LCCC NEWS BULLETIN
JUNE 10/2006

Below News From the Daily Star for 10/06/06
Bush: Iran has 'weeks not months' to weigh incentives
IMF: Beirut must not delay reforms
Berri seeks Arab mediation to bury hatchet with Syria
Blair backs Hariri investigation
Qabalan: Hizbullah's weapons should only be used against Israel
Nasrallah paved way for calm dialogue session
Cabinet condemns LBC show but takes no action
Lebanese studies center wraps up conference on war prevention
Iraq will need to ensure Zarqawi's vision of sectarian strife dies with him
Israeli fire rakes Gaza beach killing 14 people
Below News From miscellaneous sources for 10/06/06
Amnesty: Lebanon Should End All Discrimination-Naharnet
Azeri FM to take diplomatic demarche against Lebanon -TREND Information
Lebanon's national dialogue deferred till June 29-People's Daily Online
Syria ties boost-Gulf Daily News

Bush: Iran has 'weeks not months' to weigh incentives
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Saturday, June 10, 2006
French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday said that the international community "cannot accept" Iran's nuclear program, saying it could lead to the development of nuclear arms.
On another front, US President George W. Bush said on Friday Iran "has weeks, not months" to respond to an offer of incentives to suspend its nuclear enrichment program. Bush's comments represent the first clear deadline for Iran to give an answer. In Paris, Chirac and Blair said both countries in agreement in their aim to bring about a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the crisis. Failure by Tehran to suspend the program is threatening the long-term stability of the Middle East region, they added.
"We call upon the Iranian authorities to cooperate fully with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and to suspend their activities connected with enrichment, including research and development."
Chirac said the Islamic Republic would not be allowed to develop the bomb: "We can't accept that it carries out a process that could in reality lead to the creation of a nuclear weapon."
For his part, Blair said everyone wanted a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
"We are in a better chance of doing that now. But the bottom line is ... that Iran has got to comply with its obligations and people want to facilitate that," he said.
The package of incentives and penalties, which EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana personally delivered to Tehran earlier this week, was prepared by Germany, France and Britain and is backed by the EU, United States, Russia and China.
Bush said that if Iran does not suspend enrichment, "there must be a consequence."
"We've given the Iranians a limited period of time - you know, weeks not months - to digest a proposal to move forward. And if they choose not to verifiably suspend their program, then there will be action taken in the UN Security Council," Bush said.
Earlier, EU President Austria said Iran has until the Group of Eight (G8) summit in July to consider the offer.
A powerful Iranian cleric used Friday prayers to send a clear message to the six world powers who prepared the offer - that they will never stop Iran from making nuclear fuel.
"Now they want to deprive us of many advantages. The package they have brought is a package that is good for themselves and is not appropriate for the Iranian people," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told worshippers in Tehran.
The latest report by the IAEA, released on Thursday, said Iran had this week launched a fresh round of uranium enrichment, just as Solana delivered the offer.
Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said it was a "coincidence" and not meant as a provocation that Iran re-started crucial enrichment work on the same day that Solana was in Tehran. He also called on nations to show "self-restraint" at a high-level IAEA meeting next week and not endanger diplomacy over Tehran's nuclear program. - Agencies

Nasrallah paved way for calm dialogue session
Saturday, June 10, 2006-Daily Star
A source within the March 14 Forces said that while the national dialogue has become a means of easing tension among political forces, the people should not have high expectations about the outcome of the talks.
The source said any solution to the country's problems cannot be reached now, particularly since the international community's attention is focused on Iran's nuclear program, Iraq and Palestine.
Meanwhile, regional and Arab support is desperately needed to resolve the presidential crisis and the issue of Hizbullah's arms, but the concerned Arab states have said any initiative will only be possible after a solidification of the region's security.
Accordingly, Lebanese officials must work to ease internal tensions until regional developments are such that international pressures are relieved.
The source added that the national dialogue may also become Lebanon's "anti-depressant" after Serge Brammertz' report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is released.
The head of the International Investigation Commission could very well ignite further bickering on the local arena.
On a more reserved note, participants in the national dialogue adopted a "code of honor" this week to end the rampant public exchanges of insults among the country's leaders, and in the wake of riots on the streets of Beirut after an unflattering depiction of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on an episode of "Bass Mat Watan" aired on LBC.
