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80 million scars on world’s conscience

Auteur: dimitrisvetsikas1969. Pixabay Licence.

80 million forcibly displaced people by the end of 2019

La version française de cet article intitulée « 80 millions de cicatrices sur la conscience de l’humanité » est parue dans Voix d’Exils le 3 mars 2020

Wars are provoked, countries are divided and refugees are flooding the world, while terrible images are displayed every day on television screens of migrants drowning in rough seas, dying of exhaustion or starvation, killed by mercenaries, exploited by human traffickers and transformed into merchandise and currency. They are victims of political machinations and « regime change », in other words, man-made misfortunes!

According to the estimates of United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), at the end of 2019, an unprecedented number of 80 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide and delivered to stormy seas, to the burning desert sun and to the whims of the immigration offices of host countries.

Children are the most vulnerable

Children are the most vulnerable among refugees. They are infected with widespread diseases, recruited as child soldiers in armed conflicts and are victims of rape and forced labor.

The other day, as I was scrolling through my Facebook page I came across this piece of news: “Fatima Ibrahim Hadi, aged 12, died of malnutrition on February 4 of this year, after her photos invaded international media as living proof of the ugliness of the war on Yemen and of the crimes committed by the warring parties and their patrons”. In Yemen, an estimated 3.2 million children and women suffer from acute malnutrition and 7,4 million children need humanitarian assistance (ICRC). Then, continuing to scroll down my page, I found this obituary: « The al-Ghai family is devastated by the loss of four family members who perished while crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. Four other members of the same family were saved. Many others have drowned. Most of them were from Hasakeh governorate of Syria ” located in the northeast of the country.

Weaponizing refugees

In October 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Syrian Sunni Islamist allies launched a full-scale military offensive in this very region of Hasakeh. The incursion has triggered the displacement of 200,000 to 300,000 people overnight in the towns and villages of Ras al-Ain, Tal Tamer and Tal Abiad, and caused widespread devastation and pillage.
Turkish President Erdogan, whose country has been deeply involved in the war in Syria, and who opened his country’s borders to Syrian refugees at the start of the conflict, is now using them as bargaining chips with the European Union, and his latest attempt to pushing them to the Greco-Turkish border demonstrates his lack of concern for their well-being.
Moreover, the policy of weaponising Syrian refugees and recruiting them in Turkey’s proxy wars in Lybia and elsewhere continues full-scale. The Guardian’s correspondent writes the following from Ankara on 26 may 2020: In Lybia “an estimated 8’000 to10’000” Syrian mercenaries are fighting as “part of Ankara’s plan for supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean” (1). This blatant violation of all international conventions is another clear example of how Turkey is mistreating and manipulating an extremely vulnerable population.

Refugees die twice

Someone has said that these poor refugees die twice: once when their natural habitats is destroyed and they are bombed outside their countries. And a second time, when they struggle along the arduous roads in their quest to reach the host countries!
On an official mission for the United Nations, Jean Ziegler, a sociologist from Geneva, made a research tour in May 2019 to Lesbos, one of five refugee reception centers on Greek’s Aegean Islands. And in his recently published book « Lesbos, la honte de l’Europe », he describes how 20’000 refugees are crammed there in totally inhuman conditions, in a flagrant violation of the most basic principles of human rights! These conditions, he says, are « Set by the European Union for one purpose: to create terror and deterrence in order to prevent the arrival of other refugees »

Mainstream media dare not expose the real causes of these tragedies

Being well aware of the nature of politics, there will be no end to these man-made disasters in the future. The UN, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and people of good will do not have the appropriate leverage to end this situation. The mainstream media dare not expose the real causes of these tragedies. Meanwhile, the powerful countries that have been involved in these disasters do care only about how to « divide the cake » in countries like Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and many others which have become failing states unable to protect their citizens.

Have human values and ethics become empty slogans?

If humanity had lived by certain human principles and values, most of these displaced people would have stayed at home, enjoying a dignified and secure life, even though they had to tolerate difficulties and poverty.

Hayro
Member of the Vaud editorial board of  Voix d’Exils

References:
(1) Turkey and The Weaponizing of Syrian Refugees.

