Posted on 10/24/2002 by Juan
Petition for Palestinian Children
A wonderful Israeli organization called Taayush or “living together” has launched a petition drive concerning the dire state of education for Palestinian children under Israeli occupation.
The petition can be found at:
http://taayush.tripod.com/petition.html
and it reads as below. I hope everyone will go sign it, and send money to Taayush.
Don’t Abandon the Children
If you wish to sign the petition please fill the form below and press submit.
The Right to Education is Under Attack!
We, the undersigned, educators, psychologists, social workers –
people who are working for the welfare of children — decry the
violations being committed against the well-being and
the basic right to education of Palestinian children.
Nearly one quarter of a million Palestinian children and close
to ten thousand teachers cannot reach their schools.
Approximately six hundred educational institutions have been closed
due to the continued curfew.*
Many children are exposed to danger and endless difficulties
as they make their way to school. Great injury, and perhaps even
irreversible harm, is being done to a whole generation — the generation of the future.
Take, for example, the South Hebron cave dwellers’ children,
one third of whom have dropped out of school. For months,
Jewish settlers from Maon have prevented the children from
reaching their school. The settlers have thrown stones,
harassed, and hit children who have dared to cross the path
leading to their school (the Maon settlement was built very close
to these educational facilities).
A few children have needed medical attention as a result of
wounds incurred by the stones. When parents accompanied
their children on their way to school, the police came to the
aid of the settlers, arresting the parents. In order to avoid settler
violence, the children have been forced to walk at least seven
kilometers to school, using a long detour, which takes about two hours.
Not all children can handle such long distances.
Not Surprisingly, most of the ‘drop-outs’ are among the youngest
children — six and seven year olds. What will become of these children?
Education and child welfare are of utmost importance to us,
the undersigned, and we call upon the Israeli government to:
1) Immediately open the Palestinian educational institutions;
2) Stop settler intimidation and harassment;
3) Ensure that the children and teachers will safely reach
their schools so they can enjoy the basic right to education.
* According to UNICEF more than 226,000 children and
over 9,300 teachers are unable to reach their regular classrooms
and at least 580 schools have been closed due to Israeli
military curfews, closures and home confinement.
For more information on Ta’ayush — Arab-Jewish Partnership –
visit our WebSite http://taayush.tripod.com/
0 Share 0 StumbleUpon 0 Printer Friendly Send via email
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Posted on 10/23/2002 by Juan
Parliamentary Maneuvering in Pakistan
It is being speculated in the Pakistani press that the Muslim League (QA) may be able to form a government if it allies with absolutely all of the small parties and independent members of parliament. It could cobble together a majority of seats, and would benefit from the plan to add women’s slots proportionally, bringing the total to 190.
This move would allow the Muslim League (QA) to avoid an alliance with its rival, the Pakistan People’s Party, or with the MMA, the coalition of fundamentalist religious parties.
While the mathematics may barely work out for the ML (QA), the resulting government would be extremely fragile. It would also be open to blackmail on the part of the tiny parties and even perhaps some individual members of parliament, since it would need virtually all its myriad partners for every important vote.
It seems to me likely that such a government would fall before too long, requiring another round of elections. This further round may or may not produce a more stable government. Were it to be called at a time, this winter, when the US had gone to war against Iraq, one can only imagine that the fundamentalist parties might just manage to win a majority of votes and take over the civilian government. This development in turn would almost certainly provoke another military coup to prevent it from happening. The secular-leaning Musharraf, now an American ally, would be at severe risk from an MMA government, and he would not likely take the risk.
Forecast: Continued political instability in Pakistan, raising real questions about the further prosecution of the War on Terror.
0 Share 0 StumbleUpon 0 Printer Friendly Send via email
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Posted on 10/22/2002 by Juan
History News Network
[http://hnn.us/articles/1053.html]
10-21-02: News Abroad
Why Those Election Results in Pakistan Are Frightening
by Juan Cole
The results of the elections held in Pakistan on October 10 have cast a shadow over the Bush administration’s foreign policy. That policy has been driven by contradictory impulses — curbing Islamic extremism, promoting democracy, beating the drums of war, and supporting dictatorial regimes friendly to the United States. The Pakistani electorate has pointed out the inconsistencies.
