LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 30/2007Bible Reading of the day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8,51-59. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death." (So) the Jews said to him, "Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, 'Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.' Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?"Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.' You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM."So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.Free Opinion
Teacher beat to death by mob of Muslim students in her classroom. By Judi McLeod . Canada Free Press.March 30/07
Kicking the keester of a Brigadier General-Canada Free Press- March 30/07
Michel Aoun can cut the Gordian knot.By Michael Young. March 30/07Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for March 30/07
Inside Hizballah's Hidden Bunkers-TIME - USA
Patriarch Sfeir Hammers Lahoud and Aoun-Naharnet
Arab Summit Wrapped up, Peace Plan re-Launched-Naharnet
U.N. Secretary General to Beirut to Discuss International Tribunal-Naharnet
UN chief to visit Lebanon today-France 24
Israel Rejects Arab Peace Initiative-Naharnet
Arab Leaders Re-Launch Peace Plan, Israel Blasts Initiative-Naharnet
Saudi King Criticizes U.S. 'Occupation' of Iraq, Lebanon Opposition-Naharnet
Solana Urges Europeans to Back Arab Peace Plan-Naharnet
U.N. Secretary General to Beirut to Discuss International Tribunal-Naharnet
U.N. Chief Warns of Dangerous Situation, Hails Saniora-Naharnet
Amnesty Draws Arabs' Attention to Human Rights Violations-Naharnet
Jumblatt sees risk of wider Lebanon split-Kuwait Times
Future Bookshelf: Anthony Shadid and the Road to Lebanon-Washingtonian.com
On the Summit Sidelines.Arab News
Sfeir Laments 'Two Lebanons' at Arab Summit-Naharnet
Iran Refuses to Release British Woman Sailor-Naharnet
New U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Faces Tough Challenges-NaharnetPatriarch Sfeir Hammers Lahoud and Aoun
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on Thursday lashed out at President Emile Lahoud and Gen. Michael Aoun, accusing them of trying to re-establish the era of Syrian hegemony in Lebanon. Asked by the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper to comment on Lahoud's performance, Sfeir said: "What does he do? He spends his day with political wrangling and countering remarks made by his critics. This, certainly, hurts the image of the presidency."
"I told the president who was sitting next to me here during Christmas that the country needs a salvation step, even at the expense of your term (in office). Later I sent him a written message with one of my aides urging him to abdicate, but …," Sfeir was quoted by the paper as saying in an interview that will be published Friday. Excerpts of the interview were made available to Naharnet by the Kuwaiti newspaper's bureau in Beirut.
As for Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement, Sfeir said: "He has an understanding with Hizbullah, assuming that he will have the party's backing to be chosen president."Sfeir said Christians "are not united like the rest of the (Lebanese) communities. Some of them support the government and are allied with the majority and others are with the other side (opposition). They are those who hope to rule Lebanon again as it used to be ruled during the hegemony era."
Syria, according to Sfeir, "practices huge pressure on the group affiliated with it to hamper the international tribunal and prevent internal entente."
"What is the purpose of this division that we are witnessing? What is the aim of this sit-in and these tents that have been erected in (public) squares?" Sfeir asked in reference to the sit-in staged in Beirut's main square by the Hizbullah-led opposition since Dec. 1 with the declared objective of toppling Premier Fouad Saniora's majority government. "The country can't take it anymore. The economy is bleeding, people's interests and shops have closed down and immigration is increasing, especially among the youth," the patriarch added.
He hoped the nation does not reach the stage of "turmoil … The Lebanese are now divided because external sides are interfering in our affairs and exerting pressure on some of us. That is why I see no possibility for achieving a settlement during the (Riyadh) summit, despite good will efforts exerted by Saudi Arabia.""The main interference comes from the neighbors (Syria)," Sfeir said. "Syria left Lebanon, but maintains its existence in it through its (intelligence) agencies and pressures … Syria did not accept what has happened and seeks a return to Lebanon," Sfeir added.
Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in April 2005, more than two months after the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri by a powerful blast that targeted his motorcade in Beirut.The majority March 14 alliance, which backs the Saniora government, blames the crime and a series of related attempts on Syria. The Hizbullah-led opposition rejects such charges. Beirut, 29 Mar 07, 19:04
Arab Summit Wrapped up, Peace Plan re-Launched
Arab leaders on Thursday wrapped up a summit in the Saudi Capital of Riyadh by re-launching a five-year-old blueprint for peace in the Middle East, although Israel has rejected the plan as it stands. The 22-member Arab League gathering was declared over after Secretary General Amre Mussa read out a "Riyadh Declaration" reaffirming the leaders' commitment to the Arab initiative first endorsed at a 2002 summit in Beirut.
The proposal offers Israel peace and normal ties if it withdraws from all land seized in the 1967 war, allows the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees. The leaders reaffirmed the "commitment of all Arab states to the Arab peace initiative as approved at the Beirut summit in 2002 in all its elements." They also reaffirmed "their call to the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept the Arab peace initiative and seize the opportunity to resume the process of direct and serious negotiations on all tracks."
