Civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and 9/11

Putting the amount of innocent victims into perspective...

This also means by invading Iraq and being unable to guarantee civil stability (a responsibility enforced by the Fourth Geneva Convention), the US has directly or indirectly killed more Iraqi civilians than Sadam ever did (989,788 versus about 600,000).


Graph courtesy Prose Before Hos

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Picture of the day: Sri Lanka war is over. The misery is not.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been forced to suspend the distribution of emergency supplies to as many as 300,000 people displaced by the Sri Lankan Army’s victory over the Tamil Tigers after the Government blocked access to aid camps. (Full)

More Pictures of the Day on The Road.

Picture courtesy Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images

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Picture of the Day: Gaza - despite all odds

Palestinian girls look out from the balcony of their house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

More Pictures of the Day on The Road

Picture courtesy Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

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The war in Gaza escalates. Civilian and aid worker casualties on the rise. Words "Crimes Against Humanity" coming up.

Today Israel dropped bombs and leaflets on Gaza, pounding suspected rocket sites and tunnels used by Hamas militants and warning of a wider offensive despite frantic diplomacy to end the bloodshed. It is clear this conflict is nowhere near to the end (Full)

Rejecting Friday's UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate and durable cease-fire, Israel and Hamas continued to fight. Israeli jets and troops attacked Hamas targets in Gaza, and Palestinian militants fired about 30 rockets into southern Israel. (Full)

Meanwhile, the international community is building up criticism on Israel's indiscriminate targeting of civilians and aid workers:

• ICRC (the International Committee of the Red Cross) stated Israel has violated its obligations under international humanitarian law by refusing to assist civilians wounded in its attacks on the Gaza Strip. In the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City, ICRC workers found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. ICRC stated "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded." (Full)
• On December 30, several Israeli gunboats intercepted a ship with aid supplies, the SS Dignity, in international waters. The ship carried international medical aid workers and three tonnes of medical supplies. One Israeli gunboat is believed to have rammed the boat on the port bow side, heavily damaging her. (Full)
• On Friday night, an Israeli drone missile hit a car from the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA), an international NGO. NPA stated the car was clearly marked with the NPA logo, and that it was impossible not to recognize that this was a humanitarian vehicle. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated the incident as a clear violation of international law. (Full)
• Earlier this week, an ambulance belonging to an Oxfam partner organisation was hit by an Israeli shell, killing one aidworker, and injuring two others. (Full)
• A CARE aidworker was killed on January 6th in an aerial bombing. Mohammed Ibrahim Samouni, a father of six, was killed and his son was critically injured. (Full)
• Also last week, an Israeli tank shelled a clearly marked UN school, leaving 43 Palestinians civilian dead and almost 150 injured. 1,600 people were taking shelter in the school, according to the UN, who confirmed there were only civilians in the school, which was clearly marked with a UN flag and its GPS location was duely reported to the Israeli authorities. (Full)
• Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using white-phosphorus munitions during its offensive in the Gaza Strip and warned of the risk to Palestinian civilians who live near the fighting. The use of white-phosphorus in densely populated areas of Gaza violates international humanitarian law (Full)
  
• On Thursday a aidworker was killed after a UN relief agency convoy came under fire from Israeli forces. The attack took place as the lorries travelled to the Erez border crossing to pick up supplies. The incident happened during an Israel approved three hour seize fire aimed at allowing humanitarian aid to move into Gaza. This eventually caused UNRWA, the main UN agency providing aid to the Palestinians, to suspend all food aid. (Full)
• Israeli forces shelled a house in which they had moved around 110 Palestinians into 24 hours earlier. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called it "one of the gravest incidents" since the beginning of the offensive. 30 people were killed. (Full)
• Similar incidents were singled out by Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She called for independent investigations into possible war crimes committed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. "I am concerned with violations of international law. Incidents such as this must be investigated because they display elements of what could constitute war crimes," Pillay told the press. (Full)
• As many as 257 children have been killed and 1,080 wounded (a third of the total casualties since Dec. 27) according to U.N. figures released on Thursday. (Full)

The UN humanitarian situation report on Gaza of Jan 9th summarizes the numbers: 800 dead, 3,300 injured and over 21,000 people displaced within Gaza.

Picture courtesy Mohammed Salem (ABCNews)

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News: The Forgotten Wars...

