Triacastela: restos dos primeiros “Homo sapiens” de Galicia
Noticia arqueolóxica sobre os primeiros Homo sapiens de Galicia, que me sinalou (graciñas) un alumno. Tómoa de Xornal de Galicia e de La Voz de Galicia.
Triacastela revela a primeira presenza do humano moderno en Galicia (Xornal de Galicia, 20 – V – 2009)
Investigadores do Grupo de Estudos para a Prehistoria do Noroeste da Universidade de Santiago (USC) recollen nun estudo que o depósito da Cova de Eirós, en Triacastela (Lugo), revela a primeira presenza de humanos modernos en Galicia.
Segundo indicaron, o depósito conserva a única secuencia do noroeste onde se pode estudar a transición entre os últimos neandertais e os primeiros humanos modernos, achegando grande información sobre os seus modos de vida, estratexias de caza e subsistencia destas dúas especies de homínido.
Os investigadores deste grupo da USC traballan na escavación deste cova xunto cun equipo do Institut Catalá de Paleoecología Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) [Universitat Rovira i Virgili], Tarragona; [ver canal en YouTube]. Destacaron que os traballos desenvolvidos revelan a importancia deste depósito para o estudio dos modos de vida dos neandertales no Paleolítico medio.
A industria lítica e as novas datacións realizadas nun nivel superior da cova indican a existencia dunha ocupación humana que se remonta a hai uns 30 000 anos, xa nos inicios do Paleolítico Superior. Este mesmo nivel da cova se relaciona co Auriñaciense, período no que os primeiros humanos modernos chegan ao continente europeo.
A datación da Cova Eirós axudará, segundo precisaron os investigadores á axencia Efe, a completar a secuencia do Paleolítico Superior en Galicia. Estes depósitos en covas ofreceron “grande información” sobre os modos de vida dos humanos modernos, tanto no referente ás súas estratexias de caza, coma a modos de fabricación de ferramentas.
Segundo manifestaron os investigadores desta escavación, á fronte da que se atopa o profesor Ramón Fàbregas, existen grandes expectativas fronte ás próximas intervencións, “así como polos resultados que proporcionará a realización dun programa de datacións cunha técnica, a OSL, que pode ofrecer o marco cronolóxico das ocupacións paleolíticas nas covas de Galicia e dos depósitos ao aire libre da Depresión de Monforte de Lemos”.
El yacimiento cromañón de Triacastela tiene más de 30 000 años (La Voz de Galicia, 20 – V – 2009)
El carbono 14 lo sitúa como el rastro del «Homo sapiens» más antiguo de Galicia.
Francisco Albo
Dos huesos de ciervo han permitido datar con el método del carbono 14 el rastro más antiguo conocido hasta ahora en Galicia del hombre de Cromañón -el Homo sapiens moderno-, al que se asignó una antigüedad de más de 30 000 años. Estos huesos fueron hallados el pasado verano en Cova Eirós (Triacastela), junto con varios artefactos de la llamada industria auriñaciense. El yacimiento es el más occidental de ese período que se conoce en la cornisa cantábrica.
El hallazgo, realizado por el Grupo de Estudos para a Prehistoria do Noroeste de la Universidade de Santiago, reviste especial interés científico debido a que en el mismo lugar se descubrió también el único yacimiento gallego del hombre de Neandertal ubicado en una cueva. Este hecho excepcional -en la Península son contadísimos los lugares que contienen un yacimiento cromañón y otro neandertal- permitirá a los investigadores comparar las estrategias de supervivencia de estas dos especies en un mismo territorio y estudiar cómo se adaptaron a las diferentes condiciones climáticas y ambientales que se dieron durante la prehistoria.
El yacimiento auriñaciense de Cova Eirós data de la primera etapa del Paleolítico superior, un período de transición en el que el Homo sapiens colonizó Europa occidental mientras el hombre de Neandertal, que habitó el continente durante unos 170 000 años, se volvía cada vez más escaso. En esa época -según los actuales conocimientos- los neandertales ya habían desaparecido del área cantábrica, pero aún quedaban algunos reductos de esta especie en el sur de la Península, donde se extinguieron hace unos 29 000 años. La edad del yacimiento neandertal de Triacastela se sabrá dentro de unos meses, cuando terminen los análisis radiométricos que se están realizando con la técnica de la termoluminiscencia, que permite retroceder en el tiempo mucho más que el carbono 14.
