JustPeace#30

Hot News

• 
  New Zealand must not be complicit in human rights abuses
  
  in Iraq and Afghanistan said Keith Locke on 31 July. Yet that is just what is happening, with our military deployments to Iraq (army engineers) and the Gulf (frigates and Orion aircraft). Human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan are now well documented (see Analysis, below, for the latest reports from Human Rights Watch on the abuse of women in Iraq, and of civilians generally in Afghanistan) and yet NZ continues to provide military cover and support for US ”power projections”.

  ”We should not be part of this American war [in Afghanistan]”, said Keith ”which, in practice outside Kabul, is about supporting a bunch of pro-Karzai warlords against another lot of warlords. It is not the way to empower the Afghan people to enable them to determine their own destiny. Trade Minister Jim Sutton said this week that the Afghan commitment was assisting his trade talks, but New Zealand, as a small, independent, peace-making country, should not prostitute itself in that way.” Read
  
  Keith’s speech
  
  .

• 
  Taking the lead for peace in Korea
  
  — that was Keith Locke’s vision for New Zealand on 27 July, as Prime Minister Helen Clark attended the commemoration of the armistice that ended the Korean War 1950-53. Keith expressed the hope that the PM would return with a strong commitment to supporting a real peace settlement on the Korean peninsula, and suggested that she start by encouraging George Bush to get back to the Clinton policy of serious peace negotiations. Read
  
  Keith’s release
  

Hot Action

• 
  Hiroshima Week
  
  . Next week we commemorate the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and use this opportunity to publicise the anti-nuclear cause and try and grow the world-wide opposition to nuclear proliferation, which still threatens us all. Christchurch and Wellington events on August 6 are given below —
  
  check the Peace Movement Aotearoa ‘What’s On’ listings
  
  if you live elsewhere to see if anything is happening near you.
• 
  Christchurch — new action news service for on-line peace people
  
  . Peace Action Network has started a new weekly e-bulletin of ‘Upcoming Events’ for Christchurch folk. To subscribe, and send items,
  
  
  leith_mclean
  
  [at]
  
  hotmail [dot] com
  
  
  (email Leith McLean)
  
  
  . There’s so much going on you can’t afford not to subscribe! Below are just three entries from the latest bulletin.
  • 
    Monday 4th August: “The Business of War”
    
    , the latest in Peace Action Network’s series of monthly forums, [first monday of every month] examining the links between economic globalisation and the western military system. Murray Horton speaks on “What is behind America’s drive for war and empire” and Leigh Cookson speaks on “Economic Globalisation and War”. 7:30 pm at the Trade Union Centre, 199 Armagh Street (cnr Madras and Armagh). Entry free.
  • 
    Wednesday 6th August: “Hiroshima, Nagasaki: Never Again”
    
    . Twice in humanity’s history, nuclear weapons were used against civilian populations. To commemorate this tragedy, there will be an evening of speaking, music, poetry, and a lantern-floating ceremony in the Victoria Square amphitheatre (north-western side), beginning at 6pm.
  • 
    Thursday 7th August: “America’s Secret War in Colombia”
    
    . The Green Party presents Paul Bruce, a Latin American activist, speaking on the devastation of Colombian society. Also a screening of “Plan Colombia: cashing in on the drug war failure. 7:30 pm at the WEA, 59 Gloucester Street. Gold coin koha.
• 
  Wellington, Wednesday, 6 August – Commemorating Hiroshima
  
  , with speakers Jeanette Fitzsimons, Green Party Co-leader, and Merav Datan, International Lawyer and former Director, WILPF United Nations office; and the Wellington East Girls’ Choir; 6pm to 7pm, at St Andrews on the Terrace, 30 the Terrace. Organised by Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to remember those who died in the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in hope for a nuclear free world; for more info contact tel (04) 934 9103, 383 5688, or 479 3415.

Hot Analysis

• 
  Human rights abuses
  
  in Iraq and Afghanistan — two recent reports from Human Rights Watch.

  Commenting on the release of a 17 page report on the abuse of women and girls in occupied Iraq, Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said ”Women and girls today in Baghdad are scared, and many are not going to schools or jobs or looking for work … If Iraqi women are to participate in postwar society, their physical security needs to be an urgent priority.” Read
  
  
  Climate of Fear
  
  
  .

  A much longer (101 page) and horrifying report by HRW entitled ”
  
  
  Killing You Is a Very Easy Thing For Us
  
  
  ”documents the rampant abuse occurring in south-eastern Afghanistan. Below is the media release from HRW outlining the contents of the report.

