Criminalise War Magazine Volume 1 No 2

1MARCH 2013 CRIMINALISE WAR

Our children are our future. Let them not be indoctrinated with false hope of bravado or brutal force. Let them truly

understand that conciliation and reconciliation are better ways to

“

”

TUN DR. SITI HASMAH MOHD ALIFOUNDER - CRIMINALISE WAR CLUB,

MALAYSIA CHAPTER

KLFCW First Issue 2013.indd 1 3/6/13 6:04 PM

2 CRIMINALISE WAR MARCH 2013

PublisherKUALA LUMPUR FOUNDATION TO CRIMINALISE WAR

2ND FLOOR, NO 88, JALAN PERDANA, TAMAN TASEK PERDANA

50480 KUALA LUMPUR

TEL: 603 2092 7212 / 603 2092 7210 / 603 2092 7214

Fax: 603 2273 2212

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.criminalisewar.org

EditorG.S.KUMAR

Editorial AdvisorsChe Kamaliah Endud - Principal, Tunku Kurshiah College

Dato’ Freida Pilus - Advisor to the Minister of Education

Editorial BoardZUHRA RAFIKOVA

NUR QISTINA GANDING

AAZRAA ALA MERICAN

AZIMAH NOR HAMZAN

Design & LayoutNEO EDITION SDN. BHD.

PrinterINDAH MULTIPURPOSE Sdn. Bhd.

Conte

WAR CLUB, MALAYSIA CHAPTER

GENERAL

PLACE

Criminalise War, Energise Peace.



THE PALESTINIANS

CHILDREN

“IRAQ AND THE BETRAYAL OF A PEOPLE – IMPUNITY

FOREVER?”

“SOMEONE MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE

WAR IN IRAQ”

TO EXIST IS TO RESIST.

tents



To get involved in the Kuala Lumpur

Foundation to Criminalise War requires

a lot of stamina and faith. Only those willing

to stay for the long haul should even try.

FOREWORD

This is simply because it’s going to take a very long time

before even a sniff of success can be achieved. And yet

we have so many dedicated individuals, who have given

their time, energy and undivided attention in helping us

to function.

At the risk of sounding like a repeating groove, I caution

would-be members of the Criminalise War Club, which

I had the great honour and privilege to help launch last

November, that they must give their all, their sincere

attention to the cause, before committing themselves.

imagine a finishing goal. But what is important to

understand is that our Club will provide the forum and

the avenue to help create a better society, a better world.

Understand what war really is. Read the testimonies

of many who have suffered untold misery because of

armed conflicts between nations. Children, sadly, are the

biggest group of sufferers. This must not happen. Only

we can help make this change, to rid the world of this

mindset of war, destruction and ruthless killing.

I am confident that young Malaysians will see the light,

read the Children’s Charter to Criminalise War, take the

lead and show the rest of the world that we are a nation

who wants nothing more and nothing less than peace

and goodwill towards all mankind.

Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd AliFounder,

Criminalise War Club (Malaysia Chapter)



let us teach our

children that

negotiations are far

more effective, that

war settles nothing -

it only compounds the

issue

TUN DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD




We have had a busy period these

last few months but it was just as

rewarding. For not only did we successfully

stage a four-day International Event last

November, but we also witnessed the

launching of this publication, Criminalise

War by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’

Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak and the Founder

of the KLFCW, former Prime Minister Tun Dr

Mahathir Mohamad.

The crowning glory was the launch of the Criminalise

War Club (Malaysia Chapter) by Tun Dr Siti Hasmah

Mohd Ali. With the blessings of the government, the first

Club will be formally functional in April this year with

more to follow later on.

These have been among the achievements we have

accomplished in our long and hard endeavour to spread

the message of criminalising war. We feel however that

we have tasted a measure of success as we have had

tremendous response and support for the Club that we

hope will one day, not in the too distant future, be a

feature in every school in the country.

Last November we saw several initiatives: 9/11

of international speakers and experts, who gave us

detailed accounts of what really could have taken place

on that fateful day. We have in this edition, extended

wide coverage to that subject as well as the other major

events of last November.

Several witnesses came to provide testimony to a panel

of Commissioners on the brutal treatment that they

suffered at the hands of Israelis. And who can ever

forget the brave testimony of Mahmoud Al Sammouni,

the 15 year old Palestinian who saw his father murdered

before his very eyes. His touching recollection and the

video presentation that he himself helped to produce

captured the hearts of all present. There were other

touching stories, many of which brought tears to the

panel of Commissioners and the attentive audience. The

tender scenes of pity, anger and even pain.

We are only doing our duty, for we have undertaken the

role of spreading the message that War Is A Crime. We

are only doing our bit in helping to rid the world of the

scourge of warfare. This is a long and winding road, but

one we will never waver from. This is the path we want

to go.

In the next few months, the KLFCW will be making

preparations for further events. In the meantime, it is

my hope that readers, especially the younger ones

and those who are thinking of being members of the

Criminalise War Club, will write to us giving us their

views and comments. This has to be a two-way flow, for

only then can the message be fully transmitted. War Is

indeed a Crime.

Secretary General

Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War Inc

FROM THE DESKOF THESECRETARY GENERAL




Children are our common treasure. The most gentle and the best part of our

families and our future - our children. They are all our hope. I am a mother of three children. I am a Cambodian. And I am the Co-Prosecutor of the Khmer

Rouge Tribunal. Iknow very well about war and war’s pity. I have seen it with

my own eyes. And I know much about the

aftermath of war.

National Chief Prosecutor

at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, (ECCC)




As one who “saw” the live telecast of the “attack” on the twin towers in

New York city on what has become known as 9/11, I should have known better. I had spent years in television and I knew that not everything that was telecast was true or indeed accurate. Yet I saw the second tower being hit by a plane, for by the time I was alerted to the events of the day, one tower had already been hit by a plane.

Then before my eyes, and that of millions more, the two towers came tumbling down. Even at that time, it did not occur to me that what I was

“seeing” was not an act of terrorism, done by several Arabs (most of whom were said to be Saudi nationals). I should have asked myself, “was this real?” Those who have watched the movie, “Wag The Dog” will know how television can twist events and make fake events real.

Today I know, and many more people who attended the International Conference on “9/11 Revisited – Seeking The Truth” at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, that the events of that fateful day were far from the truth. Well, the towers did come down alright, along with a Tower 7 that was quite some distance away for no apparent reason. But no, they were not brought down by rouge elements from the

WHO SPEAKS THE TRUTH? Can we believe anything any more? By G.S.Kumar

Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad delivering his keynote address at “9/11 Revisited: Seeking The Truth”



Middle East. No planes, no matter how laden with jet fuel could have caused the complete destruction of the Twin Towers. What we witnessed was a massive act of “self destruction” that one shudders to think what else would they do? And who are the “they” – read on you will

The Tower did come down... but was it caused by an airlplane alone?

“I APOLOGISE TO THE ARABS BUT PLANNING

AND EXECUTING OF THESE COMPLEX OPERATIONS ARE NOT SOMETHING

THAT THEY CAN DO WELL.”- Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Truth be told, the Americans (or at least some Americans) did it themselves. That was the overwhelming evidence garnered at the International Conference – 9/11 Revisited – Seeking The Truth. And like the keynote address of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad stressed, attempts would be made to hide these facts by the very people who profess freedom and a free press. And these were done by people

own people – thousands of them – so that they could go ahead with their own agenda. Once again, Kuala Lumpur has taken the lead to expose wrong doings.

It was so easy and convenient to blame the Muslims, the Arabs, the Afghans, the Jihadists for this “crime against humanity”. One name stood out – Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda group. Does it now make much of difference when the world is reminded that Osama was

in a hospital at that very moment seeking medical treatment? Could he have coordinated this complex and precise operation with “hand-held devices” from his sick bed? Was the equipment at his disposal at that time – 2001- that sophisticated that he could carry out this masterful plan?

Readers should pause and think about this. Young readers especially should ponder the options, examine the facts and ask relevant questions. Who really did this and why? Did the two planes bring down the towers or was it brought down by explosives that were already planted in the structures? Evidence points to this being done deliberately by some factions within the US



governmental structure. The towers were “blown down” by explosives!! Shocking as it may seem,

caused the kind of damage that was witnessed that day.

who could have planned and carried out such an attack. This was an event that took months, perhaps even years to plan and execute. The two planes that crashed into the two towers did not have passengers in them, they were remotely controlled. The amount of jet fuel in both planes, even if fully laden, could not have brought down the towers or taken so many lives. This was an “inside” job. This was planned and executed by some experts within the US administration. The

scapegoats were the Muslims, Arabs, and or other such “terrorist groups”.

Tun Dr. Mahathir the forth Prime Minister of Malaysia and Founder of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War took pains to trace the events that followed the destruction of the twin towers:

The whole Muslim world became suspect. The Muslims are distrusted, subjected to humiliating discrimination and detained without trial and tortured at will for years in camps situated outside the jurisdiction of US laws – in Guantanamo,

to countries where torture was practised so they could be tortured and not break US laws. Then the US actually passed a law legalising torture, a

The panelists at this International Conference.



retrogressive act most unworthy of its claims as leader of modern civilization.

But the US and Europe are even now paranoid that another similar attack might take place. Security measures and laws have been tightened. All of them were clearly directed against Muslims. Muslim airline passengers have been subjected to humiliating searches. Shoes have to be taken off for examination, toothpaste and hair creams and liquid cosmetics confiscated. Machines are developed to scan the whole body and at the slightest suspicion passengers were hauled off for questioning and detention.

Tun Dr. Mahathir, then went on:

The official explanation for the destruction of the twin towers is still about an attack by suicidal Muslim extremists. But even among Americans this explanation is beginning to wear thin and to be questioned. In fact, certain American groups have thoroughly analysed various aspects of the attack and destruction of the twin towers, the Pentagon building and

the reported crash in Pennsylvania. And their investigations reveal many aspects of the attack which cannot be explained by attributing them to attacks by terrorists, Muslim or non-Muslim.

Some of these Americans and many other prominent people have been invited by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation to give their views on 9/11. These people have no axe to grind. They are only interested in seeking the truth. The truth is important because 9/11 has triggered attacks on Muslim countries and people in which hundreds of thousands have been killed and their countries devastated by the ‘shock and awe’ wars.

I have thought a lot about 9/11. I have seen pictures and video clips of the attacks. I have heard the narrators give their opinions regarding the attacks. But to this I would like to add my own opinion based on my observation of the Arabs at peace and at war.

The Arabs may have been great warriors in the past but after they fell under western rule they

VIPs listening intently to the shocking revelations on 9/11.



seem to have lost their prowess in wars. In their wars against Israel they were so inept that they have never won a single battle, even when their forces far outnumbered the Israelis. In the years immediately after the formation of the state of Israel, the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria were defeated by smaller Israeli forces. The Arabs never seem to be able to plan or strategise and certainly their execution of battle plans are just plain bad.

They are not a disciplined people and this lack of discipline shows everywhere. And they cannot keep anything secret. Someone would leak whatever plan they may have worked out. For money there are Arabs who are prepared to reveal the hiding places of their leaders.

The attacks on 9/11 involved very complex elements which needed detailed planning, precise timings and disciplined execution.

There has never been (and will never be) a hijacking of four large aircrafts simultaneously. Yet this was what was supposed to have happened. At apparently the same time the hijackers took

airspace in different directions.

We cannot know whether the hijackers carried arms but there has been no report of guns in the debris of all the four aircrafts. How they could overwhelm the whole crew and take control of four aircrafts at about the same time is a mystery.

Then the hijackers were supposed to make the

Pilots who realised they were going to die anyhow would have tried to steer away from the towers when it was obvious they were going to crash into them. It would not need much change of direction to miss the towers. But the planes hit the towers

What could have caused such destruction?



the fuel they carried.

aircrafts. But we are told they had only trained with small aircraft. How did they know how to navigate the huge aircrafts so perfectly after changing course, and time was the essence. If the second plane was delayed, the ground control would have detected that there was something wrong with the second, third and fourth planes.

I can imagine trained operatives like those in the CIA or Mossad planning and executing this complex operation but I cannot imagine an Arab like Osama bin Laden planning and directing this sophisticated aerial attack from some remote place in Afghanistan. They would need an airport control tower with sophisticated instruments to do this. And they would need to be near enough to

ns.

The planning alone would have been extremely complex. Lots of data would have to be collected a long time earlier. The pilots had to be trained for

the commercial aircraft.

This forum will hopefully reveal the truth behind the events of 9/11. The Pearl Harbour attacks forced the US to join the Second World War. I don’t think the Arabs planned to force the US to go to war against the Muslim world. But 9/11 did just what Pearl Harbour did,

of thousands of Muslims, devastated Iraq and

Afghanistan, and made Muslims the universal enemies of the whole world. Someone obviously gained from this.

