News, 13.3.2003, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 13.03.2003, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Serbia: A Place Where Deadly Crime Is Part of Life Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, assassinated on Wednesday, lived and governed in a land of violent crime. The government is blaming organized crime for the killing. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_807059_1_A,00.html -- Diplomatic efforts at avoiding war in Iraq Diplomatic efforts to avoid a war in Iraq are continuing this Thursday, but they appear to be running out of steam. In an effort to get a second U.N. resolution passed in the Security Council, Britain on Wednesday unveiled a plan to set out six conditions, which if fulfilled, would allow Iraq to avoid a war. This proposal, however, has been rejected outright by both France and Russia. Following a cabinet meeting on Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed frustration with the French in particular. Later in the day, Straw said that Britain was willing to drop one of the six conditions to get the second resolution passed. Straw said if the sticking point was the demand that Saddam Hussein go on TV to publicly state that he will give up his weapons of mass destruction, London would be willing to drop the demand. He added that Britain would continue to seek to get a second resolution on Iraq passed at the Security Council, with the next meeting due to start in about 4 hours' time. In a sign of Washington's increasing impatience with the United Nations route, American Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte as far as the U.S. was concerned, the deadline of next Monday remained on the table. White House officials have now said that Washington is prepared to wait until next week for a vote on the resolution. France, Russia oppose new ideas French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the British proposals did not address the issue of seeking a peaceful resolution to the crisis. His Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov was quoted as saying that Russia would veto any UN resolution paving the way for war either indirectly or directly. China said it had taken note of Britain's proposals but still felt there was no need for a second UN resolution. UN surveillance flights south of Baghdad Surveillance flights supporting the work of United Nations weapons inspectors continued over two centres south of Baghdad this Thursday. According to Iraq government officials, U.N. arms inspectors searched a total of eight facilities. Also on Thursday, U.N. inspectors observed the destruction of more of Iraq's Al Samoud 2 missiles. So far, about half of the approximately 120 short-range missiles have been destroyed. Parliament to convene for possible vote on US troops Turkey's ruling party has said it was asking parliament to convene over the weekend. Observers say this could mean that it may vote again on a US request to allow the deployment of around 60,000 troops on Turkish soil ahead of a possible war against Iraq. New Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has hinted that he will put the vote to parliament again, which narrowly rejected the first motion last month. Court outlaws party with Kurdish links Turkey's constitutional court has outlawed the People's Democracy Party, HADEP, ruling that it had close links to Kurdish rebels. HADEP did not run in last year's general election but supported the Democratic People's Party which made significant gains in the Kurdish souteast of the country. The court said HADEP had long maintained close ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast. Serbia in state of emergency following assassination Serbia is in a state of emergency following Wednesday's assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Government officials have said that they now believe that a criminal organisation led by Milorad Lukovic, a former commander of special police unit, was behind the killing. Police say they have taken several members of the group into custody. Officials think the killing was in response to Djindjic's efforts to fight organised crime in the country. Lukovic also opposed Djindjic's decision to hand over former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. European leaders have called on Serbia not to let the assassination disrupt the democratic reforms that Djindjic in particular had worked so hard to introduce. Japan sends destroyer to
News, 11.3.2003, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News March 11th, 2003, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Britain Offers New Plan on Threatening Iraq Faced with two veto threats, British and U.S. diplomats are working to win support for a revised resolution on Iraq in the U.N. Security Council. But Russia remains firm in its opposition. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_803794_1_A,00.html -- Vote on Iraq delayed A UN Security Council vote on Iraq has been delayed until later this week. Efforts by Britain and the United States to give Iraq six more days to disarm or face an attack have failed to draw widespread backing. Both France and Russia said they would block such a deadline. Other members of the 15-nation Security Council have suggested giving Iraq a further month or more to comply. From London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the split over Iraq sends the wrong message to Saddam Hussein about disarming. Meanwhile, Guinea and Cameroon have said they would abstain from a vote in the UN Security Council on a second Iraq resolution. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepan was in both countries to persuade them in France's direction. At the same time, Britain's junior foreign minister was in Africa lobbying support for a second resolution on Iraq. Dirty bomb risk remains, says ElBaradei; Iran is urged to be transparent The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, has warned that radioactive materials continue to be lost or stolen and could be used by terrorists in dirty bombs. The IAEA chief told a conference in Vienna that safeguards must be improved. Meanwhile in another development, ElBaradei also said on Tuesday that Iran must accept more inspections of its nuclear sites. ElBaradei said he had stessed to the Iranian authorities the need to be fully transparent. The US has accused Iran of being apart of a so-called axis of evil seeking to build nuclear weapons. Violence flares in West Bank as Palestinian officials present bill for new prime minister post Clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen took place in the divided West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday. The violence came as Palestinian lawmakers presented a bill for ratification, creating the post of prime minister to President Yasser Arafat. Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops found the bodies of two Palestinians shot and killed overnight by soldiers who suspected they were laying landmines near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom. However, Palestinian witnesses said the two were killed in an exchange of fire with troops. ICC judges sworn in at ceremony In the Hague, 18 judges have been have been sworn-in at the world's first permanent war crimes court. The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try the 21st century's worst crimes has been hailed as the biggest legal milestone since the Nuremberg trials after World War II. Several countries, including the US, China, Israel and Iraq refuse, however, to recognise the court's legal jurisdiction. Iraqi doctor suspected of helping al-Qaeda freed after five months detention An Iraqi doctor arrested five months ago on suspicion of treating al-Qaeda extremists has been released. Shaukat Nafay was taken from his home in Pakistan by US and Pakistani agents in a pre-dawn raid on October 15. Authorities believed he had treated al-Qaeda fighters, hundreds of whom fled across the border into Pakistan from Afghanistan in late 2001. Nafay's family refused to allow reporters inside the house to meet him after his release, saying they were under tremendous pressure not to talk to the media about his detention. Seven charged in Sierra Leone A special UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone said it had approved charges against seven people, including a jailed rebel leader, for their roles in a decade-long war which ended last year. The charges cited included murder, sexual slavery and conscription of children. The perpetrators also disfigured civilians by hacking off their limbs. Among the seven accused, two are still at large. Sierra Leone's war claimed at least 100,000 lives before UN peacekeepers disarmed 47,000 fighters. Last week, UN special envoy Olara Otunnu said the situation in Sierra Leone appeared to be improving, with school children better fed, trade recovering, and displaced people returning to their homes. Cricket's Lee wins match for Australia At the Cricket World Cup in South Africa,
News, 7.3.2003, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 07.03.2003, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Fischer Remains Committed to Peaceful Solution German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer says he continues to see weapons inspections as the best way to disarm Iraq, despite President Bush latest push for a possible war. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_800699_1_A,00.html -- Security Council convenes for crucial briefing UN Security Council delegations, including 11 foreign ministers, are now listening to a briefing on Iraq by chief UN disarmament inspectors as the Bush administration seeks UN approval for war. Chief inspector Hans Blix said Iraq's disarmament was moving on and may yield results. The council is deeply split, with Russia, France, Germany, backed by China, wanting extended inspections while Britain, as a U.S. ally, seeks an amended resolution to set Iraq a deadline of up to seven days. Seven other council members appear undecided. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the British proposal would lead to military action and he was very sceptical about that. On Thursday night, U.S. President George W. Bush warned that the crisis was only days away from a final decision. Iraq's state newspaper Ath-Thawra urged the council to reject the latest British-U.S. draft resolution. An Iraqi oil ministry official vowed that Iraqi oil wells would not be set on fire in the event of war. Gaps cut in Kuwaiti border fence UN observers along the Kuwait-Iraq border say armed persons in civilian clothing have opened seven gaps in the 200-kilometre-long electified border fence, wide enough for tanks. The USA now has nearly 100,000 soldiers and marines based in Kuwait as part of its military build-up. Britain's army chief of staff General Mike Jackson said British forces were ready to move if an order came to invade Iraq. His troops would be fully equipped within a week, once ships arrived with supplies, he said. Speculation on bin Laden sons Conflicting reports from Pakistan suggest that two sons of the fugitive terror network leader Osama bin Laden might have been captured by U.S. soldiers inside Afghanistan. The claim was made by a provincial minister in Pakistan's southwest province of Baluchistan. But, in Washington a U.S. official said there was absolutely no information to substantiate that claim. Shares tumble further, Bundesbank alert Share markets in Asia and Europe fallen further, hit by a gloomy U.S. jobs data and mounting worries over a looming U.S.-Iraq war. Frankfurt's DAX tumbled to a seven-year low, under the 2,400 level, but later recovered slightly. Likewise, the Euro-Stoxx-50 index fell briefly to a six-year low. By late-afternoon it was down 2.2 percent at 2,035. Aside from war worries, traders said another factor was disappointment that Thursday's European Central Bank interest rate cut of a-quarter-of-a-percent was insufficient. Sounding alarm over Germany's economy, the German Bundesbank has sent a letter to Chancellor Schroeder's government and party heads in parliament, demanding urgent economic structural reforms. In its unusual move, the Bundesbank said public finances must also be consolidated. Blast in Kabul injures ISAF personnel An explosion near Kabul, thought to involve a landmine, has left injured a Dutch soldier and killed his Afghan interpreter working for the international force ISAF. According to initial reports, the incident happened in a street lined by shops and houses, about 15 kilometres from the city centre. An ISAF spokesman said the men had been on patrol. Havel's successor inaugurated The Czech Republic's new president has been inaugurated in Prague, filling a month-long vacancy. He is the former premier, Eurosceptic and free-marketeer Vaclav Klaus, who replaces his rival Vaclav Havel. Klaus becomes the second Czech head of state since communism's fall in 1989. His re-emergence since a government collapse in the late- 90s follows the failure of current Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla to muster a majority for his Social Democrat's presidential candidate. Havel stepped down last month after 13 years that included Czech accession to NATO. A referendum on EU membership is due in June. Castro elected president for five more years President Fidel Castro has been reelected to another five-year term by Cuba's National Assembly. 76-year-old Castro is the world's longest ruling leader, having been in power since leading a guerrilla
Vote for David needed at ToryDraft [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- All Orchard supporters need to go to www.torydraft.com and vote in the new poll asking who won the debate March 2. At 11 pm (Atlantic time), MacKay led with 21%, followed by David with 17%, Bachand and Prentice tied with 16%,Brison with 15%, Grafftey 9% and Chandler 6%. Sue --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^==^= This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^==^=
News, 4.3.2003, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News March 4th 2003, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Chancellor Fails to Bring Unions and Employers Together Gerhard Schröder has failed to budge the country's unions and employers' groups over the issue of job creation. The chancellor is now turning his focus to his own solutions. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_792300_1_A,00.html -- US to send 60,000 more troops to Gulf The United States has ordered up to 60,000 additional troops to deploy to the Gulf to join the massive build-up of U.S. and British forces already in the region for a possible war with Iraq, U.S. defense officials said on Tuesday. They would join more than 250,000 U.S. and British troops already in the Gulf region along with dozens of warships and more than 500 attack aircraft for a possible attack on Iraq that could be launched within weeks. Russia says it may use veto power to stop war Speaking on BBC, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Tuesday that Moscow would not support any measure leading to a war on Iraq and might be prepared to use its veto in the U.N. Security Council. Mr.Ivanov said Moscow, which like China, France and Germany opposes the hawkish stance by Washington and London against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, would not abstain in any future U.N. Security Council vote on Iraq. He said it would be a serious mistake with serious consequences, if the United States went to war against Iraq without the approval of a Security Council second resolution. Germany warns its nationals to leave Iraq Germany warned its nationals Tuesday to leave Iraq and avoid all travel to the Gulf state given the growing threat of war, the foreign ministry said.It said on its Internet site that Germans in Iraq were invited to immediately plan for their departure. On February 12th, it warned Germans against travelling to Kuwait, which borders Iraq, because of security concerns in the region. The ministry currently has travel warnings out on 11 countries, most of them in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East or near Afghanistan. At least 209 killed in Phillipine explosion The U.S. embassy in Manila confirmed on Tuesday that one American had died after being severely wounded by a powerful explosion at an airport in the southern Philippines. At least 20 people were killed and more than 145 wounded, including three other Americans, in the explosion in a shelter outside the airport in Davao, the second-biggest city after the capital, Manila. The attack came amid heightened security against attacks by Muslim separatist rebels in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country. U.S. special forces are now on the southern island of Mindanao, training Philippine units in counter-terrorism tactics. Alleged 9/11 mastermind flown to US base in Afghanistan Alleged al-Qaeda terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was flown to Afghanistan early Tuesday, after three days of interrogation in Pakistan. Along with a Middle Eastern al-Qaeda suspect, arrested in the pre-dawn raid Saturday, Khalid Mohammed was handed over to US custody and flown to the US base at Bagram north of Kabul, after permission was granted by Kuwait. He was was born in Kuwait to Pakistani parents, but Pakistan considers him a Kuwaiti national.His capture is the biggest coup of the 18-month old war on terrorism. Khalid Mohammed is believed to be al-Qaeda's operational commander and the architect of the September 11 terror attacks in the US that killed more than 3,000 people. Sri Lanka offers amnesty to 51,000 army deserters amid truce Sri Lanka Tuesday offered immunity from prosecution to some 51,000 military deserters in line with a truce with Tamil Tiger rebels. The defence ministry said deserters would be legally discharged from the security forces, after they pay any money they owe the military for training them, while those wanting to rejoin will also be considered. An official spokesman said the move would help a large number of young men to come out of hiding and seek employment without taking up a career of crime. Both government troops and the rebels are currently observing a truce arranged by peace broker Norway, since February 23rd last year. More cheering crowds as Chirac ends Algeria visit Algerian crowds gave French President Jacques Chirac another rousing welcome on Tuesday in the city of Oran, where he ends a state visit meant to help reconcile France to its former colony. Tens of
News, 3.3.2003, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 03. 03. 2003, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: More Missiles Destroyed as Iraq Complies with U.N. Accompanied by approval from Russia and Germany, Iraq continued to destroy its ballistic missiles on Sunday. France's foreign minister suggested his country may veto a second resolution. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_790256_1_A,00.html -- Baghdad plans to submit report on chemical, biological weapons A UN spokesman has said that Iraq will submit a new report on the fate of its biolgical and chemical weapons' stockpiles within a week. This would include details of the stocks of VX nerve gas and anthrax Baghdad claims it destroyed 11 years ago. Iraq has over the weekend destroyed 10 of its estimated 100 banned al Samoud 2 missiles, under UN supervision. Six more were destroyed today. The United States and Britain have dismissed the latest Iraqi moves and accused Baghdad of further lies and deception. Russia offers to send military monitors to Iraq Russia announced on Monday that it was ready to send military personnel to Iraq to take part in UN weapons inspections in a bid to stave off the threat of US-led military action against Baghdad. The Russian announcement came after Chinese state media said on Monday that Beijing was willing to offer personnel and technical support to the UN inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. China and Russia, both permanent members of the UN Security Council,with the power to veto resolutions are seeking to avert a US invasion of Iraq and extending the work of UN weapons inspectors. At least 8 killed as Israeli forces storm Gaza refugee camp Israeli troops killed at least eight Palestinians on Monday and injured over 35,in a gunbattle, while storming the Gaza Strip Bureij refugee camp, where they seized a 67-year-old founder of the militant Islamic group Hamas. Palestinian hospital officials said a 33-year-old pregnant woman was killed by falling debris, when the army blew up a house and gunfire killed a 13-year-old boy. Another three houses were also demolished by Israeli troops.The Palestinian Authority have accused Israel of stepping up military attacks on the Gaza Strip, while world attention is focused on a possible U.S.-led war on Iraq.The Israelis have since withdrawn from the Gaza refugee camp. North Korea to study EU proposal on talks North Korea has agreed to look at a proposal by the European parliament to hold seven-party talks to try to resolve its nuclear crisis, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported on Monday.The seven parties named were Japan, the United States, the European Union, Russia, China and North and South Korea. Pyongyang's number two leader, Kim Young-nam is reported to have said that he would study the idea. North Korea had insisted that the crisis over its nuclear weapons programme, which has been simmering since last October, should be resolved through direct talks with the United States. Washington has refused.In January, North Korea expelled nuclear inspectors and withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. OSCE report condemns human rights abuses in Turkmenistan Torture, mass arrests and reprisals against suspects' families are widespread in Turkmenistan , since an alleged attack on its president, according to a report to Europe's largest human rights organisation. The draft report for the 55-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe or OSCE said Turkmen authorities responded to an attack on their president-for-life last November 25th by detaining and torturing relatives of suspects, televising forced confessions and staging show trials. Human rights groups and OSCE monitors have criticised Turkmenistan before, but the 58-page OSCE report is the highest-level condemnation of abuses in the Central Asian state yet. It said that in the first few days after the reported attack, several hundred people were arrested and more than 100 charged with various offences, including relatives of suspects. More than 80 feared dead in Nigerian boat accident More than 80 people are reported missing two days after a boat sank crossing the Niger River in northern Nigeria, a state spokesman said. Witnesses told local radio that the boat was overloaded with over 100 passengers, goods and livestock crossing west Africa's largest river near the village of Besse, 400 kilometres northwest of the state capital Abuja. Over 40 killed in
News, 2.3.2003, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 02. 03. 2003, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: More Missiles Destroyed as Iraq Complies with U.N. Accompanied by approval from Russia and Germany, Iraq continued to destroy its ballistic missiles on Sunday. France's foreign minister suggested his country may veto a second resolution. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_790256_1_A,00.html -- Suspected Sept 11 mastermind in US custody The United States has hailed the arrest of a top terrorist and suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was detained by Pakistani police after dawn raids near Islamabad on Saturday. American officials called the arrest the biggest catch so far in the global war against terror. Mohammed has been turned over to U.S. officials but it was not known where he was being held. Analysts describe Mohammed, a Kuwaiti in his late 30s, as a pivotal figure in al Qaeda linked to every major terror attack in the last ten years. He may also know the whereabouts of both Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar, fugitive leader of Afghanistan's former Taliban government. Three Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in Gaza Two Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli army raid aimed at curbing attacks on troops and Jewish settlements. Early on Sunday morning, Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships raided the town and refugee camp at Khan Younis at dawn. Witnesses said the army demolished several houses as well as an eight-storey building, making some 100 people homeless. But an Israeli army field commander said troops destroyed abandoned structures used by gunmen as shelters for attacks on soldiers. Iraq to discuss chemical agents with UN inspectors, destroys more missiles Iraqi officials are due to meet UN weapons inspectors later on Sunday to discuss Iraq's stocks of VX nerve gas and anthrax. A UN spokesman said these technical talks would focus on verifying Baghdad's claims that it has destroyed large quantities of biological and chemical weapons. Iraq has also begun destroying six more of its controversial al-Samoud missiles. Meeting a UN deadline, Baghdad destroyed four such missiles on Saturday. Baghdad says it has around 100 of the missiles which exceed the 150-km limit imposed by the UN. Both the United States and Britain have dismissed the latest concessions as further game-playing and deception. US military planners suffer setback American plans for a possible war on Iraq have suffered a setback following a vote in Turkish parliament which rejected the deployment of US troops in Turkey. Washington's military planners wanted to use Turkey as a launch pad for a possible invasion of northern Iraq. But the Turkish government on Saturday failed by three votes to secure a simple majority. A senior government official said there were no immediate plans to submit a second motion to parliament. Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said the rejection would not, however, affect Turkey's good ties with the United States. He also warned Iraq not to use the decision as a pretext for delaying its co-operation with UN weapons inspectors. Protest in Morocco against possible US-led Iraq war Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Morocco on Saturday to protest US threats to wage war on Iraq. Demonstrators in Casablanca carried banners denouncing the Bush administration's policies and branding the US president a war criminal. The organisers of the march estimated that as many as one million people were taking part in the protests but other reports cited half that number. French president Chirac visits Algeria French President Jacques Chirac has arrived in Algeria on an official visit. It is the first time a French president has visited the north African nation since the two countries made their peace over forty years ago. The high-point of the three-day trip will be the signing of a declaration of friendship intended to seal a new era of bilateral cooperation. Rebels say hundreds killed in Congo attack Congolese rebels have claimed that hundreds of civilians were killed last week in an attack by combined pro-government forces. Thomas Lubanga, the president of the small rebel group Union des Patriots Congolais (UPC), said the killings took place near the town of Bunia, not far from the Ugandan border. An official from a United Nations mission in Congo confirmed an attack had taken place. Over 400 people were said to have
News, 27.2.2003, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News February 27th 2003, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Germany Refuses to Provide More Aid to Turkey German leaders think they have provided their NATO partner of Turkey with enough military aid to defend itself from Iraq. America, meanwhile, awaits a Turkish go-ahead on deployment of U.S. troops in the north. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_788271_1_A,00.html -- Iraqi response on Al-Samoud Thursday night or Friday Iraqi officials have said Baghdad will respond either tonight or Friday to the UN demand for it to destroy its banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles, diplomats in contact with the officials said Thursday. Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has ordered Iraq to begin scrapping the missiles by Saturday, saying they exceed the permitted range of 150 kilometres. But Iraq insisted that, when armed they did not exceed the permitted range and are a element of the country's defence. Turkish parliament to debate US troops on Saturday The Turkish parliament is to convene on Saturday to vote on allowing 62,000 US soldiers to deploy in Turkey ahead of a possible war in Iraq, deputy parliament speaker Sadik Yakut said Thursday. The parliament had been expected to vote on military cooperation on Thursday, but the ruling Justice and Development Party or AKP asked for a postponement. The AKP leadership has been holding meetings with its deputies since Wednesday, trying to convince them to vote in favor of the deployment of US troops. The U.S. has offered Turkey a multi-billion dollar package of compensation in return for Ankara's support in a possible war. Republic Guards moving toward Tikrit A major element of a Republican Guard division has been spotted moving out of northern Iraq toward Tikrit,the hometown and political bastion of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a US defense official said Thursday. He said the move southwards was most likely influenced by Turkey's decision to allow the US to stage a military attack on Iraq from the north and that the Iraqi leader was reinforcing defenses around his most important political stronghold with his best trained and most loyal units in anticipation of an invasion. A senior US defense official said the regime has been concentrating military forces in Baghdad, and increasingly are using residential neighborhoods, mosques and other civilian facilities as cover against air attacks. US forces massed against Iraq grow to 225,000 About 225,000 US forces are now massed against Iraq, including 111,000 in Kuwait, the main staging area for a possible US ground offensive, a US defense officials said Thursday.The arrival of aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its battle group in the Gulf region boosted the numbers of sailors and marines aboard warships to 46,000, the official said. Putin and Bush pledge to work on acceptable Iraq solution Russian President Putin and U.S. President Bush agreed on Thursday to work towards a solution to the Iraq crisis taking into account the interests of the world community, the Kremlin said. The statement said a telephone conversation had taken place at Washington's request. A U.S.-backed draft resolution aimed at authorising the use of force against Iraq was submitted to the Security Council this week. But Mr. Putin said on Wednesday, after Kremlin talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that Russia could not back any resolution which could allow hostilities to be launched in the near future. Moscow backs an alternative plan, promoted by France and Germany, that would give inspectors an additional four months to search Iraqi sites for weapons of mass destruction. US downplays North Korean nuclear plant start-up The White House on Thursday downplayed North Korea's restart of a key nuclear plant, hinting that the move was just more troublesome behavior, as it put it, to be expected from the Stalinist state.On Wednesday, US officials said that Pyongyang has restarted a nuclear reactor at its controversial Yongbyon complex in another significant step toward making new nuclear weapons. The complex was closed under a 1994 accord with the United States that headed off a confrontation on the Korean peninsula at the time over the North's nuclear arsenal.In the last six months, North Korea had admitted to re-starting it's nuclear programme and expelled international nuclear inspectors. UN court sentences former Bosnian Serb leader Plavsic to 11 years The UN
The Pentagon gave the starting signal to the war correspondents [WWW.STOPNATO.OR
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/852859/posts FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum" AFP | February 27, 2003 The Pentagon gave the starting signal to the war correspondents 27/02 02:24 Journalists started to join in the area of the Gulf the American military units which they will cover if the United States starts a war against Iraq, announced Wednesday evening the Pentagon. "Some started to join the units", declared with the AFP Victoria Clarke, the spokesman of the Pentagon by underlining however that it did not have to be drawn the conclusion from it that the White House had decided to launch an offensive against Iraq. The advertisement of the Pentagon is the last sign of the intensification of the preparations of war whereas the diplomatic battle enters its crucial phase to the United Nations. Several hundreds of journalists come from the whole world are joining the American units and on the point of following them on the battle field if the president George W Bush decides to enter in war against the mode Saddam Hussein. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^==^= This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^==^=
RE: Switzerland Pay Off Nazi Victims [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK][LONG]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Yes, indeed miroslav -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 27. jun 2002 4:52 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Switzerland Pay Off Nazi Victims [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK][LONG] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- an amazing world we will live in! To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: G.R. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Re: Switzerland Pay Off Nazi Victims [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK][LONG] Date sent: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 15:16:27 +0900 Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- on 27/6/02 06:27, Miroslav Antic at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Switzerland Pay Off Nazi Victims By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Nazi victims you said? Hmmm!!! Have a look and enjoy, that is if you can ;-) Bankers and Robbers By Israel Shamir --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu 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: A CRITICAL VIEW FROM ISRAEL [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Nope, I haven't spent much time looking at Hanoch Marmari's stuff, but from what I've seen, I'd say Hanoch Marmari hit the nail on the head. Miroslav Distortion of Facts EXAMPLE: In reporting on violence of Joseph's Tomb, CNN writes: Meanwhile, at least 77 people, mostly Palestinians have died during several fierce clashes at Joseph's Tomb during the past week. The lone Israeli soldier to die during the clashes bled to death in the tomb as rescuers tried for hours to reach him. CNN's claim that 77 people died in one week of clashes at Joseph's Tomb is a gross factual inaccuracy. Since one Israeli was killed, 76 were obviously Palestinian. Yet in truth, six Palestinians and one Israeli soldier had died during that week of clashes at Joseph's Tomb. In other words, CNN cited the total number of Palestinian casualties in all clashes, and juxtaposed that figure with the Israeli casualty of one isolated event. EXAMPLE: The New York Times, Associated Press and other major media outlets published a photo of a young man -- bloodied and battered -- crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified him as a Palestinian victim of the recent riots -- with the clear implication that the Israeli soldier is the one who beat him. In fact, the bloodied "Palestinian" depicted in the photograph was Tuvia Grossman, a 20-year-old Jewish student from Chicago, studying in Jerusalem. And the assailants were not Israelis, but members of a Palestinian mob who beat and stabbed Grossman mercilessly for 10 minutes. And the infuriated Israeli policeman with a baton was deterring the Palestinians from finishing their lynching. Media bias assumes that if there's a victim, it must be a Palestinian. Yet who are the real victims and who are the aggressors? The truth is often the opposite of how it appears. By being astute media observers, we can make a difference. In response to public pressure, The New York Times reprinted Tuvia Grossman's picture -- this time with the proper caption -- along with a full article detailing his near-lynching at the hands of Palestinians rioters. courtesy of aish.com -Original Message-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 23. jun 2002 22:23To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Re: A CRITICAL VIEW FROM ISRAEL [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---In a message dated 6/23/2002 4:24:12 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Abu Ali family; the media reported on the alleged death of their nine children, and it was later revealed that no harm befell them. Says Marmari:I've been following the news and I never read any report about nine children in one family being killed. Can you share the story with us? --- 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.bacIlu 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 ==^
Letter to the US President. [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Dr. Milan Tepavac AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Dear Mr. President: The reason I decided to write you this letter is your message sent to Mr. Vojislav Kostunica, President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the adoption of its constitution. In your message there are at least two assertions that call for comment. Mr. President, I am sure that you will agree that every honest and rational human endeavor must be based on the rightpremise.The simple logic tells us that if the basic premise is wrong then everything else is wrong. I am afraid that many premises in yourmessage are wrong and, thus, your conclusions are inevitably wrong. First, your premise that until recently (I suppose that you mean before the 5th of October, 2000, that is before the so-called "Serbian October Revolution") the Belgrade leadership was the main cause of sufferings, agonies and anguish and wars in the Balkans. Here you are absolutely wrong. The wars in former Yugoslavia were masterminded, planned, fomented, initiated, financedand waged elsewhere, not in Serbia. Secessionist-terrorist wars which bloodily dismembered former Yugoslavia were executed by Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Macedonia achieved secession "peacefully", but nevertheless unconstitutionally) when foreign powers gave them financial and material help, including arms, and when they promised them diplomatic recognition as independent states. Without that help and promises there would not had been wars on the Yugoslav soil. It was the duty of foreign powers - under the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the Helsinki Final Act of the OSCE and other international legal and political instruments - not to help violent secessions but to help, to contribute to the peaceful solution of Yugoslav political problems. If foreign powers said: "OK, you've got problems, you have to discuss all your problems as long as it is needed - even for 30 years - but you mustn't resort to violence. The international community will newer diplomatically recognize secessionist entities as independent states" - there would be no wars. Instead of acting in that way, Germany, the USA and other foreign countries under their control acted as they did. To be more specific about this, Germany played the decisive role concerning Croatia and Slovenia, while the USA sealed Bosnia-Herzegovina's fate. Altogether, foreign powers and secessionist criminals sealed Serbs' fate. Although all Yugoslav peoples became the Biblical victims of such a policy, the Serbs were the greatest. There are no Serbs any morein Krajina (please find enclosed an article from the yesterday's Washington Times written by an US Air Force officer about the US role in the genocide of Krajina Serbs) and western Bosnia who lived there from the time long before America was discovered. The first genocide during World War II occurred there against Serbs; then, after the meeting between Hitler and Ante Pavelic of Croatia (which at that time included Bosnia-Herzegovina) on June 6, 1941 the Holocaust started... Secondly, you insist on full cooperation with the so-called International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which includes extradition of Yugoslav citizens to that institution and handing over all state's document which the Tribunal would demand. You even welcomed thekidnapping and arrest of Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, former freely elected President of Yugoslavia, by the officials of the Tribunal in cooperation with the present regime in Belgrade, installed by you in the "Serbian October Revolution". First of all, Mr. President, that so-called tribunal is an illegal and illegitimate institution. Security Council of the United Nations had no power to establish it, you know that.Security Councilis a political body of the UN, not a legislative one; it had no right whatsoever to formulate substantive rules of international law in "tribunal" statute (articles 2-5) and to determine penalties. You who are against even regular - that is legal and legitimate - international criminal court have no right, neither legal nor moral, to demand complete submission to the ICTY a sovereign and independent state. So, the so-called trial in The Hague of Mr. Milosevic is a mockery of justice, great shame of our civilization and deathblow to international law. I assure you that my intention is not to defend Milosevic; I am just trying to defend the truth. These are only some of the remarks that must be made in connection with your above-mentioned message to the president of Yugoslavia "and Yugoslav people", as you put it. Since you sent the message also on behalf of the American people, you must agree that your people have the right to know of these remarks. Mr. President, I assure you that I
