Digest of the U.S. State Department’s Daily Press Briefing February 5, 2009

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/05/18568479.php

Digest of the U.S. State Department’s Daily Press Briefing February 5, 2009

by al-masakin
Thursday Feb 5th, 2009 3:39 PM

Secretary of State to make first trip to South East Asia

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will depart Washington, D.C. on tour of Asia Feb. 15.

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The Secretary of State will visit Japan Feb. 16 – 18, Indonesia Feb. 18 – 19, Republic of Korea Feb. 19 – 20, and China Feb. 20 – 22.

North Korea

Secretary of State’s Asian tour to be part of the Six-party framework.

The ‘Six-party framework’ to pressure the DPRK to abandon its nuclear program will be on her agenda. The Six-Party Talks began in August 2003 as a multilateral approach to ending North Korea’s nuclear program. The member states of the Six-party framework are: the United States, North Korea, China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan.

Indonesia

Islam and the Peace Corps on the agenda.

Indonesia was placed on the agenda because it is “the largest Muslim country in the world and the Secretary feels it’s important that we need to reach out and reach out early to Indonesia,” Press Secretary Wood said this morning. Mr. Wood also indicated the Secretary of State will likely raise the question of reactivating the Peace Corps there.

China

In China the Secretary of State hopes to engage the help of China in resolving a number of humanitarian issues in the world. “We want to see how we can partner with the Chinese to try and help resolve some of these horrible and horrific humanitarian situations we have…the subjects of human rights and Tibet always come up in conversations with our Chinese counterparts…So I would suspect that those issues could very well come up,” Mr. Wood replied to questions from the press. Secretary of State to investigate whether or not Congress’ “Buy American” package wil violate WTO agreements between the two countries.

Afghanistan

Richard Holbrooke the point man.

Members of the press asked the Press Secretary why the Secretary of State had not chosen to make her first trip as Secretary of State to South Asia, particularly to India, in order to address the growing problems in Afghanistan. To this inquiry Mr. Wood replied, “Ambassador Holbrooke…will be on his way to the region from the Munich conference…she will eventually be going to the region, but the fact that we’ve got a very distinguished negotiator…Richard Holbrooke, going to the region, that’s very significant as well.”

Guantanamo Bay

State Department implies that intelligence sharing agreements between the U.K. and the United States have gagged British courts on releasing details of the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison.

Q. “There are communications between U.S. and UK intelligence agents that describe what happened – apparently describe what happened to this man when he was held in detention, which a UK court would like to make public, and the UK Government is preventing them from doing so, saying it is because the U.S. Government doesn’t want them made public. And it’s not clear to us whether or not the U.S. Government, under an Obama Administration, really does want these things to be kept secret.”

A. “President Obama has – as you know, through an executive order, has, you know, basically requested a review of the detention of, you know – or should I say the detention conditions at Guantanamo. But beyond that, I just don’t have anything more I can give you on it.”

Iran

Russia to help Iran activate N. plant at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf in southwestern Iran.

Kyrgyzstan

United States has not been officially notified that it must close the NATO air base at Manas near the capital Bishkek. Negotiations to keep the base open are ongoing.

Ethiopia

No details on Foreign Service officer allegedly killed there.

United Nations at Geneva

The United Nations mission at Geneva reviewing human rights records around the world, U.S. seat there has been empty.

Q. “Human rights organizations say that the United States seat has been empty this week, including during the review of Russia’s human rights record. And I gather this is one of the only forums in the UN context in which countries can be asked direct questions about their human rights records by other UN members… why has the United States not been present and participating… does the U.S. plan to participate?”

A. “We’re currently looking at what our policies are likely to be toward the UN Human Rights Council…taking a close look at the institution and its record. The President and the Secretary have made very clear that we want to fully engage and make reforms of the overall…international human rights system.”

Q. “The United States took a decision to stop participating in the commission’s work…any country can come and ask questions during the sort of UPR process. And the human rights groups are perplexed that the Administration and the U.S. Government, which has a longstanding policy on human rights around the world, wouldn’t participate, which it can do; even if it is not actively a part of the commission, any country can come and speak… has a policy decision been made not to take part in this process until you have decided the broader question of how and whether you will work with the commission?”

A. “We need to take a close look…at the Human Rights Commission…we want to make sure that we have a very coherent, cohesive policy with regard to engaging the UN and other actors in the international human rights system…We’re not trying to send any signals at this moment one way or the other.”

Although China’s record on human rights is scheduled to be on the agenda next week, when asked if the United States intended to participate in the review of China’s human rights record, or to speak on the issue of human rights in China, the spokesman for the State Department replied, “we don’t know.” The reporter then redirected the question to pertain to the scheduling of Ms. Clinton’s trip to China the week following the human rights review.

