Rights groups says laws of war violated in Gaza

By BEN HUBBARD and ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Human rights groups are seeking to build a case that Israel and Hamas violated the laws of war during the fighting last month in this tiny coastal territory — a charge both combatants reject.

On Tuesday, the International Criminal Court said the Palestinian Authority had recognized the court's jurisdiction in a move aimed at allowing a war crimes investigation.

Given the clarity of Hamas' violations, such as firing rockets at Israeli cities, organizations are focusing more on Israeli actions, the facts of which they say are harder to establish.

"The Israeli authorities deny everything, so one has to prove what happened in a way that you don't need to do with the Palestinian rockets," said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International.

Among the questions being raised are whether Israel used disproportionate force and failed to protect civilians.

In one case, Israeli artillery fire hit near a U.N. school where hundreds of Gazans had sought refuge, killing 42 people. Israeli said its troops were responding to fire from militants near the school.

In another instance, Gazans allege Israeli soldiers ordered 110 civilians into a warehouse, then shelled it the next day, killing 30. Israel denies the army targeted the warehouse, saying the building was hit during intense combat with militants in that area.

"The suspected war crimes make for a very long list," said Jessica Montell, head of the Israeli group B'Tselem.

Speaking to lawmakers at the European Parliament on Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas added his voice to those accusing Israel of violations and calling for those responsible to be held to account.

"There are crimes and people who committed those crimes have to be held responsible so that these crimes cannot be repeated," he said. "We are stretching out our hand for peace with Israel, but what was done is regretfully crimes of war."

Abbas has also criticized Hamas for bringing destruction to Gaza and said that the movement's leader, Khaled Mashaal, could be taken to court in another country for "drawing his people to this destruction."

Rights activists say Gaza's Hamas rulers and other Palestinian groups committed war crimes by targeting Israeli civilians with rockets. They also say Hamas' use of human shields, as alleged by Israel, would constitute war crimes.

Groups — which include B'Tselem, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — emphasize that investigations will take months and concede few venues exist for any trials. But they have to investigate potential violations on both sides.

Even if no trials result, investigations encourage accountability, the groups say.

"As long as there is no mechanism that can enforce accountability, this cycle will just continue again and again," Amnesty's Rovera said.

The International Criminal Court can only investigate if asked by the U.N. Security Council or an involved state that has recognized the court. Israel has never recognized its jurisdiction, and because only states can recognize the court, it is unclear if the Palestinians can do so.

Israel is preparing for potential legal action, barring the media from publishing pictures of officers' faces and their names for fear of investigations. Last week, Israel's Cabinet promised legal and financial support for any officers facing trial, despite the difficulty of prosecuting Israelis.

Israel says its army took great care to avoid harming civilians in Gaza. The military said it preceded some airstrikes with leaflets or phone calls warning civilians to flee — a contention confirmed by Gaza residents.

An Israeli helicopter pilot told the AP how he avoided civilians when shooting over Gaza.

"The ones I remember are when I have locked in on a target and I fire and then at the last second I see a child in my cross hairs and I divert the missile," said the 25-year-old captain, who only gave his first name, Orr, and was interviewed in the presence of a military censor.

At the same time, Israel acknowledges it loosened its rules of engagement for the Gaza war to lessen military casualties. As a result, ground troops moved under heavy covering fire from tanks and artillery, devastating entire neighborhoods.

Israel has blamed the high civilian death toll on Hamas militiamen fighting from civilian areas.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied the group's men battled from civilian areas. He also called Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel towns "a means of self-defense."

"Those are not civilians. They are all soldiers," Barhoum said of the residents of southern Israel. "We are firing at places that bring us the F-16s, the warplanes and the tanks."

Israel launched its offensive Dec. 27, calling it necessary to stop quell rocket and mortar fire that rained more than 10,000 shells on swaths of southern Israel since 2001, some hitting houses, schools and retirement homes.

The rockets had killed 24 Israelis since 2001 and injured more than 1,000, police said. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the Gaza offensive, including three civilians hit by rocket fire.

