February 2003

the éphéméride | All on February and 2003

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Saturday 2003

  • 350 000 demonstrators in a hundred towns of France, for the defense of the mode in place of the retirements.
  • With the return of a 16 days mission on board the International space station, the Space shuttle Columbia disintegrates at the time of its re-entry in the atmosphere, above the Texas. Seven Astronaut S, whose first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon , and Kalpana Chawla young woman astronaut, originating in the Pendjab in India, will find a death heroic. The June 4th, a ceremony of homage their is returned to Houston with the Texas.
  • Several hundreds of thousands of partisans of the president Laurent Gbagbo express, with Abidjan in Ivory Coast, against “the capitulation of Marcoussis”.
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Sunday February 2nd 2003

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Monday February 3rd 2003

Tuesday February 4th 2003

  • 25e Franco-British top with the Touquet (Pas-de-Calais). Within the framework of future “the Europe of Defense”, Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair undertake to have an operational aircraft carrier permanently, but they take note of their divergences with regard to the second Guerre in Iraq.
  • the two rooms of the federal Parliament vote the replacement of the Federal republic of Yugoslavia by the State of Serbia-Montenegro.
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Wednesday February 5th 2003

  • In France, failure of the negotiations, on the resumption of Air Lib , between the French government and the possible Dutch transferee INCA .
  • Intervention of Colin Powell in front of the Safety advice of the United Nations, with an aim of convincing the world public opinions, of the “legitimacy” of a military action against the Iraq, while being based on satellite photographs and phone-tappings, it is devoted to an indictment against the mode of Saddam Hussein, showing it not to respect its obligations as regards disarmament and to maintain the bonds with the Terrorist organization Al-Qaida. In the evening the president George W. Bush states: “the part is finished”.
  • Ten countries of the Eastern Europe, candidates with NATO, gathered within the “group of Vilnius” (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania), sign a declaration by which they are said ready to take part in a military campaign led by the US government.
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Thursday February 6th 2003

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Friday February 7th 2003

  • In its speech with the nation, the president of the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo accepts “the spirit of Marcoussis”, but declares that it will take care of the maintenance of his prerogatives.
  • the British Gouvernement is constrained to recognize that the file describing in detail " the activities of Iraqi dissimulation, provided by its care to the US government and mentioned, by Colin Powell, in front of the Safety advice of the United Nations, was made up starting from university work whose information goes back to 1991.
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Saturday February 8th 2003

  • From June 8th to 9th, official visit of the Minister of Interior Department Nicolas Sarkozy, with the Mali, which is one of the principal hearths of clandestine immigration towards the France. He proposes the doubling of the Prime of assistance to the return.

  • the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel evokes a “Franco-German secret plan” of disarmament of Iraq. This information is contradicted the February 9th by the French government then by the German government.

  • Conference on safety with Munich, where the France and the Germany, supported by the Russia, undergo new flame attacks on behalf of the American Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld. The following day, the Russian president Vladimir Poutine states: “It does not have there, currently, of base for a recourse to the force” .

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Monday February 10th 2003

  • From February 10th to 12th, visit in France of the Russian president Vladimir Poutine with in the center of the conversations: the Iraq
  • Joint Declaration free-germano-Russian: “There is still an alternative to the war”. The China approves it the February 11th.
  • With UNO, put in circulation of a working paper detailing the French plan of reinforcement of the inspections.
  • the Iraqi Gouvernement accepts without conditions the overflight of its territory by planes - spies.
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Tuesday February 11th 2003

  • In France, from February 11th to 15th, debate with the National Assembly on the reform project of the ways of voting regional and European. All the parties, except the UMP, there being opposed, the Prime Minister announces on February 12th that it uses the Article 49-3. The 13 PS, the PC and the Greens deposit a motion of censure. This one is rejected on February 15th and the reform is thus adopted.
France towards the two-party system?
The Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin thus engaged the responsibility for the Government for the adoption, in first reader, of the relative bill to the election of the regional advisers and the representatives to the the European Parliament. Like the UMP in the majority absolute with the National Assembly, this law should be adoptée.
This law envisages the fall with 10% of the registered voters compared with 5% of expressed currently threshold necessary to the qualification for the second turn with the regional ones. It would mean the end of small the partitions.
The PS, the PCF and the UDF (usual ally of the UMP), deposited close to 12  000 amendments to make stopping with this law. The government with thus decided to use the Article 49-3 to pass the text without discussion.
The objective of this text is to decrease the rate of Abstention. The detractors of the Loi think on the contrary that it will make only increase it, in particular in the young people who vote rather for the small parts. ----

