Month: August 2007

UNSG BAN has a PLAN – for Darfur

At a news conference at UNHQ/NY on Tuesday, UNSG BAN Ki-Moon announced that he will travel week to Sudan, Chad and Libya.

He said he wants to see at first hand the suffering that the proposed 26,000-person strong UN peacekeeping operation approved last month by the UN Security Council will try to alleviate, as well as the difficult conditions in which the UN Mission will have to operate.

He also vowed to look for water under the desert in Sudan.

Here is an excerpt from the transcript provided by the UN:

“I have a three-point action plan moving forward.
Continue reading UNSG BAN has a PLAN – for Darfur

Abbas meets Olmert in Jerusalem

They may be meeting now, following the establishment of Palestinian government which has excluded Hamas, but two sides are still operating on vastly different levels, however. The Israelis seem to believe they are working on a set of principles to be adopted at a big peace conference in the U.S. in November, while Abbas is quoted in today’s paper as saying he does not even know yet who else is to be invited to participate in the peace conference. Both Abbas and his nemesis, Hamas, are predicting the conference’s failure, saying that the agenda is totally pro-Israel.

Iran blinks

With some U.S. news media breathlessly anticipating “the next war”, Iran has done a smart thing.

It has blinked, or maybe “winked” (I do not mean to suggest here, however, that this might be a trick), and promised to reveal information of a formerly-secret programmes, including something called the “Green Salt Project”, according to the Associated Press.

Despite its belief that other countries’ doubts about its nuclear intentions were “politically motivated” and founded on “baseless allegations”, Iran says that it will now offer information to clear up these doubts — and it has insisted that its timetable for publishing more information be posted on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

Accusations on a secret Iranian program to produce nuclear weapons surfaced four years ago by the Iranian opposition Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) movement, which has been based in Iraq for many years.

The Associated Press is reporting today that “several pages of U.S. intelligence that had been declassified and shared with agency officials so that they could confront the Iranians with it. Among the links, they said, was the participation of several officials on conversion, high explosives — which can be used to detonate a nuclear charge — and warhead design work …. Public mention of the ‘Green Salt Project’ first surfaced in an IAEA report drawn up last year. The report voiced concern that under the ‘Green Salt Project’, conversion of uranium — a precursor of enrichment — was linked to suspected tests of ‘high explosives and the design of a missile re-entry vehicle, all of which could have a military nuclear dimension’.”

Read the full AP report here.

Nevertheless, Iran has not budged on its refusal to stop its uranium enrichment activities.
Continue reading Iran blinks

Mia Farrow will be happy – UN planning to station troops just outside Darfur

The AP’s tireless Edith Lederer reports today that “The Security Council gave the European Union and the UN the green light Monday to prepare for a military and police deployment to help protect civilians in Chad and the Central African Republic caught in the spillover of the Darfur conflict. A council statement expressed readiness to authorize an international operation for a year to protect refugees, internally displaced people and civilians at risk in eastern Chad and the northeastern Central African Republic, and to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. The EU would send troops and the United Nations would contribute police, though France and the U.S. have said the year-long deployment will likely be followed by a UN peacekeeping operation. An EU Council of Ministers meeting on Sept. 17 will make a final decision on deploying European Union troops. The council’s statement sends an important ‘message of concern for the seriousness of the humanitarian situation in Chad and the Central African Republic,’ said France’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix. Darfur’s spillover into the northeast Central African Republic and eastern Chad “has had very serious humanitarian consequences — more refugees, more displaced persons, and more insecurity for these refugees and displaced persons,” he said … Since the Security Council visited Darfur and Chad in June 2006, the UN has been discussing deploying international police and troops to the two impoverished countries. Chadian President Idriss Deby opposed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s original proposal for the deployment of a UN military force, but agreed to an EU force after meeting with France’s foreign minister in June…Lacroix said the council statement sends a ‘political signal’ of support, especially to the EU, to go ahead with planning for the deployment.”

This is how the UN works – it sends “political signals of support”…
Read the full AP report here.

Israeli activists oppose using West Bank as garbage dump

In a country that opened a new international airport (Ben Gurion) almost two years ago without proper working sewage infrastructure — and it is still not installed — it has to be said that environmental awareness is not a top priority.

No time, say some. Security is more important, say others.

Well, I’m sorry, but any self-professed love for the land that is not accompanied by some decent concern for preserving a clean environment has to be taken somewhat sceptically.