However, a news conference called by the Hizbullah leader, in which he clarified his party's position regarding the riots and the comedy sketch, paved the way for a calm session of the national talks.
Instead of carrying on the attacks launched by Hizbullah officials against acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat and Information Minister Ghazi Aridi, Nasrallah said his party had made every effort to end the riots. The dialogue is expected to center on Hizbullah's arms and Lebanon's defense strategy during its ninth round on June 29. However, MP Saad Hariri, the head of the Future parliamentary bloc, said Lebanese leaders should look to resolve internal disagreements before discussing the country's defense strategy against Israel. Aridi outlined his ministry's position regarding the LBC comedy during a one-hour speech during Thursday's Cabinet session. Aridi said the Information Ministry was the first to call for a resolution of the issue through legal means, while Hizbullah asked LBC to apologize to Nasrallah for the insult. The information minister added that the resistance had slighted both the ministry and the National Audiovisual Media Council by directly contacting LBC director general Pierre Daher.Ministerial sources said Aridi's speech was approved by the majority of ministers

Blair backs Hariri investigation
PM dismisses conspiracy theories as 'nonsense'
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Saturday, June 10, 2006
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that his government fully supported the UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri and dismissed allegations that Mossad and the CIA plotted the murder.
In a question-and-answer session Thursday during his monthly news conference at 10 Downing Street, Blair said that accusing the CIA and Mossad of the assassination of Hariri fell into "the usual conspiracy theories that do nothing but add nonsense to any discussion."German author Jurgen Kobol held the CIA and the Mossad responsible for Hariri's killing in a recently published book. "It is important that those who were responsible for that assassination are brought to justice," Blair said of the next UN report related to the killing.
The head of the International Investigation Commission probing Hariri's murder, Serge Brammertz, is expected to submit his second report to the UN Security Council next week.
Blair said his country will be at the side of the Lebanese, helping them in their struggle "to achieve democracy and to be free to develop their own affairs in the way they want." Hariri's assassination was obviously designed to "prevent democracy," he added. Meanwhile, US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Security Council Resolution 1559 was "an essential landmark" indicating Syria's threat to Lebanon's sovereignty and security. Ros-Lehtinen made the comment Wednesday at a congressional hearing of the subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, which she chairs. The subcommittee is part of the US House of Representatives' Committee on International Relations. The session was titled "Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, Two Years Later: Next Steps for US Policy." Ros-Lehtinen said Syria had done nothing regarding US complaints about Damascus' support to terrorism. She said Syria was supporting Islamist terrorists inside and outside its territory and allowing Iran to use Damascus as a channel for funneling aid to Hizbullah. Ros-Lehtinen said the US was worried about Syria's chemical weapons program, adding that Syria had acquired a technology enabling it to produce nuclear weapons. Present at the hearing, Congressman Eliot Engel urged the US government to act now and impose heavy sanctions on Syria based on the Syrian Accountability Act. - Agencies

Berri seeks Arab mediation to bury hatchet with Syria
By Nada Bakri -Daily Star staff- Saturday, June 10, 2006
BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri pleaded from Cairo on Friday for an Arab initiative that will restore Lebanese-Syrian relations and help Beirut implement its national dialogue decisions. "With all my heart, I plead Egypt, the biggest Arab state, to create an Arab initiative to help Lebanon implement the dialogue's decision and restore its ties with Syria," Berri said upon his arrival in Cairo.Berri's visit comes a day before Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz is expected to deliver his report to UN chief Kofi Annan on the UN probe into the murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Brammertz, who took over last January as head of the International Investigation Commission probing the February 2005 slaying, is expected to meet with Annan on Saturday to submit his long-awaited report, according to a UN spokesperson in New York.
The report will shortly thereafter be passed on to the 15 members of the UN Security Council and later to reporters, the spokesperson added. Brammertz will brief the Security Council on the report next Wednesday, UN officials said. The six-month mandate of the Brammertz commission expires on June 15.
In his first interim report released last March, Brammertz said progress was made in establishing precisely how the massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005, which killed Hariri and 22 others, was carried out.
He also reported crucial headway in overcoming Syria's initial reluctance to cooperate with the investigation.
