Asia-Pacific
Afghanistan
NYT
17 July 2005 Afghan Tribal Chief Killed By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KABUL, Afghanistan,
July 16 (AP) - Gunmen suspected of being Taliban kidnapped and hanged a pro-government
tribal leader in southern Afghanistan, an official said Saturday. The leader,
Agha Jan, was kidnapped Thursday with his two sons, brother and two nephews from
his home in southern Zabul Province, said the local police chief, Gul Habib Jan.
Agha Jan's relatives were freed unharmed, but the tribal chief's body was found
on Friday. The police chief described him as a "strong supporter" of President
Hamid Karzai. Dozens of prominent supporters of Mr. Karzai's American-backed
administration, and more than 700 other people, have been killed since March.
Amnesty
UK18 July 2005 Zardad conviction: Major step forward in fight against torture
Responding to today’s news (18 July) that a British court has found the Afghan
national Faryadi Zardad guilty of torture and hostage-taking in Afghanistan, Amnesty
International has hailed the case as an important development in the international
fight against torture. Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: “This
prosecution is a major step forward in the international fight against torture
and the UK authorities should be congratulated for bringing this man to justice.
“This case strengthens the legal principle that torture is an international crime
and that there is no hiding place for torturers around the world. “It sends out
the message that torture is a vile crime and there should be no safe havens for
torturers.” A jury at the Old Bailey found Zardad guilty earlier today after
hearing evidence of numerous incidents of summary execution and hostage-taking
in Afghanistan between 1991-96 when Zardad’s armed group controlled a road between
the Afghan capital Kabul and the city of Jalalabad. Amnesty International
has consistently called on all governments to prosecute in cases of suspected
torture if prosecutions could not realistically be secured in countries where
alleged offences have taken place. Background Zardad’s trial was brought under
the legal principle of ‘universal jurisdiction’, where international crimes are
tried in a country other than where offences took place. The Zardad case was only
the second trial in the UK ever brought in this fashion. The other occurred in
1999, when Anthony (Andrzej) Sawoniuk was convicted under the War Crimes Act 1991
of war crimes during the Second World War and sentenced to life in prison. Prior
to today’s judgment, all efforts to prosecute persons in Britain for crimes under
international law have been unsuccessful. Prior to Sawoniuk’s case, only one
of hundreds of suspected Nazi war criminals living in Britain was prosecuted,
and that prosecution was ended on medical grounds. None of the other efforts,
such as the five attempts to prosecute former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet
when he was detained in London pending a decision on extradition requests from
four countries in 1998 and 1999, were successful. In one case, that of Tharcisse
Muvunyi, a Rwandan, the police investigation of his alleged role in killings and
torture in Rwanda did not result in a determination whether to charge him or not.
The investigation ended with his transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda, where he was convicted of these crimes. In addition there has been
an attempt in the Scottish courts to prosecute a Sudanese doctor for torture in
Sudan but the prosecution abandoned that attempt on grounds of “insufficient evidence.”
Cambodia
-
China
washingtonpost.com
13 July 2005 Big Shift in China's Oil Policy With Iraq Deal Dissolved by War,
Beijing Looks Elsewhere By Peter S. Goodman Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday,
July 13, 2005; D01 SHANGHAI -- Until recently, China's view of the global energy
map focused narrowly on the Middle East, which holds roughly two-thirds of the
world's oil. Special attention was directed toward one well-supplied country:
Iraq. Through cultivation of Saddam Hussein's government, China sought to develop
some of Iraq's more promising reserves. Beijing advocated lifting the United Nations
sanctions that prevented investment in Iraq's oil patch and limited sales of its
production. Then the United States went to war in Iraq in 2003, wiping out China's
stakes. The war and its aftermath have reshaped China's basic conception of the
geopolitics of oil and added urgency to its mission to lessen dependence on Middle
East supplies. It has reinforced China's fears that it is locked in a zero-sum
contest for energy with the world's lone superpower, prompting Beijing to intensify
its search for new sources, international relations and energy experts say. As
a vocal camp in Congress recoils at the prospect of a Chinese state-owned company,
Cnooc Ltd., taking control of the California-based Unocal Corp., the Bush administration's
decision to wage the war in Iraq stands out as a crucial factor in explaining
how China came to scour the earth for energy and why the effort is likely to remain
central to U.S.-Chinese relations for some time, those analysts say. "Iraq changed
the government's thinking," said Pan Rui, an international relations expert at
Fudan University in Shanghai. "The Middle East is China's largest source of oil.
America is now pursuing a grand strategy, the pursuit of American hegemony in
the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is the number one oil producer, and Iraq is number
two [in terms of reserves]. Now, the United States has direct influence in both
countries." Many other factors help explain China's motives in dispatching its
energy companies abroad for new stocks. Oil demand is exploding in China as people
embrace automobiles and as factories, apartment towers and office buildings proliferate.
For the third summer in a row, China is rationing energy, limiting production
in industrial areas. In little more than a decade, China has changed from a net
exporter of oil into the world's second-largest importer, trailing only the United
States. Concern is mounting about future prospects for China's domestic oil production,
which supplies about two-thirds of the country's crude oil needs. China's government
estimates that it will need 600 million tons of crude oil a year by 2020, more
than triple its expected output. Worldwide, the best oil fields are already claimed.
For the United States, Europe and Japan, the oil shocks of the 1970s supplied
the lessons that have shaped their thinking about energy. China is a latecomer
to the vagaries of the global energy business. It is grappling with how to manage
dramatic growth and soaring demand for energy at the same time it confronts the
implications of interventionist U.S. foreign policy. "Many people argue that oil
interests are the driving force behind the Iraq war," said Zhu Feng, a security
expert at Beijing University. "For China, it has been a reminder and a warning
about how geopolitical changes can affect its own energy interests. So China has
decided to focus much more intently to address its security." Throughout China's
modern history, and particularly under Communist Party rule, the country's leaders
have sought self-sufficiency -- a drive fueled by nationalist pride and the experience
of colonialism, which fed notions that the outside world wants to prevent China's
rise as a great power. Under the rule of Mao Zedong, China -- under the banner
of fending for itself -- focused on oil production in its northeast, near the
city of Daqing. The government's current push to secure foreign oil fields is
driven by worries that there may one day be too little oil to meet worldwide demand
and that foreign powers -- in particular the United States -- will choke China.
"If the world oil stocks were exceeded by growth, who would provide energy to
China?" said Shen Dingli, an international relations expert at Fudan University,
who advises the government on security policy. "America would protect its own
energy supply. The U.S. is China's major competitor." Such fears involve Taiwan,
the self-governing island claimed by China. The United States has pledged to help
Taiwan should China attack. Officials in Beijing envision being cut off from energy
supplies by the U.S. Navy in the event of war. Many energy experts say owning
oil fields provides no real energy security. It does not cushion against a rising
cost of energy because no one country is large enough to determine the market
price. Neither does it ensure access, because getting oil where it is needed depends
largely upon shipping lanes policed by the U.S. Navy. "There's an illusion that
ownership ensures either volume or price," said William H. Overholt, director
of the Rand Center for Asia-Pacific Policy in Santa Monica, Calif. "Oil is an
internationally traded commodity. The key is having secure lines of supply from
the Middle East." Even the chairman of Cnooc asserted in an interview that buying
foreign oil fields would give China additional security, dismissing the notion
that anything other than commercial interest motivates his company's $18.5 billion
bid for Unocal. "In today's world, as long as you have money, you can buy oil
from anywhere," Fu Chengyu said. Fu maintained that Cnooc's interest in Unocal
is purely commercial. The Chinese company is eager to have Unocal's substantial
oil and gas reserves in Southeast Asia to help feed the liquid-natural-gas terminals
it is developing in coastal China. For China's leaders, however, buying foreign
oil and gas fields in the name of energy security has become a central mission.
Throughout the 1990s, China made deals to lock in long-term supplies and buy installations
from Africa to Latin America. In 2002, Cnooc became the largest offshore oil producer
in Indonesia when it bought a field from the Spanish firm Repsol YPF SA. The Iraq
war substantially intensified the foreign push. Most immediately, it destroyed
China's hopes of developing large assets in Iraq. China had been waiting for the
end of sanctions to begin work on the Al-Ahdab field in central Iraq, under a
$1.3 billion contract signed in 1997 by its largest state-owned firm, China National
Petroleum Corp. The field's production potential has been estimated at 90,000
barrels a day. China was also pursuing rights to a far bigger prize -- the Halfayah
field, which could produce 300,000 barrels a day. Together, those two fields might
have delivered quantities equivalent to 13 percent of China's current domestic
production. But the larger impact of the war was on China's understanding of the
rules of the global energy game. "The turning point in China's energy strategy
was the Iraq war," said Tong Lixia, an energy expert at the Chinese Academy of
International Trade and Economic Cooperation, which is affiliated with China's
Commerce Ministry. "After 2003, both the companies and the government realized
China could not rely on one or two oil production areas. It's too risky." This
year, China began work on a strategic oil reserve in coastal Zhejiang province
that would allow the country to operate without imports for as long as three months.
But the biggest emphasis has been on securing new stocks abroad, particularly
in neighboring countries such as Kazakhstan and Russia, to limit dependence on
shipping lanes. China National Petroleum Corp. led the way. Since 2003, the company
has signed 20 contracts to explore or purchase production facilities in 12 countries,
including Peru, Tunisia, Azerbaijan and Mauritania. In 2004, the company's production
of natural gas at overseas facilities nearly doubled from the previous year. Its
overseas oil production climbed by a fifth. Late last year, President Hu Jintao
said Chinese companies would invest $5 billion in oil projects in Argentina. So
far, however, China's foreign campaign has delivered more lessons in the difficulties
of the energy business than energy itself. In June 2003, Beijing hailed a $150
billion agreement with Russia to tap fields in Siberia and send the oil through
a new pipeline to China. The project was to supply as much as one-third of China's
needed imports by 2030. But that deal appeared to disintegrate when the Russian
signatory, Yukos Oil Co., fell into disarray last year after its chief founder
was jailed on tax-evasion charges. Japan appears poised to capture the Siberian
oil with a promise of at least $6 billion to develop the fields, though recent
indications are that Beijing is putting together an even more generous package
to bring the project back, according to an adviser to the government. With
so much competition for assets, China has pursued deals with international pariah
states that are off-limits to Western oil companies because of sanctions, security
concerns or the threat of bad publicity. China National Petroleum is the largest
shareholder in a consortium running much of the oil patch in Sudan, a country
accused by the United States of genocide in its western region of Darfur. Last
year, China signed a $70 billion oil and gas purchase agreement with Iran, undercutting
efforts by the United States and Europe to isolate Teheran and force it to give
up plans for nuclear weapons. If Cnooc acquires Unocal, it would have gas fields
and a pipeline in Burma, whose operation by the U.S. company has been criticized
by human-rights groups. "No matter if it's rogue's oil or a friend's oil,
we don't care," said an energy adviser to the central government who spoke on
the condition he not be identified, citing the threat of government disciplinary
action. "Human rights? We don't care. We care about oil. Whether Iran would
have nuclear weapons or not is not our business. America cares, but Iran is not
our neighbor. Anyone who helps China with energy is a friend." Special
correspondents Eva Woo and Jason Cai contributed to this report.
CRIENGLISH.com
20 July 2005 Evidence of Nanjing Massacre Kept by U.S. Missionary On Display
Over 100 pieces of valued documents, preserved from the Nanjing Massacre,
have begun being displayed in Memorial Hall of Victims. (Minnie Vautrin with her
collegues at Ginling's College for Women) Over 100 pieces of valued documents,
preserved from the Nanjing Massacre, have begun being displayed in the Memorial
Hall of the Victims on Wednesday in Nanjing. These documents were shown for the
first time in China by the granddaughter of Minnie Vautrin, including photos,
letters, passports and armbands that belonged to Minnie Vautrin. Minnie Vautrin
was born in 1886 in the United States. She came to China in 1912 as a missionary.
