التصنيف: estaql

Australian senator Mehreen Faruqi has been leading protests in the national parliament calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

As deputy leader of the Australian Greens, Faruqi says that she is bringing the “peoples’ protests into parliament”.

With 11 senators, the Greens form part of the cross-bench in Australia’s upper house but the party’s calls for a ceasefire have been opposed by Australia’s centre-left Labor government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Albanese’s government has made little change to its position since abstaining from a United Nations General Assembly vote calling for a humanitarian truce last month.

Al Jazeera spoke to Faruqi about support for a ceasefire in Australia and what potential she sees for a change in the Australian government’s position.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Al Jazeera: The Greens have called for a ceasefire vote in the Australian Senate. What is currently preventing a vote from happening?

Mehreen Faruqi: The Greens did push for a vote in the Senate calling for a ceasefire but both the Labor government and the Liberal-National opposition joined up to oppose it. This shows how blatantly they are ignoring the atrocities committed in Gaza.

The morally bankrupt major parties would like us to remain silent so their cowardice is not exposed. But the Australian Greens and I will not shut up and sit quietly in parliament while the government comes up with pathetic spin on serious questions about justice for Palestine.

Al Jazeera: You and your Greens colleagues have held protests in the Australian Senate, include a boycott of question time – what led you to take these actions?

Mehreen Faruqi: I proudly led the Greens protest in the Senate calling for a ceasefire and boycotting question time. I know we speak for so many in the community.

Today, the @Greens proudly brought the people’s protest into Parliament as we boycotted Question Time after Labor refused to call for a ceasefire yet again.

Like millions of Australians, we’re shocked, horrified & angered by Israel’s massacre of almost 10,000 people in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/eJPZcoXndN

— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) November 6, 2023

I will unapologetically continue to use my parliamentary platform to call for a ceasefire, an end to the occupation of Palestine and for Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

To me, there is no point in being here in Parliament if we remain silent in times of such grave injustice. We must get louder and louder.

Al Jazeera: Do you think that the Australian government’s position on a humanitarian truce is reflective of the Australian people?

Mehreen Faruqi: Not joining a vast majority of nations in calling for a truce was an utterly disgraceful and shameful position for the Australian government to take.

Calling for a humanitarian truce is the absolute bare minimum and they can’t even do that.

Tens of thousands of people have marched across Australia every weekend since the attacks on Gaza began, demanding peace in the region and demanding the Australian government call on Israel for a ceasefire.

The decision to ignore thousands upon thousands of Palestinian and allied voices shows the Australian government’s complete disregard for the very people who put faith in them when they elected them.

People will not forget this betrayal. History will not look back kindly on the actions of the government.

Al Jazeera: To what extent is the Australian government involved in Israel’s war in Gaza? Is it possible that members of the Australian government could potentially be held liable for this involvement?

Mehreen Faruqi: Australia has one of the most secretive weapons trades in the world, but we know hundreds of military shipments have been exported to Israel over the last few years.

As far as I am concerned, our country has a hand in the bloody massacre of more than 10,000 people and counting.

Israel is committing war crimes and subjecting Palestinians to collective punishment. The Australian government should immediately stop military exports to Israel.

But more importantly, Australia is one of a small group of Western countries that continue to shield Israel from any accountability, not just over this invasion of Gaza but the entire 75 years of the occupation of Palestine.

It is no surprise that Israel behaves so monstrously when it knows governments of countries like Australia will back them, no matter how brutal and oppressive they are.

Al Jazeera: The Greens hold 11 seats in the Australian Senate. What can the Greens do from this position in regards to Australia’s participation in this conflict?

Mehreen Faruqi: The Greens are bringing the voices of the majority of people calling for justice and peace in Australia into parliament. This is powerful in many ways. It shows the community there is someone in the highest office in the country who hears them and has the guts to take a principled stand. They know someone is with them. It also keeps the pressure on the government to call for a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

Like millions of people around the world, I am horrified by the lack of accountability for Israel. Not calling for a ceasefire while thousands of children are being massacred in Gaza is heartless and shameful. Our government might be complicit but people are on the side of justice for Palestine.