Two previous reports under German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, Brammertz' predecessor, had suggested top-level Syrian involvement in the assassination and blasted Damascus for actively seeking to mislead the investigation.
Syria, the longtime powerbroker in Lebanon, has denied any involvement in Hariri's murder and accused the commission of political bias.
Meanwhile, in Cairo, Berri will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, in addition to other Egyptian officials, during his three-day visit. "I will brief President Mubarak and [Egyptian Speaker] Ahmad Fathi Srour on the course of Lebanon's national dialogue, which tackles very important Lebanese issues," Berri said. "I will also meet the Arab league secretary general, hoping that the organization can play a role in helping Lebanon implement the decisions of this dialogue," he added.
Sponsored by Berri, the national dialogue has agreed in previous sessions to ask Premier Fouad Siniora to discuss with Syrian officials exchanging embassies, demarcating the borders and cooperation to establish the Lebanese identity of the Shebaa Farms, an Israeli-occupied strip of land joining Lebanon, Syria and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The participants also agreed to dismantle military bases operated by Syrian-backed Palestinian factions outside Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. But as Damascus has been reluctant to receive Siniora, the dialogue's decisions are proving near-impossible to implement without Arab mediation efforts. On the sidelines of a Sino-Arab Cooperation Forum late last month, Moussa told Arab press he would be visiting Beirut and Damascus in the near future in a bid to ease tensions between the two neighboring countries. Moussa had suspended such efforts last December after leaders of Lebanon's parliamentary majority raised doubts about his objectivity.
The Arab League chief said an Arab move to limit tensions between both countries had not yet been formally presented, adding that discussions must resume as soon as possible so headway on Lebanese-Syrian relations could be made.
Berri's visit to Cairo also comes a day after MP Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, proposed dispatching a multiparty committee of politicians to Damascus to negotiate the Lebanese-Syrian issues.
According to MP Salim Aoun, a member of the FPM, the committee would include the Future Movement, Hizbullah, Amal and Aoun's bloc.Lebanese-Syrian relations deteriorated following the assassination of Hariri, the founder of the Future Movement. Hariri's son, MP Saad Hariri, who now leads the parliamentary majority, said Siniora's Cabinet must be a participant in negotiations with Syria, while Berri said the suggestion "needs to be studied."
Aoun also suggested asking the Security Council to pass a resolution against settling Palestinian refugees in Lebanon permanently. - With agencies

Qabalan: Hizbullah's weapons should only be used against Israel
Daily Star staff- Saturday, June 10, 2006
BEIRUT: The Vice-President of the Higher Shiite Council on Friday issued a veiled warning to Hizbullah that its weapons were only for use against the Israeli enemy. "I am against the resistance if it uses its weapons against Lebanese people because those arms are only meant to face Israel," Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan said during his weekly sermon. But he also expressed "support" for the resistance, and called upon the leading politicians taking part in the national dialogue to set a defensive strategy against Israeli aggression. "Israel is the sole enemy to Lebanon and the whole Arab nation," he said.
"Politicians should stay away from tension because the dialogue will rescue the country from all conspiracies," he added, while also urging journalists to "respect the other," as "we cannot live without media because it is the voice of truth."
Qabalan urged the government to remember the people. "The government should pay attention to citizens' needs," he said, criticizing some parties who blame "every single problem" in Lebanon on Syria.
"Some accused Syria of cutting electricity, while it supported and reformed the sector," he added.
Meanwhile, senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah urged the "new generation to create the future of Lebanon with a mentality open to freedom, independence, beauty and justice."
He blasted a call from the March 14 Forces for disarming the resistance. - The Daily Star

Cabinet condemns LBC show but takes no action
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Saturday, June 10, 2006
BEIRUT: A marathon Cabinet session Thursday came to the eventual conclusion that the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) had crossed the line by mocking Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, but stopped short of taking any disciplinary action against the station. During a seven-hour session held at the Socioeconomic Council in Downtown Beirut, the government also denounced riots that followed the airing of an LBC comedy show in which Nasrallah had been depicted in what his followers deemed a less-than-flattering light. Thousands of Hizbullah supporters took to the streets of Beirut and isolated other areas across the country, burning tires, blocking roads and vandalizing public property until the army was able to calm the situation down. However, despite a report submitted by the National Audiovisual Media Council (NAMC) alleging that LBC had broken the law by airing the parody, the Cabinet decided that punitive measures were not merited.