Q. “Review of the UPR that is for selected countries. China, I believe, is next week. Yeah. She’s going to China the week after that… And I’m just wondering if there will be a – if the decision – the review that you’re talking about will be completed in time… for you to participate or not participate… the President and the Secretary both campaigned on, you know, making human rights a priority, it’s just a little surprising that there hasn’t been anything – they haven’t made even the effort to show up.”

A. “When something’s a priority, you don’t rush to make a decision on it.”

Q. “I take it there’s been no decision yet on the Durban conference?”

A. “Not yet.”

The Durban Conference will be held in Geneva April 20-24. The Durban Conference is a follow-up to the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (WCAR). The UNCHR is responsible for organizing and convening the event. Israel and the United States condemned the First Durban Conference, calling it an instrument of racism itself for allowing the slogan “Zionism is racism” to be raised there, and for war crimes charges to be leveled against Israel, and for participants of the conference comparing Israel to South Africa under Apartheid rule.

Al-Qaeda

State Department confirms Al-Qaeda is active in a number of places besides Yemen.

Cyprus

State Department differs questions on the fate of an Iranian ship alleged to be laden with weapons and held at port in Cyprus to the Pentagon.

No clarification as to whether or not the Iranian ship that docked at the Port of Beirut Jan. 29 with humanitarian aid for Gaza is the same ship intercepted by the US Navy in the Red Sea Jan. 27 or a different ship.
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Al-Masakin News Agency
http://almasakinnewsagency.wordpress.com/

OIC welcomes UNCHR resolution condemning Israel ‘grave human rights violations in Gaza’

 

The OIC Secretary General welcomes the resolution adopted by the UN human rights council condemning Israel`s agression and human rights violations in Gaza

Date: 13/01/2009 - View in: Arabic | French - Print

The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, has welcomed the Resolution adopted yesterday by the Ninth Special Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, condemning Israel for grave human rights violations in Gaza.

The OIC Secretary General called for urgent implementation by the United Nations Secretary General and UN High Commissioner of Human Rights of stipulations of the resolution related to dispatching an urgent independent international fact-finding mission to investigate all Israeli violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and investigating the latest targeting of UNRWA facilities in Gaza, including schools, that resulted in the killing of tens of Palestinian civilians, including women and children.

In the resolution, which was adopted by a vote of 33 to 1 with 13 abstentions, the Council also called for the immediate cessation of Israeli military attacks throughout the Palestinian Occupied Territory; demanded Israel to immediately withdraw its military forces from the occupied Gaza Strip; called upon Israel, the occupying power, to end its occupation to all Palestinian lands occupied since 1967, and to respect its commitment within the peace process towards the establishment of the independent sovereign Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. The resolution demanded Israel to stop targeting civilians and medical facilities and staff as well as the systematic destruction of cultural heritage and lift the siege and open all borders.

Secretary General Ihsanoglu praised the leading role of the OIC Group at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in achieving this important result, which, he emphasized, should pave the way for further action by the UN Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council, to make the perpetrators of grave human rights abuses and war crimes committed in Gaza to be accountable in front of international justice mechanisms.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, calls for war crimes probe against Israel

UN Rights Chief Calls for Gaza War Crimes Probe

10/01/2009 The top UN human rights official called on Friday for independent investigations into possible war crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip.   Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, singled out the killing of 30 Palestinian civilians in a home in central Gaza that was shelled by Israeli forces, and their alleged neglect of young, starving children whose mothers died in the attack.   “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 Reuters in an interview.   A U.N. aid agency reported on Friday that the 30 Palestinians were killed this week when the Israeli army sheltered 110 civilians in a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood in central Gaza, later hit by shells.   “It cries out for proper investigation,” said Pillay, a former International Criminal Court judge from South Africa.   The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday its rescue team had found four children near the bodies of their dead mothers in Zeitoun, not far from Israeli occupation soldiers.   “There is an international obligation on the part of soldiers in their position to protect civilians, not to kill civilians indiscriminately in the first place, and when they do to make sure that they help the wounded,” Pillay said. “In this particular case these children were helpless and the soldiers were close by,” she said.   Pillay, speaking earlier to a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council held on the Gaza crisis, called for accountability for any violations of international law.   Scores of people, including children, had been killed or wounded in “Israel’s totally unacceptable strikes” against clearly marked U.N. facilities sheltering Gaza civilians, she said in a speech.   The talks came a day after the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the 15-day-old conflict and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel rejected the resolution and pursued its offensive on Friday.   Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram, speaking on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), denounced Israel’s “unrestrained use of force,” killing of innocent civilians and violation of U.N. safe havens. “In their totality these constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he declared.