Congo (DRC): hold army to account for war crimes
Human Rights Watch (HRW) publicou hoxe unha nota de prensa sobre os crimes de guerra perpetrados polo exército da República Democrática do Congo na provincia de Kivu Norte, que inclúen asasinatos de civís, violacións, secuestros de mulleres para a escravitude sexual e pillaxe. Copio un extracto a continuación:
The United Nations Security Council, visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo today, should vigorously condemn war crimes by Congolese army soldiers in the eastern part of the country, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch urged the Security Council to condition UN support for Congolese military operations on the removal of known human rights abusers from command positions.
“The Congolese army is responsible for widespread and vicious abuses against its own people that amount to war crimes,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher in the Africa division at HRW. “The government should take urgent action to end these abuses. A military operation that targets the very people the government claims to be protecting can only lead to disaster.”
Since late January 2009, soldiers from the Congolese armed forces, the FARDC, on military operations in eastern Congo, have attacked villages and killed at least 19 civilians in North Kivu province, including two women and two elderly men. Army soldiers have also raped more than 143 women and girls in the same period, more than half of the 250 cases of rape documented by HRW. Some women were taken as sex slaves by soldiers and held within military positions.
In at least 12 villages in North Kivu province, including Miriki, Bushalingwa, and Kishonja in Lubero and Walikale territories, soldiers burned to the ground hundreds of homes and numerous schools and health centers. They pillaged and looted homes, and arbitrarily arrested at least 85 persons whom they accused of supporting rebel forces. Many of these people have been held without charge, subjected to beatings, and often released only after significant sums were paid. Civilians told HRW researchers that they feared army soldiers as much as the Rwandan militias the army is supposed to be neutralizing.
In mid-January, the Congolese army began a joint military operation with the Rwandan armed forces against Rwandan militia groups, the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD) and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), some of whose leadership participated in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The operation “Umojo Wetu” (“Our Unity”) followed a rapprochement between the two countries and the demise of a Rwandan-backed Congolese rebel group, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), which gave up its struggle against the Congolese government and joined the operation.
During a rapid integration process, at least 12,000 combatants from the CNDP and other rebel groups who agreed to join the military operations entered the Congolese army ranks. The integration has swollen the army’s numbers in eastern Congo to an estimated 60,000 soldiers, exacerbating problems of discipline, pay, and command control that have plagued it for many years.
Operation Umojo Wetu ended in late February, when Rwandan soldiers left eastern Congo following an agreement that the Congolese army would continue military operations against the Rwandan militias with support from the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC). This second phase, known as Kimia II, began in North Kivu in mid-April and is expanding to South Kivu province.
Since the start of military operations against them, the FDLR and RUD militias have committed war crimes in brutal “reprisal” attacks in North and South Kivu, deliberately attacking and killing at least 200 civilians. In an attack on May 9 and 10, an estimated 60 civilians were reportedly killed and many others wounded in Busurungi, in Walikale territory. Reports from local officials and witnesses indicate the FDLR were the attackers and that Congolese army soldiers based in Busurungi retreated, or were killed, leaving the civilian population unprotected.
During both phases of military operations, Congolese army soldiers have killed, raped, and looted. After Rwandan militias attacked the Congolese army at Miriki (Lubero territory) on March 7-8, killing at least 12 soldiers, including an officer, the Congolese army sent in reinforcements. According to local authorities and Miriki residents, Congolese army soldiers then summarily executed the local police commander, who had reportedly been arrested along with 39 other civilians accused of collaborating with the FDLR militia. Congolese army soldiers then proceeded to pillage and burn 155 houses. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch they saw two truckloads of well-armed soldiers returning to Kirumba later that day with the pillaged goods from Miriki.
In Bwavinyo, also in southern Lubero territory, Congolese army soldiers arrested the village chief on March 8, accusing him of having been aware of an FDLR attack on Bwavinyo earlier that day and not informing the Congolese army. He was released days later, after payment of over US$1,000 to Congolese army authorities. Soldiers then pillaged the village, saying that all the goods had belonged to the FDLR. On March 12, following a warning that the FDLR were close by, army soldiers began shooting randomly, killing four civilians who were on their way back to Bwavinyo from their fields nearby.