The 23-day offensive killed 1,285 Palestinians, nearly 900 of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

The laws of war — as established by the Hague and Geneva conventions — require combatants to target only military targets, make all feasible efforts to avoid civilians and keep military actions in scale with their objectives, said David Crane, professor at the Syracuse University College of Law.

This leaves no ambiguity about Hamas firing rockets at towns or using civilians as human shields, as alleged by Israel, Crane said.

But he added that violations on one side don't excuse them on the other. "Even if the other side is not following the laws, you cannot step away from them," he said.

The United Nations, the European Union and other organizations accuse Israel of using indiscriminate force, particularly in hits on U.N. buildings and Gaza's civilian infrastructure. Some of the attacks proved deadly.

On Jan. 6, Israeli troops responded to militant mortar fire by shooting three artillery shells within 100 yards (meters) of a U.N. school, killing 42 people. The Israeli military said the dead included two Hamas militants.

Determining whether the shelling was a violation means asking, "Did they know there were 42 human beings there, or did they just know they were being fired upon?" said Crane, the law professor.

The military responded to requests for comment on the specific cases in this article with a general statement saying Israeli soldiers do not target civilians.

Israel also has been criticized for using white phosphorus weapons, which can be legitimately used in war to create smoke screens or provide illumination. But Fred Abrahams, of Human Rights Watch, said its use over populated areas can indiscriminately burn civilians and constitute a war crime.

Doctors reported phosphorous burns throughout the war.

Abrahams also complained that his group's researchers found 155-mm howitzer shells, which have a 30-yard (meter) margin of error and a blast radius of 300 yards (meters). Israel's choice of such weapons over more precise alternatives raises questions of intention, he said.

"When you have an alternative that is GPS-guided and very accurate, why would you use a shell that is much less accurate and has a much larger kill radius?" Abrahams said.

Israel's military said it used all munitions legally, but it has launched an investigation into whether troops used white phosphorus inappropriately.

Taliban Release 30 Pakistan Security Personnel -Officials

PESHAWAR (AFP)--Taliban fighters on Wednesday released 30 kidnapped Pakistani police and paramilitary personnel on condition that they resign from their jobs, security officials told AFP.

"They have given assurances to the Taliban that they would quit their jobs and will take no part in any activity against the Taliban," said a senior security official on condition of anonymity.

A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the kidnapped officials had been released under certain conditions, on which he didn't elaborate.

"We have released the kidnapped police officials conditionally," Muslim Khan told AFP from the northwest Swat valley by telephone.

Afghanistan says foreign fighters coming from Iraq

KABUL (Reuters) - With the reduction of violence in Iraq , foreign militants were now flooding into Afghanistan to join Taliban insurgents battling Afghan and international troops, the Afghan defense minister said Wednesday.

There was a 33 percent rise in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in 2008, according to NATO-led forces.

Violence is expected to rise further in 2009 as Washington prepares to send up to 25,000 more troops into new areas of the southern Pashtun heartlands.

Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said there were about 15,000 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan but their numbers were being swelled by foreign insurgents moving in from Iraq, where violence has fallen after a U.S. troop "surge" and other measures.

"Since last year, as the result of the success of the surge in Iraq, there has been a flow of foreign terrorists into Afghanistan," Wardak told a news conference.

"There have been engagements ... in 2008, and in some of these engagements, actually 60 percent of the total force which we have encountered were foreign fighters," he said. Wardak was speaking after he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks with NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, U.S. General John Craddock.

The talks focused on training and equipping the Afghan army, which the U.S. military aims to increase from some 80,000 troops now to 134,000 in 2012, the planned deployment of the extra U.S. soldiers and ways to reduce civilians casualties, Wardak said.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to approve as early as this week plans to send up to 17,000 more combat troops to Afghanistan to add to the 36,000 American soldiers already battling Taliban insurgents in the country.

The additional U.S. forces will focus on hitting militant communication lines and their cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan from Pakistan. The extra troops will reduce reliance on air strikes, cutting civilian deaths, Wardak said.

Civilian casualties caused by international forces have eroded support for Karzai and the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan more than seven years since the Taliban's removal.