UNCHR set to condemn Israel for the 21st time

UNHRC Set to Censure Israel, For 21st Time

11/01/2009 The UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva is expected to censure Israel on Monday for its military operations in Gaza, according to Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, South African Navanethem Pillay, addresses the Human Rights Council special session on the ‘The Grave Violations of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including the recent aggression of the occupied Gaza Strip,’ Friday.   The draft text, which was proposed by Arab countries, “is totally unbalanced,” Aharon Leshno Yaar told The Jerusalem Post by telephone from Geneva on Saturday night. “I would have expected the council to condemn Hamas for using civilians as human shields.”   According to the UN Watch NGO, should the resolution pass, it would mark the 21st time that the council has censured Israel since it replaced the UN’s Human Rights Commission in June 2006. It has issued 25 resolutions against countries, of which 20 resolutions were leveled against Israel, four against Myanmar and one against North Korea, according to UN Watch.   Leshno Yaar said that he and the Foreign Ministry have lobbied European officials not to support such anti-Israel texts. “The atmosphere is very heavy here in Geneva, because the focus is on human rights and humanitarian issues. I feel that I am fighting here alone with few friends,” he said.   On Friday, when he spoke before the council at the start of its special session on “the grave violations of human rights in the occupied territories, including the recent aggression in the occupied Gaza Strip,” he gave council members information on the rocket attacks and on Israel’s efforts to provide humanitarian relief to the civilians in Gaza.   Reports by the United Nations paint a bleak picture of Israel’s occupation army activities in Gaza. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of Friday, 758 Gazans have been killed as a result of the offensive. Out of that number, 60 were women and 257 were children.   In addition, the UN said, 16,000 people have been displaced and are staying in shelters, and as of Thursday, some 800,000 Gazans were without running water.   “The situation is intolerable,” the UN commissioner for human rights, Navanethem Pillay, said when she addressed the council’s special session on Friday.   She said the Israeli offensive “has already caused the loss of hundreds of lives, a rapidly mounting score of injured civilians, the systematic destruction of basic means of subsistence,” Pillay said. “Let me also underscore that while indiscriminate rocket attacks against civilian targets in Israel are unlawful, Israel’s responsibility to fulfill its international obligations is completely independent from the compliance of Hamas with its own obligations under international law,” she added. The obligation of a state to protect civilian life “is not subject to reciprocity,” Pillay said. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective penalties or punishment of a civilian population, she said.

OIC and NAM groupings convenve Special Session of the UNCHR over rights violations in Gaza

Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), joined by the Arab and African Groups of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), convene Special Session of the UNCHR in Genveva

OIC efforts in Geneva with regard to human rights violations in the Gaza strip
Date: 09/01/2009

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Upon the request of the OIC Group in Geneva, supported by the Arab Group, African Group and the Group of Non Aligned Movement (NAM), a Special Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) convened on Friday 9 January 2009 to consider the grave human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories including the Israeli aggression in Gaza.

Pursuant to the decision of the Executive Committee extraordinary ministerial meeting held in Jeddah on the 3rd of January, the initiative of the OIC group, cosponsored by 32 out of 47 members of the HRC, was justified by the urgent necessity to address concretely and effectively the alarming humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza after the Israeli military assault which has caused thousands of victims and large scale of destruction of infrastructure.

The Chairman of the Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on the

situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestine, Coordinators of all regional groupings (OIC, Arab, African, NAM, EU, GRULAC Groups) and representatives of states together with the representatives from international and intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations took the floor to express their profound rejection of the inhuman situation in Gaza and their condemnation of the killing of innocent civilians.

They condemned the unrestrained and disproportionate use of force by Israeli military forces, massive destruction of the infrastructure and disruption of the basic services.

The draft resolution submitted to the 9th Special Session of the Human Rights Council condemned the ongoing violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories particularly in the Gaza Strip resulting from the ongoing Israeli military attacks and :

• Called for immediate cessation of the Israeli military attacks;
• Called for urgent lifting of the blockage to allow access and free movement of the humanitarian aid to the occupied Gaza;
• Called for immediate protection of the Palestinian people in compliance with the humanitarian law and international humanitarian law;
• Requested the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights to immediately put in place a Rapid Response Team to monitor the violations of human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel, the occupying power and report to the HRC;
• Urged all parties concerned to respect the rules of the human rights law and international humanitarian law and to refrain from violence against civilian people.

Ihsanoglu welcomes Security Council resolution on Gaza; calls on the Council to follow up on implementation

Date: 09/01/2009

The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, welcomed the adoption last night of a resolution by the UN Security Council on the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.

He stated that although the Security Council has passed the resolution belatedly two weeks after the launch of the onslaught on Gaza, causing hundreds of casualties, leaving thousands injured, and wreaking massive destruction on property and civic facilities, and even though the resolution does not address some major issues related to the Israeli aggression, notably the need for Israel to immediately pull out from the Gaza Strip and the need for Israel to respect human rights and international humanitarian law; still, the resolution represents a step in the right direction, but it requires to be implemented immediately.

