THE HANDSTAND

january 2005

stoppressstoppress

iraq elections
US CIA Up To Their Usual Mischief
    
 
 
 Have we forgotten to take note of this warning ??
"Monday, Sep. 27, 2004- President Bush and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi insisted last week that Iraq would go ahead with elections scheduled for January, despite continuing violence. But U.S. officials tell TIME that the Bush team ran into trouble with another plan involving those elections   a secret "finding" written several months ago proposing a covert CIA operation to aid candidates favored by Washington. A source says the idea was to help such candidates   whose opponents might be receiving covert backing from other countries, like Iran   but not necessarily to go so far as to rig the elections. But lawmakers from both parties raised questions about the idea when it was sent to Capitol Hill. In particular, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi "came unglued" when she learned about what a source described as a plan for "the CIA to put an operation in place to affect the outcome of the elections." Pelosi had strong words with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in a phone call about the issue."  Time Magazine
 
 It seems that Bush and Co really want to export Florida style  "democracy" to Afghanistan and Iraq. The online version of Time Magazine reported on Monday September 27 the Bush administration and CIA were taking some heat from their proposed plan to rig the upcoming Iraqi elections in favor of the people the Americans feel most comfortable dealing with, ostensibly folks who have been or are currently are on the CIA payroll like Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Afghani president Hamid Karzai.  Funny I don't remember the other corporate mind control outlets running this story?! It doesn't surprise me a bit. In fact last week I saw a piece on the Internet about the frustration of Afghani candidates, especially the women lamenting they could not compete against Karzai because he could make numerous stops from town to town campaigning in US military helicopters while they had to depend on slower more limited conventional transportation. They also complained the warlords were using intimidation to either limit voter turn out or terrorize the populous into voting for their candidate. An article in the August 17th  AfghanNews.net stated, "Observers also claim the ground work necessary for a free and fair election   security, reconstruction and political stability   has not been established in Afghanistan and that the U.S. hurriedly pushed the country into elections to further its own agenda.   The United States wants, before the November elections, to showcase a victory of the Bush administration by proving it is possible to bring democracy to an Islamic Third World country, said Assem Akram, an Afghan historian and author based in Washington.  And if American voters grant George Bush a new mandate, his administration will reproduce the same successful model in Iraq. That is why there is so much hurry.' With scarce funds and hasty plans for rebuilding Afghanistan, some critics aren't surprised the elections are starting to unravel in advance of polling day. Although it will take at least a week to report the final tally of registered voters, United Nations officials overseeing the elections admit that more than 10 million voting cards have been issued   surpassing the estimated 9.8 million eligible voters."  By this reckoning, Afghanistan is ripe for voter fraud and rigged elections. Don't surprised if Hamid Karzai wins due to massive voter fraud and election rigging rivaling what happened in Florida in the 2000 US presidential election! After all he has been on the CIA payroll sine the   80's. As for Iraq, the scenario there will be pretty much the same; a bogus election staged for the media to provide validation for the New World Order elites' plan to control that region of the world. Afghanistan is unstable, the so called tribal warlords and resurrected Taliban control much of the country. President Karzai the US puppet, is a constant target for assassination. Only round the clock protection by US Special Forces and contract mercenaries keep him alive. Any time he sets foot outside of Kabul he puts his life in serious danger, that is how hated he is!  He recently escaped assassination while campaigning. The situation in Iraq is just as tenuous. There are cities under total control of the freedom fighters that will prevent participation in the electoral process by large number of Iraqis, thereby undermining any legitimacy for the already bogus election process. The CIA Iraqi election rigging  plan would replicate what they have done around the world for the past fifty plus years beginning in Italy and Greece immediately following WorldWar II!Don't believe the hype , true self-determination and self-rule is the last thing the NWO elite's want in Afghanistan and Iraq. For them the best case scenario is the continuance of the existing status quo with US flunkies, stooges and synchopants doing their bidding. Just because this plan was exposed don't expect them to back off. All they will do is go back to the drawing board, only next time they will keep it secret!   Junious Ricardo Stanton

Dear Friends,   Please forward this message from Iraqi oppositionists about the sham elections to your mailing lists.   Yours in peace and solidarity Dave Lordan www.irishantiwar.org

Iraq is being denied free and fair elections, after enduring decades of Saddam’s brutal dictatorship. The US and British occupation governments have engineered a process for reproducing the US-appointed Iraqi Interim Government, to prolong the occupation and incite sectarian and ethnic conflicts.