The government urged all parties to abide by the "code of honor" announced during Thursday's national dialogue session grouping the country's top political leaders. Agreement was reached during the eighth session of the talks that all politicians and political parties would end their personal media campaigns against each other and stop hurling insults at each other in public.
Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told reporters the Cabinet "endorses the decision taken at the national dialogue and calls on everyone, including the media, to observe the law, respect people's dignity and preserve the country's national interest."
The Cabinet also approved a draft decree appointing six delegates to represent the state within the National Social Security Fund's administration. The delegates are Maroun Seikaly, Akram Najjar, Adel Alik, Toubia Zakhia, Marwan Iskandar and Rafik Salameh. In addition, the government ratified the make-up of a pan-Arab Peace and Security Council aimed at addressing inter-Arab disputes. - With Naharnet

Iraq will need to ensure Zarqawi's vision of sectarian strife dies with him
Saturday, June 10, 2006-Editorial-Daily Star
As we pointed out in our editorial yesterday, the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi affords a rare opportunity to urge Sunni militants to now join the political process and thus take the wind out of the sails of the Iraq insurgency. But apart from offering a chance to stem the insurgency, the death of Zarqawi affords an opportunity for Iraqi and international leaders to confront another threat that poses an even greater risk to the region. With Zarqawi's death, Iraqi and international leaders now have a brief window of opportunity to avert a slide into full-scale Iraqi civil war.
Since the February bombing of the Askariyya Mosque in Samara - an attack that many blamed on Zarqawi - sectarian violence in Iraq has escalated to alarming levels, with bullet-ridden, tortured and decapitated bodies turning up on the streets of the country on a near daily basis. Much of this violence was instigated by Zarqawi, who made no secret of his intention to stir sectarian strife. In a letter purportedly written by Zarqawi and intercepted in 2004, the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq described his strategy of stirring sectarian strife to Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Acknowledging that "the grip around the throats of the mujahideen has begun to tighten," Zarqawi said that the solution was "for us to drag the Shiites into the battle, because this is the only way to prolong the fighting between us and the infidels." In a speech posted on an Islamist Web site earlier this month, Zarqawi made his sectarian hatred all the more clear when he publicly lashed out at Iraqi Shiites, urging Sunnis to "wake up, pay attention and prepare to confront the poisons of the Shiite snakes."
Zarqawi is now dead but his vision of sectarian bloodshed has not yet died with him. Decisive steps will need to be taken very quickly to avert a slide into full-scale civil war. The Iraqi government will need to rein in Iraqi militias, not only the Sunni militias that are thought to be behind the insurgency, but also the Shiite and Kurdish militias and death squads, some of which have operated under the cover of the armed forces and have committed equally gruesome attacks on Sunni civilians. Many Iraqis have supported the emergence of their local militias, which have provided neighborhoods the kind of security that the government has been unable to deliver. But in the coming months, the responsibility for security will need to be transferred fully into the hands of the Iraqi government. The appointment of neutral ministers to security posts, a final and long-awaited step in the creation of an Iraqi government, was a good first step, but will need to be followed up with additional steps in the same direction. In the coming months, Iraqi parties will need to be prodded by the international community toward reconciliation. Encouraging the Iraqis to take additional steps in that direction will for a short period of time be easier now that Zarqawi is dead. The only thing that remains to be done is to ensure that Zarqawi's vision - an Iraq and a region torn apart by sectarian civil war - is buried along with him.

In The Mideast, Not Sure What To Think
Friday, June 9, 2006
The Washington Post-By Anthony Shadid
TRIPOLI, Lebanon, June 8 -- Sheik Fathi Yakan is not one to be faint of heart. A 50-year veteran of Islamic politics in a city growing ever more religious, he has adorned his office with the iconography of jihad. "Victory or martyrdom," reads one slogan, emblazoned on a calendar. He celebrates what he calls America's defeat in Iraq and embraces a never-ending struggle against the United States.
But when it came to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq on Wednesday, Yakan's language of absolutes melted into ambiguity. Martyr or villain? Like many in the Arab world, he shook his head, unsure what to say.
