Israel occupation expands to Dora [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 9 April 2002. Israeli Forces Move Into the Southern West Bank Town of Dora, Witnesses Say. JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops and tanks moved into the southern West Bank town of Dora early Tuesday, witnesses said. The new incursion came as troops were pulling out of the northern West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Qalqiliya amid increasing U.S. pressure for Israel to wrap up its 12-day offensive against militants in the West Bank. Witnesses in Dora said that tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into the town before dawn as helicopters provided cover from the air. The sound of gunbattles could be heard, witnesses said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Peru truth commission hears horror stories [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- from http://www.japantoday.com/ __ Peru truth commission hears horror stories Tuesday, April 9, 2002 at 09:30 JST HUAMANGA, Peru - Grim-faced, fighting tears, peasants on Monday told horror stories of rape and torture from years of violence by the military, police and rebels that killed 30,000 as Peru's truth commission held its first public hearings. Pointing her finger to her temple like a gun, Angelica Mendoza, 72, who wore the typical broad-brimmed white hat and wide skirts of the Peruvian Andes, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission how her 19-year-old son was dragged out of bed by hooded soldiers in 1983, never to be seen again. Liz Valdez, 22, recounted how her mother was hauled off by police, raped and then tortured to death in 1991, leaving her - she was then aged 12 - and her 8-year-old brother orphans. Twenty-year-old Rebecca Gamboa, living proof of Peru's painful past, heard for the first time full details of how she was conceived when her mother was gang raped by soldiers at the age of 16. Tears poured down her cheeks as she listened. The emotional accounts were delivered in a university auditorium in Huamanga, near Ayacucho, the southern city where Peru's bloodiest rebel group, Shining Path, was born. It is the first time a Latin American truth commission has held public hearings. Peru created its truth board last year with a mandate to shed light on human rights atrocities committed under three governments between 1980 and 2000. For much of that time, Peru was wracked by parallel wars by Shining Path and the smaller Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA, both seeking to impose a communist state. The military responded with take-no-prisoners tactics. Many poor Andean villagers lived in the cross-fire between the armed forces, who threatened to treat anyone who did not help them as rebel collaborators, and guerrillas, who killed anyone they suspected of helping the military. "These hearings seek to end the silence that had become intolerable," the commission's President Salomon Lerner said. Dozens of peasant women turned out for the first day of the hearing, many clutching red balloons to symbolize drops of blood and photographs of relatives who died or disappeared. Peru estimates that in addition to those killed by leftist rebels or the military, some 6,000 people simply vanished. The commission reckons there are over 150 mass graves in Peru. Mendoza, her hair in braids and wearing a wide, pleated white skirt, told Reuters in halting Spanish how 30 hooded soldiers broke down her door on July 12, 1983, and dragged her son Arquimedes Ascarza out of bed, accusing him of being a Shining Path rebel. She was beaten with a rifle butt. "'Bastard old woman, leave your terrorist son or we'll take you as well'," she recalled a soldier telling her. Choking back tears as she sat at the front of the auditorium in the same university where her son had studied mine engineering, Mendoza told her story to the commission in the Andean language Quechua, and pulled out a scrap of paper with a note from her son which she says a soldier delivered to her home. "I'm fine, don't worry, but try to get money for me to have a trial. Otherwise they're going to kill me in the barracks," her son wrote. Mendoza now heads a national association of the victims of those detained, kidnapped or disappeared. Valdez, in tears, told how her mother had been out shopping with a friend on May 7, 1991, when a police officer dragged her away, bundled her into a sack with her wrists tied and took her to a police station. She was never seen alive again. "I know who did this, I have the name, the photo, but I've never said it out of fear. But when the time comes, I will," Valdez told Reuters. "The commission is going to help me." Valdez held a daily vigil at the police station, where an officer told her he had tortured her mother. One day he told her she had said: "Tell my daughter to look after her brother and to be strong, because I'm not going to get out of here." Gamboa's mother Giorgina told her harrowing tale of rape - but said she was by no means unique. "I'm asking for justice. The guilty should pay for the damage they did us," she said. Around 800 people thronged the town square in Huamanga on Sunday night with candles and silhouettes representing their "disappeared" relatives in a poignant vigil. But the commission has stirred controversy, too. Some 20 protesters from the opposition American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party, who say some of its members are biased, protested on the doorstep of the auditorium during the hearing and were ushered away by police. Alleged atrocities during the 1985-1990 government of their leader, former President Alan Garcia, will come under the commission's scrutiny. (Compiled from wire reports) Click the link below to view this ar
Li criticizes Bush's "axis of evil" remark [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- from http://www.japantoday.com/ __ Li criticizes Bush's "axis of evil" remark Saturday, April 6, 2002 at 10:30 JST TOKYO - China's top legislator Li Peng, in separate talks with leaders of two Japanese opposition parties Friday, criticized the "axis of evil" remarks made in January by U.S. President George W Bush, lawmakers said. Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, held talks at the State Guesthouse in Tokyo with Social Democratic Party leader Takako Doi and Japanese Communist Party Chairman Kazuo Shii. (Kyodo News) Click the link below to view this article and related discussions on Japan Today http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&id=209983 = Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts & ends at the colonnade between Grand & Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Re: Xinhua: Saddam Defies U.S. Threats of Military Attacks [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- - Original Message - From: Stasi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Anti-NATO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: IAC Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 2:57 PM Subject: Xinhua: Saddam Defies U.S. Threats of Military Attacks [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- > Saddam Defies U.S. Threats of Military Attacks > >-- > > Xinhuanet 2002-04-07 03:11:28 > > BAGHDAD, April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on > Sunday vowed to defend his regime against possible military attacks > from the United States, the state-run Iraq TV reported. > "We will fight against them (the enemy) with missiles, planes, > stones ... and all what we have and we will defeat them," Saddam > was quoted ed as saying. Perhaps what is required is not so much a response to the nature of the threat poses by US/UK but a counter to the policy used to 'legitimise' that threat, that is to say the claim of the right to 'weapons inspection'. It is said that within every nutshell of reaction there resides the kernel of revolution while one-way weapons inspection can only said to be the wildest of demagogic impositions, two-way inspection of defense, that is to say US inspection of Iraq's defenses while Iraq inspects US defenses would represent a true revolution in co-operative relations between nations. As a point of fact, mutual defense inspection between nations is the highest form of international co-operation attainable and represents a leap forward for any and every nation. Mutually, Bill. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Peace Activists Confront Bush-Blair Get-together [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Global and Local Analysis & Action ... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . . - Original Message - From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Cc: ; ; Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 12:37 AM Subject: Peace Activists Confront Bush-Blair Get-together X-From_: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Apr 8 06:15:24 2002 Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 16:20:21 EDT Subject: Peace Activists Confront Bush-Blair Get-together To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] MIME-Version: 1.0 Peace Activists Confront Bush-Blair Get-together Over 2000 peace activists, mostly Arabs and Palestinians took part in a demonstration in front of GW Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas on April 6. The event was organized by Dallas Peace Center and others in support of the Palestinian struggle and against US-British plans to invade Iraq. The demonstration took place despite the Police declarations that only 125 automobiles and a total of 600 individuals would be allowed to take part in the protest. No US news media were present. There was, however, a strong foreign media presence, including BBC and the Guardian. http://www.dallaspeacecenter.org/ Prepared by IACUS http://members.aol.com/iaczine/ " JC --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Enron suit implicates 9 US banks [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Hour by hour news & analysis... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . . Monday, 8 April, 2002, 21:49 GMT 22:49 UK Enron suit implicates 9 US banks University of California regents are the lead plaintiffs The University of California has filed an amended complaint in its lawsuit against Enron, alleging nearly a dozen investment banks and law firms colluded to defraud investors. The university filed the revised class-action lawsuit on Monday in US District Court in Houston on behalf of thousands of other stockholders, who lost at least $25bn (£17.4bn) by investing in failed energy-trader Enron. The wrongful conduct which underlies this case was not limited to Houston, but also took place on Wall Street William Lerach plaintiff attorney The revised lawsuit, 500 pages in length, accuses the firms not only of participating in deception but of profiting from it, too. "This fraud was worldwide in its scope, years long in its duration, unprecedented in its size," said William Lerach, the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs. Looking beyond Enron The scheme's sheer immensity meant it could not have been accomplished by Enron executives alone, "no matter how dishonest or energetic they may have been", Mr Lerach told reporters during a press conference on Monday in San Francisco. University of California officials said the educational system lost $145m attributable to the collapse of Enron's stock price. The original class-action lawsuit filed last October named 29 top Enron officials and its embattled auditor Arthur Andersen and has been frozen ever since Enron filed for bankruptcy last December. Among those named in that lawsuit were former chairman and chief executive Kenneth Lay and another former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling. 'Pyramid' scheme The amended shareholder suit was accompanied by a similar complaint filed by former Enron employees who lost their pension funds as a result of the bankrupt firms' now worthless stock. Defendants Arthur Andersen 29 Enron ex-officials Barclays Deutsche Bank JP Morgan Citigroup Merrill Lynch CSFB Lehman Brothers Bank of America Canadian Imperial Bank Vinson & Elkins Kirkland & Ellis Both complaints named the same nine Wall Street investment banks, accusing them of acting to defraud investors. In mounting their latest legal manoeuvre, the plaintiffs have implicated some of Wall Street's most prestigious investment banks with the hopes of recouping some of the billions of dollars they have lost. The named banks include Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, CSFB, Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Canadian Imperial Bank. "The wrongful conduct which underlies this case was not limited to Houston, but also took place on Wall Street, where Enron's investment banks and lawyers helped create, structure and sell securities which propped up the Enron pyramid," the employee complaint read. 