  A brief overview of why and how things are so bad in Afghanistan can be found in Isabel Hilton’s 30 July article ”
  
  Now we pay the warlords to tyrannise the Afghan people: the Taliban fell but — thanks to coalition policy — things did not get better
  
  ”, which is on the
  
  Guardian website
  
  .

• 
  
  “Afghanistan: Warlords Implicated in New Abuses Report Details Threats to Women’s Rights, Freedom of Expression
  
  

  (New York, July 29, 2003) Afghan warlords and political strongmen supported by the United States and other nations are engendering a climate of fear in Afghanistan that is threatening efforts to adopt a new constitution and could derail national elections scheduled for mid-2004, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

  The report warns that violence, political intimidation, and attacks on women and girls are discouraging political participation and endangering gains made on women’s rights in Afghanistan over the last year.

  “Human rights abuses in Afghanistan are being committed by gunmen and warlords who were propelled into power by the United States and its coalition partners after the Taliban fell in 2001,” said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. “These men and others have essentially hijacked the country outside of Kabul. With less than a year to go before national elections, Afghanistan’s human rights situation appears to be worsening.”

  The 101-page report, ”
  
  Killing You Is a Very Easy Thing for Us: Human Rights Abuses in Southeast Afghanistan
  
  , documents army and police troops kidnapping Afghans and holding them for ransom in unofficial prisons; breaking into households and robbing families; raping women, girls and boys; and extorting shopkeepers and bus, truck and taxi drivers. The report also describes political organizers, journalists and media editors being threatened with death, arrested and harassed by army, police and intelligence agents. The subject area of the report, the southeast of Afghanistan and Kabul city, is one of the most densely populated areas of Afghanistan.

  Because soldiers are targeting women and girls, many are staying indoors, especially in rural areas, making it impossible for them to attend school, go to work, or actively participate in the country’s reconstruction. In many places, human rights abuses are driving many Afghan families to keep their girls out of school. The atmosphere of violence, along with resurgent religious fundamentalism in parts of the country, is endangering the most important human rights improvement since the end of the Taliban the ability of girls to go back to school.

  “The fact is that most girls in Afghanistan are still not in school,” said Adams. “In many cases, returning refugee families who sent their girls to school in Pakistan or Iran are afraid to do the same in Afghanistan.”

  The testimony of victims and witnesses implicates soldiers and police under the command of many high-level military and political officials in Afghanistan. These include Mohammad Qasim Fahim, the Minister of Defense; Hazrat Ali, the military leader of the Eastern Region; Younis Qanooni, the Minister of Education; Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former president of Afghanistan; and Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf, a powerful former mujahidin leader to whom many of the officials involved in the documented abuses in Kabul city and province remain loyal.

  The report urges the Afghan government to sideline and pressure abusive leaders and to seek more international assistance in its efforts.

  Human Rights Watch called on the United States, the United Kingdom, Iran, Russia and other external powers to end their support for local strongmen and commanders involved in human rights abuses.

  “External support for warlords is destabilizing Afghanistan,” said Adams. “The United States and the United Kingdom, in particular, need to decide whether they are with President Karzai and other reformers in Kabul or with the warlords. The longer they wait, the more difficult it will be to loosen the warlords’ grip on power.”

  Human Rights Watch emphasized the need for the Afghan government and the international community to redouble efforts to reform the Afghan Ministry of Defense. The Ministry of Defense in Kabul is currently dominated by the political and military faction “Shura-e Nazar,” a loose alliance of former mujahidin parties. Making the ministry more ethnically and politically representative is a vital prerequisite for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs that could lessen the power of abusive military rulers and their troops.

  Human Rights Watch urged NATO to expand the geographic scope of the U.N. authorized security force, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), currently stationed only in Kabul, when it takes over ISAF command in August. Human Rights Watch also urged NATO to widen ISAF’s mandate to include disarmament and human rights protection. Plans to deploy more international Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) may be a positive step if they focus on security, but they are not a substitute for an expanded security force.

  Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations to increase its human rights monitoring and protection efforts through the deployment of significant numbers of U.N. human rights officers around the country.

  “With more U.N. human rights workers on the ground, victims will be better able to seek redress and protection. An increase in monitoring will have the added benefit of giving the Afghan administration and the international community better information about what is happening around the country,” said Adams. “This is standard operating procedure in other U.N. missions, but so far the United Nations has refused to take this step.”

  Human Rights Watch also urged the United Nations to increase its public reporting on the human rights situation and to supply more personnel to work side-by-side with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.”

  JustPeace was produced by Christine Dann, Tim Hannah and Keith Locke, MP

  If you have feedback on the content of JustPeace, or news items, please
  
  
  christine [dot] dann
  
  [at]
  
  clear [dot] net [dot] nz
  
  >email Christine Dann
  
  .

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