LCCC ENGLISH NEWS BULLETIN
October 20/06
Biblical Reading For today
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11,47-54.
Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. Therefore, the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute'in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter." When he left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.
Free Opinion
In 20 years, there will be no more Christians in Iraq.By: Mark Lattimer. The Guardian 20.10.06
Meaningful interfaith dialogue faces several hurdles -By Ghassan RubeizLatest New from the Daily Star for October 20/06
Roed-Larsen to submit new report on Resolution 1559
Cabinet agrees to set up cameras across capital
First Turkish troops set sail to join UNIFIL
Geagea says any non-March 14 president will be 'tasteless'
Husseini presses Lahoud to ratify judicial postings
Siniora readies reform plan to present in Paris
Comprehensive meeting on Taamir violence slated for next week in Sidon
Omani sultan grants $50 million in aid to Lebanon
Hizbullah rhythms make a killing on commercial frontSalameh seeks another $500 million in soft loans to revitalize Lebanon
Liban Lait denies receipt of $5 million to rebuild
Cluster bombs still taking heavy toll on civilian life
Rebuilding a war-ravaged country - one apple at a time
Breathing still: Beirut artists exhibit war work
US officials' ignorance is unsettling in light of forward policy
Latest New from miscellaneous sources for October 20/06Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Says Unity Government A Possibility-All Headline News
Lebanon approves CCTV cameras on Beirut roads-Reuters
Lebanon denies arms smuggling from Syria-Gulf Times
US Official Commends Lebanon for its Efforts on UN Truce-Naharnet
Preserving Christian Lebanon-Gulf News
France To Host Lebanon Aid Conference-All Headline News
Lebanon receives 300 mln USD from Kuwait for rebuilding-People's Daily Online
Iran, Gaza, Lebanon and North Korea-Arutz Sheva
Lebanese PM seeks more Arab help-Aljazeera.net
The Turkish UNIFIL Troops Set off for Lebanon-Journal of Turkish Weekly
Syrian military instructors in Gaza for first time, there to impart Hizballah’s combat methods to Hamas terrorists – Israeli intelligence chiefs to cabinet
October 19, 2006,
AMAN chief Maj.-Gen Amos Yadlin and head of research division Brig. Yossi Baidatz also reported to the Israeli cabinet Sunday, Oct. 15. that Hamas is taking delivery of anti-air missiles as well as anti-tank rockets. Saturday night, 3 Qassam missiles exploding near at Nir Am triggered an Israeli air strike at Palestinian launch team near Jebalya, N. Gaza. During the day, Israeli forces killed 8 Palestinian gunmen in clashes in Jebalya, northern Gaza Strip. At least 6 were from Hamas and they directed anti-tank fire at Israeli troops. They were killed when an Israeli rocket hit a house. Israeli ground forces are operating in three Gaza Strip sectors to fight off Palestinian missile attacks and destroy their arsenals. The IDF has stepped up pressure since the June kidnapping of Cpl Gideon Shalit. This operation, which went into its fourth day Saturday, is aimed at stemming the inflow of Iranian long-range anti-tank weapons and Grad 17-km range rockets through the tunnels of the Philadelphi border strip with Egypt. The latest arrivals now are ground-to-air and anti-tank rockets. The Egyptian police do nothing to hinder the Palestinian terrorist arms build-up in Gaza through their lines in Sin
Roed-Larsen to submit new report on Resolution 1559
Daily Star staff-Friday, October 20, 2006
BEIRUT: The third report from Terje Roed-Larsen on the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 is expected to be submitted to Secretary General Kofi Annan by Friday. A high-ranking UN source told The Daily Star late on Thursday that the envoy "is going to present a standard report to the UN chief either by the end of the day or tomorrow."The source said Annan would then submit the report to the various members of the Security Council for discussion. The council is scheduled to discuss on October 30 Roed-Larsen's third report since the passing of the resolution on September 2, 2004. A diplomat at the UN told The Daily Star that Roed-Larsen's report "is expected to include the results of his discussions with Lebanese officials and UNIFIL experts on the situation along the Blue Line and the issue of the Shebaa Farms and their nationality."
Lebanon has complained repeatedly to the Security Council of Israeli breaches of the UN-demarcated Blue Line, including attempts by Israel to alter the de facto border and swallow hundreds of meters of Lebanese territory last month.
The Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills constitute a thin swath of farmland along Lebanon's southern border occupied by Israel in varying stages between 1967 and 1982. Lebanon has presented documentation to the UN demonstrating that the territories are Lebanese and demanded that Israel withdraw from the area, while Israel claims the land is in fact Syrian territory occupied at the same time as the Golan Heights during the 1967 war.
Syria's comments on the issue have been contradictory. Foreign Minister Walid Moallem has often said the territory is Lebanese, but Damascus has yet to present formal documentation to that effect. According to sources quoted on Thursday in Lebanese daily An-Nahar, "there is a possibility that the report might include new information on the nationality of the farms that might reinforce the Lebanese evidence and documents regarding the Lebanese nationality of the Shebaa Farms." - The Daily Star
Cabinet agrees to set up cameras across capital
By Nafez Qawas -Daily Star correspondent
Friday, October 20, 2006
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Cabinet agreed Thursday to install surveillance cameras throughout the capital - including the southern suburbs - in a bid to tighten security across the country. The government agreed "unanimously to use all necessary means to control the security situation in Lebanon," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told reporters after the Cabinet's weekly session. Closed-circuit TV cameras, "which will be linked to telephone lines, will be extended to Beirut's southern suburbs after the area is rebuilt," he added. A ministerial source said Acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fataf had objected during the session to the cameras excluding regions outside the capital, while Energy and Water Minister Mohammad Fneish expressed concern for Lebanon's national security should the cameras be linked to satellites. "Linking cameras to satellites could allow Israel to violate our security," the source quoted the Hizbullah minister as having said. However, the information minister said the matter was settled during the session.
