Det danske Fredsakademi

Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 18. november 2004 / Timeline November 18, 2004

17. November 2004, 19. November 2004

11/18/2004
Using the Past to Shape the Future: Addressing Civic Issues at Historic Sites, Museums, and Cultural Centers
November 18-19, 2004
University of Illinois at Chicago
How can cultural institutions become centers of civic life in our communities? Learn from successful models around the world about how your institution can address the issues most central to your community's life today.
The role of cultural institutions is changing day by day. No longer places of passive learning, every one of these institutions has the potential to be, as the American Association of Museums envisions, "a center where people gather to meet and converse ... an active, visible player in civic life, a safe haven, a trusted incubator of change." How can we fulfill that vision? Museums, historic sites and cultural centers worldwide are interpreting their histories from multiple perspectives, collaborating with communities, and fostering dialogue on the legacies of those histories today. As a result, they are transforming themselves into powerful forums for civic engagement and public dialogue.
"Using the Past" will present successful models of civic dialogue at museums, historic sites, and cultural centers. Participants will learn how their institutions can help individuals and communities address the issues most central to their lives today.
What will participants gain from the conference?
Participants will share experiences and build skills in:
1. Connecting your history or cultural resources to the issues that matter most to your community.
2. Training front line educators to connect the past with your community's present.
3. Forming effective partnerships with community organizations and educational institutions to incorporate multiple perspectives.
4. Promoting effective dialogue and engaging stakeholder groups, visitors and communities, even on sensitive issues.
5. Expanding your audience beyond your immediate community.
For more information:
Visit our website: http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/2004conference/ or contact:
Margaret (Peg) Strobel, Director
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
312-413-5355
pegs@uic.edu

11/18/2004
The Dems Are Caving on Gonzales: War Criminal as Attorney General?
by Prof. Francis A. Boyle
As White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales originated, authorized, approved, and aided and abetted grave breaches of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 (e.g., torture and Gitmo kangaroo courts), which are serious war crimes. In other words, Gonzales is a prima facie war criminal. He must be prosecuted under the Geneva Conventions and the US War Crimes Act.
For example, article 129 of the Third Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War provides in relevant part with respect to prima facie U.S. war criminals such as Gonzales: "Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such graves breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts."
To the same effect is article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention protecting Civilians in wartime. This obligation to prosecute Gonzales applies to every High Contracting Party to the Geneva Conventions, which means almost every state in the world, including the United States of America--still "the land of the free, and the home of the brave" despite incumbent US Attorney General John Ashcroft, another prima facie war criminal. And there is no statute of limitations for the commission of such serious war crimes. No wonder the Bush Jr administration has done everything humanly possible to sabotage the International Criminal Court.
The same conclusions can be reached by the application of the Pentagon's own U.S. Department of the Army Field Manual 27-10, The Law of Land Warfare, which, by its own terms, also applies to civilian government officials such as Gonzales involved in ordering or aiding and abetting or conspiring to commit war crimes.
Despite the pusillanimous predilections of Senator Leahy, the U.S. Senate must reject his nomination. As a prima facie war criminal, Gonzales is not fit to be Attorney General of the United States of America. Should Gonzales travel around the world in that capacity, then human rights lawyers around the world will attempt to get him prosecuted wherever he might go along the lines of what they did to General Pinochet in London. Like pirates, war criminals are "hostes humani generis"--the enemies of all humankind. A fitting description for Bush Jr and his gang of war criminals.

11/18/2004
Falluja Arithmetic Lesson
by Prof. Greg Palast
Monday's New York Times, page 1:
"American commanders said 38 service members had been killed and 275 wounded in the Falluja assault."
Monday's New York Times, page 11:
"The American military hospital here reported that it had treated 419 American soldiers since the siege of Falluja began."
Questions for the class:
1. If 275 soldiers were wounded in Falluja and 419 are treated for wounds, how many were shot on the plane ride to Germany?
2. We're told only 275 soldiers were wounded but 419 treated for wounds; and we're told that 38 soldiers died. So how many will be buried?
3. How long have these Times reporters been embedded with with military? Bonus question: When will they get out of bed with the military?
Monday's New York Times, page 1:
"The commanders estimated that 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents had been killed."
Monday's New York Times, page 11:
"Nowhere to be found: the remains of the insurgents that the tanks had been sent in to destroy. ...The absence of insurgent bodies in Falluja has remained an enduring mystery."
NOT in the New York Times:
"Every time I hear the news
That old feeling comes back on;
We're waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the Big Fool says to push on."
- Pete Seeger, 1967
Greg Palast is author of the Best Democracy Money Can Buy. The New Deal: "Joker's Wild: Dubya's House of Cards" - regime change deck from 7 Stories Press available @ www.GregPalast.com.

11/18/2004
Leading journalist Robert Fisk asks: Who killed Margaret Hassan?
By Chris Marsden
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/fisk-n18_prn.shtml
Leading Middle East commentator Robert Fisk has questioned just who is responsible for the apparent murder of aid worker Margaret Hassan in Iraq.
In a front-page article in the November 17 Independent newspaper, Fisk raises a number of important questions that throw doubt on the official version of events that Hassan was killed by Iraqi insurgents.
Fisk is a man whose opinions on Iraqi affairs should be taken seriously. Now a journalist for the Independent, he is an expert on the Middle East who has lived in Beirut for more than 25 years and wrote a book on the civil war there, Pity The Nation. He has written extensively on Iraq and the Israeli Palestinian conflict and is one of the most highly decorated British journalists, winning the Amnesty International UK Press Awards in 1998 and in 2000.

11/18/2004
Pentagon's Reliance on Civilians Surges, Death Claims Show
By Tony Capaccio
Bloomberg.com
Total death insurance claims by contractors in Iraq have risen more than sixfold from 2003, U.S. government figures show, as nearly as many civilians are working overseas as soldiers.
Companies so far this year have filed claims for 157 deaths and 516 serious injuries, based on U.S. Labor Department figures given to Bloomberg News yesterday. Almost 60 percent of those civilians who died worked for Halliburton Co. and Titan Corp. In 2003, contractors claimed 23 deaths and 132 serious injuries.
Halliburton, the biggest U.S. contractor in Iraq, and Titan, the top provider of Army translators, have filed the most claims for employees killed or wounded in Iraq. Halliburton units through yesterday have filed 747 of 1,346 Iraqi-related claims, including 16 deaths, while Titan has filed 192 claims, including 77 deaths. A total of 78 companies filed insurance claims.
The 1941 Defense Base Act requires insurance coverage for workers in combat zones hired under U.S. contracts. Every U.S. company bidding on government work overseas in places such as Iraq, Kuwait, or Bosnia and Herzegovina must buy insurance for its U.S. and foreign workers, including Iraqi personnel, from private U.S. carriers.
About 60,000 U.S. civilians are working in Iraq alongside 138,000 U.S. troops. Another 85,000 Iraqis employed on U.S. projects are also eligible for benefits under the Base Act.
Insurance carriers paid out $10 million in 2003 for Base Act benefits, according to Labor Department figures.
Insurance companies are required under the Base Act to pay claims within 14 days of their receipt or file a formal notice with the Labor Department contesting payment.

11/18/2004

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