RE: World Jews call on Europe to fight anti-Semitism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- I will read that too. thanks! btw, Benny is probably the most hate man in Zionist circles. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 4/23/2002 8:03:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > > . I would also recommend 'Jewish History, Jewish > > Religion, the Weight of three thousand years', by Israel Shahak. It > > provides a whole new perspective on Zionism (ie., diverges somewhat from > > > > Said or Chomsky's position on the mid east). > > > > I've read it. Let me add Benny Morris, Righteous Victims and The Birth > of the > Palestinian Refugee Problem. You'll learn about all the myths we've been > fed. > Cynthia > > > --- 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 ==^
Rewarding Evil Ally: Morocco-US 'Free Trade' Deal Pushed By Bush [WWW.STOPNATO.O
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=7815825 The Times of India April 24, 2002 [As U.S. and French military client state, the monarchy of Morocco, begins its thirtieth year of illegal, brutal occupation of Western Sahara. See the POLISARIO press release below.] Bush pushes US-Morocco free trade deal AFP -US President George W. Bush welcomed Morocco's King Mohammed VI to the White House on Tuesday with a pledge that he will seek to bind the two "war on terrorism" allies in a free trade deal. WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush welcomed Morocco's King Mohammed VI to the White House on Tuesday with a pledge that he will seek to bind the two "war on terrorism" allies in a free trade deal. "Today, I've informed His Majesty that our government will work to enact a free trade agreement with Morocco," the president told reporters as the two leaders met in the White House Oval Office. "It's in our nation's interest that we do so. His Majesty believes it's in his nation's interest that we have a free trade agreement as well," said the US president, who described Morocco as "a great friend of the United States." The United States currently has free trade agreements in effect with only a short list of countries including Canada, Mexico, Israel and Jordan -- the lone Arab state to enjoy that status. "We are honoured with the relations we have enjoyed so far with the United States, but I think it's time that we have to shift the gear to go in a higher speed," said the monarch, who spoke through an interpreter. But Bush's efforts could be hampered by the US Senate's refusal thus far to grant him sweeping "trade promotion authority," which would prevent the lawmakers from offering amendments to any trade accord and bind them to an up-or-down vote. "The Senate needs to act, and it needs to act now," said the president. Bush -- who has repeatedly taken official Arab media to talks in recent weeks for allegedly fanning the flames of the Middle East conflict -- also urged Arab leaders to step up efforts to bring peace to the region. "The Arab world has responsibilities, and we will work with them to delineate those responsibilities and to encourage them to accept those responsibilities," he said with the monarch at his side. The US leader is likely to repeat that message when he welcomes Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to his beloved Texas ranch for a brief visit set to focus on ways to end fighting between Israel and the Palestinians. For his part, the Moroccan leader praised US Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent visit to the Middle East -- even though he gave the diplomat a frosty reception when they met April 8, at the start of the nine-day trip. "We can begin to see the results" of the initiative, the king said, perhaps referring to Israel's withdrawal from key West Bank towns, adding he hoped Powell had "recovered by now from the trauma he had" at their April 8 meeting. At that meeting, the king pointedly wore a badge depicting Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock -- built on territory claimed by both the Palestinians and Israelis -- and asked why Powell was not beginning his trip in Jerusalem. That question, posed at a photo opportunity, was widely interpreted as an indication of Arab anger over Powell's itinerary -- which did not have him arriving in Jerusalem until four days later and was seen as giving tacit US support to Israel's military operations in the West Bank. While the Moroccan monarch has traditionally been seen as a staunch US ally in promoting Washington's regional policies, he has chosen to adopt stronger language in support of the Palestinians in recent meetings with US officials. Most notably, the king has repeated his "total support" for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat -- still surrounded by the Israeli army in his West Bank headquarters -- on a number of occasions. ___ http://www.arso.org/FPUK100302.htm PRESS STATEMENT.. DECLARATION DE PRESSE... Western Sahara (POLISARIO) - Mission for UK & Ireland 19 Hormead Road, London W9 3NG - T/F: 020 89 64 52 11 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Western Sahara is a political issue, it is not an economic one Only the Moroccan settlers make the most of the investments in the Sahrawi occupied territories Western Sahara cannot be compared to Corsica, Catalonia or Bavaria Following the last visit of the king of Morocco to the Sahrawi occupied territories, the Moroccan government has launched an all-out offensive of disinformation whose objective is to distort reality and delude international public opinion by reducing the Western Sahara conflict to a simple economic issue. Indeed, the creation of the Moroccan Economic Development Agency in the occupied territories of Western Sahara is just an attempt to try and convince the international community to reconsider the rejected option of aut
Bush Pushes Bulgaria Into NATO Straitjacket [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=7818617 The Times Of India April 24, 2002 Bush urges Bulgaria to fight for Nato accession AFP WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush urged Bulgaria on Tuesday to redouble its efforts to be admitted to Nato during the alliance's November summit, visiting Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said. "The president encouraged us to keep on working very hard to the very last minute, shall we say, until Prague and I think that's what will have to do," Saxe-Coburg said after meeting with Bush at the White House. Bulgaria is among nine ex-communist countries hoping to be invited to join Nato at that landmark summit in Prague, the agenda of which has been radically revamped by the geopolitical changes over the last seven months. The Nato summit in Prague will consider extending invitations to nine candidates: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Macedonia. According to diplomats the most likely five to get the green light are the three Baltic states plus Slovakia and Slovenia. But the prospects of relatively impoverished Bulgaria and Romania being invited to join have been boosted by the geopolitical changes since September 11, notably due to their strategic location and Russia's changed relationship with the West. Moscow has long opposed Nato's expansion eastwards. Romania has also launched an all-out push to win Nato membership. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Judas Djindjic Promises Blair More Deportations For Blood Money [WWW.STOPNATO.OR
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Djindjic promises Hague transfer of war crime suspects AFP April 24, 2002 LONDON: Serbia's Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic has said that most of the Yugoslavs and Bosnian Serbs indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal would be transferred to The Hague court within two or three weeks, and some within days. Djindjic was in London for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who welcomed the Serbian prime minister's announcement as "a sign of progress", according to Downing Street. Washington, however, said Belgrade needed to do more and hinted that millions of dollars in aid to Yugoslavia would remain frozen until it did so. The Serbian prime minister said: "Some of them (the indicted people) will come and be in The Hague in two or three days. "I think that in two or three weeks, most of the people on this list of about 20 people will be in The Hague," he added. Djindjic, however, said it was proving very difficult to find one of the key suspects, former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic. "We have some problems, but we are doing our best. We have to be realistic and not provoke new crises and new injustice and new war crime in trying to deal with old crimes," he said. Djindjic also cautioned against moves to recognise the Serbian province of Kosovo as an independent state, which he said could lead to the return to power of ultra-nationalist forces in Belgrade. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Georgia Threatens Abkhazia; Britain To Train Georgian 'Anti-Terrorist' Forces [W
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 23 April 2002 TRANSCAUCASIA & CENTRAL GEORGIAN PRESIDENT WARNS ABKHAZ AGAINST NEW OFFENSIVE In his traditional Monday radio broadcast on 22 April, Eduard Shevardnadze warned the Abkhaz leadership not to launch a new offensive in the Kodori Gorge with the objective of killing or driving out the district's predominantly Svan population, Russian agencies and Caucasus Press reported. He said a new full-fledged conflict would result in the end of the current CIS peacekeeping operation. Shevardnadze also said that there are no longer any Georgian army troops in Kodori, only an unspecified number of border guards. He appealed to the Abkhaz leadership to resume peace talks. Abkhaz Prime Minister Anri Djergenia said in Moscow on 19 April that Sukhum will not resume negotiations with Georgia until all Georgian forces are withdrawn from Kodori. On 23 April, Shevardnadze telephoned Djergenia to discuss the situation in Kodori, Caucasus Press reported, quoting the presidential press service. The two men agreed to take all measures necessary to prevent a new escalation of tensions. U.K. TO TRAIN GEORGIAN POLICE ANTITERRORIST SQUAD Agreement has been reached during the ongoing visit to London by Georgian Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili that an unspecified number of British instructors will train members of the Georgian Interior Ministry's antiterrorist squad, Caucasus Press reported on 22 April. It is not clear when training will commence. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Belarus: "It's Time for OSCE to Leave"; World Bank Too [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- "It's Time for OSCE to Leave," Belarus President Says MINSK, Apr 23, 2002 -- (dpa) Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko defied Western critics on Tuesday by saying the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) should leave the country. In an annual speech in parliament, Lukashenko said the OSCE had requested its Minsk office remain open in order to observe the presidential elections. Now that the elections were over, the OSCE should end its mission, the president said. But he left the date of the OSCE's departure open. Lukashenko was re-elected last year with a large majority. Only three European diplomats currently work in the OSCE's Minsk office along with a skeleton crew of support personnel. Belarussian visa officials two weeks ago denied entrance to a French diplomat assigned to the office. Lukashenko said he would consider reviewing his decision to close down the OSCE office if the OSCE "changed all its staff and its policy towards Belarus". Lukashenko also criticized the World Bank saying it too should cease operations in Belarus "because we do not need their assistance". The World Bank's activities in Belarus are limited to programs aimed at reducing levels of tuberculosis and AIDS. Lukashenko also warned other Western non-governmental organizations in Belarus that they would be expelled if they "meddled in Belarussian internal affairs". (C)2002. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Bulgaria: NATO-Mandated Military Costs To Drain Treasury [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- News.bg April 24, 2002 Modernization of Bulgarian Army would require about BGN 1.5 billion [According to USAID figues, the Gross Domestic Product of Bulgaria for the year of 1999 was 10.6 US dollars. The Bulgarian currency, BGN, is equal to roughly half a US dollar. The estimated per capita income in Bulgaria for the year 1999 was US $1,510. According to World Bank figures, Bulgaria ranks number 60 in world per capita income, but its current ruling elite sends military forces to Kosovo and as far afield as Afghanistan, and sees as its chief objective to join NATO, with the massive outlay of scarce public funds required to upgrade its military equipment to insure so-called NATO interoperability.] Modernization of Bulgarian Army would require about BGN 1.5 billion Modernization of Bulgarian Army would require about BGN 1.5 billion by 2007, according to calculations, Deputy Minister of Defense Georgy Paskov said to journalists today. The Director of Armament Policy Department to the Ministry of Defense Col. Kiril Stoychev said that the modernization plan would be adopted in a couple of days. Paskov inaugurated the international seminar on Operative Technical Aspects of Standardization today. Among Bulgarian factories producing arms according to the standards of NATO are Terem, Arsenal - Kazanlak, and Arkus - Lyaskovets. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Korea. KCNA Apr 23 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Korean Central News Agency Extracts. Celebrations of KPA anniversary held Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- An oratorical meeting of agricultural workers was held at the Central Youth Hall yesterday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the heroic Korean People's Army. Speakers said it is the revolutionary will of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people to carry to completion with arms the Korean revolution that started with arms at any cost. They referred to the spirit of attaching great importance to the army prevailing throughout the society under the guidance of the great brilliant commander and the people's desire and emotion in the era of the army-based leadership. Present there were Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK, and others. A meeting of schoolchildren in Pyongyang with DPRK heroes was held in front of the monument to victory in the Fatherland Liberation War on the same occasion that day. DPRK heroes called on the schoolchildren to devotedly safeguard leader Kim Jong Il just as the first and second generations of the revolution held President Kim Il Sung in high esteem with loyalty in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and the Korean war. Students evinced their firm pledge to prepare themselves as a genuine juvenile guard and youth vanguard creditably defending socialism of Korean style with undisputed worship of Kim Jong Il. Compensation for crimes related to "comfort women for army" called for Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- The South Korean Federation of Women's Organizations strongly demanded the Japanese government admit its legal responsibility for the crimes related to the "comfort women for the army", punish those responsible for them and compensate for them at the 58th meeting of the un commission on human rights on April 18, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported. Recalling that in a report titled "sexual slavery for the Japanese army" submitted to the un commission on human rights in 1998 the organization charged that the Japanese government had a legal responsibility for the crimes and an obligation for compensating for them, it accused the government of still refusing to bear the responsibility for the crimes. It asked the UN commission on human rights to render cooperation in the efforts to make the Japanese government admit its legal responsibility for the crimes, punish those responsible for them and compensate for them. Anti-U.S. action called for Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- The south headquarters of the national alliance of youth and students for the country's reunification reportedly released an appeal on Friday on the occasion of the 42nd anniversary of the April 19 Popular Uprising. The appeal said that the uprising which was a resistance of justice against injustice marked a great event that shook the U.S. colonial rule and gave momentum to the movement for independent reunification. The June 15 joint declaration is a historic one which replaced the history of confrontation and division by one of unity and reunification and it, therefore, reflects the desire of the April 19 resistance fighters, it noted, adding that the youth and students in the north, south and overseas would set the period from April 19 to May 18 as a period of a movement for peace against the U.S. and war with a view to implementing the June 15 joint declaration and rise up in an anti-U.S. campaign, carrying forward the spirit of the resistance fighters. It called on units at all levels and youth and students' organizations under the headquarters to wage various forms of practical struggle against the U.S. and undertake an anti-U.S. action across South Korea on May 18. "Youth vanguard" artillery pieces presented Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- Youth across the country provided 20 "youth vanguard" artillery pieces through a vigorous do-good-thing movement intended to contribute to strengthening the DPRK's revolutionary armed forces as invincible ones on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the heroic Korean People's Army. A ceremony of presenting them to the people's army was held in Pyongyang yesterday. A presentation paper was conveyed to an officer concerned of the people's army unit. It was emphasized at the ceremony that the youth and the young soldiers should always maintain a strained and mobilized posture and wipe out the aggressors to the last one if they dare provoke a war of aggression against the DPRK. Present there were Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, KPA general Ryo Chun Sok, officials of the youth league, youth and students in the city and servicemen of the
