Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Don't Israel's nuclear weapons count?
Netanyahu has what he wants to keep up the idea of his plucky, vulnerable little state
Influential Europeans – including many Muslims – recently debated freedom of expression with the Danish editor who commissioned the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed which led to riots. Held in Berlin, it was a good, at times blazing, debate.
Freedom of expression, we were given to understand, is one of the valves in Europe's heart that must remain open to keep our continent alive and healthy. In good faith I exercise that freedom in this column. Let us see if readers and interest groups will support my right to write what follows even if they violently disagree with my observations.
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From past experience I bet many will find that impossibly hard. They will denounce me as an enemy within, a rule-breaker of unspoken rules, bringing up stuff that must be left buried in the name of peace and justice. I see no reason to comply. This week shows us how such doublethink and doublespeak pulls the world towards Armageddon.
Leaders of the rich nations have turned their fire on Iran, quite rightly. On Friday came news that the Islamic Republic had been building a secret uranium enrichment plant near Qom. Then the junta fired test missiles, to prove that the bearded ones have really big willies. Unlike Iraq under Saddam, there are, in Iran, nuclear developments that could lead to weapons of mass destruction. It is not an immediate but a future danger, say credible intelligence experts and indeed Barack Obama himself.
Suddenly the president has got uncharacteristically belligerent, instructing Iran to open up all its nuclear facilities for inspection if it wants to avoid "a path that is going to lead us to confrontation". In May, Obama stood in Washington with the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu, who we were told was there to seek assurances that there would be no shift from the conventional US position of total and unconditional support for Israel's policies right or wrong, known and clandestine.
On Thursday the US, China, Britain, France, Russia and Germany meet in Geneva and, by that time, Iran will be expected to submit to international scrutiny. As a supporter of the now crushed and broken reformers in Iran, I back the ultimatum to the fanatic and bellicose Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But what about that camel in the room? The one we all see but can't point out? What about the only power in the Middle East, also fanatic and aggressive, which has a vast stockpile of weapons enough to obliterate the region? Listen people, we need to talk about Israel. And soon. Like now.
I have been in contact with a young Iranian woman who wore a green scarf and lipstick on the streets of Tehran, whose uncle is currently being tortured in prison there for demonstrating against the results of the election. Somehow she escaped from the country and is in Britain briefly before going on to the US to make a new life. Let us call her M.
Nobody could hate Ahmadinejad more than M; she hates the whole regime, the treacherous leaders who betrayed the people. When she speaks she often gets asthmatic. But yet, but yet, she finds her passions rising for her country this week because of fears of military strikes by Israel and the manifestly unfair way that Israel is indulged. "I will go back if they attack my country, even if they put me to jail," M says. "That is my duty. Israel is the enemy of peace and America gives them money to get more arms. I don't want Iran to have these terrible weapons, but Israel must also be stopped."
The big powers are moving tentatively towards global de-nuclearisation, taking small but significant steps to show they do want everyone to pitch in. Obama's decision to shelve the European defence missile programme shows serious intent, so too Gordon Brown's announcement that Britain would cut down from four to three its Trident missile-carrying submarines. There was a moment this spring, albeit fleeting, when Rose Gottemoeller, an assistant secretary of state and Washington's chief nuclear arms negotiator, asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, thus breaking the 40-year-old silence and US complicity in its accumulated, un-inspected arsenal. Her reasonable appeal provoked apoplexy in a nation that assumes special, indeed exceptional, treatment.
In the 1960s, Israel successfully hid its weapons from US inspectors. In 1986, Israeli nuclear technical assistant Mordechai Vanunu revealed information about the concealed stockpiles and has been punished ever since. Hubristic Israel no longer cares to deny that it has hundreds of atom and hydrogen bombs and devastating biological "tools". Netanyahu has been warning he will destroy the Iranian sites if his country feels the danger is real. Now he has just what he wanted – another crisis in the Middle East, to keep up the idea of plucky, vulnerable, endangered little Israel.
Alarmingly, even the liberal Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz is on side. History has made too many Israelis fear all humanity in perpetuity and that fear brings out the worst in that nation. It has predictably rejected the long, sober, unbiased UN report on the last assault on Gaza chaired by Richard Goldstone. He accused Hamas of crimes against Jewish civilians and charged Israel with grave crimes, the breaking of the Geneva convention, punishing and terrorising unarmed civilians.
I have some images of these victims sent to me by a Jewish pro-Palestinian activist. Children turned to ash, blistered mothers weeping, and on and on. There still is no respite for the hungry and dying in Gaza. If Israel can mete out such treatment and not be called to account, just think what the state feels entitled to do to Iran.
The Israeli human rights activist Gideon Spiro bravely asks that his country be subject to the same rules as Iran and all others in the Middle East: "Rein in Israel, compel it to accept a regime of nuclear disarmament and oblige it to open all nuclear, biological and chemical facilities and missile sites to international inspection." The US has leverage because it maintains and funds Israel. If Obama shies away from this, there can be no moral justification to go for Iran or North Korea or any other rogue state. And the leader whose election and dreams gave hope to millions thereby hastens the end of the world.
y.alibhaibrown@independent.co.uk
More from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Cities of the dead
Cities of the dead
On Aug 6, 1945, “Little Boy”, a uranium bomb, devastated Hiroshima. On Aug 9, a plutonium bomb destroyed Nagasaki. On ground zero, thousands of people were vaporised in the blinding flash of heat and thermal radiation.
Khor Eng Lee
AFTER the nuking of Hiroshima, the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin also wanted the atomic bomb. In 1945, only the United States had the A-bombs – a handful of them. By the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, the US had about 27,000 nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union about 3,000 – each of them many times more powerful than the first generation nukes.
The first two shots of nuclear firepower in WWII unfolded “the opening chapter to the possible annihilation of mankind”, to quote the Japanese study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
When “Little Boy” exploded at 8.15:17 on Aug 6, 1945, about 1,800ft over the heart of Hiroshima, the city had more than 280,000 civilians (about 100,000 were evacuated earlier) and about 43,000 soldiers. According to official statistics, 70,000 died in August (most of them on the day of the bombing). A total of 140,000 died by the end of 1945, and the number of the dead rose to 200,000 by the end of the fifth year.
Of 76,000 buildings in Hiroshima, 70,000 were damaged or destroyed. The official Japanese study reported that “the whole city was ruined instantaneously.”
On the morning of the day after the atomic holocaust, a German Jesuit priest recalled: “The bright day now reveals the frightful pictures which last night’s darkness had partly concealed. Where the city stood, everything as far as the eye could reach is a waste of ashes and ruin. Only several skeletons of buildings completely burned out in the interior remain. The banks of the rivers are covered with the dead and wounded, and the rising waters have here and there covered some of the corpses.
“On the broad street in the Hakushima district, naked, burned cadavers are particularly numerous. Among them are the wounded who are still alive. A few have crawled under the burned-out autos and trams. Frightfully injured forms beckon to us and then collapse ... ”
Dr Michihiklo Hachiya, director of Hiroshima Communications Hospital, recorded in the diary (published in 1955): “The streets were deserted except for the dead. Some looked as if they had been frozen to death while still in the full action of flight; others lay sprawled as though some giant had flung them to their death from great heights ...
“Nothing remained except a few buildings of reinforced concrete … For acres and acres the city was like a desert except for scattered piles of bricks and roof tile. I had to revise my meaning of the word destruction or choose some other word to describe what I saw. Devastation may be a better word, but really, I know of no word or words to describe the view.”
According to the history professor interviewed by American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, two decades after the atomic bombing: “I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared … I was shocked by the sight … What I felt then and still feel now I just can’t explain with words. Of course I saw many dreadful scenes after that – but that experience, looking down and finding nothing left of Hiroshima was so shocking that I simply can’t express what I felt … Hiroshima didn’t exist – that was mainly what I saw – Hiroshima just didn’t exist ...”
In Nagasaki, “Fat Man” exploded with an estimated force of 22 kilotons about 1,800ft above the city at 11.02am on Aug 9, 1945. The surrounding steep hills confined and tempered the impact of the atomic explosion, and protected the city from the full force of the blast, radiant heat, and nuclear radiation.
About 40,000 people died within a month of the bombing, and 70,000 by the end of 1945. A total of 140,000 died in the first five years.
A Japanese news agency reported: “Nagasaki is now a dead city, all areas have been razed. Only a few buildings are left, standing conspicuously among the ashes.”
On Aug 10, Strategic Air Force commander Carl Spaatz proposed targeting America’s third atomic bomb on Tokyo (what Truman had ruled out about a month earlier after the Trinity test).
Preparations were being made to deliver and drop another plutonium bomb on Japan by mid-August.
On the morning of Aug 10, Truman received Japan’s acknowledged acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration calling for its surrender. The president then gave orders to halt further atomic bombing, but not the detonation of conventional explosives. Henry Wallace, secretary of commerce, noted in his diary: “… He (Truman) said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible. He didn’t like the idea of killing, as he said, ‘all those kids’ …”
On Aug 13, Truman ordered the Air Force to resume area incendiary attacks. Six kilotons of high explosive and incendiary bombs destroyed half of Kumagaya and a sixth of Isezaki, killing several thousand more Japanese on the eve of Japan’s unconditional surrender on Aug 15.
Henry Simson, US secretary of war, reflected: “The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to the Japanese war. It stopped the fire raids, and the strangling blockade; it ended the ghastly spectre of a clash of great land armies (in an invasion of Japan) ... ”
“In this last great action of the Second World War we were given the final proof that war is death …”
To Winston Churchill, England’s wartime prime minister, it was “a miracle of deliverance” as well as “a manifestation of overwhelming power at the cost of a few explosions”.
