america is crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrap
- - | 07.03.2005 20:16
As Syria sets out the terms of its staged withdrawl from Lebanon, the US has demanded more haste, calling for the "complete and immediate withdrawal of all military and intelligence forces from Lebanon".
White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the Syrian proposal "a half-measure that does not go far enough. UN Security Council Resolution 1559 was very clear - all foreign forces need to leave Lebanon" [immediately]. France, Germany and Israel have also called on Syria to withdraw troops without delay.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has claimed that Syria will be forced to withdraw troops in the next couple of months, saying "Bashar Assad will not be able to duck out of pulling the Syrian forces out of Lebanon" prior to elections due there in May.
"It will allow the citizens of Lebanon to choose a government which is not a Syrian puppet government, rather a sovereign Lebanese government, which can confer its sovereignty on all of Lebanon, including the south, where Hezbollah rules today."
Meanwhile, just next door at the other occupation in the Palestinian territories, there's no such international clamour for hasty withdrawl of the Israeli Defence Force. Despite this:
A list of UN Resolutions against "Israel" 1955-1992:
* Resolution 106: 'condemns' Israel for Gaza raid.
* Resolution 111: 'condemns' Israel for raid on Syria that killed fifty-six people.
* Resolution 127: 'recommends' Israel suspends it's 'no-man's zone' in Jerusalem".
* Resolution 162: 'urges' Israel to comply with UN decisions.
* Resolution 171: ‘determines flagrant violations' by Israel in its attack on Syria.
* Resolution 228: 'censures' Israel for its attack on Samu in the West Bank, then under Jordanian control
* Resolution 237: 'urges' Israel to allow return of new 1967 Palestinian refugees.
* Resolution 248: 'condemns' Israel for its massive attack on Karameh in Jordan.
* Resolution 250: 'calls' on Israel to refrain from holding military parade in Jerusalem.
* Resolution 251: 'deeply deplores' Israeli military parade in Jerusalem in defiance of Resolution 250.
* Resolution 252: 'declares invalid' Israel's acts to unify Jerusalem as Jewish capital.
* Resolution 256: 'condemns' Israeli raids on Jordan as 'flagrant violation.
* Resolution 259: 'deplores' Israel's refusal to accept UN mission to probe occupation.
* Resolution 262: 'condemns' Israel for attack on Beirut airport.
* Resolution 265: 'condemns' Israel for air attacks for Salt in Jordan.
* Resolution 267: 'censures' Israel for administrative acts to change the status of Jerusalem.
* Resolution 270: 'condemns' Israel for air attacks on villages in southern Lebanon.
* Resolution 271: 'condemns' Israel's failure to obey UN resolutions on Jerusalem.
* Resolution 279: 'demands' withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.
* Resolution 280: 'condemns' Israeli's attacks against Lebanon.
* Resolution 285: 'demands' immediate Israeli withdrawal form Lebanon.
* Resolution 298: 'deplores' Israel's changing of the status of Jerusalem.
* Resolution 313: 'demands' that Israel stop attacks against Lebanon.
* Resolution 316: 'condemns' Israel for repeated attacks on Lebanon.
* Resolution 317: 'deplores' Israel's refusal to release Arabs abducted in Lebanon.
* Resolution 332: 'condemns' Israel's repeated attacks against Lebanon.
* Resolution 337: 'condemns' Israel for violating Lebanon's sovereignty.
* Resolution 347: 'condemns' Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
* Resolution 425: 'calls' on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
* Resolution 427: 'calls' on Israel to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon.
* Resolution 444: 'deplores' Israel's lack of cooperation with UN peacekeeping forces.
* Resolution 446: 'determines' that Israeli settlements are a 'serious obstruction' to peace and calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
* Resolution 450: 'calls' on Israel to stop attacking Lebanon.
* Resolution 452: 'calls' on Israel to cease building settlements in occupied territories.