Long Arm of the Law [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=7711349 Long Arm of the Law [ TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2002 2:32:16 AM ] Editorial: Times of India The news that relatives of the three British citizens killed in the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat last month are going to move the British courts for justice is at once an indictment of the Indian judicial system and a warning to politicians that `national sovereignty' cannot shield them from justice if they commit crimes against humanity. It is by no means certain that the British high court will admit such a case, although lawyers for the three families say they are marshalling compelling evidence. To the extent that world opinion is growing against the Gujarat government and chief minister Narendra Modi - the European Union has reportedly condemned the carnage as apartheid, with parallels to 1930s Germany - a British magistrate could conceivably initiate steps embarrassing to both the Vajpayee and Blair governments. When a Spanish magistrate asked the British courts to extradite the visiting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, the matter went all the way up to the Law Lords who finally upheld the legality of sending Pinochet to face trial in Spain. The evidence Judge Baltazar Garzon in Spain had against Pinochet was not much more detailed or precise than what human rights groups have collected on Mr Modi and his government. What saved the day for Pinochet was the political decision taken by then British home secretary Jack Straw, who vetoed the extradition on `health' grounds. In the Gujarat case, Britain is sure to side with the Vajpayee government, saving Mr Modi the trouble of checking into a hospital with `chest pain'. Nevertheless, the thought that he could be questioned by investigators the next time he travels to Britain or Europe will probably weigh heavily on his mind. Whether countries like it or not, an international legal architecture to deal with gross violations has begun to emerge in the aftermath of the mass killing of civilians by all sides in the Bosnian and Croatian civil wars which tore apart the former Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, the framework is rather ad hoc. The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) established by the UN Security Council has proved to be politically biased, indicting former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic for causing civilian deaths, but not the commanders of NATO for deliberately killing civilians as part of their illegal war on Yugoslavia in 1999. The new International Criminal Court (ICC) will come into being in July 2002 despite the objection of the US, which fears its soldiers and leaders might one day be indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. India too is opposed to the ICC for largely the same reason. The growing assertiveness of national courts is yet another part of the emerging international legal framework for dealing with serious crimes. In India today, for example, a terrorist crime committed against an Indian citizen in another country is a prosecutable offence in our national courts. If the Vajpayee government finds the idea of a foreign court prosecuting Indian citizens - including BJP and VHP leaders - for the killings which have taken place in Gujarat distasteful, the best way to respond would be to ensure the guilty are prosecuted and punished here. The NHRC has asked for the CBI to probe certain massacre cases in Gujarat and for fast-track courts. At a minimum, the government must act on these demands. --- 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 ==^
NATO's War Against Yugoslavia: Brains Vs. Brutality [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir020423_1_n.shtml Jane's Defence Weekly April 23, 2002 Competing for media control in an age of asymmetric warfare By Mils Hills and Rachel Holloway -Other sequences sought to associate NATO with Nazism. For example, one video opened with a view of a single fighter aircraft scudding through clouds. Then as the camera zooms out, a larger formation is revealed - assembled in the shape of a swastika. Serbian information operations (IO) carried out during NATO's 'Operation Allied Force' were unprecedented in their quality and sophistication, and point to the likelihood of increased asymmetric use of information in future conflicts. Even as bombs fell across Serbia at the beginning of NATO's Operation Allied Force, a Belgrade-based advertising agency called Kompani launched a project entitled Shelter Production (SP). SP created a number of videos designed for television broadcast in Serbia and beyond, and for MPEG download anywhere on the global information infrastructure. These videos were clever, slick, entertaining and shocking, and appear to have been explicitly designed to take advantage of the promise of viral movement of material in cyberspace. Each MPEG file was usually just small enough to be e-mailed and due to their quality, emotive content and novelty it could be anticipated that they would be circulated even if consumers were opposed to their inherent message. Because they were made in English, they were comprehensible to second and third generation members of the Serb diaspora in North American whose support was sought. The videos used Western icons (such as the X-Files' Fox Mulder), swiftly re-worked US satellite news, and bespoke animatronic models. In terms of emotion, the use of children was notable, as was an explicit sequence featuring the preparation and injection of heroin designed to link the Kosovo Liberation Army (Ushtria Climitare e Kosovoes) with the production and distribution of drugs. Other sequences sought to associate NATO with Nazism. For example, one video opened with a view of a single fighter aircraft scudding through clouds. Then as the camera zooms out, a larger formation is revealed - assembled in the shape of a swastika. Other videos featured comic interpretations of animated figures of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and President Bill Clinton. Many of these videos had professional music soundtracks accompanying them. The material also demonstrated a high level of interactivity and response to events. For example, ironic e-postcards were quickly released to take advantage of Allied discomfiture over the shooting down of an F-117 stealth fighter, and over the limiting effects of the Balkans climate on air operations. It is important to learn lessons from previous conflicts, but events that do not occur in the material world may be overlooked in post-conflict analyses. Current operational emphases on Afghanistan and related states should not blind analysts to the kind of developments in asymmetric IO that were witnessed during 'Allied Force'. Thus IO is important to effective asymmetric warfighting. Winning the international and domestic battle for hearts and minds in future conflicts will require a competitive approach to holding the news agenda and the public imagination, particularly when campaigns involve coalitions and alliances with diverse cultural domestic audiences. The role of Al-Jazeera, the Persian Gulf television network, since 11 September is a case in point. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Frantic search for British sons lost in Gujarat riots [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Frantic search for British sons lost in Gujarat riots Fears that 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, have died since unrest began Luke Harding in New Delhi Wednesday April 24, 2002 The Guardian The mothers of British Muslim cousins who disappeared when they were caught up in the communal riots in Gujarat nearly two months ago said last night that they had no intention of leaving India until they knew what had happened to them. Shakheel and Sayed Dawood, who were on holiday in India, were dragged from their Jeep by a Hindu mob 45 miles from the state's main city, Ahmedabad. Their nephew, Imran, escaped but a family friend and the driver were killed. Ayesha and Rabia Dawood, from Batley, West Yorkshire, are camping out in their ancestral village, Lajpore. They have distributed pamphlets and contacted relief camps where those left homeless by the riots are sheltering, but have found no trace of the two men. Shakheel's father, Abdulhai, who has lived in England since 1959, told the Indian Express: "My son even showed the rioters his passport, telling them he wasn't an Indian national but they wouldn't listen. Their names on the passport damned them." Their disappearance is a further embarrassment to the Indian government, already much criticised for letting the riots continue. A report by the British high commission in New Delhi, leaked last week, blamed the continuing violence in the state on its chief minister, Narender Modi, and his government, and suggested that the official death toll of 855 was a gross underestimate. A truer figure was 2,000, mainly Muslims, it suggested. The Dawood families are awaiting the result of DNA tests on human remains found at the scene. If the men are confirmed dead, the relatives may sue the Indian government in the British courts. Gujarat continued to smoulder yesterday. Another 17 people were killed at the weekend, and 100 injured. The dead included 10 Muslims shot in the head at point-blank range by police officers, apparently killed in revenge for one of their colleagues who was dragged into an alley and stabbed to death. Three more people died in Ahmedabad yesterday. The Indian prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has so far refused to give in to persistent opposition demands to sack Mr Modi, who belongs to the same Hindu nationalist party, the BJP. While secular Indians have been appalled by the destruction, Mr Modi has become a hero to hardliners in the BJP and its Hindu revivalist allies. The Gujarat state government promised yesterday that the latest police shootings would be investigated. The home secretary, K Nityanandam, said the inquiry would begin once he had learned more. "I need to take down full details from the officers of the concerned place," he said. "But preliminary reports definitely reveal that most of these victims were shot by the police on their heads." Few outside the BJP have much confidence in his findings. Since the rioting broke out after 59 Hindus were burned to death when a Muslim mob set fire to a train, Mr Modi's government has been accused of deliberately failing to stop Hindu gangs burning, stabbing and raping their Muslim neighbours. About 100,000 Muslims whose homes have been destroyed are living in relief camps and have received little or no help. Mr Modi has accused his critics of spreading "malicious propaganda". The row about the violence has paralysed the Indian parliament for more than a week. It has also dented India's reputation internationally. While Britain has maintained a diplomatic silence on the affair, and expressed only concern, other countries have been more damning. The Indian foreign ministry has responded by telling them to mind their own business. Since the September 11 attacks, New Delhi has argued that extremism is an Islamic problem which afflicts only its neighbour and rival, Pakistan: a claim that seems increasingly hollow given the rise of Hindu fundamentalism. But with the BJP in deep electoral trouble, many of its members believe that continuing Hindu-Muslim unrest is the best way to win back wobbling Hindu voters before the next general election in 2004. The leaked British report said that extremist Hindu groups were already planning to attack Gujarat's Muslim community well before the fatal assault on the train at Godhra on February 27. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 --- 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: UN Worker Fired For Exposing NATO-Mafia Prostitution Ring [WWW.STOPNATO.
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.online.ie/news/latest_world/viewer.adp?article=1721320 Irish Examiner UN worker claims unfair dismissal online.ie 23 Apr 2002 -The hearing in Southampton was told that American Kathryn Bolkovac had complained in several e-mails about the police and Nato troops in the country were helping local Mafia gangs in exploiting the women. A United Nations worker was sacked after she complained to her bosses that police sent into Bosnia were forcing women into prostitution and taking personal sex slaves, an employment tribunal heard today. The hearing in Southampton was told that American Kathryn Bolkovac had complained in several e-mails about the police and Nato troops in the country were helping local Mafia gangs in exploiting the women. The 41-year-old mother of three from Nebraska claims she was dismissed because she tried to blow the whistle on how her colleagues were helping in the crimes. The men who were involved were hired and trained by a British based company called Dyn Corp, it was alleged. The firm was responsible for about 300 police officers working in the Balkan country that was devastated by civil war in the early 1990s. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Behind Enemy Lines: American jingoism -- and a bad film [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.canoe.ca/JamVideoDvd/apr22_enemylines-sun.html Monday, April 22, 2002 The party line Behind Enemy Lines American jingoism -- and a bad film By BRUCE KIRKLAND Toronto Sun Thanks to outbursts of arrogance and occasional tragic incompetence -- just ask all of Canada today -- the polish is fading on the American military brass. The arrival of the gung-ho, chest-beating, sabre-rattling, U.S. Navy action drama Behind Enemy Lines is not going to help their cause. The movie is being released tomorrow on VHS and DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. First of all, it's a bad movie. As the story of a Navy pilot shot down by the Serbs during the war in Bosnia, Behind Enemy Lines is a kill-by-cliche genre picture in which every step, every shot, every death is painfully predictable. Led by Gene Hackman as a gruff commander and Owen Wilson as the downed pilot, the actors do their jobs with routine efficiency -- but no heart. Then director John Moore's insufferably pretentious camera and F/X tricks turn it into the cinematic equivalent of a carnival freak show. Worst of all, however, is the American military swagger. In this movie, the U.S. forces act irresponsibly, defy sensible NATO orders, threaten the peace process and act like bullies. The movie then rewards their behaviour. As a DVD, the movie is well presented in a widescreen transfer. There are two commentaries, one from a pair of producers, the other from Moore and editor Paul Martin Smith, the latter one useful if you're interested in the movie. Other extras are thin. The short behind-the-scenes hype-fest is pointless. On a tech level, the pre-visualization sequence which shows the pilot ejections is interesting. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
'If you don't like people, kill them': Exam question stuns Gujarat [WWW.STOPNA
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Goebbelsian psy-ops in examinations? also, hitleracharya and the holy cow... 'If you don't like people, kill them': Exam question stuns Gujarat http://headlines.sify.com/809news2.html New Delhi, April 23 Students in Gujarat were shocked when their knowledge of English in an examination was tested with a passage about Nazism, a report said Tuesday. One of the questions in the final school leaving examination asked students to form a single sentence from a four-sentence paragraph, a newspaper reported. "There are two solutions, one of them is the Nazi solution. If you don't like people, kill them, segregate them. Then strut up and down. Proclaim that you are the salt of the earth," the paragraph said. Another question asked students to modify a sentence by removing the word "If" from the sentence: "If you don't like people, kill them." Students and their parents were left wondering at the implication of the question as Gujarat has seen a frenzy of violent Hindu-Muslim clashes since February. Many of those taking the exam said they were distressed by the question. One parent, who was not named, said it was "unpardonable" that such questions were used at a sensitive time. "This question gave (my son) immense stress. Every day we hear stories of someone we know being stabbed or someone's shop being looted," he said. Gujarat Education Minister Anandi Patel said the question paper was selected at random. --- Stop eating beef, VHP asks Muslims http://headlines.sify.com/776news4.html New Delhi, April 24 As a precondition for peaceful co-existance with Hindus, the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) asked Muslims in the country to give up eating beef. VHP senior vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore, while talking to mediapersons after a meeting with the National Commission for Minorities, said while there are so many other animals to eat why Muslims insist on eating cow which is considered sacred by Hindus. Kishore also reiterated VHP demand to hand over disputed sites at Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi as a precondition for peaceful coexistence with Hindus. "First let them do it. Then we will see, " said the VHP leader while asked whether fulfilment of these conditions would foster Hindu-Muslim unity in the country. --- 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 ==^
US Continues Blackmail, Threats Until Last Serb Is Arrested, Deported [WWW.STOPN
