Saturday, March 19, 2016
تركيا مصممة على "محاربة الإرهاب" بعد تفجير إسطنبول
NO SHIT!!
EVERYDAY WE SEE A PROOF THAT TURKEY IS A PAPER TIGER.
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شجب رئيس الوزراء التركي أحمد داود أوغلوالتفجير الذي هزّ شارع الاستقلال اليوم السبت فيإسطنبول
، وقال مسؤولون أتراك إن حزب العمال الكردستاني أو تنظيم الدولة قد يقفان وراء الهجوم.
ووصف أوغلو الهجوم بأنه "غير إنساني وخائن"، وقال -في بيان- إن "المنظمات الإرهابية لن تستطع الوصول لأهدافها من خلال الهجمات والتفجيرات"، وأعرب عن تصميم بلاده على الاستمرار في محاربة "الإرهاب" إلى أن يقضى عليه تماماً.
وقال إن التحقيق الجاري بشأن التفجير "ماضٍ بكل دقة وباتجاهات متعددة في سبيل الكشف عن ملابسات الحادث بأسرع ما يمكن".
وعقد أوغلو اجتماعا أمنيا موسعا عقب التفجير، بينما تعهد وزير الخارجية التركي مولود جاويش أوغلو بأن تواصل بلاده حربها على "الإرهاب" بكامل قوتها.
وفجر "انتحاري" نفسه قرب مقر قائممقام منطقة "بي أوغلو"، ويقع المبنى في شارع الاستقلال الذي يعدّ أحد أهم المناطق السياحية في إسطنبول، ويضم عددا من المقاهي والمطاعم والمسارح.
وقال مسؤول تركي إن المهاجم كان يستهدف في الأصل منطقة أكثر ازدحاما، وأشار إلى أن "المهاجم فجّر القنبلة قبل الوصول إلى منطقته المستهدفة لأنه كان خائفا من الشرطة".
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| فرق الإسعاف في موقع الهجوم بشارع الاستقلال (الأوروبية) |
وأسفر الهجوم عن مقتل أربعة مواطنين أتراك إلى جانب منفذ الهجوم، وإصابة 36 شخصًا، بينهم 24 يحملون جنسيات أجنبية، بحسب وكالة الأناضول نقلا عن وزير الصحة التركي ومحافظ إسطنبول.
غير أن قنوات تركية نقلت عن مصادر طبية قولها إن ثلاثة إسرائيليين وإيرانيا قتلوا في الهجوم، وأوضحت أن الضحايا الإسرائيليين هم سمحا سمعان دمري (ستون عاما) ويوناثان سوهر (أربعون عاما) وإفراهام غولدمان (سبعون عاما)، بينما يدعى الإيراني علي رضا خلمان (لم يحدد عمره).
واستأجر جهاز الإسعاف الإسرائيلي طائرتين إلى إسطنبول لإجلاء الجرحى الإسرائيليين، وستتم العملية بالتنسيق مع وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية التي أعلن متحدث باسمها أن 11 إسرائيليا على الأقل أصيبوا بجروح في الحادث، اثنان منهم إصابتهما خطيرة.
وقال مسؤولون أتراك إن أدلة جديدة تشير إلى أن منفذ التفجير ربما يكون من تنظيم الدولة أو حزب العمال الكردستاني، وأوضح أحد المسؤولين أن التحقيقات تركز على ثلاثة مشتبه بهم محتملين كلهم رجال، اثنان منهم من مدينة غازي عنتاب الجنوبية بالقرب من الحدود السورية.
وتفجير اليوم هو الرابع الذي يضرب تركيا هذا العام، فقد قتل 37 شخصا في أنقرة بتفجير "انتحاري" بسيارة ملغمة هذا الشهر، كما قتل 29 بتفجير مشابه في أنقرة الشهر الماضي، وأعلنت جماعة كردية مسلحة مسؤوليتها عن هذين التفجيرين.
وفي يناير/كانون الثاني الماضي، قتل مفجر "انتحاري" نحو عشرة أشخاص أغلبهم سائحون ألمانيون في منطقة تاريخية وسط إسطنبول، واتهمت الحكومة تنظيم الدولة بتنفيذ هذا الهجوم.
Denying the obvious in Egypt
Sisi regime fights back over Regeni's death
The killing of postgraduate student Giulio Regeni, apparently at the hands of Egypt's security apparatus, has put the Sisi regime on the spot. In the face of an international outcry, the regime is responding with a mixture of bluster, conspiracy theories and diversionary tactics.
By Brian Whitaker
Link
Saturday, 19 March 2016
The killing of postgraduate student Giulio Regeni, apparently at the hands of Egypt's security apparatus, has put the Sisi regime on the spot. In the face of an international outcry, the regime is responding with a mixture of bluster, conspiracy theories and diversionary tactics.
By Brian Whitaker
Link
19 March 2016
The Sisi regime and its supporters are scrabbling to cast doubt on the most obvious and most probable explanation for the killing of Giulio Regeni: that he was tortured to death by the Egyptian state’s security apparatus.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Italian studying for a doctorate at Cambridge University, disappeared in Cairo on January 25, the anniversary of the revolution that ousted President Mubarak. Nine days later his horribly mutilated body was found in a ditch on the Cairo-Alexandria road.