Millions of Iraqis, under siege in many parts of their homeland, will be disenfranchised, while hundreds of thousands of second generation Americans and Israelis could vote.

While boycotting this undemocratic exercise, we strongly condemn all forms of violence against Iraqis participating in it.  We, as exiles, are confident that the vast majority of Iraqis, at home and abroad, shall unite to end the US-led occupation and establish democracy, whatever their stance on participation.

We echo opinions within Iraq stressing the impossibility of holding free and fair elections while under occupation, and being subjected to war crimes by the US-led forces. However, we support demands for minimal pre-conditions: (1) setting a strict timetable for speedy withdrawal of all occupation forces, (2) ceasing all attacks, and confining all occupation forces to barracks until full withdrawal, (3) ending martial law and releasing all political prisoners, (4) establishing an independent election commission, led by Iraq’s senior serving and retired judges, and including all Iraq’s political forces. The commission can be assisted by anti-occupation figures, e.g. Nelson Mandela, and the UN General Assembly."
Signatures:
1. Sami Ramadani: Senior lecture, London Metropolitan University
2. Haifa Zangana: Novelist, UK
3. Professor Kamal Majid, UK
4. Tahrir Numan: Journalist, UK
5. Dr. Imad Khadduri: Nuclear scientist, Toronto, Canada
6. Mundher Adhami: Researcher, Kings College, London University
7. Dr. Nadje Al-Ali: Exeter university, UK
8. Dr. Mousa Al-Hussaini: Writer and journalist, UK
9. Dr. Usama Al-Shabibi: Pharmacist-Pharmacologist, UK
10. Dr. Ali Assam: Computer expert: UK
11. Yasar Mohammed Salman Hasan: computer expert, UK
12. Dr. Mahboub Al-Chalabi, Petroleum expert, UK
13. Dr Subhi Toma: Social studies researcher, Paris
14. Jafar Al-Samarrai: Computer expert
15. Dr. Ali Al-Shahwani: Engineer
16. Zaid Numan, Chartered building Surveyor, UK
17. Hani Lazim, Computer expert: UK
18. Mohammed Aref: Science writer, UK
19. Fenik Adham: Councellor: UK
20. Mahmoud Al-Bayaty: Novelist, Sweden

For further information contact:
--
**************************************************
Sami Ramadani,
Department of Applied Social Sciences,
London Metropolitan University, City Campus,
Calcutta House,
Old Castle Street,
London, E1 7NT

Tel: 020 7320 1280
Fax: 020 7320 1034
Email: Sami.Ramadani@londonmet.ac.uk

more at www.irishantiwar.org



Subject: Palestinian Activist, Saif Abukeshekhas, Speaking Tour throughout Ireland
>Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005
"After the elections ... How can Palestine win freedom?"
Saif Abukeshekhas has been an activist since 1996, in 2000 He was shot in the chin by the Israeli military during a protest in Ramallah. In 2002 Saif joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and since then has been one of the Palestinian coordinators for the movement and a trainer for non-violent direct action in Palestine. He has been arrested three times, detained several times, hasselled and introgated each time travelled from/to Palestine. He has done several speaking tours around Europe and to Australia trying to increase awareness of the Palestinian struggle and the illegality and brutality of the Israeli occupation. He is also the coordinator of international relations for the highest national committee of the right of return for Palestinian refugees. He is now doing a tour around Europe with other activists to talk about their struggle in the Middle East, aiming to start a European network for peace and solidarity with the Middle East.
Saif will give talks at the following venues:
Thursday 20th, Cork 1pm UCC ; 8pm Victoria Hotel, Patrick St
Friday 21st, Galway 1pm NUI Galway ; 8pm Imperial Hotel
Saturday 22nd, Derry 4pm Sandinos Pub
Monday 24th, Drogheda 8pm Westcourt Hotel
Tuesday 25th, Dundalk 1pm Dundalk IT ; 8pm Imperial Hotel
Wednesday 26th, Waterford 8pm ATGWU Hall
Thursday 27th, Clonmel 8pm Post House Bar
Friday 28th, Gorey 7pm The Coach House
Saturday 29th, 3pm Tralee
Organised by Socialist Workers Party, (01) 8722682 www.swp.ie
"Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign" dlordan@hotmail.com
>
IRAQ ELECTIONS:

Israelis of Iraqi origin are deemed eligible to vote in the upcoming elections despite being exiled from the country for over 40 years and while the Palestinian refugees living in Iraq have been denied the most basic human rights such as access to clean water and healthcare.  Furthermore, it is interesting how this announcement is made only one week after Israel, the main beneficiary of this new "eligibility" agreement, categorically denied over 5 million Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and elsewhere the right to vote in the Palestinian elections that took place in the occupied territories last week............

irish media:good news re. our constitution
Dublin, Ireland, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Ireland will not participate in the European Union's battlegroups because it is against its constitution to do so.

The Irish Times reports Defense Minister Willie O'Dea ruled out participation for the foreseeable future because of major legal and constitutional difficulties. Ireland is a neutral country and needs a U.N. mandate before deploying its troops, the report said.

Although a U.N. Security Council resolution favoring the deployment can take care of this problem, O'Dea said there were other difficulties too. The EU plan envisages rapid deployment of teams of up to 1,500 troops to trouble spots and Irish officials say their country does not have the means to deploy such a large number of troops. They, however, indicated they can group with other neutral countries like Finland and Sweden to take part in the battlegroups' plan.

But there's yet another legal hitch preventing Ireland's participation. Under the 1954 defense act, Irish troops cannot be sent abroad for training. Having foreign troops in the country may also breach the Irish Constitution.


German media:

...I read an account of a priest in Sri Lanka who runs an orphanage there that was completely destroyed. Himself and his wife realised there was a wave coming (his wife saw it first and came rushing into the house saying that the: “the sea is coming”) so they packed all the children into their boat and headed out to sea directly towards the wave. They managed to keep the boat afloat by clever steering, and actually climbed the wave, getting across to the other side of it. Hours later they reached the shore to find the neighbours all dead. The fact that the animals escaped this disaster by running to high ground illustrates that human beings have become separated from nature. Some elephants broke their chains and it appears that not many bodies of animals were found. I read that humans, especially western tourists, just stood there filming this nine meter wave as it bore down on them.RB.

Palestine election results

update:

The Election Labyrinth of East Jerusalem, ISM Election Day Report
from Hebron, Nablus--Reportback from Donna

From the ISM Media Office:
The Election Labyrinth of East Jerusalem
January 9, 2005
By Molly Picon

Many friends and family in the U.S. have asked me about whether or not I think the Palestinian elections will be conducted in a free and fair manner. Today was an eye-opener about the meaning of free and fair. Take a deep breath, dear reader, and I'll take you through the many twists and turns taken by Palestinian residents of Jerusalem trying to vote in the PA elections.

Palestinians who live in Jerusalem are not Israeli citizens. This means that although they are required to pay taxes TO the Israeli government, they are not represented BY the Israeli government. Palestinian residents of Jerusalem cannot vote in Israeli elections. They also receive poorer social services from the Israeli government. According to the Israeli Committee against Home Demolitions, the Palestinians of East Jerusalem receive 6-8% of the social services in the municipality even though they pay one third of the taxes.  Voting rights for Palestinian residents of Jerusalem were an enormous problem in these elections. From the Israeli perspective, if all of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were permitted to vote in Jerusalem, it would mean that the Palestinian Authority would be responsible for protecting their interests. If the Palestinian Authority were to have a significant number of constituents in East Jerusalem and these constituents were acknowledged as Palestinian by Israel, this would strengthen the Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem. This is life for Palestinians in the only "democracy" in the Middle East.