Admiral William Leahy, Truman’s chief of staff at the White House, described the A-bomb as “this barbarous weapon” and questioned the morality of its use at Hiroshima and Nagasaki: “My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the dark ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion and wars cannot be won (morally) by destroying women and children …”
On the military significance of the A-bomb, Carson Mark, Canadian theoretical physicist with the Los Alamos laboratory (who subsequently led the theoretical work on America’s first full-fledged hydrogen bomb has written: “The toll of death and injury of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – appalling as it was – was not the most meaningful measure of the significance of the new weapon. In the massive fire-bomb raid of Tokyo on March 8 (9 in Japan), 1945, for example the Japanese suffered more fatalities (over 100,000) than at Hiroshima. But the attack on Tokyo engaged a fleet of many hundreds of bombers (334 B-29s dropping over 2,000 tons of incendiaries) for many hours (a six-hour orgy of intensive bombing). The awesome difference was that damage on this scale could be inflicted by a single bomb carried in a single plane.”
Philip Morrison, a nuclear physicist who flew with the “Fat Man” mission to Nagasaki and observed its destructive power from the air, and who subsequently walked through the ruins of Hiroshima wrote in 1946: “The bomb is a weapon; the most deadly and terrible weapon yet devised. Against any city in the world from New York and London to the hundreds of large towns like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the bomb is a threat.
“In any of man’s cities a strike from a single atomic bomb will claim some hundred thousand deaths and some square miles of blackened ruin…”
And, looking ahead (what could possibly transpire with the development of thousands of nuclear weapons one and a half to two decades after Hiroshima), he wrote: “And the bombs, if they come again, will not come in ones or twos, but in hundreds or thousands. Their coming will wreck not cities, but whole nations.”
TOMORROW: “Joe One” sparks nuclear arms race.
On Aug 6, 1945, “Little Boy”, a uranium bomb, devastated Hiroshima. On Aug 9, a plutonium bomb destroyed Nagasaki. On ground zero, thousands of people were vaporised in the blinding flash of heat and thermal radiation.
Khor Eng Lee
AFTER the nuking of Hiroshima, the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin also wanted the atomic bomb. In 1945, only the United States had the A-bombs – a handful of them. By the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, the US had about 27,000 nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union about 3,000 – each of them many times more powerful than the first generation nukes.
The first two shots of nuclear firepower in WWII unfolded “the opening chapter to the possible annihilation of mankind”, to quote the Japanese study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
When “Little Boy” exploded at 8.15:17 on Aug 6, 1945, about 1,800ft over the heart of Hiroshima, the city had more than 280,000 civilians (about 100,000 were evacuated earlier) and about 43,000 soldiers. According to official statistics, 70,000 died in August (most of them on the day of the bombing). A total of 140,000 died by the end of 1945, and the number of the dead rose to 200,000 by the end of the fifth year.
Of 76,000 buildings in Hiroshima, 70,000 were damaged or destroyed. The official Japanese study reported that “the whole city was ruined instantaneously.”
On the morning of the day after the atomic holocaust, a German Jesuit priest recalled: “The bright day now reveals the frightful pictures which last night’s darkness had partly concealed. Where the city stood, everything as far as the eye could reach is a waste of ashes and ruin. Only several skeletons of buildings completely burned out in the interior remain. The banks of the rivers are covered with the dead and wounded, and the rising waters have here and there covered some of the corpses.
“On the broad street in the Hakushima district, naked, burned cadavers are particularly numerous. Among them are the wounded who are still alive. A few have crawled under the burned-out autos and trams. Frightfully injured forms beckon to us and then collapse ... ”
Dr Michihiklo Hachiya, director of Hiroshima Communications Hospital, recorded in the diary (published in 1955): “The streets were deserted except for the dead. Some looked as if they had been frozen to death while still in the full action of flight; others lay sprawled as though some giant had flung them to their death from great heights ...
“Nothing remained except a few buildings of reinforced concrete … For acres and acres the city was like a desert except for scattered piles of bricks and roof tile. I had to revise my meaning of the word destruction or choose some other word to describe what I saw. Devastation may be a better word, but really, I know of no word or words to describe the view.”
According to the history professor interviewed by American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, two decades after the atomic bombing: “I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared … I was shocked by the sight … What I felt then and still feel now I just can’t explain with words. Of course I saw many dreadful scenes after that – but that experience, looking down and finding nothing left of Hiroshima was so shocking that I simply can’t express what I felt … Hiroshima didn’t exist – that was mainly what I saw – Hiroshima just didn’t exist ...”
In Nagasaki, “Fat Man” exploded with an estimated force of 22 kilotons about 1,800ft above the city at 11.02am on Aug 9, 1945. The surrounding steep hills confined and tempered the impact of the atomic explosion, and protected the city from the full force of the blast, radiant heat, and nuclear radiation.
About 40,000 people died within a month of the bombing, and 70,000 by the end of 1945. A total of 140,000 died in the first five years.
A Japanese news agency reported: “Nagasaki is now a dead city, all areas have been razed. Only a few buildings are left, standing conspicuously among the ashes.”
On Aug 10, Strategic Air Force commander Carl Spaatz proposed targeting America’s third atomic bomb on Tokyo (what Truman had ruled out about a month earlier after the Trinity test).
Preparations were being made to deliver and drop another plutonium bomb on Japan by mid-August.
On the morning of Aug 10, Truman received Japan’s acknowledged acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration calling for its surrender. The president then gave orders to halt further atomic bombing, but not the detonation of conventional explosives. Henry Wallace, secretary of commerce, noted in his diary: “… He (Truman) said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible. He didn’t like the idea of killing, as he said, ‘all those kids’ …”
On Aug 13, Truman ordered the Air Force to resume area incendiary attacks. Six kilotons of high explosive and incendiary bombs destroyed half of Kumagaya and a sixth of Isezaki, killing several thousand more Japanese on the eve of Japan’s unconditional surrender on Aug 15.
Henry Simson, US secretary of war, reflected: “The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to the Japanese war. It stopped the fire raids, and the strangling blockade; it ended the ghastly spectre of a clash of great land armies (in an invasion of Japan) ... ”
“In this last great action of the Second World War we were given the final proof that war is death …”
To Winston Churchill, England’s wartime prime minister, it was “a miracle of deliverance” as well as “a manifestation of overwhelming power at the cost of a few explosions”.
Admiral William Leahy, Truman’s chief of staff at the White House, described the A-bomb as “this barbarous weapon” and questioned the morality of its use at Hiroshima and Nagasaki: “My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the dark ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion and wars cannot be won (morally) by destroying women and children …”
On the military significance of the A-bomb, Carson Mark, Canadian theoretical physicist with the Los Alamos laboratory (who subsequently led the theoretical work on America’s first full-fledged hydrogen bomb has written: “The toll of death and injury of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – appalling as it was – was not the most meaningful measure of the significance of the new weapon. In the massive fire-bomb raid of Tokyo on March 8 (9 in Japan), 1945, for example the Japanese suffered more fatalities (over 100,000) than at Hiroshima. But the attack on Tokyo engaged a fleet of many hundreds of bombers (334 B-29s dropping over 2,000 tons of incendiaries) for many hours (a six-hour orgy of intensive bombing). The awesome difference was that damage on this scale could be inflicted by a single bomb carried in a single plane.”
Philip Morrison, a nuclear physicist who flew with the “Fat Man” mission to Nagasaki and observed its destructive power from the air, and who subsequently walked through the ruins of Hiroshima wrote in 1946: “The bomb is a weapon; the most deadly and terrible weapon yet devised. Against any city in the world from New York and London to the hundreds of large towns like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the bomb is a threat.
“In any of man’s cities a strike from a single atomic bomb will claim some hundred thousand deaths and some square miles of blackened ruin…”
And, looking ahead (what could possibly transpire with the development of thousands of nuclear weapons one and a half to two decades after Hiroshima), he wrote: “And the bombs, if they come again, will not come in ones or twos, but in hundreds or thousands. Their coming will wreck not cities, but whole nations.”
TOMORROW: “Joe One” sparks nuclear arms race.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The business of tracking torture
The business of tracking torture
Elizabeth John
FIVE feet of firm resolve and feisty conversation, Alice Verghese is used to the "uh?" of confusion that always follows her job description.
The petite mother of one has a hard time convincing folk that it is indeed her job to make sure victims of torture get the help they need.
That is her job: to find the doctors and psychologists for groups around the world who rehabilitate survivors of torture.
Tougher still is getting people to believe that torture doesn't just happen in far flung countries in the iron grip of despotic regimes.
That is, torture takes place in fully functioning democracies around the world when dialogue breaks down and laws fail to protect.
Verghese works for the International Rehabilitation Council for Victims of Torture based in Copenhagen.
She is the programme coordinator for the Asia and Pacific region and provides guidance and training for a network of independent torture-rehab centres in Asia.
The people who come to these independent rehab centres are usually the poor, with little access to power or legal aid and lack knowledge of their rights.
They know nothing of having the right to a lawyer and medical attention while under detention.
They do not know that they must be told the reason for their detention and they cannot be held in a secret place.
In many places, the power disparity between the police and the average man is so vast that no one dares question an arrest or detention, says Verghese, who had just returned from a visit to several centres in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
"If police pick up someone in a small village, will the family be brave enough to make a complaint?"
From years of dealing with these victims and from the testimonies, Verghese finds that many victims are just ordinary people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"In some countries, innocent people are getting caught up in between a country's military and the freedom fighters or rebels.
"If you are seen to be supporting the freedom fighters, the army moves in to intimidate."
Verghese adds that this is a common situation in conflict areas such as Sri Lanka and Mindanao.
While torture is often carried out to extract a confession, more and more the group is seeing cases of torture carried out simply to intimidate.
No one knows just how many victims of torture there are. Like human trafficking, no one keeps count.
Part of the problem also is that victims often never come forward, says Verghese, who recently completed research on torture under a Reagan-Fascell Democracy fellowship in the United States.
"Many victims think it is their fault, a result of something bad they did in their past life. Or they feel guilty because they were initially picked up for some petty crime.