When we hear that Iraqis will “dance in the streets” on being liberated by American forces, we should remember that members of the Pushtun ethnic group in Pakistan have not celebrated the fall of the Taliban. When we hear that it may be necessary for the US to impose a strong ruler on Iraq initially, in preparation for democracy, we should remember that the Pakistani electorate has resoundingly rejected strongman Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.
When we hear that it is a good idea to overthrow and marginalize the secular nationalist regimes of the Middle East, we should remember Pakistan. There, sidelining the Pakistan People’s Party and the mainstream Muslim League gave an opening to fundamentalists and radical Islamists who look kindly on al-Qaeda.
When we hear that a US-shaped democratic Iraq will be a beacon to the rest of the Middle East, we should remember that a democratizing Pakistan has largely returned anti-American candidates. They oppose an Iraq war and are bitter about what they see as US backing for Israeli PM Ariel Sharon’s brutal repression of the Palestinians. European Union observers criticized the election as rigged toward pro-government candidates, so that the electorate may be even more bitterly anti-American and anti-Musharraf than the results show.
The Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan will be ruled by a coalition of fundamentalist Muslim parties, the Islamic Action Council (Urdu acronym: MMA). They are, as well, the largest bloc in the provincial assembly of Baluchistan. This coalition emerged as the third largest bloc in the national parliament, winning around 45 seats out of 272 contested. They were able overwhelmingly to attract Pushtun voters upset with the U.S. attack on Afghanistan. The religious parties had only won two seats in parliament in the 1997 elections.
The elections returned a hung parliament, so that one of the more secular parties may need to bring the MMA in to form a ruling coalition. Musharraf much weakened the mainstream politicians by deriding them as corrupt. Worrisomely, the fundamentalist parties may form a crucial swing vote on some issues in a divided parliament. They have already announced that they will attempt to end coeducation in schools, including universities (implying that women in the Northwest Frontier will have to go to small, inadequate women’s institutes for any higher education they are allowed to seek).
The leaders of the fundamentalist parties had campaigned vigorously in winter of 2002 against the U.S. war in Afghanistan. They had called for the overthrow of Musharraf. Among their leaders, Qazi Hussein Ahmad has called for an end to the manhunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban elements hiding out in the Northwest Frontier, since they are “Muslim brethren.” The religious parties want US troops and FBI agents kicked out of Pakistan.
The United States cannot win its goals in the Muslim world merely by main force. Its support of democracy will have to be wholehearted if instability of the Pakistani sort is to be avoided. How will General Musharraf cohabit with a parliament largely hostile to him? The idea bruited in Washington circles of imposing a new Hashemite king on Iraq, always hare-brained, looks especially unwise in the aftermath of the Pakistan elections.
In the new democracies it says it is fostering, the Bush administration will have to court constituencies. It cannot turn a blind eye to global flash points like Palestine and Kashmir, where Muslims feel they are being massacred and repressed. It cannot identify itself with dictators. It cannot allow the marginalization by those dictators of secular, populist parties. It cannot afford to be seen as an aggressor acting unilaterally against a Muslim country. The need for strong U.N. Security Council backing for any Iraq war is even more urgent now.
The Pakistan election results should be a wake-up call to the Bush administration.
0 Share 0 StumbleUpon 0 Printer Friendly Send via email
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Posted on 10/21/2002 by Juan
Afghan-Pakistani Tensions Rise
The elected leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province traded jibes on Sunday and Monday.
A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged Pakistanis to learn from past mistakes, a reference
to the ruinous policies of the Taliban. Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad is reported by Agence
France Presse as saying, “If some radical groups that are of different stripes still adhere to pro-Taliban,
pro-Osama policies and mindset, then they still can be considered as dangerous, not only for the whole
region but most of all for Pakistan.”