Wednesday February 12th 2003

  • In France, the National Assembly adopts the bill on the internal security, then the Sénat adopts it the February 13rd.
  • the American Secretary of State Colin Powell shows the French governments and German to seek “to save the setting” with Saddam Hussein. The American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the special correspondent John Wolf try to convince Hans Blix to show itself more “combative”.
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Thursday February 13rd 2003

  • Walk of the memory in the martyr city of Dresden in Germany, at the time of the 58e birthday of the bombardment of the city which had made 135.000 died, and also in homage to the whole of the 800.000 civilian victims of the allied bombardments of the German cities during the Second world war.
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Friday February 14th 2003

  • According to the new report/ratio, with the Safety advice of the United Nations, of a committee of international experts brought together by Hans Blix:
    • the Iraqi government shows a better co-operation and progress is made in work, but the report/ratio notes the persistence of questions without answers, which justifies the continuation of the inspections.
    • conventional missile Al-Samoud 2 would have a range higher than the 150 kilometers authorized by UNO. The Iraqi government had recognized, the February 13rd, that this missile had reached 183 kilometers during a test.
  • the French minister Foreign affairs Dominique de Villepin, pronounces with UNO, a vibrating plea against the war and in favor of a reinforcement of the inspections. It is ovationné by many representatives of country not forming part of the Safety advice of the United Nations. Colin Powell answers him: “More inspectors, afflicted, it is not the solution”.
  • With the the Vatican, Jean-Paul II receives the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Aziz (Christian chaldéen).
  • the ewe Dolly, first mammal born of a Cloning, the July 5th 1996, is euthanasiée because she suffered from incurable pulmonary disorders.
  • For the first time for 50 years, the North Korea and of the South has opened their land borders to let pass from the hundreds of tourists of the South.
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Saturday February 15th 2003

  • the French cardinal Willy Taring, sent diplomatic from the gendarmerie, is received by Saddam Hussein during one day and eighteen hours.
  • “World war” against the war in Iraq: At least 145 million people ravelled in more than 2500 cities of the world. With London 2,5 million, Barcelona 1 million, Beijing 600.000 to 2 million, with Brussels 100.000 to 350.000, Paris 100.000 to 450.000, New York 500.000, Berlin 50.000…

For more information:

  • Total
  • Indymedia Paris
  • Indymedia Belgium
  • Le Monde
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Sunday February 16th 2003

  • New American and British air raids in the south of the Iraq.
  • the 18 members of the Committee of the plans of defense of NATO arrive to a compromise concerning the American requests concerning the defense of Turkey in the event of attack against Iraq.
  • presidential Election in the Greek part of Cyprus, the candidate of the opposition of center-right Tassos Papadopoulos carries it as of the first turn with 51,5% against the outgoing socialist president Glafcos Cléridès.
  • has Nimes (France, department of the Gard), alternate of El Salvador Vega, Spanish Matador .
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Monday February 17th 2003

  • In France, following the failure of the negotiations of recovery, put in compulsory liquidation of the Air Lib company: 3.200 paid is found with unemployment.
  • the Heads of State and governments, joined together in extraordinary summit of the European Union, to Brussels, arrive to a compromise: support for the process of inspections in progress, but threat of the use of the force “as a last resort”. The president Jacques Chirac estimates that the countries of the Europe of the East which were aligned on the US government “had lost an good occasion to be keep silent”.
  • the president Jacques Chirac, explains in a maintenance granted to Time Magazine why if the inspections allow the disarmament of the Iraq, “the Americans will have in fact gained” and it is posed of “to support transatlantic solidarity”.
  • First official overflight of the Iraq by an American spy plane U2.
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Tuesday February 18th 2003

  • Fire of criminal origin of the subway of Taegu (South Korea), third city of the country: 120 dead.
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Wednesday February 19th 2003