Along with bruises and broken bones, Regeni's body showed the classic signs of torture. There were burns from cigarettes and electric shocks, and nails had been ripped from his fingers and toes. Regardless of that, the Egyptian interior ministry initially said he had died in a road accident.
A fake witness
A second explanation was that Regeni had died in a fight. A "witness" called Mohammed Fawzi came forward, claiming to have seen him arguing with a foreigner outside the Italian consulate on the day before he disappeared. According to Fawzi, the quarrel "looked like it was going to turn physical".
It later emerged that Fawzi was nowhere near the Italian consulate at the time of the supposed altercation, but by then he had already told his imaginary story on a pro-regime TV channel (having reportedly been driven to the studio in an interior ministry car).
Regeni: "witness claimed to have seen him arguing
Other – more exotic – theories involve plots against the Sisi regime. President Sisi himself has noted that Regeni's death coincided with a visit to Egypt by an Italian business delegation. Coming at a time when relations between the two countries were "experiencing unprecedented political and economic momentum", this led him to suggest "there were parties with an interest in blocking this cooperation".
Sisi mentioned no names but others have interpreted his words as pointing a finger at his chief foe, the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian journalist Wael Eskandar discusses that theory in a blog post and concludes:
There are many benefits and motivations of having Islamists kill Regeni instead of the regime. It would confirm the bias that Islamists are an absolute evil, it would offer hope that while Egyptian police do this [i.e. torturing] to Egyptians, there is still hope they are responsible enough not to do this to foreigners.But in reality, many also understand that the police would never own up if they had done this and the international implications if they did would be huge, and would mean that this is indeed a criminal regime that is far too brutal and ugly to carry the country forward.It is fear of confronting such a reality that drives some to believe that it isn't the police, although I'm very certain many know deep down inside, just like I did when I examined the first murder, that Egyptian security forces the most likely culprits of this heinous crime.
In that connection, it's probably worth pointing out that on the day Regeni disappeared, Egyptian security forces were on especially high alert, to prevent street protests marking the anniversary of the revolution. If anyone other than the security forces had been planning to abduct him, January 25 would not have been a sensible day to attempt it.
A reluctant investigation
Alongside the threadbare efforts to blame some non-regime culprit, the Egyptian authorities' role in the investigation is scarcely suggestive of innocence. Italian judicial sources, for instance, have been complaining of "limited" cooperation: almost a month after Regeni's death they had still received no information of value from Egyptian officials, according to Reuters.
Reuters also reported that police in Cairo were not making the sort of routine enquiries that would be expected if they were seriously trying to find an unknown killer:
"Shopkeepers in Regeni's neighbourhood of Cairo said there were no signs that police in the area had been questioning people since his disappearance or death."
Meanwhile, the Egyptian authorities have got themselves in a tangle over the autopsy conducted by Hisham Abdel Hamid, director of the Department of Forensic Medicine. In the last week of February, according to multiple sources, Hamid – accompanied by two colleagues – met officials in the public prosecutor's office and told them Regeni's injuries had been inflicted in stages, over a period of up to seven days. Reuters reported:
"The findings are the strongest indication yet that Giulio Regeni was killed by Egyptian security services because they point to interrogation methods such as burning with cigarettes in intervals over several days, which human rights groups say are the hallmark of the security services."
Two prosecution sources and another in the forensic medicine department confirmed to Reuters that the meeting took place. This was contradicted by the government news agency, quoting a justice ministry official who denied it had taken place. Hamid, who had declined to talk to Reuters before the story was published, denied it entirely a day later, accusing Reuters of carelessness. The Egypt Independent reported:
Hisham Abdel Hamid ... said on Wednesday that he had not met with prosecutors or made statements to them regarding signs of torture on student's body, as suggested by Reuters. He also denied making any statements that indicated that Regeni had been tortured over a period of several days in order to gain information."That piece of news is totally fabricated and untrue," Abdel Hamid said in a statement on Wednesday, urging media outlets to be more careful ...
It seems likely that Hamid had been leaned on by the authorities, but the denial made him look ridiculous. The Italian ambassador, having inspected Regeni's body in the mortuary, had already confirmed evidence of torture (and a second autopsy in Rome later provided more gruesome details).
Hisham Abdel Hamid: denied statements about torture
Diversion tactics
The regime has also been engaging in some rather transparent diversionary tactics which, again, don't look like the actions of an innocent party.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, Sisi tried to equate Regeni's hideous death with the case of Adel Moawwad, a 53-year-old Egyptian chef whose family reported him missing in Italy last October. Although Italian police have so far failed to trace Moawwad, it's unclear whether any crime has been committed and there is certainly no reason to suppose he has been abducted and tortured. Nevertheless, the Egyptians have been using this to "neutralise" Italy's demands for cooperation over Regeni by making demands of their own for cooperation over Moawwad.
In a similar vein, regime supporters have been attacking the European parliament after it passed a resolution calling for "a swift, transparent and impartial joint investigation into the case of Mr Regeni in accordance with international obligations, and for every effort to be made to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice as soon as possible". The resolution went on to express "grave concern" that Regeni's case was not an isolated incident, "but that it occurred within a context of torture, death in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt in recent years".
The Egyptian parliament retaliated with a statement condemning the European parliament for “groundless accusations” and Ali Abdel-Al, the parliament's speaker, accused the EU of showing disrespect for Egypt's sovereignty.