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas urged Israel "not to miss another chance" to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to accept the revived plan.
The peace offer "must be turned into a practical and comprehensive plan... applicable without any change in its clauses or even its text," Abbas said in a speech to the Arab summit. "From here, I confirm the Palestinians' will to extend a hand of peace to the Israeli people," he said.
However, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres rejected the initiative as is and said negotiations were needed. "There is only one way to overcome our differences, and that is negotiation," Peres told Israeli public radio. "It's impossible to say: you must take what we offer you as is."
"With a diktat neither the Palestinians, nor the Arabs nor us will achieve a solution." Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abdul Gheit, whose country was the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, voiced disappointment at Israel's negative response, saying he hoped it would accept the plan in order to start serious negotiations.
Israel had rejected the proposal when it was first floated, but its leaders have recently spoken of it as a starting point for talks.
One obstacle is the insistence on the right of return of those Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the violence that surrounded the creation of Israel in 1948, and of their descendants. According to the United Nations, there are now more than four million Palestinian refugees, living mostly in the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Libya. Israel fiercely opposes their return, arguing that the influx would effectively erase the Jewish character of the state. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had appealed to Arab states to "begin reaching out to Israel" by building on the 2002 plan. While the Middle East peace plan has been the main focus of discussions, the crisis in Iraq was also highlighted at the summit, with Saudi King Abdullah making a strident attack on what he called the "illegitimate foreign occupation" of the country.
A White House spokesman responded with a rare rebuff of Saudi Arabia, the regional political and oil powerhouse and close U.S. ally.
"The United States is in Iraq at the request of the Iraqis and under a United Nations mandate. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. Despite strong criticism from Iraq's Kurdish foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari of what he called "Arab diktat", the heads of state agreed to call for amendments to the Iraqi constitution to give more power to the ousted Sunni Arab elite.
The Saudi monarch also appealed for an end to the "crippling" political crisis in Lebanon, where divisions were highlighted by the presence at the summit of rival pro- and anti-Syrian delegations. Syria dominated Lebanon politically and militarily for nearly three decades until it was forced to withdraw its troops two years ago after the murder of former premier Rafik Hariri.(AFP) Beirut, 29 Mar 07, 06:56
Israel Rejects Arab Peace Initiative
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Thursday that Israel refused to accept the revived Arab peace initiative as it currently stands and said negotiations were needed. "There is only one way to overcome our differences, and that is negotiation," Peres told Israeli public radio. "It's impossible to say: you must take what we offer you as is." The blueprint, which was endorsed at an Arab summit on Wednesday, offers Israel full normalization of relations if it withdraws from all land occupied in the 1967 war and allows the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees.(AFP) Beirut, 29 Mar 07, 08:40
Iran Refuses to Release British Woman Sailor
Iran said Thursday it will not release a British woman sailor detained with 14 male colleagues as previously promised, accusing London of stirring up a furore over their capture. The declaration by the head of Iran's supreme national Security Council Ali Larijani came a day after London said it was freezing ties with Tehran over the crisis. "It was announced that a woman in the group would be freed, but (this development) was met with an incorrect attitude. Naturally, (the release) will be suspended and it will not take place," he said on state television. Iran said Wednesday that Faye Turney, the only woman among the 15 sailors captured in the northern Gulf on Friday, would be released within a day or two.
In London, the Foreign Office said "We continue to press for their release."Larijani, who is Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, also threatened to pursue a "legal path" in the case, which has caused jitters around the world and through oil markets, where prices topped 66 dollars a barrel on Thursday.
"Instead of sending a technical team to examine the problem, they kicked up a media storm, announced a freeze in relations and spoke about the Security Council. That will not resolve the problem. They have miscalculated," he said. Iran says the sailors were in its territorial waters in the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq while Britain has presented documents to show they were picked up in Iraqi waters.
"It is not the Stone Age, electronic equipment and GPS clearly show their path and the fact that they were in our waters," Larijani said.
"The issue has to be pursued legally and it should be examined why the detainees violated our sovereignty. They cannot commit a violation and force that country to go back on its law by exploiting the media and international institutions," he said. "If this is what they choose, the issue will be pursued on a legal path instead of bilateral talks," he added. An Iranian navy official also said the sailors had entered Iranian waters at six different points before they were arrested, the official IRNA news agency reported. "These 15 British troops in two boats... had entered and stayed in Iran's territorial waters at six points before they were arrested by the patrols," the official said.
"The coast guards have documented and filmed British forces violating international law," the official said. "Their entry and stay in our waters is certain according to the information recorded on the British sailors' GPS." Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that he was waiting for a response from Tehran on whether Turkish diplomats could see the 15 British military personnel held in Iran.
Erdogan made the request to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at the Arab League summit in Riyadh on Wednesday.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett had told Turkish leaders in Ankara a day earlier that London would welcome efforts by diplomats from third countries to visit the soldiers. "I asked Mr. Mottaki whether he can help our ambassador in Tehran to see the captives," the Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as telling reporters. Mottaki initially declined, citing the ongoing investigation, but when Erdogan insisted, he replied that he would see whether it could be possible, Erdogan said. "We are awaiting a response from Iran," he added.