"The aim of torture is to dehumanise people and they do it very successfully, attaching a stigma to the victim."
Even if a victim turns up at a busy village health post, an overworked doctor may miss the symptoms that are often psychosomatic -- headaches and depression.
They may not conclude that these are signs of torture while the victims stay silent out of fear -- after all, a government doctor is part of the structure that allowed the torture to take place.
Most victims are referred to the rehab centres by doctors, friends who had been there, or by other non-governmental organisations they may have approached.
These independent rehab centres carry out a medical diagnosis and verify the testimonies.
Some victims need medical help; for instance, they have been tied up for a long time and cannot use their arms.
A rape victim who has been thrown out of the family because of the stigma of shame will need help finding a house and a job.
Very often, recurring nightmares make torture victims dysfunctional within their families. Some turn to the bottle for comfort and end up losing their jobs.
The independent groups under the council's umbrella provide treatment for physical and psychological problems that will help victims get back n their feet and function in society.
The help available in each country differs. Some can only offer the services or social services while others can also provide legal aid.
The council helps train doctors and multi-disciplinary teams that will deal with victims.
They source experts for specific duties, like when Guatemala needed to exhume bodies and have them examined by forensic pathologists.
They also mobilise funding to pay for the training and expert help.
"There's really very little money available to help victims traumatised by torture. This is probably the bottom of the hierarchy of medical needs," says Verghese.
Right now the council is reliant on funds from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Torture Victims and USAID's Victims of Torture Fund.
If a lack of funding isn't enough of a problem, safety is, too.
Staff at some of these centres are often monitored, followed and sometimes repeatedly arrested.
Verghese tells of one centre in Zimbabwe where staff must download their clients' files and take them home at the end of each working day to ensure the safety of the victims.
So what keeps them in the job?
"It's a sense of 'How could this happen in this day and age?'" she says.
"How could it be that in Somalia, a refugee camp with 130,000 people has a makeshift hospital with a single operation theatre while on the other side of the world, there's a mile-long isle in the supermarket just for detergents?"
Elizabeth John
FIVE feet of firm resolve and feisty conversation, Alice Verghese is used to the "uh?" of confusion that always follows her job description.
The petite mother of one has a hard time convincing folk that it is indeed her job to make sure victims of torture get the help they need.
That is her job: to find the doctors and psychologists for groups around the world who rehabilitate survivors of torture.
Tougher still is getting people to believe that torture doesn't just happen in far flung countries in the iron grip of despotic regimes.
That is, torture takes place in fully functioning democracies around the world when dialogue breaks down and laws fail to protect.
Verghese works for the International Rehabilitation Council for Victims of Torture based in Copenhagen.
She is the programme coordinator for the Asia and Pacific region and provides guidance and training for a network of independent torture-rehab centres in Asia.
The people who come to these independent rehab centres are usually the poor, with little access to power or legal aid and lack knowledge of their rights.
They know nothing of having the right to a lawyer and medical attention while under detention.
They do not know that they must be told the reason for their detention and they cannot be held in a secret place.
In many places, the power disparity between the police and the average man is so vast that no one dares question an arrest or detention, says Verghese, who had just returned from a visit to several centres in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
"If police pick up someone in a small village, will the family be brave enough to make a complaint?"
From years of dealing with these victims and from the testimonies, Verghese finds that many victims are just ordinary people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"In some countries, innocent people are getting caught up in between a country's military and the freedom fighters or rebels.
"If you are seen to be supporting the freedom fighters, the army moves in to intimidate."
Verghese adds that this is a common situation in conflict areas such as Sri Lanka and Mindanao.
While torture is often carried out to extract a confession, more and more the group is seeing cases of torture carried out simply to intimidate.
No one knows just how many victims of torture there are. Like human trafficking, no one keeps count.
Part of the problem also is that victims often never come forward, says Verghese, who recently completed research on torture under a Reagan-Fascell Democracy fellowship in the United States.
"Many victims think it is their fault, a result of something bad they did in their past life. Or they feel guilty because they were initially picked up for some petty crime.
"The aim of torture is to dehumanise people and they do it very successfully, attaching a stigma to the victim."
Even if a victim turns up at a busy village health post, an overworked doctor may miss the symptoms that are often psychosomatic -- headaches and depression.
They may not conclude that these are signs of torture while the victims stay silent out of fear -- after all, a government doctor is part of the structure that allowed the torture to take place.
Most victims are referred to the rehab centres by doctors, friends who had been there, or by other non-governmental organisations they may have approached.
These independent rehab centres carry out a medical diagnosis and verify the testimonies.
Some victims need medical help; for instance, they have been tied up for a long time and cannot use their arms.
A rape victim who has been thrown out of the family because of the stigma of shame will need help finding a house and a job.
Very often, recurring nightmares make torture victims dysfunctional within their families. Some turn to the bottle for comfort and end up losing their jobs.
The independent groups under the council's umbrella provide treatment for physical and psychological problems that will help victims get back n their feet and function in society.
The help available in each country differs. Some can only offer the services or social services while others can also provide legal aid.
The council helps train doctors and multi-disciplinary teams that will deal with victims.
They source experts for specific duties, like when Guatemala needed to exhume bodies and have them examined by forensic pathologists.
They also mobilise funding to pay for the training and expert help.
"There's really very little money available to help victims traumatised by torture. This is probably the bottom of the hierarchy of medical needs," says Verghese.
Right now the council is reliant on funds from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Torture Victims and USAID's Victims of Torture Fund.
If a lack of funding isn't enough of a problem, safety is, too.
Staff at some of these centres are often monitored, followed and sometimes repeatedly arrested.
Verghese tells of one centre in Zimbabwe where staff must download their clients' files and take them home at the end of each working day to ensure the safety of the victims.
So what keeps them in the job?
"It's a sense of 'How could this happen in this day and age?'" she says.
"How could it be that in Somalia, a refugee camp with 130,000 people has a makeshift hospital with a single operation theatre while on the other side of the world, there's a mile-long isle in the supermarket just for detergents?"
Pameran amal Palestin di BSLN
ARKIB : 22/02/2009
Pameran amal Palestin di BSLN
Oleh SY MUSSADDAD MAHDI
Foto RASHID MAHFOF
Hati mana yang tidak sedih melihat peperangan yang berlaku di Palestin. Hati pasti sayu melihat tangisan, ratapan sedih dan penderitaan yang menimpa masyarakat di sana.
Terpanggil dengan itu, Balai Seni Lukis Negara (BSLN) bersama Malayisan Social Research Institut (MSRI) dan RA Fine Arts Gallery menganjurkan Pameran Amal Palestin.
Tujuan utama pameran amal itu untuk mendapatkan sumbangan bagi menyalurkan bantuan kepada rakyat Palestin yang mengalami penderitaan akibat pencabulan hak asasi manusia oleh tentera Israel.
Pameran yang dirasmikan oleh Pengarah Urusan Mosaique Communication Sdn. Bhd., Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir turut dihadiri oleh Duta Besar Palestin di Malaysia, Abdel Aziz Aboughoush, Penasihat Program Amal Palestin 2009, Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal dan Pengarah Perkhidmatan Pameran BSLN Zanita Anuar.
Turut hadir Sasterawan Negara, Datuk A. Samad Said. Pengarah RA Fine Arts Gallery, Raja Ahmad Aminullah dan Pengarah Eskekutif MSRI, Lia Syed.
Kerjasama yang diadakan ini dibuat atas urutan daripada tiga siri pameran lukisan oleh pelukis Palestin, Rouhaifa Qassim dan kanak-kanak dari Kem Nahr al-Bared di Lubnan bersama pelukis Malaysia yang diadakan di Galeri RA, Kuala Lumpur pada tahun 2007. Ia juga susulan daripada pameran Tabah Dalam Derita dan Pameran Palestin di Pasar Seni Annex pada tahun 2008.
Pameran dan jualan karya di BLSN diadakan hingga akhir Februari ini. Sebanyak 421 karya dipamerkan dan daripada 235 penyertaan.
Antara nama-nama besar pelukis yang turut terlibat dalam pameran ini termasuklah Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal, Awang Damit, Fuad Osman, Ismail Kadir, Datuk Raja Zahabudin, Zuzila Zain, Arif Fauzan, Tajudin Ismail dan Sulaiman Esa.
Karya yang dihasilkan dalam pelbagai medium seperti catan minyak, cat air, akrilik, pastel dan arca juga turut dipamerkan kali ini. Harga jualan bermula dari RM200 hingga RM200,000 dan 60 peratus daripada hasil jualan lukisan akan disumbangkan kepada rakyat Palestin melalui MSRI dan 40 peratus diserahkan kepada pelukis.
Selain itu, bazar seni iaitu Gaza Bazar turut diadakan setiap Sabtu sempena pameran tersebut di perkarangan BSLN mulai pukul 10 pagi hingga 8 malam.
Program ini turut disokong dengan aktiviti Grafiti oleh kumpulan Grafiti Malaysia seperti They Art Studio, The Super Sunday, Phobia Klik, PW Krew dan banyak lagi. Utusan Malaysia menjadi akhbar rasmi pameran ini.
l Sokongan orang muda
Pemilik RA Arts Gallery, Raja Ahmad Aminullah berkata, beliau gembira kerana turut sama terlibat dalam pameran kali ini dan paling membanggakan apabila ia dapat dilaksanakan dalam masa yang singkat.
"Semua ini hasil kecekapan BSLN dan para seniman sendiri yang prihatin dan sudi untuk turut serta bersama-sama menyokong pameran amal ini.
"Mungkin isu Palestin ini sudah tidak sehangat dahulu kerana media sudah memainkan isu lain pada masa kini. Tetapi kita tidak pernah melupakan mereka di Palestin dan niat kita untuk membantu dengan cara begini.
"Paling membanggakan apabila melihat banyak karya-karya pelukis muda yang turut dipamerkan kali ini. Ini menunjukkan bahawa kita masih ramai pelukis generasi baru yang akan menyambung usaha ini," jelas Raja Ahmad.
