The Lisbon Treaty Means More Militarisation

The Lisbon Treaty Means More Militarisation and Senseless WarsThe Irish Anti War Movement is calling on all our supporters to VOTE NO to theLisbon Treaty and to canvass your friends, work colleagues, neighbours, familyon this important issue. There is still time to swing the vote in favour of theNo side.Please print out the of our leaflet and hang it up in your workplace orcollege or distribute it to friends, family etc.If you can help with canvassing, stalls, leafleting etc. in these last criticalfew days please contact Michael Youlton on 086 8159487.The Irish Anti War Movement is calling on all our supporters to VOTE NO to theLisbon Treaty and to canvass your friends, work colleagues, neighbours, familyon this important issue. There is still time to swing the vote in favour of theNo side.Please print out this leaflet(http://www.irishantiwar.org/files/irish-anti-war-leaflet1.pdf [1]) and hang itup in your workplace or college or distribute it to friends, family etc.A number of articles have been included in this news letter if you are unsureabout what way you will vote please read them.If you can help with canvassing, stalls, leafleting etc. in these last criticalfew days please contact Michael Youlton on 086 8159487.________________________________________________________________________------------------------------------------------------------The Lisbon Treaty Means More Wasteful Militarisation & Senseless Wars [2]------------------------------------------------------------The Lisbon Treaty:* Imposes more military spending by all EU member states* Allows former colonial powers to dominate EU defence policy* Reinforces EU-NATO links hence U.S. influence over EU foreign policy* Creates a new EU common defence policy that further undermines Irish neutrality.* Obliges Ireland to aid and assist other EU countries in military conflicts* Will lead to more horrific wars such as those inflicted on Iraq,* Afghanistan and GazaRead more(http://www.irishantiwar.org/node/594 [3])________________________________________________________________________------------------------------------------------------------Treaty hides ticking time bomb of EU defence body [4]------------------------------------------------------------Lisbon Treaty seeks to incorporate an aggressive European Defence Agency intoEU, writes VINCENT BROWNETHE LISBON Treaty proposes to incorporate the European Defence Agency (EDA)within the institutional structure of the European Union.Among the tasks of the EDA will be to co-ordinate the military equipment of EUmember states to ensure there is greater efficiency and synchronisation of themilitary capacities of member states in the conduct of humanitarian andpeacekeeping projects. It also sponsors research on measures to improve theprotection of military personnel engaged in such missions.The EU has already participated in peacekeeping operations in the Balkans andin Africa, most recently in Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Theseinitiatives have won widespread approval and support and the intervention inCongo, in particular, may have saved thousands of lives.If this was all the EDA was up to, how could any of us complain? We are all infavour of peace, in favour of rescuing populations from starvation, war andnatural disasters, and doing everything we can to protect our soldiers engagedin such laudable undertakings. But, regrettably, this is not all the EDA is upto and this is not all the Lisbon Treaty would facilitate, if endorsed by theIrish people.Read more(http://www.irishantiwar.org/node/595 [5])________________________________________________________________________------------------------------------------------------------Militarism and the Lisbon Treaty [6]------------------------------------------------------------Download Entire Pamphlet [7] (www.caeuc.org/files/CAEUCpamphlet4Feb08.pdf [8])The Lisbon Treaty widens the range of reasons to justify EU militaryinterventions abroad. It would integrate Irish forces into EU militarystructures and planning, which are dominated by states with colonial historiesand use military force for political-economic ends. All member states must paytowards the costs of militarisation.Neutrality in the gutterIrish neutrality - meaning we don’t participate in militaryalliances or allow our territory to be used by belligerents involved in war- has been thrown into the gutter. Our political elite have allowed overone million US troops use Shannon going to and from the US colony in Iraq. Thiscontravenes international law on neutrality (Hague Convention, 1907). Likewisethey refuse to search US planes en route to illegal secret prisons, for examplein Poland, Romania and Egypt -carrying prisoners to these torture centres.Irish troops are to take part in a French-dominated EU intervention into theconflict in Chad, ostensibly to provide security for refugees. For us the wellbeing of ordinary people is paramount. While this is a UN-authorised mission,France - as the former colonial power - has been giving military supportto the dictatorial regime in Chad that has rigged elections and used childsoldiers. Beneath humanitarian concerns lies a French desire to maintainwestern influence over the oil and uranium of the region. In the eyes of localpeople, Irish troops are likely to be indistinguishable from French forces,hated in much of Africa for their brutal colonial history.Read more(http://www.irishantiwar.org/node/593 [9])________________________________________________________________________[1] http://www.irishantiwar.org/files/irish-anti-war-leaflet1.pdf[2] http://www.irishantiwar.org/..../../../../../node/594[3] http://www.irishantiwar.org/node/594[4] http://www.irishantiwar.org/..../../../../../node/595[5] http://www.irishantiwar.org/node/595[6] http://www.irishantiwar.org/..../../../../../node/593[7] http://www.caeuc.org/files/CAEUCpamphlet4Feb08.pdf[8] http://www.caeuc.org/files/CAEUCpamphlet4Feb08.pdf[9] http://www.irishantiwar.org/node/593======================================================================To set-up a standing order with the Irish-Anti War Movement please go to the following link http://www.irishantiwar.org/files/standing-order-form.doc fill in the form and post to the Irish Anti-War Movement P.O. Box 9260 Dublin 1.To unsubscribe from this mailing list send a message to info@irishantiwar.org with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.If you have subscribed using the button on the web site you can unsubscirbe this way as well.To contact the webmaster send an email to webmaster@irishantiwar.org or ring +353 0 878289243Irish Anti-War MovementTel (fixed) 353 (0) 1 8727912, Tel (mobile) 353 (0) 87 6329511 Postal Address Irish Anti-War MovementPO Box 9260Dublin 1======================================================================