Turkey has pledged to help its NATO ally Britain in the standoff over the 15 sailors and marines.Erdogan said Wednesday he had also pressed Mottaki for the release of the sole woman among the captives.(AFP) Beirut, 29 Mar 07, 16:50
Arab Leaders Re-Launch Peace Plan, Israel Blasts Initiative
Arab leaders meeting in Riyadh have unanimously decided to re-launch a long dormant peace plan with Israel and revive a diplomatic offensive to end the Middle East conflict. A resolution reaffirming their commitment to the Saudi-inspired peace plan was adopted on Wednesday by the Arab League heads of state on the first day of their annual summit in the Saudi capital, ministers said. The blueprint offers Israel full normalization of relations if it withdraws from all land occupied in the 1967 war and allows the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Thursday that Israel refused to accept the Arab peace initiative as it currently stands and said "there is only one way to overcome our differences, and that is negotiation." "It's impossible to say: you must take what we offer you as is," he told Israeli public radio. Saudi King Abdullah opened the summit with a strongly worded speech, painting a bleak picture of the crises and bloodshed in Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan; and lecturing the leaders that it was time to act.
He also appealed for an end to the "crippling" political crisis in Lebanon, where divisions were highlighted by the presence at the summit of dual delegations – one headed by President Emile Lahoud and another by Prime Minister Fouad Saniora. Saudi-led efforts to break the four-month-old stalemate in Lebanon have so far failed, but Abdullah met twice with Syrian President Bashar Assad for the first time since relations chilled last year over Israel's war on Lebanon. Syria will host the next Arab summit in 2008, the heads of state decided.
Several world figures, including U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and European Union foreign policy envoy Javier Solana, attended the opening session in Riyadh, where security was tight as police blocked roads and military helicopters patrolled the skies. Only Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has boycotted the summit.The annual gathering comes after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed to Arab states to "begin reaching out to Israel" by building on the 2002 plan. Israel initially rejected the blueprint, but its leaders have recently spoken of it as a starting point for talks -- although they see its insistence on the right of return of Palestinian refugees as a stumbling block.
However Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal warned in an interview with a British newspaper that Israel should not expect any further diplomatic overtures. "If Israel refuses (the plan), that means it doesn't want peace and it places everything back in the hands of fate. They will be putting their future not in the hands of the peacemakers but in the hands of the lords of war." A U.S. push for peace has been complicated by the formation of a Palestinian unity government including both Hamas -- boycotted as a terrorist group by the West -- and the secular Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas warned Israel on Tuesday: "If this initiative is destroyed, I do not believe that a better chance for peace will present itself in the near future."
But Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas told AFP: "I don't expect at all that Israel will accept the peace plan."
Despite strong criticism from Iraq's Kurdish foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari of what he called "Arab diktat", heads of state agreed to call for amendments to the Iraqi constitution to give more power to the ousted Sunni Arab elite.(Naharnet-AP-AFP) Beirut, 29 Mar 07, 06:56
Saudi King Criticizes U.S. 'Occupation' of Iraq, Lebanon Opposition
Saudi King Abdullah has criticized at the opening session of the Arab summit the U.S. "occupation" of Iraq and the Lebanon opposition for changing Beirut streets into "hotels.""We reject the act of turning streets into hotels," Abdullah said in his strongly worded speech on Wednesday in a clear reference to the Hizbullah-sponsored tent city that has been erected in downtown Beirut since Dec. 1 in an effort to topple Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's majority government. A White House spokesman swiftly responded with a rare rebuff of the close U.S. ally.
"The United States is in Iraq at the request of the Iraqis and under a United Nations mandate. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. The Saudi monarch also appealed for an end to the "crippling" political crisis in Lebanon, where divisions were highlighted by the presence at the summit of dual delegations – one headed by Saniora and another by President Emile Lahoud.
Saudi-led efforts to break the four-month-old stalemate in Lebanon have so far failed, but Abdullah met twice with Syrian President Bashar Assad for the first time since relations chilled last year over Israel's war on Lebanon which was triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border Hizbullah attack. Syria will host the next Arab summit in 2008, the heads of state decided. King Abdullah also painted a bleak picture of the crises and bloodshed in Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan; and reprimanded Arab leaders for internal strife.
He said the Arab leaders' divisions have fueled turmoil around the Middle East and lectured them that it was time to act. "The real blame should be directed at us, the leaders of the Arab nation," he said. "Our constant disagreements and rejection of unity have made the Arab nation lose confidence in our sincerity and lose hope."(Naharnet-AP-AFP) Beirut, 29 Mar 07, 10:49
U.N. Chief Warns of Dangerous Situation, Hails Saniora
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned the situation in the Middle East, including Lebanon, was more dangerous than ever in a speech to the opening session of the Arab summit in Riyadh on Wednesday. "The Middle East region is more complex, more fragile and more dangerous than it has been for a very long time," said Ban, one of several world figures invited to the opening of the two-day gathering. "For most in the Arab world, the wound that is still fresh even after 40 years is the continued (Israeli) occupation of Arab territory and the denial of legitimate Palestinian claims to statehood," he said.