Baginya, sebanyak mana jumlah kutipan nanti bukan menjadi masalah kerana apa yang paling penting ialah untuk membantu mereka yang berada jauh di bumi Palestin.
"Bukan tujuan kita membuat pameran amal ini untuk mengambil kesempatan tetapi kita mahu memberi kesedaran kepada orang ramai untuk sama-sama datang ke sini dan melihat sendiri hasil karya pelukis-pelukis tempatan," katanya lagi.
Menurut Raja Ahmad, pameran-pameran sebegini sering dianjurkan oleh seniman sejak tahun 1960-an lagi dan pihaknya akan terus menyambung tradisi ini pada masa akan datang.
Pameran amal Palestin di BSLN
Oleh SY MUSSADDAD MAHDI
Foto RASHID MAHFOF
Hati mana yang tidak sedih melihat peperangan yang berlaku di Palestin. Hati pasti sayu melihat tangisan, ratapan sedih dan penderitaan yang menimpa masyarakat di sana.
Terpanggil dengan itu, Balai Seni Lukis Negara (BSLN) bersama Malayisan Social Research Institut (MSRI) dan RA Fine Arts Gallery menganjurkan Pameran Amal Palestin.
Tujuan utama pameran amal itu untuk mendapatkan sumbangan bagi menyalurkan bantuan kepada rakyat Palestin yang mengalami penderitaan akibat pencabulan hak asasi manusia oleh tentera Israel.
Pameran yang dirasmikan oleh Pengarah Urusan Mosaique Communication Sdn. Bhd., Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir turut dihadiri oleh Duta Besar Palestin di Malaysia, Abdel Aziz Aboughoush, Penasihat Program Amal Palestin 2009, Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal dan Pengarah Perkhidmatan Pameran BSLN Zanita Anuar.
Turut hadir Sasterawan Negara, Datuk A. Samad Said. Pengarah RA Fine Arts Gallery, Raja Ahmad Aminullah dan Pengarah Eskekutif MSRI, Lia Syed.
Kerjasama yang diadakan ini dibuat atas urutan daripada tiga siri pameran lukisan oleh pelukis Palestin, Rouhaifa Qassim dan kanak-kanak dari Kem Nahr al-Bared di Lubnan bersama pelukis Malaysia yang diadakan di Galeri RA, Kuala Lumpur pada tahun 2007. Ia juga susulan daripada pameran Tabah Dalam Derita dan Pameran Palestin di Pasar Seni Annex pada tahun 2008.
Pameran dan jualan karya di BLSN diadakan hingga akhir Februari ini. Sebanyak 421 karya dipamerkan dan daripada 235 penyertaan.
Antara nama-nama besar pelukis yang turut terlibat dalam pameran ini termasuklah Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal, Awang Damit, Fuad Osman, Ismail Kadir, Datuk Raja Zahabudin, Zuzila Zain, Arif Fauzan, Tajudin Ismail dan Sulaiman Esa.
Karya yang dihasilkan dalam pelbagai medium seperti catan minyak, cat air, akrilik, pastel dan arca juga turut dipamerkan kali ini. Harga jualan bermula dari RM200 hingga RM200,000 dan 60 peratus daripada hasil jualan lukisan akan disumbangkan kepada rakyat Palestin melalui MSRI dan 40 peratus diserahkan kepada pelukis.
Selain itu, bazar seni iaitu Gaza Bazar turut diadakan setiap Sabtu sempena pameran tersebut di perkarangan BSLN mulai pukul 10 pagi hingga 8 malam.
Program ini turut disokong dengan aktiviti Grafiti oleh kumpulan Grafiti Malaysia seperti They Art Studio, The Super Sunday, Phobia Klik, PW Krew dan banyak lagi. Utusan Malaysia menjadi akhbar rasmi pameran ini.
l Sokongan orang muda
Pemilik RA Arts Gallery, Raja Ahmad Aminullah berkata, beliau gembira kerana turut sama terlibat dalam pameran kali ini dan paling membanggakan apabila ia dapat dilaksanakan dalam masa yang singkat.
"Semua ini hasil kecekapan BSLN dan para seniman sendiri yang prihatin dan sudi untuk turut serta bersama-sama menyokong pameran amal ini.
"Mungkin isu Palestin ini sudah tidak sehangat dahulu kerana media sudah memainkan isu lain pada masa kini. Tetapi kita tidak pernah melupakan mereka di Palestin dan niat kita untuk membantu dengan cara begini.
"Paling membanggakan apabila melihat banyak karya-karya pelukis muda yang turut dipamerkan kali ini. Ini menunjukkan bahawa kita masih ramai pelukis generasi baru yang akan menyambung usaha ini," jelas Raja Ahmad.
Baginya, sebanyak mana jumlah kutipan nanti bukan menjadi masalah kerana apa yang paling penting ialah untuk membantu mereka yang berada jauh di bumi Palestin.
"Bukan tujuan kita membuat pameran amal ini untuk mengambil kesempatan tetapi kita mahu memberi kesedaran kepada orang ramai untuk sama-sama datang ke sini dan melihat sendiri hasil karya pelukis-pelukis tempatan," katanya lagi.
Menurut Raja Ahmad, pameran-pameran sebegini sering dianjurkan oleh seniman sejak tahun 1960-an lagi dan pihaknya akan terus menyambung tradisi ini pada masa akan datang.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Putar belit fakta sejarah
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Putar belit fakta sejarah
Jurang maklumat dan putar belit fakta berlaku dalam mata pelajaran sejarah di sekolah-sekolah semasa penjajahan dulu. Lalu para pelajar diberitahu: Orang Yunani adalah wira dan orang Parsi adalah bajingan. Dalam perpustakaan di sekolah terdapat buku-buku mengenai empayar Rome, tetapi tiada satu mengenai Persepolis.
Demikian juga berlaku dewasa ini melalui sesetengah jurusan media massa akhbar, televisyen dan Internet. Di samping itu terdapat ulasan berat sebelah oleh yang dipanggil “bloggers.” Akhirnya persepsi lebih penting dari keadaan sebenar. Demikian berlaku terhadap Iran setelah menjadi Republik Islam pada 1 April 1979.
Maka pada minggu lalu seorang lagi pemimpin Iran mengunjungi Malaysia dan dengan itu menyambung lawatan sebelumnya oleh Presiden Rafsanjani, Presiden Khatami dan Presiden Ahmadinejad. Pelawat tersebut, Dr. Ali Akhbar Velayati telah menjadi Menteri Luar selama 16 tahun dan kini menjadi penasihat kepada pemimpin utama Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Dalam satu ucapan kemudiannya beliau berbicara atas tajuk Mencari Kedamaian di Timur Tengah: Dari Perspektif Iran. Seperti diketahui pertelingkahan muncul bersabit rancangan nuklearnya dan pihak lawan menuduh Iran sedang berusaha secara sulit untuk mengadakan senjata nuklear.
Secara kebetulan pada minggu lalu juga bekas Presiden Carter menyebut mengenai Israel mempunyai kira-kira 150 bom nuklear di samping Amerika dan Rusia memiliki lebih 10,000 senjata nuklear. Lain-lain negara yang punyai senjata nuklear: Britain, Perancis, India, Pakistan, China.
Kehilangan
Pada hakikatnya kelahiran Republik Islam di Iran bererti Amerika telah kehilangan rakan sekutu yang penting di Timur Tengah. Pelbagai persoalan diajukan manakala Iraq semasa pimpinan Presiden Saddam Hussein menyerang Iran dan perang berlarutan selama lapan tahun hingga 1988.
Bagi warga Malaysia yang kesempatan mengunjungi Iran salah satu bandar terpenting ialah Isfahan. Antara lain ialah kerana Isfahan telah diisytiharkan sebagai “twin city” Kuala Lumpur. Pertanyaan: Apa berlaku berikutan langkah tersebut? Satu rombongan yang diketuai oleh Datuk Bandar Iran, Hamid Reza Azimien telah pun melawat Kuala Lumpur. Dari Kuala Lumpur pula?
Isfahan yang lahir pada abad keempat bukan saja terkenal kerana pelbagai masjidnya yang indah tetapi juga kerana industri-industri besi waja dan penapis minyak, umpamanya, kompleks kilang- kilang besi waja yang mempunyai kira-kira 30,000 pekerja. Ia dibina semasa dulu oleh para jurutera Kesatuan Soviet dan diperbaharui oleh para jurutera Jepun selepas Revolusi Iran.
Antara tempat penginapan yang terpilih ialah Hotel Kowsar. Nama diambil dari surah Al-Kowsar. Adakalanya pelawat dibawa selepas solat maghrib ke tanah perkuburan yang diberi nama “Taman Bunga Pengorbanan Syahid.” Kerana, dikebumikan di situ ialah beribu perajurit Iran yang mati dalam perang selama lapan tahun dengan Iraq dan yang menjadi pejuang revolusi, terhadap pemerintahan Shah Iran. Lampu-lampu seperti di jalan raya dipasang dan kelihatan saudara mara menyiram air dan membaca ayat-ayat suci.
Pada batu-batu nisan terdapat gambar-gambar yang mati di medan perang. Suasana sunyi sepi, ketenangan dan kesentosaan menyelubungi segalanya.
Peminat suka pula dapat menyaksikan pertandingan gusti ala-Iran. Turut sama beberapa orang berumur 60 tahun lebih bersenam dengan kayu belantan selama dua jam sambil diiringi juruhebah yang memukul gendang dan juga melafaz selawat nabi.
Bagi para peminat sastera pula termasuk di kalangan dunia Barat ialah puisi oleh Omar Khayyam. Antara yang sering disebut ialah puisi “mari minum wine dan seterusnya bergembira.” Tetapi bagi warga Iran sendiri yang diminati ialah puisi oleh Firdousi yang telah menulis 60,000 rangkap puisi selama 30 tahun, berjudul Shah Nameh. Antaranya ialah yang berbunyi:
“Jika dunia mendedah segalanya permulaan dan akhirnya pasti menunjukkan raja-raja di suatu pihak dan darah para hulubalang di sampingnya demikian dunia yang fana ini.”