Then she became president of Ginling's College for Women in Nanjing in 1919. On
December 13, 1937, the Japanese army conquered Nanking, Vautrin bravely turned
Ginling into a safety zone with 20 other foreigners, placing over 10,000 Chinese
children and women under their protection. The pictures and diary kept by Vautrin
during the massacre has proven the atrocities committed by the Japanese army.
Part of these documents will be displayed in August in Beijing.
BBC
21 Jul, 2005 Chinese riot farmers regain land Footage of the riot Chinese farmers
have won a dispute over land rights which culminated in a bloody riot last month
in the northern province of Hebei, state media says. The June clashes, in which
six people died, were filmed by a local and given widespread publicity abroad.
Farmers in Shengyou village, northern Hebei province, were angry they had not
been compensated for land proposed for a power plant's ash storage yard. Now,
the yard will be built in a place where it will take less arable land. "[Because]
Shengyou village, the originally proposed site of the power plant's ash storage
yard, has a big population but relatively little land, the Hebei provincial government...
has now made a decision not to requisition land from that village," Xinhua state
news agency reported. Dramatic footage handed to The Washington Post in June showed
local farmers fighting a pitched battle with dozens of unidentified men wearing
camouflage gear and construction helmets wielding hunting rifles and clubs. Arrests
Police have since arrested 31 people and detained another 131 involved in the
incident, Xinhua said. Violent disputes like this one are common in China, where
competition for useable land is fierce. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported
that farmers in eastern Zhejiang province had forced a pharmaceutical plant to
halt activity in a row over pollution. A factory official told the Associated
Press news agency that government officials were negotiating with the farmers.
The eviction of local people to make way for new developments is becoming one
of the country's sharpest social issues, says a BBC correspondent in Beijing,
Daniel Griffiths.
Guam
www.kuam.com
19 July 2005 Ceremony held to remember Fena massacre 61 years ago by Sabrina Salas
Matanane, KUAM News A solemn ceremony for the 61st anniversary of the Fena
massacre was commemorated today at Ga'an Point in Agat. World War II for many
is a black-and-white war, meaning you only knew what was shown on television in
those rather non-descript colors. But for the survivors, such as those of the
massacre, they remember the war in full color - mainly red. 61 years ago on July
23, 33 young men and women from the villages of Agat and Sumay were massacred
by Japanese troops who invaded Guam during World War II. Stories from survivors
like Tan Chong San Nicolas are devastating - she was just eight years old when
the Japanese lied to she and her family in order to march them to their deaths.
She says they were taken to a nearby cave where they were told to rest before
reporting for an important job in the morning. But that night, while resting peacefully,
nearly everyone in the cave was massacred. "When we went there we were told to
rest in the cave, and then at midnight or some time after midnight they came into
the cave and began killing, you know," she recalled. Art Toves was another survivor
who was so choked up he could barely compose himself for on-camera interview.
"Believe me, it was something I don't even share with my children. But what I
did say that I experienced was coming from my heart," he explained. He explained
that he was a mere teenager when the Japanese ordered him to dig two graves in
Agat before having to bury them. He watched in terror as the Japanese shot and
beheaded his very own relatives. Senator Mike Cruz (D) attended the ceremony in
support of his grandmother and uncles who were murdered during the Fena massacre.
To his shock just today, he learned that it was Mr. Toves who literally dug the
graves for his family. KUAM's Sonya Artero contributed to this report .
India
-
Indonesia
BBC
17 July 2005 Indonesia agrees Aceh peace deal The conflict in Aceh has gone on
for 30 years The Indonesian government and rebels from the province of Aceh
have agreed a deal to end a 30-year-old insurgency. Indonesian Communications
Minister Sofyan Djalil made the announcement in the Finish capital Helsinki where
the talks are being held. But confusing messages have been given by the government
in Jakarta, says our correspondent there, Rachel Harvey. It is not clear if Jakarta
has agreed to allow rebels to form their own political parties - a sticking point.
The talks began after the tsunami that killed at least 120,000 people in Aceh.
The differences have been ironed out Sofyan Djalil Indonesian Communications Minister
A deal will facilitate the delivery of international reconstruction aid to
the province - which was worst hit by December's tsunami. About 15,000 people
have died in the three decades-old conflict. A previous peace deal broke down
in May 2003 amid bitter recriminations. Unclear messages The meeting, brokered
by Finnish mediators, had been deadlocked over the issue of political representation.
The Free Aceh Movement (Gam) - which has given up its demands for independence
for the province - had insisted on being allowed to form its own political party.
Negotiators had rejected a proposal that would allow them to field candidates
within existing political parties, demanding instead that it be allowed to form
its own political party. ACEH: ESSENTIAL FACTS Located on the northern tip of
Sumatra island Population of 4.3m people Rich fuel resources, including oil and
natural gas Gam rebels have been fighting for an independent state The compromise
was sent to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Saturday. "The differences
have been ironed out," Mr Djalil said in Helsinki. "The president has agreed to
the draft submitted by GAM about political parties." However, in Jakarta, the
president said he would not agree to the rebels' demand "in an easy way". Our
correspondent says it is not clear what he meant. The two sides are scheduled
to unveil details in Helsinki later on Sunday.
Iraq
UPI16
July 2005 Iraqi president supports Kirkuk proposal BAGHDAD, July 16 (UPI) -- Iraq's
interim President Jalal Talabani supports a proposal to resolve a dispute over
the ethnic identity of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Talabani recently met
with an Arab delegation from the northern city and blessed a proposal to allow
all ethnic residents originating from Kirkuk to return to their hometown. An official
statement said the president stressed finding a just solution to the issue of
Kirkuk that would "consolidate Arab-Kurdish brotherly links." The Arab delegation
from Kirkuk, where Arabs, Kurds and ethnic Turkmen have lived for hundreds of
years, suggested all Arab Iraqis who moved to Kirkuk during the Saddam Hussein
regime be allowed to remain there if they choose and to allow all the residents
who left to return, regardless of their ethnic background. Talabani, a Kurd, reportedly
insisted Kurds did not want to expel the Arabs from Kirkuk, "but at the same time
they oppose the policy of ethnic cleansing and changing the demographic reality"
of the city. The Kurds have demanded Kirkuk become part of the autonomous Kurdish
region in northern Iraq, but the Arabs and Turkmen say the Kurds had never been
a majority.
July 16, 2005 No Date yet
for Saddam Hussein's Trial - Court By REUTERS Filed at 8:23 a.m. ET BAGHDAD (Reuters)
- Iraqi prosecutors are close to completing investigations into some accusations
against Saddam Hussein but no date has been set for the ousted leader's trial,
an official in the tribunal that will try him said on Saturday. ``The investigation
is continuing. When we finish the investigation we will send it to the chief judge
who will decide a time,'' the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
``Some of the cases are close to being finished. There are always new twists in
the investigations that could lead to new investigations which will take more
time.'' Some media reports have said the toppled Iraqi dictator could stand trial
in the next two months, but the official said: ``These are just predictions and
we are not responsible for such statements.'' Iraqis saw Saddam on camera for
the first time in a year in June, apparently being questioned by a judge about
killings of Shi'ite villagers after an attempt on his life in the village of Dujail
in 1982. Government officials have said the Dujail incident could provide a test
case for a swift trial. The tribunal official said that an investigation into
the Dujail accusations is close to completion. A government source has told Reuters
that prosecutors believe they can build a strong test case for Saddam's personal
role at Dujail, possibly based on testimony from a half-brother and the former
vice-president, accelerating the trial process. The Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government
has said it wants to try Saddam for his life within months -- before an election
due in December. U.S. and international demands that a trial should be fair and
fully prepared suggest that timetable is improbable. Iraqi officials believe trying
Saddam and some of his most feared aides will help defuse an Arab Sunni insurgency
led by former army officers and intelligence agents in his Baath Party. But similar
predictions after his capture in December 2003 and his first court appearance
a year ago failed to come true. A guerrilla campaign dominated by Saddam loyalists
which also includes foreign fighters from other Arab states shows few signs of
weakening. Proving guilt for genocide and crimes against humanity in broader cases,
such as the suppression of Shi'ite and Kurdish uprisings -- part of a list of
accusations -- may take much longer than the Dujail case. The prosecution will
allege the killings were reprisals for a gun attack on Saddam's motorcade as it
passed through Dujail, 60 km north of Baghdad, in July 1982. U.S. forces guard
Saddam and his aides at a base near Baghdad. Saddam questions the tribunal's authority
and his complaints of ``victor's justice'' strike a chord with fellow Sunni Arabs.
But many Iraqis want a quick death sentence.
BBC 16 July 2005 Many killed in Iraq suicide bomb At least 58 people have been
killed in a suicide bomb attack in the town of Musayyib, some 60 km (40 miles)
south of Baghdad. Police told the BBC the bomber blew himself up near a mosque.
The blast caused a nearby fuel tanker to explode. At least another 80 people
are said to have been injured. The blast, the worst single attack in over two
months, follows a week of violence in which 100 were killed in 16 suicide attacks
in Baghdad. On Friday alone, 10 suicide bombers blew themselves up in a wave of
attacks across the city. In a statement posted on the internet afterwards, the
militant group al-Qaeda in Iraq said their leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had urged
them to intensify their attacks. Earlier on Saturday, three British soldiers were
killed by a roadside bomb in central Amarah, south-east Iraq. Mixed town Musayyib
is a mixed town near Kerbala where the majority of the population is Shia. MAJOR
RECENT ATTACKS 15 July: Suicide bombs kill 16 13 July: Bomb kills 26 children
10 July: 20 army recruits killed 26 June: 35 die in Mosul attack 25 June: Suicide
attacks kill 23 20 June: Several attacks, 31 dead 2 June: Multiple bombs kill
24 30 May: 27 dead in Hilla 11 May: 70 dead in Tikrit, Hawija 4 May: Irbil bombing
kills 60 There have been bombings there in the past, but nothing on this scale,
says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Baghdad. "This is a black day in the history
of the town," Musayyib police chief Yas Khudayr told Reuters news agency. The
attacker in Musayyib is thought to have detonated explosives that blew up a petrol
tanker near the Shia mosque and a market. The explosion set neighbouring houses
on fire and caused very serious damage, an interior ministry official told the
AFP news agency. The police say there are so many casualties that ambulances are
having to take them to hospitals in several neighbouring towns.
Karen Dabrowska 17 July 2005 Dabrowska.Org The Massacre Of Mesopotamia Posted:
07/16 From: Dabrowska Iraq is a country of firsts: the earliest villages and cities,
writing, poetry, epic literature, temples, codified religion, armies, warfare,
world economy and empire. Tragically it is also the first entire country to be
designated an 'endangered site' by the World Monuments Fund (WMF). "Decades
of political isolation, a protracted war with Iran and, more recently, the conflict
begun in 2003 have put Iraq's extraordinary heritage at grave risk", said WMF
President, Bonnie Burnham. "Widespread looting, military occupation, artillery
fire, vandalism and other acts of violence are devastating Iraq. By focusing attention
on imperiled sites, the WMF helps bring local communities, governments and preservation
professionals together". Specific sites have been named by the WMF as a major
risk, including the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh, the ziggurat in Ur, the
temple precinct in Babylon and the 9th century spiral minaret in Samarra. The
fund has begun working with the Iraq State Board Of Antiquities and Heritage to
assess and document what has survived and plan for its long-term preservation.