Truly 9/11 is the worst man-made disaster for the world since the end of the last world war.

For that reason alone, it is important that we seek the truth, because when truth is revealed then we can really prepare to protect and secure ourselves.

One may ask, what was the real aim of bringing down the Twin Towers of New York?

Their aim – create a situation whereby the US could go to war in countries helpless or incapable of defending themselves. The ultimate aim was

countries. America’s oil reserves were and are just not enough for their needs.

More revealing articles on this subject are found in the following pages. It not only makes for good reading, but provides an insight into the inner workings of groups that have come into power. Factions within governments can have agendas of their own, that are not always that of the

being faced. A rogue element can cause another devastating war! It must never be allowed to happen.

Members of the audience listening to what could have happened that fateful day.



Graeme MacQueen, a retired University

time visitor to Kuala Lumpur and was suitably impressed by what he saw. Confessing that prior to his participation at the Conference, he had only limited knowledge of Perdana Global Peace Foundation and the KLFCW, he was delighted to have read that both George Bush and Tony Blair (the two former leaders of the US and Britain respectively) were found guilty of war crimes by the KL Tribunal. This time he was able to see how the KLFCW works and gathers information.

When asked why such an act was done on the citizens of the US, he explained it this way:

The events of 9/11 were traumatizing,

WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY

UNDERSTANDING WTHIS ATT



Q: Was it terrorism?A:

Q: Were any planes hijacked and then crashed into the towers?A:

G WHYTTACK TOOK PLACE

Canadian Prof. Graeme MacQueen




Q: A:

Q: But by year 2000, America was the only super-power.A:

must not remain there.

gr

James Corbett, a Japan based producer and editor of several reports.



out another option.

Q: Have they succeeded?A:

Q: Will the world fall for another deception?A:


The skeletal remains of what was once a mighty building.



Q: How long this deception on 9/11 would go on?A:

Q: But why would the government want to attack itself?A:



Q: Let us rephrase the question then. Why would Americans want to attack Americans?A:

Q: Was oil the prime consideration?A:



For two days last November, The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission heard graphic and often horrifying testimonies from a total of nine complainants. Two other witnesses were unable

that was happening at that time last November.

The KL War Crimes Commission, made up of a 5-panel of Commissioners was headed by Musa Ismail, a former Magistrate, and now a practising lawyer. The other Commissioners were lecturer and author Prof Hans-Christof von Sponeck, who was also a former UN Assistant Secretary General responsible for humanitarian operations in Iraq, Nobel peace prize nominee Denis J. Halliday, who worked for the UN for 34 years and was head of the UN Humanitarian

Programme in Iraq, Dr Zulaiha Ismail, former Dean of the Centre for Graduate Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and currently actively

the Palestinians and Michel Chossudovsky, a professor of economics emeritus, University of Ottawa and Director, Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG).

The prosecution team for the commission hearing was headed by Prof Gurdial Singh Nijar, prominent law professor and author of several law publications. He was assisted by Prof Francis Boyle, Avtaran Singh and Gan Pei Fern.

First on the witness stand was 33-year old

GATHERING EVIDENCE: ACTS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS

DAY ONE



the Commission that 21 members of his family including his father, mother and only infant daughter were killed during a massive Israeli attack in the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in the South-East of Gaza on 5 January 2009. The remaining 52 injured members of his family and Salah himself (covered in blood and shrapnel) amid bullets aimed at them managed to make their way out of the neighbourhood and found civilians who were kind enough to drive them to the hospital.

not only bombed their house three times, but had denied entry to the Red Cross and hospital ambulances into neighbourhood to tend to the wounded. The ambulances only managed to make their way into his neighbourhood three days after the attack. During the attacks, a sharp metal piece had pierced his forehead and until today the doctors are unable to remove that metal piece.

“I heard a very loud explosion about 2 or 3 times. There was dust all over the house. I could not see anything. Later, I saw one missile had come through the roof; another from the window and the third one, I do not know from where. I then looked around and I saw my mother. I went to her and realized that my mother (Rahma Mohammed Mahmoud Al-Samony, then aged 43) died with half of her face blown away. My father (Talal Hilmy Mahmoud Al-Samony, then aged 49) and my only daughter (Aza Salah Talal Al-Samony, then aged

of 21 of my family members died. More than 50 of them were injured. There was screaming, shouting

The 5 member panel of Commissioners: (left to right) Prof. M. Chossudovsky, Dr. Zulaiha Ismail,

Musa Ismail (Chairman), Prof. H.C. von Sponeck and Denis J. Halliday

Salah Al-Sammouni

and crying. Blood was everywhere. I lifted my daughter and she had wounds on her neck and stomach. She was dead. Then, I heard my wife calling my name. I went to her. There were a lot of dead bodies on top of her. I slowly pulled her out. She was covered in blood. Three of my sons were

even now.”

Salah’s 15-year old cousin, Mahmoud Al Sammouni, one of the few survivors of the same attack on that fateful day, also gave his statement at the hearing. However, the teenager could only give part of his testimony to the panel as he had received word that more of his family members



time (last November 2012).

Mahmoud who was only 12-years old at the time of 2009 attacks, saw his father shot in cold blood by the Israeli soldiers. He told the panel that he and his friends were playing football and mud balls around a fruit tree when they saw F16

also many soldiers on the ground shooting at the walls of homes. He saw parachutists coming down and landing on the tallest buildings in the area and anyone who went out of their homes were shot dead.

Displaying maturity beyond his young age, Mahmoud related the terrifying ordeal he and his family underwent during the January 2009 attacks. The soldiers while shooting randomly at the family shot his 4-year old brother twice in the chest and once in the head and four of his other brothers in their legs and behind the ear.

He told the Commission that the surviving family members walked barefoot to seek help at the Al Shifa Hospital. “We went to the main road. Along the way we saw a lot of blood on the street, spent bullet shells, shoes. Iron and metal pieces were all across the street so that no one could pass. The soldiers were shooting randomly and people were scared. As we walked along the road, we saw a tank at the side of the road. It was facing the other way. When the soldiers saw us, the tank turned in our direction and they shot right above our heads.”

After Mahmoud Sammouni was excused, the prosecution’s next witness was 22-year old Nabil Al-Issawi from Bethlehem, West Bank. The former student of the Ahliya University in Bethlehem was part of a peaceful student demonstration near the Azah Refugee Camp when he was shot in the stomach by an Israeli sniper with a Dum Dum bullet (a bullet which bursts on impact). As he lay bleeding on the street, the Israeli soldiers refused to give him immediate aid and instead took pictures of him and made fun of him.

The use of Dum Dum bullets is a war crime

Palestian boy who saw his father shot dead.

Nabil Al-Issawi from Bethlehem



Doctors told him that the Dum Dum bullet that hit him had broken into 3 pieces going into 3 different directions: 2 went out of his body through the back and his rectum while the third stayed inside his bladder near the lower spine. He was hospitalised for almost 6 and a half months and underwent four operations.

“As a result I missed my last semester in the school (namely, from January to Jun 2008). This affected my academic performance, and I scored poorly in the CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average). As a result, I was precluded from pursuing the university course of my choice, namely law,” said Nabil who is currently pursing business studies.

“The course of my life has been altered dramatically. As of now, I have an abdominal scar for life and discomfort in sitting upright. I cannot swim competitively as I used to. Apart from this, my family members and I have been prohibited from going to Israel. Further, whenever I go through the Israeli military checkpoints, I am always harassed. I have been traumatised by the incident. Whenever I am about to go through numerous military checkpoints in West Bank, I am in the constant state of anxiety and fear,” said Nabil who also informed the panel that he and his family are blacklisted from travelling to nearby Jerusalem since he was shot.

He demands freedom in his country, stressing that it is the basic right of human beings not to be harassed by forces that are there illegally.

The fourth witness before the Commission was 42-year old Jawwad Musleh from Beit Sahour,

near Bethlehem, West Bank. The tourism

incidents of incarceration that he had been subjected to since the age of 15 and gave the Commission a clear picture of the socio-economic outlook of West Bank.

accused of being a member of the Palestine Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

He told the panel that the Israeli forces had used different kinds of torture on him, that were mental and psychological and wanted him to admit that he was a member of the PFLP. He was held prisoner for 20 months.

“They wanted me to admit that I was a member of the PFLP. They tried to convince me they knew everything about me. I refused to confess. Then they began to beat me all over using clubs, sticks, even their feet and hands. The worst part was when there was no interrogation. They put me

back and a hood over my head. The hood was extremely smelly. I could barely breathe. I could not move. My hands were cuffed behind either to a chair or a piece of iron welded to a wall. I had no opportunity to go to the bathroom or to eat. When I did ask for water or to go to the bathroom, the soldiers would ask me to confess, and only then would they give me water or take me to the bathroom. They prevented me from sleeping or eating or drinking.”

“In the end I did confess. I was just a kid. There was a court hearing and there was a lawyer

Prosecution head Prof. G.S. Nijar (standing) with Prof. Francis Boyle and Avtaran Singh (extreme left).




representing me. However, from what I know the decision is usually made by the Israeli intelligence.”

times and each time he was tortured when he was incarcerated. During each interrogation, they wanted to know about his activities and his relationship with PFLP. There were various charges against him: rioting, participating in demonstrations, illegal activities, boycotting Israeli goods and inciting others to do the same, that he was a security threat and a danger to the state of Israel.

“In the last 2 detentions in 1989 and 1990, I was arrested for “administrative reasons”. This is a tool the Israelis use for people who are suspected of being active in political activities but for which there is no proof. In such detentions, a person is not entitled to a hearing or lawyers to object to or challenge the detention. You are sent straight to prison. You can only object to the period of detention. The period of detention is usually 6 months. Only in rare cases is it reduced to 4 or 3 months.”

He added, “These kinds of arrests are common. Before the advent of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, it occurred more frequently and more people were arrested. Now there are more than 5000 prisoners in Israeli prisons.”

He added: “Twice, I was sent to Qeziot Military Camp located in the Negev desert south of Palestine. It looks exactly like a Nazi concentration camp with watchtowers and fences. It is located in the middle of the desert and completely isolated from the world. There is no radio, television, newspapers or even visits. I had no access to my family or lawyers for 6 months each time. It was

in this military camp is horrible because I was isolated, and I had very little food, and even what I had was of poor quality.”

”In Qeziot, we were all housed in tents. These tents were installed on sandy ground. Each section had 10 tents. There were fences all around. In one tent, there would be 20 to 22 persons. It was very crowded. It was always dusty. Dust and sand would get into our food. We didn’t have books or anything to read and write. All we got was some food and a small mattress.”

“I was also held 3 times at the Dahariyeh Military Camp located south of Hebron That is also a very horrible place. The rooms were small and very, very crowded. We used to sleep with our legs over each other. There was no space to move. The rooms were very dirty. We were forced to wear prison clothes that were dirty and smelly. There was no access to any bathroom or toilet. The prison guards would bring us a barrel. All of us had to ease ourselves in the barrel openly in the room. When the barrel was full, we were allowed to take it out and empty it and bring it back. Everything used to smell bad, our mattresses and our clothes. There was no natural light. We were not allowed to leave the room. In other prisons, prisoners are allowed 1 or 2 hours in open space. In Dahariyeh, prisoners cannot go out unless going to court or being transferred to other prisons. I was never visited by my family or lawyer.”

“We were sometimes beaten by soldiers, although no interrogation was being carried out. They would count us 3 times a day. We would have to stand with our faces towards the wall. If anyone moves or talks, we were beaten hard with clubs. If anyone moved an inch or coughed or sneezed, all would be beaten.”

In December 1992 while preparing for participation in a peaceful demonstration on the anniversary of PFLP, he was shot twice in the leg by the Israeli army. It damaged a sciatic nerve in his leg and caused complete impairment and paralysis of his foot.

Dr. Walid Elkhatib




“Being detained and spending time in prison hardened my resolve to struggle. I became more aware of the cause of the struggle, the history and later I continued being active in the cause. The Israeli forces think that they can kill our soul and patriotism by sending us to prison. However, it is there that our loyalty to our homeland is strengthened.”

He added, “More and more Palestinian lands are being taken away. More and more Israeli colonies are being built on lands in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The situation is more complicated now. There are 700,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is being “Judaised” or “Israelised”. The Israelis are taking more and more Palestinian lands and building more and more settlements around Jerusalem to make it more and more Jewish and to force Palestinians to leave Jerusalem.”