Pada beberapa waktu lampau berlaku gerakan oleh Parti Tudeh yang komunis di Iran tetapi ia tidak berjaya mendapat sokongan rakyat. Dicatat kemudiannya ialah sikap Imam Khomeni menolak faham komunis sebagaimana ia menentang penjajahan. Beliau meninggal dunia pada 3 Jun 1989. Dipilih menggantikannya ialah Ayatollah Ali Khamenie. Roda sejarah terus berputar. Iran antara negara Islam yang menewaskan ideologi bikinan manusia.
Penulis ialah konsultan
kanan ISIS Malaysia. Pandangan penulis adalah pendapat peribadi dan tidak ada kena-mengena dengan ISIS.
Posted by TheBorhann at 3:27 AM 0 comments
Labels: Putar belit fakta sejarah
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Palestine Issue
Menanti negara Palestin
Merayakan “ulang tahun Israel yang ke-60” bererti menari di atas kubur orang-orang Palestin dengan iringan berlarutan lagu perampasan dan ketidakadilan pelbagai sudut. Demikian dicatat dalam sebuah iklan yang terbit dalam akhbar International Herald Tribune keluaran 10-11 Mei lalu.
Iklan seumpamanya tidak pernah tersiar sebelum ini. Ia diberi tajuk: 60 years of Palestinian dispossession... No reason to celebrate Israel at 60!
Ia ditandatangani oleh para penulis, ahli-ahli falsafah, wartawan, ahli muzik, pembikin filem dan lainlain lagi dari Britain, Brazil, Israel, Afrika Selatan, Australia, Amerika, Mesir, Sepanyol, Belgium, Ireland, Lebanon dan Palestin.
Iklan bermula dengan kata-kata oleh mendiang Profesor Edward Said ketika dahulu mengulas perayaan “ulang tahun Israel ke-50” di Amerika pada tahun 1998. Beliau menulis, antara lain: “Walaupun telah 50 tahun hidup dalam pembuangan dari Palestin, namun saya masih terperanjat menyaksikan Israel dan para penyokongnya terus memadamkan hakikat bahawa 50 tahun telah berlalu tanpa gantirugi oleh Israel, pengiktirafan dan pengakuan olehnya mengenai hak-hak asasi manusia Palestin. Nakba Palestin...” Nakba bererti malapetaka.
Iklan selanjutnya menyatakan: “Israel pada umur 60 tahun adalah sebuah negara yang masih menafikan hak-hak asasi warga Palestin yang telah diluluskan oleh Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu semata-mata kerana mereka non-Jews. Ia masih secara haram menduduki bumi Palestin dan lain-lain negara Arab, yakni mencabul pelbagai resolusi Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu. Ia masih melakukan diskriminasi ke atas warga Palestinnya sendiri.”
Wujud
Seperti ternyata sambutan ulang tahun ke-60 itu telah pun dilaporkan oleh media massa. Sementara itu juga Setiausaha Negara Amerika, Condoleezza Rice, ketika kesekian kali mengunjungi Timur Tengah, terus menyatakan harapan bahawa negara Palestin akan wujud sebelum tamat pentadbiran Presiden Bush pada akhir tahun 2008.
Namun, tanda tanya terus muncul apakan hal itu akan berlaku hasil rundingan-rundingan damai di antara Israel dan pejuang-pejuang Palestin. Majalah Economist, London dalam satu laporan terbaru menyebut mengenai The Wandering Palestinian. Telah pun disebut oleh akhbar Barat ialah kedudukan ketika ini:
l Gaza dikuasai oleh golongan Hamas sejak memenangi pilihan raya tahun 2006. Jumlah penduduk 1.5 juta. Pengangguran 33 peratus. Bilangan penduduk yang miskin 51 peratus.
l Tebing Barat dikuasai oleh golongan Fatah pimpinan Presiden Mahmoud Abbas. Jumlah penduduk 2.5 juta. Pengangguran 19 peratus. Bilangan penduduk yang miskin 24 peratus. Dalam pada itu 160 perkampungan penduduk Israel telah diadakan di Tebing Barat dan bilangan penduduknya meningkat dari 150,000 hingga 250,000 orang.
Menurut laporan baru-baru ini, Presiden Mahmoud Abbas telah berkunjung ke Washington mengenai rancangan Israel untuk menambah lagi bilangan perkampungan Israel di Tebing Barat. Persoalannya: Betapa rundingan- rundingan damai boleh diteruskan jika ini terus berlaku? Beliau dilaporkan kembali tanpa menerima jawapan memuaskan mengenainya.
Dalam interviu televisyen di Tebing Barat kemudiannya Condoleezza Rice menjawab pertanyaan wartawan: Perkampungan Israel di Tebing Barat memang problematical.
Laporan mengenai begitu ramainya warga Palestin terpaksa lari, dihalau dan merantau mencari perlindungan di negara-negara Arab lain mencatat sebuah kisah sedih seorang bernama Lana Bydas, lulusan American University di Kaherah. Beliau terpaksa menunggu selama 18 bulan untuk mendapat surat izin bermastautin dan terpaksa berulang- alik ke Syria, sebanyak 18 kali kerana ia hanya mempunyai visa pelancong. Lalu ia mengadu hal kepada seorang sahabat yang kemudian menjawab: can’t you just stop being Palestinian?
Mungkinkah kerana persoalan-persoalan seumpama maka pada minggu lalu juga tersiar makalah bertajuk Perjanjian Damai Timur Tengah Mustahil.
Di samping itu ialah kenyataan Hillary Clinton, salah seorang calon Parti Demokrat yang ingin menjadi Presiden Amerika dalam pilihan raya presiden bulan November nanti. Beliau memberi amaran bahawa Amerika boleh “meranapkan” Iran jika ia menggunakan senjata nuklear ke atas Israel. Selama ini Iran dianggap penyokong Hamas.
Catatan kaki: Antara yang menandatangani iklan dalam akhbar International Herald Tribune, Tariq Ali (penulis, UK), John Berger (penulis UK), Augusta Boal (penulis Brazil), Ella Shohar (penulis Amerika/Israel), Andre Brink (penulis Afrika Selatan), Aharon Shabtai (penulis puisi, Israel), Judith Butler (ahli falsafah, Amerika), Vicenzo Consolo (penulis Itali).
Tom Leonard (penulis puisi, Scotland), Antony Loewenstein (penulis Australia), Patrice Nganang (penulis Cameroon), Demis Roussos (penyanyi Greece), Naomi Wallace (penulis Amerika), Tom Lanoya (penulis Belgium), Radwa Ashour (penulis Mesir), Victoria Brittain (penulis UK), Caryl Churchill (penulis UK) Elias Khoury (penulis Lebanon).
Penulis ialah konsultan
kanan ISIS Malaysia. Pandangan penulis adalah pendapat peribadi dan tidak ada kena-mengena dengan ISIS.
Posted by TheBorhann at 3:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: Palestine Issue
Putar belit fakta sejarah
Jurang maklumat dan putar belit fakta berlaku dalam mata pelajaran sejarah di sekolah-sekolah semasa penjajahan dulu. Lalu para pelajar diberitahu: Orang Yunani adalah wira dan orang Parsi adalah bajingan. Dalam perpustakaan di sekolah terdapat buku-buku mengenai empayar Rome, tetapi tiada satu mengenai Persepolis.
Demikian juga berlaku dewasa ini melalui sesetengah jurusan media massa akhbar, televisyen dan Internet. Di samping itu terdapat ulasan berat sebelah oleh yang dipanggil “bloggers.” Akhirnya persepsi lebih penting dari keadaan sebenar. Demikian berlaku terhadap Iran setelah menjadi Republik Islam pada 1 April 1979.
Maka pada minggu lalu seorang lagi pemimpin Iran mengunjungi Malaysia dan dengan itu menyambung lawatan sebelumnya oleh Presiden Rafsanjani, Presiden Khatami dan Presiden Ahmadinejad. Pelawat tersebut, Dr. Ali Akhbar Velayati telah menjadi Menteri Luar selama 16 tahun dan kini menjadi penasihat kepada pemimpin utama Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Dalam satu ucapan kemudiannya beliau berbicara atas tajuk Mencari Kedamaian di Timur Tengah: Dari Perspektif Iran. Seperti diketahui pertelingkahan muncul bersabit rancangan nuklearnya dan pihak lawan menuduh Iran sedang berusaha secara sulit untuk mengadakan senjata nuklear.
Secara kebetulan pada minggu lalu juga bekas Presiden Carter menyebut mengenai Israel mempunyai kira-kira 150 bom nuklear di samping Amerika dan Rusia memiliki lebih 10,000 senjata nuklear. Lain-lain negara yang punyai senjata nuklear: Britain, Perancis, India, Pakistan, China.
Kehilangan
Pada hakikatnya kelahiran Republik Islam di Iran bererti Amerika telah kehilangan rakan sekutu yang penting di Timur Tengah. Pelbagai persoalan diajukan manakala Iraq semasa pimpinan Presiden Saddam Hussein menyerang Iran dan perang berlarutan selama lapan tahun hingga 1988.
Bagi warga Malaysia yang kesempatan mengunjungi Iran salah satu bandar terpenting ialah Isfahan. Antara lain ialah kerana Isfahan telah diisytiharkan sebagai “twin city” Kuala Lumpur. Pertanyaan: Apa berlaku berikutan langkah tersebut? Satu rombongan yang diketuai oleh Datuk Bandar Iran, Hamid Reza Azimien telah pun melawat Kuala Lumpur. Dari Kuala Lumpur pula?