Most people in the UK are unaware of major conflict zones around the world, according to a new survey by the British Red Cross.

The survey was carried out to discover how much the British public knows about armed conflicts ahead of the Red Cross’ Civilians and Conflict Month, which launched this week.

Respondents were able to name Afghanistan and Iraq as war zones, most probably because that's where British military are stations.

However less than one per cent identified the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where an estimated 5.4 million people have died as a result of the country’s long-running conflict.

Less than one per cent of respondents were able to identify countries such as Sudan, Somalia, and Central African Republic.

Almost one in five (18 per cent) could not name five countries experiencing conflict. (Full)

I would add that in the case of Chad and DRC, the media is partially to blame as the crisis in those countries hardly ever gets the spotlights. Which is not the case for Somalia, and certainly not for Sudan.

If you look at all the campaigning which has been done around Sudan and Darfur, one would then ask, what it really takes to ensure the forgotten wars are brought back into the spotlight? Reuters Alertnet runs a survey on this topic.

Via The Other World News

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News: Georgia - a tit-for-tat game between Russia and the US.

The front page of the Russian Tvoi Den ("Your Day") newspaper today makes no secret of what it thinks of the West. "TAK YOU" means "F**K YOU"
The text below the picture reads: "For the first time in many years Russia has clearly shown to the West we are not going to live by its order."

Tensions between Russia and the US has been raising since a while. I wrote about this on The Road a year ago.
It seems after their battle of words on Iraq, Iran, the US missile shield, blabla, the two superpowers are now ready to rattle swords and have picked Georgia as their playing ground.

After the skirmishes between Georgia and its break-away or autonomous (depending who you ask) republics, Russia went in with full military force, knowing the US would take sides.
The US poked Russia by putting the US military in charge of "the humanitarian relief mission in Georgia" (more), and moved US warships with "humanitarian supplies" into the Black Sea.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev deepened the Georgia crisis yesterday by insisting that South Ossetia and Abkhazia should be independent nations, adding: "We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a new Cold War."
Russia's NATO envoy then declared that military aid to Georgia for use against South Ossetia and Abkhazia would be seen as a "declaration of war". (Full)

Phew...

And you know what bugs me? Who will be the victim of this rattle of words or swords? The ordinary people. Some things never change.

Source: International Aid Workers Today
Pictures courtesy This Is London and San Francisco Sentinel

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News: Iraq: Largest war profiteering ever (BBC)

A BBC investigation estimates around US$23bn may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.

The BBC's Panorama programme has used US and Iraqi government sources to research how much some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding.

A US gagging order applying to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies, prevents any discussion of the allegations.

Henry Waxman, who chairs the House committee on oversight and government reform, said: "The money that's gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous, it's egregious. "It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history."

As an example, in the run-up to the invasion, one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth $7bn that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president. Unusually only Halliburton got to bid - and won.

The BBC aired the programme on Panorama. The video was posted on Google Video, but later removed. (Full)


More articles on the Road about Iraq.

Cartoon courtesy People's Geography

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News: UN troops smuggled gold, ivory and 'armed Congo rebels'

An 18-month BBC investigation for Panorama has found evidence that:

- Pakistani peacekeepers in the eastern town of Mongbwalu were involved in the illegal trade in gold with the FNI militia (described by Human Rights Watch as "some of the most murderous individuals that operate in eastern Congo"), providing them with weapons to guard the perimeter of the mines.
- The Indians traded gold, bought drugs from the militias and flew a UN helicopter into the Virunga National Park, where they exchanged ammunition for ivory.

A UN investigation concluded that one officer had been responsible for dealing in gold - allowing traders to use UN aircraft to fly into the town, putting them up at the UN base and taking them around the town. But the UN decided that "in the absence of corroborative evidence" its investigators "could not substantiate the allegation" that Pakistani peacekeepers supplied weapons or ammunition to the militia.

It did, however, identify "an individual who seemed to have facilitated gold smuggling".