Of the 124,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem only six thousand were eligible to vote within East Jerusalem itself due to the Israeli imposed restrictions.  The Israeli government limited Palestinian voting to six Israeli post offices which had minimal capacity to serve as polling stations. The other 118,000 residents had to cross through Israeli imposed checkpoints or around Israel's apartheid wall in order to vote in surrounding villages and towns. Naturally, the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem worried about losing the meager social services provided to them by the Israeli government, not to mention their rights to their homes, if they succeeded in voting in the areas surrounding Jerusalem. Since the city of Jerusalem is such a sensitive issue in terms of sovereignty over holy sites and territorial issues, the city's Palestinian residents are left in the middle of the dispute, without proper representation and under threat from settler nationalist groups intent on keeping all of Jerusalem as part of Israel.

We began our day as election eyewitnesses at the largest voting station in East Jerusalem, the Salahadin post office. There were a few people gathered and ready to vote. It was then that things became rather hairy, as many who came to Salahadin were turned away from the voting station because their name was not on the list of people eligible to vote in East Jerusalem. It seemed that no one knew which 4% of the 124,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were eligible to vote in the place where they lived and which had to go to the surrounding villages and towns.

Never mind that Israel and the U.S. picked their favorite before the election even started. You have, no doubt heard of Abu Mazen, my reader? Never mind that the Israelis restricted freedom of movement for every candidate running besides the one they picked. Have you heard of the multiple arrests of Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi? Do you even know who he is? Did you know that he is a PhD in medicine with one graduate degree in philosophy and one in civil administration? Did you know that he is the president of the Medical Relief Committee, which he founded? Have you heard of Bassam Al-Salhi who holds a master's degree in political science from Birzeit University? What about Taysir Khaled who holds a Masters degree in Economy and Political Science from Heidelberg University? These men, along with Abu Mazen (who before you ask, has a PhD in Law from the University of Damascus) have been among the leaders of the Palestinian struggle for justice. They are not rag-tag thugs as our government, or the Israeli press, would have us believe.

But I digress. Never mind that Israel and the U.S. hand-picked the winner before the elections even started. Never mind the significant Israeli police presence around each and every polling station in East Jerusalem. I mean, would you feel comfortable voting knowing that you could potentially be arrested and held for months without trial and without even knowing what you were being accused of? Never mind the American loser John Kerry who stopped by for photo-ops with the Shin Bet. Never mind all of this.

In addition to the police presence, when our group arrived at our second destination, the Jaffa street post office polling place, there were teenage Jewish settlers hanging around outside the post office, eyeballing Palestinians trying to vote unsuccessfully. At 12:30pm one Palestinian out of 50 potential voters was allowed to vote at this polling station. The settler children were given microphones and cameras for Israel National Radio (aka Arutz Sheva), an anti-Palestinian propagandist radio station. We internationals were like a magnet for them. A Jewish representative of the Jerusalem Municipal Council in his thirties tried to walk into the post office with an enormous Israeli flag in his hand. When he was stopped by security, he said: "Jerusalem is part of my country, the State of Israel, and this is the flag of the state of Israel. I should be allowed to go wherever I want to go in Jerusalem with this flag."

After the incident subsided, one of the settler teens, with an Arutz Sheva microphone in hand and a yellow star with the word `settler' written in Hebrew on his lapel, asked if I wanted to give an interview. I said no. He asked why. I said I'm not interested. He asked why. I told him I don't talk to Israel National Radio. We were approached again by a different settler teen who insisted on knowing our opinion on whether the elections were free and fair. I told him that we weren't interested in speaking to him. He insisted on knowing our opinion. I told him to stop harassing us and to leave. He said that he had the right to stand there. I told him that I would call the police if he didn't leave us alone. I stood my ground (I was boiling inside, just boiling) and he left. It was at this point that another settler teen shoved a video camera in the faces of the other three members in my group. He demanded that they tell him the names of the candidates running for Palestinian president.

