tisdag 31 juli 2012

Ewa Björling/EU-Israel trade and diplomatic relations & Palestinians for Dignity/youth protest

"Handel, investeringar och influenser från omvärlden är centrala förutsättningar för jobben, välfärden och tillväxten - samtidigt som det gynnar viktiga mål som fattigdomsbekämpning, mänskliga rättigheter, fred och stabilitet."
Ewa Björling /Handelsminister
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fin fem fel! Eva, detta verkar gälla bara för vissa ... inte för Palestinier?! (se under) Moha
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Palestinians for Dignity----------- Occupied Ramallah, --July 30, 2012 - It has come to light over the last week that the European Union (EU) has decided to upgrade its trade and diplomatic relations with the state of Israel despite the latter’s intensification of its occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people. The new deal will reportedly offer Israel upgraded trade and diplomatic relations in more than 60 areas, effectively reversing the freeze that was imposed after the vicious assault of the Israeli Occupation Forces on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 - January 2009. This latest move by the EU is nothing less than outrageous, particularly given the EU’s continuous verbal criticism of Israel’s belligerentsettlement plans. This duplicitous behavior epitomizes the reasons why the Palestinian people have no faith in the EU. While some in the Palestinian leadership might have common personal interests with the EU and Israel, the Palestinian people will not accept only hollow words of condemnation. We should not need to remind the EU that Israel continuously flouts the will of the international community, remains in breach of UN Security Council resolutions, continues to violate its international law (including IHL) obligations, and daily abuses the human rights of the Palestinian people. Whether in its settlement policies, construction of the Apartheid Wall, its ethnic cleansing and “Judaization” of Jerusalem and the Naqab (Negev), its criminal blockade of Gaza, its denial of the UN-sanctioned rights of the Palestinian refugees, its violation of the rights of Palestinian prisoners (including children), its demolition of Palestinian homes, and its countless other illegal policies, Israel is undoubtedly guilty of gross human rights abuses, deserving of condemnation and sanctions, not rewards and benefits. In its most recent plan Israel has decided to destroy eight Palestinian villages in southern Hebron, displacing more than 1000 Palestinians, in order to have more military training grounds for its soldiers. Rather than taking measures to ensure respect for international law as called for by Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, it seems that EU Member States have decided to reward Israel for its continued abuse of the Palestinian people. Moreover, EU Member States have chosen to completely ignore Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which is designed to deter human rights abuses by clearly stating that EU-Israel ‘’relations shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles which must guide internal and international policy”. These actions can only send one clear message to the Palestinian people – that our rights and lives are trivial, deserving only the occasional lip service but never meaningful action. As Palestinian youth, we are tired of the EU’s hypocrisy and its contemptuous policies that use aid and development programs to mask political cowardice and complicity in Israel’s crimes; it has to be made clear that all the financial support going to the PA is futile when the EU offers unconditional political, trade, academic and other forms of support for Israel. The EU’s policies have only served to prolong Israel’s occupation and our oppression. The time has come for EU Member States, and the EU as a whole, to decide—to either demonstrate their support for human rights or continue their support of Israel’s violent occupation and apartheid regime and risk losing not only the Palestinian people but Arab peoples and people of conscience all over the world. We hereby call on the EU to(1) immediately freeze the new upgrade of relations with Israel; (2) suspend the existing EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel complies with international law; and (3) investigate and halt the work of all European companies benefiting from Israel’s occupation and settlement policies. Barring meaningful action on the above, the Palestinian youth movement will organize to protest the latest manifestation of EU complicity and to challenge its presence and operations in Palestine. Palestinians for Dignity

fredag 18 februari 2011

US vs UN on Israeli settlements (alla dessa veto..roten till muslimsk terrorism?)

US vs UN on Israeli settlements

Vetoing UN resolutions condemning Israeli settlements violates broader US interests.
MJ Rosenberg on Aljazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/2011215115925859109.html

Anyone who thought that the United States has learned anything from the various revolutions upturning the Arab world has another think coming. We didn't.
On Thursday, as the Egyptian revolution was culminating with the collapse of the Mubarak regime, the Obama administration announced that it intends to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution, sponsored by 122 nations, condemning Israeli settlement expansion.
This is from AFP's report on what Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"We have made very clear that we do not think the Security Council is the right place to engage on these issues," Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee.
"We have had some success, at least for the moment, in not having that arise there. And we will continue to employ the tools that we have to make sure that continues to not happen," said Steinberg.
There is so much wrong with Steinberg's statement that it is hard to know where to start.
First is the obvious. Opposition to Israeli settlements is perhaps the only issue on which the entire Arab and Muslim world is united. Iraqis and Afghanis, Syrians and Egyptians, Indonesians and Pakistanis don't agree on much, but they do agree on that. They also agree that the US policy on settlements demonstrates flagrant disregard for human rights in the Muslim world (at least when Israel is the human rights violator).
Accordingly, a US decision to support the condemnation of settlements would send a clear message to the Arab and Muslim world that we understand what is happening in the Middle East and that we share at least some of its peoples' concerns.
The settlement issue should be an easy one for the United States. Our official policy is the same as that of the Arab world. We oppose settlements. We consider them illegal. We have repeatedly demanded that the Israelis stop expanding them (although the Israeli government repeatedly ignores us). The administration feels so strongly about settlements that it recently offered Israel an extra $3.5bn in US aid to freeze settlements for 90 days.
It is impossible, then, for the United States to pretend that we do not agree with the resolution (especially when its language was carefully drafted to comport with the administration's official position). So why will we veto a resolution that expresses our own views?
Steinberg says that "We do not think the Security Council is the right place to engage on these issues."
Why not? It is the Security Council that passed all the major international resolutions (with US support) governing Israel's role in the occupied territories since the first one, UN Resolution 242 in 1967.
He then adds, with clear pride that:
"We have had some success, at least for the moment, in not having that [the settlements issue] arise there."
Very impressive. The United States has had no success whatsoever in getting the Netanyahu government to stop expanding settlements — to stop evicting Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem to make way for ultra-Orthodox settlers — and no success in getting Israel to crack down on settler violence, but we have had "some success" in keeping the issue out of the United Nations.
The only way to resolve the settlements issue, according to Steinberg, "is through engagement through the parties, and that is our clear and consistent position". Clear and consistent it may be. But it hasn't worked. The bulldozers never stop.
Of course, it is not hard to explain the Obama administration's decision to veto a resolution embodying positions that we support. It is the power of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is lobbying furiously for a US veto (actually not so furiously; AIPAC doesn't waste energy when it knows that its congressional acolytes — and Dennis Ross in the White House itself — will do its work for them).
The power of the lobby is the only reason we will veto the resolution. Try to come up with another one. After all, voting for the resolution (or, at least, abstaining on it) serves US interests in the Middle East at a critical moment and is consistent with US policy.
But it would enrage the lobby and its friends who will threaten retribution in the 2012 election.
Simply put, our Middle East policy is all about domestic politics. And not even the incredible events of the past month will change that.
That is why US standing in the Middle East will continue to deteriorate. We simply cannot deliver. After all, there is always another election on the horizon and that means that it is donors, not diplomats, who determine US policy.
MJ Rosenberg is a Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network. The above article first appeared in Foreign Policy Matters, a part of the Media Matters Action Network.
Follow MJ's work on Facebook or on Twitter.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.


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måndag 31 januari 2011

Tunisia and the IMF's Diktats: How Macro-Economic Policy Triggers Worldwide Poverty and Unemployment

Tunisia and the IMF's Diktats: How Macro-Economic Policy Triggers Worldwide Poverty and Unemployment



by Michel Chossudovsky


General Zine el Abidine Ben Ali , the defunct and deposed president of Tunisia is heralded by the Western media, in chorus, as a dictator.

The Tunisian protest movement is casually described as the consequence of an undemocratic and authoritarian regime, which defies the norms of the "international community".

But Ben Ali was not a "dictator". Dictators decide and dictate. Ben Ali was a servant of Western economic interests, a faithful political puppet who obeyed orders, with the active support of the international community.

Foreign interference in Tunisia's domestic affairs is not mentioned in the media reports. The food price hikes were not "dictated" by the Ben Ali government. They were imposed by Wall Street and the IMF.

The role of Ben Ali's government was to enforce the IMF's deadly economic medicine, which over a period of more than twenty years has served to destabilize the national economy and impoverish the Tunisian population.

Ben Ali as head of state did not decide on anything of substance. National sovereignty was foregone. In 1987, at the height of the debt crisis, the left nationalist government of Habib Bourguiba was replaced by a new regime, firmly committed to "free market" reforms.

Macroeconomic management under the helm of the IMF was in the hands of Tunisia's external creditors. Over the last 23 years, economic and social policy in Tunisia has been dictated by the Washington Consensus.

Ben Ali stayed in power because his government obeyed and effectively enforced the diktats of the IMF, while serving the interests of both the US and the European Union.

This pattern has occurred in numerous countries.

Continuity of the IMF's deadly reforms requires "regime replacement". The installation of a political puppet ensures the enforcement of the neoliberal agenda while also creating conditions for the eventual demise of a corrupt and unpopular government which has been draw upon to impoverish an entire population.

