Michael Jackson dead at 50 ” I am Peter Pan”

Zimbabwe Troops take over Diamond Fields

By CELEAN JACOBSON, Associated Press Writer Celean Jacobson, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 56 mins ago

JOHANNESBURG – Human Rights Watch said Friday that Zimbabwe’s armed forces have taken over diamond fields in the east and killed more than 200 people, forcing children to search for the precious gems and beating villagers who get in the way.

The New York-based organization said its call for a ban on diamonds from the region had received an endorsement from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. A statement from the couple’s foundation was expected later Friday.

“Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have issued a call for a ban on any sale or purchase of Marange diamonds … until … the mining is not based on the violent abuse of residents in that region,” said Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch’s executive director.

Zimbabwe’s deputy mining minister, Murisi Zwizwai, has denied the allegations and said the presence of the military is to secure the area.

More than 100 witnesses, miners, police officers, soldiers and children were interviewed for the report entitled “Diamonds in the Rough,” which details allegations of human rights abuses by Zimbabwean armed forces in an attempt to control access to the precious gems.

The human rights group said esearchers had gathered evidence of mass graves and accounts of an incident last year when military helicopters fired at miners, while armed soldiers on the ground chased villagers from the area.

“There are hundreds of victims of human rights abuses that are unwilling to come forward for fear of the military,” Zimbabwe researcher Dewa Mavhinga said.

The report also alleges that some of the income from the diamond fields is going to officials of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, long accused of trampling on human rights and democracy in the southern African country.

The international human rights watchdog is calling on Zimbabwe’s coalition government, formed in February, to stop the abuses and prosecute those responsible.

It is also calling on the international body that governs the global diamond industry to press Zimbabwe, a participant, to end the illegal trade in Marange diamonds.

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, established in 2002, aims to stem the flow of “blood diamonds” being used to fund fighting across Africa. Participants are forced to certify the origins of the diamonds being traded. This assures consumers that by purchasing diamonds they are not financing war and human rights abuses.

Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the group is calling for the definition of blood diamonds to be broadened to include gems mined through “repression and violent abuses” by governments.

The Marange diamond fields were discovered in 2006 – at the height of Zimbabwe’s political, economic and humanitarian crisis. Villagers rushed to the area and began finding diamonds close to the surface. Mining is now managed by Zimbabwe’s Mining Development Corporation under protection of the military.

It is estimated that the diamonds could be worth $200 million a month to the cash-strapped country but the Mining Development Corporation claimed in 2007 that it was made $15 million from gem exports.

Zwizwai, the Zimbabwean deputy minister, said the country did not have the money to fence off the area and so was using the military to secure the diamond fields.

He said there had been no deaths by the military but that there had been “skirmishes” among the illegal diggers, which resulted in three reported deaths and eight arrests.

“The special operation by security forces has been successful as evidenced by (the) order and sanity which now prevails in the Marange area,” he told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a Kimberley Process meeting in neighboring Namibia.

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Associated Press Writer Rodrick Mukumbira in Windhoek, Namibia contributed to this report

Israel Block Aid to Gaza

Israeli Block Aid to Gaza

Subject: Public Advisory – We did not leave Cyprus today

PUBLIC ADVISORY

(25 June 2009, LARNACA) – This is not the statement we in the Free Gaza Movement intended to release today. We had hoped to announce that our two ships, the Free Gaza and the Spirit of Humanity, departed from Larnaca Port on a 30-hour voyage to besieged Gaza, carrying human rights activists who have travelled to Cyprus from all across the world for this journey, 3 tons of medical supplies, and 15 tons of badly needed concrete and reconstruction supplies.

Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire, returning for her second trip to Gaza aboard one of our ships, said “[The people of Gaza] must know that we have not and will not forget them.”

That was our hope, but that is not what happened.

Instead, our ships were not given permission to leave today due to concerns about our welfare and safety. Our friends in Cyprus tell us that the voyage to Gaza is too dangerous, and they are worried we will be harmed at sea.

Cyprus has been a wonderful home for the Free Gaza Movement over these last 10 months. Cypriots know first hand the terrible consequences of occupation. They too know what it is to suffer from violence, injustice, and exile. Since our first voyage to break through the siege of Gaza, the Cypriot authorities have been extremely helpful and understanding of our goals and intentions.

