Inner Mongolian Human Rights website:
vendredi 16 mai 2008
IX UNPO General Assembly in Brussels 16-17 May 2008 - more photos (Part VI)
Mr. Mario Busdachin, UNPO General Secretary and Dr. Hassan Aydinli 
Iraqi Turkmen delegation at IX UNPO General Assembly in Brussels 17 May 2008 (Part V)
17th May 2008, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel - Brussels From left to right:
Dr. Hassan Tawfiq Aydinli, ITF Europe Represenative
Mr. Attila Kalandar
Mr. Mohammed Khodja, Editor of Turkmen Times
Dr. Sheth Jerjis, President of SOITM
Further reading:
Iraqi Turkmen Statement At the UN WGIP 2005
Wednesday, 17 August 2005
United Nations Economics and Social DevelopmentCommission on Human Rights 23rd Session of Working Group on Indigenous People, July 18 – 22, UN, Switzerland - Geneva
Indigenous peoples and the international and domestic protection of traditional knowledge
Statement written by:
Dr. Sheth Jerjis, Chairman of SOITM, Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation (the Netherlands) and
Dr. Hassan Tawfiq Aydenly, Chairman of CDITR, Committee for the Defence of Iraqi Turkmen Rights (Belgium).
Statement written by:
Dr. Sheth Jerjis, Chairman of SOITM, Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation (the Netherlands) and
Dr. Hassan Tawfiq Aydenly, Chairman of CDITR, Committee for the Defence of Iraqi Turkmen Rights (Belgium).
Read and submitted by Dr. Sheth Jerjis.
Mr. Chairman
Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of the Turkmen of Iraq, I thank you for this opportunity to present the Turkmen cause.
The Turkmen represent the third most important ethnic group in Iraq after the Arabs and Kurds. Unfortunately, they are marginalized and their true representation has always been underestimated for economical and political reasons since the creation of the Iraqi State in 1921. In reality, the Turkmen represent at least 13% of the Iraqi population. Their number is around 3 millions.
Iraqi Turkmen have been exposed to intensive assimilation policies, forced emigration and cultural erosion; this policy reached its peak during the Ba’ath regime;
• Under the 1925 Constitution, the Kurds and the Turkmen had the right to use their own languages in schools, government offices and to have their own language press. But in 1933, the Iraqi authorities began closing Turkmen schools and sent activists into exile.
• In the 1965 census, the proportion of Turkmen was further reduced.
• In the 1973 Interim Constitution no reference was made to the Turkmen population in Iraq.
• In the 1977 census the Ba’athist regime denied the presence of Turkmen in Iraq allowing only Arabs and Kurds to register their nationality, while prohibiting registration as Turkmen. In the 1997 census when the Turkmen were forced to register as a ‘New Arabs’, their number was announced to be negligible.
• In the 1980s dozens of Turkmen villages in Kerkuk, Mosul and Diyala provinces have been destroyed, their inhabitants were forcefully displaced and their agricultural lands and properties were confiscated• In the 1990s the Turkmen were forced to change their nationality.
• In 1990, the existence of the Turkmen as a community was denied and the new Constitution stated that “Iraqi people are Arabs and Kurds only.”
• Turkmen were exposed to torture, imprisonment, displacement and deportation
• The interim constitution, which was written by the Americans in 2004 ‘to democratize Iraq’, included many undemocratic decisions, such as:
o Giving to the Kurdish minority which represents 17% of the Iraqi population, rights equal to those of the Arab majority while ignoring the rights of the Turkmen who represent 13% of the Iraqi population and also ignoring the rights of the Cheldo-Assyrian community, which represents about 5% of the Iraqi population.
o Giving the 3 Kurdish provinces the right to reject any decision made by the Iraqi parliament.
With the help of the Americans the Kurdish political parties and militants managed to change the demography of the Turkmen regions, what Saddam’s regime had not been able to achieve in 35 years.
The American military authorities constituted the city councils in Turkmen regions, which were predominated by the Kurds. The predominantly Kurdish Kerkuk council, elected a Kurdish governor, a Kurdish Mayor and a Kurdish Chief of the Police. Almost all the high official posts were handed to the Kurds. The USA-made Kerkuk administration brought about 500.000 Kurds to settle in Kerkuk city.
The Kurdish threat to the Turkmen of Erbil continues systematically since 1991 as follows:
• The Barazani Kurds, in order to limit the Turkmen presence and restrict their activities in Erbil, have forced the landlords in Erbil who rented their properties to Turkmen political parties and Turkmen organizations to either terminate their contracts or to abusively increase their rents.