Can you help out with the Lisbon Treaty Campaign

The Irish Anti-War Movement needs help with the Lisbon Treaty Campaign. If you can do any of the following please contact us:1. Provide Accommodation for European Guests who are travelling to Ireland for the referendum. CONTACT Michael Youlton 01-8727912 / 086 8159487.2. Put up posters. CONTACT Jim Roche 087 64727373. Leaflet the your area. CONTACT Jim Roche 087 64727374. Organise an anti-war stall. CONTACT Jim Roche 087 64727375. Leaflet the NAMA march on 19th September in Dublin. CONTACT Jim Roche 087 64727376. Help out on an Anti-War Stall. CONTACTJim Roche 087 6472737For more info on the treaty go to www.sayno.ie

To Prime Minister Gordon Brown

allibyah@yahoo.com
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
10 Downing StreetLondon SW1A 2AA
United Kingdom
4 September 2009
Dear Prime minister,

The Libyan League for Human Rights, a Libyan NGO in exile, member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and of the Euro-Mediterranean human rights network (EMHRN), is writing to you, on an urgent basis, to draw your attention to the unclear health conditions of Mr. Abdelbasit Al-Megrahi, the only person convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people and to the legal responsibilities of the UK government in his safety and the protection and preservation of his health. We understand that Mr. Al Megrahy, who was allowed recently to return to Libya after spending 8 of his 27 years sentence in Scottish prison, has become an unwanted prisoner and his mere existence has perhaps become cumbersome, but we believe that this cannot be used as an excuse to precipitate his death through medical negligence or to eliminate him through loose and slack security protection. Mr. Al Megrahi remains the only witness of the suffering of millions of people in the UK , the US , in Libya (effects of the embargo) and elsewhere. His health and safety are all the more important that he made it clear that he is resolute to make public all the facts about Lockerbie crime and that those facts will, in his words, leave not even the slightest doubt about his innocence.

Mr. Prime Minister,

It is good that the international community hears what Mr. Megrahi has to say and for this there is an urgent need that his life is protected and that his safety is enhanced. Libya’s medical infrastructures are far from being satisfactory as may be indicated by the number of Libyans who seek medical care abroad, in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan in particular, and as attested by the mysterious death in custody in May 2009 of Mr. Fathi El-Jahmi, a prominent Libyan Human right Defender. It is therefore urgent that a British medical team be sent to Tripoli to support the work of the Libyan medical team in charge of Mr. Al-Megrahi’s medical file. it is also important that Physicians from independent medical NGOs are invited to participate in the same endeavour to avoid to Mr. Megrahi what Mr. El-Jahmi experienced months in the same medical facility; the Tripoli Medical Centre, that led to his unexplained death.

I thank you for your attention to this important and urgent matter.