'No alternative' Analysts on Monday said the plaintiffs face an uphill battle in getting a court to agree the banks and law firms are liable for shareholder losses. "They clearly have a large challenge before them," said Christopher Bebel, a Houston lawyer. "However, they have no alternative. They have to pursue this course of action to have a chance of locating sufficient funds." Part of the reason for the inclusion of new defendants is that Andersen may prove unable to come anywhere near meeting the plaintiffs' demands for compensation. When the lawsuit was first prepared last autumn, it seemed feasible to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from Andersen - the world's fifth largest accounting firm - and former top Enron officials. But the scale of the class-action suit has ballooned to $25bn, and Arthur Andersen's further existence has been called into question, as company after company has fired or failed to renew contracts with the firm. Defending against charges Two of the newly named banks denied the latest charges. "We believe there is no basis for this claim, and we intend to vigorously defend against it," a spokesman for Merrill Lynch said. London-based Barclays Capital told Dow Jones news agency the bank "does not believe there is a basis for a successful claim to be brought against it". Citigroup and JP Morgan declined to comment, while Bank of America, CIBC, Deutsche Bank and Lehman were not reachable. For its part, CSFB has previously defended its role in advising Enron, saying its work "was reviewed by the ratings agencies, outside counsels, and the accounting firms". Also implicated in the partnerships are the law firms Vinson & Elkins and Kirkland & Ellis, who helped shepherd the deals through. Both firms have said they would challenge the charges The suit accuses Enron executives and advisors of a long list of offences, centring on the off-balance-sheet partnerships that were used to conceal
France is not anti-Semitic - Chirac [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Monday, April 8, 2002 France is not anti-Semitic - Chirac PARIS, April 8 (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac on Monday condemned a wave of attacks on Jewish synagogues and other sites in France, saying the French were not anti-Semitic. His comments, made during a combined interview with four Jewish stations, were followed just hours later by the discovery of an attempted arson attack on a Jewish student union office at Paris's Jussieu University. Three Molotov cocktails were found near the UEJF office, a university official said, adding there had been no fire. "There are undisputedly anti-Semitic acts that are unacceptable and totally contrary to the principles of our republic, and which, I repeat, must be condemned in the most severe and complete terms," Chirac said. "But that does not mean the French are anti-Semitic." Chirac, who is running for re-election in a two-round presidential vote this month and next, was speaking just a day after thousands marched in Paris to express support for Israel but also to protest recent attacks on Jewish sites in France. Concern that the attacks coincide with mounting violence in the Middle East, where Israeli troops have entered Palestinian cities in retaliation for suicide bombings, led Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to call for calm among French Jews and Arabs. At the weekend, firemen rushed to put out a fire in the basement of a Jewish pre-school in Marseille and arsonists threw petrol-filled bottles into a Jewish sports club in the southern city of Toulouse. This follows attacks on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries around the country last week. No one has been hurt. In Strasbourg, eastern France, two men aged in their 20s, were officially placed under investigation on Monday, suspected of placing a homemade bomb in a Jewish cemetery there on Friday. The bomb was discovered before it exploded. Jospin, Chirac's closest rival in the presidential election, in which crime has emerged as a key issue, said on Sunday the Middle East conflict must not be allowed to play itself out within French borders. "If we want to talk about peace in the Middle East, we have to show first that we are capable of living peacefully together at home," Jospin told a rally in Paris. "We cannot accept that horrible passions and antagonism are imported to France." The pro-Israel demonstrations on Sunday were preceded by about a dozen pro-Palestinian marches on Saturday in cities across France. Chirac has been invited to visit Paris's largest mosque on Tuesday to meet senior representatives of the Muslim population and discuss tensions between Muslims and Jews in France. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^ reuterslogo.gif Description: GIF image pixel.gif Description: GIF image
US: Accountancy Company Fire 7 000 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Hour by hour news & analysis... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . .Monday, 8 April, 2002, 17:26 GMT 18:26 UK Andersen to lay off 7,000 The accountancy firm Andersen has said it will lay off 7,000 workers at its US arm Arthur Andersen. Of all the issues we have confronted recently, none compare to actions we are now forced to take with our employees Larry Gorrell Andersen Andersen blamed the Enron scandal for the layoffs, which will be executed over the next few months. About a quarter of Andersen's US workforce will lose their jobs. "Of all the issues we have confronted recently, none compare to actions we are now forced to take with our employees," said Larry Gorrell, managing partner of the firm's US operations. Cuts inevitable Staff working in Andersen's audit and administrative units will be hit the hardest by the cuts. Heavy cuts are expected at the firm's Chicago headquarters where 5,300 people work. Andersen warned last month that the job cuts in the US were inevitable. Breaking up Andersen's problems have been mounting in recent years, along with a criminal indictment and substantial lawsuits brought by shareholders for its role in the demise of Enron. Many of Andersen's clients, scared off by the scandal, have walked into the open arms of the accountant's competitors. The competitors have been actively snapping up bits of Andersen's business too. Most of Andersen's US tax practice will be sold to its rival Deloitte & Touche. While internationally, Andersen's network is being carved up by its rivals. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Bosnia, under Western pressure, sacks soldiers [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Bosnia, under Western pressure, sacks soldiers SARAJEVO: Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation has approved plans to lay off 10,000 professional soldiers, a cut of more than 40 percent. More than six years after the Bosnian war, international organisations sponsoring the peace process have warned that future assistance to the impoverished country partly depends on a reduction in military spending. In relative terms it far exceeds Western levels. Post-war Bosnia consists of two highly autonomous territories, the federation and the Serb republic, which boast their own separate armed forces -- bitter battlefield enemies during the 1992-1995 conflict. Late on Wednesday, the lower house of the federation parliament gave the green light for the government to borrow 100 million marka ($45.1 million) from commercial banks, enabling it to compensate the soldiers, who will be laid off by end of June. The government would pay back the loans with the help of donor funds and privatisation proceeds. The decision means the federation defence ministry can go ahead with its pledge to cut the armed forces by 10,000 soldiers to 13,200 in a bid to reduce costs. It must also be approved by the upper house, but this is seen as a formality as it is dominated by the ruling parties. Around 8,600 soldiers and ministry officials have already voluntarily applied to leave their jobs, Federation Defence Minister Mijo Anic said this week, adding the final number was likely to exceed 10,000. Bosnia's Serb republic had earlier announced plans to cut its armed forces by half from 12,000 by 2005. The World Bank says military expenditure accounts for 10.5 percent of the federation's gross domestic product and for seven percent in the Serb republic -- well above the European Union average of 2.6 percent and the U.S. average of 4.6 percent. Important Notice: Jang Group of Newspapers web site can be accessedonly by using http://www.jang.com.pk and http://www.jang-group.com http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2002-daily/05-04-2002/world/w12.htm --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Depleted uranium in Serbia and Montenegro widespread but low level [WWW.STOPNAT
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Depleted uranium in Serbia and Montenegro widespread but low level Depleted uranium (DU) in Serbia and Montenegro used to strengthen weapon tips in the 1999 conflict in Kosovo is widespread in five sites, but at a low level, and does not pose an immediate significant hazard to the environment or to human health, a new report has revealed. The findings of the study, published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and funded by the Swiss Government, are consistent with those of a 2001 survey by the UNEP. Together, the two surveys have covered the entire area that was affected by ammunition with depleted uranium tips during the Kosovo conflict. There was much confusion last year when the UNEP called for all areas hit by depleted uranium-tipped shells to be cordoned off, although NATO denied any link between DU and 21 leukaemia deaths among troops (see related story and related story). The study was completed in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The work was carried out by 14 international experts at the end of October and beginning of November last year at the invitation of the Yugoslav authorities. Despite the lack of an immediate risk from DU, the UNEP warns that there are precautionary measures that authorities in the region need to take. The most important is to protect groundwater from corroding DU tips, which the UNEP investigators found had decreased in mass by 10-15% due to corrosion. It is important that water quality at the DU sites should be monitored every year, says the team. Air pollution from the depleted uranium is also an issue that local authorities need to be aware of. Airborne DU particles were found at two of the sites, which, although below international safety limits, have implications for site decontamination and construction work that could stir up DU dust. The dust was also found to be widely dispersed into the environment following the explosion of DU rounds. Fortunately, the researchers found that the authorities had followed previous advice from the UNEP to signpost and fence off the depleted uranium sites. “This new study makes an important contribution to our scientific understanding of DU’s environmental behaviour,” said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. “Even if the observed levels of contamination are low, we learn that particles of DU dust can even now be detected in soil samples and in sensitive biological indicators such as lichen.” “The team was surprised to find DU particles still in the air two years after the conflict’s end,” added Pekka Haavisto, Chairman of the UNEP Depleted Uranium Assessment Team. In addition to the main findings of the study, its authors also noted a number of additional important facts, namely that: the coordinates of one DU site identified by the Yugoslav authorities had not been provided to the UNEP by NATO, highlighting the need for accurate and timely information on DU sites; the WHO found no evidence to link DU to the chromosome changes reported in six individuals who had been assisting with depleted uranium site decontamination for four months; and it is very difficult to fully decontaminate depleted uranium sites, especially when funds and technical support are limited. “Continued monitoring is clearly needed, and the local population should be informed about DU issues,” said Toepfer. “Fortunately, although a complete clean-up may not be technically possible, decontamination operations have already started in both Serbia and Montenegro.” http://www.edie.net/gf.cfm?L=left_frame.html&R=http://www.edie.net/news/Archive/5377.cfm --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Why is America promoting Hague inquisition? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Monday, April 8, 2002 Why is America promoting Hague inquisition? Posted: April 8, 20021:00 a.m. Eastern By Aleksandar Pavic © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com BELGRADE – Why is it in America's interest to promote injustice in the Balkans? We have grave-faced U.S. officials, such as Pierre Richard Prosper, the U.S. ambassador for "war crimes," coming to Belgrade these days just to tell the fragile Yugoslav government that it "must" cooperate with what can only be described as the kangaroo court in The Hague, or else. And "else" means being denied not only U.S. aid (which is not a bad thing in itself, not because it comes from the U.S. but because no country should base its policy on foreign handouts) but also U.S. support in international financial institutions such as IMF and the World Bank (also not bad, except when a country is so debt-ridden that it needs support to have a portion of its debts to these institutions written off), as well as U.S. encouragement for much-needed foreign investment to start coming in after almost a decade of economic sanctions. These U.S. officials are coming into a sovereign country – although the concept of sovereignty is fast becoming obsolete under the New Order – to demand compliance with a "court" that could never pass muster in the United States as long as it is still a free and democratic land. For the International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia is an institution that is both judge and prosecutor, that is financed by foreign governments, that allows anonymous witnesses, that uses NATO troops to hunt down "suspects" even in their own countries with brutal force and that has no jury. It is a court in which politics and what is left of international law mix. It is a court where "justice" is micromanaged so that the context of a regional tragedy is blurred and the small fry caught in its net can take the attention away from the big fish that stoked the flames of war to begin with. This "court" is the perfect example of how the law can be used as a bludgeon of political control and foreign policy. It relativizes the very concept of law. It is the modern version of Kafka's "Trial." And the U.S. is throwing its substantial diplomatic and political weight behind this institution. The question is why? Is it because it is the model of the future that needs legitimization abroad before it can be applied at home? If so, then Americans should take heed and follow its proceedings. Except – it is almost impossible to do so. For all its publicity, its richly-funded apparatus (almost $500 million since its inception in 1993), its lofty proclamations of promoting "justice" and the "prosecution of war criminals," it is very hard to actually follow the tribunal's proceedings. And that is strange, considering that the working of this court is such an important pillar of U.S. policy that countries are being blackmailed to accept it. It is doubly strange considering the fact that at this very moment standing trial before this "court" – after being kidnapped by masked men from his own country – is a man, Slobodan Milosevic, whose name filled the headlines of the mainstream media during the previous decade. He was dubbed the "Butcher of the Balkans" by these same media and has already been convicted by their editorial staffs as "the biggest war criminal since Hitler," as the main "Balkan warlord," as the man responsible for unspeakable atrocities and crimes, "ethnic cleansing" and other deeds too terrible to mention. Could it be that his trial is denied proper coverage because it has exposed all the weaknesses of the Hague tribunal? Because of the fact that most of the "evidence" gathered by the "prosecution" has proven to be nothing more than hearsay? Because of the fact that the "witnesses" for the "prosecution" have been exposed as liars by Milosevic himself, who has taken to waging his own defense rather than recognizing the tribunal by accepting the services of lawyers on its payroll? And yet, this is a court that the U.S. is trying to impose on the country of Yugoslavia, in violation of its constitution. Can the cause of justice and democracy be promoted through injustice and inquisition? There is no mistaking the fact that Milosevic was an old-fashioned commie who used nationalist rhetoric to promote his own agenda and secure his grip on power. There is no mistaking the fact that, even before the international sanctions against Yugoslavia, his economic policy of mixing old-style statist socialism with mafia-style crony capitalism was driving his country on a course of ruin in any case. And there is no mistaking of his complicity (along with other Balkan – and Western – leaders) in starting a bloody and destructive civil war that ripped the former Yugoslavia asunder. However, old Yugoslav anti-communists, this writer incl
Brzezinski: Moral Imperative, National Interest [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Brzezinski: Moral Imperative, National Interest New York Times | April 7, 2002 | ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI Posted on 4/6/02 9:19 PM Pacific by Watchmaker April 7, 2002 OPINION/EDITORIAL Moral Duty, National Interest By ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI WASHINGTON — For more than half a century the Middle East — along with Europe and Asia — has been one of the three zones strategically vital to the United States' national interest. Domination by a hostile power or the outbreak of a major conflict in any of these three zones would pose a forceful challenge to America's ability to maintain the global equilibrium on which international stability depends. America stepped into the Middle East as British and French colonial domination receded. Gradually, the United States became the principal guarantor of the region's peace and also of stable access to the region's oil resources. In recent years the centrality of that role was underscored by the American military action against Iraq in the Persian Gulf war. At the same time, the United States' commitment to assuring Israel's survival, motivated by a sense of moral obligation to a people that had suffered immeasurably, has built an ever closer American-Israeli relationship based on political and military collaboration. But given the intensity of Arab-Israeli hostility, that relationship has also inevitably collided with America's interest in preserving its influence over the Arab states. Obviously, a final peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians would be best. But from the American standpoint, even an absence of war, provided the situation was stable, would be tolerable. The current crisis poses a grave threat to United States interests. One can argue forever as to whether Yasir Arafat or Ariel Sharon is more responsible for its eruption. What is clear is that the two cannot reach peace together and neither can impose his version of it on the other. Ultimately, the 4.8 million Jewish Israelis cannot permanently sustain the subjugation of 4.5 million Palestinians (1.2 million of whom are second-class Israeli citizens), while Israel's own democracy and sense of moral self-respect would be jeopardized by continuing to do so. The Palestinians have neither the power nor the international support to drive the Israelis into the sea, while their terror tactics are morally indefensible. The Israeli sense of outrage at the suicide bombings is understandable. Any Israeli government would have had to react in the face of such provocation. But it is important to note that Mr. Sharon's retaliation over the last year has focused largely on undermining the existing Palestinian Authority, much in keeping with his decade-long opposition to the Oslo peace process and his promotion of colonial settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. With the Palestinian Authority in shambles, the Palestinians are likely to slide into a state of anarchy, with their leadership gravitating toward more extremist underground elements. In Israel, and especially among the Likud Party, more voices are likely to be heard advocating the expulsion of the Palestinians from the territories. Arab resentment at America's apparent partiality will rise, placing in greater jeopardy regimes that are viewed as friendly to the United States. In these circumstances, America cannot ignore world public opinion. There is a nearly unanimous global consensus that United States policy has become one-sided and morally hypocritical, with clear displays of sympathy for Israeli victims of terrorist violence and relative indifference to the (much more numerous) Palestinian civilian casualties. At risk is America's ability to maintain international support for the war on terrorism, and especially for plans to deal with Saddam Hussein. The United States response, therefore, has to be guided by a strategic awareness of all the interests involved, and not by the claims of any single party. The course followed in recent times, with its largely procedural emphasis on cease-fires and confidence-building measures while waiting for the parties to agree on their own, has become a prescription for procrastination. It is now painfully evident that left to themselves, the Israelis and the Palestinians can only make war. Their suspicion of each other's motives and mutual hatred is too great to permit the needed compromise. Moreover, each side has powerful factions even more extremist than the current leadership, with Benjamin Netanyahu poised to challenge Ariel Sharon while some unknown Islamist militant steps into Yasir Arafat's shoes if he is killed in the current offensive. President Bush's statement on the crisis on Thursday took an important step toward shedding the administration's ambiguous and, of late, somewhat incoherent posture. But it falters on three points. First, by noting that an immine
News, 8.4.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News April 8th, 2001, 16:00 UTC - Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Kirch Files for Insolvency With the Kirch Group's filing for insolvency in a Munich court Monday, the scramble for the remains of Leo Kirch's fallen media empire officially began. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the Internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1439_A_492842_1_A,00.html - Defiant Israel Puts Toll Beyond 200 Israeli commanders have said army incursions into West Bank Palestinian cities will continue beyond next Friday, when U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is due in the region. Israel's admission, in defiance of worldwide calls to withdraw, coincided with mounting casualty figures. Israel's army said it had killed at least 30 Palestinians it described as armed in Nablus alone over the weekend - putting the total from its 10-day offensive at 200 Palestinians and seven soldiers killed. Palestinian sources put weekend losses at more than 70 Palestinians killed. Latest reports say Israeli helicopters had fired again at Jenin's refugee camp overnight. On Sunday Hizbollah shelled northern Israel from Lebanon, injuring five people. Residents sheltered in bunkers. Powell's First Stop - Morocco U.S. Secretary of State Powell has left Washington, heading first to Morocco, after saying he would only meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who's besieged in Ramallah, "if circumstances permit". Powell is due to have talks later today in Rabat with Morocco's King Mohammed and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. On Wednesday, Powell heads to Madrid, where EU foreign ministers also consult U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Russia's foreign minister. Igor Ivanov made telephone calls on Sunday to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Arafat, demanding that both support peace efforts. Pro-Israel Rallies Solidarity rallies in support of Israel and against anti-semitism drew tens of thousands of people in France on Sunday - in contrast to pro-Palestinian protests staged on Saturday. In Paris 50,000 attended a pro-Israel rally that was overshadowed by