"The basis for a solution is clear -- an end to the occupation that began in 1967, the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state alongside a secure and fully recognized state of Israel, and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the region," Ban said.
The U.N. chief, who plans to visit Lebanon as part of a regional tour that also took him to Iraq, said that the political stalemate in Lebanon "threatens to undermine one of the region's most vibrant societies," while the violence in Iraq "continues to take a shocking daily toll in civilian lives."
Ban visited Israel and the West Bank in a bid to revive Middle East peace talks before going to Riyadh. He said Lebanon must be a priority, adding that he will travel to Lebanon to see "the situation on the ground." "I regret…that Lebanon continues to go through internal political turmoil," Ban said.
He praised Premier Fouad Saniora for displaying "impressive leadership under difficult circumstances." Addressing the conferees he said : "I urge you to support his (Saniora's) democratically elected government." "Differences should be resolved through dialogue and genuine efforts at national reconciliation and consensus," he said about the crisis that has gripped Lebanon since the Hizbullah-led opposition staged on December 1 an open-ended sit-in in downtown Beirut to topple Saniora. Ban called for "a stable, independent and democratic Lebanon" as a common goal uniting states and peoples in the region.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 29 Mar 07, 10:12
Amnesty Draws Arabs' Attention to Human Rights Violations
Amnesty International has urged the Arab League to take a strong human rights stand on problems facing the Middle East, including Lebanon.
The London-based human rights organization said the Arab summit that kicked off in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Wednesday must encourage the Lebanese government to address "unresolved issues that are fuelling grievances and instability" in the country.
It said the government must tackle "the issue of impunity for suspected perpetrators of human rights violations -- including during the 1975-1990 civil war -- and undertaking a comprehensive reform of the national justice system."Pointing to widespread human rights abuses in Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Sudan, Amnesty said the Arab League and its member states "must help address these situations and should no longer subordinate human rights to political considerations.""There can be no solution to the intractable problems facing the region without a recognition of the fundamental importance of the human rights of each individual, in every country," the organization said. Beirut, 29 Mar 07, 11:35Debbie Schlussel, Brigadier General Robert Holmes
Kicking the keester of a Brigadier General
By Judi McLeod
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Consorting with the enemy on home turf is hardly what the men and women under him expect of a fully-fledged brigadier general. But that’s precisely what Brigadier General Robert Holmes was doing Monday—and he was doing it on the taxpayers’ tab.
Where about the morale of troops in harm’s way? Why would the Deputy Director of Operations with U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) be kissing the fannies of America’s enemies in the same week that mask-wearing anarchists in the anti-war mob were burning the American flag and American soldiers in effigies? Before he could say, “I surrender”, Holmes was outed by the take-no-prisoners American commentator Debbie Schlussel.
Brig. Gen. Holmes did his white flag rounds with some of Detroit City’s most notorious radical Muslim Arabs, including Osama Siblani—publisher of the anti-Semitic, anti-American Arab American News—even visiting their office.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Holmes said, “It’s very important that we involve Arab Americans. Arab Americans play a huge role today, and play a very important role in where we have got to go.”Schlussel, Conservative political commentator, radio talk show host, columnist and attorney at law, has somewhere of her own to tell Holmes to go—and it isn’t the officer’s lounge. The military Pooh-Bah seems to have been dressed to the nines when he went out on the white flag mission.
Schlussel, whose mother was born in a concentration camp and whose father is a Vietnam War veteran, described Monday’s foray into enemy territory…(a) ”cheap David Letterman look-alike and Miami Vice-wardrobed Brigadier General Robert Holmes.”While Holmes could have met with Christian Arab leaders in town, “instead, he carefully chose only the most extremist Muslim Arabs—the ones who openly endorse terrorist groups and homicide bombings.”“Siblani’s paper openly praises Hezbollah—including its murder of over 300 U.S. Marines and officials in Beirut in 1983—and HAMAS—including its homicide bombings,” Schlussel said. “Siblani has openly praised “the Hezbollah martyrs” and delivered prayers for them at rallies throughout Dearbornistan, this summer. His Arab-American PAC (of which he is President) featured an officer who sent me death threats and denied the Holocaust. He refused to denounce or condemn her comments. “Holmes also met with FBI award revokee Imad Hamad, a “former” Islamic terrorist who endorses Palestinian TV broadcasts urging 3-year-olds to become homicide bombers. Hamad is involved with an Islamic charity, raided by the U.S. military and the FBI, because it is believed to be funding insurgent terrorists who are murdering our troops (and Iraqi civilians).
“And Holmes met with Abed Hammoud, another man who openly praises Hezbollah and HAMAS homicide bombings and activities and compares Jews to Nazis. And he met with Nasser Beydoun—yet another open Hezbollah supporter—who is on the small board of a charity with a man involved in a financial web funding Hezbollah. The charity, which ostensibly sends money to Lebanon for legitimate purposes, is under investigation. Beydoun organized an Arab economic conference featuring a business believed to have financed the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa.”