The Protest Movement

It is not Wall Street and the Washington based international financial institutions which are the direct target of the protest movement. The social implosion was directed against a government rather than against the interference of foreign powers in the conduct of government policy.

At the outset, the protests were not the result of an organized political movement directed against the imposition of the neoliberal reforms.

Moreover, there are indications that the protest movement was manipulated with a view to creating social chaos as well as ensuring political continuity. There are unconfirmed reports of armed militias conducting acts of repression and intimidation in major urban areas.

The important question is how will the crisis evolve? How will the broader issue of foreign interference be addressed by the Tunisian people?

From the standpoint of both Washington and Brussels, an unpopular authoritarian regime is slated to be replaced by a new puppet government. Elections are envisaged under the supervision of the so-called international community, in which case candidates would be pre-selected and approved.

Were this process of regime change to be carried out on behalf of foreign interests, the new proxy government would no doubt ensure the continuity of the neoliberal policy agenda which has served to impoverish the Tunisian population.

The interim government led by acting president Fouad Mebazza is currently in an impasse, with fierce opposition emanating from the trade union movement (UGTT). Mebazza has promised to "break with past", without however specifying whether this signifies a repeal of the neoliberal economic reforms.

Historical Background

The media in chorus have presented the crisis in Tunisia as an issue of domestic politics, without a historical insight. The presumption is that with the removal of "the dictator" and the instatement of a duly elected government, the social crisis will eventually be resolved.

The first "bread riots" in Tunisia date back to 1984. The January 1984 protest movement was motivated by a 100 percent hike in the price of bread. This hike had been demanded by the IMF under Tunisia's structural adjustment program (SAP). The elimination of food subsidies was a de facto condition of the loan agreement with the IMF.

President Habib Bourguiba, who played a historical role in liberating his country from French colonialism, declared a state of emergency in response to the riots:

While gunfire sounded, police and army troops in Jeeps and armored personnel carriers fanned out through the city to quell the "bread riot." The show of force finally brought an uneasy calm, but only after more than 50 demonstrators and bystanders were killed. Then, in a dramatic five-minute radio and television broadcast, Bourguiba announced that he was reversing the price hike. (Tunisia: Bourguiba Lets Them Eat Bread - TIME, January 1984)

Following president Bourguiba's retraction, the hike in the price of bread was reversed. Bourguiba fired his Minister of the Interior and refused to abide by the demands of the Washington Consensus.

The neoliberal agenda had nonetheless been instated, leading to rampant inflation and mass unemployment. Three years later, Bourguiba and his government were removed in a bloodless coup d'Etat, "on the grounds of incompetence", leading to the instatement of General Zine el Abidine Ben Ali as president in November 1987. This coup was not directed against Bourguiba, it was largely intended to permanently dismantle the nationalist political structure initially established in the mid-1950s, while also privatizing State assets.

The military coup not only marked the demise of post-colonial nationalism which had been led by Bourguiba, it also contributed to weakening the role of France. The Ben Ali government became firmly aligned with Washington rather than Paris.

Barely a few months following Ben Ali's November 1987 instatement as the country's president, a major agreement was signed with the IMF. An agreement had also been reached with Brussels pertaining to the establishment of a free trade regime with the EU. A massive privatization program under the supervision of the IMF-World Bank was also launched. With hourly wages of the order of Euro 0.75 an hour, Tunisia had also become a cheap labor haven for the European Union.

Who is the dictator?

A review of IMF documents suggests that from Ben Ali's inauguration in 1987 to the present, his government had faithfully abided by IMF-World Bank conditionalities, including the firing of public sector workers, the elimination of price controls over essential consumer goods and the implementation of a sweeping privatization program. The lifting of trade barriers ordered by the World Bank was conducive to triggering a wave of bankruptcies.

Following these dislocations of the national economy, cash remittances from Tunisian workers in the European Union became an increasingly important source of the foreign exchange earnings.

There are some 650,000 Tunisians living overseas. Total workers' remittances in 2010 were of the order of US$1.960 billion, an increase of 57 percent in relation to 2003. A large share of these remittances in foreign exchange will be used to service the country's external debt.

The Speculative Hike in World Food Prices

In September 2010, an understanding was reached between Tunis and the IMF, which recommended the removal of remaining subsidies as a means to achieving fiscal balance:

Fiscal prudence remains an overarching priority for the [Tunisian] authorities, who also see the need for maintaining a supportive fiscal policy in 2010 in the current international environment. Efforts in the last decade to bring down the public debt ratio significantly should not be jeopardized by a too lax fiscal policy. The authorities are committed to firmly control current expenditure, including subsidies,... IMF Tunisia: 2010 Article IV Consultation - Staff Report; Public Information Notice on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Tunisia http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2010/cr10282.pdf

It is worth noting that the IMF's insistence on fiscal austerity and the removal of subsidies coincided chronologically with a renewed upsurge in staple food prices on the London, New York and Chicago commodity exchanges. These price hikes are in large part the result of speculative trade by major financial and corporate agribusiness interests.

These hikes in food prices, which are the result of outright manipulation (rather than scarcity) have served to impoverish people Worldwide. The surge in food prices constitutes a new phase of the process of global impoverishment.

"The media has casually misled public opinion on the causes of these price hikes, focusing almost exclusively on issues of costs of production, climate and other factors which result in reduced supply and which might contribute to boosting the price of food staples. While these factors may come into play, they are of limited relevance in explaining the impressive and dramatic surge in commodity prices.

Spiralling food prices are in large part the result of market manipulation. They are largely attributable to speculative trade on the commodity markets. Grain prices are boosted artificially by large scale speculative operations on the New York and Chicago mercantile exchanges. ...

Speculative trade in wheat, rice or corn, can occur without the occurrence of real commodity transactions. The institutions speculating in the grain market are not necessarily involved in the actual selling or delivery of grain.

The transactions may use commodity index funds which are bets on the general upward or downward movement of commodity prices. A "put option" is a bet that the price will go down, a "call option" is a bet that the price will go up. Through concerted manipulation, institutional traders and financial institutions make the price go up and then place their bets on an upward movement in the price of a particular commodity.

Speculation generates market volatility. In turn, the resulting instability encourages further speculative activity.

Profits are made when the price goes up. Conversely, if the speculator is short-selling the market, money will be made when the price collapses.

This recent speculative surge in food prices has been conducive to a Worldwide process of famine formation on an unprecedented scale." (Michel Chossudovsky, Global Famine, Global Research, May 2, 2008, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8877)

From 2006 to 2008, there was a dramatic surge in the prices of all major food staples including rice, wheat and corn. The price of rice tripled over a five year period, from approximately 600$ a ton in 2003 to more than 1800$ a ton in May 2008.

(Michel Chossudovsky, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9191, For further details, see Michel Chossudovsky, Chapter 7 Global Poverty and the Economic Crisis in Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall, editors, The Global Economic Crisis, The Great Depression of the XXI Century, Global Research, Montreal 2010, http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20425 )

The recent surge in the price of grain staples is characterized by a 32 percent jump in the FAO's composite food price index recorded in the second half of 2010.

"Soaring prices of sugar, grain and oilseed drove world food prices to a record in December, surpassing the levels of 2008 when the cost of food sparked riots around the World, and prompting warnings of prices being in "danger territory".

An index compiled monthly by the United Nations surpassed its previous monthly high – June 2008 – in December to reach the highest level since records began in 1990. Published by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the index tracks the prices of a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, and has risen for six consecutive months." (Jill Treanor, World food prices enter 'danger territory' to reach record high, The Guardian, January 5, 2011)

Bitter irony: Against a background of rising food prices, the IMF recommends the removal of the subsidies with a view to reaching the goal of fiscal austerity.

Manipulating the Data on Poverty and Unemployment

An atmosphere of social despair prevails, people's lives are destroyed.

While, the protest movement in Tunisia is visibly the direct result of a process mass impoverishment, the World Bank contends that the levels of poverty have been reduced as a result of the free market reforms adopted by the Ben Ali government.

According to the World Bank's country report, the Tunisian government (with the support of the Bretton Woods institutions) was instrumental in reducing the levels of poverty to 7 percent (substantially lower than that recorded in the US and the EU).

Tunisia has made remarkable progress on equitable growth, fighting poverty and achieving good social indicators. It has sustained an average 5 percent growth rate over the past 20 years with a steady increase in per capita income and a corresponding increase in the welfare of its population that is underscored by a poverty level of 7% that is amongst the lowest in the region.

The steady increase in per capita income has been the main engine for poverty reduction. ... Rural roads have been particularly important in helping the rural poor connect to urban markets and services. Housing programs improved the living conditions of the poor and also freed up income and savings to spend on food and non-food items with resulting positive impacts on poverty alleviation. Food subsidies, which have been targeted to the poor, albeit not optimally, have also helped the urban poor. (World Bank Tunisia - Country Brief)

These poverty figures, not to mention the underlying economic and social "analysis", are outright fabrications. They present the free market as the engine of poverty alleviation. The World Bank's analytical framework is used to justify a process of "economic repression", which has been applied Worldwide in more than 150 developing countries.