* Resolution 465: 'deplores' Israel's settlements and asks all member states not to assist Israel's settlements program.
* Resolution 467: 'strongly deplores' Israel's military intervention in Lebanon.
* Resolution 468: 'calls' on Israel to rescind illegal expulsions of two Palestinian mayors and a judge and to facilitate their return.
* Resolution 469: 'strongly deplores' Israel's failure to observe the council's order not to deport Palestinians.
* Resolution 471: 'expresses deep concern' at Israel's failure to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
* Resolution 476: 'reiterates' that Israel's claim to Jerusalem are 'null and void'.
* Resolution 478: 'censures (Israel) in the strongest terms' for its claim to Jerusalem in its 'Basic Law'.
* Resolution 484: 'declares it imperative' that Israel re-admit two deported
* Palestinian mayors.
* Resolution 487: 'strongly condemns' Israel for its attack on Iraq's nuclear facility.
* Resolution 497: 'decides' that Israel's annexation of Syria's Golan Heights is 'null and void' and demands that Israel rescinds its decision forthwith.
* Resolution 498: 'calls' on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon.
* Resolution 501: 'calls' on Israel to stop attacks against Lebanon and withdraw its troops.
* Resolution 509: 'demands' that Israel withdraw its forces forthwith and unconditionally from Lebanon.
* Resolution 515: 'demands' that Israel lift its siege of Beirut and allow food supplies to be brought in.
* Resolution 517: 'censures' Israel for failing to obey UN resolutions and demands that Israel withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
* Resolution 518: 'demands' that Israel cooperate fully with UN forces in Lebanon.
* Resolution 520: 'condemns' Israel's attack into West Beirut.
* Resolution 573: 'condemns' Israel 'vigorously' for bombing Tunisia in attack on PLO headquarters.
* Resolution 587: 'takes note' of previous calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and urges all parties to withdraw.
* Resolution 592: 'strongly deplores' the killing of Palestinian students at Bir Zeit University by Israeli troops.
* Resolution 605: 'strongly deplores' Israel's policies and practices denying the human rights of Palestinians.
* Resolution 607: 'calls' on Israel not to deport Palestinians and strongly requests it to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
* Resolution 608: 'deeply regrets' that Israel has defied the United Nations and deported Palestinian civilians.
* Resolution 636: 'deeply regrets' Israeli deportation of Palestinian civilians.
* Resolution 641: 'deplores' Israel's continuing deportation of Palestinians.
* Resolution 672: 'condemns' Israel for violence against Palestinians at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.
* Resolution 673: 'deplores' Israel's refusal to cooperate with the United Nations.
* Resolution 681: 'deplores' Israel's resumption of the deportation of Palestinians.
* Resolution 694: 'deplores' Israel's deportation of Palestinians and calls on it to ensure their safe and immediate return.
* Resolution 726: 'strongly condemns' Israel's deportation of Palestinians.
* Resolution 799: ’strongly condemns' Israel's deportation of 413 Palestinians
and calls for their immediate return.
text of 4th Geneva convention:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/0/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5?OpenDocument
Israeli occupation background:
http://www.palestine-un.org/info/occ.html
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has claimed that Syria will be forced to withdraw troops in the next couple of months, saying "Bashar Assad will not be able to duck out of pulling the Syrian forces out of Lebanon" prior to elections due there in May.
"It will allow the citizens of Lebanon to choose a government which is not a Syrian puppet government, rather a sovereign Lebanese government, which can confer its sovereignty on all of Lebanon, including the south, where Hezbollah rules today."
Meanwhile, just next door at the other occupation in the Palestinian territories, there's no such international clamour for hasty withdrawl of the Israeli Defence Force. Despite this:
A list of UN Resolutions against "Israel" 1955-1992:
* Resolution 106: 'condemns' Israel for Gaza raid.
* Resolution 111: 'condemns' Israel for raid on Syria that killed fifty-six people.
