Yvonne Ridley

Follywood in Darfur

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:31:00 GMT

THEY do say that Tinsel Town, home of the fabulously rich, famous and beautiful people is the place where dreams come true. But I think that Hollywood should now be renamed Follywood to reflect the actions of some of its residents.

Secret Shame of Britain's Own Guantanamo Bay

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:24:00 GMT

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently stated that he would like to see Guantanamo Bay closed down as soon as possible. But lawyers and human rights campaigners accused him of double standards claiming the British Government is running its own Guantanamo Bay, hidden away in leafy Worcestershire.

“You can only demand to be treated as an equal if you act like one.” – Sr Yvonne Ridley

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:58:00 GMT

It is now two weeks since that turbulent priest, the Archbishop of Canterbury, dared to say there could be some room for sharia’h law in today’s Britain. I don’t think he could have forseen the anti-Muslim backlash which followed

The West adored Benazir Bhutto...

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:25:00 GMT

The West adored Benazir Bhutto. She, spoke fluent English, was educated at Harvard and Oxford and she was not an Islamic fundamentalist.

Well another year over short-sword fighting in defence of Political Islam

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:52:00 GMT

Sadly, the fashion for being Islamophobic is stronger than ever in the media and it doesn’t help when you have more self-confessed extremists and Islamists scuttling to kiss and tell their stories than a pack of WAGS passed their sell-by date

Talking to Hamas

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:44:00 GMT

I recently addressed a debate at Durham University in which the question of: ‘Should Israel talk to Hamas’ was the main platform for the discussion.

Martyr in the making: The strange case of Mudassar Arani

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:37:00 GMT

Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights stipulates the right to a Fair Trial. It is resolutely impossible to conceive of a trial being fair when the lawyer, let alone the client, is subject to sustained abuse and harassment at the hands of the establishment.

Betraying the Palestinians

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:58:00 GMT

The territory has been described as one of the most desolate places in the world.

But it is also one of the most hotly disputed pieces of land on the planet as well, and has been the subject of a bitter battle for self determination and independence for decades.

The indigenous people say two thirds of their land has been annexed with many of them displaced and dispossessed.

There are attempts to replace them with illegal settlers and there is even a massive barrier, or wall, which has been built in defiance of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.

Revolutionary leaders like Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuala’s Hugo Chavez have voiced their support and solidarity for these Arabs.

And no. I am NOT talking about Palestine.

What makes this story all the more tragic is the fact I am referring to the Western Saharawis who are demanding the right to vote for self determination at the very least.

In the meantime, land-grabbing Morocco is trying to convince the world that the Saharawis are happy to be part of Morocco and that only a few trouble-makers want independence. If it is so confident of its position, why doesn’t Morocco allow the Saharawis a vote to determine their own future?

Morocco obviously wants to keep the Western Sahara for itself and create a Greater Morocco. King Mohamed VI of Morocco publicly insisted: “We shall not give up one inch of our beloved Sahara, not a grain of its sand.”

Yet the similarities between the Western Saharawis and Palestinians is striking, but if I dare to make comparisons in some Arab circles I am castigated.

“We don’t need the Arab world divided anymore than it already is and the creation of another state will do nothing to help the Arab cause,” I was told by a respected politician from the Middle East.

However, neighbouring Algeria also sees itself as an important player in this conflict, although officially the country says it is merely defending the rights of nations to self-determination.

In the meantime the plight of nearly 200,000 refugees, who live in Spartan camps in a south west corner of Algeria, goes largely unnoticed with the exception of a few aid agencies. The UN has spent more than $600 million on peacekeeping efforts over the last two decades.

In the meantime, not one country or international organization recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara while more than 30 states around the world recognize the right of the indigenous people to have their own country.

Even Morocco’s closest ally The United States of America is reluctant to intervene in the territory which is about the size of the state of Colorado.

But guess what? International apathy is about to change - oil and gas has been found in the region and there’s growing interest over the Boujdour Block, a 27 million acre expanse claimed by Western Sahara. The Block stretches from the Sahara's cliff-lined shores to depths of more than 10,000 feet in the Atlantic Ocean.

