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Israelis Bomb Gaza
Compiled by Pegah Hajian
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A Palestinian woman reacts as people inspect the site of an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
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Israel killed seven Palestinians in a series of air strikes after Hamas detonated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives at an Israeli crossing on the Gaza border. Two of the militants were killed early Sunday, AFP reported.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited the area of Saturday’s twin suicide attacks, which wounded 13 soldiers, and warned Hamas would “bear the consequences.“
However, an immediate Israeli offensive appears unlikely as Israelis are currently marking the Jewish Passover holiday.
The Israeli attacks came late on Saturday hours after Hamas members rammed bomb-laden cars into an Israeli border crossing with Gaza, in a retaliation which wounded 13 Israeli soldiers. Three Hamas members were also wounded, according to Reuters.
The bombing at Kerem Shalom was the third major Palestinian attack in less than two weeks on Israeli border crossings in response to continued Israeli raids.
Six men--all members of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, which controls Gaza--were hit by an air-to-surface missile at Jabiliya, north of Gaza City late on Saturday, AFP reported.
Two died immediately, two succumbed later to their wounds, while the remaining two survived with injuries.
In a separate incident, another member of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades was killed by an air-to-ground missile in the Beit Lahiya sector, in the northern Gaza, medical and Hamas sources said.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the Jabiliya air strike, saying that the target had been “a group of armed men preparing to fire rockets in the direction of Israel“. The military also confirmed the Beit Lahiya attack.
Also on Saturday, the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council condemned the Zionist regime for continuing attacks on the defenseless Palestinians.
At least 424 people have died violently since the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks at a peace conference in late November in Annapolis, near Washington.
Investigation of Civilian Deaths
Israel must investigate the death of a TV cameraman and three others who were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said Saturday.
In Gaza City, reporters on Saturday attended a wake for Fadel Shana, the 23-year-old cameraman for the Reuters news agency who was killed Wednesday. He was the first Gaza journalist to be killed in the territory in the past eight years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, AP said.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that its own investigation suggests that an Israeli tank crew fired either recklessly or deliberately at Shana and three others standing near him. At the time, there were battles between Israeli forces and militants, but the cameraman wasn’t close to fighting, the statement said.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said earlier this week it has collected evidence that Shana was killed by a so-called flechette tank shell that spewed tiny darts over a wide radius.
Reuters has released Shana’s final video which showed a tank on a distant hilltop open fire. About a second later, the picture turns black. Shana was wearing a bulletproof jacket at the time and his vehicle was also marked with signs .
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Pakistan Can’t Oust Musharraf
Pakistan’s new government is avoiding a showdown with President Pervez Musharraf because it lacks the support needed to impeach him, the head of the ruling coalition’s leading party said in remarks released Saturday.
But Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, did not rule out confronting the unpopular former army strongman if the new government manages to muster the necessary two-thirds parliament majority in the future, AP reported.
“The parliament and the president have a formal relationship. For the time being, we are not breaking up that status quo. We don’t have that power,“ Zardari told the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Urdu language service.
“For the sake of the country, we don’t want confrontation. But this doesn’t mean we accept him (Musharraf). If we get the two-thirds majority, we will think about making him accountable,“ he said.
Zardari took over Bhutto’s party after she was assassinated in December and led it to victory in February’s parliament elections. It leads a new coalition government that has vowed to trim Musharraf’s powers and revise his US-backed counterterrorism policies.
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Law, Justice
Urged For Lebanon
Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman
Saturday said the Lebanese people want the constitutional institutions to resume their “effective national role,“ local Naharnet news website reported.
Such a return to constitutional authorities opens the door to achieving economic growth and development and “leads to building the state of law, justice and equality,“ he was quoted as saying at a conference on military medicine.
The general said accomplishments by the military are “a ray of hope in darkness,“ adding that the army is “determined on proceeding with its national missions... and would allow no one to target the nation’s unity and its civic peace.“
Lebanon is facing the most complicated political crisis since1975-1990 civil war. Lebanese political rival groups were unable to achieve a breakthrough to elect a new president for the country, which has been without a president since Nov. 24, 2007 when ex-president Emile Lahoud ended his term. Lebanese leaders agreed on Suleiman as a consensus candidate, but could not agree on the shape of the new government or the new election law.
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Rice Supports Iraq’s New “Center“
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File photo shows Rice preparing for a family photo prior to a meeting on Iraq in Istanbul on November 2007.
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Baghdad on Sunday to strengthen the Iraqi government’s efforts to stand against terrorists.
The surprise visit came one day after Al-Qaeda said it was planning to stage more attacks in Iraq, Reuters reported.
Arriving on an unannounced visit, Rice said she wanted to support what she called a new political “center“ in Iraq that has backed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s crackdown on terrorists.
Cooperation
“You have seen a coalescing of a center in Iraqi politics in which the Sunni leadership, the Kurdish leadership and the elements of the Shiite leadership that are not associated with these special groups have been working together better than at any time before,“ Rice told reporters traveling with her.