"I don't know him well enough to say whether in the end he was good or bad," said Yakan, 73, a long gray beard falling over his tie, his thick gray hair combed back. "I myself couldn't determine his intentions."
In a region roiling with resentment over U.S. policy and fear of its repercussions, Zarqawi's death was greeted much as his life was: with confusion and suspicion. Some in Tripoli and elsewhere in the Arab world hailed him as a hero, as they might anyone fighting the United States. Others expressed relief and joy at the death of a man blamed for killing hundreds of innocent Iraqis. But often heard Thursday was a sense of wariness -- no one was quite sure who Zarqawi was, or what his death meant.
"There are so many question marks around the phenomenon of Zarqawi," said Sheik Bilal Shaaban, the leader of al-Tawhid al-Islami, a long-standing conservative Sunni Muslim group in Tripoli.
There sometimes seem to be two realities at work in the Middle East: an American version of U.S. policy toward Iraq, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere, and another version heard in the streets of tradition-bound cities such as Tripoli, where distrust of the United States -- its alliance with Israel, its aims in Iraq and the region -- runs so deep that almost anything it pronounces lacks credibility.
Zarqawi exemplified that distrust, and from the beginning of his emergence in Iraq, many speculated that he was either an American creation or, at the very least, a convenient foil whose reputation and role the U.S. military encouraged and exaggerated in Iraq. (It was disclosed earlier this year that the military had launched a psychological campaign to magnify his role.) Although those suspicions had faded in recent months, they lingered Thursday, as hardly anyone claimed to know precisely what Zarqawi's agenda was.
"The United States embellished Zarqawi's role," said Ahmad Arfaj, a 36-year-old writer having lunch with a friend in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. "I think he was responsible for only 10 percent of the operations attributed to him." Added his friend, Ahmad Adnan: "A criminal has been killed. He killed more civilians than he did U.S. Army personnel."
In the earliest days of the U.S. occupation in Iraq in 2003, the insurgency was lionized by many in the region, stunned by the speed of President Saddam Hussein's collapse in the U.S. invasion.
Since then, perceptions have become more complicated, sometimes confused, and even ardent supporters of the insurgency worry today about the repercussions of Iraq's strife on the region. Car bombs targeting Iraq's Shiite Muslims, usually blamed on Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq organization, have stoked anger among co-religionists in the Persian Gulf and Lebanon. In a sign of sectarian tension, rumors spread among Sunnis in Tripoli on Thursday that Shiites in Beirut were handing out sweets to celebrate Zarqawi's death.
On both sides of the sectarian divide, revulsion has greeted the carnage in the streets of Baghdad and other cities, along with disgust at the videotaped beheadings and executions that make their rounds on the Internet and became a trademark of Zarqawi's followers.
Yakan, the cleric in Tripoli, said he had sent a letter through Iraqi clerics demanding that Zarqawi stop. "A lot of what he did was illegitimate," he said.
Yakan said he would not put Zarqawi in the category of Osama bin Laden, whom he admires, and pointedly declined to describe him as a martyr. In fact, he and others said they thought Zarqawi's death might actually improve the image of the insurgency. With Zarqawi and his incitements toward a civil war gone, they said, the insurgency could return its focus to the U.S. occupation.
"Now they can prove the resistance is not Zarqawi's resistance," Shaaban said.
Some analysts predicted that in an ensuing power struggle, more-radical elements might win out; to claim leadership, they said, there could be a tendency toward even more ruthlessness and violence.
That Zarqawi was still hailed in some parts of the region was a vivid illustration of the depth of resentment toward the United States and the way the war in Iraq has joined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a provocation.
The radical Islamic group Hamas, which won control of the Palestinian parliament in January, deplored the U.S. airstrike that killed Zarqawi and praised him as a martyr. "With hearts full of faith, Hamas commends brother-fighter Abu Musab . . . who was martyred at the hands of the savage crusade campaign which targets the Arab homeland, starting in Iraq," the statement said.
"People don't like Zarqawi, but they hate America," said Abdul-Min'im Mustapha, Egypt bureau chief for the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. "They are upset about the death of Zarqawi because they think it's a victory for America."