On the subject of the Wall, (the so-called Security “When it came

to building the apartheid wall, the Israelis said it is a security barrier. However, it is actually a strategy

built on the border but inside the West Bank, and this has further reduced the landmass of the West Bank. So Jerusalem, which was part of the West Bank, has now been taken away and annexed by Israel with the construction of the wall.”

He said, “Life for Palestinians in Jerusalem is very

and to replace them with Jews to make a Jewish city. Now about 200,000 Palestinians live in and around East Jerusalem mainly, and this number is getting less and less by the day. Israel says that Jerusalem is its capital.”

He further related, “Jerusalem is important for Muslims and Christians. For Muslims, the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque are very sacred places. The sacred places for Christians are the Sepulchre Church the Via Dolorosa. But both Christian and Muslim Palestinians cannot visit these places. Historically, Jerusalem has always been the centre and the heart of Palestine, economically, culturally, historically but now we are not allowed.”

He said, “To move from one place to another in the West Bank, we have to pass through check points.

There are at the moment 730 checkpoints and

checkpoints’, which the Israeli set up at any place at any time.”

He explained that at some of the Israeli checkpoints they could pass with no problem, in some they have to submit their IDs, while at others they had to wait for hours as they are very crowded. He revealed that a journey that should have taken

is a demonstration, the checkpoints are simply shutdown.

On the issue of water supply, he revealed that Palestinians suffer from water shortages as the Israeli authorities control the control of water. “Water is supplied to the Israeli settlers at a cheaper price, and 5 times more in volume, compared to Palestinians. It is our land, but we pay more and get less water. The water supplied to Palestinians is inadequate for our daily use and causes us great hardship and suffering,” he said.

“Many farmers depend on olive harvests. Palestine is full of olive trees. Many farmers’ lands have been divided by the wall or the farms are located next to Israeli settlements or military camps. Farmers are therefore deprived of access to their lands. In some cases, they are only given permits to go to their lands during harvest in October. But because they are deprived of access throughout the year to fertilise, water and tend to their trees, the harvest is poor. In many instances, settlers have stolen olives from the farms. In other instances, settlers have burned the trees. Most of the Israeli settlements are located in higher land. Sewage water is discharged to the lower lands, where most of the Palestinians reside. This destroys the farms and trees, and damages the environment.”

54-years-old Chahira Abouardinil




DAY 2

When hearings resumed on the second day (November 21st 2012), the Commission heard the resumed testimony of the 15-year old Mahmoud Al Sammouni whose 21 family members were massacred by Israeli armed forces under Operation Cast Lead in 2009 when Israeli armed forces attacked Gaza. The teenager told the Commission the ordeal his 10-year-old sister Amal endured during the attacks in 2009. Amal who was buried under dead bodies for four days is now visually impaired, her hearing is affected and she has 15 pieces of shrapnel’s in her head that are medically too risky to remove.

Once again the teenager impressed the Commissioners and those who attended the hearing

A video animation called Samouni Street, which he himself was involved in the making off, was shown depicting Mahmoud’s life in a peaceful farming community that was destroyed in 2009. It was a moving account of a child. He asked, “Why were the young children killed? They are so young and cannot even hold a stone. Like my brother Ahmad. My cousins who were infants were also killed. I have heard that the soldier who kills more – and younger children - moves up higher in ranks.” “What did the children do to deserve to die this way? What did the women do to become widows and what did the old people do to see all this? Nobody is defending us. It is like we are nothing. We do not have a normal happy life like other children. Where is the human right of the child?”

(Editor’s note: Mahmoud Sammouni revealed in an interview, partly in English, his hopes for his people. Displaying no militancy or hatred against the Israelis despite all that he had undergone, he however wanted greater justice, peace and freedom for his people. He disclosed that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up, to “help his people”.)

Dr. Walid Elkhatib, another witness, who comes from Bethlehem District, West Bank is a qualified medical doctor, with a Masters in Public Health, and Higher Diploma in Health Management, testified on the effects of Israeli occupation on Palestinians, especially children.

“From 1988 until 1996, I worked as a general practitioner. I worked at an emergency clinic during the 1st Intifada (uprising). I saw many

patients who were brought in with different kinds of injuries as a result of Israeli violence – people with gun shot wounds, who had been exposed to tear gas and people who were physically abused by Israeli soldiers.” “Today, I am in charge of child health and protection, social health and Palestinian child law and rights,” said the 52-year old doctor who developed hearing problems due to constant exposure to explosions and has himself come close to being killed several times by the Israeli soldiers. “According to a survey conducted in Palestine in 2010 in cooperation with the World Health Organisation, which I personally oversaw, 24% of schoolchildren in Palestine have suicidal tendencies.”

Many in the audience were moved by the testimony they heard.




He further added, “There are also increased incidents of disability among Palestinians. About 20% of injured people have become disabled during the 2nd uprising (Intifada). The most recent report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Social Affairs (2011) showed that 7% of Palestinian children are disabled, some because of the Intifada. Generally the number is 1-2% higher in Palestine because of the violence.”

“From 2001-2011, there were 2282 cases of disability (93.9% male, 6.1% female). Most of the men were involved in the Intifada. 65.6% of them suffered disability as a result of live ammunition being used. Others were affected by shrapnel, rubber bullet, explosions.”

“As a result of the greater number of disabilities, these people also have less opportunities for work and end up in poverty. There is greater pressure on the government to support these persons, by way of provision of social services, health services, education etc.” “Poverty is rife in the West Bank and Gaza. It increased from an average of 20% prior to the Intifada to up to 51% during the Intifada. Conditions of poverty also mean poor nutrition. We found that during the Intifada, children’s growth was stunted because they did not have enough protein. There are many cases of children who are underweight. During the 2nd Intifada, the rate of children being underweight increased from 2.5% to 3.2%, the rate of low height increased from 7.5% to 7.9%, and wasting (severe loss of weight) increased from 1.4% to 1.7%.” “According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), there was a 40% increase of premature deaths and miscarriages in pregnant women during the 2nd Intifada. Israeli soldiers have also violated international law by attacking hospitals and ambulances by shelling and shooting on the excuse that wanted terrorists who were supposed to be in the hospital.”

He said, “Israeli forces attack hospitals and ambulances on the pretext that there are

It is my opinion that the Israeli forces allege such incidents merely to justify their inhuman actions of attacking hospitals.”

He said, “Over the years, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza has become worse. The Israeli authorities have increased in strength. We can only imagine that it will get worse in the future. The Palestinians face a lot of challenges. We are being threatened all the time by the US and Israel – they threaten to cease the transfer of funds, to strengthen the checkpoints, to stop aid, to completely stop entry to Jerusalem.” He continued, “Before the 2nd Intifada, I believed that Israel was looking for peace with Palestinians. But now I do not believe it. Israel does not believe Palestinian territory belongs to Palestinians. They believe that it is historically Israeli and they are taking it back. They threaten to increase settlements in Palestinian territories if Palestine continues to try and gain recognition as a state from the United Nations (without membership).”

(Editor’s note: See accompanying story on Palestine’s status in the UN)

The Status of Palestine at the United Nations

Last November, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognise Palestine as a non-member observer state - a move strongly opposed by Israel and the US.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said this was the “last chance to save the two-state solution” with Israel.

The Palestinians can now take part in UN debates and potentially join bodies like the International Criminal Court. The assembly voted 138-9 in favour, with 41 nations abstaining.

There is also hope that access to UN bodies will bring new rights. A successful application for membership of the International Criminal Court could be used to accuse Israel of war crimes or make other legal claims against it.



Dr. Walid added: “Israeli actions amount to the extermination of a whole state. Israel believes that eventually Palestinians will leave their lands beyond the walls. Israeli strategy is to deprive the Palestinians of their basic needs to make them leave. The Palestinians are badly in need of support services Otherwise they will have no choice but to leave.”

The prosecution subsequent witness was 54-years old Chahira Abouardini, a mother of three who is a Palestinian refugee (political refugee) living in Camp Shatila, Beirut. She told

the Commission about the events that took place at Camp Shatila, Beirut in the month of

Shatila massacre.

“On 14 September 1982, the Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel was assassinated. After that incident, there were a

told me that the situation may get worse, and to prepare the children so that we could leave. On 16 September we went to my father’s brick house on Sabra Street. There were other family

A historic day

Mr Abbas said shortly before the vote in New York.

he said.

Opponents of the bid said a Palestinian state should emerge only out of bilateral negotiations, as set out in the 1993 Oslo peace accords under which the Palestinian Authority was established.

In the West Bank, crowds celebrated the vote by

said a joyful Palestinian.

he added.

While the move is seen as a symbolic milestone in Palestinian ambitions for statehood, the “Yes” vote will also have a practical diplomatic effect.

What were the Palestinians

asking for?The Palestinians have long sought to establish an independent, sovereign state in the West Bank,

including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip - occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War. The 1993 Oslo Accord between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel led to

on-off peace talks have since failed to produce a permanent settlement. The latest round of direct negotiations broke down in 2010.

diplomatic strategy: asking individual countries to recognise an independent Palestinian state

separated Israel and the West Bank before June 1967.

In September 2011, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and chairman of the PLO, sought full member-state status at the UN based on pre-1967 frontiers. But the bid effectively stalled two months later after Security Council members said they had been unable to . Mr Abbas then submitted a downgraded request to the General Assembly for admission to the UN as a non-member observer state - the same position that the Vatican holds. Previously, the PLO only had status.

The change allows the Palestinians to participate in General Assembly debates. It also improves the Palestinians’ chances of joining UN agencies and the International Criminal Court (ICC), although the process would be neither automatic nor guaranteed. If they are allowed to sign the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, the Palestinians hope prosecutors would investigate alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.



members as well - my father, my sister (17 years old), my brother (24 years old) and his pregnant wife and 2 children, and my cousin and his wife and 2 children.” Chahira who broke down while giving testimony said, were thrown to light up the area. This went on throughout the night. The camp was full of light throughout the night. We did not know what was happening outside. We heard shooting and screaming outside. At about dusk, my sister ran out into the street to see what was happening. She was shot dead by armed militia. When my sister was shot, she shouted for my father. My father came out of the house to see what had happened to my sister. He was also shot and killed. Their bodies were left on the street. Later I found out that those who shot my sister and father were Lebanese Phalangist militia.” In the early hours of the morning, about 16-17 armed soldiers entered her home and shot her husband, brother and cousin dead in front of her and children. She related that militia entered homes and shot at everyone including children and animals. She said, “Along the way to the stadium, I saw my cousin’s daughter who was pregnant lying dead. The murderers had opened her body and taken out her baby and put the baby on her. The child was dead as well.” “On the street there were a lot of dead bodies. Hundreds of bodies were strewn all over. We climbed a hill to the stadium. At the nearest houses I could see bodies of children. Between the houses, which had been half destroyed, there were bodies of men, and also women and children and animals.”

“In 36 hours, up to 3500 to 5,000 people from Shatila and Sabra had been massacred, There are also people unaccounted for as they had disappeared. The Phalangist militia worked together with the Israelis. They were known to be puppets of the Israeli forces. Israelis used them to go into our houses, because these soldiers knew the place, and could speak Lebanese. The Israelis were afraid to go in themselves.” She concluded, “What I want is justice to be done and that those who killed my family members and

all the people at Shatila and Sabra to be punished for their crimes.” The prosecution’s next witness was Taghreed Nimat from Nablus, West Bank. As Taghreed’s father was imprisoned for singing nationalistic Palestinian songs, the Israeli forces often targeted her, accusing her for promoting hatred against the Israeli government. In 2004, the Israeli soldiers attacked the Dr Sayed Kamal Mental Hospital in Bethlehem where she was staying and working as a psychologist. The 47-year old Palestinian’s experiences during the hospital attack caused her to suffer a breakdown causing her to take ASVL sedatives twice and other medication for

She also related how she was often harassed unnecessarily by the Israeli military every time she went through checkpoints. The soldiers would detain her at these checkpoints for several hours before allowing her through or sometimes refusing entry. The prosecution also called Anne Sunde, a 66-year old Norwegian who is residing in Belgium. She was working as a volunteer social worker for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Beirut in the Sabra and Shatila Camps.

She related, “On 4 June 1982, I visited my friend at Fakhani. While we were chatting in the building, which housed the Palestine Liberation Organisation

over. We rushed to the shelter in the basement of the building. Then we heard bombing nearby our building. It was loud. The building shook and I was

Anne Sunde who was in tears when giving her testimony of the events at the refugee camp.



direct violence. One becomes aware what life is. The bombing seemed to go on for eternity.” She said, “After a few days the PRCS set up a hospital in La Houd School, Hamra. Since nobody among the volunteers wanted to do cleaning (janitor), I volunteered. I did this together with Kurdish refugees.” She said, “Finally I decided to go back to Belgium on 15 September 1982 via Damascus. However, since it was the morning after Bachir Gemayel’s (the then President-elect) death, there were no taxis to take me to Damascus. Great nervousness was felt in town. I returned to the PRCS headquarter in Hamra where most of the foreigners were located.” She then proceeded to relate her harrowing experiences of the killings at the Sabra and Shatila Camps. She told the Commission that when she went to the Shatila Camp she saw many dead bodies of adults and children, both male and female, in strange positions.

