Nederland en Afghanistan 102

Associated Press bericht:

'Insurgent activity rising in Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Insurgent activity in Afghanistan has risen fourfold this year, and militants now launch more than 600 attacks a month, a rising wave of violence that has resulted in 3,700 deaths in 2006, a bleak new report found.
Afghanistan saw about 130 insurgent attacks a month last year, said the report by the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, which consists of representatives from Afghanistan and the international community, including the United Nations.
The new report said insurgents were launching more than 600 attacks a month as of the end of September, up from 300 a month at the end of March this year. The violence has killed more than 3,700 people this year, it said.
Officials said on Sunday that in the volatile border area near Pakistan, more than 20 Taliban militants -- and possibly as many as 60 -- were killed during several days of clashes.
"Confronting increased insurgent activity has diverted much of the government's attention and significant resources," the report said.
"It threatens to reverse some of the gains made in the recent past, with development activities being especially hard hit in several areas, resulting in partial or total withdrawal of international agencies in a number of the worst-affected provinces."
The report said that the rising drugs trade in Afghanistan has "significantly helped fuel" the insurgency in four volatile southern provinces. The slow pace of development is contributing to popular disaffection and ineffective implementation of the drug fight, it said.
Afghanistan's poppy crop, which is used to make heroin, increased by 59 percent in Afghanistan this past year.
Insurgents have launched a record number of roadside bombs and suicide attacks this year, and there have been heavy clashes all year between insurgents and Afghan and NATO security forces, particularly in the southern and eastern provinces near the border with Pakistan.
In the east, meanwhile, Gen. Murad Ali, the deputy Afghan army commander for Paktika province, said 20 bodies were recovered from fighting in Bermel district the last several days. In addition, he said, two trucks carrying Taliban fighters were destroyed by airstrikes or artillery fire, and officials estimated 40 fighters were killed in those strikes.
Four NATO soldiers and three Afghan soldiers were injured, he said, though a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said he wasn't aware of any serious injuries among NATO troops.
Maj. Luke Knittig said the operations in Bermel, which borders Pakistan, were part of an ongoing Afghan-NATO mission to root out Taliban militants before winter settles in.
"We know we've engaged in successful operations in Bermel with a purpose, and we think those have had a very positive effect against insurgent activity there," Knittig said.
Knittig said Ali's estimate of 60 dead fighters "sounds about right to me," but he didn't have an independent estimate of the number killed. "We are not into the numbers game here lately," he said.
Death tolls in remote areas of Afghanistan are almost impossible to verify and often vary widely.
Abdul Baqi Nuristani, the provincial police chief, said only 25 militants have been killed in Bermel the last couple days. He said three Afghan and three NATO soldiers were injured in what he called "a very big battle."'

Lees verder: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/afghan.violence.ap/index.html

Boycot Israel 3

De Guardian bericht:

'Military sales to Israel challenged.

Richard Norton-Taylor

Wednesday November 15, 2006 The Guardian

The government is being taken to court today over the sale of military equipment to Israel including parts for Apache helicopter gunships, laser range finders, and communications equipment.
Saleh Hasan, a Palestinian who lives in Bethlehem, argues that the sales are in breach of the government's guidelines covering arms exports and are unlawful. The guidelines say exports should be blocked when there is a "clear risk" they "might be used for internal repression".
Mr Hasan's lawyers point to comments by Foreign Office minister Kim Howells in the Commons in August that "almost any use of equipment ... could be used aggressively, especially in occupied areas".
They point out that after British military equipment was used in the occupied territories in 2002, Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, said he would no longer take Israeli assurances into account. Mr Howells said that approach "still holds true".
Michael Fordham QC says in his court challenge on behalf of Mr Saleh that there is also clear evidence of human rights abuses by Israeli forces.'

Zie: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,1947982,00.html

Donald Rumsfeld 3

Democracy Now:

'A group of lawyers filed a lawsuit today calling on German prosecutors to investigate outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for allegedly sanctioning torture. We go to Berlin to speak with former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who served as the commanding officer at Abu Ghraib. She is the highest-ranking US military officer reprimanded over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. [includes rush transcript]
Attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a war crimes lawsuit today in Germany against outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his role in the torture of prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo.
We go to Berlin to speak with former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. She was the Commander of three large US and British-led prisons in Iraq in 2003. She oversaw all military police in Iraq and was the first female ever to command soldiers in a combat zone. In May 2005, she was demoted from Brigadier General to Colonel over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. She remains the highest-ranking military officer reprimanded for the abuse. Wolfgang Kaleck, the German lawyer leading the litigation said Karpinski would be the "star witness" of the case.
Janis Karpinski, former Brigadier General and author of "One Woman's Army : The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story."
AMY GOODMAN: Our next guest in Berlin today is former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. She was the commander of the three large US- and British-led prisons in Iraq in 2003. She oversaw all military police in Iraq and was the first female ever to command soldiers in a combat zone. In May 2005 she was demoted from Brigadier General to Colonel over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. She remains the highest-ranking military officer reprimanded for the abuse. Wolfgang Kaleck, the German lawyer leading the litigation, said Karpinski would be the, quote, "star witness" of the case. She's the author of the book, One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Janis Karpinski. Tell us why you're in Berlin today.
JANIS KARPINSKI: Thank you. Good morning, Amy. I'm in Berlin because I was invited to make my presentation. Over the course of time, as you're probably well aware, we had different discussions. I was first asked for information about what I saw, what I witnessed in Iraq, and what I believe led to what we saw in those photographs. And the case was initially presented and then dismissed.
But again, over the course of time, and opening discussions, Mr. Kaleck decided to proceed and to pursue presenting the case again. I was at a presentation in the United States, and I had the opportunity to meet with them to again clarify some points. And when they asked me if I would be interested in coming here to give a presentation in person, I said it would be a privilege, because it's the truth. And presenting the truth and presenting first-hand information has become increasingly important in this entire process.'