Corporate America, and oil companies in China, Australia and elsewhere are starting to take an interest in what lies beneath the desert and ocean sands.

In the meantime, the struggle, led by the Polisario Front, which was originally formed in 1973 to fight Spanish colonialism, continues.

A UN settlement plan, based on a referendum in which the Western Saharan people would exercise their right to self-determination by choosing between independence and integration in Morocco, is deadlocked due to Moroccan stalling and attempting to inflate the voter roll.

If you want a quick history lesson, here goes: Morocco annexed the northern two-thirds of Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) in 1976, and the rest of the territory in 1979, following Mauritania's withdrawal. A guerrilla war with the Polisario Front contesting Morocco's sovereignty ended in a 1991 UN-brokered cease-fire; but a UN-organized referendum on final status has been postponed many, many times.

Meanwhile, the Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro), which in February 1976 formally proclaimed a government-in-exile of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is recognized by and has a seat on the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

What really concerns me now is the intransigent attitude of most of the Arab world to the plight of the Saharawis.

Why can’t they see that Morocco’s designs on expanding its territory into the Western Sahara will pose a long-term threat to the Palestinians and their struggle? While they shout from the rooftops over illegal occupations, dispossessed people and the invasion of Israeli settlers they remain silent over the plight of the Saharawis.

Even the late King Hassan II of Morocco reluctantly agreed that there should be a referendum. In the meantime Morocco, like Israel, continues to raise two fingers at the UN Security Council.

What concerns me is that the Zionist and/or pro-Israeli lobby in Washington is now beginning to support Morocco and their agenda is quite clear.

If Morocco can bend, twist and ignore international law and win, then it creates a very dangerous precedent. Should the Moroccans finally succeed in getting UN support for their autonomy proposal which bears a striking resemblance to the plan Israel would like to see the Palestinians accept, imagine how it will be seized upon and used against Palestine.

I can see the Israeli UN Ambassador proclaiming that if Morocco can overturn international law by getting legal approval for its illegal settlers in the occupied territory, then why can’t the UN Security Council do the same for Israel?

Just imagine, overnight the tens of thousands of illegal Israeli settlers would have legal status and Jerusalem would fall completely into the hands of the Zionist state.

Ironically, if this happens, it will have been delivered by the Arab countries which have supported Morocco’s outrageous claims.

In a nutshell, if Morocco’s land-grabbing activities are finally approved by the UN then Israel will have all the justification under international law it needs to do exactly the same. A precedent will have been set.

This is not some fantasy; this could be a grim reality. Friends of Morocco (and Israel) are presently working overtime in Washington trying to lobby support of Congress. Morocco and its Arab supporters should hang their heads in shame because of the unholy alliances they are making to the detriment of the Palestinians.

The influential American Jewish Committee has already sent a letter of support for King Mohamed VI, who combines being chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s Committee for Jerusalem with being one of Israel’s best friends in the Arab world.

And guess what? The fear factor is being ruthlessly and shamelessly used to garner support from politicians across the west.

Al Qaida terrorists are setting up training camps in the Polisario’s heartlands - a stuff of ridiculous nonsense but it sure fires up the republicans on Capitol Hill who fell hook, line and sinker for the links between Saddam and 9/11.

In the meantime the Saharawi people continue to suffer as do the Palestinians. You really can not support one without the other. And if you deny the Saharawis then you are betraying the Palestinians.

Muslim prisoners in the UK's own Guantanamo

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:13:00 GMT

I don’t know how many of you tuned into BBC Radio 4 recently to hear a story about the radicalization of young men in prison. The story so stretched the bounds of credibility that I waited another hour for the bulletin to be repeated for confirmation.

Controlling the Dictatorship

moderator@openmindsblogspot.com — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:01:00 GMT

While

Israel

holds the Palestinian people under military occupation and Americans under political occupation it seems they also have also seized occupation of the legal system in neighbouring

Egypt

There can be no other reasonable explanation for the latest insane actions of Egypt's leader Hosni Mubarak whose long distance relationship with democracy is only matched by his record on human rights and justice.

