Four million dollars lost in Kosovo energy fraud: EU [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/au/Qkosovo-un-corruption.R9Pw_CAU.html Four million dollars lost in Kosovo energy fraud: EU Tuesday, 30-Apr-2002 -Despite imports of energy over the past three years, local media reported that Kosovo only enjoyed four full days without any power cuts last year. PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, 30 April (AFP) - Fraudsters have creamed off 4.5 million euros (four million dollars) from the budget of Kosovo's electricity company, an EU official said Tuesday, adding that an international member of the UN mission in the territory was suspected of involvement. Andy Bearpark, a top economic official in the UN-administered province, said he had evidence of possible corruption in Kosovo's KEK electricity company, which both produces energy locally and imports it from outside. He said the money was stolen from international aid provided to allow the territory to import energy, which comes mainly from elsewhere in Serbia and from Bulgaria. I have known for many months that there are rumours about corruption in KEK... I now have evidence, Bearpark said at a press conference. From people possibly concerned one is an international that at one stage was working for my organization, Bearpark said adding that he had notified the European anti fraud office in Brussels The official, who heads the EU's economic program in Kosovo, declined to give further details. The province's economy has struggled to recover since Kosovo came under UN administration in 1999 after NATO military action ended Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the province. Despite imports of energy over the past three years, local media reported that Kosovo only enjoyed four full days without any power cuts last year. In the last three years a substantial amount of electricity was imported into Kosovo. Most of it came from Bulgaria and some from Serbia, Bearpark said. KEK is run by a local managment and supervised by international staff in the province. The province's UN administrator, Michael Steiner, who took up his post earlier this year, said that fighting corruption and crime was one of his priorities. What we heard today shows that we mean it. There is zero tolerance for crime, Steiner said at Tuesday's press conference. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
NATO's Faithful Servant: Romania To Send More Troops To Afghanistan [WWW.STOPNAT
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- April 30, 2002 Romania to send additional troops to Afghanistan Associated Press -Romanias contribution is expected to cost about $26 million, a big financial burden for a country where the average monthly wage is just $110. BUCHAREST, Romania Hoping to show Romania is ready for NATO membership, parliament decided Tuesday to send hundreds of troops to Afghanistan in support of the U.S.-led military operation there. Approving a request by President Ion Iliescu to participate in the international campaign, parliament voted 385 to 6 to send 405 infantry soldiers and a unit of 70 officers specialized in nuclear, chemical and biological defense. Romanias contribution is expected to cost about $26 million, a big financial burden for a country where the average monthly wage is just $110. Earlier this year, Romania sent 285 military police and 15 physicians to Afghanistan as part of an international peacekeeping mission. Proposing the Romanian involvement, Defense Minister Ioan Mircea Pascu told lawmakers that Romania would lose credibility if it shied away from dangerous missions. Romania needs to show it is a supplier of security, said Pascu. The government hopes to receive an invitation in November to join NATO at a summit in Prague and is eager to demonstrate that it is a serious candidate for alliance membership. Romania has been praised by Western nations, particularly the United States, for its stance against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Other former Warsaw Pact member countries the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO in 1999. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
NATO Interoperability: US Pays Turkey $228 For Afghan Mission [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,4235970,00.html Turkey seeks aid in Afghan role The Australian May i, 2002 -The US administration has promised Turkey it will ask Congress for $US200 million ($372.58 million) in economic aid and another $US28 million ($52.16 million) in military aid for Turkey. THE head of the Turkish military has asked the US and other nations to provide satellite communication systems and cargo planes before his forces assume command of the Afghan peacekeeping force. General Huseyin Kivrikoglu said: If these requests are met, Turkey would carry out this mission in the best way. Turkey, NATO's sole Muslim member, officially announced yesterday that it will take over the command of the international force in Afghanistan. Such a role for Turkey would strengthen the US argument that the war against terror is not between Islam and the West. The Turkish government has agreed in principle to lead the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, Kivrikoglu told CNN-Turk television. But, Turkey has some requests. Some equipment and abilities which are not in the inventory of Turkey should be supported by other nations. Britain has reportedly refused to leave its own military satellite communication system to the Turks because of apparent security concerns. Turkey needs a new satellite system to communicate with the forces of 17 other nations participating in the peacekeeping force, patrolling in and around Kabul. The United States had agreed to help Turkey to buy the satellite systems, the daily Radikal newspaper said today. Turkey also wants heavy cargo planes to transport armoured vehicles and light military vehicles to Afghanistan. Lieutenant Colonel Neil Peckham, of the British forces in Afghanistan, said today that he does not believe that a handover will take place before June. We expect that we'll be remaining as lead nation until the latter part of June, said Peckham, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Forces, or ISAF. He said Britain would like to remain in charge until after the Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, decides whether to back the interim government of Hamid Karzai or select another administration. The military planning for a handover would also take time, he added. Kivrikoglu urged Afghan factions to leave aside past factional fighting. This is a very important opportunity for Afghan people, Kivrikoglu said. If they keep their conflicts alive ... the chaos will persist. He said he opposed Afghan demands to expand the 4,500-strong force throughout the country to stop regional warlords from vying for power. It is a very small force for such a big country, Kivrikoglu said. Turkey, which is struggling with a deep economic crisis, is also worried about the mission's cost. The US administration has promised Turkey it will ask Congress for $US200 million ($372.58 million) in economic aid and another $US28 million ($52.16 million) in military aid for Turkey. Turkey has some 270 peacekeepers in Afghanistan and is expected to deploy another 1,000 soldiers. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
U.S. Air Strikes In Pakistan? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://frontierpost.com.pk/main.asp?id=3date1=5/1/2002 The Frontier Post (Pakistan) May 1, 2002 Pak-US operation in tribal areas troubles Islamabad Naveed Miraj Islamabad: Pakistans cooperation with USA in the war against terrorism will enter into more treacherous waters with preparations for operations in the tribal areas complete that could include air strikes on some targets that are inaccessible. The most worrisome aspect for the government of Pakistan is that if it allows the US troops to enter tribal areas that can lead to serious unrest in the area. Sources in the government said that the tribes in South Waziristan had already expressed their resentment over the raid on a madrassa in Miram Shah Friday. There were reports that a few US nationals were also present in the operation. Now the tribesmen are threatening that they will put armed resistance to any operations. Reports arriving from South Waziristan said that local people were apprehending other operations in the area and on Monday had gathered in large numbers to defend on of the madrassas. About five hudred tribesmen had gathered to resists operations sources said. Government officials when approached said that tribal maliks were cooperating with them and had promised that they could provide every help to the forces sent by the government of Pakistan. The madrassa that was seracehd a few days back was established by an Afghan Taliban leader Jalal ud din Haqqani. Other religious schools that are said to be the targets of impending operations are also associated with the same group. Pakistan has been trying to keep any such developments as secret as p[possible to ensure that its fall out does not effect the internal situation. President Musharrafs bid to seek presidency through referendum once finally out of the way he will be in much stronger position on the issue of Pakistan US joint operations to root out Al Qaeda. Although neither US or Pakistan government has not released any details of the people arrested after the raid on Friday, some of the sources said that five people were arrested in that operation. But none of them was an Arab national and all were Afghans having links with Taliban leadership. Meanwhile sources said that the US teams had been patrolling some key cities suspected of Al Qaeda presence and were trying to intercepts communication between different cells. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
Germany To Lead NATO Fleet Off Horn Of Africa [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.irna.com/en/world/020430142549.ewo.shtml Germany to lead int'l anti-terror fleet off the Horn of Africa Berlin, April 30, IRNA (Iran) -- Germany's navy is to take charge of multinational fleet operations off the Horn of Africa within the framework of the global anti-terror campaign, German television quoted the defense ministry as saying here Tuesday. Germany is scheduled to take over the command in early May and will hold it until October 30. The decision was followed by intense US pressures for Germany to assume a bigger role in anti-terror operations since the devastating September 11 terrorist attacks. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
Guardian: New blow for September 11 inquiry [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- New blow for September 11 inquiry Matthew Engel in WashingtonWednesday May 1, 2002The Guardian The US Congress's hopes of discovering why American intelligence failed to get a hint of plans for September 11 dwindled further yesterday with news of the resignation of the former CIA man who was heading its investigation. Britt Snider left after two months amid strong signs that he had been forced out. The investigation is being conducted jointly by the intelligence committees of the Senate and House of Representatives. The immediate issue seems to have been a personnel matter, but there were growing complaints among some committee members that Mr Snider was too close to his old colleagues and preparing for a whitewash. However, his departure is thought likely to add to tensions on the committee and force the postponement of hearings on the issue. Mr Snider's former boss, George Tenet, is now a presidential favourite and seems to be fireproof. But some important congressional figures, including the senior Republican senator on the committee, Richard Shelby, are deeply critical of Mr Tenet and the agency in general for a catalogue of apparent failures, dating back to the first World Trade Centre bombing in 1993. Senator Shelby said: "A thorough and unbiased investigation will reveal that the intelligence community is encumbered by ossified and entrenched bureaucracies, which inhibit its ability to confront current and emerging threats." Mr Snider's departure coincided with the release of a speech by the FBI director, Robert Mueller, made two weeks ago, in which he admitted that his agency has found almost nothing that gives a hint about the planning of the hijacks. "In our investigation, we have not uncovered a single piece of paper - either here in the United States or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere - that mentioned any aspect of the September 11 plot," he said. There is also growing frustration in Washington about the inability of interrogators to extract information from detainees, including those held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. William Webster, a former director of both the CIA and FBI, has called for detainees to be injected with a so-called truth serum. 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 ==^