* Resolution 127: 'recommends' Israel suspends it's 'no-man's zone' in Jerusalem".
* Resolution 162: 'urges' Israel to comply with UN decisions.
* Resolution 171: ‘determines flagrant violations' by Israel in its attack on Syria.
* Resolution 228: 'censures' Israel for its attack on Samu in the West Bank, then under Jordanian control
* Resolution 237: 'urges' Israel to allow return of new 1967 Palestinian refugees.
* Resolution 248: 'condemns' Israel for its massive attack on Karameh in Jordan.
* Resolution 250: 'calls' on Israel to refrain from holding military parade in Jerusalem.
* Resolution 251: 'deeply deplores' Israeli military parade in Jerusalem in defiance of Resolution 250.
* Resolution 252: 'declares invalid' Israel's acts to unify Jerusalem as Jewish capital.
* Resolution 256: 'condemns' Israeli raids on Jordan as 'flagrant violation.
* Resolution 259: 'deplores' Israel's refusal to accept UN mission to probe occupation.
* Resolution 262: 'condemns' Israel for attack on Beirut airport.
* Resolution 265: 'condemns' Israel for air attacks for Salt in Jordan.
* Resolution 267: 'censures' Israel for administrative acts to change the status of Jerusalem.
* Resolution 270: 'condemns' Israel for air attacks on villages in southern Lebanon.
* Resolution 271: 'condemns' Israel's failure to obey UN resolutions on Jerusalem.
* Resolution 279: 'demands' withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.
* Resolution 280: 'condemns' Israeli's attacks against Lebanon.
* Resolution 285: 'demands' immediate Israeli withdrawal form Lebanon.
* Resolution 298: 'deplores' Israel's changing of the status of Jerusalem.
* Resolution 313: 'demands' that Israel stop attacks against Lebanon.
* Resolution 316: 'condemns' Israel for repeated attacks on Lebanon.
* Resolution 317: 'deplores' Israel's refusal to release Arabs abducted in Lebanon.
* Resolution 332: 'condemns' Israel's repeated attacks against Lebanon.
* Resolution 337: 'condemns' Israel for violating Lebanon's sovereignty.
* Resolution 347: 'condemns' Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
* Resolution 425: 'calls' on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
* Resolution 427: 'calls' on Israel to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon.
* Resolution 444: 'deplores' Israel's lack of cooperation with UN peacekeeping forces.
* Resolution 446: 'determines' that Israeli settlements are a 'serious obstruction' to peace and calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
* Resolution 450: 'calls' on Israel to stop attacking Lebanon.
* Resolution 452: 'calls' on Israel to cease building settlements in occupied territories.
* Resolution 465: 'deplores' Israel's settlements and asks all member states not to assist Israel's settlements program.
* Resolution 467: 'strongly deplores' Israel's military intervention in Lebanon.
* Resolution 468: 'calls' on Israel to rescind illegal expulsions of two Palestinian mayors and a judge and to facilitate their return.
* Resolution 469: 'strongly deplores' Israel's failure to observe the council's order not to deport Palestinians.
* Resolution 471: 'expresses deep concern' at Israel's failure to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
* Resolution 476: 'reiterates' that Israel's claim to Jerusalem are 'null and void'.
* Resolution 478: 'censures (Israel) in the strongest terms' for its claim to Jerusalem in its 'Basic Law'.
* Resolution 484: 'declares it imperative' that Israel re-admit two deported
* Palestinian mayors.
* Resolution 487: 'strongly condemns' Israel for its attack on Iraq's nuclear facility.
* Resolution 497: 'decides' that Israel's annexation of Syria's Golan Heights is 'null and void' and demands that Israel rescinds its decision forthwith.
* Resolution 498: 'calls' on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon.
* Resolution 501: 'calls' on Israel to stop attacks against Lebanon and withdraw its troops.