 




Bob Dylan’s song “Blowin’ in the Wind“

The dead body of Aylan Kurdi. Freedom House Domaine public

The dead body of Aylan Kurdi. Freedom House Domaine public

Still asks the same burning questions half a century later

As an teenager in the seventies, living thousands miles away from the US, and belonging to a totally different culture, I was, like millions of American youths , fascinated by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez’ songs. I was particularly impressed by Dylan’s song  “Blowin’ in the Wind“, which was written in 1962 and soon afterwards transcended into a legend and became the anthem of civil rights movement and protests marches against the war, injustice and racism, in a period the US was deeply involved  in Vietnam war. The song’s popularity grew so much that it was marked in 2004, number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 greatest Songs of All Time“.

There has been a great deal of controversy recently over naming Bob Dylan winner of 2016 Nobel Prize for literature, but this is another matter. Personally, I have been pondering, what kind of message did the Swedish academy want to send to the world by making this choice, in these turbulent times where mankind faces a crossroad ? Did the academy want to say that the world today confronts threats of apocalyptic dimensions: wars, terrorism, mass immigration , environmental disaster etcetera ? That we are, more than any other time in history, in utmost need of promoting public awareness, peace, and humanity, as well as exposing injustice and hypocrisy , just as Dylan did in his song “Blowin’ in the Wind“ ? As a matter of fact, I don’t know. But what I do know for sure is that “Blowin’ in the Wind“ is still asking the same hard and burning question 55 years later:

How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, and how many times must the cannon balls fly Before they’re forever banned?

Five and half decades have passed since those days. Has the world become a safer and better place? Has the proxy wars, regime change policies, atrocities, committed under false slogans of human values and democracy, disappeared or diminished ? Has the hypocrisy and the lies of the politicians changed? The answer is as easy to find, as the words of the song which has never lost neither its poignancy nor its urgency.

Yes, and how many years can some people exist

Before they’re allowed to be free?

Yes, and how many times a man can turn his head

And pretend that he just doesn’t see ?

Why do the world leaders always turn a blind eye and deaf ear to all these atrocities: in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen for example? Over six years, (1) “Syria’s civil war has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country’s pre-war population – more than 11 million people – have been killed or forced to flee their homes.” How long should a man suffer and endure? How often these injustices will happen?

Ironically, president Obama, who started with Nobel Peace Prize, is now ending his presidency by leaving behind a record of eight years of uninterrupted wars ,(2) having dropped 26.171 bombs on 7 nations around the world in 2016 alone ! Why ? Is there really no answer to the world peace? Yes. There is, and it is always there as Dylan says “Blowin’ in the wind“ and within the reach of everyone who wants to see and grab it, but the real problem is that no one is willing to ?

Yes, and how many times must a man look up before he can see the sky?

Yes and how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’till he knows That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind The answer , is blowin’ in the wind

There is timeless wisdom in the simple words and lyrics of this song. It is as pertinent today as it was in the sixties. Dylan presents us with the vices of our world, as Shakespeare did 500 years before in his wonderful sonnet No. 66 “Tired with all these, for restful death I cry“, but Shakespeare leaves a space for hope.

What about us ? We the innocent victims of these premediated wars ? Is there any space for hope ? Yes, there must be one. There is no other choice !

 Hayrenik DONO

13 January, 2017

Membre de la réduction vaudoise de Voix d’Exils

Infos:

Listen to Blowin’ in the Wind here

Footnotes:

  1. “Quick facts: What you need to know about the Syria crisis “ (Mercycorps Oct.13,2016 )
  2. Micah Zenko , ” How Many Bombs Did the United States Drop ” in 2016 ,(Council on Foreign relations , Jan.05,2017)



The future of the Middle East remains uncertain

Situation tendue au Maghreb et Moyen-OrientWith Protests from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen and now to Libya and escalating to the rest of the Middle East, the turmoil in the Middle East is intensifying and the outcome of the increasingly bloody demonstrations remains unclear. Anti-governments protesters, pro-governments supporters, military and police are continuing to crash in the streets as dictators also continue to kill.