• Turkmen political, social and cultural activities have been severely restricted. Conferences and congresses of Turkmen organizations have been prevented to take place out of the organizations’ buildings.
• During campaigns Turkmen are not allowed to hang their boards and flags, except on their buildings and even then they disappear during the night. Almost the same inspection and security methods which were used by the Ba’ath regime are now used Barazani offices. The Turkmen of Erbil feel threatened, they avoid exposure fearing persecution and losing their jobs.. As a result; the Turkmen of Erbil are hesitating to register their children in Turkmen schools, the Turkmen staffs are afraid to talk Turkmen in their offices. Many employees have been dismissed for such reasons.
• In the Turkmen schools and in the education sector, Kurds imposed their will and hegemony by appointing Kurds to the Turkmen education office; these deliberately downgraded the Turkmen education system by ignoring the requirements of the Turkmen students.
• By appointing Kurds who cannot even speak the Turkmen language as directors or head masters to most Turkmen Schools in the regions under their control and by deliberately understaffing the Turkmen schools, they targeted the Turkmen education system in preparation of their Kurdification policies of the Turkmen regions.
• They have imposed the Kurdish language in the Turkmen shools from the first class in primary schools. Turkmen students are forced to sing the Kurdish national anthem, although they have their own Turkmen national anthem which is forbidden and their history teaching books only contain Kurdish History.
• Turkmen newspapers are prevented to be distributed to the bookshops and libraries. Since the late 1990s, the cafés and other public places were prevented by the Barazani security elements to open the Turkmen TV and radio.
• In addition to the economical support from the Western powers and Israel for decades and the huge gains made from customs duties they imposed since 1991 on all imported goods to Iraq via the north of the country, the Kurdish political parties also received a considerable amount of money from the infamous U.N. ‘oil for food program’. Meanwhile, the Turkmen political parties and organizations have received nothing and they were even deprived from their fair share from the ‘oil for food program’.
• The Turkmen are being discriminated, they are seldom appointed in governmental offices or in the university in Erbil, those who want to be appointed must show allegiance to Barazani and support his party’s ideology. For these reasons very few Turkmen have been appointed in governmental offices in the Kurdish region.
The last political attack on the Turkmen of Erbil by the Barazani authorities was carried out on 22 April 2005 and it continues until now. After the agreement between the Barazani security authorities and the head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front office in Erbil, the following Turkmen organizations were occupied by armed militants and the flags of so-called Kurdistan and Kurdish parties were raised on the buildings for several hours:
• Head office of the ITF in Erbil city
• Turkmeneli Television station – almost all the instruments and archives were stolen.
• Turkmeneli radio station
• Turkmeneli Printing House – most of its contents were robbed • All types of publications of Turkmeneli printing house were stopped, such as the bi- weekly Turkmeneli Newspaper.
• Turkmen House
• The building of Turkmen education and culture and the al-Shifa dispensary House were evacuated and their contents were stolen.
Support of the American troops and non presence of the observers and power to resist made the Kurdish politicians and militants to violate freely the rights of the other sections of the Iraqi community. The Kurdish militants in national guards, security services and other armed forces started to arrest arbitrarily, the innocent Turkmen and Arabs and bring them to Kurdish prisons.
Demands
In view of the above stated facts and problems faced by us as a Turkmen in Iraq, I address this assembly on behalf of the Turkmen, requesting your support and asking the UN to intervene in our favor to defend our just cause with the Iraqi authorities. So that finally the 3 million Turkmen obtain full rights equal to those obtained by the Arabs and Kurds and that these rights be clearly stated in the new Iraqi Constitution.
To stop further deterioration of the political, social, and security situation in Iraq and to avoid more bloodshed, more killing of innocent Iraqis and further destruction of the infrastructure of our country we demand the immediate departure of the occupation powers from our country. If needed, we demand the United Nations to send to Iraq peace keeping forces for a limited period of time and from neutral countries who did not participate in any of the wars against Iraq since 17th January 1991.
The Turkmen believe in a true democracy and demand the establishment of a TRUE DEMOCRACY in a FREE and UNITED Iraq. They want to be a part of this FREE and UNITED Iraq, and refuse to be ‘a part of a part’ of divided “federal” Iraq’.
But if a federal system is accepted by the majority of the Iraqi people, then the Turkmen should be given the right to govern their own federal region where they constitute a majority.
