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Dear
editor
In a fine example of
internationalism the Viva Palestina aid convoy to
Gaza set off from London on Saturday, February
14. Led by George Galloway, and comprising 110
vehicles, including a fire engine, over 20
ambulances, and a boat, the convoy is carrying
over £1 million worth of medicines, clothing,
and supplies for the Palestinians of Gaza,
victims of the ongoing crime against humanity
that is Israel’s blockade and its recent
massacre of men, women, and children, people
whose only crime is that they refuse to acquiesce
in their designated status as untermenschen in
Israel’s brutal and barbaric settler
colonial project.
Sadly, celebrations of the
convoy’s departure were marred by news of
the arrest of 9 men, along with the seizure of
two vehicles, who were making their way to join
the convoy from the North West of England on the
night of Friday February 13 by counter-terrorism
police. At time of writing six of the men have
been released and three remain in custody, as yet
to be charged with any offence, whilst a number
of homes in the Burnley area are being searched.
It has been stressed by the police that they do
not believe the organisers of the aid convoy knew
the men involved or were part of the
investigation resulting in their arrest.
Just consider the difference
in approach of the police when it comes to the
arrest of Muslims on suspected terrorism offences
(which by the way could mean anything from
voicing support for Hezbollah or Hamas on a demo,
to donating money to a charity deemed off limits
by the government), and the carrying out of an
arrest warrant on Israeli military official for
suspected war crimes, involving the slaughter of
civilians and the demolition of civilian homes,
both illegal under international law.
Back in September 2005 when
an El Al flight touched down at Heathrow Airport
carrying one Major General Doron Almog. Arriving
in the UK to attend various charity functions, Mr
Almog refused to leave the aircraft after having
being tipped off that a warrant had been issued
for his arrest over allegations that he had
ordered the demolition of over 50 Palestinian
homes as part of an Israeli military operation in
the Gaza Strip.
The police arrived to arrest
the General, but refused to board the aircraft
citing ‘security concerns’.
Subsequently, the aircraft was allowed to take
off back to Israel with the general on board,
thus allowing a suspected war criminal to escape
justice. Moreover, the then British Foreign
Secretary, Jack Straw, issued an apology to the
Israeli government for any embarrassment caused,
as if the arrest of a man suspected of war crimes
could ever be construed as embarrassing. That is,
unless of course, you happen to consider the
targeting of civilians in a military operation
acceptable. But what this does is serve to
illustrate more than just the double standards
we’ve all come to expect on the part of the
British government when it comes to the
application of international law.
It also illustrates the
extent to which the government is complicit in
the oppression suffered by the Palestinians.
Moreover, as brutal as the state of Israel is and
has always been in its treatment of the
Palestinians, the brutality of our own government
has been unmasked in recent years.
Recent revelations
concerning the involvement of British
intelligence in the torture of British Guantanamo
detainee, Binyam Mohamed, must be viewed as
constituting the tip of the iceberg when it comes
to the crimes committed by the government as part
of its role in the US imperialist project to
control the vast energy reserves located in the
Middle East. These latest revelations follow what
we already know of the use of British airports to
help facilitate the passage of rendition flights,
involving the kidnap of nationals of one country
and their transport to a third country to be
tortured. Indeed they fall into a pattern of an
immoral and illegal foreign policy refracting
back to corrupt the entire legal and political
system at home.
The Viva Palestina aid
convoy is exactly the kind of initiative that
will
defeat attempts to divide us, as well as offering
much needed support to the Palestinian people,
whose cause is surely the cause of humanity in
our time. As such all those taking part deserve
our support and respect, and none more so than
Respect MP George Galloway, who continues to be
an anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist thorn in the
side of the British, Israeli, and US governments.
Let’s hope the convoy reaches its target and
gives people in this country something to be
proud of. The Arab and Muslim world already know
of the huge demonstrations and actions undertaken
in this country in solidarity with Gaza. They
know of the huge disconnect that exists between
the government and the people when it comes to
Britain’s role in the Middle East. The
Palestinians know that they do not stand alone.
In the year 2009
internationalism in Britain is alive and well.
Viva Palestina!
John Wight
The rule of law at
home and abroad
Colombia Support Network / Sunday 25
January 2009
President Barack Obama in his inaugural address
committed his administration to following the
rule of law. No doubt the rule of law
greatly needs to be followed in the United
States, after 8 years of the Bush - Cheney
Administration's authoritarian actions in
undermining the laws of this land, including
international treaty
obligations such as the Geneva Conventions.
It is also vital, however, for the Obama
Administration to take into account the manner
and extent of compliance with the rule of law by
governments in countries with which the United
States has diplomatic and commercial relations.
If the rule of law is sacrosanct for the new
President and his Administration, it must be
given importance in this country's relations with
other countries.
This consideration is particularly important in
the case of Colombia. If more than lip service is
to be given to the support for the "rule of
law", our government must critique the
manner and extent to which our diplomatic and
trading partners are acting in accord with the
precepts of the rule of law. In the case of
Colombia, evidence of the undermining of the rule
of law and of its irrelevance for President Uribe
and his associates in government is widespread
and obvious, if our leaders choose to look
carefully at Mr. Uribe's rule.
The Colombian Constitution
of 1991, a very progressive document in many
respects, gives indigenous peoples and
Afro-Colombian communities special rights to the
lands they have occupied and worked for many
years. President Uribe's Administration has
authored laws and policies which would take away
lands from indigenous and Afro-Colombian
communities and provide them to multi-national
businesses and to
agro-exporters planting African palm and other
export-oriented crops.
The taking of lands has been
achieved by the encroachment of illegal
paramilitaries, who have forced literally
millions of Colombians off their lands with
support from the Colombian Army. Is this
consistent with the rule of law? Absolutely not.
Revelations about the conduct about the Colombian
military since 2006 have shown that in response
to a decree establishing monetary and other
rewards for killing guerrillas (called
"positives"), Colombian Army units have
kidnapped poor unemployed youths and transported
them to areas remote from their home areas and
then murdered them and presented them as
"guerrillas killed in combat", when
they were neither guerrillas not killed in
combat. Is this phenomenon, known as "false
positives'" in Colombia, consistent with the
rule of law? No, it is a perversion of the rule
of law.
When President Uribe's head of the DAS
(Colombia's FBI), Jorge Noguera, was charged with
having aided paramilitaries, Mr Uribe honored him
with a diplomatic posting to Milan, Italy. When
former Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio
completed his term, during which he had
facilitated paramilitary impunity and fired the
head of the human rights unit of the Attorney
General's office for ordering the detention of
General Rito Alejo del Rio—whose ties with
paramilitaries are clear for anyone who looks at
Del Rio's military career— President Uribe
appointed him as Colombia's Ambassador to Mexico.
Do these appointments reflect respect for the
rule of law ? Unquestionably not.
Clearly Alvaro Uribe Velez
has demonstrated time and again his lack of
commitment to the rule of law. If President Obama
is serious about his own commitment to the rule
of law he must recognize these very serious
failings in President Uribe 's governing of
Colombia. Mr. Obama needs to review and revise
the unconditional support the Bush administration
gave to the deeply flawed presidency of Alvaro
Uribe. He needs to establish policies which will
make aid and support dependent upon the
protection and advancement of the rights of the
common man and woman in Colombia, including the
peasant, indigenous and Afro-Colombian
communities. To do less would be to come up short
on Mr. Obama's commitment to the rule of law.
John I. Laun
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