My Swedish friend (who you may remember from my last report back, with the Barbie-doll hair?) insisted that he stop filming her. When she put her hand to her face, the settler teen went to the police and claimed that she assaulted him. The police of course did nothing and the settler teen came right back over and shoved the video camera in our faces again. It was at this point that the four of us turned our backs and he went on to harass one of the EU election monitors. Another settler teen approached and insisted on knowing why we supported these Arabs. He asked if we knew what he knew: that there have never been a Palestinian people, and that the term was a construct. We refused to answer his ridiculous question. Are the people who have lived in this place for centuries also a construct? Are they fungible, like the US loans with repayment waived (in other words, grants for Israel with no US oversight)? It was at this point that the settler teen accused my Barbie-blonde Swedish friend of perpetrating the Holocaust. He told her that she wanted all of the Jews in Israel to move back to Europe. She clarified that she didn't want him or any of his friends anywhere near her country.

It was at this point, after the realization that Palestinians had left the polling place, thoroughly intimidated by the settler presence and aware that if they tried to vote inside the post office they would probably be turned away, that we decided to leave. The Israelis were clear about the fact that they were not interested in reigning in the settlers (are they ever clear in action that they want these people to stop?) The settlers sent their children out to incite violence, as after all, they are the ones who spawn terrorists and confronting them was not what we were there to do. We heard about more incidents throughout the day of settlers trying to intimidate Palestinians on their way to the polls, but the EU monitors claim that every one was able to reach the polling places without physical violence.

At around 2:30pm, former president Jimmy Carter negotiated a deal with the prime minister's office that allowed Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to vote inside the city with their I.D. cards, whether their name appeared on the list of those eligible to vote in the city or not. However, at the time at which the polls closed and Abu Mazen was declared the winner (a huge shock to all, I mean what a roller coaster ride!) only six or seven Palestinians had voted at the Jaffa Gate.

So, dear reader, were the elections free and fair as was reported? The Palestinian residents of Jerusalem worked as hard as they could, organizing buses and vans to the surrounding areas in order to get out the vote. The Palestinians care deeply about changing their situation and want more than anything to have a just and democratic society. They made every effort to make the elections run smoothly under occupation. I share their hopes that Israel will stop this nonsensical occupation and that they will one day achieve their goal.

The day after the elections, the Israelis closed the Qalandia and Ram checkpoints for "security reasons" in both the direction of Ramallah (away from Israel) and in the direction of Jerusalem. While my friends and I waited at Qalandia with about 200-300 Palestinians all too familiar with these regular accusations and hassles, I thought "no matter what they say, no matter what they do, no matter what's decided, I will always remember that these people are Palestinians and that this place is Palestine."

PALESTINIAN VOTES CURTAILED BY ISRAEL IN JERUSALEM ; POLITICAL DOUBTS AND FEARS CONSTRAIN PALESTINIAN VOTERS

Sharon : Thanks to me, free elections are happening in Palestine



For other drawings on world news  :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/tableauxpastels/caricatures-mariali/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, FROM INTERNAT.SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

January 9, 2005

At approximately, 12:30 PM today, 5 ½ hours after the opening of polling stations, the first Palestinian voter succeeded in casting a ballot at the Jaffa Gate post office in the old city of East Jerusalem.  Israeli imposed obstacles to voting at the Jaffa Gate polling station typify the problems Palestinians are experiencing as they attempt to conduct democratic elections under Israeli occupation.  The Israeli government is attempting to limit Palestinian voting in East Jerusalem in particular as part of an attempt to deny Palestinian rights and identity there.

Because of Israeli imposed conditions, only 6,000 of the 124,000 Palestinians from East Jerusalem who hold Israeli-issued Jerusalem IDs are eligible to vote within East Jerusalem near their homes.  Those 6,000 must vote for their President in six Israeli government controlled post offices. The remaining 118,000 East Jerusalem residents must travel to surrounding towns and villages to vote, often passing through Israeli checkpoints or around Israel's Apartheid Wall.

