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Israeli Aggression

Kashmir act before foreign forces land in srinagar

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The Valley today is a Kosovo-in-waiting. The government should act now before it is too late.

By Zafarul-Islam Khan, Editor, The Milli Gazette

(source: Millie Gazette Newsletter (2/08/2010)

For the last two months only bullets are talking in Kashmir. Dozens of lives, mostly school-going young men and women, have succumbed to the bullets fired by the security forces directly into their chests. Ten such victims have died within the last twenty four hours for pelting stones and violating curfew. The central cabinet?s security committee met last night without the attendance of even the  governor, the de facto ruler, of the state. Today the dummy chief minister of the state was called for a meeting in Delhi and assured that direct central rule will not be imposed on the state.

The situation in the Valley has not deteriorated within a day or two and forces across the border alone are not responsible for the chaos seen in the length and breadth of the Valley. Today?s chaos in the Valley basically reflects the failure of the central government which despite declarations and promises to the contrary, has utterly failed to negotiate with the people who matter in Kashmir, which has thrown in the dustbin the autonomy and self-rule proposals presented by its own trusted hands in the state. Musharraf and even the current Pakistani government have been time and again offering proposals to arrive at a settlement of sorts taking into account the ground realities but visionless people in Delhi have squandered the opportunity. The army bullets once again prove what our enemies claim that India is interested only in the land of Kashmir and not in its people. Manmohan is fast becoming Jagmohan for Kashmir.

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Americas self serving politicized double standard of justice

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By Yvonne Ridley

(source: www.ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com)

I wonder if Hillary Clinton really believes in the pompous invective that shoots from her lips with the rapidity of machine gun fire. We had a classic example of it just the other day when she let rip in her grating, robotic monotones over a Moscow court’s decision to jail an oil tycoon. To be fair to Clinton, she was not alone. There was a whole gaggle of disapproving foreign ministers who poured forth their ridiculous brand of Western arrogance which has poisoned the international atmosphere for far too long. The US Secretary of State said Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s conviction raised “serious questions about selective prosecution and about the rule of law being overshadowed by political considerations”.

Although Khodorkovsky, 47, and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, 54, were found guilty of theft and money laundering by a Moscow court, critics like Clinton say the trial constitutes revenge for the tycoon’s questioning of a state monopoly on oil pipelines and propping up political parties that oppose the Kremlin.

Clinton’s censure was echoed by politicians in Britain and Germany, and Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, urged Moscow to “respect its international commitments in the field of human rights and the rule of law”.

Now while it may appear to be quite touching to see all these Western leaders express their outrage over a trial involving the one-time richest and most powerful man in Russia’s oil and gas industry, you have to ask where were these moral guardians when other unjust legal decisions were being made in US courts, for example?

So why have the Americans and Europeans rushed to make very public and official statements so quickly on a matter of oil and gas, in another country? Okay, so it is a rhetorical question!

But shouldn’t Clinton put a sock in it? The USA is still squatting in Cuba overseeing the continuing festering mess caused by one of the biggest boil’s on the face of human rights – yes, Guantanamo is approaching a decade of incarcerating men without charge or trial. At least Khodorkovsky had his day in an open court and can appeal.

 Instead of sticking her nose in to other country’s courts, perhaps the US Secretary of State would care to look into her own backyard and tell us why one of her soldiers was given a mere nine month sentence earlier this month after shooting unarmed civilians in Afghanistan?

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Only icc can bring closure on Gaza attacks

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By Ibrahim Vawda – Media Review Network

(source: Pretoria News Newspaper, Wed, 20/04/2011, Pg13)

I would like to remind Peter Fabricius and the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), that Richard Goldstone was not the only author of the report submitted by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict on “Operation Cast Lead.” The report was submitted to the United Nations (UN), and an op-ed in the Washington Post does not carry the same weight as a UN commissioned report. Hence, the euphoria displayed by the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) and Israeli advocates is best described as a failed public relations exercise.

Hina Gilani, member of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict commented on the Op-ed and confirmed that, “Nothing will change the substance of the original report………….” She further says that, “… No process or acceptable procedure would invalidate the UN report; if it does, it would be deemed as a ‘suspect move’. ”

The Goldstone Report never claimed that Israel “intentionally murdered civilians,” as claimed by his “retraction.” The report said that the force used during Operation Cast Lead was “deliberately disproportionate” and intended to “punish, humiliate and terrorize” the Palestinians. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch emphasises this point when he says that the “crime of indiscriminate war fare” and not “deliberate killing” was Israeli policy. This part of the report is not retracted.

Human Rights Watch, testimonies by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers, “Breaking the Silence,” B’Tselem and Amnesty International concurred with the Goldstone Report.

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