November 10, 2011

IRAN ESCALATES ANTI-U.S. RHETORIC OVER NUCLEAR REPORT

Posted by The Himalayan Voice:
[Whether the weight of evidence in the report could alter the calculus of Russia and China, who have been Iran’s chief defenders against European and American claims about Iran’s nuclear intentions, remained unclear, but Russia quickly signaled that it would not support new or stricter sanctions regardless of what the report suggested.]

By  And Rick Gladstone

via Reuters
The office of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran 
released a photo of Mr. Ahmadinejad in Shahrekord, 
Iran, on Wednesday
WASHINGTON — Angered by the release of an incriminating United Nations report on their nuclear ambitions, Iran’s leaders sought on Wednesday to cast it as an American fabrication.
They denounced its chief author as a Washington stooge and vowed that their country would not be bullied into abandoning its nuclear program.
The tone of their reaction suggested that Iran’s leaders were worried that the report, released Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, could sway world opinion and deepen Iran’s isolation, complicating its repeated claims that the goal of the nuclear program is energy for civilian use, not weapons.
France, Britain and Germany quickly signaled that they would join the United States in seeking new ways to pressure Iran, although Russia said it was opposed to any new sanctions and China said it was noncommittal.
The report, buttressed by evidence not previously disclosed, concluded that Iran had been secretly engaged in behaviors that suggested that it was seeking to construct a nuclear weapon. The report also asserted that Iran might be researching ways to deliver a nuclear weapon by means of a missile warhead. It was the first time that the agency, an arm of the United Nations, had made such assertions.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran led the verbal assault on the report, saying it had been orchestrated by Iran’s enemies, principally the United States, which he said had dictated the report’s findings.
“Why do you exploit the I.A.E.A. dignity in favor of the U.S. administration?” Mr. Ahmadinejad asked rhetorically in a question directed at Yukiya Amano, the director general of the agency, who oversaw the production and content of the report.
“Some bullying powers are armed with atomic bombs and they claim Iran is seeking such bombs,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, in remarks reported by Iranian news agencies. “The Iranian nation does not fear you if it wants to make a bomb, but it does not need a bomb.”
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief delegate to the United Nations nuclear agency, was quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying that Mr. Amano had violated the agency’s charter by asserting false claims in the report and that he would “see consequences of his historical mistake.”
Foreign Minister Alain Juppé of France, an advocate of harsher sanctions against Iran but opposed to a military response, said France and its allies were prepared to impose “unprecedented sanctions” on Iran. Mr. Juppé also said that France wanted to convene the United Nations Security Council, which has already imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran. “We cannot accept this situation, which is a threat,” he told RFI radio.
Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, told the House of Commons that “no option is off the table” concerning Iran penalties and that he would work on persuading Russia and China to view Iran more critically.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said that the United Nations report’s findings “strongly indicate the existence of a full-fledged nuclear weapons development program in Iran.”
 The European Union, like the United States, has already imposed sanctions on Iran that exceed those specified by the Security Council. They include travel bans and asset freezes on 35 people and 215 entities.
The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, called the new report “alarming” and said more severe sanctions would be inevitable if Iran “continues to refuse to conduct serious negotiations on its nuclear program.” But he ruled out military action.
Whether the weight of evidence in the report could alter the calculus of Russia and China, who have been Iran’s chief defenders against European and American claims about Iran’s nuclear intentions, remained unclear, but Russia quickly signaled that it would not support new or stricter sanctions regardless of what the report suggested.
Before the release of the report, Iranian officials had said it was intended to bolster the case for a pre-emptive military strike on Iran by Israel, which considers Iran its most lethal enemy and has dropped hints of planning such an attack.
Reacting to the report on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjahim Netanyahu of Israel said nothing about a military response. But in a statement, he said the report “corroborates the position of the international community, and of Israel, that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.”
The reaction among Iran’s Arab neighbors, historically suspicious of Iran’s motivations, clearly reflected worries about a possible military confrontation and economic upheaval. A columnist for the conservative Lebanese daily An-Nahar, Rajeh al-Khoury, wrote that it was not in President Obama’s interests “to slide into a new war that could set the Gulf and Middle East region on fire and push the price of oil to astronomical levels.”
Others expressed skepticism that the report provided enough justification to attack Iran in order to thwart its nuclear ambitions. “There is insufficient evidence to decide whether to go to war,” said Ma’moun al-Husseini, a columnist for Al-Khaleej, a United Arab Emirates newspaper.
Walid Choucair, a columnist for the newspaper Al-Hayat of Saudi Arabia, which has no love for Iran, said the report could even help Iran by validating widespread suspicions that Israel was looking for an excuse to attack. He wrote that such a threat strengthened “the argument by the Iranian regime and its allies in the region that they constitute the formidable ‘resistance’ to the ‘Zionist entity.’ ”
Robert F. Worth reported from Washington, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Steven Erlanger from Paris; Michael Schwirtz from Moscow; Ethan Bronner from Jerusalem; Nada Bakri from Beirut, Lebanon; and Artin Afkhami from Boston.