"All ministers agreed on the decision ... The cameras will all be linked to telephone landlines," Aridi said. Meanwhile, a security source told The Daily Star Thursday that the security measure would cost $12 million. "Police stations in Beirut will be provided with monitors set to detect any suspicious movement 24 hours a day," the source said. "A central control room will be set up in the Helou police barracks in Corniche al-Mazraa, to be informed of any suspicious activity," the source added.
Aridi also said Sultan Qaboos of Oman has given Lebanon $50 million to help with recovery efforts after the war. He said the grant came after Qaboos pledged to establish a Lebanese-Omani arts center in Beirut, a promise made before the Israeli offensive was launched on July 13. In related developments, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora will travel in the near future to the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Japan and Russia to rally support for an international donor conference for Lebanon scheduled to be held on January 15 in Paris, Aridi said. Siniora announced the date of the conference, which had been in the works for the past two years, on Monday. Several Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have made sizeable donations to Lebanon since a UN-brokered cease-fire was reached on August 14 to help relieve material damages estimated at $3.5 billion.
Thursday's Cabinet session was chaired by President Emile Lahoud and held at the government's temporary headquarters in Downtown Beirut.
Defense Minister Elias Murr, Justice Minister Charles Rizk and Environment Minister Yacoub Sarraf were absent. In comments to reporters before the session, Lahoud called for the complete implementation of UN Resolution 1701 and reiterated his opposition to satellite-linked surveillance. - With agencies
First Turkish troops set sail to join UNIFIL
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Friday, October 20, 2006
ANKARA: The first batch of 261 Turkish military engineers set sail for Lebanon Thursday to join the enlarged UN peacekeeping operation policing a cease-fire between Israel and Hizbullah, the general staff said. NATO-member Turkey is the first Muslim country to contribute troops to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Qatar also have pledged soldiers. A total of 95 personnel, who boarded a navy ship from the southern port city of Mersin, are set to dock in Beirut on Friday, military officials said. The remaining members of the team will fly to Beirut on Friday, Anatolia news agency reported. The Turkish contingent, which includes 237 soldiers and 24 civilians, will be stationed at a small village, lying 7 kilometers to the southeast of the port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. They are expected to work mostly on the reconstruction of roads and bridges.
Turkey is not expected to contribute any more ground troops for the UN force. A Turkish frigate is already serving in the German-led naval task force patrolling the Lebanese coast to prevent arms from allegedly being smuggled to Hizbullah, and the navy has said that it will also send two corvettes - small, fast escort ships - to the war-torn country. The Turkish government has said it will contribute a total of 681 troops to UNIFIL, including those on board the ships. The Turkish Parliament authorized the deployment of troops to Lebanon last month despite objections and large street protests.
Lebanon's Armenian community held massive demonstrations earlier this month protesting Turkey's involvement, citing the massacre in 1915 in which millions of Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman Turks. - AFP
Geagea says any non-March 14 president will be 'tasteless'
LF leader rules out his candidacy for top post
Daily Star staff-Friday, October 20, 2006
BEIRUT: One of the leading members of the March 14 Forces has rejected the idea that a new president for Lebanon be appointed from outside the coalition group. In an interview with new local daily Al-Akhbar, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said the March 14 Forces refuse to "negotiate on having a president" who is outside their circle. When asked whether he would run as a candidate, Geagea said: "No, I will not run as a presidential candidate for my own personal reasons." The LF leader has repeatedly stated that he would not run for the post, citing his past in prison as a reason.
On the possible new president, Geagea said that any president from outside the March 14 Forces would be "tasteless and colorless and would bring void to the presidency again."He ruled out the possibility of Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun as president, saying that Aoun has placed himself politically in a position that "will not make him reach the presidency."Geagea added that based on information he and his allies had gathered, those who are seeking to topple the government and replace it with a national unity Cabinet "are preparing for street riots ... but the March 14 Forces will not allow this." Hizbullah and the FPM have called for the formation of a national unity government.
On Thursday, Hizbullah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan said that demanding a national unity government "doesn't mean toppling the current Cabinet or marginalizing the Future Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party from political life in Lebanon."
He asked: "Why are the March 14 Forces disturbed by the idea of having a national unity government?"Meanwhile, March 14 Forces leader and Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt said after meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier late Wednesday that the mission of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon "is not only to maintain Lebanon's sovereignty over its territories, but also to implement the Taif Accord."
The Taif stipulates that all parties in Lebanon disarm. But Hizbullah's Shura Council member Sheikh Naim Qassem said late Wednesday during an iftar that the UNIFIL troops "are welcome as long as they don't exceed the limit of their mission."
This came as Lebanese politicians tried to predict what Berri's "promised gift to the Lebanese" would be. Berri said earlier last week he would bring the Lebanese people a gift for Eid al-Fitr. Pro-Hizbullah Labor Minister Trad Hamadeh said Thursday that the Lebanese are "patiently awaiting Berri's gift and expecting it to ensure calmness, and bring positive outcomes to Lebanon."In an article published by pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat, Jumblatt said he expected Berri's "promised gift for the Eid to be some sort of a formula to resume the national dialogue."
Jumblatt said that there are "neither direct, nor indirect contacts" with Hizbullah's Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, adding that "there are official contacts" between them through their governmental and parliamentary representatives. "However, I prefer to have Speaker Berri as our middle contact," said Jumblatt, adding that he sets "a wager on Speaker Berri's role in supporting the current government."
