Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 20. maj 2004 / Time Line May 20, 2004
Version 3.005/20/2004
Amnesty International støtter Dansk Røde Kors
kritik af regering og folketing
Amnesty bakker op om generalsekretær Jørgen Poulsen
fra Dansk Røde Kors offentlige kritik af såvel
tidligere som nuværende regeringer og folketing for ikke at
tage Genévekonventionerne alvorligt og dermed
forårsage et skred i holdningerne til tortur og
menneskerettigheder.
- Vi er fuldstændig enige med Jørgen Poulsen og det er
meget befriende, at Røde Kors sætter ord på det
centrale problem, nemlig at respekten for
Genèvekonventionerne skrider, siger Amnesty Internationals
generalsekretær, Lars Norman Jørgensen.
Læs mere om Amnestys arbejde med Irak og de rapporter, som
regeringen overså, på:
http://www.amnesty.dk/bibliotek/aktuelt/irak/
Amnesty International calls for a commission of inquiry into
'war on terror' detentions
Amnesty International is calling for an impartial and independent
commission of inquiry to be set up by the United States Congress to
conduct a thorough investigation into the USA's "war on terror"
detentions across the globe. Such a commission, composed of
credible experts independent of government, must have broad-ranging
powers to examine the administration's detention policies and
practices and ensure accountability at the highest level.
The investigation must have the full cooperation of the government.
Its purpose must be to ensure that from now on the USA adopts
policies that fully meet its international obligations, as well as
to identify any officials who may have authorized, condoned or
committed war crimes and other human rights abuses in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay or elsewhere.
The evidence of war crimes committed in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
has followed persistent claims of cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment against detainees during the past two and a half years of
the "war on terror". The USA continues daily to violate
international law and standards in its detention policy -- by
holding detainees outside the protection of the law, including in
Guantánamo, Afghanistan and in secret locations. Its alleged
transfer of detainees to face torture in third countries has also
been a matter of deep concern throughout this period.
Since the outset of the "war on terror", the US administration has
fostered a climate conducive to torture and cruelty. A contemptuous
approach to international law and standards, the use of
incommunicado and secret detention, and the repeated dehumanization
and labelling of all detainees as "killers" and "terrorists", have
created conditions ripe for torture and other crimes under
international law.
Even the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has not
had full access to all detainees. The military investigation into
Abu Ghraib by Major General Antonio Taguba raised the situation of
"ghost detainees", who were moved around within the facility to
hide them from the ICRC. The ICRC's own report in February on
Coalition detentions in Iraq "establishes that persons deprived of
their liberty face the risk of being subjected to a process of
physical and psychological coercion, in some cases tantamount to
torture". Failure to notify relatives of detainees' whereabouts
resulted "in the de facto 'disappearance' of the arrestee for weeks
or even months." The ICRC report also said that ill-treatment of
detainees deemed to have high intelligence value was systematic,
and that the use of solitary confinement in small cells devoid of
daylight against such detainees violated the Geneva
Conventions.
The commander of the US forces in Iraq has now barred interrogators
from using some of the "stress and duress" techniques, reportedly
including sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, stress
positions, and the use of dogs, techniques which Secretary of
Defense Rumsfeld told a Senate hearing on 12 May had been approved
at the Pentagon. Although some such techniques violate the
international prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,
their use has not been precluded in interrogations in Afghanistan,
Guantánamo or at secret locations.
In an open letter to President Bush on 7 May 2004, Amnesty
International cited the case of a Yemeni national who told the
organization in April that he was subjected to sleep deprivation
and other cruel or degrading treatment by US agents, including
being photographed naked, at a secret detention facility in Kabul.
In another recent interview, a former Afghan police officer has
said that he was subjected to beating, kicking, sleep deprivation,
and sexual abuse during the more than a month he spent in US
custody in Afghanistan in 2003. He also said he had been repeatedly
photographed, often while naked.
Last week the New York Times published evidence that torture --
including water submersion -- has been used against "high value"
detainees at secret locations. The latest edition of the New Yorker
magazine reports that the Secretary of Defense approved the
expansion of a secret operation -- a "special-access program" (SAP)
-- originally for use against such detainees, to prisoners
incarcerated in Iraq in the insurgency there. The secret tactics,
it is stated, allowed for sexual humiliation and physical coercion.