But this project, like all other endeavors to stop Iraq's heritage from becoming
history - literally - has been delayed because of the threat of kidnappings and
attacks by insurgents. Three Iraqi archaeologists who studied site management
in Britain earlier this year, refused all publicity due to fear of reprisals for
their "collaboration with Westerners" when they returned home. British archaeologists
are training Iraqis to draw up the first modern inventory of the country's ancient
sites and monuments in an attempt to curtail widespread looting. Tragically the
ambitious survey which includes thousands of Sumerian palaces, Assyrian ziggurats
and Bronze Age settlements has been delayed due to the security situation. "It
has become desperate since the end of the war", said Bill Blake the head of English
Heritage's metric survey team who recently returned from running courses in neighboring
Jordan because of the dangers to Westerners in Iraq. "State control has effectively
collapsed and people are helping themselves to whatever they can get. They are
taking material for building or digging for antiquities to be sold abroad". The
English Heritage team, working in partnership with the Getty Conservation Institute
and the WMF have been advising their Iraqi counterparts on the latest surveying
techniques, such as the use of GPS mapping equipment, date recording forms and
satellite imaging. But if the looting does not stop little will be left to survey
or record. Antiquities smuggling is a multibillion dollar business that ranks
third in international monetary terms, behind drug smuggling and weapons sales.
"The picture is appalling", said Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, an independent archaeologist
and journalist covering the Middle East, who has been studying Iraqi heritage
for the last seven years. “More than 150 Sumerian cities dating back to the 4th
millennium BC such as Umma, Umma Al-Akkareb, Larsa and Tello lie destroyed, turned
into crater-filled landscapes of shredded pottery and broken bricks. If properly
excavated these cities, covering 20 sq km, could help us learn about the development
of the human race. But the looters have destroyed ancient monuments, erasing the
region’s history in a tireless search for a cylinder seal, a sculpture or cuneiform
tablet that they can sell to a dealer. Bajjaly’s view is echoed by Abdul Amir
Hamadani an archaeologist, working in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq. “More than 100
Sumerian cities have been destroyed by looters since the beginning of the war.
It’s a disaster that we all keep watching but about which we can do little. We
are incapable of stopping the looting. We are five archaeologists, some hundred
guards and occasionally a couple of policemen – and they are a million armed looters,
backed by their tribes and the dealers”. It’s not only the ancient monuments which
are suffering. Baghdad’s unique 19th century houses are also being destroyed as
people want steel frames. The story of the Iraq Museum is another tragedy. In
April 2003 looters plundered over 15,000 antiquities – at present more than half,
spanning 10,000 years of human history, are still missing. It is too dangerous
for museum staff to work on an inventory of the material that has been returned.
And in summer, with no air conditioning due to the faltering electricity supply
and temperatures of 40 degrees, even the most determined conservationists succumb
to the unbearable heat and call it a day. The museum remains closed with little
prospects of re-opening. After failing to protect the museum from looters the
coalition forces added insult to injury by damaging archaeological sites. An alarming
report by the keeper of the British Museum’s Near East Department, Dr John Curtis,
describes how areas in the middle of Babylon were leveled to create a landing
area for helicopters and parking lots for heavy vehicles. “They caused substantial
damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity. US
military vehicles crushed 2,600-year-old brick pavements, archaeological fragments
were scattered across the site, more than 12 trenches were driven into ancient
deposits and military earth-moving projects contaminated the site for future generations
of scientists. Add to all that the damage caused to nine of the moulded brick
figures of dragons in the Ishtar Gate by people trying to remove the bricks from
the wall”. Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly concluded that there will be no end to the
destruction of Iraq’s heritage unless the country’s leaders take a political decision
to consider archaeology a priority. But the recent merger of the Iraq State Board
Of Antiquities and Heritage with the newly created Tourism Ministry does not bode
well for the future. The longer Iraq finds itself in a state of war, the more
the cradle of civilization is threatened. It many not even last long enough for
our grandchildren to learn from.
Los
Angeles Times 17 July 2005 Saddam's fall rekindles a regional land dispute
Louise Roug and Raheem Salman BAGHDAD -- Near the Musa al Kadhim shrine in Baghdad,
Ali Alwani hides in plain sight among Shiite merchants selling sticky coconut
and cardamom sweets from rickety stalls. Across town, his brother has taken refuge
in an upscale Sunni Muslim neighborhood. He feels safer surrounded by former members
of Saddam Hussein's regime. The brothers are Shiite Muslims, but it is Shiites
they fear. Many lives in Iraq were upended by the fall of Saddam's regime. Some
people gained freedom and liberty. Others lost everything they had. The brothers'
limbo illustrates the pitfalls of history and the intertwined destinies of Iran
and Iraq, two neighboring, Shiite-majority nations that lately have grown even
closer. The Alwanis say they left Iran in 1979 because, as secular Arabs in a
Persian land, they endured persecution and feared what the Islamic Revolution
would bring. They claim the government already had begun forcefully resettling
the oil-rich southern part of the country where they lived with Persian citizens,
renaming cities in Persian and denying Arabs basic rights. Crossing the border
into Iraq, they and other Iranian Arabs were welcomed by Saddam, an Arab leader
who realized he could use these exiles against the country they were fleeing.
Today, after three wars and the passing of a quarter of a century, they cannot
go back. Their allegiance with Saddam, they say, has condemned them to a life
without a country and without rights. "Iran considers us Iraqi and Iraq considers
us Iranian," Alwani said. His family backs an Arab separatist movement that seeks
the independence of the Iranian region where he and his brothers grew up. Although
it is basically an ethnic struggle, the stakes are even higher because the region
is home to some of the most valuable land in Iran, known as Arabistan by exiled
Arabs and Khuzistan by the Iranian government. Alwani, who believes that a
battle has begun for control of the region, supports violence, while his brother
advocates more peaceful means. Both are active in the separatist movement. Eight
killed Last month, a series of bombings aimed at government buildings in the regional
capital, Ahvaz, killed eight people in what was described as the worst violence
Iran had seen in a decade. The following day, the Iranian government arrested
several people but released little information about the suspects. The government
said outside groups wanted to disrupt the recent Iranian election in which hard-line
Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad easily won the presidency. One Ahvaz exile group
took responsibility for the bombings, but other exiled Arabs said that group was
a front for the Iranian secret police, who were the ones behind the attacks. Alwani
says he does not know who carried out the attacks, but he feels uplifted by them."
I believe my country is occupied and what has been taken by force should be taken
back by force," he said. "We feel all the people in the region are getting their
independence. Why not us?" With Americans in the region, now's the perfect time
to achieve that ambition, he said. "A fair infidel is better than an unfair believer,"
he said. Sitting at the back of his store in Baghdad's Kadhimiya neighborhood,
Alwani tells stories of bloodshed and persecution of Arabs in his homeland and
an underground movement, born in 1925, seeking Arab separation. The size of the
Arab community in southern Iran is unclear. The government has never conducted
a census. The province's population is estimated at 4.3 million people, with Ahvaz
numbering close to a million inhabitants. How many fled amid the 1979 Iranian
revolution also is unclear. Hard to come by "Balanced information on Khuzistan,
especially anything having to do with the Arab population there, is pretty hard
to come by," said Wayne White, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington
who is a specialist on the region. "The province probably was heavily Arabic-speaking,
say, at the beginning of the 20th century. That said, the oil boom since then
brought in countless Iranians of non-Arab origin, reinforced beginning in the
1930s by the deliberate Persianizing efforts of the late shah." Supporting the
secessionists, Saddam's regime gave the exiles plots of land and special privileges,
soon laying claim to Khuzistan. In an effort to exacerbate ethnic tensions, Iraqi
TV and radio stations broadcast programs into the region, calling for Arab revolt
against the government in Tehran. As Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, starting the eight-year
war that killed more than a million people, the Arab exiles fought alongside the
Iraqis, Shiites against Shiites. As the saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is
my friend," said Alwani's brother, who wants to be known simply as Abu Amar, or
father of Amar, because he fears retribution. He acknowledges that his family
ended up on the wrong side of history but insists the allegiance with Saddam was
purely strategic. "We were ambushed by the Mukhabarat," the notorious Iraqi secret
police under Saddam. "Iraq used us as a political card in the game against Iran."
As devout Shiites increasingly gained power in Iraq after Saddam's fall, the Arab
exiles began fearing that militias connected to the political parties or even
Iranian agents would seek revenge for the past allegiance to the fallen dictator.
Several people with ties to the old regime were assassinated in southern Iraq.
"We will be killed, if not today, then tomorrow," said Tamim Nashali, another
exile. "Iraq will be a cemetery for the Ahvazi." In Baghdad, Abu Amar works as
a taxi driver. Fake documents hide his history as a major in the previous Iraqi
army. Sunnis have been supportive until now, he said. "That's why I'm here in
this neighborhood." A friend with ties to Saddam's regime was assassinated recently
in the southern Iraqi city of Amara, shot 10 times by gunmen on his way to a funeral,
Abu Amar said. Before the U.S. invasion, "we were free," he said. "We had land.
We lived in dignity. We had a house." Now all he has is an old ID card from the
Defense Ministry and a letter from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees certifying his status as a refugee.
washingtonpost.com
17 July 2005 Bombing At Mosque Kills 54 In Iraq Gas Tanker Ignited In Suicide
Attack By Andy Mosher and Naseer Nouri Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday,
July 17, 2005; A01 BAGHDAD, July 16 -- A suicide bomber detonated an explosive
belt Saturday night inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in a town south of Baghdad,
igniting cooking gas in a tanker parked outside and setting off a massive fireball
that killed at least 54 people, wounded 82 and destroyed or damaged homes more
than a half-mile away, police said. The unidentified bomber struck at 8 p.m.
in Musayyib, a town about 35 miles south of Baghdad in a largely lawless part
of Babil province that has come to be known as the triangle of death. A spokesman
for the provincial police, Capt. Muthanna Ahmed, said by telephone that the attacker
detonated his belt inside the mosque and could not have known the fuel tanker
had been parked nearby while its driver was eating dinner at a local restaurant.
As a result, Ahmed said, the apparent attempt at killing a relatively small group
of worshipers resulted in a conflagration that was "just like a nuclear bomb explosion."
The attack, a rare act of violence inside a mosque, appeared to be the deadliest
in Iraq since Feb. 28, when a suicide bomb in nearby Hilla killed 125 people,
most of them police and military recruits. Ahmed said many of the wounded
were critically burned and that Musayyib's medical facilities could not handle
the huge number of casualties. Some of the wounded were taken to clinics in Hilla
and Karbala, while provincial officials appealed for medical workers in the area
to go to Musayyib as quickly as possible. Firefighters already were converging
on the town to battle blazes that were still raging late into the night, said
Ahmed, who estimated that the devastation extended from the mosque for about 1,100
yards in every direction. The victims were among at least 76 people killed in
attacks across the country. Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced in a statement
that 11 American soldiers had been charged with violating military regulations
in connection with alleged assaults on suspected insurgents. The statement gave
no details about the soldiers' violations except to note that none of the suspected
insurgents needed medical treatment and only one of them is currently in U.S.
custody. "All Task Force Baghdad soldiers are expected to act appropriately
and to treat all persons under their control with dignity and respect. Allegations
of illegal activities will always be thoroughly investigated," said Lt. Col. Clifford
Kent, a spokesman for the task force, which is responsible for security in and
around the capital. "The unit involved has been pulled off-line to complete the
inquiry and retraining." The new investigation is the latest of several cases
in which U.S. service personnel have been charged with abuse in Iraq. Last year,
in the most notorious case, photographs of Iraqi detainees subjected to sexual
humiliation in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison led to the conviction of one soldier
in a court-martial. Four others pleaded guilty to charges arising from the case.