Guardian: Prodi warns that Iraq war could strain alliance [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Prodi warns that Iraq war could strain alliance Ian Black in BrusselsWednesday May 1, 2002The Guardian America must avoid taking action on Iraq that would damage the global anti-terrorist coalition, Romano Prodi, the European commission president, warned yesterday. Speaking in advance of tomorrow's EU-US summit, the first since the September 11 attacks, he said it was vital for these "mature and serious partners" to work together for a more stable world. But Chris Patten, the EU external relations commissioner, expressed concern about Washington giving in to a "unilateralist temptation" in trade, arms control and the environment. Although Iraq is not formally on the agenda of the Washington talks, at which Europe will be led by Jose Maria Aznar, the Spanish prime minister, and the US by President George Bush, the two sides are unable to agree on the need for military action to overthrow President Saddam Hussein. Mr Prodi, anxious to avoid a public row on an issue where Britain is close to the American position, only hinted at the possible damage to transatlantic relations. "Obviously one should bear in mind the consequences that this would have on the global set-up," he said. "The coalition the United States put together after September 11 has been a great example of political intelligence, and it is quite clear that it is so precious that we should do nothing to harm it." He did not attempt to conceal the EU's anger at the ongoing row over the huge tariffs Mr Bush slapped on foreign steel imports to protect America's failing industry in response to domestic political pressure. "I cannot over-emphasise how disappointed we are," the European commission president said. He insisted that the EU had no choice but to threaten to impose 377m (£234m) worth of sanctions on US products from next month. The episode raised questions about Washington's commitment to the rules of the World Trade Organisation, he added. He sought to underline Europe's contribution to the fight against global terrorism, which has seen enhanced transatlantic police, judicial and financial cooperation since the al-Qaida attacks. Later this week the EU is expected to decide that the Kurdish Workers' party, the PKK, will be added to the list of banned organisations whose assets can be frozen. EU justice ministers last week approved a mandate to negotiate extradition and judicial cooperation agreements with the US. But there are differences on the death penalty and the use of military tribunals to try foreign terrorist suspects. However, it is clear that European solidarity is threatened by resentment of America's go-it-alone instincts. Mr Patten told the English-Speaking Union at Guildhall in London: "America's overwhelming pre-eminence has generated increasing pressure within the US to abandon her internationalist past in favour of an unapologetic pursuit of national interest, imposing her will unilaterally and resisting outside obligations that might constrain her freedom of action." On the Middle East, which is likely to be the main subject of the one-day summit, Mr Prodi signalled that he wanted Mr Bush to do more to rein in the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. He said Washington's efforts to defuse the latest wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence would not succeed unless there were negotiations under the aegis of the so-called Quartet - the US, EU, Russia and the United Nations. 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 ==^
US Asks Japan For Destroyer, Submarine Surveillance Planes For Afghan, Iraq Wars
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?np20020501a2.htm The Japan Times May 1, 2002 U.S. asks Japan to dispatch Aegis ship to Indian Ocean -The request could be related to U.S. plans to escalate its antiterrorism campaign, including a possible attack on Iraq, which President George W. Bush claims is part of an axis of evil. -Opponents of the dispatch fear it could result in Japan's active engagement in war, which is prohibited under the pacifist Constitution. WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States asked Japan on Monday to dispatch a destroyer with the Aegis air defense system and P-3C antisubmarine surveillance aircraft as part of its support for the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, a top Japanese ruling party official said. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made the request in talks with the secretaries general of the three ruling parties -- Taku Yamasaki of the Liberal Democratic Party, Tetsuzo Fuyushiba of New Komeito and Toshihiro Nikai of the New Conservative Party, Yamasaki said at a news conference after the meeting. Wolfowitz called on Japan to extend the May 19 deadline for its logistic support for the U.S. campaign because there are still many operations to be carried out, and hoped for the dispatch of an Aegis-equipped vessel and P-3C aircraft, both of which have high intelligence-gathering capabilities, Yamasaki said. Wolfowitz did not refer to specific areas where the destroyer and aircraft might be used, or their missions, he said. The request could be related to U.S. plans to escalate its antiterrorism campaign, including a possible attack on Iraq, which President George W. Bush claims is part of an axis of evil. Under the Antiterrorism Special Measures Law enacted Oct. 29, the Self-Defense Forces have sent several naval vessels to the Indian Ocean to refuel U.S. and British warships. The duration of the SDF dispatch was set from Nov. 20 to May 19. The ruling bloc leaders told Wolfowitz that the three parties will closely consult with one another on the proposed extension of the deadline but avoided giving an immediate answer to the request for the dispatch, Yamasaki said. At the news conference, however, the three coalition leaders were negative on the destroyer and P-3C dispatch. An immediate dispatch would be difficult under the current conditions. It is necessary to consider the missions and take into account the feelings of the Japanese people, Yamasaki said. Fuyushiba said, There is no need for the dispatch. Nikai said this is not an issue for immediate discussions by the three parties. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said at a news conference that the government was aware of the request. He added that the government will hear more about the request from the Yamasaki mission. When the U.S. began its military campaign against targets in Afghanistan last October after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Japan considered dispatching an Aegis destroyer to the Indian Ocean. It decided against such a move, however, because there were objections within the ruling coalition, and the U.S. bombing of targets in Afghanistan eased after the collapse of the Taliban regime. Opponents of the dispatch fear it could result in Japan's active engagement in war, which is prohibited under the pacifist Constitution. The coalition group, which arrived in Washington earlier in the day, also held separate talks with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and top White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey. Armitage called on Japan to fully investigate the incident in which an unidentified ship sank in December in the East China Sea after an exchange of fire with Japan Coast Guard vessels. Armitage told the coalition leaders that the mystery ship will be a mystery no more if it is raised, Yamasaki said. Japan is seeking to raise the ship, which it believes to be of North Korean origin, from waters in China's exclusive economic zone. The U.S. is apparently interested in finding out what the ship's purpose was and what types of weapons it was carrying. Armitage also said Japan should upgrade its Defense Agency to a ministry, according to Yamasaki, a former Defense Agency chief. The coalition leaders and Lindsey exchanged views on the economic situations in Japan and the U.S., as well as Japan's steps to fight deflation. On Tuesday, the three coalition leaders were scheduled to travel to New York and hold talks with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Yamasaki was to leave New York later Tuesday for a visit to Turkey. He will also visit Israel Jordan, and Saudi Arabia before returning to Japan on May 6. Fuyushiba and Nikai have canceled their original plan to visit the Middle East, due to party business. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com ---
Re: EU set to add PFLP to list of terror groups [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- This is unconscionable. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a secular political grouping, one of three, along with Al Fatah and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, that constitutes the Palestine Liberation Organization. Except for airplane hijackings some quarter of a century ago, there's nothing about the PFLP - and even its armed wing - that could be characterized as terrorist. There targets have been strictly military, much as were those of the Minutemen and Green Mountain Boys during the American Revolution. It's alleged involvement in the killing of the Israeli Tourism minister was in retaliation for the Israeli Defense Forces coldblooded murder of the PFLP's general secretary Abu Ali Mustapha in August of last year. (See the Socialist Party of Serbia's statement on this brutal and cowardly assassination at: http://www.sps.org.yu/eng/news/kasnije/2001-08-29-1.html) Note that the Palestinian National Authority has no right to request - much less demand - the extradition of the IDF and Israeli national cabinet members who ordered and carried out this murder. Much less to have the EU consider both as terrorist groups. --- Steve Wagner [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=157444contrassID=1subContrassID=1sbSubContrassID=0listSrc=Y EU set to add PFLP to list of terror groups By Reuters 4/30/02 BRUSSELS - The European Union is set to update its common list of terrorist groups to include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others this week, provided no member state raises objections, EU envoys agreed on Monday. Under the so-called written procedure, the 15 member states have until Thursday to reject the updated list. The final decision regarding a final list will be known once the written procedure ends at midday on Thursday, May 2, a spokeswoman for current EU president Spain said in a statement. Organisations on the list are liable to have their assets frozen in the EU countries. The PFLP is a Damascus-based Marxist organization that includes many Palestinians of Christian origin. The group was behind the assassination of Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze'evi in Jerusalem last year. An EU diplomat told Reuters last week the bloc would also put on its list the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which earlier this month changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress. The list is part of the bloc's common efforts after the September 11 attacks on the United States. A first version of the list was published in late December and included radical Basque seperatist, Northern Irish and Middle Eastern groups. = Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts ends at the colonnade between Grand Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, [EMAIL PROTECTED] or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