The Department of Defense has issued a general denial of the New
Yorker's thorough report, characterizing it as "outlandish,
conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture",
but has not provided a detailed response to the allegations
made.
There is growing evidence that the abuse of prisoners in US custody
has been widespread and resulted from US policies as well as a
leadership failure. However, the administration continues to claim
that only a few soldiers have been responsible. President Bush
himself, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is promoting this
message. The most appropriate way to get to the bottom of this and
to meet international concern is to establish an expert inquiry
independent of government. To ensure its effectiveness and the
appearance of impartiality in the eyes of the world, the inquiry
would benefit form the advice of international experts such as the
United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture.
Prosecuting the "few" alleged perpetrators caught on film in Abu
Ghraib prison would clearly not be enough. Full accountability, of
persons at all levels of the chain of command, including officers
in the armed forces, Central Intelligence Agency personnel and
private contractors, with no hint of scapegoating of low-level
soldiers and reservist officers, is crucial.
A commission of inquiry must not be a substitute for bringing to
justice anyone who has committed human rights violations, including
war crimes. As a matter of principle, across all countries, Amnesty
International takes the position that justice is best served by
prosecuting war crimes and other grave violations of international
law, such as torture, in independent and impartial civilian courts.
Any trials, however, whether military or civilian, must conform
fully to international standards for fair trial.
The problem does not begin or end at Abu Ghraib. The rule of law
and promotion of security and human rights demand that daylight be
shone onto all US detention policies and practices.
05/20/2004
IOF perpetrate a massacre in Rafah, Shelling a demonstration
with missiles and artillery; dozens killed and wounded
In a serious escalation of their war crimes against civilians in
Rafah, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF ) shelled air-to-ground
guided missiles and tank shells on a peaceful demonstration in the
Gaza southern town of Rafah today Wednesday 19 May 2004. Dozens of
casualties were reported; mostly children. Eyewitnesses said that
human parts were seen on the ground of the shelling while IOF
opened fire at ambulances.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights emphasizes that this deliberate
act constitutes a war crime and a serious escalation of the ongoing
crimes and human rights violations perpetrated by the IOF, which
have been going unpunished by the International Community. The
Center also asserts that the entire world keeps a shameful,
questionable state of silence towards Israel’s daily killing
of civilians and destruction of civilian property in a systematic,
punitive manner.
Al Mezan holds the International Community, and in particular the
High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, of 12 August
1949, responsible for these continued war crimes, which are for a
great deal caused by its silence and disregard of reported crimes
in the past years, which has encouraged Israel to proceed and enjoy
a status of a impunity. The International Community holds a
responsibility to pursue and bring to justice the Israeli criminals
who perpetrated and ordered the perpetration of such crimes.
Hence, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights calls upon the
International Community to relinquish from implicitly encouraging
the war crimes perpetrated by IOF in the occupied Palestinian
territories and to take immediate steps to ensure the protection of
Palestinian civilians by bringing to an immediate halt the latest
IOF incursion in Rafah that started early Tuesday 18 May 19, 2004
and during which a civilian demonstration was shelled with heavy
ammunition, and to Israel's continued violations of Palestinians'
human rights. The Center reminds the International Community of the
responsibilities it bears under international law and treaty law
and that an urgent intervention is most urgent now.
8 arrested, 3 to hospital after police disperses T-A Rafah
protest
We heard what happened in Rafah while preparing in the Gush office
for the already announced Friday protest at the Gaza entrance. We
couldn''t think of a more fitting reaction than sending out a call
to come - once more - to the Defense Ministry for an immediate
protest. On the way there, with our banners and shields, we felt
rather futile compared with those on whose behalf we were going to
protest: the Rafah demonstrators in the middle of whom a helicopter
gunship had sent a missile wounding dozens and among the ones
killed several kids...
Still, the protest of some 250 - with besides Gush Shalom a very
visible (and loud) presence of the dissident reservists (Courage to
Refuse) and the Anarchists - had more spirit than the mass rally
some days earlier. People easily found each other in furious
chanting and the blag flags were there again. Nobody was surprised
when some of the young took the initiative of blocking the street.
More and more left the sidewalk. Police who started coming, closed
off the Kaplan road for traffic, but before they could isolate us
we had started marching. Chanting while walking from the Defence
ministry gate through the whole Kaplan street into Ibn Gvirol, and
from there towards the Rabin Square.