Yours sincerely,

Sliman Bouchuiguir (Ph-D)
Secretary General

5th September International Peace Conference

in ShannonInternational Peace Conference War, NATO and the Lisbon TreatySaturday 5th of September 2009 Park Inn, Shannon Airport, Co. Clare, IrelandSpeakers: * Joe Higgins (MEP) Socialist Party * Mary Lou McDonald Sinn Fein * Patricia McKenna The People's Movement * Cllr. Richard Boyd Barrett Irish Anti-War Movement * Ed Horgan Peace & Neutrality Alliance * Reiner Braun The Anti-NATO Network * Christophe Ventura Parti De Gauche * Jeremy Corbyn British Labour Party * Harry Bommel Dutch Socialist Party * John Feffer Foreign Policy in Focus USA * Tobias Pfluger Die Linke * George Karabelias Greek historian and Rixi journalTime Table:Registration 9.15 - 10.00First Session 9.45 - 11.15War and Shannon . Two main speakers of 10 mins each: Ed Horgan andJan O'Sullivan - local Limerick based TD. The first to focus on theairport, the troops and implications the second on the responses ofthe political establishment including her own party....Chair: Carol Fox (PANA)Coffee Break 11.15 - 11.30Second Session 11.30 - 13.15Lisbon Speakers: Sinn Fein (Mary Lou McDonald or Theresa Ferris),Socialist Party (Joe Higgins), Peoples Movement (Patricia McKenna) andRichard Boyd Barrett (SWP and People Before Profit) - ten minutes each.Chair Michael Youlton (IAWM).Lunch Break 13.15 - 14.00 - Sandwiches, coffee/ tea etc from hotel.Third Session 14.00 - 16.00The militarisation of Europe and NATO: Speakers Kate Hudson or Jeremy Corbyn(UK CND), Tobias Pfluger (Die - Linke /European Parliament) andChristophe Ventura from the Parti de Gauche - Fifteen minutes each. Chair: Roger Cole (PANA).Fourth Session 16.15 - 18.30.The new International post- Obama Environment: Speakers John Feiffer(co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus), Harry Bommel from theDutch Socialist Party, Reiner Braun of the Network who organised theStrasbourg anti-NATO mobilisation and George Karabelias - from Rixi -Greece.Chair: Ailbhe Smyth (People Before Profit)Lunch is available in the hotel restaurant. Accommodation is also available.Contact the Park Hotel, Shannon Airport for accommodation: €80 B&B perroom per person sharing, €85 B&B for single.Tel: +353 61 471 122The Conference is being organised jointly by the Peace & Neutrality Allianceand the Irish Anti-War Movement. For more details contact PANA at: +3531 2351512Roger Cole, Chair, Peace & Neutrality Alliance, Ireland www.pana.ie A bus will be leaving at 6.00 from Heuston Station returning in the evening -to book a place contact Michael Youlton 086 815 9487 or myouilton@yahoo.comif interested.www.irishantiwar.org======================================================================To set-up a standing order with the Irish-Anti War Movement please go to the following link http://www.irishantiwar.org/files/standing-order-form.doc fill in the form and post to the Irish Anti-War Movement P.O. Box 9260 Dublin 1.To unsubscribe from this mailing list send a message to info@irishantiwar.org with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.If you have subscribed using the button on the web site you can unsubscirbe this way as well.To contact the webmaster send an email to webmaster@irishantiwar.org or ring +353 0 878289243Irish Anti-War MovementTel (fixed) 353 (0) 1 8727912, Tel (mobile) 353 (0) 87 6329511 Postal Address Irish Anti-War MovementPO Box 9260Dublin 1

Witness Association for Human Rights

Report


Who is the responsible about the deterioration of health conditions in the Palestinian Red Crescent Hospitals in Lebanon, Especially at Haifa Hospital in Burj Al Barajenih Camp.

Most of the Red Crescent hospitals in Lebanon suffer greatly from many difficulties and complicated problems hat affect its performance and duties especially those exist inside the Palestinian camps .These problems caused a deep gap between the management of these hospitals and their worker on one hand and the Palestinian faction and the inhabitants from the other side. These crises put the Palestinian refugees in front of many obsessions that really threaten their health and life. These crises raise many logical questions: Who is the responsible about this deterioration, and how to deal and resolve this internal Crisis? Witness Association has received many complaints about these issues which basically concentrate inside Burj Al Barajenih camp. During a field round inside the camp that included Haifa hospital, the popular committee and many other people, it was obvious that there are many real problems facing the refugees inside the camp which represented the absence of the political reference that is capable of the daily challenges and the current condition of Haifa Hospital that witness dramatical declining for many reasons, particularly on the health level.