“I would like just to see what we can do to promote that kind of center. But clearly the prime minister has laid down some ground rules which any functioning democratic state would insist upon, having to do with arms belonging to the state, not in private hands,“ she said.
Call on Arabs
Rice further urged Arab states to work for Iraq’s Arab identity by reopening their embassies in the war-torn country.
“Iraq’s fellow Arab states must fulfill their promises to increase their engagement - diplomatic, economic, social, and cultural - with Iraq’s government and people. That includes establishing embassies in Baghdad and exchanging ambassadors,“ Rice told reporters en route to the Persian Gulf to participate in the third Iraq Neighbors’ Conference in Kuwait.
Iraq’s Arab neighbors, notably Saudi Arabia, have so far resisted pressure to open embassies in Baghdad due to security concerns.
Replay
Rice repeated US allegations on Iran’s support for militias, adding that US officials “continue to hope“ Iran will act on its avowed aim to back the Maliki government and a stable Iraq.
While the US accuses Iran of stirring violence in Iraq, the Islamic Republic has consistently maintained that the presence of the US-led occupation forces in Iraq is the main cause of turmoil in the country--a stance widely supported by various Iraqi political groups and the Iraqi society in general.
Important Step
Rice applauded Maliki’s efforts to go after terrorists but conceded it had been difficult. US commanders have criticized the initial operation in the southern city of Basra as poorly planned.
“It has not been the smoothest of processes but it is an important step that the Iraqi government has taken,“ she said.
In a statement issued late on Saturday, Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, who had declared a ceasefire last year, threatened to unleash tens of thousands of Mahdi Army fighters on Iraqi and American troops.
Headless Corpses
Iraqi police found 16 headless corpses of men tortured to death near the central city of Diwaniyah, a local police officer told AFP on Sunday.
The bodies were packed in black bags and found in the street on Saturday near the town of Shanafiyah, west of Diwaniyah, he said.
In other news, US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover said there had been numerous clashes in Sadr City overnight involving gun battles and air strikes. He said a total of 20 militia fighters had been killed.
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India Downplays Pakistan Missile Test
India downplayed the test-firing of a ballistic missile by neighboring Pakistan and asserted that Pakistan’s missile technology was imported from foreign countries.
“Pakistan requires regular testing of missiles as their technology is imported,“ Press Trust of India quoted India’s Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta as saying.
On Saturday, Pakistan test-fired its “Shaheen-II“ long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile.
It is Pakistan’s longest range missile having a reach range of 2,000 kilometers and capable of carrying nuclear, as well as conventional warheads.
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News Diary
BEIRUT - Lebanese lawmakers scheduled to convene to choose a new president.
KUWAIT - Ministerial-level meeting of Iraq’s neighbors, a follow-on from two other meetings that were held in Turkey and Egypt.
SUDAN - Sudan to conduct a national census seen as crucial to the success of democratic elections and a vote on secession for the oil-rich south.
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Egyptians Protest
Egyptian police used tear gas on 5,000 residents of a desert oasis on
Saturday protesting a government decision to redraw provincial
boundaries to their detriment, AFP reported.
New Envoy
The new American ambassador to Kuwait has presented her credentials. Deborah K. Jones is the first female American ambassador to this Washington ally in the Persian Gulf, AP reported.
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RUSSIA, ABKHAZIA, SOUTH OSSETIA
By Vladimir Socor
On April 16 Russia’s outgoing President Vladimir Putin signed a decree authorizing direct official relations between Russian government bodies and the secessionist authorities in Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The decree also treats as valid the secessionist authorities’ “legislation“ in the respective territories, which looks somewhat farcical, given the fact that Moscow had installed those authorities in the first place. In Abkhazia’s case, this move also capitalizes on the Moscow-sponsored mass ethnic cleansing of Georgians.
Putin’s decree caps Russia’s policy of creeping annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia over the last few years. The April 16 decree turns an unofficial policy into a semi-official and fully open one.
It marks the first overt Russian move to change the post-1991 internationally recognized borders and revert de facto to those of the Soviet-era. Faced with this potentially momentous development, the responses of the European authorities range from silence by most of them to evasive comments by the few that have spoken at all.
The decree instructs Russia’s ministries and other government bodies to work directly with their counterparts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia on a full range of bilateral cooperation activities; recognize the “legal“ acts issued by Abkhaz and South Ossetian authorities; recognize entities registered under Abkhaz and South Ossetian “laws“; and provide legal assistance on matters of civil and criminal law directly to Abkhaz and South Ossetian authorities and residents (most of whom have previously been turned into purported Russian citizens through “passportization“).
The presidential decree also envisages the drafting of further Russian initiatives on the “economic development of these two republics“ and “protection of Russian citizens“ there.
Practical Steps
In a prelude to Putin’s decree, the Duma had recommended on March 13 and 21 that the Russian government consider a wide range of direct interactions with the authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and protection of Russia’s citizens there.