a stab wound to a police officer during a melee between pro-and-anti demonstrators. Similar pro-Israel rallies took place in Toulouse, Lyon, Strasbourg and Marseille. Pro-Palestinian protests took place on Sunday in Brussels, Barcelona, Ottawa, Bahrain, Beirut and Rabat. Moroccan police estimated a crowd of 1.5 million. Three attacks were made on synagogues in France over the weekend - the third late on Sunday in a northern suburb of Paris. The news agency AP says petrol bombs were thrown. Property damage was limited. The arsonists fled. Hungary's Orban Trails - Run-off Likely Hungary appears headed for a run-off election on April the 21st, with the opposition Socialists edging ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's conservative alliance after Sunday's poll. With 90 percent of votes counted, the Socialists, led by prime ministerial candidate Peter Medgyessy, have nearly 42 percent. Their likely allies, the liberal Free Democrat Alliance have 5.8 percent. Orban's alliance, Fidesz, trails on 41.4 percent. The far-right MIEP fell below the five-percent hurdle, denying it seats in parliament. Hungary's complex system combines direct and proportional voting. The country is a leading candidate for EU enlargement in 2004. FARC Blamed for Car Bombing Police in Colombia have blamed leftist FARC rebels for Sunday's car bomb attack in a crowded street that killed 12 people and injured another 67 in the city of Villavicencio. It lies 60 kilometres from Bogota. Police said night revellers were drawn by a small detonation early on Sunday morning. A 50-kilogram car bomb then exploded. No group has yet claimed responsibility. Only hours earlier, a priest had been shot dead in the province of Huila while officiating at communion. President Andres Pastrana ended peace talks with FARC in February, ahead of elections in May. A front-runner is Alvaro Uribe, who's promised a crackdown. Spotlight on Ex-Soviet States German President Johannes Rau has criticised censure of Russia's media and the war in Chechnya during an award ceremony in Cologne for "Memorial", a human rights network in former Soviet states. Memorial received the Lew Kopelew Prize for pioneer work in documenting crimes of the Stalinist era. President Rau said commentators on Russian TV were being silenced. Referring to Chechnya's war between Russian forces and separatists, Rau said no war should harm civilians. His remarks precede a
Fw: Urgent: Eyewitness report from West Bank #2 (The way it came!) [WWW.STOPNATO
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- - Original Message - From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: AMANA e-mail Members <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 7:58 AM Subject: Urgent: Eyewitness report from West Bank #2 (The way it came!) > Dear All: > I am the director of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural > Centre in Ramallah . As I am under siege at home, > i am sending out this email to > journalist friends, & others, to ask to please get our > message out & disseminated further. > > I hope this message will not become morbid fodder for > chain emails to draw pity, or prayers, or donations, > but rather actions. We are doing our bit by resisting > & or standing steadfast, & ask the world to please do > its bit in the name of our common humanity, each > according to his her/own capacity. We do not want to > become the red indians of the Arab world, but simply > want to live free, in peace & dignity on this land. > > I will start by a few paragraphs' overview of the > situation "live" as i see it, & follow it with 9 > suggestions of what we would please like to see happen > in the media & elsewhere in the outside world. > > Firstly tonight -Sunday- we have heard numerous > reports of 30 Palestinian policemen executed in cold > blood by Israeli soldiers in a building where they > sought refuge on Irssal street in Ramallah. This was > after 5 Palestinian officers were executed by being > shot to the head & then had their corpses thrown on > the pavement for hours on Friday. Ambulances are > prevented from reaching their destinations & 2 > hospitals have either been broken into (Arabcare) or > shot at (Nazer Maternity Hospital). If this continues, > it will be another Chechnya or Sarajevo in the making. > > Personally, I have been shut at home since Friday > morning, like all the tens of thousands of inhabitants > of Ramallah & El-Bireh, & no prospect of an end soon. > We did not have electricity for one day, but thank God > it got reestablished today Sunday. > > One of the employees of the Sakakini Center had the > Israeli army burst into his village (Kobar) yesterday, > destroy belongings & arrest his younger brother, > alongside 30 other young men from the village. > > The cleaning lady of the Center lives in a house with > an outhouse for toilets. For 3 days the Israelis have > been posted by the door to her house & preventing all > exit. When the eldest today sneaked out to the > outhouse, the Israelis caught him & beat him. His > school teacher father tried to intervene, the Israelis > beat him & arrested him. > > One of the board members of our center was arrested > with all the employees of the office building where he > was working late Thursday night. They were all > blindfolded & had their hands tied & placed in one > room for 16 hours. The Israelis destroyed some office > furniture & stole hard drives from computers. They all > untied themselves once they realized the Israelis had > gone on to bigger prey. > > My brother in law & his wife & their 3 under-10 year > old kids are without phone & electricity since Friday > & cannot go live w/ someone else as they would be shot > at. > > My next door neighbor's 70+ year old father lives > near Yasser Arafat's office. The Israelis broke into > his home Friday, broke everything w/ the butt of their > rifles (TV, sinks, furniture, etc.. ) & then stole > some money. > There are reports also of Israeli soldiers breaking > into banks & change offices & jewelery stores & > stealing money & jewelry. > > In El Bireh, they arrested Saturday 150 young men > between 16-45 years of age after calling out for men > of this age bracket to get out, they are grouping them > in Ramallah's Old City. > > The only local private TV station in town that used to > air hourly news & advice (Watan TV) has been seized by > the Israelis on Friday, & they are now airing > pornographic films. Journalists have been ordered out > of Ramallah today Sunday. > > All neighborhoods are abuzz with talk of who is next > in Israeli home incursions. As for me & many others, > there is the human instinct of crying out for help > when in danger. > > What we have done: With our means we have made phone > calls to appeal for help & pressure on the > international community to a number of high level > officials in a number of neigboring countries, as well > as sent appeals to the media like this one. > > Below are 9 modest &/or utopic suggestions & requests: > 1- This is a long siege please keep the pressure to > have our story told & appeals for action continuous. > 2- The Centre's admin.& finance director, Ms. Manal > Issa has collected about 10 testimonies by children > around her describing conditions under siege as well > as drawings she has scanned. These testimonies in > Arabic can be obtained directly from her at: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] I will translate them tomorrow to > englsih & have them available. I am also asking that > anybody who gets this emai
Fw: Jenin Update [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- - Original Message - From: Palestine Monitor Alquds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 7:47 PM Subject: Jenin Update > The Palestine Monitor, A PNGO Information Clearinghouse > > Jenin Update > 8th April 2002 > > The United Nations refugee camp of Jenin, a one-kilometer square patch of > land home to 15,000 people, has for the past five days been under a > sustained Israeli military attack. Israeli forces have used apache > helicopters, tanks, and ground-to-ground missiles to shell and bombard the > civilians in the camp. The Israelis themselves estimate that more than one > hundred people have already been killed in the onslaught; Palestinians > believe the number will be much higher as many of the 100s of injured will > die because, since the beginning of this atrocity, they have been prevented > from receiving medical care. > > Yesterday in the camp soldiers rounded up males between the ages of 15-45 > and interned them in a yard. One elderly man was shot dead by soldiers as he > obeyed their orders and left his house. > > Bulldozers have been used to destroy homes in order to make the streets and > alleyways wide enough for tanks to move down when the Israeli army > eventually takes over the whole camp. The camp has not had electricity or > water for five days now, and Dr. Barghouti reports that the Medical Relief > Committees have received calls from people who have no food or water and > have been reduced to drinking dirty water running in the streets. People lie > injured in the streets, and the bodies of those killed sit in the houses and > streets, decomposing. > > At the same time the sick and wounded are still being denied medical care. A > few hours ago the Red Cross coordinated the movement of three ambulances, > from the city of Jenin to the camp. A mere 50 yards from the hospital the > ambulances were fired upon and forced to return to the hospital, yet more > proof of the discrepancy between what the army and government says the are > doing, and the reality of the situation. > > A woman (she did not want her name used) whose son was killed on Friday, and > she has yet to see or bury his body described the past days to us. She said > we were inside the camp, sitting inside our homes with shells falling all > around us, from everywhere. In the streets we could see a few bodies of the > dead and many people injured from the shelling they were close but we > couldnt get them because of the danger. Many houses were destroyed, and it > was smoky because of the fires. We have stayed there five days we had no > electricity, no food, and no water. > > At 5AM this morning the soldiers banged with their guns on our door. They > said we had to leave so the 60 men, women and children who were in our > house left. They made us leave with their guns pointed on us all the way > to where they had gathered all the men, women and children together. Then > they forced the men to strip to their underclothes. We had to wait and wait, > sitting on the ground for hours, the soldiers even spat on us. Then they > took the men away we dont know where. At 11 am they let us, the women and > children, leave the camp forced us into the city where there is still a > curfew. Where can we go? Some of the people have family in the city and > some of the city people have taken us but now there is a bigger problem > for them. Already there was not enough food, no water, and no electricity in > the city. And now all of us have to also be with them - these people we do > not know. > > This is the third time since 1948 that these people in Jenin refugee camp > have been forced to leave their homes by the Israeli army. > > For more information contact Juliana at the Palestine Monitor > +972 (0)2 5834021 or +972 (0)2 5833510 > www.palestinemonitor.org > > > --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