US Influence Moves Into One More Ex-Soviet Republic [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200205\FOR20020501a.html US Influence Moves Into One More Ex-Soviet Republic By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief May 01, 2002 -If the U.S. attacked Iraq, and Turkey balked at allowing its territory to be used as a launch pad for air strikes, it said, Georgia would be more than willing to serve Washington in this and any other actions. At the same time, should relations with Russia turn sour in the future, a U.S. presence in Georgia, coupled with U.S. forces in Turkey, could pose a serious threat to southern European Russia. (CNSNews.com) - Just weeks before President Bush meets his Russian counterpart for a summit in St. Petersburg, the U.S. has expanded its military influence into parts of the former Soviet Union that Moscow has long considered within its sphere of strategic interest. A small group of U.S. military personnel is meeting with officers in Georgia to identify suitable locations for an intensive, $64-million program aimed at training the country's cash-strapped army to meet security threats. That group will be followed by up to 200 Special Forces troops who will help train and equip specific units of the local armed forces. The key target is a group of Islamic militants believed to be holed up in the Pankisi Gorge, a lawless and mountainous region near Georgia's border with the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. Western and Russian intelligence agencies say fighters from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network have found refuge among several thousand Chechen militants and refugees located in the area. Bush agreed to send in troops, after Georgia requested help in improving its counter-terrorism capability and handling the Pankisi Gorge situation, the Pentagon said in a statement. The initiative, it said, Underscores the firm relationship built between the two countries since the end of the Cold War, as well as U.S. support of Georgia's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. The Georgian deployment is the latest development in Washington's expanding war on terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks. The U.S. already has sent troops to the Central Asian Republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as to the Philippines and Yemen. The campaign's main focus has targeted the Afghanistan-based group blamed for those attacks, al Qaeda, and the Taliban militia which gave it shelter. Pockets of al Qaeda remain in Afghanistan, while others are believed to have escaped to other countries in the region. Bin Laden has close links to Chechen rebels, having contributed both fighters and finances to their fight against Russia. At the weekend, Georgian Interior Ministry troops captured three men in Pankisi Gorge subsequently reported to be al Qaeda members. Against this background, the operation called Georgia Train and Equip got off the ground this week with the arrival in Tbilisi of the 20-strong advance party. Georgia's chief of staff, Gen. John Pirtskhalaishvili, said talks would be held with the Americans in the forthcoming days and a special working plan drafted. The team is expected to select four places where training will take place -- a 70-day component training senior commanders to improve staff planning and operations; and a 100-day component covering combat skills, infantry tactics and offensive and defensive operations. According to the U.S. European Command, which is overseeing the program, Georgian troops and border guards participating in the training will also be equipped with U.S.-supplied firearms, ammunition, uniforms, communications equipment, medical gear and construction materials. This is understood to be the first time U.S. forces are being deployed in Georgia, although European Command has conducted two exercises in the country, in 1998 and 2000. Westward drift Georgia, a country a little larger than West Virginia with a population of some 5.2 million, is strategically located in the Caucasus, between Russia and Turkey. To Russia's chagrin, the former Soviet republic has been drifting further from its sphere of influence ever since declaring independence in 1991. Although forced under Russian pressure to join the Commonwealth of Independent States, Georgia gradually moved closer toward the West and in 1999, together with Azerbaijan, refused to sign a joint CIS declaration condemning NATO action in the Balkans. Georgia was one of the first countries to offer its full and unconditional support to the U.S. in the fight against terrorism, European Command noted in a statement this week. Moscow is highly sensitive to the prospect of U.S. forces in Georgia, whose president, Eduard Shevardnadze, has turned down several Russian offers of military assistance. President Vladimir Putin, however, played down the situation earlier this year, saying the U.S. move was no tragedy for Russian
Gujarat violence backed by state, says EU report [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Gujarat violence backed by state, says EU report By Edna Fernandes in New Delhi Published: April 29 2002 18:15 | Last Updated: April 29 2002 18:37 A European Union investigation into India's worst race riots in a decade has concluded that the violence was not spontaneous but a pre-planned policy involving state ministers to purge Muslims and destroy their economy, according to an internal report by EU embassies in Delhi. The report provides one of the most damning indictments yet on the Gujarat riots, which have killed almost 900 people, mostly Muslims, in a matter of weeks. One EU source said the report pointed to ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the state and that there was clear evidence of complicity by state ministers. The report has been submitted to the 15 EU governments who will decide what action to take and how to raise their concerns at next week's EU-India summit in Delhi. Gujarat is one of the items on the summit agenda. I imagine we will express concern about everything in our report, including evidence of a purge, said the EU source. If that fails to yield a dialogue, further measures will have to be considered, he said. The disclosure is sure to put further pressure on India's Hindu nationalist BJP-led government, which faces an opposition censure motion in parliament today over its handling of the riots. On Monday Ram Vilas Paswan, the minister for coal, resigned in protest, marking the first formal split in the fragile coalition over the issue. Mr Paswan's Lok Jan Shakti party has four seats in parliament. Atal Behari Vajpayee, prime minister, hit back at foreign criticism last week, accusing the international community of meddling in India's internal affairs. But that position was becoming harder to justify this week amid mounting evidence that the violence was pre-planned and state-backed. Last week some western diplomats described events in Gujarat as genocide for the first time. While the EU report stopped short of using that word, it clearly implied there was a policy of ethnic cleansing. The pattern of violence suggests the purpose was to purge Muslims from Hindu and mixed Hindu/Muslim areas, said a copy of the final draft seen by the Financial Times. Muslim businesses were systematically targeted and destroyed. On the role of BJP state officials in Gujarat, it said: Ministers took active part in the violence . . . senior police officers were instructed not to intervene in the rioting. Until now, the BJP central government has said the revenge riots were ignited by a fatal arson attack on a train carrying Hindu activists at Godhra. That attack, which killed 59 people, was blamed on Muslims. But the EU report, based on investigations by a number of individual member states that sent staff to the region, - including Germany, Britain and the Netherlands - said Godhra was no more than a pretext for Hindu mob violence, which was planned months before. Diplomatic sources said free swords were being distributed by Hindu activists days before the riots began. The true death toll was put at more than 2,000 and 140,000 people are estimated to be refugees as a result of the attacks. On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch published its own verdict on Gujarat which appeared to back the EU's findings. What happened in Gujarat was not a spontaneous uprising. It was a carefully orchestrated attack against Muslims, said the group, adding that the state and police were complicit. On Monday, a group of Gujarat victims came to Delhi to tell their stories. Dilawer, a nine-year-old boy, told how his parents were killed. They spread water. A naked wire was there. My mother died of electric shock. They burned my father also. Another victim, Feeroz Bhai, told how he watched a Hindu mob use a sword to cut out his unborn child from his eight-month pregnant wife, killing them both. --- 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 To Support New War Against Western Sahara? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Cf. today's dispatches concerning the U.S.'s favorite 'President General' Pervez Musharraf receiving 98% of the vote in a rigged referendum (former Pakistani presidents Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif refused the right to return to the country under penalty of imprisonment or worse) and last week's White House statement, regarding the U.S. backed coup attempt in Venezuela, that it's not democracy just because there was an election. Now the US, British and French - which is to say NATO - monarchical client state of Morocco can finish its genocidal project in Western Sahara.] The Independent (UK) War drums beat again for Polisario Front guerrillas By Katherine Butler in Laayoune, Western Sahara 01 May 2002 After a cease-fire of more than 10 years, the threat of renewed war between the Polisario Front and Morocco was looming yesterday as the United States backed plans to give Morocco sovereignty over the Western Sahara. With the deadline for a UN peacekeeping mandate in the vast, arid but phosphate-rich territory set to expire, the US, with strong British backing, is proposing what it says is a fair compromise to end a 30-year-old conflict. The 15-member Security Council began discussions on the plan last night, and was expected to extend the UN mission by three months to give the deeply divided members more time to discuss the issue. Algerian-backed Polisario Front guerrillas went to war against Morocco in 1975 after the kingdom annexed the territory following the departure of the Spanish colonists. The struggle which ensued created one of the world's largest and by now most forgotten humanitarian crises. Tens of thousands of Saharan refugees, most descended from nomadic desert tribes, are still stranded inside Algeria to this day. The US proposal, which Morocco supports, gives Rabat ultimate sovereignty over the Western Sahara, although the territory would have wide-ranging autonomy. The brainchild of James Baker, the former US Secretary of State, the plan has angered the Sahrawi independence movement. Not only does it quash any hopes of independence, it all but abandons a long-standing UN commitment to allow the Western Sahara people to determine their future in a referendum. A UN ceasefire was brokered in 1991 on the promise of a referendum. But disputes over who could vote in this semi-nomadic, semi-literate society have raged for nearly a decade. Last night a senior British diplomat said: It is quite clear a referendum is never going to be implemented.'' Meanwhile on both sides of the 2000km wall of sand and landmines that runs the length of the border with Algeria, families are divided and allegations of disappearances, unlawful detentions and torture persist. After a 10-year impasse, a Moroccan diplomatic offensive led by the young King Mohammed the Sixth appears to be paying dividends. Many Western governments appear to believe that this is a good opportunity to forge a favourable relationship with a liberal-minded Islamic ruler . Laayoune, the capital of the Western Sahara, could hardly be depicted as a war zone. UN peacekeepers have so little to do they call their mission Club Med. But in modest homes off the city's run-down side streets, Saharan activists warned of a return to guerrilla war'' if the UN withdraws and the Baker plan is imposed without a referendum. Self-determination is sacred for the Sahrawi people,'' said Dahaa Ramouni, a member of a Sahrawi human rights group. If that is denied us, although we don't want it, the danger is the Polisario will resume hostilities.'' Sidi Mohammed Dadesh, a veteran of the Polisario campaign, said: We want a referendum and anyone who wants another solution wants a return to war.'' Algeria's reaction is crucial. Rivalry between the neighbouring states for the Western Sahara's phosphate reserves, its offshore oil potential and its strategic location on the Atlantic, is at the route of the conflict.Hamid Chabar, the king's appointee to the territory, suggested yesterday that Morocco would be ready to grant Algeria access to the Atlantic as part of a settlement. Despite the Polisario's rhetoric, the diplomatic battle is not going their way. Morocco has worked effectively to undermine the movement's claims to nationhood by bringing thousands of people into the territory who claim to be Sahrawi. More than 20,000 nomads have been camped in Laayoune since 1991 waiting for a referendum. A mother in a breeze-block hut decorated with artificial flowers and a television set said yesterday: We came here as a show of loyalty to Morocco. If there is no vote, that is God's will.'' __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click