On April 3, Putin wrote a letter in response to an appeal from Abkhazia’s and South Ossetia’s de facto leaders, addressing them as “presidents“ and announcing that Russia would take “not declarative, but practical steps.“
Timed to the NATO summit in Bucharest, where Putin arrived that same day, his letter could be taken as implying that Russia would take those steps in Abkhazia and South Ossetia if Georgia moved toward NATO membership.
Following the NATO summit, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and the Chief of Armed Forces’ General Staff General Yurii Baluyevsky warned on April 8 and 11, respectively, that Russia would take measures against Georgia.
Responses in the West were few and feeble, apparently emboldening Moscow into proceeding with this set of measures.
Following the release of Putin’s decree, the European Union finally managed to muster a response through its Slovene presidency.
Apparently a lowest common denominator, the EU statement essentially passes the buck to the United Nations regarding Abkhazia and the OSCE regarding South Ossetia. The document variously expresses regret and concern to all sides involved, in a studiously even-handed manner.
The Office of the EU’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, called through a spokesperson for a peaceful resolution to “these types of conflicts“.
Part of the Problem
Within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a list is open for signatories to a written declaration criticizing Putin’s decree and Russia’s latest moves against Georgia.
Calling attention to the violation of international law, risk of regional destabilization, attempts at forcible territorial changes, and a breach of multiple Russian commitments to international organizations, the written declaration urges Russia to reverse these moves.
It also notes that Russian “peacekeeping“ troops are not neutral but a party to the conflicts. The European Parliament (EP) may well react in similar terms; but irrespective of how many PACE or EP members may line up behind such interparliamentary resolutions, their terms of reference underscore the growing irrelevance of the UN and OSCE.
NATO can find relevance in filling this vacuum of international authority. Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has issued a statement criticizing Russia’s violation of Georgian sovereignty and urging Russia to reverse these measures.
Eurasia Daily Monitor
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Miliband Seeking Pak Partnership
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Sunday said Britain wanted a long-term partnership with Pakistan to end militancy in its tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
Miliband was in Peshawar city in northwestern Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan border, for talks with new local government leaders, said AFP.
He is due to meet Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in Islamabad on Monday.
“We are here for a long-term partnership with the country with whom we have very strong cultural, economic and political ties. We are not here for a quick fix,“ Miliband told a press conference later.
Security
In Peshawar, Miliband met provincial governor Owais Ghani and chief minister Amir Haider Hoti to discuss security issues and ongoing cooperation over development in Pakistan’s tribal areas, officials said.
Britain is providing development aid for Pakistan, especially in its troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, a known hideout for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Miliband said that this area was of significant concern for his country because of its “links with terrorist incidents in Britain“.
“But there is no question that across the Afghan-Pakistan border it is an area that is of major interest to the United Kingdom because the origin of the significant amount of terrorism we face had links back to here,“ he said.
“So we want to work very closely with the authorities here on security issues.“
Miliband also met Pakistanis who had been victims of terrorism.
Reinstating Judges
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Law Minister Farooq H. Naek said the new coalition government is unwavering in its determination to restore deposed judges.
Naek told reporters after a Pakistan Bar Council meeting that by demanding the judges be released, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had begun taking steps to reinstate them since he came into office, AP reported.
The judges were removed from office by President Pervez Musharraf last year when he temporarily invoked emergency measures.
Naek said officials were aiming to honor laws and the constitution by reinforcing democracy and the nation’s institutions.
Evidence of Depleted Uranium Denied
The Afghan Public Health Ministry denied on Sunday a media report that there was evidence of nuclear contamination in the Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan.
The radio report said the ministry was investigating claims the Tora Bora mountains had been contaminated with radioactive material, the ministry said in a statement reported by Reuters.
“The Public Health Ministry, so far, has no information from any official source about the presence of nuclear contamination in Tora Bora and has launched no investigation about it. The ministry even has no plan for such an investigation.“
The Tora Bora mountains in the east of Afghanistan were heavily bombed by US planes in late 2001 targeting Al-Qaeda leaders believed to be sheltering in caves there.
The radio report followed a report by Reuters quoting Afghan deputy public health minister for technical affairs Faizullah Kakar saying the ministry would study whether levels of depleted uranium were higher than normal in the environment after the 2001 war. But Kakar made no reference to Tora Bora.
“We have decided to do a study to see what is going on. We will take samples of soil, rocks, water in different areas where the war had taken place in the past and look in the same area to see if there is an excess of malformed babies,“ Kakar said.
“It’s then that we can tell you what is going on. But until then it is still speculation,“ he said.
He also cautioned that Afghanistan suffered from major health problems that could have been the cause of any possible rise in the number of cases of malformation.
“In Afghanistan, we have so many problems with nutritional deficiency, like folic acid. So it’s difficult to tell if it’s due to depleted uranium or due to some nutritional problems or some other genetic issues,“ he said.
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