"Terrorism" Is a Term that Requires Consistency [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- FAIR-L Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting Media analysis, critiques and activism MEDIA ADVISORY: "Terrorism" Is a Term that Requires Consistency: Newspaper and its critics both show a double standard on "terror" April 8, 2002 A group called Minnesotans Against Terrorism (MAT)-- which includes Gov. Jesse Ventura, Sen. Paul Wellstone and other prominent political figures-- has condemned the Minneapolis Star Tribune for what it calls a "double standard" on the use of the word "terrorism." But in fact, neither the newspaper nor the organization applies the term "terrorism" in a consistent way-- a problem that is widespread throughout U.S. media. The organization's grievance against the Star Tribune is that the paper says it avoids using the term "terrorist" in its reports on the Mideast conflict. As the paper's assistant managing editor, Roger Buoen, explained in a comment to the paper's ombudsman (2/3/02): "Our practice is to stay away from characterizing the subjects of news articles but instead describe their actions, background and identity as fully as possible, allowing readers to come to their own judgments about individuals and organizations. "In the case of the term 'terrorist,' other words-- 'gunman,' 'separatist' and 'rebel,' for example-- may be more precise and less likely to be viewed as judgmental. Because of that we often prefer these more specific words. "We also take extra care to avoid the term 'terrorist' in articles about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of the emotional and heated nature of that dispute." This policy of avoiding the term "terrorism" in favor of more specific descriptions is a defensible policy-- so long as it is applied consistently. But Buoen went on to acknowledge that the paper does make exceptions: "However, in some circumstances in which non-governmental groups carry out attacks on civilians, the term is permitted. For example, Al Qaeda is frequently referred to by the Star Tribune and other news organizations as a 'terrorist network,' in part because its members have been convicted of terrorist acts and because it has been identified by the United States and other countries as a terrorist organization." Here the paper is making distinctions that are not defensible. First, to limit "terrorism" to "nongovernmental groups" is an illogical restriction. Does a plane being blown up stop being terrorism if it turns out that some nation's intelligence agency secretly ordered its destruction? To make such an arbitrary distinction over the use of a word with such powerful connotations certainly doesn't sound like "allowing readers to come to their own judgments." (The Star Tribune's ombudsman noted that the Associated Press also reserves the word "terrorist" for non-governmental groups.) Similarly, to decide that it is all right to label Al Qaeda as a "terrorist network," not because its specific actions fit a definition of terrorism, but because the U.S. government has used that label in public statements or in legal actions, is not allowing readers to make up their minds but letting the state make up their minds for them. Furthermore, the September 11 attacks are certainly an "emotional and heated" subject-- probably more so than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for most of the Star Tribune's readers. Since the reasons the paper cites for calling Al Qaeda "terrorist" also apply to the Palestinian organization Hamas, one can't help but wonder if the Star Tribune's different treatment of these groups has to do with the greater degree of outrage its readers would feel if the paper declined to use the term in Al Qaeda's case. So MAT has a point when it charges the paper with a double standard. But the organization itself has a similar double standard when it comes to its definition of terrorism. "Calling the targeted killing of innocent civilians anything but terrorism is completely unconscionable," says Marc Grossfield, the group's co-founder, in a press release (4/2/02). But do they really mean it? FAIR asked Grossfield if his organization would refer to the bombing of Hiroshima as a terrorist act. "No, we would not," he responded. Yet it would seem to fit MAT's definition precisely: Hiroshima was targeted precisely because the city, lacking significant military targets, had escaped previous bombing damage, so its destruction by a single bomb would send the starkest possible message to Japan about the price the nation would pay if it refused to surrender. So why isn't that targeting of civilians, who died on a scale undreamed of by any suicide bomber, considered to be terrorism? "The use of weapons of mass destruction in WWII against an evil force who had engaged in genocide is not something that this organization is willing to judge," was MAT's official response. So targeting civilians stops being terrorism when it's done to combat an
[BBC] Vatican outrage over church siege in Bethlehem [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1916000/1916580.stm - >From Our Own Correspondent - Monday, 8 April, 2002, 16:19 GMT 17:19 UK Vatican outrage over church siege Israel says the fire broke out by accident The Vatican has issued a stern warning to Israel to respect religious sites in line with its international obligations, following a gun battle around Bethlehem's besieged Church of the Nativity. Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican was following events "with extreme apprehension" and trying to establish the truth about the fighting that flared early on Monday. Israel says its troops are under orders not to fire at holy places and blamed Palestinian militants for a fire near the church, which is revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Several hundred Palestinian gunmen and civilians fleeing Israeli tanks have been holed up in the church complex for nearly a week, along with a group of monks and nuns. A spokesman for Catholic monks in the Holy Land said earlier that Israeli soldiers were guilty of an "indescribable act of barbarity". Israel had broken its international obligations and risked "long-term and incalculable" consequences, Father David Jaeger said. Speaking from Rome, he said monks at the church had reported damage to "sacred spaces" and evidence that Israeli troops had entered the church. The Pope, who has urged people to pray for peace in the Middle East, on Monday described the violence in the Holy Land as having reached "unimaginable and intolerable" levels. The Israeli army says Palestinian gunmen provoked a fire which broke out near the Church of the Nativity on Monday. Gunmen had opened fire from a belltower, wounding two Israeli border policemen in a nearby rooftop look-out, an army officer told Reuters news agency. He said the Israelis returned fire and a smoke grenade started the blaze in a second-floor meeting hall overlooking the Basilica of St Catherine, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity. One Palestinian gunman was shot dead in the battle, the Israeli source said. But a priest inside the church, Father Amjad Sabbara, told the BBC that the Palestinian killed was a police officer who had been trying to douse the flames. He said the blaze had burned for an hour, destroying a piano, chairs, altar cloths and ceremonial cups. Father Sabbara estimated that there were 240 people in the church. Some were armed, he said, but they were "not using their arms". The Mayor of Bethlehem, Hanna Nasser, told the BBC that mosaics inside the Basilica of St Catherine had been "affected by the bullets". The Israeli army has been conducting a major military operation across the West Bank for over a week, in response to a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants. "It really involves going through the cities and refugee camps and taking out the infrastructure of the terrorists: weapons, documents, explosive material, laboratories," army spokesman Captain Jacob Dalal told the BBC. Israeli troops have been using loudspeakers to demand the surrender of the Palestinians inside the Nativity complex. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that his soldiers would not "defile the holiness of the site as the [Palestinians] have" but added that the troops would remain in place until the gunmen inside were captured. In Britain, Foreign Office Minister Ben Bradshaw described Israeli actions in the area as "totally unacceptable". The Vatican is reported to be working out an agreement with the Israelis on safe passage for the Palestinians inside the church to the Gaza Strip. = Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts & ends at the colonnade between Grand & Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
FW: Robert Fisk on current ME crisis!!! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- -Original Message- From: Patrick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 08 April 2002 08:01 To: jonathan Subject: Robert Fisk on current ME crisis!!! R Fisk comments on G Bush's speech . But of course, the White House, which according to the Israeli press has repeatedly been asking Mr Sharon how long he intends to reoccupy the Palestinian cities of the West Bank, is to give the Israeli Prime Minister more time to finish his invasion, destroy the Palestinian infrastructure and dismantle the Palestinian Authority. Daniel (article not for cross posting) - The Independent Robert Fisk: A speech laced with obsessions and little else 05 April 2002 Ariel Sharon could not have done better. The heaping of blame upon an occupied people, the obsessive use of the word terror - by my rough count there were 50 references in just 10 minutes - and the brief, frightened remarks about "occupation" and (one mention only) to Jewish settlements and the need for Israeli "compassion" at the end were proof enough that President Bush had totally failed to understand the tragedy he is supposedly trying to solve. The mugger became the victim and the victim became the mugger. What, I wonder, is the exact distance between the Rose Garden and Bethlehem? So the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, is travelling to "the region'' next week. Next week? Why not now? But of course, the White House, which according to the Israeli press has repeatedly been asking Mr Sharon how long he intends to reoccupy the Palestinian cities of the West Bank, is to give the Israeli Prime Minister more time to finish his invasion, destroy the Palestinian infrastructure and dismantle the Palestinian Authority. The speech was laced with all the "war on terror'' obsessions: Iraq as a sponsor of terror for donating money to a family of Palestinian "martyrs'', and Syria for not making up its mind if it is "for or against terror''. The European Union, fearful of rising oil prices and their effect on the eurozone economy, had earlier dispatched a mission to Israel; with typical contempt, Mr Sharon told its members they could not visit Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. The delegation, which had earlier announced that the Americans had failed in their mission as peacemaker in the Middle East, simply packed up and left Tel Aviv within hours. But will Mr Powell do any better? The dollar has fallen against world currencies because of the Middle East crisis - as good a reason as any for Mr Bush to act - and the possible restrictions on Middle East oil production, though more damaging to Europe, must have helped to prompt the President's decision to dispatch Mr Powell. The Palestinian suicide bombings, however, were the core of Mr Bush's address. He talked of the 18-year-old Palestinian girl who blew herself up and killed a 17-year-old Israeli girl, the Jewish state's "dream'' of peace with its neighbours. "Terror must be stopped ... no nation can negotiate with terrorists ... leaderships not terror ... you're either with the civilised world or you're with the terrorists ... all in the Middle East ... must move in word and deed against terrorists ... I call on the Palestinian Authority to do everything in their power to stop terrorist activities.'' Arafat had agreed to control "terrorism'' - "he failed'.' The reoccupation of the West Bank was a "temporary measure'', Mr Bush announced, trusting the word of the Israeli occupiers. "Suicide bombing missions could well blow up the only hope of a Palestinian state.'' On it went, 11 September-speak applied to the Middle East. Israel's enemies must be eliminated - Al Aqsa, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah, which yesterday beat up a UN observer on the Lebanese border in the most dangerous incident of its kind since the Israeli withdrawal in 2000. The whole Bush speech revolved around Israel's wellbeing, with scarcely three minutes devoted to the Palestinians and their 35 years under occupation. Israel should, Mr Bush decided, show a "respect'' for and "concern'' for the Palestinian people. There was some ritual mention of UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the 1967 war but which Mr Sharon has already said he cannot accept, and an appeal to halt settlement building. But Jewish settlements are still being built, at an ever-faster rate, on Palestinian land. Only a heart of stone could not respond to the suffering of those Israeli families whose loved ones have been so wickedly cut down by the Palestinian suicide bombers. But where was Mr Bush's compassion for the vastly greater number of Palestinians who have been killed by the I
FW: Why Bush is addicted to perpetual War!!/Iraq,war & propaganda [WWW.STOPNATO.