* Resolution 509: 'demands' that Israel withdraw its forces forthwith and unconditionally from Lebanon.
* Resolution 515: 'demands' that Israel lift its siege of Beirut and allow food supplies to be brought in.
* Resolution 517: 'censures' Israel for failing to obey UN resolutions and demands that Israel withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
* Resolution 518: 'demands' that Israel cooperate fully with UN forces in Lebanon.
* Resolution 520: 'condemns' Israel's attack into West Beirut.
* Resolution 573: 'condemns' Israel 'vigorously' for bombing Tunisia in attack on PLO headquarters.
* Resolution 587: 'takes note' of previous calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and urges all parties to withdraw.
* Resolution 592: 'strongly deplores' the killing of Palestinian students at Bir Zeit University by Israeli troops.
* Resolution 605: 'strongly deplores' Israel's policies and practices denying the human rights of Palestinians.
* Resolution 607: 'calls' on Israel not to deport Palestinians and strongly requests it to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
* Resolution 608: 'deeply regrets' that Israel has defied the United Nations and deported Palestinian civilians.
* Resolution 636: 'deeply regrets' Israeli deportation of Palestinian civilians.
* Resolution 641: 'deplores' Israel's continuing deportation of Palestinians.
* Resolution 672: 'condemns' Israel for violence against Palestinians at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.
* Resolution 673: 'deplores' Israel's refusal to cooperate with the United Nations.
* Resolution 681: 'deplores' Israel's resumption of the deportation of Palestinians.
* Resolution 694: 'deplores' Israel's deportation of Palestinians and calls on it to ensure their safe and immediate return.
* Resolution 726: 'strongly condemns' Israel's deportation of Palestinians.
* Resolution 799: ’strongly condemns' Israel's deportation of 413 Palestinians
and calls for their immediate return.
text of 4th Geneva convention:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/0/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5?OpenDocument Israeli occupation background:
http://www.palestine-un.org/info/occ.html
- -
Comments
Hide the following 19 comments
maybe
07.03.2005 21:27
sceptic
dont make exceptions
07.03.2005 22:54
Every1 on the streets on the 19th of March....We have a lot to protest about.
AEK
Listen "septic"
08.03.2005 00:19
Barry Kade
UN nonense
08.03.2005 07:11
UNtifada
Playing a dangerous game ...
08.03.2005 11:50
Calls for an end to occupation? Seems like some occupations are more offensive than others!
Syria occupied Lebanon in response to the aggressive israeli invasion (killing tens of thousands of Lebonese in the process).
Syria is well thought of by the vast majority of Lebonese muslims and christians - with the exception of some elements of the christian[sic] population. These Phalangists (their name sprouts from their admiration and links to fascist italy) where responsible for supporting the disgusting massacres of palestinian refugees in the camps and the israeli invasion in general.
This is another orange revolution[sic] whereby huge monies are injected into a political system from outside parties intersted in the outcome but not the process. The 'tens of thousands' of flag waving Lebonese are easily out numbered by those outraged by their behaviour - witness the outpouring for the counter demos.
The danger lies in stirring it enough so that similar dis-unification of the region occurs. Very handy for israel, who gets a destabilised neighbor or two, gets to keep the parts of syria and Lebanon it occupies (wheres the out cry there?) and focuses attention away from the mealy mouth process it is serving up as a solution to peace in the region.
Only, this attempt to meddle in the internal politics of two nations will not work - syria will not present the opportunity for anything approaching a quick victory, lebanon will not allow itself to be weakened and split from the protection of its neighbor. Instead, various factions will forges stronger military and paramiltary links in order to resist tghe new world order politics thrust at it by a desparte israeli-amerikan agenda.
to read these events as anything else falls into the lowest common denominator comic book news peddled by the medja and allows for not one iota of insight, prediction or understanding.