Congolese army soldiers repeatedly committed rape during operations, often accusing women of being supporters or wives of the FDLR. Many women and girls have been gang raped. In Kihonga (South Kivu), a woman was raped in her home by two soldiers, who then abducted her husband and forced him to transport their looted goods. He still has not returned. Days later, a 15-year-old girl was raped in the same village by two soldiers, while four other soldiers looted the house and then abducted her mother, who is still missing. Other women were abducted by soldiers to be sex slaves in their camps; they were told that if they ever tried to resist when soldiers wanted to have sex with them, they would be killed.
UN peacekeepers who support the Congolese army in these military operations have tried to minimize some of the abuses by army soldiers, but have been unable to do so in many circumstances. In at least one incident recently, UN peacekeepers fired warning shots over the heads of Congolese army soldiers to try to minimize their abusive behavior.
The 3,000 additional peacekeepers authorized by the UN Security Council in November 2008 have still not arrived in eastern Congo, despite promises from council members that they would urge a rapid deployment. Helicopters and intelligence support, desperately needed by the mission, have also not materialized. On April 9 in New York, Alan Doss, the head of the UN peacekeeping force, warned the Security Council that without such assets, MONUC’s “capacity to respond quickly to emerging threats and protect civilians would be curtailed.”
“Civilians are trapped, targeted by all sides in this conflict,” said Van Woudenberg. “During their visit to Congo, Security Council members should tell President Joseph Kabila that UN peacekeepers cannot support military operations in which war crimes are being committed and that ongoing support will be conditional on concrete action by the Congolese government to bring such crimes to an end.”
Human Rights Watch again raised concerns about the role played by known human rights abusers in the military operations supported by UN peacekeepers, including Bosco Ntaganda, who has been given a leadership role in the Congolese army despite an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), and Jean-Pierre Biyoyo, appointed a colonel in the Congolese army despite being found guilty by a Congolese military court of recruiting children into a militia group in March 2006.
Human Rights Watch also urged the council to ensure that Ntaganda is immediately removed from military duties, and to condition future MONUC operational support on his arrest.
“MONUC and the Security Council cannot turn a blind eye when known human rights abusers are in senior positions in military operations they support,” said Van Woudenberg. “Congolese civilians urgently need protection from militia groups and abusers in their own army. If the council fails to act, it too will be complicit in putting civilians at risk.” [...]
Bangladesh: extrajudicial killings, torture, illegal detentions (HRW report)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) publicou onte un informe sobre Bangladesh, centrado nas “execucións extraxudiciais”, “desaparicións”, torturas e detencións ilegais perpetradas polo exército, a policía e os paramilitares. O informe leva por título “Ignoring Executions and Torture: Impunity for Bangladesh’s Security Forces”. Copio un extracto da súa introducción:
[...] This report examines cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, “disappearances,” and illegal detentions over the past decades in which, despite receiving public attention, impunity has prevailed. Many of the cases and issues discussed in this report have for years been repeatedly raised by Human Rights Watch and others. Unfortunately they remain as relevant as ever, especially as the legacy of the past two years of de facto military rule.
Impunity in Bangladesh was present at the country’s birth. The 1971 war of independence was marked by atrocities on a massive scale committed against civilians, which are yet to be seriously addressed. Those who were initially detained and convicted for some of these abuses were shortly afterwards released. The scale and nature of the security forces’ involvement in human rights abuses has since then varied over time, but the unwillingness of governments to hold these forces to account has been constant.
As a result, torture, killings in government custody, and other human rights violations by the police, armed forces, and the government’s various paramilitary groups have become deep rooted problems. In recent years the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the military intelligence outfit, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), have emerged as symbols of abuse and impunity. RAB, an elite paramilitary force created in 2004 to address public outrage over violent crime, has allegedly been responsible for over 550 killings since it began operations. Human Rights Watch and others have long alleged that many of these deaths, often described as “crossfire killings,” were actually extrajudicial executions of people taken into custody. The police soon adopted these same methods, and several hundred killings have been attributed to the force over the past few years.
