortresses’.”

As time passed more people arrived to work in the S. M. A. On entering General Shabalin’s outer office one day I saw a young woman leaning back in an armchair. She had one leg crossed over the other, a cigarette in one hand, and was conversing gaily with Major Kuznetsov. She left brilliant crimson traces of lipstick on her cigarette when she took it out of her mouth. She threw me a swift, appraising glance, then turned back to the major. There was something distinctive about her behavior, the exaggeratedly slovenly attitude, the way she took deep draws at her cigarette, the twist of her carmined lips. She was waiting to see the general. When she had gone in I asked Kuznetsov:

“Who is that beauty?”

“She’s been an interpreter to one of the dismantling generals. Now he’s gone back to Moscow and the chief of staff has recommended her to our boss. Apparently she’s to be his interpreter.”

And so Lisa Stenina became General Shabalin’s interpreter, his private interpreter, as she always emphasized. She spoke German perfectly, was well educated, well read, and clever. And she had several other unusual qualities.

She used make-up far too much. Although she looked at least twenty-five, she maintained that she was not more than seventeen. And although all her documents referred to her as Elizaveta Yefimovna, she always introduced herself as Elizaveta Pavlovna. Yefimovna was plebeian, but Pavlovna sounded like a Pushkin heroine.

Lisa was not in the army, but she always wore an officer’s coat with lieutenant’s insignia over her silk dress, declaring she had nothing else to wear. Of course, that was sheer imagination: she wore the coat only for show. She had an unbridled tongue. And she was fond of discussing very delicate political questions. But above all she liked to impress. At every opportunity she mentioned that her sister was married to General Rudenko. If her audience failed to show any sign of interest, she added that General Rudenko was head of the Soviet Purchasing Commission in America. And if that didn’t do the trick, she confided that he wasn’t simply our trade representative in America, he was head of Soviet intelligence there.

Once she was absent from the office a whole day without permission. She turned up in the interpreters’ room late in the evening, but in a shocking state: terribly scratched, her clothes torn, her head bound up.

I was informed by phone of her arrival ten minutes before the close of office hours. I went to find out what had happened.

“Where have you been?” I asked her anxiously.

“A colonel invited me to go for a ride and took me into the forest. Well, and then....”

“And then I suppose you made a fool of him,” I surmised.

“Where’s your cap?” someone asked.

“Lost,” she answered, to convey all the seriousness of the situation from which she had emerged victorious.

“And have you lost nothing else, my dear Lisa?” I asked, in an assumed anxious tone. She gave me a devastating look.

“Now what are we to do with you?” I asked commiseratingly. “As you’re a lieutenant, you should be put under arrest for arbitrary absence from duty. What will the general say?”

“That’s my concern; you needn’t worry about that, Comrade Major.”

“Poor Lisa!” I sighed.

A day or two later Major Kuznetsov remarked to me casually: “I hear you’re always teasing Lisa. You want to be careful with her.”

“But why?”

“Take my advice. Even the general’s afraid of her. Give it a moment’s thought. She hasn’t been assigned to the general by chance. Understand?” He lowered his tone. “I tell you as a friend: don’t play with fire.”

Later on I learned rather more about Lisa Stenina and her past.

Sommaire ►https://seenthis.net/messages/683905
#anticommunisme #histoire #Berlin #occupation #guerre_froide

#Zakhar_Prilepine, l’ange noir de la littérature russe
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-idees/121117/zakhar-prilepine-l-ange-noir-de-la-litterature-russe

Zakhar Prilepine Avec #L’Archipel_des_Solovki, Zakhar Prilepine signe l’un des plus grands romans russes de ces dernières années. C’est un livre qui allie la puissance de la fiction à la précision d’une enquête documentaire. Cette plongée dans le premier camp de concentration du régime bolchevique, où se forge l’homme nouveau, donne la parole à tous, chef de camp, popes, criminels, politiques. Critique et entretien avec l’auteur sur son œuvre, mais aussi sur l’Ukraine et sur Vladimir Poutine.

#Culture-Idées #Donbass #Goulag

Qualifié de « dictature » par France 2, l’Azerbaïdjan poursuit la chaîne en justice

▻http://www.lemonde.fr/actualite-medias/article/2017/09/05/qualifie-de-dictature-par-france-2-l-azerbaidjan-poursuit-la-chaine-en-justi

L’Azerbaïdjan occupe la 162e place sur 180 au classement de la liberté de la presse établi par Reporters sans frontières en 2017.

http://img.lemde.fr/2016/09/29/0/0/5616/2808/644/322/60/0/6875b6d_7254-wtzzrt.JPG

C’est un reportage vieux de deux ans qui va être revu par le tribunal correctionnel de Nanterre, mardi 5 septembre. L’Azerbaïdjan poursuit la chaîne France 2, et la journaliste Elise Lucet, pour un sujet de l’émission « Cash investigation » diffusé le 7 septembre 2015, dans lequel le pays était qualifié de « dictature ». L’Azerbaïdjan demande 1 euro symbolique, en réparation du préjudice.

La cour d’appel de Versailles avait confirmé en mai un non-lieu en faveur d’un député français poursuivi par l’Azerbaïdjan pour l’avoir qualifié le pays d’« Etat terroriste » sur un site Internet, au motif qu’un Etat étranger ne peut attaquer en diffamation. L’Etat du Caucase s’est pourvu en cassation dans cette affaire.

Pour les mêmes motifs, le tribunal correctionnel de Paris a jugé irrecevable deux actions en diffamation du Maroc contre le boxeur Zakaria Moumni, qui affirme avoir été torturé dans son pays. Le Maroc a fait appel.

Les Palestiniens seuls dans la bataille d’al-Aqsa | Middle East Eye
– David Hearst - 27 juillet 2017
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/opinions/les-palestiniens-seuls-dans-la-bataille-d-al-aqsa-926376060

(...) Les Palestiniens abandonnés

Jamais le fossé entre la rue arabe et ses gouvernements n’a été aussi large qu’il ne l’a été cette semaine au sujet de la Palestine.

Zakaria al-Jawadah, le père du garçon jordanien de 17 ans qui a été tué par un garde de sécurité israélien après l’avoir prétendument attaqué avec un tournevis dans les locaux de l’ambassade d’Israël à Amman, a vitupéré contre le roi Abdallah. « Nous appelons les tribus à exiger que l’homme [le garde israélien] soit puni. Nous voulons la séquence vidéo. Nous voulons savoir ce qui est arrivé à mon fils. »

Pas moins de trois ministres sont intervenus pour lui dire qu’ils ne les auront jamais. « Le tireur israélien bénéficiait une immunité diplomatique et nous ne sommes pas autorisés à enquêter, en vertu d’un accord international. Mais nous avons insisté pour écouter son témoignage », a déclaré l’un d’eux, Bashir al-Khasawna, ministre d’État jordanien en charge des Affaires juridiques.

Il était déjà trop tard. Le garde de sécurité, « Ziv », était revenu en lieu sûr dans les bras du Premier ministre Benyamin Netanyahou.

Remontez vingt ans en arrière et voyez comment le père du roi Abdallah, Hussein, avait fait face à Netanyahou en 1997 lors de la tentative manquée d’assassinat du chef du Hamas, Khaled Mechaal, à Amman, par le Mossad.(...)