The sovereignty argument, a traditional standby for regimes that get into trouble over human rights abuses, isn't really applicable in this case anyway. Regeni was an EU citizen, so the EU is entitled to make representations, and Egypt – besides being a party to the UN Convention Against Torture, has an Association Agreement with the EU. The latter grants trade privileges to Egypt but requires Egypt to respect human rights.
Apparently based on the time-honoured principle that nobody ever criticises Egypt unless paid to do so, claims also began circulating that the 588 MEPs who voted for the European parliament's resolution had been bribed to support it by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Ahmed Moussa, the TV host who had earlier interviewed fake witness Mohammed Fawzi, suggested this on his show and others joined in – including Hamdy Bakhait (a prominent MP, conspiracy theorist and former army general). Egyptian blogger Zeinobia commmented: "I got tons of MPs' statements in my inbox full of similar claims." Meanwhile, the semi-official al-Ahram newspaper published an article telling readers how the European parliament had "fallen into the trap" of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Bribing 588 members of European parliament would be an extraordinary feat for the Muslim Brotherhood, and also an unnecessarily expensive one considering that only 376 votes were needed to ensure the resolution passed.
Al-Ahram: EU parliament fell into Brotherhood "trap"
A background of disappearances and torture
Regeni's death, the EU resolution said, was not an isolated case but "occurred within a context of torture, death in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt in recent years, in clear violation of Article 2 of the EU-Egypt Association Agreement".
According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a local NGO, there were at least 340 cases of enforced disappearance between August and November last year. The Nadeem Centre in Cairo, which helps victims of torture (and which the regime is trying to close down), reported 464 cases of enforced disappearance in 2015. According to Nadeem, 137 people died in detention and nearly 700 were reportedly tortured. Writing in Daily News Egypt, Wael Eskandar said:
"There are some cases where security agencies have detained individuals in the presence of their families and then denied knowledge of their whereabouts. Some, like Ashraf Shehata, have been forcibly disappeared for over two years. Even those whose whereabouts are known can very easily die in police stations, such as the infamous Matariya police station, where 14 people died of torture in 2014 and 2015."
Regeni's case bears some similarities to that of Mohamed el-Gendy, a 23-year-old Egyptian activist who was arrested in 2013 and taken to Gabal Ahmar, a state security camp on the outskirts of Cairo, for interrogation. After three days' detention he was taken to hospital in a coma, where he died. As with Regeni, the interior ministry claimed he had been found injured in a street after being hit by a car.
Despite abundant evidence of Egyptians being tortured, the authorities usually show more restraint when dealing with foreigners – though a French man, Eric Lang, died in police custody in 2013. Lang, however, was reportedly beaten to death by fellow prisoners rather than the police themselves.
Assuming that Regeni had indeed been detained by a section of the security apparatus, this raises the possibility that whoever interrogated him was either unaware of the unspoken rule about treating foreigners more lightly or simply ignored it.
Mohamed el-Gendy in Tahrir Square: three days' detention
left him unconscious and dying
left him unconscious and dying
Why target Regeni?
But why would the authorities be suspicious of him in the first place? Regeni's academic research focused on Egypt's independent trade union movement and, according to Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, it was a perfectly legitimate topic:
"I personally know several other students in various universities who have worked or are presently working on PhD theses on the topic of the Egyptian labour movement. That is to say that there was absolutely nothing extraordinary in Giulo Regeni’s research."
However, the Egyptian authorities may have viewed it differently. Regeni had developed plenty of contacts among trade unionists and in an article written shortly before his death (and published posthumously) he described their efforts to organise themselves in the face of government repression.
For Regeni, independent trade union activity was not just about workers' rights but potentially had a broader political significance. He ended his article by saying:
Strikes against the revocation of benefits are mostly unrelated to each other ... but still they represent a significant development, for at least two reasons: For one, albeit in a manner not entirely explicit, they challenge the heart of the neoliberal transformation of the country, which has undergone a major acceleration since 2004, and which the 2011 popular uprisings and their slogan, “Bread, Freedom, Social Justice,” have substantially dented.The other aspect is that in an authoritarian and repressive context under General Sisi, the simple fact that there are popular and spontaneous initiatives that break the wall of fear is itself a major spur for change.The unions’ defiance of the state of emergency and the regime’s appeals for stability and social order – justified by the “war on terrorism” – signifies, even if indirectly, a bold questioning of the underlying rhetoric the regime uses to justify its own existence and its repression of civil society.
This interface between trade unionism and politics is an obvious area of concern for the regime. In an article for the Washington Post, Jean Lachapelle (who has also been doing field research in Egypt) explains that the authorities have traditionally sought to maintain "a sharp distinction between political and economic types of unrest". Under Mubarak, for example, "labour protests were often tolerated or ignored as long as protesters did not make political claims".
Lachapelle also highlights a second factor that may have had a bearing on Regeni's disappearance and death:
Like social scientists, the Egyptian authorities developed theories for the explosion of popular unrest in 2011. While political scientists have emphasised the spontaneity, courage and agency of ordinary citizens ... Egyptian security forces believe that the unrest was steered by well-organized political forces capable of manipulating the average citizen for political ends ...In the United States, these views are often dismissed as classic authoritarian propaganda. However, my research suggests that such anxieties are real and inform the way the Egyptian regime perceives threats. In particular, they make security forces highly attentive to ties between “foreign elements” and “mobilisable” sectors of society.It is possible that Regeni’s research activities were misinterpreted as groundwork for preparing a new uprising. He had built ties with local actors, attended meetings with labour activists and spoke excellent Arabic — an essential skill for a researcher, yet one that unfortunately tends to raise suspicions.