I’m marching shoulder to shoulder with tens of thousands of people on the streets across Australia and speaking at these protests.

It was time to bring these peoples’ protests into parliament so the government would be forced to respond to their calls one way or another.

Aloys Ndimbati, then a Rwandan public official, faced multiple genocide charges and is believed to have died in 1997.

The war crimes prosecutor tasked with finding the remaining fugitives sought by a United Nations tribunal over their alleged roles in the 1994 Rwandan genocide has confirmed the death of suspect Aloys Ndimbati.

In the past three years, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) has arrested two Rwandan genocide suspects and confirmed the deaths of four other fugitives, including Ndimbati.

In a statement on Tuesday, UN prosecutors concluded Ndimbati had died in 1997 in Rwanda.

“While the exact circumstances of his death have not been determined owing to the confusion and absence of order at the time, the evidence gathered by the office of the prosecutor demonstrates that Ndimbati did not leave the Gatore area, and that he was never seen or heard from again,” the statement said.

Ndimbati, a Rwandan public official at the time, was accused of having personally organised and directed the killings of thousands of Tutsis and faced multiple genocide charges.

In all, more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by hardline Hutus, led by the Rwandan army and a militia known as the Interahamwe, in 100 days in 1994.

Genocide survivor Eric Nzabihimana told the Reuters news agency that Ndimbati played a role in the deaths of his mother, many siblings and extended family members.

“It shouldn’t end like this; it would have been better to see him held accountable for his actions,” Nzabihimana said, adding that he was not surprised by the death because he’d already heard unconfirmed reports.

The former UN tribunals for war crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia have been rolled over into a successor court that has offices in The Hague, Netherlands, and in Arusha, Tanzania.

There are no remaining fugitives sought by the Yugoslavia tribunal and now only two outstanding suspects for the Rwanda tribunal.

The prosecutor’s statement was released just as a Rwandan doctor went on trial in France on Tuesday on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide.

Sosthene Munyemana, 60, appeared before the Assize Court in Paris nearly 30 years after a complaint was filed against him in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux in 1995. He is accused of organising torture and killings.

The trial is scheduled to last five weeks. Munyemana, who denies the charges, faces life in prison if convicted.

Israeli authorities say missile intercepted near Eilat after Houthi leader earlier promised to continue attacks.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched ballistic missiles on various Israel targets, including in the Red Sea city of Eilat, the group’s military spokesperson has said.

The launch came “after 24 hours of another military operation by drones on the same Israeli targets,” the spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The Israeli military said that it intercepted a missile near the Red Sea.

Israel said it used its “Arrow” aerial defence system to shoot down a missile on Tuesday after sirens sounded in the port city of Eilat. Israel says that the projectile did not enter its territory, and did not say who shot it.

Earlier, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis said that his group would continue to launch attacks against Israel.

“Our eyes are open to constantly monitor and search for any Israeli ship in the Red Sea, especially in Bab al-Mandab, and near Yemeni regional waters,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Iran-backed group, said.

The Houthis have launched several missile and drone attacks against Israel since October 7, when Hamas fighters from the besieged Gaza Strip carried out an attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

Since the Hamas attack, Israel has bombarded Gaza and launched a ground invasion of the territory. More than 11,200 people have been killed in the Israeli assault, including more than 4,600 children, according to Palestinian authorities.

The war in Gaza has sent tensions soaring throughout the region, with international organisations and political leaders warning of a potential wider war across the region.

The Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces across the Lebanon-Israel border, and Iran-backed armed groups have targeted US forces in Syria and Iraq. The United States has carried out strikes in Syria in response.

The Houthis have emerged as a major player in the Arabian Peninsula, withstanding efforts to dislodge them by a Saudi-led intervention in Yemen that began in 2015 with the support of the US.