With a mere 7 percent of the population living in poverty (as suggested by the World Bank "estimate") and 93 percent of the population meeting basic needs in terms of food, housing, health and education, there would be no social crisis in Tunisia.

The World Bank is actively involved in cooking the data and distorting the social plight of the Tunisian population. The official rate of unemployment is 14 percent, the actual level of unemployment is much higher. Recorded youth unemployment is of the order of 30 percent. Social services, including health and education have collapsed under the brunt of the IMF-World Bank economic austerity measures.

Tunisia and the World

What is happening in Tunisia is part of a global economic process which destroys people's lives through the deliberate manipulation of market forces.

More generally, "the harsh economic and social realities underlying IMF intervention are soaring food prices, local-level famines, massive lay-offs of urban workers and civil servants and the destruction of social programs. Internal purchasing power has collapsed, health clinics and schools have been closed down, hundreds of millions of children have been denied the right to primary education." (Michel Chossudovsky, Global Famine, op cit.)

tisdag 28 december 2010

WikiLeaks and Julian Assange on Al Jazeera

Julian Assange, the co-founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks - which is currently releasing over 250,000 confidential American diplomatic cables - is in the UK fighting extradition to Sweden where he is wanted on charges for sexual assault.

He joins Sir David to talk about a host of issues, from his personal situation to the role of WikiLeaks as a bastion of transparency, championing the right to reveal government secrets, when it is in the publics' interest.

When he co-founded WikiLeaks he saw that he could encourage, through successful examples, people to step forward to reveal abuses by governments - to produce more justice. Subscribing to the motto that "courage is contagious", Assange claims not to be an anarchist; rather his modus operandi is to promote responsible governance.

Now his lawyers are concerned that he will end up in an American jail, either directly through extradition from the UK, or through extradition from Sweden.

Assange heavily implies that receiving a fair trial in Sweden is doubtful. Why was the most senior prosecutor in Sweden removed (and replaced) after he said there was "no evidence or even suspicion" of rape? Why do Swedish authorities refuse to provide British officials with any evidence of crimes Assange allegedly commited - including witholding the statements of the victims?

He is hesitant to blame his two accusers for their allegations against him, suggesting they could be innocently caught up in a greater political scheme.

This special episode of Frost over the World can be seen from Tuesday, December 21, at the following times GMT: Tuesday: 2330; Wednesday: 0830, 1430, Thursday: 1930.

Julian Assange interview - FROST OVER THE WORLD - Al Jazeera English

Julian Assange interview - FROST OVER THE WORLD - Al Jazeera English

fredag 9 april 2010

Trial against Anat Kamm or against the entire Israeli press

Israel lifts whistleblower gag


Officials said Kamm tried to harm national security, but her lawyer said her motive was moral [AFP]



Israel has lifted censorship on reports that a former soldier is under house arrest for leaking more than 2,000 classified military documents to an Israeli newspaper.

An Israeli court had ruled that local media could not report Anat Kamm's detention since December for allegedly taking the documents when on mandatory military service between 2007-9.

However, information concerning the 23-year-old's arrest had been reported in international newspapers and websites over the past couple of weeks prompting the easing of the ban on Thursday, subsequently raising discontent over press freedom in Israel.

Authorities have accused Kamm of giving the copied documents to a journalist at the Haaretz newspaper, which subsequently published information in 2008 that a top army officer authorised the assassination of Palestinian fighters in violation of a Supreme Court ruling.

About 700 of the documents were classified as "top secret".

Moral cause

Kamm, now a journalist, is accused of intending to harm national security by leaking the information, although this is denied by her spokesman who said that Kamm's motivation was moral.

"Anat is not a member of any political group and she does not want anyone to use her plight to further their cause," Nissim Dwek, the spokesman, told Israel's Channel 10 TV.

"State security has not been harmed and there was no intent to harm state security," Dwek said.

Kamm could face up to life in prison if convicted of espionage.

The Justice Ministry said that the gag order was necessary in order that the documents could be recovered. Yet, they added they were only partially reclaimed as Uri Blau, the Haaretz journalist who received the material, had left the country.

That journalist was assigned to London to avoid Israeli prosecutors, while the newspaper has said it is talking with legal authorities to allow for his return.

Press freedom

Gideon Levy, a journalist with Haaretz, told Al Jazeera: "Israel is now in turmoil over a women who couldn’t be silent.


Kamm, now a journalist, has been under
house arrest since December [AFP]

"I think that the main issue should be what were those secrets. One should look at the content of what was published, about who was assassinated. We don’t know enough at this stage," Levy said.

"We shouldn’t look at the messenger but the message.

"The penalty might be life. This is really out of proportion while we are dealing with a naive and good intentioned soldier who couldn’t keep silent about what she knew."

Critisism has been aimed at the gag order as international reports are easily available in Israel on the Internet, and many were referred to by local media regarding the case.

'Illegal killing'

Israel has used a policy of targeted killings against Palestinians since the second Palestinian intifada began in 2000 to prevent attacks.

Yet, the policy has been criticised as illegal, with the Supreme Court ruling in 2006 that such assassinations in the occupied West Bank must be limited to extraordinary cases.

The military in turn officially stopped the practice. But Haaretz reported a 2007 document including an order from Yair Naveh, a then commander, allowing firing upon three top Palestinian fighters even if they were not viewed as posing a clear and present danger.

Haaretz then quoted legal experts who said that the subsequent killing of one of the Palestinians was illegal, although Naveh, now retired, disputed this.

Kamm was serving in Naveh's office at the time of the memos.

Eitan Lehman, Kamm's lawyer, said that punishing her for this would be "a mortal blow to the state of Israel as a democratic country that believes in the freedom of the press.

"This trial is not a trial against Anat Kamm or against this journalistic source or another but rather against the entire Israeli press,'' Lehman said.

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fredag 18 december 2009

CIA Helps Torturing Hamas Activists

CAIRO – The CIA is cooperating with Palestinian security agents to torture Hamas activists and sympathizers in the West Bank prisons, the Guardian reported.
"There is a connection, but there is no supervision by the Americans," Palestinian Authority’s interior minister Sa'id Abu-Ali said.
"It is solely a Palestinian affair. But the Americans help us."
CIA agents were reportedly working closely with Palestinian security forces to torture Hamas sympathizers in the West Bank prisons.
The Guardian named the Preventive Security Organization (PSO) and General Intelligence Service (GI) as the two Palestinian agencies working closely with the CIA.
"The [Central Intelligence] Agency consider them as their property, those two Palestinian services," a senior Western diplomat said.
The CIA links to the two Palestinian agencies are so close to be seen as supervising their work.
A diplomatic source said the US influence over the two agencies was so great they could be considered "an advanced arm of the war on terror".
Between 400 and 500 Hamas sympathisers are held by the PSO and GI, according to Palestinian officials.
International human rights groups have accused Palestinian security forces of abusing and torturing Hamas detainees in the West Bank.
They say the detainees were severely beaten and tortured in the Palestinian Authority prisons, citing a torture technique known as shabeh, during which detainees are shackled and forced to assume painful positions for long periods.
Among the techniques are also sleep deprivation and cramming the detainees into small cells to prevent rest.
Hamas detainees are also being tried before military justice, under which they are held without charges for six months before being brought to court.
Three Hamas sympathizers have died in the custody of the Palestinian Authority.
Haitham Amr, a 33-year-old nurse and Hamas supporter, died in the Palestinian Authority custody, four days after his detention.
Extensive bruising around his kidneys suggested he had been beaten to death.
US Hand
Human rights groups blame the US administration for the mistreatment of Hamas detainees in the West Bank prisons.
"The Americans could stop it any time,” Shawan Jabarin, general director of Palestinian rights watchdog al-Haq, told the Guardian.
“All they would have to do is go to [prime minister] Salam Fayyad and tell him they were making it an issue.. Then they could deal with the specifics.
“They could tell him that detainees needed to be brought promptly before the courts."
The CIA does not deny working with Palestinian security forces, but denies turning a blind eye to abuses of Hamas detainees.
But a diplomat in the region insists that CIA agents were “at the very least” aware of the torture of Hamas detainees and did not do enough to stop it.
"There are a number of questions for the US administration: what is their objective, what are their rules of engagement?
“Do they train the GI and PSO according to the manual which was established by the previous administration, including water-boarding? Are they in control, or are they just witnessing?"

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fredag 2 oktober 2009

Netherlands defends deadly airstrike in Afghanistan

Netherlands defends deadly airstrike in Afghanistan


The Dutch military defends a decision to order an air strike in southern Afghanistan that resulted in the loss of dozens of civilian lives pinning the blame on Taliban.

14 people, including, six children and three women were killed in the strike on Wednesday.

The Dutch defense ministry said on Thursday that the F-16 bomber had been called in to provide air support to NATO troops fighting Taliban insurgents in Helmand province.

Dutch military chief of staff Peter van Uhm, speaking in Kabul, defended the lethal airstrike saying the Dutch pilot observed all regulations.

He also reiterated that the responsibility for the civilian casualties lied with the Taliban insurgents, not with NATO forces in the insurgency-hit country.