On that basis, it's easy to see why the Egyptian authorities would have wanted to question Regeni. But it's doubtful whether those in the upper echelons of the security apparatus – knowing the likely international repercussions – would have wanted him tortured. So it may be that his interrogators, lower down in the ranks, used more "initiative" than they were supposed to. One indication that this is what actually happened comes from instructions issued by the Interior Ministry shortly after Regeni's death and reported in the Egyptian media.
The instructions said that the arrest of "any foreigner" must be reported to State Security and the Interior Minister's office immediately, before taking any further action.
Posted by Brian WhitakerSaturday, 19 March 2016
DONALD – BULLDOZE THE ROTTEN GOP
By Eric Margolis
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Palm Beach, Florida – Having an interesting dinner at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and residence – which may become the southern White House if fed-up American voters have their way.
One feels an air of whispered importance and gravitas here. After Trump’s smashing primary victories this past week, there’s a growing sense that the Donald is headed for victory while his legions of bitter opponents are left wringing their hands.
In fact, Trump is fast emerging as an American version of the People’s Tribunes of ancient Rome, the important state officials who voiced the people’s anger and concerns.
As the Trump revolution spreads, his enemies are desperately seeking ways to stop the Donald’s Juggernaut. Cries go to the heavens, “save the Republican Party before Trump wrecks it.”
As a life-long (but now fallen away) Republican, I say “good riddance”. More power to Trump to blast apart this deeply corrupt, cynical party steeped in political payoffs and religious fanaticism, and run by former used car dealers from Pocatello.
Many moons ago, I even began a run for Congress from my native New York City but was horrified to see the creatures that scuttled below the city’s political rocks. A senior party official who was also a prison guard advised me: “son, only two types of people go into politics. Those with no money like me; and those from rich families who do it for their egos.”
The Clintons are a perfect example of the former, two local Arkansas politicians who made millions by peddling influence. Trump fits the second category. He is a rough, tough, uncultured but wealthy New Yorker whose family there dates from the 1880’s when the city was the third largest German city in the world after Berlin and Hamburg.
Readers keep asking me what I think of Trump. My view: he is the worst of the candidates – except all the others.
Trump’s vows to expel 11 million illegal aliens is likely unworkable; his Great Wall on the Mexican border sounds like Pharaonic madness – except that all of its critics have no problem with Israel walling itself off from the Arab world.
The proposed banning of Muslims from the US is a disgusting ploy that plays to America’s low IQ red necks and far right religious conservatives, and drags America’s name through the mud of bigotry and ignorance. Trump has very much to learn about the Muslim world.
But Trump is right on target when he calls for an even-handed approach to resolving the Arab-Israeli struggle. By daring to utter the term “even-handed,” Trump sent the US Israel lobby into a fury, touching the third rail of US politics. Compare Trump’s sensible Mideast position to that of Rubio, Cruz, Kasich and Clinton who got on their knees to pledge allegiance to Israel.
After investing tens of millions in buying up the US Congress and influencing media, the pro-Israel neocon war party now sees its huge investment jeopardized and its power under attack. If Trump has his way, US Mideast policy will be written in Washington, not Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Billions of overt and secret US aid to Israel could be jeopardized.
In a big shock, Trump has reportedly called for the deeply flawed investigation on the 9/11 attacks to be reopened. The neo-con are going ballistic.
Right on cue, several dozen Republican foreign policy ‘experts,’ many from the Bush era, blasted Trump as ‘unfit’ to be president. These were the same idiots who championed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the greatest foreign policy disaster in modern US history.
Following the warnings of that great German-American, Dwight Eisenhower, Trump says he intends to end the current foolish confrontation with Russia that was engineered by the neocons and arms industry and deal with Russia as an equal. No more imperial foreign wars. The military industrial complex and the war party are up in arms.
Trump’s third target is Wall Street, and rightly so. New York’s bankers and financiers have bought Congress. Now, Trump questions the shameful tax break that Wall Street got its yes-men in Congress to write. The bankers want Trump’s head. He’s a class traitor, they moan.
Finally, Trump’s threats to undo trade deals and manufacturing displacement are music to the working classes’ ears. This writer, a former businessman, has always held executives who throw tens of thousands out of work and move manufacturing abroad to be knaves and even criminals.
Today, manufacturing in the US has fallen to only 12% of economic activity while finance has risen to 20%. Wall Street’s money lenders have kept the nation addicted to debt and wars. Trump might challenge this money oligarchy that has grown fabulously rich while the rest of America stagnates and lives from paycheck to paycheck.
Hillary Clinton has her armies of welfare recipients. Trump, so far, has armies of angry Americans.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2016
Friday, March 18, 2016
بازار اللاجئين
A VERY GOOD PIECE
حسام كنفاني
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لم يعد اللاجئون بشكل عام، والسوريون بشكل خاص، مصدر أسى للعالم. أصبح الجميع معتاداً على هذه المأساة المتابعة بشكل يومي عبر وسائل الإعلام. ما عادت مشاهد العالقين على الحدود أو القابعين في العراء تحرّك ساكناً. بل على العكس تماماً، أصبح هؤلاء وسيلة للمزاودة والابتزاز والكسب. فها هو الاتحاد الأوروبي وبريطانيا وتركيا تضع اللاجئين على طاولة العرض والطلب، ليُفتتح بازار يحقق كل منهم مآربه على حساب الهاربين من ويلات بلادهم وحروبهم.
