EU-DIGEST

European Arms Manufacturers Pump Weapons into Troubled Regions

Despite the EU code of conduct, European corporations continue to supply the world's most dangerous groups with arms. A stronger law is needed.Located in the west of the country, Eldoret is also home to an ammunition factory opened in the mid-1990s by the Belgian company FN Herstal. The plant has been blamed earlier for providing supplies to armed factions in the genocide that swept through Rwanda in 1994. Now Amnesty International has documented human rights violations by Kenyan forces using weapons manufactured at the same site. The continued involvement of a firm from the European Union in Kenya comes despite a decade-old EU code of conduct on arms sales. The code stipulates that licenses to export weapons cannot be issued if there is a threat they will be used for internal repression or in armed conflicts. But because the bullets in Eldoret are made outside the EU, they are not covered by the code.

The EU's governments agreed in 2005 to make compliance with it mandatory. Yet the formal steps needed to give effect to that decision have not yet been taken, largely due to the stance adopted by France. Paris has indicated it would only be prepared to agree to upgrade the code's legal status when an EU arms embargo on China, imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, is lifted.

Labels: Arms sales, EU, FN Herstal, France, Genocide, Weapons Industry

Israel - Bringing down the new Berlin Walls - by John Pilger

The recent breakout of the people of Gaza provided a heroic spectacle unlike any other since the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the smashing down of the Berlin Wall. Whereas on the occupied West Bank, Ariel Sharon's master plan of walling in the population and stealing their land and resources has all but succeeded, requiring only a Palestinian Vichy to sign it off, the people of Gaza have defied their tormentors, however briefly, and it is a guarantee they will do so again. There is profound symbolism in their achievement, touching lives and hopes all over the world. "[Sharon's] fate for us," wrote Karma Nabulsi, a Palestinian, "was a Hobbesian vision of an anarchic society: truncated, violent, powerless, destroyed, cowed, ruled by disparate militias, gangs, religious ideologues and extremists, broken up into ethnic and religious tribalism, and co-opted [by] collaborationists. Look to the Iraq of today - that is what he had in store for us and he nearly achieved it." Israel's and America's experiments in mass suffering nearly achieved it. There was First Rains, the code name for a terror of sonic booms that came every night and sent Gazan children mad. There was Summer Rains, which showered bombs and missiles on civilians, then extrajudicial executions, and finally a land invasion. Ehud Barak, the current Israeli defence minister, has tried every kind of blockade: the denial of electricity for water and sewage pumps, incubators and dialysis machines and the denial of fuel and food to a population of mostly malnourished children.

Labels: EU, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, US

EU slams Israel's 'collective punishment' in Gaza

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner hit out at Israel Monday, slamming its blockade of the strife-torn Gaza Strip as "collective punishment". "I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza. I urge the Israeli authorities to restart fuel supplies and open the crossings for the passage of humanitarian and commercial supplies," she said in a statement. Gaza's sole power plant shut down overnight for want of fuel as a punishing four-day Israeli blockade on the Hamas-run territory threatened to spark a humanitarian crisis.Ferrero-Waldner, while also condemning rocket attacks on Israeli territory, said the decision to close all border crossings into Gaza as well as to stop the provision of fuel "will exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip."

Labels: EU, Genocide, Israel, Palestine

Serbia considers retaliatory steps against West if Kosovo breaks free

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica condemned the United States on Wednesday for supporting the independence of Kosovo as Parliament debated a measure that would sever diplomatic ties with Western countries that recognized the province's statehood.The measure in Parliament, proposed by Kostunica's government, rejects the idea of the European Union's setting up a mission in Kosovo before the status of the breakaway province is resolved. The resolution threatens to halt Serbian integration into the European Union if Kosovo gains statehood, and denounces NATO and the West for their alleged support of separatists in Kosovo.

Ethnic Albanians, who make up about 90 percent of the two million people in Kosovo, have said they will proclaim independence early in 2008.The leader of the opposition Liberal Party, Cedomir Jovanovic, who does not oppose Kosovo's independence, said the resolution represented "a blow to Serbia's ambitions to become a EU member."

Comment EU-Digest: Mr. Jovanovic is right and on top of that the Serbs have also not delivered Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic to the International Court of Justice. Serbia's war against Bosnia and Croatia between 1991 and 1995 was characterized by appalling acts of systematic violence against civilians. The use of ethnic cleansing and other genocidal tactics by Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic as a policy tool for partitioning Bosnia and Croatia and establishing a new population balance favorable to the Serbs in ethnically-cleansed territories shocked the international community.

Labels: EU, Genocide, Kosovo, Poltical, Serbia, US

Bush Backs Turkey, Opposes Resolution on Massacres of Armenians- by Edward DeMarco and Roger Runningen

President George W. Bush expressed his opposition today to a congressional resolution on the World War I-era massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, during a conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A U.S. House resolution would ask the president to declare the killings of as many as 1.5 million Armenians nine decades ago a genocide. In today's phone call, ``Bush reiterated his opposition to this resolution, the passage of which would be harmful to U.S. relations with Turkey,'' National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in an e-mailed statement.

Note EU-Digest: This issue needs to be resolved for once and all by an independent commission under the auspices of the United Nations.

Labels: EU, Genocide, Turkey, United Nations, USA

Israeli parliament rejects ‘Armenian genocide' resolution

The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, declined yesterday to approve a resolution recognizing Armenian claims of genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire, news reports said. The resolution, submitted by lawmaker Haim Oron, drew anger from some quarters in the Israeli government and was rejected by parliament, the Anatolia news agency said. "It is the duty of the Israeli parliament, as the representative of the Jewish people, to express its opinion on the need to recognize the Armenian genocide," Oron, who is from the opposition left-wing Meretz Party, was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. "It is a debt we owe to the Armenian people and one we owe to ourselves."

Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said that Israel "did not intend to place itself at the forefront of this issue, which is being handled by the international community." Israel has close diplomatic ties with Turkey -- one of the few Muslim countries with which it has relations -- and has in the past steered clear of the recognition issue.

Labels: Genocide, Political

Armenians aim to destroy Turkish- US relations - Proposed genocide resolution naming Turkey risks damage to U.S. security, says Rice, Gates

The U.S. secretaries of state and defense contend that the security of the United States is at risk from proposed legislation that would declare up to 1.5 million Armenians victims of a genocide on Turkish soil almost a century ago. In joint identical letters to the speaker of the House of Representatives and two other senior members, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the resolution also could inflict significant damage on U.S. efforts to reconcile the long-standing dispute between the West Asian neighbors. The appeals went to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Rep. John Boehner, leader of the House's Republican minority; and Rep. Tom Lantos, the Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of one of the letters Wednesday. It was dated March 7, two days after Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian was in Washington to visit Rice and said afterward that "Turkish lobbying at a government level" threatened to scuttle the resolution. Comment EU-Digest: It seems like the well financed and ferocious Armenian lobby is finally getting some Turkish "counter-action", thanks to invigorated world-wide Turkish grassroots political support networks.

Labels: Genocide, Politics

Why is the US selling out Turkey, a faithful ally? - by Robert Erel

America's relationship with one of its most important allies, NATO member Turkey, is near the breaking point due to repeated insults and blunders by our administration. Now Congress may soon put the final nail in the coffin. Congress is preparing to vote on a mean-spirited resolution accusing Turkey of committing genocide against Armenians during World War I. This is just not true, and any suggestion of it justifiably infuriates the Turks.Why is the US selling out Turkey, a faithful ally?

During World War I, the Turkish led, multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire was in a struggle for its very survival, fighting the French, English, and Russians on four fronts. Wanting to partition the Empire, these countries fomented insurrection and guerrilla action on the part of the many Ottoman ethnic groups. The powder keg blew, and all ethnic groups, including Turks, Kurds, Greeks, Azeris, Arabs, Russians, and Armenians were killing each other. Atrocities occurred on all sides. This was wartime. Many Armenians acted as a fifth column for the Russians and they slaughtered many Turks, Azeris, and Kurds. No one denies that many of them also died. To label these actions on the part of any of these groups as genocide is absurd.

The Turks have been busy creating a modern, dynamic, peaceful democracy, seeing no point in complaining about provocations against them that occurred 90 years ago. They are understandably upset by this patently untrue and insulting accusation by the Armenians. But their real shock is that their longtime ally and friend, the United States, would be so un-American and unfair as to even consider dignifying this unfounded claim.

Labels: Genocide

Sense and Nonsense : Perinçek verdict

"Dishonourable Switzerland" screamed the headline of Gözcü in Turkey, which went on to say that the verdict was another proof of European hypocrisy – Europeans underline the importance of freedom of opinion but were quick to condemn it. For its part, the right-leaning Yeni Cag newspaper wrote that Perinçek's verdict meant "the whole Turkish nation had been punished". Other parts of the media were less severe, but were still widespread in their coverage. Hürriyet quoted Perinçek as saying his trial had started a debate in Switzerland over how to judge historical events, but that he would go to the European Court of Human Rights with his case.

The Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), had mixed views. "The trial had not made sense because a Turkish politician from a minor party had been judged on behaviour more relevant in his own country, it said. In addition the trial had given Perinçek a platform and blighted relations with Turkey. "But the judge had also delivered a consistent judgement, despite being criticised for using historians' views rather than medical or technical knowledge, wrote the editorialist." Note EU-Digest: Once again this trial shows how strong and well financed the Armenian lobby is around the world. They have also consistantly denied any "no-strings" attached dialog on this issue with the Turks.

Labels: Genocide

France Senate takes Armenian genocide bill of the agenda

Lawmakers in the French Senate have buried a draft bill that would have criminalized any denial that the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I constituted genocide. The bill has been taken off the Senate agenda, and as presidential and legislative elections are scheduled for April through June, the new National Assembly, would have to hold a second vote on the bill to place it back on the agenda.

Labels: Genocide

No Evidence of Ottoman Intent to Destroy Armenian Community - by Selcuk Gultasli

Gunter Lewy, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, argues in his latest book ‘The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide’ that what happened in 1915-16 was a huge tragedy but was not genocide as the Ottomans had no intention of exterminating the Armenian race. The Armenian lobby in the US tried hard to prevent the publication of the book, but Prof. Lewy does not want to go into details about the Diaspora’s efforts to block his book. Though Prof. Lewy gives the details of the massacres and accuses some Turkish authorities of distort history by denying significant massacres, Prof. Lewy has been attacked by Armenian hardliners as a “denier.”

Armenian misdeeds during World War I were often ignored because Armenian propaganda was well orchestrated and the Western world did not expect Christians to behave this way. The horrendous events of World War II have since taught us that no nationality, no matter what its religion or cultural achievements, is immune to outrageous criminal conduct in war.

Armenians waited until 1965 before they alleged genocide. It is said that the impact of the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 was deeply demoralizing. Also, the early 1960s brought a lot of scholarship on the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, and the Armenians may have sensed an opportunity to cash in on this aroused humanitarian conscience.

Labels: Genocide