“The bodies were already decomposing and bloated in the summer heat. The smell was unbearable and there were

She added, “It was a horrible scene and they were digging mass graves to bury the dead.” The prosecution next called the 66-year old Italian witness Paola Manduca, a retired Professor at University of Genoa, Italy who is an expert Geneticist. In 2011, she conducted and coordinated two research projects relating to

the impact of weapons on reproductive health arising from the attacks in Gaza, especially to children. She also personally spent about more than a year in Gaza, conducting research in Paediatric and Maternity hospitals.

She said, “The outcome of our research points to the degradation of the reproductive health and increase in major structural birth defects, following and correlated to the military attacks and possibly to the input of toxic, carcinogen and teratogen (development interfering) agents delivered by weaponry in the environment and in the wounds of victims, and of their assumption by the inhabitants.” She related, “We showed by analytical chemistry methods that in Gaza teratogen and carcinogen metals are found in wounds, in craters since 2006 attacks and in White Phosphorus ammunitions in 2009 and children hair one year after the 2008/09 attacks.” She said, “Our study of birth defects in 0 to 2-year old children registered in 5 paediatric hospitals in Gaza Strip showed that there is a 1.8 fold higher frequency of birth defects in the first 6 months of year 2010, compared to the same period in 2006.”

defects in Gaza starting in 2005-06. “It is our view that such sudden increases in birth defects

environmental changes.” She said, “We found that 66% of Gaza parents with a birth defect children were exposed to bombing and/or White Phosphorus shelling during Operation Cast Lead in 2008/09.” She continued, “Couples with children suffering birth defects reported exposure to White Phosphorus 15 fold more often than couples with normal children. Our studies have presented proof of a rise in birth defects in Gaza, increasing after the attacks in 2006 and continuing to increase up to 2011. It showed the correlation of birth defect occurrence with exposure to White Phosphorus shelling. In also showed contamination of the soil by teratogen and carcinogen metals. It showed accumulation of these teratogen and carcinogen metals in children’ hair.”

Paola Manduca



She also presented proof that teratogen and carcinogen metals are delivered by weapons

there is long-term effect on reproductive health associated to metal contamination by exposure to weaponry during war and by war remnants.

After hearing the testimonies of all the witnesses Prosecution urged The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) to make the necessary recommendations on the indictment and persons to be charged to the KLWC Tribunal. They recommended that the state of Israel be indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide from the evidence tendered. International commissions over the years have concluded that Israel had committed genocide and war crimes. After Operation Cast Lead the UN Goldstone Report stated that Israel committed

war crimes in the destruction of civilian infrastructure and in the killing of civilians.

condemned the criminal massacre of Palestinian civilians in Sabra and Shatila. The UN General Assembly resolution (ES-7/9 24 September

genocide. The UN MacBride Commission formed after the Sabra and Shatila massacre concluded that Israel had committed genocide and war crimes.

of the Geneva Convention to the protection of civilians in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories including Jerusalem. It noted the failure of Israel to comply with numerous resolutions. It noted also that the actions and

Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah exchanging words of comfort with the brave Palestinian, Mahmoud Al-Sammouni.



record establish conclusively that it is not a peace loving member state and has not carried out its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations. And yet the international community has failed to take any action against Israel.

life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a people in whole or in part. The evidence adduced show that the state of Israel has been engaged in acts of genocide against the Palestinian people. Genocide includes both physical and mental harm caused by the Israeli occupation as well as the bombing and killing of civilians that is going on even now in Gaza. Gaza and West Bank are under military occupation of Israel. The Fourth Geneva Convention provides protection for people under a military occupation. Israel has breached practically all the articles of the Geneva Convention. Israel’s contention is that it is not in occupation of Gaza and West Bank once it withdrew its troops. The reality is Israel is in occupation since the test is belligerent control –Israel is in control. It has blockaded Gaza from the sea and surrounded it by a wall on the land. The Egyptian border is sealed with Gaza. Israel exercises control with the blockade of Gaza, they attack and kill civilians, they deny essential supplies. Gaza is under siege. The World Court in its Advisory Opinion in ‘the wall case’ in July 2004, participated by the Israeli and Palestinians, rejected all of Israel’s arguments that they are not an occupying force. The opinion of the World Court was that the construction of the wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory is contrary to international law. Israel is stealing Palestinian water and diverting it to Israel and its settlers while Palestinians are being deprived of water. Hundreds of checkpoints have been established by Israel across West Bank and Gaza limiting the access of Palestinians traveling from town to town. With the wall built by Israel the Palestinians are almost in a ‘prison’. Wide spread systematic torture of Palestinians as shown in evidence before the Commission have

in numerous cases been documented extensively over the years by human rights organisations including Amnesty International that clearly show that Israel has committed war crimes. Based on evidence and records, the Sabra and Shatila massacre is a clear case of genocide and war crimes. The Israeli forces had played a key role in working with the Phalangist militia in

had withdrawn to Tunisia and the Palestinian civilians at the camps were assured by the US that they would be protected under the Habib Agreement. The International forces consisting of Italian, French and US forces withdrew a day before the massacre started and reappeared after that in Beirut.

The term “Crimes against humanity” came from the Nuremberg trials drafted by the US to deal with the Nazis prosecution of Jews which include murder, torture, imprisonment,

racial, national, ethnic basis. Interestingly, the Israeli war crimes are the same, the only difference being the scale. However it is an on going process of destruction of the Palestinian people.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) had refused to accept the Palestine complaint on war crimes against Israel. Palestinians have tried to obtain justice that has been continuously denied to them. The Palestinian complainants have now turned to the KLWCC for assistance in obtaining justice. The Commission after hearing the evidence and the prosecution’s submissions announced that as per the charter of the KLWCC they would deliberate on the facts and the law and prepare a report and its recommendations at a later date.



Last November among the series of conferences was one that was specially conceived to highlight the plight of children and mothers. Some speakers looked at legal aspects, while others provided detailed accounts on data gathered that clearly showed the harmful effects of warfare and weaponry used.

Prof Francis A. Boyle, who is a Professor of International Law, University of Illinois, USA presented a paper on “Legal Protection of Children In Armed

Prof Boyle traced the events in Iraq and noted especially: “With respect to these genocidal economic sanctions against Iraq, the actus reus for

the international crime of genocide is set forth in Genocide Convention Article II (c): “Deliberately

.”

Prof Boyle concluded his submission with these words:

(This was in his written submission made on September 18th, 1991)

Another distinguished speaker was H.E. Chea Leang, National Chief Prosecutor, at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Combodia, who presented her paper entitled:

A section of students from the Cempaka International School during the Conference.

Panelists from left to right, Datuk Dr. Raj Karim from Malaysia, Professor Francis Boyle from the United States of America, Dato’ Freida Pilus, Chairman, Her Excellency Chea Leang from Cambodia (with her assistant Ms. Choi Vion Song), and Professor Paula Manduca from Italy.



Children are the hope of any society. They are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. How we regard our children in peace or war is a

said:

Dr Raj Abdul Karim is the President of the

Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Her paper was entitled:

civilians, not even children, though there are international humanitarian and human rights instruments that call for the protection of children and their rights to survival, protection and development as embodied in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The report of Graca

submitted to the 1996 UN General Assembly, revealed the full extent of involvement

of Genoa, Italy. Her paper was entitled: . Her scholarly presentation

detailed the types of genetic effects that war does to mothers and children. She stated:

Some of the VIP’s at the Conference

Students and teachers from the Tunku Kurshiah College, seen above with Prof. Boyle and Dato’ Dr. Yaacob, also participated in the Conference.



The plight of children in any war situation has often been the subject of international discussion. And while many prominent leaders and experts have pointed out the

young ones, they (children) continue in this day and age to be victims.

In many ways this publication, Criminalise War, while the

Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War (KLFCW), was initiated to carry the message

as widely as possible. For that reason, one of the greatest initiatives has been the formation of the Criminalise War Club, that will soon become a reality in several schools in the Klang Valley. Founded by YAB Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, a trustee of the KLFCW, the Club has a specially crafted charter

of the Malaysian Ministry of Education.

In launching the Criminalise War Club last November, YAB Tun Dr Siti expressed the hope the Club will help “spread the message of the futility of war to the younger generation.”

children – THE ONES WHO SUFFER THE MOST

Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali,Founder, Criminalise War Club (Malaysia Chapter)



“The fact remains that most of the wars being waged today are against Muslims. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, Afghanistan, and today we are seeing for 60 years, the sufferings of the Palestinians. And the Palestinians are

not all Muslims. Many of them are Christians.”

Tun Siti made it clear that the Club is intended to further engage the younger generation to come forward and participate actively in what will be a very long journey before all wars are criminalised.

The Charter of the Criminalise War Club states the following:

In conjunction with this launch, the KLFCW had earlier hosted an “International Conference on

was delivered by YAB Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in which he noted that “war does not distinguish or give exemption to young, helpless people.”

Children, he said, are as much a target in wars as anybody else.

the children; deprive them of their parents and

after them, leaving them without anyone who



could care for them, to feed them, to clothe

Dr Mahathir added.

Dr Mahathir went on: “We see pictures of children being shot with bullet wounds in their chest. What have they done? Have they opposed the enemy? Did they take up

arms against the enermy? They were too small to carry anything at all – certainly not the weapons – and yet they were shot. They were considered “collaterals”. This is the new word that is invented to justify killing innocent people.”

“This is what is happening today in this world. And it is shocking that the people who do these things are people who came up with all kinds of theories regarding the rights of man.”

“Some of the greatest writers are from the

‘civilized’ part of the world, the so-called

civilized part of the world. Even today they

are inventing more and more weapons to kill

All they could think of is how to kill people

and if in the process you have to kill little

children and babies, well, “Why not? These

are collaterals. They are just in the way.”

parts of the world, Tun Dr Mahathir added: “We in Malaysia feel a lot of sympathy for the oppressed people. Somebody says… Why is it that Muslims only care for Muslims who are oppressed and who are being attacked and killed.” The answer is that, “Most of the people who are today being attacked and killed are Muslims.” For one reason or another, most of the victims are Muslims. And therefore we should show sympathy for them. They are the main targets.

“But we have also shown sympathy for others – it’s not only for Muslims. We are concerned about human beings, whether they be Muslims or Christians or whatever. …(but) the question that

should be asked is” Why do these big powers

Dr Mahathir went on to add: “Children are the worst victims of war because they are totally defenceless. It’s like attacking someone who is totally disabled. A child is a disabled person. As much as other adults who are disabled are given special consideration, the children should be given special consideration. And that consideration must include making those who cause death or the wounding of children criminal. They should be brought to justice – for they kill children. There is nothing more dastardly than people who kill helpless people.”



Children s Charter to Criminalise WarWe, the Children of the World,

Realising that war and armed conflict have constantly been used by states and governments as instruments of foreign policy;

Acknowledging that wars have never been the best and just solutions to end conflicts and disputes;

Recognising that children have consistently become victims of war and armed conflict;

Recalling that 90 per cent of war’s victims are civilians, mainly children and women;

Recalling that almost one half of the world’s 21 million refugees are children;

Recalling that approximately 300,000 children under 18 years old have been forced or induced to take up arms as child soldiers;

Recalling that between 1986 and 1996, armed conflicts killed 2 million children, injured 6 million, traumatized over 10 million and left more than 1 million orphaned;

Realising that each year, between 8,000 and 10,000 children are victims of landmines;

Fully conscious that war violates every right of a child – the right to life, the right to be with family and community, the right to health, the right to the development of the personality and the right to be nurtured and protected;

Concerned that unless wars are criminalized more children will become victims in the future;

Mindful that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 has recognized that children deserve to be protected against harm under international law;

Recalling further that the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Foundation (KLFCW) is waging a noble effort to criminalise war and energise peace:

DO HEREBY RESOLVE AND DEMAND that –

Wars of aggression must be made a crime and all their perpetrators be brought to justice;

States and governments must always protect children from becoming victims of wars and armed conflicts;

Children must never be forced or induced to participate in any wars or armed conflicts;

Children who are refugees in foreign countries or displaced within their own countries must be given special care, aid and attention by the international community;

Children in war zones, areas of conflict or disasters must be rescued and given care and protection until peace and public order has been restored.



Signing the Charter of the Criminalise War Club.