Today, a headline on Ynet, the English-language website of Israel’s widest-selling Hebrew newspaper (Yediot Ahranot) reports the following story:

“Human rights group says regardless of politics, Israel should not be turning West Bank into garbage dump”, by Shlomi Zecharia:

“Of all the issues often raised with regards to the occupation’s injustices and the attitude of authorities and settlers to the Palestinians, environmental issues are at the margins of the social-political agenda, even in the rare cases where environmental issues in Israel itself are brought up for debate.
However, during more than 40 years of Israeli control, the West Bank has become, either consciously or unconsciously, our garbage dump, and particularly that of the settlements and illegal outposts in the area…
Continue reading Israeli activists oppose using West Bank as garbage dump

Shake-down in Israel – over 6072 Shekels must be paid to customs ($1500 US dollars)

It’s just used personal belongings, meaning old furniture, clothes, hundreds of books, bed, linens, towels, kitchen equipment — and family photos! Family photos are taxable in Israel!

So, the customs bill just presented to me today for my sea shipment to Jerusalem totals 6072 New Israeli Shekels (NIS), or the equivalent of $1,500 U.S.

UPDATE: The total charges to me, I was informed later Tuesday by the Israeli shipping company handling my move from Geneva, are over 10,500 NIS!!!

In addition, I am informed by the import manager, I must pay additional port charges, because the shipment arrived on 20 August, and only 4 free days are allowed, so I am somehow liable for the great cost (see above) of keeping the container in the port beyond the four-day limit. This is despite the fact that I made my customs declaration one week ago, and have been waiting for the decision from Israeli customs ever since.

And, because the Israeli import manager wanted me to pay everything all together, and hasn’t yet gotten back to me with the calculation of all other charges, my payment can’t be made today, so probably another two days will go by with port storage charges accruing. Then, it will be Friday, and Saturday — the Israeli weekend. Then it will be Sunday, and my bank doesn’t work on Sunday. Who’ll have to pay for all that? It won’t be them, I bet.

But it’s not my fault that the procedure was delayed! It’s not my fault either, the import manager retorted. So, it must be the fault of Israeli customs and tax collectors! But let’s see if they’ll assume this responsibility.

The customs bill for receiving my air shipment (6 suitcases full of clothes and whatever had to be evacuated from my former apartment in the last minutes of moving + 7 cartons, mostly of documents — photocopies of interesting articles from Haaretz, and some UN papers) came to 582 NIS (about $150).

The lady at the Customs Authority has been extremely nice and has tried to be extemely helpful — a credit to her country. But, it can’t change this new system…

It must be election time in Russia

Not only do we get to see Vladimir Putin’s nice chest — come on, this guy reportedly works out three hours per day —

RIA Novosti Photo - KREMLIN - Reuters

Russia's President Vladimir Putin fishes in the Yenisei River in Siberia as he makes a tour together with Prince Albert II of Monaco, August 13, 2007

but now we learn that ten people have just been arrested for the murder last October of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who has been previously mentioned in this blog for her extraordinary writing. Those just arrested reportedly include a Chechen (of course!) crime boss accused of organizing the slaying.The Associated Press is reporting today that Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said the 10 will soon be charged with the Oct. 7 killing of Politkovskaya … and he suggested her murder was plotted outside Russia to discredit its leadership … He said that people involved in Politkovskaya’s killing may have also been involved in the 2004 shooting death of Paul Klebnikov, an American who was editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition. ‘As for the motives for the killing, the results of the investigation lead us to the conclusion that only individuals located outside the territory of the Russian Federation could have had an interest in getting rid of Politkovskaya’, Chaika told a news conference Monday ‘It is in the interest first of all of those people and structures that aim to destabilize the situation in the country, change the constitutional order (and) create a crisis in Russia’, he said, adding that such forces want to ‘discredit the leadership’ and provoke foreign pressure on the Kremlin. They seek ‘a return to the former system of rule, under which money and oligarchs decided everything’, he said. Chaika mentioned no names, but he appeared to be pointing the finger at least in part at Boris Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics and lives in Britain, where he has refugee status. His assertion was likely to be met with disbelief by Kremlin critics, who say Putin and his government are too quick to blame foreign countries and foes abroad — often Berezovsky — for the nation’s problems.”

Read full AP report here.

Continue reading It must be election time in Russia

Shock that PLO Observer blocked UN Security Council move on Gaza (because Hamas is in control)

Ramzy Baroud, who is the editor-in-chief of PalestineChronicle.com, wrote recently in counterpunch.com that “$80 million seems too cheap a price for selling out one’s own people”.