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- -Original Message- From: Patrick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 08 April 2002 15:04 To: Kofi Amegashie; jonathan; Mark Dapin Subject: Why Bush is addicted to perpetual War!!/Iraq,war & propaganda Why Bush Is Addicted to Perpetual War Ted Rall, AlterNet March 19, 2002 I began working on a graphic-novel update and parody of "1984" a few years ago. An awful lot had changed since Orwell posited his dystopian vision of the future from his late-1940s deathbed, and I accounted for those differences in my own version, 2001's "2024." In order to acknowledge the collapse of Soviet Communism and the failure of fascism to reemerge as a potent political force, I ditched Orwell's oppressive totalitarian state in favor of an entertainment-fueled nihilism in which dimwitted citizens frittered away their lives watching web TV and working at slightly overpaid jobs to buy worthless junk ... on web TV, natch. Where Orwell envisioned endless rows of soldiers marching in perfect unison to the strains of the Two-Minute Hate, I saw a world where nations had been replaced by trading blocs and the objects of hatred were the immigrants in our midst. The six months following The Really Bad Thing That Happened have made clear that I wasn't the only guy boning up on Orwell. In "1984," the elite Inner Party rules the rattled and irradiated citizens of Oceania through three conduits of fear and intimidation: surveillance, terrorism and perpetual warfare. The Oceanians had their two-way telescreens; we suffer a 10,000-employee National Security Agency that relies on automated voice-recognition and keyword software (Echelon, not to be confused with the more picayune and widely-reported Carnivore system) to monitor millions of e-mails, faxes and phone calls each day. But few Americans give much thought to this wholesale violation of their privacy; only those who are doing something wrong, they tell themselves, have anything to worry about. The first eight months of the Bush Administration were characterized by political insecurity. Bush, widely derided as unintelligent and oafish, had carried less than half of the popular vote in 2000, and many Democrats believed that he had bullied his way into the Oval Office. Jim Jeffords' defection from the GOP, partially a reaction to Bush's hard turn to the right after his inauguration, cost Republicans control of the Senate. Most analysts expected big Democratic gains in the 2002 Congressional elections, due both to the stagnating economy and to historical trends against incumbency in mid-term. The White House saw September 11 as a golden opportunity. The first catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil sparked an unprecedented case of leadership projection: desperate for protection and answers (why do they hate us? can we kill them before they kill us?), Americans wishfully compared Bush to FDR and Churchill. Approval ratings hit 92 percent. But Bush's political advisors knew that peaking early wouldn't guarantee reelection in 2004. Bush's father had been turned out of office just 20 months after the Gulf War ratcheted his score up to 91. The Bushies have lifted their reelection strategy straight out of "1984," and not just by creating ominous-sounding agencies like the Office of Homeland Security, the supposedly-closed Office of Strategic Information, and a "Shadow Government." As in "1984," the Bush regime tolerates zero dissent -- a two-party system in name only has been distilled to one in which only Republicans express acceptable opinions. And an absence of follow-up attacks has been met by endless alerts, advisors and empty hysterics in the name of security, most recently culminating with Tom Ridge's much-mocked color-code warning system. But Americans don't seem to miss their Democratic Party very much; after all, Clinton spent more time sucking up to big business than worrying about the fact that ordinary people can't afford to see a doctor. And unless Bush resorts to the Orwellian tactic of setting off bombs to kill his own citizens, the passage of time will inevitably yield to the complacency that could cost him '04. That leaves "1984's" most potent political tool: perpetual warfare. Just as Oceania was always at war with Eurasia or Eastasia -- who could keep track? -- the "war on terror," we are told, will continue indefinitely. Indefinitely is just another word for forever. Thus hundreds, possibly thousands, of American troops are headed to the Philippines to fight a rag-tag outfit of 80 jungle bandits. Our boys are scouring the back hills of far-flung Yemen in search of Al Qaeda fighters on the lam from our ongoing war in Afghanistan. We've set up bases in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to fight Central Asia's Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan -- never mind that the world hasn't heard from them since they kidnapped four American mountain climbers in 2000. China, Indonesia, the former S
FW: ME crisis;Total failure in US FP! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- -Original Message- From: Patrick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 08 April 2002 08:28 To: jonathan; Kofi Amegashie; Ayo Obisanya Subject: ME crisis;Total failure in US FP! http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.01A.WRP.Fools.htm This Sinking Ship of Fools By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | 04.01.02 Recent events in the Middle East have proven beyond a shadow of doubt that the Bush administration's complete lack of engagement with Israel and Palestine will stand as a historic example of deadly poor judgment. What we see is an administration that is hopelessly in over its head, groping for a solution far past the time when one could be reached, and all the while hedging its bets to keep a conflict with Iraq on the table. Consider the timetable of events: The Bush people came to Washington filled with scorn for the peacemaking efforts of the departing Clinton administration. On the eve of the election of hard-liner Sharon as Israeli Prime Minister, the Bush administration refused to send a peace envoy to the last-gasp talks between Israel and Palestine in Egypt. Weeks later, Bush pulled out the highly visible CIA brokers who had been stage-managing a cessation of the conflict. All the while, Bush and his people parroted the same asinine rhetoric: we'll help make peace once y'all stop shooting at each other...or, to put it another way, we'll help make peace once you make peace. As scenes of horror flash across CNN today, Israeli and Palestinian representatives speak out. Salting their comments are heartfelt laments at the absence of Bill Clinton and American engagement in any peace talks. Sadly for them and their people, the days of American engagement are long past. The current administration's opinion of the efforts made by Clinton were summed up by White House press secretary Ari Fleischer last month, who stated that, "You can make the case that in an attempt to shoot the moon and get nothing, more violence resulted." Though he was later forced to apologize for the claim that Clinton's peace efforts led to war, there is no mistaking the truth that Fleischer was stating the opinion of the Bush White House. Attempting to explain the Bush administration's appalling negligence in dealing with this conflict requires an examination of several factors. Foremost among them is what appears to be an astounding lack of ability among Bush's foreign policy people. The one true 'policy wonk' on the staff, Condoleeza Rice, is a world-renowned expert on a nation that no longer exists - the Soviet Union. No one else seems capable of dealing with the complexities of the issue. Beyond that lies a deep fear of failure: no one in the White House wants to make an effort at peace in that region and risk the appearance of falling short. This combination of ignorance and cowardice has borne bloody fruit. There is one man in the administration with the clout and deft touch to have an impact in this conflict. Secretary of State Colin Powell is well known and much respected on the world stage, yet he has been noticeably absent of late. He has visited the region only twice since taking his position. When the administration needed to gather support for a war with Iraq a few weeks ago, it was not Powell but Vice President Cheney who made the whirlwind tour of the Middle East. Cheney's efforts came to naught, at least publicly; after his trip, the Arab League released statements warning America against a war with Iraq. Powell's silence to date on the Israel/Palestine conflict lies at the crux of the matter. He is ensconced in an administration that wants nothing to do with the conflict. Because Powell holds deep reservations about a war with Iraq, he does not want to undermine his standing in the administration by taking an unpopular position on the current situation. Powell is keeping his powder dry because he will need all the clout he can swing to direct Bush and the administration's chief Iraq war-hawk, Paul Wolfowitz, away from a dangerous conflict with Saddam Hussein. The one man who could pull Israel and Palestine away from each other's throats has his hands tied because this administration wants war elsewhere in the region. Powell's reticence may not amount to much in the long run, however. It is becoming clear that the Bush administration will attack Iraq. American troop presence in the region, particularly in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has increased from 25,000 to 80,000 in recent months. Weapons and communications equipment are being pulled out of storage and brought to a secret base in Qatar, which could serve as a command and control point for an Iraq action that is away from Saudi Arabia, a nation not supportive of any Iraq plans. Asked whether America plans war against Iraq, General Tommy Franks replied, "Let me put it this way. We are increasing or improving our command and control capacity in all of my region." The violence between Israel and P
Iraq [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- BAGHDAD, April 8 (Reuters) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday announced an immediate suspension of Iraq's oil exports for a month in protest at Israel's incursion into Palestinian areas of the West Bank. web link http://www.forbes.com/work/managementtrends/newswire/2002/04/08/rtr561734.html In a speech broadcast over Iraqi media, the Iraqi leader,President Saddam Hussein said: "The Iraqi leadership declared the complete stoppage of oil exports starting from this afternoon April 8 for a period of 30 days when we will further decide policy, or until the Zionist entity's armed forces have unconditionally withdrawn from the Palestinian territories." The decision came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to press ahead with a 10-day-old military offensive, in direct defiance of demands from Washington for a withdrawal. Saddam said: "The decision is basically taken against the Zionist entity, and the American aggressive policy and not against anyone else. It is not meant to harm anyone but those who have decided to harm the Palestinian people." IRAN, LIBYA There was no immediate response to the Iraqi decision from two other Muslim oil producing nations, Iran and Libya, who have said they too would embargo oil supplies but only if the ban found support from all Arab producers. Iraqi officials said their suspension would be lifted once the Iraqi leadership was satisfied that Israel had withdrawn from the West Bank. Iraq exports oil under a humanitarian exchange with the United Nations, permitted as an exception to 1990 Gulf War sanctions. Despite its hardline on Iraq, the U.S. is easily the world's biggest consumer of Iraqi crude, taking more than half of Baghdad's oil and depending on Iraqi supplies for about nine percent of its huge imports. Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed confirmed the suspension of exports had been implemented at 1000 GMT from both its export points on the Gulf and through Turkey. Turkish pipeline company Botas said it had yet to be notified. About a third of Iraq's crude exports are piped north through Turkey to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan with the rest shippped from Iraq's Gulf port of Mina al-Bakr. The stoppage helped propel oil prices higher, adding $1.04 to benchmark Brent to $27.03 a barrel, near a six-month high. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Xinhua: Saddam Defies U.S. Threats of Military Attacks [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Saddam Defies U.S. Threats of Military Attacks Xinhuanet 2002-04-07 03:11:28 BAGHDAD, April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Sunday vowed to defend his regime against possible military attacksfrom the United States, the state-run Iraq TV reported. "We will fight against them (the enemy) with missiles, planes, stones ... and all what we have and we will defeat them," Saddam was quoted ed as saying. Saddam made the remarks at a meeting with his younger son Qusay,who heads the elite Republican Guard and the military bureau of theruling Arab Baath Socialist Party, and senior military officials including Minister of Military Industrialization Abdul Tawab Mulla Howeish and Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed. "If half of your air defense capabilities are destroyed, you will fight with the other half. If the other half is also destroyed, you will fight by using daggers," Saddam said. U.S. President George W. Bush, at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday, reiterated that the U.S. policy was to topple the Saddam regime and said all options were on the table. Bush has branded Iraq as part of an "axis of evil" and strongly warned that Iraq may become the next target of the U.S.-led war on terror after Afghanistan. Enditem --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Israel attacks Bethlehem church [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 8 April 2002. Fire in Compound of Church of Nativity After Gunbattle. BETHLEHEM -- Israeli troops ringing the Church of the Nativity fired Monday upon one of Christianity's holiest shrines, throwing a smoke grenade into the compound that sparked a fire near an adjacent church. A Palestinian policeman, who was trying to extinguish the fire, was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper, said a fellow policeman in the compound. The Israeli military said Palestinian gunfire wounded two Israeli border police officers. Israeli officials and senior Franciscans in Rome, whose clerics are among those inside, appeared increasingly at odds as the standoff stretched into a seventh day. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told parliament hours after the pre-dawn violence that soldiers would surround the church until the gunmen release the clerics, whom he described as hostages, and surrender. The Franciscans, however, accused Israel of violating a pledge not to attack the church. They maintained that the clerics aren't hostages and will remain in the compound throughout the standoff. The fire burned in a second-floor meeting hall above the courtyard of St. Katherine's, a Roman Catholic church in the compound adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born. The blaze, which burned for an hour before a fire crew could arrive, destroyed a piano, chairs, altar cloths and ceremonial cups. It sent plumes of smoke into the sky, which glowed orange as the sun rose. "While the people were trying to put out the fire, Israelis opened fire and killed one Palestinian whose body is still inside the church," said Father Amjad Sabara. [N.B.] A Palestinian policeman, who gave only his first name, Salah, said an Israeli soldier shot a Palestinian policeman, 23-year-old Khaled Syam, in the head as he went to put out the fire. Palestinian firefighters were stopped and searched before being allowed to go to Manger Square to put out the fire. They weren't allowed inside the compound, but witnesses said they sprayed water over the wall to extinguish the blaze. A senior Israeli officer said Palestinians rang the church bells before dawn, signaling gunmen in a bell tower of the compound to fire on two Israeli border police manning a nearby rooftop lookout over the church. The two border policemen were injured and scrambled inside an attic where they threw a smoke grenade into the compound, starting the fire, the officer said on condition of anonymity. Gunmen inside the compound fired rifles and threw hand grenades, and soldiers returning fire killed one Palestinian, he said. [N.B.] A Catholic missionary news agency in Rome quoted the Rev. Giovanni Battistelli, the Franciscan's top representative in the Holy Land, as saying: "Nobody opened fire from inside the basilica compound. It was an attack carried out by Israeli forces." Father Gianfranco Pinto Ostune, a spokesman for the Franciscan Church in Rome, said Franciscan friars in the compound found material "unequivocally belonging to the Israeli army." A Palestinian policeman, who would not give his name, said four M-16 assault rifles and two Israeli army bulletproof vests were found on a rooftop. Battistelli said the Franciscans, among some 60 clerics inside the church, would stay put to protect the site. If they left, he said, "(Israeli) soldiers would be free to attack." A spokesman for the office of the Custodian of Catholic sites in the Holy Land characterized it as an Israeli attack in "violation of every canon of human decency." "I've been warning for days now that an attack is imminent and on behalf of my brothers calling on the church and the world to intervene with the Israeli government," the Rev. David Jaeger told Associated Press Television News in Rome. "What we heard instead (was) lying - promises day after day, hour after hour from the Israeli government to the whole world that they will never attack." Sharon, who is under growing U.S. pressure to immediately withdraw from West Bank Palestinian cities, said Monday the army will not leave Bethlehem yet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Is India going the way of 1930s Germany? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2002/0203indhind.html Foreign Policy in Focus [March 27, 2002] Is India going the way of 1930s Germany? By Arun R Swamy The recent rounds of violence between religious groups in India do more than reveal the fragility of India's secular state. They highlight the inability of Indian democracy to combat what is essentially a fascist onslaught. At first glance what is happening in India appears to be another - if extreme - case of religious passion gone awry. A train carrying Hindu activists from the disputed religious site of Ayodhya was firebombed by a mob, killing 58 of the activists. Several days of revenge attacks by Hindus against Muslims followed in the state of Gujarat, killing more than 700. However, India's Hindu nationalists have always resembled 1930s European fascists more than they do contemporary "fundamentalists". Members of the core organization of Hindu nationalism, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in the 1920s, are given paramilitary instruction, not religious, and wear khaki uniforms reminiscent of Mussolini's brownshirts. While the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), founded in the 1960s, is mainly concerned with religion, it still does not prescribe how Hindus should worship or behave - an impossible task given the diversity of Hindu religious practice. Instead, like all Hindu nationalists, it is bent on characterizing Muslims as alien and hostile while seeking to unify Hindus around a romantic nationalism, in which military prowess plays a central role. Hindu nationalists' emphasis on international prestige has won them the support of the Westernized middle class, typically the target of Islamic fundamentalism. Their focus on demonizing Muslims rather than promoting Hinduism is illustrated even by the dispute over Ayodhya, where extremist Hindu groups destroyed a 16th-century Muslim mosque in 1992, sparking nationwide sectarian riots in which more than 2,000 people died. Hindu nationalists claim that a temple on the same site honoring the birthplace of the Hindu deity, Rama, was torn down to make way for the mosque. For Hindu extremist groups, the claim that a temple was torn down to build a mosque - for which there is no concrete evidence - was at least as important as the claim that Rama was born at the site. The destruction of the mosque was commonly spoken of in terms of retaking territory that had been lost to invaders. Hindu nationalists have identified other mosques that they wish to destroy, claiming that these, too, were built on temple sites. For none do they claim the sanctity associated with the birthplace of Rama. Indeed, the purpose of claiming a particular site as Rama's birthplace - for which there is no basis in theology or tradition - was to justify tearing down the existing mosque. It is this fascist ideology, and the fact that a party espousing it is at the head of the national government, that makes the recent anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat so much more disturbing than earlier rounds of riots. As horrific as the recent violence was, more died in 1992. But the political establishment's response this time has been ambivalent and feeble. The paralysis in the political system is emboldening the Hindu extremist organizations responsible for the Gujarat "riots" to press their agenda more forcefully. There are times when India seems to resemble Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s. The analogy to the rise of Hitler is not one that should be made lightly, but there are many parallels. The Gujarat attacks were not spontaneous expressions of mob rage but were highly organized and brutally efficient, probably identifying Muslim homes and businesses through the use of public records. The state government was almost certainly complicit in the wave of violence that affected the entire state and saw no effort by the police to control it. The central government was slow to dispatch the army, and has attempted to put the focus on the train attack, for which they blame Pakistani intelligence. The state government initially sought to limit judicial inquiry to investigating the train attack, to use its emergency powers only against those accused of the train attack, and to offer higher levels of compensation to the (Hindu) victims of the train attack on the grounds that they were victims of terrorism. Even many liberal intellectuals and politicians, whose protests forced the state government to retract some of these measures, have tacitly accepted the idea that several days of targeted anti-Muslim violence can be equated with the attack on the train, and even resulted from it. Worse, there has been no effort by those in power to hold those responsible for the Gujarat attacks accountable. The national government, run by the same party as the state government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has chosen not to use its c