Caving in to politically correct times is not an honorable pastime for a deputy director of operations with U.S. CENTCOM, according to the talk show host whose firm stand against radical Islam is legendary.
Political pandering doesn’t wash with the sheer pluck of a woman who won admiration from the public at large when she went undercover into a mosque and reported on her findings as a reporter with the Detroit Free Press. The anger of the Muslim community when she could cite chapter and verse in presented examples of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism never slowed her down.
“Holmes told all of these extremists he wants to “work with (them).”
“That’s frightening, but (it’s) the same loser path virtually all of our lazy, PC top officials in all aspects of government have been taking.”
From her experience fighting radical Islam, Schlussel says Holmes won a special place with Siblani, Hamad, Hammoud and Beydoun. “They gushed over him, which they rarely do regarding U.S. officials: “He was really reaching out,” said Siblani. “It reflects a new, positive attitude of the U.S. armed forces”…“If terrorist supporters and a “former” terrorist liked Brig. Gen. Holmes’ words, that should be a hint to the rest of us that whatever he said isn’t good for America. “When our top generals overseeing our military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere openly lick the boots of our worst enemies within—all in the name of a phony “outreach”—we shouldn’t be surprised that we’re losing all over the world.”Schlussel has this piece of advice for Holmes: “When you kiss the ass of your enemies, you get spanked (and worse).”And speaking of posteriors, Brig. Gen. Robert Holmes seems to have got his kicked in by a soldier in high heels.http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover032807.htm
Teacher beat to death by mob of Muslim students in her classroom
By Judi McLeod
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Googling the name Christianah Oluwatoyin Olusase brought no hits 3:30 p.m., yesterday.
Christianah, a Christian teacher at Government Day Secondary School in Gombe state, North Nigeria was torn apart, limb-by-limb, by a mob of Muslim students on March 21, 2007. Details about Christianah's life are scarce. We do know that her life was dedicated to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't know how long she taught at Government Day Secondary School, her age, or who are the loved ones prostrated by grief.
The information of her death comes from Compass Direct. And were it not for The Persecution & Prayer Alert, The Voice of the Martyrs Canada, Christianah's passing would otherwise have gone unnoted.
The details of Christianah's death are shocking.
Christianah was supervising an all-girl class while they were taking an Islamic Religious Knowledge examination, a routine job by any teacher's standards the world over.In accordance to school procedure, the homeroom teacher collected papers, books and bags before the exam papers were passed around. She left them in front of the class for pupils to retrieve later.One of the girls responded by starting to cry and was soon telling her classmates that there had been a copy of the Quran in her bag left in front of the classroom. The girl claimed that because Christianah was a Christian, she had desecrated the Quran by touching it. The students began to chant in unison, "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great)". These school age girls then beat, stoned and clubbed Christiania to death where she stood. The deed done, the girls then dragged her corpse outside of the school building and burned it.
There were no flowers or cards left at the burial site as sometimes happens in the outpouring of grief in western culture. No candle vigils were held for Christianah. In fact, it is not even known if her loved ones will be able to give her a decent burial.
There was no outrage of the teacher's horrific death in any western media, still busy these days following the life and times of the late Anna Nichole Smith.
What happened on March 21, 2007 is life for Christian believers in Nigeria. On June 28, 2006 another Muslim mob in the town of Izom in the Nigerian state of Niger first overwhelmed police, then clubbed a woman to death for participating in street evangelism. The murdered woman was reported to be between 18 and 20 years of age.
Unidentified--even in death--the woman had met with a group of Muslim youth outside of the Jumat Mosque in Izom and shared the gospel with them, leaving with those who would take them some printed tracts to read.When Muslim leaders learned what she had been doing, they were outraged, claiming that she had insulted Islam and Mohammed. A death decree was placed on her head and posses of hundreds of Muslims went out on the hunt for her.
When they found the woman, they seized her and began to beat her, but police took her into protective custody. The mob threatened to take down the police station if she wasn't turned over to them. Then as police tried to smuggle her out a back door, they were caught. The police fled the scene and the woman was seized again, clubbed and stoned to death. At least two police officers were injured in the attack. Several arrests were made and the investigation is on going.
Then there's the case of the missing students.
Two Christian female students from the Ahmadu Bello University in Kaduna State, Nigeria went missing after they were severely beaten by seven Muslim women in their own dormitory on March 18, 2006.
The two students, Joy and Priscilla, were preparing to bathe when the seven students, veiled in Islamic robes, attacked them. They were harassed, intimidated flogged and left unconscious.
Compass Direct reports that the two were taken to the university clinic and have not been seen since.
Because of the attack, the university closed its doors for a period of two weeks. During that time, the university took action against the Muslim Students' Society by removing their leadership for failing to maintain control. According to the Daily Trust news service, when the university reopened on March 28, 2006 there was added security and each student had to sign a pledge to maintain peace and obey the university's rules and regulations. The university has promised to investigate the attack and punish the Muslim women.