Since all the Iraqi census was designed to serve state policy and the last election was mainly to serve the occupation authorities and the Kurds, we demand that the upcoming census and/or upcoming election be achieved totally by the United Nations and the international community.
We demand that the Kurdish administration be prevented from interfering in the election and census processes in the Turkmen region and security should no longer be exclusively in the hands of the Kurdish militants but should be provided by neutral police force from Central and Southern Iraq.
To safeguard the unity of Iraq, the sole official language should be Arabic since Arabs constitute the majority of the Iraqi people. However, as the Temporary Administrative Law has given the Kurdish language the status of second official language in Iraq while the Kurds represent a minority of no more than 17% of the Iraqi population, we Turkmen who are the third ethnic community in Iraq representing 13% of the total Iraqi population, demand that the Turkish language be considered as the third official language in Iraq along with Arabic and Kurdish.
We also demand a fair representation of the Turkmen in the Commission charged with the writing of the new constitution in order to safeguard our constitutional rights.
We demand with insistence that the Kurdification processes be stopped and that the hundreds of thousands of Kurdish immigrants who were brought to Kerkuk, Tuz Khurmatu, Daquq and other Turkmen cities be returned to Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyya where they came from.
We also demand that the thousands of Kurds who were brought by the two Kurdish parties KDP and PUK, after April 2003, to take positions and jobs in Kerkuk and other Turkmen regions, with the objective of imposing their policy of ‘fait accompli’ to Kurdify the Turkmen region, be returned to where they came from.
We demand that the Kerkuk Council be dissolved and that the Kurdish governor, Kurdish mayor, Kurdish police chief be dismissed and that these high positions be fairly shared between the three main communities in Kerkuk: Turkmen, Kurds and Arabs.
We demand that the international community be engaged directly to stop oppression, marginalization and assimilation of the Turkmen of Erbil.
We demand that the Kurdish militias be disbanded and disarmed and that they leave the Turkmen region.
I thank you for your interest and attention.
Turkic Peoples' representatives at the ALDE-UNPO Conference on 16 May 2008 at the EU Parliament in Brussels (Part IV)
Iraqi Turkmens, Southern Azerbaijan, East Turkestan and Crimean Tatars Representatives
From left to right:
Dr. Hassan Aydinli, ITF Europe Representative
Mrs Rebiya Kadeer, President of the World Uyghur Congress
Mr. Eltkin Alptekin (Uyghur) UNPO Honorary President
Southern Azerbaijan and Iraqi Turkmens Representatives
Southern Azerbaidjan, Uighur (East Turkestan) and Iraqi Turkmen RepresentativesALDE - UNPO Conference at the EU Parliament in Brussels on 16 May 2008 (Part III)
Photo: Starting from the left:
The Representative of the Hmong people in her beautiful traditional costume
Rebiya Kadeer, 'Spiritual Mother of the Uyghur people'
Merry Fitzgerald, Europe-Iraqi Turkmens Friendships
Dr. Hassan Tawiq Aydinli, Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) Europe Representative
Rebiya Kadeer, 'Spiritual Mother of the Uyghur people'
Merry Fitzgerald, Europe-Iraqi Turkmens Friendships
Dr. Hassan Tawiq Aydinli, Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) Europe Representative
REBIYA KADEER
President of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC)
Uyghur Human Rights Activist and former Prisoner of Conscience
Please also see post on East Turkestan:
Rebiya Kadeer was born on 15th November 1947, she is married and has eleven children, she is:
President of the World Uyghur Congress, Munich, Germany
President of the Uyghur American Association, Washington DC, USA
She has been nominated twice, in 2006 and 2007, for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her advocacy efforts on behalf of the Uyghur people
She was awarded the prestigious Rafto Award while in prison, on September 23rd 2004, by the Norwegion human rights group the Rafto Foundation.
She was awarded the Human Rights Watch 'Human Rights Award' in 2000.