Berri will arrive in Lebanon within "the next 48 hours," from Europe after attending the inter-parliamentary union's 115th convention, a parliamentary source told The Daily Star Thursday. - The Daily Star
Omani sultan grants $50 million in aid to Lebanon
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Friday, October 20, 2006
BEIRUT: Oman's Sultan Qaboos has granted $50 million to help Lebanon recover from the devastation inflicted by the Israeli offensive on the country, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said on Thursday. "Sultan Qaboos has granted $50 million to help Lebanon overcome the damage inflicted by the war," Aridi told reporters after a weekly Cabinet meeting. Aridi said the grant came after a pledge by Sultan Qaboos to establish a Lebanese-Omani arts center in Beirut, a promise made before the July-August offensive on Lebanon. The $50 million is in addition to the money for the arts center, the amount of which has not been disclosed. Aridi said the center will be established in the downtown area of the capital which has been the focus of constant rebuilding since the 1975-90 Civil War. Solidere, the firm entrusted with rebuilding the area, has "pledged to grant a piece of land for this civilized project in the heart of Beirut," Aridi said. A number of Arab Gulf states, mainly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have made generous donations to Lebanon which suffered material damage estimated at about $3.5 billion during Israel's 34-day offensive in July and August. - AFP
Hizbullah rhythms make a killing on commercial front
By Agence France Presse (AFP) -Friday, October 20, 2006
Charles Onians and
Rana Moussaoui
Agence France Presse
BEIRUT: While Lebanese pop stars capitalize on a wave of patriotism in the wake of Hizbullah's summer war with Israel, the biggest musical sensation is absent from Beirut's torrid nightclubs and has a distinctly Islamic rhythm. Hizbullah and its followers have produced revolutionary anthems since the group's official creation in 1985, but the "victory" in the latest war with Israel has brought unprecedented sales and thrust its previously unknown performers onto the international circuit. "We're selling 50 percent more Hizbullah music since the end of the war" on August 14, says studio owner and distributor Hassan Abu Jaafar from his base in Beirut's southern suburbs. "We've put out 10 new titles since then, compared to only five from January to July."
Within days of the end of fighting, new CDs complete with images of Hizbullah's claimed victory and the destruction wrought by Israeli bombs were piling up in the shops. Abu Jaafar says he sells almost half-a-million Hizbullah-themed CDs and cassettes a year but refers questions about his profits to the Finance Ministry where his taxes go, grumbling that demand is so great much of his music is pirated. Described by its performers as Hizbullah's other weapon, the stirring marshal rhythms feature baritone male voices chanting about resistance, Hizbullah and Islam against a background of drum rolls, synthesizer crescendos and the occasional bagpipe solo. One CD - "Kept Promise" - is named after Hizbullah's July 12 cross-border capture of two Israeli troops that sparked the 34-day war, with song titles such as "Lebanon Will Survive," "America is a Bloodsucker" and "Music of the Martyr."
The Al-Wilaya group of singers says it is "the official Hizbullah troupe," with the modern-day troubadours' spokesman Ali Kazan saying proudly that "the resistance is not just about weapons, but about words and chants. We have a message to bring through art."
Since the end of the war, the troupe has toured abroad in Kuwait and Bahrain - a first for the men who have performed together since 1988.
"The people didn't look at us as only a Hizbullah troupe. In their eyes we were the incarnation of [Hizbullah leader Hassan] Nasrallah," says Kazan. "We are proud to represent the name of the resistance." Describing their music as chanting rather than singing, Kazan says that Hizbullah fighters returning from the front told him that they used to fire off their lyrics at hidden Israeli troops.
"These chants are a means of spiritual motivation for the fighters, it's a different kind of weapon," says the jovial-looking Kazan, adding that while Arab pop music is about love between a man and a woman, his chants are about "a dialogue between God and man.""We use drums, synthesizers, trumpets, clarinets, but not tambourines or derbakehs [a small underarm drum] because they evoke belly dancing. We don't want people to think about dancing, so if it looks like they might, we'll slow the music down. "Of course I want our chants to be known but not everywhere or at any cost. For instance, I don't think they should be played in nightclubs," says Kazan. Most of the performers are classically trained at the Beirut Conservatory, and manager Hassan Ghamlush says many songs are inspired by classical composers such as Russia's Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Ghamlush says he has no objection to pop stars releasing their own patriotic songs, such as the latest offering by Julia Boutros - a Christian - complete with a video of her walking through the ruins of South Lebanon as Hizbullah fighters emerge triumphantly from the woods.
"We don't compare ourselves to them, but we don't mind competition if it's for the same cause. A part of the population might not like what we do and prefer what Julia is doing," Ghamlush says. Wearing a stylishly trimmed beard, he accuses Western media of distorting the reality of Hizbullah.
"They think we are ignorant and backward but we are cultured. We love life, music and art. We don't just live for martyrdom and death. But we do want to live with dignity and pride," he explains.
Salameh seeks another $500 million in soft loans to revitalize Lebanon
By Osama Habib -Daily Star staff
Friday, October 20, 2006
BEIRUT: Lebanon hopes to obtain $500 million or more in soft loans from international sources to revitalize its private sector, Central Bank Governor Riad Salamah said on Thursday. "We hope to secure long-term financing of the private sector through international institutions such as the European Investment Bank and OPEC and the amount should be in the excess of $500 million," Salameh told reporters during a news conference to announce a November 7 "Rebuilding Lebanon" event, organized by the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) and UN-ESCWA.
