Crimes Against Humanity: November 2004 Archives

November 22, 2004

Altaf Hussein is the supreme leader of the Muttahida Quami Movement, the third largest political party in Pakistan.

He has lived in exile in Britain for nearly 13 years but continues to rule the hearts of the Mohajirs in Sindh. The volatile metropolitan city of Karachi is an MQM stronghold.

In Pakistan, migrants from India are called Mohajirs. They nurse a feeling of being culturally, politically and economically discriminated against when compared to the native Sindhis and Punjabis.

Hussein was a student leader in Karachi when he entered politics. A pharmacist by training, his career received a boost when he was backed by General Zia-ul Haq, who used him to divide the polity of Sindh.

Subsequently, the MQM had a major confrontation with the Pakistan army, when Hussein's supporters killed a senior army officer. Eventually, the unbearable political pressure and attempts on his life forced him to flee the country.

By articulating the woes of Mohajirs, Hussein has built up a formidable front which shares power in Islamabad and in Sindh. Lately, he has changed his party's name to the Muttahida Quami Movement to enlarge its vote bank. His equation with the army also changed after he opted to side with General Pervez Musharraf, also a Mohajir.

His recent Indian tour, his first outside the UK in 12 years, attracted attention when he addressed Indian Muslims and advised them to be loyal to India. His father, Nazir Hussain, was an officer with Indian Railways in Agra before migrating to Pakistan after Partition in 1947.

Though on a private visit to India, he was given VVIP status, provided security cover. Before his arrival dozens of his assistants arrived in New Delhi from Karachi and London to publicise his visit.

In an exclusive interview with Senior Editor Sheela Bhatt, he refused to criticise General Musharraf. (Source: Rediff.Com)

PROUT Editor's note: One needs to ask the question: why has the UN Security Council backtracked, or reneged on its earlier commitment to save the starving, tortured, raped millions of refugees in Darfur? What are the deep politics behind this latest immoral move? It is clear proof to any moralist-minded person that the United Nations has become a useless entity. Most especially, the UN Security Council is simply a group of rich powerful men looking out for their own personal interests. They have no interest in alleviating the suffering of the masses. For this reason, the time is over for looking up to the United Nations for solutions to global or local problems. The time has come for people to create a new organization, a world government, which will have representatives elected by the people, and those representatives will work tirelessly for the welfare of the masses in every corner of the earth! This must now be our new agenda as a crucial step towards creating a new world!
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(Nairobi, November 19, 2004) - The U.N. Security Council has retreated
from its previous stance to hold the Sudanese government accountable
for the ongoing human rights abuses in Darfur, Human Rights Watch said
today. A new resolution was passed today by a unanimous vote of the
Security Council's 15 members.

By Kanchan Gupta

[November 01, 2004]

This week, light a candle in your window. And whisper a silent prayer in memory of more than 4,000 Sikh men, women and children slaughtered by Congress hoodlums 20 years ago. In Delhi alone, 2,733 Sikhs were burned alive, butchered or beaten to death.

Women were raped while their terrified families pleaded for mercy, little or none of which was shown by the Congress flag-bearers. In one of the numerous such incidents, a woman was gang-raped in front of her 17-year-old son; before leaving, the marauders torched the boy.

A War Criminal Will be Inaugurated on January 20 and the People Will Protest

Preface: Pinochet and Bush - the troubles facing war criminals
Learning a lesson from the trials and tribulations of the dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was indicted for crimes against humanity when he traveled outside of Chile, George W. Bush arranged for his being granted "diplomatic immunity" by Chilean president Lagos as a precondition for Bush's trip to Chile for the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference.

Weaponized Bulldozers Used to Destroy Civilian Property and
Infrastructure

Human Rights Watch
New York, November 23, 2004

Caterpillar Inc., the U.S.-based heavy equipment company, should immediately suspend sales of its powerful D9 bulldozer to the Israeli army, Human Rights Watch said today. As Human Rights Watch documented in a recent report, the Israeli military uses the D9 as its primary weapon to raze Palestinian homes, destroy agriculture and shred roads in violation of the laws of war.

by Thomas Walkom
Toronto Star, 16 November 2004
www.globalresearch.ca 19 November 2004

When U.S. President George W. Bush arrives in Ottawa — probably later this year — should he be welcomed? Or should he be charged with war crimes?

It's an interesting question. On the face of it, Bush seems a perfect candidate for prosecution under Canada's Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

It is Bush and Blair, not the Iraqi resistance, who fear free elections

Sami Ramadani
Wednesday November 10 2004
The Guardian

George Bush and Tony Blair have apparently concluded that they can crush the
Iraqi people's will to resist occupation and legitimise a puppet regime next
January by occupying Falluja. Maybe they imagine they can emulate the British
forces that terrorised Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1920s by obliterating
recalcitrant villages.

A US-led attack on the Iraqi Sunni-stronghold will breach the Geneva conventions

Tony Kevin.
11/08/04

We need to be clear on what is about to happen in the Iraqi city of Falluja, about 64 kilometres west of Baghdad and a key centre of Sunni population in Iraq. This city has for many months held out as a centre of Sunni-based political-military resistance, refusing to accept the authority either of the former US-led occupying authority nor, since July, of the interim Iraqi administration led by the Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi.

By Madeleine Bunting

08 November 8
The Guardian

With fitting irony, one of the camps used by the US marines waiting for the assault on Falluja was formerly a Ba'ath party retreat occasionally used by Saddam Hussein's sons. Dreamland, as it was known, has an island in the middle of an artificial lake fringed by palms.