For more on the Uyghur people (East Turkestan) please click on the link below:
Dr. Hassan AYDINLI, ITF Europe Representative attended the ALDE-UNPO Conference at the EU Parliament on 16 May 2008 (Part II)
الدكتور حسن آيدنلي ممثل الجبهة التركمانية العراقية لدى الاتحاد الأوربي يشترك في المؤتمر العام التاسع لمنظمه الأمم و الشعوب الغير الممثلة ( يو. ان. بي . او) الذي انعقد في بروكسل من 15 إلى 18 مايس 2008
تلبيه لدعوه تلقاها من منظمه الأمم و الشعوب الغير الممثله ( يو. ان. بي . او) اشترك الدكتور حسن آيدنلي ممثل الجبهة التركمانية العراقية لدى الاتحاد الأوربي في أشغال المؤتمر العام التاسع لهذه المنظمه الذي انعقد في بروكسل من 15 إلى 18 مايس 2008 ضمن وفد تركماني ضم أيضا كل من الساده محمد قوجا رئيس تحرير صحيفة تركمن تايمز ، شيت جرجيس رئيس منظمه حقوق الإنسان لتركمان العراق و السيد أتيلا قلمدار
وفي الجلسه الثانيه للمؤتمر التي انعقدت يوم الجمعه 16 مايس 2008 في قاعه البرلمان الاوربي في بروكسل ألقى الدكتور حسن آيدنلي ممثل الجبهة التركمانية العراقيه لدى الاتحاد الاوربي كلمه باسم تركمان العراق تطرق فيها الى معانات الشعب التركماني في العراق منذ تاسيس الدوله العراقيه في 1921 الى هذا اليوم وشجب جميع السياسات القمعيه
و العنصريه وكذلك التهميشيه التي طبقت من قبل مختلف السلطات العراقيه في كلا العهدين الملكي و الجمهوري ضد تركمان العراق الذين يشكلون القوميه الاساسيه الثالثه المكونه لشعب العراق و الذين لهم تاريخ طويل وحضاره عريقه قي هذا البلد مركزا بالاخص على المعانات و المظالم التي يعاني منها تركمان العراق منذ ثورة 14 تموز 1958 نتيجة الاظطهاد و التمييز العنصري ضدهم و كنتيجة لسياسة التعريب التي طبقتها النظام السابق في المناطق التركمانية
في محافظات كركوك و ديالى و صلاح الدين و نينوى و كذلك المعانات و المظالم التي يعاني منها تركمان محافظة اربيل منذ اعلان قرار الحكم الذاتي لاكراد العراق في 1970 الناتجه من سياسة التهميش و التكريد التي تطبقتها السلطات الكرديه في هذه المحافظه منذ ذلك الوقت
و أضاف قائلا
ربما لازال البعض يضن خطأ بان الامور قد تحسنت في العراق بعد الغزو الانكلو – الامريكي في مارس 2003 الذي أطاح بالنظام واحتل البلاد ثم مهد الطريق الى اجراء انتخابات برلمانبه أدعي انها كانت ديمقراطيه نزيهه و سلم السلطه الى الفائزين في هذه الانتخابات و الذين حدث ان جلهم كانوا من المتعاونين مع سلطات الاحتلال و المؤيدين لقوات الغزو ثم باشر في كتابة دستور جديد للبلاد أدعي انه عادل و عصري ، وبان السلطه في العراق قد باشر في تطبيق الديمقراطيه و ان الشعب العراقي بجميع مركباته و بينهم تركمان العراق بدؤا العيش هنيئا في جو ديمقراطي حر
للاسف الشديد لا شيئ من هذا القبيل قد تحقق لنا في العراق لان الاحتلال الاجنبي مستمر لبلادنا وإن تبدل اسمها من قوات الاحتلال الى قوات متعدد الجنسيات ولان الانتخابات تخللتها التجاوزات و عمها الغش لصالح الاحزاب التي كانت لها مليشيات مسلحه تدعمها و ان الدستورالجديد لم يكن عادلا و لا عصريا حيث فرق بين العراقيين و قسمهم الى قسمين او الى نوعيين من المواطنيين معتبرا عرب و اكراد العراق وحدهما كمواطنين من الدرجه الاولى وعنصريين اساسيين في تشكيل الشعب العراقي اما التركمان فقد اهملهم الدستور الجديد واعتبرهم مجرد اقليه في العراق ومع حقوق اقل من الحقوق المعترفه الى العرب و الاكراد . أي جعلهم مواطنين من الدرجه الثانيه قي العراق
كما ان الدستور الجديد تضمن فقرات او مواد خلافيه كالماده 140 في شأن مستقبل كركوك ومصطلحات غريبه كمصطلح الاراضي المتنازع عليها الذي يستعمل عادة لتحديد اماكن النزاع بين الدول المتنازعه و لا يليق ان يدخل ضمن فقرات دستور البلد الواحد
هذه بعض الادله على استمرار تهميش التركمان في العراق من قبل العرب و الاكراد المشاركين في الحكم و هناك
مصادر قلق اخرى للتركمان في العراق منذ الاحتلال حيث سمحت قوات الاحتلال المليشيات الكرديه الى الدخول في المناطق التركمانيه و السيطره على المدن التركمانيه ابتداء من مدينه كركوك و التحكم في مقدراتها و التلاعب في تركيباتها السكانيه باستيراد مئات الالاف من الكرد اليها لتكريدها تمهيدا لفرض الامر الواقع وضمها الى منطقة الحكم الذاتي
تركمان العراق شعب مسالم ، أحزابهم السياسيه تؤمن في مبادئ الديمقراطيه و تطبقها، تنبذ العنف و ليست لديها اية تنظيمات او ميليشيات مسلحه على خلاف الاحزاب العربيه و الكرديه المهيمنه على الساحه السياسيه قي العراق الان و التي حولت العراق الى يلد يعمه الفوضى بمساعدة قوات الاحتلال وبتوجيه منها حيث اصبح الشعار لدى هذه القوى البقاء للاقوى و القوي هو ذلك الذي يملك السلاح وله ميليشيات و الاقوى هو ذلك الذي يملك اكثر عدد من هذه الاسلحه و الميليشيات