Playing the Anti-Semitism Card [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Playing the Anti-Semitism Card Marty Jezer, AlterNetApril 29, 2002 Among the many responses Ive received for my columns on the Middle East two stand out. A number of non-Jews, in person and by e-mail, have told me, "You write what I believe, but Im afraid to speak out. Im afraid to criticize Israel because people will think that Im anti-Semitic." A second response, spoken by an acquaintance whom I respect for his decent, liberal values, was more unsettling. "Im starting to feel anti-Semitic," he said without any suggestion of irony. "It is disgusting what Israel is doing to the Palestinians." "Anti-Semitism is not the issue," I replied. "Its not Jews attacking Palestinians, its Israelis. Many Jewish people, myself included, share your disgust." But maybe anti-Semitism is an issue, a subtext of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that no one wants to talk openly about. In the cauldron of the times, anti-Semitism has become an accusation, a weapon, a way of silencing critics of Israel without having to listen to their arguments. And when used against Palestinians, its a way of denying their aspirations and ignoring their grievances. Anti-Semitism exists, but to extract its meaning it has to be put into perspective. Under Hitler, the German people murdered millions of European Jews. But today most Germans are friends and allies of Jews and of Israel. As a Jew, I still feel a gut wariness whenever I meet a German. But I also feel elated. That we two, German and Jew, can interact empathically fills me with hope. The history of modern Germany is proof that people can change, that ancient feuds and tribal bloodbaths need not dictate humanitys future. Blacks-whites, Hutus-Tutsis, Bosnians-Serbs, even Arabs and Jews: We shall overcome. Anti-Semitism exists in the Arab world. Increasingly, Arabs couch their opposition to Israel in the anti-Semitic rhetoric that originated in Europe. But is anti-Semitism driving the Palestinian resistance? Or is the Middle East conflict simply a battle over land, two peoples with a historic claim over the same territory? For centuries Jews lived amongst the Arabs of the Middle East. Coexistence was never easy and during World War II many Arab leaders gave verbal support to the Nazis. But Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state in Palestine, was a European phenomenon; Middle Eastern Jews did not look to the biblical holy land for security and lifes meaning. After the holocaust the logic of Zionism could not be denied. European guilt assured Israeli statehood. But it was the Palestinians who bore the brunt. And they were not consulted. Supporters of Israeli policy in Israel and America, rarely acknowledge this. They speak of the conflict with the Palestinians in terms of Arab anti-Semitism, and in the context of the holocaust and Jewish survival. Rarely mentioned is the historic record of Israeli provocations: the occupation of the West Bank, the military checkpoints, the continuous expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory. Anti-Semitism in America, except on the margins of society, rarely includes overt acts of violence and discrimination. It is usually more subtle, expressed politically in the belief that the United States is a Christian nation or, among evangelical and some other fundamentalist Christians, that Jews cannot find salvation unless they accept Christian dogma. People have an absolute right to religious belief, but once it enters the political arena, it opens itself to critical comment. On April 15, an Israeli Solidarity Rally brought speakers from all across the political spectrum. One speaker was Janet Parshall, a national talk show host who is a director of the evangelical Christian National Religious Broadcasters and the spokesperson for the Family Research Council, an anti-choice, homophobic front-group for right-wing Republicans whose web site promotes tax cuts, bashes liberals, and says nothing about Israel. But at the Solidarity Rally, Ms. Parshall enthusiastically identified herself with what she considered the cause of the Jews and drew cheers attacking the idea of "land for peace." "We will never give up the Golan," she announced. "We will never divide Jerusalem," she declared. Jewish organizations that uncritically support Ariel Sharon in the name of security for Israel are avidly courting the Christian right. A headline speaker at a recent meeting of AIPAC (the influential American-Israeli Political Action Committee) was Republican House Whip Tom DeLay who drew applause for calling the West Bank by its biblical name, "Judea and Samaria," and for stating that Israel should not give any land back to the Palestinians. Delays politics are anathema to most American Jews, but all that can be overlooked, or so it seems, for his support of Israel. On his web site, Delay boasts of his 100% support for
Sharon's Best Weapon [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Sharon's Best Weapon Naomi Klein, In These TimesMay 2, 2002 Something new went on in Washington in the middle of April. A demonstration against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund was joined by an anti-war march, as well as a demonstration against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. In the end, all the marches joined together in what organizers described as the largest Palestinian solidarity demonstration in U.S. history, 75,000 people by some estimates. On Sunday night, I turned on my television in the hopes of catching a glimpse of this historic protest. I saw something else instead: triumphant Jean-Marie Le Pen celebrating his new found status as the second most popular political leader in France. Ever since, Ive been wondering whether the new alliance displayed on the streets of Washington can also deal with this latest threat. The convergence that took place in Washington last weekend was long overdue. Despite easy labels like anti-globalization, the trade-related protests of the past three years have all been about self-determination: the right of people everywhere to decide how best to organize their societies and economies, whether that means introducing land reform in Brazil, or producing generic AIDS drugs in India, or resisting an occupying force in Palestine. When hundreds of globalization activists began flocking to Ramallah to act as human shields between Israeli tanks and Palestinians, the theory that has been developing on the streets outside trade summits was put into concrete action. Bringing that courageous spirit back to Washington, where so much Middle Eastern policy is made, was the next logical step. But when I saw Le Pen beaming on TV, arms raised in triumph, some of my enthusiasm drained away. There is no connection whatsoever between French fascism and the free Palestine marchers in Washington (indeed the only people Le Pens supporters seem to dislike more than Jews are Arabs). And yet I couldnt help thinking about all the recent events Ive been to where anti-Muslim violence was rightly condemned, but no mention was made of attacks on Jewish synagogues, cemeteries and community centers. Or about the fact that every time I log onto activist news sites like indymedia.org, which practice open publishing, Im confronted with a string of Jewish conspiracy theories about Sept. 11 and excerpts from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The globalization movement isnt anti-Semitic, it just hasnt fully confronted the implications of diving into the Middle East conflict. Most people on the left are simply choosing sides. In the Middle East, where one side is under occupation and the other has the U.S. military behind it, the choice seems clear. But it is possible to criticize Israel while forcefully condemning the rise of anti-Semitism. And it is equally possible to be pro-Palestinian independence without adopting a simplistic pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel dichotomy, a mirror image of the good-versus-evil equations so beloved by President George W. Bush. Why bother with such subtleties while bodies are still being pulled out of the rubble in Jenin? Because anyone interested in fighting Le Pen-style fascism or Sharon-style brutality has to deal with the reality of anti-Semitism head-on. The hatred of Jews is a potent political tool in the hands of both the right in Europe and in Israel. For Le Pen, anti-Semitism is a windfall, helping spike his support from 10 percent to 17 percent in a week. For Ariel Sharon, it is the fear of anti-Semitism, both real and imagined, that is the weapon. Sharon likes to say that he stands up to terrorists to show he is not afraid. In fact, his policies are driven by fear. His great talent is that he fully understands the depths of Jewish fear of another Holocaust. He knows how to draw parallels between Jewish anxieties about anti-Semitism and American fears of terrorism. And he is an expert at harnessing all of it for his political ends. The primary, and familiar, fear that Sharon draws on, the one that allows him to claim all aggressive actions as defensive ones, is the fear that Israels neighbors want to drive the Jews into the sea. The secondary fear Sharon manipulates is the fear among Jews in the Diaspora that they will eventually be driven to seek safe haven in Israel. This fear leads millions of Jews around the world, many of them sickened by Israeli aggression, to shut up and send their checks, a down payment on future sanctuary. The equation is simple: The more fearful Jews are, the more powerful Sharon is. Elected on a platform of peace through security, Sharons administration could barely hide its delight at Le Pens ascendancy, immediately calling on French Jews to pack their bags and come to the promised land. For Sharon, Jewish fear is a guarantee that his power will go
News, 4.5.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News May 4th, 2002, 16:00 UTC --- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: United Against Le Pen Despite political parties, ideologies or backgrounds, the French are joining forces to prevent right-wing candidate Le Pen from winning Sunday's election. France's image in the rest of the world is at stake, they say. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1434_A_512816_1_A,00.html --- New Round of Talks Begins to End Church Stand-Off A new round of talks has begun in the Middle East to end the stand-off at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. Bethlehem's mayor said that U.S. officials were involved in the latest discussions. Both Israeli and Palestinian officials expressed optimism that negociators would be able to soon break the impasse at the church. Meanwhile, an Israeli sniper shot and killed a Palestinian security officer who was inside of the church compound. The man was identified as a member of the Palestinian Force 17 presidential guard. An Israeli military source said he was a wanted militant involved in attacks against Israelis. Dozens Feared Dead in Ferry Accident Police in Bangladesh believe that dozens of people have drowned from a ferry that sank in a storm in the southern part of the country. Earlier reports had suggested that hundreds may have died from the accident. Police said about 150 people were on board, but survivors said the ferry was pack far beyond its legal capacity. Men and women were seen at the banks of the Meghna River looking for relatives among the survivors or news about the missing, a local reporter said. The triple-decked ferry sank around midnight on Friday in a rural area of Shatnal while on its from Dhaka to Patuakhali. Plane Crash in Residential Area in Nigeria A passenger jet has crash into a densely populated residential area of Nigeria. Witnesses and aiport officials said that the Nigerian airliner crashed and burst into flames as it was preparing to land. There were 105 people were on board. At least two survivors were pulled from the wreckage of the aircraft. Firefighters were battling flames to pull out more possible survivors. Rescue workers said that because the crash occurred in a densely populated residential area, the casualty toll was likely to be higher than the number of passengers on board. Nepal Says Nearly 400 Rebels Killed in Operations Nepal's defence ministry said its troops killed close to 400 Maoist rebels in major military operations over the past two days. The army crackdown in Rolpa and Doti was the biggest since the rebellion by guerrillas of the communist party began six years ago. Maoist rebels in Nepal have been fighting to topple the monarchy and establish communist rule. Canadians Join new Afghan Rebel Hunt Canadian troops have joined the hunt for remaining al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. The deployment of several hundred Canadian soldiers by helicopter to an undisclosed location was separate from the British-led Operation Snipe, but part of a broad U.S.-led mission to rid the mountains near the Pakistan border of rebels. Troops planned to probe a location supposedly used by al Qaeda-Taliban militants, according to Canadian and U.S. military officials. The Canadians flew in Chinook helicopters escorted by U.S. Apache helicopter gunships to operate in difficult terrain in the eastern Afghan mountains. Istanbul Hotel Hostage Drama Ends A hostage drama that lasted a couple of hours in a luxury hotel in Istanbul has ended without bloodshed. The Turkish-speaking gunman of Chechen origin entered the hotel and fired an automatic rifle into the air. He then took several tourists hostage before surrenduring to police. Officials said the man was protesting against the war in Chechnya. Pipe Bombs Explode in US Mailboxes Pipe bombs accompanied by anti-government propaganda have exploded in at least six mailboxes in rural parts of Illinois and Iowa in the United States. U.S. authorities called the attacks an act of domestic terrorism. Six people were injured, but none seriously. A note found with the bombs said more attention getters were on the way. South Korea Reports Outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease South Korea has reported an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in pigs, prompting plans for an immediate cull of more than 10,000 animals. The confirmation was a blow to the livestock industry, which recently restarted some exports of pork after
FLE VESTI [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- FLE VESTI 20:23 SPORT:FUDBAL-PRVENSTVO Odigrano 30. kolo BEOGRAD, 4. maja (Tanjug) - U 30. kolu prvenstva Jugoslavije u fudbalu danas su postignuti sledechi rezultati: Mladost (A) - Obilich 1:1 OFK Beograd - Radniccki 2:0 Sartid - Mladost (L) 1:1 Rad - Hajduk 2:1 CCukariccki - Rudar 1:0 ZZeleznik - Zeta 3:1 Crvena zvezda - Zemun 1:1 Vojvodina - Partizan 0:2 Odigrano jucce: Zvezdara - Sutjeska 0:1.19:14 MARTICH-HAG-KASTRATOVICH # Martichu nije uruccena optuzznica Hasskog tribunala BEOGRAD, 4. maja (Tanjug) - Branilac Milana Marticha, advokat Strahinja Kastratovich izjavio je danas da je njegov klijent spreman da sutra otputuje u Hag, ali da mu Savezno ministarstvo pravde nije dostavilo optuzznicu Hasskog tribunala i da joss nije zavrssena procedura oko njegovih putnih isprava.18:05 KOSOVO-ZEMLJOTRES-APEL # Apel za pomoch ugrozzenom stanovnisstvu u Kosovskom Pomoravlju BEOGRAD, 4. maja (Tanjug) - Koordinacioni centar za Kosovo i Metohiju i Koordinaciono telo za jug Srbije apelovali su danas na sve vladine, nevladine i humanitarne organizacije i UNMIK da pomognu stanovnisstvu Kosovskog Pomoravlja, cciji su domovi osstecheni u nedavnom zemljotresu.18:00 RASSKA-KOPAONIK-SSUMARAC Svi bespravno podignuti objekti na Kopaoniku biche porusseni RASSKA, 4. maja (Tanjug) - Svi objekti koji su bespravno podignuti na Kopaoniku i ugrozzavaju prirodni i turisticcki ambijent biche porusseni, izjavio je danas srpski ministar za urbanizam i gradjevinarstvo Dragoslav SSumarac.15:56 LITVANIJA-SEVROPE-ZAKLJUCCCI Ministri pozdravili napredak SRJ u hodu ka Savetu Evrope VILNJUS, 4. maja (Tanjug) - Ministri inostranih poslova zemalja-cclanica Saveta Evrope (SE) izrazili su zadovoljstvo zbog napretka koji je ostvarila Savezna Republika Jugoslavija (SRJ) u pogledu prijema u najstariju evropsku organizaciju.12:19 HRVATSKA-MARTICH-OPTUZZNICA Zagreb dostavio dokumentaciju za prossirenje Marticheve optuzznic ZAGREB, 4. maja (Tanjug) - Vlada Hrvatske dostavila je Hasskom tribunalu dokumentaciju na osnovu koje se mozze occekivati prossirenje optuzznice protiv Milana Marticha, koji je optuzzen "za granatiranje Zagreba 1995. godine", tvrdi danas "Veccernji list", pozivajuchi se na "visoki izvor" u hrvatskoj vladi.12:00 BUJANOVAC-UVIDJAJ-MINA # Pronadjena mina na podruccju sela Breznica BEOGRAD, 4. maja (Tanjug) - Pripadnici multietniccke policije pronassli su na podruccju sela Breznica u bujanovcckoj opsstini neupotrebljavanu kumulativnu minu za ruccni bacacc, kineske proizvodnje, saopsstio je danas Vladin pres centar u Bujanovcu.11:46 ITALIJA-SRJ-POZORISSTE Dijana Pavlovich na daskama italijanskih pozorissta RIM, 4. maja (Tanjug) - Mlada jugoslovenska glumica Dijana Pavlovich briljirala je ovih prazniccnih dana, prema oceni italijanske pozorissne kritike, na sceni pozorissta "Elfo" u Milanu, u komadu "Gorke suze Petre fon Kant".11:26 HRVATSKA-SSISSICH-MADJARSKA "Jutarnji list": I Italija trazzi izruccenje pilota JNA Ssissicha ZAGREB, 4. maja (Tanjug) - Madjarsko Ministarstvo pravde vech godinu dana odugovlacci s izruccenjem Zagrebu bivsseg pilota JNA Emira SSissicha, koga je hrvatski sud osudio na 20 godina zatvora zbog obaranja helikoptera sa posmatraccima Evropske unije (EU) 1992. godine, jer je on zanimljiv i italijanskom pravosudju, pisse danas zagrebaccki "Jutarnji list".10:22 HAG-OPTUZZENI-PROSPER Prosper:Karadzzich i Mladich uskoro u Hagu ZAGREB, 4. maja (Tanjug) - SSef biroa Stejt dipartmenta za ratne zloccine Pjer Riccard Prosper (Pierre Richard) tvrdi u izjavi za danassnji zagrebaccki "Veccernji list" da che Radovan Karadzzich, Ratko Mladich i drugi optuzzeni za ratne zloccine "uskoro biti u Hagu". --- 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 the Merciless and Arafat the Corrupt [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Saturday, May 4, 2002 in the lndependent/UK Sharon the Merciless and Arafat the Corrupt Have Nothing Meaningful to Offer Each Other by Robert Fisk in Jerusalem Self-delusion has crossed the Atlantic. George Bush is having visions again just as he did before the most recent bloodbath in Israel and Palestine and Colin Powell, whose latest Middle East mission was a wholesale disaster, wants to devise "a set of principles" for an Arab-Israeli peace. And, as usual, it is the occupied, not the occupier, who is warned this is the "last chance" for peace. That the United States wants to enlist the Europeans, Russia and the UN in its plans for a Middle East peace conference is perhaps the only sign of realism in the initiative. Otherwise, it's the same old twaddle. Yasser Arafat has to earn "trust" this from the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer and will not, for the moment, receive any invitations to the White House. He has to curb "terror". But Ariel Sharon, whose army was accused of war crimes in Jenin by Human Rights Watch yesterday, will be joshing with Mr Bush in Washington next week. It was impossible, in Jerusalem yesterday, to take any of this seriously. Mr Arafat had just emerged from his Ramallah headquarters to call the Israelis "Nazis" while Mr Sharon, only two days earlier, had announced that Netzarim, the illegal Jewish settlement in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, was the same as Tel Aviv. Since Mr Sharon came to power, no fewer than 34 new settlements or outposts for Jews, and Jews only, on Arab land, have been constructed. A glance at the events of the past 24 hours shows just how far the Bush administration has strayed from reality. For days, the US President demanded that Israel withdraw its troops from West Bank cities. Mr Sharon simply ignored him. "When I say withdraw, I mean it," Mr Bush snapped at one point. Mr Sharon ignored him. Yesterday, as Mr Powell warned Mr Arafat that it was his "last chance" to show his leadership, the Israeli Prime Minister was sending an armored column to re-invade the Palestinian city of Nablus for the second time in two weeks. There was to be no "last chance" for Mr Sharon; only for the iniquitous Mr Arafat. And what on earth, one wondered, was the point in parading the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, alongside Mr Powell on Thursday night? The UN Security Council resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian Authority areas of the West Bank supported by the United States is still being flagrantly ignored by Israel. Only a day earlier, Mr Annan was forced, in utter humiliation, to disband his fact-finding mission to Jenin after Israel refused to accept it. So what was his presence supposed to mean? The impotent secretary general just stood next to the equally impotent US Secretary of State. The squalid, corrupt little dictator of Ramallah, Mr Arafat, and the brutal, merciless leader of the Middle East's mightiest army, Mr Sharon, have nothing to offer each other. Mr Arafat cannot fulfill his required role of colonial governor to "control his own people" while Mr Sharon cannot fulfill his promise to provide Israelis with security. As one of his legal advisers admitted hours after Washington's call for a peace conference, the diminution in Palestinian violence "won't last for ever". Never, since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, have Israelis and Palestinians been so far apart. So what possible inducements can Washington extend to either side? If Mr Arafat wants an end to occupation and to settlements on Palestinian land, and a capital in east Jerusalem, Mr Sharon will not oblige. If Mr Sharon wants to go on building settlements and maintaining the occupation and claiming all of Jerusalem as the "eternal and unified capital of Israel", Mr Arafat will not oblige. Meanwhile, the Americans blissfully hope that Mr Bush's "visions" of Israeli and Palestinian states happily co-existing side by side will survive the next two months. How is this possible? It is only a matter of time before the next vicious Palestinian suicide bomber blows up himself or herself in an Israeli city. And thus only a matter of time before Israel smashes its way into West Bank cities all over again. In fact, Israel doesn't need an excuse to do this any more. Yesterday's thrust into Nablus was another precedent. Far from being a retaliation, Israel did not invade Palestinian
French Polls See Chirac Landslide in Vote on Sunday [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- French Polls See Chirac Landslide in Vote on Sunday Sat May 4, 8:58 AM ET By SUZANNE DALEY The New York Times PARIS, May 3 On the last day of France's tense presidential campaign, polls continued to predict a landslide for the center-right president, Jacques Chirac. But it may be a hollow victory, won simply because most of the electorate objected to the extremist views of his opponent, Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose share of the vote, polls suggested, could be greater than ever before. One poll published today by the Ipsos polling institute predicted that Mr. Le Pen, who has repeatedly made racist and anti-Semitic statements, would get 18 percent to 25 percent of the vote. When he qualified for the runoff against Mr. Chirac, unexpectedly edging out the Socialist candidate, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, Mr. Le Pen received 17 percent, up from 15 percent in the 1995 elections. Pollsters warned that there were still many factors that could influence the final results, including a high rate of abstentions, which could increase Mr. Le Pen's percentage of the vote on Sunday without his collecting a larger total. "I think we can say that there is no suspense over the result of the election," said Pierre Giacometti, director general of Ipsos. "Mr. Chirac will win. The question is, by how much?" Mr. Giacometti said Mr. Le Pen whose campaign has been anchored in attacks on the European Union (news - web sites), illegal immigration and corruption among the government elite did not appear to have improved his standing in the last 10 days. Support for Mr. Le Pen appears to have held steady since last week, he said. The latest Ipsos poll, conducted by telephone from Tuesday to Thursday, surveyed 1,012 registered voters. The group does not publish its margin of error, but a survey of that size would normally have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. Mr. Chirac, meanwhile, has been buoyed by a popular rejection of Mr. Le Pen. In the first round of voting, the 69-year-old incumbent received less than 20 percent of the vote, the worst showing of any sitting president. But leaders from the right and left have rallied behind him, saying France must "build a dam" against the far right. Several prominent Socialists have said that the honor of France is at stake. Such sentiment is likely to give Mr. Chirac the biggest victory of his life, experts say, although they described the election as more of a referendum than a personal endorsement. The left, while encouraging its supporters to vote for Mr. Chirac, has done nothing to improve his image. "Better the crook than the fascist" is a favorite slogan among left-leaning voters. In fact, hundreds if not thousands had intended to cast their ballots for Mr. Chirac wearing clothespins on their noses or surgical gloves as a sign of their distaste, until the Constitutional Council, the august body that oversees French elections, saw fit today to rule such behavior illegal. "The paradox is that the bigger Mr. Chirac's score, the harder it will be for him to claim that the vote was really an endorsement of his policies," said François L. Heisbourg, director of the French Foundation, a research institute. As the candidates wrapped up their 12-day campaigns, 24 hours before Election Day as the law requires, Mr. Le Pen predicted major electoral fraud perhaps as a way to prepare his supporters for defeat while President Chirac urged voters of all persuasions to side with him, even if it pained them. Rising crime and the state of the economy were the major issues under discussion before the first round of elections on April 21, when it was widely expected that Mr. Chirac would be pitted against Mr. Jospin, his long-time rival. But neither Mr. Chirac nor Mr. Le Pen have spent much time detailing their programs since they qualified for the runoff. Mr. Chirac has cast the election as a choice between good and evil. Mr. Le Pen has tried to paint himself as a champion of the people, fighting the smug and insensitive government power structure. He rarely misses an opportunity to remind the public of the many allegations of corruption that have been made against Mr. Chirac. At a news conference today at his headquarters in suburban Paris, the often fiery Mr. Le Pen, who has predicted he will get 40 percent of the vote, embellished on his theme of electoral fraud in a fresh attack on the government establishment. Saying France was about to witness a huge vote-rigging scheme against him, Mr. Le Pen illustrated his point by holding up two ballots one for Mr. Chirac and one for himself to point out that the president's ballot was slightly whiter. His darker ballot, Mr. Le Pen said, was to convey the message that he was less desirable, if only subliminally. He also complained that his posters were not being displayed, that postal carriers were
News, 3.5.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News May 03th, 2002, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Bells Toll for Victims of School Shooting The city of Erfurt mourns for those killed in last week's tragic shootig incident, which cost the lives of 17 and brought the subject of youth violence into national focus. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_512035_1_A,00.html -- Israeli Raid on Nablus; Powell Talks of Peace Conference Israeli forces staged another raid in the West Bank with an incursion into the town of Nablus earlier on Friday. Two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed after troops stormed a hideout of a group of suspected militants who were allegedly planning suicide bombings in Israel. Israeli sources said the brief operation, in which about 15 people were detained, was aimed at tearing down a terror infrastructure. The fighting in Nablus and the on-going stand-off in Bethlehem has shown just how far the Israelis and Palestinians remained from peace despite the breakthrough which ended Yasser Arafat's confinement. Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he wanted to launch a Middle East peace conference following what he called a window of opportunity with the end of the siege at Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. Powell said details of such a conference still had to be decided, but Europe was the likely venue. Thousands Mourn German School Shooting Victims Thousands of Germans along with the country's leaders have come together for an outdoor memorial service to mourn the victims of last week's highschool shooting. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other German politicians sat through light rain in the town square of Erfurt where the shooting occurred. In an address at the service, President Johannes Rau called on Germans to take responsibilty for the nation's children. The highschool massacre, in which 16 people were killed, has triggered a national debate about violence on television and in video games. On Thursday night, Schroeder held talks with the executives of public and private TV channels on self-regulation of violence in the media. They agreed to a regular series of consultations. MiG Crash in India An Indian air force fighter plane has crashed into a suburb of the Indian city of Jalandar, killing at least seven people. Another 25 residents have been hurt. Buildings hit in the crash included a bank and adjacent shops. Most of the victims were reportedly bank employees. The plane's pilot and co-pilot ejected after flames emerged from the engine. They were said to be recovering in the hospital. The Russian-made plane was on a training flight when the accident occurred. Nepal Says 90 Rebels Killed; PM Rejects Peace Talks Nepal's Prime Minister has rejected an offer to resume peace talks with Maoist rebels after fierce fighting took place overnight. Ninety rebels were killed in battles with troops. The death toll was the highest in more than two weeks since some 250 rebels were believed killed in a crackdown. On Thursday, the rebels said they were ready for talks to try to end their six-year rebellion. But government officials said there would be no talks while the insurgents were still armed. Milosevic's Right Hand Man Pleads Not Guilty At the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague, Former Yugoslav deputy premier Nikola Sainovic has pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity. Sainovic was considered to be Slobodan Milosevic's right hand man during a Serb crackdown in Kosovo against ethnic Albanians in 1999. He is the second member of Milosevic's inner circle to surrender to the court in a week. Sainovic pleaded not guilty to five counts of violations of war and crimes against humanity as they were read out to him in the court. Milosevic and his former colleagues are charged with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war, including responsibility for the murders of hundreds of Kosovo Albanians. Latest Polls in Germany Show SPD behind CDU German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats have slipped further behind the conservative opposition ahead of September's general election, according to two key opinion polls released on Friday. Schroeder's Social Democrats now trail the CDU/CSU Christian Democratic alliance by six percentage points according to a poll by the Emnid institute. Another poll showed support for the SPD nine points behind the conservatives. In the weekly Emnid
Egypt believes that world powers are not living up to their promises [WWW.STOPNA
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Shifting windsEgypt believes that world powers are not living up to their promises of achieving peace in the Middle East, reports Nevine Khalil Ahead of the US-led campaign against terror, Arab and Muslim nations were reassured that neither Arabs nor Muslims would be targeted during the campaign, and peacemaking in the Middle East would be the next priority on the world agenda. Taking these words at face value, Arabs and Muslims pledged their support to US campaign, in the belief that this would be the best way to secure stability in the Middle East. However, as the US continues to comb Afghanistan for remaining Qa'eda elements, the winds of the war on terror have changed, and are now blowing towards the shores of Arab and Muslim countries. Iraq and Iran were described as "evil" by US President George W Bush; for "not doing enough" to destroy the "Palestinian terrorist infrastructure," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has been holed up in two rooms for more than a month; Syria and Lebanon continue to be maligned by the US, allegedly for supporting organisations accused of terrorist activity; Yemen was ordered to clamp down on Qa'eda members by Washington while Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are asked to "condemn all forms of terrorism," even if it was resistance against occupation. The disappointment and frustration of Arabs and Muslims at the conduct of the world powers was expressed by President Hosni Mubarak this week. He revealed that the Arab and Muslim countries were promised a swift and just resolution of the Palestinian problem once the US "war against terror" was set in motion. However, Mubarak said, the anti-terror campaign changed tack and is now being used as an excuse to target and attack Arab rights and sovereignty. Despite US reassurances that Arabs and Muslims are not being targeted and that the 11 September attacks are not seen as a conflict of civilisations, the reality of this campaign has completely contradicted these promises, Mubarak said during his Labour Day speech on Tuesday. Instead of world powers focusing their efforts on resolving the Middle East conflict, the "sudden change in the path of the war against terror... is now threatening the campaign's credibility and Arab and Muslim public support for it," the president warned. Mubarak stated that world powers "have focused their attention on security aspects, while neglecting the essential role of political negotiations." He believes that this emphasis implies that the Middle East is the new front for the war against terror. The consequence is political gains for Israel at the expense of the Arab and Muslim countries, and the demonising of the legitimate Palestinian right to resist Israeli occupation. This shift has also "given Israel ground and support in refusing to relaunch direct political negotiations with the Palestinians." It is Israel that is "terrorising" the Palestinians "through human rights violations and flagrant refusal to heed international calls and UN decisions to withdraw from Palestinian areas," Mubarak said. He believes that Palestinian resistance will continue for as long as Israeli provocation and occupation continue. "In order for the resistance to end, occupation must end," he warned. A comprehensive political peace plan proposed by the US and world community is what the president wants. He says both sides must be pressured into implement any plan within a specific time frame, and Israel must be forced to go to the negotiating table with due respect for the Palestinian Authority. "This vicious Israeli campaign against the Palestinians must stop immediately, and it is in no way similar or comparable to the US-led campaign against terror in Afghanistan," Mubarak said, adding that "forceful US interference is sure to bring about real political breakthrough." To influence the world, Mubarak said that the Arab states must put their own houses in order, close ranks and show their clout. He said that the 11 September attacks in the US "caused root changes" in the definition of international, regional and national security. And now, the events in the Palestinian territories "require us to formulate a new framework of joint Arab national security." "We need to ask ourselves whether we have the necessary resources to influence world powers, and discuss the matter with honesty and openness," Mubarak told his audience. "We have considerable political power when correctly utilised and streamlined; we have viable economic power in the form of investments abroad which can be used to defend our causes and influence policy; and we have advanced and renewable human resources," Mubarak listed. However, he added, that what the Arabs lack is the ability to communicate effectively with the outside world, either because they are too slow or incompetent in influencing world public
The spirit of Auschwitz [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The spirit of Auschwitz Holocaust Day, 9 April, is also the day on which Palestinians mark the memory of the Deir Yassin massacre. Omar Barghouti* contemplates a grotesque coincidence that will not be consigned to the past "Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal of being an independent people with the Arabs in this small country. The only solution is a Palestine, at least Western Palestine [west of the Jordan River] without Arabs ... And there is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighbouring countries, to transfer all of them; not one village, not one tribe, should be left. Only after this transfer will the country be able to absorb the millions of our own brethren. There is no other way out." This is not one of the many infamous statements made by the now deceased Rehavam Ze'evi or by Meir Kahane. It is a 1940 declaration by Yosef Weitz, one of the Zionist officers responsible for Jewish colonisation and member of the Jewish Agency's first "Transfer Committee." Fifty-four years later, an Israeli soldier, participating in the army's brutalities in Jenin refugee camp, told The Guardian: "The problem is that there is not enough room in this small country for two peoples. It is a trial of strength that we are winning. They would like to throw us into the sea. We may have to do the same to them." The irony is that virtually all the refugees in the Jenin camp were first "transferred" from the coastal region of Haifa in 1948, to make room for the influx of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. And now, they are facing death, destruction and possibly another forced displacement. The victims of the Holocaust are victimising the byproduct victims of the Holocaust yet another time. On 9 April, Palestinians everywhere commemorated the 54th anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre, when Zionist terror groups murdered 254 innocent Palestinian Arabs in cold blood -- as documented by several historians, including some of the "new historians" in Israel. In an authoritative account of the massacre, the British interrogating officer at the time, Assistant Inspector-General Richard Catling, confirmed that: "Many young school girls were raped and later slaughtered. Many infants were also butchered and killed." Deir Yassin was meant to set an example, a particularly shocking precedent, to terrorise the Palestinians off their lands and into exile. It was no accident, no aberration, no extreme vengeance. It was simply a calculated act of terror in a well-thought-out plan to depopulate Palestine, and create in the resulting space a Jewish homeland for the victims of the Nazi genocide. Those victims also commemorated their history on 9 April, which was "Holocaust Day." This coincidence stirs up a bitter irony. The victims of one of history's worst crimes against humanity are increasingly resorting to some of the same tools of racist hatred and collective punishment to complete the job that the founders of Zionism had envisioned: a "pure" Jewish state. Last month, during a visit by a delegation from the International Parliament of Writers, the famous Portuguese Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago said he dreaded the "spirit of Auschwitz" in Ramallah and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. Many Israeli intellectuals hypocritically condemned the remark, some implicitly accusing Saramago of anti-Semitism. Ironically, just this past January, Israel's Ha'aretz reported that "one of the Israeli officers in the [occupied] territories" found it justified to "internalise the lessons of earlier battles -- even, however shocking it may sound, how the German army fought in the Warsaw ghetto." Indeed, several Israeli policies evoke a strong analogy with the Nazis, despite the unquestionable disparity in the magnitude of criminality between the two cases. Some of the wicked practices of the Nazis in concentration camps were even imported, wholesale and unabashedly, by Israeli army officers. During the last army incursion into Palestinian towns and refugee camps towards the end of February of this year, the Washington Post reported: "The [Israeli] army's mass round-ups of Palestinian refugees has been a public relations disaster for Israel, as images have been broadcast and printed around the world of blindfolded captives, including teenage boys and graying middle-aged-men, held at gun point. Some Israelis were also incensed that [Israeli] troops were writing [identification] numbers on some of the prisoners' arms and foreheads." One of those who expressed "outrage" over this practice was the right-wing Israeli lawmaker Tommy Lapid, who declared in the Knesset: "As a refugee from the Holocaust I find such an act insufferable." In the current Israeli offensive against the Palestinians
Israeli Drone Films Palestinians Faking Funeral in Jenin [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Israeli Drone Films Palestinians Faking Funeral in Jenin Israel Insider TEL AVIV, May 3, 2002 -- In a press briefing Thursday, IDF Intelligence Officer Colonel Miri Eisen screened a four minute tape of a staged Palestinian funeral photographed by an Israeli drone flying over Jenin on Monday, April 28. Pallbearers repeatedly tried to carry a green blanket wrapped around a man who pretended to be dead, but kept falling out of the blanket. The funeral took place between the area that was destroyed in the Jenin refugee camp and the nearby cemetery. The Palestinians, Col. Eisen said, sought "to show as many casualties as possible were buried inside Jenin. They tried to falsify evidence in preparation for the committee by executing a fake [funeral] ceremony, carrying the 'body' and filming the entire process." The film was screened to foreign reporters and later shown on Israeli television, causing considerable amusement among the TV commentators and journalists, since the "corpse" kept tumbling out of the blanket. "One time he falls off the stretcher when he is already in a crowd," Col. Eisen narrated. "When he came back to life in the middle of the crowd, the crowd breaks up because they didn't know that it wasn't really a corpse." Israel Radio reported that many reporters laughed at the point in the tape that the "corpse" seemed to "rise from the dead," causing the people around him to flee in terror. "The video, said Col. Eisen, "constitutes only one filmed proof of what has been happening in Jenin in the last weeks," and the IDF intended to produce additional documentation in the coming days. Palestinians have tried to create various types of false evidence to exaggerate what transpired in Jenin and support false claims of atrocities. Israeli intelligence sources reported that Palestinians have been exhuming corpses from nearby cemeteries and burying them in a mass grave of those who fought the Israelis in Jenin. Even so, even the Palestinians have reported no more than 52 recovered bodies, in sharp contrast to earlier claims, by Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat and others, of more than 500 dead. IDF senior officials reported earlier this week on Israeli television that animal carcasses were also hauled to the refugee camp to create the "stench of death." Israel Insider, 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 ==^
Correspondence sa Susan Manuel re: Kosovo energy fraud [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Subject: Correspondence sa Susan Manuel re: Kosovo energy fraud -- Forwarded message follows --- From: Sonja Myers [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: (Fwd) Four million dollars lost in Kosovo energy fraud: EU Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Wed, 1 May 2002 11:51:23 -0500 Dear Ms Manuel, It's been a long time since I have contacted you with regards to KEK. I have raised many questions in my letter dated December 10, 2001 that are still to be answered. Among them was the question specifically related to the lack of electricity for the entire Serbian villages as well as Kosovo in general, versus the $260 million dollars given by the EU/USA for the improvement of electricity supply in Kosovo and repair/replacement of NATO destroyed/damaged power stations. I have asked you then, to tell me if UNMIK/KEK have any records of bills paid to show where did the EU and US tax payers money go and have they been audited. I also asked if anyone knew how much money was really spent for this purpose, where is the rest of it and what is being done to rectify this situation before the next winter. If the information released by the Agence France-Presse is correct, UNMIK was aware of corruption at KEK but did not have evidence at the time, which is presumably why you could not address my questions at all. Needless to say, it makes me sick to my stomach, as I am sure it makes you, to see that an "international", a former member of UNMIK administrationa that was supposed to help, was participating with the local Albanians in the theft of 4.5 million US dollars and profiting out of the misery of Kosovo people, all of them, Serbs, Roma and Albanians alike. However, despite the theft of 4.5 million US dollars, there is still the 255.5 million US dollars which should be accounted for. Is Mr. Steiner planning on finding out what happened to that money and who benefited from it since those who should have - did not! Respectfully Sonja Myers, Houston, Texas --- Forwarded message follows --- 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. --- P R E V O D NA SRPSKI JEZIK From: Sonja Myers [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: (Fwd) Four million dollars lost in Kosovo energy fraud: EU Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Wed, 1 May 2002 11:51:23 -0500 Postovana gospodjice Manuel, Mnogo vremena je proslo od kada sam Vam pisala u vezi sa Elektrodistribucijom Kosova (EK). U svom pismu od 10. decembra 2001, postavila sam veliki broj pitanja koja jos uvek