Radical Islamic Web sites marked his death; even there, though, the ambiguity of his reputation sometimes emerged. "You might disagree with me on some of the paths taken by Zarqawi, but you have to agree he gave the worshipers of the cross and apostates a taste of torture and set the earth under their feet on fire," wrote one person who identified himself as Dari on the al-Sahat Web site. "This hero was one of those useful to God on the battlefield."
At a street corner in Tripoli, three men sipped coffee next to a vegetable stand. From a stall came the sound of al-Jazeera television's round-the-clock coverage of Zarqawi's death. One of the men jumped up when asked about his fate.
"We are so angry!" 45-year-old Mohammed Deeb shouted.
"All of us are Zarqawi," his friend Abdel-Fattah Khazna interrupted. "God kill those who killed him."
At about that time, an argument erupted on al-Jazeera itself. One of its guests, Hassan Salman, a Beirut-based Iraqi analyst, accused al-Jazeera of organizing what amounted to condolences for Zarqawi. When the anchor, Jamil Azer, said all parties were being interviewed, including Americans, Salman retorted: "We're not Americans, we are the Iraqi people and today is a wedding day for us. This man was a nightmare to all of us, and especially to the Sunnis."

DAVID AHENAKEW'S HATE CRIME CONVICTION
OVERTURNED BY SASKATCHEWAN JUDGE
By Tim Cook
Canadian Press, June 9, 2006
REGINA (CP) - David Ahenakew's lawyer declared a "victory for common sense" Thursday as a judge overturned his client's hate crime conviction and ordered a new trial.
In a 35-page decision, Court of Queen's Bench Chief Justice Robert Laing said the original trial judge did not properly assess whether the former head of the Assembly of First Nations had the requisite intent to be convicted of a hate crime. "It was a victory for common sense, that's what I think," said Ahenakew's lawyer Doug Christie.
"It demonstrates that angry, unconsidered words should not constitute criminal offences. They may be bad words, they may be things we shouldn't say, they may even be offensive, but they are the price we pay for freedom in democratic society."
Ahenakew was convicted of wilfully promoting hatred and fined $1,000 for comments he made about Jews to a Saskatoon reporter in December 2002. Court heard how Ahenakew referred to Jews as a "disease" when approached by the reporter after giving a 45-minute, profanity-laced speech in which he blamed Jews for the Second World War.
In a news release, B'nai Brith Canada characterized the ruling as a "further insult."
"The Jewish community, the target of Ahenakew's hate-filled remarks, can take no comfort in this latest development as it now faces the prospect of enduring yet another painful legal proceeding," said executive vice-president Frank Dimant.
What must be emphasized is that this decision in no way exonerates Ahenakew. The case against him is far from closed . . . The integrity of hate-crimes legislation in this country will hang in the balance until the original conviction is reaffirmed."
In his decision, Laing pointed out that the reporter, James Parker of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, was the one to approach Ahenakew. "Until Mr. Parker asked his first question, the appellant had no knowledge about what the subject matter of the questioning would be," Laing wrote. "Thereafter, his statements were made spontaneously in response to questions from Mr. Parker." Laing noted that during the interview Ahenakew told Parker, "I'm not gonna argue with you about the Jews," and when Parker phoned Ahenakew afterward to clarify the remarks, Ahenakew hung up.
"The foregoing evidence was relevant on the issue of the appellant's intent and his defence that he did not 'wilfully promote hatred of persons of the Jewish faith,' " Laing wrote.
The Crown said a decision on whether to appeal the ruling or proceed with a new trial will likely be made next week.
Prosecutors are not "actively considering" staying the charge at this point, said Murray Brown, the director of public prosecutions for Saskatchewan Justice. "The law was upheld," Brown said.
"The decision is based on the idea that the trial judge failed to consider a couple of pieces of evidence when he was trying to determine whether or not he thought the accused had the intention necessary for the offence."
Ahenakew could not be reached for comment. The Canadian Jewish Congress, which was granted intervener status in the appeal, said it will not pressure the Crown to appeal the judgment.
President Ed Morgan said he doesn't think the decision put Canada's hate laws in jeopardy and that was the group's main concern regarding the case. "Obviously our community is concerned about the nature of the words uttered by Mr. Ahenakew," Morgan said. "But in terms of the legal process, that is totally up to the Crown and we've got confidence in them to make the right choice one way or the other." Christie had argued last April that his client's comments were both spontaneous and isolated and that he was being persecuted for angry outbursts he made when "ambushed" by a reporter.