"Nigeria is strongly divided between Christian and Islam," says The Voice of Martyrs in its Country Report. "Statistics differ whether there are more adherents to Islam or Christianity in the nation as a whole. Northern Nigeria is predominantly Muslim and several of the states have adopted Sharia law for all civil cases.
"In areas controlled by Muslims, Christians frequently face opposition. Churches have been burned and Christians killed in riots. In February of 2005, the predominantly Christian village of Demsa, Adamawa in northern Nigeria was attacked. According to Compass Direct, 36 Christians were killed and their property destroyed. About 3,000 survivors fled to a neighboring state. Also, for the fourth time in five years, the Conquerors Chapel of the World of Faith Ministries in Kaduna, Nigeria, was destroyed by fire on April 10, 2005. The attacks began after Sharia law was introduced in Kaduna State in 2000."
No blossoms or candles mark the graves of either Christianah Oluwatoyin Olusase in Gombe state, or the unidentified woman stoned to death in Izom.
By cruel circumstance both women died lonely deaths, and remain lonely in death.
But prayers from the heart are more lasting than any flower or flame. The Voice of the Martyrs asks you to "pray for peace and strength for Christians facing opposition from Muslims in Nigeria." God protect all Christians in Muslim nations everywhere.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover032907.htmPeacemakers need a new way of negotiating the 'right of return'
Thursday, March 29, 2007
First person by Nihad Ghadry
The primary goal of the Arab-Israeli conflict - liberating Palestine and terminating Israel - has gradually changed over the years, and it has become enough just to liberate the land that was occupied on June 7, 1967.
Accordingly, all of the international and Arab initiatives and plans regard the two-state formula as the only possible solution. However, the dispute has continued over the exact location of the border, though the contested territory doesn't exceed a few square kilometers.
Yet it is no longer appropriate to manage the conflict on the same old basis, unless one or both parties have hidden intentions inconsistent with their announcements concerning peace conditions. In other words, if Israel rejects the concept of having a Palestinian state, and Palestinians and some or all Arabs refuse to recognize Israel as a state, we'll be back to the starting point and the conflict will continue.
However, the continuous talks on the need to find a solution consistent with two main pillars - the settlement of the border dispute and the "right of return" - make us believe that this is what the two parties are really seeking and all the states concerned have to present their views concerning the solution.
In principle, the border issue is not the main problem among all the other ones, despite its importance. The fundamental issue is what is called the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees, who live in miserable refugee camps throughout the Middle East and other states that have not always embraced them with open arms.
Those refugees consist of three groups. The first group comprises emigrants were expelled from their land in 1948. Only a few of them are still alive and due to their age and numbers, their return won't really cause a vast demographic or political change. The second group comprises Palestinians who fled or migrated during the aftermath of the 1967 war, after which the United Nations Security Council convened and adopted Resolution 242, which requires Israel to withdraw from the land it occupied at that time. Those are also few in number and most of them are elderly people. The third group comprises new generations of Palestinians who were born outside Palestine to Palestinian parents. They constitute the highest percentage of living Palestinians.
Building on this background, international and regional decision-making bodies could opt to recognize only the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees born in Palestine. Such a decision might set the stage for a potential solution to be discussed by the two struggling parties, as it would limit the number of refugees that return to a number that can be easily absorbed.
On the other hand, the status of the Palestinian Diaspora could be viewed as similar to that of Lebanese emigrants, especially the Maronites, whose number exceeds 10 million. They live in their new homelands as regular citizens and are committed to their new countries, despite their nostalgic feelings for their native land and the visits that a few pay to it.
Thelaw in most countries worldwide states that any child born in a country acquires the citizenship of that country and the rights afforded to its citizens. Accordingly, the new generations of Palestinians could be considered citizens of the countries where they were born, except in Lebanon due to certain considerations that have to do with its religious, sectarian and political makeup. However, this won't represent an obstacle, since with a dose of wisdom and understanding, they can be absorbed into any other Arab community.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is draining energy and resources. I believe that if the Arabs had invested the money they currently spend on arms on various development issues - such as education, economy, health, construction and technology, just as Germany and Japan did during the aftermath of World War II - they would have overcome their miserable undeveloped status. They would have realized that the resources they are exploiting would provide their new generations with prosperity, well-being, and real strength. They would have understood that the manufactured disputes that they have embraced have given birth to systems justified only by imaginary disputes.
This is just an idea for those who really believe in peace, not for those who only talk about it while triggering struggles and igniting endless wars. It is not for those who use the conflict to legitimate their suppressive systems that rise up in the name of Palestine and remain in place so long as the conflict continues. Then the continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict becomes an objective to every system by itself for a purpose far removed from its Palestinian one. So it's better to be clear: Either we reject peace and bear all of the consequences of preserving suppressive systems in the name of liberation, but without achieving liberation, or we really negotiate peace on its feasible conditions.