11 Internationals Join Palestinians Trapped in Church of the Nativity [WWW.STOPN
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMAY 2, 20021:30PM CONTACT: Direct Action for a Free Palestine / International Solidarity MovementAmanda Ream, (212) 541-4226, x241Eric Laursen, (917) 806-6452 11 Internationals Join Palestinians Trapped in Church of the Nativity BETHLEHEM - May 2 - At about 6 p.m. today (Middle East time), a group of 24 international activists slipped past Israeli Defense Force roadblocks to enter Bethlehem's Manger Square. Running across the square, 11 were then able to enter the besieged Church of the Nativity through service doors to deliver food to the 200 Palestinians who have been trapped in the church for almost a month. IDF troops caught and detained the other 13 activists. "We took them completely by surprise," says Kristen Schurr, an activist from New York City, who adds that she did not notice any shots fired at the group. None of the activists were wearing protective gear, in solidarity with the many Palestinians who do not have such equipment and have endured beatings at the hands of IDF troops since the Israeli offensive in the West Bank began at the end of March. One journalist also entered the church with the activists, who include US, Swedish, UK, and Irish nationals. Schurr says the activists wanted to enter the church to deliver food to the trapped Palestinians, many of whom are sick and starving. They also wanted to call international attention to the fact that, while the Israeli government has restored some freedom of movement to Palestinian Authority President Yassir Arafat, the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity continues. She said the activists plan to remain in the church - one of the oldest and most important Christian shrines - until the Palestinians are allowed to leave without being arrested. The effects of fierce fighting at the church were apparent when the activists entered, Schurr says. Fires are still burning, and the dead bodies of two Palestinians, killed by IDF gunfire this morning, remain in the church. However, the trapped Palestinians cheered the internationals when they entered. "People seemed excited, and very happy to see us," says Schurr. TO CONTACT THE INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS OR OTHER PERSONS IN THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY, CALL KRISTEN SCHURR AT 011-972-6734-1268, OR 011-972-5935-7526 --- 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 ==^
Israeli Army Rejects Human Right Watch Report on Jenin [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Share This Article With Your Friends Published on Friday, May 3, 2002 by Agence France Presse Israeli Army Rejects Human Right Watch Report on Jenin The Israeli army rejected a Human Rights Watch report that accused its troops of committing "warcrimes" in the Jenin refugee camp as biased and ill-conceived. "It appears that the report completely ignores the root cause of the Israeli army operation in Jenin," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Olivier Rafowicz said Friday. "The report did not study the intricate terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin camp, and the placement of such infrastructure in a densely populated civilian area," he said. The army spokesman argued that the "proportion of Israeli casualties (in Jenin) is roughly one to two, fully compatible with a combat situation." The report by the US-based Human Rights Watch released Thursday concluded the Israeli army did not commit massacres in the camp as Palestinians had claimed. But it ruled that human rights were violated in apparent "war crimes," including the alleged army use of Palestinian human shields. Rafowicz rejected allegations the army had used Palestinians as human shields, instead accusing the militants of placing the lives of civilians in jeopardy by basing their alleged terror cells in the heart of the camp. Palestinians have accused the Israeli army of massacring hundreds of civilians in a nine-day assault. Israel says it killed 52 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, while losing 23 of its own men in fierce fighting. Human Rights Watch also accused Israel of demolishing civilian homes after the military phase of the battle had been completed. But Rafowicz said the army razed 130 homes, "amounting to less than 10 percent of the houses in the camp." "It bears asking when a country is fighting a war against terror how is it that those who are engaged in fighting terrorists come under suspicion, while the perpetrators of terror are not subject to scrutiny?" he said. The United Nations Thursday disbanded a fact-finding committee it wanted to send to Jenin after the Israeli government refused to cooperate with the team unless it complied with conditions the UN deemed unacceptable. Israel expressed concerns that the panel would only investigate conduct of its own army without looking into allegations that Palestinian terror cells had been based in the camp, and wanted to select its witnesses the team would interview. Copyright 2002 AFP --- 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 ==^ email.gif Description: GIF image
Who First Brought Terrorism to Palestine? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Who First Brought Terrorism to Palestine? By Dr. Thomas B. Jefferson Arab News WASHINGTON, May 2, 2002 -- The largest threat to the Israeli right wing that now rules the country is the moderates on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. Those groups want peace as they declared in the Oslo negotiations and subsequent agreement. It was publicly cemented in the September 1993 hand shake that followed in front of President Bill Clinton between Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in front of the White House in Washington DC. They went on to start to implement these historic accords arrived at in Oslo, Norway in secret during the summer of 1993. Along with Peres they all received the Nobel Peace Prize for starting the peace process between those two long-term adversaries, an achievement not mentioned much today. These were very hopeful days. During all these days in which Israel's current prime minister constantly talks about terrorism, it is forgotten who started the terror in that area within the last ten years. On Feb. 25, 1994, less than six months after that historic handshake, Baruch Goldstein, entered a mosque in Hebron and killed 50 Muslim worshippers as well as himself. Goldstein was a member of Kach and the Jewish Defense League, founded by "Rabbi" Meir Kahane in New York City in the 1960s. Kach, which is well connected with Sharon, is on the official US State Dept. list of terrorism organizations. Thus with that Jewish act of terrorism, the cycle of violence started again in the Holy Land of three great religions. In fact, it set into motion the "cycle of violence" that has yet to end. That Goldstein attack came at the precise time when Prime Minister Rabin and Arafat began the implementation of the Oslo agreement, which envisioned the establishment of a State of Palestine by 1998. It was not until two months later that the first Hamas-linked suicide attacks started when Rabin and Arafat signed the agreement for the establishment of the Palestine National Authority. It called for elections and the setting up all governmental institutions to have an internationally recognized State of Palestine. Arafat, at the time, led a massive crackdown on the terrorism, which tried to break the Rabin-Arafat alliance. That terrorism failed to break that partnership. That alliance was finally broken by a right wing Jewish seminary student who killed his own prime minister, on Nov. 4, 1995, calling Nobel Peace laureate Rabin a traitor to the Jews for making peace with the Palestinians. A year after former Gen. Ehud Barak came to power; Sharon provoked another crisis when he led a Sept. 28, 2000 march to the Islamic holy site Al-Haram Al-Sharif or as the Jews call it the Temple Mount. Yossi Sarid, chairman of the Meretz Party, writing in the best Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, on Jan. 3, 2002, "What does frighten Sharonis any prospect or sign of calm or moderation. If the situation was to calm down and stabilize, Sharon would have to return to the negotiating table and, in the wake of pressure from within and without, he would have to raise serious proposals for an agreement. This moment terrifies Sharon and he wants to put it off for as long as he possibly can." He goes on to say, Sharon understands "that the terrorists and those that give them asylum are not the real enemies. Instead, the real enemies are the moderatesYou fight terrorist - a pretty simple operation - but you must talk with moderates, and this is a very tricky, if not dangerous, business." Sharon has shown how he can undertake the crushing of these people during the last month. It was brutal, somewhat like how the Nazis that killed so many Jews in Europe during World War II. The real interest of Sharon is having a rejectionist Palestinians force to deal with and then be able to say to the world that "see you can't deal with the Palestinians...they are all terrorists and we have to control them." Now we have to come to the United States and what the American media are not releasing. On Dec. 11, 2001, Fox News reported that 60 Israelis were being held in the Justice Dept.'s post Sept. 11 sweep and that "investigators suspect that they may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance and not shared it." Later in the story it continued, "Evidence linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified, I cannot tell you about evidence that has been
A Russian Role in NATO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- New York Times May 2, 2002 Editorial A Russian Role in NATO NATO versus Russia defined the cold-war military division of Europe. Now Moscow and the West are working their way toward a new relationship better described as NATO plus Russia. A productive partnership between the Kremlin and the West's premier military alliance could powerfully reinforce President Vladimir Putin's efforts to reorient Russia's foreign policy toward the United States and Europe. Negotiators from both sides are preparing a plan to be presented to NATO foreign ministers and then a summit meeting of NATO and Russian leaders in late May. It defines several areas where Russia and NATO can begin cooperating right away while safeguarding NATO's freedom to act on its own. Russia is not yet ready for full military integration with NATO. This kind of halfway arrangement makes sense as an interim step. Past attempts at cooperation have been too timid and have fallen short. During NATO's efforts to head off civil war in Macedonia last year, Russia rightly felt it should have been involved in discussions at an earlier stage. The procedure until now has been for NATO members to work out positions on all issues without Moscow at the table and then present fixed decisions to the Russian delegates. The new arrangement will let Russia participate in full discussions on a broad range of issues including coping with terrorism, managing regional crises, peacekeeping, missile defense and search-and-rescue operations at sea. These discussions could lead to collaborative military projects like joint training, shared peacekeeping missions and information exchanges on conventional and unconventional weapons. What matters more than the specific items on the initial list is the commitment of both sides to make this limited partnership work. If that is present, the list can be expanded. Until now, Moscow's drive for cooperation with the West has come mainly from Mr. Putin, with cabinet members and military officers sometimes hesitantly following. Joint deliberation, planning and military exercises with NATO can widen support for Mr. Putin's pro-Western policies. It might also make Moscow's generals more comfortable with NATO's eastward expansion and Western military action in areas traditionally influenced by Russia, like the Balkans and Central Asia. *** --- 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 ==^
Jewish Groups Battle Media Over Perceived Bias [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Thursday, May 2, 2002 in the San Francisco Chronicle Jewish Groups Battle Media Over Perceived Bias The Chronicle, Other Papers Lose Subscribers by Dan Fost Pro-Israel groups, angry at how the media are portraying their country in the Mideast conflict, are battling back with boycotts and e-mail campaigns. I wonder if a lot of people who are upset about bias at the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle aren't really upset with the news. It's not that they're biased, it's that the images tell an accurate story, and they don't like that story being told. Steve RendallFairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) In the past few weeks, subscriptions have been canceled or suspended at several of the country's largest newspapers -- including The Chronicle, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times -- in protest of what some readers perceive as an anti-Israel bias. The groups are most upset when the large newspapers do not cover their protests but report on pro-Palestinian demonstrations. For their part, newspaper editors say issues of bias arise whenever news organizations tackle a polarizing topic. More than 1,000 people suspended their subscriptions to the Los Angeles Times last month, the paper reported, and another e-mail campaign attempted to make Wednesday "Cancel your subscription to the New York Times Day." Reader complaints are pouring in to other metropolitan papers, as well. Last fall, pro-Israel demonstrators picketed the Chicago Tribune on two occasions and a handful of people protested outside the Miami Herald. At The Chronicle, roughly 70 people have canceled their subscriptions in protest, including five Tuesday who objected to a four-page special guide to the conflict. A 14-member delegation of local Jewish groups met with Chronicle editors Wednesday to discuss their grievances. Hundreds of others, on both sides of the Mideast conflict, have written to the paper to complain about perceived bias. "In the mainstream Jewish community, there's been simmering disappointment and anger over The Chronicle's Mideast coverage," said Michael Futterman, who chairs the Middle East strategy committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council, a coalition of 80 Bay Area synagogues and Jewish organizations. Futterman said that the anger hit a "boiling point" when the Chronicle did not cover a pro-Israel rally in San Francisco on April 14. The San Francisco Examiner covered the event on its front page, estimating that 5,000 people participated. That same week, Futterman noted, The Chronicle covered a far smaller pro-Palestinian rally. "It was astounding to people," he said. "It confirmed a lot of the worst suspicions." Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein said the paper erred in not covering the rally, echoing an assertion that the paper's reader representative, Dick Rogers, made in a column April 21: "We should have covered it." "We're fallible -- absolutely fallible," Bronstein said. "We make mistakes. But it does not equate to bias." Adding fuel to the fire, on the same day Rogers' remarks appeared, the paper had a page one story on a pro-Palestinian rally that attracted 20,000 people to the Civic Center. Bronstein said the complaints and canceled subscriptions constitute "a useful and instructive period for us." The absence of a story on the rally provided a touchstone for debate, but supporters of both Israel and the Palestinians have found other coverage to complain about. A headline on April 28 referred to the Palestinians' "bold attack on Israelis," drawing ire from those who saw "bold" as a positive depiction. Other papers' failure to cover similar rallies also provoked reactions. In New York, an April 21 prayer vigil attracted what the New York Post reported was an estimated 50,000 Jews, but the New York Times did not cover it. Likewise, the Los Angeles Times did not cover a rally in its home city on April 6, inciting protest. Editors at the New York Times were not available for comment, but company spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said in an e-mail, "Our staff is instructed to cover all sides of the story thoroughly and with scrupulous impartiality." Mathis did not comment Wednesday on how many people suspended or canceled subscriptions,
News, 2.5.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News May 2nd, 2002, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Europe and America Take Stock Unlimited solidarity has turned to wary support in the transatlantic relationship, as a host of thorny economic and politic issues strain relations between Europe and the US. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_511163_1_A,00.html -- Arafat Emerges from Confinement Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has been freed from his virtual house arrest in Ramallah. Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets and chanted in support of their leader as he toured the destruction in the West Bank town. The lifting of Arafat's confinement came after a U.S-brokered deal secured the turnover to Israel of six Palestinians wanted by Israel for the murder of a cabinet minister last year. The six suspects are to be kept under British and American guard. After Israeli troops ended their siege in Ramallah, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke on American television and said he could not guarantee that Arafat would be allowed to return to the West Bank if he travelled abroad. Meanwhile, violence in the Middle East continued as Israeli troops killed one Palestinian, identified as a security force member, and wounded three others at the Church of the Nativity compound in Bethlehem. The army said it fired on armed men in the courtyard of the church, where troops are in a standoff with gunmen holed up inside among priests and civilians. U.N. Abandons Jenin Inquiry U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told the U.N. Security Council that he would cancel the fact-finding mission into the Jenin refugee camp and disband its 20 members who have been waiting in Geneva since last weekend. Annan's decision follows a series of objections from the Israeli cabinet. In the meantime, another group, Human Rights Watch, said it did not find proof to back charges of a massacre in Jenin. The group said it had identified 52 Palestinian who were killed during the fighting, 22 of them civilians. It also said there was evidence that Palestinian civilians had been used as human shields. Human Rights Watch's 48-page report was based on the findings of three investigators it sent to Jenin for one week. British-led Operation in Eastern Afghanistan Troops from Britain and Canada backed by U.S helicopters have begun a new offensive in the eastern Afghan mountains in search of remaining al Qaeda and Taliban rebels. The task of the 1,000-strong force involved in Operation Snipe was to destroy al Qaeda caves and bunkers and to kill or capture any al Qaeda militants or followers of the Taliban. A team of about 200 U.S. paratroopers was also due to join the operation. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said al Qaeda rebels were still hiding on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Military Jet Crashes in Phillipines A Phillipine air force fighter jet has crashed into a school north of Manila, killing its pilot and injuring 19 people on the ground. Six rooms of the school were destroyed, but a greater disaster was averted because the school was closed for summer holidays. Officials said the cause of the accident was not yet known. The ageing F-5 jet was returning from training exercises with U.S. forces which are in the country to help the Philippines repel external attacks and counter terrorism. Food Crisis in Southern Africa The world's largest disaster relief agency has warned of a looming crisis in drought-hit southern Africa, where hunger is already causing severe illness among children. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed urgently for funds to feed about half a million people in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A public health and nutritional expert from the International Federation said he expected malnutrition to worsen dramatically in all three states. France Prepares for More Le Pen Demos France has braced itself for potentially violent protests as the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen heads south to Marseille for a final evening campaign rally before Sunday's presidential election runoff. In the Mediterranean port city, which has a large Muslim community of mainly North African origin, 1,500 police were on hand to separate friends and foes of the anti-immigrant National Front chief. On Wednesday, at least 1.3 million people took to the streets in a nationwide show of determination to stop Le Pen from becoming president. Grandson
Sharon Faces a Home-Front War over Palestine Card [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Sharon Faces a Home-Front War over Palestine Card By Bradley BurstonHa'aretz TEL AVIV, May 2, 2002 -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hopes to meet U.S. President George Bush armed with a fresh peace plan during a scheduled Washington visit next week, but rivals in his hawkish Likud hope to deprive him of a key bargaining chip in future talks with the Palestinians: the prospect of Israeli endorsement of an independent Palestine. The Bush administration has repeatedly underscored its support for a Palestinian state, established alongside Israel and established with Israeli consent. Sharon himself shocked Likud colleagues early in his premiership by stating that Israel was willing to grant the Palestinians what no other ruler in the Holy Land had ever given them: a state of their own. Sharon told ABC Television's "Nightline" this week that "I'll be presenting a plan, a serious plan, maybe the most serious that has been presented by now, how to reach peace in the Middle East, how to reach peace between us and the Palestinians." At the same time, hardline Likud forces hoping to stage a palace revolt and depose Sharon in favor of former Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, made it plain Thursday that the statehood issue would be a central weapon in their campaign to unseat the prime minister. Sharon has kept mum of late on the statehood question, as ex-prime minister and fellow hawk Netanyahu maintained a drumbeat of criticism of all conciliatory government moves regarding the Palestinians. The right-wing backlash comes amid recent polls showing unprecedented Israeli public support for Sharon. Bolstered by a lull in terror attacks in the wake of his recent West Bank offensive, Sharon's popularity has lately risen to levels unseen in past Israeli premiership polls, hitting a 70-percent approval rating in a poll released last week. Moreover, surveys indicate that as the electorate has become steadily more pessimistic in the months of fighting with the Palestinians, Israeli grass-roots support for a Palestinian state under a future peace treaty has grown to an all-time high. Nonetheless, before Sharon can hope to win re-election in a national vote slated for no later than next year, he must first win an internal primary vote among Likud rank-and-file - a group in which Sharon's support is ironically weak. In the latest internal Likud poll commissioned by Netanyahu's forces and leaked to Army Radio, the former prime minister would defeat Sharon by a margin of 50-24 percent if the primaries had been held this week. In a bid to corner Sharon on the issue, the Likud Central Committee, scheduled to convene in the middle of this month, may vote on a resolution condemning an independent Palestinian state. The wording of the resolution, which rules out "any Palestinian state between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean," is viewed as a direct dig at Sharon, who once railed against Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza, declaring that "Jordan is [the real] Palestine." Hardline Likud cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi on Thursday sent a strong if indirect hint to the prime minister, signalling him to get aboard the anti-statehood express before it left the station. The present Israeli political constellation made it an effective impossibility for Sharon to raise the issue of a Palestinian state or to endorse it publicly, Hanegbi cautioned. "The great majority of the [rightist] camp that the prime minister represents, the overwhelming majority of the Likud and the parties that are its partner in the coalition are certainly unwilling to raise the issue [an offer of statehood]," Hanegbi said. Yisrael Katz, Netanyahu's point man in the Knesset and in the party, foresaw an "enormous majority" in the Central Committee for the anti-statehood plank. Katz said Sharon's support within the party was already hit hard this week, after the prime minister accepted a Bush administration compromise under which Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was freed Thursday from the IDF-enforced house arrest that the prime minister imposed on the Palestinian leader a month ago. Prior to his reversal, Sharon had said Arafat would remained caged in his Ramallah office until the murderers of slain tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi were handed over to Israel. Katz said that most Likud members wanted Arafat's regime "gotten rid of," and that the moment
U.S. Eyes Caspian Oil in War On Terror [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Foreign Policy in Focus April 30, 2002 www.fpif.org U.S. Eyes Caspian Oil in War On Terror By Armen Georgian (Armen Georgian [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes for Agence-France Presse in London and writes regularly on international issues.) The arrival of U.S. military advisors in Georgia on April 29 raised as many glasses in Ankara and Baku as it did jitters in Moscow. Touted as a new front in the war on terror, the Bush administration is in reality scrambling for Caspian oil in a bid to oust Russia from its traditional backyard. Washington insists its train and equip force' of 10 combat helicopters and 150 military instructors is solely intended to help Georgia combat Islamic radicals in the lawless Pankisi Gorge, allegedly a safe haven for al Qaeda militants and their Chechen allies. But other motives became apparent, although largely unnoticed by the Western press when Georgian Defense Ministry official Mirian Kiknadze told Radio Free Europe on February 27: The U.S. military will train our rapid reaction force, which is guarding strategic sites in Georgia--particularly oil pipelines. He was referring to the embryonic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project, set to reduce Georgia's and Azerbaijan's energy reliance on Russia and bring the southern Caucasus into the U.S. fold. Russia's military establishment and domestic opinion are clearly furious, although President Putin has played soft on the issue, delighted to see his Chechen campaign rebranded as a war on terror in return for supporting the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. It is hard to see why Russia should react so angrily to a U.S. operation promising to neutralize not just al Qaeda fighters but also Putin's longtime Chechen bogeys, said Hovann Simonian, author of the acclaimed Troubled Waters: The Geopolitics of Caspian Oil. The U.S. training force is unlikely to make much difference given the parlous state of the Georgian military. Clearly this is not simply about fighting terror, Simonian added. Washington has recently injected fresh momentum into its Caspian designs, home to the world's third-largest oil and gas deposits. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage emphatically re-affirmed U.S. support for BTC on March 8 during the visit of Turkish premier Bulent Ecevit. Four days later U.S. Caspian envoy Stephen Mann told Kazakh authorities he wanted to promote pipelines bypassing Iran. The plot thickened on March 28 when U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Mira Ricardel announced that the U.S. would provide military assistance to Azerbaijan's navy as part of a $4.4 million aid package this year. Western energy companies have been intensively exploring a sector of the Caspian angrily disputed by Iran and Azerbaijan. With Turkish airbases due in Azerbaijan later this year, the U.S. is clearly promoting a NATO-friendly axis to safeguard the Baku-Ceyhan route and counter the Russia-Armenia-Iran alliance. Some energy analysts say the Turkish economy is in no position to support the $2.9-billion project, while U.S. taxpayers might be skeptical after the Enron scandal, but BTC is being pushed for political reasons, Simonian said. The Bush administration has particularly compelling reasons to back BTC. Vice President Dick Cheney was until 2000 chief executive of Halliburton Co., an oil services company named a finalist last year to bid on engineering work in the Turkish sector of the route. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was a director of Chevron, a lynchpin of the BTC consortium with extensive operations in Azerbaijan. Richard Armitage is a former co-chairman of the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. Bush family adviser James A. Baker III has especially thick oil ties to the region. Baker, who spearheaded George W. Bush's victory in the Florida election dispute, heads U.S. law firm Baker Botts, which represents a consortium of companies drilling and exploring the Caspian, including Exxon-Mobil, Pennzoil, BP, and Unocal. Baker sits on the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce advisory council, as did Cheney. While America has successfully used the war on terror to wrestle the oil- and gas-rich central Asian region from Moscow, the south Caucasus could prove a much tougher nut to crack. Pankisi is not the only unruly enclave beyond Tbilisi's writ. The breakaway leaderships of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, fearful the U.S. deployment could also be used against them, have already appealed to Moscow for associate status within the Russian Federation. Such a move, which would seriously undermine the pro-Western Georgian President Eduard Shervardnaze, is widely supported by the Russian parliament and public opinion. In addition, Moscow could foment separatism in Adzharia and Dzhavaketia, where ethnic Armenians might seek to disrupt the oil earnings of arch-foes Turkey and Azerbaijan. There is a danger that Shervardnadze will
Does NATO have a future? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1109654 The future of NATO A moment of truth May 2nd 2002 | WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print edition The NATO alliance has until its November summit in Prague to decide what it is for NOBODY damns NATO with faint praise. Both boosters and detractors call it the most successful military alliance in history. But does it have a future? It is hard for Americans and Europeans to imagine the past 50 years without the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation there to defend them. Yet it is harder than it used to be to imagine NATO, as it is, advancing far into the 21st century. Before September 11th, the question dangling over the transatlantic alliance was what it was for. The cold war, after all, had been over for ten years. Since the attacks on the United States, and with Europe, too, more worried than it used to be about unfettered terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the value of collective defence is no longer in so much doubt. But does America, with its unrivalled military power, need NATO any more? And, assuming someone wants and needs it, how can the alliance be adapted to defend its members against the very different threats they now face? If good answers are not found before the NATO summit in Prague in November, the future of NATO looks bleak indeed. By an irony, NATO has never been busier. But much of its recent activity has been in fuzzier collective security-organising peacekeeping missions, holding the hands of Europe's weaker new democracies-rather than the harder-edged collective defence for which it was created. You might call it, as some do, babysitting the end of the cold war. Not everyone is unhappy at this change. Peacekeeping in the Balkans and elsewhere, as those who do it sharply point out, is not for wimps. Others, on both sides of the Atlantic, argue that ensuring peace and stability in Europe, given the trouble its past wars have caused, is anyway plenty for NATO to be getting on with. But those who want NATO to be doing more than babysitting are in deeply gloomy mood. NATO troops still turn out together for peacekeeping duty in the Balkans, though in smaller numbers now. But what the war for Kosovo revealed, and the American-led campaign in Afghanistan hammered home, is how far the European members of NATO lag behind America, both in high-tech weapons and in their ability to get useable troops speedily to where they are needed. The extra $48 billion that President George Bush now proposes to add to America's $331 billion defence budget is more than Britain or France spends on defence in a year. As Europeans struggle to equip the 60,000-strong EU-led rapid-reaction force they promised for next year, such a gap may well drive them to despair. Even success can be a problem. Former cold-war adversaries from Central and Eastern Europe are either in NATO already (Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic) or else queuing to join, with Russia's president keen to get alongside. Last June, in Warsaw, Mr Bush called on NATO to be ready at Prague to issue as many new invitations as possible. The alliance should not calculate how little we can get away with, but how much we can do to advance the cause of freedom. Yet some of those who most value NATO's military effectiveness-the British and German governments, some members of the United States Senate-have doubts about going much beyond the current 19 members. They worry that Mr Bush's open-door enthusiasm really reflects his dwindling interest in NATO as a military tool. Critics feel that to extend new invitations to Slovenia, Slovakia, perhaps the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and possibly even Bulgaria and Romania, would inevitably dilute the alliance, turning it into more of a security talking-shop. That might make a bigger NATO more acceptable to Russia, but would reduce it to little more than an armed version of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is open to all Europeans and spends its time on good works such as election-monitoring. Such worries have been compounded by America's swift, crushing and mostly unilateral military response to the September 11th attacks. Although the alliance, for the first time in its history, formally invoked Article 5 of its treaty and thereby declared the attacks on America to be an attack on all, European governments fret that America's military chiefs-compelled by the need for speed, but also with the frustrations of warfare-by-coalition in Kosovo in mind-preferred to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan largely on their own. Where European officials tend to be gloomy, however, senior officials in the Bush administration see mostly NATO's opportunities. One recalls that, as he sat in the White House in the wake of the September attacks, NATO's swift invocation of Article 5 came as an
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]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Jenin 'massacre' reduced to death toll of 56 By Paul MartinTHE WASHINGTON TIMES JENIN, West Bank Palestinian officials yesterday put the death toll at 56 in the two-week Israeli assault on Jenin, dropping claims of a massacre of 500 that had sparked demands for a U.N. investigation.The official Palestinian body count, which is not disproportionate to the 33 Israeli soldiers killed in the incursion, was disclosed by Kadoura Mousa Kadoura, the director of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement for the northern West Bank, after a team of four Palestinian-appointed investigators reported to him in his Jenin office.[Two weeks ago, when European and particularly London newspapers were reporting estimates of "hundreds" massacred, Israeli sources in Washington said they expected the Palestinian toll to reach "45 to 55."]U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested yesterday, in the wake of the Palestinian body count, that he may disband a U.N. fact-finding team that was to visit the camp to determine whether a massacre had taken place.Mr. Annan was responding to a decision by the Israeli security Cabinet earlier in the day not to cooperate with the U.N. team.The U.N.-Israeli dispute appeared unrelated to the Palestinian admission there had been no massacre.The Palestinians had suggested that most of the bodies were buried beneath the rubble of houses bulldozed by Israeli troops. No digging for bodies was taking place here, and there was no stench that could have come from decaying human flesh.The earlier Palestinian claims had sparked international outrage and prompted the Bush administration to press Israel to accept a fact-finding mission by the United Nations, an organization that the Jewish state regards as having a pro-Palestinian bias.Mr. Kadoura yesterday showed a reporter for The Washington Times the official Palestinian list of those who died. It contained 50 names. Six additional bodies, he said, had not been identified.He no longer used the ubiquitous Palestinian charge of "massacre" and instead portrayed the battle as a "victory" for Palestinians in resisting Israeli forces. "Here the Israelis, who tried to break the Palestinian willpower, have been taught a lesson," Mr. Kadoura said.He insisted that Israel had tried but failed, thanks to the heavy fighting, to destroy the entire warren of homes in the camp that had housed 11,000 people.The destruction, pictured graphically on television, appeared linked to Israeli bulldozing of the houses from which the remnant of the resistance forces were firing.In fact, it covers the size of a large football field and constitutes only about 10 percent of the housing in the camp, and a far smaller proportion of the housing in the city, which was largely left untouched by the Israeli incursion.The figures shown to The Times included 233 injured persons, mainly men. The figures revealed that 18 persons had been injured and one had died after the fighting had ended, the result of accidentally detonating either shells left after the fighting, or booby traps that were set by Palestinian gunmen throughout the camp.A British expert attached to the International Red Cross said these booby traps were almost identical to those used by the Irish Republican Army.The British claim suggested to analysts that IRA guerrillas were schooled in terrorist weaponry and irregular warfare, as were many radical guerrilla movements, in Palestinian, Syrian and Iranian training camps in Lebanon.From behind a desk bedecked by portraits of Mr. Arafat, a string of past "martyrs" and of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the Palestinian chief official in the city, who is also the Fatah leader, portrayed in an interview the events as another chapter in a long saga of resistance to foreign invaders from Crusader times onward that, he said, had made Jenin "the heart of Palestine" for centuries.The propaganda war continues, meanwhile, in the refugee camp itself. Families whose homes had been destroyed were ordered to sit and lie inside tents pitched near the destruction, to be available for interviews and filming with foreign reporters and photographers. At dusk, with the press opportunities concluded, they returned to houses offered to them in the undamaged city or in the rest of the refugee camp.Other young men, members of various factions, have been on duty in the camp's narrow streets, eager to conduct foreign correspondents to places where they say Israelis killed militants after they surrendered or had been captured.Others in the city say the resistance to the Israeli incursion had been carried out by only about 10 percent of the militants who had originally been in the area. Most had retreated into the hills or into city back streets as the Israelis entered the area, they said.Families living in houses directly opposite the destroyed area have told The
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,
News, 30.4.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News April 30th, 2001, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Politicizing a Tragedy A day after a tragic shooting rampage at a German high school, politicians started with the partisan bickering that has dominated this election year. But they quickly changed their tune. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_509675_1_A,00.html -- Large group leaves besieged Bethlehem church Twenty-six people filed out of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Tuesday,the largest group to leave in a four-week-long Israeli siege of Palestinian fighters taking refuge in the shrine. Half of the group were members of the Palestinian security forces and the rest civilians, including youths, an army spokesman said. Israeli troops have besieged the church, revered by Christians as the site where Jesus was born, since April 2nd after 30 gunmen burst inside to escape from Israeli soldiers who had reoccupied Bethlehem. Scores of Palestinian police, Christian clerics and other civilians are trapped in the shrine. EU commission warns on Iraq and raps Israel European Commission President Romano Prodi attacked Israel on Tuesday for again blocking a U.N. mission from probing its assault on Jenin refugee camp. He said that if Israel had nothing to hide then there was no reason at all to block the mission. Israel, which denies Palestinian allegations of war crimes or a massacre in the Jenin refugee camp during its military incursion into the West Bank, again blocked the U.N. mission on Tuesday, after setting terms it says the world body must fulfil. Mr.Prodi also urged the United States to join Europe in demanding unfettered access for relief workers. Speaking ahead of Thursday's annual U.S.-E.U. summit in Washington, Mr. Prodi also warned President Bush against the risk of harming the global coalition against terrorism by taking military action against Iraq. Germany takes over command of Africa sea anti-terror watch Germany said on Tuesday it would take over command from the United States of the multinational patrol off the east African coast. U.S. and European forces started patrolling the seas and skies off Somalia, the Horn of Africa country in recent months to try to deny refuge to any member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group trying to flee Afghanistan. Washington fears the lack of central authority in Somalia, Kenya's eastern neighbour, could make it an ideal haven for followers of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden. Meanwhile, Turkey announced it would assume command of a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan for six months.Germany had earlier said it could not take over the leadership role there from Britain. OAU calls for referendum on Madagascar Organisation of African Unity Secretary-General Amara Essy said on Tuesday that Madagascar should hold a referendum to choose between its two rival leaders, warning the country risked being partitioned. He said that the OAU still recognised President Ratsiraka as the leader of the island of 15 million, despite Madagascar's High Constitutional Court ruling on Monday that Mr. Ravalomanana had won the December 16th elections, after a recount agreed by the two rivals at a meeting in Senegal earlier in April. But Mr. Ratsiraka, in power for 23-years and five of the country's six governors, said before the verdict was announced that they would not accept the results of the recount and threatened to set up their own state. Mugabe says food crisis in Zimbabwe now a disaster Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said a food crisis caused by drought had reached disaster levels, the official Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. The Herald said the declaration would enable donors and international relief agencies to step up emergency aid to an estimated 8 million people, who need food assistance in the southern African country. Aid agencies say crop production was slashed last season by drought and the government's seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks, which disrupted agriculture.Analysts say agricultural production in the crop season ending this month has fallen by 50 percent. Counting begins in Pakistan referendum Counting has began after polls closed in Pakistan on Tuesday in a controversial referendum to extend military President Pervez Musharraf's rule, with the government saying it would be happy with a turnout of 25 percent. Mr. Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999, has
