Titles:

• UK:Far-Right ‘as dangerous as Islam terrorists’
• France bans Muslim full-face veil
• Syrian soldiers shot for refusing to fire on protesters
• 63 percent of people killed in Iraq war were civilians: report
• Yemen opposition wants Saleh out within two weeks
• Former UK foreign secretary David Miliband critical of US-led Afghanistan strategy

News Details:

UK:Far-Right ‘as dangerous as Islam terrorists’
Far-Right extremist groups should be treated more seriously by authorities and investigated the same way as Islamic terrorism, a new report says Thursday. The study dispels the myth Right-wing terrorists act alone, saying most are motivated by “dangerous networks”. Author Gerry Gable, publisher of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, warns that often the extremists’ actions are only discovered by luck. While most jailed for terror or violent acts in recent years were caught before they could act, the report, commissioned by the Labour government, adds: “That will not always be the case.” It says authorities, including police and Crown Prosecution Service, have seen far-Right terrorists as “lone wolf” individuals rather than “the inevitable consequence of the activities of several, often small, organisations that espouse a violent racist and fascist ideology”. It states: “This has meant they have failed to put in place effective strategies to monitor these extreme-Right groups with a view to early identification of individuals who show signs of a transition from racist abuse and threatening behaviour to terrorism and murder.

France bans Muslim full-face veil
Police in France, home to Europe’s biggest Muslim population, arrested two protesters wearing niqab veils Monday after a ban on full-face coverings went into effect. The women, part of a demonstration that erupted in front of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, were detained for taking part in an unauthorised protest rather than for wearing their veils. “Today was not about arresting people because of wearing the veil. It was for not having respected the requirement to declare a demonstration,” said police spokesman Alexis Marsan. Two women in niqabs, a woman wearing an Islamic headscarf that did not cover her face and a protest organiser were arrested, Marsan said. Separately, businessman and activist Rachid Nekkaz told AFP that he and a female friend wearing the niqab were arrested by police in front of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Elysee Palace. “We wanted to be fined for wearing the niqab, but the police didn’t want to issue a fine,” said Nekkaz, who has promised to auction off a two-million-euro property to start a fund to pay off fines for veil-wearers. The draconian new law, the first of its kind to be enforced in Europe, was immediately broken by a young woman from the southern city of Avignon, who has become the media symbol of France’s tiny community of niqab wearers.

Syrian soldiers shot for refusing to fire on protesters
Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified. Witnesses told al-Jazeera and the BBC that some soldiers had refused to shoot after the army moved into Banias in the wake of intense protests on Friday. Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. “His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people,” said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor.

63 percent of people killed in Iraq war were civilians: report
U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been causing huge civilian casualties with 63 percent of some 109,000 people killed in the Iraq war being civilians, according to a report on the U.S. human rights record released on Sunday. The figures were quoted from a WikiLeaks trove by the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010, which was released by the Information Office of China’s State Council in response to the country reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 issued by the U.S. Department of State. Figures from the WikiLeaks website also revealed up to 285,000 war casualties in Iraq from March 2003 through the end of 2009, according to the report. “The U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and other regions have also brought tremendous casualties to local people,” said the report. The report cited the notorious case on a “kill team” formed by five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The team had committed at least three murders, where they randomly targeted and killed Afghan civilians, and dismembered the corpses and hoarded the human bones. In addition, the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops had caused 535 Afghan civilian deaths and injuries in 2009. Among them 113 civilians were shot and killed, an increase of 43 percent over 2008, the report quoted McClatchy Newspapers as saying.

Yemen opposition wants Saleh out within two weeks
Yemen’s opposition rejected an offer on Thursday to join Saudi-mediated talks on a transfer of power and set a two-week deadline for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step aside.”We have renewed our emphasis on the need for speeding the process of (Saleh) standing down to within two weeks. Therefore we will not go to Riyadh,” said Mohammed al-Mutawakkil, a prominent opposition leader. (Reuters)

Former UK foreign secretary David Miliband critical of US-led Afghanistan strategy
The former foreign secretary David Miliband is to make a strong critique of the US-led strategy in Afghanistan, proposing instead handing over substantial responsibility for building a political solution to the UN, headed by a Muslim mediator capable of negotiating with the Taliban as well as partners throughout the region. In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Miliband urges a “whole new level of urgency, coherence and effort” in bringing about a political endgame away from a focus on ending military engagement, and including the possibility of appointing a safe third country for all Afghan parties to negotiate from. He writes: “It’s high time we stopped behaving as if there was a military solution and developed a political one. For that, politicians need to give a lead. That is the way forward in Afghanistan – working to mend it, not just rushing to end it.” Miliband’s criticism of the US-led campaign marks a change from the supportive UK-US relationship he maintained as foreign secretary when relationships with US secretary of state Hilary Clinton were famously strong. Miliband acknowledges there are signs of significant shifts in American policy but nevertheless he goes on to write: “Deviations from the otherwise relentless focus on military operations, allied and Afghan, need to be taken to a whole new level of urgency, coherence and effort. Otherwise, our troops will be stuck in the front line of a strategy that has an end date but no clear end game. The 2014 end date set by Nato will prove illusory unless there is an endgame. “And that endgame must be negotiations, involving western powers led by the US, with all factions in the Afghan struggle, and their backers in the region.”Miliband warns that two international conferences on the horizon – in Kabul in the summer and Bonn in December – currently have “scant agenda”, but their outcome should be the agreement of the kind of political approach he outlines.

12 Jumada I 1432
2011/04/15