Salameh, who was named the best Central Bank governor in the world during the August World Bank and IMF conference in Singapore, said that a $500 million soft loan would generate $2 billion worth of economic activity in Lebanon. The private sector was badly damaged by the Israeli war and blockade, with some estimating total indirect losses in excess of $5 billion. Apart from the indirect losses, the Council for Development and Reconstruction said the total cost of destroyed and damaged properties and infrastructure was $3.6 billion.
Lebanon had recorded GDP growth of 5 percent through June of this year, but the war cut projections to 0 percent on the whole for 2006.
An international donor conference is expected to take place in Paris on January 15 to raise grants and soft loans for Lebanon to rebuild its destroyed infrastructure and reduce its budget deficit. Officials and economists say that Lebanon could obtain as much as $3.5 billion in grants and $5 billion in soft loans during the conference. Salameh denied that there are any political conditions for Paris donor conference. "Lebanon will present an economic reform program during the conference to secure soft loans," he said. The plan is expected to reiterate the government's determination to implement its privatization programs. Salameh added that Lebanon must come up with a reform proposal that enjoys political consensus. "If we start with a successful conference then the expectations of a good economic performance will be better," he said. Responding to a question, Salameh insisted the Central Bank's projection of zero GDP growth at the end of the year is fairly accurate.
But some international investment banks and rating agencies claimed that Lebanon's GDP will fall to minus 6-7 percent in 2006, a figure disputed by the Central Bank. Salameh stressed that a political consensus should be first secured for any economic reform paper. He added that the Central Bank is bearing 23 percent of the total public debt, or $10 billion. Joseph Torbey, the president of the UAB, said that the Rebuilding Lebanon conference will be attended by ministers and Central Bank governors from Europe and the Arab countries. "The purpose of the conference is to draw a strategy for reconstruction and building the future," Torbey said. He added that the conference will discuss the role of commercial banks in the reconstruction drive.
Husseini presses Lahoud to ratify judicial postings
Daily Star staff-Friday, October 20, 2006
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Hussein Husseini called on President Emile Lahoud Thursday to approve hundreds of judicial appointments frozen since last week. "There is no reason to ask for the signature of the justice minister, prime minister and president in order to endorse judicial appointments," Husseini said. "According to the National Consensus Document, the Higher Judicial Council is the only authority entrusted with approving judicial appointments," he added. Lahoud received a list of judicial appointments Saturday and was in the process of studying it Sunday, sources close to Baabda Palace said earlier this week. Justice Minister Charles Rizk and Premier Fouad Siniora have already signed the decree. The council made a unanimous decision to approve some 470 judicial appointments last week after lengthy debate over the issue. The appointment of magistrates is a yearly occurrence in which judges are moved from one court to another throughout the country. In a direct attack on the president Thursday, Future Movement MP Walid Eido said Lahoud was "hampering the establishment of the Lebanese state.""Lahoud's only task today is to undermine any attempt to create an independent, sovereign and strong state ... This is his mission after the end of the [Syrian] tutelage regime, of which he constitutes the only remaining presence," Eido said.MP Boutros Harb told LBC Thursday that the Judiciary would be "paralyzed as long as there is a merger between politics and justice." - The Daily Star
'In 20 years, there will be no more Christians in Iraq'
Three years after the invasion of Iraq, it is believed that half the Christians in the country have fled, driven out by bomb attacks, assassinations and death threats. So why haven't the coalition forces done more to protect them? Mark Lattimer reports
Mark Lattimer
Friday October 6, 2006
Guardian
Three members of his family had already been murdered before Shamon Isaac decided to leave Baghdad. First, his son-in-law Raid Khalil was shot dead in January 2005 as he fled gunmen who had tried to pull him and his father into a minibus. Like many Christians, Khalil had received a death threat signed by the Islamic Army in Iraq. He left behind a widow and a baby girl, who is now nearly two.
Four weeks after Khalil was killed, Isaac's brother was stopped at a checkpoint by seven men in Iraqi army uniforms as he was on his way to collect passports to take his own family out of the country. "People in the neighbourhood shouted to his daughter that her father had been assassinated," Isaac said, "and she came out and found his body in the street." Then last August Isaac's brother-in-law was shot dead in his shop by three gunmen.
Finally Isaac and his family had no choice. When in January this year cars started to circle the family home in al-Dora with men shooting in the air, they escaped to another Baghdad neighbourhood, al-Jediya. But major demonstrations were taking place throughout the Muslim world in response to the Danish cartoons and on January 29 bombs ripped through seven churches in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk, killing 16. Then one day a man walked into the small shop that the family had just opened next to their new home, bought some cigarettes and walked out, but not before he had left a letter on the counter. On opening it, they found it contained a single word: "Blood."
The mechanisms of terror in the new Iraq have uprooted families from every community, including Sunni and Shia, Arab and Kurd. But although Christians made up less than four per cent of the population - fewer than one million people - they formed the largest groups of new refugees arriving in Jordan's capital Amman in the first quarter of 2006, according to an unpublished report by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). In Syria, which has a longer border with Iraq, 44% of Iraqi asylum-seekers were recorded as Christian since UNHCR began registrations in December 2003, with new registrations hitting a high early this year. Fleeing killings, kidnappings and death threats, they come from Baghdad, from Basra in the zone of British control and, disproportionately, from Mosul in the north. The Catholic bishop of Baghdad, Andreos Abouna, was quoted recently as saying that half of all Iraqi Christians have fled the country since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Yet their exodus has gone largely unreported, despite the fact that both George Bush and Tony Blair have spoken about how their own Christian beliefs have informed their policies in Iraq. In one of his first speeches after 9/11, the US president described the fight against terrorism as a "crusade", a characterisation that he wisely dropped but which is habitually repeated by critics of US foreign policy, including al-Qaida and other insurgent groups in Iraq. Many Christians have been accused of association with the multinational force, or of supporting the west. Now Iraqi Christian leaders are bitter that the west has done so little to protect them.