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- No US aid till Belgrade hands over war crime suspects WASHINGTON (AFP)-- The United States said on Tuesday that Belgrade must arrest and transfer war crimes suspects to an international tribunal 'as soon as possible' and hinted that suspended US aid to Yugoslavia would remain frozen until it did so. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington welcomed declarations from Yugoslav officials that six suspects who have volunteered to surrender to The Hague-tribunal would be turned over within two weeks, but said Belgrade needed to do more. He called for the surrender or arrest of the remaining 17 Serb war crimes suspects still at large -- including former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic. On April 1, US Secretary of State Colin Powell indefinitely postponed a decision on certification, freezing US$40 million in direct US aid plus Washington's support for multilateral loans to Belgrade from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Earlier on Tuesday, Serbian officials said nearly all the 17 suspects remaining at large would be found and sent to the court within two or three weeks. The justice ministry said it would on Wednesday hand down indictments against the 17, opening the way for their arrest and extradition -- a procedure which could last 10 days. -- AFP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
FYROM: NATO-Backed Terrorists Attack With Rifle Fire, Grenades [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/apr02/hed4909.shtml AP, April 24, 2002 Gunmen fire on police positions in northwestern Macedonia By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer SKOPJE, Macedonia - Gunmen opened fire on police checkpoints in the tense northern parts of Macedonia on Tuesday as ethnic Albanian villagers blocked roads near the country´s second largest town, Tetovo. Gunmen fired sniper shots early Tuesday at a sandbagged police checkpoint near the village of Trebos, just outside the northwestern city of Tetovo, a government spokesman, Zoran Tanevski, said, adding that police did not fire back. Another group then opened machine gun fire on a police checkpoint near the village of Semsovo, just outside Tetovo. Macedonian police there returned fire, Tanevski said. Two grenades also exploded a few meters (yards) from a police bunker in the northern village of Vrelo, near Kumanovo, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Skopje, Tanevski added. No police officers were injured in any of the attacks, he said. "This is a matter of utmost concern," Tanevski said. "These are the most serious incidents in months." Tensions remain high in Macedonia despite efforts to implement a peace deal signed last August which ended six months of fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents. The agreement granted greater rights to ethnic Albanians, who account for nearly a third of Macedonia´s population of 2 million. Under the accord, which also granted amnesty to former rebels, members of the ethnic Albanian insurgency calling themselves the National Liberation Army disbanded and handed over some 4,000 weapons to NATO last year. But splinter factions of rebel fighters have emerged in recent months, saying they are dissatisfied with the slow pace of reforms envisioned by the peace deal. Also on Tuesday, ethnic Albanian villagers blocked the main roads around Tetovo, preventing police units comprised of Macedonian and ethnic Albanian officers from patrolling 37 of 40 villages in the area, Tanevski said. The deployment of lightly armed ethnically mixed police patrols forms a part of the peace deal. The villagers demanded the release of about a dozen ethnic Albanian prisoners jailed last year because of their alleged links with insurgents, said Abdulhakim Ademi, a coordinator of the ethnic Albanian Council for the Release of Political Prisoners. Ademi told The Associated Press that villagers have blocked the roads "to show that the amnesty law is not being implemented." He also warned that roadblocks will remain "until we receive strong guarantees, either by the domestic or international authorities, that the prisoners will be released." Under the provisions of the peace deal, the Macedonian government pardoned and released all ethnic Albanians jailed during the insurgency on charges including high treason, mutiny, armed rebellion and conspiracy against the state. Macedonian authorities dismissed the council´s demands as unacceptable. "They are demanding the release of all ethnic Albanians from prisons, even those who have nothing to do with the last year´s conflict, even simple criminals," Tanevski said. In a joint statement issued in Skopje, representatives of NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and the U.S. Embassy condemned the roadblocks and insisted that "ethnically mixed patrols must be allowed to perform their duties." "People should forward their demands through political channels and roadblocks are not political channels," said Irena Guzelova, a media adviser to the EU representative in Macedonia __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Looking For NATO Bombs, Yugoslavs Find Nazi Originals [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Hunt for NATO Shells in Danube Finds World War II Ammo Instead NOVI SAD, Apr 23, 2002 -- (dpa) Bomb-disposal experts checking the Danube River near the Yugoslav city of Novi Sad for unexploded NATO ordnance found something older instead: hundreds of rusting World War II shells. The 76-millimeter shells were presumably scattered when a German ship exploded in the vicinity, said the chief Yugoslav bomb-disposal officer, Colonel Slobodan Jovanovic, according to the Beta news agency Tuesday. Each unexploded shell contained between 600 and 700 grams of explosive. The danger zone was on both the riverbank and underwater three kilometers downstream from one of the downtown bridges downed three years ago by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) jets. The place is not much frequented by people, but a path leads nearby and the ordnance could threaten children and fishermen. Barge traffic that was formerly blocked by the fallen bridges also passes not far away. Grenades, detonators and shrapnel were clearly visible. Each unexploded, rusty projectile measuring 30 centimeters in length was caked with mud and calcification, Beta said. Shells had been found in a zone 350 meters wide that extended up to 100 meters out into the Danube. Jovanovic said the affected area extended 2 kilometers down-river. The ordnance was exposed when accumulated mud on the shore collapsed into the water. "Even today they are fully capable of killing," Jovanovic warned, appealing for funds for a clean-up operation. (C)2002. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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: Venezuelan Coup Leaders Flee To Miami [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- In a message dated 4/23/2002 11:07:21 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Venezuelan coup plotter 'in Miami' From David Adams in Miami I thought Dubya Dubya III said that any country that harbors terrorists must be punished!!! --- 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: World Jews call on Europe to fight anti-Semitism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- In a message dated 4/24/2002 12:26:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: btw, Benny is probably the most hate man in Zionist circles. He and Ilan Pappe. See what happens when you tell the truth? I don't know what makes me more angry...all the years that I unconditionally supported the state of Israel or what they are doing now. Cynthia --- 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 ==^
SFK Celebration Meeting, Thursday 25th April 2002 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
A reminder of this Thursdays Meeting on Korea. Please forward to all yahoogroups, ring your Comrades and get along to defend Korea from imperialist attack! SOCIETY FOR FRIENDSHIP WITH KOREA ( SFK, PO BOX 9135, LONDON, W3 - 6DG ) CELEBRATION ! THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF COMRADE KIM IL SUNG. U.S. / NATO imperialists Hands Off Korea! INVITED SPEAKER: Tadzie Tachiveye, Zimbabwe High Commission Dermot Hudson will report back from the Celebrations he has been attending in Korea, and the special theme of the meeting will be Korean Support to Oppressed and Independant Countries. PLUS: Video, Speeches, Music, Food and Drink. 7PM, Marchmont Centre, Marchmont Street, Near Russell square Tube. THURSDAY, 25TH APRIL 2002. ( Please ensure to forward to other yahoo group lists ! ) Do You Yahoo!? Get personalised at My Yahoo!.
RIM Statement on Palestine [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
The Hope for the Middle East: Not the Peace Process, but the Palestinian Peoples Just Struggle! The Palestinian people, though they number only a few million, have continued to be a focal point of world history as they struggle unflinchingly against the storm-troopers of the US outpost in the Middle East known as Israel. Over a year ago, Israeli hardman Ariel Sharon led a thousand armed soldiers and police into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a key symbol of the Muslim religion in East Jerusalem, which is itself viewed as the historic capital of Palestine by the Palestinians and the Arab world generally. Flaunting Israels control of this key Palestinian site was designed to humiliate the Palestinian people and assert Israeli unchallengeable supremacy. The response of the Palestinian people came immediately in the form of the "second Intifada": this region will never know peace until there is justice. For over 50 years, the Israeli rulers, backed and armed to the hilt by the worlds most powerful imperialists, have carried out repeated military aggression and wielded their overwhelming military superiority throughout the region. They have attacked and defeated the neighbouring Arab regimes in a series of aggressive wars (1956, 1967 and 1973), and annexed more Palestinian territory to beef up the security cordon around the territory seized in 1948 upon the creation of Israel. Labour Party and Likud Party alike erected settlements throughout the occupied territories, despite the unanimous condemnation of the international community, including in UN resolutions. Internally they imprisoned tens of thousands of Palestinians over the decades; they tortured thousands, in defiance of condemnation by international human rights groups; they carried out a campaign of state-sanctioned death squad assassinations of their opponents; they bombed outposts of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority with F16 fighter-bombers; they razed thousands of Palestinian homes, making over 40,000 homeless. They threaten anyone who defies them in the region with their vast arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons built up under the protection of the US imperialists. This is a settler colonial state that has stopped at almost nothing to subdue its opponents. And yet they know no peace. Fifty years after setting out on their blood-soaked trail of terror and death, the US imperialists Zionist henchmen are no closer to squashing opposition to their rule than when they first set out. This is powerful confirmation of the truth of Mao Tsetungs observation that wherever there is oppression there is resistance. Faced with this reality, ten years ago US imperialist chieftains George Bush and Bill Clinton pushed hard for a peace process in the Middle East that was supposed to do for that region what the change of the guard in South Africa accomplished there. A dynamic was set in motion that promised the Palestinian people an end to their degradation and oppression. The process was agreed in Oslo, sealed on the White House lawn by the Arafat-Rabin handshake, ratified in seven meetings, recorded in innumerable documents and trumpeted to the world. The peace process has proved to be a trap. Now the whole world is seeing that the honey-coated words of the imperialists were merely fancy cover for a means of getting Arafat and the Palestinian compradors and their henchmen to do the dirty work of suppressing the Palestinian masses themselves. Arafats Palestinian Authority was not even given control of the flow of water into the Occupied Territories. They were allowed just enough guns to suppress internal opposition to the Israeli occupiers, but nothing that would even remotely challenge the Israeli arsenal. The detection of a single boatload of weapons to Palestine that wouldnt come close to equalling Israels daily arms imports brought howls of rage from the imperialist media. A year ago, impatient with Arafats inability to rein in the Palestinian peoples resistance, the US-Israeli rulers brought in as head of state Ariel Sharon, the Butcher of Beirut who presided over the slaughter of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps at Sabra and Chatila in Lebanon in 1982. Sharons troops have invaded much of the territory supposedly "governed" by the Palestinian Authority, showing that all along it was but an empty shell, devoid of what the Russian revolutionary leader Lenin long ago pointed out as the crux of state power: armed forces. The peace process had taken off at a certain juncture in world politics: the Soviet social-imperialist empire had collapsed, creating a vortex that sucked under large numbers of their puppets and client states around the world. Reactionary comprador forces that had relied on the so-called Soviet Big Brother now quavered in fear at being left to face up to the US imperialists. Arafat and important sections of the Palestinian elite likewise concluded they had no choice but to jump at the bait
Venezuela: Bush's Bay of Piglets - Duncan Campbell (Guardian) [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Bush's Bay of Piglets If the US was the villain in the Venezuelan coup, Latin America's much-derided leaders were the heroes Duncan Campbell Wednesday April 24, 2002The Guardian Viva democracia! said the slogan scrawled on the bus offloading passengers near the presidential palace in Miraflores in Caracas this week. And so far democracy seems to be surviving in Venezuela, if only barely. The overthrow of the radical Hugo Chavez in a military coup on April 11 followed by Chavez's return to power within 48 hours was spectacular even by Latin American standards. President Bush said after Chavez's return that he hoped he had "learned the lesson", but the main lessons need to be learned further north in Washington itself. The precise part played by the US in the coup remains unclear. What is known is that in January Mr Bush appointed, against the advice of the senate foreign relations committee, a man with a shabby record of covert meddling in Latin American politics: Otto Reich. Reich, a Cuban-American who was once the US ambassador to Venezuela, is now the assistant secretary at the state department for the western hemisphere and as such calls the shots for the US - almost literally - in Latin America. In the Pentagon, the man with responsibility for Latin America is Rogelio Pardo-Maurer, who was the aide to the head of the Contras when they were waging their US-backed war against the elected leftwing Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Two of the Venezuelan military who supported the coup, General Efrain Vasquez and General Eddie Ramirez Poveda, are graduates of the US Army School of the Americas in Georgia, where many members of the Latin Ameri can military have been trained in how to deal with troublesome lefties. The tycoon who led the media onslaught that preceded the coup and whose television station announced it, Cuban-American Gustavo Cisneros, is an old fishing pal of Bush senior. While the US may not have been involved in the final timetable for the coup, it knew that one was imminent and clearly gave it a green light. While the world's attention was on the Middle East, the coup was greeted with speedy acceptance by the White House. One wonders if a Zapatista force had overthrown the elected Mexican President Fox whether Mr Bush would have responded by saying that he hoped Mr Fox had "learned his lesson". It was President Fox and the often derided Latin American heads of state who behaved like statesmen. They have little love for Chavez or his policies, but they recognise a military takeover when they see one. Fox swiftly condemned it and said he would not recognise an unelected government. The secretary general of the Organisation of American States, the Colombian Cesar Gaviria, did the same. This prompt action, combined with the angry pro-Chavez crowds on the street and the ill-advised dissolution of the national assembly and the supreme court by the newly installed president-for-a-day Pedro Carmona, changed wavering minds in the military. Chavez was returned to the palace. Only then, having realised their diplomatic gaffe, did the White House alter its stance. The lessons are plain. The leaders in Latin America know only too well what can happen if coups in democracies are allowed to succeed. Bush was warned that by allowing this old discredited crew back into power he would be undermining the delicate relations between the US and her southern neighbours. He ignored that advice under heavy pressure from the powerful Cuban lobby in Florida, where his brother, Jeb, is running for re-election this year. By doing so, he created an atmosphere whereby plotters must think they have carte blanche from the White House. As Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd said drily this week, those responsible for Latin America within the administration need more "adult supervision". Even the deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, who wrote to the Guardian in defence of Reich last year, admitted that the "formulation of the US statement wasn't what it should have been". This has been President Bush's Bay of Piglets. It would be wrong to suggest that the coup was all got up by the United States. Chavez, who himself tried to seize power in a coup in 1992, has made many mistakes and many enemies. But he still enjoys a hard core of support of at least a third of the country, in particular the dispossessed who voted for him. He appears now to be trying, maybe too late, to repair some broken bridges. On May Day, Chavez faces another test when a rally organised by the country's largest confederation of workers will be held in the capital. The good news is that the Latin American nations upheld the democratic position and recognised that it is still a chilling sight to see on television a bunch of burly men in uniform talking a little too closely into the microphones and announcing to the peo
May Day Statement 2002 - Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. [WWW.STOPNATO.