@ The New York Times

31 INDIANSCONVICTED IN VIOLENCE THAT KILLED MUSLIMS IN 2002

[On that evening, March 1, 2002, two days after the train burning, a mob of Hindu rioters surrounded houses belonging to Muslims in Sardarpura village in the district of Mehsana and set them on fire. Dozens of people inside were burned alive.]


By Hari Kumar
Reuters
A Muslim man begged for his life 
during the Gujarat riots on 
March 1, 2002.
NEW DELHI — An Indian court found 31 people guilty on Wednesday of killing 33 Muslims in Gujarat State in 2002 during sectarian riots that left more than 1,000 dead. Convicted of murder, arson, rioting and criminal conspiracy, they were sentenced to life in prison and fined. Forty-two other defendants were acquitted.
The verdicts were a milepost in a case whose savagery stunned many Indians. The riots broke out after a train carrying mostly Hindus was set on fire at the station in Godhra, a predominantly Muslim area, killing 59 people. Blaming Muslims, mobs of Hindus rampaged, raping, looting and killing in a spasm of violence that raged for days and persisted for weeks.
Gujarat’s Hindu nationalist government and its police were widely condemned for ineffectiveness in halting the rioting or prosecuting anyone promptly, and the National Human Rights Commission filed a petition with the Supreme Court to press for justice. Five years later, in 2008, the court ordered special investigations into the train fire along with a number of attacks on Muslims.
The case that ended with Wednesday’s verdicts was a particularly gruesome one.
On that evening, March 1, 2002, two days after the train burning, a mob of Hindu rioters surrounded houses belonging to Muslims in Sardarpura village in the district of Mehsana and set them on fire. Dozens of people inside were burned alive.
Killings, arson and looting continued throughout the night, aimed at Muslims. Most of the village’s Muslim families moved away after the episode.
Ghulam Ali, 31, a house painter, lost 13 extended family members, including a brother, a sister-in-law, an uncle and an aunt. He survived by sheltering with others in a half-burned house, and now lives 20 miles away.
“Allah saved us on that day,” Mr. Ali said after the verdict. “Now there is a ray of hope in Gujarat. It gives us confidence that justice will prevail in other cases as well.”
He said he and other relatives of victims were considering whether to appeal the acquittals, a step that Indian law allows.
The special investigation into the train attack led to the trial of 94 people; 31 were convicted. Twenty were given life sentences, and 11 were sentenced to death.
A handful of other group trials have focused on rioters, yielding a few dozen convictions and, in one case, 11 life sentences.
Left unresolved by the trial was the widespread belief in Gujarat that the violence against Muslims in Sardarpura and other villages was deliberately orchestrated.
“The special investigation team did not go into the issue of wider conspiracy of riots,” Teesta Setalvad, an activist who represents riot victims and their families, said after Wednesday’s judgment. “Some of the witnesses testified and hinted about the wider conspiracy, but that was overlooked.”
Ms. Setalvad said the victims were pleased with the life sentences in the case. “We are not in favor of death sentence,” she said.