More than 2,100 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2008, the United Nations said Tuesday, more than a third of them by Afghan and international troops.

Wardak said the issue had been a source of tension with the foreign troops.

Netanyahu: Gaza offensive stopped too soon

Associated Press - February 4, 2009 11:03 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AP) - The front-runner for Israel's election next week, Benjamin Netanyahu, says Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza last month did not go far enough.

Netanyahu says the government stopped the operation before the military could halt Hamas arms smuggling through tunnels under the border with Egypt.

He told a security conference Wednesday that the government "did not allow the military to plug the hole in the south."

Netanyahu said in the end, there will be no choice but to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza. He said it is an extremist fanatic regime backed by the extremist fanatic government of Iran.

Discreet Meeting Tackles 'Non-Arab' Interference

By SANA ABDALLAH

AMMAN -- A hastily arranged meeting of foreign ministers from eight U.S.-allied Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority has sought to find ways to end "non-Arab" interference in their regional affairs - an obvious reference to Iran - to boost Arab unity.

The ministers met behind closed doors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital, Abu Dhabi, on Tuesday to reiterate their support for Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the "sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."

The reaffirmation recognizing the PLO as the only representative of the Palestinians was a clear rejection of calls, or plans, by the Islamist Hamas movement for an alternative representation.

Supporting the Saudi-sponsored Arab initiative for peace with Israel was another rebuff for Hamas, whose demands for abandoning the Arab-Israeli peace process gained widespread popular backing in the aftermath of the massive Israeli war on Gaza.

The ministers also agreed to support Egypt's mediation between Israel and Hamas to consolidate a long-term cease-fire in Gaza, and between the Fatah-led PA and Hamas to launch Palestinian reconciliation talks.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan said in an official statement the meeting's aim was "overcome this difficult time in the Arab world to achieve solidarity."

He implicitly pointed the finger at Iran for causing internal regional disputes.

"We are working to get beyond a difficult phase and create an Arab consensus on stopping unwelcome and unconstructive interference in our affairs by non-Arab parties," Sheikh Abdullah said.

While he did not specify which "non-Arab parties" that have been responsible for the deep polarization among the Palestinians and Arabs, he was clearly referring to Iran, which makes no secret of its support for Hamas and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah organization.

A non-Arab Shiite power, Iran has in recent years emerged as a powerful regional player, supporting and strengthening groups threatening the pro-Western Arab establishment seeking peace with Israel.

It was no coincidence that the gathering in Abu Dhabi came as top Hamas leaders, including its exiled political leader Khaled Meshaal, were visiting Iran and meeting its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to "express appreciation" for their support during and after the 23-day war on Hamas-ruled Gaza.

It was also no fluke, analysts say, that countries seen as the "rejectionists," or those who publicly support resistance against Israel - such as Syria, Qatar, Sudan and Libya - were not invited to the Abu Dhabi meeting.

In addition to the host country, the consultations were also attended by the foreign ministers of the so-called "moderate regimes" of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Tunisia, Morocco and Yemen. Iraq and Kuwait were also invited, but they said previous engagements kept them away.

Meanwhile, it was not immediately clear how this Arab bloc, which is expected to meet again on March 3 in Cairo, ahead of an annual summit in Doha later in the month, was planning to heal inter-Palestinian and internal Arab rifts.

PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said the meeting was aimed at "cleaning up our relations to create conditions" that would ensure a successful summit of the 22-member Arab League. An Arab rapprochement would "facilitate Egyptian efforts toward Palestinian reconciliation," he said.

Palestinian analysts say the internal Palestinian disputes are an extension of the larger Arab rift, which has deepened by foreign intervention that seeks to impose their own agendas on the differences.

The interference, however, is not just coming from Iran. The United States is closely involved in the region, and more recently Turkey has emerged as a key regional influence, and to a less extent Europe. All this is adding pressure on the Arabs to confront the external influences.

And with the new U.S. Barack Obama administration appearing to be less forceful than its predecessor on imposing its power in the region, the Arabs have an opportunity to rebuild their order independently in a way that could lead to a consensus and give themselves enough strength to ward off foreign interferences, regardless of the sources.