The indiscriminate air strikes by US-led forces has so far killed hundreds of civilians in the country.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) "recorded 1,500 civilian casualties between January and August, with August being the deadliest month since the beginning of 2009," according to its statement issued on September 25.

More than 1,500 civilians have been killed in the first six months of 2009, which shows a 24 percent increase compared with the same period last year, according to the latest UN report.

Nearly a quarter of civilian deaths have been blamed on US-led airstrikes across the war-torn country over the past months.

The raids have drawn condemnation form the Afghan government and public. The developments also come as evidences of friction have emerged between the Kabul government and Washington over the increasing number of civilian causalities over the past years.

The deadly air raids come at a time when the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has said that investigators are studying evidence of alleged crimes against humanity in Afghanistan.

Despite the presence of over 100,000 troops in the war-torn country, Afghanistan is witnessing the highest level of violence since the 2001 US invasion of the impoverished country.

A security map by the London-based International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) has recently showed a deepening security crisis with substantial Taliban activity in at least 97 percent of the war-ravaged country.

The top US general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, has expressed serious concerns over the growing Taliban insurgency in the war-ravaged country.

McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, told military and defense experts Thursday at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London that the situation was serious and time was running out.

"The situation is serious and I choose that word very, very carefully."

The insurgency has skyrocketed in southern and eastern Afghanistan where the Taliban has stepped up attacks against the coalition troops with roadside bombs and ambushes.

Pressure is mounting on the US and its Western allies to pull troops out of the country amid rising troops and civilians' causalities.

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torsdag 17 september 2009

Israel Criminal State

Israel Criminal State: Israelis


"It's time that the Israel and international societies start to treat Israel like a criminal state,” said Pollak.

CAIRO — As Tel Aviv struggles to contain the international aftermath of the UN damning report over the deadly offensive in Gaza Strip, an inner storm is evolving with Israeli rights and political activists slamming their own country as a criminal state and calling for punishing it.
"It's time that the Israel and international societies start to treat Israel like a criminal state and a serial violator of international laws and Palestinian rights,” left-wing activist Yonatan Pollak told Yediot Ahronot daily on Wednesday, September 16.

Contrary to outraged official Israeli response to the UN fact-finding mission report issued Tuesday, which accused Israeli army of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Operation Cast Lead, Israeli rights activists welcomed the report and called for accountability.

Pollak, who testified before the Goldstone committee, affirmed that the official claims of bias are unfounded and called for stern international sanctions against “criminal” Israel.

Killed by Israel, Eaten by Dogs

"Dad, I'm Dying"

Palestinian Holocaust Museum

The international society should “impose on it a boycott, sanctions and the withdrawal of investments, just as was the case with the apartheid regime in South Africa."
Majd Bader, of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said the report should be a wake up call for Israel.

“Israel should wake up and take it upon itself to investigate the claims," said Bader.

Balad party chairman, Jamal Zahalka, believes that in the light of the report, Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak should be sent to International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague immediately.

"The conclusion from the report," he added, "is that [there should be] an international trial for those responsible for war crimes in Gaza starting with the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff, down to operational commanders.

"It is not possible that someone who causes the death of more than 1,000 civilians will not pay the price."

Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the Gaza onslaught eight months ago.

While Israel claims 300 civilians were killed, a Gaza observer group has said over 900 of the dead were innocent civilians.

Frantic Campaign


Israel launched a frantic diplomatic campaign to prevent the ramifications of the UN report.
The salvos opened at home come as Israel launched a frantic diplomatic campaign to prevent the UN report from being brought before the Security Council and from there to the ICC.
"The goal is to avoid a slippery slope which would lead Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague," a senior Israeli staffer told Haaretz.

The Hague-based court investigates war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed on the territory of, or by a national of a state.

A coalition of 350 European and Arab civil society organizations has already filed a lawsuit with the ICC against Israel over war crimes in Gaza.

On September 29, the UN Human Rights Council, which appointed Goldstone, will be convening in Geneva for a special session on the report.

Israeli officials said they expect Arab states will begin to prepare a draft resolution which will call for the report to be transferred to the UN Security Council.

In their worst-case scenario, the Security Council could decide to transfer the matter to the ICC, which could issue international arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials who were involved in the military onslaught.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have already started telephoning their counterparts around the world to handle the report ramifications.

They will focus on the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - but will also give priority to members of the European Union, because of their influence in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The Israeli leaders will ask their counterparts to express disagreement with the report and to oppose any use of it as the basis for anti-Israel resolutions.

"It will be a long diplomatic and legal campaign," said a senior Israeli staffer handling the Goldstone report.

"We will involve our friends around the world, especially the United States, to prevent Israel's isolation."


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torsdag 10 september 2009

New Jewish organ theft gang busted

New Jewish organ theft gang busted

The Jewish group is said to be connected to Israeli rabbi Levy Rosenbaum, who was recently arrested for direct importing human organs.


New reports have surfaced on the arrest of yet another Jewish organ trading gang in the United States involved in the abduction of Algerian children.

Dr. Mustafa Khayatti, the head of the Algerian National Committee for the Development of Health Research, revealed on Sunday that the New York city police have arrested members of a Jewish gang who abducted Algerian children for their organs.

Khayatti said the arrests came after Interpol found that children in western Algeria were abducted and taken to Morocco to have their kidneys harvested.

Their organs were later trafficked to the United States and Israel and sold for $20,000 to $100,000 each.

The group is said to be connected to Israeli rabbi Levi Rosenbaum, who was recently arrested in New Jersey for direct involvement in importing human organs.

Following Rosenbaum's arrest, US authorities detained some 44 others, including rabbis and mayors in New Jersey, who were prosecuted for money laundering and human organs trade.

Last month, a report published in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, accused Israeli soldiers of kidnapping Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip for their organs, indicating a possible link between the Israeli military and the mafia of human organs detected in the US.

Some Arab countries have called for an international inquiry into the allegations.

PRESS-TV

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måndag 7 september 2009

Israel Steals Body Parts

Israel Steals Body Parts: Palestinians

IOL

"I don't know for sure why they are refusing to hand him over to us to bury him,” Fawzi told IOL about the body of his slain son.

RAMALLAH – The controversy triggered by a Swedish newspaper report about Israel’s harvesting of Palestinian organs has salted the wounds of many Palestinian families haunted by the memories of loved ones who suffered the same fate.
“They claimed they came to arrest him, but in truth they came to murder him, which they did,” Walid Masalmeh, a resident of the small West Bank town of Dura, 10 kilometer west of Al-Khalil (Hebron), said about his relative Bassam.

In 1995, Bassam was killed by the Israeli army at the village of Beit Awwa, located near the former armistice line between the West Bank and what is now Israel.

“But 24 hours later they returned the body with a huge scar running from the chin to the lower abdomen,” Walid remembers.

“They took all the vital organs, including the heart, kidneys, Liver. Then they stuffed the empty cavities with garbage before sewing him up.”

Several other Palestinians gave a similar narrative, recounting how they received the bodies of their murdered relatives, mostly men in their early twenties, with vital organs taken away by the Israeli authorities.

Israeli occupation authorities don’t deny that the bodies of victims were returned to their respective families minus the internal organs, but claim that the organs were disposed of as part of routine autopsy operations.

“I am not a medical doctor, but I do know that an autopsy is performed to establish the cause of death,” says Walid.

“In Bassam’s case, and hundreds of similar cases, the cause of death is known too well since the victims were killed by the Israeli occupation army.”

The Swedish mass circulation Aftonbladet published last month a report accusing Israeli troops of killing Palestinians and then harvesting their organs.

Israeli officials have dismissed the report as anti-Semitic and have been piling up pressures on the Swedish government to condemn it.

Stockholm has so far remained steadfast, insisting it was in no position to interfere with its free media.

Held Bodies
“These people have no morality, save the morality of murder and lies," Shahin said about Israeli authorities still holding the body of his son.
Majed Abu Dush was assassinated by Israeli death squads west of Al-Khalil in 2002.

But Israeli authorities are still keeping his body.

"I don't know for sure why they are refusing to hand him over to us to bury him,” his tearful father Fawzi told IOL.

“This makes me think that there is a foul play."

Fawzi has been petitioning Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, including Premier Salam Fayyad, to press the Israeli government to release the detained bodies of hundreds of Palestinians.

Over the years, the Israeli occupation army killed thousands of Palestinians, hundreds of them children, and in many cases the bodies were buried in unknown graves or remained “imprisoned” in refrigerators.

Israel has also been detaining the corpses of Palestinian fighters killed in combat with its forces to inflict maximum emotional pain on their families.

Mustafa Shahin suspects that Israeli authorities might have harvested the organs of his son, whom they killed in 2003.

"What would prevent Israel from doing the worst thing that comes to your mind,” he fumed.

“These people have no morality, save the morality of murder and lies."

According to Shahin and Abu Dush, Israel is detaining the bodies of at least 48 young Palestinians killed by its army in recent years, all of them from the al-Khalil region alone.

The overall number of detained corpses of Palestinian victims is believed to be in the hundreds.

Bad Record

Indeed, the Aftonbladet report was by no means the first revelation of its kind concerning Israeli violations of bodies of Palestinian victims.