The Pakistan elections held Oct. 10 gave an enormous boost to pro-Taliban factions in that country. The
coalition of religious parties, the Muttahida Majlis-i `Amal or United Action Council, gained 51 seats in the
national parliament and captured the provincial government of the Northwest Frontier Province. It is
also the largest party in the province of Baluchistan. These provinces border Afghanistan.
The MMA has called for an end to the manhunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants in Pakistan (over 400
have been netted), terming them “our Muslim brethren.” Its leaders also want FBI and US military forces
out of Pakistan.
High ranking leaders in Kabul are clearly worried that the pro-Taliban forces in their own Pushtun areas will
be strengthened by the Pakistani election results.
Asked about Karzai’s sentiments, the leader of the Jamaat-i Islami in Pakistan, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, told a
reporter for Jang that the Afghan government is the United States-backed puppet regime and its foreign
ministry is being run by the Americans.
0 Share 0 StumbleUpon 0 Printer Friendly Send via email
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Posted on 10/20/2002 by Juan
Iraqi Kurds eye Kirkuk, Mosul Oil Fields
Commander Hamid Efendi, the top-ranking Kurdish militia commander in Northern Iraq, said Saturday that he was committed to taking Kirkuk and Mosul for Kurdistan if the US went to war against Iraq. Kirkuk and Mosul are where the petroleum is, and possession of them would shift the balance of power in a post-Saddam Iraq toward the Kurds. Brian Murphy reported this for the Associated Press.
Hamid Efendi’s ambitions, which must mirror those of the Kurdish civilian leadership, hold many dangers for the region and for the US. The US would not welcome a diversion from the campaign for Baghdad and for regime change.
Turkey’s foreign minister has bluntly threatened to invade Iraqi Kurdistan if the Kurds capture Kirkuk and Mosul. Turkey has long had a Kurdish problem in eastern Anatolia and fears dismemberment if uppity Iraqi Kurds get petroleum riches and hook up with their cousins under Turkish rule across the border. Kurds secretly want their own state, but are forced by political considerations to say they just want an autonomous region of a federal Iraq.
If Turkish-Kurdish fighting broke out in the midst of the US attack on Iraq, it could be a disaster. The US needs Incirlik airbase and other Turkish facilities, as well as fly-over rights from Turkey. Turkish-Kurdish fighting could endanger all that.
Turkey wants the oil fields given to a Turkmen enclave in northern Iraq (there is also a small Turkic community in the region). Some speculate that the US would go along with such a plan, with an eye to securing good deals for US oil companies in the aftermath and as a way of blocking Kurdish ambitions. But how the US would induce the Kurds to stand down is the question.
US Vice President Dick Cheney, while CEO of Halliburton, did considerable business in the area, especially with regard to supplying equipment to refurbish the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline. Armen Georgian speculates in “In these Times” that Halliburton and other US energy companies are eyeing the Kirkuk and Mosul fields hungrily. The implication, that Cheney wants the war in order to lift the boycott on Iraq and allow some serious money-making for his former company, seems to me a little conspiratorial. But who knows? The stated reasons for the US going to war are so thin that there must be *some* other reason.
0 Share 0 StumbleUpon 0 Printer Friendly Send via email
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Posted on 10/19/2002 by Juan
Egypt releases 120 Islamists
The Egyptian government released 120 members of the Gamaa Islamiyya or Islamic Grouping from prison this past week, and is said to plan further releases. Fully 100 of these were from El Miniya.
In the course of the 1990s, the Egyptian government is said to have jailed between 20,000 and 30,000 radical Islamists. In recent years, however, the leadership of the Islamic Grouping in Tura prison has renounced violence, and all but 12,000 were said to have been released. A further large release was expected in October of 2001, but did not happen because of September 11.