لذا وقي هذه الظروف المعاشه في العراق اليوم أصبح صعبا جدا على التركمان الاحتفاظ على حقوقهم او المطالبه بحقوق إضافية إسوة الى العرب و الاكراد
نحن ندعوا الى تعديل الدستور العراقي الجديد كي يعترف الدستور المعدل على جميع حقوقنا المشروعه و يساوي التركمان مع العرب و الاكراد في الحقوق وكذلك لازالة جميع المواد و الفقرات أو المصطلحات الخلافيه منه
نحن نطالب السلطات العراقيه التحرك السريع لارجاع املاك و اراضي التركمان التي استوليت عليها في العهدين السابق و الحالي الى أصحابها الشرعيين وتعويضيهم تعويضيا عادلا لما خسروا جراء الاستيلاء على هذه الاملاك
نحن نسعى الى قيام جمهوريه عراقيه مستقله، ديمقراطيه و تعدديه و نتوجه بنداء عاجل الى منظمه الأمم و الشعوب الغير
الممثله ( يو. ان. بي . او) و الى الاتحاد الاوربي و كذلك الى الامم المتحده و كل الخييرين في العالم كي يساعدونا في تحقيق مسعانا هذا
أشكركم جدا
أشكركم جدا
Iraqi Turkmens attended the ALDE- UNPO Conference in Brussels on 16-17 May 2008 (Part I)
From left to right: Dr. Hassan AYDINLI, Iraqi Turkmen Front Europe Representative
Mr. Attila KALANDAR
Mr. Mohammed KHOJA, Editor of Turkmen Times
Dr. Sheth JERJIS, President of SOITM
ALDE Conference in partnership with Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization and Nonviolent Radical PartyIX UNPO General Assembly
16-17 May 2008
Brussels, Belgium
16 May 2008 Session at the European Parliament
Chair: Ledum Mitee Esq. , President, UNPO General Assembly
Mr. Marino Busdachin, UNPO General Secretary
Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, President, World Uyghur Congress (WUC)
Mr. Marco Cappato, Member of European Parliament, ALDE Group
Venerable U. Uttara, Secretary General of Sasan Moli-International Burmese Monks Org.
Mr. Marco Perduca, Senator of the Italian Parliament
Mr. Michael van Walt van Praag, Executive President, Kreddha
About the UNPO:
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is an international, nonviolent, and democratic membership organization. Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognized or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments, and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them.
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is an international, nonviolent, and democratic membership organization. Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognized or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments, and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them.
Although the aspirations of UNPO Members differ greatly, they are all united by one shared condition - they are not adequately represented at major international fora, such as the United Nations.
As a consequence, their opportunity to participate on the international stage is significantly limited, as is their ability to access and draw upon the support of the global bodies mandated to defend their rights, protect their environments, and mitigate the effects of conflict.
In today's world where over 90 percent of conflicts are intra-state, UNPO has been established to fill this gap, proficing an internaitonal forum through which its Members can become effective participants and contributors to the international community.
The UNPO was founded in 1991 at the Peace Palace in The Hague (the Netherlands).
The Iraqi Turkmens are Members of the UNPO (*)
Dr. Hassan AYDINLI, ITF Europe Representative
Mrs. Merry FITZGERALD, Europe-Iraqi Turkmens Friendships
Please see article published in TURKMEN TIMES
by Mr. Mohammed KHOJA (in Arabic):
and
UNPO Declaration: Opening the World Order to De facto States
Limits and Potentialities of de facto states in the International Context
15 May 2008
European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
On 15 May 2008, UNPO hosted the conference "Opening the World Order to De facto States" in the European Parliament, Brussels.