In January 2002, an Israeli cabinet minister, Nessim Dahan, tacitly admitted during a routine questioning in the Knesset that certain organs from the bodies of Palestinians might have been used for Jewish transplant patients without the knowledge of the victims’ families.

Dahan said he couldn’t confirm or deny that organs taken form Palestinian victims were used for transplant or in scientific research.

Arab Knesset member Ahmed Teibi, who questioned Dahan at the time, told IOL the Israeli minister of health “was hedging and wouldn’t give a clear answer.”

Late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had openly accused the Israeli army and medical authorities of harvesting the organs of Palestinian victims.

“They murder our kids and use their organs as spare parts,” Arafat told Al-Jazeera in 2002, showing pictures of the bodies of Palestinian children killed and badly mutilated by the Israeli army.

In 1998, Israeli medical authorities brashly stole body organs from a Scottish tourist named Alistair Sinclair who died under mysterious circumstances at the Ben Gurion Airport.

Sinclair’s family reportedly sued Israel upon finding that their son’s heart and other organs were missing.

According to one report, a heart and organs were sent to his mother who didn’t believe that these were her son’s.

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torsdag 3 september 2009

CIA refuses to release torture documents

CIA refuses to release torture documents
Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:19:10 GMT PRESSTV

The CIA has refused to release further documents related to its controversial rendition, detention and interrogation of terror suspects.

In a 33-page court statement made public on Tuesday, the Central Intelligence Agency said the documents contained sensitive information "that implicates intelligence activities, sources and methods, and information relating to the foreign relations and activities of the United States."

Last month the Department of Justice revealed details of a report by a CIA inspector-general that outlined methods used during interrogation of "al-Qaeda suspects" in the midst of George W. Bush's term, including threats of rape of detainees' family members.

The report sent shock waves through Washington, and it was followed by Attorney-General Eric Holder announcing he had named a prosecutor to probe the prisoner abuse.

The US spy agency said the documents were too sensitive to release because they detailed "the locations of CIA intelligence activities overseas and the assistance provided by certain foreign governments."
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tisdag 25 augusti 2009

In blockaded Gaza, Israeli troops kill again

In blockaded Gaza, Israeli troops kill again


Israeli forces gun down another Palestinian in blockaded Gaza
Israeli troops have killed one Palestinian and injured two others in the north sector of Gaza in yet another violation of a truce signed after Israel's 22-day war on the strip.

Israeli forces opened fire on the three young men in the al-Atatra neighborhood, in the town of Beit Lahia on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip on Monday.

One of the wounded Palestinians later died in an Israeli clinic from excessive blood loss, medical sources told Press TV, adding that none of the three youths was known to be a member of any Palestinian faction.

An Israeli army spokeswoman has confirmed the incident, saying that three rockets were fired into southern Israel following the shooting.

Since the end of the 22-day war, the Israeli army has launched several cross border attacks on Gaza, rolling its tanks and bulldozers into the impoverished enclave, opening fire on villagers' homes and flattening cultivated fields.

The deadly Israeli offensive into Gaza last December resulted in 1,500 Palestinian deaths and approximately 5,450 injuries. Most of the victims were civilians

The offensive also inflicted more than USD 1.6 billion of damage on Gaza's already-stricken economy.

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måndag 24 augusti 2009

SOMALIA: Livelihoods - and lives - at risk in Puntland

SOMALIA: Livelihoods - and lives - at risk in Puntland

NAIROBI, 24 August 2009 (IRIN) - Fishermen in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, are losing their livelihoods and sometimes their lives due to foreign vessels invading their waters, says a minister.

"More and more fishermen in Puntland are coming to us to complain about foreign vessels destroying their nets and denying them access to fishing grounds," Mohamed Farah Aden, Puntland Minister of Fisheries, told IRIN.

He said these foreign vessels were destroying livelihoods. "I have a number of reports of Somali fishermen killed. These people are not only killing their livelihoods but they are killing them as well."

The minister said his office was compiling figures of how many had died in attacks by foreign vessels.

He said Puntland authorities had raised the issue with the international forces patrolling the Somali coast to fight pirates. NATO forces, as well as those from other countries, such as Russia and India, were policing the area.

Illegal fishing

Puntland has requested that the foreign navies should also deal with the influx of foreign vessels fishing illegally. "Illegal fishing off our waters is what started the whole piracy thing," he said.

According to Ecoterra, an NGO that monitors Somali waters, there is an indirect link between piracy and illegal fishing. Many of the pirates have their roots in self-help groups that wanted to defend "Somali waters and marine resources in the absence of a navy and coastguard".

Later, however, the groups became involved in business disputes and were used as mercenaries and eventually evolved into criminal gangs, said Ecoterra.

Mohamed Abshir Waldo, an independent analyst and Somalia expert, goes even further, saying the root cause of the piracy "was massive illegal fishing that has been going on for the last 19 years.

"It is because of the illegal foreign fishing that the first conflict with Somali fishermen started, when the foreign poachers came to fish within the 12-mile territorial waters.

Waldo said he knew fishermen in a small fishing boat that was run over and crushed "with all the seven-member crew killed. There were many other incidents like that one. Many were shot and others burned with boiling water poured on them."

A Nairobi-based regional analyst, however, says that even though illegal fishing occurs in Somali waters "on a serious and damaging scale", the origins of piracy lie not with impoverished fishermen, "but with prominent businessmen and political leaders who initially introduced the 'licensing' of foreign fishing vessels as a kind of extortion racket".

Figures compiled by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) show that in 2008, pirates attacked 135 ships off the coast of Somalia, "resulting in 44 ships having been seized by pirates and more than 600 seafarers having been kidnapped and held for ransom". Most of these were off the coast of Puntland.

Foreign threat

Jama Isse, a member of a fishing cooperative in the port city of Bosasso, told IRIN that many members were idle due to attacks by foreign ships. "People are afraid to go out there. Sometimes we are mistaken for pirates and sometimes these big fishing ships ram our boats or cut our nets.

"If the situation does not improve, many of us will be forced to join the pirates," he said. "We have no other means of making a living."

Ahmed Ali Abdalla, who owns several fishing boats, said the number of foreign ships had increased since the foreign navies arrived.

He said the foreign ships were using the naval forces as protection and denying locals the opportunity to fish. "They even take our nets with everything in them. It is like taking food from our mouths."

Local fishermen were caught between the pirates and the foreign forces, "but the worst are those fishing illegally", he said. "Some of them are armed and have even fired on us or taken our boats."

According to the analyst, to end insecurity in Somali waters what is needed is a comprehensive and integrated approach that addresses "not only piracy, but also the problem of illegal fishing, which pirates routinely cite to justify their actions".

Somalia has a 3,330km coastline, with major landing sites in Kismayo, Mogadishu, Merka and Brava in the south, and Eil, Bargal, Bolimog, Las Korey and Berbera, and Bosasso in the north. It also has large species, including tuna and mackerel; smaller stocks, such as sardines; sharks and lobster.

ah/mw[END]


What's hot? Check IRIN's most popular articles: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=73277

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tisdag 11 augusti 2009

GAZA-OPT: Rubble removal uncovers potential health hazards

GAZA, 11 August 2009 (IRIN) - Nearly seven months after Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has begun removing some 600,000MT of rubble containing asbestos and other hazardous material [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84177].

Israel's 23-day operation destroyed 4,000 housing units and damaged 40,000 homes [http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30948&Cr=palestin&Cr1=]. UNDP officer Amran el-Kharouby in Gaza said rubble was being removed from 2,533 private homes, in addition to 23 public buildings.

"UNDP rubble removal teams were trained how to safely remove, store and crush hazardous material, primarily asbestos," said El-Kharouby, adding that UNDP had provided contractors with safety equipment.

Teams also met residents, some living in tented communities near their destroyed homes, to explain the removal process and warning that hazardous material might be uncovered. In many cases residents are evacuated before removal teams go in.

The UN Mine Action Team is also working to remove unexploded ordnance in Gaza [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85633].

Asbestos threat

According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), about 10 percent of the rubble in Rafah and Khan Younis is asbestos material, as well as a small amount in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City. UNEP conducted an assessment of Gaza in May and is expected to release its results in August. [http://www.unep.org/environmentalgovernance/News/PressRelease/tabid/427/language/en-US/Default.aspx?DocumentID=579&ArticleID=6132&Lang=en]

About 68 percent of Gaza's 1.5 million residents are refugees, living in eight major camps. [http://www.undp.ps/en/newsroom/publications/pdf/other/fastfactgazaen092.pdf] Most refugee camp homes are built from concrete and asbestos.

"Asbestos releases particles into the air and chronic lung conditions in the respiratory tract may result," World Health Organization (WHO) officer Mahmoud Daher in Gaza told IRIN.

In addition to private homes, hundreds of public buildings and roads were damaged or destroyed during the Israeli offensive in Gaza, including 700 factories.

"[Destroyed] factories that were using lead or other heavy metals, like battery factories, could present a health hazard to the population," said Daher.

Some factory or home owners have denied access to rubble removal teams to what is left of their properties because they said they had not received compensation from the Gaza authorities or UN.

The UNDP rubble removal project will continue until January.