Rebels encouraged to hand over weapons

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The United Nations is calling on militiamen from the rebel Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda to end the ongoing violence and join a repatriation program.

The U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUC, has been working to halt the ongoing violence in the east of the country. On Monday Bruno Donat, MONUC demobilization, repatriation, reintegration and rehabilitation program head, called on Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda militiamen and other ethnic Rwandan Hutu rebels to peacefully turn over their weapons and end the fighting, the United Nations reported.

Donat said the United Nations has put more resources into the DDRRR program in a move to encourage more rebels to end their participation in violent conflicts in the east of DR Congo.

"Combatants must know that the doors of all MONUC bases are wide open to them and their dependents," Donat said in a statement.

"They should also know that we have strengthened our DDRRR team's presence on the ground to accommodate them."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/02/03/Rebels_encouraged_to_hand_over_weapons/UPI-42171233703397/.

EU debates whether to take Gitmo prisoners

BRUSSELS, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The European Parliament Tuesday praised the U.S. decision to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and debated whether European countries should take prisoners.

The European Union's legislative body has been highly critical of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. The announcement of President Barack Obama's plan to close the camp drew praise from the European Parliament Tuesday.

Obama has not formally asked the EU to assist in relocating prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. However, Alexander Vondra, Czech deputy prime minister for European affairs, said Tuesday that EU countries could "help in practice" as the United States makes decisions on what to do with the prisoner population, the European Parliament reported.

Vondra called for an evaluation of the political, legal and potential security concerns before making any decision on whether to accept Guantanamo prisoners in EU countries.

Despite the widespread EU popularity of the decision to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, Hartmut Nassauer, member of the European Parliament from Germany, said that allowing potential terrorists into EU countries could be dangerous.

"Should we therefore take them in for humanitarian reasons, irrespective of the charges laid at their door?" Nassauer asked in a statement.

"They are potential terrorists, and we have a duty to protect our citizens. Torture, regrettably, happens around the world, but we have never said all those who have been tortured have a right to come to Europe. We must ensure potential terrorists do not step onto European territory."

Crisis growing in southern Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The recent deterioration of security in the Darfur region of Sudan is increasingly threatening civilian safety, a top U.N. official said Tuesday.

Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said the ongoing rebel violence and airstrikes from Sudanese government forces in the southern Darfur town of Muhajeria must come to an end. The United Nations estimates as many as 30,000 people have been forced to flee the violence since Jan. 15 and at least 30 local civilians have been killed, the United Nations reported.

Pillay said the violence in southern Darfur is threatening an already fragile humanitarian situation in Muhajeria.

"The fighting is reported to have involved ground offensives and indiscriminate aerial bombardment by government forces that failed to distinguish between civilian communities and military targets," she said in a statement.

Pillay called on the international community to support the protection of civilians and for the Sudanese government and rebel leaders to respect international humanitarian laws.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/02/03/Crisis_growing_in_southern_Darfur/UPI-69601233703117/.

Abbas: Europe must press Israel for peace

STRASBOURG, France, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says the international community needs to press Israel to take a new approach to Middle Eastern conflicts.

Speaking Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Abbas called Israel's 22-day military actions against Palestinian militants in Gaza an "attack on the future of the Palestinian state" and said Jerusalem "is not above international and humanitarian law."

Abbas told MEPs the Israeli actions in Gaza were meant to drive a wedge between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, and were making the prospects of a lasting "two state" Middle Eastern peace plan more difficult to obtain.

Abbas also blasted continuing Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, saying, "the Israeli settlements have not stopped at all, the Wall of Separation continues, as do the roadblocks, checkpoints and other barriers."

Abbas said the PA has accepted an Egyptian working proposal for reconciliation between his government, led by the Fatah faction, and Hamas, but warned of "regional forces that promote separation and oppose the Egyptian solution."

Analysis: Kyrgyz base a Kremlin test for Obama

By DOUGLAS BIRCH - Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW -- The Kremlin's message to President Barack Obama is clear: if the U.S. wants Central Asian help in its war against the Taliban, it must deal first with Russia.