بالنسبة إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي، باتت دوله الأساسية ترى أن اللاجئين يشكلون بالنسبة إليها أزمة لم تعد تستطيع التعامل معها من زوايا متعددة. أولاً، من الناحية الاقتصادية، إذ يشكل هؤلاء عبئاً داخلياً من الممكن أن يزيد النقمات الاجتماعية في ظل اتجاه أكثر من دولة أوروبية إلى حافة الإفلاس. ثانياً، من الناحية الأمنية، وخصوصاً بعدما أصبحت دول كثيرة ترى في الداخلين إلى أراضيها تهديداً محتملاً، ولا سيما مع تصاعد التحذيرات من عمليات إرهابية في الدول الأوروبية. ثالثاً، وربما بدرجة أقل، من الناحية الديمغرافية، وتغيير الطبيعة السكانية للاتحاد الأوروبي، وهو ما يحذّر منه بشكل متزايد اليمين الأوروبي المتطرف.
في ضوء هذه "المخاطر"، عمدت دول الاتحاد الأوروبي إلى البحث عن خياراتٍ بديلة للتخلص من تدفق اللاجئين، لتخرج بحل عبر فتح باب التفاوض مع تركيا، المتهمة بتسهيل عبورهم إلى دول الاتحاد. تفاوض هو مقايضة، تحصل بموجبها أنقرة على مزايا كثيرة، إضافة إلى الأموال بصيغة مساعدات، في مقابل استعادة آلاف اللاجئين الذين وصلوا بالفعل إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي، وبعضهم لا يزال عالقاً على الحدود، على غرار ما هو حاصل في مخيم كاليه، وفي المخيمات على الحدود المقدونية.
تلقفت أنقرة العرض الأوروبي لفتح باب المزاد، وربما الابتزاز، للحصول على ما تيسر من مساعدات أو تسهيلات في مقابل "الخدمة" التي ستقدمها للاتحاد الأوروبي. وبالفعل، تمكنت تركيا من ذلك، وتوصلت إلى اتفاق مع الدول الأوروبية، ينص على موافقة تركيا على أن تعيد إلى أراضيها اللاجئين السوريين الذين يحاولون التوجه إلى اليونان، ثم إلى شمال أوروبا بطريقة غير شرعية، على أن يستقبل الأوروبيون على أساس "طوعي" عدداً مماثلاً من اللاجئين السوريين الذين ينتظرون في تركيا، في إطار آلية منظمة. في المقابل، حصلت أنقرة على تنازلات أوروبية كثيرة، منها إحياء المفاوضات المتعلقة بانضمامها إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي وضمان حرية تنقل مواطنيها في أوروبا، وبمساعدة مالية في مقابل استردادها للاجئين.
على المقلب الآخر، وجدت بريطانيا طريقها إلى المزاد المفتوح على اللاجئين، لتحصل بدورها على نصيب من الصفقة. وعلى الرغم من أن قضية اللاجئين ليست أولوية بالنسبة إلى بريطانيا، بل ربما النازحين من الاتحاد الأوروبي نفسه، إلا أنها تمكنت من نيل ما تريده وفق لافتة الإطار العام لانتقال الأفراد، وفي إطار ابتزاز الخروج من الاتحاد الأوروبي عبر الاستفتاء المقرر في يونيو/حزيران المقبل. فها هي بريطانيا تعفي نفسها من الأزمات الاقتصادية للاتحاد الأوروبي، وتعفي مصارفها من القيود الضرائبية الأوروبية، وتجنب نظامها الاجتماعي تبعات إعالة اللاجئين أو النازحين من دول الاتحاد إلى الجزيرة البريطانية.
كل من أطراف الصفقة حصل على ما أراد في النهاية، باستثناء اللاجئين أنفسهم الذين تحولوا إلى سلعة تعتمدها الدول الكبرى في بازار مفتوح، لم يعد للمعاناة الإنسانية مكان فيه، بل تحولت هذه المعاناة إلى وسيلة للكسب، حتى على حساب خسائر آلاف البشر. -
حسام كنفاني
Linkلم يعد اللاجئون بشكل عام، والسوريون بشكل خاص، مصدر أسى للعالم. أصبح الجميع معتاداً على هذه المأساة المتابعة بشكل يومي عبر وسائل الإعلام. ما عادت مشاهد العالقين على الحدود أو القابعين في العراء تحرّك ساكناً. بل على العكس تماماً، أصبح هؤلاء وسيلة للمزاودة والابتزاز والكسب. فها هو الاتحاد الأوروبي وبريطانيا وتركيا تضع اللاجئين على طاولة العرض والطلب، ليُفتتح بازار يحقق كل منهم مآربه على حساب الهاربين من ويلات بلادهم وحروبهم.