If adequate funding is available, the 380,000MT of remaining rubble from former Israeli settlements that was collected but never crushed will be removed as part of the project. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in September 2005.

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torsdag 26 mars 2009

Western Relief Agencies in Sudan-Darfur: Shocking Facts

Western Relief Agencies in Sudan Darfur: Shocking Facts
Why the 13 Foreign Aid Agencies Were Sacked

The Sudan Government's decision to expel 13 foreign aid agencies from Darfur has provoked much controversy over this step's futility as far as the making of appropriate peaceful atmosphere in Darfur is concerned. It might backfire and provide the west with reasons to severely punish the Sudan on basis of allegations that such decision would be detrimental to the displaced people in Darfur's relief camps.

The decision was followed by the Sudanese government's proclamation of dispensing with all the other western organizations and instructing them to leave within one year.

This, again, has led to questioning both decisions' impact on the relief work in Darfur. Does Khartoum have an actual plan to replace such organizations without creating gaps that could lead to rekindling the human crisis in Darfur?

Initial Facts
Sudan's Big Gains
Intelligence, Business, and Other Activities
Why the Foreign Relief Agencies Were Expelled?

(1)International Rescue Committee (IRC)
(2)US "CARE International"
(3)French "Action Against Hunger" (ACF)
(4)French "Solidarity"
(5) American "Mercy Corp."
(6) Dutch "Doctors Without Borders"
(7) American "CHF International"
(8) British "Save The Children"
(9) " Norwegian Refugee Council" - NRC
(10) British "Oxfam"

Initial Facts

The number of the expelled foreign aid agencies is just 13. They are American, British, French, Canadian, and Dutch agencies, but this does not necessarily mean there are no other relief agencies from these countries or other countries working in Darfur.

The other foreign aid agencies working in the Sudan are 118, apart from two main international charities, 13 Islamic and Arab relief and charity agencies, as well as 55 local Sudanese ones.

There are documents and ample evidence that the expelled aid agencies were carrying out intelligence work for their countries. They also worked to maintain the problem of the displaced for purposes of profits as their staff members receive huge payments which may amount to 70% of the relief funds they obtain for the poor in Darfur. They also serve other political purposes of pressuring the Sudanese government.

In other words, the 13 western agencies expelled constitute only 8% of the working relief agencies on the ground. There are 19 American agencies, of which five only were expelled, 16 British agencies, of which four only were expelled, 10 French agencies, of which two only were expelled, in addition to one Canadian and one Dutch agencies.

Twenty two out of these 118 agencies have Zionist backgrounds and are run and funded by Zionist organizations based in New York, Washington and some European countries.

It is not true that these organizations inject huge money or aids into Darfur. They basically distribute the foods offered by the UN International Food Program without providing any supplies to Darfur's three provinces, Southern, Northern and Western.
Contrarily, these organizations have been accused of usurping most of that they received of relief aids and supplies allocated for the Darfuris for their own and for their administrators' benefit.

The International Food program donates about 60 thousand tons of food per month to Darfur. The Sudanese Red Crescent Organization distributes about 40% of this amount, whereas the foreign and local organizations distribute around 60%. This simply means that if these foreign organizations are replaced by other Arab and Islamic relief organizations, the crises and the catastrophes the west and the foreign organizations are warning of, due to the expulsion decision, will never occur

The key gain for Khartoum is when it "Sudanizes" voluntary and relief work, This is apt to eliminate the West's interference in Darfur's crisis
Sudan's Big Gains

Given that, the great challenge the government and the national and Islamic organizations are facing is filling the vacancies created by the expulsion of these foreign organizations and getting fully prepared to shoulder the responsibility of distributing the relief supplies, providing medical teams, trained personnel to operate water wells, and providing health devices and services. This way, Khartoum could prove its ability to solve its own problems irrespective of the West's agenda.
The key gain for Khartoum is when it "Sudanizes" voluntary and relief work, This is apt to eliminate the West's interference in Darfur's crisis or aggravating it through these foreign agencies that have turned into "states within the state" in Darfur.

These expelled agencies managed to some extent to encourage Darfur's dissidents, particularly the Zaghwans, to rise strongly against the government.

It is no secret the agencies in questions used to distribute donations to the Darfuris to win their satisfaction and to employ some of them to work against their country. This was through implicating them in false witnesses of mass murder and rape crimes, to which there is no tangible evidence, neither by existence of mass graves or collective women's complaints.
The missionary Christianization role of some of these organizations had been indicated by Kotbi Al-Mahdi, former political advisor to Al-Bashir.
Intelligence, Business, and Other Activities

The intelligence activities undertaken by these agencies have already been experienced in south of Khartoum, South of Sudan, where they have played the most serious role in inciting the separation of the south and providing relevant information to America.

Among the most famous of the organizations and characters that have been deeply involved in dealing with the Congress and the US Intelligence are the British Baroness Cox and her Christian Solidarity. The Baroness Cox played a part through the Christian Solidarity in supporting the Popular Movement for Sudan's Liberation (PMSL), which is currently represented in the government.

Some Sudanese evidence has emerged that these organizations cooperate with the American intelligence in support of the South against the Khartoum government as part of the scheme of separating the south and the north of Sudan. The real secret why the Europeans heavily support the American schemes of intervention into the affairs of the Sudan and Darfur lies mainly in the missionary Christianization role these relief Western agencies are said to play there.
This role is linked also to the agenda of the European and American intelligence regarding securing interests in Sudan's oil reserves. This is the fact that urged the Priest John Danforth, former US envoy to the Sudan, to say: "The cessation of the civil war in Sudan could open the door for it to become a major oil country in Africa!".
The missionary Christianization role of some of these organizations has also been indicated by Kotbi Al-Mahdi, former political advisor to the Sudanese president, who accused them of flaring up sedition in southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains and eastern Sudan, saying that "They have sought further insurrection in Darfur."
There are documents against such agencies concerning forced displacement of the people of Darfur through temptations, pressures and deception pushing them to leave for Europe and Israel.
Why the Foreign Relief Agencies Were Expelled?
According to Sudanese official reports, which IslamOnline.net had access to, the 13 agencies were expelled due to obvious acts of intelligence and that some of them had nothing to do with relief work. The expulsion of these organizations has basically little to do with the decision of the prosecutor of The International Criminal Court arrest warrant against President Al-Bashir.
Monitoring the activities of such agencies confirmed beyond doubt that they have been for many years doing full intelligence work far from their normal humanitarian duty. However, Khartoum had been so patient and tolerant until provoked by the ICC warrant of arrest.
The Sudanese Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has obtained files and documents as evidence kept at the office of its Sudanese Commissioner. These documents indicate the fishy roles of the involved agencies and the amount of harm they were inflicting on the situation in Darfur, in particular, and in the Sudan in general.
There are documents against such agencies concerning forced displacement of the people of Darfur through temptations, pressures and deception pushing them to leave for Europe and Israel, in an act of illegal human trade. They were also involved in destructive activities through keeping persuading dwellers of some camps not to leave them and to take arms against the government.
They also incited some armed factions to take arms inside the camps like what happened in the notorious camp of "Kalimat". Some of these agencies have also written false intelligence reports and sent them to the ICC. They were misleading reports obviously financed by some Zionist organizations.

Some of the violations and infractions by such foreign aid agencies could be detailed as follows:
When the agency was questioned about the statement, it apologized and claimed it was a personal view.
(1) International Rescue Committee (IRC)

1- The IRC had an agreement with the ICC in 2005, according to which the Committee provides the court with information, documents and witnesses as well as ensuring the witnesses' safety in coordination with the UN mission in the Sudan.

2. In December 2004, four Dutch journalists brought by the IRC were arrested as they had photos of some Janjaweed members near the camps and a fabricated film about hold-up looting operations, originally carried out by two staff members working in the humanitarian field.

The film also showed false attempts of raping of displaced women and interviews with displaced witnesses about battering and torturing operations allegedly carried out by the government authorities.

The journalists finally admitted to all that violations and a criminal prosecution was started with the witnesses' statements documented, but the case was finally dropped off after the mediation of the Dutch ambassador in the Sudan.

3- The CNN broadcast a statement made by Mrs. Roberta, an official in the organization, describing what was going on in Darfur as the most hideous genocide in the 21st century. The statement claimed that government members displaced the people in Darfur, raped women and dumped children into the fire before their parents' eyes.

When the organization was questioned about that statement, it apologized and claimed that the statement made was a personal view of Mrs. Roberta, and that she was just a staff member and did not represent the organization.

4- The Organization's president, Nicky Smith, made a statement alleging the commitment of 200 cases of murder, rape in the camp without providing a single piece of evidence. She considered that it was an indication of the deterioration of the security status and claimed that the statement was an organization document.

5- In August 2005, the organization sent letters to the then American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, following her visit, requesting her to continue the pressure on Khartoum and the enforcement of the resolution 1591. She organized media campaigns on the Internet to collect signatures to be sent to the US President directly for the replacement of the African Union forces troops by international troops.

6- In 2006, the organization director was summoned by the Organizations Department Director General of the National Security and Intelligence Authority and was faced with these breaches and abuses. She provided a documented apology and requested opening a new page of cooperation to which she was not committed.