A NIGHT TOREMEMBER

A young people’s orchestra, - the Tunku Kurshiah Orchestra in performance.



‘CRIMINALISE WAR’ Magazine is unveiled by Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

The launching of the Criminalise War Club.



It was a stark reminder that not all that you see on the television is true.

can be distorted just so someone can get his agenda through.

Editorial

And I should have known better, having spent years in the very media that is being discussed. It just shows that sometimes we do get taken for a ride. In the pages of this second edition of Criminalise War, the official publication of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War (KLFCW), readers will find a wealth of information on what is commonly known as 9/11, the plight of children and the untold suffering that they have endured as grown ups wage senseless wars, and even about cycling cheats or doping.

Last November, an international conference on seeking the truth on 9/11 – the destruction of the twin towers in New York City – brought to Kuala Lumpur a group of concerned and knowledgeable citizens from many countries to help seek the truth about what really happened that fateful day. Truth they say is stranger than fiction, and how true when speaker after speaker produced evidence to show that Arabs or Muslims could not have carried out this dastardly act. Perhaps the “truth” may never really be known, for certainly

no US government is going to convene a commission of inquiry to find out the real facts. So it has been left to other institutions like the Perdana Global Peace Foundation to educate the world on what could have taken place.

This issue devotes consideration space to the events of last November. It makes for compelling reading, as people who are driven by nothing but merely wanting to know the truth express themselves. The narrative and the interview formats have been intertwined for this very purpose.

This second issue is aimed at a select group of people (readers) – those who are members of the Criminalise War Club. This Club was launched by its Founder, YAB Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali at a glittering ceremony on 22nd November 2012. With the sanction of the Minister of Education and the blessings of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak who was present, the Club has become a reality. The very first one will be at

Children from many countries who were signatories to the Charter of The Criminalise War Club.



Tunku Kurshiah College and a second will follow in the Cempaka Group later in the year.

To these members and readers of the publication in the various institutions in the Klang Valley, the stage is set for concerted efforts to organize activities and to plan events that carry the message that War Is A Crime.

Of equal importance will be the shape and form that the Criminalise War Club will take. While governed by a Charter, the actual running is left in the hands of members, and they will have to shape the workings of the Club. For a start, it is suggested (just a mere suggestion) that members look at the subject of

. It has been pointed out that war mongers cause the greatest harm. So the members should ask themselves how to overcome such war mongering. But remember, this is only a suggestion!

In reading the various articles, one will realize that not everyone tells the truth – among adults and leaders of nations. What a shame! But this is the truth that we all have to accept. But now that we know, we should be careful in accepting all that is said in the name of truth. In the desire to achieve vested interests, men will lead other men to war, destroy nations, steal their wealth and resources and not bat an eye-lid. Such is the vicious nature of man – at least some men. In

the process children suffer, like the now 15 year old Mahmud Samouni, who watched his father killed in cold blood and his body then riddled with several more rounds of bullets. This young man, who was only 12 at the time his family was attacked by Israeli soldiers, has put on a brave front. He gave testimony to a tearful panel of commissioners and a packed audience of the tremendous torture and suffering his family endured. They lost more than 20 family members, and even as he gave testimony, news filtered down that more attacks were taking place in his homeland. But the next day, he returned to the witness box to complete his testimony. This young man wants to be a doctor one day to help his people. We pray that he succeeds.

This issue also includes a comprehensive section on Iraq – 10 years after the invasion and destruction of a nation and its people. The accounts are detailed enough to make readers want to ask the question: Why? Why was a nation struck down? First it was

– but no UN team of inspectors could find any trace of such weapons. But having geared themselves so much that the slogan changed to . Even now innocent lives are being lost on both sides – the invaders and the inhabitants. Afghanistan is another clear example of the brutality of civilized countries bent on imposing their will on other people.

Read and you will discover that brute force rules the day. Surely you also know that in this great nation of the land of the free, they shoot kids!!!! Gun violence is everywhere, but we must pause to add that the deeds of a few do not reflect on an entire nation. It only gives cause for concern, that violence is rampant

.

Finally, a note on a person who fooled the entire world, a survivor cancer who the Tour de France 7 times. He went before every TV station, magazine and even testing bodies to deny that he . Lance Armstrong was once a hero. Not any more – he has been the biggest cheat in sports. When Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his Olympic Gold for the 100 meters in the Seoul Games in 1988, that was shocker! Over the years other cheats were discovered including Marion Jones a multi gold medalist at the Olympics. Why is this being pointed out? Simply to illustrate the point that not everyone tells the truth.

The Editor



Using cardboard and ball point pens, this telling image by an unknown Iraqi evokes a heart rendering story of suffering.

Ten years ago this March, the United States and their allies invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq, as it was considered one of the – the others being North Korea and Iran. Excuses were used to mount this destruction of a nation – 9/11 was of course the catalyst. But as readers would have been enlightened from the articles found in the earlier pages of this issue, 9/11 was a plot meant to deceive the world.

Some of the excuses used were the infamous

said to be stored by the regime of Saddam Hussein. But no amount of searching, by a team of international experts, found any such weapons. Yet the United States insisted that such weapons were indeed somewhere in Iraq. They cited the gassing of Kurds by one

as a case in point. But no such weapons were traced by the UN body.

COMMEMORATING THE IRAQWAR

Despite this, the then Secretary of State, Colin Powell went to the UN Security Council and attempted to build a case against the regime of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government. It was a pathetic showing by the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US, who was himself in command when the first war was staged to regain Kuwait from the invading Iraqis. One expected a

to be shown, like that displayed by Henry Cabot Lodge when he went to the UN Security Council in the 1960s to show proof that the Soviets had indeed planted listening devices in the newly constructed US Embassy in Moscow. Colin Powell had no such hard evidence, mere hearsay and doctored evidence.

The final excuse given was – almost like it was too late to take the truth into consideration. All the rhetoric had been used to drum up a massive invasion of a country, and the world was waiting to see

the spectacle….the show must go on. The invasion did take place, and the nation of Iraq was destroyed. Leaders of Iraq became a with millions of US dollars offered for their capture, dead or alive. The law of the jungle took hold. Might was indeed right, when the invaders hail from the US along with their British and Australian allies.

Deals were made to have Iraqi oil available to the invaders. Deals and more deals were made as thousands of lives were lost; brave rescue stories were dramatically told while innocent lives of the citizens of Iraq and their children were snuffed out.

These next pages contain a tribute to Iraq, a brave nation that has suffered a lot.




Iraq’s recent history includes two far reaching events, on the 2 August 1990 Iraq’s invasion into Kuwait and on 19 March 2003 the US/UK invasion into Iraq. Whether political leaders will draw lessons from these events will be, at best, questionable. Iraqis continue to be wronged. Danger to life and turmoil remain a cruel part of Iraq’s reality in early 2013. The collective suffering of a nation is visibly all pervasive. It can not be hidden.

The Iraqi puzzle of life confirms an endless number of tragedies:

Ethnic tension and sectarianism have become a major element in Iraqi politics since the US/UK invasion of 2003, a polarization of inter-group relations Iraqis had not known before. This explains much of the existing hideous crime including murder, kidnapping, property destruction and, most noteworthy, the deteriorating relationships

“iraq and the betrayal of a people

– impunity forever?”




between Baghdad and the three northern Kurdish governorates.

Since the years of war, sanctions and occupation, Iraq’s once state-of-the-art medical system has all but collapsed. Malnutrition and diseases, almost forgotten in Iraq, such as respiratory infections; measles; typhoid fever and tuberculosis have re-emerged on a large scale. The planned destruction of water and sanitation facilities, especially in the 1991 war, and recurrent drug shortages, throughout the period of sanctions and after the 2003 invasion, promoted significantly ill-being, morbidity and mortality in the country (WHO).

Depleted uranium, the armour-piercing radio-active munition, and white phosphorus used by the US military in 1991 and 2003 have created serious health and environmental dangers in Iraq. In early 2000 the US Government sought to prevent WHO from surveying areas in southern Iraq where DU had been used. It also rejected any causality with increases in lung cancer, leukaemia and congenital birth defects. Fortunately national and international efforts have not deterred the collection of more evidence to show the relevance of these war contaminants.

A 2009 Iraq Government mental health survey concluded that mass displacement, a climate of fear, torture, death and violence have contributed to the high ratio of mental illness in the country. It reflects what an old man in Mosul observed:

Iraq is said to have the third largest oil reserves in the world. Its current oil exports nevertheless remain below the average export of 2.2 million barrels/day Iraq was able to market during the years of sanctions. Sabotage against pipelines, corruption, inability to rehabilitate oil installations in the post-invasion era and Iraqi resistance to handover oil exploration to foreign interests (PSAs) are among the causes.

An immensely oil-rich country but 22.9% out of the est. 33 million Iraqis have been living in poverty and many more have to survive under near-poverty living conditions. The GNI per capita/annum (2011) amounted to a mere $2.640 (WB). Transparency International classified Iraq’s public sector corruption among the highest in the world – ranking 169 out of 176 countries (2012).

Rahim Hassan al-Uqailee, as head of the Iraqi Commission of Integrity wrote in an open letter to the Iraqi parliament’s anti-graft committee (2011):

Despite the despicable gap between the rich and the poor, the Iraqi authorities signed a deal (2011) with the US Government for the purchase of 18 F-16 fighter jets at a cost of $ 3 billion! At that time almost a quarter of the Iraqi population lived in poverty and the unemployment rate exceeded 28% (UN).




There is a saying in the Middle East: . Prior to

Iraq’s invasion into Kuwait in August 1990, Iraq had among the highest literacy rates in the Middle East.

Sanctions changed that.

A World Bank/Government of Iraq survey (2007) showed that

, 5 million school age children were not in school and gender disparity in education had become severe. There have been other serious developments in the education sector since 2003: a sectarian element has found its way into the school system affecting mostly Sunni and Shiite students and, most disturbingly, a 2011 Ghent University/Brussels Tribunal publication states:

. Conditions in Iraq were

Other serious and life-threatening dangers have confronted Iraqis in recent years:

“…since the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has become

of hashish and heroin from Iran and Afghanistan”, according to the UN. The Iraqi

that local “addiction rates are climbing steadily” while before drug use was not an Iraqi problem.

During the 13 years of sanctions and beyond, it was difficult to obtain building materials for the construction of additional housing. This resulted in a steep rise in overcrowded accommodation which in turn promoted domestic violence, often involving women as victims. A UN report estimates that “one

in five women in Iraq suffer from domestic abuse”. Wars and violence have fundamentally changed the demographic and social profile of Iraq.

Iraq’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs indicates (2011) there are an estimated 4.5 million Iraqi children who have lost their parents - a horrific 14% of Iraq’s population are orphans! 70% of these children became orphans since the 2003 invasion. Around 600,000 of these are living in the streets and a few in the 18 orphanages that exist in the country, we are told. In the Iraq tradition, it must be remembered, there was no need for orphanages. The extended family took care of those who had lost their parents.

Dictatorship, wars, sanctions and crime have changed this.

There are an estimated one million female-headed households in Iraq. Most of these women are widows, victims of armed conflict and sectarian violence (ICRC/2010).

Apart from extreme physical, mental, economic and social damages, Iraqis have also faced a grim reality of punitive financial limitations during the years of sanctions. From 1990 until 1996, the year when the Oil-for-Food Programme (OFFP) became operative, all of Iraq’s foreign accounts were frozen and oil was not allowed to be sold internationally. The Iraqi people were almost entirely dependent on meager help from abroad – a far cry from a dignified survival.

The OFFP (1996-2003), allegedly a exemption but fully financed (!) with sanctions-limited Iraqi oil money, was little more than an underfunded supply programme. Out of a total oil income of $64 billion about $19 billion were transferred to the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) in Geneva. At that time Iraq’s child mortality of 130/1000 was among the highest in the world. This transfer to the UNCC was to compensate individuals, companies and governments, especially the Government of Kuwait, for claims resulting from Iraq’s invasion into Kuwait. Had there been any moral leadership in the UN Security Council, much of this compensation could have been postponed. It would have prevented many deaths among Iraqi children!



During 6 ½ years, only $43 billion were available to meet the needs of of 23 million Iraqis – a pittance! Out of this amount only $28 billion* were actually utilized for this purpose. Micro-management and extreme bureaucratization of the OFFP by the UN Security Council and also the deliberate blocking by the US & UK of much needed supplies for the people of Iraq were main causes.

* During the years of US occupation of Iraq, the monthly cost of maintaining troops in Iraq amounted to an est. US $12 billion. In other words, what Iraqis had from the OFFP for survival during the entire 6 ½ years corresponded to less than 3 months of the cost of maintaining US troops in Iraq!