Inquiry Delay 'unacceptable' says EU [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Inquiry delay 'unacceptable' says EU May 1 2002 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/30/1019441375578.html Israel's refusal to cooperate with a United Nations fact-finding mission investigating Israeli army action against Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp is unacceptable, European Commission President Romano Prodi said yesterday. If the Israeli army has nothing to hide, there is no reason to delay the UN mission, Prodi told a news conference. This was a chance for Israel to show the world that Palestinian allegations that Israeli soldiers killed hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin were untrue, Prodi said. The commission chief who heads for a summit with US President George W Bush in Washington on May 2 said he would urge the American Administration to continue pressing Israel on a complete military pull-out from Palestinian territories. I am very pleased that the US convinced Israel to end the siege of Ramallah and allow (Palestinian Authority President) Yasser Arafat freedom of movement, Prodi said. This is a good and constructive step, the commission chief said. But Prodi said he would now ask President Bush to convince Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to fully cooperate with the international community on the Jenin inquiry and allow urgent action to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories. I am deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation, Prodi insisted, adding that international aid operations were being hampered in West Bank cities because of an absence of clear rules on their operations. I will ask Bush to call for the full and unhindered access of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, Prodi said. Israel's destruction of the basic infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority had created a vacuum which could lead to chaos and anarchy, the commission president warned. This is not in Israel's security interest, he cautioned. Renewed American interest in the Middle East was to be encouraged but permanent peace in the region required international cooperation, Prodi insisted. As such it was vital that the quartet group including the US, Europe, the United Nations and Russia continued to work together, Prodi said. A meeting of the Israeli security cabinet - whose members have accused the UN of bias - has ruled out cooperation with the UN team. Israel presented to the UN several subjects essential to holding a fair probe, but as long as these conditions go unmet, it will be impossible to hold the probe, an Israeli cabinet statement said. Israel says the team should include more military and counter-terrorism experts who can better judge the military aspects of the Israeli army operations in the Jenin refugee camp. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/30/1019441375578.html Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald = Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts ends at the colonnade between Grand Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, [EMAIL PROTECTED] or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
Is This *April* Ist? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [April Fool's Day has come a month late for UNMIK and KFOR. Of course for the last three years they have not tolerated graft, corruption, mass-scale ethnic cleansing, narcotics trafficking, white slavery of minors, the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Roma, Goranci, Jews and others, the targeted assassinations of non-KLA Albanians, the export of KLA terror and subversion into Southern Serbia and Macedonia, lucrative contracts for Brown and Root for constructing the largest US military base abroad since the Vietnam War, and so forth. Theirs has been a strictly humanitarian endeavor.] UN WILL NOT TOLERATE GRAFT IN KOSOVO BELGRADE, 1 May 2002. /from RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander Slabynko/. - Michael Steiner, head of UN mission in Kosovo, said in Pristina that he would not tolerate further spread of graft in Kosovo. He made the statement in connection with embezzlement of the 4.5 million euro subsidy granted by UN to ensure the region's electricity supply. According to Andy Bearpark, UN Mission's deputy head for economic development, an official representative of an international organization was involved in the fraud scheme that had led to the embezzlement. Rumours of graft have long been in the air, but only recently have we managed to obtain tangible evidence of the crime, he told a press conference in Pristina. Andy Bearpark did not disclose the name of the official implicated in the embezzlement scheme. He stressed however that corruption in Kosovo must be curbed at all costs. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
'Paramount Power Arrogance': Czech Left Denounces NATO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Czech Happenings May 1, 2002 Communist leader Grebenicek against NATO, EU - 1.5. PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - Communist (KSCM) leader Miroslav Grebenicek spoke against the Czech Republic's NATO and EU membership in his May Day speech he made at a rally of about 10,000 to 12,000 people according to police estimates at Prague's Letna plain today. If Czech employees are to be only cheap labour and Czech businesspeople and framers to go bankrupt amid unequal competition, then such integration must be rejected, Grebenicek told the rally which was also participated in by Cuban ambassador to the Czech Republic David Paulovich. Grebenicek said that class differences had been escalated in the country - the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. He said this was a logical part of the process in which all national property had been sold out under price. The current Social Democrat government has only carried on the partition of state interests into private properties, Grebenick said. We blame the government for having succumbed to the right- wing madness set on the total privatisation of everything which was to and could benefit citizens, Grebenicek told the crowd who interrupted him with applause and affirmative shouting. In this situation the hosting of a NATO summit in Prague [in November] is an expression of paramount power arrogance, Grebenicek said adding that it would cost taxpayers more than one billion crowns. He assured the participants that the communists would prevent attempts to revise the results of World War Two including the transfer of Sudeten Germans. Grebenicek was referring to the calls of some Austrian, German and Hungarian politicians for the abrogation of the Benes decrees under which Sudeten Germans and also Hungarians were deported from then Czechoslovakia. He also promised that the Communists would work for full employment, solidarity-based social welfare and free education. The KSCM organised rally proceeded in calm. Only about ten communism opponents unfolded posters reading Red Poverty and KSCM - threat to humankind. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
NATO To End Humanitarian Intervention In US [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Correction. A spokesman for NATO General Secretary Lord Robertson has informed us that the aircraft in question were surveillance planes and fighters. As such this mission doesn't qualify as a humanitarian one. Had they been bombers] NATO to End Unprecedented Patrols Over America BRUSSELS - (Reuters) - The NATO military alliance said it was ending its unprecedented operation to patrol the skies of the United States, launched after the September 11 attacks, because U.S. air defense security had improved. NATO used seven airborne warning and control system (AWACS) planes, consisting of international crews, to watch over the skies of the United States to free up U.S. planes for the military operation in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the NATO planes would return home May 16, and expressed U.S. appreciation. Operation Eagle Assist, as the mission was called, marked the very first time that NATO had deployed assets in direct support of operations in the continental United States, Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing. I certainly want to express my full appreciation and the appreciation of our country to our NATO allies and to the many dedicated air crews who have helped to defend our country in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, Rumsfeld said. The Pentagon last month reduced the number of U.S. fighter jets on round-the-clock combat air patrols over major cities, relying instead on intermittent sorties and improved security in airports and on passenger jets. The NATO planes were deployed Oct. 19 after NATO for the first time activated its mutual-defense clause, which says an attack on one member is as an attack on the whole alliance. This decision concludes NATO's historic first deployment of assets in direct support of operations in the continental United States, said a NATO statement, released late on Tuesday. The AWACS squadron is a NATO unit rather than one formed from equipment pooled by NATO states and has crews from 11 of the alliance's 19 nations. The unit is based at the Geilenkirchen base in Germany. The alliance said the operation had ended after upgrades to the U.S. air defense system and enhanced cooperation between the U.S. civil and military authorities. During the operation, the E-3A planes were based at the Tinker Air Force base in Oklahoma. NATO said that 830 crew members had patrolled the U.S. skies for nearly 4,300 hours in more than 360 operational sorties. This operation has been a concrete demonstration of allied solidarity, NATO said. NATO also showed its support for Washington's war on terrorism by sending a flotilla of warships to the eastern Mediterranean in October. With the British frigate Chatham as flagship, the force includes frigates from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and the United States, a Greek destroyer and a German refueling ship. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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: Is This *April* Ist? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- No, no, no Rick, you missed the critical word in first sentence: Michael Steiner, head of UN mission in Kosovo, said in Pristina that he would not tolerate further spread of graft in Kosovo. The graft which has existed up to this time is both NATO/KFOR/UNMIK accepted/approved/cooperated with. Steiner is merely stating that the monopoly has been granted and those operating outside NATO/KFOR/UNMIK cooperation will not be tolerated. As if we are to expect the modern day robber barons to deal with competition. nudge, nudge, wink, wink! Cossack At 11:08 5/1/2002 -0700, Rick Rozoff wrote: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [April Fool's Day has come a month late for UNMIK and KFOR. Of course for the last three years they have not tolerated graft, corruption, mass-scale ethnic cleansing, narcotics trafficking, white slavery of minors, the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Roma, Goranci, Jews and others, the targeted assassinations of non-KLA Albanians, the export of KLA terror and subversion into Southern Serbia and Macedonia, lucrative contracts for Brown and Root for constructing the largest US military base abroad since the Vietnam War, and so forth. Theirs has been a strictly humanitarian endeavor.] UN WILL NOT TOLERATE GRAFT IN KOSOVO BELGRADE, 1 May 2002. /from RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander Slabynko/. - Michael Steiner, head of UN mission in Kosovo, said in Pristina that he would not tolerate further spread of graft in Kosovo. He made the statement in connection with embezzlement of the 4.5 million euro subsidy granted by UN to ensure the region's electricity supply. According to Andy Bearpark, UN Mission's deputy head for economic development, an official representative of an international organization was involved in the fraud scheme that had led to the embezzlement. Rumours of graft have long been in the air, but only recently have we managed to obtain tangible evidence of the crime, he told a press conference in Pristina. Andy Bearpark did not disclose the name of the official implicated in the embezzlement scheme. He stressed however that corruption in Kosovo must be curbed at all costs. __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST --- 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 ==^