***Nihad Ghadry is a Syrian politician and editor of Al-Mouharer al-Arabi, published in Beirut
Michel Aoun can cut the Gordian knot
By Michael Young -Daily Star staff
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Lebanon is locked in stalemate as the majority and opposition remain encamped behind their red lines. But there is a way out, and the solution lies in the hands of that volatile man in Rabieh. Michel Aoun can break Lebanon's debilitating impasse, and would gain because of it. Here's how.
For months, Aoun's strategy has been to impose himself as the Maronite no one can circumvent. Until recently, the general sustained himself thanks to Christian frustration with the 2005 election law and the subsequent quadripartite agreement that left Christian politicians and groups either marginalized or playing a secondary role. That beef was justifiable, but things began to disintegrate when Aoun found himself in the same camp as Syria's allies, even as the bombings and assassinations continued. The events of last January 23, when Aoun's supporters prevented people from getting to work, was a political disaster, only compounded by the ongoing fiasco of the Downtown sit-in, which has proven to be a trap for everyone - opposition and majority alike.
With this in mind, it is plain that Michel Aoun will not be president. He cannot be elected by Hizbullah alone, though the party will use Aoun until the last minute as a bargaining chip to slip in someone else. The majority has no incentive to vote for Aoun because he has spent the past months alienating its leaders. And there is no prospect that the general - who distils polarization like no other - will be a compromise candidate, as even Aoun's own ally Elie Skaff recognized publicly several weeks ago.
However, if Aoun's ambition to be president has been dashed, his ability to play a leading role in selecting someone else for the job remains stronger than ever, thanks to the general's control over a sizable parliamentary bloc. Aoun holds the balance of power allowing him to effectively be the kingmaker of any new president. Moreover, by distancing himself from the predominantly Shiite opposition, he would force Hizbullah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to overhaul their strategy, as neither man wants the current standoff to appear like it is the Shiites against the rest. This could even force Berri to open the doors of Parliament. More importantly, if Aoun joins with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, the three could together ensure that Christians have a leading say in who will be elected, and what his or her agenda will be.
Aoun and his followers insist that their main objective is to return the Christian community to its rightful place. If so, the general should bite the bullet and fight the lesser battle he can win in helping select a credible successor to President Emile Lahoud, rather than scrape though a nasty presidential try of his own that Aoun is sure to lose.
Why should this matter? Partly because Aoun's failure to reach Baabda will have a negative impact on the Christian community, whose interests the general claims he wants to advance. If Aoun plays all-or-nothing politics, Christians will react in one of two ways, or a combination thereof: they will abandon Aoun and blame him for his recklessness; or they will embrace his loss as their own, and internalize his lament that Christians no longer have a say in Lebanon. In both cases the result will be that the weight of the largest Christian bloc in Parliament is wasted, and Christians will lose any voice they might have on the presidency.
Many Aounists, when you scratch below the surface, are aware that Hizbullah will never agree to disarm and fully integrate into the political system. By the same token, Hizbullah has no deep sympathy for Aoun or his aims, which fundamentally contradict those of the party. Aoun may argue today that Hizbullah's weapons are defensible, at a time when, as he sees it, there is a power vacuum at the level of government; but it is doubtful that a President Aoun could coexist with a party presiding over a state within a state, defended by an Iranian-funded private army. There are no legs in that alliance, and for the moment Aoun and Hizbullah are merely using each other. The thing is, Nasrallah intends to sell Aoun out at the appropriate moment to get something in exchange on the presidency; but Aoun will get nothing from Hizbullah. If anything, his partnership with the party has doomed his presidential chances.
So here's a plan Aoun might want to consider. He should start by holding a far-reaching dialogue with Geagea under the auspices of the Maronite patriarch. This would aim to reach a common set or principles that any future president would have to adhere to - at least if he wants the approval of his coreligionists. Aoun would have to sacrifice his ambition to be elected to the highest office himself, but he would also be in the driving seat to impose a preferred alternative. Geagea's advantage would be that he could buy himself a wider margin of maneuver in his alliance with Saad Hariri and the Future movement. This would not imply breaking that relationship, which remains a foundation for any effort to establish an independent post-Syrian Lebanese state; but it would enhance the Lebanese Forces' credibility as a more autonomous organization.
Once that happens, Aoun would formally ditch the Hizbullah alliance, though he needn't break definitively with the party. On the contrary, he could put himself forward as the prime mediator with Nasrallah. Aoun would then ask for an "acceptable" share of portfolios in the government. This could either reflect his parliamentary weight, or there could be a tradeoff between the number of ministers and the nature of the ministries offered the Aounists. This would be a tricky stage, and would require agreement with Geagea and Sfeir beforehand on Christian representation. In exchange, Aoun would endorse an early timetable for parliamentary approval of the Hariri tribunal. He would then announce his decision to abandon the Downtown protests and fold his tents.