Attendees at the conference included Graham Watson, Member of the European Parliament and Chairman of the ALDE Group, Marco Panella, Member of the European Parliament and Leader of the Nonviolent Radical Party, Michael Kau, Representative of Taiwan to the European Union and Belgium, Maxim Gunjia, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia, Mohamoud Daar, Representative of the Republic of Somaliland to the European Union, Scott Pegg, Associate Professor, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Marino Busdachin, Secretary General, UNPO.
Below is the text of the UNPO Declaration on De facto States, prepared in consultation with the de facto states representatives and speakers present at the conference:
Declaration
Recognising that beyond the confines of the world’s internationally recognised State borders exist entities without official recognition as States, yet who possess many or all of the traditional empirical criteria for statehood and sometimes even function as States in international fora.
Recognising that these de facto states may have their own democratically elected government, political system, laws, judiciary, police force, defence force, currency, foreign representation, or all of the above, independent of any officially recognised State in whose (claimed or sovereign) territory they may lie.
Recognising that many sovereign States are not in favour of opening up the World Order to de facto states.
UNPO has convened this conference, not to address whether or not these entities should be independent and sovereign, which is a very complex and controversial matter, but to deal with the reality that these pockets of the world do exist and function, to varying degrees, as states, and the practical implications of this fact.
This conference will show that, without full access to the World Order, both the peoples of these de facto states and the international community at large suffer. We suffer in terms of trade and investment, international security, health, safety and the prosecution of transnational, international and domestic crime. Negligence towards de facto states harms human rights and human dignity.
On a domestic level, examples of this suffering can be seen in the obvious consequences to the commercial sector of the de facto state lacking an internationally recognised central bank, the health of the peoples of the de facto state suffering because, for example, the de facto state entity is denied access to the World Health Organisation, or their safety being jeopardised by the de facto state airline having to conduct its air traffic controlling from a neighbouring State.
On an international level, the practical implications of the restricted access of de facto states to the World Order are more profound still. Obviously, whilst the very same domestic concerns mentioned can have wide-ranging international consequences, in a globalised world, the dangers created by the legal voids that these areas represent in international security and crime should be of grave concern to all State governments.
This conference, then, brings together officials from unrecognised governments with the main aim of creating and sustaining permanent mechanisms of involvement and consultation of unrecognised state entities in the international community, for the benefit not only of the peoples of these de facto states, but for the international community at large.
It is the sincere hope of UNPO that following on from this conference, a series of consultations between de facto states and between de facto and sovereign States can begin.
Office of the General Secretary
P. O. Box 85878 - 2508 CN The Hague - The Netherlands
Tel: +31(0)70 3646 504 - Fax: +31 (0)70 3646 608 - unpo@unpo.org
jeudi 15 mai 2008
Celebrating 60 Years of Israel's Terror
By Ghali Hassan
15 May, 2008 Countercurrents.org
15 May, 2008 Countercurrents.org
May 14, 2008: As the U.S. and other Western governments began celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary of colonisation in Palestine, little attention is given to the unimaginable suffering of the Palestinian people. Instead Israel’s daily terror against the Palestinians has been normalised as a relief of guilt feelings.
Few years before the establishment of Israel, Western governments, including Australia, Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Canada and the U.S. were opposed to the returning of displaced Jews and refugees to their countries of origin except to Palestine. In order to increase the number of Jews there, persecuted Jews were given one choice; migrate to Palestine or be killed by the Nazis. Yitzchak Greenbaum (head of the Rescue Committee for European Jewry) told a meeting in Tel Aviv in February 1943 that; “[T]he redemption of the land [Palestine]” must take precedence over “the rescue of the masses of Jews in Europe”. He added: “The more said about the slaughter of our people, the greater the minimization of our efforts to strengthen and promote the Hebraization [ethnic cleansing] of the land”.
Western governments took this opportunity not only to “get rid” of their own Jews but also knowingly participated in the “Nazi Holocaust” and later in the Palestinian al-Nakba or “the Catastrophe”, the deliberate and systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land.
In 1947, Western powers voted (at the UN) to endorse the partition of historic Palestine. The Palestinians, who compromised two thirds of the settled population, were allotted 44 per cent of Palestine while the recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Europe, who comprised one third of the population, were allotted 56 per cent of Palestine. (See the Links for detail).