Palestinian Minister: Dissolution of Fact-Finding Team a License for Israel To C
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Palestinian Minister: Dissolution of Fact-Finding Team a License for Israel To Continue Massacres Albawaba.com JERUSAELM, May 1, 2002 -- The Palestinian Minister of Local Government and Chief Negotiator, Saeb Erekat said in an interview with Albawaba.com that any decision by the UN secretary General Kofi Annan to dissolve the fact finding team in Jenin would give Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, a license for more killings and repetition of massacres and war crimes. In a telephone interview with Albawaba.com Erekat said Wednesday, "In light of the Israeli refusal to cooperate with the fact finding team, Annan must keep the team as it is and send it to the region." The UN Security Council is due to hold consultations Wednesday upon a request by the Arab states to discuss the consequences of the Israeli refusal to cooperate with the fact-finding committee. This move has come after Annan decided to refer the issue to the Security Council shortly after he announced that he would tend to dissolve the committee. In the same context, an Israeli diplomat revealed Wednesday that Israel hopes the US would veto any decision by the security council to send an investigation committee to Jenin after the Jewish state's refusal of receiving the fact finding team. "The committee should come and let Israel refuse it before the whole world," Erekat commented on Israel's refusal to give permission for the fact finding team plane to land in Israel. He added, "the Israeli refusal constitutes another evidence that Israel has things to hide." "By taking such a decision, Israel attempts to hide the crimes and massacres committed by the Israeli army and the fact that it moved the bodies of Palestinians from Jenin camp and buried them in West Bank and other areas known to us. Israel also tries to conceal the fact that the Israeli army used old people and children as human shields in Jenin camp and Nablus." "We as Palestinians will never forget or forgive such actions by Israel. All what we try to do is to prevent the recurrence of such massacres. If Annan dissolves the fact finding committee, he will give Sharon permission for more massacres," the Palestinian chief negotiator asserted. On the other hand, Erekat confirmed that Israel prevented him and the Palestinian negotiating team from gaining access to the besieged Palestinian president's headquarters in Ramallah. Earlier, a senior Palestinian official announced that the Israelis denied Wednesday dawn the negotiating Palestinian team access to Arafat's headquarters making the agreement reached with the American and British experts to lift the siege on Arafat void. But Erekat sees that the Israeli refusal does not constitute a cancellation of the agreement but rather a non-compliance by Israel to what was agreed upon. "We cannot confirm that but we can say that Israel did not comply with what was agreed upon three days ago," said Ereikat. He pointed out that Israel has two faces by using the English language to talk about Mitchell, Tenet and fact finding committee and at the same time uses the Hebrew language to talk about absolute refusal of everything and the continuation of aggression. "In consistence with this policy, Israel keeps besieging Arafat and depriving the besieged Palestinians inside the Nativity Church of food and water, attacking Hebron with tanks and planes and killing a two year old Palestinian girland the aggression continues. "I do not see any progress in the negotiations about the Nativity Church siege despite the Israeli reports which claimed that," concluded Erekat. Albawaba.com, 2002. All rights reserved. Distributed in partnership with Globalvision News Network (www.gvnews.net). --- 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 ==^
News, 1.5.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News May 1st, 2002, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: May Day Kicks Off with Violence As May Day celebrations get underway in Germany, police in Berlin and Hamburg clash with angry protestors. Violent outbreaks are expected throughout the day. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_510207_1_A,00.html -- Car Bomb Explodes in Madrid A car bomb has exploded outside Madrid's Bernabeu soccer stadium, which is the venue for tonight's European Champions League soccer semifinal between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Rescue workers are on the scene and five people are reported to have been wounded. A car bomb blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA damaged buildings and cars in the same area 10 days ago. Fire Kills 18 Prisoners in Algeria 18 prisoners were killed in a fire that ripped through a high security jail in Algeria's capital Algiers. The official Algerian news agency said the fire at Serkadji prison appears to have been started by prisoners who had set their mattresses ablaze after seeing a 19-year-old inmate attempting to kill himself. Freedom of Movement for Arafat Near? Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has reached a tentative agreement with U.S. and British officials to move six men wanted by Israel from his Ramallah headquarters to a jail supervised by American and British forces. Israel's security forces say they they will withdraw from outside Mr. Arafat's compound once the six were taken to Jericho. An aid to Mr. Arafat has said Israeli forces must FIRST leave the area before the prisoner deal can be finalised. Shooting Outside Church of the Nativity Israeli troops shot and wounded a Palestinian man in the courtyard of the besieged Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem Wednesday. The Israeli army described the Palestinian as a gunman who had been hit in the shoulder and later surrendered to Israeli troops. The army has besieged the church since April 2 after 30 gunmen sought refuge from soldiers who had reoccupied Bethlehem. Jenin Inquiry Close to Dissolution U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is close to recommending that the U.N. Jenin inquiry mission opposed by Israel be called off but has said he will await a U.N. Security Council session later today. The mission headed by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari has waited since last weekend in Geneva. Israel, which denies Palestinian massacre claims, wants the inquiry's mandate extended to include alleged terrorist acts. Annan's spokesman said a credible report on Israel's assault on Jenin last month depended on Israeli cooperation. On Tuesday Israel's army pulled back from Hebron in the West Bank, saying it had arrested 150 terror suspects. At Rafah in the Gaza Strip, four Palestinians have reportedly been killed, including a two-year-old girl. An army source said a tank fired at militants. No Injuries Following Missile Blast in Pakistan A missile has exploded near a government compound housing U.S. personnel in Pakistan. The missile fell just yards away from the compound, which is located not far from the border with Afghanistan. There were no injuries reported. The U.S. says a small number of troops are in the area to track down remnants of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban movement. U.S. to Send Troops and Attack Helicopters to Eastern Afghanistan The United States says it's deploying hundreds of troops and attack helicopters to the Afghan mountains near Pakistan to support British troops in their hunt for remaining Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. The Pentagon believes hundreds of al Qaeda fighters and their Taliban allies could be gathering in the area. May Day Protests Worldwide Millions of people around the world have taken to the streets to mark Labour Day Wednesday. In the Philippines, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the capital against the politics of President Gloria Arroyo. Large demonstrations were also held in Turkey's capital, Ankara and in China, the authorities have honoured successful businessmen with medals and high praise. Hundreds of thousands of May Day protesters also took to the streets in France Wednesday. They called for improved workers rights and voiced their opposition to extreme right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, who will face President Chirac in a run-off election in less than two weeks. There were also smaller demonstrations in France supporting Mr. Le Pen. Here in Germany hundreds of thousands of people marched in a
Egypt Assails the Lumping of U.S. War With Israel's [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Wednesday, May 1, 2002 in the New York Times Egypt Assails the Lumping of U.S. War With Israel's by Neil MacFarquhar CAIRO President Hosni Mubarak criticized Washington today for allowing Israel to lump the Palestinian struggle to end occupation into the same category as the war on terrorism, and he echoed the impatience of other Arab officials with the lack of peace initiatives from the United States. "This Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and its provocative, illegitimate acts are the main reason behind the escalation of the Palestinian resistance," President Mubarak said in a nationally televised speech marking May Day. "This fierce campaign that Israel is launching on the Palestinian people and leadership must end, this campaign that is unjustly based on a comparison between the U.S. war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Israel's war against unarmed Palestinians who are resisting occupation." In the absence of any concrete plan to help the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are likely to doubt the entire American effort, said Mr. Mubarak, traditionally a staunch ally of the United States but increasingly critical in recent weeks. "What happened is a sudden change in the direction of the war against terrorism which, I am afraid, will shake the people's faith in it and in its credibility in the Arab and Muslim worlds," he said. Since September, the entire American effort to fight terrorism has encountered a certain skepticism in the Middle East, where the idea that the attacks on the United States were the work of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's network, was not fully accepted. The American failure to get Israel to halt its offensive in the West Bank has deepened regional suspicion that the United States cannot be trusted to help pursue Arab interests. This has been especially true in Egypt and Jordan, whose leaders have been forced to defend maintaining peace treaties with Israel and have resorted to lowering their public profiles. The fact that the Bush administration managed to broker a deal that appears likely to free Yasir Arafat from Israeli siege in Ramallah shows that its engagement works, Mr. Mubarak said, lamenting a lack of further effort. "The strong intervention of the U.S. through definite suggestions can bring a real political breakthrough that leads to security and stability in the region," he said. Washington has indicated that it wants moderate Arab states to convince Mr. Arafat that he needs to take a more high-profile role in stopping suicide bombings. There is some indication of that happening already, according to American officials in the region, who said that Mr. Mubarak, King Abdullah of Jordan and others had called Mr. Arafat in recent days. But Arab officials noted that the United States should not expect a broad effort from the Arab side without Washington showing more spine in pressuring the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. "Where is the pressure from the U.S. on Sharon?" said Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League. "Why should the Arabs put pressure on Arafat without equal pressure being put on Sharon? There is no solution except this one." He said the main pressure should be to get Israeli forces to withdraw to where they were before Sept. 28, 2000, when the current Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation started, and for both sides to observe a cease-fire. "It is not a question of some tanks being withdrawn or Mr. Arafat being able to go from Ramallah to Gaza, this is not a commodity to be sold for a high price," Mr. Moussa said. "Without this withdrawal I don't think there will be any progress, our side will not be convinced that the other side is serious." Arab officials are hoping for some sign from Washington that it realizes that the Palestinian question is not another branch of the war on terrorism and that American credibility on other issues not to mention its stated wish to take on Iraq is at stake. "You cannot, particularly if you are a big country, see everything through one prism," said Ahmed Maher, the Egyptian foreign minister. "In the minds of the Americans, Israel is fighting in Palestine the American war against terrorism, which is total nonsense." "What you have in Palestine is people who are under occupation who are resisting, sometimes with methods that we do not approve, but all in