Long Live Red May First! The First of May 2002 dawns on a world that is different in many ways from what it was only a short time ago. Most importantly, there has been a leap in the world situation -- the forces of imperialism and reaction, headed by the US, and the forces of the people, although often scattered and under different kinds of leadership, are locked in combat on a world scale more sharply than at any time in recent decades. With the declaration of its "war on terrorism", the US has gone on a rampage against the worlds people for the all but openly avowed purpose of consolidating a global American empire and enforcing what it considers a "favourable environment" in which to squeeze even greater profits out of the labour of the people in the dominated countries. Acting both through their own troops and their puppets who rule these countries, they have launched a global terror campaign to crush anything that could stand in their way. While the US launched its aerial bombardments and ground special forces killers on Afghanistan, it also unleashed its Zionist guard dogs against the Palestinian people. Operating with American arms and money and US blessings, Israel is carrying out the bloodiest "ethnic cleansing" since the Zionist settlers first stole the land from the Palestinians. In country after country the ruling classes are trying to stamp out every spark of the peoples resistance. But this is only one aspect of what is becoming an increasingly fierce and more globalised battle on both sides. Every act of resistance by the people to the US war machine is a source of strength for the world-wide revolutionary struggle of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples and nations. The Palestinian people, numbering only a few million and fighting under desperate circumstances, are taking their place on the frontline of resistance to the US-led offensive, and are daring to stand up and stand fast in the most unequal combat. They have given voice and inspiration to people everywhere and become a major, unexpected and for the imperialists and their flunkies most unwelcome factor in the unfolding of world events. If the US & Co. expected their mechanised "war on terrorism" to be able to simply and smoothly roll over the people, the Palestinian people have shown otherwise. The Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties have been in the forefront in leading the people in their struggles for liberation. The Peoples War under the leadership of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) has persevered for nearly 22 years, holding high the red flag of revolution and representing the hopes of the downtrodden for a world they rule and completely transform. In the Philippines, Turkey, India and elsewhere the revolutionary armed struggle is continuing and coming into more and more direct conflict with the US-led crusade. In Nepal during the last few months the Peoples War launched six years ago has reached a critical juncture. On the one hand, great advances of the Peoples Liberation Army led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) have made it possible for millions of peasants and their allies to overthrow the feudal landlords and bureaucrat capitalists in vast areas of the countryside, set up their own political power and begin to build a whole new society based on the interests of the people. On the other hand the increasingly cornered ruling class is lashing out against the masses, sending its army to kill, rape and terrorise the common people and abolishing elementary rights through a declaration of emergency. On this May First we call on all revolutionary and progressive people to step up support for the Peoples War in Nepal and to condemn the State of Emergency. People living in the imperialist countries, including the USA, are increasingly taking a strong and active stand with the peoples of the world against the parasitic imperialist ruling classes who feed on 90% of the worlds people and the proletariat of their own countries. The world-shaking movement against the war in Vietnam is a standard to live up to and surpass in an ever more tumultuous world where resolute and enlightened struggle may open up unprecedented possibilities. In fact, the US led world-wide reactionary offensive is accelerating the awakening of masses of people across the globe to political life and calling forth its opposite: determined resistance in all its many forms, in a rising spiral of confrontation. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement supports this resistance wholeheartedly, and will strive to link up its various streams and help lead them into a single raging current that can fully and finally emancipate humanity. Down with Imperialism! Stop the US-driven War Machine! Palestine Will Win! Support the Peoples War in Nepal End the State of Emergency! Long Live Proletarian Internationalism! Build Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties United in RIM to Lead the Struggle! Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (For mor
Nepal: U.S. Considers Military Assistance for Nepal - Xinhua [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.U
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- U.S. Considers Military Assistance for Nepal === Xinhuanet 2002-04-24 11:09:06 WASHINGTON, April 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The Bush administration has asked Congress for a supplemental appropriation of 20 million U.S.dollars for military assistance for Nepal, the State Department said on Tuesday. The Nepalese government has asked the United States and other countries to help it overcome the rebel insurgency and deal with the pressing economic and social needs, State Department spokesmanRichard Boucher told reporters at a regular news briefing. Boucher said several options are being considered for assistingNepal if Congress appropriates the money. "We reiterate our support for the right of Nepal to safeguard its citizens against these guerrillas within the framework of its own constitution," Boucher said. Nepalese Minister of State for Home Devendra Raj Kandel said onSunday that Nepal did not need foreign troops but its forces were desperately short of weapons and equipment. Nepal urgently needed more modern military hardware to fight the rebel forces and reduce casualties of government forces, he said. 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 ==^
L.A. Slide Show on `peoples War In Nepal` [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
LIBROS REVOLUCION welcomes Li Onesto, author of DISPATCHES: Report from the Peoples War in Nepal Sunday, April 28 at 3pm Slide presentation by Li Onesto In the Spring of 1999, RW reporter http://www.rwor.org Li Onesto had the rare opportunity to travel in guerrilla zones in the mountains of Nepal. Since 1996, there has been intense fighting between the Nepalese government and Maoist guerrillas. Yet there has been little news of this in the western media. Li Onesto embarked on this journey with the aim of capturing the passion, voices and faces of the peasants involved in this revolution. She interviewed party leaders, guerrilla soldiers, activists in mass organizations and villagersthose waging this genuine Maoist peoples war and beginning to exercise new peoples power. She is the only photojournalist allowed this kind of access and the only person with this inside human story of the war in Nepal. Libros Revolucion 312 W. 8th St. (between Broadway & Hill) Downtown L.A. 213/ 488-1303Do You Yahoo!? Get personalised at My Yahoo!.
March and Rally for Palestine [Oxford] [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
A reminder to all for this Saturdays March For Palestine in Oxford, please forward to all contacts.. March and Rally for Palestine [Oxford] Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign End Israeli Occupation NOW! Justice for Palestine! March and rally in Oxford Saturday 27th April 2002 13.30pm Assemble Manzil Way, Cowley Rally with speakers in Broad Street, city centre Called by Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Oxford Stop the War Coalition and the Oxfordshire TUC For further information email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Do You Yahoo!? Get personalised at My Yahoo!.
PSNI blast a wake-up call - CIRA - Andersonstown News [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Andersonstown News 22 April 2002 PSNI blast a wake-up call - CIRA Dissident republican group the Continuity IRA has said the recent bomb attack on a Police Service of Northern Ireland training college was a wake up call for those who believe the war was over. The CIRA have claimed a series of bomb blasts over the past few weeks, and a spokesperson with links to the dissident republican group has warned they now "intend to step up their bombing campaign." Reacting to the recent attacks the spokesperson said: "In the past the campaign has been sporadic, developments were monitored and a strategy was put in place as to the best way to move forward. "In the coming weeks and months, I believe we will see an intensifying of that campaign, support has grown and the army are now prepared to carry on with the war." And the dissident republican warned that there were now many younger people poised and ready to carry out future attacks. "The war was always about achieving a United Ireland and that has now been abandoned by the Provisionals. Those people who struggled for that cause gave up their lives, and sacrificed everything are rightly disillusioned with the current peace process. "But support has now grown beyond that generation and young people are now throwing their lot in wanting to get involved. It is a sad reality that after all these years we are still forced to take military action to achieve our objectives." But the anti-agreement republican added that they believed most of the future attacks would be concentrated around dissident strongholds. "Nationalist areas of Belfast are controlled by the Provisionals and people are afraid to speak out even though they disagree with the peace process. "The Continuity are not going to work to anyone else agenda, they will strike when they are ready. "The CIRA have shown they are able to carry out effective military operations in the past, but I would say we haven't seen anything yet."Do You Yahoo!? Get personalised at My Yahoo!.
TWO National Protests coming up in LONDON for PALESTINE! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
National Rally for Palestine in Trafalgar Square Saturday, 18 May 2002, 12:00 Hyde Park, Speakers Corner to Trafalgar Square Organised by: Palestine Solidarity Campaign March and Rally for Palestine in London Thursday, 13 June 2002, from 13:00: at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park (nearest tube, Marble Arch) March from Speakers Corner to Trafalgar Square. Speakers, Jeremy Corbyn MP and others. Supported by UKIM, MCB, PRC, Da'watul Islam and other Muslim/Non-Muslim organisations. Organised by: Muslim Association of Britain, Please view this site for more information on transport etc.Do You Yahoo!? Get personalised at My Yahoo!.
Protest Israeli Embassy London, Saturday 27th April. [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Please forward details of this protest! Protest Israeli Embassy LondonProtest from 3pm to 6pm Israeli Embassy Junction of Palace Green and Kensington High Street tube StationDo You Yahoo!? Get personalised at My Yahoo!.
Kissinger demo [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Ananova. 24 April 2002. Sit-down protest over Kissinger appearance; Kissinger admits 'mistakes were made.' LONDON -- An anti-globalisation protest has taken place outside London's Royal Albert Hall as thousands of business leaders arrived for a conference. The demonstrators were joined by a group campaigning against Henry Kissinger. A huge puppet depicting Dr Kissinger was erected on the pavement outside the venue by the Get Kissinger Group. It plans to hold a mock trial accusing the 78-year-old of being a war criminal because of his involvement in events in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Scores of protesters banged drums and chanted "war criminal" and "this is what democracy looks like." There was heavy security outside the conference venue but police stood by as the protesters sat on the main road outside the Royal Albert Hall. The theme of the conference was globalisation and had been expected to spark protest from campaigners. The demonstrators later ended their sit-down protest. Henry Kissinger has responded to calls for his arrest for allegedly aiding and abetting war crimes by admitting that mistakes were "quite possibly" made in administrations in which he served. As Dr Kissinger addressed the Institute of Directors' annual convention in London, protesters staged a demonstration outside the conference hall. They accused him of war crimes involvement in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Earlier human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell made an unsuccessful legal move to have Dr Kissinger arrested under the Geneva Convention. Dr Kissinger says it will be impossible to recall every one of the thousands of cases he dealt with every day when he was in office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with a photo from the demo --- 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 ==^
Greek rescue team denied entry to Jenin [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Greek rescue team denied entry to Jenin By Amira Hass, Ha'aretz Correspondent and agencies Israel is preventing a Greek team made up of 34 earthquake rescue experts from coming to Israel to help salvage bodies from beneath the ruins in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian and Greek sources have confirmed to Ha'aretz. Queried on the issue, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said, "Israel does not prevent humanitarian aid. We are aware of the problem and it is being handled by the relevant authorities." A plane loaded with equipment has been delayed for two days at the Athens airport since the Foreign Ministry informed the Greek embassy that "there is no need for such a team." Greek sources told Ha'aretz that Greek diplomats had told their Israeli counterparts that the question of whether the team was needed or not, could only be determined on site. Palestinian officials praised the Greek initiative and have said they eagerly anticipate the team's arrival. Reports of people missing are still coming in from the refugee camp as well as reports of children sustaining injuries from explosive devices left strewn amongst the camp's ruins. Residents of the camp are now blaming the IDF bomb sappers, saying they have left the camp without completing their job. Russia to send humanitarian aid to Palestinian territories MOSCOW - Russia is sending humanitarian aid and emergency workers to the Middle East on Wednesday to assist Palestinians in the wake of Israel's military operations in Palestinian territories, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. A ministry spokeswoman said a group of experts, along with humanitarian cargo, would fly to Amman, Jordan, from Moscow on Wednesday afternoon. Deputy Minister Yuri Brazhnikov said Wednesday's shipment would include 20 metric tons of food, 1,000 blankets and 30 three-person tents, according to the Interfax news agency. "After the situation in Palestine is assessed, a mobile hospital and necessary specialists of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry are expected to be sent to the region," Brazhnikov was quoted as saying. Tentatively, the ministry group is to work in Jenin and other cities controlled by the Palestinian Authority, he said. Brazhnikov said Russia had reached an agreement with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the assistance. While Russia is officially a co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process along with the United States, Moscow has taken a much less active role in trying to broker a political solution to the conflict. --- 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 ==^
UN agrees to postpone fact-finding mission by a few days- Jerusalem Post [WWW.ST