U.S. Promise on Jenin Won Arafat's Freedom [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 in the San Francisco Chronicle U.S. Promise on Jenin Won Arafat's Freedom Bush offered help with U.N. fact-finding by Dina Shiloh TEL AVIV -- This weekend's U.S.-brokered deal to lift the confinement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was a bitter pill for Israel, but President Bush made it easier to swallow by pledging American aid in managing a U.N. investigation of the Jenin incident, it was confirmed yesterday. We have to do this because Bush has offered help with the Jenin fact- finding team affair. Ariel Sharonspeaking to his CabinetIsraeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had insisted that Arafat hand over six militants holed up with him in his Ramallah compound or face an indefinite blockade of the building. But Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice were able to break the logjam by promising to support Israel in the Jenin matter while enlisting Britain to provide monitors who will work beside American counterparts in overseeing the future imprisonment of the Palestinian militants. Neither side has openly acknowledged that such a deal was made, but reports in the Israeli media and statements by Israeli cabinet officials yesterday made clear that a quid pro quo had been struck. Sources in Sharon's office said yesterday that Rice and Sharon foreign policy adviser Danny Ayalon had been in "constant connection" during Sunday's cantankerous, all-day session of the Israeli Cabinet, many of whose members opposed giving Arafat freedom of movement. After Ayalon apprised Rice of the resistance, the Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported, Rice ultimately asked him to convey a personal message from Bush to Sharon that the United States "will be with you the entire way." This was understood as a reference to Israel's increasingly heated confrontation with the United Nations over a committee charged with looking into Israeli actions during eight days battling Palestinian gunmen in a Jenin refugee camp. Dozens are believed to have died in the fighting. "We have to do this because Bush has offered help with the Jenin fact- finding team affair," Sharon told the Cabinet at one point, finally winning them over on a 17-to-9 vote. To sweeten the pot, Rice also delivered an invitation from Bush to Sharon asking the Israeli leader to visit in Washington next week. Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel Radio yesterday: "How can we turn down an offer from the Americans? The battle is now moving to the diplomatic arena, and in this arena our greatest asset is U.S. support." BACKING DOWN BY SHARON? Despite the diplomatic cover offered by Bush and Rice, however, many Israelis interpret the affair as a backing down by Sharon. "There was very, very heavy pressure on Sharon, personal pressure applied by Bush," said diplomatic commentator Akiva Eldar. "The pressure is also connected to Bush's meeting last Friday with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Lifting the siege on Arafat was one of the things that Bush promised to the Saudis." Indeed, Sharon had told Secretary of State Colin Powell only two weeks ago that he would "rather go to elections" than let the six people in Arafat's compound go free. The six are the four killers of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, a personal friend of Sharon's, as well as Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- whom Israel accuses of organizing and executing dozens of terrorist attacks -- and Palestinian Authority finance chief Fuad Shubaki, believed by Israel to have orchestrated the Karine A weapons-smuggling affair. Arafat carried out a trial last week in which the six were all found guilty and given sentences ranging from one to 18 years. Israel quickly denounced the proceeding as a farce, noting that Palestinians are often convicted and imprisoned only to be released a few days or weeks later. Successive U.S. administrations have spoken disparagingly of Arafat's "revolving door" policy toward justice for militants. SOME UNHAPPY WITH DEAL Many Palestinians were not enthusiastic about the deal springing Arafat. "If these four people killed the minister, then yes, they should go to prison," said Sameer Abdullah, a bank executive in Ramallah. "But Ahmed Saadat (the PFLP leader) is
France's wild ride to choose a president ......By ERIC MARGOLIS [WWW.STOPNATO.O
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- April 28, 2002 France's wild ride to choose a president By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor The stunning second-place showing by far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in last week's French elections dropped a bombshell on France's fat-cat political establishment and sent Europe's left into a state of convulsive hysteria. Written off as a has-been only months ago, the 72-year old Le Pen and his National Front Party won more votes than Lionel Jospin's Socialists, who have long contested or shared power with France's centre right in a cozy system infused with corruption, chicanery, and cynicism. Many of the 17% of French who voted for Le Pen's party clearly did so as a protest against the scandals that have buffeted both President Jacques Chirac's centre-right coalition and the united Socialist-Communist left. Le Pen's victory was also due to surging crime, low voter turnout, and numerous minor protest candidates who fragmented the leftwing vote. France's political establishment and Europe's left are loudly damning Le Pen as a neo-fascist or neo-nazi, conveniently ignoring the fact that "nazi" is a wartime contraction for the proper name of Hitler's party - the National Socialists. The right fears him, thunders Le Pen, because he represents "the little man" and is determined to expose the deep corruption of France's pampered political elite, notably Chirac's slush funds, freebie trips, and the truckloads of cash delivered to politicians each month for their "confidential" use. In 1990, I spent some time with Le Pen, mostly in his elegant late-19th-century villa outside Paris, during which he gave me some rare insights into his personality and thinking. Sitting on his terrace sipping white wine, speaking in peppery French, Le Pen told me about his life. He was born to a penniless fishing family in Brittany; his parents did not even speak French, only the ancient Celtic language, Breton. Le Pen studied law and served as a elite paratrooper in Indochina and Algeria, two dirty, disastrous wars that left many French soldiers filled with an abiding hatred for all politicians, whom, they believed, had betrayed them and their nation. Le Pen's politics have not changed a whit since we spoke, though they have been modulated for the recent election. Witty, charming, and provocative, Le Pen is a master of one-liners. "Immigration" - his bete noire - "is invasion" quips Le Pen. "Look at California. The Americans conquered it from Mexico. Now Mexico is getting it back through immigration." "Our system of social support encourages the lowest elements of society to breed like rabbits - why should we spend our tax money to pay for unwed black mothers to produce more babies who will grow up into illiterates?" "Immigration from the Third World brings crime and disease," warned Le Pen. He blames France's surge in violent crimes squarely on emigrants from North and West Africa. France's colonial past has left it with over 5 million Muslim and black African inhabitants, almost 10% of the population, third class citizens who live in squalid conditions and form a restive, crime-prone underclass. "Stop immigration totally, stop letting family members in," says Le Pen, "deport all illegal immigrants." Such language resonates across Europe, which is being swamped by a flood of Third World immigrants and criminal elements. Right-wing parties in Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Holland, Austria, and Switzerland are making similar demands. Le Pen's calls for slashing government and taxes, a crackdown on crime, outlawing abortion to reverse population decline, and investigation of rampant corruption among the political elite find many willing ears in France and across Europe. So too his dramatic call for France to quit the European Union, drop the Euro currency, and reassert its sovereignty. Le Pen calls for a "Europe of nations" in place of a Europe run by a remote, left-dominated super-bureaucracy in Brussels. But in his more relaxed moments, Le Pen's views become far more extreme. He is an equal-opportunity anti-Semite. Le Pen despises both Arabs and Jews. Le Pen told me, "Jews have conspired to rule the world through their power over international finance. They are using their influence over government and media to promote mixture with lesser races and corrupt the purity of Europe's blood. The Jews created communism and tried to use it as a means of world domination. Today, 'the Jewish conspiracy' is using race rather than communism to advance its goals." France's 600,000 Jews, who are suffering a wave of anti-Semitic attacks, call Le Pen a latter-day follower of Hitler. In fact, Le Pen more closely reflects the views of France's Catholic far right of the 1930s and 40s - which led to the Vichy government - that saw communism as a vast Jewish conspiracy aimed against the Church and their class
Wasteneys Associated Consultants [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Wasteneys Associated Consultants 259 Faircrest Road Ottawa, Ontario, K1H 5C9 Tel: 613-733 5119Fax: 613-733 5194 Email geoffrey.wasteneys@ sympatico.ca Many years in the field of immigration. I have been particularly involved in securing Employment Authorization to enable persons with appropriate skills to work temporarily in Canada. In many cases, this has enabled them to apply later for immigration. Also, of course Independant immigration applications, family groups, sponsorship, business immigration, visitors visas, caregivers etc, I have handled immigration procedures from a wide range of countries and a lot of difficult cases. Geoffrey Wasteneys --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Israel OKs U.S. Proposal To Lift Arafat Siege, Delays UN Fact-Finders [WWW.STOPN
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Israel OKs U.S. Proposal To Lift Arafat Siege, Delays UN Fact-Finders Israel Insider TEL AVIV, Apr 29, 2002 -- Israel's cabinet gave in to pressure from President Bush and dropped its demand to extradite the murderers of minister Ze'evi and two other wanted terrorists, allowing their jailing in Palestinian areas under U.S. or U.K. supervision. Arafat accepts the deal, which enables his release from a month-long siege in Ramallah. The Israeli cabinet voted to delay arrival of the UN fact-finding commission to Jenin, prompting the convening of a Security Council meeting Sunday night to discuss the decision. After a stormy session and a series of telephone conversations between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. President Bush, the cabinet voted 17 to 8 to accept Bush's proposal to end Israel's siege on Arafat's headquarters in exchange for the jailing of Ze'evi's killers. The Palestinians to be jailed reportedly include Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Ahmed Saadat and Palestinian Authority financial chief Fuad Shubaki, thought by Israel to have orchestrated the Karine A weapons smuggling deal and authorized payment for suicide bombers and other terrorists. Arafat has reportedly accepted the deal, although he had objected to the inclusion of Saadat, who Israel claims ordered the killing of Ze'evi, and Shubaki, who has served for years as Arafat's right-hand man in financial affairs. The PFLP called on Arafat to reject the deal. Originally the cabinet was deadlocked and Sharon refused to cast the deciding vote. Sharon then spoke with Bush, reportedly for the third time of the day, who applied "unprecedented" pressure to accept his proposal, Israel Radio reported. Israeli diplomatic sources said the President "made him an offer he could not refuse." After communicating the contents of the conversation to the cabinet, Sharon voted with the majority, with the support of the religious Shas party, the Labor party ministers, and two other Likud ministers (Reuven Rivlin and Tzipi Livni), to accept the Bush proposal. Voting against the deal were ministers Limor Livnat, Silvan Shalom, Tzachi Hanegbi, Uzi Landau, and Danny Naveh of the Likud, Yitzhak Levy and Effi Eitam of the National Religious Party, David Levy of the Gesher party and Natan Sharansky of Yisrael Ba'aliya. Bush praised the decision, which came following meetings at his ranch with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who had urged him to apply stronger pressure on Israel. "The president views the vote of the Israeli cabinet as helpful and constructive," a White House statement said. "The next move is up to Yasser Arafat." As an apparent sweetener for approving his proposal, Bush reportedly invited Sharon to Washington next week. The cabinet decision drew sharp criticism from the Palmach Ze'evi, son of the murdered minister, who said that Sharon's decision was a "blatant violation of his personal commitments" and an "insult" to Israel's sovereignty. Knesset Member Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the assassinated minister's former party, which left the government two months ago, demanded that Sharon keep his promise and bring the murderers to Israel and said that the decision further "distances" his party from rejoining the coalition. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called it a "miserable decision" that would "undermine Israel's standing in the region" and nullified the achievements of Operation Defensive Shield. It would, he said, effectively free Ze'evi's killers in a short period of time, since the Americans and British would not hold them for the length of their sentences which in any case were imposed by what the government itself caused a "farce" of a trial. The worst effect, he said, was that it would free Arafat and enable him to resume his incitement and direction of Palestinian terror." UN will convene to discuss Israeli decision The UN Security Council is convening Sunday night following the Israeli decision to delay the arrival of the Jenin fact-finding commission until further clarifications about the commission's mandate and its terms of reference are clarified. Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin (Likud), speaking on behalf of the cabinet, told reporters that the UN had gone back on its agreements with Israel over the team and its powers, and therefore the commission would be denied entry. "This awful United Nations committee is out
News, 29.4.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News April 29th, 2001, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Gun Control: Pulling the Noose Tighter In the aftermath of one of the world's bloodiest school rampages, German politicians have vowed to re-evaluate the country's gun laws. Whether tighter legislation would have prevented anything is in doubt. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_508926_1_A,00.html -- Israeli Forces Raid Hebron as Efforts Continue to End Siege in Ramallah Israeli forces launched an incursion into the West Bank city of Hebron earlier on Monday, killing nine people. The Israeli army said it was conducting house-to-house searches for suspects and weapons following a deadly attack last Saturday on Israelis at a nearby Jewish settlement. The latest military action in Hebron came as diplomatic efforts were being made to end the siege at Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah. Palestinian officials said they would meet with U.S. and British experts to discuss the practical details of a proposal made by U.S. President George W. Bush that would restore Arafat's freedom of movement and remove Israeli forces from Ramallah. On another front, the Israeli cabinet was still resisting an authorized U.N. mission to probe the destruction in the Jenin refugee camp, despite international pressure. Israel says the composition of the team is too one-sided. 15 Palestinians Leave Church of Nativity About 15 Palestinians have left from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where a stand-off between Israeli forces and Palestinians locked inside nears its fourth week. Observers at the scene believed the group who left the church would probably be detained by the Israelis for questioning. Some 200 other people remained inside the besieged shrine, where conditions were said to be worsening. Schroeder Plans to Address Violence on TV In the wake of a highschool shooting in Germany which left 17 dead, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is planning to meet with television station directors this week to discuss putting limits on violent TV programs. The goal of the talks would be to get broadcasters to voluntarily control their output of violent programs. Schroeder also said he planned to work together with the country's leaders to noticably tighten gun-control legislation. Since last Friday's shooting, Germans are demanding protection from gunmen as well as tighter school security and bans on violent computer and video games. Indonesia military seeks martial law in Moluccas Indonesia's military said on Monday it wants martial law imposed on the Moluccan islands after at least 12 people were killed in weekend attacks. The killings came after several days of unrest in Ambon city, the capital of the Moluccas islands and scene of religious clashes that have claimed thousands of lives in the last three years. Indonesia has suffered from a series of religious, ethnic and separatist conflicts since President Suharto resigned in 1998. More than 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim, but Christians comprise half the population in some eastern areas, such as the Moluccas. Britain Says, Captured Fighters to be Turned over to Afghanistan British forces in Afghanistan have reached a deal with the interim government there to hand over any captured Taliban or al Qaeda fighters. The Royal Marines also said they would grant prisoner-of-war status to any captured enemy. The agreement is in contrast to a U.S. decision to treat prisoners as unlawful combatants without rights under the Geneva Convention. British military sources said they had received assurances from the Afghan interim administration that the prisoners would not be mistreated once handed over. Madagascar Court Declares a New President Madagascar's High Constitutional Court has reported that a recount of disputed December elections indicated that the challenger, Marc Ravalomanana, actually beat President Didier Ratsiraka with 51.46 percent of the vote. But President Ratsiraka said the court was biased and he would disregard the latest verdict, prompting warnings from analysts that the crisis on the Indian Ocean island was far from over. Up to 60 people have been killed in violence between the two camps since the disputed poll. Monday's court ruling dismissed official results announced in January and declared Ravalomanana president of the Republic for the next five years. Ratsiraka was due to comment on the situation later today.
XINHUA AGENCY: ISRAEL REPEATS CRIMES OF THE NAZIS [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- XINHUA AGENCY: ISRAEL REPEATS CRIMES OF THE NAZIS Nations of the world cannot forget the cruel torture and murder of the Jews during World War II. However, what is happening now on Palestinian soil shows that the activities of the Israeli government do not differ in the slightest degree with those of the previous torturers. This comment was published by the Xinhua agency. Innocent civilians are being killed; men are being arrested; houses are being destroyed; and women, children, and the elderly are being deprived of home, food, and water, the article reads. Todays humanitarian catastrophe before which Palestinians stand now is nothing but the continuation of the Israeli policy of collective violation and retribution for individual extremist activities of some Palestinians against Israel. Israeli troops use tanks to destroy the houses of Arabs, to annihilate forests, to block roads, and to isolate entire villages. This forces pregnant women give birth to children directly in the streets, while patients die in the streets because they have no assess to hospitals. The Israeli government violated international law and the principles of human rights. While trying to break the Palestinians will to resist the illegal Israeli occupation, the Israeli government cannot understand that the more cruel it is towards Palestinians, the more their hatred of Israel grows. Finally, Israel might find itself in a worse situation regarding its security. If the Israeli government does not stop its despotism, it will cover itself with eternal disgrace. Andrei Krushinsky PRAVDA.Ru Beijing http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/29/28080.htmlTranslated by Vera Solovieva Read the original in Russian: http://pravda.ru/main/2002/04/26/40388.html --- 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. Security Assistance Fuels Israel's Aggressive Stance [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- U.S. Security Assistance Fuels Israel's Aggressive Stance By Joseph Yackley and Stephen Zunes Foreign Policy in Focus WASHINGTON, Apr 29, 2002 -- The violence of the past year and a half between Israelis and Palestinians has left more than 2,000 people dead, torpedoed the peace process, and turned the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip into battlefields. As the U.S. reconsiders its role in promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace, the prospects for a final settlement that recognizes the security needs of Israel and the legitimate political rights of Palestinians seem worse than ever. The Bush administration has abandoned the ambitious approach of its predecessor by emphasizing assistance over insistence. Unfortunately, rather than focusing on the issues that have derailed the peace process, American assistance is emerging as a disjointed policy that urges a peaceful resolution to the conflict while boosting military aid to Israel. This military aid has been used in the widespread killings of civilians, destroyed large sections of the infrastructure in Palestinian society, and hardened Arab attitudes toward Israel. The increases in military aid grow out of a central pillar of U.S. policy in the Middle East: strengthening America's strategic cooperation with Israel. This cooperation currently centers on two categories of U.S. military-related assistance to Israel, Economic Support Funds (ESF) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF). The larger of these two, FMF, is intended to help Israel finance its acquisition of U.S. military equipment, services, and training. FMF is scheduled to increase by $60 million each year, for a total of $2.04 billion in FY2002, as part of an ongoing plan to phase out ESF support by 2008. Previous discussions about Israel's security needs following peace agreements with Syria and the Palestinians and a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip foresee an additional $35 billion of U.S. military assistance, raising the potential total to more than $7 billion per year over the next seven years. This is roughly the same amount currently spent by all of the former Soviet republics combined. Such an enormous increase is based on the confusing assumption that peace agreements with once-hostile neighbors somehow make Israel less secure and require a greatly expanded Israeli military. Already the strongest military power in the region and the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, Israel does not need additional military assistance. It has one of the most sophisticated, well-equipped, and best-trained armies in the world, and its armed forces are growing faster than those of its neighbors, whose military expenditures decreased during the 1990s. Israel's annual military expenditures are consistently two to three times as high as those of other countries involved in previous Arab-Israeli wars combined, and Israel leads the region in the number of heavy weapons holdings, armored infantry vehicles, airplanes, and heavy tanks. Israel outpaces Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon in every major category of arms spending. A careful review of FMF assistance reveals that this program has actually hindered the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, made the Middle East more volatile, and undermined U.S. regional interests. If the purpose of the FMF program is to improve Israel's security, the U.S. should reverse its increasing emphasis on military assistance and replace outdated, one-dimensional ideas about Israel's security with a more extensive definition. Taking into account important nonmilitary aspects of Israel's security would enable the U.S. to complement its current policy with a variety of alternative strategies designed to identify and address the causes of conflict and create conditions for a sustainable peace. The primary short-term threat to Israeli security stems from suicide bombers based in Israeli-occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This can best be addressed by improved surveillance and interdiction and, more fundamentally, by ending Israel's occupation, which has brought enormous human suffering while creating extremists willing to wreak carnage on Israeli civilians. Little of the U.S. security assistance helps protect Israelis from such attacks and, by providing the military hardware for an increasingly repressive occupation, results in the backlash that has manifested itself in the rise of extremist groups committed to terrorism. The longer-term threat to Israel comes from sophisticated weaponry procured by Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf region, which are the only military systems that come close to challenging Israeli military superiority. Most of these weapons also come from the United States, however, so this threat can best be neutralized not by providing more arms to this overly militarized region, but through arms control. Indeed, Israel announced its support
James Bissett on TV and Radio [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Dear All: Mr. james Bissett is going to be tonight, April 29, 2002 on TVO at 8:00 P.M. Pls. Tune in. For those who live in Ottawa, Mr. Bissett is going to be on CFRA radio today from 4-6 P.M. life. He is going to take questions!! Boba Borojevic == --- 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 ==^
Haider wants to unite Europe's far-right, but without Le Pen [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.U
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Tuesday April 30, 2:36 AM Haider wants to unite Europe's far-right, but without Le Pen Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider called for a pan-EU far-right party to fight European parliament elections in 2004, but snubbed France's Jean-Marie Le Pen as too racist. A joint far-right electoral platform is conceivable and even necessary said Haider in an interview with the Austrian weekly Profil, calling for a counter-program to the bureaucratic stupidities of Brussels. All it would take would be a few well-known names standing as candidates in their countries under the name New Europe, he said, adding that there was enormous potential in Denmark, Holland and Italy. But he distanced himself from Le Pen, the National Front leader who has caused a political earthquake in France by winning through to May 5 run-off presidential elections against incumbent head of state Jacques Chirac. Le Pen has racist positions in his program, said Haider, who nevertheless said last week that Le Pen's first-round success was a victory for democracy in France. Haider's aides appear more pragmatic than the far-right leader himself. Political wisdom requires us to make contact rapidly with the National Front, said Andreas Moelzer, one of Haider's closest aides, in the latest issue of the weekly News magazine. It would be absurd to launch a European-wide list without that party, he added. Le Pen used an interview with the same magazine to call for a meeting with Haider, whom he praised as an anti-Socialist wizard, saying he had always liked the Austrian's ambitious politics. The French far-right leader, catapulted into Haider's seat as Europe's most notorious far-righter by the April 21 success, has also expressed interest in a Europe-wide far-right alliance, tentatively called Euronats. Both Haider's and Le Pen's offers have drawn a mixed reception from Europe's far-right parties. In Italy, Umberto Bossi's Northern League and Gianfranco Fini's Northern Alliance, both in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government, have ruled out any collaboration with the Austrian or French far-righters. There is not the slightest possibility of collaborating either with Le Pen's party or with Haider's said a National Alliance spokesman in Rome. We have absolutely nothing in common with them, said a Northern League official. In Denmark the Danish People's Party which informally supports the right wing government, said it had had no contacts with Haider and even less with Le Pen. We have deliberately refused all contact with far-right parties said its deputy leader Peter Skaarup in Copenhagen. Skaarup told AFP his party had no interest in suporting Haider's proposal. We defend Danish interests and we have no plans to create a pan-European party even though we have denounced the Brussels bureaucracy. In the Netherlands the party of colourful populist Pim Fortuyn said it does not want to associate with people like Le Pen or Haider. On the other hand Belgium's Vlaams Blok would have no objection to an alliance with the Freedom Party, said Marc Spruyt of the Flemish daily De Morgen. Contacts already exist, said the journalist. Experts say Haider's reluctance over contact with Le Pen was more tactical than fundamental. Email this story Printer friendly version --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
The Guardian:American navy 'helped Venezuelan coup' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,706802,00.html American navy 'helped Venezuelan coup' Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Monday April 29, 2002 The Guardian The United States had been considering a coup to overthrow the elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, since last June, a former US intelligence officer claimed yesterday. It is also alleged that the US navy aided the abortive coup which took place in Venezuela on April 11 with intelligence from its vessels in the Caribbean. Evidence is also emerging of US financial backing for key participants in the coup. Both sides in Venezuela have blamed the other for the violence surrounding the coup. Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the US navy, told the Guardian yesterday that American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup. "I first heard of Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers [the assistant military attache now based at the US embassy in Caracas] going down there last June to set the ground," Mr Madsen, an intelligence analyst, said yesterday. "Some of our counter-narcotics agents were also involved." He said that the navy was in the area for operations unconnected to the coup, but that he understood they had assisted with signals intelligence as the coup was played out. Mr Madsen also said that the navy helped with communications jamming support to the Venezuelan military, focusing on communications to and from the diplomatic missions in Caracas belonging to Cuba, Libya, Iran and Iraq - the four countries which had expressed support for Mr Chavez. Navy vessels on a training exercise in the area were supposedly put on stand-by in case evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela was required. In Caracas, a congressman has accused the US ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, and two US embassy military attaches of involvement in the coup. Roger Rondon claimed that the military officers, whom he named as (James) Rogers and (Ronald) MacCammon, had been at the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the coup leaders during the night of April 11-12. |And referring to Mr Shapiro, Mr Rondon said: "We saw him leaving Miraflores palace, all smiles and embraces, with the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga [who was installed by the military for a day] ... [His] satisfaction was obvious. Shapiro's participation in the coup d'itat in Venezuela is evident." The US embassy dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous". Mr Shapiro admitted meeting Mr Carmona the day after the coup, but said he urged him to restore the national assembly, which had been dissolved. Mr Carmona told the Guardian that no such advice was given, although he agreed that a meeting took place. A US embassy spokesman said there were no US military personnel from the embassy at Fuerte Tiuna during the crucial periods from April 11 to 13, al though two members of the embassy's defence attache's office, one of them Lt Col Rogers, drove around the base on the afternoon of April 11 to check reports that it was closed. Mr Rondon has also claimed that two foreign gunmen, one American and the other Salvadorean, were detained by security police during the anti-Chavez protest on April 11 in which around 19 people were killed, many by unidentified snipers firing from rooftops. "They haven't appeared anywhere. We presume these two gentlemen were given some kind of safe-conduct and could have left the country," he said. The members of the military who coordinated the coup have claimed that they did so because they feared that Mr Chavez was intending to attack the civilian protesters who opposed him. Mr Chavez's opponents claim pro-Chavez gunmen shot protesters while his supporters say the shots were fired by agents provocateurs . In the past year, the United States has channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to US and Venezuelan groups opposed to Mr Chavez, including the labour group whose protests sparked off the coup. The funds were provided by the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit agency created and financed by the US Congress. The state department's human rights bureau is now examining whether one or more recipients of the money may have actively plotted against Mr Chavez. --- 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 ==^
Security Council Wants Jenin Mission Under Way Quickly [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Security Council Wants Jenin Mission Under Way Quickly (Backs secretary general's efforts to break impasse with Israelis) (460)By Judy AitaWashington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- After holding emergency consultations on Israel'srefusal to allow a UN fact-finding mission into the Jenin refugee camp,the Security Council April 28 backed Secretary General Kofi Annan'sefforts to get the team into the area as soon as possible. Security Council President Sergey Lavrov of Russia said that "the membersof the council remain firm in their insistence on full implementation ofresolution 1405. They are concerned at the continued delay in the arrivalof the fact-finding team." The council members "strongly support the secretary general in his effortsto ensure the immediate deployment of the fact-finding team to Jenin withthe full cooperation of Israel and the Palestinian Authority," Lavrovsaid. The council has scheduled another meeting for April 29 to get anotherupdate on the talks. "The members of the council expect a positive reportfrom the secretary general by 29 April, that is tomorrow," the councilpresident said. Lavrov also called in Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Lancry to inform him ofthe council's decision. The secretary general first agreed to delay the departure of the missionuntil April 27 after Israel said that it wanted further discussion on theteam's mandate and composition. Annan then agreed to another delay to givethe Israeli cabinet an opportunity to approve the mission. Representatives of Israel's Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry, andDefense Forces met with UN officials from the offices of peacekeepingoperations and legal affairs on April 25 and 26. Undersecretary Generalfor Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast chaired the sessions. Prendergast briefed in the council on the latest developments April 28. In the meantime, the team, headed by Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, has beenin Geneva preparing for its departure to the Middle East and had expectedto leave for the region on April 28. Its departure was delayed after theIsraeli cabinet said that conditions were "not yet right" for the missionto take place. Annan then asked the council for another 24 hours to try to work thingsout with Israel. The secretary general spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Pereztwice during the day. During the one-hour private meeting April 28, council members weresupportive of the secretary general's approach to the talks and his demandthat the group be allowed in as soon as possible, diplomats said. During the consultations, Prendergast reported that the issues revolvedaround whom the UN team would have access to on the Israeli side, theteam's freedom of movement in the West Bank and in the Jenin camp, and thepresence of Israeli officials in meetings between the team andnon-Palestinians, diplomats said. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of InternationalInformation Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:http://usinfo.state.gov) --- 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 ==^
Serbia warns against new split [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Serbia warns against new split By Jeffrey T. KuhnerTHE WASHINGTON TIMES Serbia's deputy prime minister says a recent agreement allowing Montenegro to hold a referendum on independence could trigger further disintegration and instability in the Balkans."I am concerned about the agreements relating to a new Union of Serbia and Montenegro," said Nebojsa Covic in an interview Friday at the Embassy of Yugoslavia. The two republics are the only remaining members of what was once a six-republic Yugoslav federation."If we allow this precedent to take place, secessionist referendums will spread throughout the region. The Albanians in Kosovo will want to hold a referendum. So will the Croats and Serbs in Bosnia. There will be no end to the process of disintegration."We therefore need to be cautious and careful in order to promote regional stability and security," Mr. Covic said.The comments were the latest sign of a split in the ruling coalition between Serbia's Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.Mr. Kostunica has criticized Mr. Djindjic's government for agreeing to hand over suspected war criminals including former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic to the U.N. tribunal at The Hague, which is prosecuting those charged with having committed atrocities during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.In a bid to prevent more ethnic violence, Mr. Kostunica brokered an agreement on March 14 in which Serbia and Montenegro would restructure their ties and formally drop the name Yugoslavia. The pact would create a new Union of Serbia and Montenegro joining the two republics in a loose confederation.The agreement allows Montenegro to hold a referendum on secession three years after the accord is adopted by the parliaments of both republics satisfying the demands of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, who left home yesterday for a visit to Washington.Mr. Djukanovic, who seeks to eventually forge an independent state, is expected to discuss his republic's relationship with Serbia during talks with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell today. Mr. Djukanovic's prime minister resigned last week in a dispute over the independence issue.Mr. Covic warned that the referendum arrangement could lead to further instability in the Balkans."We must stop the disintegration process in the region. Under Milosevic it was understandable that the other republics wanted to get away and secede but now any partition or secession will be done under democracy in Belgrade," said the 44-year-old former mayor of Belgrade.Mr. Covic said he hoped the agreement would persuade Montenegrin secessionists to call off their demands for a referendum, saying the three-year interval following the pact's implementation "will allow the separatists to see that the disintegration of their country will not make sense." However, Belgrade is facing secessionist threats not only from Montenegro, but also its southern province of Kosovo. Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova has called on the world to recognize the territory of more than 2 million as an independent state.Kosovo legally remains part of Yugoslavia but has been a de facto international protectorate since June 1999, when NATO bombing ended oppression of its ethnic Albanian majority by Mr. Milosevic's nationalist regime.Mr. Covic said that his government is "strongly opposed to a change in Kosovo's borders," adding that the 226,000 ethnic Serbs and 40,000 Gypsies who were expelled from the province after NATO's bombing campaign have not been allowed to return to their homes.To grant the province independence "would lead to the creation of ethnically clean states that would threaten regional stability," he said. http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020429-96813308.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
Apartheid in the Holy Land ....by Archbishop Desmond Tutu [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Monday, April 29, 2002 in the Guardian of London Apartheid in the Holy Land by Archbishop Desmond Tutu In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust center in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders. What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. On one of my visits to the Holy Land I drove to a church with the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. I could hear tears in his voice as he pointed to Jewish settlements. I thought of the desire of Israelis for security. But what of the Palestinians who have lost their land and homes? I have experienced Palestinians pointing to what were their homes, now occupied by Jewish Israelis. I was walking with Canon Naim Ateek (the head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Center) in Jerusalem. He pointed and said: "Our home was over there. We were driven out of our home; it is now occupied by Israeli Jews." My heart aches. I say why are our memories so short. Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden? Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice. We condemn the violence of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds taught hatred; but we also condemn the violence of military incursions in the occupied lands, and the inhumanity that won't let ambulances reach the injured. The military action of recent days, I predict with certainty, will not provide the security and peace Israelis want; it will only intensify the hatred. Israel has three options: revert to the previous stalemated situation; exterminate all Palestinians; or - I hope - to strive for peace based on justice, based on withdrawal from all the occupied territories, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state on those territories side by side with Israel, both with secure borders. We in South Africa had a relatively peaceful transition. If our madness could end as it did, it must be possible to do the same everywhere else in the world. If peace could come to South Africa, surely it can come to the Holy Land? My brother Naim Ateek has said what we used to say: "I am not pro- this people or that. I am pro-justice, pro-freedom. I am anti- injustice, anti-oppression." But you know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic, as if the Palestinians were not Semitic. I am not even anti-white, despite the madness of that group. And how did it come about that Israel was collaborating with the apartheid government on security measures? People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust. Injustice and oppression will never prevail. Those who are powerful have to remember the litmus test that God gives to the powerful: what is your treatment of the poor, the hungry, the voiceless? And on the basis of that, God passes judgment. We should put out a clarion call to the government of the people of Israel, to the Palestinian people and say: peace is possible, peace based on justice is possible. We will do all we can to assist you to achieve this peace, because it is God's dream, and you will be able to