Isfahan yang lahir pada abad keempat bukan saja terkenal kerana pelbagai masjidnya yang indah tetapi juga kerana industri-industri besi waja dan penapis minyak, umpamanya, kompleks kilang- kilang besi waja yang mempunyai kira-kira 30,000 pekerja. Ia dibina semasa dulu oleh para jurutera Kesatuan Soviet dan diperbaharui oleh para jurutera Jepun selepas Revolusi Iran.
Antara tempat penginapan yang terpilih ialah Hotel Kowsar. Nama diambil dari surah Al-Kowsar. Adakalanya pelawat dibawa selepas solat maghrib ke tanah perkuburan yang diberi nama “Taman Bunga Pengorbanan Syahid.” Kerana, dikebumikan di situ ialah beribu perajurit Iran yang mati dalam perang selama lapan tahun dengan Iraq dan yang menjadi pejuang revolusi, terhadap pemerintahan Shah Iran. Lampu-lampu seperti di jalan raya dipasang dan kelihatan saudara mara menyiram air dan membaca ayat-ayat suci.
Pada batu-batu nisan terdapat gambar-gambar yang mati di medan perang. Suasana sunyi sepi, ketenangan dan kesentosaan menyelubungi segalanya.
Peminat suka pula dapat menyaksikan pertandingan gusti ala-Iran. Turut sama beberapa orang berumur 60 tahun lebih bersenam dengan kayu belantan selama dua jam sambil diiringi juruhebah yang memukul gendang dan juga melafaz selawat nabi.
Bagi para peminat sastera pula termasuk di kalangan dunia Barat ialah puisi oleh Omar Khayyam. Antara yang sering disebut ialah puisi “mari minum wine dan seterusnya bergembira.” Tetapi bagi warga Iran sendiri yang diminati ialah puisi oleh Firdousi yang telah menulis 60,000 rangkap puisi selama 30 tahun, berjudul Shah Nameh. Antaranya ialah yang berbunyi:
“Jika dunia mendedah segalanya permulaan dan akhirnya pasti menunjukkan raja-raja di suatu pihak dan darah para hulubalang di sampingnya demikian dunia yang fana ini.”
Pada beberapa waktu lampau berlaku gerakan oleh Parti Tudeh yang komunis di Iran tetapi ia tidak berjaya mendapat sokongan rakyat. Dicatat kemudiannya ialah sikap Imam Khomeni menolak faham komunis sebagaimana ia menentang penjajahan. Beliau meninggal dunia pada 3 Jun 1989. Dipilih menggantikannya ialah Ayatollah Ali Khamenie. Roda sejarah terus berputar. Iran antara negara Islam yang menewaskan ideologi bikinan manusia.
Penulis ialah konsultan
kanan ISIS Malaysia. Pandangan penulis adalah pendapat peribadi dan tidak ada kena-mengena dengan ISIS.
Posted by TheBorhann at 3:27 AM 0 comments
Labels: Putar belit fakta sejarah
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Palestine Issue
Menanti negara Palestin
Merayakan “ulang tahun Israel yang ke-60” bererti menari di atas kubur orang-orang Palestin dengan iringan berlarutan lagu perampasan dan ketidakadilan pelbagai sudut. Demikian dicatat dalam sebuah iklan yang terbit dalam akhbar International Herald Tribune keluaran 10-11 Mei lalu.
Iklan seumpamanya tidak pernah tersiar sebelum ini. Ia diberi tajuk: 60 years of Palestinian dispossession... No reason to celebrate Israel at 60!
Ia ditandatangani oleh para penulis, ahli-ahli falsafah, wartawan, ahli muzik, pembikin filem dan lainlain lagi dari Britain, Brazil, Israel, Afrika Selatan, Australia, Amerika, Mesir, Sepanyol, Belgium, Ireland, Lebanon dan Palestin.
Iklan bermula dengan kata-kata oleh mendiang Profesor Edward Said ketika dahulu mengulas perayaan “ulang tahun Israel ke-50” di Amerika pada tahun 1998. Beliau menulis, antara lain: “Walaupun telah 50 tahun hidup dalam pembuangan dari Palestin, namun saya masih terperanjat menyaksikan Israel dan para penyokongnya terus memadamkan hakikat bahawa 50 tahun telah berlalu tanpa gantirugi oleh Israel, pengiktirafan dan pengakuan olehnya mengenai hak-hak asasi manusia Palestin. Nakba Palestin...” Nakba bererti malapetaka.
Iklan selanjutnya menyatakan: “Israel pada umur 60 tahun adalah sebuah negara yang masih menafikan hak-hak asasi warga Palestin yang telah diluluskan oleh Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu semata-mata kerana mereka non-Jews. Ia masih secara haram menduduki bumi Palestin dan lain-lain negara Arab, yakni mencabul pelbagai resolusi Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu. Ia masih melakukan diskriminasi ke atas warga Palestinnya sendiri.”
Wujud
Seperti ternyata sambutan ulang tahun ke-60 itu telah pun dilaporkan oleh media massa. Sementara itu juga Setiausaha Negara Amerika, Condoleezza Rice, ketika kesekian kali mengunjungi Timur Tengah, terus menyatakan harapan bahawa negara Palestin akan wujud sebelum tamat pentadbiran Presiden Bush pada akhir tahun 2008.
Namun, tanda tanya terus muncul apakan hal itu akan berlaku hasil rundingan-rundingan damai di antara Israel dan pejuang-pejuang Palestin. Majalah Economist, London dalam satu laporan terbaru menyebut mengenai The Wandering Palestinian. Telah pun disebut oleh akhbar Barat ialah kedudukan ketika ini:
l Gaza dikuasai oleh golongan Hamas sejak memenangi pilihan raya tahun 2006. Jumlah penduduk 1.5 juta. Pengangguran 33 peratus. Bilangan penduduk yang miskin 51 peratus.
l Tebing Barat dikuasai oleh golongan Fatah pimpinan Presiden Mahmoud Abbas. Jumlah penduduk 2.5 juta. Pengangguran 19 peratus. Bilangan penduduk yang miskin 24 peratus. Dalam pada itu 160 perkampungan penduduk Israel telah diadakan di Tebing Barat dan bilangan penduduknya meningkat dari 150,000 hingga 250,000 orang.
Menurut laporan baru-baru ini, Presiden Mahmoud Abbas telah berkunjung ke Washington mengenai rancangan Israel untuk menambah lagi bilangan perkampungan Israel di Tebing Barat. Persoalannya: Betapa rundingan- rundingan damai boleh diteruskan jika ini terus berlaku? Beliau dilaporkan kembali tanpa menerima jawapan memuaskan mengenainya.
Dalam interviu televisyen di Tebing Barat kemudiannya Condoleezza Rice menjawab pertanyaan wartawan: Perkampungan Israel di Tebing Barat memang problematical.
Laporan mengenai begitu ramainya warga Palestin terpaksa lari, dihalau dan merantau mencari perlindungan di negara-negara Arab lain mencatat sebuah kisah sedih seorang bernama Lana Bydas, lulusan American University di Kaherah. Beliau terpaksa menunggu selama 18 bulan untuk mendapat surat izin bermastautin dan terpaksa berulang- alik ke Syria, sebanyak 18 kali kerana ia hanya mempunyai visa pelancong. Lalu ia mengadu hal kepada seorang sahabat yang kemudian menjawab: can’t you just stop being Palestinian?
Mungkinkah kerana persoalan-persoalan seumpama maka pada minggu lalu juga tersiar makalah bertajuk Perjanjian Damai Timur Tengah Mustahil.
Di samping itu ialah kenyataan Hillary Clinton, salah seorang calon Parti Demokrat yang ingin menjadi Presiden Amerika dalam pilihan raya presiden bulan November nanti. Beliau memberi amaran bahawa Amerika boleh “meranapkan” Iran jika ia menggunakan senjata nuklear ke atas Israel. Selama ini Iran dianggap penyokong Hamas.
Catatan kaki: Antara yang menandatangani iklan dalam akhbar International Herald Tribune, Tariq Ali (penulis, UK), John Berger (penulis UK), Augusta Boal (penulis Brazil), Ella Shohar (penulis Amerika/Israel), Andre Brink (penulis Afrika Selatan), Aharon Shabtai (penulis puisi, Israel), Judith Butler (ahli falsafah, Amerika), Vicenzo Consolo (penulis Itali).
Tom Leonard (penulis puisi, Scotland), Antony Loewenstein (penulis Australia), Patrice Nganang (penulis Cameroon), Demis Roussos (penyanyi Greece), Naomi Wallace (penulis Amerika), Tom Lanoya (penulis Belgium), Radwa Ashour (penulis Mesir), Victoria Brittain (penulis UK), Caryl Churchill (penulis UK) Elias Khoury (penulis Lebanon).
Penulis ialah konsultan
kanan ISIS Malaysia. Pandangan penulis adalah pendapat peribadi dan tidak ada kena-mengena dengan ISIS.
Posted by TheBorhann at 3:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: Palestine Issue
Hope of peace in face of war
Sunday January 11, 2009
Hope of peace in face of war
BY SHAHANAAZ HABIB
After having spent 20 years studying modern humanitarian law, Dr Ameur Zemmali from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is still surprised by the degree of violence that man is prepared to inflict on his own kind.
THE pictures coming out from Gaza tell a very grim tale — hundreds of children, babies, women and men dead and thousands more injured, some maimed for life.
Many of us were not even born yet when the state of Israel was created in 1948, carved out from Palestine which resulted in Palestinians being forced out of their homes. A few wars later, Palestine ended up being under Israeli occupation, rendering its people without a state.
And 60 years on, the Israel-Palestinian problem still festers like a gangrenous wound that has gone untreated for too long.
Humanitarian effort: The whole raison de etre of the ICRC work is service to victims and relief assistance. – AFP
Yet there are those like Dr Ameur Zemmali who will not give up.