Reactions of passers-by were not unfriendly, and we nearly thought
that the police for once decided not to show the usual behavior on
this day of shame, but then suddenly they come from nowhere diving
into the crowd and singling some out for arrest. Gush Shalom
spokesperson Adam Keller was the first - seven polices dragged him,
forcing him face-down on the street, and from seeing how they
handled his arms and legs it seemed a miracle that he afterwards
was not among the three (out of eight arrested) who had to go to
hospital. The others were treated no better: Matan Cohen (wounded)
, Yonathan Pollack (the "recidivist" anarchist), Elad Orian,
refusnik David Zonscheine, Lezer Peled (wounded), Roni Avidov, Gal
Chajad (wounded).
Some thirty demonstrators came to the police station, with two of
them being able to function as lawyers (adv. Micheal Sfarad,
himself a refuser, and activist advocate Yael Varda). After we had
seen the wounded three handcuffed but on their feet coming out of
the sstation to enter an ambulance, at 11pm the message came that
the other arrestees would spend the night at Abu-Kabir (the Arabic
name of this prison dating back to the pre-'48 period) after which
the judge would decide what to do further.
UNICEF calls for the protection of children in Rafah
JERUSALEM, 19 May 2004 – UNICEF said today it is deeply
concerned about the impact on children of the ongoing military
operation in the Gaza Strip, particularly a missile strike
Wednesday that claimed the lives of at least 10 Palestinians, many
of them children.
"Palestinian children have a right to be protected against all acts
of violence in the midst of the current Israeli-Palestinian
conflict," said David S. Bassiouni, UNICEF Special Representative
in Jerusalem. "They have a right to a safe shelter, safe access to
their schools and to health services," he said.
With the recent military actions in Rafah – and Wednesday's
missile strike – at least 10 children have already lost their
lives, including Asma and Ahmed, a 16 and 13-year-old girl and boy,
respectively, shot in their home in Rafah on Tuesday morning. Many
additional children have been injured and all are facing
psychosocial distress.
The ongoing house demolitions in Rafah have left more 1,100
Palestinian people homeless in a 10 day period alone, out of which
almost 600 are children. Between September 2000 and May 2004, more
than 11,000 Palestinians have lost their homes.
UNICEF, jointly with other UN agencies, is assessing the impact of
house demolitions on children and will support efforts to help
restore normalcy to children's lives.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli and Palestinian children
have paid a very heavy price, UNICEF said. Over 660 children under
age 18 have been killed, of which 560 were Palestinian and 104 were
Israeli – including four Israeli sisters killed by militants
in an attack in the Gaza Strip on May 2.
"UNICEF calls on the State of Israel to abide by its obligations to
the Convention on the Rights of the Child by protecting children
from direct exposure to violence, and providing those who have lost
their homes with alternative housing," Bassiouni said. "The
injudicious use of force where children are present can only bring
about the deaths of innocent youngsters. We urge the Israeli
authorities to reconsider the impact these incursions are having on
Palestinian children."
For further information, please contact:
Michael Bociurkiw
Communications Officer
UNICEF Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-583-0013/4 (ext 242)
Fax: +1-416-352-5068
Mobile: +972-577-293214 / +972-59674385
Email: mbociurkiw@unicef.org
05/20/2004
Livermore Lab's draft operating document
May 20, 2004
Mr. Thomas Grim, L-293
U.S. Department of Energy,
National Nuclear Security Administration
Livermore Site Office, SWEIS Document Manager
7000 East Avenue
Livermore, CA 94550-9234
Fax: (925) 422-1776
Email: tom.grim@oak.doe.gov
RE: Comments on the Department of Energy's Site-Wide Environmental
Impact Statement (SWEIS) for Continued Operations at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
Dear Mr. Grim:
Through this letter we are expressing our deep concern with the
health and environmental risks posed by the expanded nuclear
weapons mission for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
(LLNL) into the indefinite future. We appreciate your focused
attention to this matter. Below, we have outlined a number of
specific concerns that, taken cumulatively, lead us to the
conclusion that the Site Wide Environmental Impact Statement
(SWEIS) for the continuing operation of LLNL is so deficient in
information and analysis that it must be fixed and re-circulated in
draft form. This would allow the community, the regulators, and the
legislators to have the opportunity to evaluate the new information
that is requested in these comments. Our specific concerns are:
1. The same day of the public hearings for the SWEIS, April 27,
2004, the Congressional Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging
Threats, and International Relations for the Committee on
Government Reform held a hearing on the security of nuclear
materials. The hearing highlighted potentially insurmountable
problems with plutonium and highly enriched uranium at certain
Department of Energy (DOE) sites, with a focus on the vulnerability
of nuclear materials storage at LLNL. On May 7, 2004, Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham delivered a speech on the deficiencies in
the security of nuclear materials at LLNL and other DOE sites. The
Energy Secretary made a commitment to consider removing the special
nuclear materials at LLNL by 2005. This recent acknowledgement by
the DOE that security at LLNL is questionable makes it imperative
that the SWEIS evaluate an alternative that would remove all
special nuclear materials from LLNL. These acknowledgements make
this not only a reasonable option, but one that should be evaluated
because it is a foreseeable outcome within the next decade at
LLNL.