7- The organization has carried out some mock so-called projects in Darfur on issues¬– such as women's mental health, the rule of law, policies of protection, etc– that were just discussed in coffee meetings for women to promote their psychological comfort.

During these filmed meetings, women were pushed to talk about any abuses they were subjected to, which were meant to collect and fabricate information on their mouths.

What's really interesting is that the organization had been working without any technical agreements, and that's why it was first stopped in 2008.

8- The organization deported a number of the displaced people of Darfur to some European countries while others were sent to the ICC to bear witnesses.

9- For the organization to fulfill some of its goals, it prepared regular intelligence and information reports in addition to security surveillance reports on Darfur. It also prepared a report on the alleged forced displacement of the tribe of Al Zaghawa, and on the government stirring up of tribal disputes.

(2) US "CARE International"

1- It prepared security reports which were basically security and military records as well as accusations against the government of shelling civilians in the villages of the northern province of Darfur.

2- The organization's local director, Mr. Parker, prepared a paper that is figuring out scenarios of the replacement of the African Union troops by International ones.

The report included a security and intelligence analysis which recommended the possibility of the Sudanese government approving the advent of international forces in a dignified manner.
ACF's Cosultant, Mrs Silvy, suggested that the government practiced genocide, arson, and civilian abduction.
(3) French "Action Against Hunger" (ACF)
1- The French Action Contre la Faim (ACF) is an intelligence interface that prepared informational intelligence reports, including a letter that was discovered and carried an alleged indication that the area of Umm Khairat in Darfur was bombarded by the Janjaweed on Dec. 5, 2004.

A criminal case was filed against the organization that finally apologized for that and claimed it had conducted an investigation on the typing of that information on its official stationery, but the investigation yielded no results!.
2- Silvy, the organization's consultant, delivered a lecture, at the French International Institute of International Relations in 1999, in which she accused the Sudanese government of using the weapon of hunger against some people of Darfur in the south and in Nuba Mountains. She suggested that the government practiced genocide, arson, and civilian abduction operations.

(4) French "Solidarity"

1- In March 2007, the Radio of France cast a long interview with the organization's director in which he alleged that the Janjaweeds continued assaulting and attacking the Zaghawa tribes and that there was genocide and that the Sudanese government backed up the Arab militia and concluded that the war would not stop.

2- In 2005, the organization's distribution officer, Mr. Jill, supported the rebels by providing them with mobile recharge cards.

3- Barrels full of fuel prepared by the organization to be sent to the rebellious movements were discovered. A case was filed against the organization for thatviolations but it was finally dropped through diplomatic interventions.
The organization practiced activities that had nothing to do with humanitarian work in Kurmuk city.
(5) American "Mercy Corp."

1- This organization played a number of intelligence roles in the region of Abyei, disputed between the northern and southern Sudan, to create commotion among the people of Abyei of the Dinka tribe (African) and Missiriya tribe (Arab).

It also incited the Dinka people to create chaos in the region and beguiled them into believing they are the owners of the region and oil, and that they should fill the administrative vacuum and exploit the volatile situation.

2- The organization practiced activities that had nothing to do with humanitarian work in Kurmuk, a city in the Blue Nile Province of Sudan. It established a local radio station called the "Society Radio".

It broadcast programs that incited hatred and urged the citizens to separate from Sudan. It also initiated programs for church preaching.

(6) Dutch "Doctors Without Borders"

1- In October 2004, the organization published a report on mass killings in Darfur. The report claimed that the Sudanese government practiced genocide against civilians by using the Janjaweed pro-government militias, and that the civilians could not find a safe haven.

2- In March 2005, the organization published another report on rape in Darfur, and alleged that the rape and sexual violence were practiced by the Sudanese government and its allied militias on an ongoing basis.

The Secretary General of the United Nations used quotes form the report in his periodic report to the Security Council, citing that the organization treated 5,00 rape cases from Darfur in the UN clinics.

A criminal case was filed by the Sudanese government against the organization that was unable to prove its false allegations.

The organization's national employees, including the medical teams, denounced the report, refuted its claims, and noted that it was prepared with intentional malice. Then, the organization sought to exercise diplomatic pressure to have the case dropped.

Endeavors led by the United Nations representative, Jan Pronk, the one who submitted the report to the Secretary-General, who, in turn, sought the support of the Security Council. The Dutch Ambassador and the Ambassador of the European Union also intervened to drop the case.

Finally, the decision of the Sudanese Minister of Justice was to drop the case and give a final expulsion warning to the organization, and to depose its director, Darfur coordinator, out of the country for the untrue reports.

(7) American "CHF International"

1- The organization kept receiving a lot of women in its headquarters in the state of North Darfur and managed to convince them to lie to visiting guests and officials of international bodies about false cases of rape and sexual violence by the pro-government forces of the Janjaweed militia and to claim that these forces burned their villages and killed their men and children.

On a visit of Jan Waveland, Assistant of UN Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, the organization denied admission of the accompanying Sudanese Minister of Humanitarian Affairs.

2– It selected a number of displaced women from camps of Abu Shouk to represent the organization in Abuja, after instructing them to tell untrue stories and reverse the situation intimidating them by rumors about rape they would face at the hands of the Janjaweed.

3– It exploited some mayors and sheiks of tribes through financial aids and mortgage servicing in return for their collecting information for the organization. They were also forced to attend meetings of the organization at which they are incited to rise against the government.

(8) British "Save The Children"
1- The organization issued, in November 2002, a statement on the security situation in the state of North Darfur claiming that the government warplanes bombed positions only 50 meters from its food distribution center, although there were no fighting in that period of time.
2- It published information, in July 2004, which alleged that more than half a million children from Sudan's Darfur had been forced to flee their villages, and that a million people were forced to leave their homes by militias supported by the government.
The organization promoted wrong information on rape cases, and it was found that it provided good sums of money to the girls to lure them into telling lie and recognizing rape.
(9) "Norwegian Refugee Council" ( NRC)

1 - The organization recruited a number of elders, youth and women within the camp of Kalema. It paid them monthly salaries of 50,000 Dinars per person, and the task of those recruits was to collect intelligence information about security, political, military and social conditions, which the organization forwarded in daily reports to its top management.

2- The organization arranged secret meetings between the displaced people and some foreign delegations visiting the camp, and provided them with false information.
3 - The organization promoted wrong information on rape cases, and it was found that it provided good sums of money to the girls to lure them into telling lie and recognizing rape.
4 - When Jan Egeland, the former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, visited Darfur in 2005, the organization provided him with false information about "sexual harassment, rape, and racial abuse". He was summoned to the camp of Kalema in secret to hear the false information.
5- It recruited 45 girls, and gave them 45 donkeys to move inside the camp and the surrounding villages to monitor the presence of government agents.

6- Owing to the organization's reiterative infringements, the authorities of south Darfur decided to expel it in 2006 for providing false reports.
(10) British "Oxfam"

1- In November 2004, the organization issued a report indicating the crimes committed by the rebels. It accused the government of incurring the deterioration of the security status in Darfur and called for an action by the international community and for immediate intervention.

2- In the same month, the organization prepared a report on the situation in Darfur which the Sudanese Organizations High Commission refused to publish it for the false information it carried.

However, Oxfam official, Alan McDonald, disclosed some false information to Karen Smith of the CNN about genocide in Darfur. Both the organization and the CNN played a big role to create a lobby to pressurize the Sudanese government.

By Muhammad Gamal Arafa
Political Analyst – Egypt

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fredag 13 mars 2009

Questions Beyond the ICC Arrest Warrant of Sudan's President

Questions Beyond the ICC Arrest Warrant of Sudan's President

The ICC and Al-Bashir: Future Scenarios

With the issuance of the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s warrant for the arrest of the Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir on March 4, 2009, at the request of the Court's Attorney General on July 14, 2008, and which was commissioned by the UN Security Council, the issue has gone out of control and Khartoum has to face the new reality of an internal, regional and international situation.
Dozens of questions and future scenarios have emerged, which, in turn, need working out dozens of scenarios and immediate and later answers at the same time.
How is the court going to implement the warrant and arrest Al-Bashir? Will it be possible to commission some western SWAT troops to carry out a flash operation to arrest him across the borders of Chad, the area that has already witnessed a coup attempt by a Darfur faction that had advanced into the country as far as the outskirts of Khartoum?
Will the UN Security Council issue a binding resolution, according to Chapter VII compelling all the states to arrest him by force, after the Council's rejection of an African-Arab proposal to freeze the trial?
Will the UN Security Council issue a binding resolution, according to Chapter VII compelling all the states to arrest him by force, after the Council's rejection of an African-Arab proposal to freeze the trial?