The motives behind Western deliberate hypocrisy were – as usual – “humanitarian”; to “help” persecuted Jewish refugees and displaced persons. But as former Pakistan’s representative to the UN, the late Sir Mohammed Zafrullah Khan, told the UN General Assembly on 28 November 1947: “One has observed that those who talk of humanitarian principles, and can afford to do most, have done the least at their own expense to alleviate this problem [the persecution of Jews]. But they are ready – indeed, they are anxious – to be most generous at the expense of the Arabs” of Palestine.
It is important to remember that while most Western countries opposed to the return of Jewish refugees and displaced persons to their countries of origin, they declined to allow persecuted Jews to settle in the West. “Australia, an over-populated small country with congested areas, says no, no, no; Canada, equally congested and over-populated, says no; the United States, a great humanitarian country, a small area, with small resources, says no. That is their contribution to the humanitarian principles. But they state: let them go into Palestine, where there are vast areas, a large economy and no trouble; they can easily be taken in there”, stated Zafrullah Khan. (See Link for the Plenary Meeting).
After the establishment of the state of Israel on 14 May 1948, Zionist Jews (led by David Ben-Gurion), supported by mostly Western powers, adopted Nazi policy and practice (Plan D or Dalet) to establish a “Jewish State” on all of historic Palestine with the judgement that Nazi policy is the only policy to guide the Zionists to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population and wipe out their nation.
In a systematic campaign of terror, reminiscent to the November 1938 pogroms that terrorised Germany’s Jewish community, Jewish terrorist organisations, such as the Haganah, Stern Gang, the Irgun and the Night Death Squads - armed and financed by the British -, embarked on a deliberate and uncontrolled orgy of burning, beating and killing Palestinians. Overnight, the Palestinians became victims of the “Nazi Holocaust”.
Some 800,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and driven into exile. As Zionists planted the myths of “land without a people for a people without a land” and “Jews are God's chosen people”, Palestinians were dehumanised and considered as Untermenschen (sub- humans). Thousands of Palestinian civilians were massacred by Jewish terrorists in cold blood.
Palestinians were murdered for no reason except for being Palestinians. More than 530 villages and a dozen of urban neighbourhoods throughout Palestine were destroyed. Plan Dalet was “a detailed description of the methods to be used to forcibly evict the people: large-scale intimidation; and laying siege to and bombarding population centres”, writes Ilan Pappe, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Cambridge University Press, 2006). To this day, Palestinians continue their legitimate struggle against Israel’s deliberate and systematic policies of genocide.
Sixty years on, the state of Israel has given the world the Palestinian Nakba, the killing of Palestinian children for sport, the targeted assassinations of innocent Palestinians, the Apartheid Wall, and house demolition. Israel has given the world the most racist state in modern history, characterised by laws for Jews and discriminatory laws for none-Jews. Israel has given the world Zionist Jews who appropriating the Nazi Holocaust for shameful ends and too often tried to tar any legitimate criticism of Israel with the cliché of “anti-Semitism”. Israel has also given the world war criminals such as David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barack, Shimon Peres, and Isaac Shamir, to mention just a few achievements.
Meanwhile, Western journalist, academics and pundits, function as complicit propagandists spreading anti-Arabs/anti Muslims sentiments. They argue that Israel is a “success” story and Israelis ought to be “proud of their achievements”. Of course, these achievements are fabricated fictions. Israel is a transferred entity erected on the ruins of Palestinian homes and villages in flagrant violation of international law and civilised norms. Without the massive and unconditional American-European financial, military and political support, Israel would not come into being.
In addition, Western media saturation ensured that Israel’ Nazi-like policies and a fabricated image of Israel as a “democratic” and “peace-loving” nation would be firmly implanted in the minds of the American-Western publics. From the Hollywood Entertainment Industry to CNN and the New York Times to Murdoch media to the British BBC and the Internet, a global propaganda is working tirelessly defending and legitimising Israelo-fascism in the Middle East. But measured by its history of violent actions and state-sponsored terrorism rather than its fabricated image, Israel is a terrorist state with abhorrent racist policies.
Through constant vilification of Muslims and Arabs, Western propaganda is exonerating Israel and covering-up for Israel’s oppression and war crimes against the Palestinian people. In this sense, Western anti-Semitism has come full cycle: from the victimisation of Jews to the dehumanisation and victimisation of the Palestinians.