Bosnian Serbs Get A Few Marks For Recent NATO Destruction [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- |SFOR compensates Bosnian villagers for damage in |operation to get Karadzic |Friday, 26-Apr-2002 | |SARAJEVO, April 26 (AFP) - NATO-led peacekeepers in |Bosnia paid some 4,000 convertible marks (2,051 euros) |to the Serb inhabitants of a village in south-east |Bosnia to correct perceived wrongs in two raids |aimed at arresting war-crimes indictee Radovan |Karadzic, a press release said Friday. |Soldiers from the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) |visited the village of Celebici on Thursday in |response to property damage claims made by villagers |in the aftermath of the force's so-far fruitless |search for Karadzic, SFOR said. |SFOR conducted two consecutive raids in the area on |February 28 and March 1 in a bid to arrest Bosnian |Serb wartime leader, but both attempts ended in |failure. |The villagers were initially informed that their |claims had been rejected, since claims arising out of combat-related |activities are barred from payments under the Dayton peace agreement |that ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war. |However, the SFOR commander, General John Sylvester, |had authorized payments unrelated to the villagers' |claims, to aid them in repairing damage to their |village. |Meanwhile SFOR troops on Friday airdropped thousands |of leaflets over four Serb-run towns in eastern |Bosnia, offering a reward for information about |Karadzic. |The leaflets used in Friday's drop also outlined |benefits that could be gained from bringing Karadzic |and other war crimes suspects to justice such as the |increase in aid and employment opportunities, SFOR |said. |Karadzic, the political leader of Bosnia's Serbs |during the war, is the best-known figure still at |large who is wanted by the UN's International Criminal |Court for the former Yugoslavia, which sits in The |Hague. |He is notably wanted for the killing of some 7,000 |Bosnian Muslims in the village of Srebrenica in August |1995, the worst single massacre committed in Europe |since World War II. | | --- 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 ==^
What about the U.S. role in Croatian atrocities? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The Washington Times LETTERS Sunday, April 28, 2002/page B2 Your April 22 article, "Indicted general accuses U.S., Clinton of war atrocities," brings to light two problems that should be of concern to all Americans: The duplicity and injustice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and shortsighted and unprincipled aspects of U.S. foreign policy. In the article, you reportthat a Croatian general indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague for being responsiblefor atrocities committed against Krajina Serbs during "Operation Storm"in 1995 claimed that leading members of the Clinton administration authorized and oversaw the operation. The article states that 150,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from the region. The Croatian general is accused of "command responsibility" for the killing of 150 Serbian civilians. Other reliable sources put the figure of those ethnically cleansed at 250,000 and the number of civilians killed at over 5000. A spokeswoman for chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte is quoted as saying, "It's not Operation Storm that is being indicted, but the crimes that were committed during and afterward" -- in this case, by Croatian soldiers whose actions fell under the responsibility of the accused general. However, the whole object of "Operation Sotrm" was to "ethnically cleanse" all Serbs from the Krajina region of Croatia, the same kind of war crimes for which Slobodan Milosevic and other defendants have been charged by the tribunal. The main difference is that without U.S. military aid and technology, "Operation Storm" may not have been successful. In another example of the deceptions that are common from The Hague tribunal, Mrs.del Pontes spokeswoman stated that U.S. support for the operation "has yet to be established. I dont know that the [Clinton] administration was involved." Such bald-face lies from a representative of the ICTY should be a warning to anyone who supports the forming of a permanent International Criminal Court. The facts of U.S. involvement have been widely reported, albeit ignored. A headline in the Aug. 25, 1995Navy Times read:"4 Navy jets bomb Serb missile sites." The accompanying article reported that the air strike took place on Aug. 4, 1995,at the beginning of the Croatian offensive. The air strike reportedly was in response to a request for air support by a contingent of Pakistani U.N. peacekeepers who reported Croatian artillery rounds striking near their outpost. When the Navy jets entered the region they were picked up by Serbian air defense radar. Upon being "targeted" by the Serbian radar, the jets bombed two Serbian surface-to-air missile sites. It seems more than a coincident that the air strike eliminated a Serbian missile site in the very area which was under attack by the Croatians. The Navy Timesgave the name of the ship from which two of the planes launched, the name of the flight leader and the name of the Italian air base from which the other two planes took off. Both the Chicago Tribune and the International Tribune carried similar articles. After reading the articles, I called the office of Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, to ask why, when we claimed to be neutral, U.S. aircraft had put in an air strike against Serb facilities in support of the Croatian offensive in Krajina. After all, the request from the Pakistani peacekeepers was because they were endangered by Croatian artillery and any aircraft entering Serbian air space should expect to be picked up by air defense radar. In response to inquiries to the Pentagon, Sen. Warners staff assistant was told that no air strike was made. The response was the same even after the Pentagon official was told of the Navy Times, Chicago Tribune and the International Tribune articles.I pursued the issue by calling NATOs AIRSOUTH headquarters in Naples where I was handed from one person to another but never received a satisfactory answer - a classic example of stonewalling. Further proof of U.S. involvement which seems to have eluded Ms. delPontes staff was in aNov. 25, 1995 story in theWashington Times, "Retired U.S. brass sell military expertise,"which described the operation of Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), which described the operations of Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), a group ofretired senior military officers and NCOs based in Alexandria, VA, that sells itsexpertise to a number of foreign countries. The Croatian Defense Ministry was a customer of the company. Even though the officers claim, presumably with straight faces, to have taught the Croats "only mundane aspects of leadership and the militarys role in a democracy," as you reported, the timing of the training program just prior to Operation Storm and the similarity of the Croatian tactics to American doctrine raises questions as to
Russian Gov. Alexander Lebed Dies [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Russian Gov. Alexander Lebed Dies April 28, 2002 By JUDITH INGRAM MOSCOW (AP) - Alexander Lebed, the tough-talking former general who emerged as a strong challenger to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and was credited with ending Moscow's 1994-96 war in Chechnya, was killed Sunday in a helicopter crash. Lebed, 52, was governor of the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia, and was considered a key regional leader. But his popularity went far beyond military and regional circles. There were 19 people, including a three-member crew, aboard the helicopter when it crashed, the Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow said. Seven, including Lebed, died, and 12 were hospitalized in critical condition, the ministry duty officer said. Lebed was born in the blue-collar, southern city of Novocherkassk on April 20, 1950. In 1962, he saw troops shoot striking laborers there. His father had been incarcerated in Josef Stalin's prison camps for being late for work and later fought in a punishment battalion during World War II. Lebed entered a paratroopers' academy in 1969, and after graduation he rose swiftly through the military. He was a battalion commander in 1981-82 during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, where he won a top medal. In 1988, he was put in command of the elite Tula paratroop division. In 1990, he reached the rank of major-general. During the August 1991 hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, coup leaders ordered Lebed's troops to surround Yeltsin's Moscow stronghold. But Lebed refused to send in his forces. Praised by reformers when the coup collapsed, Lebed quickly disappointed his admirers, saying he ``could not care less for democracy,'' but also could not bring himself to kill Russians. In 1992, Lebed was sent to command Russian troops in Moldova's breakaway region of Trans-Dniester, the scene of ethnic conflict between the Moldovan government and mainly Slav separatists. He was widely praised for ending the bloodshed and became the darling of hard-liners and the embittered, cash-strapped army. In 1995, after a dispute with the defense minister, Lebed was forced to retire from the military after 25 years of service. He turned to politics full-time, being elected a member of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in December 1995. Riding a wave of popular discontent, he came in third in the 1996 presidential elections, pulling in 15 percent of the vote. Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov came in second, and Yeltsin, though ailing, won the election. Yeltsin made Lebed head of his presidential security council, and during his four-month term there before the president sacked him, Lebed brokered an end to Russia's war with separatist Chechnya. He later used his contacts and experience in that peacemaking effort, founding a non-governmental organization called the Peacekeeping Mission in the North Caucasus. The mission is credited with negotiating freedom for scores of soldiers and others taken hostage in the volatile region. In May 1998, Lebed won election as governor of Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region, a region four times the size of France. Many saw the post as a possible springboard for the 2000 presidential campaign, but Lebed declined to run. Lebed is survived by his wife Inna and three children, Alexander, Yekaterina and Ivan, as well as five grandchildren. --- 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 ==^
Le Pen wishes Russia quick revival, slams USA [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Le Pen wishes Russia "quick revival", slams USARIA News AgencyParis, 28 April, correspondent Leonid Kokovich:French presidential candidate and far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen wants "quick revival of Great Russia"."I never made a secret of my wish that Great Russia revived as quickly as possible and restored its peace-loving strength in Eastern Europe," Le Pen said in an exclusive interview with RIA on 27 April."The future of the world strategic balance depends on this to a big extent," Le Pen said. "At present, the only superpower, which strives for hegemony in the world affairs and international politics, is pressing it without any logic."Being asked why NATO is seeking rapprochement with Russia, Le Pen gave a short answer: "To swallow it up".Speaking about future relations between Russia and France, Le Pen said: "If, unfortunately, Jacques Chirac is re-elected to the post of head of the state, the Russian-French relations will remain on the same level which does not correspond to the century-old traditions of friendship between our countries"."It will not change until power in France belongs to politicians who are pleased with polishing shoes for the Americans," he added.Incumbent French President Jacques Chirac and Le Pen will participate in the presidential election runoff on 5 May. --- 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 ==^
Easternizing Europe? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Walker's World: Easternizing Europe? By Martin Walker UPI Chief International Correspondent PRAGUE, Czech Republic, April 28 (UPI) -- Already members in good standing of the NATO alliance, by the end of this year the Czech Republic and its Polish and Hungarian neighbors confidently expect that they will get the nod to join the European Union. And in this Czech capital of Prague in November, a NATO summit is expected to give a formal welcome to seven more new members of the alliance -- all of them formerly part of the old Soviet empire and Warsaw Pact. Thirteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War's orphan nations finally come home to the West. That, at least, is the theory. And here in Prague, a center of European civilization since the 14th century rule of King Charles IV who built the ancient bridge and university that bear his name, it is easy to feel that the Cold War division of Europe was a hideous aberration. Europe is at last becoming, as the first President George Bush pledged in 1989, whole and free. And yet a shadow of unease is starting to drift across this grand and moving vision. Partly it stems from the besetting weakness of the post-Communist states and governments of Eastern Europe and the fragility of their new democratic institutions. Partly it stems from the spread of organized crime, much of it run by the Russian Mafia. The feeble defenses that Eastern Europe's demoralized police and customs services can muster are already allowing these criminal systems to infiltrate Western Europe. We dreamed for so long of the Westernization of Eastern Europe, but unless we take great care, we could see the creeping Easternization of Western Europe, warns Ognyan Minchev, director of Bulgaria's Institute for International Studies, who also chairs Bulgaria's chapter of Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog. The deep-rooted state and official corruption in the weak state institutions of Eastern Europe threaten to infect the Western businesses that have invested there, and the Western accounting firms that audit Eastern Europe's privatized industries, Minchev adds. Instead of the invisible hand of the free market, we have the visible fist of the Mafia and corruption. American business people and officials in Eastern Europe voice similar concerns. Ralph Johnson, former U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia, warns that corrosive effect of corruption is spreading, with some governments using local intelligence services to bring pressure on political opponents, while civil society and the media are still too weak to hold governments accountable. There are two new developments of particular concern, Johnson notes. Some outside and Western businesses are adopting the local 'rules' of doing business -- which means corruption spreads. And we are starting to see organized crime getting a political agenda. This is ominous, he added, citing mounting Russian influence in Eastern Europe's energy and pipeline networks. Much of the worry comes from the faltering state of the post-Communist economies. The average income per head of the current 15 members of the EU is just over $20,000 a year. The average income of the 10 candidate states of Eastern Europe is less than a third of the EU level. The EU is about to take in the poor relations, and faces a massive challenge of aid and development for years and probably decades to come. Whatever mood there might be of joyous the reunion of a cruelly divided European civilization is darkened by the severity of the task ahead, as if the United States were suddenly to merge with a couple of Mexicos. But the darkest shadow of all is the nagging fear that just as the Eastern Europeans finally achieve their long strategic ambition to join the NATO alliance, it may no longer be quite the staunch security guarantee they had sought for so long. Plans to give Russia a privileged place -- although not full membership - in NATO councils deeply troubled many Eastern European participants at a security conference organized here over the weekend by the Prague Institute of National Security. It would be a cruel irony if Eastern Europe finally joins NATO just as Russia's presence, and the replacement of a hard military alliance with a loose talking shop, makes NATO less worth joining, notes Petr Vancura, director of the Prague Institute. And yet NATO's new members, Czechs and Poles and Hungarians, bear much of the responsibility because they have failed to modernize their armed forces in a way which add much to NATO's military capability. Moreover, the low level of defense spending by most European NATO members means that the alliance is losing military credibility in the United States, adds Vancura, formerly a senior Czech diplomat in Washington. We are at risk here not just of throwing away the fruits of victory in the Cold War,
News, 28.4.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News April 28th, 2001, 16:00 UTC --- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Shoot me, but Look me in the Face! A courageous teacher helped end Friday's shooting at a school in Erfurt, Germany. History teacher Rainer Heise confronted the masked gunman, a 19-year-old former student, and locked him in a classroom. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_508184_1_A,00.html --- U.N. Fact-Finding Team Mission Delayed; U.S. Proposal Accepted by Israelis Israeli cabinet members have decided that the time was not yet right for recieveing a U.N. fact-finding team in the region. The team was waiting in Geneva for the green light in order to probe the devastation of the Jenin refugee camp. But political sources said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres informed the group by telephone that sending a fact-finding team to Jenin would be pointless. A Palestinian security chief called the cabinet decision a retraction in the Israeli position. Earlier, Peres had said the main stumbling block of the mission was the terms of reference to be used by the U.N. team. The Palestinians claimed the Israelis carried out a massacre in Jenin, killing possibly hundreds of civilians during a three-week long offensive there. On another front, Israeli political sources said the Sharon administration had approved a proposal by U.S. President George W. Bush which could lead to the end of the siege at Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah. In a telephone call to Sharon, Bush suggested that U.S. or British guards act as jailers inside of a Palestinian prison for the killers of an Israeli government member. Israeli sources said on Sunday the cabinet had voted in favour of Bush's proposal. The U.S. president has also invited Sharon to Washington next week for talks. Teacher's Story Gives Comfort to a Mourning Country In Germany, the story of the 60-year-old art and history teacher who stopped the gun-wielding teenager in a highschool shooting brought some comfort to a stunned nation on Sunday. Rainer Heise was hailed as a hero for confronting the 19-year-old student with kind words and then locking him into a classroom after 16 people had already been shot. But many Germans continued to wonder how a disgruntled teenager could have legally obtained the weapons and ammunition used to murder the teachers, two pupils and a policeman. The unprecedented highschool shooting has prompted calls for stricter gun legislation in Germany as well as tighter controls on violent computer and video games. Meanwhile, police in Erfurt, where the tragedy took place, have concluded that the teenager acted alone in the shooting spree. Students at the highschool had earlier reported seeing a second assailant at the scene. Egyptian Man Linked to Terrorist Group Sentenced to Hard Labor A high court in Egypt has sentenced a man with links to the al Qaeda network to 10 years in jail with hard labour. Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that Mohamed Hassan el-Sayyed Suleiman had very close contact to a top aide of Osama bin Laden. The news agency did not, however, specify the crimes for which Suleiman was convicted. Suleiman's charges had included belonging to an illegal group aiming to overthrow the government as well as forging passports. Scores Killed in Ethnic Clashes in Congo Ugandan army officials have said scores of people have been killed in ethnic clashes between the Hema and Lendu tribes in northeast Congo over the past 10 days. A spokesman for the Hema community said that 446 members had been massacred on April 18 in two villages. Another attack reportedly took place on Wednesday night in a village on the shores of Lake Albert, leaving hundreds dead and floating in the water. There was no independent confirmation of the claims. Fighting between the Lendu and Hema communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed thousands of people in recent years. The clashes stem from conflicts over land and natural resources. South and North Koreans in emotional family reunions Elderly North and South Koreans have been reunited with long-lost kin after 50 years of separation across Korea's Cold War divide. The reunions in North Korea, after five decades without any contact, follow an agreement the two Koreas struck this month to resume reconciliation projects. The two Koreas have no postal, telephone nor travel links and remain technically at war due to a conflict which ended in an armed truce with no
Bulldozers destroy Arafat's cars [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Bulldozers destroy Arafat's cars By Saud Abu RamadanFrom the International DeskPublished 4/27/2002 4:11 PM GAZA, April 27 (UPI) -- Israeli army bulldozers Saturday destroyed cars that belong to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's convoy, official Palestinian sources at Arafat's office in Ramallah reported. The sources said the bulldozers powered into Arafat's compound and destroyed seven presidential armored Mercedes. Witnesses in Arafat's office said the bulldozers also flattened the presidential guards' vans and Cherokee jeeps. Meanwhile, Palestinian National Authority Minister of Information Yasser Abed Rabbo lashed out at the military for directing loudspeakers at Arafat's main office, describing the measure as "provocative and criminal Israeli army action." He said such measures "proves that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had failed to get rid of President Arafat," and was unable break "his determination to continue his struggle for the Palestinian independent state." Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli army sent more troop reinforcements and armored vehicles into the Ramallah, renewing Palestinian fears the Israeli army plans to reoccupy the West Bank town. Residents said they are also afraid the army is planning to raid Arafat's headquarters, arrest the militants in his office and bring Arafat to Gaza. Copyright 2002 United Press International --- 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 ==^
Le Pen's ex- mentor regrets rise of 'liar' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Le Pen's ex- mentor regrets rise of 'liar' The Europe pages - Observer special by Paul Webster in ParisSunday April 28, 2002The Observer The man who launched Jean-Marie Le Pen on to France's national political scene said yesterday that his early support for the racist demagogue was 'the worst thing' he had done in his life. Pierre Poujade, the militant right-wing shopkeepers' leader and self-styled leader of the poujadists - a term revived in last year's British petrol blockades as an expression of political abuse - launched Le Pen's political career in 1956. Now Poujade has joined the growing ranks of National Front opponents after describing the racist politician as a liar. Speaking from his country home against the background of one of the biggest protest marches since Le Pen won a place in the presidential run-off last Sunday, Poujade said his sponsorship of the National Front leader was 'the worst thing I did in my life. It would have been better if I'd broken my leg.' Poujade, now 81, still runs the union of shopkeepers and craftsmen, the UDCA, which attracted 2.6 million voters and won 53 seats in the 1956 general elections before being swept aside on De Gaulle's return in 1958. Among the union's MPs was Le Pen, a professional army officer, who became the country's youngest deputy at 27. 'He lied to me about his past, giving the impression that his father died in the resistance when he was blown up by a British mine in his fishing boat,' Poujade said. 'He also glorified his own army career. He now sits up there in his chateau at Saint-Cloud, spending the millions he got by heaven knows what means and does not represent or care about the little man. I will be voting Chirac next Sunday.' Poujade's support adds to potentially the most diverse electorate any national leader has ever gathered. Chirac is likely to be returned to power next Sunday with a far bigger majority than the 55 per cent who backed De Gaulle in the first popular presidential election in 1965, François Mitterrand's first Elysée bid. An opinion poll in yesterday's Le Parisien estimated a result of 77 per cent in Chirac's favour - but all polls underestimated the first-round National Front vote. The latest demonstrations in Paris and other cities were organised by more than 80 human-rights groups, political parties, student movements and trade unions. The march was seen as a rehearsal for mass demonstrations on 1 May, when both the trade unions and the National Front hold traditional gatherings. Thousands of extra riot police are being drafted into the city to avoid a clash after Le Pen said he expected at least 100,000 of his supporters to attend a celebration of Joan of Arc. The National Front leader, whose programme includes expelling immigrants and pulling out of the EU, has said that riots would help his cause, which is based on law and order and fed by public anxiety over urban crime. ·A political newcomer campaigning on an anti-immigrant platform could be a big winner in next month's Dutch general election. Party Pim Fortuyn - named after its leader - is tipped to win enough seats to join a centre-right coalition. Fortuynclaims the Netherlands is full and its borders should be shut, especially to Muslims. http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,706577,00.html --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
The US Can No Longer Lay Claim to Being the Land of Opportunity [WWW.STOPNATO.OR
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Sunday, April 28, 2002 in the Observer of London Log Cabin to White House? Not Any More The US Can No Longer Lay Claim to Being the Land of Opportunity by Will Hutton America is the most unequal society in the industrialized West. The richest 20 per cent of Americans earn nine times more than the poorest 20 per cent, a scale of inequality half as great again as in Japan, Germany and France. At the very top of American society, incomes and wealth have reached stupendous proportions. The country boasts some three million millionaires, and the richest 1 per cent of the population hold 38 per cent of its wealth, a concentration more marked than in any comparable country. This inequality is the most brutal fact of American life. Nor is it excused by more mobility and opportunity than other societies, America's great conceit. The reality is that US society is polarizing and its social arteries hardening. The sumptuousness and bleakness of the respective lifestyles of rich and poor represent a scale of difference in opportunity and wealth that is almost medieval - and a standing offense to the American expectation that everyone has the opportunity for life, liberty and happiness. The chief means by which contemporary Western societies offer their citizens a chance to reach reasonable living standards and move up the social and economic hierarchy is education. At first sight, the US does well. In the schooling system, its fourth-grade students (the fourth year of primary school) do better than their international counterparts, and 37 per cent of its 18- to 21-year-olds go through higher education, one of the highest proportions in the industrialized West. Moreover, the US's university standards, especially in the top 50, are on average the best in the world. Salaries are high and the research record excellent. But take a closer look, using more stringent criteria. As a system that offers every American a chance for educational achievement and the acquisition of formal academic or vocational qualifications - the key instrument for social mobility - the US structure fails. By twelfth grade (the year after GCSE), American students are falling behind their international peers, especially in mathematics and science. And while in Germany, for example, 80 per cent of school-leavers go on to receive either vocational training or a degree and all except 1 per cent receive formal post-secondary education or training, in the US 46 per cent of school-leavers gain no certificate or degree - and an extraordinary 31 per cent have never received formal training or education after leaving school. The message is stark. Those Americans who do not get to college are pushed into the labor market with a poverty of skills, educational and vocational training. Those who do get to college are overwhelmingly students from the higher socio-economic backgrounds, just as they always have been; a study in 1965 found that two-thirds of the explanation for educational achievement was accounted for by family income; a study 30 years later found exactly the same figure. As inequality grows, the grip of the wealthy on educational advantage becomes ever more evident, for the cost of going to university over the last 25 years has exploded. The average cost of tuition fees and room and board has risen fourfold since 1977 to an average of $10,315 (£7,264) today; the overall average masks a stark contrast between the average cost of study at private universities at $17,613 (£12,403) and public universities at $7,013 (£4,938). Yet as costs have risen, federal and state support to help fund students' costs has both declined, and been refocused on the middle class. In 1965, the Pell grant, the largest federal program for poor students, covered 85 per cent of the cost of four years at a public university; in 2000, it covered just 39 per cent of the bill. Meanwhile, the Hope Scholarship, introduced by President Clinton, provides up to $3,000 of tax credits to fund university education but it goes mainly to families earning between $30,000 and $90,000 (£21,126 to £63,380) whose children would have gone to college anyway. States have cut their support on average by 32 per cent since 1979. The result of this vicious scissor movement - rising costs cutting against falling state and federal support - is a calamitous drop in the chances of a poor student acquiring a
430 Heroes in Israel [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Saturday, April 27, 2002 in the Boston Globe 430 Heroes in Israel Editorial IT IS A TRADITION as old as Antigone's resistance to her king. As long as there has been state power, there have been individuals who say no to that power, appealing to the moral call of conscience as the sole authority for their defiance of the state. So it is with the 430 Israeli reservists who have signed an open letter to their compatriots declaring that they ''shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements'' and explaining that they are combat officers in the Israeli Defense Forces who ''understand now that the price of occupation is the loss of the IDF's human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.'' In a visit Wednesday to the Globe, one of those 430 reservists, Guy Grossman, said his difficult decision to stand apart from many of his countrymen and his fellow soldiers has nothing to do with what people normally mean when they speak of politics. The reservists' refusal to continue serving was a moral need for each of them. The 430, he noted wryly, had 430 different political views, 430 different ideas of what should be done to achieve security for Israel. In the language of the open letter, these reserve officers and soldiers say they ''were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people.'' Grossman made it plain that he has no tolerance whatsoever for the terrorist tactics that Palestinians have used and that after Israel has ended its occupation, he would expect Israel's military might to be used, with moral justification and the world's support, against any terrorism from an independent Palestinian state. It is precisely to safeguard the long-term security of Israel that Grossman and his fellow reservists are refusing to help prolong the occupation. Continuation of the occupation, he says, ''breeds fear on one side and despair on the other, and that is a recipe for more violence and bloodshed.'' Grossman is understandably reluctant to dwell on the horrors that he and fellow reservists experienced as enforcers of the occupation. He talks instead about the surfeit of water on an Israeli settlement while in a nearby Palestinian village a woman spends hours to carry sparse water to her family. The fundamental choice Grossman and the other reservists wish to illuminate is not new. It is Israel's choice either to end the occupation and be a democratic Jewish state or to continue the occupation and become an undemocratic state on all the land it may continue to occupy. These Israeli voices of conscience should be heeded in Israel and among Israel's supporters. In response, there ought to be similar moral appeals against terrorism from the Palestinian camp. Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company ### --- 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 ==^
Possibilities for the future of Cyprus [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The Washington Timeswww.washtimes.com Possibilities for the future of CyprusBenjamin TyreePublished 4/26/2002 The U.N.-monitored, cloaked-from-the-media, discussions regarding the divided island nation of Cyprus may yet provide an example of how estranged ethnic communities can become reconciled.At present, tiny Cyprus, with 3,500 square miles, or less than half the size of Israel, is making slow and uncertain but occasionally perceptible progress in a healing dialogue between the leaders of its once violently torn Orthodox Greek and Muslim Turkish groups, totaling less than 800,000 people.The internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus controls less than two-thirds of the island, and a large majority of its population, chiefly those of Greek origin and culture.The less populous Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is officially recognized only by Turkey. Turkish troops have occupied this area as a protectorate for their Turkish Cypriot compatriots since 1974, following a decade of intermittent ethnic clashes between factions of the indigenous Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.Four decades ago, many Greek Cypriots sought "enosis," or union with Greece. Today, the Republic of Cyprus seeks reunification of the island as a "bicommunal, bizonal, federated state," with a single international identity. The TRNC's Turkish Cypriot population has been diminished by emigration but augmented by citizens of Turkey (estimates range between 40,000 and 115,000) settled there over the objections of the Republic of Cyprus. The TRNC remains skittish about reunification, and has sought recognized sovereignty for itself and a looser confederation.Held out to Turkish Cypriots and to Turkey are the benefits of Turkish-speaking communities becoming part of the European Union, after the Republic of Cyprus is finally admitted perhaps by the end of this year. Trade, tourism and EU aid would flow to both Cypriot communities. The relationship between the two ethnic communities would be managed in the larger context of EU human-rights assurances and other rules.But Turkish Cypriots express worries about a reprise of the strife-ridden past and possible economic domination by the Greek Cypriots. Property-rights issues are another hurdle.Greek Cypriots argue that Turkey's prospects for eventual EU membership would be facilitated by Turkish becoming an official EU language (as one of the languages of Cyprus), and by ending the island's division. Resolving the Cyprus question would, moreover, augur well for continued, closer rapprochement between NATO members Greece and Turkey and could provide a democratic example for a civil settlement of the longstanding tensions between the Orthodox Christian and Islamic populations throughout the nearby Balkan region.Thus far, the Republic of Cyprus has held the cards of recognition and support by international organizations and has assumed a modern stance supportive of full rights for all citizens of Cyprus Greek and Turkish Cypriot alike.The TRNC has held the cards of old injuries and grievances and of support by Turkey. But these may be diminishing assets as all parties look expectantly toward accession to the pan-ethnic EU and a wider future.American sources familiar with the Cyprus question say key obstacles to its resolution include Turkey's security concerns plausible or not regarding any future role on the island by parties unfriendly to Turkish interests.One U.S. source agreed that the issues involving post-1974 Turkish settlers from Anatolia could prove more difficult than Cypriot officials like to think. The Republic of Cyprus views the settlers as part of an illegal and internationally opposed occupation of the north by Turkey.But Greek Cypriot officials display no disposition for wrenching expulsions. In recent discussions with journalists, former Cyprus President George Vassiliou emphasized financial incentives to facilitate repatriation of the settlers to Turkey. A right of settlement is evidently acceptable for those who have intermarried with the indigenous population.There have been vague suggestions, difficult to pin down, that place of birth might provide a basis for certain rights. However, Demetris Christofias, president of the Cyprus House of Representatives, emphasized during a mid-April Washington visit that parentage would be the decisive element in citizenship. Mr. Vassiliou earlier mentioned limited residency rights or work permits might be possible for settlers who prove to be economic assets.American observers note that financial commitments to Cyprus upon its accession to the EU involving hundreds of millions of euros will result in major development of the island's infrastructure with huge economic implications for a nation of its small size and population. Some of the present settlers, one U.S.
- Human Rights meeting ends amid criticism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- 2002-04-27 05:07 MSK - Human Rights meeting ends amid criticism GENEVA - The annual six-week meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission wound down Friday amid criticism that it was protecting the oppressors rather than the oppressed. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, described the meeting as "very difficult" and "very worrying" and said she was concerned about trends within the 53-nation body to weaken its role as a defender of liberties. The commission - which is the top U.N. rights watchdog - failed even to discuss the situation in China. It dropped its criticism of Russian abuses in Chechnya; voted to end a long-running investigation into Iran; and blocked moves to examine allegations of abuses in Zimbabwe. "This is a time to remind ourselves of the essential role of the Commission on Human Rights in protecting human beings against gross violations through highlighting and publicizing those violations; providing a forum for victims to raise their grievances; heeding the voice of conscience from different parts of the world," Robinson said in a closing speech. She named no names, but made it clear that she disagreed with developing countries that argue they are unfairly singled out by rich countries. Non-governmental groups said they were scandalized. "The Commission on Human Rights has become hostage to human rights abusers," said Rory Mungoven of Human Rights Watch. "They're dedicated to protecting themselves from scrutiny rather than upholding human rights." "The Commission's most important tool - its capacity to name and shame human rights violators - is being eroded," Mungoven said. He said the European Union spent more time trying to find common ground among its 15 members than putting pressure on violators like China. The United States was not a member this year and so took a lower-profile role than usual, but still lobbied behind the scenes to undermine initiatives like protecting human rights in the war against terrorism, he said. Membership of the commission rotates, with each geographical region allocated a certain number of seats. This year included an unusually high number of countries which stand accused by advocacy groups of abusing their citizens' rights, including China, Cuba, Congo, Kenya, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. -AP --- 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 ==^
CHEWING THE FAT WITH TERRORISTS?.....JOE BIDEN, OUT TO LUNCH IN NEW YORK [WWW.S
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---
CHRIS SODA wrote:
jpm preface:
Before the USA attack on Serbia in 1999, Joe Biden demanded on US TV :a
German-Japanese style occupation of Serbia.
CHEWING THE FAT WITH TERRORISTS?.JOE BIDEN, OUT TO LUNCH IN NEW
YORK
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 11:39:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: CHRIS SODA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mr Biden, thank you for taking the time to read this
short note before attending to other obligations. Your
name has come to my attention regarding a 12th
anniversary dinner at the Sheraton Hotel sponsored by
the Albanian American Civic League this coming April
28, 2002, in which you are scheduled to be the
'keynote speaker'. This anniversary, apparently, marks
the twelfth year since a handful of people, sponsored
by the League, testified before Congress in 1990
concerning the Serbian province of Kosovo in
Yugoslavia.
My first question to you, Mr Biden, is this: when US
Customs in 1990 allowed that handful of people to
enter your country, what 'point of origin/departure'
or 'country of citizenship' do you suppose was listed
on their respective passports? (I'm presuming up to
this point, of course, that those handful of people
were carrying authentic documents, left their own
country legally and entered the US legally, and were
in fact registered citizens of an actual country, with verified
borders, under relevant and applicable international statutes and
treaties, when they left to make this trip. If I have erred in my
assumption, Mr Biden. please feel free to correct me)
Since the current advertisement from the Albanian
American Civic League lists those handful of people
from 1990 as credible eye-witness testifiers on actual circumstances
in Kosovo at that time (and since your Congress thought similarly in
1990 by making time to hear them), the only logical conclusion is to
infer that for many of these 'witnesses', their 'point of
origin/departure' and/or their 'country of
citizenship' would have to have been Yugoslavia. And
as you know, Mr Biden, the corroborated historical
record is quite clear and unambiguous- the actual
circumstance of Kosovo in 1990 was that it was a
province of Serbia in the country of Yugoslavia.