The journey to Gaza is dangerous. The Israeli navy rammed our flagship, the Dignity, when we attempted to deliver medical supplies to Gaza during their vicious assault in December/January. Israel has previously threatened to open fire on our unarmed ships, rather than allow us to deliver humanitarian and reconstruction supplies to the people of Gaza.

The risks we take on these trips are tiny compared to the risks imposed every day upon the people of Gaza.

The purpose of nonviolent direct action and civil resistance is to take risks – to put ourselves “in the way” of injustice. We take these risks well aware of what the possible consequences may be. We do so because the consequences of doing nothing are so much worse. Anytime we allow ourselves to be bullied, every time we pass by an evil and ignore it – we lower our standards and allow our world to be made that much harsher and unjust for us all.

In addition to the concerns expressed by our Cypriot friends today, the American consulate in Nicosia warned us not to go to Gaza, stating that:

“…[T]he Israeli Foreign Ministry informed U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv that Israel still considers Gaza an area of conflict and that any Free Gaza boats attempting to sail to the Gaza Strip will “not be permitted” to reach its destination.”

Former U.S. Congresswoman & presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney responded to this warning by pointing out that, “The White House says that cement and medical supplies should get into Gaza and that’s exactly what we are attempting to take to Gaza.”

“Instead of quoting Israel policy to us,” McKinney continued, “…the U.S. should send a message to Israel reiterating the reported White House position that the blockade of Gaza should be eased, that medical supplies and building materials, including cement, should be allowed in. The Free Gaza boats should be allowed to reach their destination, traveling from Cyprus territorial waters, through international waters, and straight into Gaza territorial waters.”

“The State Department has chosen to advise us to take the Israeli notification seriously.  Our question is, ‘Can we take President Obama seriously?’  Will he stand by his own words and allow us to provide relief for Gaza or will he back down?”

Tomorrow we will deliver a waiver, signed by all going to Gaza, that we absolve Cyprus of all responsibility for our safety. We would like to tell our friends here in Cyprus that though we understand and appreciate their concerns, we will not back down to Israel’s threats and intimidation.

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www.FreeGaza.org

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Former Congress Woman Cynthia McKinney to the President of United States

US Senate passes detainee photo bill

Senate passes detainee photo bill

Bill sponsor Lindsey Grapham says it will help protect American troops

By JAMES ROSEN – jrosen@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON – Sen. Lindsey Graham urged the House on Thursday to follow the Senate in passing his bill prohibiting the release of classified photos showing abuse and humiliation of terror suspects held by the United States.

The Senate unanimously approved the Graham measure, co-sponsored by Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, late Wednesday

“They’re embarrassing, they’re inappropriate and they would be used by our enemies to put our troops in jeopardy,” Graham said of the photos.

Graham, R-S.C., said the photos were similar to those of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, which caused an international uproar when they were released in 2004.

“Passing this bill is essential to protecting our fighting men and women,” Graham and Lieberman said Thursday in a joint statement. “Each one of these photos would be tantamount to a death sentence to those serving our nation in the most dangerous and difficult spots like Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere.”

Obama initially supported releasing the photos – most of which Graham said depict detainees being held at U.S. prisons in Afghanistan – but changed course last month.

The Senate passed the Graham-Lieberman legislation banning the photos’ release as a stand-alone bill after Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, called Graham earlier Wednesday and asked him to stop blocking a broader war spending measure.

Graham had vowed to filibuster that $106 million supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan and hold up other Senate bills after the House Democratic leadership removed a Graham-Lieberman amendment barring release of the detainee photos.

The Graham-Lieberman amendment and a separate provision providing $1 billion to the auto industry had delayed passage of the war spending bill for days.

Graham said Obama promised to issue an executive order if necessary to ensure the controversial photos weren’t released.

Graham and Lieberman agreed to remove the photo-release ban from the war-spending bill and to offer it as free-standing legislation, which the Senate approved by voice vote Wednesday evening.

Free of the detainee-photo issue, the Senate on Thursday passed the war spending bill by a 91-5 vote.

Graham voted for the $106 million measure, while Sen. Jim DeMint voted against it.

DeMint’s aides said he opposed the bill because it contains “a 108 billion IMF bailout” and the $1 billion to help automakers.

“It is wrong to use our troops as an excuse to force through runaway spending and bad policies,” DeMint said.

The measure provides only $5 billion in direct funding to the International Monetary Fund, as part of a credit line that could go higher.