A vital ingredient would be Aoun's formally giving up his demand for early elections. The general still believes that such elections are his ticket to the presidency. Because the opposition might get a greater number of seats in Parliament, he feels, his presidential chances would improve. But Aoun's calculation is based on the erroneous assumptions that Lebanon is capable of organizing elections at this divisive time, or even of uniting around an election law; that the opposition is sure to gain under any new law; and that the Aounists still retain the popular support they enjoyed in Mount Lebanon in 2005. Aoun would do better to use his bloc more creatively instead of gambling on an election that nobody wants, and that Hizbullah is only setting as a condition for a settlement in order to keep Aoun on board and obstruct agreement on the tribunal.
With his bloc the swinging vote in Parliament, Aoun would be in a very powerful position as gatekeeper to the president. And with Geagea and Sfeir on his side, he could write a good part of the presidential program. More significantly, Christian unanimity would mean that any new head of state could not easily ignore Aoun once in office (the obsession of all Lebanese kingmakers), since this would only isolate him in the Maronite community. But first, Aoun must take the toughest decision of all: embrace modesty and accept that Baabda is his paradise lost.
Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR.Inside Hizballah's Hidden Bunkers
Thursday, Mar. 29, 2007
By NICHOLAS BLANFORD/With its heavy metal lid dragged to one side, dank musty air rose up from the entrance to the bunker, the forbidding gloom of the narrow steel-lined shaft below unbroken by the bright sunlight. It had taken seven months of searching to finally discover one of the underground bunkers that had enabled Hizballah to fire thousands of rockets into northern Israel last summer even under the pounding of Israeli air and ground operations. But any sense of exhilaration at the achievement was dampened by the nagging anxiety of claustrophobia.
"If we have to crawl when we're down there, I can't do it," said my colleague Ghaith Abdul Ahad.
The elaborate network of bunkers and fortified firing positions built over a six-year period in sealed-off valleys and hilltops throughout south Lebanon was key to Hizballah's ability to survive Israel's onslaught during last summer's month-long war. Israeli soldiers spoke of Hizballah fighters bursting out of the ground to loose off a rocket-propelled grenade before disappearing into the earth again. Israeli air crews hunted, often in vain, for the sources of Katyusha rocket fire, sometimes emanating from within a few hundred yards of the border. One bunker complex discovered and dynamited by Israeli troops a week after the ceasefire reportedly covered more than a square mile and was fitted with hot and cold running water and air conditioning.
After the war, Hizballah had yielded security control of the area to a reinforced 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force, but its bunkers remained elusive. They were hidden, their entrances well camouflaged, in the dense undergrowth of remote valleys often littered with unexploded Israeli ordnance. After several unsuccessful attempts to find one, last week I received map coordinates for two bunkers in a valley near the Christian border village of Alma Shaab. With the coordinates logged into a GPS device, Ghaith and I walked carefully along a track winding through blossom-scented orange orchards at the bottom of a steep-sided brush-covered valley. Snakes and lizards basking in the hot sun slithered from beneath our feet. But we kept our eyes open for cluster bombs, which have since August caused 224 casualties among Lebanese civilians and mine-clearing crews, which had used red spray paint to mark the location of each bomblet.
We almost missed the manhole cover beneath its layer of dirt, dead leaves and twigs. Using metal footholds, I climbed down into the gloom below and saw with some relief that the tunnel at the bottom was larger than we had feared. We would have to crouch, but not crawl. It was still a tight squeeze as we inched cautiously along the dank silent passageway which ran for about 20 feet before turning left and descending in a gradual slant. The rock sides of the tunnel were lined with a mesh of steel bars and girders. Huge brown spiders clinging to the walls watched the human intruders impassively.
A side tunnel was shielded with white steel plates and girders, which led into a small steel-walled chamber. The room, which was bare apart from two empty five-gallon water containers, must have been at least 100 feet underground, and could probably have withstood a direct hit by a heavy bomb. A power cable along the walls linked several bare bulbs, while a black plastic bag hanging from a hook contained the remnants of what last summer could have been fresh oranges or apples.
A few hundred yards away we found two rocket firing positions, one of them located in a 15-foot deep pit with reinforced concrete walls. A tunnel at the rear wall doglegged after a few feet into a small chamber lined with panels from wooden ammunition boxes where the rockets would have been stored. The second post consisted of a foot-thick reinforced concrete frame smothered with sandbags and camouflage netting and bolstered by Hesco blast protection walls. Even from a few yards up the hill, the position was all but invisible. And during the war, Hizballah gunners had tossed fire-retardant blankets over the launchers immediately after unleashing their rockets to hide the lingering heat signature from prowling Israeli aircraft.
The effort that went into building the fortifications in this valley alone had been extraordinary, and these were just three of dozens, possibly hundreds, scattered throughout southern Lebanon. The steel plates and girders, as well as the digging tools, sandbags and other equipment had to be carried by hand up the steep slope from the valley floor and welded into place in the cramped claustrophobic tunnels. And Hizballah's engineers had managed to work undetected, despite near daily reconnaissance flights by Israeli jets and drones.
Both Hizballah and the Israeli military are still absorbing the lessons learned during last summer's conflict. But with continued speculation here over a possible "round two" between the militant Shi'ite group and Israel, it remains to be seen what fresh tricks Hizballah may still have up its sleeve.