Only 4.8% of East Jerusalemites will actually find their names on the East Jerusalem voting lists at the six Israeli post offices near their homes.  The vast majority are being turned away and told to travel on to the surrounding towns and villages to vote.  The Jaffa Gate post office seems to represent an extreme example of this problem.  By 12:30 PM, ISM volunteers were told by an Israeli post office employee there that only one of approximately 40 Palestinians who came to vote there had been allowed to vote so far.  Similarly, ISM volunteers have been told that only 34 few East Jerusalemites succeeded in voting at the Israeli post office in Shufat, and 56 voted in Beit Hanina so far.

On top of restricting the vote to 4.8% of the eligible Palestinian population in East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities have imposed numerous other constraints on East Jerusalem residents' right to vote.  The requirement that Palestinians cast ballots in Israeli post offices allows Israeli authorities to maintain a façade that Jerusalem residents are casting absentee ballots, and mailing their votes back to their homeland. 

During visits to voters' homes over the last week in East Jerusalem, a number of Palestinians explained to ISM volunteers that voting in Israeli post offices is intimidating and will reduce turnout.  They fear Israeli authorities will take the list of voters, and, as a punishment for voting in a Palestinian election, strip voters of their Israeli-issued Jerusalem identification card and their right to live in Jerusalem, and of the benefits that they have paid for through taxes to the Israeli government.

Already worried about voting in Israeli post offices, East Jerusalemites also fear traveling to vote in the towns and villages outside of East Jerusalem.  Israeli authorities could claim that as evidence that they are not residents of Jerusalem, and strip them of their Jerusalem IDs and their rights and benefits.

Other major violations in East Jerusalem include Israeli restrictions on registering voters and campaigning in East Jerusalem.  Israeli authorities closed down Palestinian voter registration centers in East Jerusalem. While they eventually allowed door-to-door registration, staff conducting the registration told ISM volunteers that they were prohibited from carrying any documents identifying them with the Palestinian Central election Commission, and from displaying the Palestinian flag or colors.  Israeli authorities have also limited the posting of candidate and voter education posters to a few designated public locations.  Presidential candidates have also been arrested and harassed by Israeli police on the few occasions when they attempted to campaign in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli government's effort to deny Palestinians' right to vote in East Jerusalem serves as one example of the impossibility of conducting free and fair elections under Israeli military occupation.


Tsunami report:military hinder Indonesia's aid relief
By Jonathan Head BBC News,
Excerpts

Squads of Indonesian soldiers moved around in rubber dinghies, hooking the corpses with ropes and pulling them back to the bank, where they were packed into body bags. At least they had body bags now, a few days earlier they had simply been leaving them uncovered in rows beside the road.

They did their work quietly, and they were watched by a silent crowd on the bridge. And then I looked again, and I saw one of the corpses was wearing a bra. It was someone's mother, sister or wife. And another, smaller, was in a striped t-shirt and underpants, somebody's daughter. Standing on the bridge and staring out at the mangled, foul-smelling mess of upturned cars and smashed fishing boats, and rubble stretching for miles, in what had once been a substantial neighbourhood, I found myself unable to imagine the power of something that could do all this, nor the terror of the people caught up in it. And I could not look anymore.

Nor could some of the bystanders on the bridge. Nearly everyone here has lost numbers of close relatives.

How are we supposed to report a human tragedy of this magnitude? The words and phrases used to capture the scale of previous disasters seem hopelessly inadequate this time. And there is no one to blame, no failures to rectify that could prevent a recurrence. This was a natural phenomenon so brutally destructive it almost seems evil.
Aceh had already been dealt a lousy hand before the disaster, its people caught in a vicious war between separatist rebels and the Indonesian army. It was a conflict the world took little notice of, even though thousands were killed.

Sealed off from help by martial law, Aceh is one of the poorest regions of Indonesia, ill-prepared to deal with destruction on this scale.