When Isaac fled Baghdad with 11 of his family it was, naturally enough, to the ancient home of Iraqi Christianity that they came - to the plains of Nineveh. I met them there three weeks later, huddled in a room in Bartallah, outside Mosul, part of the great fertile flatland on the banks of the Tigris where nearly every village has its church, and each church now has an armed guard. The plains are among the longest continually habited places on earth. It was to save Nineveh that the Biblical God delivered up Jonah from the belly of the whale, and the Assyrian Christians here still speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language Jesus Christ spoke with his apostles.
But Nineveh's unique place in Christian heritage counts for little today beside its strategic value in the geo-ethnic endgame of the Iraqi conflict. Situated between Iraqi Kurdistan and the insurgent strongholds west of Mosul, the Nineveh plains are central to the security of both, and to the territorial ambitions of Kurds and Sunni Arabs alike. Travelling in Iraq as part of a human rights mission coordinated by the charity Minority Rights Group International, in association with the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (Unami), I was told that no aid workers had been able to operate here since May 2004, when four Americans from a Baptist charity were killed in an ambush on the Mosul-Erbil road.
In Mosul city, both the Ba'athists and the Islamist groups had deep bases of support that enabled them to control whole neighbourhoods and, periodically, the city's police. "They stopped a Christian woman from Mosul university, took her away and cut off her head," the manager of a women's welfare organisation told me, her face flushed with the imagining of it. "They said that if anyone comes to college without hijab, they will be killed."
"The poor security situation covers all communities in the city," explained Dr Yousef Lalo, the assistant governor of Mosul. "But as a minority, the Christians are particularly vulnerable. They are also often more affluent than other communities, so people try to extract money from them." A former psychology lecturer, Lalo's habitual companions are no longer students but the bodyguards that testify to his status as the only remaining Christian in the city's senior administration.
"Many churches were bombed in 2004 and 2005 but the multinational force and the Iraqi national army did not find out who was responsible; they didn't even do a proper investigation. It got worse and few people turned up even for Christmas and Easter celebrations. Now the Christians protect their own churches."
Lalo couldn't provide a number for how many Christians had left Mosul, but said that "thousands" had emigrated to Jordan, Syria and Turkey. "Half the Christians in Mosul have left since 2003 and the rest are planning to leave if they can. Many of my family have emigrated to Australia and Sweden and become refugees."
But this softly spoken professor was staying to fight. "This is my land, and the land of my father and grandfathers, and I will not leave. I have also forbidden my three sons to emigrate."
That morning, Lalo had his first meeting with the multinational force commander for Mosul and eastern Nineveh, Colonel Michael Shields. Although "meeting" is perhaps not quite the right word for an encounter that began when four US soldiers in full battle dress came through the front door unannounced, the commander demanding: "Who's the leader? Where's the leader?" But once the Americans had put down their weapons and body armour, the exchange that followed was polite enough. I knew Lalo was bitter that the US had supported the appointment of a Muslim mayor in a predominantly Christian area and Shields told me he was working hard to improve contacts with local officials. He explained: "Nineveh province is an ethnically challenging area. If the governor shows favouritism, that creates problems." Lalo ventured bluntly that Shields' predecessor had been "bad for the Christians". "That," the colonel said, "is water under the bridge."
The Christians' last hope in Iraq may just lie, according to Lalo, with Sarkis Aghajan, minister of finance in the Kurdistan regional government and, until last May, Kurdish deputy prime minister. It is he who has been channelling money to Nineveh to pay for armed guards.
In his palatial residence in Ankawa, a Christian neighbourhood in Iraqi Kurdistan, he talked about his community as he sat between a picture of the crucifixion and the statue of an eagle. "As Christians," he said in Syriac, "we regard Nineveh as our region. Throughout history our people have been obliged to leave and live elsewhere." This included those who had fled Saddam Hussein's campaign to "Arabise" Kurdish and Christian areas in the north, when land was redistributed by force to Arab settlers. But now, he explained, about 3,500 families had come from Mosul and Baghdad to settle in the Nineveh plains.
"More than 30 Christian villages have been restored. But people will not return unless they feel their national rights are protected. Before, people were kidnapped on a daily basis. We increased the number of armed guards and now there are thousands. We are not threatening any other party, but the Kurds look out for the Kurds, the Arabs for the Arabs, so we have to protect ourselves too."
But Aghajan's ambitions go further. He is convinced that the only way to secure protection in the longer term is for an autonomous region, a safe haven, to be established covering Nineveh's Christians, as well as smaller minority communities there such as the Yezidis and the Shabak. "This special region would help us to maintain Christian history in that place. In that way, there would be no way for Kurds or Arabs to intervene. This would encourage the Christians living outside to come back, and it would be an example in the Middle East."
Aghajan is also sure that such an autonomous region should be part of an enlarged Kurdistan, prompting some politicians from Nineveh to accuse him of serving a Kurdish agenda. One, who fears the prospect of Kurdish control as much as a return by the Ba'athists, described him as "prime minister Barzani's loyal Christian". But Aghajan insists that the Nineveh plains would "get a fairer share" from the Kurdistan administration than from the central government. He praised Barzani's leadership. But he also knows that many Christians are already voting with their feet for the relative safety of Kurdistan.
Then he decribed how his people had been betrayed. "It was easy for the Americans and the British to have supported us when the churches were bombed - it was a historic opportunity - but they did nothing. If they had supported us financially, for example, we could have protected all the Christian families in Mosul."