2. Instead of reducing the amount of special nuclear materials
on-site at LLNL, this plan proposes to more than double the limit
for plutonium at Livermore Lab from 1,540 pounds to 3,300 pounds.
Additionally, under the Proposed Action, the administrative limit
for highly enriched uranium in Building 239 would increase from 55
pounds to 110 pounds. Seven million people live in surrounding
areas, and residences are built right up to the fence. Plutonium is
difficult to store safely because, in certain forms, it can
spontaneously ignite and burn. Moreover, it poses a criticality
risk when significant quantities are stored in close proximity. The
amount of plutonium proposed for LLNL is sufficient to make more
than 300 nuclear bombs. Because of the health risks, the
proliferation dangers, storage hazards, and very serious security
concerns, we believe it is irresponsible to store plutonium, highly
enriched uranium and tritium at LLNL. We are calling upon the DOE
to de-inventory the plutonium, highly enriched uranium and tritium
stocks at LLNL rather than to increase them.
3. The SWEIS proposes to increase the at-risk limits for tritium
ten fold, from just over 3 grams to 30 grams. The SWEIS proposes to
increase the at-risk limit for plutonium from 44 pounds to 132
pounds. We believe it is unsafe to increase the amount of tritium
and plutonium that can be "in process" in one room at one time.
LLNL has a history of criticality violations with plutonium and
releases of both tritium and plutonium, making it evident that
these amounts should be decreased, rather than increased.
4. This plan will revive a project that was canceled more than 10
years ago because it was dangerous and unnecessary. The project was
called Plutonium - Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation (AVLIS).
Now it is called the "Integrated Technology Project"(ITP) and the
"Advanced Materials Program"(AMP). This is a scheme to heat and
vaporize plutonium and then shoot multiple laser beams through the
vapor to separate out plutonium isotopes. The ITP / AMP is a health
risk and a nuclear proliferation nightmare. We believe the ITP and
AMP work should be cancelled as the Plutonium AVLIS was cancelled
in 1990 - this time permanently.
5. This plan makes Livermore Lab the place to test new
manufacturing technologies for producing plutonium pits for nuclear
weapons. A pit is the softball-sized piece of plutonium that sits
inside a modern nuclear weapon and triggers its thermonuclear
explosion. DOE says these new technologies will then be used in a
new bomb factory, called the Modern Pit Facility (MPF). Public and
Congressional opposition to the MPF has caused its delay this year.
The Livermore Lab plutonium pit program goes full-speed ahead in
the wrong direction. It will enable the MPF and production of 150 -
450 plutonium bomb cores annually, with the ability to run double
shifts and produce 900 cores per year. This production capability
would approximate the combined nuclear arsenals of France and China
- each year. We call upon the DOE to halt all work on plutonium pit
production technologies at Livermore Lab. We believe it is
premature for the DOE to spend taxpayer dollars on this technology
and the prudent and reasonable outcome is to delay or cancel this
project.
6. This plan will add plutonium, highly-enriched uranium and large
quantities of lithium hydride to experiments in the National
Ignition Facility mega-laser when it is completed at Livermore Lab.