A $2 billion aid pledge from Russia appears to be behind Kyrgyzstan's announcement that it will close a U.S. air base that has played a key role in American military operations in Afghanistan.

The announcement Tuesday by the Kyrgyz president came as the Obama Administration prepares a major expansion of military operations in Afghanistan, in order to counter the growing strength of insurgents.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev struck a conciliatory tone Wednesday, saying Moscow and its former Central Asian vassal states are "ready for full-fledged comprehensive cooperation with the United States and other coalition members in fighting terrorism in the region."

But coming a day after the Kyrgyz eviction notice, the underlying signal was that, when it comes to bases in Central Asia, Washington must deal with Moscow or not at all.

In the short term, the Kremlin may be seeking a bargaining chip in bitter disputes over NATO expansion and plans for a U.S.-built European missile defense system.

Russia may also link cooperation on the air base to the West's acceptance of Moscow's plans to establish military outposts in two separatist provinces of the former Soviet nation of Georgia.

In the long term, however, Moscow seems determined to restore some of its historic influence over much of its former Czarist and Soviet empires.

Tuesday's announcement seemed to catch U.S. diplomats by surprise. Until then, Washington was hoping to see Russia back off from its pressure on Kyrgyzstan to kick the U.S. off the base.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told reporters Wednesday that the Kyrgyz decision had nothing to do with the Kremlin's huge aid package. "We do not tend to see those things as connected," he said.

But many experts saw Kyrgyzstan's decision as a straightforward business deal: Bishkek evicts the Americans, Moscow hands over more than $2 billion.

If so, it was an offer Kyrgyzstan could not refuse.

Months of crippling electricity shortages, soaring food prices and rampant unemployment have caused misery for much of the population. Kyrgyzstan - which unlike other Central Asian nations has almost no energy resources - received a further shock this winter after neighboring Uzbekistan jacked up prices for natural gas.

Russia's offer "of a really large bundle of money comes at a time when Kyrgyzstan is pretty much on the brink," said Paul Quinn-Judge, Central Asia Project Director for the International Crisis Group.

Moscow and the U.S. have a long history of cooperation in Afghanistan, dating back to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the U.S.

But that cooperation suffered after the August war in Georgia, which saw Russian troops push deep into Georgian territory. The Kremlin accused the U.S. of supporting alleged Georgian aggression.

The Kyrgyz air base, located at the Manas airport near the capital of Bishkek, is the United States' only military foothold in Central Asia, a strategically located region straddling Europe and close to volatile nations like Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Central Asia has been the subject of intense rivalry among the major powers since the 19th century, when the novelist Rudyard Kipling called the struggle "The Great Game."

There were additional moves in the 21st Century version of that game Wednesday, when Russia announced that seven former Soviet nations - including four Central Asian ones - would form a rapid reaction military force.

The new formation would be part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which so far has mostly been a talking shop for leaders of seven former Soviet states.

Now, it seems, it has become a vehicle to stop the U.S. from striking bilateral military deals with former Soviet states.

Tuesday was not the first time Kyrgyz officials threatened to evict the U.S. from the base.

Officials have frequently complained that the U.S. wasn't paying enough rent, currently $63 million annually. Tensions rose in 2006 when an American serviceman shot and killed a Kyrgyz truck driver during a security check at the base gate.

A number of analysts suggested that Kyrgyz officials may yet change their minds, despite Russian pressure. Parliament could still reject the plan, setting the stage for new negotiations.

It is not clear what alternatives the U.S. might have to the base, located at the Manas airport outside Bishkek.

Gen. David Petraeus, chief of the U.S. military's Central Command, said last month that agreements had been reached to use supply routes through Central Asia. But details have not been announced.

Moscow has sent mixed signals about the prospects for warmer relations with Washington following the election of Barack Obama.

Both Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested in December that they welcomed overtures from the new administration.

But Putin in particular remained harshly critical of the U.S. in some public statements.

The air base is home to tanker aircraft that refuel warplanes flying over Afghanistan. It also supports airlifts and medical evacuation operations and houses troops heading into and out of Afghanistan.