Korea. KCNA Apr 7 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Korean Central News Agency Extracts. Korean people's just cause supported by Indian party Pyongyang, April 7 (KCNA) -- A. B. Bardhan, general secretary of the National Council of the Communist Party of India (CPI), expressed resentment at Bush's listing the DPRK as part of "an axis of evil," noting that the CPI would continue to take measures for solidarity with Korea's socialist cause in the future, too. He said this when he met a delegation of the Workers' Party of Korea to the 18th congress of the CPI on March 30. He said that his party was greatly encouraged by socialist Korea which has foiled the U.S. imperialists' vicious moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK under the wise army-based revolutionary leadership of Kim Jong Il. Recalling that President Kim Il Sung paid deep attention to the CPI activities in his lifetime, he stressed that the CPI would take organizational measures to significantly commemorate the president's 90th birth anniversary this year. "International Kim Il Sung Prize" awarded to Vishwanath Pyongyang, April 7 (KCNA) -- The "International Kim Il Sung Prize" council on April 1 decided to award "International Kim Il Sung Prize" to Vishwanath, director general of the International Institute of the Juche Idea. He was awarded the prize for having ardently espoused the immortal Juche idea founded by President Kim Il Sung and made distinguished services for accomplishing the glorious cause of global independence and peace. Diverse activities to see "Arirang" performance brisk in S. Korea Pyongyang, April 7 (KCNA) -- Different circles of South Korea are reportedly conducting diverse activities to see the mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" to be staged at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang. The solidarity for implementing the south-north joint declaration inaugurated a steering team to watch the "Arirang" performance and put application ads in MBC and internet, while displaying posters introducing the performance at public places in different parts of South Korea. The organization sent to the Ministry of Unification a list of applicants for visits to Pyongyang to see the "Arirang" performance collected as of March 29 and a letter to the authorities requesting them to enable the South Koreans to make free tours of Pyongyang to enjoy the performance. Meanwhile, the Pusan solidarity for implementing the south-north joint declaration is conducting such brisk information services as displaying posters on the "Arirang" performance at crowded places of Pusan and explaining its citizens the significance of the performance. The (South) Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) sent an official notice calling for the organization of the KCTU groups to see the "Arirang" performance to its affiliated organizations. The reunification solidarity for the implementation of the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration and peace on the Korean Peninsula inputted an introductory article to homepage under the title "The Mass Gymnastic And Artistic Performance 'Arirang'". The "National Students Federation for Travel", the "South Korean Youth League" and its affiliated organizations and the South Korean federation of university student councils are busy making arrangements to form a council for collecting applicants to see the mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" and expressing solidarity with them. _ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
FW: What's in a name? - Shpresa - Hope [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: What's in a name? - Shpresa - Hope HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- -Original Message-From: John O [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]Sent: 08 April 2002 10:04To: Recipient List SuppressedSubject: What's in a name? - Shpresa - Hope == National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) 110 Hamstead Road Birmingham B20 2QS Phone: 0121-554-6947 Fax: 0121-554-7891 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web site: http://www.ncadc.org.uk/ == What's in a name? - Shpresa - Hope To Shpresa, a young Albanian mother, her name is her way of life. Shpresa means hope and that is how she survives each moment of the day. After her terrifying experience at Yarl's Wood detention centre on the night of February 14th, and, all that preceded and followed, it is only hope that keeps her going. 'The reason I fled to England is because of a blood feud,' she explains, 'I damaged family honour, we are Muslim and I fell in love and married a Catholic without family permission. My brothers have sworn they will kill us and our two children. It is the law of the Kanun. They have already killed my brother-in-law.' The Kanun of Lek Dukajini is a strict, 15th century, code of laws governing marriage, birth, death, hospitality and inheritance, which has been handed down orally through the generations and used as a system for administering justice in northern Albania, which historically has remained isolated from central government law. With the collapse of communism in 1991 and the subsequent lack of law and order, the number of vendetta killings has soared. But, how more civilised is British 'justice' that seeks to return her to this? "It was very early in the morning', said Shpresa, 'We were awoken by banging on the door, my husband opened it and seven officers burst into our home. Outside, police cars and vans blocked the street. They said 'pack quickly, you're being deported.' Almost hysterical, Shpresa woke her children and packed a few clothes while her husband desperately tried to explain that their case 'wasn't finished.' The response was 'move more quickly.' Taken first to the Regional Immigration Centre, they were searched then transported to Yarl's Wood. It was like a prison', reflected Shpresa, 'surrounded by high barbed wire fencing, patrolled by guards and with locked doors. We had one room with three narrow beds and slept each with a child in our arms. There was a bathroom, but no water came from the taps.' On the ninth day of their detention fire broke out. 'It was 8pm,' said Shpresa, 'our children were sleeping when we heard much noise. We didn't know it was the fire alarm because there'd been no fire instructions. Friends on the landing shouted 'Come out quickly, the building's on fire.' Choking, acrid smoke had already begun to seep into their room, situated on the first floor where the fire originated, when, panicking with fear and gasping for breath they'd grabbed their babies and stumbled out into the suffocating black corridor. 'I was so scared, recalled Shpresa, 'The fire was very close and we were almost overcome by smoke. Thankfully, we located the stairs and got out. We were last from the building, but nobody noticed. No one was counting. The young parents, each with a babe in arms (18 and 4 months), were forced to remain outside all night. In bare feet and dressed only in a tee shirt, Shpresa begged to be allowed inside because the youngest child was going blue with cold. She was refused. Then, after twelve freezing hours, on the excuse the camp shop had been raided, they were humiliatingly searched, and bused to a detention camp near London. Twenty hours passed before food and drink were offered. Two days later, Shpresa was separated from her husband. 'I was given a ticket, taken to the station and left with my babies,' said Shpresa. 'I couldn't stop crying because I missed my husband and I couldn't speak any English.' Shpresa described her nightmare journey back to her home in the north of England. How, before breakfast and without food, drink, nappies and money she'd waited four hours for a train that only went part way to her destination. How she'd got lost, then eventually found a policeman and was taken to a bed and breakfast hostel. How the following morning, still without food and nappies, she was taken to the town's Civic Centre where she'd waited four hours for the housing provider to come and take her home. Shpresa was 48 hours without food or drink. Her two babies were sustained by suckling from their mother's breasts. Bravely optimistic about an uncertain future, Shpresa, continues to live in hope. == Letter from a Detainee Wednesday 3rd April 2
Community Media Guide (a useful tool) [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- KRON Community Media Guide: http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?s=510446 Practical "how to do it" information about how to get your news into the news. http://www.kron4.com = Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts & ends at the colonnade between Grand & Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
London Guardian's news summary, Mon., 8 Apr 2002 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- from The Wrap, Guardian Unlimited's round-up of today's papers. >>> ISRAEL DEFIANT The Middle East again dominates the broadsheets. The Guardian leads on Israel's defiance of US demands to pull out of the occupied territories, and the Telegraph on Tony Blair's declaration that Britain will take military action against Iraq, while the Independent reports that the EU is considering sanctions against Israel. The Times says that Mr Blair and Mr Bush have formulated a plan to send international observers to police a truce in the West Bank. Speaking after two days of talks at George Bush's ranch, Mr Blair yesterday brushed aside mounting opposition among Labour MPs to declare that Britain supported a "regime change" in Iraq. But the Independent doubts the "linkage" (the foreign policy concept of the moment, it says) between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida suggested by Mr Bush. Despite plenty of opportunity Saddam has been either "uninterested or unsuccessful" in sponsoring anti-American terrorism, it argues. All the papers carry Baghdad's reply to the sabre-rattling: a threat to fight back with "stones, missiles and war planes". The Mirror's front page is taken up with a cartoon showing Mr Blair as the president's poodle. "Sit, beg, fetch, roll over ... KILL," orders Mr Bush in full Texan cowboy dress. Inside, the political commentator Paul Routledge says that the prime minister obviously enjoyed his stay in the "poodle parlour" as he "appeared for the cameras with what's left of his hair all fluffy and nice". More than 30 Palestinians were killed yesterday in the West Bank as Israeli troops pushed further into Jenin and continued their onslaught in Nablus. US officials say Mr Bush has put his credibility on the line by twice calling for a withdrawal, the Guardian reports. Its Jerusalem correspondent, Suzanne Goldenberg, says that Ariel Sharon is shoring up far right support for his coalition government, and despite US demands is likely to continue the assault until Thursday or Friday. * Get out now, US tells defiant Sharon http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,680653,00.html * Washington's patience pushed to the limit http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,680498,00.html * Times: Blair and Bush in new plan for Israel http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-260528,00.html * Telegraph: We are ready to hit Iraq, says Blair http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/08/wmid08.xml&sSheet=/portal/2002/04/08/ixport.html = Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts & ends at the colonnade between Grand & Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
A million Moroccans march against the Racist Settler State [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
From: "Jim Yarker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: a million Moroccans march against the Racist Settler State Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 15:14:31 -0400 BBC Sunday, 7 April, 2002, 12:27 GMT 13:27 UK Huge anti-Israel march in Morocco By Stephanie Irvine BBC correspondent in Rabat A crowd estimated to at least one million people has gathered in the centre of the Moroccan capital, Rabat, chanting slogans and waving Palestinian flags and banners. Some American flags have been set alight and riot police line the streets, but there has been no violence so far. The demonstration has been called by the Moroccan Association in Support of the Palestinian Struggle to denounce what it calls Israel's crimes against the Palestinians and to call for peace. There have been unofficial protests and strikes by high-school students all over the country for the last two weeks, but this one is official. It has the backing of all the main political parties, some of whom have been bussing in supporters from around the country. With the demonstrations, the authorities may be hoping to channel the strong pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel feelings among ordinary Moroccans. Morocco has traditionally played a role as peace-maker and intermediary in the Middle East. And the Washington Post reports that US Secretary of State Colin Powell will stop off in Morocco for talks with King Mohammed VI before going on to talks with other Arab leaders and Israel. Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