I can understand why constable sceptic is intent on foistering this on indymedia - it follows his[?] typical modus operandi ... confuse, conflate, invent, spin and decieve in FAVOUR OF THE RULING ELITE.
Not this time son.
jackslucid
e-mail:
jackslucid@hotmail.com
What rot!
08.03.2005 12:51
What nonsense. What tens of thousands of Lebanese did Israel ever kill? In any case, Syria occupied Lebanon because of the illegal occupation by PALESTINIAN terrorists - in order to keep the peace which the Palis were determined to destroy.
"Syria is well thought of by the vast majority of Lebonese muslims and christians" - well, blow me down! Then what are all these demonstrations in the middle of Beirut all abuot? Solidarity with Syria??? I don't think so!
UNtifada
VIVA INTIFADA
08.03.2005 15:56
Go sell your crap somewhere else where people are miseducated like you.
UNINTIFADA is as useful as a cock flavoured lollipop
UNtifada get some facts straight
08.03.2005 18:55
Todays Guardian article [lucky for me!]:
note the two most important details: largest "anti-Syrian" demo so far: 70,000 people. the largest "PRO-Syrian" demo so far: 500,000 people.
Jack Lucid is right. Typical of the fucking corporate media they feed you a distorted view of the world. Like when they said "The British troops entering Iraq will be greeted with flowers". Erh?!! I have some Iraqi friends and its not what they were telling me before the war! There's also the other famous case of Saddams statue and the "thousands" of Iraqis who pulled it down and "celebrated" HA!! (good pics and article here)
Svelto
Don't be deceived.
08.03.2005 20:32
And remember kids, we need to "end the use of violence and intimidation against the Lebanese people, and to restore Lebanon's independence, sovereignty and democracy by freeing it from foreign occupation.”
Hahahahahahaha!
This message from the Land of the Irony-Impaired was brought to you by the Church of the Holy Cluster Bomb.
Ian
A prayer answered
09.03.2005 08:56
G-d : "It shall be done, my son. Watch for the mouthwank "Very handy for israel, who gets a destabilised neighbor or two. " "
Me: "Thanks Lord. That's quite the stupidest damn thing I've ever heard. Granted the bovine halfwits who follow these pages will nod dimly. For persist they in believing Israel, the solitary nation in the region in which liberals, leftists, homosexuals, women and political and religious dissidents of any persuasion can hope to lead a tolerable existence (THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS IN THE HABIT OF HANGING GAYS FROM LAMPPOSTS), an imperialist power, confusing the wars it has waged in self-defence for colonial adventures. The wankers."
G-d. : "Worry not my son. All sensible people understand these cretins as a ragtag of kneejerk, half-educated, crypto-antisemitic milquetoasts incapable of thinking for themselves. They'll soon give up, grow up and acquire proper jobs."
Me: "Thanks Lord. Their cretinous grasp of geopolitics has been exposed yet again."
NonNoam
My conversations with a neo-con God
09.03.2005 14:27
Just a thought...
Voice of the Mysterons
Deeds, not words
09.03.2005 17:16
They're fighting and defeating tyranny worldwide.
Bush, Exporter of D-e-m-o-i-l-c-r-a-c-y (oilcracy).
Finally, tyranny is over.
We demand complete and immediate withdrawal of all amaerican military and intelligence forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
in the next couple of months, saying "Bashar Assad will not be able to duck out of pulling the Syrian forces out of Lebanon" prior to elections due there in May.
"It will allow the citizens of Lebanon to choose a government which is not a Syrian puppet government, rather a sovereign Lebanese government, which can confer its sovereignty on all of Lebanon, including the south, where Hezbollah rules today."
We demand hasty withdrawl of the Israeli Defence Force from palestinian territories.
Work, not words
...