Early Saturday morning, in Iskandariyah, a volatile town about 15 miles north
of Musayyib, 10 people were killed, including four Iraqi soldiers, and up to 20
wounded by a suicide car bomb. The attack occurred at 1 a.m., while Iraqi soldiers
were manning a checkpoint and searching cars for suspected insurgents, Ahmed said.
Musayyib and surrounding towns have been wracked by violence for months. The area
has been terrorized by insurgents who rob or kill travelers at illegal checkpoints
along local roads. A large proportion of travelers in the area are Shiites heading
south from Baghdad to the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, while the insurgents
are overwhelmingly Sunni. The sectarian divide between Iraq's long-repressed
Shiite majority and the Sunni minority that ruled the country for decades has
been a principal causeof the violence that has surged since late April, when modern
Iraq's first Shiite-led government took office. Car bombings in Shiite neighborhoods
of Baghdad, unexplained killings of groups of Sunni men in and around the capital
and assassinations of clerics from both branches of Islam have accounted for much
of the bloodletting, which has killed more than 1,500 Iraqis since April 28.
In Najaf, the office of Iraq's preeminent Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani,
issued a statement late Saturday night condemning the violence. "This is a tragedy
for the people -- Shiite and Sunni," said the statement, which contended that
insurgents had come to the area from cities in the north "to kill the innocent."
Sistani called on all Iraqis to control themselves and allow their passions to
cool, the statement said. In the southern city of Amarah, an apparent roadside
bomb killed three British soldiers and wounded two, according to a British Defense
Ministry statement quoted by news agencies. Such attacks are rare in the relatively
quiet southern provinces of Iraq where Britain has security duties. A total of
92 British soldiers have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, including
53 killed in combat. Six policemen were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide attack
near Mosul, 220 miles north of Baghdad. The attack took place in the town of Hammam
Alil, six miles south of the city, where a man in police uniform entered the town's
police station and detonated a belt of explosives he wore, said Mosul police's
press officer, Maj. Ahmed Lazim. And in Baghdad, three policemen were killed and
20 wounded by a car bomb that targeted a police patrol in the Doura neighborhood,
the Reuters news agency reported. U.S. and Iraqi officials have repeatedly said
insurgent attacks in Baghdad have decreased since a security operation was launched
in late May. The operation, officially dubbed Operation Lightning and said to
be the biggest Iraqi operation since the invasion, resulted in the killing or
arrests of hundreds of alleged insurgents, according to officials. In the past
week, however, the capital has been hit by repeated suicide bombings, including
at least seven on Friday. Special correspondents Saad Sarhan in Najaf, Omar Fekeiki
in Baghdad and Dlovan Brwari in Mosul contributed to this report.
www.timesonline.co.uk
19 July 2005 Ayatollah's despair at 'genocide' of suicide bombings From
James Hider in Baghdad THE main restraint to Iraq sliding into civil war is not
the US-trained police forces, the newly elected parliament beavering away at a
constitution, or the presence of 150,000 American and British troops. It is a
bearded, 75-year-old Iranian with a heart condition who lives in seclusion in
the Shia holy city of Najaf. Once a week he makes a secretive trip to the nearby
Imam Ali shrine to pray at the grave of the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad,
founder of the Shia branch of Islam. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual
leader of the Shia who constitute 60 per cent of Iraqis, is the man with the authority
to issue a fatwa that would compel his flock to fight whoever he chooses. Fortunately
for Iraq, he is a moderate man, but yesterday even he showed signs of despair
at the worsening plight of his country. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the Shia vice-president,
saw the Grand Ayatollah and said that he was deeply upset by the slaughter perpetrated
by suicide bombers and gunmen, which he called “this genocidal war”. His disturbing
pronouncement came after one of his representatives in Baghdad, Sheikh Jalal al-Din
al-Saghir, warned Parliament that Iraq was heading toward a civil war if the bloodshed
were not stemmed. Such dire proclamations from the Shia majority’s moderate leadership
indicate just how far the Baathist and al-Qaeda terrorist campaigns are driving
sectarian tensions. Despite his insistence that clerics remain aloof from politics,
Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani has been one of the main forces in shaping postwar
Iraq. First, he derailed an American attempt to hold elections by a selective
caucus process, designed to keep the religious Shia parties that are close to
him from power. Then he insisted on direct elections instead, issuing a fatwa
ordering Shias to vote. His tacit support for the religious Shia block subsequently
swept it to victory. He has used his influence to restrain militias that could
otherwise have wrought havoc. In one fell swoop he ended the pitched battle between
the al-Mahdi Army, led by his young rival Moqtada al-Sadr, and US forces last
summer. In a BBC interview last night, al-Sadr urged Iraqis to “exercise restraint”
with US troops — although he repeated his opposition to “foreign occupation” and
said that resistance was legitimate. The Grand Ayatollah’s influence was also
demonstrated when the people of Madain, a village south of Baghdad where Sunni
guerrillas murdered and kidnapped scores of local Shia, asked him for permission
to fight back. He refused, arguing that the bloodshed would be even worse if the
Shias were provoked into a civil war. His aides refused yesterday to talk about
the comments leaked by Mr Abdul-Mahdi, a senior member of the Supreme Council
for the Islamic Revolution (Sciri). But the inflammatory use of the word “genocide”
hinted at the anger boiling in the clerical leadership. For many Shias, too, frustration
at the police’s inability to quell the daily terror attacks is boiling over, and
puzzlement that the venerated cleric has retreated from the public stage in such
trying times. While most Shias realise that their restraint is the key to
avoiding civil war, many militiamen have nonetheless gone ahead anyway and engaged
in a low-level campaign of killing former Baathists and suspected Sunni insurgents.
Jamal Rydah, the head of Sciri’s political office, confirmed yesterday that the
Shia block was studying ways of allowing the formation of armed neighbourhood
watch groups — in effect, more local militias — to supplement the police. Some
fear the move will further unleash the genie of sectarian violence, which only
the Grand Ayatollah seems capable of keeping in the bottle. But on Baghdad’s edgy
streets, the idea was welcomed by many others, such as 45-year-old Saad Ahmed,
who have lost confidence in the Government. “This country is walking toward doomsday.
I see only darkness ahead,” he said I’m only interested now in protecting my family.
The rest of the country can go to hell.”
Israel
15
July, 2005, 02:21 GMT 03:21 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Israeli
aircraft hit Gaza targets One the Israeli missiles struck an Islamic centre in
Jabaliya Israeli helicopters have fired missiles at targets in the Gaza Strip.
The overnight strikes on three locations came after a woman in Israel was killed
by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Meanwhile Palestinian leader
Mahmud Abbas arrived in Gaza to hold talks with armed groups, in an attempt to
put an end to militant attacks. An upsurge of violence in recent days has put
further strain on a fragile five-month truce. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and
Hamas said they carried out Thursday's rocket attack, in revenge for the killing
of an Islamic Jihad leader by the Israeli army in Nablus. Multiple targets One
of the missile fired by the Israeli helicopter gunships was aimed at a pro-Hamas
Islamic cultural centre in Jabaliya, north of Gaza City, witnesses said. Another
was aimed at a cemetery near Khan Younis further south - from where militant have
in the past launched rocket and mortar attacks on nearby Israeli settlements.
Witnesses said the third target was close to the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in
central Gaza. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Violence escalated
on Tuesday, when an Islamic Jihad militant killed five Israelis in a suicide bombing
in the Israeli coastal resort of Netanya. Israel responded by carrying out raids
in Nablus. This in turn triggered Thursday's rocket attacks by al-Aqsa Martyrs'
Brigades and Hamas. The death of the Israeli woman, said to be in her 20s, on
the Netiv Haasara farm marked the first fatal rocket strike in Israel since February.
Others hit another farm, an army base and a Jewish settlement in Gaza, Israeli
media said. Hamas anger Soon after the barrage, Palestinian police, reportedly
acting on orders to stop further rocket fire, clashed with Hamas members in northern
Gaza. Thursday's fatal rocket attack was the first in Israel since February Five
militants were wounded when police fired at their car, Hamas said. The Palestinian
Authority says large numbers of Hamas activists then poured into the area, attacking
a security force post and setting fire to two jeeps. "We will not keep silent,"
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman, told Reuters, calling the police action "unacceptable".
The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says all this violence is only serving to escalate
tensions just a month ahead of Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza. The Israelis
say that if they come under attack during the pullout, they will retaliate with
huge force.
Japan
-
Korea,
North
NYT 17 July 2005 A Sucker Bet
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF PYONGYANG, North Korea Every single home in this country
has two portraits on the wall, one of the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, who is still
president even though he died 11 years ago, and one of his son, the Dear Leader,
Kim Jong Il. Inspectors regularly visit homes to make sure the portraits are well
cared for. Every subway car carries those same two portraits as well, and
every adult wears a button depicting the Great Leader. And every home (or village,
in rural areas) has an audio speaker, which starts broadcasting propaganda at
6 each morning to tell people how lucky they are. Children spend long hours in
day care centers from the age of 6 months, sometimes returning to their parents
only on weekends. Men normally perform seven or more years of military service.
Disabled people are sometimes expelled from Pyongyang, a green and well-groomed
capital that is one of the prettiest in Asia, because they are considered unsightly.
And although the national ideology is juche, or self-reliance, the U.N. World
Food Program feeds 6.5 million North Koreans, almost one-third of the population.
Even so, hunger is widespread and has left 37 percent of the children stunted.
Yet North Korea focuses its resources on prestige projects, like an amazing 10-lane
highway to Nampo (with no traffic). Many conservatives in and out of the Bush
administration assume that North Korea's population must be seething and that
the regime must be on its last legs. Indeed, the Bush administration's policy
on North Korea, to the extent that it has one, seems to be to wait for it to collapse.
I'm afraid that could be a long, long wait. The central paradox of North Korea
is this: No government in the world today is more brutal or has failed its people
more abjectly, yet it appears to be in solid control and may even have substantial
popular support. From a brief visit like mine, it's hard to gauge the mood, because
anyone who criticizes the government risks immediate arrest. But Chinese and other
foreigners I've spoken to who live in North Korea or visit regularly say they
believe that most North Koreans buy into the system, just as ordinary Chinese
did during the Maoist period. Likewise, over the years I've interviewed dozens
of North Koreans who have fled to China or South Korea, and they overwhelmingly
say that while they personally dislike the regime - that's why they fled - their
relatives believe in the Kim dynasty with a quasi-religious faith. They say that
when everyone is raised to worship the Dear Leader, when there are no contrary
voices, people genuinely revere the leader. Most say the faith is not as strong
as it was a dozen years ago, mostly because so many people have heard whispers
of Chinese prosperity. But they still laugh at the idea that the Dear Leader is
about to be toppled. "I think we'll have regime change in America before we have
regime change in North Korea," says Han Park, a Korea specialist at the University
of Georgia. He estimates that 30 percent of North Koreans have a stake in the
system, and that most of the rest know so little about the outside world that
they don't realize how badly off they are. A hermetic seal is the main reason
the Kim dynasty has survived so long. When I arrived at Pyongyang airport, I was
obliged to hand over my cellphones and satellite phones, to be picked up on my
departure. Even many senior government officials have no access to the Internet.
From the moment I landed at the airport, I kept trying to change money. But the
airport refused, my hotel refused and shops refused. Foreigners are supposed to
pay for everything only in foreign currency and be isolated from the local economy.
(Finally, a friendly Korean official - they were all surprisingly friendly, with
unexpectedly good senses of humor - gave me a few coins as souvenirs for my children.)