Satis Nambijar u Beogradu / Nambiar Is Visiting Belgrade [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- 21:10 Nambijar o NATO intervenciji protiv Jugoslavije NATO intervencijom protiv Jugoslavije pogazene su sve medjunarodne norme i principi, ali i nacionalni suverenitet i integritet jedne zemlje, ocenio je prvi komandujuci snaga UNPROFOR za bivsu Jugoslaviju, indijski general Satis Nambijar, koji boravi u Beogradu. On je rekao da je glavni razlog sto nije prihvatio produzenje mandata UN to sto mu je postalo jasno da NATO pokusava da vuce konce mirovne operacije. Nambijar je rekao da je u jednom trenutku shvatio da izvestaji s terena pre stizu u Brisel, nego u sediste UN u Njujorku i da je video da su UN postale fasada za NATO. 21:10 Nambiar Is Visiting Belgrade The first UNPROFOR Commander for former Yugoslavia, Indian General Satis Nambiar says that all international standards and principles, national sovereignty and integrity of one country, were breached through NATO's intervention in Yugoslavia. During his current visit to Belgrade he has said he did not accept prolongation of his mandate because it was clear that NATO was trying to pull the strings of the peace operation and that NATO had become UN's facade. --- 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 ==^
Sharon May Need To Offer Arabs New Deal if Bush is To Fend Off U.N. [WWW.STOPNAT
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Sharon May Need To Offer Arabs New Deal if Bush is To Fend Off U.N. By Bradley BurstonHa'aretz TEL AVIV, May 1, 2002 -- Nearing a dangerous precipice with the UN Security Council, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may need to make an overture the Arabs can't refuse if he is to win White House support in diplomatic warfare over the disputed bloodshed in Jenin. Sharon is to visit the White House next week. Bush administration officials had hoped that by the time the prime minister reached Washington, the hydra-headed negotiations regarding IDF-Palestinian standoffs at Yasser Arafat's besieged Ramallah headquarters, Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, and the Jenin investigation impasse, would have been resolved by the time President George W.Bush welcomed Sharon to Washington. True to form, however, the Middle East has little patience for quick solutions. In a cascade of policy reversals over the past two weeks, Sharon has twice agreed to and twice rejected Israeli cooperation with the UN fact-finding mission charged with the on-site sifting of evidence over the IDF offensive in Jenin refugee camp. Israel maintained its insistence that it had nothing to hide in the face of Palestinian allegations - now largely in doubt - of wholesale massacres and summary executions of Palestinian civilians in the camp. However, the Sharon government has balked at the possibility that the evidence gathered by commission members could someday be used to fuel war-crimes proceedings against soldiers, commanders, and even the leaders who ordered the operation, Israe The resultant diplomatic limbo has left the UN team stranded in Geneva, pending a late Wednesday Security Council debate over the impasse, and a subsequent decision by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on whether to disband the mission. Furiously pulling diplomatic levers of his own was Arafat, the focus of Sharon's High Noon war of nerves, whom the prime minister has kept sequestered in a corner of a dingy, largely destroyed Ramallah compound in an explicit bid to isolate the Palestinian leader from the world. But as Bush administration intervention increased in recent weeks, Arafat has been bathed in the spotlight of a range of international diplomatic efforts. Arafat's repeated past declarations that he wished nothing for nothing more than martyrdom in his Ramallah confinement have now given way to fresh negotiations and a steady stream of American and European mediators. If Israelis had harbored hopes that the issue would disappear along with the UN mission, their optimism was quickly dispelled by widespread fears that Israel's international diplomatic plight could dramatically worsen - and soon. Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said that an enraged Security Council determined to show a defiant Israel who was boss, could raise the stakes of an investigation, appointing a full-blown commission of inquiry into the events of Jenin as well as other elements of the broad IDF West Bank offensive ordered in response to an unprecedented series of suicide bombings. UN sanctions could follow. A UN inquiry would likely pose a much more profound problem for Israel, Ben-Ami said. Moreover, if the government rejected such a commission, the step could lead to a "frontal confrontation with serious operative decisions regarding Israel, which would in turn put additional pressure on the United States, with respect to its ability to stand alongside Israel." At the same time, pressure on Sharon has increased at home. On Sunday, Sharon dismayed rightists by persuading the Cabinet to accept a Bush administration plan aimed at securing Arafat's release. In the past, Sharon had declared that Arafat would stay put until he handed over the killers of slain cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi. Under the U.S. plan, the suspected assassins, who have been Arafat's guests in the Ramallah compound, are to be transferred to a Jericho prison under American and British supervision, with Arafat's freedom to follow. According to Ha'aretz commentator Akiva Eldar, Israeli leaders had agreed to the proposal under the mistaken belief that in return, the Bush administration would act to quash UN action over Jenin. Now, after having caved in on the Arafat issue without the hoped-for diplomatic compensation, Sharon will likely be forced to come up with another quid pro quo to offer when he visits Washington. "This will then allow Bush to
Jenin 'massacre' reduced to death toll of 56 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
ilies living in houses directly opposite the destroyed area have told The Washington Times that Israeli soldiers, who temporarily occupied their houses just before the final battle began, treated them without violence and assured them: "You will not be harmed."They confined the 36 members of the Abu Khalil family to two rooms, allowing them out one by one, and set up a snipers' point upstairs through two holes in the wall under a family framed message in Arabic: "There is No God but Allah and Mohammed is His Messenger."They confiscated identity cards but left them on the table before slipping out during the night.At the United Nations in New York, Undersecretary-General Kieran Prendergast said "a thorough, credible and balanced report on recent events in Jenin refugee camp would not be possible without the cooperation of the government of Israel.""Since it appears from today's Cabinet statement by Israel that the difficulties in the way of deployment of the fact-finding team will not be resolved anytime soon, the secretary-general is minded to disband the team," he told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council.Diplomats said Mr. Prendergast told council members that Mr. Annan was leaning toward disbanding the three-member team, which has been joined by numerous advisers. The team, which was to have arrived in Jenin on Saturday, remained in Geneva yesterday.The Security Council is to take up the issue of whether or not to disband the mission at a meeting today.The United States put forward the resolution adopted by the Security Council welcoming the dispatch of a U.N. team to find out what happened in Jenin during the Israeli military's attacks.Israel initially agreed to the idea, but subsequently raised questions over the composition of the team, its scope of inquiry, who could be called as a witness and what documents would be presented to the panel.Mr. Prendergast said that "with every passing day, it becomes more difficult to determine what happened" in Jenin. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said Mr. Annan was considering whether to let the fact-finding team begin its work in Geneva or "simply abandoning the mission on the assumption that satisfactory terms of reference could not be worked out." This article is based in part on wire service reports. http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020501-5587072.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 ==^ blackline-small.gif Description: GIF image
May Day - Summary [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AAP; AFP; Reuters; AP; Ananova; MSNBC. 1 May 2002. May Day. SYDNEY, MOSCOW, MANILA, PARIS, BERLIN, LONDON, ROME, ZURICH, SEOUL, TEHRAN, TOKYO, KUALA LUMPUR, ATHENS, DAMASCUS, CALCUTTA, BARCELONA, ZAGREB, SANTIAGO, BOGOTA, HAVANA, CARACAS and BEIJING -- Police defended a mounted charge against demonstrators as a May Day protest in Sydney turned ugly today, with marbles and fireworks and an incendiary device thrown in the path of police horses. Wearing chequered-headscarves wrapped so that only their eyes showed, dozens of M1 protesters - including some wearing reflective vests reading 'NURSE' - showed their enmity to Israel. The Palestinian resistance and freeing the detained illegal immigrants were one and the same cause, said a masked teenage girl, who gave her name as 'Nailbomb.' It's all about overthrowing the colonialism here and in Palestine. It's all about overthrowing the capitalism that is at the heart of it all, she said. Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard told 10,000 workers claims that May Day had had its day were false as workers faced the same issues now as they did when they first claimed the day as their own 120 years ago. Things are as tough as they ever were, he said. Bosses are still wanting to screw more and more productivity out of workers. Meanwhile, thousands of trade unionists have gathered in downtown Moscow to mark May Day. Organisers say at least 140,000 people had gathered behind St. Basil's Cathedral near Red Square by mid-morning. Another 100,000 met at a separate rally held by the Communist Party at Karl Marx Square in front of the Bolshoi Theatre, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Leading the communist rally, party leader Gennady Zyuganov said more young people are taking part in the May Day celebration than in recent years. The communists demanded an immediate government resignation. Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, rallies were planned in about 500 cities and towns. In the former Communist stronghold of Voronezh, in southern Russia, demonstrators rallied in the city's central square by a statue of Lenin. They applauded as the slogans rang out, attacking the government and the traitors to the fatherland, denouncing the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and joined in as the comrades shouted in unison: down with the government. In Manila, about 500 leftists took to the streets Wednesday in protests against the government and U.S. military exercises. They focused on claims that thousands of U.S. troops currently in the Philippines are part of a plan by Washington to re-establish a permanent presence in the Southeast Asian country, which was formerly a U.S. colony and site of U.S. military bases. Leftist labor leader Elmer Labog said Wednesday's rally would be the start of a campaign to push for Arroyo's removal. Workers are determined to launch a nationwide campaign to press for her urgent removal from Malacanang, Labog said in a statement. Labog, head of the May 1 Movement, the country's biggest leftist union, said Arroyo should be removed from office for her sycophancy to foreign monopoly firms... through her promotion of globalization policies. Well over half a million marchers took to the streets in French cities in protest against Jean-Marie Le Pen as the extreme right presidential candidate rallied thousands of his own supporters in Paris. Chanting N like Nazi, F like Fascist, demonstrators packed dozens of towns and cities in a massive show of peaceful opposition to Le Pen and his National Front party ahead of Sunday's runoff election against President Jacques Chirac. Trotskyists distributed tracts urging voters on Sunday to shun both Le Pen and Chirac, who is widely expected to be heading for a landslide victory. In Germany, one woman was fighting for her life after violence marking May Day erupted in two districts of Berlin. It began when a group of around 500 anarchists lit a large fire on a main street and then pelted the fire brigade with bottles and stones. Police used water cannons against the demonstrators and hundreds of riot police moved in. Dozens of people suffered facial cuts from hurled bottles after what was planned as a peaceful anti-Nazi demonstration. Whistles, whoops, and bongo beats rang out through central London on May Day as anti-capitalist protesters took to the streets. A crowd of several hundred embarked on what at times seemed more like a walking tour of the capital's tourist highlights, and although there were sporadic displays of tension, there was no sign of the feared violence by mid-afternoon. Probably the most threatening display came outside a branch of McDonalds' on Oxford St when several dozen police stood their ground in front of the restaurant as the protesters stopped to vent their spleen at the multinational. Grosvenor Square, home to the US Embassy, provided a rallying point for the marchers at lunchtime. Traffic