10.03.2005 14:34
Half a Million Gather for Pro-Syrian Rally to Defy Vision of US
by Robert Fisk in Beirut
It was a warning. They came in their tens of thousands, Lebanese Shia Muslim families with babies in arms and children in front, walking past my Beirut home. They reminded me of the tens of thousands of Iraqi Shia Muslims who walked with their families to the polls in Iraq, despite the gunfire and the suicide bombers.
And now they came from southern Lebanon and the Bekaa to say they rejected America's plans in Lebanon, and wanted - so they claimed - to know who killed Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister murdered on 14 February, and to reject UN Security Council Resolution 1559 which demands a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and the disarmament of the Hizbollah guerrilla movement, and to express their "thanks" to Syria. This was a tall order in Lebanon.
But only 100 yards from the Lebanese opposition protests, the half-million - for that was an approachable figure, given Hizbollah's extraordinary organisational abilities - stood for an hour with Lebanese flags, and posed a challenge to President George Bush's project in the Middle East. "America is the source of terrorism", one poster proclaimed. "All our disasters come from America".
Many of those tens of thousands were Hizbollah families who had fought the Israelis during their occupation of southern Lebanon, been arrested by the Israelis, imprisoned by the Israelis and feared that American support for Lebanon meant not "democracy" but an imposed Israeli-Lebanese peace treaty.
There were Syrians in the crowds - indeed, I saw buses with Syrian registration plates that had brought families from Damascus - but almost all the half million were Lebanese Shias and they wanted to reject 1559 because it called for Hizbollah to be disarmed. They were perfectly happy to see the Syrians leave (who now remembers the Syrian massacre of Hizbollah members in Beirut in 1987?) but, bearing in mind Syria's transit of weapons from Iran to Lebanon, Hizbollah wanted to be regarded as a resistance movement, not a "militia" to be disarmed. What the Shia were saying was that they were a power, just as they said when they voted in Iraq. In Lebanon, Shia Muslims are the largest religious community.
Syria is run by a clique of Alawis - who are Shia - and Iraq is now dominated by Shia Muslims who voted themselves into power, and Iran is a Shia nation. So when President Bush said "the Lebanese people have the right to determine their future free from domination of a foreign power", the power the Shias were thinking of was not Syria but the United States and Israel.
And 100 yards away, the demonstrators who have bravely protested against the murder of Rafik Hariri have become factionalised, courtesy of the Syrians. At night, the opposition protesters are largely Christian. Yesterday's Hizbollah rally, while it contained the usual pro-Syrian Christians, was essentially Shia. And their message was not one of thanks to President Bush.
"The fleets came in the past and were defeated; and they will be defeated again," Hizbollah's leader, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, said in reference to the Americans. Ironically, President Bush was to refer within hours to the killing of 241 US Marines in Beirut in October 1982, as if their deaths were the responsibility of al-Qa'ida. To the Israelis, Nasrallah said: "Let go of your dreams for Lebanon. To the enemy entrenched on our border, occupying our country and imprisoning our people, 'There is no place for you here and there is no life for you among us: Death to Israel'."
Nasrallah's take on the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war was predictable. The crowds were meeting on the front lines that had separated the Lebanese during the civil war; indeed, on the very location of the Christian-Muslim trenches of that conflict. "We meet today to remind the world and our partners in the country," Nasrallah said, "that this arena that joins us, or the other one in Martyrs' Square, was destroyed by Israel and civil war and was united by Syria and the blood of its soldiers and officers."
This was an inventive piece of history. Israel certainly killed many thousands of Lebanese - more than the Syrians, although their soldiers took the lives of many hundreds - but the half million roared their approval.
So what did all this prove? That there was another voice in Lebanon. That if the Lebanese "opposition" - pro-Hariri and increasingly Christian - claim to speak for Lebanon and enjoy the support of President Bush, there is a pro-Syrian, nationalist voice which does not go along with their anti-Syrian demands but which has identified what it believes is the true reason for Washington's support for Lebanon: Israel's plans for the Middle East.