If the American policy premise about North Korea - that it is near collapse -
is highly dubious, our essential policy approach is even more so. The West should
be trying to break that hermetic seal, to increase interactions with North Korea
and to infiltrate into North Korea the most effective subversive agents we have:
overweight Western business executives. Instead, we maintain sanctions, isolate
North Korea and wait indefinitely for the regime to collapse. I'm afraid we're
helping the Dear Leader stay in power.
Lebanon
BBC
19 July 2005 Lebanon amnesty sparks violence The bullet-scarred buildings are
a reminder of past conflict Armed clashes broke out in the Lebanese capital
overnight after parliament granted an amnesty to a former warlord. The clashes
took place along the old Green Line which used to separate Christian East and
Muslim West Beirut during the 1975-90 civil war. Media reports say a Shia
Muslim teenager was killed and 16 other people were injured in the clash. Army
units were deployed to the area and loudspeakers called for calm. Several people
were arrested. The violence began when sticks and rocks were used in fighting
between members of the Shia Amal movement and supporters of former Lebanese Forces
leader Samir Geagea. Analysts say it is a worrying reminder of the dark days of
Lebanon's civil war, which devastated the country and is estimated to have left
more than 100,000 people dead. Cabinet troubles Meanwhile, Prime Minister-designate
Fouad Siniora said he could announce the new Lebanese government later on Tuesday.
The afternoon started with celebrations for Geagea supporters "We have reached
agreement on a 24-member government," Mr Siniora said after consultations with
President Emile Lahoud. It has taken Mr Siniora a month to get to this stage,
having failed to form a national unity government and a technocratic one. On Friday,
he said he would form a government from a broad spectrum of parties approved by
the pro-Syrian Hezbollah-Amal alliance as well as the anti-Syrian bloc which holds
a majority in parliament. Newly-elected MPs used the first parliamentary session
to vote for an amnesty for Mr Geagea, the only civil war militia leader to face
charges over the conflict. .
Malaysia
Malaysia
Star, Malaysia 17 July 2005 thestar.com.my July 17, 2005 Slaughter at Long
Nawang BY OOI KEAT GIN CONTRARY to the Chief Secretary’s “definite instructions”
requiring that “officers in charge of districts were expected to remain at their
stations,” several Brooke officers in the Lower Rejang fled. A party of 26 men,
three women and two children (nine months and five years old), including Andrew
Macpherson, the Resident of the Third Division, and three district officers (of
Sibu, Kanowit and Kapit) fled inland. Macpherson's plan was to go up the Rejang,
cross over into Dutch Borneo to Long Nawang, a Dutch military outpost. The party
reached Kapit by motorboat, negotiated the Pelagus Rapids to arrive at Long Bahau
above Belaga. They stayed at Kenyah longhouses along the way. After Belaga, smaller
and lighter boats brought them through the shallower, rapid-infested headwaters
of the Ulu Rejang. Kenyah boat paddlers doubled as bearers and guides brought
the party through jungle and across into Dutch Borneo. After a tortuous journey
– one morning “crossed one river 36 times, a raging mountain torrent sometimes
knee deep, sometimes armpit deep and particularly powerful” – of 28 days, they
arrived at the Dutch outpost. Mrs Macpherson, then six-months pregnant survived
unscathed. At an altitude of about 800m, Long Nawang had a pleasant climate, akin
to that of a hill station. There was a four-bed hospital with a good supply of
medicine. It had enough rice, vegetables and fruit to last a year, besides a herd
of forty cattle, and a stork of pigs and goats. In April 1942, Lieutenant D. J.
A. Westerhuis arrived at Long Nawang with 40 Dutch and Indonesian soldiers, part
of the garrison at Tarakan. Mrs Westerhuis joined the three other women, including
Mrs Macpherson and her newborn. In early August, two American missionaries, Reverends
Jackson and Sandy, and Mrs Jackson and a baby, sought refuge at Long Nawang. Then
on August 19, two Kenyahs brought news that more than 70 Japanese soldiers were
heading towards Long Nawang. Westerhuis arrogantly dismissed the warning from
the Kenyahs, whom he claimed had mistaken retreating Dutch troops for Japanese.
Foolishly, no patrols were sent to investigate. Afraid of betrayal, he refused
the Indonesian soldiers’ request for ammunition. The next morning, 76 Japanese
marines led by Captain Mora Shima attacked with mortars, light machineguns, and
rifles. Unable to fight back, the Dutch and Indonesian troops fled helter-skelter
to the jungle. Westerhuis waved a white flag but machinegun fire mowed him down.
Five men from Macpherson’s party were killed. Mrs Macpherson was wounded with
a shot through her thigh. Three Dutch and British soldiers managed to escape;
subsequently, Kayans friendly to the Japanese handed them over to Mora. Whilst
all the Europeans were rounded up and imprisoned, the Indonesian soldiers were
disarmed and allowed to return home to Tarakan. On Aug 26, all the European men
were executed. Then, on Sept 23, the remaining five women and four children, including
the babies of Mrs Macpherson and Mrs Jackson, were killed. Why the horrendous
massacre of Europeans at Long Nawang? Post-war investigations failed to trace
the Japanese officers responsible, namely Mora and Lieutenant Okino. But, according
to Japanese military regulations, the Europeans who were at Long Nawang had defied
their order to surrender and, hence, were rightfully executed.
Myanmar
-
Palestinian
Authority
-
Sri
Lanka
Tamil Tiger Rebels Warn They
Could Resume War By Anjana Pasricha New Delhi 12 July 2005 The Tamil rebels said
they are losing patience with the government and could be forced to resume their
civil war if attacks on their members continue. The statement followed the killing
of two of senior rebel leaders and two civilians by unidentified assailants on
Sunday in the northeastern town of Trincomalee. The rebels say military intelligence
officials are behind the attack. The army has denied it. Sunday's attack was the
latest in a series of killings in the past year of rebels or members of Tamil
political parties. The violence escalated after a split in the rebel ranks last
year. The Tigers accuse the government of supporting their rivals, and conducting
a shadow war against them. The government denies that, and in turn accuses the
rebels of killing hundreds of rivals and intelligence operatives. To protest the
killings, offices and banks closed in Trincomalee and Tamil Tiger supporters burned
tires. Norwegian ceasefire monitors say the growing violence is "worrying." Jehan
Perera, head of the National Peace Council in Colombo, echoed their concern. "The
situation is not very good. This does not necessarily mean that there will be
a breakdown of the ceasefire in the sense of a return to full scale fighting ...
but there is an apprehension of localized fighting taking place on a significant
level. Up to now what has been happening is targeted assassinations on either
side," he said. The Tamil rebels halted their two-decade long civil war for a
separate Tamil homeland three-years ago under a Norwegian-monitored ceasefire.
But the peace process has been deadlocked for more than two years. Recently the
government and the rebels signed an agreement to jointly handle billions of dollars
of tsunami aid, raising hopes that the two sides could resume a dialogue. But
analysts say that is unlikely to happen soon, because a weak minority government
is too preoccupied with its own survival to be able to breathe fresh life into
the peace process. The government's difficulties were apparent on Tuesday. Hundreds
of thousands of protestors led by the main opposition party demonstrated in the
capital Colombo to protest high prices, and the government's failure to end ethnic
tensions with Tamil rebels.
14 July,
2005, 16:46 GMT 17:46 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Sri Lanka leader
appeals for calm President Kumaratunga has called for restraint Sri Lankan President
Chandrika Kumaratunga has appealed for calm in the north-east of the country as
violence escalates there. The government has accused Tamil Tiger rebels of eight
bomb attacks and two shooting incidents over three days. The Tigers in turn accuse
the military of an attack on Sunday which killed three of their members and a
supporter. On Thursday troops killed a suspected rebel near Trincomalee. International
observers say a 2002 truce is at risk. Factional fighting The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra
in the capital, Colombo, says a shadow war has been going on in the east since
a split in the Tamil Tiger rebels in March 2004. The rebels accuse the government
of supporting the breakaway group, a charge the government denies. However, this
low-level factional fighting now threatens to explode into a breakdown of the
three-year ceasefire, our correspondent says. In the past two weeks five members
of the Sri Lankan security forces and at least four Tamil Tiger rebels have been
killed. The Tigers, citing security concerns, have now pulled out all their political
officers from government areas. They have issued an ultimatum - which expires
on Thursday night - for the government to come up with suitable measures to guarantee
the safety of rebel officials travelling through government-held areas. Otherwise,
they say, they will start using their own armed escorts, a direct violation of
the ceasefire. Senior international diplomats say there is a real danger the situation
could escalate out of control. One official said that recent violence in the eastern
town of Trincomalee appeared to be co-ordinated, leading to direct confrontations
between the government and the Tigers, rather than previous low-level factional
fighting. Several specific measures and systems have been put in place to arrest
and remedy the situation President Kumaratunga The army has increased its presence
in the town and in an effort to halt the escalation of violence. President Kumaratunga,
has called for restraint and launched an investigation. The stand-off comes just
weeks after a joint tsunami aid-sharing deal was signed. Donors had hoped it would
bring the two sides closer together, now the fear is that the legacy of mistrust
is unbridgeable, our correspondent says.
Thailand
BBC
15 July, 2005, 06:27 GMT 07:27 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Thaksin
defiant after Thai raids There have been almost daily attacks in recent months
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has strongly condemned militants a day
after a series of co-ordinated attacks in the southern province of Yala. "These
people want only violence. It means they do not want to talk," he said before
an emergency cabinet meeting on the unrest. Two teachers were killed in the southern
province of Narathiwat as the cabinet meeting got under way. Two policemen died
and more than 20 civilians were injured on Thursday. Suspected Muslim separatists
attacked the town of Yala, the provincial capital about 1,100km (690 miles) from
Bangkok, with bombs and guns after plunging it into darkness by bombing a power
station. Hundreds of people - including nearly 30 teachers - have died in the
Muslim-dominated south since violence flared there a year and a half ago. Highly
organised "This is the time of national crisis - I would appeal for all Thai people
to be united and join hands to fight against the people who have bad intentions
toward the country," said Interior Minister Chitchai Wannasathit - who also is
a deputy prime minister. VIOLENCE-HIT SOUTH Home to most of Thailand's 4% Muslim
minority Muslim rebels fought the government up to the mid-80s Suspected militants
have upped attacks since 2004, targeting Buddhists Security forces' response criticised
by rights groups Thailand's restive south He was speaking after hotels, restaurants,
a cinema and shops in Yala were targeted by gunfire, more bombs and Molotov cocktails.
The attacks were highly co-ordinated, officials say, with the gunmen peppering
the roads with spikes to prevent the security forces moving around the town. Electricity
has now been restored and police spokesman Gen Sanirot Thammayot said the situation
was under control and urged residents "not to panic and to carry on with their
lives as normal". Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, with its 4% Muslim population
concentrated in the troubled southern provinces - Pattani, Yala, Songkhla and
Narathiwat. More than 800 people have been killed in the region since violence
erupted around 18 months ago. In recent months, there have been almost daily ambushes
and murders of Buddhist monks, teachers, police and soldiers. Government officials
have blamed the unrest on Islamic separatists, though criminals are also thought
to be involved.