Asked if he thought the Americans might be afraid to be seen to support the Christians, because that might be perceived as partisan or anti-Muslim, he waved his arm impatiently. "They didn't have to do it publicly - they could have done it through the Kurdistan Regional Government or through individuals. Now the Christians in Mosul are being made to change their religion. They are forced to pay money for jihad. If you hear the stories of those people, you will understand the tragedy. I am not talking about one of two families, or even a thousand, but about a nation.
"If our friends don't help us now, their friendship will be worth nothing in future. If it continues as it has, Baghdad and Mosul will be emptied of Christians."
As he spoke, I recalled Bush's words, over three years ago, from the decks of the USS Abraham Lincoln, announcing "the end of major combat operations" in Iraq. The president is fond of using biblical quotations in his speeches and he ended this one with a stirring message from the prophet Isaiah: "To the captives, 'Come out!' and to those in darkness, 'Be free!'"
In May, Iraq's first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein was approved in Baghdad. Wijdan Mikha'il, a town planner and member of the secular Iraqi National List, was appointed as the new minister of human rights - a hard job, she remarked to me ruefully, in a country where "the people hardly have any rights". Mikha'il is also a Christian, the only one in the government. When she got the job, she moved her family, including her three young boys, from their spacious Baghdad house to live in a hotel behind the concrete blast walls of the Green Zone. Over supper there one evening she talked to me about the sectarianism that has poisoned Iraqi society.
"I have always seen myself as an Iraqi first, and then a Christian. Before, we all lived together, we never thought that someone was a Sunni and the other was a Shia, or a Christian, but now it is different." She has held discussions with the Iraqi Council of Minorities, a new umbrella group that is pushing for amendments to the constitution to improve human rights protection. When I asked Mikha'il about how many Christians were leaving, she said: "The process started before the war but it has accelerated. In the schools the children now say that a Christian is a kaffir, that he is different from the Muslims. And that means he can be treated differently. In 20 years there will be no more Christians in Iraq."
As she talked, two men and two women, dressed mainly in black, walked into the hotel restaurant and sat down in a corner. The minister lowered her voice: "They are Saddam's witnesses." The trial of Saddam Hussein was in session that week, stumbling from one adjournment to the next, and Mikha'il listed some of the atrocities for which the former dictator should still be tried, including the genocidal Anfal campaign against the Kurds, in which many Christians were also killed.
So was it worse before, or now, from the point of view of the Christian community? She replied immediately: "It's worse now. Not just for my community - for all Iraqis. Of course, what is happening now, Saddam partly created. We have gone in one year to a situation we would have reached after 15 years if Saddam was still in power: the lack of security, the breakdown of society . . ." Suddenly she laughed, for the first time that evening. "So maybe it is better to get there in one year, so we can start the process of improvement."
Would she herself still be here in 20 years' time? This time she hesitated. "I don't think so. I love Iraq. I had so many opportunities to leave, but I always stayed. But I don't want my children to live here"
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
G.O.P.s Baker Hints Iraq Plan Needs Change
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: October 9, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 James A. Baker III, the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan panel reassessing Iraq strategy for President Bush, said Sunday that he expected the panel would depart from Mr. Bush's repeated calls to stay the course, and he strongly suggested that the White House enter direct talks with countries it had so far kept at arm's length,
President Bush left St. John's Church in Washington Sunday. James A. Baker III talks to the president on a regular basis, officials said.
I believe in talking to your enemies, he said in an interview on the ABC News program This Week, noting that he made 15 trips to Damascus, the Syrian capital, while serving Mr. Bush's father as secretary of state.
It's got to be hard-nosed, it's got to be determined, Mr. Baker said. You don't give away anything, but in my view, it's not appeasement to talk to your enemies. Mr. Bush refused to deal with Iran until this spring, when he said the United States would join negotiations with Tehran if it suspended enriching nuclear fuel. Iran has so far refused. Contacts with both Syria and North Korea have also been sharply limited.
But the Iraq Study Group, created by Mr. Baker last March with the encouragement of some members of Congress to come up with new ideas on Iraq strategy, has already talked to some representatives of Iran and Syria about Iraq's future, he said.
His comments Sunday offered the first glimmer of what other members of his study group, in interviews over the past two weeks, have described as an effort to find a politically face-saving way for Mr. Bush slowly to extract the United States from the war. I think it's fair to say our commission believes that there are alternatives between the stated alternatives, the ones that are out there in the political debate, of stay the course and cut and run, Mr. Baker said. He explicitly rejected a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, saying that would invite Iran, Syria and “even our friends in the gulf to fill the power vacuum. He also dismissed, as largely unworkable, a proposal by Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to decentralize Iraq and give the country's three major sectarian groups, the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis, their own regions, distributing oil revenue to all. Mr. Baker said he had concluded there's no way to draw lines in Iraq's major cities, where ethnic groups are intermingled.
According to White House officials and commission members, Mr. Baker has been talking to President Bush and his national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, on a regular basis. Those colleagues say he is unlikely to issue suggestions that the president has not tacitly approved in advance.
He's a very loyal Republican, and you won't see him go against Bush, said a colleague of Mr. Baker, who asked not to be identified because the study group is keeping a low profile before it formally issues recommendations.But he feels that the yearning for some responsible way out which would not damage American interests is palpable, and the frustration level is exceedingly high
At 76, Mr. Baker still enjoys a reputation as one of Washington's craftiest bureaucratic operators and as a trusted adviser of the Bush family, which has enlisted his help for some of its deepest crises, including the second President Bush's effort to win the vote recount in Florida after the 2000 presidential election. Mr. Baker served as White House chief of staff, as well as secretary of state under the first President Bush.