بالنسبة إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي، باتت دوله الأساسية ترى أن اللاجئين يشكلون بالنسبة إليها أزمة لم تعد تستطيع التعامل معها من زوايا متعددة. أولاً، من الناحية الاقتصادية، إذ يشكل هؤلاء عبئاً داخلياً من الممكن أن يزيد النقمات الاجتماعية في ظل اتجاه أكثر من دولة أوروبية إلى حافة الإفلاس. ثانياً، من الناحية الأمنية، وخصوصاً بعدما أصبحت دول كثيرة ترى في الداخلين إلى أراضيها تهديداً محتملاً، ولا سيما مع تصاعد التحذيرات من عمليات إرهابية في الدول الأوروبية. ثالثاً، وربما بدرجة أقل، من الناحية الديمغرافية، وتغيير الطبيعة السكانية للاتحاد الأوروبي، وهو ما يحذّر منه بشكل متزايد اليمين الأوروبي المتطرف.
في ضوء هذه "المخاطر"، عمدت دول الاتحاد الأوروبي إلى البحث عن خياراتٍ بديلة للتخلص من تدفق اللاجئين، لتخرج بحل عبر فتح باب التفاوض مع تركيا، المتهمة بتسهيل عبورهم إلى دول الاتحاد. تفاوض هو مقايضة، تحصل بموجبها أنقرة على مزايا كثيرة، إضافة إلى الأموال بصيغة مساعدات، في مقابل استعادة آلاف اللاجئين الذين وصلوا بالفعل إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي، وبعضهم لا يزال عالقاً على الحدود، على غرار ما هو حاصل في مخيم كاليه، وفي المخيمات على الحدود المقدونية.
تلقفت أنقرة العرض الأوروبي لفتح باب المزاد، وربما الابتزاز، للحصول على ما تيسر من مساعدات أو تسهيلات في مقابل "الخدمة" التي ستقدمها للاتحاد الأوروبي. وبالفعل، تمكنت تركيا من ذلك، وتوصلت إلى اتفاق مع الدول الأوروبية، ينص على موافقة تركيا على أن تعيد إلى أراضيها اللاجئين السوريين الذين يحاولون التوجه إلى اليونان، ثم إلى شمال أوروبا بطريقة غير شرعية، على أن يستقبل الأوروبيون على أساس "طوعي" عدداً مماثلاً من اللاجئين السوريين الذين ينتظرون في تركيا، في إطار آلية منظمة. في المقابل، حصلت أنقرة على تنازلات أوروبية كثيرة، منها إحياء المفاوضات المتعلقة بانضمامها إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي وضمان حرية تنقل مواطنيها في أوروبا، وبمساعدة مالية في مقابل استردادها للاجئين.
على المقلب الآخر، وجدت بريطانيا طريقها إلى المزاد المفتوح على اللاجئين، لتحصل بدورها على نصيب من الصفقة. وعلى الرغم من أن قضية اللاجئين ليست أولوية بالنسبة إلى بريطانيا، بل ربما النازحين من الاتحاد الأوروبي نفسه، إلا أنها تمكنت من نيل ما تريده وفق لافتة الإطار العام لانتقال الأفراد، وفي إطار ابتزاز الخروج من الاتحاد الأوروبي عبر الاستفتاء المقرر في يونيو/حزيران المقبل. فها هي بريطانيا تعفي نفسها من الأزمات الاقتصادية للاتحاد الأوروبي، وتعفي مصارفها من القيود الضرائبية الأوروبية، وتجنب نظامها الاجتماعي تبعات إعالة اللاجئين أو النازحين من دول الاتحاد إلى الجزيرة البريطانية.
كل من أطراف الصفقة حصل على ما أراد في النهاية، باستثناء اللاجئين أنفسهم الذين تحولوا إلى سلعة تعتمدها الدول الكبرى في بازار مفتوح، لم يعد للمعاناة الإنسانية مكان فيه، بل تحولت هذه المعاناة إلى وسيلة للكسب، حتى على حساب خسائر آلاف البشر. -
SORRY FOR NOT POSTING MUCH LATELY
Sorry, but lately I have seen little worthy of reading or watching.
More killing and mindless mayhem. Arabs killing Arabs, with no end in sight. The whole region is crumbling with no credible leadership to change the course to destruction.
I think that this will be the lost Arab generation. Perhaps the next generation will learn and fare better.
More killing and mindless mayhem. Arabs killing Arabs, with no end in sight. The whole region is crumbling with no credible leadership to change the course to destruction.
I think that this will be the lost Arab generation. Perhaps the next generation will learn and fare better.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
The Guardian view on Russia’s Syria U-turn: no kind of victory
Editorial
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Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russia would start pulling out “the main part” of its military forces from Syria has startled the world. Even the US administration was apparently left struggling to make sense ofRussia’s about-turn, just six months after it rattled western policymakers by launching its military intervention. It looked, yet again, as if Washington had been caught out by Russia’s president in a crisis which has repeatedly tested US credibility. But the deeper question is what lies behind Mr Putin’s move, and how it may affect events.
Speculation inevitably plays a part in assessing the impact of Russia’s sudden move in a war that has caused over 300,000 deaths and of which, despite the recent two-week lull in fighting, there is as yet no end in sight. One hope among western diplomats is that Mr Putin will drop President Bashar-al-Assad, now that he has demonstrated Russian power in the Middle East. This would go a long way in forwarding peace talks, because Mr Assad’s fate has been such a stumbling block. But many signs point the other way. Russian intervention has consolidated and entrenched Mr Assad, and has put an end to the military setbacks suffered by the Syrian regime in 2015. So Russia can now capitalise on that by appearing to step back. It has already done enough to take the upper hand on what may lie ahead for Syria.