Thursday February 20th 2003

  • From February 20th to 21st, with Paris, 22e Franco-African Summit primarily devoted to the crisis in Ivory Coast, whose president Laurent Gbagbo absent but is represented by the new “northerner” Prime Minister Seydou Diarra. A Joint Declaration claims the continuation of the inspections and exhorts the Iraqi Gouvernement with “an immediate, active co-operation and without reserve”.
  • In the Herald Platform , Bruce Jackson , president of the Committee for the release of Iraq, and one of the persons in charge of Project for has New American Century of which the goal is the promotion of the American leadership, admits having taken an active part in the drafting of the letter of the “group of Vilnius” published the February 5th.
  • With the Venezuela, arrest of Carlos Fernandez, chief of the employers' federation Fedecamaras, and principal organizing two months of general strike. Protest demonstrations were organized.
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Friday February 21st 2003

  • In France:
    • the good sheets of the explosive book of Pierre Péan and Philippe Cohen the hidden side of the World are published in the Express train . The direction of the newspaper Le Monde awaits the February 25th, day before exit of the work in bookstore, to retort.
    • From February 21st to 23rd, official visit of the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin with the Meeting. More than seven thousand demonstrators reserve a hostile reception to him.
  • the chief of the inspectors of UNO, Hans Blix, requires that the Iraqi Gouvernement start to destroy missiles Al-Samound 2, before March 1st.
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Saturday February 22nd 2003

  • Roman Polanski gains seven Césars with the film the Pianist .
  • In Israel, the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sign an government agreement with the Left national monk, the February 24th, with the Left laic Shinouï (center right), and the February 25th, with the National union (extreme right-hand side).
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Sunday February 23rd 2003

Monday February 24th 2003

  • In France, suicide of the large chief cook Bernard Loiseau in her residence of Saulieu in Coast-in Or. It was 52 years old.
  • With the Safety advice of the United Nations, a new resolution affirming “the obvious violation” of the resolution 1441 by the Iraq is deposited by the the United States, the the United Kingdom and the Spain. On their side, the France, the Germany, the Russia, supported by the China, emit a memorandum proposing a precise bill book of reinforced inspections.
  • Saddam Hussein, during an interview given to American chain CBS, proposes a debate televised with the president George W. Bush and declares: “We do not have missiles apart from the specifications of the United Nations” and “We will die in this country and we will preserve our honor”.
  • From February 24th to 25th, with Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, 13th top of the countries of the Movement of the non-aligned countries. With two new admitted countries, the Eastern Timor and Saint-Vincent-and them Grenadian, the movement gathers from now on 116 countries. Adoption of a resolution against the War in Iraq, but inviting the Iraqi government to cooperate “completely” with the inspectors of UNO.
  • the nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj, which had obtained nearly a quarter of the voices to the presidential election of Serbia in September 2002, is accused of war crimes by the International penal court for ex-Yugoslavia, and is imprisoned in $the Hague, while waiting for its lawsuit.
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Tuesday February 25th 2003

  • the forces américano-British engage 5 new air raids on the Iraq.
  • the nomination of the new South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, in favor of the dialog, is greeted by the shooting of a missile North-Korean which is damaged in Mer of Japan. The American Secretary of State Colin Powell, in visit with Seoul estimates that it there does not have a real threat and announces the resumption of food aid to the North Korea.
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Wednesday February 26th 2003

  • In France, the Parliament discusses without vote about the possible use of the right to veto to the Safety advice of the United Nations.
  • At the British Parliament, 199 deputies of the Communes (of which 121 members of the Labor Party) vote an amendment against the line defended by Tony Blair.
  • the president George W. Bush exposes her project of replanning of the the Middle East, at the time of a speech in front of American Enterprise Institute with Washington.
  • a conference, joining together the principal parties of opposition to the mode of Saddam Hussein, is held with Salahuddin with the Iraqi Kurdistan.
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Thursday February 27th 2003

  • the International penal court for ex-Yugoslavia condemns the former president of Serb of Bosnia, Biljana Plavšić , at 11 years of prison.
  • the Iraqi Gouvernement accepts the principle of the destruction as of its missiles Al-Samoud 2.
  • Rencontre, in Beijing, of the Chinese and Russian Foreign Ministers. Tang Jiaxuan and Igor Ivanov. The Russian minister affirms that Russia could use its right to veto with the Safety advice of the United Nations.
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Friday February 28th 2003

  • the Parliament of the Czech Republic, elects like new president of the Republic Václav Klaus, the former Prime Minister, to replace Václav Havel.
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