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- UN agrees to postpone fact-finding mission by a few daysBy Herb Keinon and Nina Gilbert In a surprise turnaround, Israel decided Tuesday night to "postpone" its agreement to cooperate with the UN fact-finding mission, with one diplomatic official saying Israel was afraid of being "set-up." The decision was made after consultations Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held in his office with Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and representatives from the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry who are preparing Israel's case. According to a senior diplomatic official, Israel received intelligence information the Palestinian Authority was busy setting the stage in Jenin to "cook up" evidence for the fact-finding committee "proving" a massacre had taken place. Israel, furthermore, received no assurances its representatives would be allowed into the camp to present their arguments. The official reason for the decision was that UN General-Secretary Kofi Annan had changed the fact-finding mission's terms of reference from strictly fact-finding to something more expansive. Israel is concerned, the official said, the committee will go beyond investigating what happened in Jenin to a wider probe that Israel never agreed to, and which could lead to a recommendation to Annan to set up an investigative committee or to dispatch of international observers. "The composition of the committee was done without our consultation or agreement," the official said. "We are a sovereign country and don't have to accept these types of dictates." Israel, according to this official, is also unhappy three of the four members of the committee are political officials, not military officers able to go to a battlefield and - in a detached manner - discern what happened. "It is better for us to suffer a few bad days of publicity now, rather than have to live with the consequences of a biased report later on," the official said. Earlier in the day, Sharon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee he would accept the fact-finding committee because it was the "lesser of evils." He said the US made it clear it would not veto a Security Council resolution for a commission of inquiry, and that the fact-finding mission was preferable to such a commission. Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker, one of the members of the team, said earlier in the day that although Israel expected to be consulted before the committee was appointed, it did not object to the fact-finders. "All the members of the team are respected professionals who have a proven track record in the international community," Baker said. "We trust their objectivity and professionalism." Baker vehemently denied reports that one of the members of the team, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross Cornelio Sommaruga, is anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote an article two years ago on the controversy regarding keeping Magen David Adom out of the ICRC because the Star of David is not a recognized symbol. Krauthammer quoted Sommaruga as saying, "If we're going to have the Shield of David, why would we not have to accept the swastika?" Baker, who was present at the time of the remarks, said that using this comment to allegedly show an anti-Jewish bias on Sommaruga's part "is a vile manipulation of something said in a different context." "I know the context because I was there," Baker said. "When we were talking about adding additional emblems in the Red Cross movement, Sommaruga remembered that the old historic Indian symbol of the swastika, before it was used by the Nazis, was proposed as a humanitarian red cross symbol. To take it out of context as something he said - in an anti-Semitic context - is vile, manipulative, and destructive." Mordechai Yedid, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director-general in charge of UN and international organizations, said Sommaruga was behind a compromise that would have allowed Israel to join the organization in 2000 - but that meeting was postponed after the current violence broke out, and has not yet been rescheduled. At the same time, other diplomatic officials said Israel's relations with the ICRC hit an all-time low when Sommaruga was its head - largely over allegations of torture of security prisoners. These relations improved, however, after a meeting Sommaruga had with then-Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon. One of the other members of the fact-finding committee, Sadako Ogata, the former UN high commissioner for refugees, received an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University two years ago. In her speech, Ogata said: "Israel is a country rooted in history's worst tragedies of forced human displacement, and millions of refugees owe their tragic plights to the Holocaust. The Jewish people have behind them hundreds of years of persecution
News, 24.4.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News April 24th, 2001, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Germany's Terror Fight Yields Results Germany shows it's getting tougher on terror at home with a nationwide sweep that netted 11 suspected members of a Palestinian organization. Prosecutors believe they were planning attacks in Germany. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_504643_1_A,00.html -- Quake kills one and topples mosque tower in Kosovo An earthquake measuring 5.3 on Richter scale has jolted the Balkans. In the town of Gnjilane, a mosque tower toppled, killing at least one person. Telephone and electrical services have been disrupted throughout Kosovo where NATO-led peacekeepers said at least 35 people were injured. The tremor caused tall buildings to sway in the Macedonian capital Skopje. The tremor was felt as far away as the Bulgarian capital Sofia. It was also felt in Skopje, Belgrade and Montenegro. The epic centre was in northeastern Macedonia close to the border with Kosovo. UN Fact Finding Commission Could Get New Members The United Nations has agreed to consider appointing new members to a commission that is to investigate alleged atrocities by the Israeli army in the Jenin refugee camp. Late Tuesday, Israel threatened to suspend co-operation with the inquiry, complaining no military or counter-terrorism experts had been appointed to the panel. Early Wednesday, three of the four people appointed to the commission arrived in Geneva, Switzerland for preliminary meetings. Former Finnish President Marrti Ahtisaari is to lead the UN fact finding mission. MIDEAST-CHURCH-TALKS Israeli and Palestinian negotiators continue a second day of talks on Wednesday to try to resolve the three-week-old standoff between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. At the same time just a few kilometers down the road, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana met with Palestinian President Yassar Arafat at his besieged compound in Ramallah. As yet there is no word from either meeting if progress is being made. Mr. Solana will also meet with Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Elieser and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon later this evening. Suspected Terrorist arraigned in Germany as Dutch Police arrest 4 others Otto Schily, the German federal interior minister has warned of possible terror attacks in Germany. His warning came one day after raids in 5 states netted 11 members of the Sunni Palestinian al-Tawhid organization who are suspected of plotting terrorist activities. Most of the 11 suspects were arraigned in court on Wednesday. In Holland, Dutch police have arrested 4 Algerians suspected to be members of an Islamic militant group. Five others were briefly detained but have been released. The four are believed to be members of a splinter group of the Islamic Army. The group known as the Groupe Salafsite pour la Prediction et le Combat (GPSC)has declared a jihad or holy war against the enemies of Islam. UK Police Arrest 16 Paedphiles Scotland Yard has successfully smashed a major child pornography operation in the United Kingdom. 34 police forces simultaneously raided 75 locations throughout the UK early Tuesday. At least 16 people have been arrested including a 15 year old, and a large amount of computer equipment had been seized for examination. The operation codenamed "Magenta" used specialized equipment to trace people who had entered child porn chat rooms anonymously. Detectives expect to make further arrests as the content of computer hard drives are examined. Caspian Summit Ends Without Agreement The five leaders of states surrounding the Caspian Sea were unable to agree on how to divide the sea and its rich oil and gas reserves despite a year's planning and two days of talks. The 5 states have sharp differences on how to divide the sea, including the water itself and so the fishery rights and hydrocarbon reserves beneath it. Currently the Caspian is governed by agreements between the Soviet Union and Iran that date back to 1970. Observers said the meeting appeared to highlight rather than overcome the differences between Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Iran. Czech Parliament Retains Benes Decree The Czech parliament has voted almost unanimously to leave untouched the so-called Benes Decree used to expel three million ethnic Germans from the-then Czechoslovakia when World War II ended. Germany, and Austria, ha
Shadows of the Past [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Balkan Expressby Nebojsa MalicAntiwar.com April 18, 2002 Shadows of the PastDreadful Fallout of Empire's Balkans Policies For over a decade, the Empire and its vassals have gradually imposed themselves into the lives and lands of people in the Balkans, almost always to those peoples' detriment. In the process, they have torn down many pillars of civilization, law and common decency, all in the name of help, human rights and humanitarianism. Whether they did so as actual masters of malice, or mere fools who thought they could use the power of Tolkien's metaphorical Ring for good, now hardly seems to matter. For all power exacts a price, and absolute power most of all. Resignations The Dutch government collapsed this Tuesday, following the publication of a report that analyzed the role of Dutch troops in one of the most controversial episodes of the Bosnian War. A government-established commission concluded, after a five-year investigation, that the tragedy of Srebrenica was not so cut-and-dry as is still widely believed in the West. The resulting outrage compelled the government to resign, and on Wednesday, the Army Chief of Staff resigned as well. There are many interesting things about the 7000-page report. Apparently, it says that there has been no evidence of Slobodan Milosevic's involvement with Srebrenica, corroborating what Milosevic has said to the Hague Inquisition. Nor does it blame Radovan Karadzic, wartime leader of the Bosnian Serb Republic. Another largely under-reported point was the activity of Bosnian Muslim troops in the supposedly demilitarized enclave. Judging by the outrage of defenders of Official Truth, the report could even be casting some unwelcome light on the accepted assertion that some 8000 Muslim civilians were killed in cold blood, which the Hague Inquisition has already declared a genocide. It so happens that the Dutch have been one of Empire's most eager vassals in the Balkans interventions, especially the NATO attack on Serbia. As General Michael Short told the US Congress in October 1999, they were "small dogs [who wanted to] have a seat at the table." Unfortunately, the bitter experience of Bosnia is unlikely to urge Empire's lapdogs to re-think the policy of blind obedience. The Bosnia Blowback Dutch actions (or lack thereof) in Srebrenica are just the tip of the Bosnia iceberg, though. For years, the Serbs clamored about the substantial presence of Muslim radicals in Bosnia. Since they were considered demons, though, hardly anyone was inclined to listen – even when the said radicals tried to blow up the Pope (see April 11-12) in 1997. Now, however, Bosnia's NATO occupiers are "finding" Islamic terrorists everywhere. Three former Muslim intelligence officials were even indicted by the new government over their involvement with Iranian terrorist operations in Bosnia during 1995/96. Now even the most popular US military newspaper writes about Osama Bin Laden's ties with the Bosnian mujahedin, and the threat which this represents to the US military. The same article says the US turned a blind eye (and nothing more?) when Iran sent weapons, money and men to Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the war, while possible violations of the arms embargo to the region were discussed by none other than the infamous General Wesley K. Clark, the "hero" of Kosovo. To think the Imperial air force bombed Serbian TV for saying much less! Law of Submission Nor is Bosnia the only Imperial intervention causing major tremors in the fabric of world sanity. Claiming to be under heavy US pressure, Serbia's ruling hydra approved a bill last week regulating the extradition of Serbian and Yugoslav (while it still exists) citizens to the Hague Inquisition, based on its indictments for "war crimes" in Kosovo. The full text of the bill was published in Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti (in Serbian), just before it was voted into law. There are many problems with the ICTY Cooperation Act. It is unconstitutional, it gives undeserved legitimacy to the Hague Inquisition, and it is just plain atrocious as to the degree of power it gives to the Inquisitors inside Serbia. Such powers most closely resemble those demanded by Austria-Hungary in 1914, in one of the classical examples of Imperial blowback*. Yet according to this Empire's eager servants, even that is not submissive enough. In response, the former minister of Internal Affairs shocked the nation by committing public suicide in front of the Parliament. Former Army Chief of Staff, however, said surrender was his "duty" and "legal obligation." The Djindjic regime wholeheartedly agreed, and promised to extradite all those currently wanted by the Inquisition before May 1. Such groveling of a nominally sovereign country before an emphatically illegal and illegitimate institution set up by the Empire should be deplorabl
'I WAS IN HELL' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- 'I WAS IN HELL'His torturers beat him mercilessly, tied his hands and fastened the rope to a horse pulling him around until he fainted, then they gathered horse urine in a pot and made him drink… In early July last year, on the road from Tetovo to the village of Neproshteno, a group of armed Albanians kidnapped a 30-year-old Macedonian from Neproshteno who was on his way home. He was ransomed by his father after around 20 hours of torture. Media reported scant information about this abduction as one case in the long series of kidnappings in the west of Macedonia where war was going on. Nine months later, the man told his story about lost moral values, about life and survival and the terrible ordeal he went through as prisoner of the self-styled fighters for human rights. “It was about 6.30 p.m. when I drove into the village. I was within 200 meters from my house when I noticed the road was blocked, as a group of around 150 armed men in uniforms with UCK insignias appeared all around. No sooner had I tried to turn around and drive back that a Lada Niva with three UCK members emerged behind me. They were probably members of their military police. With a gun poked in my neck they took me to the group, searched me and when they saw I wasn’t armed we set off for Poroj first and then for Drenovec 2 where their headquarters was. At gunpoint they made me phone my family and tell them I was in a field in the middle of a shootout and that I’d come back as soon as I could. They didn’t blindfold my eyes and I could recognize a lot of familiar faces among them. There they beat me and threatened me and then at around 10 p.m. we took off for the village of Germo. They talked all along that it was not up to them to decide what to do with me, our superiors will have the final say, they explained.” This is how the story of the kidnapped man goes. He didn’t want to reveal his identity because, as he said, he was protecting his family that had already gone through a lot of uncertainty, fear and agony. In Germo, it was like being in hell for him. They closed him in a stable with two horses inside, blindfolded his eyes and started questioning him. “My father, before he retired, worked in the police, in the drugs department. They asked me if Minister Boshkovski and I were relatives. One of them said: “I know your father, he didn’t beat me, but we’re going to beat you as much as police beat me.” I found out later that he was a murderer who had shot a man dead with a rifle. They tied me to a post with my hands at the back, and they also tied my neck.. I couldn’t move, otherwise I would have strangled myself. I didn’t know how much time had passed when a man came in and spoke. I realized by his voice that he was from Neproshteno, we drank coffee once together. He took pity on me, threw a blanket over my back and gave me a glass of water. The following day, many of them came. They kept kicking me and hitting me with hoes, sticks and other objects they found at hand. At times, they splashed buckets of water onto my face to make me come around and then the beating went on. After a while they untied me, gave me cigarette and made me write a biography about my family and me.” But this was not the end of his suffering. His torturers beat him mercilessly, tied his hands again and fastened the rope to a horse pulling him around until he fainted, then they gathered horse urine in a pot and made him drink dipping his head inside. They even made him eat horse droppings. “I know most of those who tortured me. I didn’t know until then that a man can be so tough to endure pains that not even animals can stand. After they had enough and got tired of their own brutality, they pulled me again down on my knees and tied me. I remained in that position until 12.30 when a man I knew entered the stable asking me what ministers I worked for. He knocked the stuffing out of me, spat at me and left. An hour later, one commander Avzi came and told me they were going to let me go. I didn’t believe him, but he ordered the guard to untie me, and then he stood me up and took me to a Lada Niva. A villager passed by. He was an elderly Albanian who knew my father. The only words he uttered were: “This is insane,” and he handed me a cigarette. I was to be turned over to others in Poroj, they told me. They also warned me I was not to tell anything to anybody and that if necessary I should turn for medical help to doctors on duty or called them in at home. They gave me back some of my belongings and IDs and took me to the Sutjesa patrol station. Another Albanian took charge of me there. He drove me to Tetovo where my parents had been waiting for me. It turned out that my father knew all along I was kidnapped and paid ransom to save my life. He refuses to talk of that even today,” the young man resumed his story ridden with emotions
ISRAEL UNHAPPY WITH UN COMMITTEE [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ISRAEL UNHAPPY WITH UN COMMITTEE, UN REPRESENTATIVE TERIA LARSEN, AND UN LEADER KOFI ANAN Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon expressed his disappointment with the members of the UN Committee, sent to examine the situation in the Palestinian city of Jenin. Israeli officials were angered at the fact the members of the committee were selected without consulting Israel. The committee, they feel, consists of human rights activists, and no military experts who would understand the necessity of Israel's actions, and appreciate Israel's avoiding the use of aerial bombings in order to spare the lives of the innocent. "This cost us lives on many soldiers", said an Israeli official, who said he felt Kofi Anan had cheated the Israeli's and forced upon them an unwanted committee. The Israeli's were please with the absence of UN representative in the area, Teria Larsen. Larsen appeared on television in several days ago, saying he was shocked at what he saw at Jenin, and more than hinting he felt Israel had acted without a mandate. Israelis were furious with Larsen's comments. "Where was he when the Park Hotel in Netanya blew up and the bodies of our children were spread on the street?" asked Israel's minister of law, Meir Shitrit. "Not once have I heard Larsen say anything against the Palestinian terror, except for occasional general remarks. He never once pointed a finger of blame at them". How furious were the Israeli ministers could be seen by the prime minister's office's decision to refuse any contact with Larsen. Several high level Israeli officials are considering declaring Larsen a persona non grate - unwanted person. Haim Avraham, the father of a kidnapped Israeli soldier, who is believed to be held, or possible killed by Hizbollah forces put it best for Israelis: "Larsen and his organisation are clearly unobjective. They lied to my face when he said the UN didn't have a tape of my son being kidnapped. We know now they do have one! And they hid it from us. Larsen never spoke of the horrible thing that happened to my son. I've never heard him say a word about the terror we live in". The tape the UN hid from Avraham raises heavy suspicions of UN soldiers ignoring the Israeli soldiers distress during the kidnapping. Avraham's words say it best for the Israeli street, who today have lost pretty much all faith in the UN. Gil Eyal Israel Specially for PRAVDA.Ru --- 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 ==^