Andrew H. Card Jr., President Bush's former chief of staff, acknowledged recently that he had twice suggested that Mr. Baker would be a good replacement for Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Mr. Bush rejected that advice, and some associates of Mr. Baker say they do not believe he is interested, at his age, in taking the job, which could put him in the position of having to carry out his group's advice.
Those proposals which he has said must be both bipartisan and unanimous could very well give Mr. Bush some political latitude, should he decide to adopt strategies that he had once rejected, like setting deadlines for a phased withdrawal of American forces.
Given his extraordinary loyalty to the Bush family” Mr. Baker was present on Saturday at the formal christening of a new aircraft carrier named for the first President Bush it was notable on Sunday that Mr. Baker also joined the growing number of Republicans who are trying to create some space between themselves and the White House.
On Sunday, on This Week, Mr. Baker was shown a video of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, who said last week that Iraq was “drifting sideways and urged consideration of a change of course if the Iraqi government could not restore order in two or three months. The American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has offered a similar warning to the Iraqi government.
Asked if he agreed with that timetable, Mr. Baker said, Yes, absolutely. And were taking a look at other alternatives.
The Iraq Study Group, created with the reluctant blessing of the White House, includes notable Republicans and Democrats, among them William J. Perry, a former defense secretary under President Clinton; former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York; the former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day OConnor; and Vernon E. Jordan Jr., a longtime civil rights leader. Mr. Baker's Democratic co-chairman is Lee H. Hamilton, the former Congressman who once served as the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was co-chairman of the 9/11 commission.
In interviews, members of the study group have privately expressed concern that within months, whatever course the group recommended could be overtaken by the chaos in Iraq.I think the big question is whether we can come up with something before it's too late, one member said late last month, after the group had met in Washington to assess its conclusions after a trip to Baghdad.There's a real sense that the clock is ticking, that Bush is desperate for a change, but no one in the White House can bring themselves to say so with this election coming.
Like other members, he declined to speak on the record, saying public comments should come only from Mr. Baker or Mr. Hamilton.
Several members said they were struck during their visit to Baghdad by how many Americans based there political and intelligence officers as well as members of the military said they feared that the United States was stuck between two bad alternatives: pulling back and watching sectarian violence soar, or remaining a crucial part of the new effort to secure Baghdad, at the cost of much higher American casualties.
It was a measure of how much the situation had deteriorated that only one member of the group, former Senator Charles S. Robb of Virginia, ventured beyond the protected walls of the Green Zone, the American and government center of Baghdad. The study group is just now finishing its interviews, and Mr. Baker has not yet begun to draft the report, members said.
Some who have already met with the group, like Mr. Biden, who may seek the Democratic nomination for president, have emerged saying they think their ideas are being heard. On Friday, Mr. Biden said he thought he saw heads nodding up and down about his ideas on creating autonomous regions of the country, but Mr. Baker made clear on Sunday that he was not among them.
Experts on Iraq have suggested that, if we do that, that in itself will trigger a huge civil war because the major cities in Iraq are mixed, Mr. Baker said.
Mr. Baker has been critical of how the Bush administration conducted post-invasion operations, and he has not backed away from statements he made in his 1995 memoir, in which he described opposing the ouster of Saddam Hussein after the Persian Gulf war in 1991. In the book, he said he feared that such action might lead to a civil war, even if Saddam were captured and his regime toppled, American forces would still be confronted with the specter of a military occupation of indefinite duration to pacify the country and sustain a new government
On Sunday, the interviewer, George Stephanopoulos, said, exactly what's happened now, isn't Mr. Baker replied, lot of it.
TRANSCRIPT OF PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH AT B'NAI BRITH AWARD DINNER
(APPLAUSE)
RT. HON. STEPHEN HARPER (Prime Minister of Canada ): Thank you. Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone. President Weinstein, vice president Dimant, members of the B'nai Brith executive both here in Canada and internationally, members, honoured guests and distinguished guests, mesdames et messieurs, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, thank you Raoul, for that kind introduction, and thank all of you; I'm very touched by that tremendous warm welcome. I'm pleased to be here tonight…(APPLAUSE) I'm pleased to be here tonight at B'nai Brith's annual Award of Merit dinner. It is for me a great honour to speak to such a distinguished organization. B'nai Brith has been active in Canada for more than 130 years. And during those years, this organization has demonstrated not only that it is a strong voice for the Jewish community, but also a powerful champion of the values we cherish as Canadians: quality of opportunity, rights for everybody, democracy for all; and I say… (APPLAUSE) And I say to all who are or have been associated with B'nai Brith over these long years, I say simply thank you for making such an important and lasting contribution to our country, and particularly tonight to Walter Abib and Surgit Babra and all of you who have worked so hard, I want to thank you for all you've done and all that I know you will do to help our great country in the future. (APPLAUSE)
Let me talk for a few minutes about our country and about the future. Ladies and gentlemen, since taking office, Canada 's new government has pursued a focused and active agenda. We've cut taxes, tackled crime and introduced sweeping accountability legislation. Tomorrow we will move forward on another front, a historic first step in fact when we will table Canada's first clean air act, the first national regulatory framework for the long-term control and reduction of air pollution and greenhouse gasses. But… (APPLAUSE) But I think we in the government have all been surprised by how much of our time in office has been consumed with international relations.
Je parle ici bien entendu de questions si variées que l'entente sur le bois d'œuvre entre le Canada et les États-Unis, la défense de notre souveraineté dans l'Arctique, et notre participation dans la mission des Nations Unies en Afghanistan.