“If I look to the history of war, there are a lot of elements of pessimism but I am by nature an optimist. I think there will be a solution. War is not a finality. It must stop one day or another,” says Dr Zemmali who holds a doctorate in law and is the legal advisor for Islamic Affairs for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“But while waiting, there are victims and loss of lives. You have people being killed daily – women, children, men. The situation is unbearable. If you read the newspapers or watch TV, you hear of killings, bombings, violence, demolition of houses. If it’s not Palestine, then it’s Lebanon, Sudan or Iraq. It’s the daily bread of the region but really it’s not normal and it’s not acceptable,” he adds.
Hope for resolution
Even though the road ahead for the region is very dark, Dr Zemmali says, “we must keep our optimism.”
“I believe in the humanity of man and the necessity of finding negotiable solutions through dialogue instead of confrontation.
“If you look at history, solutions are possible even in the most terrible of wars and sometimes you can reach a lasting settlement even between the most hostile of enemies,” he says, pointing to Europe during the second World War as an example or how warring countries managed to bury the hatchet and come together in peace and common interest.
“So yes, I believe warring countries can reach long-lasting reconciliation and move from confrontation to co-operation,” says Dr Zemmali who has spent 20 years studying modern humanitarian law. But the fact that the US is undeniably biased towards Israel raises questions if it can ever play the role of honest broker in finding an acceptable solution to both sides.
"I think there will be a solution. War is not a finality. It must stop one day or another"- DR AMEUR ZEMMALI
“But what is the alternative?” asks Dr Zemmali.
Heavy price
“Sooner or later, the Palestine issue must be resolved. The price in terms of humanitarian cost is already very high. The Palestinian people were a sovereign state in their homeland to start with. International law recognises that. But until we reach a solution, the humanitarian price will be heavier and heavier.”
And it will not be just Israel, Palestine and the Middle East that would be paying the price. The plight of Palestinians affects the Muslim psyche in many parts of the world and touches a raw nerve.
The current Israeli attacks and mounting Palestinian civilian casualties are bound to fuel anger among Muslims in particular at largely the US for backing Israel and also the Arab nations for failing to stop it.
It does not help either that all this is happening at a time when there is already a gap between the Islamic world and the West after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and the subsequent US-led war on Iraq.
Dr Zemmali opines that it is unfortunate that the war on terror is being waged against Islamic parts of the world and that those jailed are Muslims, which in turn gives some movements the “ammunition” to “feed” information of such injustices and get Muslims all worked up.
Like it or not, a sizeable number of armed conflicts are taking place in Muslim countries. Which is the reason why more than two-thirds of the ICRC activities are centred in the Islamic world.
“If you take the map, you will find the major current conflicts are in the Islamic world. That is really clear,” says Dr Zemmali.
He denies this is because Muslims are always fighting.
“The conflicts are a tip of the iceberg. Conflicts are an outcome of something else — the consequence of multiple factors: social, economic, political and cultural — the gap between the Islamic world and the West after Sept 11. There are many external and internal dimensions,” he says.
Hence one cannot isolate problems occurring in the Islamic world from “the regional and international context”.
Even so, Dr Zemmali says that “no country in the world can say all the time that all its problems come from abroad.”
“Islamic countries must not push all the responsibility onto others. They must not ‘escape’ their own responsibility. If they have problems in their countries, they must search for solutions in their countries.
Internal and external factors
“But that responsibility should not be attributed to only one country. We must keep in mind that Islamic countries are part of the world and there are internal and external factors that contribute to armed conflict. Neither Islamic countries nor the West are entitled to put the responsibility on the other side.”
For Dr Zemmali, it is also too simplistic to blame the current tensions in the Muslim world on US president George W. Bush.
“I think the relationship between the Islamic world and the West is more complex than that,” he adds.
And in areas where there is trouble and conflict, the ICRC goes. And at times it pays a very high price — including the loss of lives as in the case of the targeted bombing of the ICRC office in Iraq back in 2003.
Preventing the ICRC staff from risk is one of the organisation’s major challenges, and when one of its staff is targeted, Dr Zemmali notes, “the security effect is terrible for everyone.”
“Our work is humanitarian work but if we are targeted, then we will think more than twice about how to move and how to get to the victims. The whole raison de etre of the ICRC work is service to victims and offering relief assistance. We need to be close to the population in need.
“So by the very nature of the job, we must work during the armed conflict. We cannot run away from our responsibilities. If you ride the sea, you should not fear being shipwrecked,” he says.
In high risk areas, ICRC is very discreet in its movement and in certain places where it is targeted it does not display its emblem.
The ICRC also makes sure that all its staff adhere to its security instructions, study the field very well, weigh all the different aspects when moving around and respect local traditions.
“We are not armed; we don’t fight; we don’t take sides in any part of the conflict but even then, we are sometimes targeted. But we have to stay because we need to be close to the people in need.
“We don’t travel with guards. We refuse a militarisation of the humanitarian action. For us, humanitarian action must be protected by itself. Our ‘weapon’ is neutrality and independence. It’s not guns.
“We refuse to be put under the military protection of anybody, of any state, because this would not be proper of a humanitarian organisation which works for everybody,” he says.
Questioning humanity
Despite having studied humanitarian law, Dr Zemmali is still somewhat taken back by the degree of violence in armed conflicts.
“Law is very comfortable because it’s all theory and rules. But I have a permanent question — has humanity really developed itself?
“Is humanity today better than centuries before? Maybe humanity has made progress in terms of industry and technology but I think that with the new means and methods of war, humanity today is worse off than humanity centuries ago.
“Previously, in the classic wars, the theatre of operation was determined at the beginning and limited to some place even before the waging of war and so atrocities were limited then.
“But now with technology, you find more destructive arms and these are used without limits. Without constraints, the results can be horrible. So I ask myself: ‘Has humanity really developed?’
“There are more laws, provisions, articles... but on the other hand, when you look, you see more violence. But having said that, I think we must still do everything to implement the law because the law is the safeguard for everybody.
“The irony between the law and what happens must not make us lose hope in humanity. We must do everything to see the law is not inked on the sheet but it’s part of reality. We have to work on that.”
Dr Zemmali admits that humanitarian work can be harder than other jobs but stresses that even civil jobs require a lot of effort, involvement and commitment.
“But someone must do this (humanitarian) work with neutrality, independence and with humanity. Man must care for the state of his brother. We cannot abandon victims to the will of belligerence. That would be catastrophic for everybody.
“So even with all the side-effects on our soul and psychology, we have to do this job. It’s a commitment towards humanity.”
Emotionally scarred
Despite being in the field for more than 20 years, Dr Zemmali says he has never cried over the atrocities as it is not in his nature to shed tears.
But that does not mean he has not been emotionally scarred in some ways. He still remembers meeting prisoners of war when he first joined ICRC.
“I saw people half my age looking double their age. That’s not normal. The first time, I could not sleep for four nights, and I couldn’t eat.”
Hope of peace in face of war
BY SHAHANAAZ HABIB
After having spent 20 years studying modern humanitarian law, Dr Ameur Zemmali from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is still surprised by the degree of violence that man is prepared to inflict on his own kind.
THE pictures coming out from Gaza tell a very grim tale — hundreds of children, babies, women and men dead and thousands more injured, some maimed for life.
Many of us were not even born yet when the state of Israel was created in 1948, carved out from Palestine which resulted in Palestinians being forced out of their homes. A few wars later, Palestine ended up being under Israeli occupation, rendering its people without a state.
And 60 years on, the Israel-Palestinian problem still festers like a gangrenous wound that has gone untreated for too long.
Humanitarian effort: The whole raison de etre of the ICRC work is service to victims and relief assistance. – AFP
Yet there are those like Dr Ameur Zemmali who will not give up.
“If I look to the history of war, there are a lot of elements of pessimism but I am by nature an optimist. I think there will be a solution. War is not a finality. It must stop one day or another,” says Dr Zemmali who holds a doctorate in law and is the legal advisor for Islamic Affairs for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“But while waiting, there are victims and loss of lives. You have people being killed daily – women, children, men. The situation is unbearable. If you read the newspapers or watch TV, you hear of killings, bombings, violence, demolition of houses. If it’s not Palestine, then it’s Lebanon, Sudan or Iraq. It’s the daily bread of the region but really it’s not normal and it’s not acceptable,” he adds.
Hope for resolution
Even though the road ahead for the region is very dark, Dr Zemmali says, “we must keep our optimism.”
“I believe in the humanity of man and the necessity of finding negotiable solutions through dialogue instead of confrontation.
“If you look at history, solutions are possible even in the most terrible of wars and sometimes you can reach a lasting settlement even between the most hostile of enemies,” he says, pointing to Europe during the second World War as an example or how warring countries managed to bury the hatchet and come together in peace and common interest.
“So yes, I believe warring countries can reach long-lasting reconciliation and move from confrontation to co-operation,” says Dr Zemmali who has spent 20 years studying modern humanitarian law. But the fact that the US is undeniably biased towards Israel raises questions if it can ever play the role of honest broker in finding an acceptable solution to both sides.
"I think there will be a solution. War is not a finality. It must stop one day or another"- DR AMEUR ZEMMALI
“But what is the alternative?” asks Dr Zemmali.
Heavy price
“Sooner or later, the Palestine issue must be resolved. The price in terms of humanitarian cost is already very high. The Palestinian people were a sovereign state in their homeland to start with. International law recognises that. But until we reach a solution, the humanitarian price will be heavier and heavier.”
And it will not be just Israel, Palestine and the Middle East that would be paying the price. The plight of Palestinians affects the Muslim psyche in many parts of the world and touches a raw nerve.
The current Israeli attacks and mounting Palestinian civilian casualties are bound to fuel anger among Muslims in particular at largely the US for backing Israel and also the Arab nations for failing to stop it.
It does not help either that all this is happening at a time when there is already a gap between the Islamic world and the West after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and the subsequent US-led war on Iraq.
