International

by Ewout Irrgang • A recent World Bank report reveals that speculation was a major cause of the huge increase in food prices during 2007 and 2008. While banks such as Goldman Sachs and the Deutsche Bank raked in huge profits, hundreds of millions of people in developing countries, and most of all children, suffered hunger as a result of rising prices.

According to SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel, Turkey must clarify its position regarding the alleged use of chemical weapons against Kurdish insurgents. German parliamentarians and human rights organisations have made the allegations following the unexplained deaths in 2009 of eight Kurds. A forensic report from the University of Hamburg into the use of chemical weapons confirmed that the probability that they had been used was high. Politicians in Germany are now seeking an independent enquiry, a demand which, in a parliamentary question, Van Bommel is urging Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen to support.