The UN humanitarian programme was not meant to work!

The end result: the per capita value/ day of humanitarian goods actually benefitting Iraqis amounted to 51 US cents – a shameful reality for which the US & UK Governments were largely responsible.

As of October 2012 Iraq has paid $38.7 billion in compensation to the three parties identified above. The rightful demand by Iraqis to-day that time has come to obtain in turn their reparations from abroad for war devastation, air, water and soil pollution, destruction of farmland, physical infrastructure, water, sanitation and electricity facilities to date has been ignored by the international community.

This constitutes an intolerable and unacceptable double standard.

In March 2003, at the end of the Government of Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s total debt burden was identified as between $50 to $80 billion. The 19 Paris Club members, mostly European, identify an Iraq debt to them of $38.9 billion. Iraq’s other creditors are primarily Arab (GCCC) countries.

Detractors of the evidence of willful destruction of Iraq’s heritage, its culture, the artifact pilferage; the gross violation of national and international law; planted dis- and mis-information; crime; brutality; disregard for fundamental human concerns and ethical standards, will either reject these accusations as preposterous, ideological and stupid or remain mute. Pitiful as this is they have no more to offer! In the name of democracy they insist that the infamous , their bigger picture, justified the means.

They do not understand what democracy and humanness really entails. It is not about potato chips and coke but about human security and the




opportunity to shape one’s life in freedom from want and freedom from fear.

Iraq, a major owner of global oil and gas, should have no problem in giving its people such a life. Instead Iraq has become a failing state vying with other disadvantaged countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia and, of course, the State of Palestine, for the crown of misery.

The overall impact of these elements on life in Iraq constitute an indescribable human drama. Perpetrators, however, will not be allowed to lean back for ever and assume that their crimes will simply disappear into the far horizon of nowhere. Accountability will prevail.

The efforts of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) founded in 2005 by Tun Dr. Mahathir, Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981-2003 are a step in that direction. The Commission has worked for many years to produce an impressive body of evidence from legal documents and victims testimonies. This material, carefully reviewed by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, allowed the Court to pronounce in November 2011 and in May 2012 that culpability exists at the highest levels of government in the United States and in the United Kingdom for war crimes and the crimes of torture. This can not possibly come as a surprise for George W. Bush and Anthony Blair!

The Tribunal’s verdict: the two leaders and their senior advisors had committed serious crimes against peace

What one has seen cannot be unseen! How much can a people take?

2013 must become the year during which these perpetrators will see an end to their impunity. especially those who were instrumental in creating decades of Iraqi suffering. Due process must be for everyone, Iraqi and non-Iraqi; facing justice, however, is not just for those who lost!

The international public, as the ‘power from below’, will intensify its efforts during this tenth year after an illegal invasion into Iraq, to reassure the Iraqi people that they are not alone in their search for redress.

Hans-C. Graf Sponeck,Former UN Assistant Secretary General andUN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq

*see: Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal - Case 1 and Case 2: Judgements of 22 November 2011 and 11 May 2012 (ISBN 978-937-10817-1-6 and ISBN 978-967-10817-2-3)



Post the invasion of Iraq, the US Electorate sent a clear and unequivocal message to the world. Namely, that the American people have rejected the foreign and domestic policies of President George W. Bush.

In Britain, the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, found his position unsustainable and resigned, leaving the invasion of Iraq and its awful consequences as his political legacy. The then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, talked about the need to be open and transparent in order to win the trust of the British public, but unfortunately he showed no real intention of addressing or redressing his predecessor’s failed policies

in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. The military occupation of Iraq and the exploitation of its vast mineral wealth continues unabated.

To justify the invasion of and war against Iraq, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair cited two violations by the Iraqi regime: of human rights and of UN Security Council resolutions

“Someone must be held accountable for the war in Iraq”



of 1991. The purpose of the war, it was claimed, was to hold the Iraqi regime accountable under international law.

Yet by invading Iraq, the US Administration and the British Government were themselves violating UN resolutions and international law. The war was illegal. The Iraqi people’s human and civil rights were ---and remain---swept aside by the acts of war and the continuing fact of occupation.

Today, Iraq’s sovereignty has been destroyed. Its wealth of cultural heritage has been looted or vandalised. Iraq’s natural resources have been squandered, and its once-elaborate and sophisticated infrastructure has been laid to waste. Safety, security, and the processes of the rule of law are virtually non-existent. The legal and moral authority of the UN has been undermined. Terrorism is on the increase. The whole Middle East region has either been destabilised or is, as a result of the chaos in Iraq, at high risk of instability, or even meltdown. To all


intents and purposes Southern Iraq is under the control of the Tehran Government - an outcome that many familiar with the region foresaw, as talk of an invasion mounted in 2002. Yet the Bush administration and its associated agencies somehow failed to anticipate this outcome.

To get rid of one man, the two Anglo-American powers have brought an entire nation to the brink of devastation. This man, Saddam Hussein, was not at war with the US or the UK, and could not realistically have threatened such, at any level.

He was not even considered any longer, in 2002, to be a serious threat to his Arab and Persian neighbors. Neither did Iraq pose any threat to American or British national interests or security, as has since been proved to the satisfaction of all but a few of the most die-hard and tunnel-visioned supporters of the failed Bush regime and the departed Mr. Blair.

More than three million Iraqis have left

neighboring Arab countries or the West. Iraqis now form one of the largest refugee communities in Europe. More than 600,000 civilians have been killed. Tens of thousands more have been maimed or injured, traumatized, or made homeless. Often they have suffered all of these privations. Wild dogs have feasted on dead Iraqi remains while the occupiers have been busy protecting the oil wells. Holy places have been desecrated. Hundreds of people are assassinated, kidnapped or simply disappear every day. Puppet Iraqi Governments under the occupation are prevented from publishing the details and numbers of dead Iraqis.

During the 13 years of the US-led economic and other sanctions imposed by the Security Council, Iraqi children suffered from malnutrition and genetic disorder caused by depleted uranium (DU). Some eminent western medical authorities estimated in the early 1990s that Iraqi children, babies and toddlers and infants, were dying at the rate of one every six minutes. All the most telling evidence from UN agencies and NGOs and visiting experts in the medical and

and British-dominated UN sanctions authorities. Between 1991 and 2003 the lifeblood of the nation was drained.

Since the American military occupation, Iraqi children are growing up in what is an even worse situation. The sanctions have been replaced by anarchy and institutionalised sectarian division, mayhem and murder. These children remain in fear of their lives, with no hopes, no dreams, no education, and no health care. They are helpless. For the lucky ones, play time is spent on rubbish

Many others are kept at home for fear of being kidnapped or blown up. This is a demeaning sight in one of the richest countries in the world, one which had developed fast and successfully



in areas such as health, welfare, medicine, education, roads, housing and literacy - a model for other Middle Eastern nations in how to use and spread oil wealth, and for the developing world - until just 19 years ago. Modern Iraq, if such a term can be used, is now a permanent and shameful scar on the conscience of those who conspired to invade and occupy Iraq to further their national and personal ambitions.

Iraq continues to be a failed state. For Iraqis, life is hell. Things worsen by the day. Secular Iraq made great strides in improving the lot of all of its people in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, in all social and economic areas. US-Sectarian Iraq is the most corrupt nation in the world, a perfect export model of US political hypocrisy in action.

The occupiers use every conceivable excuse to justify the failure of the war in Iraq. They dismiss resistance to the occupation as mere terrorism, and they invent other labels, insulting to the Iraqi people, but considered palatable to US domestic consumption. All that is bad and violent is attributed to the Iraqis and their traditions or nature. The Americans and the British, of course, bear no responsibility for the breakdown in order and the monumental increase in sectarian violence since 2003. Abuse, torture, humiliation and rape are treated as a side show, left to vague committees in order to brush the crimes away from the glare of negative publicity and to dampen public anger and frustration of the conduct of the war.

The destruction of Iraq and its state was at the heart of the US policy of invasion. The war was never intended to be one of liberation. There was never an exit strategy. Instead, initiatives are taken to divert attention from the strategic aims of the war and extent of true human and

continuing the deception of the war.

The real quagmire of the US Administration is not just to be found in the catastrophic failure of the war, which was doomed to fail from the start;

losses and suffering, both Iraqi and American. Death and destruction is the business of war.

No, at the heart of this swamp is dishonesty towards the American, British and Iraqi public. American and British citizens were inveigled

into this disaster. The true aims of the war were never shared with the American people by its architect, for fear of being rejected for what they really were - ‘The American New Century’ a modern day spin for politically, commercially and religiously motivated colonial imperialism. The American and British Governments conspired with much of the western media and pulled the wool over the eyes of most of the others---who largely seemed all too ready to listen to their masters---to hide the facts, continue the deceptions, and prolong the suffering and pain of the Iraqi people.

President-elect Obama’s message to the American public was that of change. The most fundamental change needed is honesty, transparency and accountability with respect to the war against Iraq. The American public deserve to know what their loved ones died for. Iraqis also want to know the Bush administration’s hidden agenda for the invasion, destruction and continuing occupation of Iraq.

In Britain, bereaved parents also deserve to be told for whom their sons and daughters died. This was no war for the greater good, Queen



and Country. It was for oil and the personal

their own religiously political indoctrination.

In March, 2005, it was revealed by The Sunday Times that in 2002 the then head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, told Tony Blair and his leading advisers after a visit to Washington that “the facts and intelligence” were being

by George W Bush’s Administration.

In his resignation speech, Tony Blair said: “I did , all this

in the face of irrefutable evidence that he and his closest aides deliberately misled the British public and the Labour Party into believing there was palpable national risk to Britain at the hands of a WMD-bearing Saddam Hussein. To date, the British Government has ignored all attempts to set up a proper public, judicial or parliamentary inquiry into what led to the Anglo-American invasion---the biggest western blunder in the Middle East since Suez, and one of far greater consequences.

In a democracy, the executive must be held accountable to the people. Only this can and will

restore faith in the most fundamental principles of democracy, namely accountability. In Britain ‘apparently’ there is no law or a legal process to hold a Prime Minister accountable as he rules by the Royal Prerogative that in effect states ‘a Crown Can Do No Wrong’.

were quickly held accountable for their crimes, and punished, some---including Saddam Hussein himself---executed for their felonies and atrocities. But to date; there has been no independent judicial or political process in the US or UK to hold anybody accountable for the violations and crimes of invading Iraq and what has happened since---which is still happening and goes on without an end in sight.

Hiding behind or expressions of faith, hope and belief in the so-called Western system or are not

Advocating the politics of fear to pursue personal or national agendas cannot be accepted in the civilised world.

Real not politicised justice must be seen to be done, to right the wrongs committed by the Bush

step is to withdraw all American forces currently in civilian clothing stationed in Iraq, together with their Iranian imports and Iraqi cronies. An apology must be given to the Iraqi people, for the pain and

except being born Iraqis. There must also be a the offer of package of compensation, in accordance with international law for the collateral damage to both people and infrastructure.

Unless and until someone is held accountable under international law, those who committed the atrocities against the Iraqi civilians will continue to walk the streets of London and Washington, safe in the knowledge they have literally got away with murder. Not only of the Iraqi civilians but also of members of the British and American Armed forces who were morally betrayed by their trusted executives. Unfortunately to date no legal initiatives have succeeded in bringing anybody to accounts.

Dr Burhan Al-Chalabi – FRSA


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Iraqis are a very proud people. My first visit to Iraq was in July 1992, leading a delegation invited by the General Federation of Iraqi Women. It was one year after operation Desert Storm that had

, as US Commander Gen. Schwartzkopf put it. During the bombing campaign in 1991, power plants and power lines were for 91% destroyed: 95 power stations and all power lines of 400,000 and 135,000 volts. The oil supply had totally stopped: the oil fields of Kirkuk in the north and Rumaila in the south, refineries, pumping stations, oil terminals for export in Um Qasr and Fao: all eliminated. Iraqis were able to restore electricity within 6 months. The reconstruction campaign following the end of hostilities in March 1991 was an achievement of staggering proportions. It was a miracle of organisation and solidarity, taking into account that Iraq was submitted to the harshest sanction in the history of mankind. The reconstruction campaign showed the defiance of the Iraqi people for the attempts to enslave them. All these reconstruction efforts were exhibited in a large old Ottoman building on the banks of the Tigris. It was called the . Spread over two

floors, models were displayed showing the destruction and reconstruction of bridges, mosques, schools, factories, refineries, telecommunication centers etc. All this had been done in one year. Baghdad had electricity then, despite the sanctions, while now, after 8 years of liberation, Iraq’s capital, home to more than six million people, hardly gets one hour of non-interrupted electricity supplies every 24 hours.