Ihsanoglu called on the UN Security Council to follow up on the implementation of the resolution and to ensure that all concerned parties abide by it and that Israel demonstrates commitment to stopping its aggression, withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, lifting the siege imposed on Gaza, opening the crossings, and allowing humanitarian assistance to cross into Gaza.

The Secretary General emphasized that the UN General Assembly could play a major role by resuming its Tenth Emergency Special Session on Palestine. He added that the special session called for by the President of the General Assembly should review the implementation of the Security Council resolution and pinpoint the aspects the resolution failed to address.

Ihsanoglu also condemned Israel for attacking humanitarian relief teams, personnel from the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, staff from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), precluding them from conducting their humanitarian mission.

The Secretary General pointed out that the OIC is currently deploying strenuous efforts to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance to the victims of the Israeli aggression. He mentioned that a high-level delegation from the OIC General Secretariat was dispatched to Cairo, Egypt, to conduct consultations with the Egyptian government on the proper mechanisms to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip.
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Al-Masakin News Agency
http://almasakinnewsagency.wordpress.com

UNCHR to hold emergency meeting on Gaza Friday in Geneva

 

 

 

 

News Code: 295048  GMT: 1/7/2009 8:25:20 PM 

 

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UN Human Rights Council calls emergency meeting on Gaza

Geneva, Jan 7, IRNA – United Nations human Rights Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday on Israeli bombardment of civilian targets in Gaza Strip, the Geneva-based body said on Wednesday.

 

 

International condemnation of the Israeli violations of the Geneva Convention, deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza Strip since December 27, gained momentum on Wednesday urging the UN human rights body to hold special session to review Israeli bombardment of Gaza Strip which killed and maimed several hundred children, women and ordinary people.

 

UNHRC said that 29 countries including the Islamic states and Russia have demanded the UN body to examine “Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip and the grave violations of human rights of Palestinians.

 

the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 47 members have requested the special Friday session.

 

Diplomats say the47-nation UN body will consider a resolution to condemn Israel for violating the Geneva Convention and the war laws.

 

UNHRC was established in 2006 after the United States was expelled from the United Nations Human Rights Commission for its unconditional support for Israel and regularly boycotting resolutions being issued against Israeli violations of the Geneva Conventions.

 

Hamas says Israel is an occupying power and the International Law does not allow it to lay blockade Gaza Strip which belongs to a nation whose territory has been occupied.

 

Hamas government says that its rocket attacks on Israel aim to force Israel to respect the International Law and lift economic blockade.

 

UN officials working in Gaza say that Israel has exceeded the boundaries of self-defense and perpetrated crimes against humanity in Gaza over the past twelve days.

 

Israeli blockade on Gaza has left 1.5 million population without food, fuel and electricity.

 

Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital has no medicine and room for surgery due to high number of those wounded in Israeli heavy bombardment, doctors say.

 

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that Israeli leaders have committed collective punishment in Gaza.

 

 

End News / IRNA / News Code 295048

UN High Commissioner Guterres says Israeli assault on Gaza is: “The only conflict in the world in which people are not even allowed to flee”

Gaza: “The only conflict in the world in which people are not even allowed to flee” – High Commissioner Guterres

We have issued a statement by High Commissioner António Guterres calling for strict adherence to humanitarian principles in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, including respect for the universal right of those fleeing war to seek safety in other states.

Although there has been no large-scale movement out of Gaza because of the blockade, Mr. Guterres reminds neighbouring states of their responsibility to provide access to safety for civilians fleeing violence. He said those who are compelled to flee Gaza should be able to do so and to find safety and security in other countries according to international law, and he asks that all relevant borders and access routes be kept open and safe. Noting that right now, this is the only conflict in the world in which people are not even allowed to flee, he says Palestinians who may try to leave Gaza to escape the fighting should not be prevented from doing so.

In his statement, Mr. Guterres also expresses solidarity with UNHCR’s sister organisation, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is in charge of providing support to Palestinians and is struggling to carry out its mission in Gaza’s steadily worsening humanitarian environment. He says it is absolutely imperative that the immediate delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilian victims of this conflict be facilitated, including access from Egypt and Israel.

UNHCR has provided some emergency assistance to Egypt’s Red Crescent Society in case it is needed for the care of any Palestinians admitted to Egyptian territory and we stand ready to deploy an emergency team and equipment to the area as required.

The High Commissioner says he is gravely concerned over the conflict’s heavy toll on civilians, including children, and expresses his profound shock and sadness at the suffering and loss of life. He joins Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in calling for an immediate halt to hostilities.