Military doesn't know where undersea weapons dumps are [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The following is a news item posted on CBC NEWS ONLINE at http://cbc.ca/news MILITARY DOESN'T KNOW WHERE UNDERSEA WEAPONS DUMPS ARE http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/04/30/mustard_ocean020430 WebPosted Wed May 1 11:13:31 2002 MARGAREE FORKS, N.S.--A resident of Cape Breton Island wants the Canadian military to come clean about where tonnes of chemical weapons were dumped after the Second World War. Myles Kehoe, an antique dealer in Margaree Forks, Cape Breton, was surprised at what he found while looking at some nautical charts from the 1960s. Some of the charts mark well-documented military explosive dump sites off the East Coast. But one marked a site not found on any others. Kehoe says a former military person and local fishermen have told him it's a post-Second World War chemical warfare dump. The military claims it doesn't know what it is, but is looking into the allegations. We're taking Mr. Kehoe's claims very seriously, said Maj. Francois Lauzon. In 1946, the navy sunk a barge-load of mustard gas 160 km east of Halifax, near Sable Island. The military is trying to find out if there are other sites. It admits it doesn't know. Some records may have been destroyed and it will make the search that much more complicated, said Lauzon. But we will do our best. Opposition politicians are starting to ask questions on Parliament Hill. We're asking the government to come clean with Canadians, to be responsible, to protect the interests of all of us, and our fish stocks, said Peter Stoffer, NDP fisheries critic. Kehoe believes the waters off Cape Breton hide other unmarked mustard gas dump sites. It's there. They have to admit it's there. If you manufacture something, and you don't use it, where the heck is it?, he said. Now if they can show me where it's at, in another site, hey, all the better. Kehoe is worried that with increased exploration of the ocean floor by oil companies and others old warheads and barrels of mustard gas could be disturbed, with dangerous results. Copyright © 2002 CBC All Rights Reserved http://cbc.ca/ = We're all downwinders! Check out http://www.downwinders.org = Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts ends at the colonnade between Grand Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, [EMAIL PROTECTED] or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 ==^
Thousands march to mark May Day [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Thousands march to mark May Day MOSCOW - Thousands of trade unionists gathered in downtown Moscow on Wednesday to celebrate the traditional May Day holiday while communists marked the occasion at a separate rally. Organizers of the trade unionists' rally said at least 140,000 people had gathered behind St. Basil's cathedral near Red Square by midmorning. Another 100,000 people met at the separate communist rally at Karl Marx Square in front of the Bolshoi Theater several blocks from Red Square, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Participants in the trade union rally criticized government policy toward labor, but praised the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. Andrei Isayev, deputy chairman of Federation of Trade Unions, said Russia was being led by "a person we are not ashamed of before the whole world: a sober, reasonable and rational politician." But, he said, Russia was not developing dynamically because Putin's policy was becoming stuck "in the stagnant bureaucratic apparatus of those who do not want to work and cannot work." Putin sent a message to the trade unionists that was read to the crowd over a loudspeaker. "The main task of the government and all constructive forces in society is to make Russia a wealthy, prospering country," Putin's message said. "I believe that the joint rally by representatives from the Federation of Trade Unions will help achieve this goal." Some 4,000 police officers and traffic police were deployed in the city center to control the crowds celebrating May Day, once one of the most important holidays in the former Soviet Union, ITAR-Tass said. Leading the communist rally, party leader Gennady Zyuganov noted that more young people were taking part in the May Day celebration. "The participants have increased by four or five times (over recent years), and many of them are young people," he said. Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, rallies were planned in about 500 cities and towns. /The Associated Press/ --- 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 ==^
Tense World Marks May Day [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Tense World Marks May Day By Tony CzuczkaAssociated Press WriterWednesday, May 1, 2002; 10:21 AM BERLIN Demonstrators rallied against the right in Germany and France, merchants boarded up stores to guard against attacks by anti-capitalist demonstrators and riot police turned out in force as Europeans marked a tense May Day on Wednesday. Police in Berlin used tear gas to quell overnight clashes with anarchists who threw rocks, set street fires and looted a supermarket, the worst violence on the eve of May Day for years. An estimated 5,000 police turned several parts of the German capital into restricted zones, including a main thoroughfare through the landmark Brandenburg Gate. Scores of anarchist protesters were detained in several cities overnight, and police said two people were injured seriously in Berlin. May Day in the German capital has regularly degenerated into street battles between police and anarchists over the past 15 years. In France, as many as 500,000 people demonstrated nationwide against extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, the largest turnout so far against the ultra-nationalist politician since he qualified for this Sunday's presidential runoff. Earlier, Le Pen led several thousand supporters through central Paris. They chanted "Le Pen, president" and waved tricolor flags and signs that read, "I'm proud to be French." Some 700 supporters of a far-right fringe party marched through a Berlin suburb, escorted by nearly 2,000 police who kept them apart from heckling counter-demonstrators shouting "Nazis out!" At least one marcher was detained by police for making the banned stiff-arm Nazi salute. "We're demonstrating because we love our country," declared far-right marcher Wolfgang Kuehl, 34. At Berlin's city hall, labor leaders rallied a crowd of about 10,000 behind Germany's first industrial strike in seven years, due to start next week. In Moscow, at least 140,000 trade union supporters holding up pictures of President Vladimir Putin rallied downtown. The Communists marked the occasion separately, drawing mostly elderly people who carried red carnations and proudly displayed World War II medals on their lapels. In Greece and Turkey, protesters proclaimed solidarity with the Palestinians in their bloody struggle with Israel. "A thousand greetings to the Palestinian resistance," read a slogan at a rally in Istanbul, Turkey. In Athens, about 6,000 people marched to the U.S. and Israeli embassies to protest Israel's military incursion into Palestinian areas. In the economically struggling former Yugoslav republic of Croatia, workers marched through the capital, Zagreb, to protest government plans to trim labor rights. Polish officials laid flowers at a monument in the city of Poznan to workers killed in 1956 anti-communist protests, but the capital, Warsaw, was calm as many people left for the countryside for a five-day weekend. Workers in Macedonia handed out platefuls of hearty cooked brown beans considered a laborer's staple in the capital, Skopje, as they demonstrated for an end to poverty. The country has the highest jobless rate in the Balkans. In London, more than 100 noisy demonstrators on bicycles blocked intersections in the busy Oxford Street shopping area. Some of them, representing a variety of groups from environmentalists to anti-capitalists, went to the U.S. Embassy bearing a banner reading "Capitalism doesn't work." Cuba's communist authorities called out more than 1 million citizens for a May Day march to protest Latin American criticism of its human rights record. President Fidel Castro was to head the annual workers march in the Havana. In Asia, police clashed with protesters in at least three nations while elsewhere, workers demonstrated peacefully for better working conditions and higher pay. In the Philippines, thousands of demonstrators were met on the streets by riot police amid coup rumors and terrorist threats. Police said they thwarted two possible terrorist attacks, including one that might have targeted President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Activists in Sydney, Australia, used May Day to highlight the plight of thousands of asylum seekers kept in detention centers for up to three years while their cases are reviewed. Police on horseback charged demonstrators after 500 people blockaded offices of a company that operates five of the detention centers. In Singapore, police arrested two prominent opposition party officials and civil rights activists as they tried to stage an unauthorized rally outside the tightly controlled city-state's presidential palace. Police later arrested an additional activist who refused to leave a police station where one of the other activists were detained. Malaysian police arrested 17 people as hundreds of plantation workers marched toward the world's tallest buildings in the capital,
Arafat compares Jenin battle to Stalingrad [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 1 May 2002. Arafat compares Jenin battle to Stalingrad. JERUSALEM -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Thursday compared fighting in the Jenin refugee camp to the devastating World War II battle of Stalingrad that destroyed the former Soviet city and killed more than 600,000 people. Jenin has turned into Jeningrad, instead of Stalingrad. Remember something like that, Stalingrad? Now, Jeningrad, Arafat told CNN shortly after Israeli troops lifted their month-long siege of his Ramallah office. Speaking in a firm voice but looking pale, Arafat said he intended to visit areas of the West Bank to see for himself the impact of Sharon's armed incursions, which he described as a crime. If the opportunity was open again, and the tanks were not around me in the morning again, I will go and see what happened in our cities and towns, the disasters and crimes, said Arafat. But Arafat noted that travel to other countries is not the first item for me. I want to go and see, and shake hands with my people who have suffered (from) crimes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