In his article, sarcastically entitled “A Palestinian Miracle at the UN?”, Baroud stated that: “For the first time, and after days of intense lobbying, a Palestinian delegation recently killed a draft resolution. Not only this, it also managed to block a presidential statement which is usually made when a resolution is buried, by way of explaining the circumstances behind its rejection. But this ‘miracle’ has a bizarre twist. The resolution, drafted by Qatar and seconded by Indonesia, was merely expressing concern over the humanitarian disaster intensifying in the Gaza Strip and the deteriorating plight of one and a half million Palestinians dwelling, or more accurately, imprisoned there, lacking all imaginable necessities – electricity, fuel, clean water, food and medicine … [I]t came as an unparalleled shock to learn of the double ‘successes’ of the Palestinian delegation to the UN on July 30, with, first, Qatar pulling out its resolution regarding Palestine, and second, the UNSC’s presidency refraining from issuing a statement to explain what went wrong. Qatar’s hope had been to support starving Palestinians in Gaza and win some international sympathy on their behalf, which might embarrass Israel into allowing some urgent supplies into Gaza. A few months ago, one would have thought such an event to be simply impossible: A Palestinian delegation, lobbying tirelessly at the UN to block a UN call for helping half of the Palestinian population living in complete isolation and facing ceaseless Israeli attacks in the occupied territories. What could possibly justify such cruelty? To ensure that Hamas’ isolation is complete? To deny the ‘Islamists’ of Gaza the opportunity to score a point against the ‘secularists’ of Ramallah, thus to operate for a few more months before the mass starvation kicks in? Even these pitiful excuses no longer suffice. However, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, tried his best to justify the scandal on the basis that ‘it is unacceptable for anyone, including friends, to act on our behalf without our knowledge no one should take such initiatives without consulting us’.”

Continue reading Shock that PLO Observer blocked UN Security Council move on Gaza (because Hamas is in control)

One more Palestinian boy, a baby, dies while trying to leave Gaza

The Agence France Presse (AFP) reported late last night that a one-year-old Palestinian baby boy with a heart condition died just after crossing into Israel from the Gaza Strip to receive medical treatment.
While Israeli authorities denied that the boy and his father were delayed at the crossing, the director of the Palestinian ambulance service, Muawiya Abu Hassanin, told AFP just the opposite: he said that Ibrahim Abu Nahel died after waiting for hours to enter Israel at the Erez border crossing with Gaza: ” ‘He arrived at 8 am (and) he was delayed at least three hours at Erez’, Hassanin said, referring to Nahel’s father with whom he spoke by telephone. ‘Once he passed, the Israelis did not arrange for an ambulance, so he took a taxi to the hospital and he died in the taxi near Ashkelon’, a southern Israeli town, Hassanin said. A spokesman for the Israeli military liaison office for Gaza said the pair’s passage through Erez was expedited. ‘He arrived at 8:35 am and at 8:45 he crossed, after we made a special, accelerated, VIP process for him’, Shady Yassin told AFP.
An autopsy on the body is due to be performed inside Israel within days, Hassanin said.”

Read full report here.

Israel on UNIFIL mandate renewal

This statement on the renewal of the UN Peacekeeping mandate in Lebanon was issued on Sunday by the spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

“The decision by the UN Security Council to renew the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reflects the determination of the international community to complete the task of fully implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701.  Israel will not view this task as complete until its abducted soldiers are returned, the arms embargo is effectively applied, Hizbullah is disarmed, and the Lebanese government extends its full sovereignty in southern Lebanon.  The situation in southern Lebanon is significantly different from that on the eve of the Second Lebanon War. Today, 10,000 soldiers of the Lebanese army are deployed in the area, assisted by over 13,000 UNIFIL soldiers. Hizbullah operatives can no longer move about fully armed as they did openly until July of last year. However, this is not enough, as long as Hizbullah continues to arm itself and poses a threat to Israel, the Lebanese army and the international forces. The international community must work to dismantle Hizbullah in order to allow Lebanon to exist as a sovereign state which effectively exerts its authority throughout its territory. Lebanon, too, must enforce the arms embargo on Hizbullah.  Vice Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni welcomes the decision of the Security Council, views Lebanon as responsible for events in its territory, and calls on the international community to be firm in implementing the resolution, including the return of the abducted soldiers and the disarming of Hizbullah.”
Sent by email on Sunday 26 August 2007