If the conviction were to stand, Christie said, it would lead to the creation of a "tattle-tale state" where anyone who is goaded into vocalizing their racist thoughts could be charged with a crime. But the Crown had argued Ahenakew knew he was giving an interview to a journalist and knew his remarks would be reported.
Had Ahenakew truly not intended to spread hate, he would have offered no comment to the reporter, the Crown said.
Public interest and racial tensions were both high at Ahenakew's original trial last year. After the trial, Ahenakew called a news conference and blamed Jewish lobby groups for his conviction and for getting him removed from the Order of Canada, a decision that was sealed when the conviction was handed down. A spokeswoman for the Governor General's office said the outcome of the appeal changes nothing. Lucie Brosseau said the revocation of Ahenakew's order is permanent because his actions "have brought disrepute to the order."

Continuing Persecution Renews Calls for Assyrian Safe-Haven in Iraq
 6-9-2006- Assyrian International News Agency
To unsubscribe or set email news digest options, visit http://www.aina.org/mailinglist.html
(AINA) -- Assyrian Christians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) continue to be targeted within Iraq. Recent attacks have highlighted the varied groups perpetrating the attacks. On March 17, 2006, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) paramilitaries broke into Mr. Slewo David Simon's home in Batnaya, a Christian town in Northern Iraq. Mr. Simon had recently emigrated to the US after a series of altercations and incidents with KDP militants. As the armed assailants broke into the home, Mr. Simon's neighbors Mr. Nabil Jaro and his brother Mr. Faris Jaro interceded to prevent the break-in and looting.
Later that afternoon at 5 pm, KDP personnel dressed as Iraqi National Guards forcibly entered Mr. Nabil Jaro's home. The KDP paramilitaries ransacked Mr. Jaro's home, broke his furniture, and confiscated his gun. Mr. Jaro was then roughed up and arrested as his terrorized family looked on. Mr. Jaro was then taken to the KDP occupation center in Tel-Kaif in the Nineveh Plain on trumped up charges of terrorism. KDP officers then served Mr. Faris Jaro with an arrest warrant and indicated that his brother, Mr. Nabil Jaro, would not be released until he turned himself in as well. The next day, Mr. Faris Jaro turned himself in, accompanied by his terrified elderly mother and another brother. Two KDP officers along with two other KDP personnel proceeded to severely beat both brothers for several hours while shouting derogatory anti-Christian and anti-Assyrian insults.
Fearing that her sons may be killed, the mother pleaded with her sons to apologize to their attackers in order to be released. Following an apology under duress, the brothers were released. Their neighbor's home has since been expropriated as the new KDP party office in Batnaya in the Nineveh Plain. The establishment of a KDP party office in an area without any Kurds is widely believed to be intended to "bring Christians in line" and dampen enthusiasm for any independent political _expression.
Assyrians in other parts of Iraq have not fared much better due to a steadily deteriorating security situation (AINA 4-28-2006)According to Voices of Iraq, the director of operations for the Nineveh governorate police stated during his briefing on June 5th, 2006, that another Assyrian has been murdered by armed gunmen in the city of Mosul. According to nearby shop owners, the director said, the unidentified gunmen entered Ms. Rahima Elias' shop, one of many in the commercial part of town, and opened fire immediately killing her. Mr. Elias owned a beauty supplies store in the Drakzliya District located west of the city of Mosul. The 33 year old was a native of Karimles, a ChaldoAssyrian town approximately 18 miles east of Mosul.
On April 6, Mr. Samson Awisha was walking home in Baghdad when five men came out of a car and shot him dead. Earlier, presumably the same group of assailants had kidnapped Mr. Awisha's two children for ransom. After paying the ransom, Mr. Oisha's children were released and then quietly sent out of Iraq to Syria along with their mother for safety. The kidnappers had demanded that Mr. Awisha not take his children out of the country. After the murder, Mr. Awisha's family was threatened not to hold a funeral service lest the entire family be targeted. Mr. Awisha was laid to rest secretly and quietly, without a funeral.