BBC 19 July 2005 Thai
editors' alarm over new law Hundreds of southern villagers support the new rule
Dozens of newspaper editors in Thailand have vowed to fight the imposition
of a new emergency rule in the majority-Muslim south of the country. Fifty editors
from the Thai Journalists' Association said in a statement that the Thai media
now faced its greatest threat in modern history. The new decree gives the Thai
prime minister sweeping powers, including censorship and phone tapping. More than
800 people have died in southern unrest since January 2004. The government
has accused Muslim separatists of being behind the violence. Others blame the
authorities for alienating the majority Muslim population. VIOLENCE-HIT SOUTH
Home to most of Thailand's 4% Muslim minority Muslim rebels fought the government
up to the mid-80s Suspected militants have upped attacks since 2004, targeting
Buddhists Security forces' response criticised by rights groups Thailand's restive
south On Tuesday the Cabinet approved the emergency rule's enactment in three
southern provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. But it rejected a request from
the prime minister that parts of neighbouring Songkhla province be covered by
the laws. Analysts say the new legislation, which was first approved by the
Thai Cabinet on Friday, is not substantially different from the martial law in
the south which it replaces. But they say it does strengthen Mr Thaksin's hand,
allowing him to act unilaterally. A respected former prime minister has suggested
the emergency laws will be abused by government officials and lead to an increase
in violence in the south. "So far the government mechanisms have failed to
arrest any culprits and do not know who are responsible [for the unrest]," Anand
Panyarachun was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post. "Government officials are
inefficient... If government officials cannot bring in the culprits for punishment
and continue to create hatred and mistrust against themselves, there will be serious
concern when more sweeping powers are given to the officials. They may exercise
the power under the executive decree intentionally or unintentionally in ways
that could aggravate the crisis," he said. Wide-ranging powers The emergency measures,
which have been criticised as unconstitutional and dictatorial by opposition politicians,
journalists and human rights activists, give a range of special powers to the
security forces and government officials. They include detention of suspects for
seven days and media censorship, and were granted by the Cabinet without judicial
approval. It agreed to issue the powerful decree after a series of co-ordinated
attacks in the southern city of Yala on Thursday night. Thailand is predominantly
Buddhist, with its 4% Muslim population concentrated in the troubled southern
provinces - Pattani, Yala, Songkhla and Narathiwat. In recent months, there have
been almost daily ambushes and murders of Buddhist monks, teachers, police and
soldiers.
Uzbekistan
Sojourners
Aug 2005 www.sojo.net Commentary 'Our' Uzbek Massacre The human cost of the
global war on terror. by Ray McGovern "On either side of Chulpon Prospekt,
blood flowed freely through the gutters," said a survivor of the May 13 massacre
of several hundred demonstrators in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.
In the wake of the massacre, the Uzbek rulers who ordered the killings have been
called "thugs" (and worse) by human rights advocates. Yes, you say, but they are
our thugs—and they are letting us use bases in their country for GWOT! What’s
GWOT? For you outside-the-beltway-readers, it is the Global War On Terrorism (earlier
known as the Cold War against Communism). Whatever it’s called, it requires military
bases around the world—and now especially in the oil-rich region where Uzbekistan
happens to be located. In his excellent book The Sorrows of Empire, political
scientist Chalmers Johnson warns that "the growth of militarism, official secrecy,
and a belief that the United States is no longer bound...by ‘a decent respect
for the opinions of [humankind]’ is probably irreversible." Johnson adds that
a "revolution" (the biblical concept is metanoia) will be required to turn things
around. The massacre in Uzbekistan is a particularly gruesome reminder of what
so many repressive governments believe they can do with every expectation of "godfather"
protection by the United States. Why? Because the Department of Defense, which
seems to be running our foreign policy these days, is able to block attempts to
rein them in. In fact, Uzbek police and military have for years received training
and equipment from counterterrorism programs run by the United States, according
to American officials and congressional records. They are, indeed, our thugs.
That is why Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blocked an attempt by NATO countries
to call for an independent investigation of the massacre, which the Uzbek rulers
have already applied pressure to head off. In reaction to some light implicit
criticism from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Uzbek president Islam A. Karimov
put restrictions on U.S. military flights into the large airbase at Karshi-Khanabad
in southeast Uzbekistan, a base described as a "vital logistics hub" supporting
U.S. forces. But it’s not just the bases that tie us to Uzbekistan. It’s also
the interrogation of "detainees" of GWOT. The Uzbek leaders reportedly use some
of the old tried-and-tested techniques, including boiling limbs and sometimes
whole people—something not on the list of techniques approved by U.S. Army Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller which, as he put it, "sets the conditions for successful
interrogations and exploitation of the internees/detainees" at Abu Ghraib and
other U.S. facilities. When the British ambassador to Uzbekistan had the poor
taste to make a stink about this kind of brutality and the dubious validity of
information extracted in this fashion, he was removed from his post, reportedly
at U.S. insistence. But what about international law, the Geneva Conventions,
and all that? Be aware that the nation’s top legal authority, Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales, wrote that he reserves to the president the right to determine
which laws may now be considered "obsolete" or "quaint." Some of British Prime
Minister Tony Blair’s legal aides are dyspeptic at Washington’s cavalier attitude
toward international law. This shows through in a secret U.K. briefing document
of July 2002 (known as the Downing Street Memo) prepared for Blair and his most
senior advisers regarding U.S. intentions toward Iraq. With typical British understatement,
the document notes "U.S. views of international law vary from that of the U.K.
and the international community." As the psalmist put it: "Nations rage, empires
fall. Jacob’s God will shield us.... Everywhere stopping wars; smashing, crushing,
burning all the weapons of war. An end to your fighting!" (Psalm 46:6-10).
Ray McGovern works for Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the Church of the
Saviour in Washington, D.C. A veteran of 27 years as a CIA analyst, he co-founded
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity in January 2003
Yemen
BBC
20 July 2005 Yemen petrol riots leave 12 dead Troops were sent out onto the streets
to help restore order At least 12 Yemenis have been killed when armed men
exchanged fire with police during protests over a rise in fuel prices, witnesses
have said. Clashes broke out in the capital, Sanaa, and several other towns as
marchers attacked government buildings and threw stones at police. Correspondents
say the government wants to curb a budget deficit, but delayed the price hike
to avoid causing riots. The government says it will offset the rise by lowering
tax and raising wages. One witness quoted by AFP said there were five fatalities
in the town of Damar about 100km (60 miles) south of the capital. Seven special
forces troops were reported wounded. Another five deaths were reported in Dali,
250km south of Sanaa. Barricades Residents in the capital quoted by Associated
Press said two people were killed, including a 12-year old, in an exchange of
fire between protesters and security forces. Some protesters blocked a road
to the airport with makeshift barricades and shouted slogans against the prime
minister, Abdul Qadir Bajammal, AP reports. Riot police fired into the air to
disperse the crowd. The government says the price rises, in some cases more than
doubling the cost of fuel, are in line with the rise in global oil prices. Opposition
parties say it will hit the poor and are calling for a crackdown on official corruption.
The government is currently implementing harsh economic reforms to address the
budget deficit, as well as high unemployment and bureaucracy.
Europe
Azerbaijan (Nagorno Karabakh)
Today.Az
» Politics » Foreign Affairs Ministry of Romania denounces election held by separatist
regime in Nagorno Karabakh 07 July 2005 [09:37] - Today.Az The Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Romania (FAM) spread information for the press in connection with
the fake elections in Nagorno Karabakh held by the separatist regime occupied
the lands of Azerbaijan. This was informed by “AzerTAj” based on the embassy of
our country in Bucharest. It is stressed in the information that Romania FAM
is troubled with the parliamentary elections held on June 19, 2005 in the separatist
“Nagorno Karabakh Republic” – non-state structure which independency is not recognized
in the international level: “The “elections process” in Nagorno Karabakh is
contrary to intensifying the relations in the highest level including experts
level and development of the talks process characterized with the efforts of mollifying
the positions of Baku and Yerevan. We consider that such unilateral activity of
the separatist authority organs has no real significance for solving process of
the conflict which is the focus of attention of the Minsk Conference. At the same
time, we also welcome the position of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Russia not
approving creating mutual relation between peaceful solution of the conflict and
organizing any elections in Nagorno Karabakh”. It is also noted in the information
that Romania FAM supported the effort of the co-chairmen of OSCE Minsk Group directed
to stimulate the talks process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. /APA/ URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/19871.html
The Public International Law & Policy
Group 19 July 2005 PILPG Update PILPG Delegation Observes
Nagorno Karabakh Elections 19 July 2005 On June 19 Nagorno
Karabakh held parliamentary elections that were observed by a six-person PILPG
delegation. The delegation was among the over 100 persons who monitored the elections.
The PILPG delegation visited over 37 polling sites throughout the country on election
day and also met with representatives of six major political parties, members
of the Central Election Commission, independent civil society representatives,
and the president and foreign minister of Nagorno Karabakh on election day and
in the days leading up to the vote. The delegation concluded that the elections
were conducted freely and transparently and marked a significant step forward
for democratic development in Nagorno Karabakh. More information can be found
in the PILPG Report, attached. The Public International Law & Policy Group
(PILPG) is a 501 (c) (3) organization, which operates as a global pro bono law
firm, providing free legal assistance to developing states and sub-state entities
involved in conflicts. PILPG also provides policy formulation advice and training
on matters related to conflict resolution. PILPG, which has recently been nominated
for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, has advised over a dozen countries on the legal
aspects of peace negotiations and constitution drafting, and over fifteen countries
in Europe, Asia and Africa concerning fundamental questions of public international
law and foreign relations. PILPG has also advised four international criminal
tribunals. PILPG operates in four practice areas: Peacebuilding, International
Justice, Post-Conflict Political Development, and Public International Law For
more information on the Public International Law & Policy Group, visit our website
at http://www.pilpg.org
Baku Today,
Azerbaijan 20 July 2005 www.bakutoday.net OSCE PA Elaborates on Karabakh Conflict
Report AssA-Irada 20/07/2005 19:23 The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has elaborated
on the report prepared by its rapporteur on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, Goran Lennmarker. The report, which was discussed in July at the OSCE
PA session in the United States, terms some views on the conflict settlement made
in Washington as an ‘invaluable opportunity’, the OSCE PA secretariat said. Azerbaijan
and Armenia interpret history differently, which necessitates achieving a ‘balanced
agreement’, the document said. “Unbiased understanding of the past is particularly
important for those who suffered and are now seeking justice.” Lennmarker suggested
that European experience should be used in settling the conflict based on several
key principles, including assurance that the two countries face no national security
threats from each other, observance to high standards on democracy and human rights,
and economic integration that would promote multi-faceted development. The citizens
of Azerbaijan and Armenian should enjoy living conditions meeting European standards,
the report said. The rapporteur also said that Azerbaijan and Armenia could set
up a zone of security, democracy and prosperity jointly with Georgia. With regard
to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, Lennmarker emphasized that seeking solutions
based on economic integration would considerably simplify the issue. If the borders
open up and an integrated economy is established, control over the territory will
become less important and disputes over the matter will subside, the report said.
Lennmarker also recalled that Azerbaijan stated its readiness to provide Karabakh
with the highest status.
Bosnia
washingtonpost.com
10 July 2005 Bystanders To a Massacre How the U.N. Failed Srebrenica By
Edward P. Joseph Post Sunday, July 10, 2005; B04 In the video, the Serbs take
their time, cracking jokes and taunting the Muslim men they've trucked to a field
outside a small hamlet in Eastern Bosnia. Then the joking stops. One by one, the
victims, their hands tied behind their backs, are shot at close range -- all but
two. "You're the winners," the Serbs tell this pair, and order them to carry the
bodies of their comrades into a house. Then the Serbs gun them down, too. The
recently discovered video, broadcast last month in Serbia, is sickening proof
of what happened to the Muslim men of Srebrenica 10 years ago. Tomorrow, world
leaders and dignitaries will gather to remember the approximately 7,800 men and
boys who were murdered there by Serbian troops in the worst mass killing in Europe
since World War II. And once again, they'll be asking themselves why it happened
-- and offering incomplete answers. Srebrenica is unforgettable not only for its
scale, but because, unlike the present genocide going on in Sudan's Darfur region,
it happened while the international community and the world media were deeply
engaged in Bosnia. The United Nations had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" --
a specially protected site backed up by U.N. peacekeepers on the ground and NATO
strike planes in the air. Yet the Serbs managed to seize it anyway. The question
that has haunted Srebrenica ever since -- as it haunts other places where officials
watch as victims suffer -- is: Why was there no will to act to prevent the tragedy?
