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September 28, 2002 |
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Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
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Palestinian intifada
must continue: Barghouti RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY, 28 September — Jailed Palestinian uprising leader
Marwan Barghouti urged Palestinians yesterday to press on with their
revolt and warned Israel it would have security only when it stopped
occupying Palestinian land. Barghouti, responding in writing to questions posed by Reuters ahead of
the second anniversary of the Palestinian intifada or uprising, urged
Palestinians to "remain steadfast and to pursue the resistance until
the occupation leaves our land". "We tell the Israelis they will enjoy peace and security only
after ending settlement activity and ending occupation and when we
establish our independent state," he said. Arrested by Israeli forces in April, he is the first major Palestinian
player to be brought to trial by Israel since the uprising erupted in late
September 2000. Palestinians dismiss the Tel Aviv court proceedings as a
political show trial. Barghouti, a Palestinian lawmaker, has rejected the
accusations, telling the court it has no authority to try him. Thousands of protesters marched in the West Bank, Gaza and across the
Arab world yesterday to mark the second anniversary of the uprising. The demonstrations were held amid seething anger over an Israeli
airstrike in Gaza City that wounded a number of civilians and drew
international censure but failed to kill a Hamas activist. The resistance
group Hamas vowed more bombings. Matan Vilnai, a member of Israel’s security Cabinet, confirmed
Palestinian reports that the target of the Gaza attack — Hamas commander
Muhammad Deif — was injured but alive after missiles blew up his car on
a crowded street on Thursday. Some 12,000 Palestinians, many screaming for revenge, marched in
funeral processions for the two men through the dusty streets of Khan
Younis in Gaza. Palestinians and their Arab brethren elsewhere in the
Middle East took to the streets to commemorate the anniversary of a revolt
in which at least 1,570 Palestinians have been killed. Tens of thousands of people, some chanting "death to Israel, death
to America", marched through Beirut in a rally organized by the
Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah. "We should rise up to crush
Israel," one banner read. Another Innocent Palestinian's Death Goes
Unnoticed by the Media This week 14-year-old Naji al-Bahesh, a young Palestinian, was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier in Nablus. At the time of his murder, al-Bahesh was acting as a volunteer guide for a four-person delegation of the Grassroots International Protection for Palestinians, with representatives from the United Kingdom, Poland, and Germany. Al-Bahesh, who often acted as such a guide for international organizations, was standing with the delegation a good distance from an Israeli Defense Force patrol when he was shot without provocation. There was no demonstrating or agitation going on nearby. Naji al-Bahesh is one of over 300 Palestinian children who have been killed since the current Intifada began two years ago. Where is the media's moral outrage for this slain child? Poll Shows Serious Middle East Opposition to
U.S. Attack against Iraq Country/Favorable/Unfavorable Sharon Appoints Extremist to High Post
Gore criticizes Bush's handling o civil
liberties US scolds Israel for Gaza raid Khaleej Times, 9/28/02WASHINGTON - The United States yesterday scolded Israel for a rocket attack aimed at a top Palestinian militant in Gaza and renewed its call for the Jewish state to comply with a UN Security Council resolution demanding it halt operations in Ramallah. The rare rebuke of Washington's chief Middle East ally was delivered by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, who decried Israel's attempt on Thursday to kill the Mohammad Deif, a wanted leader of the Hamas military wing, with helicopter-launched missiles in Gaza City. "We are against targetted killings," Mr Boucher told reporters. "We are against the use of heavy weaponry in urban areas, even when it comes to people like Mohammad Deif who have been responsible for the deaths of American citizens," he said. Mr Boucher stressed that the US believed Mr Deif and others who have committed attacks on Israeli civilians should be brought to justice, but said Israel had needlessly endangered innocent lives. "Anyone responsible for terrorism and violence needs to be brought to justice, but operations such as those conducted in Gaza endanger civilian lives and inflame tensions," he said. Earlier yesterday, Israel admitted that Mr Deif survived the attack. - AFP