Using these materials in the NIF will increase its usefulness for
nuclear weapons development, including for the design of new types
of nuclear weapons. It will also make the NIF more hazardous to
workers and the environment. This is not only dangerous to people's
health and safety, and a proliferation risk, but it is sure to
result in an inordinate cost to the taxpayer. No cost estimate
associated with this proposal has been released to date. We ask the
DOE to cancel these dangerous, polluting, proliferation-provocative
and unnecessary new experiments proposed for the NIF.
7. The SWEIS reveals plans to manufacture tritium targets at LLNL.
The tritium-filled targets are the radioactive fuel pellets that
the NIF's 192 laser beams will "shoot" in an attempt to create a
thermonuclear explosion. Producing the targets will increase the
amount of tritium that is used in any one room at Livermore Lab
from the current limit of just over 3 grams to 30 grams - nearly
10-fold more. In the mid-1990's, LLNL stated that target
fabrication was to occur off-site because of LLNL's proximity to
large populations. Livermore Lab has a history of tritium
accidents, spills and releases. The NIF will increase the amount of
airborne radioactivity emanating from LLNL. We call on DOE to
cancel plans to manufacture tritium targets for NIF at Livermore
Lab. Further, we urge cancellation of the NIF megalaser.
Cancellation of NIF is a reasonable alternative that should be
fully analyzed in the SWEIS.
8. This plan also calls for Livermore Lab to develop diagnostics to
"enhance" the nation's readiness to conduct full-scale underground
nuclear tests. This is a dangerous step back to the days of
unrestrained nuclear testing. All work at LLNL to reduce the time
it takes to conduct a full-scale underground nuclear test should be
terminated immediately.
9. This plan mixes bugs and bombs at Livermore. It calls for
collocating an advanced bio-warfare agent facility (BSL-3) with
nuclear weapons activities in a classified area at Livermore Lab.
The plan proposes genetic modification and aerosolization
(spraying) with live anthrax, plague and other deadly pathogens.
This could weaken the international biological weapons treaty --
and it poses a risk to workers, the public and the environment here
in the Bay Area. The draft SWEIS does not adequately describe these
programs, or the unique security, health and environmental hazards
they present. Construction should be halted on the portable BSL-3
facility. All plans to conduct advanced bio-warfare agent (BSL-3)
research on site at LLNL should be terminated.
10. There are 108 buildings identified at LLNL as having potential
seismic deficiencies relative to current codes. The SWEIS should
include a complete list of these buildings and an accounting of the
ones that house or may house hazardous, radiological and biological
research materials. LLNL is located within 1 kilometer of two
significant earthquake faults, including the Las Positas Fault Zone
less than 200 feet from the LLNL boundary. How can we mitigate harm
done from an earthquake that damages these buildings before they
are brought up to code? We urge the Livermore Lab to stop any work
with hazardous, radioactive or biological substances that may be
occurring in any building that does not comply with federal
standards.
11. A contractor will be paid to package and ship more than 1,000
drums of transuranic and mixed transuranic waste to the WIPP dump
in New Mexico, yet the SWEIS says this is exempt from environmental
review. This work in its entirety must be included in the
review.
12. The DOE does not acknowledge in the SWEIS that the
double-walled shipping containers described in the document may be
replaced by less health - protective single-lined containers. We
believe that no waste should be shipped in single-walled containers
and the SWEIS should provide a guarantee to that effect.
13. The Purpose and Need statement in the SWEIS relies heavily upon
the US Nuclear Posture Review, which calls for an aggressive
modernization and manufacturing base within the US nuclear weapons
complex. This stands in stark contrast to the binding legal mandate
to shift "from developing and producing new weapons designs to
dismantling obsolete weapons and maintaining a smaller weapons
arsenal". We believe a revised Purpose and Need statement should
accurately reflect the Livermore Lab's legal responsibility with
regard to US law, including US obligations under the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Further, the Purpose and Need statement in the SWEIS almost
completely omits LLNL's important role in civilian science
research. This omission fatally flaws the alternatives analysis in
the SWEIS by neglecting to consider the expanded role that civilian
science programs at the LLNL could play in the next decade.
The alternatives analysis should be revised to consider LLNL's role
in light of the commitments in the NPT and the Livermore Lab's
civilian science mission as well as the compelling case for
removing special nuclear materials (i.e., plutonium and highly
enriched uranium) from the LLNL site.
Sincerely,
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