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Wizdom
14-10-05, 22:25
Amerikanen onthouden Irakezen water en voedsel

Uitgegeven op 14 oktober 2005 om 20:33 uur

(Novum/AP) - Het Amerikaanse leger in Irak snijdt de water- en voedselvoorziening van Iraakse burgers af alvorens de aanval op opstandelingen te openen, in de hoop dat de burgers tijdig de benen nemen. Dat beweert Jean Ziegler, een socioloog die namens de mensenrechtencommissie van de Verenigde Naties onderzoek doet naar de voedselvoorziening van burgers in Irak. Het Amerikaanse leger ontkent de aantijging en zegt dat de coalitietroepen voorzien in de basisbehoeften van de Iraakse burgers.

Volgens de Geneefse Conventie mogen strijdende partijen burgers geen voedsel onthouden en is het zelfs de taak van een bezettingsmacht burgers van voedsel te voorzien, aldus Ziegler. Om die reden stelt Ziegler dat de Amerikanen het internationaal recht schenden. Wel zegt Ziegler te moeten toegeven dat de Amerikaanse strategie levens redt, omdat veel burgers noodgedwongen de vuurlinie ontvluchten. Er zijn echter altijd burgers die achter blijven, aldus Ziegler.

De Zwitserse hoogleraar heeft al eerder controversiële uitspraken gedaan. Zo vergeleek hij onlangs de Gazastrook met 'een enorm concentratiekamp' - een vergelijking die hem op kritiek van zowel secretaris-generaal Kofi Annan van de VN als van Hoge Commissaris voor de Mensenrechten Louise Arbour kwam te staan.

Wizdom
15-10-05, 06:50
US troops starving Iraqis, says UN


Friday 14 October 2005, 21:56 Makka Time, 18:56 GMT


Geneva Convention protocols prohibit the use of starvation

A United Nations human rights investigator has accused the US and British forces in Iraq of breaching international law by depriving civilians of food and water in besieged cities.


But the US military denied the charge and said that while supplies were sometimes disrupted by combat, food was never deliberately withheld.


Jean Ziegler, a former Swiss sociology professor who is UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said on Friday that the Geneva Conventions banned military forces from using "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare".


But he said that in Falluja, Tal Afar and Samarra, Iraqi and US-led forces had cut off or restricted food and water to encourage residents to flee before assaults on entrenched Sunni fighters over the past year.


"A drama is taking place in total silence in Iraq, where the coalition's occupying forces are using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population," Ziegler told a news briefing in Geneva.


Geneva Conventions




US soldiers are accused of
flouting the humanitarian law

Two 1977 protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which lay down rules of conduct in armed conflicts, ban using deprivation of food or water as a weapon of war. They also prohibit destruction of food stocks or interruption of food supply lines.


Ziegler said he understood the military rationale of the US-led forces that were "facing such a horrible enemy - these insurgents who do not respect any law of war and who use the civilian population of cities like Falluja or Tal Afar as human shields, who keep them as hostages".


But he said their actions were nevertheless a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law".


Ziegler said he hoped the General Assembly would "condemn this strategy of the coalition forces" when he presents his report on the right to food in New York on 27 October.


US denial



Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, a spokesman for the US military in Iraq, said Ziegler's accusations were baseless.



"Any allegations of us withholding basic needs from the Iraqi people are false"

Lt Col Steve Boylan,
US military spokesman

"Any allegations of us withholding basic needs from the Iraqi people are false," he said.


"In conjunction with our combat operations, we take all precautions to ensure that the Iraqi people are taken care of, as does the Iraqi government," Boylan said.


"There have in the past ... been some supplies that have been delayed due to combat operations, but they were due to transit the area once it was deemed safe. It does not do relief supplies any good if you have them going into a firefight."


Ziegler said that he had been in touch with the British authorities on the issue, and "a channel seems to be opening", but that attempts to start a dialogue with the US authorities had been fruitless.

waterfiets
15-10-05, 10:00
Aan de andere kant van de wereld schijnt de VS met 400.000 voedselpaketten in de maag te zitten die het over heeft na de storm Katrina. Alsof er geen aardbeving in Pakistan bestaat !

mark61
15-10-05, 12:50
Kom kom, wateren mag vast nog wel. In Pisgat Ze'ev bijvoorbeeld.

Bacon & beans voor Pakistan. Zal ze leren.