No one wants to miss the chance to take part in the most dramatic natural disaster of modern times , one day US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the next UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.



The Acehenese are proud of their defiant history, fighting long wars against the Dutch, the Japanese and now the government in Jakarta, for more independence. They have learnt to bear their suffering well, but I have just had a 56 year-old man sobbing uncontrollably in my arms, after telling me about his two sons, both missing, almost certainly among the countless unnamed corpses.

They are also bewildered by the relief effort, no one has ever cared about them before. Certainly not their own government, which has sanctioned the harshest tactics by Indonesian soldiers to suppress their separatist dreams.

The temporary camps that have been established in almost every school, mosque or building are largely run by the displaced inhabitants themselves, with modest help from Indonesian volunteer groups. They seem astonished to hear that so many people in the rest of the world want to help.

'Long-term presence'

But just how far is our commitment to the people of Aceh going to go?

We, the news media, will be gone in a couple of weeks.

And if the Indonesian government re-imposes its ban on foreign journalists, we will not be back.

The UN and the aid agencies say they must be allowed a long-term presence to help get Aceh back on its feet, but that still depends heavily on the co-operation of the Indonesian military, which really runs this province.

That co-operation could come at a price, of funds siphoned off, of soldiers directing the flow of aid away from areas considered sympathetic to the rebels.

The army's presence here is strikingly visible. Already there are signs they are moving in to control the relief effort.


Diary from Rafah

31 December 04


To view more pictures please click here

From New York City to Gaza Strip they came: American and Israeli settlers, many with dual
American-Israeli citizenship, who blocked the main north-south artery in Gaza, the Salah Al Deen Road,
and blocked the Abu Holi Checkpoint with their demonstration urging the Israeli settlers not to
withdraw from Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians were stuck the Abu Holi checkpoint hours longer than usual during this demonstration. Nothing and nobody moved, including ambulances trying to transport patients for emergency treatment. Inside one ambulance was Mohammed Mahdi, 28, who was accompanying his mother who urgently needed surgery at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but
the settlers' demonstration brought their trip to a standstill.

" I have been waiting inside the ambulance for many hours, but of course, the checkpoint is closed as
you see. Not just the usual settlers but our guests from US," Mahdi said. "We have been appealing to
United Nations, and asked them to get word to the international community to put pressure on Israel to
permit emergency traffic, but we have had no response so far."

The Israeli Newspaper, Yaduat Ahronoth, confirmed that the unusually large crowds of settlers closing
the Salah Ah Deen Road included hundreds of US citizens who came to Gaza to support those residents of the Israeli Gush Katif settlement who oppose Sharon's plan to withdraw all Israeli settlers from Gaza. Many Palestinian residents are well aware that some Israeli settlers have second homes in America, while they themselves are in danger of becoming homeless allegedly to ensure those settlers' safety.

While normal travel was near impossible in Gaza, heavy incursions continued in Khan Younis where on December 31, 11 people were killed at Khanyounis Camp, and another 30 were injured. These are the latest casualty numbers from the ongoing incursion targeting Khan Younis.

Shreds of human flesh and bone fragments are spread over the streets from the tank shell attacks. Even
worse, many of the injured lie bleeding in the streets for hours while the ambulances are pinned down by
direct fire. Those lucky enough to be evacuated from the free fire zone still may not reach treatment in
time due to the complete closure of Abu Holi checkpoint.

At least 300 are newly homeless. Ali Abu Zarka, 12, had his family's home bulldozed during the last few
days, and is now taking shelter with his family of seven members in the classroom of an UNRWA school. "I was sleeping and heard the loud speakers. The soldiers were saying we had to leave our houses at once. So we ran out into the very chilly weather and ran for the UN school" he said.



Ali was lucky compared to many other families who were told their houses would be demolished over
their heads. Many eyewitnesses in the attacked neighborhoods reported the announcements said any who didn't leave instantly were at risk of being bulldozed with their houses.