The Genesis

More than two months ago, a Tunisian fruit vendor struck a match and started a fire that has spread throughout much of North Africa and the Middle East. Muhammad Bouazizi’s self immolation prompted anti government protests that toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and which has now spread to rest of the Middle East. A crowd which was estimated to be around 5,000 took part on Wednesday 5th January this year in his funeral procession to a cemetery near Sidi Bouzid. “Farewell, Mohammed, we will venge you. We weep for you today, but we will make those who caused your death weep » the crowd chanted. And yes indeed, they lived to their words and went to the streets to end the 23 years rule of former dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Then came Egypt’s turn and nothing could stop the fall of another dictator Hosni Mubarak

On Tuesday 24th January, two civilians and a police officer died when the police tried to disperse the unusually large anti-government demonstrations swept across Egypt, calling for the ouster of longtime president Hosni Mubarak. The protests in Cairo were reportedly the largest in the country this day, a date chosen by activists to emulate the recent uprising in nearby Tunisia. According to Aljazeera, the demonstrations were the largest in years, rivaling those held against the Iraq War in 2003 and in favor of free elections and civil society reforms in 2005.

Despite the Egyptian government’s cracking down and killing of opposition protesters, to shutting down the internet and cell phones, it didn’t stop people from carrying on with their revolution. Human Rights Watch (HRW) researchers said that they confirmed the deaths of 302 since 28th January, based on a count from eight hospitals in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez though no comprehensive death toll was given by the Egyptian government. These deaths instead gave the protesters more strength and determination to end Mr. Mubarak’s rule.  The people had become so bitter that they feared nothing not even death. And at that point, not even the greatest Imam, Pope or even Prophet Mohamed could have stopped the revolutionist from bringing an end to Mubarak’s 29 years of dictatorship.

On the other hand, it’s really surprising to see protesters stopping in the streets to pray. It gives an indication of one likely positive outcome of successful protests. And as the crashes got more intense, the protests took on a more Islamic flavor. This was obviously a bad news for Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal who has been mentored to be his likely successor prior to the protests.

The pillar of peace and security and a Western nations key ally in the Middle East

It’s very clear that Egypt is the centre of peace and a key Western ally in the Middle East. And Mubarak has been a very dedicated and close ally of the United States and its allies.

Mubarak was an anchor of U.S. policy of stability in the region. The twin pillars of that policy support for pro-American regimes that share U.S. security interests and the pursuit of Israeli-Arab peace are now on shaky ground after his fall. Israel will probably conclude that if such entrenched Arab regimes can fall, making peace with a deeply divided Palestinian movement is anything but a sure bet.

Israel is keeping a wary eye on developments in Egypt with fears that an Islamist State takes over there and  would end three decades of cooperation between the two countries. The U.S brokered Camp David accords, signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978, ended a generation of hostilities between the two nations and forged a relationship that has endured, in part, because of the stability of the Mubarak’s regime, which came to power after Sadat was assassinated in 1981 and in spite of deep animus among rank and file Egyptians toward Israel. Eli Shaked, Israel’s ambassador to Egypt from 2003 to 2005, predicted that “if the Mubarak regime falls, a new Islamist regime, hostile to Israel and Western nations, will replace it. There will be no democracy in Egypt” Shaked said. And “If there will be democratic elections in Egypt in the summer or in the very near future, (they) will be the first and last democratic elections in Egypt”. He concluded. While he recognizes that the causes of the upheaval in Egypt lie in economic and social strife, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is concerned that « there is a possibility that an organized force will take advantage of the situation ». A new Egyptian regime will probably affect relations with Hamas, which controls the Palestinian territory sandwiched between Israel and Egypt, and may play up the harsh criticism among many sectors in Egyptian society towards Israeli policy. But some terrorism experts believe that extremist voices are being drowned out by the chants of the protesters in Cairo. CNN analyst Paul Cruickshank wrote that al Qaeda’s support base « already severely shaken by its barbaric excesses in Iraq and biting criticism from fellow jihadists, could narrow yet further”.