All the achievements of the reconstruction campaign after 1991 have been erased from the history books.

In a French-Iraqi cultural centre in Baghdad was a poster on the wall: “Plutôt mourir debout que vivre à genoux”, that can be translated as

. It is a quote by Emiliano Zapata who was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910. Iraqis were proud that they could keep their independence, even if the effects of the UN imposed embargo were devastating. Then I realised that no foreign power could succeed in peacefully occupying the country for a long period. Before the Iraq war, at a meeting of the

To exist is to resist.

qT

iraq revisited,

iraq continued


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Arab League, Secretary General Amr Moussa famously said that a U.S. war on Iraq would ‘open the gates of hell’. And so it happened. The US invaders were not greeted with flowers in 2003. The regular Iraqi army was quickly disbanded by the occupying Forces. The resistance against the invasion and foreign occupation began shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when the officers of the Iraqi Army melted into the population and started a guerrilla war. From at least 2004, and as of May 2007, the insurgency primarily targeted Coalition armies and later also the Iraqi security forces, seen as collaborators with the coalition. During this period, only 10% of significant attacks have targeted Iraqi civilians (who could be also contractors or collaborators). According to a February-March 2007 poll, 51% of the Iraqi population approved of the attacks on Coalition forces. The same poll revealed that the number of Iraqis who say their own life was going well has dipped from 71 % in November 2005 to 39 % in 2007. About three-fourths of Iraqis reported feelings of anger, depression and difficulty concentrating. Only 18 % of Iraqis had confidence in U.S. and coalition troops, and 86 % were concerned that someone in their household will be a victim of violence.

Civilians in an occupied country have no obligation of loyalty towards the Occupying Power regardless of the motives of the invading forces. The only obligations they have relate to their civilian status: civilians are protected by applicable human rights law as well as by Geneva Convention IV relating to civilians and the provisions relating to civilians in Protocol Additional I. A civilian who takes up arms against the Occupying Power loses rights as a civilian, but takes on the rights and obligations of combatant forces. This is the situation of the classic levee en masse: the Geneva Conventions recognize the combatant status of persons who spontaneously take up arms on the approach of the enemy.

This rule is augmented by the principle of self-determination: under the law of self-determination, a people have the right to resist, with force if necessary, an alien or foreign occupier. The fact that some of the people resisting the U.S./British occupation of Iraq were not part of the pre-invasion Iraqi armed forces is not relevant, as persons who were civilians can take up arms as insurgents against any occupier. As protected combatants they have the right to take up arms against the Occupying Power and cannot be criminally charged except for acts that violate the laws and customs of war.

The reason for this rule is obvious: were civilians who spontaneously take up arms and organize themselves into defence forces to be considered instead of combatants, this would mean that persons under attack from a foreign or oppressive force would not be able to fight back and resist without being considered terrorist.

The U.S. administration has generally succeeded in its political rhetoric on the issue: practically no U.S. politicians and very few scholars in NGOs in the U.S. have challenged the false labelling of the Iraq resistance as

The Iraqi people have only defended themselves lawfully against the most rapacious power this world has ever seen, and they need our full support. After all they also fought for us. Because the US Army was stuck in Iraq because of the Iraqi resistance, they couldn’t attack other countries and the world remained a little bit safer…

Why Iraq had to be destroyed

What we should denounce is the US (and to a lesser extent European) imperialist endless cycles of wars and meddling in other countries’ – also Iraqi - affairs. The US destroyed Iraq, installed an extreme neoliberal system, they’re plundering the country through a quisling compradore government, while the people suffer, have no access to basic services. The footprint of the US is still very heavy.


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That’s why the Iraqi protest movement is fighting what Uday Al Zaidi (Munthader’s brother) calls

: the remnants of the structures that the US left behind. And that’s why we have the obligation to support the Iraqi people to regain their real sovereignty. Iraqis fought the occupation without the help of any major power, in stark contrast to what happened in Vietnam. Their struggle has forced the US to partially leave the country. This is an amazing achievement.

But the occupation is not over. We have to help the Iraqi people in any way we can. That is very positive support for the sake of world peace.

The motivation for the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq in March 2003 was to eliminate the threats a post UN sanctions Iraq posed to American economic hegemony. This hegemony, rooted in Third World debt and corporate market access, has seen trillions of dollars flow from the Third World to the First via the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and free trade agreements. An independent Iraq, free to develop its own oil resources unimpeded, would have had the potential to challenge Saudi Arabia’s petrodollar financing of the US economy, and directly challenge the Saudi state’s capacity to serve American interests via its dominant oil producer status.

What have the Americans given the Iraqis? Milton Friedman’s neoliberalism. In Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Friedman outlined the three key cornerstones of neoliberal policy:

1. Governments must remove all rules and regulations standing in the way of the accumulation of profits.

2. Governments should sell off any assets they own that corporations could be running at a profit.

3. Governments should dramatically cut back funding of social programmes.

These can be summarised as deregulation, privatisation of public entities, and cutbacks of government services: capitalism on crack cocaine. This model has been imposed on Iraq in a very brutal and extreme way. The rise of neoliberalism at the American and International levels has coincided with the rise of the US as the world’s dominant military power. The two are directly linked. New York Times columnist and free market globalisation advocate Thomas Friedman famously summarised this:

“ …The hidden hand of the market will never work without

world safe for Silicon Valley’s

America is responsible for the world’s poorest countries being trapped in an endless cycle of poverty, with little money to invest in education, health care, provision of safe drinking water and basic food, and protection


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of crucial national and environmental resources. Public services must now be subject to the neoliberal law of profit, not need. If the service can’t be provided by a corporation for profit, it therefore is not really a necessity.

It is preservation of the system that is the focus, and to ensure that regardless of whether a country is a representative democracy or a dictatorship, decision making is taken out of the hands of government and instead government is beholden to the World Bank, the IMF, WTO and free trade agreements. America has created a global empire where countries are given two choices: acquiesce, or be destroyed. For countries that are already rich, reaping the rewards is allowed with this acquiescence, as in the case of Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, the Arab oil-producing dictatorships of the Middle East. Resist and you will be potentially destroyed, like Iraq, Chile, Libya and countless others. For most of the planet, there are no rewards, only hardship. The US does not have the world’s largest and most powerful military for show. It exists to keep the system in place, to make the rich richer by making the poor poorer, and to be available when a country not only resists, but could be potentially impede the very foundations upon which the system depends. This is why Iraq not only had to be militarily invaded, but thoroughly destroyed. Because Iraq stood in direct contrast to this World Bank/IMF neoliberal model. As a major oil producing country, it benefited from the US manipulation of the 1973 OPEC crisis and subsequent quadrupling of oil prices. But unlike Saudi Arabia, it steadfastly refused to send its oil profits to the US in return for US protection and client-state status. Instead, it invested its oil revenues back into its own development, and crucially, advocated other oil-producing Arab states do the same. Iraq also posed issues because of its socialised command-and-control economy. Iraq, despite the sanctions, existed as a staunch anti-neoliberal, anti-US client state, which had eliminated corporate investors, American or otherwise, from participating in any of its markets post-sanctions: agriculture, health, education, manufacturing, etc. This precluded US or western capital from directly owning or investing in Iraqi industries. Based on past experience, restricting, let alone eliminating US corporations from its markets would be reason enough for the US to take very decisive action. And there’s more. Richard Benson, Citibank and Chase Manhattan analyst summarized very clearly what was at stake:

This decision compelled the US to move to the next level: a military invasion and regime change.

No Justice, No peace

We should keep this in mind when we analyse the current situation in Iraq. How can we be positive when we see that the country is still being further destroyed? That there is massive corruption, imported by the US? That people who resist this system are being sentenced to death? Cosmetic operations through charity is not enough. It’s our duty to denounce this imperialist system, not only in Iraq, but everywhere. If we only try to ameliorate the worst excesses of this system, we are doing the same work as the missionaries in colonial times. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t support charity or concretely help the people in Iraq. But if it’s only that, we’re on the wrong track. What we want is Accountability and Justice for Iraq. We owe that to the Iraqi people.

The International Community and the International Human Rights bodies, who have turned a blind eye to the unspeakable human rights violations in Iraq, should take up their responsibilities urgently. If not, history will be the judge of the criminal neglect of the Iraqi people by the International Community during the past 20 years. The BRussells Tribunal has been monitoring the human rights violations in Iraq – and the dirty war – since the illegal invasion of Iraq by Anglo-American Forces. The BRussells Tribunal was the driving force behind the World Tribunal on Iraq, the predecessor of the highly acclaimed Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal. All these necessary initiatives will hopefully lead to the punishment of the responsible perpetrators and then we as world citizens can start to dream about international peace and justice. We have to keep on monitoring closely the human rights abuses of Nouri Al-Maliki’s government, the American

and the foreign mercenaries who are still present in Iraq.


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We should never accept that history will be rewritten by the invading powers that illegally occupied a sovereign country, an illegal invasion and occupation that the Human Rights Council and the UN have never condemned.

, according to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which followed World War II. The international community has excelled in silence. Silence is complicity. And silence kills. May we never give up defending the pledge for justice of the Iraqi people.

May we never give up exposing the unspeakable violations of human rights that take place in Iraq.

May we never give up highlighting the responsibilities of the International Community. Dirk Adriaensens is coordinator of SOS Iraq and member of the executive committee of the BRussells Tribunal. Between 1992 and 2003 he led several delegations to Iraq to observe the devastating effects of UN imposed sanctions. He was a member of the International Organizing Committee of the World Tribunal on Iraq (2003-2005). He is also co-coordinator of the Global Campaign Against the Assassination of Iraqi Academics. He is co-author of Rendez-Vous in Baghdad, EPO (1994), Cultural Cleansing in Iraq, Pluto Press, London (2010), Beyond Educide, Academia Press, Ghent (2012), and is a frequent contributor to GlobalResearch, Truthout, The International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies and other media. The BRussells Tribunal is a partner organization of the Perdana Global Peace Organisation.

e al

r f e n l


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I have been wanting to write this letter since I arrived home, but I was lazy because of the hot weather and the lack of electricity and so I kept postponing it. Now it is time to write it. I am writing this letter to you because I believe that you are the only ones who will be able to understand me. Neither my family nor my friends will understand me or take me seriously.It is about us. It is about how we have changed during the two years that we spent at that amazing place, all together, from all over the world, as one big family.Two years ago, or even last summer, I wouldn’t have thought this way. I wouldn’t even have believed that I would have these kinds of thoughts in my mind. After having these opportunities, this education, the knowledge of other cultures and getting to know people from more than half the countries in the world, I realized that it is not fair to my country if I don’t come back and use what I have learnt to serve it. Perhaps some of you have not yet noticed how your countries need you: the needs may be subtle. But if you come from a country that is in a war or passing through hard times, you will realize that even though you are only one person, you can affect the situation. I am talking this way, because I know that most of us are going to good universities and will have great degrees of all kinds. Also, we had, have and will have different opportunities than many other students. Therefore, we have more duties on our shoulders towards our communities and countries.Some of you might be wondering why am I saying all of this, but if you have lived in a country like Iraq, especially during the past seven years, you would realize that you should not be inside it. So far, whenever I meet people and they hear that I came back from Canada , they say: Why did you come back? Have you lost your mind? Never come back again. Don’t even think

Iraq is gone. Honestly, it is true. I would say the same and, in fact, last summer I wasn’t planning or having thoughts of coming back because the country is in such a big mess and chaos. People with degrees, who studied hard, are unemployed. People who are related to someone in the government are everywhere, getting paid thousands of dollars when some of them didn’t

aspect is the government: probably you have heard that we still don’t have a government after the elections that we had on the seventh of March. Almost

A young Iraqi, Abdullah al-Hadeethi, attending the Pearson College in Victoria (Canada), in mid-2010 wrote to his foreign student peers about obligations towards their home countries.


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busy counting their money and managing their bank accounts and family businesses abroad.These are all reasons that encourage Iraqis to leave and to persuade others to leave if they are able to do so. There are a number of things I couldn’t help but notice since I’ve been back. We get a total of four hours or less of electricity in a day. Sometimes no water is available. People are angry at

I would like to be treated normally and earn respect when I say that I come from Iraq . The past seven years, we have been insulted at our homes,

guys do. Like a trip to Europe, but I don’t get the visa. I would like to have

is nowhere for me to do so. I would like to visit Ala’, Ghazi and Maryam in

for the visa process and I might not be able to get it after all. I would like to have received my US visa normally, as others did, without having to wait for a “further notice”. I don’t like it when people hear about Iraq and connect it with terrorism. If I leave and never come back, and others who have degrees do so as well, then Iraq will be like this forever and will never again be as it was. I am saying this because I know that most of us will have a bright future and will be able to make some changes. So don’t ignore your duties toward your countries or to the world as whole, because it will never be a good place to live in if we keep ignoring our duties and hope that someone else will come and do what we were supposed to do.This is only my point of view and I wanted to share it with you because as I said earlier you are the only ones who will understand me. Let’s work

If I don’t try, and you don’t try then the world will never change and peace will never be achieved.