As this is in fact the case, Mr Biden, I am wondering
how the Albanian American Civic League in 1990, and
those handful of people who testified then before
Congress, yourself, Joe DioGuardi, and others (all
then and now) refer to 'Kosova' rather than Kosovo.
You see, Mr Biden, that handful of travellers must
ALSO have recognized the territorial sovereignty and integrity of
Yugoslav borders in 1990. (if not, why were these people carrying
documentation issued from a country that they do not accept or
recognize?) I'm sure Mr Biden that you realize that one cannot
willingly accept or recognize documentation from a
country while at the same time refusing to accept or
recognize what that country is composed of, especially
in terms of latitudinal and longitudinal borders.
Since it is universally recognized and corroborated by
all persons of sound mind that the province of Kosovo
was an integral part of both Serbia and Yugoslavia in
1990 (verified by many atlases, encyclopaedias and
international treaties), I'm wondering why no one in
Congress, the League, nor yourself and Mr DioGuardi,
have questioned the usage of the term 'Kosova'. No one
in the world in 1990 (nor now) can travel on
documentation registered with 'Kosova' any more than
someone could travel with documentation registered
with Canado' or The United States of Americo'- or
The Third Reich' for that matter
It is puzzling to see a reference to a fictitious
political entity (Kosova') being accepted as an
actual existing place with defined borders. It is
equally puzzling to believe that the US Congress in
1990 would not have asked the same questions being
asked here. Perhaps you can provide an answer for me,
Mr Biden. How is accepting and using documentation
from a country consistent with not recognizing the
exact and corroborated borders of that country??
Equally puzzling is the fact that Congressmen/women
would hear testimony from people who literally 'don't
know where they are coming from- or going to'.
('kosova' being listed in encyclopediae as an African
tribe in Kenya, rather than an imaginary, nonexistent political or
geographical entity. See here, Mr Biden, for a brief analysis by one
of the world's leading linguists and historians in this regard:
http://opinionleaders.htmlplanet.com/koskosova.html)
Many people of similar mind have been locked up in institutions for
their own, and the general public's, safety. Apparently, many more are
somehow left uninstitutionalized, finding their way into the
highest levels of your government, as well as finding
their way into Congressional meetings and keynote
speakers' lists...
My second question
Tens of Thousands Due in Anti-Le Pen Rally in Paris [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Saturday, April 27, 2002 by Agence France Presse Tens of Thousands Due in Anti-Le Pen Rally in Paris With a week to go to the second round of France's presidential election, tens of thousands of people were expected to take to the streets of Paris for a new demonstration against the far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen. The march, organized by around 60 left wing organizations, human rights groups, political parties and trade unions, was to leave the Place de la Republique on the capital's right bank at around 3.00 p.m. (1300 GMT). Other demonstrations were planned in cities round the country. In the southern town of Montauban around 1,000 people marched Saturday morning, chanting, "Montauban, awake! Fascism will not pass!" Saturday's protests were being seen by police as a dry-run for the demonstrations for and against Le Pen due to take place in the capital on May 1, which the authorities fear could easily descend into violence. "It is a good-natured movement," said an unnamed police commander in the Liberation daily, "but all these young people in the street -- no one is controlling them, and the gangs from the suburbs could come and join in. It could easily degenerate." Officials warned that violence at the demonstrations would play into the hands of Le Pen, who is running a campaign based round the themes of crime and immigration. The 73 year-old leader of the National Front (FN) stunned France on Sunday when he won through to the second round of the presidential election against incumbent President Jacques Chirac, beating Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin into third place. Throughout the week high-school and university students have led a campaign of protests against Le Pen, culminating Thursday when more than 300,000 people were on the streets. But Le Pen accused his political opponents of orchestrating the protests and said they might even be illegal. "They are not in the least spontaneous," he said. "The political superstructure is making use of our youth and our children as a political shield. I am not sure it is very legal to allow children to be launched in demonstrations that are built around slogans of hate." The first opinion poll to be published since last Sunday gave a clear victory in the May 5 second round to Chirac, with 81 percent to Le Pen's 19. According to the CSA survey for Le Parisien newspaper, 29 percent of those questioned said they would abstain or spoil their ballot papers. French polling institutes have been widely attacked for failing to predict Le Pen's victory over Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Critics said polls indicating Chirac and Jospin were the only two with a chance of qualifying encouraged a sense of complacency which led to high abstention and let Le Pen squeeze through. And they warned that a similar phenomenon could recur in round two if Chirac is consistently shown to be uncatchable in the polls. On Friday one leading company BVA said it would publish no opinion samples before the second round because of the "extraordinarily fluid" situation. Copyright 2002 AFP ### --- 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, 27.4.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News April 27th, 2001, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Germany Mourns After Friday's school massacre in the eastern German city of Erfurt, a time of soul searching has begun. The Gutenberg High School shooting left 17 people dead. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_507765_1_A,00.html -- Germany in shock as 17 die in school shooting German police said that 19-year-old pupil Robert Steinhaeuser responsible for the country's worst post-war mass killing was a registered gun club member. The recently expelled young man had returned to his local school with a pump-action shotgun and a handgun and killed 13 teachers, two pupils, a police officer and then himself. Police said that Mr. Steinhaeuser, dressed in black and masked had access to enough ammunition to kill hundreds of people. His rampage was ended when a teacher grabbed and unmasked him and pushed him into a room, locking the door. It was then that he took his own life. Mr. Steinhaeuser had to repeat his final year, but was expelled before the school-leaving examination, required for university studies, because he forged absentee excuse notes. Flags through-out Germany are flying at half-mast this weekend. Gunmen kill 5 in Jewish settlement after UN Middle East mission is delayed Five people have been killed when gunmen attacked an Israeli settlement in the West Bank in the first such assault since Israel launched a four-week-old military sweep through Palestinian-ruled cities. The attack on Adora, northwest of the divided city of Hebron, came a day after U.S. President George W. Bush again insisted Israel immediately end its military offensive, after another Israeli raid defied his earlier demands. In another development the United Nations has agreed to delay a mission to the West Bank Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, where it will now arrive on Sunday. U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan agreed to the delay at the request of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who said it would give the Israeli cabinet time to discuss the mission before its arrival. Afghan warlord kill at least 25 people An Afghan warlord rained hundreds of rockets on the main east Afghan city of Gardez on Saturday killing at least 25 people in the biggest outbreak of fighting between rival Afghan forces for several months. Governor Taj Mohammad Wardak of Paktia province, scene of the biggest U.S.-led ground battle of the Afghan war last month, blamed the attack on former governor Khan Zadran, who was ousted from power in February. He said the former governor was trying to take over Gardez. The fighting broke out on the day U.S. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld visited Kabul and several hours after the Afghan capital's airport was hit by several rockets. There were no casualties in the airport attack. Madagascar governors threaten to split the island Five of Madagascar's six governors loyal to embattled Madagascan President Ratsiraka said on Saturday they would set up an independent state if a recount of disputed December polls declared rival Marc Ravalomanana the winner. The island off southeast Africa has been in political crisis since the elections, which Ravalomanana, the popular mayor of the capital, says he won. Mr. Ratsiraka denies that the election was rigged and says neither man won. The two men, who both now claim to be president, agreed in Dakar earlier this month to allow a recount of the polls to determine the victor. If neither was shown to have a majority, a referendum would be held to let the people decide. The High Constitutional Court began re-analysing the votes last week and says it will announce the results on Monday. Pakistan Supreme Court upholds Musharraf's referendum A nine member bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court Saturday unanimously rejected a host of petitions questioning the legality of the referendum being held on April 30th to extend President Pervez Musharraf's term by five years. The Court held that the referendum is legal. The referendum has been termed as unconstitutional and illegal by the mainstream political and religious parties. North Korean asylum seekers leave China Three North Koreans who entered Western embassy compounds in Beijing in the latest in a series of asylum bids have left China. A North Korean man climbed over a wall into the German Embassy grounds on Thursday. The next day, two North Koreans entered the U.S. Embassy compound seeking asylum. Diplomatic
KOSOVO-NATO'S FATAL ERROR -ANNIVERSARY OF SHAME [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- KOSOVO-NATOS FATAL ERROR ANNIVERSARY OF SHAME: MARCH 1999-MARCH 2002 Ambassador Bissett http://www.deltax.net/bissett ANNIVERSARY OF SHAME: MARCH 1999-MARCH 2002 Bayronica, March 2002 On March 24 Serbian people around the world will recall with horror the shameful destruction of their country by the US led NATO Alliance. Three years ago, for 78 days and nights, NATO aircraft pounded Yugoslavia inflicting terrible damage on the civilian infrastructure of the country. The use of cluster bombs and weapons containing depleted uranium caused hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries. The psychological scars inflicted on the people may never be reconciled. This was an illegal and unjustified act of blatant aggression. That it was carried out by the democratic nations of Western Europe and North America only added to the bewilderment and horror. The ongoing trial of the former Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic, can only be seen as a desperate attempt to justify NATOs criminal actions. It will not succeed. The legacy of Madeline Albrights war will be the dishonour it has brought to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Kosovo was NATOs fatal error. For more than forty years, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization protected the West from the very real threat of aggressive Soviet communism. It was an organization respected and admired by all free men. NATO was more than just a powerful military alliance. It was founded on a bedrock of morality and high principle. It stood for the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stood for democracy, for the rule of law and for all of those things our fathers and grandfathers had fought for in two cataclysmic World Wars. All of this changed in the spring of 1999 when NATO bombers launched its unprovoked and illegal assault against the sovereign state of Yugoslavia. The idea for NATO grew out of a suggestion proposed in 1948 by the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louis St. Laurent, that the European Defense Alliance of five European countries be expanded to include the United States and Canada. A year later in April 1949 the treaty was signed in Washington and NATO was born. NATO was a defensive alliance. The first article of the Treaty made this clear. Article 1 read in part, The parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved, by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangeredand to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of the Warsaw Pact forces in Eastern Europe the reason for NATOs continuing existence began to come under serious scrutiny. Why maintain such a large and expensive military organization in Western Europe when any threat from the former Soviet Union had evaporated? Before this question could be resolved, however, a new role for the Alliance was discovered. The violent breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s provided NATO with a new mission- that of peace keeping. As violence and bloodshed spread in Croatia and Bosnia, the peacekeeping role turned into direct military action. Under the leadership of the United States, NATO intervened in the civil war in Yugoslavia and carried out air strikes against Serbian forces in Croatia and Bosnia. These air strikes were not conducted for defensive purposes. None of the NATO countries was threatened by the Yugoslav conflict. However, the strikes were carried out with the authority and approval of the Security Council of the United Nations. Therefore, while clearly in violation of the spirit of Article 1 of NATOs Treaty, it could be argued the military action was in keeping with the purposes of the United Nations. After Bosnia there was no further talk about dismantling NATO. On the contrary, the air strikes had given
John Pilger: VENEZUALA - THE LIES GO ON [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- VENEZUALA - THE LIES GO ONIn his newest piece for The New Statesman, John Pilger examines the response of Britain's media to the conspiracy in Venezuela. The coverage provided an object lesson in how censorship works in free societies: an 'unbiased' media has once again been used to promote the interests of the powerful. The episode was a journalistic disgrace. : John Pilger : 26 Apr 2002 Last month, I wrote about Venezuela, pointing out that little had been reported in this country about the achievements of Hugo Chávez and the threat to his reforming government from the usual alliance of a corrupt local elite and the United States. When the conspirators made their move on 12 April, the response of the British media provided an object lesson in how censorship works in free societies. The BBC described Chávez as "not so much a democrat as an autocrat", echoing the Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane, who abused him as "a ranting demagogue". Alex Bellos, the Guardian's South America correspondent, reported, as fact, that "pro-Chávez snipers had killed at least 13 people" and that Chávez had requested exile in Cuba. "Thousands of people celebrated overnight, waving flags, blowing whistles . . ." he wrote, leaving the reader with the clear impression that almost everybody in Venezuela was glad to see the back of this "playground bully", as the Independent called him. Within 48 hours, Chávez was back in office, put there by the mass of the people, who came out of the shanty towns in their tens of thousands. Defying the army, their heroism was in support of a leader whose democratic credentials are extraordinary in the Americas, south and north. Having won two presidential elections, the latest in 2000, by the largest majority in 40 years, as well as a referendum and local elections, Chávez was borne back to power by the impoverished majority whose "lot", wrote Bellos, he had "failed to improve" and among whom "his popularity had plummeted". The episode was a journalistic disgrace. Most of what Bellos and others wrote, using similar words and phrases, turned out to be wrong. In Bellos's case, this was not surprising, as he was reporting from the wrong country, Brazil. Chávez said he never requested asylum in Cuba; the snipers almost certainly included agents provocateurs; "almost every sector of society [Chávez] antagonised" were principally members of various oligarchies he made pay tax for the first time, including the media, and the oil companies, whose taxes he doubled in order to raise 80 per cent of the population to a decent standard of living. His opponents also included army officers trained at the notorious School of the Americas in the United States. In a few years, Chávez had begun major reforms in favour of the indigenous poor, Venezuela's unpeople. In 49 laws adopted by the Venezuelan Congress, he began real land reform, and guaranteed women's rights and free healthcare and education up to university level. He opposed the human rights abuses of the regime in neighbouring Colombia, encouraged and armed by Washington. He extended a hand to the victim of an illegal 40-year American blockade, Cuba, and sold the Cubans oil. These were his crimes, as well as saying that bombing children in Afghanistan was terrorism. Like Chile under Allende and Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, precious little of this was explained to the western public. Like the equally heroic uprising in Argentina last year, it was misrepresented as merely more Latin American chaos. Last week, the admirable Glasgow University Media Group, under Greg Philo, released the results of a study which found that, in spite of the saturation coverage of the Middle East, most television viewers were left uninformed that the basic issue was Israel's illegal military occupation. "The more you watch, the less you know" - to quote Danny Schechter's description of American television news - was the study's conclusion. Take US
Gaza braces for Sharon to send in tanks in next phase of war [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.U
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Gaza braces for Sharon to send in tanks in next phase of war Palestinians build sand barricades as Israel again defies Bush By Robert Fisk in Gaza 27 April 2002 Internal links Freed youths tell of hunger and death in Church of the Nativity David Horovitz: Don't blame Israel. All we ever wanted was peace They are coming. That's what most Gazans tell you. The Israelis are coming. But the sand barricades are pathetic. Even a mile from the Erez "safe crossing'' point constructed during the early days of the mad dream of Oslo, the best that Yasser Arafat's legions can do is erect a 15ft rampart of earth and sandbags, with a 12ft gap for local cars and for Israeli Merkava tanks when Ariel Sharon decides to drive in. But the cops go on waving the donkey carts past the traffic lights, and the Palestinian Authority guards slumber with their Kalashnikov rifles in their tin shack, ready for part two of the Sharon War on Terror. The odd thing is that if the Israeli Prime Minister really wants to dismantle the "network of terror'' of which he speaks so frequently, Gaza the one place the Israeli army has not yet dared to reoccupy should perhaps have been his first target. For here are militias aplenty, Palestinians who know how to destroy Merkava-3 tanks, who can manufacture short-range rockets and mortars and know the principles of booby traps better than the refugee gunmen of Jenin. As one local put it yesterday: "This place is wired.'' Its people are certainly preparing for the worst. The banks report massive withdrawals. Human rights groups are duplicating their files. Everyone knows what happened to the computerised archives of the Palestinian ministries in Ramallah and Nablus and Jenin; they were stolen by the Israeli soldiers because, in the imperishable words of one Israeli officer: "Documents have a very important value.'' But this is "Palestine". "They say they've copied all their papers,'' a western human rights worker said. "But I don't think they've finished making CDs of all the files in our office and the paper archives are too large to photocopy now. They simply haven't started to get the work done.'' Yet there is a grim determination to accept the future. Raja Sourani, a human rights lawyer with the most eloquent, if pessimistic, view of the coming weeks or days has few illusions. "I think it's going to be bleak, black and bloody and I can see the blood that will be shed will be Israeli as well as Palestinian. The Palestinians are not ready to be good victims any more. They have nothing to lose. "The Israelis have opened Pandora's Box. I never in my life have felt our morale and determination to be as high as it is now. I'm very proud and I'm scared to death.'' So are the women of Gaza. Many are burying their jewels in their gardens or backyards. "We heard what happened to women in Ramallah who had thousands of dollars of jewellery stolen by the Israeli troops who entered their homes,'' a middle-class married woman in Gaza City said without emotion. "One friend of mine in Ramallah hid thousands of dollars in a big bowl of rice in the kitchen when the Israelis came to take over his house. He reckoned he would lose the money when he was searched. But when he came back, the rice was overturned and the money had gone.'' The graffiti warns of reoccupation. A hand grenade on one wall, a drawing of a wired bomb on another predict the doom of occupiers. Homes I entered were stuffed with food, water, blankets, in some cases sandbags. As the sea flopped on to the Gaza beach in the sultry afternoon, a few fishing boats glided over the water. But the catch doesn't count for much when four-hour power cuts unannounced as usual by the corrupt Palestinian Authority cut off deep freezes and fridges. As one Palestinian militant remarked how easily one falls into these categories to avoid identifying someone who may soon be in a prison cage an Israeli assault is "as certain as I am seeing you". It was a matter of time, he said. "I don't trust the Arabic news. I listen to the news in Hebrew from Israel. Gaza sets the tone there the Israelis can't complete their objectives without Gaza. It's here that Palestinian history has been decided for the past 54 years.'' True, up to a point. The Palestine National Council first proclaimed Palestinian independence in Gaza on 1 October 1948, adopting the old green, white, black and red banner of the Arab Revolt as the flag. But then the Gaza Strip became a slum backyard of Egypt while the Mayor of Hebron handed over the West Bank to the Jordanian monarchy at a ceremony in Jericho. If Gaza is the last bit of unoccupied "Palestine" left, it's a midden. "I think everything depends on three things,'' Mr Sourani said. "It's about what's going on back in Washington. It's about how far the Europeans will involve themselves. And it's about how
David Horovitz: Don't blame Israel. All we ever wanted was peace [WWW.STOPNATO.O
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- David Horovitz: Don't blame Israel. All we ever wanted was peace 27 April 2002 Internal links Gaza braces for Sharon to send in tanks in next phase of war Freed youths tell of hunger and death in Church of the Nativity Today, in a world turned upside-down, Israel stands accused by the international diplomatic and journalistic community of war crimes; the European Parliament votes for trade sanctions against it; and purported humanitarians call for Yitzhak Rabin's fellow peace trailblazer not Yasser Arafat, but the Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to be stripped of his Nobel prize. But the real cause of the collapse of the Oslo process, and the root cause of Israel's unprecedented military incursions into areas of the West Bank it had long since relinquished to Mr Arafat's control, is terrorism the terrorism that Mr Arafat initially chose not to confront and, more recently, encouraged, initiated and financed. Contrary to the pervasive myth now routinely peddled by too many ill-informed Middle East commentators, Ehud Barak offered Mr Arafat everything short of Israeli national suicide in his failed attempt to secure that accord at the July 2000 Camp David summit and subsequent rounds of negotiations. It is an astounding testament to Israelis' desire for peace that even now, after the month of March saw 126 of its people killed in acts of terrorism stoked by Mr Arafat, a majority are telling pollsters that they support the Saudi peace initiative which envisages "normal ties" between Arab states and Israel after a complete Israeli withdrawal from territory it captured in the 1967 war. Israel is desperate to end the occupation. It just needs a Palestinian partner, unlike Mr Arafat, who doesn't seek to end Israel. Slick Palestinian spokesmen assert daily, from the platforms granted to them by the deferential news channels, that Ariel Sharon's aggression is the cause of the current Middle East malaise trusting interviewers and viewers alike to overlook the fact that the intifada was hatched under Mr Barak's watch. They blame Mr Sharon for the curfews and the blockades and the incursions trusting interviewers and viewers to forget that there were no such crippling long-term curfews or blockades or incursions before the intifada was ignited and Israel searched for ways to intercept the bombers. Had Mr Arafat, armed by Israel with what must be the highest proportion of security personnel of any regime in the world, chosen to frustrate terrorism rather than fund it, Israel would have had no need and certainly no desire to re-enter areas, such as the Jenin refugee camp, which it happily relinquished in late 1995. Yet in a world turned upside-down, again, it now finds itself charged with the "massacre" of terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Mr Arafat's own Fatah faction who had despatched 23 suicide bombers from the camp. Terrorists who had publicly bragged that they would fight to the last bullet, and who publicly delighted in ambushing 13 Israeli reservists fathers and husbands called to the battle against the extremists that the cowardly Mr Arafat refused to fight, heads of families who will never return. Thousands of civilians in the Jenin camp have, appallingly, lost their homes because Israel was left with no choice but to confront the bombers where they thought they were immune, where Mr Arafat had allowed them to flourish. In a world turned upside-down, Israel is now pressured by the international community to "act with restraint" when the bombers blow up its civilians in restaurants and buses and wedding halls and branded the aggressor when, betrayed by Mr Arafat, it attempts to thwart the bombers itself. The extent of Israeli disillusionment with Mr Arafat is such that even Mr Peres, his fellow Nobel Peace laureate, can no longer find words for his defence. At an address on Sunday night in Washington, Mr Peres sighed with utter despair as he recounted that the US Secretary of State Colin Powell had merely asked Mr Arafat to pick up a microphone and denounce terrorism, and make a phone call to the heads of the 30,000 or more men he still has under arms to tell them to start clamping down on the bombers. But Mr Arafat was not prepared even to do this. He has reverted utterly to type. Financing the Karine A shipment of Iranian arms, captured by Israel in January. Signing off on payments to murderers like Raed Karmi, the self-acknowledged killer of two Israelis whose crime was to sit down and eat at a Tulkarm restaurant. Using his tightly controlled media to broadcast on TV the Friday sermons of radical preachers urging the killing of Jews "everywhere". Exhorting his own people to "martyrdom". Again, not because Israel is intransigently rejecting compromise. He knows how untrue that is, even if the naïve journalists and governments do not. But because he is
Jenin refugees turn away US relief trucks in protest [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2002/0425/breaking55.htm Jenin refugees turn away US relief trucks in protest Two US trucks delivering food, toys and tents to the Jenin refugee camp were turned away by an angry crowd today in protest at Washington's military aid to the Israeli army, Jenin's parliamentarian said. The camp's inhabitants are refusing help provided by the US because of its foreign policy concerning the Palestinian question and because the camp was destroyed by USmade weapons, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member for Jenin, Mr Jamal al-Shaati, said today. The aid was sent by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), whose trucks bore its emblem as well as the US flag. A large crowd of the camp's residents, including representatives of all political factions there, threw the goods back into the trucks after they had been unloaded at the camp's entrance, Mr Shaati said. The trucks were then forced to leave. USAID officials in Tel Aviv said they were not aware of the incident. But a spokesperson for the US consulate in Jerusalem said that despite a mini-demonstration, the trucks arrived in the camp and their content was delivered to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) there. The relief agency for Palestinian refugees will distribute US assistance to the camp's residents over the next few days and Jenin's governor publicly thanked us, she said. But Mr Shaati rebutted the statement, saying that the goods were finally unloaded but in an UNRWA school outside the camp. The residents just don't want US help, is that clear? said Mr Shaati angrily. Tell them (the Americans) that the camp's youth will come and burn the goods if they (UNRWA on behalf USAID) attempt to get them into the camp, he warned. The refugee camp in the northern West Bank was devastated by the Israeli army's invasion in search of hardline militant groups using the neighbourhood as a base and for launching suicide bombings across the border in Israel. In a week of bitter fighting, Israel used bulldozers, Apache helicopters and tanks to crush a die-hard group of Palestinian fighters who booby-trapped streets and houses and killed 23 soldiers. Around 50 Palestinian bodies, most of them fighters, have been found so far in the rubble, but the Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out a massacre in the camp, a charge Israel hotly denies. Washington provides Israel with around three billion dollars of annual aid, of which more than half is military support. --- 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 ==^
How free is our so-called free press? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- How free is our so-called free press? John Miller THERE ARE facts, and then there is the truth. When we consider media convergence in Canada and, in particular, our biggest media conglomerate, CanWest Global Communications it is important to understand that facts and truth are not always the same. Here's a fact: Several columns that once appeared in CanWest Global newspapers, including one by Stephen Kimber in the Halifax Daily News, have been killed, either for unspecified inaccuracies, or because they challenged corporate policy. All decisions, according to head office, have been made by local editors. Here's the truth: In a remarkable act of integrity, Daily News editor Bill Turpin resigned this week, but not before saying that he killed Kimber's column after being advised by Murdoch Davis, his CanWest boss in Winnipeg. "I and other editors had been urged repeatedly by Mr. Davis to get his advice on any prospective commentary that might run contrary to Southam Publications' rapidly changing editorial policies," Turpin said in an unpublished letter. "To my profound regret, I did so in Mr. Kimber's case. Mr. Davis told me in colourful terms that publishing the piece would be a career disaster." Issues of editorial control raised by his letter, and the sheer size of CanWest Global's influence over news, have raised legitimate questions about how free our so-called free press is. CanWest Global owns 27 daily newspapers. That's a fact. They include the National Post and major newspapers in Ottawa and six of 10 provincial capitals. They distribute 11.4 million copies every week. This is dwarfed by Global's television network, which beams itself to 94 per cent of English-speaking Canada (Source: CanWest Global). The company's radio, film, Internet and entertainment holdings give it unprecedented control over the information Canadians use every day. Saying CanWest's newspaper empire is modest when compared to Conrad Black's is like trying to justify Bosnia because it was more humane than the Holocaust. Saying that we don't need a federal inquiry into media ownership because "press freedom is freedom from state censorship" (National Post) is like hitting me over the head with a frying pan and saying it's about cooking. Our Charter of Rights grants press freedom to everyone and stands against censorship from any quarter, including those who own the presses. CanWest's corporate motto is: "If you can watch it, read it, hear it, or download it, we want to be the source." Fair enough, but its owners want Ottawa to help by giving them more tax money, and emasculating the CBC. These are important public policy issues, but can we count on CanWest to allow a full debate of the pros and cons in its newspapers? It already orders its 14 largest papers to print identical, weekly editorials on national issues, and forbids any dissent. We are therefore right to ask: Do we want our newspapers edited by people who are afraid to publish strong opinions until they are cleared with head office? Do we want what Doug Creighton, founder of the Toronto Sun, called Wizard of Oz journalism with no brains, no heart and no courage? Concerns about the effects of convergence are growing. Something must be done. John Miller is author of Yesterday's News and director of newspaper journalism at Ryerson. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1c=Articlecid=1019772130235call_page=TS_Opinioncall_pageid=968256290124call_pagepath=News/Opinioncol=968350116695 --- 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 ==^
Peres Offer To Meet Rejected by Saudi Counterpart [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Peres Offer To Meet Rejected by Saudi Counterpart By Nathan GuttmanHa'aretz TEL AVIV, Apr 26, 2002 -- Foreign Minister Shimon Peres tried to meet a senior Saudi official, apparently Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal, last weekend in Washington, but the Saudis turned down his request. The bid, which came from the Israeli side, was passed to the Saudis through unofficial channels without U.S. intervention. The purpose of the meeting was to give Peres a chance to persuade the Saudis to join the effort in convincing the Palestinians to take action against terrorism and return to the negotiating table. The Saudis rebuffed the request, however, saying it was not an appropriate time to meet with an official Israeli. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who is visiting U.S. President George W. Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, warned the American leader that if no solution for the occupation of the territories and the violence in the Middle East is found, U.S. interests in the region will be endangered, according to the emir's political adviser Abdel Jubair. But Jubair added that his country does not intend to use the "oil weapon" against the United States or to ask Bush to withdraw U.S. bases on Saudi territory. In their first round of talks yesterday, the emir called on Bush to pressure the Israeli government in order to prevent threats to regional stability and western interests in the region. "If they leave Sharon alone, he'll drag the region into an abyss," warned Abdullah's adviser. Abdullah also told Bush that the Arab world regards the United States as being one-sided in favor of Israel. Ha'aretz, 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 ==^
Palestinians Speak Out Against Suicide Missions by Children [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Palestinians Speak Out Against Suicide Missions by Children By Omer BarakHa'aretz NEZTARIM, Gaza Strip, Apr 26, 2002 -- "I'm going to be a martyr." These were the last words that 14-year-old Ismail Abu-Nada told his mother Tuesday evening. A member of his family said later that the boy's mother thought that Ismail was joking. But by midnight on that same day, his parents became increasingly worried when Ismail failed to return home. When they heard in the Israeli media about an incident in the Neztarim area, where IDF soldiers killed three Palestinian youths attempting to infiltrate the Gaza Strip settlement, they began to understand. Later on, they found a farewell letter that Ismail left behind, in which he declared his affiliation to Hamas. The deaths of Ismail, Yusuf Zakut, 14, and Anwar Hamdona, 13, stirred anger amongst Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Just one week ago, another boy from the same neighborhood was killed when he attempted to infiltrate the Dugit settlement in northern Gaza. These two incidents are further proof of the recent trend of expanding the circle of those involved in "the Palestinian resistance." But in contrast to the inclusion of women in suicide attacks - a step that roused a brief but fleeting outcry - Palestinians seem to be genuinely unwilling to accept the inclusion of their young people in suicide attacks. The combination of the young age of the perpetrators and their "certain death" that comes with the operation has created something of a red line for Palestinians. Hamas, which, according to sources in Gaza and the IDF, was responsible for sending the three boys to their death, rushed to fall into line with the official Palestinian stance, and called on teachers and clerics to discourage Palestinian youth from carrying out such attacks. The Palestinian Education Ministry in Ramallah, which returned to work this week after 22 days of the IDF's "Defensive Shield," were busy Thursday drawing up a memorandum on the subject to be sent to teachers. "What happened in Gaza both saddened and angered me," Dr. Nayyim Abu-Humus, deputy Palestinian education minister told Ha'aretz this week. "They thought that they were going to defend their society. They were victims of the current situation, and that is tragic. That is why I want every one of the 45,000 teachers in the Palestinian Authority to act as psychologists, to talk with our children." There are 450 educational counselors employed by the PA, and Abu-Humus plans to intensify training for educators and managers in this area. "We must not treat this as just another newspaper article," he said. "What's happening is crazy. We need a scientific solution to this problem." Abu-Humus also criticized organizations that are supplying weapons to Palestinian youth. That said, he doubts that he has the ability to influence those organizations. Prof. Fadal Abu-Hin, a psychology lecturer at the Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, pins less hope on the education system. "First and foremost, I blame the parents," he says. "They are the ones who should keep tabs on their children." In April 2001, Abu-Hin conducted a research study among 1,000 young Gaza Strip Palestinians, aged 9 to 16. According to the results he published, over 40 percent of the respondents said that they were actively involved in the Intifada. Over 70 percent said that they wanted to be martyrs. "If I were to carry out the same study today," says Abu-Hin, "I am sure the figures would be even higher," adding that he believes that similar figures would be found on the West Bank. Abu-Hin believes that the willingness of young Palestinians to endanger their own lives stems from a combination of acute disappointment with the elders' inability to defend them, unsound education and exposure to the media. "In light of the situation, these children and their parents are often stuck at home for many hours, often watching news broadcasts for days on end." "Eye on the Palestinian Media," a Jerusalem-based research group that tracks the various official and unofficial Palestinian media outlets, says that Palestinian television is the main culprit in encouraging young Palestinians to carry out suicide missions. A study published by the group provides the example of an interview with Palestinian second-graders, in which one of the children, who had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers, was asked was he not afraid to die. The