The Gamaa Islamiyya leadership inside Egypt has repudiated the blind sheikh, Omar `Abdu’r-Rahman, now in Federal penitentiary in the US for his role in the first World Trade Center bombing. He had previously been the group’s leader and is said to have given the fatwa or ruling allowing the assassination of Sadat. The Tura leadership has issued a 4-volume book, Correction of Misconceptions, which lays out their new, non-violent ideology.
0 Share 0 StumbleUpon 0 Printer Friendly Send via email
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Posted on 10/18/2002 by Juan
More on Bali bombing and al-Qaeda
I can confirm that Abu Bakar Bashir is “of Arab descent but born in Jombang, in Indonesia.” Kim Sengupta reported it in the Independent. I was also told that Abu Bakar Bashir is of Hadrami origin by someone who says he went to school with him. As Dr. Freitag points out, this is not meant to say that the substantial Arab-heritage community in Indonesia is suspect, nor that no non-Arab Indonesians are involved in Jemaah Islamiyah. And, of course, the old Yemen-Indonesia connection is still lively today on all sorts of levels. Yemeni-Indonesian trade has grown substantially in recent years, e.g.
I was told by a prominent insider that he believes that Jemaah Islamiya (a tiny fringe group) has been most successful in recruiting among the Hadramis in Indonesia.
There have been some indications of this possibility in the press reports. In January of 2002, Yemen arrested some 40 Indonesian students studying at Islamic seminaries in that country, on suspicion of being involved in radical groups.
In June of 2002, six Yemenis in Jakarta were put under surveillance on suspicion of planning to blow up the US embassy there. The surveillance was done so sloppily, however, that the men noticed it and fled.
Last April, Indonesian terrorist and suspected Jemaah Islamiyah member who was charged with setting off bombs in Manila on Dec. 30, 2001, Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, was sentenced to 10 to 12 years of imprisonment after pleading guilty to a charge of illegal possession of explosives. His last name suggests an Arab origin.
Press reports allege that one of the four men being interrogated by Indonesian police in connection with the Bali bombing is a Yemeni.
One of the reasons President Megawati Sukarnoputri had earlier been reluctant to ban Jemaah Islamiyah was her fear that such a move would be exploited in the 2004 elections by the fundamentalist party, the United Development Party, headed by Hamzah Haz. Haz and his constituents, the third largest party in parliament, have been openly dismissive of the charges against Bashir and Jemaah Islamiyah. The UDP is pushing for shariah or Islamic law to replace civil law in Indonesia.
Bashir will be questioned by police on Saturday. He was named as a leader of Jemaah Islamiyah by `Umar Faruq, a Kuwaiti member of al-Qaeda captured by the Indonesians and handed over to the Americans this past summer; Faruq is now being held at Bagram in Afghanistan. Faruq had arranged for money to be sent to Jemaah Islamiyah from a wealthy Saudi patron. Bashir initially denied the existence of Jemaah Islamiyah and denied he was the head of it. His followers wear Usama Bin Laden t-shirts.
A possibly more important figure is Ridwan Isamuddin, who goes by the nisbah of Hanbali (Hambali), age 36. Born in 1966 in west Java of a peasant family, he is a member of the consultative councils both of al-Qaeda and of Jemaah Islamiyah. Hanbali fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s and recruited some other Indonesian Jemaah members there for JI. Hanbali was the mastermind of a plot to blow up Western embassies in Singapore with truck bombs last December, which was foiled by good intelligence work. Hanbali is thought to have fled to Indonesia, and the Bali bombings have the same modus operandi as the earlier embassy plot. Hanbali had hosted the September 11 hijackers Khalid al-Mihdar (of Yemeni origin) and Nawaf al-Hazmi in Kuala Lampur in January of 2000.
Hanbali also gave Abu Bakar Bashir refuge in Malaysia during the Suharto years, when Bashir was not welcome in his own country. And, Hanbali also hosted Zacarias Moussaoui when the latter came to Malaysia, apparently hoping it would be easier to get a US visa there.
0 Share 0 StumbleUpon 0 Printer Friendly Send via email
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