If evidence is needed then look no further at the 226 members of the Muslim Brotherhood who are awaiting military trial as I write this column, or the 792 who have been detained without charge by the security forces since last spring.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a non-violent organisation which promotes peaceful politics and, in addition, expresses solidarity with the Palestinian people including Hamas. And that is the problem; it is the Muslim Brotherhood's attitude to Israel which has induced the US to order Mubarak to eliminate "the problem".

Hamas, as we know, is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the Bush Administration and the hugely powerful Zionist lobby in Washington. Therefore in the simplistic, black and white world of the Busheys, anyone who shows solidarity with Hamas must be a terrorist.

As a direct result of the nursery school politics of the neo-cons, last Sunday, hidden away in the Egyptian desert, a black comedy was being played out in a military court which saw some of Egypt's finest academics and business elite in the dock.

Facing trumped up charges and a judicial system so warped and twisted by Mubarak, scores of senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood were crowded into courtroom cages. I was denied access as a British journalist to witness the unfolding farce but as I stood outside in the burning desert sun I was not alone - the former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and several other leading human rights campaigners had also been refused access ... may be in the daft belief if we couldn't see the injustice we might go away quietly.

Mubarak is a desperate man, clinging on to the last vestiges of power in a white knuckle drama we have seen played out so many across the globe by American-controlled dictators who have oppressed their own people without mercy. This latest disgraceful chapter in the ruling life of Mubarak opened on January 28 in the Cairo Criminal Court when the judges ruled all charges brought by the Egyptian Government against the detained members of the Muslim Brotherhood were groundless and politically motivated.

Eager to please his US masters (America gives more dollar aid to Egypt than to any other country in the world apart from Israel) Mubarak had the whole lot re-arrested to be tried in a military court ... on exactly the same charges they had been cleared in the civilian court.

Rulings of military justice are final and can't be challenged. Well that's one way of silencing your political opponents and knocking out vocal critics of the Zionist State, isn't it?

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other concerned groups have condemned the actions, but what does Mubarak care? Well actually he should care. I can smell revolution in the air on the streets of Cairo, and not just from the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ordinary Egyptians are fed up with the tinpot dictator who has restricted their freedoms and liberties in a bid to smother any dissenting voices. By any peaceful means necessary, there is a growing resistance to bring down Mubarak and his brutal regime. The youth are turning to the internet using blogs to fuel the dissent – some have even joined the Brotherhood behind bars for their work.

Others are campaigning, petitioning, marching and protesting. I turned up at one such event in central Cairo the other night and as I stared into the eyes of the military who returned the gaze from behind their crash helmets, I could see their hearts were no longer in the job of oppressing and bullying fellow citizens.

The iron-like grip Mubarak once had on his people is fast disappearing. The fear has been replaced by anger towards the injustices against every dissenting voice. But it is Mubarak's attempt to use and abuse the courts to stop the Brotherhood advancing further into Egypt's mainstream politics which has irreparably damaged him.

The country's strongest opposition group operates openly despite being officially banned. The Brotherhood won nearly one fifth of the seats in the lower house of parliament in 2005, its members running as independents to bypass the 53-year-old ban on the group. Mubarak's latest actions to settle political scores and stifle freedom will be his undoing. He has called the actions of the Muslim Brotherhood a threat to national security, but it is the President himself who is the greatest liability.

As far as dictator's go Mubarak has much in common with America's other tyrants - he is not too bright, has psycho tendencies and is unable to tolerate any criticism. I believe he has the shelf life of many US puppets ... in other words his days are numbered. Who remembers the Shah, and of course we will not forget Saddam in a hurry either?

But when Mubarak does fall, and fall he will, then the Egyptian people must be allowed to take control of their own future and carve out their own style of democracy without outside interference. And then, and only then, will the days of the Pharoahs be truly consigned to history.