Pravda:Milosevic treated like complete criminal [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/26/28045.html PRAVDA (RUSSIA) 13:19 2002-04-26 MILOSEVIC TREATED LIKE COMPLETE CRIMINAL Former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic is expressing his protests being at the Hague Tribunal. Milosevic appealed to the chief judge Richard May and said he was deprived of the rights enjoyed by other convicted. For instance, as the former Yugoslavian president says, he has been in isolation for several months, he is allowed to meet with his family under surveillance only. No telephone connection can be established for Slobodan Milosevic with his aides in Belgrade. He says, it is done on purpose. However, the state of health of the convicted that is getting worse because of the present living conditions, causes more anxiety. Richard May thinks, most part of the Tribunal's charges against Milosevic are far-fetched. On March 7 the Serbian Socialist Party, where Milosevic is the chairman, issued an open letter to say, life of the former Yugoslavia president was in danger. The letter said, Slobodan Milosevic is exposed to maltreatment from a so-called tribunal in Hague. Lines thrusted on Milosevic deprive him of common human rights. The well-schemed and speeded up course of the trial makes it impossible for the former Yugoslavian president to spend more time outdoors, breaks the regular meals regime, practically no time is left for him to get ready for the hearings and have enough rest. Obviously, the mentioned facts are designed to frustrate Milosevic's physical and mental strength, in order not to let him testify against real initiators of the crimes committed in Yugoslavia. The Serbian Social Party calls upon Skupstine to pass a special resolution to make the Yugoslavian government provide necessary conditions for Slobodan Milosevic to defend at the trial. The party says, Milosevic is to be released for the period of the trial. Still, the idea of the leftist forces was not supported in Skupstine so far. Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru Translated by Maria Gousseva --- 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 ==^
Abdullah Calls for Immediate Israeli Pullout [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Abdullah Calls for Immediate Israeli Pullout By Khaled Al-MaeenaArab News CRAWFORD, Texas, Apr 26, 2002 -- Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday held crucial talks with US President George W. Bush and called for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and lifting of the siege on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The Saudi warning prompted Bush to urge Israel to withdraw from Palestinian areas and peacefully end standoffs in the West Bank towns of Ramallah and Bethlehem. "Israel must finish its withdrawal, including resolution of standoffs in Ramallah and Bethlehem, in a nonviolent way," Bush told reporters after he met with Prince Abdullah for nearly five hours at his Texas ranch. Palestinians, in turn, must "do more to stop terror," he said. Bush also said "Saudi Arabia has made it clear publicly they will not use oil as a weapon and I appreciate that and I expect that to be the case," he said. The Saudi crown prince, a champion of the Palestinian cause, stressed on the US president the need to arrest the deterioration of the situation and find ways for a just and comprehensive peace in the region. Prince Abdullah urged Washington to adopt an even-handed policy while handling the Arab-Israeli conflict. "Being a sponsor of the Middle East peace process the US should address the issue in a just and fair manner taking into consideration the rights of the Arabs," the Saudi Press Agency quoted the crown prince as saying. "Allowing the problem to spiral out of control will have grave consequences for the United States and its interests," Adel Al-Jubeir, the crown prince's diplomatic adviser, told reporters here. The Saudi prince and his delegation arrived at Bush's sprawling Texas ranch in a five-vehicle motorcade that drove through green pastures and down a tree-lined driveway to pull up at Bush's stone-clad ranch house. Bush, wearing a suit and a large silver belt buckle, was introduced to the crown prince, who wore a traditional gold-trimmed brown robe, by US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Arab News learns that the crown prince presented a new vision for Middle East peace based on the Saudi peace initiative, the latest four Security Council resolutions and the views of President Bush expressed in his address to UN General Assembly last November. However, the crown prince emphasized that the peace initiative depended on the Israeli withdrawal and the lifting of the siege on Arafat and a halt to Israeli settlements. Prince Abdullah, who also had a closed-door meeting with Bush, stressed that Arafat should not be harmed. Informed sources told Arab News that the Kingdom would support UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposal to deploy a multinational peacekeeping force in the occupied Arab territories. The Saudi side urged the US to provide financial assistance to the Palestinians to rebuild their infrastructure destroyed by the Israeli forces. The crown prince, the SPA said, underlined the significant US role in bringing about peace and stability in the whole world, especially in the Middle East. "The United States must support the Arab peace initiative which goes along with international resolutions," the crown prince told Bush, adding that the US support would give the initiative a strong push thanks to the country's political strength. The talks were attended on the Saudi side by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Saudi Ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar ibn Sultan. US Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Powell, White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and US Ambassador to Riyadh Robert Jordan also took part in the talks. Powell, who has just completed a trip to the Middle East region which failed to achieve a cease-fire, cited one area of concern - the possibility that money raised by a recent three-day Saudi telethon could be used to encourage Palestinian bombings against Israel. Foreign Minister Prince Saud denied the telethon was held to help bombers. "The telethon was aimed at helping the Palestinian people who are being subjected to Israeli atrocities," he told CNN in an interview. Prince Saud said there can be no negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel until Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdraws forces from Palestinian areas and ends the siege on Palestinian
Bush's Master Oil Plan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Op-Ed Bush's Master Oil Plan By Michael T. KlarePacific News Service AMHERST, Mass, Apr 26, 2002 -- With so many new international crises erupting every day, it is hard to detect any clear forward direction to American U.S. foreign policy. At times, it appears that providing a response to the latest upheaval is about all that Washington can accomplish. But beneath the surface of day-to-day crisis management, one can see signs of an overarching plan for U.S. policy: a strategy of global oil acquisition. In recent weeks, the Bush administration has taken bold steps to implement this strategy in several far-flung regions of the world. In the Caspian Sea basin -- said to harbor the second biggest reservoir of untapped petroleum after the Persian Gulf -- the United States is building new military bases and providing training to local defense forces. In Colombia, U.S.-equipped government forces will soon be guarding the Occidental Petroleum Company's Cano Limon oil pipeline. And in Venezuela -- America's third largest supplier of oil -- U.S. embassy personnel reportedly met with leaders of an abortive coup against President Hugo Chavez. All of these developments are obviously tied to other foreign policy considerations besides oil. The United States clearly seeks to promote stability and fight terrorism in these and other areas of the world. But it is also true that the areas that are garnering the greatest degree of attention from Washington -- the Middle East, the Caspian Sea basin, and the Andean region -- are also areas that figure prominently in the administration's long-term energy strategy. The aim of this strategy is simple: to procure as much of the world's oil for ravenous U.S. markets as possible. With domestic U.S. production facing progressive decline and national consumption rising with every passing day, the United States must obtain more and more of its oil from abroad. Exploitation of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), if allowed by Congress, could reduce U.S. oil imports by a tiny amount, but would not make any significant difference in the larger energy equation. The only way to significantly reduce imports is to increase the fuel efficiency of U.S. motor vehicles -- but because President Bush is reluctant to require this, the administration has instead launched a global effort to expand U.S. access to foreign sources of petroleum. This campaign was first laid out in the national energy plan drawn up by Vice President Dick Cheney in early 2001 and released by the White House last May. Because the plan calls for drilling on ANWR and was prepared with assistance from representatives of the scandal-ridden Enron Corporation, Congress and media have ignored its foreign policy implications. But however significant the domestic debate over Enron and ANWR, it is its international repercussions that are most likely to affect America's long-term future. In essence, the Cheney report makes three key points: * The United States must satisfy an ever-increasing share of its oil demand with imported supplies. (At present, the United States imports about 10 million barrels of oil per day, representing 53 percent of its total consumption; by 2020, daily U.S. imports will total nearly 17 million barrels, or 65 percent of consumption.) * The United States cannot depend exclusively on traditional sources of supply like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Canada to provide this additional oil. It will also have to obtain substantial supplies from new sources, such as the Caspian states, Russia, and Africa. * The United States cannot rely on market forces alone to gain access to these added supplies, but will also require a significant effort the part of government officials to overcome foreign resistance to the outward reach of American energy companies. In line with these three principles, the Cheney plan calls on the Bush administration to undertake a wide range of initiatives aimed at increasing oil imports from overseas sources of supply. In particular, it calls on the president and secretaries of state, energy and commerce to work with leaders of the Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan to boost production in the Caspian region and to build new pipelines to the West. It also calls on U.S. officials to persuade their counterparts in Africa, the Persian Gulf and Latin America to open up their oil industries to
On Anti-Semitism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Friday, April 26, 2002 by CommonDreams.org On Anti-Semitism by Marty Jezer Among the many responses Ive received for my columns on the Middle East two stand out. A number of non-Jews, in person and by e-mail, have told me, You write what I believe, but Im afraid to speak out. Im afraid to criticize Israel because people will think that Im anti-Semitic. A second response, spoken by an acquaintance whom I respect for his decent, liberal values, was more unsettling. Im starting to feel anti-Semitic, he said without any suggestion of irony. It is disgusting what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Anti-Semitism is not the issue, I replied. Its not Jews attacking Palestinians, its Israelis. Many Jewish people, myself included, share your disgust. But maybe anti-Semitism is an issue, a subtext of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that no one wants to talk openly about. In the cauldron of the times, anti-Semitism has become an accusation, a weapon, a way of silencing critics of Israel without having to listen to their arguments. And when used against Palestinians, its a way of denying their aspirations and ignoring their grievances. Anti-Semitism exists, but to extract its meaning it has to be put into perspective. Under Hitler, the German people murdered millions of European Jews. But today most Germans are friends and allies of Jews and of Israel. As a Jew, I still feel a gut wariness whenever I meet a German. But I also feel elated. That we two, German and Jew, can interact empathetically fills me with hope. The history of modern Germany is proof that people can change, that ancient feuds and tribal bloodbaths need not dictate humanitys future. Blacks-whites, Hutus-Tutsis, Bosnians-Serbs, even Arabs and Jews: we shall overcome. Anti-Semitism exists in the Arab world. Increasingly, Arabs couch their opposition to Israel in the anti-Semitic rhetoric that originated in Europe. But is anti-Semitism driving the Palestinian resistance? Or is the Middle East conflict simply a battle over land, two peoples with a historic claim over the same territory? For centuries Jews lived amongst the Arabs of the Middle East. Coexistence was never easy and during World War II many Arab leaders gave verbal support to the Nazis. But Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state in Palestine, was a European phenomenon; Middle Eastern Jews did not look to the biblical holy land for security and lifes meaning. After the holocaust the logic of Zionism could not be denied. European guilt assured Israeli statehood. But it was the Palestinians who bore the brunt. And they were not consulted. Supporters of Israeli policy in Israel and America, rarely acknowledge this. They speak of the conflict with the Palestinians in terms of Arab anti-Semitism, and in the context of the holocaust and Jewish survival. Rarely mentioned is the historic record of Israeli provocations: the occupation of the West Bank, the military checkpoints, the continuous expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory. Anti-Semitism in America, except on the margins of society, rarely includes overt acts of violence and discrimination. It is usually more subtle, expressed politically in the belief that the United States is a Christian nation or, among evangelical and some other fundamentalist Christians, that Jews cannot find salvation unless they accept Christian dogma. People have an absolute right to religious belief, but once it enters the political arena, it opens itself to critical comment. On April 15, an Israeli Solidarity Rally brought speakers from all across the political spectrum. One speaker was Janet Parshall, a national talk show host who is a director of the evangelical Christian National Religious Broadcasters and the spokesperson for the Family Research Council, an anti-choice, homophobic front-group for right-wing Republicans whose web site www.fcr.org promotes tax cuts, bashes liberals, and says nothing about Israel. But at the Solidarity Rally, Ms. Parshall enthusiastically identified herself with what she considered the cause of the Jews and drew cheers attacking the idea of land for peace. We will never give up the Golan, she announced. We will never divide Jerusalem, she declared. Jewish organizations that uncritically support Ariel Sharon in the name of security for Israel are avidly courting the Christian right. A headline speaker at a recent
NATO to cut Balkans missions [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- NATO to cut Balkans missions By David R. SandsTHE WASHINGTON TIMES NATO plans substantial cuts in the size of its Balkans peacekeeping missions, including a reduction by nearly a third in the security force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said yesterday.Mr. Scharping, in town this week for meetings with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other administration and congressional leaders, said ministers from the 19-nation alliance are ready to sign off by the end of next month on a 20 percent to 30 percent cut in the NATO-led security force in Bosnia, while streamlining the companion mission in Kosovo.U.S. and NATO troops have been stationed in the volatile region since the outbreak of ethnic conflicts in the mid-1990s, climaxing in NATO's 11-week air war against Yugoslavia over Kosovo.Facing the demands of the post-September 11 global war on terrorism, the Pentagon has been eager to free up U.S. forces for the fighting in Afghanistan and elsewhere, but Mr. Scharping said at a breakfast meeting with reporters yesterday he was confident the United States was not pulling out of the Balkans mission.The principle of "in together, out together" for the region "still holds from everything I was told, both publicly and privately," Mr. Scharping said.Discussing another peacekeeping mission, Mr. Scharping argued it was essential for the international security force now in Afghanistan to remain for an extended period as the interim government in Kabul struggles to assert its authority beyond the capital.Germany is taking a lead role in building up the new government's police force, but the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder quashed early speculation that Germany would take over the command of the international security force as a whole.Mr. Scharping called Afghanistan a "complex case," where the allies are trying to "support the process of nation building and fight terrorism at the same time in the same country."But, he added, "if Afghanistan is not a success story, who will be encouraged? It will be all the wrong forces, of radicalism, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism."NATO will hold a major summit in November in Prague, a gathering that is expected to include a new round of enlargement into Eastern Europe, while charting a new core strategic mission and redefining relations with Russia.The German minister said he expected the alliance to accept new members in Prague, but added NATO had to face several fundamental questions even as it expanded.A more important question than who is accepted will be strengthening the decision-making procedures for the alliance as it exists now, he said."We cannot make NATO into an institution that is always debating its own enlargement," he said. "NATO is not a social club."He declined to say which of the nine NATO hopefuls Germany will support for membership, saying that both military capabilities and political factors will play a role. He noted that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) already provides a broader forum in which the continent's security issues can be aired, while NATO has a more defined military role."We already have one OSCE. We do not need a second one," he said. http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020426-28680269.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
UN Jenin mission to Israel Sunday [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- UN Jenin mission to Israel Sunday By William M. ReillyUNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL UNITED NATIONS, April 26 (UPI) -- The U.N. Jenin fact-finding mission is now expected to arrive in the Middle East Sunday, a day later than originally scheduled and reflecting a delay granted in face of the Sabbath and a positive response from a special Israeli delegation at U.N. talks.The Israeli delegation began talks Thursday with a team of senior U.N. officials led by Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast. At the conclusion of the talks and after briefing the Security Council the usually tight-lipped Prendergast told reporters only the talks had been "positive" and that there would be a delay of one day for the Sabbath. "These discussions took place in a cordial and constructive atmosphere," said a spokeswoman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "Clarifications on the upcoming mission were provided by the United Nations. "The United Nations has been informed that the Israeli Cabinet will take a formal decision on the matter on Sunday morning, April 28," said the spokeswoman, Marie Okabe. "The Foreign Minister (Shimon Peres) has requested that due to the Israeli Sabbath, the team arrive on Sunday. Given those circumstances the secretary-general has agreed to this request." Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the fact-finding team now in Geneva, Switzerland, said it would arrive in Tel Aviv Sunday evening. Council president for April, Ambassador Sergei Lavrov of Russia, said, "I'm sure that if something develops different than what is contained in the statement we will look at it." Some members of the council said privately there was a possibility of a council session Sunday if the Israeli cabinet fails to deliver a formal go-ahead for the U.N. mission. The deadliest fighting in the recent Israeli re-occupation of Palestinian territory took place in the Jenin Refugee Camp, where officials of the Palestinian Authority have said hundreds of civilian residents were killed. Amnesty International has said that it has found preliminary evidence that Israeli soldiers violated the Geneva conventions and other laws of war. The Israeli military has denied there was a massacre and says its three-week incursion into to the camp was necessary to "uproot an infrastructure of terror." It said it tried to minimize civilian casualties, even putting the lives of its soldiers at risk by not using air cover. It says that the camp was a legitimate military target, and that armed Palestinians broke the laws of war by booby trapping homes, and deliberately taking shelter among civilians. Israel said it lost 23 soldiers. About 100 bodies of Palestinians have been recovered. The Security Council endorsed one week ago Annan's initiative to send a fact-finding mission and Israel agreed. But after he announced a three-member team, with two advisers earlier this week, Israel balked. Annan chose Marti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland to head the team, Sadako Ogata, former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The first advisers were retired U.S. Army Gen. William Nash and former Irish Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald. Additional military advisers were added later but have not yet been named. A Danish legal adviser and Finish forensic specialist were also added later. Mission members first gathered in Geneva Wednesday and were to have departed for the Middle East Friday. The Israelis voiced displeasure at the composition of the mission and wanted to broaden its makeup. Annan said while he would not remove any members some more could be added and talks were scheduled for Thursday at U.N. headquarters in New York. Ambassador Yehuda Lancry, Israel's permanent representative at the United Nations, first brought the four-member team that had flown from Israel to headquarters Thursday afternoon. They returned again Friday to conclude the discussions. --- 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
Chernobyl's Legacy of Radioactive Poisoning Passed On [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Friday, April 26, 2002 by Reuters 16 Years LaterChernobyl's Legacy of Radioactive Poisoning Passed On by Elizabeth Piper KIEV - Ukrainian children born with genetic mutations or harmed by radioactive food form a new generation of Chernobyl victims who could pass the accident's tragic legacy on to the next, specialists warned yesterday. On the eve of Chernobyl's 16th anniversary, specialists who have worked in the region since a reactor exploded and spewed clouds of radioactivity over much of Europe said the fight against radiation-related illness was far from won. ''Today, 16 years after the accident, there remain some huge problems in several regions ... especially in terms of children's health and in terms of food,'' Olga Bobylova, deputy secretary of Ukraine's health service, told a news conference. An aerial view of Ukraine's Chernobyl nucler power plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, is seen in this May 1986 file photo made a few days after the April 26 deadly explosion. In front of the chimney is the destroyed 4th reactor. Ukraine commemorates victims of Chernobyl catastrophe Thursday, April 25, 2002, on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the tragedy when a nuclear explosion, many times bigger that Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, sent a radioactive cloud over parts of then-Soviet Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of Western Europe. The plant was closed for good in 2000, but many environmental problems persist. (AP Photo/STR/FILE)''[In areas surrounding Chernobyl] meat and milk in the private sector have high levels of radioactivity. ... There are also problems with the mushrooms and berries in the forests. ... Such food can have a profound effect on health.'' Thousands of impoverished Ukrainians live in areas affected by radioactive contamination from the plant, which exploded on April 26, 1986 in the world's worst civil nuclear disaster. To boost their meager daily meals they gather berries and mushrooms from fields and forests still contaminated by radioactive debris. Many are unaware or reluctant to think that the food remains a health risk so long after the accident. ''The state tries to give children good, clean food, but it cannot because of a lack of funds,'' Bobylova said. ''We need this in the future.'' The specialists urged Ukraine and the rest of the world not to allow Chernobyl to become a forgotten crisis - a term used first by the United Nations which hinted that funds could run out as interest in the disaster waned. Evgeniya Stepanova, a specialist in radiation-linked illnesses, said children were becoming sufferers years after the explosion, which killed few people at the time. The true casualty toll in the years since is a matter of intense controversy. Chernobyl has been blamed for thousands of deaths in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia and for a huge increase in thyroid cancer. ''[Research] has shown genetic mutations in sufferers of Chernobyl, both adults and children. ... Those children and adults are more likely to get cancer and pass on mutations to their children.'' Radiation is known to cause genetic mutation, and the rate of certain cancers goes up in areas exposed to nuclear fallout, scientists say. Stepanova said it was time to turn the world's attention to those who had no choice but to suffer the consequences and those who could unwittingly become the next victims of Chernobyl. ''We have not paid enough attention to those people who are suffering,'' she said, almost shouting. ''Among all the problems caused by Chernobyl, the genetic [mutation] problem should come first. ... It is a huge problem.'' Copyright 2002 Reuters Ltd --- 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 ==^
ANALYSIS: Milosevic Prosecution Claims Court Unfair [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ANALYSIS: Milosevic Prosecution Claims Court Unfair The prosecution is to appeal against a trial chamber decision to conclude its case within a year. By Mirko Klarin in The Hague (TU No. 262, April 15-20, 2002) Is the prosecution going to have a fair hearing in the Milosevic trial? The question has been raised by the tolerance judges showed towards the defendant's aggressive defence style and the strict restrictions they imposed on the presentation of the prosecutor's case. (See Tribunal Update No. 255) Now, after two and a half months, the prosecution has publicly accused the trial chamber of unfairly curtailing its right to a fair trial. It was prompted by the trial chamber's insistence on April 10, 2001 that it conclude its case within a year (See Tribunal Update No. 261). Declaring that such a drastic time limit would emasculate its case, the prosecution last week submitted an application for leave to file an appeal, which contains unusually strong criticism of the trial chamber decision. The prosecution has been caught between a rock and a hard place from the start. On the one hand, it has had to ward off the accused, whose aggressive denial of all counts of the indictment and the testimonies of eyewitnesses and experts has forced it to present more evidence than it originally planned. At the same time, the prosecution has had to confront impatient and worried judges. Fearful that the trial will last forever and become unmanageable both for them and the accused, they keep demanding that the prosecution simplifies its case, which means downsizing its evidence and shortening the time for its presentation. The prosecution's appeal is based on two fundamental arguments. The first is that setting a strict time limit for the presentation of evidence in such a complex case as this, involving three indictments and a total of 66 counts, imposes irremediable prejudice on the prosecution. The latter has calculated that a 12-month deadline means they have about 193 court days to go. Judging by events thus far, the defendant will consume half of these with extensive cross-examinations while the three amici curiae (friends of the court) will use another 5 per cent for examination. So the prosecution has less than 100 'exclusive' court days left to present a case effectively and thoroughly. The appeal application warns that if the prosecution is forced to present its case in an unreasonable time frame, the only possible consequence is that the quality of its case will suffer, which, in turn, will have a bearing on the trial chamber's final decision. The prosecution says a fundamental reason for opposing a strict time limit on completion of its evidence is that the issues in the case are still not clearly identified. It says, for instance, it cannot foresee the defendant's reaction to crime-based evidence on the Bosnian and Croatian components of the prosecution case. In its favour, the prosecution can refer back to the appeals chamber decision last year in the Stanislav Galic case, which urged the trial chamber to consider whether the issues really in dispute have been clearly identified so that proper assessment of the time needed for the prosecution case can be made. The second argument for an appeal is what the application defines as infringement of the prosecution's statutory rights under the tribunal statute. The prosecution says the tribunal rules do not empower the trial chambers to deny it the right to present its case in the manner it deems fit. Three appeal judges, Claude Jorda, David Hunt and Fausto Pocar, will assess the application. In January, they ruled in favour of a prosecution appeal against a trial chamber decision to try Milosevic twice, first for Kosovo, and then jointly for Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (See Tribunal Update 249). The judges ordered a joint trial for Milosevic on all three indictments. It remains to be seen whether the prosecution will succeed once more in the battle for a fair trial. Mirko Klarin is IWPR senior editor at the war crimes tribunal and editor-in-chief of SENSE News Agency. http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/tri/tri_262_1_eng.txt Send this article to a friend --- 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 ==^
Saudi to Warn Bush of Rupture Over Israel Policy [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Saudi to Warn Bush of Rupture Over Israel Policy By PATRICK E. TYLER OUSTON, April 24 Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is expected to tell President Bush in stark terms at their meeting on Thursday that the strategic relationship between their two countries will be threatened if Mr. Bush does not moderate his support for Israel's military policies, a person familiar with the Saudi's thinking said today. In a bleak assessment, he said there was talk within the Saudi royal family and in Arab capitals of using the "oil weapon" against the United States, and demanding that the United States leave strategic military bases in the region. Such measures, he said, would be a "strategic debacle for the United States." He also warned of a general drift by Arab leaders toward the radical politics that have been building in the Arab street. The Saudi message contained undeniable brinkmanship intended to put pressure on Mr. Bush to take a much larger political gamble by imposing a peace settlement on Israelis and Palestinians. But the Saudi delegation also brought a strong sense of the alarm and crisis that have been heard in Arab capitals. "It is a mistake to think that our people will not do what is necessary to survive," the person close to the crown prince said, "and if that means we move to the right of bin Laden, so be it; to the left of Qaddafi, so be it; or fly to Baghdad and embrace Saddam like a brother, so be it. It's damned lonely in our part of the world, and we can no longer defend our relationship to our people." Whatever the possibility of bluster, it is also clear that Abdullah represents not just Saudi Arabia but also the broader voice of the Arab world, symbolized by the peace plan he submitted and that was endorsed at an Arab summit meeting in March. Those familiar with the prince's "talking points" said he would deliver a blunt message that Mr. Bush is perceived to have endorsed despite his protests to the contrary Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's military incursion into the West Bank. Abdullah believes Mr. Bush has lost credibility by failing to follow through on his demand two weeks ago that Mr. Sharon withdraw Israeli troops from the West Bank and end the sieges of Yasir Arafat's compound in Ramallah and of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. If those events occur and Mr. Bush makes a commitment "to go for peace" by convening an international conference, as his father did after the Persian Gulf war, to press for a final settlement and a Palestinian state, the Saudi view would change dramatically. But those close to the Saudi delegation said there was no expectation that Mr. Bush is prepared to apply the pressure necessary to force such an outcome. "The perception in the Middle East, from the far left to the far right, is that America is totally sponsoring Sharon not Israel's policies but Sharon's policies and anyone who tells you less is insulting your intelligence," the person familiar with Abdullah's thinking said. Western analysts see the prince as a blunt Bedouin leader whose initiative is regarded by many Arabs as a gesture worthy of the late Egyptian leader Anwar el-Sadat, who flew to Jerusalem in 1973 to sue for peace with Menachem Begin. Abdullah's offer, now the Arab world's offer, calls for recognition of Israel and "normal relations" in return for a Palestinian state on lands Israel occupied in 1967. The Saudi assessment was apparently being conveyed through several private channels. On Tuesday President Bush's father had lunch with the Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, and the kingdom's longtime ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Their specific message could not be learned, but in the familial setting, where Barbara Bush was also the hostess for Princess Haifa, Prince Bandar's wife, the strong strategic and personal ties of the Persian Gulf war that characterized Saudi-American relations a decade ago was a message in itself. Abdullah, in a luncheon today with Vice President Dick Cheney, was to convey the seriousness with which he regards the Thursday meeting with President Bush as a "last chance" for constructive relations with the Arab world. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, also flew to Houston to join in last-minute discussions before the summit meeting. A senior official in Washington said Mr. Rumsfeld and General Myers were dispatched to brief the prince personally on the American accomplishments in Afghanistan and in the broader war on terrorism. "The idea was, if he thought we were strong in Desert Storm, we're 10 times as strong today," one official said. "This was to give him some idea what Afghanistan demonstrated about our capabilities." United States military commanders in the Persian Gulf region have been building up command
Israel Fears U.N. Jenin Mission May Be a 'Setup' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Israel Fears U.N. Jenin Mission May Be a 'Setup' By Ellis ShumanIsrael Insider TEL AVIV, Apr 25, 2002 -- Israel's government decided Tuesday that it would postpone its cooperation with the United Nation's fact-finding team to the Jenin refugee camp until the team's composition was changed and questions over the mandate of its activities were resolved. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan agreed to postpone the departure of the team to hear Israeli arguments, but called on its members to begin their work in the camp by Saturday. Israeli officials expressed concern that statements made by Annan and the fact that two of the three members appointed to the team were veterans of humanitarian work, and possibly biased against Israel, amounted to a "setup to accuse Israel of war crimes." The decision to postpone cooperation with the team was made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and senior Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry officials. Yesterday, cabinet secretary Gideon Sa'ar said there were "worrying signs" that the fact-finding team was overstepping its parameters and suggested that Israel could block the team from entering the Jenin refugee camp if it believes the fact-finding team is not abiding by its mandate. Sharon said yesterday that Israel had no choice but to accept the United Nations fact-finding team to the Jenin refugee camp, as it was "the lesser of two evils." But Sharon expressed his fear for the kind of result the team would produce, Israel Radio reported. Israel objected to Annan's comments at a news conference on Monday that the team would "present [its] findings and conclusions," which seemed to deviate from the Security Council's resolution that the mission was to "develop accurate information regarding recent events in the Jenin refugee camp through a fact-finding team." Annan also said the team would "focus on Jenin to begin with," while the Security Council had specified only the Jenin camp. "The secretary general went past the spirit and decision of the Security Council, which did not say that the fact-finding team can come to a conclusion," said a senior Foreign Ministry official, quoted in the New York Times. "His terms of reference made it more of an investigation, and he did it very fast, without consulting Israel." Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Yehuda Lancry met with Annan to present Israel's case that the fact-finding team "should be more balanced and should include military and counter-terrorist experts." Lancry said, "The mandate of the fact-finding team should also cover not only the military operation of Israel, but the terrorist network which has flourished in the Jenin refugee camp and which, in fact, generated the Israeli military operation." Annan agreed to a short delay in the UN mission to review Israel's requests, but "expects the team to be in the Middle East by this Saturday," a statement from his office said. The secretary general said he would not discuss his choice of team members but considered adding experts "as might be deemed necessary." Annan reportedly agreed to Israel's request that the status of retired U.S. general William Nash be upgraded from military advisor to full member of the fact-finding team, Israeli media sources reported. Israel: team members are "political" Israeli officials are unhappy with the fact that the other members of the committee are political officials, and not military officers who can discern what really happened in the eight days of intense fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen within the crowded, urban conditions of the refugee camp. On Monday, Annan selected Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland, to head a team that included Sadako Ogata, a former United Nations high commissioner for refugees, and Cornelio Sommaruga, a former head of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Ahtisaari told reporters yesterday that both Nash and police advisor Peter Fitzgerald of Ireland were full-fledged members of the team. Lancry denied that Israel had "specific objections" to the members appointed to the team, but Israeli government sources fear that the backgrounds of Ogata and Sommaruga may make them biased in favor of the charges of international aid workers. Media sources reported Israel's serious objections to the appointment of Sommaruga, who served as head of the Red Cross from 1987 to 1999.