Dr Zemmali opines that it is unfortunate that the war on terror is being waged against Islamic parts of the world and that those jailed are Muslims, which in turn gives some movements the “ammunition” to “feed” information of such injustices and get Muslims all worked up.
Like it or not, a sizeable number of armed conflicts are taking place in Muslim countries. Which is the reason why more than two-thirds of the ICRC activities are centred in the Islamic world.
“If you take the map, you will find the major current conflicts are in the Islamic world. That is really clear,” says Dr Zemmali.
He denies this is because Muslims are always fighting.
“The conflicts are a tip of the iceberg. Conflicts are an outcome of something else — the consequence of multiple factors: social, economic, political and cultural — the gap between the Islamic world and the West after Sept 11. There are many external and internal dimensions,” he says.
Hence one cannot isolate problems occurring in the Islamic world from “the regional and international context”.
Even so, Dr Zemmali says that “no country in the world can say all the time that all its problems come from abroad.”
“Islamic countries must not push all the responsibility onto others. They must not ‘escape’ their own responsibility. If they have problems in their countries, they must search for solutions in their countries.
Internal and external factors
“But that responsibility should not be attributed to only one country. We must keep in mind that Islamic countries are part of the world and there are internal and external factors that contribute to armed conflict. Neither Islamic countries nor the West are entitled to put the responsibility on the other side.”
For Dr Zemmali, it is also too simplistic to blame the current tensions in the Muslim world on US president George W. Bush.
“I think the relationship between the Islamic world and the West is more complex than that,” he adds.
And in areas where there is trouble and conflict, the ICRC goes. And at times it pays a very high price — including the loss of lives as in the case of the targeted bombing of the ICRC office in Iraq back in 2003.
Preventing the ICRC staff from risk is one of the organisation’s major challenges, and when one of its staff is targeted, Dr Zemmali notes, “the security effect is terrible for everyone.”
“Our work is humanitarian work but if we are targeted, then we will think more than twice about how to move and how to get to the victims. The whole raison de etre of the ICRC work is service to victims and offering relief assistance. We need to be close to the population in need.
“So by the very nature of the job, we must work during the armed conflict. We cannot run away from our responsibilities. If you ride the sea, you should not fear being shipwrecked,” he says.
In high risk areas, ICRC is very discreet in its movement and in certain places where it is targeted it does not display its emblem.
The ICRC also makes sure that all its staff adhere to its security instructions, study the field very well, weigh all the different aspects when moving around and respect local traditions.
“We are not armed; we don’t fight; we don’t take sides in any part of the conflict but even then, we are sometimes targeted. But we have to stay because we need to be close to the people in need.
“We don’t travel with guards. We refuse a militarisation of the humanitarian action. For us, humanitarian action must be protected by itself. Our ‘weapon’ is neutrality and independence. It’s not guns.
“We refuse to be put under the military protection of anybody, of any state, because this would not be proper of a humanitarian organisation which works for everybody,” he says.
Questioning humanity
Despite having studied humanitarian law, Dr Zemmali is still somewhat taken back by the degree of violence in armed conflicts.
“Law is very comfortable because it’s all theory and rules. But I have a permanent question — has humanity really developed itself?
“Is humanity today better than centuries before? Maybe humanity has made progress in terms of industry and technology but I think that with the new means and methods of war, humanity today is worse off than humanity centuries ago.
“Previously, in the classic wars, the theatre of operation was determined at the beginning and limited to some place even before the waging of war and so atrocities were limited then.
“But now with technology, you find more destructive arms and these are used without limits. Without constraints, the results can be horrible. So I ask myself: ‘Has humanity really developed?’
“There are more laws, provisions, articles... but on the other hand, when you look, you see more violence. But having said that, I think we must still do everything to implement the law because the law is the safeguard for everybody.
“The irony between the law and what happens must not make us lose hope in humanity. We must do everything to see the law is not inked on the sheet but it’s part of reality. We have to work on that.”
Dr Zemmali admits that humanitarian work can be harder than other jobs but stresses that even civil jobs require a lot of effort, involvement and commitment.
“But someone must do this (humanitarian) work with neutrality, independence and with humanity. Man must care for the state of his brother. We cannot abandon victims to the will of belligerence. That would be catastrophic for everybody.
“So even with all the side-effects on our soul and psychology, we have to do this job. It’s a commitment towards humanity.”
Emotionally scarred
Despite being in the field for more than 20 years, Dr Zemmali says he has never cried over the atrocities as it is not in his nature to shed tears.
But that does not mean he has not been emotionally scarred in some ways. He still remembers meeting prisoners of war when he first joined ICRC.
“I saw people half my age looking double their age. That’s not normal. The first time, I could not sleep for four nights, and I couldn’t eat.”
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
U.S. presence is Iraq's main problem - Iranian leader
Monday June 9, 2008
U.S. presence is Iraq's main problem - Iranian leader
By Fredrik Dahl and Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday that the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq was the biggest obstacle to its development as a united country.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) speaks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a meeting in Tehran June 9, 2008. (REUTERS/FARS NEWS)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hit out at the "occupiers" in Iraq at a time when Baghdad is negotiating with the United States on a new agreement aimed at giving a legal basis for U.S. troops to stay in Iraq after Dec. 31, when their U.N. mandate expires.
Iran and the United States blame each other for violence in Iraq and are also sharply at odds over Tehran's nuclear programme, which Washington suspects is aimed at making bombs. Iran says it is a peaceful drive to produce electricity.
"The presence of occupiers in Iraq, particularly the U.S. armed forces ... is the main obstacle to unity in Iraq," state radio quoted Khamenei, Shi'ite Iran's top authority, as saying.
He accused them of using their military and security powers to interfere in Iraq's internal affairs but that the "Americans' dreams" in the Middle East country would not be realised.
The talks on a "status of forces" deal are the subject of heated debate both in United States and Iraq, where thousands have answered the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's call for weekly protests after Friday Muslim prayers.
U.S. officials have accused Iran of seeking to derail the negotiations by "inspiring" media reports that the United States is trying to force Iraq to accept a deal on permanent bases.
In Washingon, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said when asked if he thought Iraq could resist Iranian pressure not to make such a deal with the United States: "Iraq is a sovereign state that is going to act in its national interest."
DEFENCE AND OIL COOPERATION
Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s but ties have improved since U.S.-led forces ousted the Sunni Arab strongman Saddam Hussein five years ago and a Shi'ite Muslim-dominated government came to power in Baghdad.
The Iranian and Iraqi defence ministers signed a memorandum of understanding during Maliki's visit to boost defence cooperation "with the aim of strengthening peace and stability in the region," Iran's official IRNA news agency said.
Mine clearance and search for soldiers missing in action during their 1980-88 war would form part of the cooperation.
The two members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also agreed to increase oil sector cooperation, a senior Iranian official said.
Maliki's government treads a fine line in its relations with the Islamic Republic, seeking support while mindful of U.S. accusations that Iran supports Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
Iran denies this and blames the presence of U.S. troops, currently numbering about 150,000, for the bloodshed that has followed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Iraq's government spokesman said before Maliki's three-day visit started on Saturday that the issue of Iranian interference would be raised, but it was not clear whether it had been discussed in his meetings so far in Tehran.
Analysts say Iran does not want Iraq to descend into chaos but nor does it want U.S. forces to have an easy ride, which might give Washington ideas about military options against Iran.
(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran and by Washington bureau)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
U.S. presence is Iraq's main problem - Iranian leader
By Fredrik Dahl and Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday that the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq was the biggest obstacle to its development as a united country.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) speaks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a meeting in Tehran June 9, 2008. (REUTERS/FARS NEWS)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hit out at the "occupiers" in Iraq at a time when Baghdad is negotiating with the United States on a new agreement aimed at giving a legal basis for U.S. troops to stay in Iraq after Dec. 31, when their U.N. mandate expires.
Iran and the United States blame each other for violence in Iraq and are also sharply at odds over Tehran's nuclear programme, which Washington suspects is aimed at making bombs. Iran says it is a peaceful drive to produce electricity.
"The presence of occupiers in Iraq, particularly the U.S. armed forces ... is the main obstacle to unity in Iraq," state radio quoted Khamenei, Shi'ite Iran's top authority, as saying.
He accused them of using their military and security powers to interfere in Iraq's internal affairs but that the "Americans' dreams" in the Middle East country would not be realised.
The talks on a "status of forces" deal are the subject of heated debate both in United States and Iraq, where thousands have answered the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's call for weekly protests after Friday Muslim prayers.
U.S. officials have accused Iran of seeking to derail the negotiations by "inspiring" media reports that the United States is trying to force Iraq to accept a deal on permanent bases.
In Washingon, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said when asked if he thought Iraq could resist Iranian pressure not to make such a deal with the United States: "Iraq is a sovereign state that is going to act in its national interest."
DEFENCE AND OIL COOPERATION
Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s but ties have improved since U.S.-led forces ousted the Sunni Arab strongman Saddam Hussein five years ago and a Shi'ite Muslim-dominated government came to power in Baghdad.
The Iranian and Iraqi defence ministers signed a memorandum of understanding during Maliki's visit to boost defence cooperation "with the aim of strengthening peace and stability in the region," Iran's official IRNA news agency said.
Mine clearance and search for soldiers missing in action during their 1980-88 war would form part of the cooperation.
The two members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also agreed to increase oil sector cooperation, a senior Iranian official said.
Maliki's government treads a fine line in its relations with the Islamic Republic, seeking support while mindful of U.S. accusations that Iran supports Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
Iran denies this and blames the presence of U.S. troops, currently numbering about 150,000, for the bloodshed that has followed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Iraq's government spokesman said before Maliki's three-day visit started on Saturday that the issue of Iranian interference would be raised, but it was not clear whether it had been discussed in his meetings so far in Tehran.
Analysts say Iran does not want Iraq to descend into chaos but nor does it want U.S. forces to have an easy ride, which might give Washington ideas about military options against Iran.
(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran and by Washington bureau)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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