South Africa – Features

By Firoz Osman – Media Review Network

(source: Star Newspaper, Mon 28/03/2011, Pg13)

In her trenchant piece on the conflict in the Ivory Coast “ Africa is back to bowing to West”, Christine Qunta bemoans the fact that “African leaders are back to being summoned to Washington, Paris and London to take instructions on how to act as protectors of Western interests on this continent.” (The Star, 23/03/2011).

French-backed Allassane Ouattara and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo both claim to have won the democratic elections, threatening to plunge the country into a civil war. Opportunists will exploit the toxic issue of tribalism, given that Ouattara is from the Dioula ethnic group and Gbagbo, a Bete, consider Ouattara from the north as “foreigners” or immigrants.

The previously colonised world in Africa and Asia will never be free from this vicious cycle of internecine conflict and war until it reverts to a form of governance that preceded colonialism. The democratic, nation-state is no panacea. Historians note that it was a meeting at the Berlin residence of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1884, that the foreign ministers of fourteen European powers and the United States of America established ground rules for the future exploitation of the “dark continent.”

Read More »Abolish Africas artificial boundries imposed by west

UN: Israeli buffer zone eats up 30 percent of Gaza’s arable land

Looking to increase security, Israel dropped leaflets last week warning residents to stay at least 1,000 feet from the border or risk being shot.
By Erin Cunningham | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
from the June 1, 2009 edition

Gaza City, Gaza – Israel’s warning came from the sky, as it often does in the Gaza Strip. But this time warplanes dropped neither bombs nor missiles on the impoverished Palestinian territory, but thousands of tiny leaflets warning Gaza’s residents to keep away from the 30-mile-long border they share with Israel.

Stay at least 300 meters (1,000 feet) from the border, the May 25 pamphlets advised Palestinians, or risk being shot by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Once a plush scene of rolling olive, citrus, and pomegranate groves, much of the border region is now just a barren landscape, marked only by the presence of IDF tanks, military watchtowers, and the occasional pop of gunfire.

Farmers and their families have been displaced, too afraid to return to their fields, while international humanitarian organizations are unable to make an assessment of the needs and damages of the area in the aftermath of the assault.

Read More »Un Isaraeli buffer zone eats up 30 percent of Gazas arable land

Toddler dies in Gaza after Israel barred her transfer for treatment elsewhere

The Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported on Sunday that a 19-month toddler died at a local hospital in Gaza after the Israeli Authorities barred her family from transferring her to a hospital out of the Gaza Strip.

The infant was identified as Hadeel Jawad Al Haddad, underwent an open-heart surgery in Gaza but needed further medical attention out of the Gaza Strip as the ongoing Israeli siege emptied Gaza hospitals from the basic equipment and medical supplies.

There are hundreds of patients in Gaza who are facing death as Israel is rejecting their transfer to hospitals abroad, and is ongoing with blocking the border crossings and terminals.

The death of Hadeel brings the number of patients who died due to the Israeli siege to 204. Most of the patients who are currently in serious conditions are suffering from cancer, heart diseases, kidney failure and chronic diseases.

In a report release last week, the Palestinian Ministry of Heath in Gaza warned that hundreds of Palestinian patients could die if they don’t receive immediate medical treatment.

Earlier this month a Palestinian man identified as Hassan Issa, 59, died of cancer at a local Gaza hospital after he was barred from receiving medical treatment abroad. Another patient identified as Samiha Abu Jary, 50, died of a heart disease.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that there are more than 450 cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, and all are suffering due to the lack of medicine and equipment.

Read More »Toddler dies after Isarael barred her transfer for treatment

29 August 2008

Press Release

Relieve at Impending Return of Uganda Two

The Media Review Network (MRN) is relieved at the news of the impending return of Mufti Hussain Bhayat and Haroon Saley after the unjustified incarceration in Uganda for the pass 12 days.

The lack of charges vindicates MRN’s view that the baseless and fabricated accusation of ‘terrorism’ was probably motivated by the US-Israeli agents and their lackeys to harass Muslim Organisations from assisting and alleviating the suffering of the poor and the needy throughout the world.

The MRN expresses its profound gratitude to the South African Government, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Intelligence and the media and all those that rallied to the cause to bring these innocent victims home.

It is, however, imperative that Muslim leaders workshop with Government to circumvent these incidences from happening again. The silence of many Relief NGOs as well as the delayed response from Muslim leaders in prominent organisations is most disturbing.

It is time for the Muslim leadership to brainstorm and develop a concrete response, together with Government if as it is almost certain for Muslims to be targeted again.

Issued by:
Dr. Firoz Osman
Secretary-General
Media Review Network
082 337 6976

(Media Review Network is an advocacy group based in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa)

Read More »Pr relieve at impending return of uganda two