The future of U.S. policy and interests in the region will largely depend on who ends up in power, not just in Egypt but in the host of other Middle East countries on the verge of transformation. In a doomsday scenario, extremist Islamist factions in Egypt, Tunisia and even Jordan could come to power, killing critical diplomatic and military relationships, forcing the closing of the Suez Canal and allowing Iran fill the vacuum. That could even trigger a most dangerous war between Israel and Iran. Nobody expects that worst case nightmare to come through, however.

 Now all eyes are on Libya

Large protests are uncommon in Libya, where dissent is rarely allowed. But anti-government protesters have taken to the streets of Libya demanding the resignation of another dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Foreign mercenaries, Libyan Security and soldiers are killing everyday anti-government demonstrators in efforts to paralyse the insurrection.

Today, of course no one knows what is to happen next. One thing is however certain: it would be a great disaster for the Libyan people if the international public attention is chased away by the wave of the tsunami which has just hit Japan!

Shawn WAKIDA, membre de la rédaction vaudoise de Voix d’Exils

 

 

 




European Union pays Gaddafi to fight immigration

Couple Berlusconi KadhafiLibyan leader Muammar Gaddafi signed a contract of £50 million with the European Union to stop immigrants from entering Europe through Libya.

Every year, thousands of people attempt to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy and many die en route, while those who are caught are taken back to camps in Libya where conditions are alarming. In 2008, Italy and Libya agreed a deal that allows the Italian navy to intercept illegal immigrants and return them to Libya. The move already triggered sharp criticism from the UN’s refugee agency and human rights groups.

On Tuesday the 5th October 2010, Libya and the European Union finalised a co-operation agreement on illegal migration. Pan-African co-operation, mobility, management of migration flows, border control and international protection are addressed in the accord. Under the agreement signed in Tripoli by European Union Commissioners Cecilia Malmstrom and Steven Fule, the EU will also provide Libya with 50 million Euros over the next 3 years to combat the flow of illegal migrants to Europe and to protect refugees

Colonel Gaddafi’s demand of £4.1 billions during his speech cases controversy

Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi had demanded for £4.1 billion a year from the European Union to stop illegal immigration which “threatens to turn Europe black”. Colonel Gaddafi made the demand as he ended his controversial two-day visit to Italy where he caused outrage in the Catholic Church by hosting two convert to Islam parties. Furious, Italian members of parliament (MPs) slammed his demands made in his farewell speech for cash to stop immigration and compared them to a Mafia extortion racket.

In the speech Gaddafi, 67, told his audience in Rome that Italy needs to convince her European allies to accept this Libyan proposal of 5 billion euro to Libya to stop illegal immigration, otherwise Europe runs the risk of turning into black. “We need support from the European Union to stop this army trying to get across from Libya, which is their entry point. At the moment there is a dangerous level of immigration from Africa into Europe, and we don’t know what will happen. We don’t know if Europe will remain an advanced and cohesive continent or if it will be destroyed by this barbarian invasion. We have to imagine that this could happen, but before, it does we need to work together” Gaddafi said.

Critics immediately targeted Gaddafi, pointing out how the UN High Commission for Refugees closed its Libyan office earlier this year, and opposition MPs called on Silvio Berlusconi to distance himself from the Libyan leader and his attempts to secure money from the EU. Silvana Mura, of the anti-sleaze party Italy of Values, said: “We need to know immediately if the Italian government intends to support this proposal which is in essence an unacceptable blackmail”. And Luigi de Magistris, an MEP with Italy of Values, said: “The dictator Gaddafi wants five billion euro to stop immigration, but where will the money go?”.

Libya buys coastal monitoring system to curb illegal migrants

Libya agreed to pay Irish-based company Transas Marine about 28 million dollars for a radar system to monitor its vast coastline for illegal migrants and outbreaks of pollution. The system will cover the entire Libyan coast, which stretches almost 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles), Transas Marine said after a contract-signing ceremony in Tripoli. Libya will have a system that is one of the most modern and efficient in the world and « even detect small boats used by illegal immigrants” said Christopher Loiz, head of the company’s French unit. Transas Marine hoped to complete the installation of the system of 15 monitoring stations within 16 months, which Loiz said cost more than 20 million euros.

Shawn WAKIDA

Membre de la rédaction lausannoise de Voix d’Exils