Torture of detainees by state officials is routine. Detainees are subjected to severe beatings, sexual violence, electric shocks, having nails hammered into their toes, and being tied to poles and forced to stand for long periods of time. DGFI runs torture centers in the cantonment in Dhaka with purposely fitted rooms for torture. It has medical personnel on stand-by who can administer first aid and revive unconscious victims who can then be subjected to further ill-treatment. [...]
Olladas sobre Ramón Piñeiro
Este ano a Real Academia Galega dedicoulle o “Día das Letras Galegas” ó filósofo e político Ramón Piñeiro López (1915 – 1990).
Ramón Piñeiro foi figura clave no nacemento da Editorial Galaxia (1950) e na redacción e aprobación da Lei de Normalización Lingüística (1983). So por isto merece a homenaxe, pero os que queiran pescudar nos seus escritos e na súa biografía encontrarán moito máis.
Este é un vídeo que fixeron en colaboración dúas comunidades escolares, o CPI de San Vicente (A Baña) e o CPI dos Dices (Rois). Os coordinadores foron Luís Gómez Aldegunde e Sara Paz Quiñones. Leva por título “Olladas sobre Ramón Piñeiro”:
Estoutro vídeo chega tamén desde o CPI dos Dices, e leva por título “Ramón Piñeiro, o neno que quería ver o tren”:
Máis humilde pero máis fresco e participativo é este vídeo do IES “Leliadoura” titulado “Ramón Piñeiro: filósofo da saudade”:
Enlaces relacionados:
- Unidade didáctica “Olladas sobre Ramón Piñeiro” (elaborada por Luís Gómez Aldegunde e Sara Paz Quiñones)
- A Secretaría Xeral de Política Lingüística ofrece, entre outros materiais, unha guía para Primaria, unha guía para Secundaria e unha presentación de diapositivas
- “Ramón Piñeiro ante si propio”, entrevista que lle fixo Suso de Toro a Ramón Piñeiro para o libro Camilo Nogueira e outras voces (Unha historia da esquerda nacionalista)
- Especial “Día das Letras 2009″ (Vieiros)
- Páxina do “Seminario Galán” con materiais sobre Ramón Piñeiro
Carlo Frabetti: “No somos pedófilos”
Artigo de Carlo Frabetti sobre Iniciativa Internacionalista, tomado da edición dixital do diario madrileño Público:
El hecho de que en el manifiesto de Iniciativa Internacionalista no se condene a ETA, ha llevado a algunos medios a llamarnos proetarras. Como en nuestro manifiesto tampoco se condena la pedofilia, puede que algún periodista concluya que somos pedófilos, cosa que a mí, personalmente, podría perjudicarme a nivel profesional, puesto que me dedico a la literatura infantil.
De modo que, a título preventivo, me apresuro a declarar que, a pesar de que en mis frecuentes visitas a colegios y bibliotecas beso a cientos de niños, no soy pedófilo, y no me consta que lo sea nadie de nuestra lista. ¿Acaso a las demás candidaturas se les pide que condenen a ETA? ¿Por qué se nos pide a nosotros?
La respuesta es obvia: porque se da por supuesto que tenemos algo que ocultar. Y nosotros no solo no tenemos nada que ocultar, sino que no tenemos por qué admitir que se hagan afirmaciones o preguntas capciosas en las que se da por supuesto que seguimos consignas de otras organizaciones. Dicho de otro modo, exigimos a los medios y a los poderes establecidos que respeten la presunción de inocencia.
Colaboro habitualmente en Gara y estoy orgulloso de ello. Defiendo el derecho del pueblo vasco y de todos los pueblos a la autodeterminación y seguiré defendiéndolo fervientemente. Y Alfonso Sastre al que considero un maestro en lo literario, en lo ético y en lo político me honra con su amistad. Si escribir en un diario que se vende en los quioscos, defender el derecho de autodeterminación de los pueblos y ser amigo del más importante escritor vivo de la lengua castellana son delitos, que me condenen a muerte, como dice la ranchera. De lo contrario, que nos dejen en paz a mí y a las demás personas que participamos en II, una coalición cuyo único crimen es haber conseguido un amplio respaldo entre quienes se oponen a la barbarie capitalista.