The recent display of arrogance by Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who claimed that Palestinian legitimate resistance to Israel’s terror amounts to “anti-Semitism”, is just an abhorrent case in point.
Sixty years on, Palestinians continue to live under unimaginable suffering while the rest of the world is manipulated by opportunist politicians and Zionists-controlled media to look the other way.
In his recent visit to Gaza, former president of the U.S., Jimmy Carter observes: “The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world by sea, air, or land. An entire population is being brutally punished”. Carter rightly calls Israel an Apartheid state, and concludes: “[T]he world must not stand idle while innocent people are treated cruelly. It is time for strong voices in Europe, the US, Israel, and elsewhere to speak out and condemn this human rights tragedy among the Palestinian people”. (Daily Star, Egypt, 06 May 2008).
As a result of exposing some of Israel’s war crimes, Carter was vilified and accused of “anti-Semitism” by pro-Israel Zion-fascists such as Alan Dershowitz and Daniel Pipes.
Furthermore, Richard Falk, Professor of International Law at Princeton University, rightly compares Israeli crimes in Palestine to those of the Nazis and reminds the Western World of “the famous post-Nazi pledge of ‘never again’”. The leading Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz, argued that Israeli leaders are using Gaza collective punishment as a human experiment to test the affect of starvation on innocent civilians, a reminder of Nazis’ policy in Auschwitz.
Condoned by major Western governments, particularly the U.S. and Britain, Israel’s terror against the Palestinians has not only increased, but also normalised in “Western Conscience”. Violence has become Israel’s preferred policy. Any just peaceful settlement with the Palestinians is rejected out of hand, even when many Israelis are in favour of peace. More often, Israel initiates violence to justify greater violence and destruction, and in order to occupy more Arab land.
Today, Israel is rightly seen by the majority of people around the world as the greatest threat to world peace; a terrorist state.
As Western governments began to congratulate Israel, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights issued a report on Sunday revealing that Israeli soldiers killed 69 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in April. Among the killed residents were 20 children and 16 women. The Centre reported that soldiers carried 30 invasions into the Gaza Strip in April and kidnapped 127 Palestinians, including 17 who are still in detention. Soldiers also bulldozed 372 Dunams (one Dunam is 1,000 square meters) of agricultural land and demolished 15 homes. In the West Bank and Jerusalem, Palestinians are enduring Israel’s brutal military occupation, characterised by a system of total military control.
In March 2008, under massive Israeli military aggression on Gaza, the Israeli army killed 130 Palestinians, a third of them were children and 12 women, and caused massive destruction to civilian homes. In an attempt to desensitize world opinion, murdering Palestinians has become a daily occurrence and normalised. More often, when Israelis murdered Palestinian children, Israeli and Western propagandists blamed the victims, always depicted as “militants”, for “accidentally setting off explosive in their backpacks”.
Furthermore, at least 11,000 Palestinians, including women and 350 children, are incarcerated in Israeli prisons, many of them without charge. They are subjected to Israel’s daily criminal abuses of human rights, including sadistic torture sanctioned by Israel’s Supreme Court. They remain isolated and deliberately ignored by Israel’s friends and allies in the West.
No matter where they are, in Gaza or the West Bank, Palestinians are living under Israeli torturous prison conditions.
The ongoing building of the illegal Apartheid Wall, which is annexing 20 per cent of the Occupied West Bank, illegal Jewish colonies (settlements) and the construction of Jewish-only roads on private Palestinian land in the West Bank have isolated Palestinians from each other and pushed Palestinians into destitute ghettos. Moreover, the proliferation of more than 500 Israeli check-points and the presence of large number of illegal and heavily armed extremist Jewish settlers subjected the Palestinians to permanent state of terror and brutal system of control.
Today, more than ever, the right of Palestinians to a viable Palestinian state has been made impossible. The so-called two-state solution – the chewing gum of Western politicians and pundits –, is dead “because Israel has destroyed the physical and political possibilities of building a coherent state for the Palestinian people” to return to, wrote Joel Kovel.
Despite all oft hat, Israel has failed to wipe out the Palestinians and their aspirations. The only option left (for Palestinians and Jews) is a single democratic state with equal rights for all citizens, irrespective of religion and ethnicity.
While Western governments celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary of colonisation of Palestine, Palestinians are commemorating 60 years of ongoing Israel’s terror and dispossession. Unless a just peaceful solution is found to end the suffering of the Palestinian people, Western governments will continue to live with the burden of guilt they had perpetuated.
Ghali Hassan is an independent writer living in Australia.
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)