The BBC allegations were confirmed by militia leaders. UN insiders close to the investigation told the BBC they had been prevented from pursuing their inquiries for political reasons. (Full)

My comments:
This is despicable and a slap in the face of those UN humanitarians who do try to make a difference.
It is not the first time the UN peacekeeping (UNDPKO) troops have been discredited by scandals (see the post Sometimes I am ashamed to work for the UN). A lack of consequent leadership in UNDPKO, a lack of accountability, direct and clear lines of command, proper supervision, proper screening of the troops, justice for those offending the rules, transparent and public auditing... and above all a lack of political will to structurally make a change to avoid similar scandals from happening again and again.

Update May 2: Human Rights Watch claims UN investigators in Congo ignored misconduct (Full)

Via International Aid Workers Today

Picture courtesy Marco Longari (AFP), BBC

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News: UN Peace Keeping in Darfur. A New UNStart?

A United Nations peacekeeping police officer, holds the babies handed to hear by two refugee women, while on patrol in the Abou Shouk refugee camp in North Darfur. The patrol was one of the first to re-enter Darfur's refugee camps since the United Nations took over peacekeeping in Darfur this month to try to end five years of violence. (full post)

I might sound largely cynical, but the way the UN Peace Keeping Operations works, with often a too limited mandate and an intrinsic bureaucracy, I would not be surprised if the same mothers would take a shot at the guy in the middle, one year from now. Mark my words.

Photo courtesy AP/Alfred de Montesquiou. Source: International Aid Workers Today

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News: A Visit to a Gaza Rocket Factory

The young man pulls the door of the taxi closed. He is wet. There is a light drizzle in the Gaza Strip. He turns around and greets the passengers in the back seat with a quick handshake. "Are you ready?" he asks them. "As of this moment, we could be going to paradise at any time." The other people in the car don't respond, and the driver of the Mercedes hits the gas. "I should have phoned my wife," he says after a while. "She should start to keep an eye out for a new husband." (full article)

Source: The Road Daily. Picture courtesy Der Spiegel

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Rumble: Food Convoys: No Romantic Trips

In Sudan, a series of attacks on UN World Food Programme (WFP) food truck convoys in the last week has resulted in the deaths of three WFP-contracted drivers. Two were shot dead in one incident on 16 October and another died in a second earlier incident on 12 October.

On Thursday 18 October, another incident occurred near Jebel Mara in South Darfur. According to initial reports, five WFP-contracted trucks were stopped by 20 armed men. Two of the five trucks were stolen along with their cargo of relief food (23 tons). All the drivers were released, however some sustained injuries. All personal belongings were stolen.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been more than 20 attacks on WFP food aid convoys in Darfur.

WFP is the organisation bringing in the majority of food aid to Darfur.

Picture courtesy Martin Walsh

For updated humanitarian news, check out The Other World News

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News: World Economy Slums - Do We Need a New Cold War?

Have you noticed too the slowly but steadily escalating posturing between Russia and the US... ?

I guess it all started with their stand-off on the war in Iraq. They certainly did not agree on Iran, with the US trying to force Iran out of their nuclear ambitions while Moscow supplied fuel for the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant.

Then there was an indirect standoff during the Orange revolution in the Ukraine, taking one more nation away from Putin's area of influence. Add their differences about Kosovo's independence, the recent integration of ex-USSR satellite states into the EU (with the alleged Russian-stoked unrest in Estonia), etcetera etcetera, and you have a recipe for problems.

Even more worrying is the recent escalation of direct posturing. NATO wants to install new radar installations in countries which used to be direct USSR allies. Russia says: "Ahaaa" and tests a new long range missile and re-activates its long range spy plane flights, which alerted the UK to scramble RAF jets to intercept it.

To counter NATO, Russia is now boosting the activities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization or SCO (call it "their" equivalent of NATO) with its first massive joint military exercise involving 6,500 troops, including elite troops from China..

And to top it off, the Russian propaganda machine thought it would be useful to continue the posturing by showing Putin in military fatigues doing all kinds of macho stuff during his holiday (see picture courtesy GQ-magazine ).

Why, would one ask? Why? Well, one answer is too many nations are fed up with the US having free hand to do whatever it wants in the world (after the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq) and Russia gladly volunteered. Maybe Putin needs to show a harder image for the upcoming legislative elections. And is there not one or the other kind of election coming up in the US neither?

But I think it runs deeper. I think the US and Russian economy are in that much trouble, they need a new cold war so that defence spending would lead to a new boost for their economy. Call me a pessimist. Call me a sarcast. But that is what I really think.

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