E.U. Launches New Peace Initiative [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- E.U. Launches New Peace Initiative By Bradley BurstonArab News MADRID, Apr 24, 2002 -- Foreign Ministers of the European Union and ten southern Mediterranean states ended two days of talks yesterday with the EU announcing plans to send another peace mission to the Middle East as the Israeli barbarism in the Jenin refugee camps began to unfold. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique said the EU team including European security chief Javier Solana was planning to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The team will leave for Tel Aviv this morning. The mission signaled a new EU contribution to international efforts to end continuing Israeli-Palestinian tensions, said Pique. The team will also include special EU Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres earlier invited the EU to send another peace mission to the region, saying the team would have "the same freedom of movement and action" as US Secretary of State Colin Powell. An EU mission to Israel earlier this month led by Solana and including Pique was refused permission to meet Arafat. Meanwhile, some 600 homes were destroyed and 200 made uninhabitable during the Israeli offensive on the refugee camp, according to a preliminary assessment released yesterday by a group of aid agencies in the area. In Jerusalem,US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Affairs William Burns was quoted by a US diplomat as saying yesterday the United States wants Israel to withdraw from all autonomous Palestinian zones that it is now occupying. During a one-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Burns said Washington wants "an immediate (Israeli) withdrawal from all the zones" now reoccupied, principally the West Bank town of Bethlehem and the area around the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Sharon told Burns the army would withdraw at the "appropriate time" after completing its task, the source said. In Washington, diplomats and officials said the United States may host talks with Russia, the United Nations and the European Union in Washington in early May on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The diplomats said the meeting could be on May 2. In its ongoing offensive, Israeli Army arrested a local leader of the Islamic Jihad along with 29 other suspected activists from across villages surrounding Bethlehem. The army arrested nine suspected Palestinian activists including Jamal Hamamra, a leader of Islamic Jihad, in the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem, witnesses said. Another nine Palestinians were arrested in the village of Battir and five in El Khadr, both west of Bethlehem, witnesses said. The army said earlier it had arrested 26 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight on suspicion of "terrorist activities", while an AFP correspondent saw four more picked up. Israeli forces took over the village of Wadi Salka in the southern Gaza Strip early yesterday, opening fire and bulldozing a position of the Palestinian national security services, the village mayor said. Tanks, armored cars and army bulldozers moved more than a kilometer into the Palestinian-run village in the early hours yesterday, opening fire and destroying the security position, Mayor Yusef Abu Ajjin told AFP. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Villagers stayed in their homes, too scared to go outside, Ajjin said. The Israeli Army yesterday conducted house-to-house searches in the Palestinian village of Fayasel, 20 km north of Jericho on the West Bank, the village mayor said. The army declared the village a "closed military zone" before moving in. The soldiers, with camouflage paint on their faces, searched for two hours through the 140 houses in the village of 800 residents. In Ramallah, a powerful explosion was heard in a building next door to the besieged Ramallah headquarters of President Arafat yesterday, officials inside the Palestinian leader's office told AFP by telephone. The blast appeared to come from inside a building belonging to Arafat's Force 17 presidential guard, located some 20 meters from the office where Arafat is penned up with aides, security guards and international activists acting as a "human shield" for the Palestinian leader. In London, Amnesty International expressed concern yesterday that a UN team investigating the Israeli Army's assault on the Jenin refugee camp might not have
Israel Sets Conditions on UN Probe, Reflecting Sense of Jewish State in Bunker M
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Israel Sets Conditions on UN Probe, Reflecting Sense of Jewish State in Bunker Mode By Bradley BurstonHa'aretz TEL AVIV, Apr 24, 2002 -- Whether or not the UN fact-finding commission succeeds in dispelling the dense clouds of suspicion over the IDF offensive in the Jenin refugee camp, it is almost certain to bolster the one Israeli consensus that Ariel Sharon can count on: the sense among Israelis of all stripes that the world is against them. In an abrupt about-face as a host of foreign diplomats descended on the embattled Holy Land, Israel told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that it may withhold cooperation from a fact-finding panel over IDF operations in Jenin, fearing that its results are doomed to be pro-Palestinian and may only add to waves of world protest against the Jewish state. Sharon late on Tuesday set new terms for the commission's work, saying that it must also look into the terrorism that sparked the offensive, and the militant organizations that used the Jenin camp as a launching pad for dozens of suicide bombings. Stung by Palestinian charges - echoed by foreign media and diplomats over blanket denials by Israel - that its soldiers carried out summary executions and massacres in battling militants in the camp, Israelis who have often taken issue with Sharon's hardline policies said Wednesday that it was time that the world felt compassion for the hundreds of Jews killed in Palestinian terror operations. "We wanted the (UN) committee to come, because we have nothing to hide," said Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, chairman of Sharon's increasingly uneasy coalition partner, the center-left Labor. "All the facts are on the table," Ben-Eliezer said, adding that when the UN delegates do arrive they must also investigate "what happened in the massacre at the Dolphinarium" the seaside Tel Aviv disco where more than a score of young Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing last year. "We're asking tough questions, and ... we've said: Enough," Ben-Eliezer continued. "In the last month alone, 137 people were slaughtered (by Palestinians), and nearly 700 were wounded. Is there anyone that's investigating that?" Likud cabinet minister Danny Naveh, a close associate of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu - expected to challenge Sharon for the Likud mantle in elections slated for next year - said Israel should never have agreed to allow the UN delegation in the first place. "I very much fear that a precedent has been set that will be very dangerous, very bad for Israel," Naveh said. "Israel had only one alternative in the face of this possibility, and that was simply to say 'No, ' and to make a much greater effort to persuade the American administration to veto this decision." Palestinians cited the Israeli reservations over the UN commission as proof that the Jewish state was engaged in a cover-up of major proportions. But Israelis, inundated with reports of resurgent world anti-Semitism and protests equating the IDF with the Nazi forces that wiped out European Jewry in the genocide of the World War II Holocaust, had little patience for the criticism, or for the fact-finding panel. "From our point of view the whole thing is a set-up for Israel," said Gideon Meir, a normally mild-mannered Foreign Ministry official charged with Israel's public relations effort. "Everything is against Israel here. What about the terror attacks?" The issue has only added to the sense among Israelis that they cannot expect a fair shake from the world, remarks Ha'aretz commentator Gideon Samet. "If there is a sense among anti-Semites that there is am international Jewish conspiracy, there's something of a parallel feeling among Israelis of an international goyish conspiracy, the sense that the whole world is against them." The sense was compounded by such elements as statements by former Labor prime minister Ehud Barak cautioning Israelis against expecting any peace deals with the Palestinians in the forseeable future. According to Samet, the sense of despair has tended to bolster Sharon in his demonstrated predilection for defying international and White House pressure. "It has become a national malaise," Samet says. It was the second time this month that Ariel Sharon had tendered a possible veto on hands-on international involvement in the crisis in the territories, coming a few weeks after the prime minister enraged EU foreign poli
Fugitive Karadzic sends his regrets [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1948000/1948528.stm Wednesday, 24 April, 2002, 15:51 GMT 16:51 UK Fugitive Karadzic sends his regrets Karadzic says the war crimes tribunal is illegal Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic - the UN's most wanted war crimes suspect - has sent a letter offering his "regrets" for being unable to attend a criminal tribunal in The Hague. In the letter to Kosta Cavoski, a Serbian law professor, Mr Karadzic said he would not be answering calls for his surrender. Not only is this tribunal illegally established, but it is also a source of shame for a decent part of the West, which now backs it "I have not had a chance to sort it out with Sylvester," said Mr Karadzic, referring to an appeal by the leader of the Nato-led Stabilisation Force (Sfor), US General John Sylvester. "But if I had, I would express my regret for being unable to accept his appeals to turn myself in to the tribunal. "Not only is this tribunal illegally established, but it is also a source of shame for a decent part of the West, which now backs it. The family and friends of al-Qaeda are not threatened, which is nice, but my friends and family are threatened "I would ask General Sylvester what kind of court it is, and first of all what kind of a prosecution it is, that first arrests people and then collects evidence. "The family and friends of al-Qaeda are not threatened, which is nice, but my friends and family are threatened, even though I have never in any respect been an enemy of General Sylvester's homeland." He added that "any Serb, regardless of his responsibility or guilt" could find himself before The Hague court. Mr Cavoski is chairman of the Belgrade-based group the International Committee for the Truth about Radovan Karadzic. Mandate The letter, which was published in the latest issue of Belgrade's Nedeljni Telegraf, went on to accuse the Sfor and its leader of exceeding their mandate. Mr Karadzic then warned General Sylvester not to cross paths with him. "According to his mandate, the gentleman general could arrest me only if his soldiers happen to come across me during their everyday activities. I have made thousands of new friends, about whom my pursuers do not know "For more than six years I have been doing all I can to ensure that that meeting never takes place, and it would be better if General Sylvester were to do the same. "That is because I would come out of such a meeting in one way or another. In the technical sense I would probably come out of it very badly, but in the moral sense I would definitely be the winner." He concluded by advising the commander not to "terrorise" wanted men. Perhaps they left us in Bosnia so that the whole of it can be ours one day "I have made thousands of new friends, about whom my pursuers do not know," he said. "I have more and more of them with each passing day. "I do not have to remain in just two or three villages in the Serb Republic because Bosnia has remained a single country, so why should I deny myself the whole of Bosnia? "Perhaps they left us in Bosnia so that the whole of it can be ours one day." Charges Mr Karadzic and his former army commander, Ratko Mladic, are charged with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia based in The Hague. Ratko Mladic, who is accused of war crimes, is believed to be in Belgrade Both men are accused of involvement in the 1995 massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was extradited last year and is now on trial for alleged atrocities carried out during wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The letter, allegedly sent on 17 April and signed by Mr Karadzic, was published the day after 17 war crimes indictees failed to meet a Yugoslav Government deadline to give themselves up or face arrest and extradition. Mr Karadzic has eluded capture in spite of Nato-led raids in south-eastern Bosnia two months ago. He is said to travel between eastern Bosnia and the republic of Montenegro. Mr Mladic is believed to be in hiding in Belgrade. --- 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 ==^
The End Of America's Prestige (by Charley Reese) [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The End Of America's Prestige A friend of mine once told a college class that nobody ever woke up in 476 A.D. (the date historians define as the fall of the Roman Empire) and said, "Gosh, I'm in the Dark Ages." His point is plain enough. Transitions happen gradually, and the people who live through them never realize what is happening. So it is with Americans. We are living in the ruins of a once-great republic. Now an empire utterly devoid of moral authority, the United States has nothing left but its military power and its capacity to consume on credit. Where the world's great leaders will come from in the future, I don't know, but they will not be Americans. Look at the Republican and Democratic parties and their top leaders. Mediocrity in full bloom. Weak men with ambition but no principles. They are devious men, skilled at concealing their personal ambition in patriotic or compassionate rhetoric, depending on which constituency they are trying to bamboozle at the moment. I said earlier that Colin Powell's trip to the Middle East would answer the question of who determines American foreign policy: America's elected leaders, or Israel and its powerful American lobby. The answer is Israel. Powell has disgraced himself. He did the ritual moaning and groaning about six Israelis killed by a suicide bomber but said nothing about the hundreds of innocent Palestinians killed by the Israelis. As of this writing, he has not even bothered to tour the devastated cities. He has not gone to Bethlehem to see the gratuitous and malicious damage to the civilian infrastructure. He has not gone to Jenin to smell the decomposing bodies buried under the rubble. He has not uttered a single word of public criticism of Israel, while Amnesty International, the United Nations Human Rights Commission and even Israeli human-rights groups have leveled blistering criticism at Israel's beastly policy and actions. Instead, he acted as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's errand boy by hopping over to Lebanon and Syria to ask them to restrain Hezbollah. I wish I could have been Lebanon's president long enough to tell him off. I would have said to Powell: "Where were you and the United States when for more than 20 years Israel illegally occupied Lebanese territory in open defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions? You never said one word; you never lifted one finger to force the Israelis out. And now, you have the gall to demand of me that I chastise Hezbollah, whose brave young men did what you should have done — drove the Israelis out of Lebanon. If you cannot see the hypocrisy in your visit and in your request, then I truly pity you. Good day, sir." The Syrian president should have told him the same thing, for the United States has never done one thing to persuade the Israelis to stop their illegal occupation of the Golan Heights. Robert Fisk, the great correspondent of The Independent in London, wrote recently: "Mr. Powell's weakness, his failure of nerve, his cowardice are now likely to set off an Israeli-Palestinian war even more terrible than what we have witnessed so far. ... Thanks to Mr. Powell, President Bush and Mr. Sharon, America's credibility has been shattered. Israel, it turns out, does indeed run U.S. policy in the region. The Secretary of State sings from the Israeli songbook." The repercussions of this will be unpleasant for the American people. One day, God willing, the American people will wake up and realize what a painful price has been exacted for allowing their politicians to sell their souls to the Israeli lobby. I have to give the Israeli lobby credit. They recognized the souls weren't worth much and bought them on the cheap. We had a president once who vowed to make the world safe for democracy. We now have one who is busily making the world unsafe for Americans and who doesn't have a clue as to how ridiculous he now appears in the eyes of the world. Charley Reese can be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED].© 2002 by King Features Syndicate, Inc. http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20020424/index.php --- 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!