Understandably, the blame has focused on high-level organizational and governmental
leaders. Kofi Annan, then the head of the U.N.'s Department of Peacekeeping Operations,
released a scathing report in 1999 and apologized on behalf of the organization
for its failure in Srebrenica. European leaders and officials who will beat the
10th anniversary commemoration will almost certainly acknowledge how much more
their countries might have done to avert the tragedy. A chorus of speakers will
decry Serbia's failure, even after release of the video, to apologize for the
crimes, and NATO's failure to arrest the war-time Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan
Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. But preventing another tragedy means understanding
where and how not just organizations, but also individuals -- at all levels --
have failed. What about the critical layer of mid-level U.N. officials who
helped perpetuate a policy in Bosnia that was steadfast only in its opposition
to NATO intervention and culminated in a catastrophe that remains a permanent
stain on the institution? Did those officials believe in the policy? Or did many
of them just go along? Why have so few expressed regret or shame at what happened
on their watch (as the Canadian peacekeeper in Rwanda, Col. Romeo Dallaire, has
done)? Given what we saw in Bosnia and Rwanda, can we believe or hope that a U.N.
force sent to Darfur would really act to stop the genocide there? I have thought
about these questions more than most. I served as a U.N. civil affairs officer
in Bosnia for much of the 3 1/2 years of war. My colleagues and I received the
waves of women and children expelled from Srebrenica before their husbands, fathers,
brothers and sons were executed. About a week later, I found myself in Srebrenica's
neighboring enclave of Zepa, face to face with Mladic, an architect of the massacres.
While his forces were finishing the slaughter in Srebrenica, he had turned his
sights on Zepa's Muslim men. The Muslim commander, Col. Avdo Palic, saved his
soldiers by hiding them in the forests while he stayed behind to negotiate with
Mladic. A colleague and I watched and protested, vainly, as Palic was seized
by Serb troops from our collapsed U.N. compound and taken away (and likely killed).
Because of this experience, and my feelings of responsibility toward Palic,
I continue to ask why we let Srebrenica happen, and why we don't act to prevent
other tragedies. Over time, I've come up with three answers. First, not all those
who enter the world of peacekeeping and nation building do so out of noble motives.
The U.N. is hardly the only international organization that attracts people
(particularly from countries with limited opportunities) who are motivated, instead,
by the pay, which is reliable and relatively high. Even Westerners often decide
whether to join a U.N. or other mission after checking out the level of the per
diem, which is often taken as tax-free income. Someone who is primarily interested
in financial or career gains is unlikely to rock the boat, even if it's flagrantly
off course. Inevitably, some U.N. staffers who knew, after three years of Serb
defiance, that the Bosnia policy was wrong still went along with it. It will always
be difficult to find people willing to go to remote and dangerous places. But
overdoing the incentives can attract the wrong kind of staff and reinforce the
wrong kind of motivations. Second, even the vast majority who are motivated
by the desire to do good may still find their principles compromised or confused
by organizational loyalty. Many on the staff of the senior U.N. official
in the former Yugoslavia, the Japanese diplomat Yasushi Akashi, internalized his
overarching priority: to protect the U.N.'s neutrality and "even-handedness" by
avoiding the use of force against the Serbs. Consistently, they rebuffed those
who did advocate force (like the U.N.'s military commander in Bosnia, Gen. Rupert
Smith), and toned down reports sent to New York to maintain the premise that "all
sides were equally guilty." In one case, a zealous mid-level U.N. official even
tried to block the deployment of peacekeepers to protect a hospital in Bihac,
another collapsing "safe area" in which I served. As approaching Serb forces lobbed
artillery shells at the hospital, we urged the U.N. mission headquarters to let
us send a unit to defend the patients, noting that hospitals were protected areas
under the Geneva Conventions. The responding official, scrupulously adhering to
policy, argued that we had no basis to deploy because the U.N. itself is not a
party to the Geneva Conventions. (Fortunately, the U.N. commander ignored the
specious reasoning and dispatched the peacekeepers. The Serbs immediately ceased
firing on the hospital.) Like so many on the U.N. staff, the headquarters official
had put protecting the organization above protectingcivilians. Ironically, such
action instead left the U.N.'s reputation in tatters. Unfortunately, senior U.N.
officials still peddle the line that the Secretariat was merely the "servant"
of a divided Security Council that failed to provide the U.N. with enough resources
in Srebrenica. In fact, the Secretariat independently resisted any use of force
in Bosnia, including NATO airpower that could have more than compensated for shortfalls
on the ground. For the sake of current and future U.N. missions, it is essential
that the organization not turn explanations about Srebrenica into excuses. The
third and least understood factor in collective passivity toward evil is the prevalent
taboo against "getting emotional" about death and tragedy. While there is always
a risk of rushing to judgment or allowing particularly graphic evidence to cloud
decision-making, the greater risk is from exaggerated clinical detachment. Without
a sense of guided outrage, of empathy for the victims of abuse, organization staff,
even human rights workers, are prone to "move on" and accept it when bureaucracies
shrug their shoulders. For much of the war in Bosnia, U.N. mission staff were
based in the Croatian capital of Zagreb -- physically and emotionally distanced
from the suffering of the Bosnian people. From the time I first found myself
in the war zone of Sarajevo in the summer of 1992, I was stunned by the bland
demurral that headquarters reflexively issued when we sought action from the peacekeepers:
"It's not in our mandate." After the war, officials frequently declined to
investigate alleged abuses with a new mantra: "We can't deal with individual cases."
But mandates (which are often vague and subject to interpretation) or resource
limitations (which depend on effort and imagination as much as equipment or staff)
rarely impose an absolute bar against getting involved. An egregious example
occurred in Macedonia in 2002, after a police death squad gunned down seven Pakistani
migrants. Macedonian officials tried to present the victims as international terrorists
intercepted on a failed bid to blow up the U.S. Embassy. The case immediately
raised suspicion. Yet the lead international entity on police matters in Macedonia,
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, declined to investigate,
splitting hairs over whether or not it had a human rights mandate. Clearly,
it is important to maintain a cool head in a crisis, but excising all emotion
leads to bureaucratic disinterest, injustice and tragedy. War-time intervention
and postwar nation building can present excruciatingly difficult challenges and
choices. Conflicts, even in the same region, can differ greatly and defy categorization,
making it hard to transplant lessons and foolhardy to impose doctrine. And it
will always be tempting to put protecting the organization ahead of protecting
the local populace. But the colossal failure in Srebrenica is a reminder that
where lives are in peril, officials, at all levels, must honestly examine their
motives and priorities -- and those of their leaders. After Srebrenica, following
the company line can never again be an excuse. Author's e-mail: edwardpjoseph@yahoo.com
NYT 12 July 2005 In Bosnia, World
Leaders Apologize for Massacre By DAVID ROHDE SREBRENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
July 11 - American and European leaders attending a ceremony on Monday marking
the 10th anniversary of the execution of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys here
during the war in Bosnia promised that two Bosnian Serb leaders indicted for the
killings would be brought to justice. But among the 30,000 Bosnian Muslims who
gathered here today, relatives of the dead and others dismissed the promises as
empty. "I don't believe anymore that anyone loves us," said Zada Pasalic, the
63-year-old sister of a man who was among 610 execution victims buried here on
Monday after being identified by DNA testing. "They promised so much and gave
so little." During the war in Bosnia, from 1992 to 1995, the United Nations
declared Srebrenica the world's first civilian "safe area," stripped its soldiers
of their artillery and armored vehicles and promised to protect the enclave. But
in July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overwhelmed 370 lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers
here, seized control of the enclave and killed virtually every man and boy they
captured. At a somber ceremony under a gray sky that sprinkled rain on diplomats,
mourners and graves, British and United Nations officials apologized for the failure
of foreign powers to protect the town. The British foreign secretary, Jack Straw,
made the most direct statement, saying it was "a shame on the international community
that this evil took place under our noses." "I particularly regret this," said
Mr. Straw. "And I am deeply sorry for it." Mark Malloch Brown, chief of staff
to the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, echoing an earlier
United Nations report, said that United Nations officials made "serious errors
of judgment" in Srebrenica that stemmed from a philosophy of "neutrality and nonviolence
that was unsuited for the conflict in Bosnia," a brutal war that killed 200,000
people. He said that member countries failed to provide the United Nations with
the military forces it needed in Bosnia and that United Nations officials should
have been more willing to use the forces they had. The American representative
at the ceremony, Pierre-Richard Prosper, the United States ambassador at large
for war crimes, said he was attending the ceremony with "deep reflection." But
he offered no apologies for the fall of the town. Reading a message from President
Bush he said, "we remain committed" to the arrests of Radovan Karadzic, the wartime
Bosnian Serb leader, and Ratko Mladic, the military commander, both of whom have
been indicted for genocide in the killings. At a later news conference, Mr. Prosper
said the United States viewed the fall of the town with "deep regret." But the
fall of Srebrenica was the "responsibility of the international community as a
whole," he said, and not of the United States alone.