The opinion of Haifa Hospital management

The Director of Haifa Hospital , Dr. Awni Saad talks about the crisis and says : "Haifa Hospital witnessing a real crisis which caused by the interruption of the public electricity in the camp for many days which reflected negatively on the electricity of the hospital .As a result of this situations ,many people who live around the hospital as well as some powerful forces and political faction who violated against the hospital’s generators and its private electricity by isolating the wires behind the air conditions , the elevator and other devices and suspended their electric lines across the ceilings , they stole large quantities that exceeded the capacity of the generators . The director said that he found a line of 8 mm in diameter that able to enlighten a whole neighborhood.
Dr. Saad adds: “All these violated acts led the increasing loads on the generators and damaged them one after the other, and remained only one medium size generator that feeds only the operating and emergency rooms. In spite of that ,gloomy situation, the same forces threatened the employees and the guards ,and they took off the locks and stole from the remaining lines .At that time there were two dead bodies inside the refrigerators of the hospitals . These bodies related to a Palestinian citizen whose name is Omar Ahmad Annan from Shatila Camp and the other from Al Burj Camp ,whom died on august -14-2009 and to be buried when their relatives arrive from traveling .These bodies has rotted and decomposed ,so their relatives could not able to bath them, but they had been obliged to buried them directly .Dr. awni adds that he had addressed all the Palestinian factions and the popular and security committees , but unfortunately their response was very limited . He invited them for a meeting that would be held on august 14,2009 and put them in front of their responsibilities and inform them about the difficulties and obstacles that facing the hospitals , they promised him that they should take their role and remove all the wires and stop all the violation acts against the hospital next Monday .But unfortunately nothing had actually done , and the last generator also had damaged , so the hospital was forced to protest and announced about a strike and closed the hospital and did not receive except the emergency cases only ,since the hospital was still working on a small movable generator . After these protesting procedure, all the Palestinian factions and committees were embarrassed and they have removed all the violations and return the situation to its normal case after the hospital had paid large sum of money to repair the generators.
Regarding to the trust crisis with Haifa hospital, Dr. Awni says:” All the doctors, nurses and the workers practicing their obligations, but so scared, since there is a wrong scattered culture that did not respect the sanctity of the doctors and other medical staff. These conditions lead to frustration among the medical staff and adversely affect their performance. Moreover there is another wrong culture spread among the refugees that any patient enter the red crescent hospital may be exposed to many fatal medical errors .It is true that some errors may occur ,but this is due to the lack of advanced equipments as scanner , magnetic or audio images that help the doctors to diagnose and discover the disease like the private hospitals in Lebanon , in addition to the presence of some cases that had been treated in private hospitals ,and there is no hope to be healed , so their kin bring them to Haifa hospital to spend their remaining days in the hospital and die inside it ,so many predominant rumors that a medical mistake lead to his death ".
Dr. Saad complains of the lack of respect for the medical staff from the resident of the camp in spite that the management exerts great efforts to improve the situation by all possible means.

The Opinion of the Popular Committee in Burj Al Barajenih Camp:-
Upon our inquiry from the members of the popular committee about the problems facing the hospital and the lack of serious interactions to solve the problem of electricity inside the hospital. Said abuo Walid El Einain , the head of the popular committee inside Burj al Barajneh camp that the cause of this problem is the complicity of some hospital staff with some influential persons and provided them with electricity through the hidden joint behind the air condition in a secrete way . This phenomenon has encouraged the neighbors and other, to dare and violated against the hospital’s electricity, that damaged the generators one after the other. Mr. Abuo El Einain added that they are the most people who interest greatly on the hospital and it performance, but this also required from the management of the hospital to be at the same level of awareness. The corruptions inside the hospital is the result of many fatal medical errors as the case of a young man from Ayuoub family who had submitted to un successful surgical operation that decrease his weight from 45 kg to 18 kg, So the popular committee obliged to intervene and securing treatment for him in Rafik Al Hariri hospital and save his life.
Mr. Abuo El Einain added that the palestinian liberation organization is the responsible for the deteriorating condition in the palestine red crescent hospitals , through its failure to support or improve or control its performance . in addition that the major responsibility lies on the UNRWA agency , which has neglected the health situation of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon , and has contracted with the Red Crescent hospital that lack for necessary medical equipment , more over to inability to receive all the treatment cases . Many of the patients have been refused to be treated in spite of their normal cases, and they are easily treated in other private hospitals such as the case of children swallowing small coins.
The popular committee in Burj Al Barajenih camp condemns all the violation acts that harms this humanitarian institution and will n,t hesticate to support and provide it . The committee on the other hand hopes from the management of the hospital to deal with people fairly without discrimination, because of political affiliation and to take in consideration the social and economic condition of most people
.
Another point of view:
Through our survey the insiders view on the reality of the health situation inside the hospital. Mr. Rajab Taha ,the director of Al Reaaya pharmacy in the camp said :" the hospital has been suffering from neglect for along period of time .It lacks a lot of necessary equipments ,as photography , heart and brain planning and kidneys dialysis . Moreover the spread of domination and violation culture on the property of the hospital from those influential powers and members, so much so that one of them convert the water pipe of the hospital to his home. Mr. Rajab Taha inquires that if the Red Crescent is on of the vital institutions of the Palestinian liberation organization, why this dangerous neglect of it?