It was no coincidence that Mr Putin made his announcement as diplomatic talks were due to restart in Geneva. This allows Russia to appear dedicated to ending the war by becoming the first to start pulling forces out of Syria, rather that putting more in. It is precisely because perceptions have too often counted for more than realities that this appearance should be treated with caution.
Russia’s Su-34 fighter planes flew out of the warzone on Tuesday in a blaze of publicity. But it remains to be seen how consistent and wide-ranging this pull-back will be. Reports of Russian air raids continued on Tuesday. And Russia has made clear it will keep the military installations it has built up on Syria’s coast. This means it can restart air operations whenever it chooses to. In that respect, Mr Putin has kept his options wide open.
Mr Putin can also say Russia has largely fulfilled its objectives. He has achieved two main things: he has prevented Mr Assad’s defeat, and he has made it impossible for the US and its European and Turkish allies to create safe zones in Syria which, in other circumstances, might also have offered a strong platform for the anti-Assad rebel forces the west has tried to support. Those rebels have been the main targets of Russia’s intervention, especially in Aleppo. Now that Russia has deployed its S-400 air defence systems in Syria, direct western intervention in the civil war is now militarily as well as politically inconceivable. Mr Putin is a master of diplomatic ambiguity. He says Russia’s partial withdrawal can help facilitate a negotiated settlement. And the Kremlin has drawn attention to a phone call Mr Putin made to Mr Assad, in which the Syrian president supposedly committed to a political settlement. Russian pressure may indeed now be piling up on Mr Assad, who claimed recently his forces would retake the whole country, and Mr Putin no doubt wants to avoid getting sucked irrevocably into Syria. But whether this means Mr Assad will eventually step aside, or even whether Russia wants his removal, is a different matter.
In both Syria and Ukraine Mr Putin wants to cast Russia as a power that cannot be ignored. He believes – not without good evidence – that he can win credit with Russian public opinion whenever he appears to outfox the US. At a time of great financial constraints for Russia, with global oil prices down and sanctions biting, that matters. Russia’s state media is already celebrating a victory in Syria, showing pilots acclaimed by crowds, as bands play the national anthem.
If there is one thing that Mr Putin’s announcement makes plain, it is that Russia’s claim that it was moving into Syria to combat Islamic State has been exposed as a sham. Not only has Isis been spared most of Russia’s air attacks, but it has arguably benefitted from the setbacks that Russia has inflicted on Syrian rebel forces. Isis has not been crushed. Instead it has been able to move forward, especially round Aleppo. That does not seem to matter to Mr Putin, whose geopolitical goals lie elsewhere. Yet Russia has caused hundreds of extra civilian deaths and may have strengthened Isis. Mr Putin likes to give the impression he knows what he is doing in Syria. But his record there may prove truly dire and destructive.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
From hope to horror: Five years of crisis in Syria
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A horrifying catalogue of human rights abuses including war crimes and crimes against humanity have overwhelmed Syria over the past five years causing human suffering on a vast scale, said Amnesty International, marking the five-year anniversary of the start of anti-government protests in the country on 15 March 2011.
“The five years since the uprising in Syria first began have been marred by horror and bloodshed on a colossal scale. From the moment that Syrian government forces first opened fire on peaceful protesters, brutality and civilian suffering have been the tragic hallmarks of this crisis,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
"Government forces have brazenly committed crimes against humanity through the use of appalling strategies such as relentless barrel bomb attacks on civilian areas, a campaign of mass disappearances and systematic, industrial-scale torture. Some armed groups, particularly IS, have exploited the international media spotlight to cynically broadcast their own war crimes, such as the abduction and summary killing of Syrian and foreign civilians.”
Here is a reminder of five key moments that saw the crisis in Syria go from bad to worse over the past five years:
• On 18 March 2011, three days after the start of the uprising Syrian government forces opened fire on peaceful protesters in the southern city of Dera’a, using live ammunition against demonstrators demanding the release of boys arrested and tortured for anti-government graffiti. This marked a bloody turning point, and was a precursor to the widespread use of lethal force by government forces to suppress peaceful protests, which eventually evolved into a full-blown armed conflict.
• Video footage showing civilians suffering from the effects of a chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta, east of Damascus in August 2013 shocked the world, acting as a wake-up call to the horrific and cruel nature of the abuses being committed in Syria. Sadly, this was just the tip of the iceberg. Across Syria, civilians continued to be killed on a daily basis often in far greater numbers in attacks using both other banned weapons such as cluster munitions and regular bombs, missiles and mortars. However, for years the UN Security Council dragged its feet, with member states failing to unite to refer the situation in Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and Russia and China in particular blocking several resolutions on the protection of civilians using veto powers.
Government forces and non-state armed groups, including the one calling itself the Islamic State (IS), have displayed a callous indifference to human rights
• The surreal images of crowds of besieged civilians queuing for aid parcels in Yarmouk on the outskirts of Damascus in January 2014 brought to life the tragic reality that thousands of people trapped under siege across Syria were dying from lack of food and medical care. Beyond Yarmouk starvation has been used as a weapon of war by both government forces and armed groups in areas such as Moadamiya, Eastern Ghouta, Madaya and al-Fouaa. Today more than 400,000 people are under siege in 15 locations across Syria. Despite limited deliveries of aid to besieged areas as part of the ceasefire agreed in recent weeks, civilians are still at risk of starving to death and in desperate need of unfettered humanitarian aid.