The Saudi bombardment was criticised for contributing to a humanitarian catastrophe in the country and inflicting many civilian casualties, while the Houthis eventually expanded their control over areas of northern Yemen.

The war in Yemen has reached an uneasy stalemate, with fighting at a standstill even as both sides failed to renew a United Natiions-backed truce that expired in October.

There is a place in Lebanon called Alma al Shaab which clings to the sunburnt hills that rise up from the Mediterranean.

The community is surrounded by olive groves and trees with ripe oranges, yet this a nerve-shredding time to live there.

In fact, the vast majority of its 900 residents have already left for cities like the capital Beirut as the rockets and shells fly over their heads.

Their village is now situated in the warzone, as militant factions like Iran-backed Hezbollah, as well as fighters belonging to groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, launch munitions over the border into Israel.

Israel-Gaza latest: US says it has own evidence Hamas using hospital for ‘command mode’

Using the trees and hills that surround the community, their operations are increasing and the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, says he is introducing powerful new weapons to the battlefield.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah is making a “fatal mistake”, while his defence minister Yoav Gallant has threatened to send Lebanon back “to the stone age”.

Despite the war of words – or perhaps because of them – the conflict is quickly escalating.

Those residents who remain in largely Christian Alma al Shaab have found themselves caught in the crossfire.

They gather every morning at the local shop to drink thick Lebanese coffee and talk about what happened overnight.

Anton Konsul is the headteacher at the local high school.

He said: “When I tell you we’re not afraid, we are afraid, you don’t want to know what’s going to happen. When you wake up in the morning you think, thank God, we are still alive.”

“Is this your war?” I asked. “Is this a battle you have a stake in?”

He replied: “It has nothing to do with us, this is the problem, it’s sad, but what can you do?”

On the question of blame, no one we spoke to in the village was prepared to point fingers – and that seems like a reasonable precaution.

Alma al Shaab is the only Christian village among 104 communities in southern Lebanon – the others are largely Shia Muslim.

When I asked the group at the local shop whether they have seen militants from Hezbollah operating in the district, no one seemed keen to talk.

“Maybe, like 20 days ago,” said Milad Eid, who runs the local guest house. “We stay in our homes. They don’t come near.”

He added: “You can’t blame anyone, well, it’s difficult to say. It’s happened, it’s happened.”

This small band of residents seems determined to stay put for as long as they possibly can.

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Sipping coffee in a black shirt was the head of the local Maronite Church, called Monseigneur Maroun Ghaffari.

His friends at the shop joked that Monseigneur Ghaffari had “lost himself a lot of customers” since the conflict broke out and the church leader admitted that his once buoyant congregation has fallen to six.

“I am from the village and have (much) experience of Lebanon’s wars, so I will stay with our people, there are old people, they have nobody, we must be near them during this tragic situation,” he says.

Monseigneur Ghaffari pointed out that neither side had hit the centre of town and he hoped they would outlast the war.

He said: “I am not suicidal, but the situation is still bearable. We believe that if we leave the village it could turn into a battlefield.”

The body of a man who went missing in August has been found in the Colorado mountains with his dog alive and still by his side.

Rich Moore, 71, and his Jack Russell terrier Finney disappeared on 19 August on a planned hike to Blackhead Peak, near Pagosa Springs.

Taos Search and Rescue (TSAR) revealed his body had been found on 30 October with the dog “alive and with his body”.

It said one if its members and her own dog had been involved in the initial search after being dropped on the mountain by helicopter because the area was so steep.

“He was found 2.5 miles east of the mountain-top beneath where we were inserted,” said TSAR’s Delinda Vanne-Brightyn.

The pair were finally found after being spotted by a local hunter – with a team flying in to recover the body, Denver Gazette reported, citing the Archuleta County Sheriff’s office.

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The dog was reportedly taken to a vet’s for a check-up and treatment before being reunited with family.

TSAR wrote on Facebook: “Delinda and TSAR would like to send our condolences to the family, but are glad they were able to gain some closure as well as bring their dog back home.”