Lees verder: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/14/1517249

De Israelische Terreur 120

Ik ontving zojuist deze email:

13-11-2006

Persbericht

Maatschappelijke organisaties doen stemoproep voor rechtvaardigheid in het Nabije Oosten.

Een aantal Nederlandse maatschappelijke organisaties, waaronder het Humanistisch Vredesberaad, Kerk en Vrede, Mediterranean Press Europe, Nederlands Palestina Komitee (NPK), Palestijnse Gemeenschap Nederland (PGN), Stop de Bezetting (SdB), Wereldburgers, en Vrouwen in het Zwart Nederland hebben de handen ineengeslagen om de kiezer te wijzen op politieke partijen die een rechtvaardige oplossing nastreven in het eindeloze drama tussen Israël en de Palestijnen. Deze organisaties willen dat Nederland en de Europese Unie hun beleid tegen over Israël gaan wijzigen, waarbij Israël wordt gehouden aan het internationale recht.
Deze oproep wordt aan de pers gepresenteerd op woensdagochtend 15 november om 10 uur in Café Dudok, Hofweg 1-a, Den Haag. Ook zullen enkele politieke partijen aanwezig zijn om hun standpunten toe te lichten. Van GroenLinks wordt de voormalige voorzitter, Herman Meijer, verwacht en van de Socialistische Partij Krista van Velzen.
Tevens zullen aanwezig zijn Gretta Duisenberg (Voorzitter Stichting Stop de Bezetting), Brahim Bourzik (voormalig gemeenteraadslid in Rotterdam), Tariq Shadid (Palestijnse Gemeenschap Nederland) en oud-ambassadeur Jan Wijenberg.

In de betreffende oproep aan de kiezer staat ook “de rechtvaardigheids-thermometer”, een simpele maar zeer duidelijke weergave van de verschillende politieke standpunten inzake de Palestijns-Israelische kwestie. Een veelzeggende illustratie over de grondverdeling maakt de stemwijzer compleet en overtuigend.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Voor inlichtingen:
J. Wijenberg, Stop de Bezetting, oud-ambassadeur
Tel: 070 - 345.4799 06 - 516.388.80

De Israelische Terreur 119

UN expert urges Israel to stop destruction in Gaza, calls for military sanctions.

Report, UN News, 13 November 2006T

he following statement was issued today by the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Miloon Kothari: "As Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, I condemn in the strongest possible terms the artillery shelling of Palestinian homes by the Israeli defence force in Beit Hanoun that killed 19 innocent civilians and injured 60, including women and children. The explanation by Israeli authorities that this wantonly criminal act was a mistake is unacceptable. The shelling and subsequent killing of civilians indicates a premeditated military tactic constituting a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. "Since 25 June 2006, the most recent Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, I continue to receive alarming reports about deliberate attacks by Israeli forces resulting in the destruction of homes, civilian property and infrastructures in the Gaza Strip. Such acts have a devastating impact on civilians particularly, women and children, and create insecurity and psychological trauma. Thus, these forced evictions and unjustifiable destruction constitute breaches of international laws of human rights, war and humanitarian norms. International law strictly prohibits the destruction of private or public property when not absolutely necessary by military operations. According to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) the military operation in Beit Hanoun itself led, in a six-day military siege, to the destruction of dozens of houses. "Israel's practice of confiscating Palestinian land, demolishing Palestinian homes, closure and the implantation of illegal settlements also continues throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem, including those in connection with the Separation Wall. I also have learned of the colonization activities in the Jordan Valley, in particular, including the active involvement of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish National Fund. Such dispossession and destruction across the Green Line, within the continuum of population transfer policies and practices, are factors that underlie the ongoing conflict. I urge the State of Israel to cease these practices and restitute confiscated lands in the interest of regional peace and security. "These latest killings by Israel must act as a call for the international community to awaken from the inaction and hesitation that has marked its attention to the grave crisis in Gaza. In this context, I fully support the statement by Prof. John Dugard, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories calling on the United Nations Security Council to urgently address the crisis in Gaza. I urgently call for an international independent investigation of the events and the deployment of international forces in the region. I also urge the international community, in view of their human rights and humanitarian law obligations, to reconsider the continuation of military cooperation with Israel in light of the overwhelming evidence of violations of a range of human rights, including the right to adequate housing".'