NYT
11 July 2005 OP-ED The Wages of Denial By COURTNEY ANGELA BRKIC Washington TEN
years ago this week, Serbian forces slaughtered more than 7,000 Muslim men in
the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Despite the efforts of a dedicated few
in Serbia, and despite the war crimes prosecutions at The Hague, Serbia is no
closer today than it was a decade ago to reckoning with its war guilt. For years
Belgrade has denied involvement by its citizens in Srebrenica and other massacres
of the 1990s. The recent broadcast of a graphic video that showed Serbian paramilitary
police executing six young men from Srebrenica should have made it very hard to
sustain that revisionism. Amazing as it seems, however, the video was not enough
to shatter what Serbian human rights activist Sonja Biserko has described as the
country's "state of collective denial." Fewer than half of Serbs polled last spring
believed the Srebrenica massacre took place. And while much has been made of the
video's effects on a shocked Serbian public, it remains to be seen where that
public will stand once the furor recedes. The Radical Party, which won 27 percent
of the popular vote in the last national elections, making it the largest party
in Parliament, has already criticized what it sees as the anti-Serb hysteria that
"wishes at all costs to put the burden of all crimes on Serbia." Graffiti has
appeared in several cities praising the "liberation" of Srebrenica. Rumors circulate
that the video was doctored, or that the men committing the crimes were acting
independently. Instead of coming to terms with its past, Serbia has circumvented
the issue with the narrative skills befitting a psychopath. For example, a
debate on Srebrenica at the Belgrade Law Faculty earlier this year was initially
titled "10 Years After the Liberation of Srebrenica." In response to the video,
Serbia's president, Boris Tadic, said, "Serbia is deeply shocked" that "the killers
had walked freely among us." But Mr. Tadic's government surely knows that the
killers in the video are but a small fraction of the number who continue to walk
the streets of Serbia and Montenegro as free men. A fairy tale has passed for
public memory until now in Serbia and Montenegro and it is conspicuous in its
omission of Serb atrocities in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, which left
hundreds of thousands dead. The Serbian version of that history denies the fact
that President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and those like him enjoyed overwhelming
popular support in Serbia during the war, despite the evictions, rapes and unchecked
slaughter by Yugoslav troops and irregulars. It suggests that Belgrade today has
nothing to do with Belgrade as it was 10 years ago. It aims at an absurd relativism,
placing Serbian atrocities within the context of crimes committed by other ethnicities
(in fact, the C.I.A. has reported that Serbs were responsible for 90 percent of
all atrocities committed in Bosnia). Mr. Tadic was quoted as saying, "Crimes are
always individual." All of this is fiction. At the end of the Second World War,
Allied troops forced German citizens to walk through Nazi death camps. They were
confronted by crimes committed in their name, in order to ensure that those crimes
could not be denied or minimized later. The people of Serbia and Montenegro, by
contrast, have never been forced to acknowledge the crimes committed in their
name. There are those who refuse to whitewash Serbia's recent past. The Helsinki
Human Rights Committee in Serbia and the independent broadcaster Radio B92 are
admirable examples. People like Natasa Kandic, chairwoman of the Humanitarian
Law Center in Belgrade, have spent years fighting for the truth, often at great
personal risk. Extremists threatened to lynch Ms. Kandic at the law school debate
on Srebrenica, and one of them spat in her face. Eight of Serbia's human rights
groups have drafted a declaration on Srebrenica that would obligate the country's
government to confess to the massacre and to "expose and punish any ideological
justification of crime." But the daily newspaper Blic reported that the majority
of parties in Serbia's Parliament refused not only to endorse the declaration
but also to debate it. Serbia must relinquish the fairy tale that its own wartime
suffering was equivalent to the devastation it visited on others. Adopting an
honest declaration on Srebrenica would have been an important first step, and
the Serbian Parliament should have taken it. For as long as Serbia's people deny
complicity in war crimes, they undercut any hope for justice and cheat their country
out of any decent future. The Western aid money that has poured into Serbia may
help rebuild the country's infrastructure, but it will do nothing to cut out the
cancer that riddles the country's heart. Western governments are anxious for reconciliation
in the Balkans, which would ensure future stability in the region. They are pushing
hard for the arrests of people like Radovan Karadzic, the architect of the genocide,
and Ratko Mladic, who carried it out, and they lauded the speed with which the
Serbian government detained those suspected of being the killers shown on the
video. But those arrests will not be nearly enough. Such men were not exceptions,
nor were they acting independently, and Serbia must acknowledge this truth, rather
than denying or minimizing it. That means surrendering all war crimes suspects
to The Hague and paying reparations to the victims of war. The West should ask
for no less than this when it considers Serbian requests for aid. Courtney Angela
Brkic is the author of "Stillness: And Other Stories" and "The Stone Fields,"
an account of her work excavating mass graves outside Srebrenica.
NYT
14 July 2005 Editorial: Srebrenica, an Obligation Unfulfilled Ten years
ago, during the war in Bosnia, ethnic Serb forces murdered more than 7,000 men
and boys in Srebrenica, almost every Muslim male in the city. That genocide stands
as the worst atrocity against civilians in Europe since World War II, and as a
tragic symbol of the inability of United Nations peacekeepers to protect civilian
populations. A decade later, the two men with ultimate responsibility for the
massacre remain free. And despite the parallel tragedy of Rwanda, the major powers
that run the U.N. Security Council have yet to make peacekeeping operations more
credible and effective. The survivors of Srebrenica honored the anniversary of
the massacre on Monday by burying 610 of their sons and brothers and fathers,
the latest to have been identified through DNA tests of bones dug up from mass
graves. So far, only 2,000 people have been identified and properly buried. As
Muslim children dressed in white stood amid rows of coffins, Serb policemen stood
by respectfully. The president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, attended the ceremony.
But shovels of dirt will not lay this infamy to rest. The men of Srebrenica were
murdered after the world betrayed them in the bloody war that raged in Bosnia,
a fragment of the former Yugoslavia. The ethnic Serbs who terrorized the Srebrenica
region were bent on killing or driving away every Muslim Bosnian. United Nations
commanders, knowing that a Serb assault on Srebrenica was imminent, rejected calls
from local peacekeepers for airstrikes on Serb positions. The United Nations disarmed
the people of the town and declared it a "safe area." But the 370 Dutch peacekeepers
assigned there had only light weapons and orders to use them only in self-defense.
The United Nations allowed Serb soldiers to round up the men and boys, and to
take them away and kill them. That same year, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic,
the top political and military leaders of Bosnia's Serbs during the war, were
indicted on charges of genocide by the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
But they remain free, hiding in different parts of the still-divided region. Even
when NATO had 60,000 troops in Bosnia supposedly charged with arresting wanted
men, the two Bosnian Serbs moved with relative impunity. NATO governments, principally
Washington, did not want to risk their troops by trying to arrest either man.
Today, 7,000 European Union troops patrol Bosnia, apparently unable to find Mr.
Karadzic, who is protected by his followers and is still a hero to many of his
fellow Serbs. The European troops patrolling Bosnia must make Mr. Karadzic's capture
their top priority, and international pressure to arrest Mr. Mladic must increase
on neighboring Serbia, where he has taken refuge and finds great sympathy among
members of the army. In the Serb Republic carved out of Bosnia, Mr. Karadzic is
still perhaps the most powerful figure in the ruling party. He runs a smuggling
network that controls patronage for thousands. As long as Mr. Karadzic is in control,
reconciliation among Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia is a far-off dream. Capturing
Mr. Karadzic and Mr. Mladic is not just a way to keep faith with the dead - it
is the only way to move these regions into the modern world.
fena.ba
15 July 2005 (14:16) SARAJEVO: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GENOCIDE IN SREBRENICA
CONCLUDES SARAJEVO, July 15 (FENA) – The four-day International Scientific Conference
“Genocide against the Bosniaks of UN safe haven Srebrenica July 1995 – lessons
for the future generations” concluded on Thursday evening in Sarajevo. The Conference
opened on July 11 in Potocari on the occasion of commemorating the Srebrenica
tragedy. Conclusions from this gathering will be presented at a special press
conference on basis of numerous proposals by the participants. Authors from BiH
and scientists from all continents have submitted 120 papers on the Srebrenica
tragedy. Participants of the Conference agree that persons responsible for genocide
in Srebrenica, i.e. BiH, must answer for their crimes, and that genocide must
never happen again. It is estimated that over 300 people participated in the Conference
over the past four fays. This scientific gathering was organized by the Sarajevo
Institute for researching crimes against humanity from international law and the
University of North Carolina. All papers submitted will be issued in a special
publication, in the end of this or beginning of the next year.
washingtonpost.com
19 July 2005 Was Bosnia Worth It? By Richard Holbrooke Post Tuesday, July
19, 2005; A21 If you wonder whether the 1995 American intervention in Bosnia was
the right decision, go to a really horrible place, one whose name has become synonymous
with genocide and Western failure. Go to Srebrenica. Ten years after Bosnian
Serbs under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic murdered 7,000 Muslims there, I found
myself back in that valley of evil as part of the official American delegation
representing President Bush and the nation. We walked across muddy fields,
under leaden skies, through a vast throng of victim families who were burying
more than 600 of their loved ones, their grief and personal hatred of those who
had done this undiminished by the passage of a decade. But even in Srebrenica,
there has been progress since my last visit, five years ago. Then, only 10 brave
-- one might say recklessly brave -- Muslim families had returned to their homes,
and they lived in constant fear among 12,000 Serbs. Today 4,000 Muslims have
returned, and one-third of the Serbs have already left. This is astonishing, and
more of the same seems certain if the international community -- and especially
the United States, the most respected nation in the Balkans -- remains involved;
in this regard, Bush's strong words of support at the ceremony -- read by the
head of his delegation, Ambassador for War Crimes Pierre Prosper -- were welcomed.
There was also an important effort at reconciliation: Top leaders from Serbia
and the Serb part of Bosnia came to lay wreaths, an important acknowledgment of
Serb responsibility for what happened. Things have improved even more in the rest
of Bosnia. Above all, there is peace and not simply a cease-fire; this war will
not resume. Nor has Bosnia become two separate states, as many critics of the
Dayton Peace Agreement predicted. Although many (including in the Pentagon) predicted
a Korea-like demilitarized zone between Serbs and Muslims, there are no barriers
between the regions, and there are growing economic and political ties between
ethnic groups. More than a million refugees have returned to their homes, many,
like those in Srebrenica, to areas where they are in a minority. Both the European
Union and NATO are beginning talks that could lead to association agreements between
Bosnia and Brussels. So there is good news (which often means "no news" to
editors) from Bosnia. But not nearly enough. From the beginning, implementation
of the Dayton Peace Agreement was insufficiently aggressive. The most important
failure was not capturing the two most wanted war criminals in Europe, Radovan
Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. This is a story unto itself of missed opportunities
and poor intelligence. Mladic is, after all, in Serbia, and has been seen in public.
I would guess that Karadzic has trimmed his trademark gray pompadour, grown a
beard, and is hiding in some monastery in the deep mountains of eastern Bosnia
or Montenegro. If Karadzic and Mladic are not brought to justice, the international
security force (now a European Union force, with NATO reduced to a small office
and fewer than 200 American troops) will never be able to leave, and Bosnia's
return to a multiethnic society (and the institutions of Europe) will be delayed
or prevented. It is by now universally understood that a great crime was committed
in Srebrenica. As assistant secretary of state for European affairs at the time,
I argued, unsuccessfully, that we needed NATO airstrikes to stop the Bosnian Serbs
-- bullies who preferred long-range artillery and short-range murder to anything
resembling a real military operation. But Britain, France and the Netherlands
had troops deployed, as part of the United Nations' peacekeeping force, in three
extremely exposed enclaves in eastern Bosnia, including Srebrenica. Facing the
brutal threats of Mladic, they refused to consider airstrikes until the Dutch
troops were ignominiously escorted out of Srebrenica. By then it was too late.
From 1991 to 1995 the United States had been reluctant to act in Bosnia. But after
Srebrenica, President Bill Clinton knew that although the American people would
not like it, the United States could no longer avoid involvement there. Thus began
the diplomatic and military policy that led to the Dayton accords, to peace in
Bosnia and, four years later, to the liberation of the Albanian people in Kosovo
from Slobodan Milosevic's oppression. Sending 20,000 American troops to Bosnia
as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping contingent to enforce Dayton took real political
courage. There were widespread predictions that it would fail, and there was opposition
from most of Congress and the foreign policy elite. In a poll at the time, Clinton's
decision was supported by only 36 percent of the American public, who expected
heavy U.S. casualties. As it turned out, that expectation was misplaced; in the
10 years since Dayton, no -- repeat, no -- American or NATO military personnel
have been killed by hostile action in Bosnia. It is a mark of the respect in which
NATO -- that is, the United States -- is held. This was Clinton's most important
action in regard to Europe -- an action opposed, incidentally, by most of his
political advisers. It was a classic commander-in-chief decision, made alone,
without congressional support and with only reluctant backing from the Pentagon.
But it worked: Without those 20,000 troops, Bosnia would not have survived, 2
million refugees would still be wandering the face of Western Europe, a criminal
state would be in power in Bosnia itself -- and we would probably have had to
pursue Operation Enduring Freedom not only in Afghanistan but also in the deep
ravines and dangerous hills of central Bosnia, where a shadowy organization we
now know as al Qaeda was putting down roots that were removed by NATO after Dayton.
Was Bosnia worth it? As we approach the 10th anniversary of Dayton, there should
no longer be any debate. Had we not intervened -- belatedly but decisively --
a disaster would have taken place with serious consequences for our national security
and the war on terrorism. Dayton reasserted an American leadership role in Europe
after a period of drift and confusion. But the job is not yet finished, and it
is encouraging to see President Bush and the new team at State recommit the nation,
as they did last week at Srebrenica. Richard Holbrooke was the chief architect
of the Dayton Peace Agreement. He writes a monthly column for The Post.
France
-
Germany
See Turkey
-
Italy
-