The Beirut demonstration yesterday was handled in the usual Hizbollah way: maximum security, lots of young men in black shirts with two-way radios, and frightening discipline. No one was allowed to carry a gun or a Hizbollah flag. There was no violence. When one man brandished a Syrian flag, it was immediately taken from him. Law and order, not "terrorism", was what Hizbollah wished. Syria had spoken. President Bashar Assad's sarcastic remark about the Hariri protesters needing a "zoom lens" to show their numbers had been answered by a demonstration of Shia power which needed no "zoom".
And in the mountains above Beirut, still frozen under their winter snows, few Syrians moved. There were Syrian military trucks on the international highway to Damascus but no withdrawal, no retreat, no redeployment. The Taif agreement of 1989 stipulated that the Syrians should withdraw to the Mdeirej heights above Beirut, which they have now agreed to do, 14 years later than they should have done.
The official document released by the Lebanese-Syrian military delegation in Damascus suggests this is a new redeployment and that in April the Syrian forces, along with their military intelligence personnel, will withdraw to the Lebanese-Syrian border.
But the question remains: will they retreat to the Syrian side of the frontier, or sit in the Lebanese-Armenian town of Aanjar, on the Lebanese side, where Brigadier General Rustum Gazale, the head of Syrian military intelligence, still maintains his white-painted villa?
Either way, Lebanon can no longer be taken for granted. The "cedar" revolution now has a larger dimension, one that does not necessarily favour America's plans. If the Shia of Iraq can be painted as defenders of democracy, the Shias of Lebanon cannot be portrayed as the defenders of "terrorism". So what does Washington make of yesterday's extraordinary events in Beirut?
Hermes
Tyrant fighting tyranny. aha aha aha
10.03.2005 19:19
Burden Beast
Oh fuck off
11.03.2005 00:06
Kim Wilde's Fuzz
Oh fuck off
11.03.2005 00:06
Kim Wilde's Fuzz
Cuba and Venezuela, the only two Democracies in America
11.03.2005 16:56
The power is exerted by People themselves!
Kanadian
Get a clue
11.03.2005 22:35
PATRIA O MUERTE
Shut it, soapdodger.
14.03.2005 19:40
---
Given that you turds are forever quoting the bastards , let's ask the good folks
at Amnesty bloody International to pass judgement as to the situation in Cuba.
---
Civil society initiatives
Initiatives by civil society organizations drew increased attention to calls for fundamental freedoms.
Harassment of dissidents
The authorities continued to try to discourage dissent by harassing suspected critics of the government. Suspected dissidents were subjected to short-term detention, frequent summonses, threats, eviction, loss of employment and restrictions on movement.
Prisoners of conscience
Limitations on freedom of expression, association and assembly remained codified in Cuban law.
Crackdown after Mexican embassy incident
On 27 February a busload of young men crashed into the grounds of the Mexican embassy in Havana. After several days, Havana police raided the embassy and took them into custody. Several of the younger participants were released, but at the end of 2002,
15 of them reportedly remained in detention.
A number of these prisoners of conscience, along with other detainees, went on hunger strike in late August to protest against their continuing detention without trial. The health of prisoner of conscience Leonardo Miguel Bruzón Avila deteriorated sharply before he was transferred to a military hospital in early November. ( - Hey, just like those jihadis at Belmarsh - KWF)
On 4 March, 12 dissidents were allegedly beaten and detained by state security officers and paramilitaries in a hospital in Ciego de Avila, where they were visiting a colleague who had been beaten during an earlier demonstration. They were still in detention without trial at the end of 2002. One of the detainees, Juan Carlos González Leyva, is blind and was subjected to severe conditions which reportedly aggravated his high blood pressure and other medical problems (- Hey, just like those jihadis at Belmarsh. Only, like twelve times worse - KWF)
AI country visits
AI last visited Cuba in 1988. The government did not respond to AI’s requests to be allowed into the country.
Kim Wilde's Fuzz