Zie: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6025.shtml

Howard Zinn 6

'A Veteran Remembers. By Howard Zinn

"Information Clearing House" --- Let's go back to the beginning of Veterans Day. It used to be Armistice Day, because at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I came to an end.We must not forget that conflict. It revealed the essence of war, of all wars, because however "just" or "humanitarian" may be the claims, at the irreducible core of all war is the slaughter of the innocent, organized by national leaders, accompanied by lies. World War I was its epitome, as generals and politicians sent young men forward from their trenches, bayonets fixed, to gain a few miles, even a few yards, at frightful cost.In July 1916 the British General Douglas Haig ordered 11 divisions of English soldiers to climb out of their trenches and move toward the German lines. The six German divisions opened up with their machine guns. Of the 110,000 who attacked, more than half were killed or wounded--all those bodies strewn on no man's land, the ghostly territory between the contending trenches. That scenario went on for years. In the first battle of the Marne there were a million casualties, 500,000 on each side.The soldiers began to rebel, which is always the most heroic thing soldiers can do, for which they should be given medals. In the French Army, out of 112 divisions, 68 would have mutinies. Fifty men would be shot by firing squads.Three of those executions became the basis for the late filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's antiwar masterpiece, Paths of Glory. In that film a pompous general castigates his soldiers for retreating and talks of "patriotism." Kirk Douglas, the lieutenant colonel who defends his men, enrages the general by quoting the famous lines of Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."The supposed moral justification of that war (the evil Kaiser, the Belgian babies) disintegrated quickly after it ended with sudden recognition of the 10 million dead in the mud of France and the gassed, shellshocked, and limbless veterans confronting the world.The ugliness of that war was uncomplicated by the moral righteousness that made later wars, from World War II on, unsullied in our memory, or at least acceptable. Vietnam was the stark exception. But even there our national leaders have worked hard to smother what they call "the Vietnam syndrome." They want us to forget what we learned at the Vietnam War's end: that our leaders cannot be trusted, that modern war is inevitably a war against civilians and particularly children, that only a determined citizenry can stop the government when it embarks on mass murder.'

Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15587.htm

De Israelische Terreur 118

De Israelische vredesactivist Uri Avneri schrijft: 'In One Word: Massacre.

"Information Clearing House" -- -- "Thank God for the American elections," our ministers and generals sighed with relief. They were not rejoicing at the kick that the American people delivered to George W. Bush's ass this week. They love Bush, after all. But more important than the humbling of Bush is the fact that the news from America pushed aside the terrible reports from Beit Hanoun. Instead of making the headlines, they were relegated to the bottom of the page. The first revolutionary act is to call things by their true names, Rosa Luxemburg said. So how to call what happened in Beit Hanoun? "Accident" said a pretty anchorwoman on one of the TV news programs. "Tragedy", said her lovely colleague on another channel. A third one, no less attractive, wavered between "event", "mistake" and "incident". It was indeed an accident, a tragedy, an event and an incident. But most of all it was a massacre. M-a-s-s-a-c-r-e. The word "accident" suggests something for which no one is to blame - like being struck by lightning. A tragedy is a sad event or situation, like that of the New Orleans inhabitants after the disaster. The event in Beit Hanoun was sad indeed, but not an act of God - it was an act decided upon and carried out by human beings. Immediately after the facts became known, the entire choir of professional apologists, explainers-away, sorrow-expressers and pretext-inventors, a choir that is in perpetual readiness for such cases, sprang into feverish action. "An unfortunate mistake… It can happen in the best families… The mechanism of a cannon can misfunction, people can make mistakes… Errare humanum est… We have launched tens of thousands of artillery shells, and there have only been three such accidents. (No. 1 in the Olmert-Peretz-Halutz era was in Qana, in the Second Lebanon War. No. 2 was on the Gaza sea shore, where a whole family was wiped out.) But we apologized, didn't we? What more can they demand from us?" There were also arguments like "They can only blame themselves." As usual, it was the fault of the victims. The most creative solution came from the Deputy Minister of Defense, Ephraim Sneh: "The practical responsibility is ours, but the moral responsibility is theirs." If they launch Qassam rockets at us, what else can we do but answer with shells? Ephraim Sneh was raised to the position of Deputy Minister just now. The appointment was a payment for agreeing to the inclusion of Avigdor Liberman in the government (in biblical Hebrew, the payment would have been called "the hire of a whore", Deut. 23,19). Now, after only a few days in office, Sneh was given the opportunity to express his thanks. (In the Sneh family, there is a tradition of justifying despicable acts. Ephraim's brilliant father, Moshe Sneh, was the leader of the Israeli Communist Party, and defended all the massacres committed by Stalin, not only the gulag system, but also the murder of the Jewish Communists in the Soviet Union and its satellites and the Jewish "doctors plot"). Any suggestion of equivalence between Qassams and artillery shells, an idea which has been adopted even by some of the Peaceniks, is completely false. And not only because there is no symmetry between occupier and occupied. Hundreds of Qassams launched during more than a year have killed one single Israeli. The shells, missiles and bombs have already killed many hundreds of Palestinians.'

Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15578.htm