Military - new material (71)
01 July 2010
Report of the international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance. UN Human Rights Council (A/HRC/15/21) 22.9.10, pp. 56. The fact-finding mission by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council concluded that “a series of violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel prior to deportation.” Nine people on the humanitarian mission were killed by the IDF on board the Marvi Marmara and the report says that: “The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds. It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.” See: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/15session/A.HRC.15.21_en.pdf
BAE Systems: a blight on universities and education, Abi Haque. CAAT News Issue 218 (October-November) 2010, PP. 6. This piece introduces the Ban BAE campaign, directed at “the world’s biggest arms producer. It sells its products indiscriminately to countries with poor human rights records such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Pakistan and Indonesia. It has been accused of bribery and corruption, and in 2010 was fined £30 million in the UK and $400 million in the US following corruption investigations”. The article summarises recent university campaigns. For further information email: universities@caat.org.uk
Cities Under Siege: The New Urban Militarism, Stephen Graham. Verso 2010, pp. 288 (ISBN 1844673154). Stephen Graham provides an examination of how the mindset prevalent in the military and security industries is transforming the way that cities are perceived, built, used, and controlled. Original research backs up an analysis focusing not only on cities riven by conflict (e.g. Baghdad, Kabul), but also major Western cities. To protect and increase the reach of the global economy, urban spaces are increasingly perceived as being populated by potential 'threats' that need to be assessed and controlled by a bewildering array of high-tech devices and repressive policies. Useful reading for anyone with an interest in war, militarism, border control, security, social control, and policing.
Convenient Killing: armed drones and the ‘Playstation’ mentality, Chris Cole, Mary Dobbing and Amy Hailwood. The Fellowship of Reconciliation, September 2010, pp. 20. This report charts the increasing use of drones to launch missile and bomb attacks by the US military in Afghanistan (since 2001), Iraq (since 2002) and Yemen (since 2002), by the CIA in Pakistan (since 2004), by the UK military in Afghanistan (since 2007) and by Israel in Gaza (since 2008). The authors’ draw attention to the “Playstation mentality” whereby “the geographical and psychological distance between the drone operator and the target lowers the threshold in regard to launching an attack and makes it more likely that weapons will be launched.” However there is an absence of reliable figures on fatalities and casualties since none of the countries involved do body counts of their enemies, although Pakistan Body Count estimates that 50 civilians are killed for every militant. The United Nations has challenged the US and the UK to explain the legal basis of using drones in assassinations and this report optimistically calls for the UK to “address the growing ‘accountability vacuum’ by making information public about the circumstances of armed drone attacks and the number of casualties incurred.” Available as a free download at: http://www.for.org.uk/files/drones-conv-killing.pdf