Abdullah al-Hadeethi


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I am a soldier. I am dirt. With Joshua I put the cities of Canaan to the sword while women screamed and tried to protect their babies. I spent long days in Nanjing butchering and butchering civilians because I enjoyed it. For I

and the people burned screaming and their fat puddled in the streets. I am a soldier. I am dirt.

On the crumbling walls of Angkor Wat, the Cold Lairs, trees now crawling over the walls, you may see me carved, marching, marching to kill forgotten peoples, it matters not whom. In the sweltering heat of Chichen Itza and the terrible

cities of Japan and on the Death March of the Philippines I killed and killed, for I am a soldier. I am dirt. I kill.

In this I glory. I spend my declining years drinking in bars with old soldiers I knew when Breda fell to us and we raped and killed and looted, when we torpedoed the troop ships and left the soldiers in their thousands to drown slowly as

these I remember lovingly. For I am dirt.

Crush their skulls and eat their faces, we say with remembered bravado. We remember the adventures fondly. They almost had us at Plei Cuy when a 551 arrived with beehive rounds, and that put paid to them, hoo-ah.

These are degenerate days. Once I breached the walls of Ilium or Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and killed and looted and raped girls of seven in front of their parents—how they howled! Now perforce I say I do it for democracy, about which I don’t give a damn, or to end evil, though our allies are the worst tyrants we can

their neither ends, and this in the public square for the amusement of a bored populace.

Now I water-board them, bringing them to the edge of drowning, screaming, begging, puking, yes, that does nicely, now a little more water as

I Am A SoldierI Am Dirt


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their minds break, and maybe I will masturbate over it later. For I am a soldier. I am dirt. I am the worst of a sorry species.

I am a soldier. I pride myself on my allegiance to duty, God, honor, country. My god is Moloch of the red fangs, who wills me to besiege a city into cannibalism, to catapult the severed heads of loved ones over the walls, with blankets infected with smallpox. My god, however named—Yahweh, Molloch, Satanas, Odin, imposes my duty, to kill, to rape.

But if my country says to butcher, then butchery were no crime, but a source of honor. To kill for pure enjoyment, as Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, is most contemptible, but to do it because Bush II, Tojo, Bin Laden, or Netanyahu commands it—this is virtue at its highest. Killing for your own reasons is criminal. Killing someone you

you have never met is a source of medals.

I was a soldier once. I received certain medals. They were trivial medals. The meritorious variety are awarded for jumping into a trench of scared conscripted adolescents and bludgeoning them

But medals can be problems. If I put them in the toilet, they might clog it, but I certainly would not want children exposed to them. The military presents problems that Clausewitz did not anticipate.

Once, in a war of no particular importance, I lay in a hospital of little importance in a country in Asia that didn’t matter. It was just a country. Soldiers kill, who and where and why being beyond their capacities for thought. I was blinded. Soldiers are dirt, and sometimes they get what they deserve. I did. Across from me, though I couldn’t see them, were the survivors of a tank crew. An RPG 2, which you probably don’t know what is, had hit their M60, which you probably don’t know what it, and had cooked off the cherry juice, which you probably don’t know what is.

I couldn’t see them. I was a soldier. I was dirt. But I was blind dirt. I couldn’t see them under the plastic sheeting under which they oozed serum.

and gunner screaming as their skin sloughed off,

and couldn’t, and died screaming, screaming,

the smoke and agony and terror, which is why I hate you sonosonfbitches that sent them and us to make money for McDonnell Douglas.

For this we hold reunions. We get together in Wyoming and Tuscaloosa and Portland and remember when we were young and the war held off the boredom of life and the star shells

and life meant nothing but was at least intense.

puzzled Cambodia and I hate you cocksuckers living soft at home for sending us and I hate what I did and I hate what my friends did who were there, who are really my only friends. Aind I hope you one day pay, what we paid, what our victims paid and you pay it as we did. And this will bring me the only joy in my life.

I am a soldier. I am dirt.



On 14 November 2012, the Israeli military under Operation Pillar of Cloud carried out air strikes which killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza. According to the Israeli government, the operation began in response to Palestinian groups launching rockets at Israel over a 24-hour period. Both sides reported casualties but as usual it saw the disproportionate devastation on the people and infrastructure of Gaza.

In response to the above, Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) launched the Gaza Emergency Fund in November 2012. The Foundation then organised a team headed by

PGPF accompanied by Tan Sri Norian Mai, PGPF

Board of Trustees and escorted by the Egyptian Police APC. The Malaysian Ambassador to Egypt

The Delegation was then ushered to visit an Exhibition organised by the Palestinian National Authority displaying the ruthlessness of Israeli attacks on Gaza and Palestinians. Records

revealed that Israel military targets often resulted in civilian casualties. More than half of the victims are children.

15 tons of medical aid and baby formula was air-

The medical aid was donated by Pharmaniaga Sdn Bhd and Ain Medicare. The baby formula however were bought and transported from Egypt.

is the largest functioning hospital in Gaza. Datuk Mukhriz and the delegation then visited patients who were mostly victims of Israeli attacks. PGPF’s ongoing Waqaf Water4Gaza project saw to the distribution of drinking water to the members of the public outside the hospital with support from local Gazans.

with a hand-over of cash amounting to EURO 100,000 courtesy of concerned People of Malaysia towards attack victims via PGPF’s Gaza Emergency Fund.

PGPF Humanitarian Aid to Gaza Mission


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A Cry From the Heart

Women and children alikeMurdered and massacred night after nightWhile the so-called leaders of countries afarDebated on who’s wrong or rightBut their powerless words were in vainAnd the bombs fell down like acid rainBut through the tears and the blood and the painYou can still hear that voice through the smoky haze

Lyrics by Michael Heart, dedicated specially to the Gaza war victims. No further elaboration necessary, these words are bound to reach the core of your hearts. This is war. This is what war causes. This is what war leaves behind. Pools of blood and tears. We hear deafening, heart-wrenching lamentations by those lucky enough to still be alive. Nothing else remains.

Is this what we strive for? Isn’t it but idiocy, absurdity and cowardice? Nothing can be more shameful than destroying an entire nation when the oppressors are completely armed and the only ammunition the oppressed have are rocks and stones.

Almost everyone in almost every nation knows of Gaza. The small, abandoned country deprived of its own right to live in peace. The children murdered, the women raped, massacred, and the men publicly annihilated. Almost every day, CNN tells the true story regarding Gaza while we, normal lucky citizens of a peaceful nation sit on our couches, eyes completely locked onto the screen. We voice out our outrage, we send them our prayers, we try our best to supply them with the basic needs to live, we try to do everything we can but the harsh reality is, we can’t stop the ongoing war.

Wars should never take place in the first instance for the simple reason that our human destiny is spiritual in nature. In a practical sense, wars should not take place as wars are no answers. All that is cherished and treasured is smothered to smithereens, never to return, even as vengeance bites deeper into the human soul for generations to come. Wounds are never healed through wars.

Take Japan and China for example. Even now, decades after the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese and Japanese still can’t get over the feud. Take our beloved Malaysia as another example. Can our combatants ever forget the hardships they faced during the 2nd World War? Can we ever forget the cries of innocent women and children of those who died fighting? The agony and pain as their children were left to die right before their eyes? Can we ever forget the stories passed down by our grandfathers? Their warnings, their burning anguish, their regrets? This is why wars should cease to exist. This is why wars should never take place. This is why I cry from the heart for the people of Gaza.

As the wind swept me off my feet,I heard a faint, distant cry“Give me back what I have lost”I could’ve sworn it said.

Then saw I with mine eyes,Sword against sword, gun against gun,The land soaked with rains of blood.What started with laughter ended with cries,The seeds of hate thus planted,Have yielded naught but fruits of death.

Nur Natasha Ariza bt Aiza Rizal, a young schoolgirl from Tunku Kurshiah Collegepoignantly expresses her feelings for the people of Gaza:



The response for the Essay Writing and Art competition were indeed encouraging and this made picking a “winner” for both competitions

“Global Peace and Justice Begins at Home”.

our students in secondary schools a wide

nameage and school

student’s own handwriting between 450-500 words.

appreciate the work being done and become

closing date of 15th May 2013

or the ery rst com etitionthe winners are:

Ilmira Murni Mohd Hareff

Tan Kwan Ann

Nurul Syakirah Ahmad

Shahira Tasha Sham

Karunyah Vickneswaran

They will receive a token ofa reciation from the K .

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Why wars should never exist

don’t think twice about it”.

I don’t quite understand those words; how calmly they were uttered. Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in the history of U.S Military. A Navy SEAL, one of the best, having survived four tours in Iraq. He received medals for

skulls of the enemies.

human a sentient being – death. A bullet to the chest does not mean loss of life. Instead it is a mission completed; a mere statistic; a corpse and nothing more.

I don’t quite understand the inception of the term, the choice to become a combatant. Maybe they were clouded by the glory that surrounds the past. “Strong men defending the front lines, willing to die for the nation “. But nobody ever emphasises that they’re willing to slaughter. And I don’t know why that choice can be seen as one that’s rational, why people even allow it to happen? A political agenda does not change the nature of killing, so why grant people that choice?

still maintain their composure. Maybe they are trained, to believe that death is not an actual possibility. Maybe it is all an action movie, a virtual video game in their minds. Maybe they don’t realise the devastation that they bring, and if their presence doesn’t terrify opposing governments, it gives them an incentive to arm themselves to their teeth. The true harm they cause are to civilians, the people on the ground. While everyone claims that casualties are minimised and arms only aimed at combatants, a weapon does not discriminate. It kills anything and everything in its path.

I don’t quite understand why they don’t realise, that if you don’t die in combat, the experience kills you

no way of actual release other than shooting targets at the shooting range, suicide is another way of escaping. Veterans, after all, are among the highest common background of suicide cases in America.

I don’t understand the root of the ‘occupation’. It instils fear. Governments react to this fear by constantly arming their forces, to ensure security. But more weapons only mean bigger wars.

If humanity can progress away from this archaic form of operation, why insist on mass killing? There are more ways to solve a problem. Alternatives like negotiation and compromise. Plus, discourse can only be truly empowered if war is no longer a legitimate option.

Death. Fear. War is full of it. I don’t understand why that’s so hard to digest.

Name : Ilmira Murni Mohd HareffSchool : Tunku Kurshiah College, Bandar Enstek, SerembanForm : 5CAge : 17


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Why wars should never take place

War. A simple word to describe such atrocious event. A word that is far too simple to bear the burden, the bloodshed, and the tears of what actually happens during war. A word that people should cringe in disgust from,

issues.

War. Is enslaves us all to the merciless call for bloodlust, turning us into little better than animals. It strips us

War. It destroys us all, it destroys all the good in us, leaving behind the empty shell that means nothing, a dark, black abyss, that shows only the worst of us. It makes us hardly human.

War. The prisoner and tormentor of innocent children. The very thing that suppressed and robs them of the chance to be normal, to be children. War is not a place for them. Nor is it a place for others.

Do you know what war does to children? Have you ever cared? The answer for most people is plain and simple: No. We have absolutely no idea of the pain or suffering they do through. But we can only imagine.

Children are traumatised. They have everything they’ve ever known, everything they’ve ever thought was safe, taken away from them, and destroyed. They will feel lost, constantly afraid, and broken. In some cases, they

to constantly cower in fear from the slightest sound.

It is no wonder that some have nightmares. No wonder that some of them become psychopaths after witnessing this. War does terrible things to us.

back to that Pandora’s Box from which it emerged. To rip the threads of our history away from the bindings of war, and say NO. No to the cruelty of war, the pain of war.

But yet: Criminalising war – what does it really hold in store for us? Of course it holds plenty of promise. No more worrying whether our loved ones are alive and safe, because they will be. No more worrying if the war will

Criminalising war – taking another step towards even more intelligent civilisation, and being able to solve our problems in a better way.

Criminalising war – ensuring that children and our loved ones are safe, and that no blood is shed unnecessarily.

And no one will ever have to be scared, or feel lost, ever again. No one will have to have any nightmares about war. Because we’ll all be safe.

Name : Tan Kwan AnnSchool : Cempaka International School, Taman Cheras Permata 2, SelangorForm : Sophomore 2 TerraAge : 14


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Criminalise War Magazine Volume 1 No 2

Documents

Transcript of Criminalise War Magazine Volume 1 No 2