Friendly fire tragedy has electrified the nation, but will Ottawa take notice?
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- April 24, 2002 We're paying attention this time Friendly fire tragedy has electrified the nation, but will Ottawa take notice? By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun In a curious way, the four Canadian soldiers killed by "friendly fire" in Afghanistan have done more to make the country aware of what soldiers face than any victory would. Usually it's ho-hum when soldiers get killed on "peacekeeping" missions - mines, enemy fire, accidental shootings. An item in the news and quickly forgotten. Over 100 such deaths since 1956. The fact 12 Canadian soldiers were hit by an F-16's bomb while on a night training exercise near Kandahar has electrified the nation, and provoked contradictory responses much of it emotional and nonsensical. In death, the four soldiers may help our military in a way they never would, had this tragic incident not happened. In no way does this diminish the sorrow and hurt of what happened, but it dramatizes what our soldiers face and has touched the soul of the country. Right now, the ones reflecting the greatest dignity, courage, pride and understanding, mixed with sorrow, are the families of the slain soldiers. They are an inspiration to all of us. Take the reaction of Marley Leger, the high school sweetheart and now the widow of Sgt. Marc Leger. "I have no anger with regard to what happened," she's quoted as saying. "Whether Marc died due to hostile fire, or friendly fire, or a car accident, it was time to go. And there's no hostility towards the Americans or the American pilot. None whatever." She is some lady. Her composure and outlook are what many aspire to, but few match. Meaningless but emotional polls show many want the Americans to pay compensation if found negligent, and the pilot of the F-16 to stand trial. Others think Canada should quit Afghanistan. Fewer than 50% of those polled view such incidents as an inevitable hazard of war - which, of course, they are. INQUIRY'S FOR SHOW The Canadian inquiry headed by retired General Maurice Baril seems mostly for show - to prove we care. Defence Minister Art Eggleton's assurances that there'll be no cover-up are unnecessary, and merely imply that in past inquiries there have been cover-ups. Not since WWII have the deaths of Canadian soldiers been so honoured. Not Korea, nor those killed in peacekeeping incidents - a fact that understandably bugs retired peacekeeping general, Lew MacKenzie. Some reaction, while well-intended, makes little sense. In the Sun, columnist Earl McRae pays tribute to our soldiers and adds: "Why the hell were our Canadian soldiers on the ground engaged in live fire practice in a zone of war and skittish sensibilities? Surely to God they were not there to hone their killing skills in this dangerous area by practising, they were there to implement what they'd already practised. You go to war not to practise, you go to war to fight the battle." Oh Earl! Soldiers are always training and honing their skills - and live ammunition is essential for such training. Blank ammunition is pretend stuff, not real battle training. Canada's WWI triumph at Vimy Ridge was largely due to "practising" and rehearsing the actual assault. INEXPERIENCE? The F-16 pilot who thought he was under fire when he dropped the bomb may have been inexperienced and thought tracer rounds ricocheting into the air meant he was under attack. Without drawing parallels, the first time my platoon (of Princess Pats) was in action in Korea from a position known as the Hook, my guys firing into the no-man's-land valley were convinced their ricocheting tracers was fire being returned at them. Artillery was called down and all night a gun battle ensued with an earthen dyke. At dawn I took a patrol out to investigate. Nothing. A mistake. My platoon thought their own tracers were enemy fire. Maybe something similar got the F-16 pilot jumpy. Poor guy, what he did to Canadian allies will haunt him the rest of his life, even though people like Marley Leger hold no grudge. If these first, unnecessary casualties help Canadians and our hypocritical government better appreciate our military, perhaps the tragedy will not have been in vain. Letters to the editor should be sent to [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 ==^ <>
More Saudi lies [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- EDITORIAL • April 24, 2002 More Saudi lies As President Bush prepares for the visit of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah, the administration must free itself from the platitudes and talking points ordinarily used to describe the "strength" of U.S.-Saudi relations. For the reality is that — aside from radical states like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Cuba — few regimes have done more to undermine American foreign-policy interests in recent years than the regime in Saudi Arabia. The malevolent Saudi approach to Middle East peace was on display Sunday, when Mr. Abdullah's foreign-policy adviser, Adel Al-Jubeir, sought to justify Arab terrorism and Saudi anti-Semitism on NBC television's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert. Mr. Russert peppered Mr. Al-Jubeir with tough questions. He reminded him that the Saudi ambassador to Britain recently published a poem praising Palestinian suicide bombers, writing that they had "died to honor My God's word." The ambassador further declared that the White House is "filled with darkness." Mr. Russert wanted to know whether the envoy had been recalled or reprimanded. Mr. Al-Jubeir merely replied that the ambassador, who represents a dictatorship, royal or not, that harshly represses dissent at home, was speaking in a "personal" capacity. Asked how he squared his expressed desire for "peace" with the recent Saudi telethon that raised $92 million for families of Palestinian "martyrs," including the families of suicide bombers, Mr. Al-Jubeir brazenly denied that his government supported suicide bombers and declared that the Saudis opposed "the killing of innocent lives." He declined even to say whether suicide bombers were murderers. "Palestinians are desperate," he said. "They're taking desperate measures." Mr. Al-Jubeir also indicated that he couldn't say that suicide bombings "are correct or not correct." Any "desperation" the Palestinians feel is the result of the behavior of Arab dictatorships like Mr. Al-Jubeir's government in Saudi Arabia. Had they not attacked and sought to destroy Israel in 1948, there would never have been a Palestinian refugee problem. Had the Saudis been willing to use some of their petro-dollars to resettle Arab refugees instead of inculcating them with hatred and leaving them to rot in fetid refugee camps, peace with Israel would have become a reality long ago. The lot of any Saudi government spinner has to be pretty miserable these days. No sane person could enjoy having to go on American television knowing he'll be peppered with nasty questions, such as, why were 15 of the 19 hijackers who struck the United States on September 11 Saudi nationals? Here's a related matter Mr. Bush might want to ask Mr. Abdullah about when they get together: The German newspaper Die Welt has reported that Saudi Arabia financed the escape of 4,000 agents of Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan to Lebanon, and has offered $5,000 for each al Qaeda member who resettles in the West Bank or Gaza. Is this the latest Saudi contribution to the famous "peace process"? http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020424-384897.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 ==^
The International Crisis Group [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The International Crisis Group has added four former ambassadors and two members of the German parliament to its board of directors. Two of the diplomats, Saud Nasser Sabah of Kuwait and Itamar Rabinovich of Israel, are former ambassadors to the United States. Cheryl Carolus, a former South African ambassador to Britain, and Marika Fahlen, a former Swedish ambassador for humanitarian affairs, complete the diplomatic newcomers. The German lawmakers are Friedbert Pfluger, chairman of the EU Affairs Committee, and Uta Zapf, chairman of the Defense subcommittee on arms control. Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Carter, is also among the 18 new members of the board announced yesterday by the think tank, which has offices in Washington, Brussels and London. http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020424-24117412.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 ==^
Photos from Last saturdays Massive London March for Palestine! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG
Images from the Anti-IsraelDemo 13th April 2002 A Field of Flags and Banners The Official Figures for the march were around 15,000 to 30,000but I would have put the figure well above 50,000 and more like 100,000 People from all over demonstrating peacefully. "1, 2, 3, 4 we don't want your dirty war!" "Bush, Bush we know youdaddy was a killer too!" Park Avenue All generations and all nationsunite against injustice,oppression and tyranny Protestors outside the Ritz Hotel on the way to Trafalgar Square. How ironic, a race of people who have suffered and know what it is to be oppressed, brutalised and murdered are now inflicting the same suffering on another innocent people and rightful inhabitants of the holy lands! O Children of Israel have you not learned from history have you forgotten "Never again" have you forgotten the holocaust which you remind the whole world of? Rt. Hon. Jeremy Corbyn MP Tony Benn (ex-MP)"This is the largest number of demonstrators I have ever seen","Bush only wants peace in Palestine so that he can bomb Iraq", "THIS IS PART OF AMERICA'S CRUSADE AGAINST ISLAM" Rt. Hon. George Galloway MP"Victory to the Intifadah!""Shame on the Arab governments and the Arab leaders" "Down down Israel, Down down USA!" A minute's silence for the martyrs of Palestine Do You Yahoo!? Get personalised at My Yahoo!.
Brutalized by War, A Savage Mob Turns On Its Own [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Wednesday, April 24, 2002 in the lndependent/UK Brutalized by War, A Savage Mob Turns On Its Own by Robert Fisk The first body was hanging upside down, one gray left foot tied to the electricity pylon with wire, his right leg hanging at an obscene angle, his head lolling below what remained of a black shirt. This was Moussa Arjoub of Doura village. The second body was infinitely more terrible, a butcher's carcass; again, hanging by a left leg, but this time his almost naked torso was riven with stab marks and holes into which Palestinian boys of 10 or 12, whooping with glee, were stubbing cigarettes. This was Zuheir al-Mukhtaseb. His head was almost severed from his remains, moving slightly in the wind, bearded, face still distorted with terror. He reminded me, oddly, of that fearsome portrait of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, all arrows and open wounds. But Zuheir al-Mukhtaseb was reviled, not honored, children and middle-aged Palestinian men roaring with delight when stones thumped off the collaborator's bloodied corpse. "This is a lesson to all here." I turned round to find a middle-aged, portly man with a big brown beard, gesturing towards another revolting bag of flesh behind me. "This was Mohamed Debebsi. This is a lesson for the people. Everyone should see this." As I watched, a group of young men with grinning faces hurled his corpse into a rubbish truck. What do you do when a people go mad with joy at such savagery? At first, I could not write the description of what I saw into my reporter's notebook and drew sketches instead to remind me of what I was seeing. "Allahu Akbar" – God is Greatest – roared that awful crowd. There were girls on rooftops, young men in suits and ties staring at the corpses from only 10 feet away, boys throwing stones to finish the decapitation of Zuheir al-Mukhtaseb. And the street where this – let us call it by its name and say this pornography – took place? "Sharia Salam." The Street of Peace. The three men had been imprisoned in the local jail – sentenced so long ago that many of the crowd did not remember the date – for collaborating with Israel's occupation forces. Did they guess their fate, a few hours earlier when they heard the Israeli Apache helicopter firing four missiles, the explosions audible in their Palestinian Authority prison half a mile away? The Israelis had sent a helicopter death squad to eliminate Marwan Zalum, one of the heads of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade in Hebron, the four missiles (made by Lockheed Martin of Florida, according to the bits I found) turning his Mitsubishi car into a fireball. Zalum, who was 43 and married with a little girl called Saja, died at once – to a chorus of delight from the Israeli army. He was, they said, "the equivalent of an entire armed militia" – a ridiculous exaggeration – and referred to suicide bombings arranged by his men and the "hundreds of shooting attacks". Three times, the Israeli Army's death squad admission talked of "Jewish communities" when it meant Jewish settlements built illegally on Arab land. And it failed to mention that Samir abu-Rajab, a friend of Zalum, was killed with him by Israel's missiles. No matter. By 9.30 yesterday morning, the Al-Aqsa brigades and probably Hamas, and no doubt a vast rabble of Palestinian youths, decided to take revenge on the Israelis by slaughtering Israel's three Palestinian collaborators who sat, helpless, in the local jail. A civil engineer watching the crowds told me that they were dragged to the scene of the car explosion, beaten insensible by the mob and then shot by gunmen. So the people of the Hebron suburb of Ein Sara arrived to celebrate this revolting scene. A few touched the corpses; others threw stones. It was a meat shop, the kids climbing electricity pylons to pose beside this butcher's work for friends with camcorders. And how they cheered when the garbage truck moved through the crowds. After Debebsi's bloody remains were flung into the back, the lorry moved to the pylon where Mukhtaseb was hanging. His head almost parted from his body as it was thrown into the grey-painted vehicle, to another roar of delight from the crowd. So the citizens of the nascent Palestinian nation behaved yesterday in anger and fury and terrible pleasure at their revenge on Israel for the killing of Zakum and abu-Rajab. On the way back to Jerusalem, one could well imagine the r
Re: The International Crisis Group [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The Imperialists are getting restless. --- 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 ==^
Cuba's Castro Calls Mexico's Fox a Liar [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 by Reuters Cuba's Castro Calls Mexico's Fox a Liar by Marc Frank HAVANA - Cuba's relations with long- time ally Mexico reached a new low on Monday after President Fidel Castro repeatedly called President Vicente Fox a liar, and made public a private conversation between them to prove it. Mexico reacted swiftly, with Fox's spokesman, Rodolfo Elizondo, decrying the playing of a recording of the two presidents talking confidentially as "unacceptable" but saying Mexico would maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba. Castro, speaking before a national TV audience, insisted Fox lied about the Cuban leader's hasty departure last month from a U.N. aid summit in Monterrey, Mexico. Cuba said at the time that Mexico, working on behalf of the United States, pressured Castro to either stay away from the summit or make himself scarce before President Bush arrived. Mexican President Vicente Fox and Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda both denied pressuring Castro to leave. "They were all lying left and right," Castro said. The Cuban president played a tape of a private telephone conversation he had with Fox on the eve of the summit, in which Fox clearly urged Castro to leave the meeting early and urged him "not to attack the United States or President Bush." On the tape Fox asks Castro to make his presentation at the summit and to return to Cuba on Thursday "so that you don't make Friday complicated for me." Bush was scheduled to arrive on Friday. Making public the tape was a clear break with presidential protocol. Castro said the aftermath "of telling these truths could be that diplomatic relations are severed." But Mexico did not react that strongly. "Independent of anecdotes and episodes like this one, the Mexican government will continue its diplomatic relations with the republic of Cuba," said Elizondo, reading a statement to reporters on Monday evening. The statement criticized the lack of democracy in communist Cuba and applauded Mexico's own democracy in words clearly directed at Mexico's pro-Cuba opposition, which has already criticized Fox for his handling of Castro's appearance at the Monterrey summit. CASTRO OFFERS RESIGNATION Castro said he would resign from office if the conversation proved false and challenged Fox to resign if it was not. "If anyone could prove that the conversation never took place ... I would firmly offer my resignation," Castro said. Mexico has been Cuba's firmest Latin American ally since Castro seized power in a 1959 revolution. But relations have cooled in recent years with Mexico's closer relationship with the United States and its criticism of the human rights situation in Cuba. Castro apparently held off releasing the tape until Mexico's vote last week at the U.N. Human Rights Commission hearings in Geneva to censure the island. Castro termed the move a "despicable betrayal" as Fox had promised him "that Mexico would never do anything against Cuba" at the U.N. forum. Cuba has said that Mexico and other Latin American countries voted at the behest of the U.S. government. "On the contrary, Havana was the only government that put pressure on Mexico regarding its vote in Geneva regarding the human rights situation in Cuba," Elizondo said. The motion, the first in which Latin America has taken the lead in criticizing Cuba at the commission hearings, was approved by 23 votes to 21, with nine abstentions. Cuba has been condemned by the 53-state Commission in past years but most Latin American countries, including Mexico, have abstained in the votes. (additional reporting by Fiona Ortiz in Mexico City) --- 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 ==^
