Letters to the Editor, December 1, 2003

According to the UN Charter, Article II, Convention on the prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: (Signed by the US)

"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such :

     (a) Killing members of the group:
     (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
     (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
           its physical destruction in whole or in part

    Article III
    "The following acts shall be punishable:

     (a) Genocide;
     (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
     (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
     (d) Attempt to commit genocide;
     (e) Complicity in genocide."

Based on the definition of genocide as written in UN Charter( adopted Dec. 9, 1948), I was curious to know if Al-Jazeerah was aware of any legal teams, particularly in the Middle East preparing to partition the UN, with the intention of indicting the US & British governments for Genocide against peoples of Iraq?

Thank you,

Mike,
San Diego, Ca.

Editor: No, I'm not aware of that.

Canada Palestine Support Network

123 North Sea Avenue

Burnaby

British Columbia V5B 1K4

Honourable Paul Martin

Incoming Prime Minister of Canada

House of Commons

November 29, 2003

Dear Prime Minister:

Today marks the United Nations declaration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Contrary to that spirit, this month the outgoing government, under the initiative of the Solicitor-General, added three more names to a list of proscribed organizations. This list has been compiled under the mandate of insufficiently discussed and hurriedly enacted "anti-terrorism" legislation.

The three additions this month are all Palestinian organizations, two of which are constituent elements of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, with whom the outgoing government has maintained diplomatic contact in Ottawa.

Regardless of this irony, the list as a whole and the new additions in particular do not advance in any practical way the physical security of the people of Canada. To the contrary, the secretive and arbitrary processes by which names are compiled under obvious political pressures fuel a culture of fear. This culture is inimical to and undermines democratic discussion and decision-making in this country.

On these grounds we protest the outgoing Solicitor-General’s action.

We also have taken this occasion, coinciding with your imminent formal assumption of the duties of Prime Minister, to draft a statement reflecting on not only the most recent decisions of the outgoing Solicitor-General, but more broadly on a range of legislation and panoply of practices of which these recent decisions are but one integral part.

Among the many governmental issues you are reviewing, we urge you to include a review of the undemocratic path upon which the outgoing government embarked as its response to the terrorist attack on September 11^th. Serious reconsideration, we trust, will lead you to reverse that direction.

We for our part shall continue to work broadly and publicly with others to see this change of direction becomes reality.

Sincerely,

Mordecai Briemberg

Canada Palestine Support Network

support@canpalnet.ca

www.canpalnet.ca

It was supposed to boost George Bush’s image with voters back in US, but in effect it turned out to be an act of shame for a US President to be sneaking like a wanted man to visit his troops in a heavily guarded area, apparently to share Thanksgiving Turkey with them.

The visit was meant to bolster the morale of the US troops. In the event it showed the pitiable plight of a US President, who visited an occupied territory without being invited by its people, that he is supposed to be liberating. The people of Iraq royally ignored the news that he had made a sneak visit to their capital.

There was no honour, no laurels, no grace, for the highest representative of the world’s superpower to be acting like the very ‘thugs and assassins’ that he had been condemning, in his charged speeches around the world. Even with 150,000 troops on the ground, Bush could not feel safe to meet the people that he was liberating.

It would appear, Saddam had reduced Bush to his own level, as far as the ground realities in Iraq are concerned. If Saddam was hiding from Bush, Bush too was scared of Saddam. It was not the proud sight of US posing as a victor lording on his booty in Iraq. It was at best a stalemate.

GHULAM MUHAMMED, Mumbai <ghulam_muhammed2@yahoo.co.in>

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).