The View of Witness Human Rights:
We, in the Witness Association for Human Rights call all the parties to take their responsibilities particularly the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the UNRWA agency to work seriously in order to find serious solutions of the health problems that are facing all the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon , and the association recommends the following :-
First : The absence of the general political references make the Palestinian societies in all specificity including the health situation more expose to erosion and risks and expose the Palestinian interests to the real danger .
Second: It should be work to provide the Palestinian Red Crescent hospitals with advanced equipments in addition to improve the efficiency of the doctors and nurses that enable them to perform their roles without errors.
Third: It is necessary to secure all the rights of the workers in the hospitals of the Palestinian Red Crescent and to activate the management control.
Fourth: It is necessary to secure adequate protection of these hospitals and their staff to enable them to perform their humanitarian role with efficiency and respect.



Beirut: 2009/1/1

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR)The "King of the African Kings" celebrates Libya's independence in the company of Robert Mugabe and Omar Al Bachir after African Summit in Tripoli
Paris- September 2, 2009: FIDH and its member organization in exile, the Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR), deplore the support provided by the African Union Summit to President Khadafi's authoritarian regime, reflected by statements made by the AU Commission's president hailing the occasion last Tuesday as a double celebration "the 40th of the Libyan revolution and the 10th of the process that led to our current organization"(1). The Libyan official news agency also quotes the Commission's president proclaiming that remarkable progress has been made by Libya "in political, economic, social and cultural spheres", ignoring thereby the extreme repression against human rights defenders and opponents of the regime. The alarming nature of Libya's policies against human rights defenders was recently witnessed by the unclear conditions surrounding the death of Fathi El-Jahmi, Libya’s most prominent advocate of democracy and respect of human rights.(2)FIDH and LLHR recall that the Libyan regime has been violating and still violates most of the principles enshrined in Article 4 of the AU Constitutive Act, namely the respect of democratic principles, human rights, the rule of law and good governance. In Libya no elections have been organized during the last 40 years. No elected legislative power exist in Libya and no political parties or free trade unions or independent civil societies are allowed in the country. In power since a coup in 1969, President Khadafi has imposed a regime that explicitly prohibits the free expression of any critics to the government and the principles of the 1969 Revolution with sentences up to the death penalty (Law 71 of 1972, and Article 206 of the Penal Code). Libyan citizens are therefore not entitled to peacefully change their government, and are constantly denied their right to freedom of expression and association. Heavy punishments are inflicted to those who hold dissent views and dare to express their peaceful critics on the way public affairs are conducted.The Libyan authorities reportedly hold political prisoners in lengthy incommunicado detention. There is no independent judiciary in Libya, and several reports show that torture, theoretically prohibited in the country, is a common practice in the detention facilities, and confessions obtained under torture are being used against defendants in courts proceedings. The Libyan authorities have made no effort to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these acts.Furthermore, FIDH and LLHR recall that in recent years, Libya has been arbitrarily detained and migrants without distinction between refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants and collective deportations have been taking place on a wide scale, regardless of the risks these vulnerable people are facing back in their country of origin. According to official statistics, 2 million undocumented people from different African nationalities are believed to reside in Libya, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Mediterranean sea.