U.S.-led forces desecrate Serbian church? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27377 Thursday, April 25, 2002 THE BALKANS QUAGMIRE U.S.-led forces desecrate Serbian church? Letter to Bush protests alleged violence by peacekeeping troops Posted: April 25, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Aleksandar Pavic The Serbian Orthodox Church is charging the peacekeeping force in Bosnia with violently desecrating church property in its search for suspects wanted by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. In an April 11 letter addressed to U.S. President Bush, Gen. John B. Sylvester, commander of the SFOR peacekeeping force in Bosnia, and Bosnian High Commissioner Wolfgang Petritsch, the Serbian Church protested the behavior of U.S.-led troops. Written by Serb Patriarch Pavle in the name of the Holy Synod of Bishops, the letter refers to "enormously unpleasant situations which the faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Church experienced on Feb. 28 and March 1, 2002, when the soldiers of the SFOR peacekeeping forces violently burst into these villages claiming to search for [former Bosnian political and military leader] Radovan Karadzic. They used explosive and other objects to smash doors and barge into houses, ambulances and even schools." Even though U.S. officials have express opposition to the newly ratified International Criminal Court, there is an urgency to round up people in Bosnia wanted for alleged war crimes to stand trial in another international court, the Hague Tribunal. U.S. War Crimes Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper, on April 18, traveled to Bosnia to inform the Serb leadership that "there would be no economic or political progress in Republika Srpska (the Serb part of Bosnia)" until Karadzic and Ratko Mladic stood trial at The Hague. He went on to say that "Republika Srpska risked falling behind other countries for not cooperating with the Hague Tribunal" and that its "citizens would continue suffering while Radovan Karadzic was free." In addition, the U.S. administration has continued applying economic and political pressure against neighboring Yugoslavia, compelling it to pass an unconstitutional law that sets the rules for "cooperation with The Hague" and to issue arrest warrants against alleged Hague suspects. The intensified search for suspects in Bosnia has caused Karadzic to resurface from his seven-year exile to protest the methods used in the hunt. The letter goes on to say that the Serbian Orthodox Church is "shocked and appalled by the behavior of the SFOR soldiers to innocent civilians, especially by their violent entering the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God at Celebici, with weapons, where they scattered sacral objects in the altar and smashed the glass within the chalice [used] for giving the Holy Communion to priests and people. ... The Church in which our faithful pray to God, receive the Holy Communion, are christened and married has been desecrated. Religious feelings of our faithful, their human dignity and safety have been violated." The letter concludes with an appeal that "measures be taken so that nothing similar should ever happen again." This is not the first time that the Serbian Church has appealed to Western leaders to stop the threat to its churches. Since the NATO-led KFOR troops came to the Serbian province of Kosovo after the bombing of Yugoslavia in June 1999, more than 100 Orthodox churches have been damaged or destroyed by Albanian Islamicists in the presence of the 50,000-plus-strong Western military forces. In the April 24 edition of the Belgrade weekly Nedeljni Telegraf, ran a letter written by Karadzic to Kosta Cavoski, a close friend and leading Yugoslav legal authority and Hague opponent, in which he says that he has been "earnestly trying to avoid an encounter with the SFOR troops for the past seven years ... and that it would be better if Gen. Sylvester did the same, [for] in that encounter I may not pass very well and would probably pass very badly in the technical sense, but I would certainly be the winner in the moral sense." Sylvester, continues Karadzic, "could come out the winner only if we don't meet, that is, if he refuses the role of policeman and bounty hunter." Karadzic also expresses his wonder as to "why Gen. Sylvester wants to equate his soldiers with cruel bounty hunters" and whether his soldiers' parents know that "their children break into houses of our innocent civilians in the middle of the night and frighten our children, who fall unconscious" from shock. Referring to the "tribunal" that is hunting him, Karadzic goes on to ask "what kind of court and prosecution is it that first arrests and only then compiles evidence ... which has held our speaker of the House, who has had no role in the executive branch, in detention without trial for two years," further wondering whether "such things a
U/Pal: More Britons support Palestinians, says poll - Guardian [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- More Britons support Palestinians, says poll Alan Travis, home affairs editorWednesday April 24, 2002The Guardian British voters who say they are more sympathetic towards the Palestinians outnumber by a factor of two to one those who say they support Israel, according to the findings of this month's Guardian/ICM opinion poll. But only a minority of British voters have a firm view on the issue, with 28% backing the Palestinians and 14% supporting Israel. For while those who have a committed view of the Middle East conflict tilt towards the Palestinian cause, the ICM survey shows that the overwhelming majority of British voters take a more neutral approach. Some 14% of those polled said they sympathised equally with the plight of both Israelis and Palestinians, a further 23% said they sympathised with neither side and 20% declined to answer the question, which asked who they sympathised with more, by replying "don't know". The poll shows that pro-Palestinian sympathies are stronger among Labour voters (32% back the Palestinians to 14% for Israel) and Liberal Democrat voters (40% to 11%) than among Conservative supporters (23% to 16%). Men are also more likely to sympathise with the Palestinian cause than women. The findings mark a sea change in British attitudes towards the Middle East over the past 20 years and are in line with recent polls in France, Germany and Italy which show that European public opinion is generally more sympathetic to the Palestinians. It is, however, in sharp contrast to recent American polls which have shown pro-Israeli sentiment in the US strengthening since September 11 to 41% support for Israel and just 13% support for the Palestinians. However British voters dislike Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as much, if not more, than the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Asked if they had favourable or unfavourable view of Arafat and Sharon, 54% said they didn't like Arafat and 50% said they didn't like Sharon. A majority of British voters (52%) agreed that the US could do more to bring about a peace settlement. Only 35% said they believed the Americans were doing as much as they could. But while there is a demand for the Americans to bring more pressure to bear there is not much support for the idea of imposing sanctions, either on the Israelis or the Palestinian Authority. Asked if Britain should impose sanctions, such as cutting off aid or blocking military exports, 39% said such action should be taken against Israel and 33% thought sanctions should be taken against the PA. ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,000 Britons aged over 18 by telephone between April 20 and 21. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 --- 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 ==^
Uncle Kofi Gives In To Israeli-US Demands...Again [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002042502701400.htm The Hindu April 25, 2002 Annan may yield to Israeli demand By Kesava Menon Manama (Bahrain) April 24. Israel now appears to be veering back to extending co-operation with a U.N. fact-finding mission after initially agreeing to co-operate and then going back on that decision. Israel's change of mind has come about with the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, making adjustments to the composition of the fact-finding panel and its mandate. The decision to set up a fact-finding panel was taken by the U.N. Security Council in a compromise move between the Arab States on the one side and Israel and the U.S. on the other. Arab States insisted that a massacre of civilians had occurred in the West Bank town of Jenin during Israel's recent invasion and they wanted an international commission to investigate any breach of human rights conventions and to determine whether military crimes had been committed. But the U.S. threatened to use its veto power if the panel's mandate was formulated on these lines and so a compromise was reached where the commission's role was limited to ascertaining facts. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, told Mr. Annan that his Government would co-operate with the fact-finding panel. However, after a cabinet meeting yesterday, the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said Israel would not co-operate with the panel for three reasons. Israel, he said, had not been consulted before the panel was set up (for that matter, neither was the Palestinian Authority), one of the panel members was suspected of anti-Semitic attitudes and the panel was only going to examine the facts connected with Israel's military operations and not the terrorist activity to which the operations were a response. These objections were conveyed to the U.N. as well as the U.S. Mr. Annan has reportedly said that a retired U.S. General, Bill Nash, who was formerly appointed only as an adviser, will now be a full member of the panel. Mr. Nash's elevation will apparently give the panel a military-professional dimension as well as a politico-diplomatic one. Israel insists that the operations in Jenin were carried out in a thoroughly professional manner with utmost care to avoid civilian casualties. But the Palestinians say that they have the facts to prove that a large number of civilian deaths took place due to the actions of a ruthless army and they have accused Israel of trying to sabotage the work of the fact-finding panel. Meanwhile, Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials have met for direct negotiations for the first time to bring an end to the standoff over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. About 200 Palestinians, including 50 armed men, are trapped inside the church and Israel says that it will not lift the siege unless some of the men who are on its wanted list surrender themselves for trial. The Palestinian Authority reportedly proposed that the wanted men could surrender to the Authority which would put them on trial in the Gaza Strip. Israel has spurned this compromise offer. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.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 ==^
Korea. KCNA Apr 24 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Korean Central News Agency Extracts. Kim Jong Il sees performance given by troupe of of CPLA Pyongyang, April 24 (KCNA) -- General Secretary of Kim Jong Il saw a performance given by the song and dance troupe of the general political department of the Chinese Peoples' Liberation Army on a visit to the DPRK at the Ponghwa Art Theatre yesterday. Artistes of the troupe expressed thanks to him after presenting a floral basket to him in profound reverence. He was accompanied by Jo Myong Rok, director of the general political department of the Korean People's Army, Kim Il Chol, minister of the People's Armed Forces, Kim Kuk Thae, Jong Ha Chol, Kim Ki Nam and Kim Yong Sun, secretaries of the Central Committee of the WPK, senior officials of the party and the army and cultural, art and press institutions and creators and artistes of the armed forces organs. Also present there were Wang Ahaohai, head of the troupe, Wu Donghe, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of the embassy, Chinese students and trainees in the DPRK. The performance raised its curtain with the chorus of the immortal revolutionary hymn "song of General Kim Il Sung." Put on the stage were colorful numbers sincerely prepared by the artistes of the troupe with friendly feelings towards the Korean people. Its repertoire included a chorus "defending Huanghe," men's group dance "crossing steep mountain," soprano "beautiful is my native land pamir" and the Korean songs "soldiers live near marshal," "a flower girl" from the revolutionary opera "a flower girl" and "a broad bellflower." Through their performance, the artistes vividly represented the energetic endeavours of the Chinese army and people to defend the country and create a new life and strikingly demonstrated the might of the traditional relations of friendship between the two armies and peoples. The performance closed with the chorus "Song of General Kim Jong Il" and the mixed group dance "friendship dance of the China-DPRK armies." The performance replete with the DPRK-China friendship was acclaimed by the audience. Kim Jong Il sent a floral basket to the performers congratulating them on their successful presentation. KCNA on S. Korea's decision to introduce U.S.-made fighters Pyongyang, April 24 (KCNA) -- The South Korean "Ministry of National Defence" decided to select F-15K of the U.S. Boeing Company as the type of fighters of the next generation on April 19, a Seoul-based radio reported. This decision can never be tolerated as it is an act contrary to the basic spirit of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration and the atmosphere for reconciliation and cooperation now prevailing on the Korean Peninsula after the publication of the joint press release on April 5 this year. It is also an action going against the positive trend toward warming up the temporarily frozen inter-Korean relations. Today all the Koreans in the north, south and abroad ardently hope for national unity and the reunification of the country. Accordingly, what is needed in South Korea is an atmosphere of national reconciliation, not an atmosphere of confrontation and war caused by lethal weapons outsiders seek to sell, instigating it to kill fellow countrymen. What matters is that the South Korean military authorities caved in to the pressure of the U.S. munitions monopolies and turned down the nation's vital demand for peace. The U.S. does not hesitate to sacrifice other country and nation for its own benefit. Pressed by it, the "Ministry of National Defence" of South Korea decided to introduce U.S.-made fighters, which is a concentric expression of its pro-U.S. toadyism. As is known, the U.S. has forced South Korea to purchase such type of fighters worth 5,800 billion won with taxes collected from the south Korean people in a bid to bring profits to the U.S. munitions monopolies. Worse still, the U.S. is seeking to inflict a nuclear holocaust upon the Korean nation by selling to South Korea scores of such fighters capable of carrying nukes. Regarding South Korea as an operational base for its Asia strategy, nuclear strategy, the U.S. is scheming to deploy in local areas in advance the latest fighters to be used for putting this strategy into practice. Such moves can not but be a time fuse to spark fresh military confrontation on the peninsula. The U.S. sale of weapons to South Korea will be censured by the Korean people and the world people as it will delay the peace process in the peninsula and aggravate the situation in the Asia-Pacific region. Kim Il Sung's ceaseless field inspection of KPA units Pyongyang, April 24 (KCNA) -- President Kim Il Sung had covered a total of 182,668 Kms to make field inspection of over 3