Powell: No Evidence of Jenin Massacre [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Powell: No Evidence of Jenin Massacre By Janine ZachariaJerusalem Post WASHINGTON, Apr 25, 2002 -- While trying to clear the way for UN fact-finders, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress yesterday he has no evidence of an Israeli massacre of Palestinians at the Jenin refugee camp. "Clearly, innocent lives may well have been lost," said Powell, testifying before the Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee. But, he said, "I have no evidence of mass graves. I see no evidence that would support a massacre took place." Powell said he based his assessment on a three-and-a-half-hour inspection of the refugee camp Friday by US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns. Burns subsequently reported a mass destruction by Israeli troops, who invaded the camp in the search for terrorists and explosives. Powell told Senate appropriators that President Bush was still considering whether to convene a multilateral peace conference and said the administration was open to extra funding for Israel as part of an emergency appropriations bill. Powell's comments came during wide ranging testimony about US policy in the Middle East ahead of today's key summit between Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Powell conferred with Bush yesterday in the White House situation room about the latest events in the Middle East before the president departed for Crawford to prepare for today's meeting. While the US insists the Saudi leadership has played a positive role in the war on terrorism - launched after 15 Saudi hijackers took part in the September 11 attacks - the Saudis have been critical of US support for Israel, have themselves overtly raised money to support Palestinian terrorism, and have reportedly continued to funnel money to hardline, anti-western madrasas in Pakistan. Powell said he would raise in his meetings in Crawford today the subject of $100 million raised to help the Palestinian intifada during a three-day Saudi telethon. Powell said it was "troubling" some of the money, according to adverstisements, would be directed to Hamas. But a senior administration official briefing reporters en route to Crawford yesterday suggested the bilateral talks would play up the positive aspects of the relationship and play down the differences. The leaders will focus on the "common principles" the US and Saudi Arabia share, the official said. And President Bush will thank Abdullah for his peace initiative and explore ways to expand it. The official said Bush would reaffirm US support for Saudi Arabia's bid to join the World Trade Organization and that Bush would raise his concerns about weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists. "It's premature, way premature to start talking about what we do against Iraq," the official said when asked if Bush would request the use of Saudi Arabian bases as a staging ground for an offensive against Saddam Hussein. "Saudi Arabia is one of America's oldest and best friends in the region," the official said. "The Saudis have been very constructive in the war on terrorism and very constructive in general as a partner." The closely managed event will notably be closed to press. Speaking to a Senate appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, Powell said the administration will "be engaged (diplomatically) as a close, dear friend of Israel but also as a friend of the Palestinian people, because they need peace. They need security. They need a place in the world." Powell said the president has not yet decided whether to convene a multilateral peace conference "but we're certainly looking at it." On financial assistance, the administration has requested an emergency supplemental bill to help in the war on terrorism. The White House's budgetary arm had nixed an early request for $200 million in additional funds for Israel. But Powell said extra aid "is something we should look at as we move forward." Powell, asked about Israel's use of American-made weaponry in its military offensive, said he had seen no need for an inquiry into whether the weapons had been used in violation of US law. US law says American-made weapons sold to third countries can be used only for defensive purposes. Jerusalem Post, 2002. All rights reserved. Distributed in partnership with Globalvision News Network (www.gvnews.net). ---
Business this week [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Business this week Apr 25th 2002 From The Economist print edition Mobile woes Ericsson confirmed the worst fears of mobile-phone pessimists by announcing that it would lay off up to 20,000 staff by the end of 2003, some 20% of the total. Losses at the Swedish mobile-phone and equipment maker in the first quarter totalled SKr5.4 billion ($517m), after orders from heavily indebted mobile operators suffered. The shares plunged by 24%, and the company announced a rights issue to raise SKr30 billion. See article:Mobile phones that take pictures Kamps, Germany's biggest baker, dropped its objections to a takeover and accepted a bid from Barilla, the world's biggest pasta maker, after the Italian company added an extra slice of cash to its offer. Barilla is paying just over euro1 billion ($892m) to extend its grip on European mealtimes. CGNU, a British insurer, met resistance at a shareholder meeting to a dividend cut and its plan to change its name to Aviva. Too similar to Arriva, a British bus company, complained investors: symbolic of life, growth and vitality, retorted the company, of the cod-Latin rebranding. The European Commission drew up a list of American goods that it plans to hit with trade sanctions in retaliation for the steel tariffs that the Americans announced last month. In order to target states that are politically sensitive to President George Bush, the list includes steel products, as well as such diverse items as quinces, crocheted vests, protective goggles and pinball machines. The Americans urged the EU to postpone its mid-June deadline for imposing the sanctions. Going, going, gone Alfred Taubman was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $7.5m for his part in an illegal price-fixing scheme between Sotheby's, an auction house of which he was chairman, and Christie's, a "rival" auctioneer. See article:Auction houses in the dock AOLTime Warner, the world's biggest media company, announced the world's biggest write-off of goodwill, taking losses in the first quarter to a staggering $54.2 billion. Ford responded to the departure of Wolfgang Reitzle, head of the group's luxury-car division, and the recent ascendancy of General Motors, with a management reshuffle. Mark Fields, head of the less prestigious Ford-controlled Mazda Motor, will take over the European luxury brandsVolvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover. Lincoln-Mercury will revert to control by the North American unit. ExxonMobil's profits fell by 58% in the first quarter compared with a year agowhich had been a record quarter for the companyto $2.2 billion. Good weather combined with recession and the September 11th attacks to cut demand. Bill Gates appeared in court for the first time in the Microsoft antitrust trial. He argued strongly against the draconian remedies to the software giant's monopolistic behaviour that are being demanded by nine hardline states. Mr Gates, hoping to convince the court that less stringent remedies hammered out between Microsoft and the Justice Department would suffice, argued that a more drastic solution would hobble innovation at Microsoft, computers everywhereand indeed the world economy. See article:Bill Gates takes the stand Enron's new bosses said that the bankrupt energy trader's assets were inflated by some $14 billion when the company filed for bankruptcy late last year. As much as another $10 billion could be wiped away by liabilities from energy-trading derivatives contracts. Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman who has been trying to save Andersen, the accounting firm that audited Enron, seems ready to quit. Andersen's partners appear unwilling to make the changes necessary for its survival. Meanwhile, the firm made a last attempt to settle with America's Justice Department. New York state's attorney-general, Eliot Spitzer, continued his investigation of Wall Street. He announced a multi-state task-force to probe investment banks and said that federal regulators are on the case. Merrill Lynch, accused of having misleading investment research, hired Rudolph Giuliani, a former mayor of New York (and federal prosecutor), as a legal adviser. Lost in the furore: neither Merrill nor any other firm has been accused of a crime. Celera Genomics appointed Kathy Ordoñez as president, to replace Craig Venter, who left in January. It is also to transfer its genome-database business, including its version of the human genome, to a sister company, Applied Biosystems. Celera will concentrate on drug development. Bouncing back The OECD is optimistic about the prospects for the world economy, according to its latest Economic Outlook. Even Japan's recession-blighted economy is predicted to grow a little in 2003. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST
Manufacturing Truth About the Middle East [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Manufacturing Truth About the Middle East Michael Albert, Z MagazineApril 25, 2002 Editor's Note: Noam Chomsky discusses the current conflict in the Middle East, the history of U.S.-Israeli relations, and the fate of Palestine. MICHAEL ALBERT: Is there a qualitative change in what's happening now? NOAM CHOMSKY: I think there is a qualitative change. The goal of the Oslo process was accurately described in 1998 by Israeli academic Shlomo Ben-Ami just before he joined the Barak government, going on to become Barak's chief negotiator at Camp David in summer 2000. Ben-Ami observed that "in practice, the Oslo agreements were founded on a neo-colonialist basis, on a life of dependence of one on the other forever." With these goals, the Clinton-Rabin-Peres agreements were designed to impose on the Palestinians "almost total dependence on Israel," creating "an extended colonial situation," which is expected to be the "permanent basis" for "a situation of dependence." The function of the Palestinian Authority (PA) was to control the domestic population of the Israeli-run neocolonial dependency. That is the way the process unfolded, step by step, including the Camp David suggestions. The Clinton-Barak stand (left vague and unambiguous) was hailed here as "remarkable" and "magnanimous," but a look at the facts made it clear that it was -- as commonly described in Israel -- a Bantustan proposal; that is presumably the reason why maps were carefully avoided in the US mainstream. It is true that Clinton-Barak advanced a few steps towards a Bantustan-style settlement of the kind that South Africa instituted in the darkest days of Apartheid. Just prior to Camp David, West Bank Palestinians were confined to over 200 scattered areas, and Clinton-Barak did propose an improvement: consolidation to three cantons, under Israeli control, virtually separated from one another and from the fourth canton, a small area of East Jerusalem, the center of Palestinian life and of communications in the region. And of course separated from Gaza, where the outcome was left unclear. But now that plan has apparently been shelved in favor of demolition of the PA. That means destruction of the institutions of the potential Bantustan that was planned by Clinton and his Israeli partners; in the last few days, even a human rights center. The Palestinian figures who were designated to be the counterpart of the Black leaders of the Bantustans are also under attack, though not killed, presumably because of the international consequences. The prominent Israeli scholar Ze'ev Sternhell writes that the government "is no longer ashamed to speak of war when what they are really engaged in is colonial policing, which recalls the takeover by the white police of the poor neighborhoods of the blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era." This new policy is a regression below the Bantustan model of South Africa 40 years ago to which Clinton-Rabin-Peres-Barak and their associates aspired in the Oslo "peace process." None of this will come as a surprise to those who have been reading critical analyses for the past 10 years, including plenty of material posted regularly on Znet, reviewing developments as they proceeded. Exactly how the Israeli leadership intends to implement these programs is unclear -- to them too, I presume. It is convenient in the US, and the West, to blame Israel and particularly Sharon, but that is unfair and hardly honest. Many of Sharon's worst atrocities were carried out under Labor governments. Peres comes close to Sharon as a war criminal. Furthermore, the prime responsibility lies in Washington, and has for 30 years. That is true of the general diplomatic framework, and also of particular actions. Israel can act within the limits established by the master in Washington, rarely beyond. ALBERT: What's the meaning of Friday's Security Council Resolution? CHOMSKY: The primary issue was whether there would be a demand for immediate Israeli withdrawal from Ramallah and other Palestinian areas that the Israeli army had entered in the current offensive, or at least a deadline for such withdrawal. The US position evidently prevailed: there is only a vague call for "withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian cities," no time frame specified. The Resolution therefore accords with the official US stand, largely reiterated in the press: Israel is under attack and has the right of self-defense, but shouldn't go too far in punishing Palestinians, at least too visibly. The facts -- hardly controversial -- are quite different. Palestinians have been trying to survive under Israeli military occupation, now in its 35th year. It has been harsh and brutal throughout, thanks to decisive US military and economic support, and diplomatic protection, including the barring of the long-standing
US-led forces desecrate Serbian church [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27377 WORLD NET DAILY THE BALKANS QUAGMIRE U.S.-led forces desecrate Serbian church? Letter to Bush protests alleged violence by peacekeeping troops Posted: April 25, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Aleksandar Pavic C 2002 WorldNetDaily.com The Serbian Orthodox Church is charging the peacekeeping force in Bosnia with violently desecrating church property in its search for suspects wanted by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. In an April 11 letter addressed to U.S. President Bush, Gen. John B. Sylvester, commander of the SFOR peacekeeping force in Bosnia, and Bosnian High Commissioner Wolfgang Petritsch, the Serbian Church protested the behavior of U.S.-led troops. Written by Serb Patriarch Pavle in the name of the Holy Synod of Bishops, the letter refers to enormously unpleasant situations which the faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Church experienced on Feb. 28 and March 1, 2002, when the soldiers of the SFOR peacekeeping forces violently burst into these villages claiming to search for [former Bosnian political and military leader] Radovan Karadzic. They used explosive and other objects to smash doors and barge into houses, ambulances and even schools. Even though U.S. officials have expressed opposition to the newly ratified International Criminal Court, there is an urgency to round up people in Bosnia wanted for alleged war crimes to stand trial in another international court, the Hague Tribunal. U.S. War Crimes Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper, on April 18, traveled to Bosnia to inform the Serb leadership that there would be no economic or political progress in Republika Srpska (the Serb part of Bosnia) until Karadzic and Ratko Mladic stood trial at The Hague. He went on to say that Republika Srpska risked falling behind other countries for not cooperating with the Hague Tribunal and that its citizens would continue suffering while Radovan Karadzic was free. In addition, the U.S. administration has continued applying economic and political pressure against neighboring Yugoslavia, compelling it to pass an unconstitutional law that sets the rules for cooperation with The Hague and to issue arrest warrants against alleged Hague suspects. The intensified search for suspects in Bosnia has caused Karadzic to resurface from his seven-year exile to protest the methods used in the hunt. The letter goes on to say that the Serbian Orthodox Church is shocked and appalled by the behavior of the SFOR soldiers to innocent civilians, especially by their violent entering the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God at Celebici, with weapons, where they scattered sacral objects in the altar and smashed the glass within the chalice [used] for giving the Holy Communion to priests and people. ... The Church in which our faithful pray to God, receive the Holy Communion, are christened and married has been desecrated. Religious feelings of our faithful, their human dignity and safety have been violated. The letter concludes with an appeal that measures be taken so that nothing similar should ever happen again. This is not the first time that the Serbian Church has appealed to Western leaders to stop the threat to its churches. Since the NATO-led KFOR troops came to the Serbian province of Kosovo after the bombing of Yugoslavia in June 1999, more than 100 Orthodox churches have been damaged or destroyed by Albanian Islamicists in the presence of the 50,000-plus-strong Western military forces. In the April 24 edition of the Belgrade weekly Nedeljni Telegraf, ran a letter written by Karadzic to Kosta Cavoski, a close friend and leading Yugoslav legal authority and Hague opponent, in which he says that he has been earnestly trying to avoid an encounter with the SFOR troops for the past seven years ... and that it would be better if Gen. Sylvester did the same, [for] in that encounter I may not pass very well and would probably pass very badly in the technical sense, but I would certainly be the winner in the moral sense. Sylvester, continues Karadzic, could come out the winner only if we don't meet, that is, if he refuses the role of policeman and bounty hunter. Karadzic also expresses his wonder as to why Gen. Sylvester wants to equate his soldiers with cruel bounty hunters and whether his soldiers' parents know that their children break into houses of our innocent civilians in the middle of the night and frighten our children, who fall unconscious from shock. Referring to the tribunal that is hunting him, Karadzic goes on to ask what kind of court and prosecution is it that first arrests and only then compiles evidence ... which has held our speaker of the House, who has had no role in the executive branch, in detention without trial for two years, further wondering whether such things are allowed in Gen. Sylvester's country. Finally, Karadzic wonders whether President Bush, Gen.
Former Yugoslav Army Chief Dragoljub Ojdanic Sent to The Hague [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Former Yugoslav Army Chief Dragoljub Ojdanic Sent to The Hague Text: Former Yugoslav Army Chief Dragoljub Ojdanic Sent to The Hague (Indicted for crimes during Kosovo war) (610) The former chief of the general staff of the Yugoslav army, Dragoljub Ojdanic, indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), will make his first appearance before the court on April 26. He surrendered April 25 and was immediately transferred to The Hague from Serbia. Ojdanic has been charged on the basis of both individual and superior criminal responsibility for executing "a campaign of terror and violence directed at Kosovo Albanian civilians" between January 1, 1999 and June 20, 1999 in an effort to expel them from the province. Following are ICTY press releases on his transfer and his appearance before the court: (begin text) International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia Press Release JL/P.I.S./672e The Hague, 25 April 2002 TRANSFER OF DRAGOLJUB OJDANIC TO THE HAGUE On 25 April 2002, Dragoljub Ojdanic was transferred from Serbia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), to the Detention Unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Dragoljub Ojdanic is charged in an amended Indictment, confirmed on 29 October 2001. It alleges that, between 1 January 1999 and 20 June 1999, forces of the FRY and Serbia acting at the direction, with the encouragement, or with the support of the four accused, Milan Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic, Vlajko Stojiljkovic and Dragoljub Ojdanic, executed a campaign of terror and violence directed at Kosovo Albanian civilians. At all times relevant to this Indictment, Dragoljub Ojdanic held the post of Chief of General Staff of the Yugoslav Army (VJ). It is alleged that the operations targeting the Kosovo Albanians were undertaken with the objective of expelling a substantial portion of the Kosovo Albanian population from Kosovo in an effort to ensure continued Serbian control over the province. The Indictment goes on to describe a series of well-planned and coordinated operations undertaken by the forces of the FRY and Serbia. Approximately 800,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians were expelled from the province by their forced removal and subsequent looting and destruction of their homes, or by the shelling of villages. Surviving residents were sent to the borders of neighbouring countries. En route, many were killed, abused and had their possessions and identification papers stolen. Furthermore, specific massacres allegedly committed by Serb forces in places such as Dakovica/Gjakovë, Suva Reka/Suharekë, Racak/Reçak, Bela Crkva/Bellacërke, Mala Krusa/Krushë e Vogël, Velika Krusa/Krushë e Madhe, Padaliste/Padalishtë, Izbica/Izbicë, Vucitrn/Vushtrri, Dubrava/Dubravë Prison complex, Meja/Mejë and Kacanik/Kacanik are listed in the Indictment. Charges The Indictment charges Dragoljub Ojdanic, on the basis of individual criminal responsibility (Article 7(1) of the Statute) and superior criminal responsibility (Article 7(3) thereof) with: -- one count of violations of the laws or customs of war (Article 3 of the Statute - murder), -- four counts of crimes against humanity (Article 5 thereof - deportation; murder; persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds; other inhumane acts) The date and time for the initial appearance of Dragoljub Ojdanic will be announced in due course. (end text on transfer) (begin text on court appearance) International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia Press Advisory JL/P.I.S./PA049 The Hague, 25 April 2002 INITIAL APPEARANCE OF DRAGOLJUB OJDANIC TO TAKE PLACE ON FRIDAY 26 APRIL 2002 Please be informed that the initial appearance of Dragoljub Ojdanic will take place on Friday 26 April 2002 at 14.30 in Courtroom I before Judge Patrick Robinson. All media are welcome to attend. For further information please call: 0031 70 512 5343/5356. (end text on court appearance) (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) --- 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 ==^
French Foreign Minister blasts American Jews... [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- French FM: US Jewry more 'intransigent' than SharonBy Herb Keinon In order to pressure Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to show more flexibility, the EU should try to whittle away at American Jewry's support for the prime minister, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said in a closed meeting Monday. In the world according to Vedrine, who as a result of the recent French elections is on his way out of office, Sharon is an obstacle to the peace process bolstered in his intransigence by American Jewry, which Vedrine said is essentially more Sharon than Sharon. These diplomatic insights were shared by Vedrine at a closed meeting with the EU and Mediterranean state foreign ministers in Valencia, Spain, on Monday night. In comments which diplomatic officials who were in attendance said reflected Vedrine's deep frustration with Sharon and the situation here, the French foreign minister said American Jewry - which supports Sharon - is more "intransigent" than the prime minister, and influences the positions of President George Bush. "The Jewish organizations," Vedrine said according to diplomatic officials at the meeting, "have not made the switch toward peace." Referring to Former US Secretary of State James Baker who applied heavy pressure on Israel in the early 1990s, Vedrine said "without Baker's pressure, Oslo would never have come about." Therefore, Vedrine said, "I am not in favor of economic pressure [on Israel], I don't think economic pressure is effective. But political pressure is definitely helpful. The job of the European Union is to strengthen the peace camp in Israel, strengthen the PA, and change US positions." Pierre Lebovics, the spokesman for the French embassy in Tel Aviv, refrained from commenting on Vedrine's words regarding American Jewry, because he had not seen the text of the comments. However, Lebovics said, "I can confirm that my minister is not in favor of economic sanctions." One EU diplomatic official, responding to Vedrine's comments regarding American Jewry, said there is nothing wrong with trying to convince people their direction is wrong. "What is wrong with trying to convince a target group that their attitudes are mistaken or bring negative results. "If Europe is convinced that the solution- a long lasting solution - will only come through restoring a political dialogue, then the next logical step is to convince all the players of this reality," the official said. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, responded to Vedrine's comments about pressuring American Jewry by saying "any effort of that kind would only intensify the resolve of the Jewish community. Our support is not tied to the particular government in power in Israel, the community's record in supporting efforts to achieve a true peace speaks for itself." According to Hoenlein, "change is indeed called for, but on the part of the French government and the EU who need to return to a position of at least objectivity to Israel, rather than the open and blatant hostility that is now being manifested." http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/04/24/News/News.47702.html --- 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 ==^
Egypt ready to wage war on Israel ... for $US100 billion [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Egypt ready to wage war on Israel ... for $US100 billion April 25 2002 Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Ebeid said his country would go to war with Israel if Arab countries stumped up $US100 billion ($A186.32 billion) to pay for the confrontation, in an interview published yesterday. "If you want to undertake an action and be ready to face up to challenges, you need at least $100 billion," he told the Abu Dhabi Government's Al-Ittihad newspaper when asked why Egypt had taken no measures against Israel's military offensive against the Palestinians. "I told you we want $100 billion," he repeated in response to a question why Cairo had not expelled Israel's ambassador to Egypt. "Let the Arab world give $100 billion from Arab funds deposited around the world. Let it say to Egypt: 'This is a budget for confrontation. This budget is at your disposal. Undertake confrontation,' " he said. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Israel yesterday of going "beyond all limits" with its military actions in the West Bank, particularly in Bethlehem and Jenin. Egypt became the first Arab country to make peace with Israel and signed a treaty in 1979. Protesters in Egypt have frequently called for cutting diplomatic ties with Israel and expelling the Israeli ambassador. AFP http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/24/101944126.html --- 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 ==^
YUGO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Yugo rides again http://www.forbes.com/2002/04/23/0423yugo.html http://www.hszk.bme.hu/~oj002/yugo/novyugo.jpg http://www.hszk.bme.hu/~oj002/yugo/studija3.jpg http://www.hszk.bme.hu/~oj002/yugo/flsedan-1.jpg http://www.hszk.bme.hu/~oj002/yugo/flsedan4.jpg --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Greek rescue team denied entry to Jenin [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Greek rescue team denied entry to Jenin By Amira Hass, Ha'aretz Correspondent and agencies Israel is preventing a Greek team made up of 34 earthquake rescue experts from coming to Israel to help salvage bodies from beneath the ruins in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian and Greek sources have confirmed to Ha'aretz. Queried on the issue, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said, "Israel does not prevent humanitarian aid. We are aware of the problem and it is being handled by the relevant authorities." A plane loaded with equipment has been delayed for two days at the Athens airport since the Foreign Ministry informed the Greek embassy that "there is no need for such a team." Greek sources told Ha'aretz that Greek diplomats had told their Israeli counterparts that the question of whether the team was needed or not, could only be determined on site. Palestinian officials praised the Greek initiative and have said they eagerly anticipate the team's arrival. Reports of people missing are still coming in from the refugee camp as well as reports of children sustaining injuries from explosive devices left strewn amongst the camp's ruins. Residents of the camp are now blaming the IDF bomb sappers, saying they have left the camp without completing their job. Russia to send humanitarian aid to Palestinian territories MOSCOW - Russia is sending humanitarian aid and emergency workers to the Middle East on Wednesday to assist Palestinians in the wake of Israel's military operations in Palestinian territories, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. A ministry spokeswoman said a group of experts, along with humanitarian cargo, would fly to Amman, Jordan, from Moscow on Wednesday afternoon. Deputy Minister Yuri Brazhnikov said Wednesday's shipment would include 20 metric tons of food, 1,000 blankets and 30 three-person tents, according to the Interfax news agency. "After the situation in Palestine is assessed, a mobile hospital and necessary specialists of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry are expected to be sent to the region," Brazhnikov was quoted as saying. Tentatively, the ministry group is to work in Jenin and other cities controlled by the Palestinian Authority, he said. Brazhnikov said Russia had reached an agreement with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the assistance. While Russia is officially a co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process along with the United States, Moscow has taken a much less active role in trying to broker a political solution to the conflict. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
UN agrees to postpone fact-finding mission by a few days- Jerusalem Post [WWW.ST
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- UN agrees to postpone fact-finding mission by a few daysBy Herb Keinon and Nina Gilbert In a surprise turnaround, Israel decided Tuesday night to "postpone" its agreement to cooperate with the UN fact-finding mission, with one diplomatic official saying Israel was afraid of being "set-up." The decision was made after consultations Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held in his office with Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and representatives from the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry who are preparing Israel's case. According to a senior diplomatic official, Israel received intelligence information the Palestinian Authority was busy setting the stage in Jenin to "cook up" evidence for the fact-finding committee "proving" a massacre had taken place. Israel, furthermore, received no assurances its representatives would be allowed into the camp to present their arguments. The official reason for the decision was that UN General-Secretary Kofi Annan had changed the fact-finding mission's terms of reference from strictly fact-finding to something more expansive. Israel is concerned, the official said, the committee will go beyond investigating what happened in Jenin to a wider probe that Israel never agreed to, and which could lead to a recommendation to Annan to set up an investigative committee or to dispatch of international observers. "The composition of the committee was done without our consultation or agreement," the official said. "We are a sovereign country and don't have to accept these types of dictates." Israel, according to this official, is also unhappy three of the four members of the committee are political officials, not military officers able to go to a battlefield and - in a detached manner - discern what happened. "It is better for us to suffer a few bad days of publicity now, rather than have to live with the consequences of a biased report later on," the official said. Earlier in the day, Sharon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee he would accept the fact-finding committee because it was the "lesser of evils." He said the US made it clear it would not veto a Security Council resolution for a commission of inquiry, and that the fact-finding mission was preferable to such a commission. Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker, one of the members of the team, said earlier in the day that although Israel expected to be consulted before the committee was appointed, it did not object to the fact-finders. "All the members of the team are respected professionals who have a proven track record in the international community," Baker said. "We trust their objectivity and professionalism." Baker vehemently denied reports that one of the members of the team, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross Cornelio Sommaruga, is anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote an article two years ago on the controversy regarding keeping Magen David Adom out of the ICRC because the Star of David is not a recognized symbol. Krauthammer quoted Sommaruga as saying, "If we're going to have the Shield of David, why would we not have to accept the swastika?" Baker, who was present at the time of the remarks, said that using this comment to allegedly show an anti-Jewish bias on Sommaruga's part "is a vile manipulation of something said in a different context." "I know the context because I was there," Baker said. "When we were talking about adding additional emblems in the Red Cross movement, Sommaruga remembered that the old historic Indian symbol of the swastika, before it was used by the Nazis, was proposed as a humanitarian red cross symbol. To take it out of context as something he said - in an anti-Semitic context - is vile, manipulative, and destructive." Mordechai Yedid, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director-general in charge of UN and international organizations, said Sommaruga was behind a compromise that would have allowed Israel to join the organization in 2000 - but that meeting was postponed after the current violence broke out, and has not yet been rescheduled. At the same time, other diplomatic officials said Israel's relations with the ICRC hit an all-time low when Sommaruga was its head - largely over allegations of torture of security prisoners. These relations improved, however, after a meeting Sommaruga had with then-Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon. One of the other members of the fact-finding committee, Sadako Ogata, the former UN high commissioner for refugees, received an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University two years ago. In her speech, Ogata said: "Israel is a country rooted in history's worst tragedies of forced human displacement, and millions of refugees owe their tragic plights to the Holocaust. The Jewish people have behind them hundreds of years of
News, 24.4.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News April 24th, 2001, 16:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Germany's Terror Fight Yields Results Germany shows it's getting tougher on terror at home with a nationwide sweep that netted 11 suspected members of a Palestinian organization. Prosecutors believe they were planning attacks in Germany. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_504643_1_A,00.html -- Quake kills one and topples mosque tower in Kosovo An earthquake measuring 5.3 on Richter scale has jolted the Balkans. In the town of Gnjilane, a mosque tower toppled, killing at least one person. Telephone and electrical services have been disrupted throughout Kosovo where NATO-led peacekeepers said at least 35 people were injured. The tremor caused tall buildings to sway in the Macedonian capital Skopje. The tremor was felt as far away as the Bulgarian capital Sofia. It was also felt in Skopje, Belgrade and Montenegro. The epic centre was in northeastern Macedonia close to the border with Kosovo. UN Fact Finding Commission Could Get New Members The United Nations has agreed to consider appointing new members to a commission that is to investigate alleged atrocities by the Israeli army in the Jenin refugee camp. Late Tuesday, Israel threatened to suspend co-operation with the inquiry, complaining no military or counter-terrorism experts had been appointed to the panel. Early Wednesday, three of the four people appointed to the commission arrived in Geneva, Switzerland for preliminary meetings. Former Finnish President Marrti Ahtisaari is to lead the UN fact finding mission. MIDEAST-CHURCH-TALKS Israeli and Palestinian negotiators continue a second day of talks on Wednesday to try to resolve the three-week-old standoff between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. At the same time just a few kilometers down the road, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana met with Palestinian President Yassar Arafat at his besieged compound in Ramallah. As yet there is no word from either meeting if progress is being made. Mr. Solana will also meet with Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Elieser and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon later this evening. Suspected Terrorist arraigned in Germany as Dutch Police arrest 4 others Otto Schily, the German federal interior minister has warned of possible terror attacks in Germany. His warning came one day after raids in 5 states netted 11 members of the Sunni Palestinian al-Tawhid organization who are suspected of plotting terrorist activities. Most of the 11 suspects were arraigned in court on Wednesday. In Holland, Dutch police have arrested 4 Algerians suspected to be members of an Islamic militant group. Five others were briefly detained but have been released. The four are believed to be members of a splinter group of the Islamic Army. The group known as the Groupe Salafsite pour la Prediction et le Combat (GPSC)has declared a jihad or holy war against the enemies of Islam. UK Police Arrest 16 Paedphiles Scotland Yard has successfully smashed a major child pornography operation in the United Kingdom. 34 police forces simultaneously raided 75 locations throughout the UK early Tuesday. At least 16 people have been arrested including a 15 year old, and a large amount of computer equipment had been seized for examination. The operation codenamed Magenta used specialized equipment to trace people who had entered child porn chat rooms anonymously. Detectives expect to make further arrests as the content of computer hard drives are examined. Caspian Summit Ends Without Agreement The five leaders of states surrounding the Caspian Sea were unable to agree on how to divide the sea and its rich oil and gas reserves despite a year's planning and two days of talks. The 5 states have sharp differences on how to divide the sea, including the water itself and so the fishery rights and hydrocarbon reserves beneath it. Currently the Caspian is governed by agreements between the Soviet Union and Iran that date back to 1970. Observers said the meeting appeared to highlight rather than overcome the differences between Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Iran. Czech Parliament Retains Benes Decree The Czech parliament has voted almost unanimously to leave untouched the so-called Benes Decree used to expel three million ethnic Germans from the-then Czechoslovakia when World War II ended. Germany, and Austria, had
Shadows of the Past [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Balkan Expressby Nebojsa MalicAntiwar.com April 18, 2002 Shadows of the PastDreadful Fallout of Empire's Balkans Policies For over a decade, the Empire and its vassals have gradually imposed themselves into the lives and lands of people in the Balkans, almost always to those peoples' detriment. In the process, they have torn down many pillars of civilization, law and common decency, all in the name of help, human rights and humanitarianism. Whether they did so as actual masters of malice, or mere fools who thought they could use the power of Tolkien's metaphorical Ring for good, now hardly seems to matter. For all power exacts a price, and absolute power most of all. Resignations The Dutch government collapsed this Tuesday, following the publication of a report that analyzed the role of Dutch troops in one of the most controversial episodes of the Bosnian War. A government-established commission concluded, after a five-year investigation, that the tragedy of Srebrenica was not so cut-and-dry as is still widely believed in the West. The resulting outrage compelled the government to resign, and on Wednesday, the Army Chief of Staff resigned as well. There are many interesting things about the 7000-page report. Apparently, it says that there has been no evidence of Slobodan Milosevic's involvement with Srebrenica, corroborating what Milosevic has said to the Hague Inquisition. Nor does it blame Radovan Karadzic, wartime leader of the Bosnian Serb Republic. Another largely under-reported point was the activity of Bosnian Muslim troops in the supposedly demilitarized enclave. Judging by the outrage of defenders of Official Truth, the report could even be casting some unwelcome light on the accepted assertion that some 8000 Muslim civilians were killed in cold blood, which the Hague Inquisition has already declared a genocide. It so happens that the Dutch have been one of Empire's most eager vassals in the Balkans interventions, especially the NATO attack on Serbia. As General Michael Short told the US Congress in October 1999, they were "small dogs [who wanted to] have a seat at the table." Unfortunately, the bitter experience of Bosnia is unlikely to urge Empire's lapdogs to re-think the policy of blind obedience. The Bosnia Blowback Dutch actions (or lack thereof) in Srebrenica are just the tip of the Bosnia iceberg, though. For years, the Serbs clamored about the substantial presence of Muslim radicals in Bosnia. Since they were considered demons, though, hardly anyone was inclined to listen even when the said radicals tried to blow up the Pope (see April 11-12) in 1997. Now, however, Bosnia's NATO occupiers are "finding" Islamic terrorists everywhere. Three former Muslim intelligence officials were even indicted by the new government over their involvement with Iranian terrorist operations in Bosnia during 1995/96. Now even the most popular US military newspaper writes about Osama Bin Laden's ties with the Bosnian mujahedin, and the threat which this represents to the US military. The same article says the US turned a blind eye (and nothing more?) when Iran sent weapons, money and men to Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the war, while possible violations of the arms embargo to the region were discussed by none other than the infamous General Wesley K. Clark, the "hero" of Kosovo. To think the Imperial air force bombed Serbian TV for saying much less! Law of Submission Nor is Bosnia the only Imperial intervention causing major tremors in the fabric of world sanity. Claiming to be under heavy US pressure, Serbia's ruling hydra approved a bill last week regulating the extradition of Serbian and Yugoslav (while it still exists) citizens to the Hague Inquisition, based on its indictments for "war crimes" in Kosovo. The full text of the bill was published in Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti (in Serbian), just before it was voted into law. There are many problems with the ICTY Cooperation Act. It is unconstitutional, it gives undeserved legitimacy to the Hague Inquisition, and it is just plain atrocious as to the degree of power it gives to the Inquisitors inside Serbia. Such powers most closely resemble those demanded by Austria-Hungary in 1914, in one of the classical examples of Imperial blowback*. Yet according to this Empire's eager servants, even that is not submissive enough. In response, the former minister of Internal Affairs shocked the nation by committing public suicide in front of the Parliament. Former Army Chief of Staff, however, said surrender was his "duty" and "legal obligation." The Djindjic regime wholeheartedly agreed, and promised to extradite all those currently wanted by the Inquisition before May 1. Such groveling of a nominally sovereign country before an emphatically illegal and illegitimate institution set up by the Empire should be
'I WAS IN HELL' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- 'I WAS IN HELL'His torturers beat him mercilessly, tied his hands and fastened the rope to a horse pulling him around until he fainted, then they gathered horse urine in a pot and made him drink In early July last year, on the road from Tetovo to the village of Neproshteno, a group of armed Albanians kidnapped a 30-year-old Macedonian from Neproshteno who was on his way home. He was ransomed by his father after around 20 hours of torture. Media reported scant information about this abduction as one case in the long series of kidnappings in the west of Macedonia where war was going on. Nine months later, the man told his story about lost moral values, about life and survival and the terrible ordeal he went through as prisoner of the self-styled fighters for human rights. It was about 6.30 p.m. when I drove into the village. I was within 200 meters from my house when I noticed the road was blocked, as a group of around 150 armed men in uniforms with UCK insignias appeared all around. No sooner had I tried to turn around and drive back that a Lada Niva with three UCK members emerged behind me. They were probably members of their military police. With a gun poked in my neck they took me to the group, searched me and when they saw I wasnt armed we set off for Poroj first and then for Drenovec 2 where their headquarters was. At gunpoint they made me phone my family and tell them I was in a field in the middle of a shootout and that Id come back as soon as I could. They didnt blindfold my eyes and I could recognize a lot of familiar faces among them. There they beat me and threatened me and then at around 10 p.m. we took off for the village of Germo. They talked all along that it was not up to them to decide what to do with me, our superiors will have the final say, they explained. This is how the story of the kidnapped man goes. He didnt want to reveal his identity because, as he said, he was protecting his family that had already gone through a lot of uncertainty, fear and agony. In Germo, it was like being in hell for him. They closed him in a stable with two horses inside, blindfolded his eyes and started questioning him. My father, before he retired, worked in the police, in the drugs department. They asked me if Minister Boshkovski and I were relatives. One of them said: I know your father, he didnt beat me, but were going to beat you as much as police beat me. I found out later that he was a murderer who had shot a man dead with a rifle. They tied me to a post with my hands at the back, and they also tied my neck.. I couldnt move, otherwise I would have strangled myself. I didnt know how much time had passed when a man came in and spoke. I realized by his voice that he was from Neproshteno, we drank coffee once together. He took pity on me, threw a blanket over my back and gave me a glass of water. The following day, many of them came. They kept kicking me and hitting me with hoes, sticks and other objects they found at hand. At times, they splashed buckets of water onto my face to make me come around and then the beating went on. After a while they untied me, gave me cigarette and made me write a biography about my family and me. But this was not the end of his suffering. His torturers beat him mercilessly, tied his hands again and fastened the rope to a horse pulling him around until he fainted, then they gathered horse urine in a pot and made him drink dipping his head inside. They even made him eat horse droppings. I know most of those who tortured me. I didnt know until then that a man can be so tough to endure pains that not even animals can stand. After they had enough and got tired of their own brutality, they pulled me again down on my knees and tied me. I remained in that position until 12.30 when a man I knew entered the stable asking me what ministers I worked for. He knocked the stuffing out of me, spat at me and left. An hour later, one commander Avzi came and told me they were going to let me go. I didnt believe him, but he ordered the guard to untie me, and then he stood me up and took me to a Lada Niva. A villager passed by. He was an elderly Albanian who knew my father. The only words he uttered were: This is insane, and he handed me a cigarette. I was to be turned over to others in Poroj, they told me. They also warned me I was not to tell anything to anybody and that if necessary I should turn for medical help to doctors on duty or called them in at home. They gave me back some of my belongings and IDs and took me to the Sutjesa patrol station. Another Albanian took charge of me there. He drove me to Tetovo where my parents had been waiting for me. It turned out that my father knew all along I was kidnapped and paid ransom to save my life. He refuses to talk of that even today, the young man resumed his story ridden with emotions and a lot of pride