Thinking of foreign affairs, speaking about foreign affairs, I include issues as diverse as resolving the Canada-US softwood lumber dispute, defending Canada 's Arctic sovereignty and recommitting ourselves to the United Nations mission in Afghanistan . In all of these things, our new government has been actively defending and advancing this country's interests and values on the world stage. But as all of you know, one of the most significant and challenging foreign policy issues our new government has had to face is the situation in the Middle East . Our approach to the Middle East , as elsewhere, has been guided by our values: freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law and the uncompromising opposition to terrorism. (APPLAUSE) These, my friends, are not new values. They are fundamental to what this nation has always stood for. The State of Israel, a democratic nation, was attacked by Hezbollah, a terrorist organization; in fact, a terrorist organization listed illegal in this country! (APPLAUSE) We are fighting terrorists in Afghanistan . We have arrested alleged terrorists here in Toronto . Therefore it is very straightforward. When it comes to dealing with a war between Israel and a terrorist organization, this country and this government cannot and will never be neutral. (APPLAUSE)
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I said that this position is rooted in what we have long stood for as a country. As a boy, I was like most fortunate young men, to be most influenced by my father, and one of the great influences on my father's life was World War II. He was too young to have fought in the war, but he was old enough to have absorbed its lessons. The world was too slow to fully grasp the threat of fascism, too willing in the early years to make excuses for it, too blind to see what it meant for all of us. Now, as you know, this summer we were mercilessly attacked by our opposition for the position we took on the Middle East . I understand why. I understand that with the news reports of the day in the sound of battle, the images of destruction, the suffering of innocents, it is sometimes difficult to see and to keep the focus on what is truly at stake. But the fact is this: those who attacked Israel and those who sponsor such attacks don't seek merely to gain some leverage, to alter some boundary or to right some wrong. They seek what they and those like them have always sought: the destruction of Israel and the destruction of the Jewish people. Why? (APPLAUSE) Why, my friends? A thousand complicated rationalizations, but only one simple reason: because the Jews are different, because the Jews are not like them. And because Israel is different and alone in a complicated and dangerous part of the world, it is too easy to embrace the rationalizations and ignore this truth. And it is too easy to ignore the greater implications of that truth, which became so evident in World War II, that those who seek to destroy the Jews, who seek to destroy Israel will for the same reason ultimately seek to destroy us all. And that, my friends… (APPLAUSE) And that, my friends, is why Canada 's new government has reacted with speed and spoken with clarity on the recent events in the Middle East , why we were the first nation in the international community to cut off funding to the Hamas government, why… (APPLAUSE) why we defended Israel 's right to vigorous and effective self-defence against Hezbollah, and why… (APPLAUSE) and why we opposed a one-sided resolution at the Francophonie because it wasn't right, it wasn’t fair and it wasn't the Canadian way. (APPLAUSE)
Now friends, in the same spirit of truth and with the same openness that the friendship allows, I need to tell you that we must also seek a fair and just future for the Palestinian people. Issues of… (APPLAUSE) Issues of human dignity, of giving people their right to build their society, as long as they respect the rights and dignity of others, are values we also share. Our government believes in a two-state solution, in a secure, democratic and prosperous Israel living beside a viable, democratic and peaceful Palestinian state. (APPLAUSE)
Nous croyons qu'il est nécessaire d'avoir une paix juste, durable et compréhensive au Moyen-Orient.
Egypt and Jordan took courageous steps many years ago to make peace with Israel . They know the benefits of peace. We think the time is long overdue for others in the region to join them, and it is in the end the only way forward for everybody, and I… (APPLAUSE) And friends, I have to believe that that's what most ordinary Palestinian people want, like most Israelis, like most everyone else in the region. The mother wants peace and security for her new child. The father hopes for a happy future for his family and his community. The young adult seeks freedom, opportunity and the chance to get ahead. Other than the terrorist, the extremist, or the fanatic, who wakes up each day and wishes that the public life in their community or their country will be an endless cycle of hate, violence, oppression and corruption? No one. But in the end, that is all that they will ever achieve, and why we must be so ever vigilant against them. Now, I don't profess to be an expert on Israeli politics, but it seems to be that the current government of Israel didn’t want to be where it found itself this summer. It wasn’t elected to wage war but to pursue peace. And this is the great tragedy. Because Prime Minister Olmert and Prime Minister Sharon before him sought a mandate to break the mould and find a new way forward, not to have the same battle yet again over the same ground. They both said that Israel is willing to make painful compromises for peace. This is the sort of leadership and vision and commitment that we need and that we have come to respect from the great state of Israel . (APPLAUSE) In my conversations with the Prime Minister, I've come away convinced that he still aspires to find a genuine peace for his people and with his neighbours. That, I've told him, is what Canada really wants. And Israel , as a fellow democracy that prefers peace as all true democracies do, can count on Canada 's support, steadfast support, encouragement and friendship along the way. (APPLAUSE)
Now, ladies and gentlemen, notwithstanding the invitation of the former Liberal Premier of Ontario to speak endlessly tonight, I have promised that I would not speak long. So let me just say that in our short time in office, we have been guided by our clear values and interests in addressing the Middle East and other foreign policy matters. I did so, for example, at the G8 and my speech at the United Nations and recently again at the Francophonie. Some have claimed that this is charting a radical new course in foreign affairs. That is simply not accurate. Rather than charting a new course, we are restoring Canada to its traditional and true role, principled leadership in world affairs. (APPLAUSE) A Canada that knows where it stands, speaks up for what is right and invests in the tools of diplomacy, foreign aid, intelligence and military capability. Friends, this is a role we have played at countless times in our history, a role we as Canadians should be proud of, a role we will continue to pursue.
Je vous remercie et vous souhaite une agréable fin de soirée.
Thank you, shalom, and God bless Canada . (APPLAUSE)