The Graham-Lieberman bill prohibits the release of the detainee photos for three years, with the defense secretary or the president authorized to extend the ban an additional three years.

Graham said a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president would carry more weight than an executive order.

Graham said Speaker Nancy Pelosi must overcome resistance from Rep. Barney Frank and other Democrats for his measure to pass in the House.

James Rosen covers Washington for McClatchy newspapers in South Carolina.

President Obama Repeats Bush Folly on UN Racism Conference

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

President Obama got it right and terribly wrong on the UN Racism Conference in Geneva. He rightly demanded that the conference convenors drop the stock Zionism is racism plank from the draft resolution of the conference. The Israel knock was the same sticking point that former President Bush used to dodge going to the anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The convenors complied and sanitized the objectionable language from the resolution. That should have been enough to get a U.S. delegation on a plane to Geneva.

For a brief moment it looked like it would be enough. An Obama spokesperson went so far as too publicly praise the move and say that the administration was deeply grateful for the change. The Obama administration wasn’t grateful enough though to attend.

This is where President Obama gets it terribly wrong. The 20 nations that initially put the anti-Israel language in the resolution as well as certain other rhetorical points that the U.S. can’t stomach can’t be challenged in absentia. There is still too much bitter racial and ethnic hate and turmoil in too many places in the world that have nothing to do with Israel and Middle East problems that scream for attention. Attention that President Obama can’t duck. The United States has the money, muscle, and political clout to take the lead in the continuing fight against racism, repression, genocide, state sponsored ethnic war and cleansing in every part of the globe. That’s all state or group sponsored racial and human rights abuses and that includes abuses by some of the nations that ritually target Israel for its human rights abuses.

Obama seems to welcome that chance to confront those nations on their abuses saying repeatedly that he will engage them whenever and wherever he can. He’s shown signs of keeping that promise on Cuba and Iran. But they are relatively soft targets since there is broad international consensus that the US must dump its archaic, outdated, and failed policy on Cuba, a policy that’s out of step with all of Latin America. In the case of Iran, US outreach is a matter of international security since Iran is a looming regional and international nuclear threat.

Diplomatic détente with Cuba and Iran, though, doesn’t do much to spotlight caste oppression in India, the plight of the Kurds in Turkey and other Mid East countries, skinhead violence in Germany and Britain, the continuing theft of Indian lands in Brazil, Mexico, and Guatemala, and the genocidal ethnic attacks in Darfur and the Congo. Nor does it prod Canada and Australia to do even more to right the historic wrongs against Indians and Aborigines. The US must also call on the carpet those corrupt African and Asian dictatorial regimes that elevate violence and terror to state policy against dissidents, many of whom are invariably of different ethnic groups.

In 2001, a clearly conflicted Secretary of State Colin Powell understood this. He thought the decision to bail out of the Durban conference was a grave mistake, and that the U.S. should and could do more good by being there to prove that it did take the fight against global racism seriously. Powell understood that the racism conference was supposed to draw up a battle plan to combat racism wherever it reared its ugly head in the world.

In the provisional agenda the UN Racism conference drew up in 1997 it called for nations to identify victims of discrimination, develop prevention, education, and protection measures, and provide long term strategies to bolster national and international efforts to combat discrimination. The obsessive focus on Israel just kept getting in the way of making any real headway on that agenda. The disputed resolution equating Zionism with racism passed in 1975 by a deeply divided U.N. was vague and ill-defined and had no force of law.

It did nothing to alleviate Palestinian suffering. Instead, it made Israel dig its heels in deeper and refuse more concessions on Palestinian rights. The U.N., with the consent of Arab nations and the Palestinians, wised up to the blunder and overwhelmingly voted to dump the resolution in 1991. However, it still keeps cropping up as a barrier to getting the US to the conference table.

The big danger in a one track focus on Israel is that the conference will again give short shrift to the ethnic warfare that still rages in these countries.

The Congressional Black Caucus has been one of the Obama administration’s loudest cheerleaders. Yet it flatly called the Obama administration’s decision to skip Geneva disappointing. It’s more than disappointing. It’s yet another opportunity the US blew to struggle against global racism. Bush didn’t do that, and that was no real surprise. But Obama is not Bush and for him to blow the opportunity to engage against global racism at Geneva repeats Bush’s folly.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, “The Hutchinson Report” can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com.

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