Domestic and Regional Scenarios

What will happen inside Sudan? Will the two wings of hawks and doves in the ruling National Congress remain united or will the hawks-- proponents of the view of sacrificing the President and pushing him to resign-- opt for the Islamic Project of protecting Sudan from the threat of external invasion and siege?
Or will they persuade the Sudanese Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmad Harun, to turn himself in so as to alleviate the pressure on Al-Bashir and show Sudan's good intentions which might lead to the freezing of this sentence?
Will Darfur's rebels seize the opportunity to launch attacks against Khartoum supported by the Criminal Court's ruling as they have lately threatened?
Will the peace plans in the south be delayed or the presidential and parliamentary elections, scheduled for July 2009, be deferred? Will the south seek detachment from Sudan making use of this very tense atmosphere? Will the plans of fragmenting or dividing Sudan into four provinces be accelerated in accordance with an old known scheme?
What about the African Union and the Arab League: Could the 37 African States which signed the Rome Convention of the International Criminal Court withdraw in protest against the court's "political" ruling thereby damage the credibility of the Court? (The number of signatories of the convention is 108.)
May all these questions and their accompanying scenarios be premature and the situation in Sudan will remain as steadfast as ever, especially as 20 resolutions were previously issued by the Security Council concerning the conflict in Darfur, since 2005 but they have not been put into effect; gone with the wind, and Sudan remained steadfast.
Will the three Arab countries, members of the Court, withdraw as well or will the Arab position invariably remain mere rhetorical expression of solidarity with Sudan, particularly as there have been speculations that the Arab countries, "have sold" Al-Bashir off fearing to be linked with his destiny– as was the case with late President Saddam Hussein– which means confrontation with the new Obama administration.
In this case, they might be later forced to stand trial for opposing America and the West's desire to punish Al-Bashir?
Credibility and Future of the ICC
What about the fate and future of the Special International Criminal Courts, which have become looked upon, in spite of their growing in number (in Lebanon, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and Cambodia), as unfair in their distribution of justice.
This is evidenced by their prosecution of the poor and overpowered countries while the crimes of the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan go unpunished.
Similarly, the Americans' ally, Israel commits endless crimes in Palestine. What about the future of the ICC, especially since it deals only with African cases– four African cases at hand– while it refuses to touch the case of Israel's war crimes in Gaza or America's in Iraq?
Repercussions
However, what is certain is that the resolution of arresting Al-Bashir will have its immediate and future repercussions on Sudan, Africa, and the world as a whole.
These repercussions may reach a stage of chaos and of escalating schemes to divide, and hence fragment, Sudan, especially if the resolution is linked to a fierce desire of the West to enforce its implementation and resort to the Security Council– and the seventh paragraph of the Charter– to be implemented by force, in spite of the African and Arab demands to apply to article 16 of the Statute for the freezing of the verdict.
Such repercussions may not undergo any escalating consequences against Sudan– in contrast with the previous scenario– except for the issuance of more resolutions by the Security Council imposing new punitive measures against Sudan.
The most ferocious sanctions against Sudan might be the imposition of an embargo and a ban on Sudanese air flights over Darfur. This means delimiting action to maintaining the court's verdict until a peace agreement about Darfur is reached, and then the embargo will be lifted.
Escalation vs. Appeasement Scenarios
Again, one could talk about the West's escalation scenario against Sudan by applying the Seventh Paragraph of the United Nations Charter. This will provide all the support it can do to Darfur rebels to raise public unrest, and to allow the intervention of the US and Western military imposition of a no-fly zone over Darfur.
On the other hand, the appeasement scenario which will sustain the court's verdict as a sword ready to strike Al–Bashir's neck with the object of compelling Sudan to compromise in some files.
But before talking about these two scenarios, we should point out that the article (89) of the Statute of the Tribunal establishes the procedures for the arrest of the accused, who has got the following verdicts:

First, The court first sends its ruling to the State of destination, Sudan, and requests its judges to put the sentence into effect. In this case, the verdict demand could be sent via the Sudanese embassy in the Hague –by fax as previous communications about the arrest of Minister Ahmed Haroun and Leader Kushayb have already taken place.
In this case Sudan would reject the request since Khartoum and the Sudanese parliament have not been signatories of the Convention establishing the court and therefore the convention is not part of the Sudanese law.
Second, The court should send the request corroborated by the indictment evidence that warrants the arrest of the person concerned to the country which has already ratified the court convention if the accused is on its land. The court should also request all the other countries to cooperate to implement the arrest.
Alternatively, Ocampo should circulate the arrest warrant of the Sudanese president to the countries which have ratified the ICC convention, namely all European countries except Russia, and all of the Southeast Asian states except China and the 37 African countries, and most of Latin America, and Canada. For them the arrest warrant is obligatory and binding.
In case this is impossible and if Sudan and any other country involved refuses to enforce the resolution, the court should automatically refer it to the UN Security Council. Although the court is not affiliated to the Council, the issue submitted should be implemented and to compel all the States to cooperate with the Tribunal, including the issuance of a resolution under Chapter VII of the Charter requiring all the Member States of the United Nations, including Sudan, to cooperate in order to execute the warrant of arrest.
Here the scenarios of escalation and appeasement are also important to the United States and Europe that have a tight grip on the Security Council.

The Appeasement Scenario
The appeasement steps could be figured out as follows:
1– Conciliation could start by delimiting the court's "politicized" resolution to one or two charges of the current three ones filed against President Al Bashir. The "Genocide" charge is to be dropped.
This will imply the existence of some kind of justice, especially as the Ocampo memorandum submitted to the court speaks about only thirty five thousand victims in Darfur, compared to 200 thousands according to the Western allegations and only 10 thousands according to Khartoum estimates.
2 - The resolution remains no more than ink on paper, meaning that it is not to be implemented, unless Al-Bashir travels to an ICC party state , and thereby creates a real problem. But this scenario may not be applicable as Al-Bashir seldom travels abroad and if he travels to some Arab countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Libya, it will not matter since these countries will not hand him in because they are not members of the Tribunal. Moreover, the nature of the Arab relations-makes this procedure unlikely.
3 - America and the West would not demand the enactment of Article VII of the UN Charter through a UN Security Council resolution. It should be used only as a measure of pressure.
4 - Washington will respond to the African and Arab demands, so there is a deal of freezing the resolution in exchange for a peaceful settlement in the Darfur Territory and a peace agreement that would include further Sudanese concessions, such as autonomy for the territory or apportioning it to three regions with autonomy.
The Escalation Scenario
The steps of this scenario could be figured out as follows:
1- America and Europe would seek rejection of freezing the arrest warrant of Al- Bashir.
2- They both will strive to support a new resolution to be issued by Ocampo and to be submitted to the Security Council to pass a resolution according to Chapter 7 of the Chart obliging all the other UN members including Sudan to cooperate in order to put the arrest warrant into effect.
3- The Darfur dissidents would get due support and encouragement to heighten their attacks like those of the Justice and Equality Forces last May on Um Durman with the object of pressuring Khartoum to allow them to arrest Al- Bashir and hand him in to the court.
4- Imposition of no-fly zones over Darfur like the one imposed by Americans over Iraq before the American invasion in addition to the economic, political and military embargo.
5- Employing the NATO troops, special French, European , American or other forces in special operations to penetrate the Sudanese borders or to operate outside Sudan to arrest Al-Bashir. One way is to force Al –Bashir's plane to land in an international airport so as to arrest him. The Attorney General Ocampo is authorized to use all the weapons and Devices available in the 108 UN members including the Intelligence capabilities, special forces, interior security forces, the army in addition to the UN forces to implement the resolution.
In any case, it is unexpected that the UN forces in Darfur (10 thousand troops) will be employed to arrest Al-Bashir, though they are the primary body responsible for such action.
This may lead to the attack of the Sudanese army on the UN troops and kicking them out of Sudan. This scenario has been figured out by the leaders of these troops which made them try to avoid getting involved and refrained from cooperating with the ICC concerning the special information related with Al-Bashir's prosecution.
Destiny of Elections and Peace With the South
There is still great fear of the impact of this verdict on Sudan internally and its repercussions on the parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for next July. These will have close relationship with the future of peace and the Naivasha Peace Accord between the North and the south.
In case the verdict should affect the internal status quo, especially during the skirmishes between the Northerners and the Southerners, and the demand made by some southern leaders that Al-Bashir must hand himself in to the ICC, and in the light of the incompletion of the population census which may deter the promulgation of the election laws which are expected thereby to be deferred to December 2009 at most, given that that the peace accord between the north and the south which stipulates running the election in July, such deferment to next December will entail a constitution adaptation.
In case the elections should be run as scheduled and Al-Bashir should participate, it is expected that he will have a sliding victory owing to the popularity he has gained by the ICC verdict.
His victory will represent a new legitimacy bestowed on him by the voters. However, in case the elections are postponed or could not be run, this may aggravate the disputes with the southerners which may as well accelerate the unilateral detachment of the south without waiting till the year 2011 when the final destiny determination referendum should be administered.
This, in turn, might start a civil war between the south and the north apart from the west's wars for destiny determination. Sudan will then experience turmoil and instability which will re-thrust it into the status which existed before the Rescue Revolution of 1989.
This means that Sudan may relapse into its early Islamic roots which were characterized by rigidity and extremism. "Slah Qoush", Director of the Sudanese Intelligence, has openly warned against such relapse. Similarly, Othman Mohammed Taha, the Sudanese Vice President has alluded to the same warning when he said, " It will be a long battle".
Muhammad Gamal Arafa
political analyst in IOL
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