In Nothern Gaza, the town of Dier Al Balah has also suffered an incursion which ended only hours ago.
Many houses were demolished, many people injured, and many planted fields and groves were destroyed. The damage reports are growing by the hour. As usual, it may take a few days before anyone can assess the true numbers of houses destroyed and people injured. All these ongoing attacks on civilian areas are taking place against the background of preparation for national elections on January 9. Supposedly, new leadership may be able to restart peace talks, but it is hard to see how meaningful these elections will be when tens of thousands of Gazans cannot safely leave their houses, and other tens of thousands no longer have houses to leave.


Reuters photo

photos by Khan

.IRAQ : Death Counts in Fallujah Rising Doctors Report.

"It was really distressing picking up dead bodies from destroyed homes, especially children. It is the most depressing situation I have ever been in since the war started," Dr Rafa'ah al-Iyssaue, director of the main hospital in Fallujah city, some 60 km west of Baghdad, told IRIN. 

According to al-Iyssaue, the hospital emergency team has recovered more than 700 bodies from rubble where houses and shops once stood, adding that more than 550 were women and children. He said a very small number of men were found in these places and most were elderly. Al-Iyssaue added these numbers were only from nine neighbourhoods of the city and that 18 others had not yet been reached, as they were waiting for help from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) to make it easier for them to enter. He explained that many of the dead had been already buried by civilians from the Garma and Amirya districts of Fallujah after approval from US-led forces nearly three weeks ago, and those bodies had not been counted. 

Doctors at the hospital claim that many bodies had been found in a mutilated condition, some without legs or arms. Two babies were found at their homes, who are believed to have died from malnutrition, according to a specialist at the hospital. 

IRCS officials told IRIN they needed more time to give an accurate death toll, adding that the city was completely uninhabitable. 

Ministry of Health officials told IRIN that they are in the process of investigating the number of deaths, but claim that a very small number of women and children were killed, contrary to what doctors in Fallujah have said. They added that they are working together with the US-led forces to rehabilitate the health system inside the city. 

Residents who have returned to their homes after waiting hours to enter the city found that most of their homes had been totally destroyed by the fighting which started nearly a month ago between the US-led forces and insurgents who are said to be under the control of Abu-Mussab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist wanted by the Iraqi government. "I've been here for more than six hours and until now could not enter the city, even after the fighting finished in our area. There is no respect for civilians," Samirah al-Jumaili, a mother of seven, told IRIN. 

The situation in Fallujah is still not clear. According to Col. Clark Mathew, spokesman for the US Marines, night time attacks continue in some areas of the city. US forces have informed residents not to leave their homes after the imposed curfew of 1800 to 0600. Mathew explained that most attacks were in areas where US troops have bases in order to secure the city, but added that by the end of this month the situation should be under control and that the reconstruction of Fallujah would then begin. "We hope that very soon reconstruction of Fallujah will start and families will feel a new life," Mathew added. 

"The US troops are saying that soon Fallujah will be rebuilt. I believe that this city won't offer a minimum of living conditions until another year has passed. I am still searching for what they have been calling democracy," Muhammad Kubaissy, a civilian from Fallujah, told IRIN. His home and two shops were destroyed in the fighting.  "They came to bring us freedom, but all Iraqis are now prisoners in their own homes," he added.  "It is impossible to live in Fallujah. There is no water, electricity or sewage treatment. Even hospitals cannot afford the minimum of security for all families of the city. We don't have enough medicine and you can feel the bad smell of bodies in the air," al-Iyssaue added. 

Residents of Fallujah have been asking the Iraqi government to allow journalists and TV reporters to enter the city in order to show the reality.  The government will only allow journalists to visit with a special identity card, saying it is for their own safety. Many journalists have been turned away from Fallujah after not receiving authorisation from US-troops guarding the city.  "We need someone here to show the reality of Fallujah. Even when some journalists are here they are being followed by the Marines. We need someone to help us. The world should see the real picture of Fallujah," Sheikh Abbas al-Zubeiny told IRIN. 

Copyright: Reuters