• Harrowing photographs showing tortured, starved and burnt bodies, known as the “Caesar” torture photos, were smuggled out of Syria by a military defector and published in January 2014. These provided the strongest evidence yet of systematic torture and extrajudicial executions taking place inside government detention centres, opening the world’s eyes to the ruthless tactics used to punish those who dare to oppose the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Tens of thousands remain missing after being arrested by one of Syria’s various security and intelligence forces.
• Russia began its first air strikes in support of the Syrian government in September 2015, ostensibly targeting IS but mostly hitting areas under the control of armed opposition groups. Russia’s entry into the fray has led to intensive aerial bombardments, particularly in northern Syria, that have killed hundreds of civilians, including in attacks that appear to be war crimes. Most recently an offensive in the vicinity of Aleppo has seen Russian and Syrian warplanes bomb hospitals as part of its military strategy in flagrant violation of international law.
For more information or to show your support for Syria see the WithSyria page
Syria: Justice Needed for 5 Years of Abuses
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(New York) – Justice for Syrian victims and accountability for those who have committed grave abuses should be on the agenda at United Nations-mediated peace talks in Geneva. The Syrian government and major Syrian opposition groups will meet in Geneva on March 15, 2016, at UN-brokered talks as the conflict in Syria turns five years old.
Relatives mourn as a man carries the body of a dead boy in a blanket at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Sheikh Khodr area in Aleppo on September 30, 2014.
© 2014 Reuters
“While it is urgent to stop the killing and ensure aid delivery, any resolution to the conflict that is going to last must also ensure justice for Syria’s victims,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director. “There should be no immunity for anyone linked to serious crimes, and after five years of devastating conflict, there should be no deal that ignores the victims.”
According to the Syrian Center for Policy Research, an independent Syrian research organization, the death toll from the conflict reached 470,000 Syrians as of February 2016. The spread and intensification of fighting has led to a dire humanitarian crisis, with 6.6 million internally displaced people and 4.6 million seeking refuge in neighboring countries, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Human Rights Watch urged the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), a group of countries co-chaired by the United States and Russia working to find a solution for the Syria crisis, and the UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura, to ensure that the talks include substantive discussions on ways to end rampant human rights abuses and ensure justice for the victims.
Proposals to grant immunity to anyone implicated in serious crimes should be rejected. The parties should also make a commitment to review and amend any provision in Syrian law that grants immunity to security forces or any other public official for serious crimes. The parties should also ensure that the country’s criminal justice system is equipped to address serious crimes, alongside other judicial mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court (ICC). Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on the UN Security Council to give the ICC a mandate in Syria.
Broader truth-telling mechanisms, reparations, and vetting to bar rights abusers from official positions will also be needed as part of the process, Human Rights Watch said. As a minimum element of any transitional process in Syria, individuals against whom there is credible evidence of involvement in torture or other serious crimes should not have positions of authority in the security forces. Any agreement should also include a commitment by the negotiating parties to a national commission with a mandate to reveal the fate of the disappeared and to investigate torture, executions, and other major human rights violations. The commission should complement the work of the UN Commission of Inquiry and include both Syrian and international members.
Over the last five years, Human Rights Watch has extensively documented and condemned widespread violations by Syrian government security forces and officials, includingextrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings of civilians, enforced disappearances, use of torture, use of incendiary and chemical weapons, use of cluster munitions, andarbitrary detentions. Human Rights Watch has concluded that government forces have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch has also documented extrajudicial and summary executions by opposition forces, torture and mistreatment in opposition-run detention facilities, and use of child soldiers by opposition forces.
International efforts to ensure credible justice for these and other ongoing grave human rights crimes in Syria have proved elusive. In May 2014, Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council resolution that would have referred the situation in Syria to the ICC. Over 100 nongovernmental organizations urged the Security Council to approve the resolution, more than 60 countries co-sponsored it, and 13 of the council’s 15 members voted for it.
In December 2015, the Security Council adopted resolution 2254, endorsing a road map for a peace process in Syria and tasked the UN with facilitating talks between the government and opposition. While the resolution highlighted the need for all parties to end attacks on civilians, allow access to aid groups, and develop a political process to resolve the crisis, it did not include an explicit reference to justice.
As Syrian families wait to find out the fate of relatives who disappeared, the Syrian government should grant international monitors immediate, unrestricted access to all of its detention facilities and release all arbitrarily detained and political prisoners, Human Rights Watch said. Russia and Iran, as the main backers of the government, have a particular responsibility to press Syria for immediate and unhindered access for recognized international monitors to detention sites.
While a cessation of hostilities negotiated on February 12 has reduced the daily toll of casualties and put access to humanitarian aid at the forefront of negotiations, violations of the cessation still makes it difficult for nongovernmental groups to deliver aid to besieged areas. The Syrian government has also hindered the process of delivering aid to besieged areas by delaying permission for the UN and other aid organizations to enter besieged towns to deliver lifesaving aid, aid agencies have reported.
“Syria’s inferno began five years ago after security forces shot at protesters and tortured children in Daraa,” Houry said. “For this conflict to end, Syria’s victims need to feel that the root causes have been addressed.”
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