On May 30th, 2006, Ankawa.com and Nirgalgate.com reported that Ra'ad Joseph, born in 1976, was found murdered in the Industrial quarters of Mosul. Mr. Joseph was from Bartella in Northern Iraq. Mr. Joseph was married with one child and was an owner of a bodybuilding gym. Reports from Mosul indicate that the murder is suspected to be an act of revenge as the decision of ownership of the gym was awarded him after public bidding for the gym. He was threatened by the Kurds to withdraw his bid but he refused.
on June 2nd, 2006, Ankawa.com and Nirgalgate.com also reported that The Evangelical Church of Ascension was attacked by a rocket bomb the night before. The bomb caused damage to the church building and caused a gaping hole in the church dome. No injuries were reported because the attack happened during the night.
On June 3, 2006, Ankawa.com and Iraq4allnews.dk reported that armed men murdered a Christian engineer in front of his home in Basra the previous night. The Christian engineer, whose name has not yet been released, worked at the al-Najeebiyya Electrical Circuit Station in al-Ma'aqal. The murder seems to be due to religious reasons since the engineer was a Christian and there have been many killings against Christians in Basra and much effort made to force them to leave the city.
Assyrians are now in an untenable position, being targeted by many sides of an increasingly violent conflict in Iraq. Assyrians are targeted in northern Iraq as well as other areas. As one activist noted, "Christians are now targets of Islamic groups, gangs who accuse them (Assyrians) of links to the West, and the Ba'athists and nationalists who view them as traitors."
In their October 2005 report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) noted what Assyrians had already known, namely, "While much of the hardship and harassment they (Assyrians) report that they face is symptomatic of the situation of general insecurity faced by all Iraqis in present-day Iraq, members of the Christian minority nevertheless appear to be particularly targeted. Iraqi Christians feel especially apprehensive about the overwhelming presence of extremist Islamic groups and armed militias, whose display of intolerance towards non-Muslims has become a nearly daily feature in Iraq."
Another report by Refugees International (RI) dated November 5th, 2005 noted that over 500,000 Iraqi refugees had left Iraq by November 2005. According to RI, the UNHCR is unable to register all refugees, but that of the Iraqi refugees registered in Syria "Nearly half... are Christians, although Christians comprise only about 5% of the population in Iraq."
In an earlier statement, the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission labeled Assyrians "endangered," stating "As people, groups, and whole communities start to identify by religious affiliations other than their common Iraqi nationality, the Christian minority find themselves increasingly despised, marginalized, and exposed. They are endangered, without equality before the (Islamic) law, having no clan networks and retaliation ideology, and lacking security in a lawless Islamic society." (AINA 2-7-2006)
While Assyrians recognize the general insecurity afflicting most Iraqis in and around Baghdad, the continued harassment and attacks in their homes in the north have been doubly taxing. Although some Assyrian families have fled from Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra back to their ancestral villages in the north, most -- as the UNHCR reports have documented -- have instead chosen to leave Iraq entirely. What had been designated a destination point for internally displaced Assyrians has instead been hijacked by KDP militants.
The example of the Jaro brothers illustrates difficulties faced by Assyrians living under a brutal tribal KDP occupation. As one analyst noted, "The confiscation of the Jaro home shows a double tragedy for the community. On the one hand, yet another family has forcibly and violently lost their home to KDP thugs with no recourse to the authorities. On another level, the entire community of Batnaya is now subjected to an armed KDP occupation."
The continued KDP hegemony into still more historically Assyrian areas has further increased tension between Assyrians and the tribal Behdanani Kurds of the KDP. According to the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) and the Iraqi Constitution, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) administration and occupation would only extend to areas occupied by Kurds prior to the war. The steady encroachment of KDP paramilitary militants beyond the KRG occupied areas is viewed as illegal and provocative. One Assyrian leader recently asked, "There are no Kurds here; why do they need an armed presence to terrorize our people here?"
With the growing conflict following the Samarra mosque bombing on February 22nd, the already disproportionate impact on Assyrians has only intensified. The increasing insecurity and subsequent exodus of Assyrians has reinvigorated calls for an Assyrian Administered area. As one analyst summarized, "Only an Assyrian Administered Area, a safe zone in the Nineveh Plain that is secured by Assyrian police, will ensure the confidence of the populace to stay."