Six Palestinian teenagers hurt in Israeli gunfire Khaleej Times, 9/28/02GAZA CITY - Six Palestinian teenagers were wounded yesterday, two of them critically, after Israeli soldiers fired at a group of stonethrowers east of Gaza City and Jenin, Palestinian medical and security sources said. The army said it was not responsible for the casualties in an incident which took place near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim. All of the teenagers were hit by live gunfire and one 14-year-old boy was in critical condition after sustaining serious head wounds, the medical sources said. Palestinian security sources said the shooting occurred after a group of around 30 teenagers took to the streets in the Al Muntar area. Meanwhile, two Palestinians were shot and wounded, one seriously, in clashes with the Israeli army yesterday in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian medical sources said. Fighting broke out as more than six Israeli tanks drove through the town, and Palestinian gunmen opened fire, they said. An Israeli armoured force also raided the Gaza Strip town of Deir Al Balahon yesterday and declared a curfew on its residents as troops searched house-to-house in an apparent sweep for militants, witnesses said. - AFP, Reuters
Moroccans vote in polls billed fairest Khaleej Times, 9/28/02RABAT - Moroccans voted yesterday in a general election the government promised would be the fairest ever and which should greatly increase the number of women in parliament. The vote is the first since King Mohammed came to the throne in 1999 and is generally seen as a litmus test of the young monarch's cautious moves towards greater democracy. In a break from tradition in this nation of 30 million, women-only national lists will ensure that at least 30 women become members of parliament, up from only two at present. With an unprecedented media campaign on radio, television and the Internet. the government of socialist Prime Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi has spared no effort to convince Moroccans they should cast their ballot to foster democracy. "Moroccans felt cheated in all past electoral contests," Mr Youssoufi, 78, said on the eve of the polls. "Our aim is to organise real elections, untarnished ones." Turnout in the last parliamentary elections in 1997 was a low 58 per cent amid allegations of vote-buying and fraud. But voter apathy after a dull and short 12-day electoral campaign and disillusionment about a political class seen as corrupt and aloof did not guarantee a higher turnout this time. "I didn't even register, what's in it for me, what change?" said 21-year-old Mohamed Khamri as he sold contraband cigarettes in the narrow alleyways of Rabat. Western-style parliamentary democracy is not entrenched in Morocco where the general perception is that real power lies in the hands of the king and a small group of close advisers. The monarch appoints the prime minister but also traditionally key ministers, such as for defence, foreign affairs and justice, together with top civil servants. But Mr Youssoufi argued the government did govern and parliament did legislate. "It's a two-headed executive power, like in France," he said. King Mohammed, 39, has earned a reputation of a reform-minded, modern monarch with some bold moves that shook the tightly controlled apparatus inherited from his father King Hassan, whose rule lasted for 38 years. He has let prominent exiled political opponents return home, eased censorship and allowed inquiries into past human rights abuses, including the torture and disappearance of hundreds of opponents in the 1960s and 1970s. Diplomats said Morocco was changing, but at its own pace. "Forget Western constitutional monarchies like Spain, comparisons don't apply," an Arab diplomat said. "However, what's happening with these elections is unprecedented in the region," he added. With unemployment officially at 12 per cent - 20 per cent says the opposition - illiteracy at 61 per cent of the electorate and more than five million living under the poverty line, or with the equivalent of $1 a day, Morocco does not lack challenges. Some 14 million voters are registered to elect 325 members of the lower house of parliament for a five-year term. Some 5,873 candidates are representing a record 26 parties. Results are not expected until early today. Political analysts say a single parliamentary majority is unlikely to emerge because of the high number of parties and the fragmentation of power on the crowded political scene. While Mr Youssoufi's Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), which leads a seven-party government coalition, was expected to do reasonably well - it held 57 seats in the outgoing chamber - all eyes were on the religious parties. - Reuters
Iraqi military may use urban warfare: paper Khaleej Times, 9/28/02WASHINGTON - The Iraqi military is likely to respond to a US invasion by trying to lure US troops into high-risk urban warfare, bringing them close to Baghdad and other cities where Iraqi soldiers should be less vulnerable to air strikes, The Washington Post reported yesterday. "They believe they have a tactical advantage in the cities because they can mix with the civilian population," the newspaper quotes an unnamed diplomat as saying. "If soldiers start sniping from apartment buildings filled with people, what can the Americans do? They can't very well blow them up." The paper, which quotes senior government officials and Baghdad-based diplomats, said the strategy appeared to be based on Iraq's experience in the 1991 Gulf War, in which it lost thousands of soldiers in its vast southern desert. The US was then able to inflict heavy casualties on the Iraqi army, which was dug in in the middle of the desert and exposed to air strikes and artillery fire. Now Iraqi officials have indicated they would fight a very different war by shielding their soldiers in cities and trying to draw US forces into high-risk urban warfare, The Post said. "If they want to change the political system in Iraq, they have to come to Baghdad. We will be waiting for them here," the daily quoted Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, a senior member of President Saddam Hussein's cabinet, as saying. Although there has been no visible military buildup on Baghdad's streets in recent weeks, Western military analysts believe there are at least three divisions of the army's Republican Guard stationed in and around Baghdad, the report said. - AFP