'They raped every German female from eight to 80' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,707835,00.html 'They raped every German female from eight to 80' Antony Beevor, author of the acclaimed new book about the fall of Berlin, on a massive war crime committed by the victorious Red Army. Wednesday May 1, 2002 The Guardian Red Army soldiers don't believe in 'individual liaisons' with German women, wrote the playwright Zakhar Agranenko in his diary when serving as an officer of marine infantry in East Prussia. Nine, ten, twelve men at a time - they rape them on a collective basis. The Soviet armies advancing into East Prussia in January 1945, in huge, long columns, were an extraordinary mixture of modern and medieval: tank troops in padded black helmets, Cossack cavalrymen on shaggy mounts with loot strapped to the saddle, lend-lease Studebakers and Dodges towing light field guns, and then a second echelon in horse-drawn carts. The variety of character among the soldiers was almost as great as that of their military equipment. There were freebooters who drank and raped quite shamelessly, and there were idealistic, austere communists and members of the intelligentsia appalled by such behaviour. Beria and Stalin, back in Moscow, knew perfectly well what was going on from a number of detailed reports. One stated that many Germans declare that all German women in East Prussia who stayed behind were raped by Red Army soldiers. Numerous examples of gang rape were given - girls under 18 and old women included. Marshal Rokossovsky issued order No 006 in an attempt to direct the feelings of hatred at fighting the enemy on the battlefield. It appears to have had little effect. There were also a few arbitrary attempts to exert authority. The commander of one rifle division is said to have personally shot a lieutenant who was lining up a group of his men before a German woman spreadeagled on the ground. But either officers were involved themselves, or the lack of discipline made it too dangerous to restore order over drunken soldiers armed with submachine guns. Calls to avenge the Motherland, violated by the Wehrmacht's invasion, had given the idea that almost any cruelty would be allowed. Even many young women soldiers and medical staff in the Red Army did not appear to disapprove. Our soldiers' behaviour towards Germans, particularly German women, is absolutely correct! said a 21-year-old from Agranenko's reconnaissance detachment. A number seemed to find it amusing. Several German women recorded how Soviet servicewomen watched and laughed when they were raped. But some women were deeply shaken by what they witnessed in Germany. Natalya Gesse, a close friend of the scientist Andrei Sakharov, had observed the Red Army in action in 1945 as a Soviet war correspondent. The Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty, she recounted later. It was an army of rapists. Drink of every variety, including dangerous chemicals seized from laboratories and workshops, was a major factor in the violence. It seems as if Soviet soldiers needed alcoholic courage to attack a woman. But then, all too often, they drank too much and, unable to complete the act, used the bottle instead with appalling effect. A number of victims were mutilated obscenely. The subject of the Red Army's mass rapes in Germany has been so repressed in Russia that even today veterans refuse to acknowledge what really happened. The handful prepared to speak openly, however, are totally unrepentant. They all lifted their skirts for us and lay on the bed, said the leader of one tank company. He even went on to boast that two million of our children were born in Germany. The capacity of Soviet officers to convince themselves that most of the victims were either happy with their fate, or at least accepted that it was their turn to suffer after what the Wehrmacht had done in Russia, is striking. Our fellows were so sex-starved, a Soviet major told a British journalist at the time, that they often raped old women of sixty, seventy or even eighty - much to these grandmothers' surprise, if not downright delight. One can only scratch at the surface of the psychological contradictions. When gang-raped women in Königsberg begged their attackers afterwards to put them out of their misery, the Red Army men appear to have felt insulted. Russian soldiers do not shoot women, they replied. Only German soldiers do that. The Red Army had managed to convince itself that because it had assumed the moral mission to liberate Europe from fascism it could behave entirely as it liked, both personally and politically. Domination and humiliation permeated most soldiers' treatment of women in East Prussia. The victims not only bore the brunt of revenge for Wehrmacht crimes, they also represented an atavistic target as old as war itself. Rape is the act of a conqueror, the feminist historian Susan Brownmiller observed, aimed at
WWIII is coming, 'I'm sure,' high-level Sharon aide says [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.azstarnet.com/star/sat/20427SHARON.AIDE.html Saturday, 27 April 2002 WWIII is coming, 'I'm sure,' high-level Sharon aide says By Stephanie Innes ARIZONA DAILY STAR The terror attacks on Sept. 11 and extreme turmoil in the Middle East point to one thing - World War III, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday during a visit to Tucson. We've been fighting a war for the past 18 months, which is the harbinger of World War III. The world is going to fight, whether they like it or not. I'm sure,'' Ra'anan Gissin, a senior adviser to Sharon, said in an interview Friday. Sept. 11 was a watershed event, and things will never be the same. The battle lines have been drawn.'' Gissin, 53, is in Tucson this weekend as part of a 12-day tour of the United States to promote the purchase of Israel Bonds. The bonds are part of a program that began in 1951 in which securities are sold to individuals and corporations to finance economic growth in Israel. The Israeli government pays them back. . . . The collateral is the eternity of the Jewish people,'' Gissin said, dismissing an April 1 Newsweek story that questioned the future of his country. We believe the state of Israel will continue to exist forever. Therefore, it's a sure investment. On Friday night he spoke to an audience of about 300 people at the Reform Temple Emanu-El, 225 N. Country Club Road, as police stood on guard at the doorways of the synagogue. Today at 5 p.m. he is scheduled to speak at the conservative Congregation Anshei Israel, 5550 E. Fifth St. Gissin called the war a clash between the civilized and uncivilized worlds. It's a clash between the forces of evil, as (President Bush) so neatly described it, and forces of life. Mohyeddin Abdulaziz, 54, a Tucson resident and Palestinian who grew up near Ramallah, did not attend Gissin's talk. But in an interview Friday night he said the Israeli point of view does not take into account the suffering of Palestinians who live in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. This is a war that is being fought against a largely civilian population. It is a one-sided war,'' said Abdulaziz, who still has family living in the West Bank. The Palestinians do not have one tank, one airplane, one helicopter. These are people who have been under a brutal occupation for 35 years and every nation on this Earth has recognized it as an illegal occupation. We have generations of Palestinians who know nothing but brutal occupation,'' he said. The West Bank and Gaza are only 22 percent of the geographic area of Palestine, and it's all the Palestinians are asking for. They want a place to call home. Gissin said he did not believe that the Israeli incursion at the West Bank refugee camp in Jenin earlier this month was a massacre as some Palestinians have said. The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has accused Israel of trying to hide terrible things at the camp. Palestinians say hundreds died. The United Nations is sending a fact-finding team there. Real peace can only exist or come about when there is an understanding and a commitment among our Arab and Palestinian neighbors to a process of reconciliation - to accept the fact that Jews also have a right to their own land, to their ancestral homeland, Gissin said. _ * Contact Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] = Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts ends at the colonnade between Grand Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, [EMAIL PROTECTED] or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.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 May 1 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Korean Central News Agency Extracts. May Day observed Papers here today run editorials to mark May Day calling upon the Korean workers to give full play to their revolutionary spirit in the efforts for building a powerful nation. They say that on this occasion the Korean workers and other people extend militant greetings to the workers around the world in their vigorous struggle for justice, truth, peace and socialism and are determined to discharge their historic mission. It is the revolutionary will of the Korean workers to discharge with credit the mission and duty as the hardcore force in the building of a powerful nation of Juche, Rodong Sinmun says, and goes on: The history of prosperous socialist Korea represents a heroic epic of the Korean workers who have worked hard with ardent loyalty and boundless devotion to the Workers' Party of Korea, the revolution, the country and the people. The inexhaustible potential of the Korean workers, a main agent in socialist construction, is keenly felt in the worthwhile efforts to build a powerful nation of Juche. They are discharging their noble mission in the efforts to build a powerful nation. This is entirely attributable to the energetic guidance of Kim Jong Il. Victory and glory are in store for the Korean workers and other people who are pushing ahead with the building of a powerful nation under his army-based guidance. Day of Sun and Army Day commemorated Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- the Korean people and the revolutionary people around the world commemorated the 90th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung and the 70th birthday of the Korean People's Army as a great festival of praise for the sun, unprecedented in human history. The national and international political, military, cultural and sports events were held here in April blessed by humankind. Leader Kim Jong Il was present at the national meeting to commemorate the 90th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung and saw the parade of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards and the mass gymnastic and artistic performance Arirang. Those functions involved over 290 delegations and delegates from more than 60 countries and delegations of overseas compatriots and figures from different circles to be recorded as a grand international festival in human history. Heads of state of Russia, Indonesia, Guinea, Mongolia, Palestine and Cambodia, party leaders of various countries, figures of political parties, organizations and various circles sent floral baskets to statues of Kim Il Sung and missions of the DPRK in foreign countries and presented personal letters and gifts to Kim Jong Il. International gatherings were held significantly in Pyongyang by delegations and delegates from various countries and international organizations. Among them were a seminar of political parties of different countries, a rally for solidarity with the Korean people, the 9th meeting of the executive committee of the board of the international institute of the Juche idea, the 5th aesthetic symposium on the present times and national art and a meeting of delegations and delegates of Juche idea study organizations for exchanging experience. Artistes from different countries and overseas Korean artistes staged the 20th April Spring Friendship Art Festival in Pyongyang. 4th seminar on medical science held Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- The 4th Pyongyang seminar on medical science of Koreans at home and abroad was held at the People's Palace of Culture on April 29 and 30. Heads of the delegations of medical science of Koreans in Japan and the U.S. made congratulatory addresses. They said that scientists and officials in charge of medical science at home and abroad sat together to exchange achievements and experience in scientific research and preventive and curative medical care in order to settle theoretical and practical issues arising in health services and improve them. The seminar was held divided into scientific seminar, departmental seminar and invitational lecture. Medical scientists at home and in Japan and the U.S. made public at least 60 valuable theses on the introduction of new methods of diagnosis and treatment based on modern technology, successes and experience in basic medical science, preventive medicine and pharmacy including gene engineering, cell engineering, immunology and molecular biology. Well-known medical scientists at home and abroad gave lectures. Aerial espionage and war drill committed by U.S. Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialist bellicose forces conducted aerial espionage on the DPRK by strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes of different