Iraq accuses US of seeking to control its oil Khaleej Times, 9/28/02BAGHDAD - Iraq accused the United States on Friday of seeking to control its oil and warned that the Iraqi people will never allow Americans to desecrate their sacred soil. "The aim of the war (Washington is threatening to launch against Iraq) is Iraqi oil," President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday, said on his Youth Television station. Uday said that the US administration would never control Iraqi oil, swearing that the "last barrel of crude in the world will be Iraqi". "If the Americans don't manage to control our crude, it will go to other countries such as Germany, China, Japan or France," he said. Uday warned that a US strike would not target his father alone: "When they (the US) went into Afghanistan, they did not leave any hospital or village without bombing them. "If Uday or Qusay (Saddam's other son) were to die in battle, numerous other men will still be in Iraq" to defend it, he said. Uday added that Iraq would be ready to hold talks with the United States on condition that it respect us and recognise our rights, but if it continues to behave arrogantly, let it come (to fight us) if it can." The official press also charged Washington with seeking to control Iraq's oil wealth. "The United States knows well that Iraq has great oil riches. The US administration thinks that the oil is not the property of the Iraqis or Arabs and that it must have control over it," Al Iraq said. "The United States is seeking to extend its hegemony over the Gulf region to draw a new map of the Arab world and neighbouring countries based on a regional regime supervised by Washington, far from any Iraqi power." Al Iraq warned that the "people of Iraq will allow no foreigner to desecrate Iraqi territory and will oppose all those who dare to soil its sacred land." Ath Thawra, mouthpiece daily of the ruling Baath party, called on the United Nations to "strongly oppose the US administration of evil" and defend Iraq from its threats to oust Saddam by force. - AFP
Spectre of instability terrifies Iraq's neighbours Khaleej Times, 9/28/02BEIRUT - They might loathe him, and would love to see him gone, but Saddam Hussein's neighbours fear his demise could set off a political earthquake far beyond Iraq. The idea of "regime change" haunts each country, from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, in different ways. Their common nightmare is that Iraq could fragment chaotically into ethnic and religious cantons, wreaking havoc on delicate regional balances. Chief among their concerns is that the likely agency of the Iraqi leader's overthrow will be the United States. They fear this will unleash a wave of anti-American hatred and a popular backlash against any government siding with Washington. "The area is passing through a critical time, unprecedented since World War Two, because the United States is raising the flag of changing the world by force and outside of international law," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al Shara said this week. Iran, Syria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have good reasons to be alarmed at the possible repercussions of US President George W Bush's policy of ousting Saddam for allegedly seeking doomsday weapons and mistreating his own people, analysts say. They are concerned that a post-war Iraq might disintegrate. No clear US strategy for a post-Saddam era has emerged and the US-backed Iraqi opposition has little credibility in the region, so Arab states are right to be fraught, analysts say. "I've been in politics for 20 years and I've never felt so worried. It is not because we love Saddam, but if he goes there will be chaos that will spark the break-up of Iraq and God knows what will happen next," a Syrian politician confided. "A big black cloud is hanging over this region. A new Sykes-Picot is under way," he said, recalling the British-French 1916 pact to carve up the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Saudi Arabia's rulers mortally fear any power centre in southern Iraq that could spur dissent. Nato-member Turkey has jitters about any Iraqi Kurdish lunge for independence, fearing this could revive secessionist aspirations among its own restive Kurds in the southeast. "At least the sincerity of the Baghdad administration should have been tested," Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit argued, saying renewed UN arms inspections must be given a chance. "But Mr Bush, for whatever reason, took the road of setting more conditions. The messages coming out have taken on a harsh tone and this is worrying us," said Ecevit. - Reuters
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